001[Music] e [Music] for [Music] like e all right good evening everybody you guys good in the back with audio great my name is Steve butel I'm the library director here at the stratum Library the Wigan Memorial Library we're thrilled to have you all here for voter information night 2025 I want to thank a whole host of people um Dave Emanuel who'll be our moderator tonight uh Dave Mo Our Town Administrator here in stratum for helping us get all this organized Susan Connor as well from the stratum planning department uh we have help from several Wigan Memorial Library staff members tonight um Heather saludo for social studies teacher at the exer high school and several of her students um I'm going to go for it anony Alexander Elliot and Kate one of whom may not be
002able to make it but we thank them anyway uh I'd like to thank Karen Keys who's from the exra area chapter of the general Federation of women's clubs and uh just everybody for participating and helping us to make this important occasion possible um as you know libraries are information hubs for communities and we're very proud of the Wigan Memorial Library providing and playing that role and we're our committ to fostering active uh Civic engagement uh on a local basis and as a result we're very proud to host this event each year um we do have a couple programs that I want to make sure you know about because we love to partner with organizations in the region so we are going to be holding events uh partnering with the exitor area Garden Club on Saturday
003we have program with the New Hampshire Historical Society coming up on Monday I believe check our calendar and we're also partnering with a group called braver Angels on the 22nd which is March uh 22nd Saturday which is a uh interesting group discussion around uh political discourse and um civility um so look for our events on our website if you're interested in becoming a friend of the library great idea um really actually one of the only other things that I want to ask before before I turn it over to Dave is is that as much as you might want to help put away the chairs at the end of the evening we ask that you do not move them uh people have stacked them in the past it's led to let's just say issues so when
004you're done if you are here at the end of the evening just kindly leave your chair where it's at how am I doing anything else I should be mentioning all right we're going to have four groups of panels and I turn it over to Dave to lead us through through this and I also be timekeeper so enjoy thank you than [Applause] absolutely I'm smiling because uh we this is usually the size of a school district meeting for the town of stratum how many of you were at the school district meeting on uh Tuesday evening yeah I understand we had I know I don't have my results with me yet3 people what was that Connie 463 people 463 people in attendance which which uh is a it's a big deal for us and it's uh I
005think it's excellent when we have Civic involvement from the voters and the people in so uh my name is Dave Emanuel I am I serve as the stratum town and School District moderator I've been doing it for a couple couple years now and uh generally what our job or my job is is to foster a neutral uh meeting where we can all voice our opinions ask questions make comments and statements and uh persuade or not persuade the house to make a decision on behalf of the town of stratum so this past Tuesday night was the town's School District meeting which we voted on a bond for a facility and we voted on an operating budget for 2000 for the next year so or all for this year 2025 and what I uh what I ask
006for whether it's a forum like this or one of our town or school district meetings is uh you know having grown up here in stratum and been involved in these Civic forums since I was a Cub Scout uh I ask people to reflect on our 300 plus years in stratum and to appreciate the town meeting former government that we have which in my opinion is the purest form of democracy in the country or the world world where everyone comes out with one vote to speak their mind State their opinion and then vote on the issues uh so I I always ask the house to be respectful and mindful of what they say and how they say it because words do matter and I ask us to treat our friends and neighbors as though we're still
007going to be friends and neighbors tomorrow so uh Jeff and I are good right now and we're going to be good at the end of the evening and I ask everyone to frame their thoughts uh appropriately uh so we can keep doing this the way we do it it's a tremendous a it's an opportunity to be able to do what we do and I think it's cool so that being said I guess thanking the library again for providing this opportunity to bring the candidates that not everyone from stratum has the opportunity to necessarily meet the candidates for the school district in the larger offices and we have this evening divided up into four different categories the first being uh candidates for the board the school board The exiter Cooperative School District School Board uh from
008the these guys don't all live in stratum so we're going to learn a little bit about them we have some high school students here who going to ask some some very pensive questions and then we're going to work through either the clerk and moderator or the financial advisory committee the or the budget advisory committee which in the ex Cooperative school district is an elected position as opposed to the town of stratum where they're appointed and our goal is for 7 o'cl we'll be back to the high school students to ask some more questions we'll take a brief break and then we'll get get into town business anybody have any any questions on on what we're trying to do tonight I appreciate you all coming there will be a point where Mr Campbell or either Scott
009or Steve was they have index cards and unlike our town meetings where we often check people in and out or vote with index cards these index cards are for you to ask questions of the candidates so because we have a number of different people from different offices we've asked each of the candidates to frame their comments and remarks to around we said 90 seconds we're get a minute and a half and I can do lots of things really well but timing is not one of them so Steve is going to help us with the timing and they're going to they're going to tell us what they're going to tell us about themselves and why they're running for office and what they're thinking about and then we'll have a point where students will ask questions and
010if you have a question I'd love to give you a card so we can we can have a mixed bag of real- time questions in the audience as well and I'll probably probably just have the students read those from up here as well so if you want a question card um Steve's got Scott got the cards would there be any discussion about the budget Tom budget yes uh on part two of the agenda at 7:30 uh we'll be reviewing the stratum School Board candidates the treasurer uh and the town warrant oh sorry this um stratom Town candidates part three of the budget you know that's a great question I can help D because uh David Moore will also be talking about a number of issues related to uh the budget and or the upcoming votes
011so actually after we've met gone through all four panels to Min more and Conor making some comments yes thank you sorry about that John right yes okay just checking okay beautiful uh there any other questions that's a great question thank you John okay beautiful well why don't we kick off uh we'll go right down the row with our sa6 school board candidates uh everyone understands I guess the other part I'm trying to fill in gaps we have multiple forms of government we're in the town hall for the town of stratum type one type which is a town meeting a tradition town meeting form of government number two would be the stratum School District which is not these guys and type three would be the exitor Cooperative School District that the town of stratum also belongs
012to so stratum town government and stratum School District are both traditional town meeting former governments where we would hold a forum much like we have right now or what we did on Tuesday night you must be present to win you we the town body comes together once a year as a legislative body to approve the budget and and pertinent business for the town The exitor Cooperative school district is a little bit different because it's called an sb2 former government in which form all the Voting is done at in the on Election Day in the boo in the ballot Booth or in the election Booth so there's a deliberative session ahead of that meeting to set the warrant but you do all your checking of boxes on Election Day there is no separate meeting for the
013voting itself so that being said this is for the exitor Cooperative School District which is is a number of towns which the extra Cooperative School District takes care of our middle school and our high school and that that would be my introduction thanks very much good evening uh thank you for your time I'm Neil Blake and I'm a candidate to be a member of the co-op Schoolboard from exitor spoken uh my wife Lisa and I are deeply grateful to have the opportunity to raise our two sons in this remarkable community and to send them to the excellent schools they had uh they have had the Good Fortune of attending I'm running for of exitor seats on the co-op board because I believe strongly in the importance of public education and also as a way to
014support our community and schools if elected I pledge to be a constructive presence on the co-op board that balances my deep respect for our Educators administrators and professional staff with the need to hold our schools accountable to the highest standards of excellence if elected I plan to focus on areas that I believe are important to our community including one continuing our long tradition of providing a student- centered educational experience to maintaining our long tradition of academic ex Excellence at EHS CMS and SST I note that maintaining our high standards is a process that includes continuous Improvement and accountability and three when necessary providing meaningful support for our students parents families and Guardians who are navigating now frequent personal challenges such as mental health and emotional issues as well as food and housing insecurity I believe
015strongly the importance of cfic Engagement in public service and while I've spent most of my adult life in the private sector as a professional investor in the stock market I've also spent a lot of time as a volunteer in a variety of roles I'm currently the treasur of the exitor elementary school district an elected position that oversees the financial functions of exor's elementary schools and preschool thank you thank you Neil thank you hello my name is Shy Holmes and I am a candidate for the exer elementary school board I am originally from Los Angeles I've been in exer for 4 and a half years I have a 5-year-old son and a 2 and a half-year old daughter uh my son will be entering Main Street school in the fall I also run a small community
016centered organization called bipot Kids on the Block and it is um providing cultural meetups and Community engagement events for youth of color their families and allies um very dear to my to my heart um and inspired by my own children and their experience um in exer um I am running because there's a lot of really good work uh being done and I want to help continue that I think in all honesty with all of the things that are coming through from the federal government and from conquer that are trying to attack our Public Schools I want to ensure that there is a unique perspective Ive being presented on the board so that the conversations can continue in the way that they need to to ensure that all children feel that they belong and are getting
017a truly free and appropriate education um and I also hope to be an aspirational candidate I want people in our community who feel marginalized to share their voice to get involved because I think it's incredibly important that everyone because the state of New Hampshire thank youor that's okay thank you shy of course Joe Pace good evening everybody my name is Joe Pace and uh I am actually the um candidate to represent Kensington on the SAU Bo but actually to represent all six towns in the seu because of the way this thing works we come from one of the towns but we actually represent everybody in the district which is why everybody votes for all of those positions uh you'll excuse me just a brief moment of nostalgia I'm in this room and all I can
018flash back to is lunch and gym class and assemblies because I was a stratum kid uh I grew up here uh Dave and I both not 300 years ago not quite yet but long enough ago that when I was on my way to the library I was halfway to the uh Historical Society before I went that's right the library is where you the old elementary school is and so I'm excited to come before you and offer um my work and my talents on behalf of the the children of our middle and high schools I have two High School Sons son uh who are there and they enjoy incredible opportunities that I want to make sure are there for all of the children in this District uh opportunities that I enjoyed when I was at exitor
019high school just a few minutes ago and uh I am a fierce advocate for public education uh our high schools our Public Schools should be places where all of us come together where all of us have the opportunity to learn where we're safe both emotionally and physically where academic rigor is something that we pursue and that these are places where our children have the opportunity to discover who they are what they care about and have opportunities to learn about what they're going to be in their lives and we owe it to them to do the best job possible to to build those places thank you Joe okay Alex Elliot you guys ready for some questions come on up here you guys please guys if you do a belly drum roll or something Scout like we
020have some some extra high school students real time gentlemen whoever would like to proceed first good evening uh the first question we have tonight is have you sent all of your children to siu6 public schools and if so what is an aspect of our schools that you have been Sai satisfied with and that you hope to implement on a wider scale if your children have not gone to our schools why uh since 2014 both of our sons have gone to se 16 schools yes it's what I've been satisfied with and what i is that right right yes um a lot I mean it's the academics are excellent uh the sense of community building is remarkable um think thing I would like to expound upon is um continuing to build that appreciation for different disciplines with
021uh students who are have strength in one or more that is if you're really good at academics I think I hope I I think a place that could be even more um effective is to build an appreciation for arts and uh ath atics same with the other disciplines my children um have not been in sau6 schools yet uh my son will enter Main Street in the fall um I think hearing from other parents in the community about the commitment of the teachers and administrators um and the general districts commitment to belongingness I think throughout the schools has been something that's really really important moving from an incredibly diverse place like Los Angeles to a more homogeneous place like New Hampshire um that's been incredibly important um the kindness that I've experienced meeting some of those
022teachers at various festivals throughout the community um has really made me feel passionately about being able to work with them to continue on this path to goodness uh yeah yeah yeah just to answer my my kids went to Kensington Elementary and the stratum Cooperative Middle School into the high school uh I went to all those my wife went to all those my brother went to all those my nephew went to all this is a family business um and one of the reasons I'm doing this is is because they have had tremendous experiences there U my oldest son is at the S goes to the high school and goes to the SST and participates in some of the the science programs that they have there and just so one of the really great things we have
023here that we really need to fight to maintain is the breadth of opportunity that's available and you mentioned about having access to the Arts and Athletics having you know academic classes that that push them having some of these um applied science opportunities and I think one of the things that we maybe can do a better job of is recognizing the multiple Pathways forward to careers and prosperity for our kids I think sometimes when you have communities like ours that are largely affluent that are largely educated there tends to be a focus on that college is the be all and end all the only thing you if you're not going to college you somehow have fallen down on the job and I would love it if we're able to develop the those Pathways and those opportunities
024to say listen if college is the right thing we do everything we can to support that child in their pursuit of that um of that ambition if it's going right into the workforce if it's going into the you know the military if it's going into trade school those are opportunities we can develop to without stigma or judgment and so what can we do to support our children as who they are what they need that's something I think we have the resources to do we need to fight to maintain thank you Jo um I'm Alex by the way um so at this point it's well known that New Hampshire Rings 50th in the US for State funding of public education which means Property Owners take the bill how will you ensure that despite these failures at
025the state level tax bills to property owners don't see exorbitant raises while teachers and students still receive the quality education they deserve um I I so I I don't have sorry um i' have to be more thoughtful I don't know the tax you know regimens as well as I should to answer it thoughtfully generally I think the district does a really good job of being um focused on cost uh discipline um but your question is how do we how do we get the best of both words how do we have a quality education at this is the way I understand it at least quality education without jamming everyone up on property taxes and a lot of it I think is happening you know costs have gone up everywhere that is 100% true s6's towns and
026the seu 16 Cooperative District I think is very focused on that it's I've been in up board meetings in the exit Elementary School District with you know we don't play around with you know bad ideas that cost a lot we are very focused there and I think generally through for um to make sure that doesn't happen so it that's kind of a not a great answer but that's a directional answer for you I hope that helps thanks for the question Alex um I as a taxpayer um and also coming from a place where property taxes are very high um I've seen while the oh yeah of course okay while the while the state might be in too far down on the list um for for for some folks um opinions I think that when something
027needs to be done the people of the communities are the ones who really stand up and ensure that students are getting what they need New Hampshire does a really really great job of empowering the people to speak up and taxpayers in certain communities are angry they're very upset about ever increasing budgets but when you break these things down to its simplest terms it's about our children and for me so long as I can afford it and it makes sense I'm willing to put every single tax dollar I I can into educating our youth it's incredibly important that we have the opportunity to create this sort of delicate balance between ensuring that our children have what they need and ensuring that taxpayers are happy everybody's not going to be happy all of the time right but
028I think if we focus on the good that's being done with the funds and it makes sense um for everyone then I think that that balance can be achieved yeah boy alex this is this is the question and I'll tell you right now anybody that's got a 90c answer to it watch out because they're selling you something and it is a very complex question that people have been debating for a long time and and you've cut right to the heart of the question it's a very easy question it's enormously difficult answer uh and and all I can tell you is this is you have to strive for balance in all things when it comes to being a a good Steward of the public resources uh I'm wrapping up now six years on the select board
029in Kensington I did nine years on the select board in exitor and I got to tell you you have to spend every single day balancing the the needs of um the whether it's the kids in the school or on the selectboard you're talking about Paving the roads and firefighters and police officers and the provision of services to the Community to make sure people are getting their money's worth with making sure that tax bills aren't pricing people out of their homes and that is a day and dayout process that you engage in by listening to people around the table you listen to students and families and professionals and Educators and and you know the people that are are on the ground every day trying to deliver these things and then that's the tough gig at these
030seats is you take all that information in and try to come up with something where you know what everybody is a little bit sad with what happens and everybody's a little bit happy going back to what I said at the beginning if somebody's completely happy with what happens we've done something wrong uh it it is all about trying to balance those priorities and coming out on the back end of of a sausage that everybody can take a little bit out of and feel okay about it I I would add one comment which is The more I've learned what the schools are doing for our community our kids the more I believe that as expensive as it is it's actually Great Value that the more these teachers administrators are doing they're doing more more than they
031did when I was a student but they it really is a lot they do for us so thank you thank you uh good evening my name is Elliot and my question for you is that um as signs are pointing towards the Federal Department of Education being dismantled by the president uh how do you plan to respond to the possible loss of Grants or funding um from the executive branch uh again uh I don't have a quick answer easy answer um so the first thing we would do you would have to comply with rules regulations and laws um if there are cuts that are meaningful we have to find a way to prioritize needs um it's it's it's a complicated discipline process but I have a lot of confidence that our administrators and our board to
032be very thoughtful about it to do the best that they can thank you Neil JY thanks Elliot um yes obviously comply with the law um but I think that it would be an opportunity for creativity I think it's an opportunity for creative thinking critical thinking in our community with input from our youth how do we in a time when you all are so incredibly impacted by these kinds of changes what are your thoughts on this how do you think that we can help move through this because none of us sitting up here have ever experience anything like this right um there have been all kinds of ways over time but we don't know that kind of uncertainty we don't we don't you know have the the path forward for this kind of catastrophic change um
033but I think that you guys have the answers I think that you guys have the knowledge and because it's personal to you we can go to you and say hey what are some creative ways that we can get the community involved so that we can come up with these funds what are ways that we can challenge some of these laws at the state level to ensure that they're keeping you guys protected um but just coming up with with with interesting creative path Pathways forward to ensure that you know we're we're we're still managing we're still able to manage you know Ellie a lot like with what Alex said you you you've hit a critical issue here which is that uh public education is under attack like really like never before um that we've seen and
034Washington certainly is uh clearly about to change their level of commitment to our children conquered seems to be on the same place but just because Washington and conquered are falling down on the job doesn't mean that stratum and exit are in newfields and brenwood and East Kingston and Kensington are going to fall down on the job okay and I'll tell you right now if this was smooth Waters and clear sailing I wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't think that there was a fight ahead of us I wouldn't be here to to do everything that I can to make sure that my kids and you guys and everybody else's children now next year and 5 years from now have access to Quality public education that they deserve and that we need and so I think
035it comes down to yes making the the tough decisions on a day in and day out basis because it's not just one decision what would you do it's what would you do in this situation here and then the next time and the next time and it's that grind it out that's what public administration and budgeting and managing is people like to think that it's it's you know one easy decision that you make well if it's right you just do it no it's tough It's hard I remember once you know he's kind of gone a little bit but Cornell West used to be a smart guy and he said you know this is government this is public life it's dirty it's ugly and it's funky and it is it's hard work but it should be hard
036work because we are fighting for and defending something that matters and you should be expecting all of your Schoolboard representatives and all of your public representatives to be expending all of their energy to try to defend the really special value that we have here in this part of the world this doesn't happen everywhere I've been all around that my wife was in the Army we were down in in Suburban DC we were out in Washington state and I know you'll probably tell the same sort of thing it ain't like this everywhere and if we let it slip away because we're asleep at the switch we're never going to get it back so we need to be doing everything we can to make sure the children of our school district continue to enjoy the really strong
037educational opport unities that they have now and sometime that's going to uh involve some really tough decisions and tough choices but we got to put that work in for you thank you Joe uh are there any other questions for I'm thinking the size of the house we go either way on a complete an anonity I know where the question came from what is your perspective on charter schools and school vouchers I'm going to ask you if you can do it in 60 seconds or less just so we keep moving I this is I can another question I do not have a deeply informed opinion about um I would just say I think broadly speaking uh my greatest concern is funding the public schools um I believe strongly in public education but I don't know the
038the details about the charter schools and the regulations and the laws thanks Neil Johnny listen Senor kids wherever you want but for me and my tax dollars they're going to the public schools simple as that um there's been way too much fraud happening in the charter schools and the educational vouchers are being presented in a way that in my opinion seem to be inclusive um and I do not believe that they are so I am pro-public School Pro public education and don't touch our kids money to send your kids somewhere else um yeah I think when it comes to Charter Schools there's the public charter schools that are um that do have accountability in supervision by the school board and I think that there's use and there's validity to those I know people have had
039some good experiences with the public charter schools then when you have the private Charter Schools again those are probably fine too but really shouldn't be funded by public dollars uh I have have always opposed the use of public money for private entities that have no accountability to the public so in other words you're taking public money and you're sending it somewhere that there is no school board or school budget committee to oversee how those dollars are spent and what kind of curriculums that they support and so I would be opposed to any use of public dollars for private vouchers or or anything like that thank you Joe any other questions for our first round of candidates Neil shaie Joe thank you very much you're uh enjoy the rest of the show I wanted to invite
040up uh Paul Mary Michael and Cameron thank you for the exiter Cooperative School District budget advisory committee and just to check in in the house uh is anyone here to represent school district clerk Susan bendroth or Kate Miller no worries meet so just for a a brief explanation on what this group is this is part of the exer Cooperative school district and this is the budget advisory committee and they are elected by all the communities in the school district so that being said uh Michael would you like to kick us off sure thank you Dave please um I'm Mike Mackey I'm an 18-year resident of newfields um currently serve on the newfields elementary school budget advisory committee um and have volunteered in numerous areas of the town with pole worker clean Town cleanup um glutton
041for punishment I attend most of the Town meetings um so I'm a strong believer in the foundational importance of equality education crucial building block for a fulfilling life having said that I also believe it's essential that the schools deliver a quality education in the most coste effective manner I'm recently retired from UPS spent 22 years there as a finishing up as a general manager of Canada Mexico and Puerto Rico glad I'm not doing Mexico and Canada right now um but UPS is a numbers company so they really focus on the numbers but you always kept your eye on the ultimate objective deliver of service um I graduated from Trinity College Hartford ba in economics and from Syracuse University in transportation um having retired from UPS and no longer traveling 70% of the time I'd like
042to give back to our community by serving on the budget advisory committee I view the budget advisory committee as a role of like questioning assumptions um bring another perspective to the board uh be a sounding board in a way or an extra resource and most importantly keep an eye on the price which is finding a way to deliver the best quality education in the most cost-effective manner possible that's F thank you Michael just made it nicely done thank you Cameron would you please grab the mic so uh they can hear us in TV Land sure just for disclosure I I don't know if I said earlier but we are extra TV is here with us tonight to help people who couldn't join us in the room uh view tonight's proceedings Mr or thanks um hi
043my name is Cameron or um I live in stratum and I'm a candidate for the sau6 16 Co-op um budget advisory committee so I'll try to keep it brief because I'm going to be back later but the uh I'm also a candidate for the Strat Memorial School um board so this year U beginning in December I served on the financial advisory committee for Strat Memorial School and um I really enjoyed you know kind of digging into the numbers and you hear a lot of people say things at the meetings and you know a lot of people come to the final step of the process to speak you know what they're upset about but I think it was interesting to see it from the beginning and start from the budget that came from you know the
044administration have everybody look at it and kind of have a good idea of how closely it's analyzed and try to communicate that to the public so um I'm you know I'm a student of public education I grew up in Portsmith I went to public school there I went to the Community College when it used to be in stratum here and all three of my have three children two of them go to SMS the other went to SMS and he's now at CMS so I really was interested in also understanding the budget process for the co-op school as well as uh the Strat memorial school and I'll be back later thanks thank you Cameron Paul good evening my name is Paul Royal I'm from exor and I'm running for the budget advisor committee to represent exitor
045supposedly but mostly I'm there to represent the interests of our kids from all the towns some folks may know me as somebody who's always fought um in exiter to to uh get those budgets approved without the big cuts and I've always put a lot of trust in our administrators and the people that have worked so hard on the budget and having a belief that they've done their homework and they've done things right but I am really plugged into what's happening financially to Public Schools I am also sitting here because like Joe I don't see smooth s ahead necessarily and because I'm semi-retired and my wife has promised not to kill me for running for office so with these headwinds coming um some folks that know me may think that I'm a rubber stamp but I'm
046not um I will question a tight budget especially if we have to and we may find ourselves in that position between vouchers and what's going on in conquer and what's going on in Washington I think my back ground my care for students the fact that my kids have done so well in the schools whether it's SST uh the middle school or the high school I want the kids that are coming along in the future to have the same great experiences that my kids had thank you very much and I would appreciate your vote although I'm unopposed apparently gentlemen you have around a questions for This Crew let me get off here e the house stands questions from the rest of the house for the financial advisory committee for the school district sir ask Mr or
047uh you comfortable I mean you're going to be pretty guy if you both yeah so I served on the stratum Financial committee and I do realize the time commitment towards budget season for that was going to be greater um so obviously next year I won't be serving on the stratum Financial committee um so I do think that I'll be able to serve both roles because primarily the budget committee has focused on the budget season um which is you know like for the stratum school it was basically November through March so I definitely agree there's a big time commitment thank you for your question other questions thank you Michael Cameron Paul thank you very [Applause] much we are scheduled to take a couple minute break would you like a break or would the house like to
048keep rolling keep rolling I like the way you think uh Roger Stevenson I will not stand between you and the cookies Trey I would like I would like to invite up the uh candidates for the stratum School District Cameron and Tanya and Shan and Sarah Sean and Sarah you here in the house excellent over here there I guess so make sure I have School Board sign here and just to clarify what we're doing this is for the stratum School District now which is a traditional town meeting form of government and we have two candidates for school board one candidate for moderator and two candidates for district Treasurer so Tanya are you comfortable kicking us off yeah I can do that please thank you hi everybody my name is Tanya scales uh I'm a nine-year stratum
049resident I have two small children one is three one is to um I was raised in a small town in Illinois surrounded by cornfields um growing up I was always a bright student um I excelled above average and I remember being brought into the uh hallway to do like advanced math and reading um when I was in third grade my parents divorced um I tell you that because it really shaped the way school was represented in my life uh it was my outlet my space it was a place to focus on all the things that I could do very well I appreciate it being able to go to school and be creative and capable um I'm a first generation graduate which uh means my neither of my parents um went to college I'm the child
050of an immigrant my father is from Honduras I grew up in a low-income household so I have a very background with many different experiences and the way that this shapes my perspectives on the school board is when I think about the board and our role I understand deeply that there are many different families in many different situations and the impact of that a school plays in a student's life that are outside of the bounds of funding and school standings I believe that the decisions made at the school board level should be nonpartisan and take into account all the varying perspectives of a community they should be measured and they should always consider the impact on students and just as the administration is responsible for providing students with a high quality education I believe the school
051board is there to hold the administration a task thank you thank you Tanya all right I uh decided not to go too much into it in the first introduction so I'll try to give you a little bit more now but again my name is Cameron or I'm running for strata Memorial School Board um and I mentioned I have three children one has moved on to the Cooperative Middle School and I've been involved with the uh board since you know trying to starting attend meetings last year and then got involved with the financial advisory committee last um May there was a group of folks that were looking to get appointed to the school board um I was one of four people people um I did not get appointed but I still wanted to stay involved with
052school Tanya was the one that was appointed um and you know one of my big concerns is my son has had a really great experience all the way through SMS since 2017 and I moved to our community specifically for that reason I lived in another town I grew up in Portsmouth but when I bought my first house I bought it in a much smaller town elsewhere in New Hampshire and um we started getting notifications in the mail from the school district dist and the state about concerns they had with attracting talent and you know State watches and those sort of things so one of my main concerns was moving to a community that had a strong school system and that's specifically why I moved to stratum so I want to make sure that the experience
053my kids have had continues because it's been since 2017 that I've been involved with the school and I just want to see it stay that way for future students and I really you know love the community and the school and it's you know we talk a lot about the numbers but there's a lot of community stuff that needs to be brought to the public thank you thank you Karen Sarah um hi my name is Sarah juel I am uh running for the SMS District Treasurer um I'm a 25 plus year resident of stratum I went away a little bit for college and then decided to come back and raise my children here um I have two kids in SMS right now um I am a senior accountant at a local firm uh and kind of
054felt that it would probably be a good idea to get more involved in the community and treasure just seemed like a really good fit for me um based on my past experience um I I started the local field hockey Clinic here um at the wreck and that's like very dear to my heart because I also coach at the high school um yeah I just think it's really important to support our teachers and our children that's thank you Sarah um I guess I I should fully disclose that I'm the fourth candidate's your name what's your job that's a great question uh uh as the school district moderator I am responsible for presiding over school district elections and the annual School District meeting and that is working in conjunction with the school district clerk and the Town
055Clerk and the supervisors of the checklist to make sure that our ballot counting device is accurate our ballots are accurate and that our counts at the end of the night are accurate uh and and on the meeting side of things I um I grew up here and went to school in this building uh I I'm not going to say I was a gifted student I spent a lot of time writing on Mrs pe's board on the other side my spelling words anyway uh I've been here my whole life I attended the University of New Hampshire I work for the town of Durham for the fire department and uh I believe that uh sometimes conducting the different circuses that we do in town government and I use that somewhat mockingly but we bring a lot of
056different people together Under One Roof and anytime we can moderate that into reaching an understanding and forming a decision and being able to go to the playground afterwards um we have achieved that's we've achieved my goal uh a success if that's a good benchmark and uh yeah thank you is that did I answer your question John uh that being said I have a question from the audience oh okay I see you got a couple questions from the audience uh the first one is could you share your thoughts on school vouchers oh yes um it's it's not something that I've thought too deeply about um I I kind of see myself as like um an open-minded balanced person person so I can see both sides of this argument that seems to be happening around school vouches
057um I think what I would say to that is my focus would be on SMS and ensuring that SMS is the School of Choice um and to kind of mitigate the entire conversation um in our our local school system um that would be my focus uh generally because um obviously vouchers and that program is above the local level at the the conquer Level so um really focused on SMS and just making sure it's a really high quality education uh that we're providing students and making sure students come come to SMS thank you ta Cameron uh so I would say that my position is that I'm very opposed to school vouchers and I think you know being involved with a public school in the public education I would prefer that the dollars that are spent on
058you know our year tax money is going to our local school where everyone's given the same opportunities so I think it's important for us to take a position on that there was a conversation at the recent joint board for sau6 about whether School boards would be willing to take a position on vouchers or not and one of our state lawmakers made the point that it was more of a compelling argument if it was the official position of a school board that they were opposed to the voucher program and I think it's kind of antithetical to public education to have voucher programs that divert tax dollars and especially while we have a lot of concerns in town about the costs I think it's important that everybody understands that those sort of programs have big impacts on
059your tax rate and it's not wasteful spending at the local school level and those sort of programs are the exact reason why we're in the financial position we're in right now thanks thank you Cameron Sarah I don't know if it has a direct impact on the treasure no thank you we just touching base I don't want to leave you off I'm good thank you uh more questions thank you Scott got two as members of a school board how do you react to the 1.4 million reduction on instate support from 2.4 million to 1 million that increases the real school costs and taxpayer burdens um yeah how do I react to it I think it's obviously very complicated um again this is kind of coming down from the state and it's something that affects taxpayers and
060we have to think about that and consider it um during budgeting so I think the best that we can do with uh the reduction in state funding is being very thoughtful about it um and trying to to uh come up with Creative Solutions during budgeting that uh reduce if not completely mitigate the effect on students um we want to make sure that students still have a a really um good positive outcome at the school um regardless of how the state is funding um I think one of the other things we can do too um is obviously building unity in the community and understanding um about how those State um State funding programs affect the local tax bill um and if we can get the community unified behind SMS uh I think it it won't um
061it won't make a difference uh I think our community will be willing to fund the school regardless of the state funding so I think um unity in a community and and understanding some of those aspects really goes a long way um to just kind of generally saying let's try not to let that affect us and make sure that student outcomes are still positive and we're supporting our students and our teachers thank you Tanya Cameron yeah can you state it's a specific 2.4 reduction to 1 million for a state program the $ 1.4 million reduction from 2.4 to 1 million that increases real school costs and taxpayer burden okay for is it adequacy what that is it Ade it doesn't say anything but is it the adequacy grants as members of the school board how do
062you react to the $1.4 million reduction state support from the 2.4 million to 1 Z million that increases the real school cost and taxpayer burden that's what is okay I mean I think it's similar to the issue I mean the answer before about it State funding I don't know specifically 2.4 to 1.0 million but obviously any of these losses from the state or federal government are going to be have to be made up by the local community and I think there's this strange view that anybody who's really strongly supportive of the public school is wasteful of public dollars and that's not the experience that I had working on the fin Financial committee so anytime I think these costs are pushed down to the local school we need to be Advocates to point towards where that's
063coming from right and maybe some people will say well I don't think the the state should be funding that or the federal government but I don't think it's fair to blame the local school and act as if they're being wasteful because decisions are made elsewhere so I heard some of that at the recent Town um School District meeting where the financial director for SAU 16 really laid out specifically which areas you can point towards different parts of our federal or state government for loss and funding so I'm going to continue to advocate for the school to get the funding it needs to operate but I also think that it's important to be a communicator to the public to say this is not wasteful spending from the school it's because of loss of funding from these
064other programs thank you Cameron you safe okay me too how do you plan to balance the financial burdens of the taxpayers with those of the school given the schools rapidly escalating costs over the last years and going forward thank you yeah this it's I think it's very similar to the previous question because obviously that goes back to you know reduced fun funding from the state um is going to increase burden on taxpayers um obviously the school's operating budget goes up increase you know burden on taxpayers um so it's just something that needs to be considered I think every year um thoughtfully it needs it's almost like you need a new eye on it every year as you go through to consider where are we right now um where where is state funding at um and
065how can we still support and fund the school in a uh efficient manner so as a Schoolboard member I think when I look at a budget um which I I had the opportunity to do here um alongside Cameron on the fact uh I think you kind of look at that and you go is there is there any waste or is there any efficiencies that we could have here that would lessen the burden on a taxpayer to offset anything that's coming down maybe from funding or um just trying to have a balanced Outlook I think for me um again I kind of try to come through things very balanced um and try to consider student impact student impact and teacher impact uh alongside the community impact and try to be considered of the community as as
066a whole as well so thank you da Cameron um so you know I hear about the rapidly increasing cost and I don't think it's Unique to the stratum school but also I don't think it's Unique to the situation of the school in general I mean everyone's aware that there's rapidly increasing costs on every everything and one of my concerns is that for instance the budget this year that was originally proposed at 4.9% and then the compromise number was down to 2.7 that number is below inflation so I look at it and say any sort of budget that's going to run below inflation has to come from somewhere right so the school takes a loss on that so the budget was further reduced to 2% and then restored back to the 2.7 during the meeting and
067again even that compromise number is below the inflation rate for 2024 so I understand that people are frustrated I pay a lot in taxes I moved here from a community that did not have high taxes but there was a reason for moving here so I understand the concern about rapidly Rising costs but again I don't think it's a result of wasteful spending at the school and I hear things like oh folks that support public education are going to be a rubber stamp to the administration's budget and if that were true the administration would have gotten a lot more things out of this year's budget because that's not what happened and we went through line by line looking at software packages the furniture understanding that the bond was coming up so it had to be balanced
068with the fact that voters were going to be voting on that as well as the operational budget and one of my main concerns is that I hear people saying they want to plan for the future so we should put away money so we don't have to come up with these $12 million bonds and I think we need to start communicating that better so that folks can be more understanding of the operational budget so that we can mitigate large Bonds in the future but we can't do both and still maintain the school with the Excellence that we have today so thank you Cameron Sarah and I we got this nailed what do you think Dave any questions for Sarah I wanted to uh the next question what is more important teaching students how to think or
069teaching them what to think your position on the Schoolboard as a Schoolboard is it more important teaching students how to think or what to think um that's an interesting question um I it that's an interesting question I think it's very important for our students to be critical thinkers um and teach them how to think absolutely um I also feel like there's an importance in teaching them academics um so I'm not sure if the question the way his phrase is say is teaching them what to think is is referring to academics um but I do think that that's important to learn the subject matter so I would say that both are equally important um as a Schoolboard member though I think like I defer to the administration and teachers on curriculum and and how they teach
070students in the classroom so um kind of of would stay in my lane on that one I think thank you Cameron uh so I think uh I don't I don't think most schools and I don't think it would be a good idea for schools to teach what to think because to me that is telling you um what your opinion should be of something I think how to think is really the critical thinking piece that you mentioned and I think critical thinking is something that is challenging to teach but I noticed is like a skill that seems to be not prevalent that much anymore so I guess if I was going to say how to versus what I would say how to think on a topic because once you learn how to understand something like that
071you can apply it to multiple situations versus here's what you should believe in that would be thank you hi you're both parents to school kids and very involved do you have examples of where parents should or should not be involved in curriculum um I think for my opinion um and obviously my kids are younger so they're not in um in school with at SMS uh right now um I think for curriculum purposes what I would be interested in parents knowing is what is the curriculum um and and understanding uh what their children are being taught um I think that's really my level of Engagement I would want from parents and I um don't really have a further opinion of about that thank you um so with somebody or as somebody who has a email address
072known to the sau6 I'm going to say there's a lot of parent involvement in the curriculum and I've been given lots of opportunities or lots of opportunity for feedback to my kids uh teachers so one of the things I hear is what's appropriate what's not appropriate for teachers to be teaching children in the classroom I don't know how you know to the point T made I don't know that the board is directing curriculum but my personal opinion on that is that I haven't seen that in the school so I'm just going to give one example was there was maybe a discussion about body safety in the school and what I received was a notice weeks in advance that I could opt my children out of so if that was a discussion I wanted to have
073with my kids I could very easily say please do not allow them to attend that but as far as controversial topics that is about as controversial as what I've seen from the school so uh I do think there should be a lot of parent involvement I like to know my kids teachers very well sometimes I see their you know the school number on my phone and I'm like yay that's three days in a row I'm sure what happened today but the um but I you know I communicate regularly with my kids teachers and I do like to be involved with you know like we just recently had the polar Challenge and my son last year when he left SMS they do this SE perch um science project where they work with folks from the shipyard
074and I had volunteered for the week to be part of that because I really it's important for me to be in and out of the school and I'm now familiar with a lot of the teachers and I see folks walking around like you know I was talking to uh Mrs Masten at the um meeting the other day my daughter loves her and saw her at the parent pickup so I think obviously parent involvement is really important but it also comes down to how involved a parent wants to be you know what I mean I like to be very involved I can't force other people to do that so I think the school gives you a lot of opportunities for that thank you Cameron I think that wraps up our questions and Steve I'm going to
075rely on you for time for when you're say one last one okay oh last one Pi a good one as a school board candidate what is your role or what is the role of the school board what is the role of the school board I believe the school board has a a couple pretty immediate responsibilities um they are responsible for oversight to the administration to ensure that students are receiving a high quality education um in a variety of ways we do that through policy recommendations to the administration um setting goals looking at metrics that are presented from the administration so I think that's the very top priority of a school board uh and then the second one being obviously the financial obligation to the budget and ensuring that the school is funded um and it
076is funded in a responsible way um so those are the the two top priorities of a board I take those very seriously as like top two things that I would like to focus on as a school board member um and yeah I think uh outside of that um creating Unity again I kind of go back to this unity in the community um communicating out and ensuring that the um folks of the town are uh well informed and understand the decisions being made at the school board level whether it's obviously based on the first point of high quality education or the second point being the budget um and so I think those those three probably three prongs uh for me are highest priority and as a school board I think they should be as well um
077so I think you know very similar the role of the school board is to ensure excellence and education in the school the fiscal responsibility of the budget for the school and ensure that folks that the school board are responsible for hiring which I believe is the principle are going to align with the values of the community so I do think think that you know as far as what the role of the school board is is not to dictate curriculum or day-to-day operation of the school but I do think it's important that school board members are a conduit on both sides to both the administration of the school and parents in the school and other caregivers because there's a lot of talk about communication from the school and lack of communication and I don't see that
078so I guess one of the things I'd like to learn on the School Board is to understand from folks that don't have kids at the school what is the communication that they're seeing and what's the level of communication I know um Sophie on the board has been working for the last year doing a lot of communication Outreach and that sort of thing and if I was elected the board I'd like to work with her on that because I think selling the story of the school and and I don't mean to say it in such a you know transactional way but I think it's important somebody during the financial advisory committee meeting said hey yeah people want to want to bet on winners right and somebody said that I think it was Mike hton and um
079and it was like that's true and we and I see the school as wins all the time with what they're doing with my students and with other students and I think I really need a way to communicate that to other folks who aren't in and out of the school every day because it is a great community and it's it's hard to kind of stick that into a statistic so I think it is really being a bridge between the community and the school administration so that everybody feels like you know they're being considered in the decisions made at the school thank you Cameron I I I can't walk away from this one uh for the bonus round oh no disregulation keeps coming up as the leading cost of time to classroom teachers the SMS principal has
080stated what we are seeing in our students is an adult problem it's not a kid problem misbehavior disrespect insubordination are all adult problems that are learned beh AV haviors created by adults what role if any do you feel the school board plays in this issue yes this has been a topic um so I think with the school board the one thing that we can really focus on in order to help with this topic because obviously the the teachers are in the classroom and they're the ones who know the students best um again kind of like keeping in this topic of like staying in our lane but making sure we're we're thoughtful and we have oversight what I would like to see with the board is um a thoughtful measured way of um working with the
081administration to ensure that they have a plan in place to address this regulation uh if they do which I I we have seen evidence of in school board meetings um there's a mtss coordinator who's working on gradient supports she's reorganizing uh the way that that's done to the school I believe that will help with some disregulation um we see uh curriculum adjustments um and and other other plans that the Administration has in order to help with that I think what we can do as a school board is understand the goal understand the timeline and ensure that it's followed through and it actually has success um and if it's if it doesn't then to make a recommendation or work with the administration or teachers to figure out what's the next step what can we do next
082um we had a discussion at some point with with um Sophie who has a uh consultant Sophie Salton stall on the board um to come in and maybe work with some of the classrooms uh for that actual topic so I think the board discussed that and and we wanted to kind of look into that and move forward with with at least um considering how that might affect the classrooms in a positive way so I think just kind of like exploring ideas with the administration and also you know having that sense of accountability ility to making sure that we do address it uh and we help we help the teachers in the classroom I think one of the overwhelming things we heard from teachers is that the classrooms are disregulated and it increases their workload um
083and that's something that we want to address at the school board level in whatever way possible support resources um again goal setting metrics anything that we can do there I think asking thoughtful questions and and looking at that is a a a very high priority right now for the school thank you Tanya so I I know the comment to which this is responding with principal Lucas saying it was an adult problem but I I don't think it's framed as disrespect from the students and disregulation from the students needs to be blamed on the adults in the building I don't think that was the spirit of the question I think or the comment I think it was more that uh you know children in school that are disregulated and having a hard time aren't doing that
084intentionally to to cause problems at the school so what she was advocating for I believe I'm not going to speak on her behalf but the way I took that comment was that there needs to be solutions from the Educators in the building that can work through that disregulation so you know a lot of folks say we got to act on data right so there was a big controversy last controversy last year on the mtss coordinator and I have personally worked with that person and as as uh you know through part of developing uh plans for one of my children and I think if you're in favor of using data to solve problems at the school you would be in favor of doing those sort of things that analyze lots of data points and try to
085catch those things early now I think the pieces is missing and I'm not going to blame it all on covid but that was very disruptive to a lot of students and they missed the opportunity to have those observations and to see and intervene early so I think one of the key key things for me with the um mtss system at the school which is the data Gathering program in order to develop interventions is actually a way to identify those things early and to be able to intervene before they become more expensive and it's proven that when you move in I'm not an expert on that the teachers are more of an expert than I am but it has been consistently said that after covid things have changed so I think getting those data points and
086being able to intervene um is important and I think reducing staff like you know somebody made a comment about reducing the school psychology staff and that sort of thing which it was presented in a way there wasn't that many there's not $900,000 worth of school psychologist at the SMS but I don't see how if you view this as a problem reducing those staff is going to solve it it makes me think that those folks are just saying get those problem children out of the school and I don't know how you say that because I don't know what else you do if your belief is that their parents need to solve it and we can't force them to do that or we need them to be out of the environment so that other kids can learn
087and I understand the frustration but I think that we need to use data to solve the problem and getting rid of the folks that understand behavioral you know uh dynamics of children is not going to help solve that problem thank you uh thank you candidates T Cameron and Sarah appreciate [Applause] it okay yeah yeah okay no that's totally cool all right so uh yeah cool you I do uh I guess I wanted to ask the body again would you like a a cookie break or cookie and water break or we take a a brief recess or would you like to keep rolling take a brief recess okay let's take a 5 minute recess we'll reconvene at 45 47 reconvene to [Music] 47 oh I don't have a good answer I had a list of question
088for