001[Music] he and then okay he live PR I hope the will be okay with without [Music] I know it's just it testing 2 3 4 beautiful okay I'm I'm going to introduce you good evening ladies and gentlemen the the hour is here you want to gel Us in library director we're going to call our information night order my name is Dave Emanuel I'm the stratum town and School District moderator we are live being broadcast on channel 13 Channel 13 so the gav's here it's our job to make sure that we have order in the house I wanted to start off by introducing our library director Carrie Cronin thank you thank you so much I'm pleased to welcome you um tonight to our 21st annual voter information night here in stratum tonight's program is live streamed
002on exor exor TV's YouTube channel and blueh Hawk media's YouTube channel as well as Channel 13 as the moderator indicated um so I would like to welcome all of our guests who are joining us remotely as well and there's an opportunity for for those folks who are on YouTube to um put questions in the chat and we'll be getting those to the moderator to ask of the candidates as well for this year's program we are thrilled to be partnering with students from exitor high school's Youth and government Club who have prepared questions for the exitor region Cooperative School District candidates and they'll be asking those questions directly this evening um we're also pleased to be working with the exitor area General Federation of Women's Club gfwc exor TV and Blu Hawk media before we begin
003I just want to take a minute to recognize and thank several people who have contributed to tonight's program they are as follows David Emanuel Our Town moderator David Moore Town Administrator Mark Connors Our Town planner Heather saludo social studies teacher at exodor high school Aiden Candon and Jack Fabiano of the exodor high school Youth and government Club Mary Ryan and Carol Waters of the exitor area gfwc Robert go glow wacky of exitor TV and my colleagues Heather barrows Trisha Ryden and Scott Campbell there'll be a brief break around 7:10 feel free to go to the restroom or to to get some water at the um cooler in the other room and um thank you again to all of our candidates and all of you for participating in this important Civic event thank you there you
004are thank you and thank you to the Wigan Memorial Library for hosting tonight's event my pleasure thank you so just kicking off as everybody in the room knows and is aware uh last evening was our 2023 School District meeting tonight is our voter information night uh and next week is elections followed by town meeting so we are here to prepare our voters and I am going to ask everybody to speak up because we don't have uh we're all going to speak up that's as far as we're going to go we're going to run through who we have with us tonight and we have a few comments from those who were not able to join us and as everyone in the room knows we have different divisions of government in stratum the first is the town
005of stratum the second is the town of stratum School District the third is the Cooperative School District just to be clear so last night was the stratum School District meeting and because the Cooperative School District is an sb2 former government where everything goes to the ballot as opposed to the school district meeting or the town meeting it's important that this that the Cooperative District we are all informed for next week's ballot event at the polls does anybody have any questions of what our overview tonight is to meet our candidates and our budget candidates and some of our different town issues I don't want to go any more than that if everyone understands I know we do do from time to time overviews of government this is not that purpose so I would like to start
006off with introducing our candidates for the Cooperative School District would you like to start us off sure uh would you please grab the mic for Extra TV and we'll go right down the line thank you good evening thank you for having me I'm Don bullins I am running for a seat on the Cooperative School Board the exitor seat one of the exitor seats there are two seats on the exor um on the Cooperative school board for exitor candidates there's only one seat currently up for election I am currently the chair of the exitor elementary school board um I've been serving on the exer elementary school board for 9 years um two years as chair and one year following before that as Vice chair my children are now in the high school um I have a
007sophomore and a senior and I'm looking forward to continuing my service for the Au Community um at that level thank you joh thank you Don good evening I'm Erin Garcia de predes I'm currently the vice chair of the stratom school school board um I'm running for one of the seats on the co-op board for stratum I have been on the school board for stratum for the past three years I've served on the policy committee the budget advisory committee the covid communication committee and did a brief stint on the building committee um I have four children in se6 first grade third grade seventh grade and eighth grade hi I'm the Newbie of the group my name is Anne Slayton I'm an exitor of um excuse me I'm a resident of exitor New Hampshire have been for
008the since 2005 um I have three kids myself I have two 13-year-olds and a 15-year-old so they attend the Cooperative Middle School and the high school um I myself am an occupational therapist by trade and have been so since the year 2000 and I've worked for Rockingham VNA and hospice since 2015 I currently am a clinical manager at the rvna thank you an Aiden and Jack would you please come on up and introduce the other two candidates that couldn't join us tonight or two of the other candidates that couldn't join us [Music] tonight good evening everybody my name is Jack Fabiano and I'll be speaking on behalf of behalf of Cath Miller who's a candidate for the exiter regional Cooperative School District moderator if reelected as moderator of the exitor regional Cooperative School District I
009will continue my efforts to run the deliberative and balloting sessions of the district fairly and efficiently participating in local government is an important part of our responsibilities as Citizens I pledge to do my best to ensure that eligible voters who want to participate in the process can do so I have lived in exitor since since 1999 I have an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a law degree from Northeastern University I am a partner with the law firm of Donahue Tucker and Candela in exitor my practice areas include telecommunications law advising nonprofit organizations and representing individuals especially in the areas of trusts and estate planning I previously served two terms on the exitor elementary school Bo board and only and one term on the Cooperative School board I also serve as moderator for the town
010of exiter thank you consider thank you for your consideration and I'll hand it off to Aiden hi my name is Aiden um I'm going to be speaking on behalf of Melissa Lions who's a candidate for the East Kingston Cooperative Schoolboard seat I have served the past six years on the East Kingston School Board two years as the chair during my time on the ekes board I served as the chair of the superintendent evaluation committee for 3 years and as a member of the policy committee for 6 years I facilitated two rounds of collective bargaining as well as resolving land border issues with a neighbor of the school I have worked as an intellectual property attorney for over 15 years with the last 10 years in-house additionally I volunteer regularly in my community as a basketball
011and baseball coach I'm a strong supporter of public education and my son has attended ekes and is now in his first year at CMS I'm a collaborator and a problem solver and I take my role on the board very seriously I am always available to talk with parents teachers and community members about their concerns I look forward to having the opportunity to bring my skills and passion to The Cooperative board thank you thank you Aiden and jack for introducing Melissa lions and Katherine Miller I'd next like to move down to our budget advisory members good evening Roy maret exitor um I want to thank the committee for putting this together it's always nice to have an opportunity to meet the voters um I'm a lifelong resident of exitor I served 19 years on The Exodus
012school board when it was K to 12 and 10 years on the co-op um board I also have been serving on the budget advisory since I left the school board uh I believe it's worked out well with this budget advisory we have a good working relationship with the co-op board and feel that we bring a good balanced budget you know to the voters each year and still provide looking to provide quality education hi I'm I'm a newbie too uh my name is Aaron Steckler and um I'm from Brentwood and I'm running for the Brentwood seat on the budget advisory committee um my family moved to brenwood a year and a half ago after living in exitor for 15 years our three children all attend schools in the district currently we have a daughter at sey
013a daughter at CMS and a son at the high school we're deeply grateful for the education and support our children receive in our schools as a community I feel it's essential we support our schools and provide our children with the best education we can to prepare them for their Futures and help them realize their potential I believe we can do this while being fiscally sensible and responsible I've spent the last 16 years focused primarily on raising and supporting my family before having children I worked for two different organizations overseeing their financial operations I also managed the department at the University of New Hampshire responsible for processing all gifts to the University I've done General accounting and budgeting I'm comfortable looking at numbers and analyzing data I'd be honored to serve our schools in our community
014with your vote on Tuesday March 14th thank you thank you Aaron thank you Roy thank you Ann Aaron and Dawn at this time I would like to invite Jack and Aiden back up to ask a few different questions of our SAU candidates for the school board yeah and our thought we're doing a loose informal program with the voters in the room uh Aiden and Jack are going to each ask a couple questions and our thought was each of the school board candidates would respond in a timely 60 seconds or less Forum it's all good thank you so my first question for the candidates is have you sent all of your children to sau6 public schools and if so what is an aspect of our schools that you have been satisfied with and you hope to
015implement on a wider scale if your children have not gone to our schools why yeah please okay thank you um yes both of my children have gone to sau6 Schools starting from the uh preschool over at the SEO School of Technology um as I said I currently have a sophomore and a senior one to graduate this year but um in my years helping um whether it be volunteering or serving um on the school board what I've learned to be most proud of is the efforts that have been made to make our our our schools welcoming supporting emotional Wellness diversity education inclusion um you know striving to have a high level of Education here at the elementary schools where I've been involved in thank you um yes all four of my children attend sau6 schools uh
016we moved here about 5 years ago so my two oldest children started schools in the New York state school system and the difference from a New York state school to SAU elementary schools is incredible and my seventh and eighth graders come home weekly saying how happy they are that they are in new New Hampshire schools SAU 16 specifically because of the style of learning that we do here in sa6 as opposed to um the style of the New York State Schools they're so much happier here and I'm thrilled that my younger children have had the opportunity to start start in that style from kindergarten up in their um in our previous Elementary School Systems it was a lot of sitting and worksheets and that was heartbreaking for kindergarteners and first graders and to see our
017kindergarteners and first graders up and moving and interacting and learning by touch and manipulating is so much better for our students um so that's one of the things that I am most happy with in the sa6 system is our style of learning as so much more engaging for our students hi and yes um my three kids have been in the seu school system since kindergarten um all the way through to middle school and high school now and I would say one of the one of the um benefits of being through that school system is the amazing support that my kids have received through life challenges as they have come you know haven't lived a uh piter perfect um life in the sense that they had to go through divorce and all of the teachers throughout
018that time period were super supportive of all my kids in all their different needs and in terms of social emotional and mental health issues that may have arised through the years I feel like each school system has been very receptive to my advocacy for them so very pleased okay and my next question before I hand it off to Aiden is what do you see as the most uh pressing issues facing siu6 schools and students today and how are you the most qualified candidate to address them start with eron time we go right down the line and the general Federation has Q cards for you when we're out of time that's that's the time I believe one of the most pressing issues facing au6 right now is keeping up with education education changes every year um
019there's more data more research so I do believe that um continuing education for our professionals um making sure that our policies continue to evolve in our upto-date are the best way to keep our SAU current and ahead of the times and for me um I would say what I feel is maybe not the most important pressing issue there are lots of really important pressing issues but I think social emotional Wellness for both our students and our staff um teachers the community in and of itself is really really important for our students to be able to access their education without that support and feeling welcome and um you know being included um for for all lots of different reasons whether it be your your family life looks different or whether it be you you suffer struggle
020with sorry like different um learning challenges or um you know food insecurities there are all kinds of things that go on throughout our SAU and I think it's really really important for us to be meeting our students where they're at so that they feel supported in the classroom so that they can be the best that they can be okay so this is a heavy question what is one of the biggest challenges for students is um everything I mean I think there's a lot of societal pressure out there right now you know people with very extreme views you know political non-political whatever you want to call it everybody has an opinion and it's tough to find people that will sit with you at a table and agree to disagree and I think that's very important you
021know I pride myself in being able to come to the table as a manager in healthcare which is very challenging to be in you know right now um you know and being able to come to the table and listen to the stressors that patients have that my staff have that upper level management has you know and really be able to navigate that all I do feel quite honestly that my skills as a manager really come into play as my skills as a parent too because you have to learn how to negotiate that with your kids you know um they're dealing with a lot they're dealing from what we as parents say they're dealing with what teachers say they're dealing what Society needs to be integrated and really thought about when we think about our kids
022and how we educate them and what works for one may not work for all so we need to be very sensitive to that I have three kids you know that are all different types of Learners all different types you know ooh sorry okay um this one's kind of a long one so stick with me if you can um speaking with teachers across the district it has become clear that the Public's image of the teacher has radically transformed in addition to the many new aspects of the profession like moning monitoring students mental health and giving frequent safety training in the case of a campus threat teachers have also found themselves frequently confronted over the content of their curriculum how will you as a member of the sa6 co-op board work to ensure the teachers feel supported
023in our schools and how do you hope to bridge the gap between Educators and concerned parents go first this time sure okay so this kind of Segways nicely into this question too right let's bring people to the table you know let's get I mean in my in my job we bring people into work groups you know committees as you talk about but we need different players in this committee right we need people some people from the community in we need a teacher in that committee we need people with all different views we need to be able to Hash it out to figure out what's going to work best for everybody you know I think a lot comes through one of the biggest things is communication everybody needs to feel heard and then we assess it
024from there you know so I think that's how we can help to try to tackle the struggles that teachers go through because we can assume what they go through but we're not going to know it until we actually talk to those teachers and for me um I guess um what I've done um in my work on the exit Elementary board um is you know supporting initiatives and um adopting policies committees get established where we work through um you know whether it be new curriculum that's coming out or changes in policies whether it comes from the state level down and we talk about how it affects our teachers we also you know serving on committees such as I've done and um collective bargaining agreements where you talk with the teachers and you talk about what are
025the problems we just did this in exiter um you know there were some things that were brought to the table that we weren't aware of as board members that they were struggling with throughout the day there were things that had changed over covid that um new new sort of entry and exiting uh Student Bus duties and things that were causing them problems on one end but not on another other in some ways they're very supportive of certain things and in other ways they were saying this is this is too much for us it's making it difficult so I will stop I believe the way to support our Educators is through communication um budget and policy and the Heart of being on a school board is the budget and the policy so whatever we can do
026to support them within reason through what we have at our hands through budget and the policies that are existing for um working with our professionals and then of course communication like we've all said um including Professionals in um meetings that they can be involved in in our committees wherever we can involve them and hear what they have to say get feedback so that if there's an issue that we're not aware of there are plenty of opportunities to share that information thank you uh thank you um my next question um unlike other states in the country enrollment and New Hampshire schools public schools continues to decrease in a nearly two decade Trend a number recently fueled by parents who during the pandemic opted for private or homeschooled options for their children my question is how will
027you work to ensure sa6 schools continue to thrive despite the implications of lower enrollment so I think um this goes back to again committees um budgets um looking at the curriculum that is lined up within our schools there are curriculum committees at all the different School levels you know hiring professionals superintendents associate superintendents who are well-versed in where our district should be going what the needs are um through the state so that we can make sure that's being provided and really again um keeping the quality of our education so both supportive and rigorous at the same time that those who may have left during the pandemic will want to come back to school and I thought a card just went up over there um so I mean I think there are lots of factors that
028involved but I think um being part of a great School District you know it it takes a lot of stakeholders and I think that that's where as long as we continue to come together and move forward that this will still be a very aggressive School District where people will want to come and belong thank you so um I would consider this right sizing right sizing the number of uh professionals to students right sizing the amount of classes to students rightsizing the amount of extracurricular activities to students and I believe that that is where if our popul of students is declining we need to maintain the right sizes have enough classes but not too many classes um make sure that the high quality of our education aligns with the cost so that one doesn't get disproportionate
029from the [Music] other um I think the key to this is really trying to figure out why people are leaving and if we can discover why enrollments have gone down then we can find ways to make steps forward to fix that I think looking at schools where enrollments have not gone down why don't we take a look at that so we can kind of see you know we have to do research to see what is the cause of this what is the root cause of of all of this and try to see how we can move forward to you know ensure that our educational standards are are you know on the top of the range that we have the services and the supports that students and parents want and that a community wants in their
030local school system and you know if the numbers have been progressively going down for years then maybe we have to take a re relook at everything and and think outside the box thank you so can I ask one more okay cool um so thank you I have one more question it's similar to uh one of the previous ones that I asked um so given the change in teaching climate over the last few years um do you feel we demand too much of our Educators um and what resources can you provide as a member of the sa6 co-op board to prevent um teacher burnout I'm not meaning to be wishy-washy in this answer but I would say yes and no um I know as a healthc care professional I do feel like sometimes we ask a
031lot of our you know Human Service um staff you know they do a lot teachers do a lot they not only educate our children they are providing lots of emotional support you know from for children that have um Less in Ideal Home situations you know they are they are there they are there they're more there than some students have at their home you know so there is a lot I think um we have to provide support to our teachers um I think it comes from up above too right I think they need to feel support from their I always thinking managers you know their their principles and the superintendent they have to feel heard um as challenges come up like covid there needs to be discussions you know everybody needs to be kept in the
032loop you know maybe we need to readdress some other um items okay uh this is so similar to our previous question about um moral uh I really feel like it comes back to communication policy and budget and doing the best we can to be appropriate with each of those and supporting our teachers I do believe that um there's a lot of teacher burnout I believe that we see that daily in the SAU with a lack of enough Paris and enough substitute teachers and that's somewhere that I think most of our school boards have been addressing stratum just um passed the contract for Paris last night because we identified that we need to pay better to pay more so that we can attract more pairs pairs also act as Subs so they often go hand inand
033supporting um our professionals a lot of it is going to come from um the communication and the policies that we have as a board yes and I was just going to say something very similar to that is you know through negotiating contracts um and communication with the teachers and Par professionals we know what's important to them we find out um having close relationships with them I know myself I person person Al have a lot of relationships with the teachers in the schools from volunteering a lot of them feel free to let me know if there's something they're not happy about um and they're administrators as well I know we're checking in on them regularly not always I can't say that for every school um but I know at the elementary level it's something that's been
034really important is teachers having that social check-in as well and that's something we've always worked on in the social emotional Wellness committee um is trying to um you know we look at the whole Community we're not just looking at only the student because we know that they're affected by everyone there in the school um and their home life as well so I think we know that teachers are doing a really really hard job um and the par professionals and we try to support them in the contracts that we pass and and um with their administrators putting lots of things into place at the schools to help them out thank you so [Music] much that was Aiden and Jack from the YMCA Youth and government program and uh Aiden is serving as Speaker of the House
035this term for the Youth and government session thank you for joining us tonight I was speaker of the house around 1990 is couple years ago so good things coming your way Aiden hey while we're we're still right on track I wanted to ask a couple more questions before we let you go uh from the audience um the first being where do you stand on parental rights as a school policy should a parent have the right to pressure the school board or the school to ban certain read reading materials they find offensive from the school library thus denying other children from reading them or should parents monitor their reading materials at their homes Hot Topic um so I would say it again it goes back to policy we have policies in place for a lot of
036this um there are ways in which parents can um opt out if you will certain types of um literature and things that they're not comfortable with do I think that all of that literature should be banned from anyone being able to access that no I don't I mean I think that there are there are different ways in which the school monitors that and that it can all be done cohesively so that you know parents can play a part in what they're comfortable with their students accessing and other parents who may may have a different idea about that all within the school umbrella can all live harmoniously and get their education I completely support your answer I appreciate that answer um my addition to that is that we do have policies in place for those things
037so that we can fall back on policy and not um and not a lot of debate and argument at our board meetings the policies are IG and kec we've gone over those in policy committees recently to make sure that they're still up to date and the things I do want to add to that are um in a conversation with our superintendent last spring I believe it was he had said that if there is a Content matter that a parent is not comfortable with it can be brought to the attention of the administrator and they will provide workarounds they'll provide alternative um materials so that if that student is uncomfortable that family is uncomfortable there are other alternatives to spe just that material that's available okay I don't know if anybody wants to answer this but
038what types of material were you asking about in terms of banning because that is more the key to my answer I guess I'm not in agreement with Banning books that are Classics for instance right that we all know about that we've heard you know that we all grew up with you know um I'm not in agreement with Banning those Classics um I may be more prone to say that I'm not in agreement with having books in our classroom that um um cross a line let's put it that way cross a line in terms of a judgment you know and I do feel that it is parents I mean with me my parenting style is to have open conversations with my kids so they know that if they are exposed to something that they're not comfortable
039with or they don't feel comfortable you know they it just seems odd to them they do bring it up to me so they have brought up certain books to me they have brought up certain curriculum to me um and I've had to have a discussion with them you know so yeah so I think it depends on what we're Banning I can't have like an all or one answer to that question well thank you an yeah and then the last question is the school voucher program will be pulling dollars out of the co-op budget to fund the program will you advocate for keeping public money in schools and yes are you will you advocate for keeping public money in schools yes our taxpayer dollars should be funding our Public Schools yes I I don't even think
040I need to say any more yes um I think there are some instances where um you know the our our government can do a lot better with helping us with our schools we're struggling enough to keep them going and keep them um rigorous and keep them places where people want to come to and stay in the community and not pull their kids out of school and this vure program is in direct conflict with [Music] that okay another tough question um so I have three different kids I think one of my children would benefit from the voucher program quite honestly just because he excels and would benefit from a more rigorous education than what his current school system can provide him um so I think that is the that was that is one that I would
041have to research a little more I don't know enough about the voucher program to be honest um if it is if the voucher program is able to be um a percentage versus All or nothing I think I'd be more into that because I do believe the public school system does benefit certain kids over others but um I do believe that certain kids would benefit from a voucher program thank you y Roy and Aaron uh I know it's awful quiet on that on the table right now that being said would either one of you like to make any closing remarks and reflecting or responses to any of the questions been asked that have been asked of the school board candidates tonight uh I'm glad I'm on this side of the table uh I just you know
042feel the budget advisory committee uh has been a plus uh it's another set of Vib uh looking at it the budget um I have to say when it came about I was on the school board on the co-op board and you know had mixed feelings more of a concerned that you know certain groups might take it over and drive it in a completely different direction without looking at everything uh but with my on my time on the advisory I think you know those who have been elected take the time to look at the budget uh we meet with all the administrators um they explain why they've asked for certain things um they're very open to us when we ask questions about adding staff or new programs um and I think you know that's the plus
043we all have a chance to ask questions on on the budget uh and why they're looking to do what they're uh asking for but we're able to you know be uh thoughtful about it uh and not just jumping to say we don't want to pay more taxes um I think it's important to balance the two you know the taxpayers in providing quality education I think we do a great job in the co-op providing education to all students um despite what their learning um style is we have different programs um I'm On The Board of Trustees for the uh Great Bay charter school which was started while I was on the co-op board um and that came about because the superintendent at that time was being challenged by myself and Lucy kushman out here in the
044audience because we were concerned about the students in the middle who were being overlooked they were falling through the cracks that was pointed out to us numerous times during the accreditations um so when he brought this plan forward to create a charter school which was part of the SAU uh wasn't a separate entity we were working together the teachers were on the contract to the exitor co-op uh and then things you know changed over time with different superintendence but I think it was important that we were looking to provide all the students a quality education their parents are paying taxes and you know we were anxious to make sure that they were getting what they needed as well as those who are looking to go to college um and those on the other end who
045needed special programs and I think you know we've done a good job in the co-op uh balancing all that in the taxpayers thank you Roy Aaron closing comments um I just would like to say you asked some really great great questions and you guys gave great answers um you know it feels like our schools are really embattled right now um they've just kind of become the center for so many of our political and cultural divisions and it can be really disheartening at times and um that's partly why I decided to run for this seat I just I don't want to sit on the sidelines and belly ache about it I'd rather get involved I feel like that's my responsibility um so that's I I hope to also lend a critical eye you know when um
046reviewing budgets um and you know I was raised by two yanies I'm married to a Yankee like I you know and I think we're all fairly levelheaded in this community like we know we can't spend more than we have and yet we also all really value education and we want to do our best to support our kids and our teachers um so that's my hope that I can somehow be of help and service to our kids and teachers in the community so thank you thank you Aaron thank you Roy thank you an Aaron and Don uh thank you in advance for your public service none of our jobs are easy and I appreciate I appreciate your time stepping forward as well as joining us tonight at the meet the candidates and and voter information night
047at this time we're going to take a 5-minute recess while we reset the stage for our next round of candidates [Music] [Applause] PE