001at this time I'd like to call the Brookline school board meeting on Wednesday April 19th 2023 to order tonight is our annual reorganization meeting very shortly I will ask the point to nominate members once I have a nomination I will ask for a second once I have a nomination in a second I will call for discussion once discussion is concluded I will call for a vote if the candidate put forth passes they will take over the meeting and elect a vice chair and a secretary if the candidate put forth Is Not Elected will repeat the process until a chair is elected there are any questions on that I think at this time I will call for nominations um Kelly zacker I would like to nominate Ken Hegg for chair of the Brooklyn school board thank
002you do I have a second okay I have a nomination in a second do I have any discussion seeing none no go ahead no I'm not my time I was just going to say that um Ken being the most senior person on the board and having successfully led the board for the last um two years two or three I'm not two or three years um I think it's a great opportunity for him to lead once again and give the opportunity to some of us newer members who aren't as new as we'd like to say we are anymore the opportunity to learn and so I'm grateful that he is willing to accept the nomination one more time thank you any further discussion seeing none all in favor of Ken Hague for chairman please signal 5-0 um
003actually over you can okay great thank you thank you all right um so we are now looking for nominations for vice chair and I'd be happy to make one uh I'll I'll nominate Colleen mikovic for vice chair okay very good another cliffhanger all right um any discussion with that Colleen I think you're interested in yeah okay great okay all those in favor you might want to vote too all right five zero or you can abstain if you want five zero thank you Colleen all right and now we will move on to a secretary role so uh is there anyone interested in being the secretary if not I would love to nominate someone down on that end of the table if they're interested you're gonna default to me aren't you I I would put Beauty over
004brains I'm not sure how that I don't I can't even say who it's gonna be now so I'll be quiet I did different I'll take care of this I'll nominate Tracy Perry very good do we have a second there we go seconded by Colleen any discussion around that so don does a great job with 98 of secretary duties to be honest it's just a non-public stuff where we'll need your support and I will walk into the first few meetings which we do for every new secretary okay seriously though Tracy are you interested in yeah because if you're not I will nominate myself no I'm I'm happy to do it thank you thank you I just figured I'd move the Cliffhanger along a little bit sure you know I will I will do it thank you
005okay let's put it to a vote then all is in favor 5-0 very good thank you been for governing board secretary which is worse yeah that's what happened wait that's called karma right yeah I got I got to do that once that was a good time yeah all right um so we have some other things that we have to look at too but the other piece that we need to identify are two signers of the manifests and I would love to nominate both of you that's okay so Allison and Tracy were you willing to do that yes okay so that we typically do to the newer members too because you get to see the expense and all the um the all the different expenses that come across and that will make sense when we do
006Revenue expense and things like that okay great um thank you I've been an alternate in the past too if needed so all right okay um so then we have a couple other committees the school district policy committee and I would kind of lump that with maybe the SAU governing board policy committee so that's one um I I'll stop there real quick Kelly are you interested in yeah I thought so okay is everyone on board with that then okay so Kelly will be our um policy then we have finance committee which is for the Brookline finance committee and then a SAU governing board budget committee which we try to lump oftentimes together if anyone's interested in that I'll keep rattling them all off while we're talking there's a teacher luncheon committee uh that's early at the
007start of the year and supports when the teachers are coming back and the superintendent performance evaluation committee so I think there's a couple opportunities I would say we'd keep the budget and finance together if you're interested in that I would like to do um if it doesn't fall to the board which I mean to the chair which I understand sometimes it has been the superintendent performance evaluation committee again just because I feel like there was a lot to learn um and I I would like the opportunity to do that again if it's great with me okay thank you Kelly all right so now we have Budget Finance committee and teacher luncheon if anyone's interested in those so are you willing to do the SAU budget committee and the bookline finance committee to support both of
008those okay great and then teacher luncheon I I've never done that I'm not sure what goes into it to be honest I don't know has anyone done it on this I was interested on that we're organizing a luncheon for the teachers in back to school days and pretty much it's been catered oh so it's just it's just a matter of making the calls yeah I didn't know just calling around to find out what vendor you'd like to use and then just place the New Orleans just churches school boards and getting paperwork uh paper plates and things like that yeah okay I mean we're all there so it's my attending is not as critical okay it worked on a day yeah it's convenient for you okay all right are you willing to do that Colleen yes
009okay great thanks that is an area that's not something that I'm real strong at so I would love not calling around for places to eat is not my favorite thing all right thank you great uh so I think we've covered all the committee appointments then so thank you everyone for volunteering and supporting the different pieces there um but I think we can move over the are there any agenda adjustments that we need to identify I don't have any okay great everyone good on the board too okay all right so let's move over to correspondence resignations retirements and nominations I I have a resignation to start the evening uh Dear Mr Molinari I'm writing this letter to share that my family will be relocating at the end of the school year therefore I will be resigning
010from my position at rmms math Specialists when the current school year ends my last day at our own minutes will be June 30th 2023. I am grateful for the opportunities I've had to serve the students staff and families at rmms please know how much I appreciate the latitude that you have given me over the past several years to work with students of all abilities in a variety of different ways I wish the students staff and families of rmms all the best as I move forward sincerely Lisa Winters okay so I will make a motion to accept the resignation of Lisa Winters as math specialist at the end of the school year with an effective date of June 30th 2023 seconded any discussion I would I just wanted to say thank you to Lisa my daughter
011looks forward to working with her every couple weeks that she does get to work with her and she does a fantastic job uh making math more fun and interesting than I personally think it is so that's a real loss so but my daughter loves math because of her so thank you except her resignation thank you for your service certainly Echo your comments there okay all those in favor five zero I have uh two nominations we'll take them one at a time the first one is for grade five it's Melissa Palmer um she has her Bachelor's in elementary Ed in sociology from Bridgewater State in her Masters in elementary Ed from virtual Auto State as well she'd be joining us so she's presently with us but as you know she had been in interim so this
012is her permanent position uh with her master's degree at Step 11 for 65 760 so I need a motion to accept Melissa 65 760. 760. thank you okay got it all right so I'll make a motion to accept that nomination a second I'm gonna just say the Melissa Palmer grade five Master Step 11 65 760. is your motion oh thank you that's why I have to write obviously that's why I looked at you funny okay and then um who seconded Achilles there we go uh any discussion all in favor five zero uh the second one is Melissa enulet e-n-n-u-l-a-t but Don at home uh she should be a kindergarten teacher at rmls she has her Bachelors of music from UMass Amherst and her Masters in Early Child education from Merrimack College she'll be at masses
013step three for fifty one thousand nine hundred and eleven dollars okay so make a motion to accept superintendent's nomination of Melissa and you let for the position of kindergarten teacher at rmms at a master Step 11 salary 51 911 it was Master step three Master step three fifty one thought I looked up one yep um Master step three fifty one thousand nine hundred eleven and Kelly sounds like your second name [Music] any discussion all in favor five zero very good thank you nice to have a kindergarten teacher with a degree in music I [Music] think that's it for correspondence resignations retirements and nominations thank you okay so we are on to approval of minutes so the three of us are going to have to vote on these since you two uh were not formally on
014the board okay so the first is um February 22nd 2023 to accept as presented need a second very good all in favor three opposed abstain there we go very good three zero two all right um the next is the March 29th meeting um I don't think we can have you vote here because I don't think you were officially lowered members then either so um the following amendment was offered page five line Thirty September 4th should be replaced with October 5th so I'll make a motion to accept as amended second all in favor three opposed abstain two thank you and then similarly non-public on March 29th I'll make a motion to accept as presented second second all in favor three opposed abstain two thank you all right great so that brings us over to our principles
015report okay good evening uh in our principles report we have our enrollment history and our car enrollment at each grade level we pretty much stayed the same we had 588 students in the district currently 335 at RMS and 253 at csda on the second page of the report you'll see a few pictures the first is a lot of our classes are engaging in some measurement units in a lot of Lego building and measuring their their bills and they're really excited about those builds I believe this build was 100 feet long in total length um so a lot of fun but also learning going in that process and then we have some bridge building those are those are that's a very exciting unit during our guidance lessons so guidance focuses a lot on the castle standards
016and some of those standards are decision making relationships and as you can see when they're building together they're they're working on those skills um this month is traffic safety month in our district so you've probably seen our signs around the buildings at all the schools some of the themes are being a traffic role model wearing your seatbelts Beware of the buses we yesterday had our off-site evacuation and that's a situation where um you know unfortunately we have to sometimes experience situations where to evacuate a building due to um maybe a Hazmat situation a chemical spill it could be a fire it could be an intruder so yesterday we practiced that type of drill we were evacuated we had accountability we then have an off-site evacuation site we have several for our school we went to
017the fire station and then did a reunification where some families participate in that process just so we could get the timing down and um just see how our practices functioned we did videotape that and we're using that as a for more practice for our our new staff to see how that drill is done we're also going to use it at open house so we can educate our families at RMS but also around the district so that we can alleviate any Stress and Anxiety over that type of a situation um and then once you return back from vacation um we start our New Hampshire staff for grades three through six but going back to the drill I just want to thank all the safety officials in our town uh the support from the SAU um and
018then the families that participated but also our students and staff did a phenomenal job all of our staff have roles in that drill and they're um they really take it with seriousness but the students also conducted themselves very responsibly they're aware that we do these drills for safety and to keep them safe and others safe but just an outstanding job by our staff so yeah Dan did they walk or did they take a bus yeah so we're fortunate to have a few sites but we did walk to the fire station okay yeah because I remember when my daughter was in third grade they walked to the safety complex I think yeah we alternate you know opposite years but fire stations worked for us nice thank you welcome okay and I've actually gotten a quick preview
019of the video so it looks wonderful which I'm definitely going to be sharing with the staff and students at csda and we are also in conversations with the police and fire department and um national Safety as far as doing something similar in the June time frame uh Brookline staffing needs uh right now we're looking for a curriculum administrator and we've actually been having some wonderful interviews so I'll let the SAU figure that out for us hopefully and then at rmms they're looking still for three para Educators so down a half a custodian guidance counselor they'll be looking for and obviously just the math specialist and preschool and a speech pathologist part-time and for the csda staffing needs consider continue with a case manager that we I believe that we're going to be filling a para
020educator a custodian and the grade five teacher that we just filled so that will be we'll be looking forward to that yeah oh and I'm sorry I forgot there was a couple of events coming up um at grade uh grade five they're going to be having the Squam League Natural Science Center coming to csda tomorrow so that we're looking forward to that and in grade six of course if anyone has students or had past students they know that in science they build their connects cars so anytime you're walking down the hallways during this time frame you'll be seeing cars whizzing by down the hallways as they're using measuring tapes and having a lot of time comparing their their models what's wonderful is that they have a final and they call it the egg Dash crash
021and smash and there's a picture there with Mrs furbush and Mr snoke they're competing to see if their egg would survive and do a faster speed than some of the students the students had a wonderful time and parents also participated so that was a lot of fun and what one thing that I really like about it the kids don't really like it I've had conversations with them at the end they have to take all the parts pieces apart of the car and they actually developed an economics lesson where they each part cost something so they're going to find out when they're taking the car apart how many wheels they use or different parts and there's a price associated with them so they're trying to figure out they end up figuring out like oh if it
022was a real car this is how much it would cost so it's kind of a nice lesson I've also added some pictures in there I don't want people to forget about the great art teacher that we have Mrs LaRue got and there's photos there of some of the great pottery that the students have been making they're really very creative so it's nice to be able to see that they're using clay actually getting to fire it and use the kiln thank you all right well we are moving along in our agenda here so our next piece is public input I am going to just quickly mention the public input policy bedh we will have a maximum of 30 minutes to hear public comments uh that may be extended by majority vote of the board individual speakers
023will be allotted three minutes per person and may not relinquish a lot of time to another speaker chair will recognize speakers on a first come first basis speakers shall identify themselves and their home address clearly for the record and except otherwise as provide in this policy members of the public may offer comments on agenda items so with that if anyone likes to would like to step up by all means if not that's okay too good evening I am Kirsten Zimmerman and I live at 31 Milford Street Brooklyn sorry I'm nervous um first I want to thank all of you for volunteering your time and for all of the staff at all the schools I am grateful for I come from a long line of teachers so I know how much time is invested um but
024I'm concerned that there is a bullying problem that's not getting addressed it uh csda um the kids in my daughter's classroom quite often don't feel safe because of one particular individual this has been a child that has bullied numerous numerous times um the threatened physically my child and even physically injured and hurt a para that was there at one point to help this week this child again went after another child and one of the specials um and I understand that you can't control the behavior of a child however you can anticipate things sometimes um the thing that really upset me and upset my my child was that 15 minutes later when the special was over the bully was back in the classroom playing video games like nothing was wrong and all the other kids were
025still in like shock like he did it again and it's unacceptable like you know I was told that you know administrators weren't in the building you know probably for the the practice you know drill but what is the protocol for if there's not an admin in the building what is the protocol to follow when there is a student who is physically threatening people threatening other students I want to know what the protocol is um and I also found out this week that parents aren't allowed to reach out to school board members to talk with them and share concerns why why are we not allowed to talk with them they're here as our Representatives so I I don't understand that I I want an answer to that also why can't I get a student handbook today
026I tried to get a copy of the student handbook my computer was giving me typical technology issues when you're trying to get something and I called and said can I just have a copy of the student handbook and I was told no we don't have a way of providing you with that you'll have to just download it it's like it's not working it's not happening so why can't I have a copy of the rules that we're all supposed to follow give me a copy of it um that's all but can you answer my questions well yes or no I can't be talking about a specific child I understand and I was very careful to respect the anonymous you know to be anonymous and not share that no I mean you could always reach out to
027a school board member I don't know why that was said okay I mean people do all the time okay typically what happens is if it comes to a board member they alert the chair okay and then we have a conversation sometimes it makes it onto the agenda not about a specific one but in general okay okay um thank you the student handbook I mean we have it online I mean if you couldn't download it I mean you should have been able to attempt to do that for you and get you know put in your child's backpack and send it home right that's what I was thinking yeah so I'm not sure about that one again all of these I'm hearing for the first time and you could always reach out to me all right um
028and be happy to go over the protocols uh with you if you want to give me a call or email me okay okay and but are there protocols oh yes and is everybody aware of them is there a quick grab notebook or you know clipboard in the wall that you know something's going on grab this follow this policy so that everybody knows this kid should not be back in a classroom because all the other 20 kids are a little bit freaked out right now because of what happened and he's back in there the child is back in there they're definitely protocols I can't talk about a specific job no I understand but I want to be sure that things can happen because that kid should not have been back in the class I don't know
029the whole circumstances so for me to speak to that right now would be inappropriate okay thank you Kristen my email is Right online please reach out I mean I sometimes send people answers that they don't want to hear but I always respond thank you you're welcome um I just wanted to address like my understanding um first of all I want to thank Kirsten for coming forward I know that it was difficult and it was my understanding that school board members shouldn't be having one-on-one conversations with parents and so that is my fault because I took I told her that um and it was when she reached when Kirsten reached out to me this morning I went to check the policy because I wanted to um cite the policy and be like oh it says X
030Y and Z in the policy and so I'm not supposed to have sort of ex parte conversations with a parent outside of a board meeting and so I did recommend that she either a email you and copy the Brookline School Board members or compromise public testimony so I really do appreciate you coming when you weren't planning that this morning when you reached out to me um that being said when I when I went on the the website to look at the policies I found out that the policies weren't available and um going back through my emails from March I don't always read the emails that we get from the New Hampshire School Board Association because we get a lot from them and a lot of them are legislative updates and so I missed that on
031March 23rd they emailed us about the policy server being unavailable um and I I was a little bit taken aback that we weren't made aware of that and that um and that another parent reached out and found out they were the only School District in the state that uses their server to store our policies and um I just think I would have liked there to be a little bit more transparency about that and wonder if there's like an alternative solution um to sort of have local control or a local storage on the server maybe of our policies so again I apologize to Kirsten if I gave you the wrong information this morning but that was my understanding we're trying to answer me yeah but I and I and I do really appreciate you coming forward
032about um the concerns that your students having as I um as I told you and as I sent testimony in as a member of the a private person to this to the legislature in New Hampshire yesterday schools should be places where kids feel safe and um and so I want your child and all of our children to feel safe at school and I think as a board that's our goal so we'll work on this yeah um one thing I just overarching want to address to uh regarding contacting and communication is um I think you can always reach out to school board member and I think just flowing it so they'll make sure we're all on the same page is important and I always ask when when parents reach out if if there are particular incidents
033it has the administration been involved yet first because that's going to be a process anyway so I would just always offer that up in parallel for that as far as the bullying I think this we've seen this come up a few times so it sounds like a big Focus this year around sociomotional learning policy it will be you know the heat speech the Choose Love And The Bullying we're seeing this theme and I I personally think we're on a year-long if not more Journey here as a board to help work with our administrators and and try to flow that into the schools I was just going to say just as a new board member if we could just um maybe talk maybe offline or just in maybe it's a non-public conversation but about having you
034know if it's in policies and procedures or things like that about you know what you just said Ken about how we you know um answer emails like if it does go to you or to you know to to Andy or how we you know I know you know we can't have conversations you know all of us together on email but it would just be really helpful to see how we answer emails and and things like that so that we are able to to answer questions or you know just to have some guidance around that that would be super helpful and I'll just say on air right now one thing that we are mindful of is response replying all because it starts constituting electronic meetings so just for everyone to understand that right A lot of
035times if I see one come to me I'll I'll reply on behalf of our board but not everything comes to me and that's great um but my biggest guidance would be just that we don't reply all and have a train because then that constitute and we can talk more but yeah I want everyone to hear that why there's not replyalls on emails and there's not a continued conversation that's why sure but yeah but like if I don't reply have some parity like if you know if we're all supposed to reply individually to parents or if we're supposed to let that come from you or if we're supposed to let that come from Andy you know just so that we have um we have some guidance around that because I don't want to be you know
036doing the wrong thing or not replying or replying and I think I mean you know I and I could be wrong because I've only been at this for a year but you know I think it's common courtesy to to reply and say like you know thanks so much for reaching out I appreciate you taking the time I will make sure you know and maybe ask the questions that Ken asked like has this gone to the building administrator have you talked to your child's teacher um sometimes I've sent like the link to a policy or to the student handbook here's where you can find that information um you know and then you know if they think it needs to be I'll copy Andy on it or the building principle or something like that but I think
037you know to not necessarily get into a two-way conversation about the subject matter of the email but to acknowledge the correspondence and um you know kind of I think like how I feel when I like reach out to like a State Rep or something and they don't reply to me I think they didn't reply to me like so just you know can I suggest we're gonna a little later on during discussion talk about um a presentation in March on your may excuse me so maybe we just put that so we kind of put it all together because it kind of all does go together because obviously if something happens at school and you live in the community a lot of times people are going to approach you in the grocery store and you need to
038be able to respond I don't disagree with Kelly on that because that's small town America that's what we expect it's just we need to look at how we respond so I think this is a great great discussion and I think we can put it on in May the other thing that some districts have gone to now that I've noticed is um there's one button to communicate with the school board so that anybody who sends an email automatically goes to the five EU but the expectation is to share response for the board and that way you're not constituting a meeting but everybody's getting a reply and then the chair kind of either maybe directs it to Dan or Trisha or that but at least you know as a board that if it comes in there's a
039responsibility if Ken was away on vacation or whatever then it would just default to Colleen for that period of time so we can talk about a few of those things that might streamline things for board members and the community that would be great even for me I mean to there was an email that I just wanted to mention and it did come up where with the policies uh a parent couldn't find a policy and so I went to search for it and I was able to find it but the link wasn't working and now that makes sense to me so I just wanted to put that out there that people are having a hard time finding it I actually was like determined to find it but the only way I was able to access it
040was through the handbook which was easily found but then if you want to click on the policy link which you normally would do it would take you to that error message again the only way you could do it so and that that's interestingly came up but I do think we should have a printed copy maybe for all of us if that's okay and just a couple available at the SAU if somebody needs it okay they're at all the buildings it's just this is my ninth year and this is the first time the policy site has ever been down right and it was existed before I came there was never an issue but I think as we look at redoing our website we might as well move them over because what happened is the safeguards for
041their service I'll say are not as stringent as ours because of the data that we have and more and more districts have moved away from their server but they provided all the resources of you said in the policy they posted they do all that but that's something we'll just have to move in-house something we paid for so we pay fees dues and that was actually a point of discussion in some of our sessions this year to be a part of New Hampshire School Board Association some of those fees are for free legal services some of those fees are to have access to sample policies that along with policy updates based on legislative updates and changes and then and then they host our policies I will say that we initially went in that direction because we
042don't have enough staff to do to Manpower the you know the database we're a little bit better staff now than we were 15 plus years ago and and so we can absolutely look at that again but you know to Andy's Point I've been a part of this district for 18 years and we've never once had a problem so it was kind of a fluke thing for us and and not something that we really expected but it was that email was sent out to board members whether or not it was um you know but board members that were on their registry time so so you two weren't on there and it is noticed on our website that the database is down it's not something that we have control over but we and it does say to
043come to the SAU office for a paper copy we were told to stop making paper copies because they change all the time but I have the binder of the paper copies in my office just because I thought it was important to maintain that just in case I think given us a timeline of when that those servers might be back up they did they they assured us it would be back up already uh it is not okay and I think to uh Kelly made the point um I didn't realize that we had become the only one left to be honest with you um so now understanding that we're probably not that big a priority to them so that's why we'll move it in-house as we do the it upgrade so I will say I appreciate it
044though in the agenda for tonight the policies that are referenced did and I do I do just want to call that out that I did appreciate that that was there because I would have gone clicking and looking and I knew that they were down and again so yeah and what I do appreciate you and we make a point we are required to post an agenda we're not required to provide all the backup but we make a point of doing so for that very reason try to streamline it make it as simple as possible and then as transparent as possible for anyone who wishes to follow along online in person or just through you know the agenda in the minutes I appreciated that sorry so we still have the electronic coffee somewhere though right we didn't
045okay as I was hearing it thank you that helps and still confidence for the anyone that's wondering that question too and um Kirsten we went on a lot of turns there I want to thank you for your public input there normally we don't cool quite a circuit to us I butchered that word but as much as we did there but thank you for your input we certainly hear what you're saying and I do I just want to do to say there is an agenda item that relates directly to that shortly so I'm kind of saving a discussion on a more General topic of incidents of thank you concerns between students so thank you okay so let's move to our discussion we have five pieces tonight and the first being the 2023 revenue and expense update
046so in the first packet you had the March Revenue expense report so at the beginning of this week we sent out the one from April 10th um they are still pretty pretty similar from last month where we stand unfortunately in the negative um again a lot of unanticipated special ed costs um some legal unexpected legal expenses and um it leaves us with thirty four thousand twenty two dollars negative balance for our expenses and then when we look at the revenue we show a little bit in excess of what we had budgeted of around 26 927 um this leads us who a thirty two thousand three hundred and ninety Eight dollar unreserved fund balance then when we try to fund the trust and the retained fund balance which we like to anticipate for fy24 um it
047gives us 162 602 dollar negative ballots Kelly has proposed to account for this negative balance that we use the FY 23 retained fund balance for required Ada project of 109 687 in some of the special ed Expendable trust fund of 52 916 which would leave us with a zero projected fund balance so to to that end in may we would do a public hearing for the Ada projects and the special ed Expendable trust that's been going on all year we've been discussing that uh those numbers will probably fluctuate again come May so it may be a little more maybe a little less um if we did nothing we would finish the year 32 398 dollars ahead it's just a matter if you fund the maintenance trust and you fund the retained fund balance and how
048you get the retained fund balance is actually by spending the retaining fund balance so when you basically you have a hundred and forty thousand dollars in the FY 23 retained fund balance that's not on the revenue and expense report because it can only be used for specific purposes all right and the ideal purposes is the Ada projects that we were required to do that's why we'd have a public hearing and then when you fund that hundred and ten thousand all of a sudden you're going to have the ability to have a retained fund balance in FY 24. make sense and the Ada project was unplanned I believe right so that's why it falls under the retained fund and why it would qualify correct and just for the new board members this has been an ongoing
049project process since about September and you froze the budget then special ed costs are results of move-ins over the summer which Brookline has been selling houses so we've had a number of move-ins and then as Ken said the Ada projects were requirements to move some code issues for some students who had specific needs so overall a lot better than September and October um and we'll continue to move forward and it's not much different than our position a year ago and you see just to give you a comparison the Hollis district is in slightly better position but they like Brookline have seen it just a massive growth in their enrollment so they're running in two different costs and things they weren't expected as well is there a tuition line because that would be for preschool oh
050okay thank you yeah [Music] um one other question Donna you mentioned legal um increases that were on anticipated what were those driven by I didn't advertising expenses so that's a couple of pieces so the legal pieces would be um excessive legal services from things such as right to knows in the beginning of the summer okay um in addition we've had to advertise for vacant positions and the cost of that is far more than it has historically been and we've had to use far more advertising for those positions so thank you thank you I will tell you that it's as we enter into the hiring process it's very interesting how strong our hiring pools are I'll give you an example we'll be discussing a non-public the curriculum coordinators position but we receive 31 applications wow that's
051wonderful it really was and uh some really qualified people that made the committee's decision is very difficult um and we're seeing the same thing happening with our elementary positions that we have open right now we have a few open in Hollis what we try to do as much as possible if the principles are available they'll sit in on each other's interviews not never knowing when I'm going to need a teacher and try to speed that process up because the most difficult piece we're facing this year is people with multiple offers you know the cream of the crop is is being scooped up quick so that's something we're really looking to do is kind of expedite our process just to give you an example um not necessarily in Brookline but Gina and I did probably five
052superintendent interviews today most of them Zoom just to get it so that we get to meet the candidate but don't hold up the process until say after vacation so it's it's an interesting Market we're doing very well but it's a very competitive market okay in your packet and not looking for a vote tonight because it's a very lengthy document is the general assurances for fy24 just to let you know what those are we receive special federal dollars that would be the lunch program idea which is your special education grants we receive Title II which was professional development and title IV which is I'm going to say technology and then Brookline also receives a weep Grant which is based on technology it's a rural education grant when we do the um applications for those grants every
053year we have to do assurances of how we'll watch over the money and meet the requirements if we're going out to bid did we get three bids all of those compliance issues so this document explains all of that to you next month at the main meeting um I'd have it under the deliberation items and then if the board approves which I recommend because of the amount of money we generate from federal dollars then both Ken and I sign off it's about three years ago that they started having board chair sign off for me it's part of my license and Gina's license to adhere to these standards along with the business administrator so it's not something that we're not regularly doing we have an annual audit all of these pieces get audited but this is a
054requirement of the federal government that the state must comply with so that's how they send out the assurances and knowing that it's a very riveting document I thought it might take more than one sitting to get through and if you have questions as you go along uh concerns are raised please don't hesitate to reach out you know let Ken know it'll be on the agenda again or you can email me and I'll go get you an answer okay it's an exciting read I can attest to that as well yeah okay so we're over to our calendar do we have oh this is I'm sorry last school calendar last day of school for this year all right we're gonna come both yeah um we are proposing and we have met the requirements to be done on
055June 16th with the half a day for the entire SAU and our teachers would finish up uh Tuesday June 20th that is a professional development day dedicated to school security and safety so they'll be going through a day of training which we do annually as Dan did with his drill we videotaped that training so we can use it for new hires when they come on board in August with a newer orientation or any staff member who may miss the training it just assists us tremendously so that'll be the last day of school and then um as you can see further down we'll do a deliberate item on the school calendar which Gina presented to you last month and there are no changes and it's gone through it's a proven so we're in good shape could
056you just because I had a I know a couple of people asked me about the calendar for this year and the last day and could we explain for parents who might not understand why you might put the 19th on and it might end up being the 16th because I want to make sure that I explained it well which I don't know if I did I think we go extra hours and you know something Working Families yeah yeah our school day is longer than um about anyone else in the state so that's why you see other school districts around us getting out two three four weeks before us so we have 178 days but then when we look at it all and try to determine at what point do we complete our curricular requirements it makes
057a lot more sense to have that final Day on June 16th with a half day have an even break on that Friday um so essentially we are we have gone well above and beyond our requirements by hitting that point and then you have other factors to consider as well less important certainly but something to consider when we have projects across the district and we're trying to complete them in a short nine ten week period often times getting started on that Saturday will make sure that we can actually open the buildings when we say we want to start school so that's a component of it not the most important part but um but like I said we've we far surpass our our requirements and we look to see where we are at in our curriculum and
058if we've met our stated goals okay thank you I think the input just from a couple of Working Families was they had planned on having that day not as like a camp day or anything like that that 19. so just to put that and I and I you know I did say that for no matter what decision you all make just like snow days it's not going to please everybody because you'll have a lot of parents angry and and I support all parents speaking their mind on this but who would be mad that their child has to come back to a hot sweaty building for especially if it's a Tuesday so I appreciate just explaining that because people don't know what we know and the other piece is it's also a transportation issue we want
059to run the fleet the fleet for that one day the following week you know so there's that and a lot of it also functions off of we try to be in X number of days after graduation so that's you know the co-op's decision of finalizing graduation which they have done but we've been pretty good the last few years about being right around there because we build in the five snow days and I think that's what some people forget like we don't have a snow day we're actually out earlier than anticipated you know you weren't that lucky this year yeah all right so that good also next in your packet that we'd be voting on in May as Dan talked about his safety drills and he has the option of going to the police station or
060the fire station um for the last couple years when we have done drills at csda basically they have exited the parking lot gone down to the First Street on the left which I can't think of the name right there and the police closed that off and that's where our children gather um I want to thank uh Kelly Seeley she reached out to Deco it was a huge Community supporter uh and in your packet that you can review and look at and we'll vote on next month is an agreement with Deco so that we encountered an emergency any day of the week at any time they would allow our students to be in there in the building safe so we eliminate weather conditions and we have what I'll call a much secure facility and the ability
061to utilize like what I'll call parent pickup or bus pickup out of the facility so I don't want to minimize my thanks to Deco for stepping forward for this because this really helps it's it's very close to csda and in a true emergency just like if it had been the other day uh we wouldn't have worried about we would have still walked in the sidewalk but there wouldn't have been any traffic on the street because the Brookline police would have just shut down the entire length from here to the fire station or here to the police station and the same thing would happen in a true emergency at csda they would block from the entrance side all the way down to Route 13 to give our kids safe passage because there are no sidewalks really
062over there so what I'd like you to do is go through this this was written by our legal counsel yep um and he supports it and thinks it's very comprehensive what your vote would do in May is authorize me to sign it on behalf of the Brookline School District and then that would become our future emergency home if we do that in May there's a likelihood will coordinate with them and practice that when Trisha does her drill in June um I'm embarrassed to say this having lived here for almost 10 years I don't know what Deco does is there like like a big sort of open warehouse space where the students can wait if they need to be like protected from the elements Yes actually um when Kelly and I were working on this I
063actually went down and had a tour I also brought down one of my secretaries Mary Lou Gilbert so we had a full tour of the whole facility basically they're a training center they're a manufacturing their main facilities in Nashua but they they have a lot of training um rooms where there's a lot of space or there's tables and chairs that could be moved aside or put away so that we would able to be able to fit all of the students and staff if there was an emergency and whether permitting we had to go inside for any reason there's lots of bathrooms we would be able to set up an area for triage um they also have other huge garage areas where if we had to rush into a particular space they have fencing and electric
064electronic Gates that again to protect students and and staff so I'm really appreciative of the tour that we were provided and their Hospitality to be able to be on call if there was ever an emergency and right now as I mentioned we're hoping to do some type of drill in June and it may just entail Simply Having all the students and staff walk down do a count there as far as far you know population attendance and then just walk back up but at least to give everybody an idea a sense of what it would take if there was an emergency we would try to have it arranged as a nice stroll down the street but then what we would do is return to csda and I'd be in contact with a few parent volunteers to
065actually then set up the reunification up in the parking lot that again that would give us the opportunity to have all the staff there check our paperwork in the same same type of systems that Dan has put together and so we can at least practice it and this being my third year we've never done something like this any type of evacuation and we were trying to we've been working on this for a year with Deco and um and and the you know we wanted to make sure that we tied him with our Council as well before doing so yeah great I'm like a very generous offer from them yeah it looks no cost and the agreements essentially identifying them holding them harmless from anything that happens on their property their grounds but I agree sure
066I really agree for this and um how many employees they normally have on site on a given day and yeah I'm not sure exactly I can get that information for you but actually if we do our drill we're going to try to work on it on a Friday because they they typically work four days a week so if you drive by there on Fridays it's usually except for you know some of the key personnel or management so so I guess my follow-up to that is in the event having to forbid that there's emergency we need to evacuate the students there it what because I don't see it in this document but is there a protocol to make sure that the employees uh either or separate or separate from the students to make sure that they're
067we could I mean I know it's emergency situations right so there's a level of we we hope that there's that trust in that partnership with them but I also want to just be mindful that then there's adults and our students and so we've thought that through yeah the the this document is just addressing the use of the facility okay the procedures that we would take when we got there is because all of us would respond so the SIU is coming over police and fire and basically you're going to get a separation and you're going to get uh as you would recall from your days each teacher with their group of 15 to 20 kids if they're responsible aligned it's a big enough facility that we'll be able to align right across I haven't been there
068so yeah I appreciate it yeah and um but I again we can look at that next month as well and give you more clarification because I do agree with you which is you're going from one place you don't know who's there or what their standards are uh but it would only be SAU or csda students and police and fire working with students sure right I didn't want to yeah and just for clarification ideally this would be a location for us to um a waiting area ideally until we can have the buses pick us up and bring us to the safety complex perfect um in a dire an emergency where again we needed to be inside someplace quickly this is when we would usually utilize their Interior right and there would be some protocol to make
069sure the employees and right seu kids right and I'll be honest with you the day that we went through there was one small training session in one room and there was in the manufacturing there were some individuals but um not many no worries just had to ask a question no question about this particular it just doesn't look like this has any kind of expiration date on this so is this something that we're going to kind of re-up and talk to them every couple of years about is this this isn't forever so um what's kind of this would be our ongoing relationship with with Deco I think what we would do is do some drills learn something about the process if we had concerns that they had concerns come back to this document kind of similar
070to what we do with our police and school agreements in Hollis in the co-op regularly reviewing those what the offices can and can't do so to kind of be the same thing here thank you okay all right great all right so uh we have one last piece now this is our third board discussion tonight it's around um a May presentation on response to intervention and socio-emotional learning for as an Administration is to kind of address pieces from the board uh and pieces that we may already know but we didn't want to miss anything so we thought if we could take a 10 or 15 minute discussion or less and just kind of map out what you'd like to see then Dan and Trisha Gina and I will work together to kind of put that together
071uh go through that in May and kind of use that also as a jumping off point for what we'd like to see really to open obviously we have a month to start to put some things in place but then kind of what we'd like to see in place for that opening in the fall mm-hmm so I am wide open so we can just start spitballing so you're about to say something go ahead yeah I can just start the discussion if you want um I think just educating us as a board and the public at as to where we are as the Baseline for mtssb as it's called um and how we're intervening with students all students who need to be taught social emotional skills on tier one and then how we're intervening on tier two
072and tier three for students who might be either a experiencing bullying or might be acting that way themselves so I you know I just even being in and I will reiterate that that pool of candidates I know I can't talk specifically and I'm not going to but in 18 years I've never sat in an interview session where almost every candidate had something to offer and each one was just amazing in many ways so that brought me a lot of Hope but where's our Baseline for all that because I'm a I'm a parent and I think I'm fairly involved and I'm also a board member and I don't know where we're at with that so and it is just sort of it's okay because we're finally going to have a curriculum administrator we're gonna we have
073a special ed administrator so we have this opportunity so what's the Baseline and then just to reiterate that since the last meeting where we talked about um horribly racially motivated words being used by students against other students that there have been a couple more incidents and you know I'm in a unique position as a parent to sometimes know both families in the situation and I think gleaning without getting into specifics when you have a a kindergartner encouraging another kindergartner to use the n-word to me that says there's a lack of Education most likely in the home but there's a lack of Education in general you know everywhere about the the impact of that word on a student so just curious where we're at with that and that ties into social emotional learning but um you
074know and there's also another incident where a student referenced another student by their their race and again without getting into specifics because I don't want it to be about students it seemed like there must be a lack of Education because certainly I and I even mentioned this to the parent of the student that's happened to that I can't imagine there was intent there but you know there's I sat my own daughter down and I never wanted to have this conversation but I told her if somebody tries to tell you to use that word absolutely not and it's a hard conversation to have to have um but you know how are we in general making sure our kids feel safe is just a bigger discussion um as a parent but also as a special ed administrator
075and then as a board member I know that all of these situations are nuanced and that part of the problem is we can't share with parents how nuanced they are I don't know the I have heard reports about what you're talking about even that day and I know that we can't tell you anything about that student to protect him just like we would never tell you tell anyone else about your daughter to protect them but the bottom line that I'm hearing is everybody just needs to feel safe a child Who's acting out we all know is doing that for a reason how do we keep him safe and keep other people feeling safe so I just support them I think there's there's ways to do this it's not as easy as academics sometimes I think
076that's a little easier to intervene but I think for the public to know that we're really trying to address it and I and I just listening in those interviews now know how much we are addressing it already but I I did not know that beforehand so that's just my input um thanks Colleen I um I guess I also would like to know um you know for the for the board's perspective you know how the Choose Love uh program is presented to the the districts into the SAU and then you know I know that there are programs that you know they come into the school building but then what happens after the program is presented you know what is the um what is the integration on a daily basis you know one when I was fortunate
077enough to be a substitute school nurse in the district um a few years ago I was at Hollis Upper Elementary I think the day a couple of days or maybe a week after they had had the Choose Love program at the in the building and you know I saw a little rubber duckies all over the place like I think rubber duckies are like one of their little things um and and you know I heard people engaging about them and so and so left me this ducky or or um you know so obviously that was an outward demonstration of it but um I guess like how is it being operationalized on a daily basis um and you know I do know that one of the the foundations of that is you know kindness and um and
078and community and um you know interacting with each other and accepting one another and you know I I and really preventing gun violence and preventing um you know the Terrible epidemic in our country um you know we want children to feel safe in schools do children feel safe in schools do teachers feel safe in schools you know um but that by addressing what many people think is the root cause of this epidemic which is students feeling unaccepted students being bullied students bullying um feeling ostracized not to mention this the mental health you know crisis especially with young people that was obviously worsened after the pandemic and the isolation people felt but you know my understanding is that the Choose Love program is really meant to try to get to that root cause and give people
079that Foundation um and you know I just I guess would like to understand you know better I happen to know the New Hampshire coordinator for the program um and and know that she has a heart of gold and um but she was respectfully like didn't want to like speak to me ex parte [Laughter] um you know but and was very worried when I asked her like oh would you come like present to the board and she's like oh I would hate to do that because I wouldn't want it to make it seem like it was a board versus Administration type of thing or whatever but I think just for the opportunity for us to learn more about it and you know other what else is going on in addition to that like I know we
080have the red wagon red tiger theater group red tiger yeah I think there was a red wagon theater group yeah so I mean like just all the different programs that come into the school I think for us to to know about and and just to try to understand uh what we're doing as a district so I'm gonna I'm gonna add to your list and uh I I would like us to to really go over um whatever policies or guidelines we have surrounding bullying and racism in our schools um I have been able to find a helpful heartful guidelines I have not found a student code of conduct if we don't have one I'd like to open conversations as to instituting one and I think that that would be in some ways very helpful for our
081families so that um if their families are experiencing um issues in the school while we can't talk about what happens should an investigation happen we find in in the schools find that bullying has happened while we can't talk about the specific nuances at least they're within a structured age-appropriate step you know kind of tiered response of educating our students and managing the situation so maybe we better understand okay well there's there there's structured steps on how this is being handled if we don't have that in place I'd like to open up conversations to put that um in place I would also like to understand what kind of communication goes out to our school community at large and when I see a school Community I don't just mean the students and the teachers or the school
082board talking about our families as well so I when an incident happens on campus we'll say heaven forbid there's a fight it's really easy to validate that that happened right we can send a communication home immediately or a bus is running late we get Communications out immediately this is happening there are other instances where perhaps um we need some time to to validate and investigate and you know if if something has been reported and we find that perhaps unfortunately it has happened we should be communicating that um to our school Community saying you know earlier this week or late late last week you know there was an incident that happened on our campus we don't tolerate this this is um you know by our mission and vision this is what we're teaching please speak to
083your students your families or however we want to word it um about having you know being kind and being good community members while we're at school um and and that then that the school is is following up we just wanted to make you aware please support us in speaking to your student home I think communication like that would go a very long way with our community of course it needs to be validated again again sometimes these things can come out the same day sometimes it may take a day or two but I think communication and very transparent communication along with some kind of student code of conduct that at least shows our families in our school Community what the expectations are you know especially dealing with K to six students are learning right from wrong
084right their own learning how to interact and it is going to take time with a lot of these other with the programs we have coming in we're in the business of educating our kids but we want to at the same time make sure that the environment for everybody is safe and I think that I would like to believe that if we are being communicative with our families that helps them to feel safe to come back to school knowing that there is a structure we are it is being addressed um and so I would just kind of like to know what we have in place what we want to what what perhaps isn't there where our Gap is and then work to fill that um the other thing and maybe this isn't quite for May but
085one of the things that I would like to see come out from the board to our community is that we are taking steps to address this and I know we're having this conversation here now but I don't think it would hurt us to put something out to the community at large given the public input from last month from tonight the communications we've received in between I think I think it would do some some good to at least state that you know we we don't tolerate these behaviors we are working to address them um it's a process I think everybody understands that and we want to make sure we do it the right way and that we do it effectively um so so lastly everything that I would like to propose and I don't know if
086this is the appropriate place too I'm going to say it since I'm running mental health um I would like to see a committee formed for bullying and racism whether you know one of a board member chairs it just to ensure that the gaps like with the communications or the codes of conduct um if we need to develop those I would really like to see a committee with our members here leading to charge in that so parent volunteers I have your name so hey so so I I understand I I know at one point you had a um d-i-d-e-i task force um I don't know anything about it to be fair I don't know if it's gone anywhere I just heard it mentioned last time I wasn't able to find a whole lot uh between that
087and now I've also been life so if that's something that we can work into the conversation if that's still pertinent that would be wonderful if not perhaps pivoting and getting the committee together to to um really structure some of this for our community I think um from I see would be beneficial excellent thank you so um I Echo a lot of what my um my my fellow board members say um I've read a lot of the um of the the emails that that community members parents have have written to us um what other people and what other community members have said um I think the through line of what I've I've heard is that we want our children um and that children should feel safe and included and welcomed in our schools um and I
088think whether it is a child who doesn't feel that way and feels the need to act out or whether it is a child who is being bullied um I think both of those children are hurt um and both of those children need our help and so I think we really need to look at what is going on is I think we owe it to the kids in our schools to really to really help and I think we do need to help I think there is there is some issues there um I really would like to see you um I have a really high bias for Action so I do have four goals um I do I would like to see if we could put out some sort of statement um and have some sort of
089clear communication plans for um when there are incidences um of uh bullying and and racism um I think communication and uh transparency uh do help minimize um in a small town especially kind of how things can be misconstrued or get out of hand um I would like to see more work done and again I I haven't been able to kind of really look at some of our our policies because I haven't been able to access them um but again dig into some of some of our policies I love Allison's point about the student code of conduct I am all for doing some work if it's you know now and throughout the summer being on a committee and doing that work I um I'm here to do the work and I would I would love to
090be able to help and do that work and you know I think in order to do this work to do it well to do it right to do right by our parents our Administration and our teachers and our students most importantly we may have to not have a high bias for Action um and so we may have to you know have everything rolled out in September um but to be able to roll things out and to roll them out over time but to have a plan for September but to at least have some statements and to start working on some policies thank you can I ask you a question um I guess primarily for Dan and Trish who are in the buildings um having not been in the building since the state of New Hampshire
091passed the divisive Concepts law um I'm just wondering if if you think or if you've observed maybe teachers or adults in the building feeling reluctant to um I guess like proactively talk about racism or bias or why certain words are unacceptable or why certain um you know stereotypes or words are hurtful and what the history behind some of those words are like I don't I don't know like especially in a pre-k through six environment like how much any of that would be you know part of a curriculum but I just wonder like I know that in the upper grades I've certainly heard our teachers testify about um sort of the gag order they feel in being able to teach children sort of the history of of some of those [Music] um Concepts I guess I
092hate to say concepts but I'm just wondering like if you if you feel like that political you know state law has like affected it because I think we are sort of hearing more about it in recent years and I'm just curious if you think that's a factor um well I can speak particularly for I'd say more well grades four five and six um I do think that has affected it um I can also speak to my own experience I was teaching in grades three through five and um when you're teaching social studies depending upon what the the topic was you were very careful to stick to the curriculum and if if questions you know became questionable or you know topic was going off topic or Too Deep teaches would step back and I think they
093do um to protect themselves yeah but also there's also this feeling on the part of parents which they have that right that the a lot of families feel that they have the right to instruct their child absolutely yeah thank you so much and so I guess like for for Andy and and Gina like coming back to like how you can help the board I guess what kind of like guidance training support are we giving to to our teachers are able to give to our teachers like to help them navigate these things right because we I I understand that like and I think like if you start from a foundation of kindness and helpful hurtful words you know um I just I don't I feel like helpless about that I guess and I just wonder like
094how we can help support our teachers well I think part of it um and I'm sure Dan will agree with me I think our guidance counselors are a wealth of knowledge and support I know the past couple years since I've been here I would go in with the guidance counselor and teach lessons with her um as far as bullying what it means to have you know for friendship communication um courage what it means to be an upstander so those topics are definitely discussed and just alone this year in October I've worked um with the classrooms a classroom in each grade level and we worked to have the students create posters and then they created skits and they actually presented their skits about the importance of communication how to be a good friend what it means
095to be an upstander and they demonstrated that and performed their skits in front of the whole school for an assembly so you got perspectives from grades four five and six and then we put the posters up in the cafeteria as a reminders of what it means to be a good person what how how we can effectively communicate and the importance of communication and how our words do have a lot of meaning um great thank you I'm sorry and I was just gonna I mean I agree with Trish but um I think unfortunately too for our teachers um you know a lot of times we're on the receiving end too because we're not teaching these words or these racial slurs our teachers don't tolerate that and it's not tolerated in schools and um you know unfortunately
096we've got it's a societal piece you know it's it's what students are seeing on social media what they're exposed to outside of schools and then you know we're being reactive to it so um you know definitely a topic we need to look into and the minute we hear these things we act on it but we only know what we know like if we're not finding the audible at that time and it's several you know it could be sometimes we find about things several weeks later but the minute we do find out we take action you know with this conversation I think I would wonder from an educator standpoint and this might be you may need time to speak with your staff but when they're engaged with different programs or being asked to teach certain concepts
097of love and kindness or um start working with some some programs I don't I haven't dug in to choose love but I was involved with a similar one but not all teachers were comfortable even doing that and so I would really be curious from a you know in this this I think the four of you really kind of need to dig into with your teachers is genuinely and and truly not superficially but what are our teachers Comfort level in in the programs that we have in place that we're asking them to do what's your comfort level with that I we have a lot of young teachers and for those of you who haven't taught your first year you nothing exists except like how to manage your classroom right and then if you're asking if we're
098if we're asking them to teach these extra Concepts that can be uncomfortable for adults too even even at these younger grades with with the you know softer word tones and word choices it can be challenging for them and so I just wonder what how receptive our teachers are to that and if what we what you guys currently have in place if the teachers are comfortable enough with that or if we need to Pivot and look at something that perhaps gives them a little bit more structure or support or it's a co-taught situation or there's other programs that maybe depending on the buy-in from the teachers in their comfort level I might not be the right word but just their comfort level and even in even executing that I've seen programs similar to choose love where
099the teachers who embrace it and were comfortable with it because they were also confident with their teaching felt like they could tackle that and they were very successful but then I saw their teachers that were not so and Andy and I have had a conversation about this so I would just be curious if if you guys haven't genuinely had an open conversation with your teacher about that I would ask that maybe you do I think it might help inform some of the direction that we go as a district in terms of how we are helping our teachers to teach these Concepts too because you don't learn that when you go to go to school for Education they don't they would there isn't a class on that so it it's an extra level and it's an
100extra layer that we're asking of our teachers and I just want to meet you at the support or what we're asking them to do is effective and and supportive and if it's not I would I would say that we need to re-look at what we're asking them to do and how the chair yeah so um I think there are a lot of good points made to me that I think the the cons of everything is probably a glaring piece that we should look at further and I think it's been talked about but we talked about how there was a website and it wasn't available I think understanding the difference between bullying at k-6 is an important thing because there are what is bullying through K through six and then how do we respond to that
101I'm not sure because that word can be thrown around a lot so sometimes there's real bullying some and it can change the way that that's looked at um I've heard feedback from the community around uh the communications if there is in fact an event if we can figure out something there uh I know there's the Privacy piece but something if there's a way to thread the needle there and further looking at that um and then almost like something with socio-emotional learning on our website that shows all the different curriculums that we're doing so the parents can understand that and engage with their children too I know that my first grader is always not the most forthcoming about what happens every day at school but if I if we can talk about some of those things
102it helps pull on that thread a little further because I think there's a lot of good that's being done in the schools and I really believe that and I think it's only going to get better with the curriculum coordinator and I'm really encouraged by all that so that's why I think just coalescing and getting it together and building on it would be pretty powerful all all very much what we'll do is we'll pull this together we'll approach it from I'll call silos you know a policy Silo I'm not opposed to a committee Silo also what things we might be talking about would have expense so that we could have it for the fy25 budget those type of things and I will obviously have Dan and Trisha kind of lead that discussion but I think this
103is exactly what we were hoping to gather because sometimes when you're in it every day you don't see what others see so this discussion is great and people coming forward is very much appreciated so we'll put that together and again I I thank you very much just Andy um in terms of um the committee or the committee on Dei um do you have a is there a plan to I don't know if the task force or a committee or is there a plan to move forward with that or resume that um where it was left we brought forward the statement that is on the the SAU website uh and that was a group of people from both towns a lot of different uh viewpoints are represented and we came up with that statement uh at
104that time we brought it back to the boards and it was recognized kind of as an administrative statement that we could use to inform teachers and that but it was not adopted by any of the boards so I'm happy to you know bring that forward because we did one statement for the SAU ER but obviously if we put together a community and you want that to be looked at and maybe defined further for Brookline we could do that I'm not opposed to that and I think many of the people that were on that committee are still very involved in our schools and would be happy to pitch in again I think if we have a committee surrounding bullying racism because of conduct we can roll that in it all kind of encompassed in that bucket
105no I I couldn't agree more with that you know and I think you know the other thing that hit was um that would then coven came in yeah so the reality was it was two two-folds I mean there was uh you know this pandemic going on and just trying to keep schools open have kids face to face and then all the other work so I think it's a inappropriate time and kind of that's what I'd like to do next month is kind of limit our agenda but make this a significant discussion point on it uh so not only do we make a presentation but we have time to tweak it and kind of move forward even if it's we get 50 of it done and we're coming back in June that's fine because I agree
106with everybody um children are not at their best learning ability in the month of June so kicking off you know because even parents uh you know as a parent I was tired by June and you know it's it's been a long road so uh happy to do that um the only other thing I guess I'd say so you mentioned I heard you say statement Allison to me I think the statement is pretty clear right now that the board and administration is is behind this I think the entire summer months will be dedicated to Rolling something out by the time the next school year rolls out and I agree around when we talk agenda building it's it's likely going to be limited to really looking at that Revenue expense piece and voting on that because we're
107going to need to do that but then this is our this is it and this is going to be the meat of it if they're May June and whatever and so that we're ready for the next school year so I'm not sure how we can I guess for those watching or the meeting minutes and everything I think proclaiming right now statement made we are we are endorsing this and we're going to take action here and it can't happen overnight and I think we made that clear last month um as well and people understood that but we are committed to this journey and I think you heard it tonight from everyone that we are working period how many people are actually going to sit down and read the minutes or see this and that's why I
108was just wondering if they made a high level we are working on this we hear you we're responding for more information you can check on me I just I just wonder if maybe putting it out there is a whole um given a lot of the feedback that we've been hearing you might be beneficial for those who are feeling affected by it but maybe are unsure to say anything don't really want to speak up maybe don't have the time to find minutes I just wonder if that would be a nice very a helpful to our community we got you type I mean just just a no I I don't disagree but because it's going to be a statement between the board and the administration I think we should discuss it next month okay because I just
109I think it would be unfair if let's say I crafted a message and didn't capture what people think was appropriate so I think maybe that's part of our Focus we'll bring what I'll call a draft of a statement and we'll see that way we'll kind of force that to be done so we all get to a comfort point and then roll everything off of that there's just a process to any statement made and I think I just have to that's all I fully understand that I just know in talking to community hearing what's been going on seeing the communications I just feel like while I understand that it's a process I feel like it's too important I feel like this is important enough to engage that process um to just flag it for our families
110that can hear you we recognize it we're on it if you want more information come come hang out with us if you have it if you can pull up the minutes pull up the minutes but it you know if I was a parent affected by it I maybe I would go digging for the minutes maybe I would just get in the moment when you're upset it's sometimes hard because you live it it's sometimes hard to go digging for to know that somebody's got your back in in this way it's let's put the hand out there to say we got you that's all I'm asking for um okay yeah the next piece is the deliberation yes I just wanted to remind the chair the BCA is the board member of the court of Ethics but that's
111just a roll call vote right that's the only one that does that okay thank you so this has been in our packet here we do this at the start of every um New Year uh you can see the re-adoption um for BCA so so I'm gonna just make a motion and then we can discuss if needed so I'll make a motion that the board by roll call State agreement to adhere to policy BCA board member code of ethics so I need a second please Colleen seconds that okay so is there any discussion around this um this is essentially us asking ethically and listening to the public and trying to do right by our constituents really my only because that I welcome any feedback on that from anybody as we all learn our sure not so
112new anymore but you know what I mean again I'm done being able to use that but it's a very I know every time I talk to a parent I'm like you know I'm a Problem Solver and I have a background so at any time and I've have to be careful because of that so but I agree with all this I mean and and also just the public knowing what our role is and what it isn't because sometimes they're looking for us to resolve problems that we really can't but that we are and I think you said the eyes and ears so we can pass it on to you you can you will now know so and that's why this is helpful to look at right and that's why for what we were just talking about
113anything that we come out with has to be voted on there's a formal process of everything but we can informally talk about right now how we are unified it sounds like around this but until we make a boat and everything it can't it just it's just the way the wheel turns on this stuff um the other thing to um on here I think it's worth noting is around board versus individuals as we continue to move along here um and we can talk about that a little more with talking about what you know how we respond to things but that's not just email but that's social media and things like that too and the drawing the lines there so we'll go over that in some greater depth um are there any other comments or questions if
114not uh I guess I'll start can I Kelly I Kelly and I Alison I Tracy I great so that passes five to zero okay so then we have one other policy for this evening it's DFA investment and this is also an annual piece um the intent is to provide an opportunity at least yearly to consider Investments in larger districts at the receive tax dollars in a single transfer there may be a decision to invest as a means of generating Revenue as identified within the current policy the school district Treasurer working in conjunction with the superintendent in his her designate and pursuant to RSA 197 23A is authorized to invest funds of the district subject to specified objectives and standard care so that's a little background on that that comes with it uh I will make
115a motion to adopt policy DFA investment yes thank you and are there any questions on this um I'm guessing this doesn't come up often for us we we haven't used it uh it was really popular when CD rates and those type of short-term things were very high we might get back there yeah but that's what it's intended but we do it on a yearly basis but in nine years we have reused it because the it's been just the opposite there's no way to make excess dollars very quickly mm-hmm Allison and Tracy I just want to make sure I've seen this many times so our YouTube questions okay okay we're good all right all right great so let's we do this when we just do um all those in favor all right thanks passes five zero
116thank you and then we have a last piece which is the 2023 2024 school calendar we did discuss it um last month and now we can formally vote so I will make a motion to to approve the 2023-2024 school calendar as presented um I'll second that okay so that's on the floor now for conversation um I actually uh in the month of June the first week is not on there yeah so I'm not sure why Alyssa has um inadvertently deleted a couple of items from June on her version um like the first and second those are Saturday and Sundays yeah it's Thursday Friday oh I'm looking at January too okay yep thanks so much oh but but so and I noticed this in the meeting last time and then it was in the packet again
117like this June 18th is the last day of school with five snow days so we're really we're really looking at um June 11th and then go out from there with snow days but for some reason that didn't make it to this PDF that she put into the packet I'm sure Brooklyn is always the day before the last day of school for teachers okay so I know we need to approve this and since we're discussing enough to be that person but primary elections um Can does that need to go on here if it's a potential remote day or if you could like wait so we can't do a remote day that's not something we can do in our district um but we don't know a date so we can't put a date on there it's always
118something we can discuss when a date is set just as we kind of shifted some days this year Midstream we have the flexibility to do that but okay know if that that I mean that was no no it's a question that comes up every every time and how do we um I think at the last minute we had talked about reaching out to the town of Brookline to find out about alternative polling places for the primary I know we have March 12th is Town election day and we have the students not in the building that entire day which is awesome um still working on that and the other question just for the board to consider we now have this space that we've never had that at least we can isolate everybody in and out I'm
119not saying you one and again if we don't want to be in the schools we don't want to be in the schools I respect that I'm just saying this is a different space because if this furniture was moved out for the day people can enter secure it from going upstairs we can make it even more secure and exit just something to think about I'm not saying that's the solution I just know it's very difficult to find polling places yeah or wipe their feet I was thinking about like those CSI slippers you can also approach it as a snow day yeah yeah you know because we're going to have more than enough hours so you know if we're out June 11th it hasn't been a lot of snow days you know even though we'd be doing
120it up front it's you know districts have used that because there's more and more concerns about voting I I think we have time to look at places before we make that choice tonight I just throw that out there and I I think it's worth acknowledging that the March date is held this year so appreciate that with our administrators and I appreciate that with the other two boards so that we can hold that for Brookline because that was important so thank you make a decision where the polling place is so can't be it's not the you control the school district so the town would decide but I want to get into a battle but there have been towns that have said to school districts who have sent to towns you can't use our facilities I don't
121want to do that no right you know because again small town but I mean we do need to address the concerns uh and that's why I say it might be as simple as just saying we're going to have a snow day and if we do make that decision let's just give our families Ample Ample time ample so I think we start conversations with the town and we um wait for a date and when we have a day from what I was trying today is for March 12th can we as a school board just write a letter to the town School select board saying we've given our students off March 12th as the school board can we ask the select board to look for another location other than csda I think we can ask today for
122a new location and I think we should right because it's not our responsibility to look for another location right right and I have a note by the top of my agenda Tracy so we'll do that and try to have an update for next month right I think like just one less job off our plate but we've done our due diligence we've done our job to take the day off from school for the kids okay uh let's put it we're good to a vote okay all those in favor 5-0 excellent okay we do have it on public this evening so I'll make a motion that the board by roll call will go into non-public session pursuant to RSA 91 A3 2A the dismissal promotion or compensation of any Public Employee and RSA 91832c to discuss a
123matter which discussed in public would likely affect adversely the reputation of a person other than a member of the board I'm sorry of the body or agency itself I'll send you a second I'll make a second that was eloquent thank you um we do roll call for this uh Tracy we'll start with you to go into roll call to go into the non-public and I tally I and can I so we are a non-public at 7 46.