Stratham School Board Meeting 05/14/25

001All right, great. Um, I think one of the things we do at Joint Board is introduce ourselves. So, I just thought maybe that might be something nice to add. I think a lot of times we have regulars here, but um, for just maybe people who are watching, do you mind just introducing yourself? Sure. I'm Molly O'Keefe, director of finance. Hello everyone. Chris Anderski, associate superintendent and stratum design. Sophie Sultenstall, board member. Uh, Jennifer Scrawford, Eric Herring, member Cameron, Kate Lucas, building principal. Kate Binger, assistant principal. All right, great. So, it's nice. Um, great. So, good to see everyone here. So, um, before we move forward, it looks like we have a student council report, which is definitely the best part of every meeting. So, we'd love to hear from you guys. Good evening. My name

002is Gus Burke and my name is Austin Shelly. This month the student council representatives were able to put on l the Lorax play in front of the school. If you're interested in seeing it, we are hosting two more plays in during the May showcase. one at 5:30 p.m. and another at 700 p.m. We practiced for two months for it and got together to make props for the show. We put on this play to celebrate Earth Day and to teach everyone that you can make a difference. Also, the school got together and donated food to charity called end 68 hours of hunger. And each grade level had a different food they had to donate. After we donated, each grade level went separately at different times all to the jump for a cause. We picked groups of

003four to go outside and jump rope. We ate popsicles at the end and danced. Then we all got together and took took a photo of the whole entire grade together. Another thing that happened this month was the career fair. It happened Friday, May 9th. Everyone was able to come down to the gym and learn about different jobs. Some of the jobs where there were doctors, engineers, and sports coaches. We also hosted a shoe designer and a tattoo artist. And while going around, we you get stamps for a raffle. There was one winner from each class. We hosted this career fair to inspire the students for what they want to be when they grow up. Thank you for listening. Thank you guys. Do any board members have any questions? I I I I don't want to

004ask because I think they have to go. I can tell these they can answer any question. Questions. Well, I want to say I heard amazing things about the Lorax. Uh I heard it was really Thank you. Did you guys have a favorite at the career fair or a specific job that you thought, oh, that's interesting. the tattoo artist. I thought the um the guy that worked at the um what's it called? The environment. Yeah, the environmentalist engineer. That was cool. Um and yeah, well, thank you guys. Yeah, thank you. Thanks so much for coming. Great great job. Good luck in your game. [Laughter] All right. Um so I'm going to open up public comment. As you guys know, we open it up 30 minutes every meeting. Uh I'm going to open up for 10 minutes

005now and then we'll save um some time for after we kind of do the substance of the meeting. Um is there anybody that would like to um make a public comment? Oh yeah. Hi Brandon. Hello. Hi Brandon Misho 55 Wut Road. Um, I just have a real quick public comment. I have an incoming kindergartenner and we got the kindergarten orientation letter and I have some concerns about that that I really wish uh can go into some of the decision-m for next year. When my son did this three years ago, it was a two-day process for a couple hours a day. Obviously, kindergarteners can't bring themselves here and there's no public transportation, so we have to provide and get them here, which is fine. This year it's four days. And so that means that not only

006do I have to take four days out of work, I'm paying for four days of child care for my daughter already to miss half a day of that preschooling that she's doing to then come to school for 4 days. And if I don't get her here for at least three of those four days, I feel like some of this is a little bit holding me hostage because she won't be able to find out her kindergarten teacher at the end of that period. On top of that, this year's kindergarten kids are ending a a week early. So, not only does it affect these four days for her ne this year, it could potentially affect her for 5 days next year. So, it's nine days of child care that I have to come up with, which or

007I'm already paying for or I have to take out of work or something like that. So, what I'm hoping is that um and they were almost here actually with me because I couldn't find childcare to come to the meeting. Um, but I'm hoping that maybe if we look at this moving forward for some of the fifth grade parents that I know who have children in the CMS right now, there's step-up days and things like that for them. There's graduation weeks for them and different activities for them at the end of the year. Could we somehow coordinate this so that when the fifth graders who could be home alone, because my bus drivers won't even drop my second grader off by himself right now, um, never mind my kindergartner next year. So, and they'll be ending

008at different times. So he won't be able as a third grader won't be able to bus with her to bring her home or whatever. So is there any way we can coordinate? Because I know that kindergarten teachers, sure they need the time to sort to sort these kids, but could not the first grade teachers use some of that time with current kindergartener kids and second graders with first graders and third graders with second graders. Is there a way to sort of waterfall this so that fifth graders if they ended early, they're more capable to be at home by themselves than kindergarten kids and sort of do like a a tear up effect like so all of the kids could benefit from orientation with their potential new teachers. So, um that's my public comment. Thank you.

009Okay. Thank you very much. Is there any other public comment? All right. Um, so I'm going to leave that open for seven and a half minutes and then we'll open it up again later. So, um, I think that we have some teachers doing a presentation. So, we're going to shift the agenda a little bit so we can hear about the, um, from the teachers and then, uh, they can head out. Do they need a mic or Yeah. Um, for the purposes of the recording. Just hold Yeah. Hold it like Whitney. Ashley should hold it. You have You can hold it. I think I can. Yeah. Take it right off. Just like The people at home can't hear. I'm not a performer. So, can we move that screen so you're talking? Whatever you'd like to do.

010Absolutely. Would you like us to move so they can see it at home? So, they can see you're talking Chris is plugged into that. I can also we could attach Chris. I can also send the slide deck to Eric and he can put it in with the voice over. Uh, yeah, that would work. Would that be easier? just so it's more um Yeah, that's helpful. Appreciate it. It is raining on you. So, I'm going to actually move like way over here. We're in the way of the camera. I can't figure out where to stand. This is a good recap about our time in New Orleans. I just want to really plant that experience for you. So, the four of us are here to talk about our experience at Plain Talk About Literacy and Learning. I

011am Kaylee Anopoulos, one of the speech and language pathologists here at SMS. I'm Ashley Paige, a second grade teacher here. Jen Hackett, second grade as well. Carla Brewer, one of the special educators. And we just wanted to start by thanking you all for affording us this opportunity. It is not lost in us that this is not a typical educator's experience that they were allowed to do. And I feel confident in saying I have not experienced a PD like this in probably seven to eight years. It was a incredibly wellorganized in-person um event that really change I came back with changes in my practice that I was implementing the day I came back. One of the biggest questions we had was why plain talk? Why are you asking us to go to New Orleans? What is

012happening locally that makes this something that you want to go to instead? And plain talk, thank you, is known as one of the nation's premier conferences on literacy instruction in general. But there is this giant focus on the intersection of language and brain science and that and the implications on its practice and instruction. This is put on by the center for literacy and learning which is based in Louisiana. And this is a nonprofit who is doing amazing amazing amazing things for their community. Plain talk is in its 30th year. So that was really fun to be a part of that pretty monumental celebration. And one of the fun facts about Louisiana is that according to the education recovery scorecard, which is a collaboration between researchers at Harvard and Stanford, Louisiana is the only state to

013have fully recovered in both reading and math and the only state to have surpassed its prepandemic performance in reading. Here are a few pictures from our time down there. This is New Hampshire's own Dr. Carol Tolman. So, it was fun to see her down south. Between the four of us, we engaged in over 60 hours of professional development. And here's a sampling of the type of sessions that we went to. And I wanted to highlight some of the notable speakers that we encountered. These are influential researchers and educators whose practices and whose research is really paving the way for the evidence-based practice that we are following. They are individuals who have paved the path to allow us to learn how students are learning and how we can best support students. So that brings us to

014our biggest takeaways. And I knew that on your way over here you were thinking, "Wow, I really wish that I had a mini neuroscience lesson." So that's why I'm here today. It is not a novel concept that there are different parts of the brain and that every part of the brain has a different responsibility. It is not a novel concept that our brain is primed for spoken language. We are born being able to perceive every speech sound in every single language. What ends up happening is based upon the input that we give our babies, their brains prune out speech sounds that are not important. It is not a novel concept that we are born understanding meaning and searching for meaning. It's why when a baby sees a bottle, they start crying because now they're hungry

015because they saw milk. We are It is not a novel concept that we are born perceiving things. We are able to see faces. We are able to see objects. That is a survival instinct that we have to have. What is a novel concept is this fabulous idea of letters. So spoken language has been around for about a 100 to 150,000 years. Written language being reading and writing has only been around for 5,000 years. So our brain has not caught up to the fact that we should be born being able to perceive letter sounds and letters and what that means. As educators, that is our job. So between the ages of 3 to 8, the brain is incredibly neuroplastic, meaning it is open to neuronal changes. It is our job as educators to retrain this part

016of the brain that we're calling vision village and say, "Hey, these are things that are called letters and they're really important." The tricky part with that is is we are actually working against the way that our brain wants to work. So you're in a chair. If I came over and flipped the chair, you would know it's still a chair. If I showed you a P and then I flipped it over, it's now a Q. And if I flip it again, it's a D. And if I flip it again, now it's a B. So we are actively working against what our brain wants to do when we are teaching children to read and write. What we have to do is utilize through explicit and systematic instruction ways to create these new neuronal pathways. Create them so

017it becomes automatic and then ask the brain to do this in actual milliseconds. So we are asking them to say, "Hey, look it, recognize these letters. Wait really quickly. Think about what sounds these letters make and even faster put that together and make a word. But move over to meaning mountains because what happens over here is now words have multiple meanings and we don't know which one we're talking about. And as soon as that process is done, you're on to the next word and you're doing it again. What I have learned is we are um pretty adjacent to brain scientists and neuroscientists based upon the number of neural pathways that we are expected to create and truly are creating in our students so that we are able to engage with text in a meaningful manner

018being both written and written language. Can you run my clicker? Okay, perfect. So, one of the big takeaways was um we spend a lot of time on reading, but really that reading and writing connection um between the two that really um it's both reading and writing that make up true literacy and really focusing on that integrated instruction. So, when we are teaching reading, we're also doing the writing to reinforce vocabulary structure um and meaning for our students. Um and by writing about what we're reading deepens that understanding and builds those critical thinking for all of our students. Um, so that being said, as uh, Kayla said, we're not kind of born with that. Uh, it's not a natural process. Um, reading, writing is the same. Um, we need to kind of explicitly teach that instruction.

019So, all of this just reinforced um, the importance of of teaching these two things together. And when we are explicitly teaching writing, um, to really focus on all of these key components. So looking at that syntax, sentence structure and word order. Um helping the students build clear and coherent sentences. Um grammar, rules of language, um supporting that accuracy as well as um the the clarity in their expression. Um morphology, understanding those word parts, all those different parts of the word um help create that meaning. Um and then as we look at those finished products, um all the mechanics, so u making it if you were to pick up something that I read, you'd be able to read it. it'd be clear um with punctuation, capitals, and spelling. Um one of the other things that was

020brought up is um important to think about the modality when we're thinking about writing. Um a lot of the um we're moving towards typing. You know, our whole society is all typing things, but really not to lose sight of the importance of handwriting. Um because handwriting does engage that brain differently. um and that movement, having that movement, that physical movement um for writing really does help to um engage that brain and create stronger um cognitive processing. So, um key takeaway really is kind of just using those handwriting activities to help activate those the brain. Um and it does it a little deeper than what typing does u for students to uh to create that deeper learning, stronger memory, and more efficient thinking. Okay. Um so no matter what workshop we went to there was this

021constant theme of the importance of explicit and systematic literacy instruction and basically that was to be very clear in your instruction on um teaching the critical content of how we read uh because our brains are not born that way. So we need to focus on not only um explicitly teaching decoding so like into phmic awareness encoding morphology, site words fluency but also then explicitly teach language comprehension through vocabulary, background knowledge and um yeah strategies to focus on attention as well. Um and then again building on that common theme, we also kept hearing about vocabulary and background knowledge um as being the key to comprehension. And the more words kids can learn, the easier it is for them to read because they're not spending time decoding unknown words. So then their fluency gets stronger. Um so

022the more we can build up students vocabulary, um more critical in their ability to read and more complex things that they can read and infer as well. So, one big thing that we've boosted up is vocabulary building and teaching specific vocabulary words like the word conflict and then clapping it out with syllables so that they can understand how to say the word. Then we're putting a picture to the word conflict and then we're talking about it. Once you talk about the words, then you're reading to them through a read aloud and you're enriching those vocabulary and their kids light up because then they they hear the word that they had just learned and talked about and then they start using the word and then we have them writing the word and then they're using the

023word in their language. Same thing um with readalouds and encouraging parents to read at home to their children even after the age of nine because um vocabulary in books are not the way we talk and they're so much more enriching. So the more you could read to your child, the more you're able to enrich their vocabulary and them understanding all the vocabulary words as well. Y um in the No, that's fine. The other piece to that was the importance of background knowledge, knowing our world. Um it helps readers fill in the gaps that authors leave. Um and it also helps them make connections between the text and themselves and the text in the world. Um and then also it will help them with the um deeper comprehension levels of inferencing and reasoning. And this matters

024why it matters for equity. Kids come from different backgrounds um from all over and they come to school with different levels of vocabulary and knowledge. So schools have to explicitly teach background knowledge and vocabulary to help give kids the upper hand when it comes to comprehension. Ju just the last little one is um kind of looking at how um ADHD um can impact reading. That was another big um takeaway that we were able to have that we saw some consistency throughout some of the um workshops that we attended and really kind of looking at um it can impact reading in a variety of different ways from word reading kind of some of that impulsivity where they're um sort of just guessing at a word when they see the first few letters. Um, and sometimes that

025sustained attention can uh make it a little more difficulty difficult, excuse me, to apply some of those strategies when they're um faced with multi- uh syllable words. Uh, fluency um due to some difficulties with sustained attention, processing speed, processing speed, and working memory um can kind of create some it to make it a little more challenging for students um to make gains with their fluency um as well as comprehension. So again, we want to thank you guys so much. What we learned was amazing. Um, and as Kayla said, we went right back and were able to make some adjustments to our um, instruction as well as share it with all of our teammates. Um, so we all were able to the whole school was able to benefit from the the knowledge that we gained. Thank

026you so much. Thank you. [Applause] I suppose I can just gave it to you. So, that was a perfect segue to some of the work I'm going to talk about for number three, um, knowledge building. But I am Jess Wentworth. Um, I'm going to talk about presenting at two different conferences this year and also about my current sbatical work. Um, in the fall, I had the privilege of presenting at the um, NCTTE, the National Convention of Teachers of English in Boston. Um, which was a really amazing experience. It was my first time presenting um on a national level. So that was really really cool. Um the best part was that I got to collaborate with um Dennis and Christina who are two teachers from Exit High School. Um Ken and Kelly from um the racial

027unity team. And this was um I'll try to sum it up very shortly, but um we have a bookshelf diversity project that we worked on in second grade with the racial unity team from last year where they donated um $500 to each second grade classroom um supporting us in our diverse books and our character unit. Um, and then also it kind of combined with an arts and action and you'll see the artwork that students did. Um, and they wrote poetry from this. And at the bottom you can see um, what we did for the showcase. Dennis and Christina kind of started this at Exit High School um, with Ken and Kelly and the racial unity team. And it's been kind of this ongoing project that just keeps getting bigger and bigger. um and now other

028schools across the state um are working on it. So that's that was a really special experience. Um and then from there, Kelly and I um presented at the New Hampshire version of this conference um this spring um on our project, Windows and Mirrors, connecting literacy and art to build empathy and belonging. So here we kind of dove in a little bit deeper into just the second grade aspect of what we did. Um and we talked about the books that we chose um the artwork, the poetry um and the grant itself for other teachers to possibly get that money for those um classrooms. And I think one of the most special experiences um as a part of that was seeing how down here at Portsmith High School teacher actually took um the Stratams windows and mirrors

029project and did it at the high school level and seeing how they did that in a three-dimensional way. And so seeing how that project grows and changes over time um was really really special. So those were two um presentations that I did this year and then I'm going to talk about my sbatical. I'm currently on sbatical. Um it is amazing. Um I want to talk about the importance of this both professionally and personally. Um, it's been really wonderful to be able to research, dive into topics that I'm really interested in, connect with other educators, um, in the state, in the country. Um, but also personally to have time and flexibility to do that and still walk my daughter to school and pick her up at the end of the day has been something that's really,

030really special. Um I was just thinking this is my 19th year as a teacher and um besides my maternity leaves the this is like the only kind of shift in my work that I've done and it's been really really valuable. Um so I think this is a really important piece for teachers. Um and so I wanted to talk about my sobatical work a little bit. Um it kind of shifted. It was mostly going to be a social studies literacy lens and it still is but um it kind of shifted a little bit as we are thinking about knowledge building literacy curriculums just like what the other group talked about. Um we are looking at piloting a couple of new curriculums for next year and um this is a shift for us. So my first kind

031of work um was looking at these different curriculums, kind of exploring them and kind of trying to synthesize them for the literacy committee um and talking about you know the benefits to these or what what they're really about even things down to cost to lesson plans. So that was kind of my first part of my sbatical. Um, the other piece that I've been doing is teachers in the classroom right now, um, and grade levels specifically helping them with their social studies curriculum right now and their literacy unit support. So, meeting with grade level teams and mapping out a unit, um, planning field trips, going to the Portsmith Library, getting books for them, um, hearing feedback about how it's going for them. So like current in time planning which um as a teacher to have like

032another person that's like hey can you check out this book tell me what you think about this or do you think you could um come up with some writing prompts for this unit that would be really helpful um was really really cool to support teachers like in the moment um in like a timely way. Um, the third thing was doing some field trip planning and really connecting with the PTO around the importance of field trips. Um, and so we got the Gundelo field trip back going for fourth grade and studying New Hampshire history. Um, third grade is now going to Strawberry Bank as part of their migration and movement um, immigration unit where they're going to um, kind of be explorers of the past and investigate what it's like for the life of an immigrant.

033Um, and they're also PTO is also funding um, buses pretty much at every grade level now and they've kind of committed to that which has been really really special for us. Um, and the fourth thing is thinking about those holidays like Columbus Day, Indigenous People's Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, civil rights kind of in those history months and thinking about um curating resources for grade levels and thinking about it as kind of a scope and sequence and so we're not like every year talking about the same things on the same holidays. Um and then the last thing I think is the most exciting but um is that planning ahead for next year and really thinking about those possible curriculums and how social studies but also science actually is factoring into that not only schoolwide

034but also um grade level. And so the work that I'm doing now is putting this together, meeting with teams of teachers um at grade levels. This is really small, but um this is just like an overview of K to5 with the different curriculums. And this is literacy. And so how this knowledge building literacy curriculum um supports science and social studies competencies. And then maybe where we have some holes and we want to make sure that we have um additional science or social studies units to support the competencies that we're supposed to be um working with. And then this is an example of fifth grade um the one of the literacy curriculums and kind of diving into what the essential questions are and um what competencies they'll be working with in science and social studies and

035I'm meeting with grade level teams for a couple of hours and we're going to be looking at this kind of stuff and planning for um next year school Okay. So, that's about it. I don't know if you have any questions or anything. Anybody have any questions? I have a question. Um, isn't sbatical supposed to be when you relax a little bit? I know it. It, you know, it's been a nice um balance and as teachers, we don't really know what that's like, I think. But also the flexibility is the nice thing. Like working from home, like what is that, you know? And the only time we ever did that was co and that was not um so that has been that has been joyful too to be able to like work from home and be

036able to you know set up times to meet with teachers and have that flexibility I think has been really special. That's for me or her? Always for you, Steve. Hi. Um, I'm Steve Gagden. I'm the digital learning specialist here at school. Um, I think, uh, so I went to Texas. Um, I believe that in my role as digital learning specialist, uh, technology is just evolving so much and so quickly when I think back, you know, I've been here for a few years, I mean, just a little bit. Um, how much technology has changed since, um, I first started here. It's really, you know, takes an effort to keep up with and see what's coming down the pike and everything like that. Uh so I feel like it's important uh to go to these conferences and

037and uh and so this is what I've done and uh just a second on edtech conferences. So I generally have gone to one every year except for the co years and a few other years. Uh there's three that I've been to. Um the big big one, the most well-known one is is the 15,000 attendees. Um it is huge. It's it's kind of a crazy scene. Um and uh in years prior um I basically switched from IST over to FETC which stands for future of education technology conference. Um and you can still see that it's a pretty um large conference. Uh it pulls in the same speaker speakers, same level of of uh quality workshops and everything but kind of like at a a smaller scale. Um I've done that one for maybe three four years.

038Uh so for this uh for this year I decided uh I've got some friends that go to these conferences and I heard about the Texas conference and I thought that that might be a good one to check out. It's basically same size as FETC. Um and so I went to that in Austin, Texas. Uh it is a big conference. It's, you know, even though it's Texas, um, a Texas educator conference, uh, over 700 sessions, over 450 exhibitors, keynote speakers, it's it's not just a Texas conference, it's a national conference. Um, so when I go to a conference, I was thinking about this presentation. I decided that I would like divide it into three parts. Why do I go to a conference? uh certainly for that for me personally since I've been here a lot uh

039a long time um that just to get reinspired every year is an important aspect for me so you know when you hear keynotes and those big things I went to a leadership summit you know that's where you get you know inspired to you know remember why you went into education and and kind of remember those days and all of that so uh this was the leadership summit it was an entire day Um Joe uh San Falippo was uh the keynote speaker. He is a famous superintendent from Wisconsin. Uh he talked a lot about um the importance of a school uh being proud of itself and making that known to the community, branding itself, um what are we all about and and that type of thing. He talked a lot about, you know, the big picture

040things and um and you know, I have a few of his quotes up here. Uh there were some other speakers during that day as well. Uh this lady over here, she's a librarian. Uh she did a whole workshop on um you know the legal side of AI and what educators should know. Um bas basically this was the theme of the conference. So in the last 3 years of me going to that conference going to any conference um AI has basically taken over like so many of the workshops. it's it's like really really like the thing that everybody is you know talking about thinking about how is it going to change education and all of that. Uh so that certainly was the theme of this conference. It was last year and and so on. So those

041big ideas is one is one part of of what I do or try to do when I go. Uh the second part are of course the tech tools, the hardware, the software. Uh these are just a few that we use here in school. Um there's always at these conferences um like we're a big book creator school and they time these companies time their new updates and what's new in the app and everything like that uh with these conferences. So they'll release you know the new features and things like that. So that certainly happened with book creator that I saw. Uh they've got a lot of cool universal design types of things where you got text to speech speech to text. you can translate an entire book creator book into like any language that you want.

042Um, this was kind of new to me. Uh, the news literary literacy project. Uh, that was um by a group that does a lot about um they look at like AI imaging, you know, and I'm I'm sure that you've seen pictures AI images of famous people or whatever doing something that they didn't actually do, just fake pictures. So, they have a whole curriculum and Ashley and I um are jumping into it as to like, you know, we got to start showing our kids, you know, you've got to start questioning things like when you see a video or a photo or whatever, you know, you've got to look at the source. You've got to like, you know, double check it, see if that's also, you know, shown somewhere else. And so, I think that's going to

043be a big part of what we uh get into. Um, Soundtrack Trap is is uh an app that I learned about at actually last year's conference, but um we introduced it this year. Uh it's a big great podcasting um app. So, it was new to us. Fifth grade has been using it for their podcasts and and it's been great. Canva is uh is an app that our kids, fifth graders are using a lot. There's new features there. There's some AI features and it integrates with Book Creator, which is all great. So that's ideas, tools, and then the third part um is just the exhibit hall. It's nuts. It's it is huge. I don't know if you can see these numbers, but that's 2,300, you know, and it goes down to zero. And it can take

044you if you wanted to, you could spend, you know, a day in that in that place. And what I love about it is that, you know, even though I'm so enthusiastic about technology and that kind of is what I'm passionate about and keeps me interested in school and education and everything, you see some things that are like, no, thank you. So, you know, you can go through there and you can see, oh, that's a great product. You know, that has a lot of potential. Uh, but just for example, this right here, um, is basically an AI assistant teacher. And you know, you can a kid can walk up to it and ask a question. Um I asked the guy, you know, does it do classroom management? Because you know, it just it it I it

045was something I'm at least right now not interested in. So um yeah, so I love tech, but this tech that I don't love either. Um so anyways, um that's about it. Thanks so much for letting me go to these conferences. Uh they've been great. They keep me enthusiastic about what I'm doing and I appreciate it. Thank you. I don't want that. Mr. G, can I could I ask you a question about that? Yeah. So, we're we heard the uh the first presentation talking about like how handwriting helps us and how writing helps us think and we can see a reflection of that. What's the Is there like a gestalt here that comes out of what AI is going to do and how we should be approaching it? I mean it's moving so quick and I

046find even for myself I I don't have to think as much as I used to have to think which is scary. I think we all have our personal stories. Raise your hand if you've used chat GPT or any type of AI or something like it. We're all discovering its uses. I think for me right now it's like more of like an assistant for helping me do some tasks that you know are pretty just straightforward or whatever so that I can use my time to be more creative and and think of ideas like that. something I'll just add on Eric because um some of the work we're going to talk about even at the library conferences we go to that's all like how do we approach this and the biggest takeaway for me has been like

047not shying away from it with kids because if we just like pretend it doesn't exist then that's when kids are getting into trouble and especially at our kind of exploratory age of kids we can do things in a more safe way. um third grade we just did we used common sense media as part of our digital citizenship curriculum and they had a whole lesson on um is seeing believing. So they had all these great pictures and the kids had a small group discuss like what was it we talk about digitally altering things and there is a creative purpose and in our like line of work that might be appropriate and other ways it's not and just teaching kids to be critical consumers is really the where we should lie but it wasn't like don't block

048it and just avoid it and pretend it's not there because it is not going away. Yeah. Just just a little story. Um, a few weeks ago we had a fifth grade class in the maker space and I had my computer mirrored to the new line board and the kids could see my bookmarks and I've got chat GPT as a bookmark and one of the kids was like you got chat GPT and as if it was like this negative like I'm doing something wrong or whatever. So, we actually dropped our lesson and and felt like, oh, this is a teachable moment and we need to talk about about chat GPT and all of these AI types of things. So, yeah, it's it's it's really exciting and who knows where it's going to go. Yeah, thank you.

049Thank you for that. I I just I think it's like almost like an existential thing for educators is like what are we gonna because it's a great tool. I mean, I use it to for all kinds of stuff. Yeah. But then it's also this thing where it's like if we're trying to teach our kids how to think and how to do some of this, it's like there's got to be a line and there's like a concept of like plagiarizing generative stuff. It just seems like it's such a very interesting time. Yeah. Sorry, Jess. This is a big conversation. Dennis and Christina who I presented with um teachers at Exit High School just published a book on using AI in the writing classroom. Um I mean definitely geared more towards middle school, high school, but um

050really fascinating the ways that they use it. Um and I went to one of their sessions and kind of practiced ways that we could use it in the classroom. Not just like a strictly generative sense, but how to use it as an assistant. So, just had to make that plug for them. Do you know the do you know the name of the book by any chance? I think it's using AI in the I can find out for it. Yeah. Sorry. Thank you. All right, we're moving on. Yeah. So, um, last year we presented to the board and to the school community and Kate has helped us share out with the, um, larger community how we've kind of shifted, uh, some of our curriculums to align library competencies, tech competencies to create a more integrated experience

051for kids. So, these were just some of the slides from last year that we had used. Um and really now in year two of this program, we've been able to support teachers better, we hope, and um deepen student learning. So actually from the New Hampshire State, this is the school section of the state librarian um association. They reached out to us and said, "Hey, we've been hearing a lot about this. Um would you consider presenting?" So this was my first time at the conference. I was like, "We're going. Let's go." Um and it was it was so wellreceived. It was really great. It's more of a progressive idea, but a a way a lot of schools are trying to go. Um we both STEM, steam, and library have been in their competency review cycles at

052the SAU level. So, we've been having this conversation across all of our schools. Um how do we better serve our students with our expertise? And in a nutshell, what we have done is kind of shared the the related arts block of responsibility, freeing Steve or I up to then support in classrooms when one of us is teaching here, the other one is in a classroom. So um what that looks like this was kind of our the crux of our presentation was how we had looked at both competencies from both library and ISTY which is what we are um supporting tech with and what that looks like in practice. So we took a third grade example of how um their competency was on extreme weather. Um the writing was non-fiction writing they were trying to accomplish.

053we it's more specifically written their competencies but basically when kids have to write a certain way they have to read a lot of that style of writing so the end goal was an infographic so I was able to support in the classroom um looking through infographics identifying what the mentor text used so kids could then recreate based on their research we researched together um Steve was then able to teach them Canva during the related arts block so that they could have a way to present their knowledge so it's just this more fluid um flexible thinking of around curriculum that deepens student learning and then um applies it in a more timely manner. What we found when we started was it was more like we would start something with the kids and then we don't see

054them for six days. So like a project like this would take three months and they're in this unit for three weeks. So we want to be able to support them right away and be able to do that. Do you want to add on to that? Okay, keep going. Um so we'll just end with the a blur um just how we're kind of trying to share this message and we're we were interviewed for future ready librarians podcast. So we've linked all of this too um because they were curious about what we're doing and how we've aligned it and we started blogging for fit is our one of our main book providers where we get a lot of our books our print books from and they had heard our podcast and asked us to write a blog

055series about our work. So we are definitely helping to keep spreading the good work that's happening here. So reach out if you have questions. [Applause] It's a lot of lot of management there. Thank you. Um I think as I listen I think about the fact that a school when a school provides rich resources for educators in terms of professional development there are a few really cool things that happen. And one is as an educator in that environment, you get access to learning that would be really difficult to get otherwise in settings that you would be difficult to access otherwise. But another incredible thing about it is that you end up with a school full of colleagues who are also really excited about learning. And I can't say enough about how having um the the professional

056development resources that we have here at Stratam are very much appreciated um by individuals in terms of what we're able to get out of them um in our own specific learning, but also in terms of the kind of school community that it has created to have that as a component of of what we have available to us here. And as I listen, I keep feeling I'm really grateful for the opportunities that I've had, but also so grateful to have a group of colleagues who are so excited about learning and sharing their learning with others. Um yeah, and I really think that um ultimately as we think about longevity and teaching and children who are going to maybe have some more difficulty with getting motivated in their learning, if we're not excited about learning and learning

057more, we're not going to be able to motivate students to do that. Um so it's just again I know I know the students who work with these teachers and seeing their excitement about learning, I know that the students share in that. So very grateful. Um this February I had the opportunity to go to the learning in the brain conference in San Francisco. This is actually my third time attending a learning in the brain event. And um I never fail to this time I I had the flu this time but I still managed to take 25 pages of notes. You know it's a good conference when you're still that excited about it. Um it's such an invigorating experience. So thank you very much for that. And the theme for this particular conference was thinking about stronger

058brains really promoting strengths, character, compassion, hope and autonomy. Um and really utilizing a strength-based approach in our work with students um and having the understanding of the underpinnings of neuroscience um to support the value of that. And one of my favorite quotes while I was there was Dr. Shantel Pratt in her speech said success is the match between brain and learning environment. And I very much think that's the case and that's something that we live at SMS. So uh I was think why did I choose this particular conference? I feel like for me um deepening my understanding of educational neuroscience has been a huge component of being able to further develop my practice and it's something I'm really passionate about. And it's that intersection between understanding how brains function, understanding how individuals and groups behave,

059and then bringing in together the best practice in um teaching assessments and outcomes. And that's science of learning. That's the overlap there. Um I find that learning about the neurological processes of learning including development, structure, function, origin, um leads to an understanding of learning that applies across curriculum areas and settings. And really it leads to it starts with the things that happen before a student arrives at school in terms of understanding what they're going to need to have a brain that's physically ready to learn um throughout all of our engage in um interactions with students, our interactions with one another as colleagues. Having a deeper understanding of that cognitive neuroscience really has supported me with that. And I also find that when students understand the why and how of their learning, because a lot of

060this feels lofty, it's really not. When you get down into it, there's a lot of great basic information that really makes sense. And that when you talk to students, especially a kiddo who's having some trouble engaging in their learning um about what is happening in their brain and why you're asking them to do something that doesn't seem necessarily to be the most exciting thing in the world. Um, children I find are very receptive, find the that explanation of their learning and their brain functioning to be a very meaningful um explanation. Even my own kids at home when it's time to get off screens, they get to listen to a long talk about why um why their brain needs a break from that thing and it's harder for them to argue with that. You know, it's

061a little bit of data. Um oops, wrong way. So, this was just a sample of the different workshops I was able to attend over the weekend that I was there. Um, it's an incredibly broad um and varied group of of workshops that are put together, but you get to choose and these were the ones that I chose to attend. And I think really um for me that theme that I'll talk a little bit more about around un using that strength-based approach um was one of the things that I really sought out in my learning. Um so that was really a key takeaway for me was just I think not that it's novel to think about using a strength-based approach but it is inherent to a lot of our training as educators. I think for myself

062as a former special educator, what I started looking for is like what's wrong? What can I help with? Um what what do you need? And and making a shift [Music] from what's wrong, what can't you do to what can you do, and how can I use it to help you access the skills that you don't yet have. the impact on my practice, the impact in student work, and it's all substantiated by this um research and data within educational neuroscience that really what we're doing if we're using a strength-based approach, we're keeping our expectations high and we're helping students be able to access what they can do and kind of get instead of getting stuck on what they can't. Um within MTSS coordinator role, working more with families and community members, it's the same piece. we

063need to be using that strength-based approach when we're understanding our community and our families and using what we have to help us go even further. Um, and so one thing that I do after I go to workshops is I I give myself a little note template and it just has like the name of the of the workshop, the name of the speaker, what my takeaways are, and then at the end I always put what are my um things for next step. So what do I want to learn more about? What book do I want to read based off of this? what program do I need to learn more about? Um, I had them all individually by workshop, but I just put them together in these slides just for reference, but to give you a sense

064of, you know, the incredible, um, fuel for learning and fuel for growth that comes from being able to attend these these kinds of workshops. So, um I really it's an opportunity for me to really think about like one thing that comes up here thinking about my views on student self- advocacy because these are great opportunities for reflection. Um and that I think there's a tendency we talk a lot about oh that that students always asking for help before they try and we want to encourage them go ask someone else go try to figure it out but one of the points that a um workshop brought up was that it's not the problem is not that they're asking for help it's that they lack confidence and so the way to respond to that the missing skill

065is the confidence is to help them build that confidence and reinforce that confidence not to try to discourage them from asking looking for help. So, just those pieces, those little moments where we get to think, huh, this was a fundamental part of my practice and I actually think that it's not serving kids. Um, it's so great to be able to ask those questions and think those thoughts. So, um, yeah, thank you very much. [Applause] [Music] All right, thank you so much. Does anybody have any other questions? All right. Well, that sounds amazing. Thank you for traveling, taking that time away, and then thanks for bringing back that excitement. All right, let us move through the rest of the agenda. Um, all right. So, let's take a look at our um minutes. We have public minutes

066of April 9th. Any changes to those public minutes? Um, I had a question about the minutes and that was due to the thing that Chris said that was factually incorrect and you corrected it. Can that be corrected in the minutes? I'm just wor like how does that work? Uh, so it is what I said in the minutes. It's a reflection of that point in time and then we could put an asterisk that the we can correct it with an asterisk. But that that comment should stay there because that was inaccurate statement that I had made. And can we put an asterisk though to reflect? And I guess that's not just, you know, specific. I I misspeak sometimes too. And how do we deal with that as a board and the and the minutes and the

067notes if we misspeak? Yeah. What should we do? Don't we just edit them and Sharon edits it in the future? So in that next meeting, I did correct it. Yeah, I see. Yeah. So, I did it in the April 16th meetings uh did uh the the dated accurately, but then someone would have to know that that was incorre. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you. Um I I think it should be changed too because otherwise why like otherwise why do we do this? Yeah. So, at that time that's that's what I said. Yeah. Right. And that would be on record of what I said and take accountability that that was inaccurate information. And that's why I corrected it at the next meeting to reflect uh proper minutes in the next meeting. I know I had the

068same I don't mean to put you on the spot, Chris. So, can can we do the asterisk though? Like what is the process for that? I guess like we could put an ask Sharon or refer to the April 16th public where it was corrected. Yeah. Okay. So, that would just be a note to Sharon. Hey Sharon, can you I can make that note and ask. Thanks, Sharon. Okay. Thank you, Sharon. Um yeah, I also just had a question. same. It's just kind of a clarification I guess for Kate um where we talk about um the additional 110 grand added back to the budget um at our budget meeting. Then um they've decided not to replace one classroom teacher who retired this year as well as replacing the speech pathologist position with a speech language. I

069guess just that that's not really um I think we're missing a word. I guess language assistant. So you guys are not replacing a classroom teacher and you're also not replacing a speech pathologist position. Correct. Those are the two positions to make up the 288. And then there was but we are however in order to meet the IEP based services and continue with our um framework. We are going to have a speech language assistant which we actually used to have one years ago. Okay. So we are so it's not a speech language pathologist. It's a speech language assistant. Okay. I just know like that's always a big issue for the town kind of what's happening to the money. So, I just wanted to make sure that that was super clear for people. All right. Any other

070notes for the minutes? All right. Otherwise, can I have a motion to approve? Yes. So, moved. Okay. Thanks, Eric. Um, a second. I can second. Thanks, Sophie. All right. Any discussion? I guess we just did it. And all in favor? I I All right. 4 0. Taking a look at the minutes, um we'll go to the non-public minutes of April 9th. Anybody um have any concerns about those? I did not. No. Anybody else? All right. Can I have a motion to approve? Maybe what we actually could do is just do them all together. Can we do that? You can unless you got any edits. You just have to accept. So, no. Um, no. It was approved as written or approved as amended. Yeah. Yep. All right. Um, we'll just go through one by one. Any,

071um, edits on the April 16th public? Nope. I did not either. Okay. What about on the April 16th non-public minutes? Nope. I didn't either. Okay. Um, can I have a motion to approve the non-public of April 9th, the public of April 16th, and the non-public of April 16th? Yeah, I'll move that again. All right. Thanks, Eric. Can I have a second? I can second again. Thanks, Sophie. All right. All in favor, please say I. I. I. Anybody opposed? All right. 4 0. Thank you. Awesome. All right. Superintendent report. Chris. Yeah. So, we'll start with with uh with Molly. Sure. Um there are just two manifests floating around there if you want to sign those and pass them back this way. Included in your board pack is a current year financial. Um, next month you might

072see a little bit of purchasing because we tell everyone to get all your purchase orders in the Friday before April vacation. So, this board pack would would have been prepared um before that time period, but um so you might see a little bit more purchasing in June, but for the most part, we start to relieve a little bit of expenses this time of year as we close out purchase orders. Um we I did note all of the increases and decreases. Did anyone have any questions? Okay, great to not I was just going to ask if I mean you projected the the uh unassigned even with what you think is going to come in for Yep. So we Yeah, we do know there'll be a little bit more purchasing or expenditures I should say in June

073because we don't encumber for things like substitutes. We do know there's going to be a level of substitutes. We do know there's going to be a level of purchasing. Um but right now we've encumbered everything to the best of our knowledge and any unanticipated revenue that we have come in. So the combination of those would be the 143,724. Then if you remember trust then get funded out of that first. Um and then the remaining would be returned in the tax rate not via check just a credit on what you have to raise in taxation. So, the first time we'll see these updated fund balances will be July. Um, so we don't usually meet in July, but um, we spend the summer closing out the fiscal year. So, next month we will talk about a better

074projection as we get a little bit closer to June 30th. Um, but we still have bills that come in July that we have to pay out of fiscal year 25. And so then what my team always does is I I say this is what we reported in June. And then this is the actual amount on your DOE25 which is your year-end financial report which is like your official number. And then we say okay what's the delta and what what didn't we tell the board or what came in last minute that the board might want to know about. So in that first meeting in September I'll come with the official DOE25. Um I will be asking if you guys swing by the SAU office in August to actually physically sign it um since we won't be

075meeting but we'll send those emails out to you. Um, but when we have that first public meeting in September, we'll review the number that was reported on the DOE2 versus what we said in the June meeting. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Were you going to talk about the grant and the food service? Um, I can briefly talk about the grant report. So, uh, Dr. Andriski asked for all districts that we include, um, a grant report. So now please keep in mind that is all the active grants. It is not your annual allocation of grants. It's anything that's active today. So you are going to see start and end dates which do not correlate to the fiscal year. And you'll see some might be some grants from last year. That's just everything that's open as

076of today. And so the two different numbers are allocation and budget. Allocation is what you're entitled to. And then the budget is what um Kate and her team have written activities for. And so then I also included what is out there that is unallocated, meaning the available money that Kate could allocate to budget in a grant. Yeah. And I guess I just wanted to say that um you know this information so what what SAU16 gets and what Stratum in particular gets from the federal government is actually on the SAU website. Um Yep. So what's actually on the SU website and the requirement that we have to post is the funds received. So it's not necessarily the budget that's out there or the allocation that's out there. We have to publish what the federal funds that

077we receive that month. And so um every month we we post it on the website so that everybody can see what funds were received that specific month. Right. And that's something you guys have done all along. So that just started. Yeah. Six months. No, it wasn't even that long. It I want to say maybe even n six to nine months ago. January. Yeah, it was it's really it's within the last year that that was a requirement. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I thought it was that was really interesting. So, um yeah, so the difference is is what's posted is what you received that month and what's in your board pack is the available grants to you today. Yep. Sounds great. Thank you for that. And I think Chris was going to talk about food service, right? Uh

078food service. We're just going to talk about lunch prices. Anything else regarded food to food service? No. Oh, did we want Are we talking about um food prices though? Yep. Yeah. Lunch prices. Yeah. You want me to hit that now? Yeah, let's do. Yeah. So, uh, I have the pleasure of meeting with all the food service directors, uh, in the SAU. We meet monthly and, um, part of the federal food lunch program. There's a maximum or or minimum that you should be looking at. You know, across the the country, it's about 385 for lunches. We're a little bit lower than that. Um, our recommendation is that we'd go up 25 cents. Uh, again, with the cost of food and loss that you see in your that you have to make up out of your general

079budget to go up 25 cents, and that's going to be across the board. Um, in most of our our schools in the SAU, unless they're making a profit. Some of our schools do make a profit such as the middle school and the high school. So they're not going up as much. Uh but they also have more options towards alocart and we don't have that option in elementary school. It's really difficult. So our recommendation uh for school lunch prices for next year would be to move milk up 15 cents to 75 uh to move breakfast to 225 from $2 and to move uh lunch to 365 instead of 3.40. I thought you said lunch was 385. That's uh average. Oh. Oh, got it. Okay. So, we're still below the average of what was being uh how

080much are seconds? Uh we did not talk about seconds. I did not ask Ann that question, but I can come back with that. If you want to hold that till June, that's fine. But just giving you the idea that we would make a recommendation for 15 cents and milk and 25 cents for breakfast and lunch. Okay. And do we know what the calculation of what the tax impact would be or the like overall price for the whole year? The difference in that for well it you would have to know but we could look at it because you'd have to look at participation. So you could look at participation each month. It's it varies based on the number of students who are getting lunch. So and then the other things to take into account is cost

081of inflation, cost of transportation for food. Uh the tariffs that are right now where we can't order food and it has to be ordered from specifically in in the United States. So therefore, we can't order avocados, uh, bananas. So there's a lot that I'm learning about food service this year that I didn't learn. Um, so that is why they also the recommendation to go up to 25 cents. So can bring back more information, but that was a collectively whole from from the group of looking at a 25 cent increase. Can I ask a question about the um the link platform? Is that um is that used by like every Not every majority. So extra elementary schools both use link. Newfields Elementary School use Link, uh the cooperative and the high school use link in in

082Stratum. You're your own separate entity. That's why your money can't transfer up. So, you hold your money because this is where your money stops because this is the district that the kids are at and then you have to have your own for for the cooperative. Does does a school have to pay a part of the fee for that? Yep, we do. Yep. Okay. Cuz I'm just wondering because there's a substantial fee to use that. Correct. I'm surprised that the school had I'm just thinking like depending on how much money you put on it, it scales how much you have to pay and I think the last time you it was like $10 and I was thought that was for adding money to the Yeah. So, we talked we've talked with Link uh about trying to

083have that number um widened so that you could it would be like $50 that you would get a charge. So, anything lower than that because there is a processing fee just like other Right. Yeah. Right. Well, normally you'd think going higher like I would say I'm going to take advantage of economy at scale and I'm going to put more in it and then I found out the fee scales based on how much money you put in which seems kind of so that shouldn't be the case. So that was not how it was explained to us. So I will research that Cameron if that's happening but that was not how it was explained. It was explained that you would have a fee uh that would range based on the number of dollars that you put in.

084So you had to have a minimum amount to put in because you you know you can't just put a dollar, right? Right. So, there's that. That's why that you'd see that $10 minimum at any time to be able to put in the link. But, uh, if there's a separate question you're looking at or that has hit you as an individual, uh, please share that with me so I can I can bring that back to our food service directors and and also link themselves. Okay. Thanks. I asked an I texted Ann. It's 250 for seconds. Okay. Which only includes just the entree. It's not the entire They're sad. It's not like the ice cream sandwich too, right? You know, it's like the pasta again, right? And some people are like, "Want seven servings." Yes. Okay. Any

085um questions or concerns? Is that something we need to vote? Yes. Yes, please. All right. Does everybody um All right. Can I have a motion to approve raising the lunch price to 365 for the next calendar year and and the milk? Yeah. You want to do all three of them? Okay. Milk.75 cents, breakfast 225, and lunch 365. Thank you. I mean, I'll make a motion. Okay. Thanks, Eric. Um, do you have a second? I'll second. Thanks, Cameron. All right. Any discussion? All right. All in favor, please say I. I. I. All right. Thank you. 4 0. All right. Uh I think next on our agenda is interviewing the board um member applicants. So we only had one applicant and she is with us today. So Kathleen Peek was the applicant. Um she wrote a very

086nice letter of why she's interested in some of her qualifications and I believe all of you got a chance to see. Um I still think um if there's any outstanding questions that you'd like to ask her, but again you do have someone who is qualified to join this board for the uh till the next vote in March. Uh make sure I get that correct this time. Uh, I I think that would be very appropriate so that the the community can hear, you know, what she wrote about and any questions the board might have about the newest member joining for joining this team. All right, sounds great. Um, and will like her letter and everything be in the board packet for next time? Yeah. So, we'll add that. Um, all right, Kathleen. Yeah. [Music] [Laughter] Wow.

087Um, so we're excited to have you apply. Thank you very much. Um, and obviously we're very familiar with you and your work that you've done um at SMS and for the board. Can you just tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of why why you're interested in this position? Okay. Um, so I am a parent to two SMS students, a fifth grader who's almost done who's been here since kindergarten and my third grader who has been here since preschool. So, we're very um just knowledgeable about the school and have had a wonderful experience. Um and the past year I have spent on the financial advising committee for the SMS school budget. So, I got to learn all about school budgets from Molly and from the administration, which was a lot of information all

088at once. Um and I'm still learning, but it was very helpful. And then I've also um spent the past year as the school district clerk. So um learning a lot from the town offices about what's needed um during town elections um that concern the school and the school board and uh warrant articles and things like that. Yeah. All right. Thank you very much, Eric. Sorry. Thank you, Kathleen. Can you please describe your experience and understanding of schoolboard policies in developing a school budget? Okay. Um, so from my understanding about the school budget, um, what we went over for multiple months was the budget was presented by the administration and then the financial advising committee and the school um, board. We went through basically line by line and talked about the different items that were negotiable.

089So then there was the negotiable items and the non-negotiable items. So the non-negotiables were like the contracts for the different um teachers and paras. And the negotiables were things that we were able to kind of tweak. So, uh, such as furniture, um, technology, uh, the things like the trust funds, putting money into the trust funds, and kind of looking at what the administration was saying that they needed and kind of compromising and figuring out how to make a fiscally uh, conservative but a budget at the same time that would be beneficial for the school. So that was my understanding of how the school board is part of the school budget um kind of process. And then my understanding about the school board um with policies is that you help um develop policies that basically create

090a safe and um efficient learning environment for both the teachers and the students. So that concerns things all the way from, you know, um safety to uh sexual harassment in the workplace, things like that. Um and I believe I don't know how often the policy committee um meets, but you meet quite frequently and go over new policies and review old policies that need to be updated and make sure that we are um current on what the school district needs. Thanks, Kathleen. Uh Cameron has your next question. I think my question is regarding uh a team. So, I it wasn't in the packet. I couldn't remember because I looked before, but um a time that you worked on a team and um can you tell me what's the verbiage on that thing? I I worked with

091Kathine on that other team, so I said, but um Oh, how you supported the team to be successful if you worked on maybe like a committee or something with the school. Oh, for the school or just in general? I was just joking for both teams. Okay. Um, well, I've worked on teams my basically my entire career. Um, I was I am both military, a military veteran as well as a healthcare provider. And um, while both of those careers sound very different, they're actually very similar in the fact that it is basically a team effort for everything. Um, so I've done everything in the military from being a charge nurse running a shift to being an assistant uh head nurse for an entire department. Um when I was in the reserves, I was the officer in

092charge of medical readiness for an entire reserve hospital as well as um the medical officer in charge of um creating the policies for sexual harassment and assault prevention for our unit. Um and then in the healthc care world, I mean, I've been a preceptor. I've taught in clinics to teach both new nurses as well as new physicians different skill sets. Um, every day I mean I'm an anesthesia provider, so I lead a team of healthcare providers. I give directions for nurses to do things. I work with a surgeon one-on-one to make sure that a patient's safe. Um, so basically every single day I work in a team. Thank you. All right. Um, what do you see as the most pressing educational uh, priorities for SMS and how do you plan to address them? Um, I

093think it's really So, before this past year, I mean, I had been involved in my children's education. Um, but then getting involved in fact and um, kind of doing a deeper dive on what makes a school um, run. I had absolutely no experience on that. Um, and so I found it really interesting where I had these preconceptions and then I would come into meetings with administration and schoolboard members and district um, committee members and then I would leave and I'd be like, are my preconceptions about what I think a classroom should look like, are those based on evidence or are they just my opinions? And so I kind of started doing deeper dives on kind of the research of education. So um I looked at things like the star study that was done out of

094Tennessee back in the '9s and classroom sizes. And here I was preaching to the town like we should keep classroom sizes small. Was this like accurate? And reading about how classroom sizes really can affect um the formative years of a child's education was really informative uh helpful for me. Um, and kind of right now with everything kind of in flux at the federal level and the state level, um, trying to figure out a way to make sure the way the teachers and the administration have what they need, but also know that we have to be fiscally conservative while creating a budget and making sure that we're supporting all members of our town, I think is really important. So, creating this wonderful environment for our children um in maybe in a creative way that we hadn't

095thought of before. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. And I know you also wrote about those issues um in your cover letter and so that's why we'll put it in the packet for Perfect for next time and um we appreciate you taking the time to do that. Um, do you have any questions for us? No. Good. Thank you. Um, I just have a question. Obviously, who knows what the future is and all of that, but is your idea that you would stay a year and then maybe run again and stay on the board? I'm hoping to um my my youngest has two more years here at SMS. And um I would like to try to remain on the board as long as he's here and then maybe move on to volunteer and let another parent

096step up. Yeah. Um so I mean that's my plan. Um we'll see if it comes to fruition or not. Yeah. Okay. Great. Yeah. All right. Any other questions or any points? All right. Do we do this in public vote? Yeah. Yeah, unless there's any any questions that the board has, then I'd say go into non-public about what you've heard today. Any need to go into nonpublic? No. All right. Well, um thank you. So, um can we have a motion to um approve Kathleen Peek as the newest board member? I'll make the motion. All right. Thanks, Cameron. Do you have a second? I'll second. Thanks, Sophie. All right. Any discussion? All right. All in favor, please say I. Hi. Hi. Anybody opposed? All right. 4 Z. Yay. Okay. Thank you. And I guess you can join

097us immediately. Yes, you can. Come on up. The water's warm. She welcome. Thank you. All right. Good. Um, all right. So, continuing on with the agenda, we're going to take a look at the school calendar. So, the school Google calendar was in Kate's report. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty typical to use yours, Kate. I'll have Oh, you want me to speak to it? Sorry, I didn't I didn't Sorry. Yes, I can do that. Okay. Um, so um the if you you have access to it, we have our nine total inservice days. Um several of those are aligned like SAU wide which is great because it gives us an opportunity to collaborate with other schools within the SAU and um we've been working really closely the principles have been working really closely with Jill Lazir on how

098to continue to think about exploring those ideas particularly across the elementary schools. So if we were to bring in somebody um maybe a consultant to work with us around something we could then share that with the other schools in the SAU. So we're working um to utilize those days um which is exciting. Um we last year we were fortunate enough to have three inservice days before school started because if you remember um we had that big chunk of time at the December break and so it kind of made schedules a little bit wonky last year but we are going back to our traditional two days in August two in service days. Um and then really the only thing that we always talk about every year um is we um and we've done it's probably six

099years now I guess is we trade or I don't know what to call it but we acknowledge that the teachers um and the educators in the building stay for two evenings for our two showcases for the early release the December the day before our December break. Um it's something we've done for years. We talked about it with both of our associations for years. they voted on it as associations and then I've been bringing it to the board every year just to sort of um capture that in the minutes or just talk about it. Um but other than that, the calendar for next year is very straightforward and traditional prior to last year's um sort of anomaly of a December break. So just to clarify, the star means early release. Early release. Okay. All right. And

100we only have two of those, right? Okay. Um yeah, you have the last day of school, which is just for students. That's not for staff. Y the one um that's on the 23rd of December is students and staff. Yep. Okay. Where are you looking at that? Is that in the packet? It is. Oh, it's a packet administrative report. Report. Oh, okay. Page 25. Thanks. So, one of the things that came up at the joint board meeting um was, you know, why do we come back August 25th and then we, you know, we're here for four days and then we go for Labor Day. And so I the joint board seemed open to like looking at that. I don't know if that's going to happen, but I just thought that was interesting and I want to

101remember that for next year because it is so weird that we start before Labor Day. Um because really June is not summer yet a lot of times. Um all right. Anybody have any concerns or questions about the calendar? Um and then obviously all the board members know that um that March 10th is elections. Um two of the days um the day in November and the day in April are for our student led conferences. Um and those are always reserved. Um so is the idea let's see I know this year you guys had one conference date during the day and one conference date at night. Is that repeated? So that was part of how we were able to manage the big gap in um December. Yeah. Yeah. Because I know I I definitely commiserate with Brandon

102and it is really hard as a working parent to make these things a lot of times. Um I wonder and I don't I wonder if that's something to be thinking about. I know that negotiations are next year because ultimately um when the staff we talk about the staff, they want to be able to have as many families be attending the st the student led conferences because it's such an important Yeah. um connection and opportunity to to celebrate kids. Um, so it would be something worth talking about like are there other opportunities for us to be thinking about that and then like kind of like the swap for the 23rd, like how do we make that work in a way that supports our families but also supports the educators in their time? And I think that's

103a great talking point to keep talking, you know, further discussion. All right. Do we have to vote on this? Yeah. But you also just to take in account, we did get a letter from the town to be able to use it. So I don't know if you want to just highlight that with the board, too. I I just did. Okay. that um voting is Tuesday the 10th, right? So it won't conflict with what we have for this calendar. Correct. And um we kept our day in September. That that was new. We added a couple years ago because of voting. Um and we actually have really enjoyed it because it allows us within two weeks of like the start of the year to regroup and talk about how things are starting for the year without having

104to like miss classroom time. It's been really beneficial. So even though there isn't a voting day in September, we did choose to keep an inservice day there and hopefully it'll just always be, you know, we might we would adjust it to align with um midterm elections, but it's been really beneficial to us as a staff and for the students. All right. Um do I have a motion to approve this um 2526 academic calendar? I'll make a motion to approve the calendar. All right. Thanks, Cameron. Do I have a second? You want to do first? I'll second it. Kathleen. All right. All in favor, please say I. I. I. All right. 5 0. All right. Um, personnel updates. Yes, you got three resumes that I sent to you. Um, that was for our director of special

105education and two classroom teachers for next year. Uh, I didn't know if you had any questions. And if you don't uh if you do have any questions, we can definitely go into nonpublic discuss those candidates. Um I did uh get a chance to vet them all. So I came they came and met with myself and and uh a couple other members from SLT. Very excited about all three applicants and the experience and uh what they'll bring to this team. Um so I have no reservations with all three that were brought forward uh by the committee. I want to thank I think believe a couple of you sat on a lot of those interviews and had a really thoughtful discussion about moving who you move forward and why you move them forward. So thank you very

106much. Yeah, thanks K for inviting us to that because that was I think useful. Um so I've had many people ask me about the PE teacher. Is that still is the search still ongoing? What's the status of that? I will be meeting with the finalist on Monday. Okay. Yep. So, be bringing that to you in the June meeting. Okay. All right. Sounds good. All right. Do we need to vote on those? You do because that's your job as to make a uh a to accept the recommendation of the three applicants and you can definitely at this time if you are comfortable name them out. All right. Can I ask you to do that? I just can't like me to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Let me just pull out their application. So, the three applicants is

107Britney Thompson for our director of special education, Miss Maline Martin as a classroom teacher, and Miss Laura Jenkins Bastis as a classroom teacher. All right. Any questions or concerns or anything to discuss on those? Nope. Okay. All right. Um, do I have a motion to approve um the names as read by super Chris? Whatever you're doing. I have a motion to approve the names said by Chris. All right. Do I have a second? I can second. Yeah. Thank you. All right. All in favor, please say I. I. All right. 500. Great. Yeah, that's a lot of work. So, thank you. the we had an unbelievable group of people sign all of them and there was the smallest committee was 13. Wow. That's a lot of work. Um administrative contracts. Yeah. I'll discuss that in nonpublic

108with y'all. Okay. Um general insuranceances. Yes. So the board chair has to sign the general asurances and again um with the general assurances this year we have a letter from our legal council to attach as a cover letter. Again, why we would sign the general asurances is so that we could get the money. As you saw in that packet, you know, the last two years, it's about $385,000 that we get in in federal funds. By not signing the general asurances, we can't even access the system or get to our funds. So, uh, our estimated amount of money for next year by not signing it would be about $180,000. So, that's not something that we could absorb in our in our general budget there. That's there for however we feel the letter and and Jennifer has

109it that we would attach covers why we are signing it but also uh understanding that there is um the uh case being heard and that that we're signing it under the understanding that there's case being heard because of the compliance for for the title six that was given to us. Yeah. I I got a question. So the general assurance is that something that can be modified later? That was one discussion we had at the joint board about I know this was like the next step of something. So I think they were talking about it was subject to executive orders or something like that. Is that this? So the general assurances are that we're going to use the federal money as documented so that we're not using it for anything uh illegal um which we haven't

110and we've complied with for every year that we've signed off on our federal uh funding. Um we have emailed the state numerous times with no response and whether there's going to be new general assurances for us to sign. So, uh, Dr. Asbel actually emailed them for the third time yesterday with still no response from the state. So, our our recommendation from from legal, cuz they have to be in by June 1st, uh, is to sign them with attachment of that cover letter saying that we're signing it so that we can have access to our funds and be able to do the amazing professional development that many of our teachers talked about today. Uh, because that's where title two is able to to work on professional development or or conferences and training. Um, and then title

111one is to for students that to access it in many different ways and title four is for, you know, stuff that that Steve talked about. So, they all have different buckets that we we able to tap into. Without ciding that, we wouldn't be able to tap into that. So, again, it's that we're we're doing what we're we're doing. We're following uh federal and state law and that we're not going to uh go against uh anything uh illegal. Can can I ask one more followup? So what's the difference between like the general insurance and the thing that had to be signed by like why why is this one going to the board here instead of to Yep. So that law changed five six years ago that the board chair and you have to discuss it in

112a meeting that you're going to follow the rules of the general asurances. So it's about a 30-page document that that's demonstrates that we're going to follow that we're going to accurately put everything into the the grant management system which is monitored by both the state and the federal government. So everything has to be approved for the state. um that we're going to take this federal money and use it accordingly. So they have a grant manager at the state that oversees and approves the activities that we put in so that the funds that we're using them for are outlined by dictated by the different grants that they're they're under. So IDA can only be used on special education staffing equipment uh things of that nature. Same with with title two is professional development or learning and

113that we're doing it with members of of stratum that we couldn't pay for uh members that didn't live in stratum to be able to to use that access that we couldn't buy a car uh that would not be there because in years past there was there was school districts that got in trouble for doing that. So that's why the general assurances were there that we as a board uh and schools would follow the outlines of how each uh of those grant monies are outlined that we use it appropriately and that's specific to the general insurance like normally that would go to the superintendent. Yep. Uh yep. So, we do it in coordinates. It's the board chair that has to sign off on it and that we have to discuss it at a meeting like we're

114doing today. Okay. Thanks. Yeah. Um, is there anything spicy in this one? No, I think that's the other thing. Um, we talked about joint board is that right that requirement to comply with any future executive federal orders. Um, and that is not in this. No, because it's yeartoear. Your general assurances are year to year so that you get the access to your grant management system. And I think that's what bothered me the most. Yeah. like you're not committing to something that might change later, right? Correct. That was a concern. Yes. And again, once we get the money and that our activities approved, it's approved for the the duration of that grant. So, like you saw in that grant breakout from Molly that we have some that don't end until 20 uh you know, 2026, right?

115That were approved in 2024. So, even though there was approved in 2024 and executive orders came out, if they if it's been approved and the activities in there, we could use it for that activity. Okay. Thank you. As of today? As of today. As of 7:30. Yeah. Um, okay. So, I am I I'm thinking about signing this, I guess. Does anybody have any concerns about me signing it? Yeah. Okay. Do I just sign right over here where it says signature? You're there's We can do it at the end, Jennifer, because there's like it's like buying a house. There's I think at least 30 different spots to sign an initial. Okay. You get the desk in the camera. It's funny to think anybody would want that. Okay. Yes. Um Okay. And then we were gonna um

116talk about tuition request. Yeah. So we had a request earlier in the year about um looking at our policy JFAB about tuitioning students that are non-residents. We do have a policy. It does outline it. Um I did provide to you and again the request uh did send us some different schools. So thank you uh for when that request came in. I did add a few other districts that I've been working directly on to try to research it to give you a full understanding of of what you could do if you wanted to uh modify our policy, expand our policy, um change our policy in any manner. Uh you saw that some districts actually put a dollar amount in there. Uh some use it on the tuition calculation. Some have no changes compared to what our

117policy right is right now. Some are specific to add a residence uh but they have faculty members bringing their kids in. So there's a lot of different policies. the the one consistency was uh that that I saw in all of them that I'd recommend is was if there was space available in your school and if there's not a space available that that your policy would not allow anybody whether they um if they were not a resident or a staff member to bring their their student in. Um, so again, I gave it to you to kind of understand, look at and and um be able to ask questions, but at the same time, you know, I think you have to be um cognizant that there are four different bills being heard and conquered that have not

118been voted on yet that talk about some type of voucher system. So there's the universal voucher system where anybody would be eligible and that could start as as early as June or January 1st, 2026 where there is the way it's written, there is no cap based on your income that you could go to schools. M if that comes in then we're going to have to look at our policy and how that implementates it. So by if you rewrite something today or in our June meeting that might have that might be superseded by what's passed and conquered and again we won't know until maybe the end of June till that happens. There's three other vouchers. There's about open enrollment where you know there are schools in New Hampshire that already have open enrollment. You know Newington

119being one of them. uh the Prospect Mountain School District being another where you can have open enrollment agreements with uh with schools about taking kids in um no matter you know if if um the the cost and you negotiate that with them. Uh and then there's just the uh the other one is just the the the freedom accounts and how that's being spent. So I can't give you any further guidance on that because we've got no technical assistance and um unfortunately some of these are continued to be amended uh and they're called Germaine amendments and they get attached to other bills. they get attached to uh the financial budget, you know. So, um I I I give you all that information because I I don't I can't give you a clear recommendation of what to

120do. I I wanted you to have as much information and look at different policies of how they're written to try to understand it because I I think it's a um uh logical request if you have staff members. It's a benefit, you know, and and it's also I think it applauds the work that you do in the school if they want their their children to come here because they see the value and it's different maybe than the town that they they look in. And again, I just remind you that that might supersede if the universal voucher system does actually pass in the way that it's written. So, I know that was a lot and I apologize for rambling, but there's it's a lot for you to to think about and my recommendation is think about it,

121have discussion, but you may want to wait till your June meeting to make some type of formal decision or not decision. Yeah, and I would just add, you know, I don't know what you guys have gotten, but I've definitely gotten emails this month about it. You know, people seem um heavily vested in this issue. I just have a question. Do you do you expect that we'll hear by like because June is I think our our Junes are our meetings are kind of early in the month. It's like the second June 30th the budget has to be passed at the state so you can start putting things in. That's usually when we hear the last minute, won't it? Yeah. And that's what we're hearing now that it's going to be right up to the last moment.

122Yeah. June 11th. Yeah. So, I don't I mean I there's not going to be a change, right? I don't think it'll really happen. And then we're not here for July, right? Um we're not here for July. I was going to propose um an August meeting because uh you know, I think we want to figure out our goals and maybe do a workshop now that we have the two board members. Um so anyway, that could be a possibility. would that give the only other thing I think is just trying to be give people guidance is the only other thing right so I mean people are when I would think people are making trying to make a decision before that so I guess it won't didn't you say all versions I think maybe it was a joint

123board meeting I think you said all versions have some component that you've seen yes it's just for some kind of school choice some yeah it's just different some have still a tax cap or an income tax uh cap of if you're eligible to be able to access the money uh the universe voucher takes away that cap. So you anybody would be eligible to really pick the school that they want to go to. And then um you the open enrollment has different stipulations in there. So they're all written differently with all with the the uh premise of school choice. And did the open enrollment are there versions that there are some versions that are paid tuition for open enrollment? Yeah. And again, so that that would be accessing the education freedom account and then the amount

124it varies depending on which it's tied to that though. Some of them are some Yes. All of them are some money open enrollment in as its own component of the law. Correct. Okay. Yeah. So, I just need to know where it lands. And again, what I've asked is at the state level when we get this is that all districts meet together to get some technical advisory on how you calculate the finances because moving forward, there's also a bill that we'd have to have a line item in our budget to prepare for um vouchers in some way. So, what do you right now? I could give you no guidance, you know, when we're preparing a budget for next year of what we would put in for a number. We'd have to anticipate, you know, what it

125would cost if we have students that are coming in or possibly leaving our school district. And it's it'll be just like a single line item line item and a special ed line item all it could be a multitude of line items but you have to have something that relates to the voucher system and how you're going to budget for that moving forward. So, I'm sorry I'm vague, but it's as I read it, it changes. And um and again, as I we keep asking at the state level where where there's no one's really getting the guidance until they they actually are put and voted on that this is what's going to happen. So, I guess that stuff like aside because we clearly don't have enough information. We won't for a while, but we do need to

126make a decision about this tonight about just the you have till June. So you again I think you it's whatever the board decides if you think you have enough information. I mean I think this is going to be the first time Kathleen is actually looking at it. So it would be really difficult for her to I think give educated value to it. Um again you have a policy in place that outlines tuition and it does talk about residents in stratum and residents out of stratum. So you have a policy that that looks at it and that basically puts it back on the superintendent to work with the other school district if you were to entertain anybody asking for a tuition request. other school districts could say we're not paying for it, therefore it makes it

127a mute point and then they'd have to stay in that district. That's kind of currently how it is right now. Um and then you have another one that's educational hardship where parents would have to prove that that you know by leaving the school district or their their school district that there's a benefit one way or the other. So those are the two way right now that you have policies in place to address out of district uh non-residents coming to the school. I didn't know if you wanted to add language with a cost factor in there or not based on some of the other policies that we provided for you. Can I ask a clarifying question? I just want to make sure I'm following the conversation. Are we talking about in general or are you talking

128about from the staff perspective like employees of SMS or are you talking about in general? No, we're talking about staff. Okay. I just wanted to make sure because the policy doesn't specify staff. It's resident or non-resident. So, I just wanted to know if that's the lens in which we were looking through the conversation. Thank you, Kate. And this wouldn't be something that would be in a teacher contract. Nope. Because it's your policy. Yeah, it's a policy. I I I say wouldn't be I I there there could be other contracts. It would not be a contract that we'd recommend that you would put that into place. You'd want your policy to be able to dictate that because it does have financial ramifications with it. Just I just see that it could be a big big benefit,

129right, of working here potentially. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how much detail we're trying to go into this tonight. Like, to me, it would be helpful to hash out pros and cons. I don't know and like how to weigh the options. Um, I don't know if we want to do that now or if we want to table it for a different time or if there's more information that we can all read and then be better prepared to have that conversation next meeting. Um, I think that's my inclination. How many kids are we talking about that that it's two teachers, right, requesting it? Uh, two teachers I'd put the the formal request in. Yeah, I don't know that that would be the only people that if you have a policy, it's you'd have to consider

130there could be potentially more like I don't You're right. It was written by two people, but I think that there's potential if you're making policy would be open to correct. You set a cap on it different, but I mean it would be open to to what you decided, right? Yeah. Correct. The other piece that I would add that I think is important for the conversation is that the we understand that the legislation has the ability to impact all of this at some point, but that's also for teachers that live in New Hampshire, educators in our building that work in that live in New Hampshire, right? And what you're talking about is staff and they may not live in New Hampshire. So the voucher system would not necessarily impact them. So you might have a teacher

131that lives in Maine or lives in Massachusetts. So, I just think that that's an important part of your thinking or a factor that I would want you guys to be contemplating as you're thinking it through. It's definitely in the forefront. We've at the SAU, we fielded 12 calls already about can I tuition my kid into your school districts already. So, that's 12 in just this month. And that was um three different school districts that they were calling already. Not not stratum was not one of them but just to give you a heads up that that's it is it is in the forefront is the so we were talking about the open enrollment and being subject to a cap or a limit. It could or couldn't be. So there's two different bills based on the cap

132of of finances that the the individual is looking to send their school their children to on your your financial income that you make. No. So I don't mean the income cap. I'm talking about the number of students that you'd have to accept. Is there any guidance on that yet? So, we're hearing uh K to two up to 25 students in a class in in grades 3 through five up to 30. So, that's the that's the law that I think you had looked at before. So, cuz we were talking about a policy, right? But it's going to be superseded by that, I would think. Right. Right. So because I, you know, you're talking about feedback and that was one of the things I heard was like, "Oh, you're concerned about this ratio and now you're going

133to do this thing that's going to change the ratio." So that's correct. I was just thinking in terms of both this policy or the open enrollment, right? Yeah. We wouldn't be able to say no until we were at 30 kids per class. So Are you serious? Yeah. That's insane. Yeah. Okay. Well, I think I would be in favor of holding this over till June. I think Kathleen needs to come up to speed and um I also think we need to refer back to the letters and I also want to give you some of the feedback I'm getting from towns people and um yeah see that. Okay. Appreciate that. So, Jennifer, you'll will you email us with like a recap or something or maybe like a pros and cons? That would help me at least. Yeah.

134Okay, sounds great. Um, all right. Does that sound okay, Chris? Yeah, I wrote it down that we'll discuss in June in greater depth. Um, and then will you just send Kathleen everything? Okay. That you've sent us and thank you for doing all that research. Yeah, again, a lot of it was sent to me, too. So, I don't want to say I just added pieces to it and and had local conversations with other districts that were not included in the original packet that was sent to me. Okay. Can I ask one more question? Yeah, please. On the you said the 12 that you've gotten and you feel like that's like an uptick. Can you What do you know what that is? Is that just like demographic? We've got teachers with kids that age. Oh, no. These

135were these were residents outside of SAU 16 already saying what do you think is the what do you is it in is it just the newsworthiness of the things that are happening? I think it's cuz it's being advertised so much at conquered that this is going to happen. And so parents are actively looking at you know are you open for business yet. So that that's been the call like uh just and this is not the case but I'll just I live in New Market and I want to send my child to new fields. Yeah. Are can I send them and when can I send them? So response is not right now. you got to follow our policy, but it's the surrounding of SAU16. And this was something we talked about and a concern is how

136many more people are going to want to come here because we offer a global skills lab or our special education services are are different and and they feel that they might be better suited for their child. Uh or we offer certain programs that their school district doesn't. So those that's what we're fielding and we talked with the parents a little bit more. Well, why are you interested in SAU16? And again, I think it's a credit to all the schools and what we're doing. But 12 already in in, you know, the late months of April, early months of May without this being law yet is, I think, a very telling sign that this is this is what's going to happen. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. I was just trying to see if there was like multiple phenomena or

137if it was people trying to get the to the deli counter. Yeah. Kind of quick. Got it. Thanks. Okay. Uh, moving ahead. SMS administrative team. So, you guys had the monthly update very similar to the ones we were doing prior. Thank you. I don't know if you have any um specific questions about anything on there or anything we can update you on. Um I wanted to say I'm not sure if people who don't have kids. Well, I guess right right now that's only Sophie. Um cuz I I wanted to say something about those um patrols, right, where the where you guys sent that email. Um I think in the last couple weeks about there was a Yes. towns person in the woods. Did you hear about this? So I did. I read that. Um so

138anyway, I think you guys handled it great. I think we were we were lucky the patrol was here. And I also just wanted to say thank you so much for saying like what the kids knew or didn't know. Um that's really helpful as I talk to my kid. Yeah. Yeah, one of the things that we learned through that process is um families can set whether they get it instantly from me or they get digest which means it just anything I would post on that day gets sent home at the end of the day. Um and so there was some feedback to to me about like you should have sent it more promptly and I was like so reading the email I'm like wait what do they mean and I'm like so confused. So I reach

139I reached to the families I was like I think I'm really confused. It says I sent it at 254. This was really really close to what happened. Yeah. Um, I mean, I talked with Chris and I, you know, so, um, so then I was like, I don't, what is going on? Like, why? Like, is something wrong with the system? Because sometimes any of those systems will like falter like someone's phone number will or email would get kicked out or whatever. And I went in and was able to un to unpack that the family sets that when they sign up for it if they want it. So, I was able to say like, you have this option. I was also able to in doing that, there's actually a button that I have access to that's not

140super visible, but that I can override everybody, which is a good thing for me to know. I did not know that. Um, so I would have in this instance probably over done that because I would want people to get it instantly. Um, so it's I mean of all the instances in which I would need to learn that, I'm glad that's how I learned it. Yeah. Right. Um, but also that I was able to communicate with those families like you actually have the ability to set that so you don't that doesn't happen to you again because there are things that I'm not going to override people if they don't want it. They set a preference on purpose. So I don't want to, you know, override a parent. But in this instance, I think most families would

141be okay with me like I'm going to just give that to you now. Um, and they can do that for their email. They can do that for their text. They can do that for their phone. So, I think that that's an important piece and I will include that in the next newsletter so all families are aware of that, not just the ones that may have reached out to me. Okay, that also makes a lot more because I think I get both. I was always wondering like but never thought about it that much. Okay, but now it makes more sense. Okay, awesome. Um, one of the things if you don't mind, it's not super like on here, but it is related to the curriculum instructional assessment. And I was as I was listening to um the

142staff talk tonight about their professional learning and like the piece that sort of weaves it all together for me. um when we make decisions as a staff and I feel like we've been making a lot of collective collaborative decisions over the past two years um we are really conscious of aligning our decisions with our values like what are our values um and what are like that we believe and what is evidence-based best practice and um we believe firmly in a child having an entire school experience an enriched school experience and that really does include clude science and social studies on a deep level like in the idea of like the scientific process is so important. Being a social thinker is so important. Um and at the same time with everything that we're now learning about

143uh early literacy acquisition, it requires a huge chunk of our day with our children to do all of the parts that we need to do. And kind of going back to Kayla's no longer here, but her slide about that brain, right? The more we understand, the more time it takes to provide that really quality instruction. Um, and we understand how important that is, but it is at a sacrifice. There's something being given up in order to do that. Um, never mind what the teachers are giving up just to be able to learn all of this and do this. But the idea of what the kids are losing in their day in terms of science and social studies in order to do literacy and math at the level we're asking them to do. Um and the

144beauty of what is happening through these collective decisions and learning is that um and going a little bit to what Jess was talking about is that we are now able to really think about the interdisciplinary approach to science and social studies through literacy. And so when we come to you guys about, you know, curriculum resources and materials um and um a change in our schedule that has more literacy within the day, those are really um decisions based on best practice, on research, on evidence-based, but also on aligning with our core values, which is education is not just literacy and math. It is so much more than that. Um, and that's not really captured in the curriculum instruction and assessment blurb at the top of that, but it's really the piece that runs through everything that

145everybody talked about today that I think needs to be explicitly acknowledged about like how that's driving the decisions we're making um, as a school and as a collective educational body. So, I just wanted to sort of capture that in some way. Okay. I think it's important for you guys as the board when you're thinking about I look at your goals and I'm like they need to have this sort of because it aligns with so many of your goals. Okay. Can I just say I think I mean it might be helpful to to like outline what the vision is for those for us as we do our goals if we're going to do that in August too. So if you guys have if you've got things that you know it's kind of the near and the

146short and longer term goals is something we would want to support and understand and make that I think part of our our collaborative. We can take the the framework which is our core values and and then add content specific stuff to it that would I think help right? Yeah we can do that because I think the first one on the academics piece is it's broad. Yeah. But if you're saying that you want to call out specific things that are in there I mean help us I would say help us to do that. Absolutely. Yep. Testing. How is testing going? Pretty good. So good. Pretty good. Okay. There's a lot of us doing it. Yeah. um fourth grade today. It's really been I think the biggest shift I want to say shift the biggest like celebration

147I think that I would say um is watching our kids so particularly our fourth grade started with writing and watching our kids think really differently about how they wanted to demonstrate their writing was really really cool. Um like the intentionality, the drafting, the thinking, the revising, all of it before they then started typing in it was really cool. like there was you could see all the explicit instruction that had been taking place over the course of the year in order to lead up to that and we can't tell them to do that during testing. We can talk about it before but we can't be like oh by the way it's just not what we're so that they it was so much so that it was like now second nature for them and they did it

148and that was a really cool thing. Um I think we've worked really hard on messaging around testing too because I think we're really trying to decrease some of the anxiety that some of our kids feel. Um, and kind of going back to what Brianna said is like the building of the confidence like all the time. It's like think about all the things you're showing us a regular basis, do just that. Don't think beyond that. Like when you're bringing your best self every day and showing us that, that's what you do then. Like don't think about it any differently. And it is that confidence and that reminder of like we know what you're capable of. You know, because we see it every day. Can you say that again slower? Yeah. Because we do know that some

149kids that is hard. It's it's a hard environment. Um, and it's almost like the precipitatory anxiety, anticipatory anxiety. I'm sorry, it's not really when I'm doing it, it's the leading up to. Um, so there's just been really like thoughtful cog um, conversations about the metacognition, about the confidence to go in and just bring your best self, but also really being intentional about how we have taught explicitly the the the ability to then apply it in an environment like the testing environment. And it's been really cool. Um, how long are they actually in testing? So, we actually um when we first built the schedule for the spring, some of them were 90 minutes long and we actually adjusted it for this week. Um we met the curriculum team met at the end of last week. We

150meet every week and we were talking about like it just doesn't feel optimal. It feels too long even for our older kids and so the testing blocks are now 60 minutes. Okay. Um and then for and it's about two sessions for each content area. Um but we've also for those kids, we have some kids that like nope, I can do 18 problems in 60 minutes and that's what you're getting from me. Um, so we because we have so many people that can proctor and we've been I mean every one of us is proctoring, okay? Um, either oneonone or small group or some larger groups. Um, we can do additional time for those kids. So if they're not finished, there's no rush to finish, but we also aren't asking all the kids or, you know, two-thirds

151of the group to have to sit while their kids are finishing. Got it. Um, and then they're getting more frequent breaks because it's a 60-minute test session. Okay. And is this state testing or I ready or both? This is state testing. So this is um for third, fourth, and fifth graders. Um and then our spring benchmark window is what you're referring to is the the screeners of the benchmarks that we do three times a year opens May 19th and will run until um June 6th. Okay. And will we see the results from the state testing next month or when do those come in? Um so we will have a rough idea. It won't be personalized to every student, but the state will give us like their rough idea, but nothing is firmed up until the

152fall when they can certify the results. But I can go in and they give me a rough idea, but it's not anything that's certified because there are so many factors that go into the actual scoring of the the tests and kids that are making up and then alternative assessments and a whole slew of factors. That's typically November that the state certifies. They they call it embargoed from the time that they complete in June until they certify it with everybody in the state. I think we get it like October 16th, but it's always after our October meeting. So we don't bring it until November. Gotcha. Is that all electronic? The testing is all electronic for the Yes. Except for students that are taking the alternative assessments. Okay. And so because I I appreciate that you didn't

153do this, but the middle school gave us instructions on to make sure their computer was charged and blah blah and all these other things. So are they using the same sort of like their Chromebook or whatever? They're using their Chromebooks. I mean, yes, they're but they're here, right? I'm sorry. I said they're they're here. They're they're here. They're kept in their classrooms. Um um yeah. And then like so for example like I have a student that I'm working he's he's in a one-on-one environment because there's speech to test. So there's you know that would be distracting. Um so the cords in my room like all that stuff just so they were not disrupting them by being like oh my my computer just died in the middle of my right that just that's a rattling thing

154right for someone. Yeah. Yeah. I got some good firsthand positive feedback on the shorter on breaking the testing up. Oh good. I'm sure I like that. That was really that was great. It was just fun to hear it like from the person who was taking the test. So, um, and I was going to ask as you were trying to time stuff, I think you were trying to match curriculum to some of this. So, I got positive feedback in the middle school, too, where I was asking my older daughter. I'm like, how's it going? She's like, it's like a lot of the stuff we've just been doing. And I was like, that's helpful. Freshing the memory is a good thing. Right. So, and that was and that was really positive feedback as well. Um, so I

155was just wondering because I know that was an adjustment. So, I just wanted to Yeah. So the a couple of things, the window for testing from the state is quite large. We intentionally chose sort of on the tail end of it because we wanted to have time to cover the curriculum in a meaningful way and not feel like we were rushing through to get to it. Um but we also, I think we talked about this at the beginning of the year, we really looked at our um scope and sequence and then our pacing for all of our units to ensure that all things were covered before we started testing. Um there are things within any curriculum, any grade level where you would consider them like the second tier of standards. So there's like the core

156and then there are things that yes get to but are not the things that you'll see as frequently on a test or are as important or the you know the the tier one standards. So those are the things that we will then kind of fill in at the end um because it's so important to get that core content in before the exams and before the end of the year when no kid is really focused or adult for that matter to be honest. And I was just going to ask sorry last night are you getting positive feedback from the kids on stuff? I'm sure a lot of times cuz the kids are like, I feel like I did really good or I felt like that was not easy, but it wasn't like yeah, it wasn't as

157as bad as maybe what they were anticipatory anxiety was producing. So I I feel like I am getting that and then I'm getting for kids that really don't like it, it is a stronger dislike this year than I've ever experienced. Like I very busy. Yeah. Like it's a really like Yes. I I will say that the kids that have um that are willing to believe in themselves that experience has been really positive. like kids are saying great things like, "Oh, I think I actually did really good on that." Like feeling that like, "Oh my god, I felt really good about that." They felt like it was fair. Yeah. Um and then I think for kids that um either just school in general is really complicated or testing is really complicated, there has been like this

158visceral like I'm actually not doing it quick like it shuts down. I'm like, "Oh, wait. Please hold on." Um for me that feels so much more like a high school student. It's really interesting that we're seeing this now with like third and fourth fifth graders. Um, but there are students that are having some visceral reactions to being like, you're assessing who I am by that. It's really interesting, right? Some of it feels so foreign, right? Like if I give you two articles and say, "Tell me about how they're similar and different." You would probably like print them out and highlight them in the margins. You can't really You can use the highlighter tool to be fair, but it's really hard to do on the screen. So then people are having a hard time managing that

159piece of it or like this isn't how I learn. So that's frustrating, right? We're not going to change our teaching to say now we're all going to do this on the computer all the time. We want them to touch it and use it. So they feel that contrast. I think that's where that gets hard because like I'm capable of this. This just isn't the way I do it. Yeah. And there's that frustration is at least. But Perry and I are managing. But we're getting through. Perry is sleeping here these days. Yes. Overall, it's going I would say well. Um I would also say our teachers I feel like have been incredibly positive about it as well. Um there were so many teachers who are like, "Oh my god, it was amazing. I can't even tell

160you. I always I was reading it and I was like, "Oh my god, I could take I want to take a picture, but I know I can't take a picture, but it was like really good." I was like, "Yeah, I love that." You could see their drafts on the first day. Teachers are like, "These look good." Yeah. So, that's just a nice feeling. So, yeah. Right. Nobody loves it, but we're Yeah. about this year. Yeah. We know we don't teach for this test, but it matters. We are hearing about it at home, and so it's good to hear. Thank you. And it definitely seems like the leadup in some cases was worse than Yeah. Like I I heard about it for a while and then I was like, "Oh, is that test?" Yeah, it's fine.

161That's good. We want them to feel that way. We want them to feel confident like I can do that. Um, all right. Uh, after school academic enrichment. [Music] Um, I'm just going to put it up there maybe. Okay. Um, so we've talked about this a couple of times. Jennifer, I think you brought it up a couple I think it was a while ago the last time we talked about it. Um, and so, um, I'm what I'm trying to capture tonight for everybody is sort of a little bit of like the history of how it started here. Um, and its intent. So, for years there's been enrichment here. Roughly the the current structure that we're using right now has been around for about 15 years. Um it was actually a collaboration between the school board. Um

162Bobo Sullivan who was a school board member for years and years and years sort of collabor collaborated with the STA around what this could potentially look like here as a as a bigger larger program. Okay. Um and they were part of like working with central office. Michelle Larson who is um the assistant um chief equ uh financial officer actually was part of this like what does this look like in terms of taxes and paying and like she supported that efforts. Um and really the goal was like how do we provide fun engaging activities at the end of the day for our students that continues to focus on community um offers things that we may not be able to do during the traditional day um and is just um you know one of the other things

163for Bob is like how does the staff as educators earn additional income and this was a way to do that. Um so currently it runs three times a year. It's between five and six sessions. They're between 60 and 75 minutes depending. We do have dodgeball on Friday mornings that if it was 75 minutes, people would be here at 5:00. So, it's not um but it runs a little bit longer. Um and of course, we provide scholarships. So, we have um all of our families know that it goes out when we send that out to families that there are scholarships available so that it can be accessible to our students. Um on the bottom there, I listed just a couple of the things that we do. Um at any given time, it's anywhere between like maybe

16416 different offerings to about 26 different offerings we've had. Um and everything from um five kids and we'll run it. That would be probably the smallest that we would run. Two kids is kind of harder to do up to I think our limit is 30 in some of them as well. Really depending on what the activity is and student safety and ratio and things like that. Um so those are just some of the ones that we offer. Um we have tried others just not to and it just didn't appeal to people. So there are some that run three times a year and there's always a waiting list and then there are some that have four or five and there or five or six and we just run those. Um so that's sort of a little

165bit of the history on like what's happening right now. Um we also wanted to mention that there are things that are not necessarily what we call enrichment but there are things that we offer um and have offered um but they are band which we we used to have prior to co it is almost impossible to find a band instructor. It is really really hard. Um the year before I came, the person that was here was let go. Um and then we had someone for a couple of years and then COVID hit and so it's been really hard to find someone. Um but these are um that was a combination of school funded and family funded. Um and then we have cross country which as you know is in our budget and so it's funded through

166the operating budget. Um but that's another offering that we um have at SMS. So those are some other things that we've offered. Um, we have talked about Chris has been part of a couple of these conversations because we've wanted to put them in the budget. Um, we would we would love to see like a world cultural studies teacher in our related arts rotation. Um, I've worked in elementary schools where there is international language, international studies and things like that. Um, part of that is going back to some of the research about like the way the brain learns. Brains learn languages much faster when they're younger than they do as they age, right? So, there's like a lot of that. Um, but I think going back actually to what Kathleen was saying, like as we're talking

167about these things, particularly right now when um, we're trying to be really incredibly financially responsible, it's really hard because you're giving and taking and trying to find a balance. Um, we offered debate club a couple of times with the enrichment and no students signed up. Um, and so the reason I put that on there, um, because we have offered some of the stuff that I would consider more academic enrichment after school, but, um, we're not finding a lot of kids want to do that. Um, which part of me understands and part of me is like, "Oh, that's unfortunate. I think it would be really fun if you would get into it and try it." Um, so things we've talked about is like choir, band, um, community service, um, engineering and simple machines would be really,

168really cool for some of our kids that are really inclined. Um, particularly those that actually really like technology. That would be a really cool thing because there are a lot of parallels to that. Um, planetarians and ecosystems, which would be a really cool science one that I would love to do. Um so there are things that we talk about but they require a lot of financial support because of the resources in order to do it. Not necessarily just um the the cost of the educators that do it. Um because there is some family contribution but the materials to do this right we would have to be able to support the resources the programmatic resources in order to do that. Um but those are things that have come up we have talked about and it's been

169hard to support right now where we are financially. Um so it's really kind of what I just wanted to offer like what we offer and then things to think about. So factors for consideration is like student participation um and how if we want to begin to think about um more of like the I don't want to call them academic but more of the um content extensions or like things that are science or social studies or math um enrichments like how do we um package that to sell that to families and students because they're already really busy with things and so getting them to come is important and what draws them in. um the budget obligations that would be part of the board's responsibility. Um finding the staffing because often the things that we just talked

170about also require a ton of prep and planning, right? It's not just I'm showing up to do action jack and playing floor hockey, but um what am I doing in order to prep the materials and plan for it and then um scheduling. So just things for us as a board and for for us the things that we talk about when we think about enrichment offerings. I think that's it. Yeah, that's it. So, I'm happy to answer questions or ideas or things you'd like us to be thinking about in the budget when we present, you know, in early fall. I I have some thoughts. Yeah, I think these are great. I mean, it's it's wonderful. So, is the format though that we should be thinking about it in the context of having it run in those

171certain day things for a certain period of time? Like, is that how we should think about it? Well, we can do a couple of things. I'm glad you're asking that. So um we also with our new schedule with our gradient support and I think I've mentioned that we have a couple grades that are really using that for some extension stuff that is connected directly to the content they're doing. I want to be clear it is an extension of the what the content is. Um so that isn't something where we're like oh we can just do ecosystems in there. That's not what we're that's what used for but it is providing opportunities for extension within literacy and math that are related to the content. Um I think Kathleen I think your son is doing one. I

172mean I think that there's that's connected to the content. The other piece um for me like something like band or choir for me would be something you would want year round and being think think thinking about that because that in a six week chunk I mean Kate is offering them she's doing ukulele right now but that's different in terms of like truly investing in something like that and fine-tuning our craft like playing an instrument or singing would really I think be right a year-long thing or multiple years. Um, and as a school that does uh center equity, um, it becomes inequitable when it's like before school or after school because those families that can't get their children here don't have that opportunity. Um, so it would be something for the board to be think about

173it like transportation if we're going to offer it. Do we offer transportation for those things? Um, do we offset? I mean, they're just things I think you would want to deeply consider if you're thinking about before and after school in a way that is um, of that caliber and that we're putting in the operating budget. Um that said, you could also say we're we want to explore doing enrichment not as three sessions, right? We want to think about doing it more frequently or doing it for a half a year and we could explore those and talk with the staff about who might be interested in and then thinking about expanding whether it was ecosystems and planetariums, whether it was um there like I was young, they had like Odyssey of the Mind. I know I'm

174older than all of you, but like I did Odyssey of the Mind, which was really cool, like complicated problem solving and then acting it out sometimes and you competed. Like we could be looking at things like that. Um I just think it become like I said it is a budgetary um obligation and a staffing obligation that does require a lot of a staff right it would be bigger than the typical enrichment opportunity that we do now we had a group this um spring compete in a the coder Z competition which was really I think actually Satie was part of the team right so like there are opportunities but like that's still a short little time frame it would be trying to think beyond that or other opportunities that align with that is there can you

175I think we would need help with a price tag on some of this stuff and how it would look just to even understand like we need like ballpark. I think just Oh, you want further details? I'm happy to do that. Yeah. Okay. The other thing I I wonder if and I think the transportation piece is is interesting. That's a tough one. I I wonder if parents would be and you I know we'd want to think about it in terms of what how much of a contribution parents could or should make and maybe it's graduated based on certain other factors. But I wonder if we could like is there like right after school opportunities and if you had something that ran like in this four months it's this program and then this four you know especially

176for the things that might take longer to develop like a cultural studies with language you could kind of do an immersive over four months and you get a lot out of it and then parents could kind of count on it and then a parent could also you know what I mean like especially for it's almost like a college grad course like it's going to run for a trimester or something it might be easier to pick kids up to and especially Especially if you got kids at this thing or that thing because I do think a lot of the after school activities that are seasonal for sports too, right? I mean, I know you know if you do it later in the if you try to do it too late like the after work kind of

177thing, the five or six o'clock, I wonder I don't know if it's going to work great and then you're having to keep staff around potentially who might be also extending themselves to do I just think there's probably the sweet spot of like like the most sensible way of kind of we've even explored like band was at one point we tried to do it during the day. We tried to do course down the day, but then kids are sacrificing giving up their recess or their lunch. And it's just like that's also a sticky position to put a 10-year-old in, right? To be like, "Yes, give up your recess." Like, that didn't feel good either because we wanted it to be accessible to all kids. But that felt So, yeah, we're open to all of those things,

178but again, it's like how do we how does the board explore how to financially support that, right? And I do think that having some uh partnership with families around that is fair because we can always scholarship and we would always do that, right? Like I think that's important. Um I've worked in schools where there was like a late bus for that very reason. So it brought kids there was like three stops at the late bus and it was always like at 4:00 or 4:30 but it was older kids so it's a harder with the younger kids because then you could literally offer a late bus. It would be one bus that goes to three places and families have to go there rather than come all the way to a school. Um so there are things

179that we could explore in terms of trying to make it accessible to families. I mean there's probably ways too to look outside for scholarship opportunities for things like that where there may be benefactor. We get we have families that often will say I'd like to give money to your student activity account for scholarships for enrichment activities. Um several board members did that with their um stipen this year. Yeah. That's great. Is it possible too for like some of the you were talking about band like I'm just going to go back to when I was in school like we had you know like music. I know you have like a music Yeah. block or whatever. Not not block but where if you were practicing an instrument like it was you know for fifth grade or whatever

180whatever grade and then you would go to that instead. But it was like it was almost like a tuition based thing where it was like, "Hey, here's somebody that's coming." And I get what you're saying about like how that you'd have to look at scholarships and that sort of thing. But when my son went to middle school, it was kind of I was like, "Oh, I'm surprised they didn't start that earlier." And they were like, "Yeah, we usually cuz I started earlier in in elementary school." So at the very least, you're talking about timing. I'm just wondering if there's any limits to being able to do those things like because you'd have somebody from outside or something running if it was like a tuition. So when we had our band teachers, they they did have

181they 30-minute chunks and sometimes it would be one-on-one depending on how many people were doing the instrument. Sometime it might be a group of three for like the trombone. Um and it would be the it would be once a week and they would be like leaving a class to go do that once a week to do that because it was during the day. The problem is finding someone that will actually come do that because it can't be Miss Green because she's really teaching music class and so that's been the struggle about that is finding people that can do that. I know it's been the struggle at other elementary schools because we've been talking to them about trying to do that. The difference in a middle school setting is there's actually a band teacher in the

182building every day and can do that. So there's some flexibility around that. Um but I am open to exploring it and getting our feelers out there and seeing might, you know, what might be available to to bring that back. For sure. Okay. Because I know there's like like in Portsmouth they have that like one of the things was recommended in the middle school was like PMAC. They have a lot of like independent like maybe some sort of those folks might be interested. I don't because I know a lot of them do a bunch of training sessions that sort of thing. But we reached out to you and H2 because they often have grad students that would be interested in doing stuff. There's ways to look out. That's just not a consistent because they're going to

183graduate and they're going to be harder to like keep that consistency. Yeah. Yeah. I think for me I I was really thinking about this as like um like a math counts or a math competition like you know right after school. I know you know my kid, she's got older siblings. She's like desperate for homework. She wants like she wants like that extra stuff and um so I was just thinking like and she also you know it just be fun to have like she loves a spelling be for example she loves and so could could something like that that seems more doable. I think the band seems a little bit intimidating to me because then you have instruments and all of that going on. Um but could there be some kind of like friendly competition? Like

184that's what I really like the idea of. You're like Odyssey of the mind, small scale. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I loved it. So, I mean, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I think Yeah. I like the idea of like sort of some rough rough ideas on numbers and things like that. Yes. Thank you. I was Odyssey and mind changed to destination imagination. I was like, what is it called now? Yeah. I guess I'm confused about like what what the change is that we're considering because I don't have my kids aren't in school yet. So, I don't really know what we're doing versus what you're proposing. I think what I'm doing is like what often what we're doing now is like things that I think um are more like hobby type things or like they're

185passiony type things like um beading or gardening or um Minecraft or makers, but they're not necessarily um more in line with like the academic deep like I want to engage some really complex problem solving within a content. Um, and I think that's I think what I'm hearing and I think that would be an exploration of like how do we think about that. Um, and that would just be a conversation with the staff and see like who's who's got some ideas or might be interested or even reaching out to our families. Um, we've had other families that come in and do it and partner with some of our staff to do it because there's like something they get excited about. So, it could be sort of a opportunity for a collaborative effort which would be cool.

186um at the career fair. It was amazing. Yeah. And like all the things you realize that are happening within our community and the and the and the number of parents and and family members that were there. I was like I want to partner with I was I had more questions than I knew what to do with. Um but it would be really cool then to how do we utilize that maybe in a way that um grows that sort of connection too. Yeah. Yeah. So every like three months you get a list of these are all the classes that are going to be offered for the next term and um so it's like that list that Kate showed at the beginning. My kid plays dodgeball every Friday morning, you know, kind of situation. But before school,

187yeah, you dodgeball happens to be before school, but then you can do beating or Yeah. I think the nice thing is it's right after school, which I think kind of goes to what Eric was saying that people can stay, they get picked up at 4:50 and there's not like I have to go home, get them here, bring them back. It's kind of like convenient in that way. Um, so the kids just get dismissed from school and go to there. You know ahead of time what day it is, so you can say like, "Okay, you can do this one, this one, or this one." Gotcha. There you go. Those are your options. Yeah. Well, thanks for putting that together. Yeah, I do think that's a great opportunity. I didn't realize that it was board instigated. That's

188pretty cool. Yeah. Isn't that cool? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that history. Um, okay. So, speaking of cool, um the board actually has something for you guys. Um because you're just We know it was principal's day, so we wanted to say thank you a for your great work. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Really sweet. Thank you. It's the first time I've ever gotten I know. Look at that. We were so spoiled this year. It was insane. Around our pictures. We got a great banner. We came into school and there was like little things over our doororknob. They were like, "We're getting you breakfast from Ginger Fox. We're getting you lunch from Nick and Charlie's. What do you want?" They set our table with like They gave us a tablecloth. It was fancy.

189It was really sweet. And gifts. The Oh, so Oh my god. The chocolate has right there. Did you see that? Hi. I actually took a picture of Milliey's cuz she's the only one that actually wrote a personal message on the whole thing. Everybody else is like a name or like whatever. It's really It was very special today. It was really nice. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Um I'm going to open up um uh com public comment again because is there anybody that would like to make a public comment this time? It's really sweet. Or do you want me to read? Is there anything? Okay. Let me start public comment again. All right, moving along. It looks like now we're doing board parts and committee um building committee. Yes. Um, Chris, I don't Yeah, we had

190a chance. We, as you know, we selected Mark Jobin to be our owner rep. Um, we have a contract in front of you to be able to sign. We've had members from the building committee look at it. It's a very standard contract to have Mark uh represent us to work with Corino Construction. Um, just ask if if uh we have contracts that need to go forward if if uh like we did in the past where we um had the building committee chair sign off on that and then bring it back to the board. Um, so if you're comfortable with Sophie signing off on that as we move forward, y we will start meeting with Mark. Uh, Mark will start meeting with with uh Sophie, myself and uh the administration moving forward starting in June to

191start looking at timelines and what the work will be going. Um I told Mark to start getting the work going that this was a formality. So he's been working with Karina to start getting those timelines so that we can start getting work going. Um they were here today. Yeah. So really excited. Um the other part that I'll put in is that um Kate, myself, Arthur met with CMA in first or second win, excuse me. Uh we looked at the water treatment facility across the street. Uh we had a meeting on Monday, Kate. Yeah, Monday at 8:30. Um we I asked for a timeline. So we went through the agenda, very well done agenda. It looks like we'll have that wrapped up by the end of June. So they were working with um Second Wind to

192get their subcontractors because there's a plumber that needs to be hired, electrician that needs to be hired. Uh they need to build some things. They need to move some piping in there. uh put in a dry uh well um and relocate some things. But that so they're working on adding getting all the materials. Materials should come in um mid June at the latest and again once that comes in then you're looking at a couple different projects that take two to three days. So anticipated June 30th we're done with that and then we start on this building. So uh just wanted to put that out that it's been a lengthy process thanks to Arthur really you know working in behind the scenes and then you know the administration here making sure we get that done. So,

193two really uh neat things that we're able to start really looking at and uh make some improvements on on the facilities uh that we're that we're in. That's just so I understand that you said the PAS was going to be completed by the end of end of June. That is the goal. Yeah. And then you'll start seeing that they'll do a couple different tests. Um and again, there'll be when they do it, there will be a time that we will will be without water in here. And when I say water, it will be normal water systems. the the tank is big enough to be able to run this building for multiple days. So, it will have no impact to to students. So, when we met, we did give the authorization that they could do work

194during school time and that if they needed to. If there was a need that they'd have to shut it off for longer, we would not have that happen where it would impact school. And then, um, uh, Karina will start this summer. That is the goal. Yeah. That they they've already started looking at uh, ordering your uh, HVAC system and, um, roof. Would they start looking at roofing? I mean, I think furnaces, they wanted to know how long it would take you to get those in was part of So those the big systems that take longer times depending where they have to order it from is so that's where they started looking at right now. Okay. And then we'll you'll get an update. We'll we'll probably meet every week to every two weeks just to look

195at the timeline and that's where um Mark Join will make sure that Corino is on their construction timeline. Mhm. I'm very confident, you know, done it before and having an owner's rep that's so knowledgeable in Corino that knows this building really well that we're going to be on a pretty good timeline unless they open something up and we're like, you would know about that. And that that can definitely happen in a in a in a building that's over 30 years old. And now that we have um job, like what will my role be moving forward? Yeah, you're just uh being able to hear those meetings, kind of put a synopsis, come back and share with the board the summary of where we're at and give us updated timelines. Okay. Well, I I'll be in the

196weekly meetings. We can have it. If you can't go there, catered I will definitely be there for representation. So, between the three of us, the three-headed monster will be able we'll be able to bring this back to the board. Yeah. Like three, just so I'm clear what I'm signing up for, weekly meetings for a year and a half until it's done. Not necessarily. There'll be times that we won't, but that when we start doing some of the work, it will be weekly. Um, and that's my experience. They may do a different timeline where they say it only has to be every other week uh based on times that we get there. In my experience and again um when we met in summers during my when I would do renovation projects it was every week because

197they were moving so quickly to get you in so that students are not impacted. Kathleen, are you interested in the buildings? I'm happy to help. A sweet. I did not see that in her letter. That was not one thing in her letter so far. Yeah. So are we going to see like trucks parked outside this summer? Is it going to affect summer learning and all of that? No. Yeah. No, we'll work with them. And again, that's that's the big part is that usually your contractors are going to ask Kate and and Kate, we need to work here. And they'll be like, we got testing going on, so you're not going to work here until 1:00. And they'll be like, okay, we'll work back there. So it's not impacting kids. They're really good knowing that educational

198impact cannot happen while they're here working. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Um, superintendent evaluation committee. So we met Monday morning. um and went through each of the boards had written notes um about Superintendent Aspel and um sort of the goals on her um performance review and then we went through and compiled them and then they'll be presented Monday night at the um joint board meeting. Any questions or concerns about that? Um I think you know always the conversation I know we had this last year too is always like are the goals measurable and right um we had that conversation again and I was just like oh my gosh every time you think you're writing the goals so much better and then every time you question um it's come it's come I think it's come a

199long way. Yeah. Um all right safety and security task force. I was told last time that's going to be three times a year. I do not have an update. No meeting. Okay. Um, communications and community engagement. No real update. Although, um, Cameron, maybe we can chat offline about some of the ideas you had and how to move forward on them. Okay. Thanks. Um, yeah, I did. So, I got an email and had a phone call with someone who doesn't have kids at SMS anymore. has grandkids, but it just made me think like if there are people locally who are interested, how could we use them, you know, to like spread the word and things like that. So, I don't know. I see you guys are thinking about this. They reached out specifically about community engagement

200and wanting to be a liaison or what? Um, so they had some concerns, but then I mentioned community engagement and then they were intrigued by that. Okay. Um, I guess if you feel like it's appropriate, you can send them our way if they're interested in getting involved. Sounds great. Um, yeah, I'm not really sure without any more information. Yeah. Okay, sounds good. Um, all right. Chair update. Let's see. I just had a couple things. [Music] Um, let's see. So I think um so I did have a conversation with somebody who was talking about um when we had our budget meeting um they were had some concerns about sort of the respect in the room and how different people were treated as they were speaking and so I just wanted to kind of bring that up

201here. It's something, you know, I thought um I think it's something that we can always kind of focus on and think about, you know, respecting all the various viewpoints in that room. Obviously, there were a lot of people there that evening. Um, and so anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge that I had that conversation and that it's something as we think about sort of the schedule for next year, um, what the information topics are that we talk about in our monthly meeting, how information is disseminated, um, you know, all of those things kind of culminate in that in that big budget vote that night. So, um, just wanted to mention that I've been having those conversations. Um, there's a chance I cannot make it to the joint board meeting on Monday and I'm just wondering,

202do you guys know yet if you will, not to put you on the spot. You'll be there. You think you'll be there? What time is the meeting? Yeah. So, it's Monday at 6. I cannot make that. Okay. Yeah, I'll be there. You'll be there. Okay. Assuming I'm not sick again. Okay. Um, I think those were my only updates. Um, and then we're going to do legislative updates. Um, Chris, I don't know if you wanted to say something or Cameron, if you wanted to say something. I guess you've talked about sort of the two. Yeah, as we talked the other day, I I'll know more hopefully in June of what we have and then you'll start to see that come through policies, you know, so really your legislation turns into how we look at policies, whether

203they're new. Um, again, there's over 300 that we've been tackling through and looking at, you know, and there's some really some that are um concerning um that we have. And so we've been trying to get testimony. Um, however, we're just having to wait to see where the official vote comes down and what is um put to us as as a as a law. So yeah, and I've tried to kind of promote to we keep saying, you know, go talk to the people in conquered. So one of the ones that just cut through committee last week was um mandatory firearms training public school. So that's one that obviously is a little strange and how that would be implemented, but I know that was one of those attachments to another another bill. So there is a lot

204of opportunities for people to go in and either voice their support or opposition to those things. So I think it's important that you know the community is aware of that like these things aren't decisions we're making and there's ways to go in and voice your opinion about that. Right. Absolutely. And just to highlight, so that that was a gerine amendment, right, based on uh DUI or operating and then they attached gun training, right, K12. So these are the things when I tell you there's a lot that we're going through and how they're coming through us and that they're writing multiple different uh LSRs to be spoken that say the same thing or or change just slightly. Uh it's really complicated. So, we couldn't be more excited that we hired a new assistant superintendent. We worked

205through these policies to give us more guidance and that is because it is really become a full-time job. So, uh that that's what I would share is that we're really when you meet uh Dr. Brian on on Monday at the joint board, that's going to be the major focus of the work she's going to be doing. Okay. Yeah. And I got to say I've I've the news isn't always great, but I have enjoyed that a lot at the joint board meetings kind of being updated what's happening. um you know all of those things in conquered affect us here in Stratam right and um and I think it's so important that people make that connection in their head um as we think about local budgets and I think I would say too that I think community

206members are hearing it you know I heard of community members last week that were in conquered till 11 o'clock at night hearing the hearing and trying to provide testimony again um you talked about how people are responding or acting I was concerned about how people were talked about trying to offer public comment at that meeting Okay. You know, um the, you know, member in charge was not intolerant and spoke to people very um harshly. Um so again, I think it's a great reminder of how we want to represent ourselves, right? And how people look at that. So absolutely, I I think people and and residents are hearing that there are more people showing up in conquered and giving testimony and so we can keep asking because that's the only way we make changes. Yeah. Yeah.

207Yeah, I thought that was interesting what I think Esther said about they have to list the comments or how many people made comments um on the on the bills and stuff. So that's interesting. So it does it does have an immediate impact. Maybe that's something Cameron, you and I can talk about um of like how to as a board like engage the public more about stuff and feel like you have your finger on the pulse around that. So let's Yeah. And I think put that on our agenda. It seems like there's been a lot of like interest. I know that like shared these things in different unrelated to the board and there's been a lot of people like oh thanks for letting me know that was going on because I think people are generally not

208aware of all that especially those ones that are like hey this is stuck on a completely unrelated bill but it's going to have a big impact on your school so at least we could try to communicate some of those out right all right thank you um strategic planning committee um yeah we met I think once since the last meeting we have another meeting next week Um, and no major update. We're still working on the dashboard to um have our goals then become kind of um like a live like thing that you can interact with and um like a dashboard that shows how we're measuring up to our um goals and values. Okay. Do you want to add anything? No, it's just uh the work we're doing is so that we have five core values that

209we agreed upon and then four are strategic priorities. Those are strategic priorities will be something that that Sophie just mentioned that will actually have metrics that will be able to input data on a um current time process that will be forward facing. And so part of that is that we'll have a measurement tool to talk about how we're doing that. And so I'm really excited and that's what we'll finalize with the committee next next uh Thursday I believe and then bring that forward. So starting the school year, you should have a we should have a forward- facing metric that will continue to build out and then year after year populate it so we can see our growth as a district. So really excited about that work. Will we see that on Monday? No, cuz we've

210just started to build it with the whole committee hasn't seen it yet. The last time we met because we were running late is that uh we took SLT and we put some descriptors in there to give us some measurement pieces. So we want to share that with the committee first so they have an opportunity to change or modify anything that we put in there. Um, and then if there's anything we need to add or edit. Yeah. Okay. Sounds ambitious. Yeah. So, I would anticipate the superintendent will give that to you in September. Okay. Okay. Thank the superintendent. Okay. Um, policy committee, you got you have been doing some work. Yes. The thing is too is we meet like we're meeting tomorrow. So, I will have Okay. So, it's like a whole month. Um, but yeah,

211I mean everything here has any Did anybody have a chance to look them over at least in summary? Obviously, Kathleen didn't get a No, he wouldn't have gotten a chance to take a look. No, sorry. Um, and we can what we sometimes will do is just do like a first read on it. So, if you uh there's always the opportunity to I think they're just adding it. We don't always get a chance to go through all of the different policy changes, so we don't have to vote on something in a particular evening. Um I will say most of this stuff is again like we mentioned last time when Cameron brought this up most of this is just in u is aligning to law. There were a couple of things that people noted get closer to

212the mic. Um most of the conversation that we had revolved around uh like the student um the health um summary give me give me just a moment. There's quite a few. Physical examination of students. That was one. And then how that related to like when that needed to be done and why and how often for admission and how it was related to the law. And then there's this concept in that one. This is JLCA uh where um if the nurse identifies something, you'll see it in there. Let me let me find the exact wording. And that that require Yeah. Let me get the actual like one though. Oh, okay. And it it provided uh it was a little bit odd, but it says it says it in the right way. It says, "Pursuance to state

213law, every child with a presenting problem who the school nurse deems to require further evaluations may be referred by the school nurse with the consent of the principal to the parent/guardian of said child for examination and evaluation by an appropriate practitioner. If the parent guardian fails or neglects to have said child examined and fails to present the recommendations for said examiner within a reasonable period after the referral by the school as a last resort, the matter may be reported to um child services under the supervision of the building administrator pursuant to board policy. So, it was just kind of interesting that it was like these like this odd hopefully an edge case scenario where um where the school has a sort of a authority by law and statute to require this particular kind of special

214examination. It was a little stuff like that that we talked about. Um and then most everything else like there was some I think there's one in here. Let me find the very um let's see. Parental notification of an involvement in student welfare status is JLP. That is a newly um a new policy. So you won't see any like redlinining on that one. And that one is relative to RSA 9-E. And if you read that one, that one says it's a shall create policy law on that. There's a whole bunch of those like everything that's RS say 18611 is like school board shall create a policy for and then it will dictate some specifics around uh exactly you know how we should how we should state that um like like there's like for example in that

215there's the third paragraph it says the student superintendent is author authorized to adopt procedures to that permit district personnel to withhold any of the above information. So, it's generally saying we are not going to withhold information from a parent, but then it carves out this this unique uh circumstance where it says if a reasonably prudent person would believe that such disclosure would result in abuse, abandonment or neglect of a student or other child as those terms are defined in state law. So, those are like actually pulled directly from the RSA in those carveouts. So, that's what you'll find typically um in any of these changes. So, I don't I don't know if there's specific questions. I could answer what our commentary was, but these are um you know, really as presented for you for the

216board to consider. Are you pointing that out because that makes you nervous? No. I mean, I'm not I I don't I mean, we we don't to me when you have a state law and it says you shall do something, you should do it. Um unless you want to sue the state, I mean, you could do that. You do it as a as a board. You could do it as an individual. Um there's a number of there's recourse, but it's it is a law. Um so um not particularly just that one, but I mean there's there's a there's a bunch of them uh that all are very very similar. So no, I'm not trying to provide any guidance one way or the other. Just pro provide the commentary that we discussed on the policy committee. Okay,

217great. Uh can I ask a question? So, I met with um Jill uh Lazier and in discussion of the policies we were talking about last time and it kind of spurred the discussion of what Eric was just saying is there's policies that have to be approved by the school board but are not necessarily something that the school board like they they might be I think in conflict with like I'm looking at the board goals and the things about what the district represents and those sort of things. So the conversation about this, it shall be done, but then it's almost as if you're endorsing a policy that you might not support because it's a matter of law, right? So I had looked at like Portsmith had put some verbiage in and for those ones that we

218were talking about last week, the IHM and my concern on that is that it's putting things in that aren't relevant that people will now point back to and say, "Oh, they must be teaching that in the school because look, they have a policy addressing it." So, I was hoping and I don't know when we would do that, but to like make a motion to add some more explicit language about like what you had mentioned in this one like to comply with RSA 18611 and then House Bill 1312. I saw that on one of the other ones. So, I I think before the paragraph that shows here like and not to go deep into this, but the this is the one we were talking about, right? And they added all these categories. I feel like it

219would be prudent to put in a thing that says, you know, these these categories, you know, don't necessarily reflect that this is instruction that's being given at the school. I think only because to me it looks like somebody's going to bring that up and say, well, you must be teaching this because it's in here where it's kind of like a circle thing where the state told you to do that and now it's a self-fulfilling thing of, well, you guys must be teaching that because you put it in the policy. You know what I mean? So anyway, I didn't know because those ones were ones that I had held to look at last time. I don't know if you're planning to want like vote on that today. Yeah. I mean, I think anybody can make a

220motion to do to do anything with them. I I mean, I think I think it's I I'd like the idea of having pursuant to whatever the legal stipulation is that is like a prefix to almost any of those conversations because I think it it's describing the predicate and reason for why you have the policy in the first place. Um, I would certainly be supportive of that. And um, I don't know what the I don't know how how I don't know if there's any commentary that you would have, Chris, just because it it is sometimes helpful to have similar policies. And I don't I'm not saying we should that that's because it's kind of a copout just to say we should all have the same policies across everybody in the SAU and we don't. That's why

221they're here is for us to make these kind of determinations. Um, do you have thoughts on it? Is there Yeah, I mean our recommendation is we try to give that's why we have the policy committee that you can be as consistent as possible. Uh because we have found discrepancies u but again you're your own individual board so you can put things in there when you meet with the policy committee. There's certain things you can't change which would be you know legal RSA. So you would not change that wording and oftentimes when they put the reference down below that is referencing the RSA or um you know the whatever bill has been passed. So that's why it's not typically um put into the narrative of of the topic before. Um, I I would want to get

222Heather's perspective on whether she would want you to put it in there or not. I would believe she wouldn't since you're already referencing it down like the legal legal reference. That's what I was looking at, too. Yeah. So, and you know it's like I kind of figured that was going to be but I feel like I so the guidance from other not guidance but the examples from other boards was that they explicitly put the language because I think it's like yeah it's in the addendum but I think to try to spell out for some of these things because it's for me it's like what what happens if we vote vote no on a policy that's required right that the how it boiled down to like this policy doesn't represent um the values of the school

223or whatever but it was pushed by the legis legislature, so we have to approve it. So my point was just to similar to the letter that Dr. Asbel was going to put in. It's like, yep, we have to do this and here's why to comply with the state law. So if somebody has a problem, which we do with it, then that's what you need to talk to. So the the quick answer is that if you don't go with a policy that's recommended or required, and you do something that someone brings up, they can sue the school or the board, and you'd be liable for that. So that would be the expense that you'd have to take. And the first thing that our lawyer would say is where's your policy on this and we'd say the

224board did not approve it and not not recommend it. So they'd say you have no policy to support this. So we'd say yes. And they'd say okay you've just made our case this much more difficult. Right? And I'm not advocating for that. I'm just saying that it's an an implicit endorsement of something when you have to vote yes on it. You know what I mean? So that's why I was like trying to make this palatable in a way with the description of like this is to basically what you just described like this is a shield for a legal, you know, reason because I don't believe in this policy and I don't think it makes sense and it it's just going to be a thing to be pointed back at the board to say well you

225approved this policy so the teachers there must be teaching this content and it's like no that was put in specifically to do this. You know what I mean? So I I mean I can we don't have to address it tonight, but I'll put the I just had some proposed verbiage for that to kind of explicitly and I had the this very I didn't know the policies were all the same across all the school boards. So I was looking at the Portsouth one and it's the same numbering scheme and everything. All the Yeah, it's all the same numbering scheme because they do it by code like you do in your budget and then how you know there's a lot of them will be the same if they're they're legal. They're told not to touch that. Other

226times boards will make their ex. So we saw that earlier with tuition. You know, there's it's you have to have something, but how you want to tackle it is up to you. Okay. It just seemed like there was precedent like as far as I looked at ours versus the Portsmouth one and they kind of spelled out like well we're putting this in because of we were told to here you go. And that might be the recommendation from their legal council to do that. Ours has always been don't do that because you already referred to it down here's the legal uh code that you were referring to of why this policy is in place. Okay. So, I don't know if you want to wait and have Eric bring that back and or I can bring that

227back to Heather or we can even have Heather give some guidance on whether we should be putting that in there or not. Um, it may be helpful to to hear from legal counsel on it. I mean, I think one of the things I get worried about adding commentary, like color commentary to like why we're doing something is to me it creates the same kind of liability potential concern where it's like we we're doing this against our will to comply with the state. And I don't know if that I don't I don't know how that reads to be honest with you. Like I it's I I understand it and this is this is a a vote of of the people on the board. Um I think it'd be good to just get I'm not a lawyer.

228I'd love to get like and so what I'll say is I don't I haven't I don't know that I've seen a lot of people who have come to us to say any feedback that I've personally gotten from the community to say I I read this policy and why'd you put that in there? What what's happening in the classrooms? Um though that might have happened. So I just like to hear from people who have had some time both defending it and other things that have come up. So maybe Heather knows, maybe the our council knows and could give us some guidance on Yeah. I could even take that as a recommendation when we do our summer retreat to ask legal to come. Yeah. And and have them come first because again, I don't want to pay

229them to sit in the audience, right? And and you do and you pay for their travel. So maybe we can have them walk through policies and what's some good wording to use and what not to use. um if that would be something that you would be agreeable to that we can keep it kind of short but also give you guidance so that for the following year we can uh go through our policies in that fashion that would be helpful. Okay. And I I I get your point about the commentary but it's also I guess it's why are we even voting on it then? Like if it's you need to do it because it's a legal requirement then we should just have a policy that says state laws that are passed will be followed by the

230school board. Done. Like because otherwise we have to endorse this policy and defend it. And my comment on that was it's addressing a problem that doesn't exist. So it I don't know why we would you know what I mean? It kind of goes against certain things, but I we can leave that for next time. Yeah. And I mean I think my my only feedback on that is I think you want to create you could say that and that's fine. I don't know what it takes from an administrative point of view and how you want to do training, how you want to make sure that staff are following certain pro procedures, how you want to notify them of new changes. To me, this is the mechanism to do that. It also creates a framework before you

231get into an issue um where there's a a set of expectations among all stakeholders, staff, faculty, parents, community members, everybody because it's out there. Um but if there's a better mechanism, I could I you know, I person my personal vote could be persuaded a particular way, but that's the way I think about it. Um you looked like you were nodding your head, did you? I just have questions about and I I think I'm looking forward to this conversation because I have questions about like policies also should be representative or aligned with our core values of the board, right? Because I'm thinking about teachers reading that. I'm thinking about the educators in our building reading the policies that you guys vote on and then support. And there is a difference of reading we're doing this because

232this law says so, which is valid 100% right. Like I do a lot of things because the law says do not. I don't have to agree with it, but it's my job to do that. I get that. um and or reading like I see the board is saying we need you to do this because it's the law but we don't necessarily feel this align with their core values because I'm looking at these things and I'm thinking about our chief equity officer. I'm thinking about the what we did a month ago when they came here and they're talking about those things and I'm thinking about we talk about student wellness is on your board goals and student wellness is students having a place that they can trust the adults in the building. Um because not every

233home is safe, right? And so that becomes according to the language we just read really gray and really vague. And if I'm a a principal and I'm looking that I'm like, "Okay, this kid confided this in me and now the family's asking, is that falling under that vague?" Because I do actually think it's going to be unsafe when they go home, but can I prove that? Do you know what I mean? Like that it's really vague that language. And I'm thinking to myself like, how does that align with our values as a board? That's important to know because if the board's like, "Actually, we don't think that should be vague at all. We want you to always tell parents everything they tell you." Okay. Or if it's like, "We're saying we do this because that's

234what the law says." Then let's define that and be really clear about it, right? because it aligns with the values of student wellness or it aligns with the values of equity. Like I think that those are really important understandings for the educators within your building as you guys are our body that we look to for that. And so I think it's really important that we're clear on what you would expect from us as your employees. So I'm like looking forward to the conversation because I'm like that then going back to what you said Eric like if I'm then turning around and talking to the staff at a department at a staff meeting which I do about legislation. I want to be really clear and if I'm like oh good we had this great conversation at

235the board. I have a really good understanding of what they're thinking. Let me share with you like what the legislation says and what the board is expecting and what our policy says. That makes me so much more capable of supporting a staff than being really like I'm not really sure because legislation is not really clear and this is what we talked about the board. I don't know. I just think it's important. I think some guidance would be helpful. I do too. I think it would be important conversation. I mean, I I think that would be I I think just from my perspective, it's like how do you Yes, I get all that. Um it'd be interesting to know what like real real world examples of like how this stuff happens. And I can give you

236real examples from 10 years ago when I worked in high schools. The laws were different then and I had to report to parents things were happening when they directly asked me and I was literally putting kids in unsafe situations all the time but I was required by law. So like I can tell you real world examples of like literally the kids going home and it being disaster and then I'm calling DCYF 2 days later. So like it happens, right? I think it's very different in an elementary setting. I do I will acknowledge that because I think um what they're sharing is is for the most part different than what a 15-year-old was sharing with me. but they are confiding in us in things that are really complicated or hard about who they are or what

237they're experiencing and what their life story is. Um, so there are real world of examples of like why this is really difficult to navigate as an educator and wanting to partner with our families and always wanting to be able to share everything we know about their kids with our families. Of course, that's ideal. That's what we want to do. And also acknowledging that that sometimes puts a kid in an unsafe situation is the reality in which we live. And so there are real world examples. I'm not going to name children. that's not appropriate or families. Um, but there I've lived it many times and so I would suggest that I think it would be great from my perspective if it was really clear from the board of what that expectation was for me from me.

238So then I can support every educator in the building with the same expectation. Legal counsel around the ambiguity of that language would be huge, right? Because really that's the for me it's the crux of the ambiguity of the language might be potentially unsafe. What does that mean? Well, and I think we're going to have to polish some of it anyway because even the thing you just presented is like intentionally vague. It's like what is a prudent person? Like the law is the law is predicated on what 12 reasonable people will do. That's how the law is built, right? But how I define the concept of reasonleness though that that's a st that's a legal standard. It's not like let's just grab somebody off the street and they seem like they make like they're good people.

239So let's find out what they would do. But the word unsafe like that is that is a very ambiguous language. Is it emotionally unsafe? Is it physically unsafe? Like like what does that mean? Or neglect. Like when I call DCF, it's ambiguous every time because I'm like I think this is a neglect, but I'm only reporting just the limited piece I have. Right. So that's what I mean by the ambiguity. It's not necessarily it is difficult to navigate when those those things are really subjective. Sure. And then what about the reporting of abuse? I thought that was pretty pretty well laid out though. Correct. So is it more that we need to draw together certain themes sort of thematic policies together so that we can paint a better picture from a language from legal about

240this is what these words were mean then we can talk about it right neglect is an ambiguous language abuse is actually ambiguous on many in many factors I can call these up and be like this abuse and like ah it doesn't reach the threshold we're not going to call it in we're not going to screen it in so so the difficulty is I mean a lot of the language we get is from New Hampshire school boards association what is developed by lawyers yeah right and it is going to be vague because they're not going to pinpoint you in a certain way right they're not going to define it because again that's the ability for them to argue in a court of law what is safe, what is unsafe, that is up for the what is

241the reasonable expectation of our school and be able to do right. There are a number of bills that are going to be passed that we're going to object. It doesn't meet with our core values. One being House Bill 667 where we're going to have to have kids watch videos about justational development. Y we can have our own personal opinions on that, but again, we have other ways to deal with that law by opt out of of uh of um materials, right? the the policies that are set in place are rules that we have to follow because they're law. Again, there are certain policies that are required. We cannot not have those. There's other that are recommended to support how we do our school. If we don't follow those or staff members don't, that comes back

242to whether we can be employed in education. Correct. So again, it's the board to adopt it and then it's the job of us and our educators to inform our staff what we can and cannot do and have that collective discussion. So I think that's what I was asking for like what is their what is their policy? their role is to adopt a policy and that that they're doing it based on what is law and what's coming forward. It's not their job to tell us how we interpret it. They can write their own board goals and values. We can have our own school and values. Those are not those are not determined anywhere. So we can say what we want. We just can't we has to follow certain laws. Correct. Every day. Right. Right. So, I

243I I it's it's a difficult one and there's more and more laws that are coming that don't make sense to us because we have people that are making recommendations. Again, you know, Cameron brought up a big one about gun safety. We talk about keeping schools safe, but then we're going to teach every student K12 on how to use guns, you know, correctly in our school. Yeah. I guess I'm not even objecting to the law. I actually want to be able to partner with families, the the RSA. I guess what I'm saying is I think it's important for all of us staff-wise to understand like where the go where the board sits on that and I think that that's what I was trying to get at because then it's easier for us to have conversations about

244it. I mean I do I have to abide by laws all the time that I don't necessarily agree with because it's the right thing to do. I don't want to put our kids in jeopardy. I don't want to put our families in jeopardy. I certainly don't want to put the school board in jeopardy. I think I want I was looking for the conversation about like what is what is the message we want to give our families and our staff about we're going to do this because it's the law and also these things about it, right? Like I think that's an important discussion for you to be having so we're all clear on what we're doing. I guess I I think we do that really well with what the board goals are to I love it.

245Yeah. Work, right? So they've got to follow it and adopt. That's their role to adopt policies and then this is what we say Strata Memorial School is about. Our core values and visions. That's what our strategic planning is talking about. That was a representation of all of our towns. No one can come in and say your your strategic plan can't follow any law. So if we because we have equity in there, we have belonging in there, right? No one can say that to us. That's our core values. So you're saying you don't feel like it needs to be reflected in policy. I guess that's the decision. Certain policies have to be there, but they're going to talk about how we do instructional materials, how we have this, right? Got to follow that, but we can

246still do what our core values are of educating all children, right? And I if there was a law that came in and said you can't educate every child on their individual basis, I think all of us would be down and conquer and say we can't run public schools. True. Right. Yeah. And so that that's that's the difficult part. That's a very unsatisfactory answer. It's one of those very like not not your answer. I just mean it's got to be, you know, one of those gray things. Yeah. So I I say what we have to do and then what we believe those are two different things that can be in alignment and sometimes we'll be in conflict. We want them to be I just think we can also articulate that we understand that we have to

247do it and I think that when I sit in the staff I I have said to them many times like I know this feels uncomfortable. It feels counterintuitive to why we went into education and yet we are going to do it and we're going to collaborate around it. We're going to work on it together because I don't want you to feel like you have to do it alone. And I want to be able to say like, yeah, we've also talked about at the board and there because I think that's important that we're like the continuity of us supporting each other and working in tandem means these conversations in order to then be able to do it as a full staff. I mean, there's 136 adults in the building and I want to be able to

248say like, oh, we talked about the board, we had this great conversation and this is how we're going to be able to move forward. So, we are meeting the law or the RSA and also feeling like we're collaborating around the same understanding because if we're going to move forward together, it is a matter of understanding it together, I guess, is what I was hoping for that conversation to bring us forward in. I think that's what they do when Eric serves with the rest of the committee members. They look at all of us and how does it impact kids? Yeah. And that's why we do the the narratives, the synopsis of what's the impact and then it's where anybody can say, "Do you have concerns about this policy?" Well, yeah, we do, but it's law. Yeah.

249However, this is how we'll tackle it. Yeah. Yeah. So, that's why I think it's important that it's that we continue to look at policies and and have those in-depth conversations. That's why we're so far behind because we didn't for so many years, right? Yeah. So, we're really playing catch-up from many years and started really playing catch-up 3 years ago and we were at a good spot till we get 300 to look at it in one year. Yeah. Just as a matter of practicality for the operational piece of it, having a bunch of different policies or not a common library policies across the SAU when we have these conversations is more difficult. Yeah, I know you've had I think you've dealt with this before, too. So, like it's like, oh well, Stratam doesn't have this one

250or Brentwood doesn't have this one or we had that. And again, not trying to not a copout to not do the work and to think through it for our district. that's what we're responsible for here. But it does create a lot of work for like the Olivia of the world and the and the Heathers and others who are trying to give us guidance, find out what everybody has, find out what the differences are, do all the red lines between all of the different So, I'm not saying that we should not make decisions that are re relevant for Stratum at all. Just factor that in as well. The actual mechanics of doing the reviews, making sure these things get updated. there's there's a a component that happens at the at the SAU that does that. Um,

251and I just I I I would want to make one point that my personal opinion is that this is a public trust and a public institution that is derived from the state and the state is comprised of representative government. Sometimes it goes the way that we want, sometimes it doesn't go the way that we want. But that's what this is. This it's it's the then why vote on this though? That's what I don't Why do we vote on them then? If we if our role is to approve it says you shall do it. It doesn't say you should do it. Doesn't say you ought to do it. It says you shall do it. So we have to we have to we're also a creation of state law that gives us our reason our reison detra

252to be here why are we here and some of those things are fundamental responsibilities that we have. That's just the way I look at it. I think we everybody here could look at it differently. Vote how you want. vote to do anything you want with the policies. Um, can I can I wonder I feel like isn't it just the conversation that becomes the valuable point then kind of going to what you're saying here because I think you're right. I'm looking at Heather's job and I'm thinking that's an insurmountable amount of work to do all the time with all the policies and I don't know that I because the value comes in the conversation, right? So, like I think going back to what you said, Chris, like right, can we have the conversations even if it

253doesn't necessarily change the language because I think you're right if you're trying to get six different districts to have nuanced two sentences that are different. I can hear that. But I do think it's worth the conversation at the board level if then the school staff is then supporting what right like not just the law but like wanting to also ensure that we're aligning what you're with the board is supporting like I think there's like that continuity and cohesion. So I don't know. I guess it for me I can hear the Heather part and the piece of like this is the law is so for me but we should also be able to have the the critical conversations about it so we understand it really well collectively. I think if we whether we change it or

254not, if we do it in a rear sort of like if we if we always did like a first read or something like I could take tomorrow Yeah. and say even the administration is thinking about how do they implement this and then they brought up conversations with the board about how do we implement this relative to X Y or Z or whatever we could bring that back and then at least bring those conversations back into the policy committee to the Heathers the Olivia's ask for council if necessary whatever to then bring back and and oftentimes too when new policies are passed or there's major changes to it that becomes a training piece for us throughout the course of the year so like title N it switch back to the old form, but we train have

255to train everybody. Sexual harassment, uh, all these different things, bullying, um, so that's part of our trainings that we have to do and that comes from changes to our policies and and and RSAs. And the elementary principles have these conversations all the time when this happens like how are you doing this? What's the way have you thought about have you thought about the language around this? Like how do you make those like we have those conversations we meet weekly and it's exactly based on this and then we go to our professional development, come back and be like, okay, this just happened. This is how I work through it or Arlland might support us or Heather or Chris. So these I mean these things are happening all the time. But I do think I love the

256idea of the public conversation because it goes back to like our community wants to know what we're talking about and how we're making decisions. Like that's a great opportunity for them to watch the video or to come and hear all the things you guys are thinking about and then that are influencing everybody here. I think it's so important. Yeah. So what can we do for this policy? I mean, could we have maybe Arland weigh in on it and then bring it back to the policy committee as a whole? Like that could be a next step, right? Yeah. And the policy committee brings in relevant folks to those Yeah. Has Arlland weighed in on this? Um I don't know about this one. Um I don't think she was on the last one. I think it was

257I can't remember. It wasn't Renee. It was um was it Ellen? Maybe Ellen Ra. No, anyway. Um but yeah, we could get the relevant subject matter experts. Yeah, I think that would be helpful. That would make me feel better anyways. Um because maybe there's language that could be modified for the whole district. Yeah, that's helpful, too. And and that's the part I don't understand. So like I get the administrative part, but why are we approving them individually if we're not allowed to like modify? I get what you're saying as far as the liability, but I guess I would like to hear whether I guess it comes down to well, this is going to make your case in court worse because you put this note saying you're only and and I wasn't proposing to write it

258that way. It was more of an informative to say in accordance with this thing because I don't think anybody's going through the legal references at the end to find what it is. But at least you could spell out this language is specifically for this reason because it's at odds with things within the the district. You know what I mean? So again, I'm not trying to say we do things that are against the law or not follow the law, but I feel like it is a reasonable question that people would say, why do you have a policy that seems to contradict the values of the board and the district? I don't understand that. you know. So, because we have to, but Okay. Sorry. Hijack it. So, it sounds like you have some conversations tomorrow at the

259Mhm. It'll be a new set, too. Yeah. Right. Yeah. There there's a lot of them coming out right these days. Bring this back up. Yeah. To the to the that one specific policy. I need to know what I think. So, right, Cameron? That's what Well, I he has the he has the two from the previous but I think previous meeting looks like there's um there's reporting of child abuse parental notification. Yeah, I think it was I don't think that was the one. I don't Cameron, why don't you if you want to go on the record and do it now to tell me which ones to do is fine. Otherwise, you could always send me a message. It was the ones we didn't I IHM and I just the two but again I think it's a

260broader question about policies like how do we handle that and I think we need the question on can you change the verbiage or it sounds like your guidance is no but I understand you're not the the legal person but it sounds like the guidance is this is how we wrote it to best avoid liability right but I mean there is some in the policy committee we'd like wordsmith so there is some words smithing that we can do just probably depends on what the actual legal verbiage is of how to follow it, right? And and when when they say shall create a polic, it just means you have to create a policy. It doesn't mean you have to create that this policy. Doesn't mean you have to incorporate legal language. You just have to create a

261policy. So it should be in my opinion should be aligned to the law and it should actually use language directly from the law because it becomes more clear. But um well, it's not a prerequisite, right? It just says you have to create a policy. So, there are some things we actually just have to have a policy for, but it could be written however and move it and get a second and get a vote. I mean, well, and I think the language here is not about applying a policy. I understand what you're saying, but the policy says you shall do these things, right? So, that was what my objection was, like who decided that's a prudent thing to do because I could throw whatever verbiage I want. You know what I mean? So, I'll tell you

262all the shalls are are legal terms. When I said shall, I was referring to like that specific RSA that says you shall create a policy. The 18611 or whatever, right? Some of those say, so when you were saying why do we have a policy at all? It's because it it it it directs the board to create a policy. Not all of them are that way. So not every policy, not every reference in these statutes are going to say you have to create a policy. So we don't have to create a policy for those. The ones you have to create a policy for, it's still left up to us. When you see shall in the context of the language in the policy, I every time I've ever seen it, I'm just going to go out on

263a limb and say it's like 100% of the time that has been taken from directly from the statement within the within the legal context. Like it's just copy paste, right? And I'm not proposing changing the language that's in the law, but I I would like to know if there's some liability concern with noting that this, you know, just I I think for the purposes of reading it, I get that the references are there, but I think I've seen other school boards spell out specifically like this language is this way because of this RSA or whatever. But I mean, it's I I was also told like, oh, you can just vote against it. But again, I don't understand the mechanism of voting against a policy. You're saying you have to have it doesn't make a lot

264of sense. But we can move on from this. Okay. So, um, is the idea that we do a first read on all of these or only the specific ones that you guys have? So, the ones I was talking about were from last week. I have Yeah. So, the other thing is you said you get this tomorrow or something. Is there a way we can get a new one? Right. But I'm wondering, so like this was in the packet. Is there a way for us to get it sooner than I don't know. I think because Olivia basically she takes a lot of the notes in in real time like on our in our committee in our conversation and then she turns back around at some point what the final product that came out of committee is

265to be placed into the board packet. So there's probably there's probably somebody that happens sooner than we do because we're almost like a month. Yeah. So whoever is the next board, she probably has to have it by then. So I'd say probably within a week or two. You have to have it by the first Monday because that's when Brent Brentwood works. I have Brentwood first Monday of every month. That's when she could have that aggregated and back. So we typically look to do it the week before because that's what the packet goes out that I have everything. But could we do like what Jennifer proposing and say okay we're going to do this first read so we have time to look at I just think it's a lot to go through to say well I'm

266going to approve all these and I don't have any time to ask questions or anything. So you we can send it to you ahead of time but any decisions you make has to be in this arena. It's a public. You have to have your No, no, no. I understand. But I'm saying like this are we planning on approving these tonight or we're going to have until the next meeting to review the ones the new ones that you just like these are the you're going to get about seven or eight more. So if you do a first read, you keep adding to what you don't do. So again, if there's I I would tell you if there's things that you can approve tonight, I'd always tell you if you don't have any convers you don't have

267any concerns about any that I would approve them. If you do have concerns, hold them like you did with IHAM and IG to be able to bring to the next meeting to talk through further. But I would also tell you that I wouldn't want you to get too far behind um in your policies because then you're you're playing massive catchup. I wonder if they got them earlier at least moving forward. But it also might be if you have what another recommendation is that if you read it Cameron and you have concerns to send that language to Eric ahead of this meeting of what your concerns are. So he could highlight that and that could be a discussion piece so that we're we're talking about it beforehand. Yeah. As a start. And I just won't reply

268back. I'll just be like received. Got it. And then I can take that back to whomever if you want. So how far that's what I'm wondering. How far in advance of this do we expect to have? A week prior to the first board meeting probably, right? That's usually what we do is we get Yeah. Yeah, cuz policy not our board meeting, the first board meeting in the SAU for the elementary. So, and we can go retrieve the policy changes since she doesn't usually do that. She usually sends it out per district prior to, but I could ask her because she has to have them ready by then. So, I could ask her and say, "Can you just send me the whatever?" She changes. I mean, is that is that a huge pain to present those

269out to everybody? We usually put it all in the packet because I mean, just think about all the information we're sh That's your call lot. Yeah. your staff. That That's fine. Yeah. I just I mean, if that's the will of this board, we'll make it work. Um Wonder if all the boards would want it. It is the will. It shall be. I wonder if all the boards would want it because if it wouldn't have to be eight times, if all the boards were like, "Yeah, it would be great to be able to get it that early so they had extra time to process." And it wouldn't have to be eight times just the one time. We still have to send out the packet eight times. Eight different packets. The only thing that's consistent is usually

270the policies that we're sending out. That's why. And then because remember Molly's report is different for each district based on that. Uh and then it's based on what the chair and the the superintendent doesn't need to put on that agenda. Got it. Um so I don't see those two IH on the list anymore, right? They were on the they're on the list under Eric's um six dot whatever that is. They're on the agenda right now. Yep. Uh six dot. Oh god, I hate this thing. because I saw I think those are the only two that aren't from this not on there. Yeah, they'd have to be You brought up as old business at the I must have been looking at the meeting notes or whatever from but we didn't approve them. So I figure Yeah.

271Okay. They should be under policies but we can do it under old business. I will speak to make sure that it gets there moving forward from our office. Okay. So, do we want to move to approve everything except um uh JLF? I don't think that makes sense. Well, I think I don't I don't think it was JLF. It was it was that the one I think it was JLP. JLP, I think it was. Well, so this is two different things. So that was the one that Kate was talking about and this is the one from last time that I was objecting to the verbiage. So that's a different I think now we're figuring out which ones we're not going to pass this one or if we're just passing. I'd love Arlland to take a look

272at JLP and see if she has feedback on it. It was JLP, right? Well, and I think I think the JLF was the one you that Kate was referring to, right? That was in regards JF I think was the one you said was clear, right, Kate? That's the reporting of child abuse. I think it was the printed notification involvement in student welfare status. JLP was the one that you were saying was ambiguous. Or that you were not saying ambiguous, but you were saying you like the clarity. There was some clarity aspect. Yeah. I'm not I don't I want us to be able to support. Yep. That's all. So yeah, I think the motion would be to approve all of them except for JLP and then bring JLP back. Eric, if you could. Yep. Cool. All

273right, Sophie, do you want to make that motion? Um, sure. I'll make a motion to accept all policies as uh written except for JLP. All right. One second. Thanks, K. I'm sorry. Yeah. No, that's perfect. Um, all right. Any further discussion? Okay. Uh, all in favor, please say I. I. I. Okay. So five I'm gonna you're gonna obtain. Okay. I haven't read them. That's fine. So 401 with Kathleen abstaining. Tiffany. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Some water. I know. Um. All right. Negotiations. Do you want to make a motion to withdraw those motions as well? The policies. Oh, the necessary withdrawals. Well, are we going to do that in old business or No, that's still under the Yeah. Okay. I wouldn't be able to do I I'll make a motion to withdraw the the

274policies that were just requested to be withdrawn. Okay. All right. Do you want to list them just so for Sharon? No, this is you're talking about these are the ones that are being withdrawn, not We're good. I got them listed. You got them listed. Okay. Um do I have a second? I'll second. All right. Thanks, Cameron. Okay. All in favor? I I abstain. I abstain. Okay. So 401 with Kathleen abstaining. All right. Anything else? Policy committee. Just going to step away for some water. Yeah, sounds good. Negotiations. Nothing. Nothing. Okay. When when does that we have an idea like uh we'll talk with the union probably if we can start in August of late August. Okay. And then that will be we'll go through that through hopefully August, September and start break. Okay. All right.

275Any old business? Whoa. Oh, we stayed too late. That's it. My bedtime. Yeah, energy efficient. Uh, any old business? No old business. I'm just wondering about Kathleen plugging into committees. How are we sure? Yep. That's a great call. Question. Um, we'll do that as new business. Do you want to do that tonight? Do you want to think about it? I can think about it. Um, I'll reach out to you this week. That's perfect. Um, you can see obviously the committees that are listed. Tell me where you feel like there needs to be extra support. Yeah. When you give the lists, does anybody currently on want to switch or change? Fantastic. Okay. Well, if you do um reach out to me otherwise um she'll give me at one point there was permission. Yeah. I wouldn't mind

276if you're interested in building I mean now that there's going to be a lot of work I wouldn't mind having a neck a like a co-chair just to so we could split up the work if you're interested in that great if not then I understand but that's one sounds then cool I don't know what your work schedule is either when the meetings would be because that might be a do you know when the meetings Yeah probably be during the day but do you know like what day probably Mondays we we that's what we're going to work with with Yeah. I mean, if it doesn't fit, we can look. I know that fits in your schedule, but I know I'm flexible. I'm more flexible. Yeah. So, if that is something you want to do, then we

277can talk about schedules moving forward. Okay. It won't matter to Kater eye which day we meet. Yeah. Are there any other committee openings? I think I would just be supportive. Yeah. Um, not at this time. Superintendent is going to go away for a little bit. Um, yeah. I'm so strategic planning. Yeah. you just reach out. I'm sure. Yeah, communications can always use support, too. And um All right. If we have three, it would be a quorum. Oh, yeah. So, I'll address that. Okay. Oh, that's right. You and Cameron. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Any other new business? No. And yeah, you know, obviously there will be training with Chris. You know, I'll reach out. Yeah. You'll be all trained up. Um, all right. Do we want to go into nonpublic? You want to do the old

278business, the IHM and Oh, we doing that tonight. We're going to withdraw this. No, those are required ones, but Cameron had questions about the language and I Well, I thought the action was to get clarification on more clarification on them. Okay. I mean, I I we can vote it. I'm going to vote no and you guys can vote yes. And that's I mean it's it's up to you but I'm just there was kind of like two options as far as that concern about the disparity between the you know and that's really it's like you can alter the verb you know but I don't understand your qual what what or what what we're talking about. So we I don't want to like hold that over till the next. So there was just verbiage and I asked

279about adding a portion to it because the it was again the same discussion we just had about approving policies that are like in opposition to Mhm. because there and the answer is their state law, right? So yeah, the answer was you can vote no or you can you know modify the verbage. be interested in hearing what your opposition though is. The opposition to this specific policy is that it addresses things that aren't aren't like it's clearly like a political thing and that's what my concern was. There's and you know like I know your comment on that was that we're trying to preventive you know proactively address something. It just seemed like it again this one particular issue is not going to solve that problem of like uh policies that we object to but they're law

280you know so I don't want to prolong it but that was my objection to I am was the specific verbiage being added that was not going to be advantageous to anything that's done at the school. It doesn't address anything that's happens here. But we can I Eric does the polity. I mean, you can decide whether we're going to vote on that tonight. No, no, no. I I don't actually. So, I I I that's I don't feel like that's my responsibility. I feel like anybody can can make a motion to I don't I am comfortable not making a motion to accept those and take we could take your your suggested uh wording to amend it and we could get guidance on that if you'd like and then you can at least have more maybe the entire

281group could hear more about give them more information. So if you want to do that and that's actually that's what I thought the action was. I can get the the info on the other one and then I could take your proposed if you want to just send me that and then I'll get some feedback on that and we can bring that back and then if anybody is so satisfied with having feeling like they have enough information and Kathleen will probably have opportunity by that point to become aware of it. Somebody can motion it. Sounds good. All right, sounds good. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Can you hear that? Just email me that. Yes, I will send you ask about it tomorrow. All right. I think that's it, right? For the agenda. Mhm. Okay. Um, do we want

282to go into non-public? We do. Yes. Under A and C. Um, all right. Do you have a motion to go into non-public under A and C? Yep. So moved. Thanks, Eric. Okay. And we'll do a roll call vote. Sophie, I I I All right. 5 0. All right. We are now in non-public at 9:21. Thanks for coming, y'all. All right. We're back out of non-public at 9:50. Um, I think I have a couple motions on the table. So, who wants to make the first one? I can do it. I make a motion to accept the personnel request. I second that motion. The three personnel requests. Okay. Three personnel request. All right. To approve them. Okay. Um all in favor? I I Okay. Looks like 5 0. Um is there a motion regarding um Oh, the

283I'd like to make a recommendation to accept the parent request. Okay, great. Uh do I have a second? Uh, I will second. Thanks, Cameron. All right. Any discussion? No. All right. All in favor? I. All right. 500. And the third one. So, accept the administrative like to make a motion to accept the administration's request for contracts or recommendation. Recommendation. All right. Do you have a second? I'll second, Sophie. Okay. Thanks. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Great. All right. Is there a motion to adjurnn? Oh, let's stay here. All right. I think that's a 500 Z. Thank you, Sharon. You're the best.