001I'm going to call the meeting to order at 4:31. Um, I have to take attendance, correct? Do I have to take attendance? No. Fabulous. That must be the teacher in me. Okay. Um, public comment will be open for 30 minutes and each individual will have three minutes to comment. Hi. Hi. I'm Lucille Cestori. I actually live across the street on the corner of Terrace Lane. So, we've been in the neighborhood for 41 years. It's kind of nice to come back in here to just see you and my kids all just moved here. I just have a comment and a request. Actually, the lighting on the outside of this building is is so so bright. Um, many of them I can deal with because they're like a tinted yellowish, but there's one on the side of
002the oldest part of the building that is so bright that if I walk into my living room at night and there's no leaves on the trees, I have to do this. It's so bright. And I'm wondering at one time when the multi-purpose room was first built and those three lights were put on that, it was very bright. So, the school board worked with us to kind of turn them down a little bit, dim them down so they weren't spotlighting on my house. So, if that light on the older portion of the building, right smack in the middle, the bright bright white one, could something be done with it, maybe painted halfway down or a shield or something put over? Honestly, when people leave my house and go out my front door at night, we're we're
003doing this because we can't see. Can you So bright I'm just trying to think which light you're you're talking like is it by the main entrance or is it on the side of the multi? So if you go out the main entrance and the wall is to your left is that light right smack in the middle. It's the very different one. Okay. It looks different than all the others room and I kind of rearranged my living room about a year ago. Now if I sit in my chair when the timer will turn it on when it gets to us, you know, just before dark. Yeah. And I said, "Oh, close the curtains." And and it's just it's not as bad when the leaves are on the tree. I'm a little bit But in the winter,
004it's it's like like you said, I come out haven't closed the curtains at night and I come out to the living room to see what my dogs are talking. I I have to actually do this because it's so bright. I mean, if I don't know if any of you ever come around here in the night to see. I mean, I'm here, but I've never paid attention. So, yeah. Stand back. Like, go out to the street. You're trying to look at it. It's like, whoa. Okay. Is that something that the safety committee can look at? I mean, I just I I'm hearing you and I understand. I just want to make sure that our perimeter and and things are, you know, safety is going to be our first concern. So many lights on the building. Yeah.
005There are so many lights. I I can see things that are happening. You know, I'm like Mrs. Grabbits. I'll look out there and say, "Oh, who's that car? Do they belong here? Are they you know good? So um but it's it's it's actually I think state law like so it's it's it's really getting I guess I must be getting old because it's getting older. Yeah. I appreciate you coming and and sharing that with us. Thank you. Okay. Please. I have something I just wondered under on the agenda it says under chair reports and then it goes down to policies committees and the IHVAC developmental delay as qualifying disability and then on the next page under withdraw it's evaluation requirements for children with developmental uh delays. So why are they withdrawing anything and what's the difference
006going to be? Yep. So, I'll answer you quickly. Um, and then wait until you do, right? But the the quick answer is all of the policies have been reworked and so one is being withdrawn and one is being replaced with new wording. So, it it's not really technically being withdrawn. It was just reworked. So, we're still doing it. Yeah. Um, any other comments? Yes. Um, I wanted to comment about the sign that was brought up at the last meeting. Um, I just looked at it, you know, today and yeah, if sanded down and repainted, I I just don't see that the need for this and especially what was brought up where we have some excess money this year and it's the end of the school year. You know, I think it would be fairer to
007maybe think about returning that to the taxpayers rather than than doing anything with the sign, especially if you can compare this sign to the one at the town offices where you can't even read East Kingston on that sign. If signs were a big deal to the electorate in East Kingston, that sign at the town office would not be in the condition that it's in. So, I wanted to at least express my opinion on that. Okay. Thank you. I might add to that. The sign at the town office, I believe, was done by a boy scout eagle scum years ago. It was a donation from Oh, I'm sure the work was It looks like this scum and all it's over. It's on never been taken care of. And I know two wrongs don't make it right.
008I don't know. Right. Appreciate your comment. Okay. Announcements. Um would you like to do I want to? So I have one. It would normally be a Dr. Menet, but we had um a teacher resignation. Um our art teacher, Alicia Bastio, who's part-time, um gave her notice that she's taking a full-time position in Dover. Uh it was a really hard move for her to make because she's been here for seven or eight years. Um if you came to the art show and you see what our kids are capable of, it's a direct reflection of the art teacher Mrs. Bastile is. So for us it is a huge loss, but for her and her family it is a great gain. Um so we're excited for her but um a little bit sad for us and our kids.
009Okay. So we have to uh approve, right? What's the right way? You just have to acknowledge it. Acknowledge it. Okay. And we have to vote for that. We have to give a vote for that. So, uh, with regret, um, we'll accept her resignation and, uh, we wish her the best. Do I have a second? Do she you have to second? I think he does. Second. Yeah. Second. All in favor? I Okay, great. Uh, business and financials. Okay. In your board packs, we sent you the latest financial um, at the end of our last meeting. We had remaining appropriation or remaining expense of $19,546. In this month, we spent an additional $12,399. Um there were some various incumbrance adjustments and we also had an increased purchasing in um supplies and books. So, the remaining appropriation at
010this time is $7,147. We do have additional earnings um some additional revenue, so we're projecting our fund balance to be $14,147. Um the thing we have to be careful is is we cannot overspend our appropriation. So, we only have $7,147 to work with. And we do not encumber as substitutes. So we know there will be additional expenses for the next month and a half in substitutes. So we're very close to our appropriation this. Okay. Um can you or Brandon can you explain the increase in books and supplies? Is that setting up for next year? No, it would be for whenever we need it for the remainder of this year. Okay. An example would be like what are we spending on? I'm not I'm not sure exactly which books it was, but if a teacher had
011a lesson or a unit plan and needed specific reading Okay. text that she would order those. So it was a curric curriculum curriculum related. Yeah. Is that something that happens kind of throughout the year like as needed or is it Yes. Yeah. So um the the SU gives us a deadline to cut off all purchase orders and requisitions. Um so teachers will use their budget as needed throughout the year. Most of it is upfront you to start the year but as they get through curriculum and there is a need then they would be ordering materials or supplies to okay teach that area. Do you have any other questions? No. I I guess in my do we actually um well Sharon you just mentioned um substitute costs so that's already projected in there in do we
012know like what the projections might be for sub I mean we have we have what 282 and a half days left I mean I I don't anticipate a huge a huge cost for the remainder of the year but you never know um so I I wouldn't be too concerned about subs well for this month we spent $1,500 in subs so I teachers like to I mean the weather's weather's nice so so we just have to just just being careful and the in the um revenue y what is the the revenue we're not including you're not including it that's why you're saying like stick to the 7,000 because it's we don't want to count on it. Is that what you're advising? No. So, we know we're going to get the additional revenue, but there's two things.
013There's there's what we call fund balance at the end of the year, which is um the difference between our expenses and our revenue. So, if our revenues are higher, then we can say our fund balance is larger at the end of the year. But we also have a law or we cannot exceed our appropriation. So the the the budget that people passed. So that's the expense portion and we cannot overspend that expense portion. Even even if we had an additional $50,000 in revenue, unless you have a special meeting to vote to use that revenue, you cannot exceed what was voted on. So that's that's why we have to stay at $7,000. Okay. Yeah. I mean at the beginning of the year you guys had authorized money to come from the trust for some of the
014additional work that you did. So you know you can take a look at the next meeting in June and if you need to you can you can withdraw some money from the trust if you if you fall into a worse position. have to see you. Okay. Okay. Can I speak again? You said about the good weather. So, there may be more need for substitutes. What sort of excuses did the teachers have to give if you want a sunny day off? Part of their benefits are that they have they can take personal days. So, I mean whether it's an appointment or or any reason that they would like to take a personal day, they're they're allowed to do that. It's a benefit day for them. Yeah. So, they get how many personal days a year? Deposit.
015They get they get they're guaranteed four. If they don't use all of them, they can uh accumulate a fifth a fifth day. They can Sorry. So, if they don't use all the personal days in a year, they can add one on to the following year. Okay. So, it translates. I mean, we have we have teachers taking days for graduations um of college age students, you know, things like that. So, as as end of you know, ends of years uh whether it's high school or college come, there's events that are more family oriented that that teachers save their personal days for. You find that at the beginning of the year too, kids going to college and they have it. It's right that it's almost like the same two weeks that school starts for everybody. They have
016to take a personal day. So, okay. Thank you. You're welcome. No. Okay. Um general asurances. So, um the general asurances, uh go ahead. No. So the general assurance is it's a it's a form that we need to sign every year um which is mandated in order for us to receive our grants. So basically what this the asurances are saying is that we follow all the laws and we do not you know we do not break any laws in the use of grant funds. And it was voted at the joint board last month that um we were under federal law and for us to receive any grant funds, we need to sign it as a district. So, I'm going to sign it for us and it should be at that point we're all set. And that
017does not need a vote because it's already been voted. require two signatures. No pasture. No. [Applause] Do you want me to print my Hey, Michelle. It says typed. Yeah, printed. Okay. Just double check that leave. Okay. Thank you. Um approval of minutes. We didn't notice anything. Okay. So, uh, April 14th, approval of minutes. Yes. What do I say? You said it. Yeah. You said you make I make your motion. I make a motion to approve the minutes. All in favor? I I Okay. Principal's report. Thank you very much. I'm going to start our report, my report uh with recognizing uh one of our phenomenal third graders. Uh Iona Dervin is here. Iona was recently um she had a really busy week last week and a really busy day on I think it was Wednesday, was
018it? Yeah, it was. Um we uh we had the kindest kids in New Hampshire and probably America here in the school. And I really believe that. Um and uh uh because of that we were we were trying to bring um uh an assembly to our school to really uh enhance what we're doing and um to possibly recognize students for being kind. And um one of our teachers, Miss Jablonsky, Caroline Jablonsky, uh really took hold of this and started working with a group called Kindest Kid in America. Um, and a woman named Jesse Hansen, um, is the leader of this group. Is that what you call it? Just like one of six. Yeah. And and she started it. Yeah. Right. Um, and um, it really it really just started something small and turned into something huge.
019And that huge thing was Iona and what she brought to East Kingston. Our teachers were asked by M. Blonsky um through the kindest kid in America to nominate students who they feel exemplify being the kindest kid in America and Iona was the leader in our school uh from our staff um to be recipient of this award and we thought it was going to stop there and it didn't. um we were going to have the assembly which was last Wednesday and we were going to recognize her there but as spring break happened and her mom Jen is texting me um about Iona meeting the governor. So last week, uh Iona and her family uh and I were able to um head up to conquer to the state house for uh the governor's council and there were
020a number of people being recognized um either through proclamations or commendations and Iono was one of those people and I will tell you this there were like I said there were a number of people that were recognized including a retiring colonel, fourstar colonel or something from from the state And Miss Duran received the highest round of applause from all the people there. Uh, it was amazing. It was a great honor. This is the proclamation from the governor with her signature. I don't Come here. Get out here. Show your medal. Over here. Yep. Nice in America. And you got to shake the governor's hand. Uh, and then we had a huge assembly. Yes. And uh Jess Desessie Hansen was the leader of our assembly and she was just um uh she's hard to describe. She was
021just a ball full of energy uh but sincere and really believes in what she's doing. Her mission is to um end school violence by being kind and this that's what this group's all about. And Iona is the perfect person to represent um not only East Kingston but the first recipient in the state of New Hampshire. Outstanding. So again, congratulations Iona is a huge honor. Yeah. Part of that is a book titled Kindest Kid in America, Smiling Iona that is actually on sale on Amazon. So we're going to have one for the parents. Yes. And we're going to have one in our library and people in the school are already buying. You going to sign it? Yes. You're going to sign your own book. She's going to sign her own book and it's going to be
022on file here today. Miss already got one. I know. She told me it's too. We brought that one for the school. Oh, you did? Yeah. Oh, perfect. Yeah, you can have it. She needs to really sign it though. She just kind of like did her little quick signature. I think she royalties out. So, congratulations. Proud of you. Thanks for representing us. Nice job. Nice work. [Applause] Fabulous. All right. Um so moving on uh thinking about kindergarten next year 25 26 it hasn't changed from last month we have 23 uh registered or inquired about registration we had our parent information night last week it was really well attended and we're really excited about our incoming uh students and we're hoping for a couple more uh but that's where we are right now. Our enrollment numbers um
023are the same as they were last month for a total of 113. Um this past week we recognized our amazing staff here at East Kingston uh during teacher appreciation week. Um and I definitely want to give a big shout out to the PTO again for everything they do for our teachers and our staff here. Um and it's so welld deserved from from the teachers uh you know for the teachers for everything they do for our kids. So, I want to recognize our teachers, but also thank the PTO for really recognizing them big time. Uh, our spring festival was also last week. We had a very busy week. Uh, our our hallways are um filled with student artwork. Um, and our um parents and families were um able to watch and uh hear our students singing
024led by Mr. K and our teacher, Mrs. Bastile. We want to thank them for all their efforts in and providing our school just a wonderful evening. And the last thing uh for me which kind of goes right into um the discussion items was the sign. Okay. Um we uh we do have a quote for the sign. Uh just under $4,000 3,890. uh the the sign. We we've we've received feedback from um from families and neighbors regarding the sign and um that the wish that that it would be replaced. Um and we didn't we didn't ask for feedback on that. It was just given to us again from both families and from from neighbors. Uh that being said, you know, the the the letters that we have for announcements fall off, they fall through. Um so
025it's not just it's not just the decor of it, but it's really what it's for is for East Kingston sign, but also to communicate um messaging. So it's it's uh it's going to it's going to have to be replaced at some point. uh whether it's now with this current budget or putting it into next year's budget and doing it after July 1st. Okay. So the question is just when how long do you know how long it would take to do it? I I don't have that. No. It would be rather quick. Yeah. Um I do have I do have some reservations in it only because we're only working with seven grand right now and and I don't have an issue getting a new sign, especially if we can up the messaging that can go on
026that sign. Um but I do have some reservations doing it immediately just because of the conversation we just had. Um, it might be fine. I mean, but we're cutting it really close if we do have a 1500 sub uh piece that happens. Um, there are no concerns about doing it after July 1st, right? So, I guess for me, I would I would just prefer to play it safe than sorry. And I also um I I also like the idea that you received feedback in in from families and what they're looking for. I would ask maybe like what what more are they looking for? What's what's the issue with the present sign that we can fix when we put the new one in? The issue is for lack of a better term, it's ugly and it's
027old and it's deteriorating. Okay. So there it's more of the not the messaging, but what it looks like. What it looks like. Okay. Um Okay. So for that reason, I I personally would rather wait until July to know that we're in better shape. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Okay. So great. We can vote in June for that. Well, there's no vote. We'll just take it budget. Okay. So I'd wait till the second till July. Um Anything else? I'm all set. You're good. Y Okay, Michelle. Anything else? Anything else? No. Um discussion or action items? We don't have any. I wanted to go to chair's report. Um superintendent evaluation uh was finished to today. We um we met this morning for two plus hours to review all the data and that was from the data
028from um the SLT which is the leadership team at the SAU16 plus all the data from each school board. Um so that data was aggregated aggregated and will be brought to the joint board on Monday uh for further review. um our superintendent is leaving and a new superintendent is coming in. So the recommendations have been put forth with the upcoming year um for the new superintendent based upon the feedback. So that has been finished up today. Uh policy committee, we do not have a policy committee person. So I am going to read the new policies and the withdrawns um as they're worked on. I did have a conversation with Renee regarding who is like looking at these policies because we don't have a rep on there. Um this one is very student focused. These policies
029are very um we'll say help trying to help our kids and uh advocate for our kids. And so legal was asked to look at a few things to make sure that they were um in the appropriate language. Um, all of our nurses apparently were part of some of these conversations and um, the policy committee did a did a pretty big word smithing dive to make sure that as federal laws are coming in, we're shifting and changing. So, they had three three different sets of eyes on here. So, I was feeling a little bit more confident about us not having a rep on the policy committee. So um uh most of these policies have been they're being replaced or being wordsmith based on new laws coming coming out from the feds. So they looked at IHBAC
030which is developmentally delayed as qualifying disability. JFABD education of unhoused students and unaccompanied youth. J IC DD, Student Disciplines, Out of School Action. JLCA, Physical Examinations of Students. JLCH, do not resuscitate orders. JLF reporting child abuse. JLP, parental notification and involvement in student welfare. Those are being put in. And the withdrawal is H I B D A JF F A B D R1 JF F A C J K B J J K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D J J J J
031J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J J K K E Thank you, missed the I on the first one. Okay, IDA I HBDA. Okay, that one's being withdrawn. So I make a motion to pass these policies. Second. Second. All in favor? I I How do I do? I think you need to make a motion to withdraw also. Make a motion to So, a motion to approve and then a motion to withdraw. Okay. Should I make a motion to withdraw? Want me to read them again? No. No. Okay. Second. Second. All in favor? I thank you. Uh, it is now 501. Um I'm going to close public comment
032safety and security committee. Yeah, I mean nothing to report. Um had our last meeting um earlier in the spring, late winter. Uh we won't be meeting again until uh the fall. Um so that is pretty much the update there for safety and security. And I can go down to strategic planning real quick. Um we had a meeting in April uh where we went over um everything from the uh planning summit that we had over 3 days uh in late March and um starting to really refine everything from those very active discussions. Um we have a meeting coming up on the 22nd where we're pretty much going to finish up that process and then uh I think we'll be presenting that plan um at some point over the summer to the joint committee um and then
033moving forward from there. So, uh, next meeting again on the 22nd of May, next week. So, okay. Um, the SAU wellness committee, we met on Thursday. Um, that committee is is still working on a toolkit for each school and each school has a rep. Uh, many of those people on that wellness committee are moving on or retiring. So, it will be a new committee um next year. Um, I am stepping down as the parent rep on that committee. So, they will need a a parent rep, but we have two faculty reps from the school that are are on there. So, I'm fairly confident it will be it will be fine. Um, one of the one of the u members of the committee uh actually lovely uh model of authentic uh assessment design. she has her
034graduate students working on uh this toolkit for our district and um it's coming out quite lovely uh the communication so I appreciate that. So that's it for updates among committees. Uh goal updates academic a June meeting we'll talk talk about it of your benchmarks. Okay. Um goal two uh community engagement um community engagement had their meeting last week. Uh we uh are moving forward. Brandon is speaking to SST about their involvement and what we're going to do back there. Um, Carolyn Jambolski, again, I I want to commend her. She's been working really hard at um getting uh the benches. She got that. Yeah, the fundraiser up and going. So, we have a fundraiser. We found benches with flexible seating that can be moved out there. So, teachers could put together as like a picnic table
035or single desks or community members could put together and make different shapes or whatever. So that we have um that fundraiser going. Um we have had the ability that um I will be still on the committee but not a huge part. JT is going to take this as his goal and I will take on academic um for that goal. So, moving forward, um I think we set the goal of next year doing I'll call it the ribbon cutting. Um which would be really nice once we can won't be a finished product, but it will be a usable product and uh as the years go on that that community park back there can be can be start act being accessed. Uh and then goal three. Yeah, I know Brandon you covered off on um sort of
036updates on the sign talked about that probably pushing that out till at least later this summer. Um, in terms of other capital improvement uh items, I know that we'll probably be revisiting that sort of larger list over the summer as we look at sort of planning for the year ahead. Uh, looking to sort of prioritize that, remove things from that list that we've done over the last couple of years. So, um, outside of that, I got no other major updates to share uh, in terms of capital improvement unless there's anything Brenda that we didn't already cover. We're going to go to not public to discuss some of the safety items. We can Yeah. Okay. Just want to give you an update there. Okay. Okay. Um the only thing I have for new business um would
037be to put on the board's radar a workshop day um before the start of school to really look at goals and to work with the district and Brandon on you know the upcoming year. Um something to think about. We don't need to make a date right now. um but to maybe do it an hour before our first board meeting so that we're not taking another day out in August. Um but you know, we'll we'll set that date in June during our last meeting. Um if nothing else, I'm going to go into non-public under what? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um you can reach out to me if you have any question about which one. Okay. Thank you. I'll figure it out. If there's the one right out there, I I think I know which
038one you're talking about. Yep. Thanks. You got to say under Hold on, Paul. Yep. I'm not sure which. I was looking for I would say 9183. 83. 9183. 91 A3. And then which letter? Uh safety. I'm looking at it. G looks like G security. Yep. G. Okay. Um, we are going to go into non-public under RSA 913G. Second. Second. All in favor? I I uh it is now 511 and I make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second. All in favor?