Exeter Region Cooperative School Board Meeting 04/15/25

001Yes. Welcome uh to the April 15th Exit Regional Cooperative School Board meeting. Please join me in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. My name is Bill Gothy. I'm the chair of the board and uh we're going to start by doing introductions and Timmy, could you kick us off? I'm Timmy Gun from Stratum. Neil Blake and Melissa Lions, East Kingston. Don Bolan's exit Erin Garcia de Pres stratum Amy Ransom Newfields Brian Duffy Brentwood Colette Provos cooperative middle rep Lachlan McCauley cooperative middle school rep great and then administrators Drew uh Drew Barto principal at CMS welcome Molly O'Keefe director of finance yeah I was gonna

002go I was to you first but yeah it's up to you oh hi I'm Lauren McGrath I'm the seventh grade assistant principal at the middle school. Melanie Faulner, eighth grade assistant principal. Annie Ro, special director at the middle school. Karen, administrator at the middle school, from 16th, assistant principal. Welcome. Esther Razbell, superintendent right here in SAU 16. Yes. Well, thank you for introducing yourself. Yeah. Great. Uh we will start with public input starting at 602. So, if you have something to say, we just ask that you come to the mic that's up in the middle of the room, say your name and town, and uh we'll go from there. Uh, but let's start with some We have some visitors. Dan, is Dan here? So, I have an update um from Dan and Dan and Rusty

003aren't here this evening because they have decided to focus on the Courier Field, which would be the Exer Elementary School Board. Oh, okay. So, it's off the table for the co-op board for now. All right. Meeting adjourned. Let's go. All right. Well, sorry. We're sorry, missing Dan. Uh, the next one, Colin. Is Colin here? He's not yet, but love. Do you want to wait for Colin? Because we can go through student updates, then we can come back. Is that Let's do that. I always love hearing from Colin. So, and I can't wait to hear from you. That That's great. All right, so let's uh let's move on to Colette and Lachlan. You guys update us what's going on at CMS. On March 7th, the seventh graders had a spring fling dance. Mr. Burke ran this

004event to help raise money for the summer England field trip. The theme was neon, and aside from dancing, there was also fun games and concessions. Overall, the dance was very successful and a great fundraiser. Over the past few months, eighth graders have been in the process of picking their ninth grade classes. In February, teachers made their recommendations on what level of classes each student is suited for. Students could either follow their teachers recommendations or override them. Before students made their decisions, EHS counselor, Mrs. Nukem, visited the eighth grade team, each eighth grade team to answer any questions about EHS schedules, etc. A few days later, students picked their classes, and the eighth grade counselor sorted out any issues. For the past three weeks, SST has invited current eighth grade students to tour the building and

005learn more about the 12 programs they have to offer. Some of these programs include pre-engineering, mechanics, welding, and culinary classes. Each pod went separately, and it was a great opportunity to ask questions and learn more about what SST has to offer. The CMS Jazz Choir has had many events in the past few weeks. Everyone in the jazz choir is going to be singing a solo piece at Jimmy Jimmy's Jazz and Blues Club in Portsouth. We've been picking our songs and coaching and going to coaching sessions to improve our stage presence and vocal skills. This will be the jazz choir's concert since they will be performing multiple group pieces as well. They also went on a field trip to the NHSAA conference on April 10th where they performed many of their pieces to many student groups

006and superintendent. Monday through Wednesday of last week was designated for I Ready testing. For this testing session, we implemented a new schedule. Similar to a half day or delayed opening schedule, all students tested for a little over two hours and then started their day as normal, but with shortened class periods. This was the same schoolwide, which helped which helped the day run smoothly and made it so no classes were skipped. This system works so well that CMS plans to do the same thing when SAS testing starts next week. Good SAS testing next week. Excellent testing. Yes. And you didn't get to miss a class. That is awesome. I love the collaboration between SST and what what that is really great that we're in the building so early. So CMS administrators, are you proud of these

007two? I mean, this is we they come and update us all the time. They do a great job. So we really appreciate uh appreciate that. Colette, you have some news that you've shared with me. You want to share it with us? No. Yes. Oh, am I putting you on the spot? You don't have to. I got into PA. Yes, congratulations. Yes, we're very proud of you. That is great. It's nice to see CMS students coming to our building, but also going to others. So, uh, we're going to cheer you on. Know, it's a little bit too early, but we'll be cheering you on from afar. Anybody have anything that they want to ask? Oh, I just wanted to say I attended the NHSAA meeting and everybody was really talking about the jazz the middle school

008jazz crowd. They were really really impressed and they did a wonderful job. So, you did a great job. Thank you for coming. Great. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Um Carly is not here. Victoria, you mind coming to talk to us? What's going on? Yeah. Do you mind just coming out to the mic and then if you don't mind just repeating your name? Okay. Um, so good evening everyone. I'm Victoria Curley. I'm from the business marketing academy from SST. And today I just wanted to share um my journey in our SST class since I'm a senior and how it's impacted my life and future. One of the highlights has been our um success at DECA. This this year I won third place for human resource management. Winning there was not just an achievement. It was a

009testament to our hard work and creativity in this class. Being able to design projects, reflect my own ideas has been incredibly fulfilling, especially as someone who has a love for cars and many other interests. My teacher really lets us be creative, whatever we want to do. This class has given me the freedom to choose my groups and collaborate with my peers, which has been a valuable experience. I've made many great friends in this class. It's guided me towards my passion for international business and human resources. I signed up for this class seeking real life experiences, and I can confidently say that I've received so much more than that. I've made friends, met inspiring business owners, and gotten a lot of advice from business owners, especially in the local areas, and gained insights that are paving

010my way for my future who make me I am who I am today. Looking ahead, I'm excited to continue my journey at UNH, and I will pursue international business and human resources, and I'm grateful for everything this class has to offer for me and where my path will lead me. Um, if you're in CMS right now, I definitely suggest taking an SST class. It really paves that way. if you're not sure what you want to do. So, yeah. Thank you. It sounds like it did a great job for you. That is excellent. Yeah. And you're going to UNH next year? Uh this coming fall. This coming fall. So, congratulations. That is great. It's my alma mater. So, good choice. Yes. Mine, too. So, yes. Um, great. Any questions? Thank you for coming and spending some

011time with us and letting us know what's going on. We don't get to hear this all a lot of time, so it really helps us. And SST has been doing great job. and thank you for being part of it. Yeah, thank you. All right. And just in time. Yes. All right. So, um, thank you for all the student reports. We're going to come back. Colin, welcome. I know. I know. Yes. I was going to say, do I see you? Have you Sorry, I was running a moment late. My my daughter was presenting at her at the Oyster River uh uh sustainability nights. Dad made a little tiny home for fourth graders. So, of course, and if you guys know Durham, Madbury Road's all trafficked up, so I was rerooed the wrong direction. So, I apologize.

012I've run a little late. Um, anyways, I want to thank you again for opportunity uh for another chance. I think if you don't know me, I'm Colin Burke. I'm not sure who's new to the school board this year, teacher at the middle school. Uh, trying to get or ask permission again for another trip to London. Um, we have seven girls going this year who signed up. Um, very excited. They're doing a lot of researching and planning. um got a good group who's really come together. Um but before I started, I had invited one of our travelers to come. I'd give her a moment to speak like uh Ella, if you like to come up here, talk about her experiences. Okay. All right. Hi all. Um my name is Ella. I'm an eighth grader here at

013CM. No, not here. Sorry. I thought I was going to be presenting at CMS. So, I'm here tonight to tell you a bit about the upcoming eighth grade trip to London that will be going on in June. So, I was interested in going since my parents had gone and obviously they sent pictures of the two of them at amazing sites and my parents thought it would also be a great opportunity to meet new people, interact with other teachers, learn about culture in other countries, and better understand world history. So, when my parents were in eighth grade, they went on a class trip to Washington DC. While this that is also a valuable trip, we are so lucky to have teachers in the school board supportive of us traveling abroad. It opens up to a new

014a whole new world of opportunity. And as of the beginning of the school year, our group our group of students have been doing fundraising and advertising for our trip. Our fundraising efforts have helped raise money for our own trip, but also some of it is going towards a scholarship for next year. One of our fundraisers was collecting gift cards for a calendar. Oh my god. For a calendar raffle in May. Sorry, I'm a bit nervous. Um, we had to go downtown to exit and ask for donations. And this helped to build my leadership skills because I had to ask up the courage. Um, and I had to speak to some store managers and request donations. It boosted my confidence up a bit when people said yes, and so many people were happy to support our

015trip. We even got to hear some stories about some of their businesses, which is pretty cool. Another fundraising effort we helped was running the seventh grade school dance. We helped plan and coordinate the event, sell items at the dance, and make sure it ran smoothly. This also helped build my leadership skills and gave me a real life experience in coordinating events, and it also allowed me to be a role model to my younger peers. Running the school dance was something I'll never forget. It was giving joy and excitement to seventh graders and that really was a great feeling to have. The feeling of giving. Being able to travel to London is such a good experience and I wish everyone could have it. It offers eighth graders a unique and enriching educational experience that goes far

016beyond what a local trip within the US can provide. Visiting a global city like London exposes students divi divi my gosh diverse diverse cultures historical landmarks and international perspectives fostering a deeper understanding of the world and their place in it. Walking through centuries old sites like the Tower of London or the West Minister Abbey brings history to life in a way textbooks cannot. While navigating a new country builds confidence, adaptability and global awareness. This kind of immerse immersive learning not only enhances academic growth but also encourages de personal development and curiosity. Key traits for future success in the connected world. While local trips can be fun and educational, an international experience in London offers a once-ina-lifetime opportunity to broaden horizons and create lasting memories at at a formative age. I really hope that incoming eighth

017graders of 2026 can have this opportunity as well. And thank you from Thank you to Mr. Burke for making all this possible. Our school is lucky to have a dedicated teachers who have made this experience possible for our students. While most other teachers will be headed to the beach to enjoy enjoy some peace and quiet for the first week of vacation, he has chosen to give us eighth graders this opportunity. So, thank you all for supporting our trip and I hope there's one next year. Great. Thank you, Ella. That was awesome. Very kind words there. I I hadn't known her before this year and she's really stepped up as kind of one of our quiet leaders of of um bring us together. She was amazing when we were doing some of the fundraising. Um just

018stepped right up and and jumped right in there and you know when we were downtown asking for donations. Um she was probably the most fearless one up there going up which was awesome to see. Um so anyways, you guys have received this year's packet. Very similar to last year. Um very similar trip. Um no no big changes. Um I did spend some time actually researching through other companies just to see other options out there, other costs. I know I I I forget the gentleman's name. He was on the school board last year. Um and he did mention, you know, I'd just be curious if there were other companies through which to run through. So, I did I contacted two or three other companies. Um and I got to say, Students Love Travel is by far

019the best option I think out there. Um the big guy, EF, um you end up with up to 40 kids from other schools getting bust in from outside of the cities. Um, another smaller company, I think it was called Four Winds was a day less and would have been about $500 more dollars. Um, so I I trust Rob uh Delore, I know many of you know Rob. Um, his he they put together I think the best product, especially the best product for the money out there. Um, so I I that's I you know, love to stick with them. Um, Nella did mention also our scholarship. Uh we've done a lot this year trying to raise money for uh scholarships. Uh we had a little bit of money coming over from last year. One fundraiser that

020seventh grade dance you mentioned. Um we've run so far that so we're up to a little about $1,700 at this point. Uh we're in the middle of doing that gift card um fundraiser hoping for at least another $500. So a scholarship were there and then running one more sixth grade dance since all the sixth graders saw myself and Miss Davis running the seventh grade one and we teach sixth grade. They were all jealous. So, we said we'll do our best to put on another one. So, we're hoping for, you know, nice successful night there. Um, we're hoping to have somewhere between $3 and $3,500 available for scholarships. Um, so one of the things Mr. Baro and I were talking, maybe even some input from, uh, the school board about how best to use that. Do

021we put all our eggs in one baskets, use that, you know, a lot for one student? Do we, you know, split it maybe $1,500 between two different students? Um, you know, do we, how much do we save for next year? So I was looking maybe some input from the board for that as well if we decide to move forward. Um so that's what I have. I don't you have questions for me thoughts. Great. I have a couple thoughts. I know the person that said you should look at other ones. That was me. Okay. So I totally appreciate the EF looking at EF and four wins. I do know Rob. So it's just nice to get the perspective so that we're everybody was about the same price within a few hund I think EF if you

022wanted to do a consolidated trip with other random schools without about an hour outside the 45 minutes or so outside the city in a hotel I think it saved about $200 which we're going to stay if anybody knows London we found a a spot hotel this year we're staying about a 12minute walk from Piccadilly Circus and Lester Square which you can't it's like staying right next to Time where you can't ask for anything better than that. That is great. And I heard I heard some other key things like the fundraising. I think that's great. That is really helpful because the cost is high. So if we can get other students to uh to do it, that is really great. And not to interrupt, another reason we want to start now is so that gives a

023full year to plan. Um you know, if a a student is motivated even at 13, 14 years old, mow some lawns in the summer, babysit, they can easily come up with half of that cost over the course of a year. and between them and a you know split with a family it's much more especially with the summer being available to work is was one of our thoughts that start now. Yes. Yeah. I think that No, that is great. And I I appreciate you coming so early in front of the board too. Uh any any questions or observations? When you when you're raising funds and people give donations, do they write the check to exit high school? Well, it'll be to the cooperative middle school. We're cooperative. Um sorry. Yes. So, okay. Our two biggest fundraisers

024so far have been um well the biggest one so far has been the the dance. Uh but yes, when they do the gift card, they all the checks, all that go to Cooperative Middle School. I write that direct to I drop that off with Miss Grady. She keeps all the the funds going. And is that a tax deduction? Like if someone gives a donation, is it deductible? And maybe you don't I I don't I'm asking because I don't know the answer to that. And I wondered if it were if would generate more donations. I'm pretty sure that I don't know where my brother is. I can text him. Anyway, just that'd be something to look into. Yeah, I I'd have to I I I don't know if we'd be consider Do you have to be

025a 503C charity for that? Yeah. You have to establish a fund as a non. So, I would I would assume no, but that'd be interesting to just look in. Yeah. My old our oldest son went on when the the students love travels and they're fabulous. They It's a great value. That's why a lot of like the sports team that have friends of soccer or whatever, they have a separate organization that's the 501c3 that accept the funds and make a tax. I'm I'm the friend of the London trip. So, it's uh uh but we do actually have had some very supportive parents who have helped out actually when we ran the seventh grade dance. Uh Ava Chicken's father um uh was help uh she uh the father, I'm sorry, he um helped to DJ it. He

026does some DJing on the side, so he came by and helped us out with that. So, we've had we've had some amazing support from all of the parents. So, um thank you. Thanks. Anything else? Any uh any suggestions on what to do with the funds like how to distribute them? Because that's a question you asked like how Yeah, I was I was leaning if we can make it over 3,000. We probably shouldn't be doing that. Yeah. I'm not I mean school based decisions coming down I'll talk with Drew in depth about it but um I was leaning towards two smaller ones but we'll talk we'll talk more about the application process and all that if we but um perfect um so you'd like you'd like to get this approved so I just ask the board

027all those in favor of approving the trip please raise your hand okay everyone's approved all right thank you very much I do apologize for coming in right good time but I'd love it thank Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Uh appreciate that call. So with that, if if students want to go home and leave, if you're we're starting to get to the exciting part of the meeting, the minutes, you stick around, you'll see policy, too. See you. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Uh so moving on the let's take this so for the board with the public meeting uh minutes were distributed last Tuesday. Anybody have any questions about the minutes or corrections? I am 99% certain that Avery is spelled Avr Y for

028the robotic student because I know his father. Oh, you do? And we had a conversation about his name once years ago and you have a good memory. So yeah, I trust that you were Brian. Where is that? Where is it in the um [Applause] page two of the minutes section 7 7.2 AV R Y. Is that what you said? Yeah. Mr. Chairman, if there are no other changes, I would move to approve the minutes uh with that editorial change. Excellent. Thank you. Appreciate that. We have a second. All right. Thank you, Brian. Uh all those in favor, please raise your hand. Okay, everyone is approved. Uh moving on to the next ones are the non-public minutes. Uh could I look for a motion to approve the non-public minutes? Motion. Thank you, Don. Second. Thank you,

029Aaron. Um, all those in favor, please raise their hand and say, "Hi." I All right. Thank you. We're all approved for that. [Music] All right. So, it is uh 6:22. We've gone 20 minutes. 20 minutes. Yep. 20 minutes. So, we we're going to close. Anybody have any public input? I'm going to close the public input for tonight. 30. Oh, it's 30. I'm sorry. Okay. We'll keep it open. Um, all right. So, but but I'll turn it over to Drew. All right. Uh, we have a little presentation back here. So, we'll be facing this way if anybody wants to. Oh, thanks, Sonia. All right. So, we wanted to take this opportunity, we wanted to take this opportunity to share just like a sort of state of the school report. Uh, particularly for um some of the

030schoolboard members that haven't necessarily been here for the last little bit. Um, just to give you a sense of where we are in our school, what we're working on this year, and what we're um looking to work on next year. So, Son, do you mind advance? Right. Thank you. All right. So um three years ago when our team was first assembled um at CMS we engaged in a a book study uh called the the book was called the successful middle school. This we believe it's kind of like the um the standard the gold standard for middle school best practices. Um and so we uh you went through a self assessment. Um we used actually uh AMLE the association for middle level um education. Um and they basically we did a study of our school. We

031collected stakeholder input and we identified four major priorities that we needed to work on um as sort of told by all the stakeholders, community members, families, students, staff. Um and those four priority areas are right up there. Social emotional learning, differentiation and universal design, teaming and our master schedule. So, um, as we're working through those priorities, uh, MTSS is a multi-ter system of support. This is the structure that we use to embed and work on those, uh, four priorities. It's a a way to for us to organize our school, all the supports that we're uh, putting in place. Uh, it creates a vernacular and a skeleton that we can sort of hang things on. So um MTSS is divided into uh A and B. MTSSA is academics. MTSSB is behavior. Um and there are the

032way we have it here three tiers of support. Tier one is like a universal support. So all students have access to a universal supports in both academic and behavior. Tier two is a little bit uh tighter. Uh those are tier two is designed for kids who might need short durations of support and um then can sort of be released. Um and then tier three is a little bit longer or students that require sort of a longer duration of support maybe a little bit more in in-depth and uh significantly more targeted. Uh so this is 2022 our first year. You can see just visually, I'm not looking to go through every single thing on there, but I just want you to see visually um the way things looked in 2022. The next year, we added a

033few more supports in each of the tiers on each of the sides. And then last 20 24 25 you can see sort of how we've been adding on over time to create that network of support for our kids um on both sides. So, uh, Miss Berg is going to give us a little update on the academic side for this year and next year. All right. So, one of the major things that we've been working on in our building and providing support for our teachers and staff is around PLC's and those are professional learning communities. And the big thing about the PLC is it gives our it gives our teachers and staff time to collaborate and and to really talk about um student learning. Uh we are able to provide PLC's to our teachers and staff

034two times a week in their content alike PLC. So that would be like all of the ELA teachers in sixth grade. And then we also give two times a week for student alike PLC. So that would be like team six. Um and they all get to meet together. So as we're working through PLC's um there's three big ideas that we focus on and um the first is really that focus on student learning. So not just what we teach, but our students learning um what we're teaching. um looking at collaborative culture and collective responsibility and that's that differentiation. Um we're really looking to think about all of the students are our students and how can we help all of them to learn and then that third piece is that results orientation. So after we've done our

035teaching and had our PLC's um looking at data to see how our students doing and and focusing on um what we might need to continue doing and what we might need to change based on um the results. Uh and then below the four questions of a PLC. So that's really that uh what drives the PLC. So as student uh as teachers are working together, they're constantly thinking about these four questions. um as they're planning units, as they're thinking about how they might design their assessments and then also how they might design their differentiation so that all students in the classroom um can you know uh access the learning and uh thinking about the possible barriers to learning and then also possible ways to extend learning. So in late we had uh asked some of our

036PLC's to share just some testimonials of why this PLC time is so valuable to them. And so we have a short video to start. Hold on. Pause that. This is our steam team by the way and they did a a very nice little video for us. So hopefully I can get the volume to work. That's gonna be best. Are you ready to start it, Karen? Yeah. Yeah. Hi, my name is Kate Schultz. I'm Jessica Coster Wheeler. And I'm Lisa Nash. We are the Steam Team from Cooperative Middle School. Our PLC time is essential for fostering collaboration and innovation in our steam program. We use this time to develop and refine our curriculum, ensuring students receive highquality instruction while staying ahead of emerging technologies from 3D printing advancements to regenerative medicine in bioengineering. We also explore

037new and evolving fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and laser technology, equipping us with the knowledge to bring cutting edge concepts into our classrooms. Beyond curriculum development, our PLC meetings allow us to plan impactful community events like our Steam Knight Expo, which recently brought together nearly 300 community members. These events give students opportunities to showcase their learning and connect with realworld steam applications. Additionally, our PLC time supports vertical alignment, ensuring consistency across grade levels. Through collaborative inquiry, we continuously assess and enhance our teaching strategies while integrating the latest technological advancements, strengthening student success and community engagement in steam education. So, I think they said it best, definitely better than I did, right? Um we do I will have um Sonia flip through uh a lot of our PLC's sent feedback. So I um just kind

038of highlighted a few things. Um something that stood out here was you know they collaborate and things get better and better. Uh this PLC also mentioned how when they can discuss the science concepts um it helps them to understand it in a deeper way. So that allows them to um explain it and break it down better for students. uh this uh PLC mentioned that it's really helping them to do what is best for all students. Uh here they talk a lot about common assessments and designing those common assessments. This is a valuable space for collaboration. this uh PLC mentioned the shared purpose and it really creates a more cohesive and supportive learning environment for students. So again, we're spending a lot of time doing professional learning around the PLC and helping um our PLC teams

039to become stronger and more collaborative because we really feel like that's going to strengthen our MTSSA, that academic side um by allowing that time for teachers to connect. All right, next up for um a little view of where we were, where we are this year, and what we're looking for for next year. Um this is a chart, a crazy chart of the CMS grade scale equival equivalencies in 2022. So we were using multiple grade scales in different places in our building. one for classes that got EHS credit, some were 100 point scale, some were a letter grade that have 100 point scale equivalencies. It was very confusing for um a lot of people. So over time, we are looking to shift to something new. And I'm back. Yeah, I'm back everyone. Uh so we've already

040made some changes from that chart that Drew just referenced um to shift our improvement um in reporting out uh under competency based education. So we have made the shift at the middle school to reporting out on competencies for each of our courses. So students get an overall grade, but they also get a grade on any competency that's been assessed um for that trimester or quarter. So, for next year, uh, what we're looking to do and what we're, um, the shifts that we're making for next year is taking our fivelevel grading scale, which I'll show on the next slide, down to four. Um, we're going to shift the labels of the grading scale so that it is continuous K through 12 so that we align with the elementary um, middle and high school rubrics. Uh, we

041are going to, we were 100% summitative. I'm not sure how or when that was brought in, but we were 100% summitative and now we're making the shift to 20% formative um and then 80% summitative and that aligns with EHS. So that will have uh those formative grades that students are getting along the way uh have some weight in their overall grade. And then the habits of learning will continue to be reported out separately from um the academics. So those are like our learning practices and learning behaviors that we report out on. So this is just again um a visual of the top is the current um we have that five um uh level grading scale. uh we were removing the AC and then in more conversations with Joe Lizier who is the um SAU curriculum

042director. Um we're projecting that we will put in the four levels that are on the bottom and change those titles. And the reason for that again is that that's um aligned with what is being used at the elementary the developing proficient extended learning. And then also how the rubrics are being broken out at the high school uses that same language. So we're really putting that language in so that we can be more consistent K through 12. And for the report cards, um they will still look very similar. Um students will have a letter for every competency that was scored that um trimester or quarter and then they'll have an overall class grade. They will not have any percentages. Um it'll just be those letters on the report card and that's just again reflecting um their

043performance around the competencies uh that have been assessed. and the homework and class participation behavior things like that um would not be calculated into an academic grade that would be reported out separately under habits of learning. Okay. All right. All right. I'm going to make a little transition. Give the mic to Mr. Does anybody have questions before we transition? Yeah. Can we can we can we pause at the grading part here? Just a question on that cuz just so the board is aware there's policy I KA which when there's a grading system change the board has to approve that. So if you have questions I think the hope is that the board will approve that this evening so they can continue to move forward with planning. If we need to have them come back because

044you have more questions we can certainly do that. Um, so that's part of the reason they're doing that grading presentation to this board. That policy does require that you approve any changes and they're changing really from a five to a four and to align as you heard with that prek through 12 system particularly with the 8020 at the high school and um some other things that were mentioned. So So when you when when when I'm a when I'm a student now or parent and I look at a report card next year, what will it look like? What will I see? We'll say B beginning D. Do you want to Oh, go back to it. Uh, yeah. So, this year, what is on the report card? I I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. It's like an M

045meets as um E exceeds. So, yes, the the the titles or headings at the bottom would now be what you would see versus meets M exceeds E. So it would be the language um that would change there. Um and again that came from that's what's being used at the elementary and it's also being used on the high school rubrics. And so we just we really wanted that to be consistent K through 12. So if I if I have a proficient will I see like you'll say there's no percentages. There's no like 80% 85. It'll just be P. Just P. And that's how it is right now except for it just says M or it just says meets. Okay. Yeah. If if I may. Yeah. Seeing some of the um the language being used here, I

046can understand consolidating the the tiers. Uh my question is whether it represents any kind of a shift in sort of the um pedagogical approach around content versus competency. Um and what percentage of this uh evaluation and metrics is based around skill competency in the classroom versus uh subject content and mastery and if those are you know what I mean is there some shift that's going in that direction. Yeah. So uh each of the competencies has performance indicators associated with it and the um the PLC's and the departments have been working on identifying like what are the essentials um for each of those competencies and then they are working together on uh creating rubrics that are more specific. So like that's more general or that's more general more specific to that performance indicator and so it

047gives more specific language about like what the student would need to demonstrate to meet that specific indicator um let's say under geometry and measurement and the PLC's work together to um discuss how they're going to assess that competency develop um assessments and what would a student need to be demonstrating to show that they're proficient in that more specific indicator. And then even from there, there's daily learning targets that are also broken out um for students and um for skills and content. If I can just give the board that maybe isn't as familiar with competency based education indicators and some of that as you speak. If we think of um driving a car, so if we use that scale, we know when we learn to drive a car, we learn we have to adjust the mirrors,

048we have to understand the brakes, we have to know what the ignition is, we have to know the accelerator, we have to know how to turn, we have to know to put our blinkers on, we have to know all of those things, which are individual performance indicators. So, if I've learned half of those things, I might be developing. I'm not proficient in the competency of driving a car. I've gained some skills. I can turn it on. I know how to adjust my mirrors. I know how to stop, but I'm not sure how to back up. So, I'm not proficient yet, but I am developing. So, that's kind of the idea of when she says performance indicators, those are like those individual skills broken out to meet the overarching competency. And I appreciated that the sort

049of benchmark related and and those other sorts of things. I guess my question was more along the lines of as if we look at a geometry class to use your example. um what portion of the competencies are learning habit, learning skill versus specific to the content of the subject matter and I know that that may differ from PLC and from from subject area to subject area but one of the things that that I've been hearing from parents is a curiosity around um what that balance is between learning how to learn and what we are actually learning. Um because I know that middle school is certainly the the laboratory where a lot of that is the rubber is hitting the road around that and I was just curious what the uh philosophy I know it's competency

050based but there are learning how learning skill competencies and then there are the competencies around the actual subject matter as well and I was curious about what that mix looks like and whether we're seeing a shift in any way among along the spectrum of that mix. Well, one one example I have is like they there's um so there might be specific skills that students are learning and that can be applied across content like in science for example they may learn lab skills and they can apply that when they're doing you know different types of labs across the different content in science. So I think it's I think it's both. I think there there's really a focus on and a lot of times we'll be talking about like what are the skills um concepts mindsets knowledge

051that kids need to be able to be competent. So we're we're not just looking at one thing. A lot of times it's both and I and I I I wonder if I'm understanding your question correctly. So if I I took the subject of math there are content skills I need addition, subtraction, division, multiplication. Those are still part of those indicators that kids have to learn. and show what they know around that content area. A student that may struggle learning fractions and they persevere and they hang in and they then then they'd also we would also use that process to for a work study habit to say yes their perseverance was strong on that in that particular soft skill if you will area and then separate is the content area. Do they do they understand fractions?

052Right? So the math would be about do they understand fractions? the work study habits habits would be about the perseverance. So they are separate. So when you see a content grade in math, it's about the math. It's about the content. And I think and I appreciate that breakdown, Esther, because I think that the there's not always a lot of clarity around what what the differentiation is there. When we talk about competency based, it is competency within the curriculum, not specifically competency within the work habits piece. Correct. and and because and don't get me wrong, I'm all in on the the competency based, you know, metric approach and the work habits piece, but I think some uh sort of rudimentary clarity around what that means that when we talk about these these are academic grades um

053and they are related to departmental you know that sort of thing versus the um you know knowing how to study and knowing how to prepare and those sorts of things which are also important but are not the entirety of the curriculum because I think there's a misapprehension sometimes that that's what's happened and I I don't believe it. I just want the opportunity for you to explain that that's what's Yeah. So, those are reported out separately. The learning practices and learning behaviors. Did you have Yeah, just a a preview. That's um defining or redefining the u work study practices, habits of learning is a project we're going to be starting next year. Um so, we'll be working on that. Probably reporting out about this time next year, giving you a little bit more clarity. Yeah. Thank

054you. Yeah. Good. I think yeah I think we have a couple more questions. So if you don't mind jump are the classes that eighth graders take that are EHS crediting classes how are those being reported out on the report cards? You want to talk to that? Sorry. Uh we use the EHS grade scale. Yep. Any other questions? All right. All right. this might. So, um, Bluehawk 101 is our attempt to help students grow, uh, in their executive functioning as they come to sixth grade. Sixth grade has this Blue Hawk 101 run every day for students. And this is our phenomenal product, Carter Dao. He's going to give you some information on how he's experienced Bluehawk 101. Go ahead. As Mr. Perez said, my name is Carter Dao. Thank you for letting me present to you

055today. Bluehawk 101 is a special class made just for sixth graders. It helps improve many important skills such as social skills and organizational skills. It also provides orientation for sixth graders in their years of middle and even high school. Bluehawk 101 is once a day for about 45 minutes. Students work with their core teachers and one encore teacher. For the first six weeks, students went to the auditorium on Wednesday and met with teachers such as the nurses, librarians, and school counselor and also met with special guests. Bluehawk 101 helps teach the foundation of students habits of learning. Students also got to take part in five-day long rotations with their core teachers and one encore teacher. The first rotation was focused on self-directed learning. Then there was a rotation based on communication. Next, we had a

056rotation based on creativity. Finally, we had a rotation based on collaboration. Here are some examples of some projects I did in Bluehawk 101. Um, in the first rotation, self-directed learning, with my steam teacher, Mrs. Shelton, we were tasked with creating an ornament or a keychain by designing and laser cutting. Um, and I have that to share with you. for the communication rotation. Also with my steam teacher, we got to work in groups and played challenging color coup puzzles. Color coup is basically seduku but with colors. Um and then for the collaboration rotation with my science teacher, Mr. Pi. We were tasked with creating a bird migration game in groups and then got to play test other people's migration games. The skills I learned in Bluehawk 101 will help me in seventh grade and beyond. The

057organizational skills will be used to organize school supplies and my locker. Skills that focus on teamwork will be useful in group projects in the future. Leadership skills will also help in a group and classroom setting. Self-directed learning will help during projects and assignments that are to complete to be completed silently and will also help during testing periods. I like Blue Hawk 101 because it has presented many topics that I did not learn in elementary school that are vital to learn in sixth grade, such as organizing your notebook, your locker, and your Google Drive. Having this class helped make the transition to the size and responsibility of sixth grade a little easier. Thank you for taking the time to let me talk about this program and I hope that it continues in the future. [Music] [Applause]

058Carter, did you say you were a sixth grader? Yes, I am. Oh my goodness. Well, if I were your teacher, you get an E on that. That was wonderful. Which town is he from? He could probably take one of these. Oh. Oh, is that Oh, is that what it is? Oh, I see. Okay, Joe, you're doing good work over there. Well done you could have this chair. I I really I mean beyond you did a great job presenting and I I really seriously that you would get an e but I I just I love the examples. It really brings it home for us. Um so I I appreciate you showing up and sharing that with us. Is so is Bluehawk 101 new or has it been and is this a way to kind of help

059kids transition into the sixth grade into the middle school by providing additional support for them when they arrive that you thought wasn't there before? Is that the idea? I think the idea was um what I had been doing was going from school to school to school u for helping with transition to CMS. What we found was from each elementary school, they were all different in their executive functioning and um their purpose behind it, right? So, we wanted to create something that was uniform so that every student could walk into and feel like there was something significant that was going to help them bolster uh or step into CMS. So um it was developed the summer before this particular year and we had four staff members that were from each team. We had two interventionists as

060well as a steam teacher help us uh develop this curriculum and so far are you pleased with what you the results so far? Did you just hear him? I I think he he's our showboat right here. This is this is explanation of what we've done and why we've done it. Definitely exceptional. Absolutely. I also um if you're looking at some points of data, I just was talking with uh Clyde the other day and part of the transition work that they've improved also is going to the the elementary schools more often, even um meeting fourth graders this year. I know people have gone from the middle school on a regular basis to try and help students reduce that anxiety and parents with that transition. in um I believe it was about 3 years ago during that

061transition we lost almost 60 students between fifth and sixth and this year it's 19. Oh wow. So good job everyone. Yeah that's big deal. Thank you guys. Great job. All right. Next up um I think was did one get skipped or did I forget to delete that slide? All right you can skip. Go one more. All right. Uh, next up is our MTSSB section. So, um, in the transition from last year to this year, if you remember at the beginning, let me back up. If you remember at the beginning of this presentation, um, SEAL and bullying was one of our priority areas to to address in our school. So in MTSS behavior is the key place to be able to address social emotional learning as that's you know people's ability to feel like they belong

062in school is is oftenimes a motivating thing for behavior. Um, so, uh, Steph Freriion, who was a, uh, uh, leadership studies teacher in our school, we transitioned her over to some leadership studies now, but now she is our, um, community coach, shall we say. And, um, so um, she's here to share a little bit about what she's doing to bolster um, our school community in hopes of um, improving our MTSSP. Okay. Okay. I don't really know where to stand. Um, so, hi, I'm Steph Fran. Um, I've been with Cooperative Middle School for 16 years now. It's been a journey from, um, challenge course uh, and experiential ed director through leadership studies and now community development coach. Um, so my background is an adventure education and facilitation of organizational and team development. So, uh, when Drew

063said a year ago, how would you like to try your hand here at CMS? Um I said sounds like an adventure. Um and it has been this year. Uh we've been doing a lot of very diverse work looking really at year one with this role as kind of an exploratory year. Um really trying to um kind of dig into the community, assess needs, um get out there with students, with staff, and really look at um what are the greatest areas of need and where can I be really um most useful. Um, so some of the things I've been working through, um, really looking at it through that tier one, tier two, and tier three, uh, systems of support, um, coaching students, um, working with them to build and maintain strong and healthy relationships, um, at

064all three levels. So tier one is kind of what all students get, um, doing, uh, work in the classrooms, developing community norms, um, really thinking about what their personal individual role is in their own success, but also in their classrooms and on their teams. Um, tier 2 interventions looking more like working with smaller groups of students, working with classrooms, uh, where things might be a little off track, really partnering with those students, with that teacher to kind of get things back on track through re revisiting norms, coaching, and personal responsibility. Um, and then tier three is more when things go really sideways. Um, when we have incidents of conflict um, either between students, between students and staff. Um and then every once in a while uh with staff. So that kind of moves us into

065um the second bullet there is uh working to strengthen our adult teams at CMS. Uh when our adult teams are functioning well, we find that the students ultimately benefit. I've been doing a lot of work with um PLC's uh core academic teams. So think like team one, team two, team three. um working with IE IEP teams um to really keep students at the center of our conversations and think about how can we as a diverse group of sometimes parents uh sometimes case managers, classroom teachers, um how can we really wrap around that student and support them and ultimately meeting their goals. Um and really working with departments um on their goals for moving forward and visioning what they want for their department and how they want to live out that vision. um been doing a

066lot of work uh leading specific repair circles. Um so think conflict resolution and mediation. Um a lot of that work with students. Um some of it the students uh come to me and say, "Hey, we would like to sort something out. We'd like some guidance in doing that." Uh and sometimes it's referred to me through an administrator, a counselor, or classroom teacher saying, "Hey, we've got something going on. We could really use some support." Um we've been doing a lot of work uh with the support and accountability committee. Um that's been going on for a little over what a little over a year. Yeah. Okay. Feels like yesterday we started um we've had a strong group of uh staff members from across the building representing all content areas um to really take a look at

067um how we do discipline. um really trying to shift from a strictly punitive way of looking at discipline to bringing in uh more restorative practices. Um trying to be more proactive in setting students up for success. I think um making it easier to do the right thing and harder to do the wrong thing. Um and then responding in a truly educative way when things don't work out the way we'd like them to. Um sometimes that does mean consequences too, but we're trying to sort of build in and kind of backfill with more education and skill building. um to help students be more successful um in the classroom and in their communities. Um we've been working with staff um focusing starting last year around February to identify core values. uh what are the core values that

068we feel strongly about at CMS and then how do we develop language around that and really implement that in our classroom teaching and in just in our work on a day-to-day basis in the hallways in the cafeteria and really helping students understand explicitly what those values look like where the rubber meets the road. um been doing a lot of coaching uh with staff, a lot of one-on-one coaching. Uh staff members coming in and saying, "I'd like to get better at." Sometimes it's I need better language uh in the classroom uh for redirecting students. Um I need a script for working with a colleague that I really struggle with. Um, I can't unfortunately bring a lot of testimonials because a lot of what we do is really private and really involves people being fairly vulnerable and

069um, kind of showing up and saying, "I'd like to do better." Um, so we've been doing a lot of that. Um, our other big project was developing and delivering um, a feedback survey for these fine folks here. Um, so Mariam Levy, who is not here with us tonight, and I uh met with our administrators and really asked them, what would you like to learn about how you're doing? What feedback would you like to learn and grow? Um, so we took their um feedback, built out a survey to help assess that from staff, and then gave staff an opportunity to really engage in a meaningful, authentic way of speaking to their administrators about very specific things um that they wanted to learn about. Um, and we're still working through that. We're still processing that. Um, every

070couple of weeks we meet and kind of talk that through and we've been identifying priorities and I don't know, I've been really honored to work with you all. You're doing a great job. Um, it's it's been incredible. Um, last but not least, I'm still teaching a class of leadership studies. Um, just to kind of keep uh keep my hands in the teaching of the teaching world and getting kids out on the challenge course and um, staying connected with those roots. So, thank you. Um that's Do you want me to talk about what's coming next or do you want to wait? Yeah, one more slide. So I'll just keep the mic. Um so what's happening next year? Um one of the things my truth is looking at that giant list um is it's time to narrow

071it down. Uh now that we kind of know what's feeling um really useful, really meaningful. Next year we're looking ahead towards developing more capacity with our staff members. Um so my hope is to be using my role next year to identify a smaller cohort of teachers that we can then really focus um intensively um doing a lot of coaching, a lot of um co-eing, a lot of partnering to develop their capacity to um implement some of these restorative practices so that I can start to hand some of these things back into our community and we can develop a model where those folks can then work to coach a new co cohort the following year. Um, so we're hoping to kind of spread the love and make this more of a buildingwide initiative and not just

072a I'm holding all of it um experience. So that's what we're looking forward to. So thank you. Sure. Um and then as part of u Esther's parting uh work, we're working on enhancing our advisory and then u working on uh pinpointing our um tier 2 and tier three interventions too when I like the way you said it when things go sideways. Um uh so big picture uh steps and big uh next steps and takeaways. Um this is for both A and B. Um just bringing it all home. Uh we're going to continue to build on our existing supports like that slide that I showed you um for our uh three tiers of support. Um strengthen differentiation and instructional strategies through the PLC process. Um enhanced behavioral supports in tier 1, two, and three. And then

073just continue to work on our ability to collaborate within our school with all of the faculty members that that we're with um and students for that matter. Um I think that's the last slide. Any more questions? Okay, I'll start. Anybody have some questions? I got some comments. Mrs. Fon, um so it seem I mean this is an admirable task and but it seems pretty daunting. It seems like a big one. And so Drew talked about having a best practice, having a a book group, and you know that's her guidepost. This is you know the gold standard. But what it it seems to me what you're doing is innovative, cutting edge also, but there aren't considering what's going on with students and culture and community, it it seems kind of you have to be an innovator.

074Is that the right way to think about it? You have to kind of So, do you have how do you approach that? Is it just you reach out to others and you have a team building? I mean, how do you how do you work through that? It's a great question. Um, so how do I work through that? Um last night I was actually teaching um I teach at UNH as well um an evening class and um one of the things that came out of that was this kind of work working with team development is a deeply creative practice. Um it's really um you can come in with all the plans in the world and then when you get in a room with a group and kind of see what's actually going on and start to

075peel back those layers sometimes it's a matter of saying oh the wrong people are actually in the room right now. We need to pause like you know you all need to go. we need these poor people and I need to talk to you all individually first. Um, and so sometimes it really is a very responsive practice. Um, and it's a matter of just kind of assessing as you go, thinking on your feet and really truly collaborating with people to kind of explore what do you want, how do you see yourself, how do you see your department, where do you want to go, what can we do to get there. Um, so I would say innovative is a really good way to look at it. Um I find that the background in adventure ed um has

076really supported me um in that. Um so it's you know you make your plan, you come in and then you see what's what and you kind of go from there. So it's very iterative. Yes. Uh and the other question it seems to me some of what you're going to do is be you'll have to in some way engage our parents and guardians right in terms of culture. What are your thoughts on that? But that seems like another you know really impressive challenge. it is. Um that's one of the things I feel like we've been kind of grappling with and talking about is what are the ways to engage um families in this process. Um some of what we've done um we've had a couple instances this year already where we've had certain students who just

077needed a little bit of I think refocusing um some goal setting. Um and so we actually asked the student, we want to work with you to help you show up and be your best self. Who's on your team? Who should be in the room? And sometimes that does mean a case manager comes in, a guidance counselor comes in, you know, I'd like my science teacher to be in the room and I want my mom and dad. Um, and so we've engaged parents that way and sort of explored that a little bit. Um, I've done some work facilitating um, IEP team meetings and really trying to partner with families and partner with teachers and really try to bring folks a little closer together at that table. Um, but I we're starting to look too at when

078we do repair circles, how are we engaging parents and saying, "This is something we'd like to do with your student." Um, are you okay with us speaking with them? Um, so for example, if a student was doing an inschool suspension, um, part of their day would be sitting with me and really processing what happened, how did we get here? Um, but a parent would have been engaged um, prior to that conversation happening. So, um, I know we're looking ahead. Drew, we've been kind of talking about um developing kind of a vision of what are restorative practices and what do they look like here at CMS. So, we're hoping to be able to share that sort of information out in the coming year. Thank you very much. Yeah, Neil. And I want to actually go back

079to the first question that you asked, Steph, which was the task that she's got ahead of her. And it is quite a task looking at it. And I have to sort of stand on a on a separate box and say I've known Steph for 25 years and we are so enormously enormously fortunate as a district to have somebody of her talent and background to be able to take on a task of this magnitude. Um she's been doing group facilitation and individual reflection and growth and leadership development since she was a teenager and which was what three four years ago right now. And I like this guy. I I I I bet there might be three districts in New Hampshire that have somebody of her caliber and experience and and capacity with working on this sort

080of thing. And so I just um I look at that list and yeah, it's it's daunting as heck, but we've got the the right cat at the at the wheel to to help us get it done. So I I just think that we ought to appreciate that. I know I mean I'm sure you do, Drew. U but it's uh it's something that we really have in our corner that's very unique. You can't say very it is unique to us to be able to do this. I think in turn there's an opportunity here to to thank uh this board and past members um because as you remember we went through budgets two years ago and when Drew moved into the position etc. We really talked about repurposing instead of cutting positions. And so you've heard how

081some of that repurposing with Bluehawk 101, with Stephanie's position, etc. have been now put in play for a couple of years. And you're beginning to see the fruits of that labor. And so I want to thank the board that also supported not cutting but repurposing to some visionary very innovative ideas that um I would venture to say there isn't a middle school in the state that has this kind of opportunities for kids and this learning for our adults to grow and be what I predict to be the me best middle school within the next 5 years. There's no doubt in my mind if this continues and it's going to because it look at the team. Exactly. That boy that's Thank you. That's recorded too. Yeah. Uh, no. And also, um, if I could say one

082thing, I think one of the things I'm really happy about is that we're not just teaching students, but we're raising citizens. And I don't know that we talk about that enough. We have citizens coming out of CMS and that I'm really proud to be proud to be part of this program. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you guys. Thank you. Great presentation. And I know that uh my kids went through the middle school and uh enjoy to all of you and certainly uh it's a much different school than it was 3 four years ago. No doubt. Um and it's a testament to say that students are moving from the elementary school to CMS. Uh with you know with some caution but also with some pride versus saying oh we don't want to go there. So I

083commend all you guys. It's great great work and uh this is this is great. Thank you. Bill, I would be remiss in not recognizing Miss Melanie Faulner. If you could stand into the light a little bit. Um, she earned, as I sent out, that A+ administrator award from the Engle Middle School. So, here's another um the team is elite and that's another great example of how uh the recognition that and the work that these folks do. So, thank you guys. Appreciate it very much. Appreciate it. Congratulations. [Applause] All right. So that wraps up that portion. We're good. Yeah. Except I would look I would look for um some guidance from the board as to whether to move forward and approve that new um grading scale from the five letters to the four letters with that

084consistency prek through 12 or if you would like folks to come back because you have more questions uh next month. I would recommend you approve it knowing the full system and that the changes. Um about four years ago there was 12 different grading systems at the cooperative middle school. And those of you that had kids there know I'm not exaggerating. Um and so refining this down to a system that also is our parents our elementary parents are familiar with. And our high school rubrics and when remember that's not saying that high school's not going to have letter grades. I don't want people to think that that might watch this. What we're saying is the rubrics that are used that kids get feedback on is the same those four same words and scale. So that will

085also be some familiarity as kids move through our system pre-k through 12. So I just so in the elementary schools right now when the parent gets the report card it is using those it's a three scale just because that's more age appropriate but it's the same proficient I forget which one they cut out developing proficient extended learning. Yeah. Okay. Um and then for the high school you say it's the same but it's it's the same for the rubrics. So rubrics on a projects etc is the same. They still give the letter grades A, B, C, D, and F. As if you're familiar because we have the weighted grade system and there's a whole bunch of other things connected to that grading system which is much more complicated because of all the high stakes things that

086go with letter grades in high school. Board, how are you feeling? What questions on? No, I'll make a motion to approve it. Okay, second. So we have second. Uh any other comments? I I like the consistency so that the kids can and the parents to what's happening as they go through the whole system. All right, I'd like to take a roll call just to make sure we got everything. Brian, I I I I I I I Thank you. Nice work. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Uh we're going to go through y'all can go. You don't need to stand. But there's policy coming up. policy. Policy, please stay. Thank you. Thank you. Want me to move along in the agenda? Yep. Superintendent. So, we have um the CMS coaches that remember last month you did

087EHS here, CMS uh spring coach list for approval. And as you're looking at that list, this gives me a good opportunity to address the transportation questions that you may have on your mind around athletics. Where are the buses? Um, so as you as you're probably fully aware, the uh buses are very tight for athletics. Um, part of that is this week in particular, they're for a student has three bus drivers out for personal reasons. Some that so it's almost a week to week. We're trying to do it week to week. Um last in the past we have sometimes used coach buses. We will do that if we absolutely have to. However, that cost has almost doubled. So, for example, to take one um a large team, the cross country team to someplace like Salem, they

088were going to charge us $5,000. I did not think that was a fiscally responsible decision given our fund balance is also in a very different place than it was um last year. Our transportation lines are very tight and we've talked about all those reasons why. Um, so I have asked the two athletic directors, the uh, kind of interimm uh, Terry Cookish who's stepped into Stefan's shoes as he moved on uh, to a different position and of course Kathy Claremont there putting together a generalized list that will go out to all parents in the co-op. Just kind of explaining the process that's being used, why this is occurring. Um, please know that if you get questions from parents that I I didn't give permission for this, they absolutely did on the form that you have to

089fill out. You can accept or deny that I allow my child to be transported with coaches or parents. Um, they can go in and change that. If they miss that, you can go in and change that. So, if you have a parent that says, "I don't want to allow that anymore," they can go back in the system and change it. Um, so we're hopeful that between the vans, you know, we utilize those first. SAU 16 vans and coaches and uh team parents that we will be able to get everywhere they need to be. Obviously, if you have a student or a concern, contact the athletic director at either school and we will do our best to ensure that your child gets a ride that you're comfortable with. For example, in the van that the coach

090is in, something like that. Um, so we're working hard to accommodate any outside concerns like that. And we're doing the best we can. It's just, uh, buses are short. Uh, buses are plentiful, drivers are short. And, um, next year they're really going to look at the schedule because it turns out that the middle school schedule, that group of athletic directors made a schedule, as well as NHIA, and a lot of the games are on the same night. Um, remember middle school sports also, a lot of our communities, and I'm looking at Amy because she's in Oyster River, they all transport on their own. Um, and one of those reasons also is because middle school facilities normally don't have lights, so they can't push it much later um, for spring sports like a softball or baseball,

091whereas high school, we can push the games to be a little later, which sometimes allows buses to transport more easily. Um, so it's more um the middle school that uh struggles trying to get uh buses because there's not a lot of time flexibility with the other schools that we play. So we're all doing the best we can. Happy to talk with any parent that has any concerns. Um I've gotten honestly like a couple emails. I'm not sure how the athletic directors have been doing. I think they've gotten more. Um so they're working on just trying to get a mass message out hopefully by um I know they're working on it this afternoon. So, that's kind of the state of the state around athletic transportation today. Next week, maybe one of those drivers will be back

092in and we'll be able to provide a regular bus for another um sport. But track uh field and country is huge. And so, those parents will be transporting because it's huge. There's so many kids participating, which is great, but it's impossible to get the amount of buses we would need to transport all those kids. So, which is great, right? We want as many kids as we have, right? But there are a lot of students interested in that and doing that. So, any questions on that? I have a question. What's the reason behind kids that with licenses not being able to drive to the events and having to have parents drive them? Um, it's the liability that we were told if it's a school sport that we should provide signed off transportation. I don't know the

093answer. If a parent signs off, my kid can transport. That's a great question that I can look into. Okay. and see if we can get around that. If if high school drivers can drive themselves, um, kids don't always make the best decisions when they're going to take themselves places. I'm guessing that might be it. Um, but it may be if you're if you want to just transport yourself alone in your car and you can't take passengers, that may be an option. So, I can certainly check into it. I can see how taking other student passengers might be an issue. I can also see if you're traveling to a game and then it's going to be late and you're tired afterwards, that could be an issue. I think with my 17-year-old and their capacity at 4:00

094in the afternoon versus 9:00 at night is significant. If they're going to Salem or somebody don't know where they're going and they're going to be tired after a game, I I kind of get that even though I'm speaking as someone who's driving to Salem tomorrow with a with a discus thrower. Um, and believe me, I'd rather that figure something else out, but these are I hate this phrase, the the whole first world problems phrase. Um, but that that's a little bit of what we're dancing with on this. So, I appreciate everyone's patience. One question. Um, as we're looking to next year after the spring and new budgets, is there any um solution that resources could provide like maybe more vans or something like that as opposed to as as surge capacity if you will as

095opposed to bus contracts? Um, you can certainly look at it, but we don't have a fund balance that would support that this year like we did last year. No, no. Right. But looking into next year as we cycle through like that longer range is that it could be something this board could talk about developing and putting in next year's budget for the following year. So be two years. Yeah. Yeah. So we we'll say this board's been very supportive of of that initiative because we've had fund balances and we do not really spend out of the fund balance and the only thing that we really have done over the last two years is is purchase vans to reduce and and increase uh cap capacity around the transportation. And I just have to say that the enrollment

096in our athletic programs is booming. It's booming, which is great, which is great, but then it leaves us with this. But um so proud of the students for getting involved. I was told by someone with knowledge that our fall athletic program is actually the largest in the state of New Hampshire. I think it was I might have this wrong, but I remember it was close to 800 students at the high school participating, which is great. Um so if you don't have any questions on the CMS, I have one question. I don't know if Drew I don't know if Drew can answer it or maybe maybe not. Um is there a reason for the two coaches at this grade seven baseball level and the one at grade eight? Yeah, because I thought we'd always just had

097one co I know see there's two for softball, seven and eight, but there's I think there's there's usually two teams. I'd have to look into that to know that. Okay, the specifics. Okay, you often times it's a personal choice that the person doesn't want to coach alone so they split the stipen. Okay, I'm guessing that maybe it would happen, but I Jew will double check, but that's sometimes what happens. Just curious. It's good to have two coaches there. A lot of kids. I would definitely want a partner. So, I would look for an approval of the uh nomination list for CMS coaches. I'll make that motion to approve the coaches. All right. Second. All right. All those in favor, raise your hand. I think we've got everyone approving. Okay, if you can don't mind passing

098those back, that would be great. I'm not going to go into great depth on the legislative update because we are going to cover that at the joint board meeting on Monday. I just want um to acknowledge Brian's work on um well, Brian, why don't you just give a little brief explanation on the work you've done? I I've done very little. Uh not true. to prepare an article for the Brentwood town newsletter took a uh a focus on what's happening legislatively. At the time I drafted the article initially, the House bill 2, the state budget bill passed by the House had not yet been voted on. And so that still had language for the uh budget cap for districts that was in there as well as the open enrollment provision and um a separate bill that

099doesn't directly affect schools but SB297 which uh could increase costs for health trust and in reaction to with health trust is threatening to dissolve and apparently the other affected entity New Hampshire interlocal trust has already indicated it's going to dissolve. Um anyway, you had a cap and then two provisions which could increase expenditures for schools going forward. Pulled out the uh bit about the uh district cap because that was not in the final pass budget. But anyway, there are two provisions in the current version of the budget being debated in the Senate that could increase expenses for local school districts and those are things that local school districts don't really have control over, aren't able to vote on. So just make people aware of that uh so that they know gosh this is get things

100are getting more expensive. It's a lot of lot of actions in conquered affect how expensive local education is. Thanks. It goes back to when we during budget season I felt like I was a broken record saying I agree with you. Our tax rates are too high. You've got to get involved in conquered. I I the costs here are as we see 93 94 95% fixed in our budgets. It's the adequacy money. It's things like that. Um the open enrollment and um the risk pool funds and I'm looking at Amy because she's a BA and has a good handle on on the potential impacts of that. Um it's hard to kind of project out other than it will have a definite impact on us. um meaning that if they currently go with that the sending district

101has to pay 80% of the cost per student if a student chooses to go elsewhere and the receiving district has to make up the extra 20%. Um either way we go that would be something we would have to think about costwise. We also the transportation in there right now is transportation to a bus stop. It's not to the school. So in other words, if we have six kids that are car pooling out of Kingston into Brentwood and the Brentwood stop now is full, that bus is full because we did our routes based on who lives in district and houses that live in district. We've have to provide that transportation. That's an example of I I'm not sure how to predict that because the eb and flow is um not defined as of yet. Then we

102get into special ed costs and you're all familiar with how we um that's unpredictable at times already. Um, I do have a prediction that because as you just saw, if anyone watched that presentation about the cooperative middle school and you live in a smaller town with less resources, that might seem very appealing. As a parent, if I'm a division, if I think I have a really strong athlete, extra high school is a division one school with amazing facilities. We have an unequal amount of advanced placement courses. We have there's a lot of potential for SAU16 to be a draw, I believe. Um, and at the flip of that, we're also big, so some people might want to go to a smaller school. Um, how that all works and the control we'll have. Right now, it

103looks like we don't have any say over whether we take them or not. If they want to come, they come. Um, and so it's going to be a very tough budget season and I just want folks to kind of be thinking about that and how we will work hard as superintendents and BAS and how to come up with formulas to predict what that might look like. Um, but those two things alone, if we have to also do a risk pool that isn't held by our health trust or our insurance companies any longer and we have to hold that percentage in a little rainy day fund to make it I'm looking at Amy if I'm using the right words. They're saying for us to create an expendable trust fund for 4% of your health insurance premiums.

104The problem for us as school districts is the only way you can create a trust fund is by the governing body. So when the public votes to create the trust fund, but they're also the only ones that can put money into it. And this law is not clear as to how that's going to be handled. So we're we're stuck with what what's going to happen if it passes if this SB297 passes. But we don't have the ability to put that money in. Does that mean that comes out of our operating budgets? because then we would have to pay that those premiums that shortfall to the risk pool translation every budget's frozen I I mean honestly um and so there is a lot happening at a very fast pace literally daily I feel like um and

105then of course the other piece that's been in um the news quite a bit is the um cert the required certification form that superintendent have been asked to sign um by the state of New Hampshire by Thursday the 17th uh this Thursday at 5:00 p.m. We know we're all kind of waiting to see how that court case with the ACLU goes around signing that. That court case is at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday. Hopefully, we'll get a decision um and some direction. Um I know there may have been some interest about signing on to that lawsuit with the ACLU. that is not an option uh for SAU16 because they ACLU filed an additional um amendment to that injunction that they're going to be heard on on Thursday and they're not accepting any more districts. So they

106had to file that additional injunction with the districts that were listed by I think yesterday in order to that for that to be part of what they heard on on Thursday. Um so that part's off the table. However, we'll still I've still invited as I put out um our legal counsel, the board's legal counsel, Mike Eaton, to come and answer questions around all of these things. So, as a joint board, you can have a good robust conversation and see if um there we will have a letter of support ready around from SA16 kind of for you all to preview if that's something you want to consider. As a board, uh we certainly are going to be trying to send something out to all of our parents. Uh we're looking at it at SLT tomorrow. Arlland

107Petta did a great job um for NHPR, New Hampshire Public Radio. They had pushed out an article out today. We had answered their questions really in depth and then of course they just picked little pieces of it because they were combining a lot of information. We're going to revamp that into a letter and send that out to everyone just so that folks know that we are in compliance. We are about equity and we are about giving kids what they need and access um for every student. We're not in violation of anything while we do that. And in fact, what we're doing supports the language that is that is coming out from the executive order and from this compliance. So we're we're good and our work is continuing. So we will send that message out hopefully

108tomorrow or Thursday morning and then we'll bring that to the board just as a guiding document on uh Monday night. So kind of where we stand. I know it's confusing. It's confusing for all of us. Um, but we're hanging in and I'm reminding people just to relax and breathe because our work will continue and we'll we'll be okay on that front. I am confident of that. It's not ideal. Um, but we can continue our equity work. We we that's a core value that came out of strategic planning and we'll continue to do that for sure. Um, so giving kids what they need and access to everybody is definitely a priority in SA 16 and will continue to be. And then budgeting. We'll we'll work through that the best we can. So, let me ask a

109question, Brian. When is the the House the budget is in the Senate right now. What's the anticipated timeline for that to get through? Do they have a deadline that says, "Hey, we got to have it goes to finance until in the goes to the governor normally in June. She I mean, the new budget has to be allegedly has to be something for July 1, right? And so in in May, in April and May, this is when they kind of fight about it and amend it and and go forward. And then in June, it goes forward to the governor for approval or etc., etc. Then the Senate could amend it, then send it back to the House. It could be committee of conference and they can see where they disagree and come to an agreement. So,

110but yeah, generally mid June is when you're seeing it resolved. So, there's still time now to to get educated and and say something and Yep. And if you look at that um your New Hampshire School Boards Association that comes to you every Sunday, if you haven't subscribed, you can. You all have a membership to that and uh that has what's coming up and when what is going to be heard and you at any time can go as a citizen to conquer and you know voice your opinion or listen or things like that. So that's a good point of reference for you. And if you look at that and you're not sure, don't hesitate to email me and and we can try to work through if you're not clear about that. But we also are trying

111to keep everybody up to date as much as possible. that schoolboard email also has a link for you to submit testimony if you want or even just to check a box oppose or uh support. So if you don't want to write something up just and I believe they're now required at least on most bills to indicate we had 600 people supporting and we had four people opposing or vice versa whatever the numbers are. So they're required to put that on the record and make known how popular or unpopular any particular piece of legislation is. Oh great. And I've been doing that. And so you have to say whether you're just a private citizen or if you're an elected official. As a board member, do you have to say elected official when you're filling that out?

112You're a private citizen. It would be if the whole board decided to take a a stance and then you would be representing a board. Gotcha. Okay. Or an elected official. and and you want to be aware of that that you're filling it out as a private citizen unless your whole board, like I said, comes together and you all say, "We're going to fill this out and be representing our school board as board members." To my knowledge, I don't think any board has had that conversation. Um, so I would I would continue to fill it out as a private citizen. I just want to say thanks for doing all that work with the uh the equity and the you know the compliance issue and uh highlighting the importance of equity to SA16. That's really important. Thank

113you. You're welcome. We will be, I believe, the only um SAU in the state that has a equity officer left. So, get ready. All right. Glad you're staying on. [Music] Chair's report. Look like we can Wait, wait. I have a couple other things. Oh, you do? I do. Longwinded. Uh I do have a donation and our our policy does require that there's one in here that's upping the limit, but right now it's $500 or more. We do have um an organization that would like to donate funds to purchase new microphones for Extra High School, uh specifically designed for the choir. four new microphones, four sturdy mic stands, and four quick connect clips for a speedy setup. Um, not to exceed $3,000. Um, so I just need an approval to accept that funding for this purpose

114per our policy from the board. And we can do that because it's that's over 500. You said I have to bring it to the board because it's over 500. Okay. That's interesting. I'll make I'll make a move. Second. Excellent. Uh all those in favor, please raise your hand. Excellent. We have full approval. Great. Thank you for that. Thank you. And I do have, as you know, uh the deadline for contracts going out was today. I'm not sure our human resource officer has slept at all for the past two weeks. I tried to send her home, but I venture to say she might still be at the office now. Um but so I do have three letters of resignation. Uh, one from Nicole Vernon, one from Allison Christians, and one from Pauline Cheeseman. And I have

115their letters here in the packet. Um, so Pauline wants to be done at the end of this year. She uh says that she's established a successful AP mechanics program and revitalized the robotics program. Um, she's proud of the contributions she's made here. Um, but the time has come for her to focus on more on her family. She's grateful for the opportunity to have been part of the Exit High School community. That's Pauline. Uh, Allison, that this marks uh her 10th year of teaching and she's incredibly grateful that her teaching career has been at Exit High School. She's grown as a professional. Um, she has I'm just looking if she put she just put she's just looking forward to finishing this year with appreciation. Thank you for 10 years of opportunity, growth, and community. And then

116this was a a letter from Nicole Vernon, who you may recall um has not been here this year. And so she's decided to after 15 years of service to close that chapter and do some other things. So I would ask you to accept all three of those resignations. I'll make the motion to accept all three nominations. Resignations. Resignation. Sorry. Resignations. You second it. Excellent. Uh all those in favor, please raise your hand. Great. And then just FYI, I have a couple issues for non-public when the time comes. That's it for my report unless you have any other questions. Thank you. So, uh, quick chair's report. I did send uh out the committee assignments mainly for you guys to for everyone to look at. I have gotten a couple responses. I think that that's really helpful.

117Um, does anybody We could do this tonight if people want to put their names in to certain places. Yeah, we're we're ahead of the game. We So, this is good. Uh, so let's go down to there probably won't be a student planning committee next year. Um, that that's I I I actually think there would still be a steering committee just to make sure the it may not go all year, but just to make sure that gets up and running and the key performance indicators are solid. And I I feel like we we just want a rep. I'd rather have a rep and then say, "Oh, everybody feels good." than not have a rep. Does anybody have any desire to do that? All right. So, let's I'm just We'll come back to that one. The policy

118committee is Melissa and Tammy. Is that still good or or Tim, do you want it? Brian, do you want on or is there any I'm on it for the Brentwood board and I ideally would kill two birds with one stone, but I don't want to step on anybody's toes for anybody else realizing I'm new on this board. So, I will gladly. Yeah. So, Tammy, if you if you And we only need one rep from this. We don't have to. Okay. So, I could do the do the SST. Yeah. I know you want to do the SST. Uh, we had one other person wanting to do SSM. So, could we could we have two people for the SSD governing board? You can do anything you want. I'm like anything. Anything. Okay. As long as it's legal.

119Hold on. Wait. Are you? Yeah. Okay then. Tammy, you're you're up. Is that for the SST? S. Oh, you're going to get Can you give me a copy of that? Yeah. All right. I won't try to write anything you want. Okay. Anything? No. No. you. Great. Uh, safety and security. We have two people on that. You I would stay on that. You stay on that. You both stay on it. All right. Great. We feel secure under your leadership on that committee. So, thank you. Um, SAU superintendent evaluator. I'm happy to stay on that committee if that's all right. Uh, just for continuity. We'll talk more about that, but I know that we'll have another S superintendent next year. And SAU joint board chairs. I'll stay on that one. That was a heavy lift this year.

120That's a good thing. Yeah, I know that we didn't have to use that. Uh we will have a par uh contract. So I I know that we had one volunteer already for that and I love to have Dawn on that committee. Don, you're good there. Are you doing it? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Speak up. Yes, I know. I was I'll be on that. Hoping you were going to say that. Um this medical leave committee. Erin, you're on it right now. I would stay on that. You stay on that. Okay. Um, we could put somebody else on if somebody really wants to. I'm good. All right. You guys are okay. Um, smart. He's been on a board before. Silence. Um, the BAC. What is So that is the budget advisory committee that meets in October for

121five to six weeks. Four to five weeks. Yeah, four to five weeks every Thursday night and that is when the principles the b business the building administrators come and present their budget to the uh Yeah. So the budget's divided into sections. So there'll be a presentation on SST and then the high school and then the tech and then yeah okay Neil that would be great. Yeah, that'll be good because you can ask all your questions at BAC and then come real well informed. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It it is they go deep so you'll love it. Yes. because we don't we don't do it at this level the same way you did it at elementary level. Yeah. Um anybody want to be an alternative for that? I I mean I'd love for you to be but

122I know how how it's kind of like what about my other life? Your other life what about what about quiet over there alternative for that 15 years of budgeting and select boards. Um, I know you you can list me as the ultimate. That's fine. You just take care of yourself. If it's really a pain, no writing with kids to sporting events. Great. If you if you two ever need my help, I've been on that committee many times. I'm happy to jump in. Um, good. Does everybody feel comfortable? Everybody have a role? Totally. I'm stepping off policy. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Got it. And I it's running much smoother now than it did seven, eight years ago. It It is. I know. It really is. We revamped that. I'm happy to step in if you

123need to miss a meeting. Let me know. Well, it is on It's on soccer night, so I I know this is really tough for me. I was trying to keep you off of it, Brian, but No, but I uh I can say that uh SAU would be gravely disappointed if Brian doesn't stay on because he does such a great job with all the grammar. Yes. And really really but you do a good job at soccer too. So we're having a difficult No, I can do both. Don't let your bias slip into this. Okay. Submit submit comments in advance. Okay. Last last month because I had a work obligation. Um no Brian Bri Brian is very talented at being at the policy committee. So he was really good at that. So uh but that would leave

124one. I mean that makes it difficult because you're serving for Brentwood also and for this board. Guess that he gets two votes. But it's not like we don't vote at politics. No, I know. You just It's just It operates by consensus. It's okay. Everyone just does what Brian says. No, I know. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you, Brian. Appreciate it. Uh I will um write this up and resend it to everybody. Just check it and make sure you're good with it. Um got everything else. Can you be sure and send it to me, too, please? I will definitely I'll send it I'll use that fancy little SAU. Okay. All right. So, and if I ever write an email out like that, just if you have questions, respond to me directly, not to the whole group.

125We've talked about that before, just because it's that would constitute a meeting. And so, we will save oursel from that hassle, right? We can but we can always meet more if we need to. Uh board goals. I just want to I just want to point out that in our meeting here on the agenda, we do have our board goals that we did for 20 uh for this year. We will in in our first meeting of the fall do our board goals. I think it' be more appropriate doing it then just Chris will be here and we'll have something was it I was trying to be subtle. No, I I think that'll be and then and then I think we'll certainly have a lot more information legislature what's happened with the budgets. I think that might

126steer some of our work plan. Yeah. Um yeah and I think that's smart. You know one thing I would like to say I mean we have these committee assignments. This doesn't I mean these committees all work. We revamped them significantly uh a year ago, didn't we? Yes. Don, you love that you Sorry. Yeah, it was it was a little bit painful. Yes. I mean, it was great, but it was a lot. Well, we had a lot a lot of committees. It was a So, we really narrowed them down. Um, but if there's something new, new committee that we have to put on there, I think about legislature like having someone follow what's going on at the state house and education around that. That might be something that why No, no, no. I mean, but we

127should think about that and how that's affecting uh our school system. I anticipate too um with that if you remember that restructure that um Chris presented with transportation facilities and policy things under one person that person will be the person that'll also be looking at legislature as it impacts policy and I think you'll get a a pretty good a different kind of report on that because it will be one person and that's what they're focused on one of the things they're focused on just because it's so seems to be so busy is it that the SAU office. Okay. All right. There's also a fairly small window in which you can affect legislative issues. It's really like January to April. Mh. And if you're meeting every month, then you're missing things. And it's so it probably

128requires I think someone in the SAU rather than a a board committee. Well, I was think Yeah, I'm thinking more like it if that person is there and they're updating the committee and then the committee would update each board. It's more educational, but I I think it will be the responsibility of the SAU. Okay. If that's what the board wants, if you want a monthly update, which is what we've tried to do by putting it on the agenda most recently because it got real busy at that time. Um because I know Chris is continues will continue to be um on the executive board of NHSA, which we have at a legislative committee, which I'm on. I anticipate he will move over to the legislative committee. So we meet every week and I get updates and

129so we get the email. Okay. So we can stay. All right. Very good. So we tal I talked about adding committees and Don walked out. So I know she does not want any more committees. I will I will leave it at that. Great. Molly, will you help me out? Sa save me. Save me. Um, so in your board pack is a current year financial. Um, you're going to see there's a lot of supplies. Uh, because this is that time of year I tell everyone they need to buy it. They don't have it before implementation if they don't need it. Um, so that's the big change there. We did have we added the retirement incumbrances. As we get close to the end of the year, we know what the the the number of sick days that

130the people have are. Um and then we had some changes in transportation regarding changes in student needs specifically um regarding special education and we continue to run less buses. Um so did anyone have any questions? Okay. Then the second thing um I think it might be a little bit mislabeled saying meal debt. um every year or the past few years, this board has voted to cover the reduced price. So, it's not really debt, it's um covering the reduced price for the kids that qualify for reduced meals. Um so, working with Jean Pierce, it's she estimates it about $3,000 for the year for the cooperative. So, if we want to do that for the next year, meaning next school year, we'd be looking for this board to make a motion to do so. So this is

131this is something that I'm I'm pretty passionate about. I mean that this is covers the meals for the kids then. Correct. So anyone that qualifies for free is free. Yeah. Um anyone that just has a regular meal service would follow the regular program, but anyone that falls in that middle bucket of reduced um this this district would cover that reduced fee. And so it covers the gap between what's the reduced amount and the price of the big of the complete lunch regular price. Right. Correct. Yeah. And I this is done at Exad Elementary. So as well and I think the other point too I think this really saves a lot of administrative work of trying to collect that money. Is that correct? Well I do I do think Yeah. It's hard to tell if those

132people would would pay or not, but people that fall in that category um this greatly helps them. Yeah. And we're not we're not trying to chase parking passes and making phone calls and Correct. So, I think it's a it saves operational costs for us, but it also supports Yeah. And it it supports those families that really truly need it. So, I I I'll make the motion to use the funds to Yeah. cover the gap between cover the gap between the reduced lunch and the full price. So, I'll make the motion to to cover to use cover the gap between reduced and regular. I'll second. A second. Excellent. All those in favor, please raise your hand. I'm gonna miss Molly, one quick question. Of the total of the free and reduced, what percentage of that's 100%.

133What percentage is reduced lunch? I don't know at this point in time. You mean the number of kids that qualify for it? Yeah. Of the whole bucket of free reduced like our free reduced numbers in the elementary school used to be between 15 to 20% of the student population. Of that number, how much is free as opposed to is it evenly split? I don't know that off the top of my head. I'd have to check with that fast Jean. Thank you. Oh, that's right. I forgot. Yep. Thank good. Excellent. So, um unfunded unfunded I know unassigned fund balance we're at 13 right now. But we're not going to touch any of that given what's well that's the total but our unassigned fund balance really okay is this is this is what was voted on to

134expend that's with revenue so we could only expend this yes that would be used to offset taxes still but that's why we're not spending any money that's absolutely necessary because that's a very low number for us it's a very low number yes percentage is really really low years ago we used to have a much higher percentage yeah in the guideline we gauge all schools with the all purchase orders need to be incomplete and approved before April vacation. So with the co-op knowing that this is super tight, I actually had them do it a little while ago. So there probably is a little bit more coming in this week, but that's why you see so many supplies on here. Okay, this will be helpful next year during budget season when people perhaps look at they want

135to cut a total amount because there's an fund balance. So, I know this year we worked really hard to explain the difference between the fund balance that included revenue that we can't expend and our actual what was appropriated and what we can expend. So, that's a very that's super good budgeting technically. That is Yeah, that is within less than 1%. Way less. It's Yeah, way less. Way less. Um, but don't forget in that bottom right hand corner I have those three stars that we are closing out the CMS fund. So, that's why your unassigned fund balance will look significantly larger. So we just have to make sure that next year during budget season people really understand why that number looks so big. It wasn't operating. It wasn't budget that they raised and got taxed on.

136It was revenue and closing out this bond. So yes, make a note Molly next year. Make a note. Molly, you will lead us through that next year. I know you will. I can't wait. And Neil will be right there. It is looking hopeful that we will not at this point have to go to ask for um from the special ed trust fund to cover those costs which is why our budget you know a primary reason why our budget has that number. So we're trying really hard not to have to touch that. Yeah, we're trying really hard not to touch it. Um, and if we did get closer, if we have a lot of change in student need, I would ask the board to make a motion up to so that way when we finalize the

137DOE report that we're only taking the as much as we need, not an exact number. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, committee reports, you want to update on the strategic plan? Yep. quickly we meet Thursday and we'll uh we've got our core values and we've got our um priority areas and we'll talk about key performance indicators and I'm hopeful that for joint board in May we'll have at least one page to present and then that's why I think the committee will continue to exist because we still have to flesh out some things. Great. Thank you. Uh superintendent evaluation, you got an email about this the other day. Yeah. Uh so we appreciate that. Thank you. Uh and we are uh we've met as a group a couple times. We've got one more meeting on Friday.

138Just note that that we'll speak more about this at uh the board meeting on Monday night, but we'll be asked to uh I'll ask all of you for comments back uh so we can put together uh some feedback. Safety and security. Safety and security. We met. We heard from a group of students that have formed a they call they're called the hope squad. sort of like a peer counseling, peer referral system for students that might need support through personal issues. Those students were incredibly impressive. Oh, we heard them here. I was say I saw that twice in like three days. Um, so we heard from them. Same kids. Actually, a couple more. There were maybe five at the meeting. Um, there wasn't a lot. There wasn't a lot that happened to that meeting. I'm looking.

139No, just an update on all the table um I was going to say table talks. I'm thinking of the pie. Yeah, the tabletops. It's from Rich. Awesome. We're hungry. Good lord. Um Rich has done a nice job, Rich Kan, of expanding those not just to intruders, but to like a kid taking off the playground, etc., etc. Um so that's been helpful. And all the schools mandatory now have to do at least two a year. So he's work he's doing his working his way through that. Uh we talked about the grant money and all the cameras, additional cameras, additional grant money. We got uh we're ready to go if they offer another round. not looking hopeful, but if they do, we're ready to go. Um, and we just kind of went over that our phys the

140physical aspects of our building are in great shape. And um, that's why the MTSSB that you heard about tonight is beginning to play a major role around safety and security because that's our other um, kind of our other space where we really have to pay attention to is how do we keep kids safe when they're disregulated, when um, life is not serving them in the way they hoped and they react so as well as adults. So that's really where we're putting a lot of our efforts obviously um because our our hardcape pieces are it's pretty solid right now um and that so we'll continue to do that through our behavior interventions team. We talked about bit and the role that bit that's a threat assessment team that I've talked about before. So those things are

141continuing and expanding and um you know we have the world right now is can be pretty volatile and so can kids. So we're trying to keep a handle on that. Esther are we I don't know what the result of the conversation with the door locks for swinging door or for moving indoors. Are we ordering those? Only if they want to build it into their budget. So each board will talk about that. So, we did have a a lock system that we demoed that bracket doesn't matter whether the door opens out or in. Um, so instead of having to replace all your doors because if you barricade the door and it opens out, the barricade's not really doing you any good, right? So, this locked the door in and out and then there's a tool that

142first responders could have that could get that open. Um, so folks looked at that. It's not super super expensive, but you would have to count the doors in your building and um do that process. But it seemed like Rich thought the one of the best tools he's seen um that actually would address our outward opening doors. So, okay. Though when you get to budget season and talking about safety and security, that would be what you'd want to think about. Great. Thank you for the update. Policy committee. my last. I don't I Yeah, I mean I don't know what to do now. Where do I go? Brian, he's new so I don't He's been there every I know. I Well, I wasn't there last month. But you gave all your But I gave Yeah, apparently Olivia

143shared my input. Was there I just cheat and say uh Olivia does a great job and Heather before her did a great job with these summaries that you find in the board packets and you can see they're marked. You know, was it a new policy? Is that checked? Or is it a review of a current or existing policy? Nine times out of 10, these policies are updated in reaction to changes in the law. So there's really not a a great deal that goes beyond what's required in the law and the discussion at policy committee often revolves around how does this tie back to the law that's supporting it and reciting it properly and then you know changes to make sure we're being appropriate for superintendent or designate or um um you know capturing gender appropriately

144for his hers there etc. Um, so it's, you know, the all of these were recommended by the policy committee. Um, so sorry if I repeated things that you've already said or done something. All right. No. And I I don't remember how long you've been on the committee, but when we when I was first on the committee, we didn't find out the policies we were going to talk about till we got to the meeting that night. Yeah. And then we would all be kind of like trying to look up the reg. We didn't get any sort of information about what the legislative changes were. And so, yeah, now it's just a smooth running. I'm the only one that still shows up at the meetings and you don't have to. So, yeah, happy to take it off

145my plate. Um, yeah. And these when I first started these weren't part of it, these summaries like Heather started doing this. These are amazing from scratch. Yeah. Yeah. And I I know we were promised to doing fewer policies at each meeting and she hasn't really kept to that. So somewhat disappointing and I think a little bit more disappointing for the other board members at least that I report back out to, but um we get a heads up of what we're going to do the next month and and so forth. So but there were no no concerns the policy committee that weren't addressed in what's before you tonight. Yeah. No, that's I so appreciate the summaries and all the work that the policy committee has done over the last couple years just get everything updated. Um,

146so I'm sure it'll slow down to few policies. No legislation. No, it will not. So, I appreciate you doing this. I'll make a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the nine policies and to withdraw the one policy. I'll second that. Uh, before we move on to voting, any any discussion about the policies? Excellent. Um, I'll do a roll call for this. Brian, you want to start? I I I I I I Yes. Thank you. Any new business or old business? Anybody wants to bring up? I have a I have a question. Sure, Esther. Um, now that we've moved on, we had new superintendent, new principal at the high school, is there any other updates on any of the other kind of big positions that are out there? That is one of the things I'll

147talk about non-public. All right. Excellent. Thank you. Yes. [Laughter] And are seeing none, I'm going to ask that uh we're going to go into non-public called under RSA 91 A3 2 AI. Oh, no, it's uh a sorry a um so I'll uh ask for a motion to go non-public. Excellent. I'll second that, Joe. Yeah. So, we'll we'll do Brian approved. Second. Made the Brian made the motion. Joe second it. So, I'll do a roll call. Brian. I I I I I I Great. Um, thank you for nonpublic. Uh, session. It's uh Tuesday, April 15th. I'll look for a motion. I'll make a motion to approve the recommendations of the superintendent. Excellent. Could I have a second? Second. Thank you, Neil. Um all those in favor, please raise your hand. I should make a motion to

148adjurnn. Excellent. Second. All those in favor. Excellent. We're good to go. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.