001Okay. Well, good evening. This is a Kensington School Board meeting for April 7th at 6:00. Um, I'm going to start the meeting and ask board members for a nomination for board chair. Um, I I nominate um Stephanie. All right, we've got a nomination for Stephanie and Cheryl. Do you second that? Yeah. Oh, okay. Second, you're second the nomination for Steph. All right. Um, vote. All in favor? I. I need a roll call vote. So, yes. Cheryl. Cheryl Mcdana is yes. Second. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, then I hand the meeting over to you. Okay. All right. So, we've done order. Election of chairperson. So, now election of vice chair. Congratulations. That you asked for. Okay. Thank you. Um, all right. So, now we um need to elect a vice chair. And what do I say? Can
002I I can't move you closer. Oh, thank you again. Okay, so we need to elect a vice chair. Do I have any nominations? I nominate I nominate Cheryl. I me too. Okay, I second that. All right. Okay. All in favor? Go ahead. Oh, thank you. I'm giving you a nudge. Thank you. All in favor? I I All right. So, Sharon McDana, vice chair. Okay. Wendy. Thank you. All right. We are now um going to enter a non-public session or you can you can just you're just informing the public that you can call one at any time. Okay. A non-public session can be called at any time. Should I read off? Yep. In accordance with chapter 91A 3 2. Is that what that is? A, B, C, D, E, or I? Yes. Okay. And now we're
003opening up for public input. Do I say the time? Yep. You say what time you're starting public input? It's 6:04 and it's for 30 minutes. Is that right? Okay. So, public input for 30 minutes and we will take public input if there is any public input. All right. So, I'm Ben Cole, 242 North. I wrote the school board last week. Hi, Cheryl. Uh I wrote the school board last week to ask about the status of the budget advisory board committee that was created last year. Um perspective I outlined in the email I sent was that if it still exists that's a core function of the board to identify areas that should be reduced or find possible cost savings if any it's problematic to have an unelected advisory committee doing the work of the board or
004appearing to be doing the work of the board. And I think it could unfortunately cause people to think that the board has abregated its budgetary responsibilities and keeping costs down. And I think what I heard from residents at and after deliberative session was the false sense that the board was operating with some type of a blank check and that the only thing holding budget increases back was some sort of citizens committee that was not elected. Um, so I didn't know if it was a school committee or a school board subcommittee. I don't really know anything about it other than that. Sure. Um, so I was hoping at some point to get an update and I am not on the agenda. I don't expect the board to do my bidding. Um, or otherwise even answer questions
005tonight, but I wanted to register the concern and get more information if I could. Yeah. And it's up to the board if you'd like more information about that. Sure. in a in we can get that for you for the next meeting or if Miss Rule has more information on that. It I I can put in the public record. It is not a schoolboard committee. It is a school-based committee. Um it doesn't function as a schoolboard committee. It functioned as a school-based committee. Would you explain that? So the a school board committee would have to be posted. It would have public minutes and they would operate in public um and it would follow under the policies around school board. This was a just a school-based committee. My understanding it happened with Dr. Indrriski before me. Um
006my understanding was it was really a school base and it was to look at um any inefficiencies around the budget and it was community members. It happened at the school building and the principal rule was there and took meeting minutes. So it was just an advisory committee. It didn't make decisions. the school board is solely responsible, but it was just an advisory community committee um is how it was explained to me. Um and it there's no rule if it should commit continue or not continue. I think that's a conversation for the community. Okay. Well, could I ask a clarifying question, Renee? Yeah. Um, I was not on the board when that happened and I guess it would be my understanding that that committee would have been um created. I don't even know if committee is
007the right word, but that group would have been created before two of us were even on this board. So, I'm not sure that it's still would go school year to school year. It would have been something that they did that school year and would not exist into perpetuity. Am I correct? Well, it's schoolbased, so I guess I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Um, so the committee was formed in April of last school year, and there was some discussion at that meeting whether it should be um an official advisory committee to the board in which there is a policy that governs policy. BDF governs the work of an advisory committee or a school-based committee. And there was some discussion amongst the board members at that time and it was an intentional decision at that meeting
008that it was a schoolbased committee not an official advisory committee to the board. Um so the the the committee was formed with the um goal. Let me get the exact request at the time was the motion that the committee with the goal with the goal of reviewing budget costs per student and to identify potential drivers and cost benefits for the coming year. So that was the goal that was given and there wasn't discussion about the BDF policy which would um which would indicate the length of time, the service, the resources, the dates, all of the things, none of that was discussed because it was not an advisory committee to the board per policy. So if the goal if the goal was to look at things for that year, that year is over. So in my
009mind that that committee wouldn't exist anymore if the goal was to for the coming year. Yes. For the coming budgets for the well that then I would say it's dissolved just like most school committees you start the next year if you're going to have it. That would be how I I would look at it that the committee no longer exists. Okay. So, I guess it's a schoolbased committee, so we can have conversations um at the school level and with the superintendent's office and report back next month. Okay. Um report back like if we would we it sounds like we met the goal. Okay. It sounds like the purpose and the goal existed. Um but I don't want to speak out of turn without talking to Dr. and risky in terms of okay since he was
010here in April or if there's other goals but it sounds like it was the last meeting of the committee was in September of last year and the action items that we discussed had all been completed. Okay. And there was not another um meeting set after the September meeting. So maybe it is done just by nature of the fact that it was done. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Correct. Okay. Okay. That would be my understanding certainly. Right. Interesting. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thanks, ma'am. Thanks, ma'am. On the agenda, please. Yeah. Could I bring something up? Yes. You want to state her name for the record? Albert Kensington, New Hampshire. Cheryl, you're not here, but I'll I'll give I'll give it to her. I'll make sure she gets And I didn't get I didn't make I should have
011made an extra one. I didn't. Nice meeting you. Thank you for the copies. Is it Did you I was going to read it. Oh. Um April 7th, it's a request to the board. As a citizen of the task force that moves forward, we would need the following information to begin our work towards completing our goals and analysis. Mutually sharing financial data, facts, and analysis will help us build trust and transparency as we as the process moves forward. As a matter of good faith, I've included the packet tonight of the initial information we will be building from. So the information that we have there is all the information we have right now. So we wanted to make sure it's going to be really important as we move forward that we share information. So if something's uh
012not correct, we need to know that as we move forward. So that the whole intent of this is to try to work with everybody to have one basis of information and then to work from one place so we have the correct information. So right here what I'm asking for is please provide within the next 10 business days. Um Kensington Elementary who owns the building and the land we don't really know. And 2023 what is the net capital asset value for each land? land improvements, buildings, food, service, machinery, uh furniture and fixtures and equipment in 2023. Net pension liability, net other postemployment benefits, compensated absences, um SA16, I think, should have this information. I know we don't have this information currently because we don't have a financial audit. We use a citizen type audit which only
013checks cash flows. So, this is a little bit more in depth. It hasn't been done, to my understanding, in the last six years. So, even if we can get the six-year-old one, at least it's a place for us to help start from. We can build numbers from there. Um, and we're requesting uh to publish as a matter of public record and information on the Kensington School Board site so citizens can be more directly informed and the school board more transparent. One of the things that we're going to be doing is using a lot of information. And it would be nice if you had if you posted what we might post in the future so that we're on the same page and we're not fighting each other or causing any conflict. One, uh, the teacher collective
014bargaining agreement. Two, the principal collective bargaining agreement. Three, links to the Department of Education site specific to SAU16. Four, the last annual financial report. We know it's six years ago, but if you have that, that'll work. uh SA16 strategic plan results that just came out in the last uh um on this last week. Uh the Kensington education trust fund balances. Right now the trust fund balances aren't recorded anywhere. So citizens don't know what that is. You're the fiduciary, so you have that information, but the citizens really don't know uh what the trust fund balance is and if there's any top limits that you have set. uh the citizens audit report for 20 2023 2024. Um and then last is if you could change the schoolboard meetings to 6:30, it'll allow more people to attend, you
015know, after work. Uh Renee, yes. Um could I ask another clarifying question? Sure. Isn't I didn't hear everything because it's a little bit hard. Isn't almost all of that available publicly? Yeah. Okay. So, my, you know, my concern is talking about all of the um clerical jobs that are being given to the SAU office and giving to our office that is expending so much time which is money when all of those things or let's say 90% of those things are available publicly. Correct. Correct. That would be my understanding. This is a this is a request being made to the school board. The school board can make a decision on how they want to respond. Um but people can make requests to school boards all the time and it's it's really up to the school board
016what or how or if they want to respond there. You're not obligated to answer every citizen's request. Um and you can defer them to SAU 16 websites. And he did just hand us a packet. So, if the board chair would like, I can bring it back and um report out at next board meeting um some information around this. I mean um I I don't I'm not sure the board's even aware of what task force the citizen is speaking about, but the task force doesn't and the task force doesn't work for the school board. It's not part of the school board. So, you're in no obligation to do any of any of their requests. Um, so it that's I mean there's a lot of clarifying information around this request. So I would just say we take
017some time to read it um and and um decide how you would like to respond at the next board meeting. Okay would be my recommendation. Go ahead. Um so what I'm trying to do here is get the information all in one place. If if it's available, no one has to do a lot of work to put it in one place. This way we're all sharing the information from one specific place because a lot of people citizens don't know where to look for the department of education and I know when you go to SAU website it's very confusing and try to find information and I'm pretty experienced at it. So my goal is to try to get everything in one place that we can talk about so everyone kind of knows where we're going. The second
018part this is just a request uh in it 10 business days. It's not a right to know request. I would rather not go that way. I would rather have we work together and do this rather than go through formal right to know requests. So if you would consider that I appreciate it. Um and Al, just as a clarifying thing, um the citizen task force is that just that you No, there's there's actually about six people right now and there's actually some from other towns that we have not asked in that have were interested only because there's some possibilities within the district of maybe putting schools together, maybe not. We don't have the information, but people are very curious. So, and I'm sorry, there are people on that task force who don't live in Kensington. No,
019I said people have requested, okay, from other places that would like to be part of that. And I'm saying, you know, we we're just lo right now local people. There's about six locally. So, and you know, it's it's growing, but um you know, we want to start this on the right foot so that we're all kind of working together. I don't want this to be confrontational. We're just going to deliver a packet at the end of information. Here's the information. We're going to give it to the school board, to the selectment in the community. And it's really doing work for you to say at the end, hey, this is good or not. It's to open up the opportunity to have this discussion. We're not going to be able to have the discussion unless we share
020the facts together so that we can work from one set of points. And it would be easier for towns people if they were looking somewhere. They didn't come to me, but the stuff was on your website. It would make it a lot easier. That's all. Okay. Well, since we did just get this information at 5:30 today, we're going to we're going to um of course not make a decision at this. Yeah, you can speak to state name 12 way. I thought a task force was put on the ballot and was declined by the town's people. That's to not be able to do what you seem to be asking that they do. May I may I speak to her or speak to the board? You speak to the board. You're you're asking a question to the
021board. I believe the warrant article I believe the town did not pass. I think it was voted down. So this is it sounds as though this task force is not in any official capacity at this time. It sounds like this is a group of volunteers that are seeking the school board to provide them information. Some of the information asking the board to provide is comes from the SAU office and again it's on the website. So I think it's it's it's a little confusing. It sounds like um some of the requests are outside of the board's really job, but it's we'll just have to weed weed through that. Yeah. I I'm confused as a a citizen of Kensington to be have a group that's stating themselves as a task force when we had a task force
022on the ballot that was declined. So to have another group now saying they have a task force I feel like is going against what the town has decided. So I'm trying to clarify that. It's a good question. I I'm not legal I don't have legal advice on that. Um yeah. Okay. So, uh, the New Hampshire Constitution, part one, article 8 and article 38, it's the citizen's responsibility to have the oversight. So, the Constitution, if you looked at the Warren article, the Warren article basically said we were looking for an endorsement. The town voted not to endorse. That's how the warrant was. So, didn't tell us we couldn't go forward. We were just hopeful that the town would say yes because if the town said yes, we would get a lot of more people behind it
023moving in the right direction. So the challenge was the town did not endorse, but that doesn't mean we can't move forward. Thank you. Would the would the school board like me to get legal guidance on this or how would you like I think that's a good idea. How would you like me to proceed or what would you like me to do on your behalf? Yeah, I mean this is a lot of information. Um, and like you said, it's some it's some information that we could gather, but also that they could gather. So, um, and putting it all together in one document. I just Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot. So, I think getting legal counsel is a good idea. Okay. Um, if I could point it of interest for a second, we we can't find the
024net capital asset values. They're not available on on your website on the SA16 website. The net pension liability We don't it's not on it's not part of the reporting. So this is why we're asking for it to start from a basis of which we have all information. What I provided you in the packet is uh the stratum annual financial report. All all the towns in New Hampshire all the towns in SAU SAU16 use this document. This document provides the information. Kensington is the only is the outlier. It does not provide an annual financial report. So it's so we can't find this information. That's why it doesn't provide this detailed report. It does an annual it does an annual report. It just doesn't it doesn't create a report that you can look at in that same
025way. But I mean is that correct that she we meet our legal standard every time with that audit. It fills out the state form. A 36page audit report costs 12 to $15,000. the board has repeatedly decided not to expend the funds and that they would open it up for conversation. It's just important to to to say that we use the state auditing form that it is given and she is a licensed accountant that does the audit and we meet the state requirements every year with the audit. She doesn't create a 30page, you know, report with graphs that you can look at, but all the information is there. Point of interest. Unfortunately, what she produces is cash flows. She doesn't produce the detailed report of which we can start to dig into the information. So if
026you look at her report, it's just the cash flow report. She does not. That's and and the board has decided to do that for the last six years. All other towns because you have this budget is $4.5 million. You're the highest budget. You know, you have the highest budget items in all of Kensington. And there's nothing for us to take a look at to see what our assets or liabilities are. And the cash flow report doesn't report assets assets and liabilities. So that's the challenge. We don't know what it is. It would be better if it came from you and said this is what it is. So we know so we can start at least from the same set of numbers. And that that's a almost a question that we'll want to tackle when we're
027looking at the next budget because it's a budget item. So I thank you for your comments and we will we'll take it into into account. Um I I I get where you're coming from in terms of the fact that the other towns in the SAU do it a certain way. Um but as I know that we're always pinching pennies in this town in terms of the school budget. Um it's hard to think to spend 12 to $15,000 on a report, but it's something that we will take into consideration during budget season. Okay. Any other public comments? I just for this for the sake of providing an alternative perspective. I think I I'm deeply concerned at the idea that taxpayer money as expended through the work of staff um or schoolboard volunteers, not in form money,
028but just in terms of your energy would go towards satisfying the particular parochial agenda of any member of the community, whether they claim to represent a task force of five or six people or not. um especially if it's made to sound as if it's an official body um representative of elected office or of the elector that is our community. It is not. Um I would recommend the board not provide this service. Right to know request comes in. The board is required to provide documents that exist and it's not required to produce new ones. Correct. Um that is not what 91A says. So my request as a taxpayer of this town would be to not acquies to requests like this. I think they serve a particular political end and that is not the job of the
029school board. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry that was personally addressed to me about a political ends and I would like to address the board on that if you don't mind. There is no political anything here. We've I've asked people I stood up and asked people to join. They have is not a political thing. This has been open as a matter of point of interest. I was part of the task force. I'm one of the first people who came to work with the school to in to identify issues before this happened. I've already dedicated my time and donated my time. We went through the budget together. We were trying to find I was resp and good faith. Yeah, I I I asked you this request in good faith. I would pro not like to go
030down the other pathway. Um, go ahead, Cheryl. Yeah, I was just going to say it's absolutely political because the town has voted and now we're once again when we should be talking about curriculum and hiring practices and the laws that are being passed at the state that are killing us. But we're going over the same facts that you have that we've given you that you still want again. Cheryl and again I'm gonna ask No, I I can't help. This is exhausting us when we have good important work to do. So I think Cheryl, you're you're a trained attorney. Are you saying to me that you're taking away my constitutional rights? You're a trained attorney. Is that what you're saying? You swore no to the Constitution. Is that what you're telling me? If you're telling me
031that, then let me know now and this won't be a very comfortable experience for anybody. You have a constitutional right to request this information. The board will take it under consideration. That's it. The as a member of the board, the board has a right to have this discussion in public and a board member has expressed her opinion in public. That is well within her right. So, let's just remember the the way that this public governance work. the board is allowed and should be allowed to express their opinion that based on a request they received from the public. It's all she's doing. She's here as a school board member and we're just being able to we should have this discourse in public. But a school board member should not account to the people of the public
032and tell us that this is a political thing or something else. She has no right to do that. That's disparity. Dispar I think everyone's allowed to have their opinion and that's what happens. Everyone's allowed to have their opinions. Okay. And I I mean we have what? Seven more minutes of public input. Okay. Six going on six more minutes of public input. So great. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. All right. Thank you for everyone. Um okay. So let's move on to the approval of meeting minutes for March 3rd, 2025. Um, I didn't see any problems, any issues. I just had one suggestion. Okay. Uh, when we talk about the auditor's report, it just refers to Pam. Pam Pam and everywhere else in the notes or the minutes, everybody is Miss Mcdana, Dr. Bennett. I think it
033might be to have the auditor's last name. Okay, good point. Good catch. That's the English teacher. No, you're right. That's a good That's a just a respectful thing to do. Okay. Um, so now I say make a motion to accept the meeting minutes as amended. Um, I will now make a motion to accept the meeting minutes u for March 3rd, 2025 as amended. Seconded. Thank you. Um, all in favor? I. All three approved. Okay. Great. Okay. Um, next up is committee reports. So policy committee. So we didn't Josh was your policy committee rep. You you guys will have to discuss um policy I mean committee assignments today. Um but Josh was your policy rep but we did include the updated policies in your board packet with the um summary description of the changes. So, um
034I didn't know if the board had a chance to look at that, if they had any specific questions they wanted me to try to answer, or if they were willing to, um make a vote to approve the revisions to the policy policies that were in the board packet. I read all of them, Renee, and I thought they were um changes that made sense. Okay. Yeah, I agree. I honestly don't have any questions. It was really straightforward. It was well and it was thorough. So yeah. Um great. Okay. I'm going to have to abstain because I didn't read any of it. Okay. Of course. So do you want So it's up to you. Do you want to make a vote or do you want to take them up next week or I mean next month? Move
035to pass. How do you feel? I mean I'm I'm com uh I mean it two out of three win, right? So Okay. I mean, definitely read through them because it's a lot it's a lot about about board stuff. Usually, it's honestly not that much about um the board. It's more about the schools. So, it was interesting. Okay. Um Okay. So, I will So, I'm going to make a motion to accept Yep. And I'm going to read the policies. Okay. And we're not we haven't um there's none to be pulled off. So, it really is just to accept the revisions for the policies. Yeah, I I see the letters. Is that correct? Okay. Um All right. Um make a motion to accept policies BCB, BE DB, B E D C B H E B I E,
036D A F DB, T I D and K C D. Can I get a second? Sure. Second. Okay. Yep. Oh, yes. Right here. Okay. All in favor? I I Thank you. Great. All right. Thank you. Okay. Um the next committee is safety and security. Cheryl, do you have an update on that? Renee, do we have an update on that? Yes. The safety and security test um not test for safety and security um met the committee met at um over at the high school a couple weeks ago. Um we really just reviewed um emergency procedures updated about some school doors and locks. Um it's really hard because the safety and security committee we don't talk about in public because we don't want to share our safety and security measures. Um but I think it's important for
037the board to know that they did meet. Um Cheryl did does receive a copy of the meeting minutes and she can read through them. Um we have our first responders there. Um, and yeah, we just really went over any updates to changes in the laws and pass past pass we talked about safety grants and hoping to get more rounds and and stuff like that. But I will say SEU 16 is in um a really good place and one of the model districts for other districts in terms of our safety plans. Great. So, we just reviewed them again. It's really a check-in with our town's first responders and stuff. Kensington. Oh, Becky's gonna say something. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. I was just say Kensington has received some increased um security equipment um using grant money
038um and all of that was installed um pretty much all finished last month. Um so that was that was nice. We also have our um annual fire safety report from um our fire chief which we'll review and nonpublic. So we did get that in writing from him. So we'll review those um items on his report and public. Go ahead, Cheryl. I was just going to say um I wanted to offer a commentation to the SAU for the way they handled the emergency this past week. It was pretty seamless and if my kids were still in school, I would have felt that they were safe. So kudos to Dr. Esbel and you Renee and whoever else was involved with that. Yeah, agreed. Thank you. I'll I'll pass that along. Yeah. And I think our parents and
039families were really receptive to to some change of dismissals at the end of the day kind of last minute understanding that um buses were delayed and there was lots of shifts to parent pickup and so I think our community was really supportive of kind of a last minute need for change. Nice. That's good to Yeah, I would echo that across all the communities. Thank I'm so thankful for the parents we have in SU6 and their flexibility and listening for the messages and the building administrator did a great job communicating with the community. So yeah, it was thankfully it went it went smoothly as smoothly as it could have gone. Yep. Definitely agree. Great. Um okay, superintendent evaluation committee that is me and my update is that we did have a meeting on March 21st. I
040did not attend it due to being a total space cadet, but I have the information from it. The um 360 evaluation goes to out to um Dr. Oswell on April 7th or I'm sorry about Dr. Oswell goes out to all the folks who will be evaluating her. It's um admins, teachers. I believe they'll have two weeks to complete it and then we will look at the goals at our April 21st joint board meeting. So everyone will get the um we'll get the to look at the goals at that time and then we'll do our in a non-public session we'll do our our goals evaluation form actually at that meeting so we can talk about the goals and how that they went and that is that um Steph yes did did we put somebody on the
041policy committee we haven't done that we we need to do committee assignments Um, the board needs to discuss all committee assignments. People want to stay on what they're on or people want new ones. But the ones that are vacant because of Josh is community news and policy. I can take care of community news. That's that's up to the board chair. Okay. Um, sure. Why don't we let's run through them. Let's finish updating and then we'll do the assignments. Does that sound good? Okay. Yep. That's good with me. I just I was on the second page here and I thought we did. Yes. It needs to happen. Okay. So, that was all right. This superintendent evaluation committee that's updated. Kensington school study update. There is none. Um general correspondence. Do you have any general correspondence this
042fall? I don't have any. Um I we just we have notification. And this is good news celebration that um one of our coder Z robotics teams placed second in the state in um the in the novice division and so we've been selected to go to like their championship round at the end of um April. So I was going to talk a little bit about that. But yes, we do have um that letter that went to the school for notifying us. That's great. Good job. Oops. All right. Uh, community news submission. I don't think we have one in the worksite. There was one that just went out. So, in the um I just I just did it. So, we can talk about um who's going to take over that and when we will do the next
043one. And then the last committee is the strategic plan. So, um we had the big summit. It was last weekend. Yep. Last weekend. It feels like a lot longer ago than that. It does. Um but it went really well. It was Thursday, Friday, Thursday and Friday night, Saturday morning. We had about 50ish people, I think, participated. Um, you know, parents, community members, teachers, support staff, admin, and then the, um, senior leadership team. And it was led by a woman from the company that ran the what's their what are they? ISO. They're Yeah. What do you call them? I don't I don't know what the official business they they they Pauls yeah they collect and analyze data research firm they facilitate large group events like this and they did our they've done our surveys um and
044basically the information that we went over we did core values and some sort of strategic sort of steps for the future and I think they gathered a lot of information and the next step is to meet next week. Yep. Yeah. Next week with the committee to go through all of the the data that we pulled out. So that will be ongoing. Yeah. The strategic plan is not finished. This was just the gathering of the community's core values so that the strategic planning committee can now take that back and dig into the the measurable goals and what that wants priorities and stuff. But I think it was a I think it was a really great it was three days. It was great. Yeah. So, okay. That is that. Okay. So, if we want to um assign
045our committees now, Cheryl, do you have do you have a something that you want to do? Well, I was going to suggest and Wendy, you can disagree with me if you want. Um, I was going to suggest that Wendy take safety and security because that's always in person. Mhm. And I'm on the road so often. Yeah. It meets during doesn't it meet during the day? Is that one of the ones where 9 in the morning? Yeah. Does that something that works? That works for me. I can do that. I'm retired. I can do that. Good. Okay, good. Thank you. Well, I'm supposed to be retired, but here you go. Yeah, you be you. And then Cheryl, do you want to do you want to take over policy? I do. Oh, great. Okay, that would be
046good because you can you can zoom into it. What about community news? I can I can do that, Cheryl. I mean, okay. It's certainly something that I mean, I think having it on the agenda sort of means that one person is in charge of like making sure we do it, but in terms of writing it, like we could we can take turns with that. Yeah. And I can write it and send it to Cheryl because she's the writing. Yes, she is. Cheryl, does that sound good? So, you can put my name on it, but it'll be a joint venture. the uh the safety and security meetings at 9:00 a.m. Is that once a month? It's four times a year. Okay. And there's no more this year unless there's a reason to pull the team together.
047Okay. I I let the um uh Sharon Galage um the admin assistant for the superintendent know who's on it. She starts a mailing list and so she will send you calendar invites for next year and have it on your calendar and she'll send you agendas and everything. So, you'll get invited, but there's we don't we ended last meeting not planning on having one cuz we were in a very good spot. There was nothing left out there. So, I don't think we'll have one until around October, fall. But again, anything could happen and the superintendent could ask for everyone to gather. Okay. And then I'm happy to continue on the superintendent evaluation committee unless someone else really wants to do it. It's fine. I can do it. Um it's it's kind of a learning curve. So
048I'm happy to stay on that one just to for the the piece. And then um the strategic plan committee, I can stay on that. I'm not sure it's going to morph into something else, but for as long as it lasts, I'm happy to continue doing that. If that works. Does that sound good, Cheryl? Sounds good to me. Okay. Okay. All right. So the next on the agenda is business and financials. Good evening. So in your packet were the financials for the month. Oh, she disappeared. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Terrell. Hi. How are you doing? Good. How are you? So, last month we reported a remaining expense of $56,977. So, this is the time of the year when we're working with the schools and we're taking a look at how many what the incumbrances are, the min
049incumbances are for payroll. So we're we're continuously working on that now. So you're going to see significant decrements decreases and we ended the month with 68,187. So for the month you decreased your expenses by $11,210 and the majority of that were via incumbrance relief. Does anyone have any questions? But right now, I don't think so. Cheryl, did you have any questions? I did not. Okay. All right. I'm going to close out public input. Oh, yes. Um, do I make an announcement? Yeah. Okay. Um, we're going to close public input at 6:42. Okay. All right. So, no questions about the budget. I think that's good. Yeah. For the fiscal stuff. Thank you, Michelle. You're welcome. Um, okay. So, next up is the uh principal's report. Um, yes, a couple things. um under our positive community culture.
050I was highlighting um a challenge that our kindergarteners recently participated in um with their fellow kindergarteners from Sway Central School. Um they were challenged which book with what we call ship a chip. Um, and we had one of our kindergarten parents who works at a local manufacturing company come um and co-e in our in our kindergart. And the children had to take a potato chip and then design packaging so that the chip would not break and then send it to their kindergarten friends in Brentwood. And then the Brentwood kindergarteners were at the same time packaging their potato chip to send to our kindergarteners. So, they just got each other's chips just this past week and I don't know if Barbara wanted to share how exciting that was in the STEM lab. You have no idea
051how exciting they was huge. They just loved it. And I have to say they were we I don't know how our chips made it there. They really went through the post office, but the chips that we opened from Brentwood, it when I had my class in there, which was half of them, there was only one chip that did not make it. That's I mean they really took it serious about the foam but then they talked about you couldn't waste and you didn't want to have big packages. It it was really eye opening and and the gentleman who was in the father that was in was like these kids are taking it so seriously and they really did. It was a lot of fun. And so I love to be able to have members of our
052community to come in and share their expertise with the kids because they do understand to some extent you know what this gentleman does um you know for his job and for work and thinking about manufacturing packaging. So that's just it was just a really um it was um just really positive community experience and then for them to also connect with students in Bretwood. Yeah. We wrote letters. Yeah. So starting a little communication. Um, I also just I'm going to connect the robotics challenge since we're just talking about the STEM lab. Um, the Coder Z is um I I'm not sure if you remember, but um we receive a $15,000 grant to participate um in this robotics challenge. This is the third year that we've received the grant. That $15,000 allows our STEM teacher to purchase
053so much for our STEM lab. um a lot of robotics equipment and coding um the Lego kits. Um without that $15,000 grant, our STEM lab would not be as robust as it is. Um, so I just am just really thankful for um that grant being available um and that we've been awarded it for the lost because our our students really do benefit and we have this fifth grade team who has now been doing this for a few years and I think we're also seeing the results of um them be being becoming more familiar with this coding exercise um to place second in the state is really impressive. So, um, this I'm just really proud of this this group of fifth graders and all the work that they've put into it. So, stay tuned for next
054month and we we should know how we do at the competition. So, it's really it's and I love I love that they're doing that, Becky. I I just I love all the hands-on things that you guys are doing. Keep it up. Yeah. So, um, we we did secure we were able to secure a bus, which I'll talk about that also, the difficulty of securing buses, but we were able to secure a bus for them to go to Pinkerton Academy on the 23rd. Um, so they'll have to leave school a little bit early to compete. Um, but it's over at Pinkerton. Um, so that Yeah, that's great. So, the second piece um was meaningful learning. And at the time when I wrote this, because I write this well before it happens and submit it since we
055have to have packets, um the plan was for our third graders to be able to um see the naturalization ceremony of um one of our students fathers who is being naturalized. Um and it's uh it was really exciting. Um this is um a dad who's um been in our school before and been part of part of our um cultural passport program with students and so this is someone that the kids know. Um unfortunately there was a bus available to go but not a driver. Oh sad. So um they were not able to see his naturalization ceremony. However, they were able to go to um the naturalization ceremony that was at Xar High School last Friday. Um the third grade class was asked to do the pledge of allegiance at that ceremony um so that they
056could actually be part of it. Um so they were able to see the the process um just not with the person that they knew. So um but it was um a really great experience for our third graders and it it fit seamlessly into their immigration unit that they're studying um in third grade. So, it really um Oh, that's perfect. It really fit just perfectly into our curriculum um and our immigration unit. Yeah, that's great. So, that was great. Um and then under health and well-being, just um recapping our kids heart challenge, which is um our jump rope fundraiser and all the money that um the kids raise goes to the American Heart Association. Um this year we um raised over $2,600 in pledges. Um, and that's all through our fabulous jumping that our kids do
057here in Kensington. So, yeah, that was successful again. Awesome. Great. Thank you. All right. Back up to the top. And I don't know if we wanted to do the school calendar under new business. Okay. Okay. New business. We're on new business. Yeah, sure. So, we do have a proposed um calendar for next school year. email right now. Thank you. You don't need to use your computer. Um let me email it to you um really quick. Sh. So if you look, it follows really the same cadence as um the teacher workshop days as this year. Um, so starting um, new staff. I don't actually I'm not sure I have an electronic copy because I think Kristen just printed it for me. Okay, I'll just listen. Yeah, I think she just printed it. I don't think she
058sent it to me electronically. Okay. Um so it follows the same um pretty much the same pattern as this past year. Um starting that third week in August, new staff would start on the 19th and then the rest of the professional staff would start on August 20th and the we have the remainder of that week for professional development days and kids start back on the 25th. Um then looking at additional professional development days falling um on those long weekends. So, the Friday before those long weekends, which again is what came out of our community survey. Um, so the Friday in October, the Friday in January, and the Friday in March, those all surround the the long weekends. Um, so that was uh that stays the same. Um, there is not uh an election day in
059November this year um because we don't have any uh local elections for us to do. So, I double checked with Harold that we were not they were not going to be using KES until March. Um, so we do not have that day in November off. We would just have no um Veterans Day. Okay. Um, the only early release day that's being proposed because again, as a community, we're really trying to get away from um early release days because families felt th those were difficult for childcare purposes. The only um early release date that we're proposing is the one on December 23rd just before the December break. Okay. Um so that is the only one that's being proposed. Um then the teachers have uh the students last day would be June 10th barring any snow days
060or multiple snow days. And then the teachers have an additional work day um after the students. Yeah, I think it's great. Y very similar to this year's schedule. Yeah. Okay. Do we vote to approve it? Okay. Um or no to approve it. It's up to you. Thank you. Um I will I just forget how to always start the sentence every time. Make a motion. Thank you. I should just write a thing like that. Thank you. I would like to make a motion to accept the SEU 162025 2026 academic calendar for KES. Second. All in favor? I. I. All right. Wait, that's the same thing. Okay. Any other new business? New business, but we have um personnel when we get down to it. Okay. Um old business and then people related matters. Nothing. Okay. Personnel. Okay.
061And Cher, we did have a new student start. Is that We had a new student start. A new family. A new family. Yep. Um so this is a list of the certified staff renewal list. So just asking the board to approve um these positions and FTEEs for next year. Cheryl, I don't have this electronically at all. This came from HR. Um so here is that what are the highlights? Is that just Yeah. What does that mean? It just means it's not fulltime. Yeah. So, no, it should be no there's no surprises here. There's no surprises or anything like that. No changes. Same FTE, same everything that we talked about when we were doing the budget for this year and everything. So, it's not Okay. FTE is full-time employees. Y Okay. Okay. Great. So, we just
062need make a motion. Make a motion to approve the certified renewal list. All right. I will make a motion to accept the Kensington certified renewal list for 2025 2026. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I. All in favor, Cheryl. I asked for a vote. Thank you. No, you just ignoring me. I'm sorry. Oh, she's waving. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Three in favor. Okay. Great. Okay. Wonderful. Um there is a request to go into nonpublic under I. Okay. So, we have to say what what would be why we're going to non-public. And the reason um I'm going to ask the board to do a roll call vote is um preparation for carrying out emergency functions. Okay. All right. So, I'll make a motion to go into non-public session um under RSA under RSA 91
063A 3 under I. Okay. And I need a roll call vote. Sher Mcdana says yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. Thank you for coming. Great. All right. I will make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:05 p.m. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I I I Thank you. Right.