001let me go through what they are so we'll have a chair Vice chair um and then a uh secretary so those are the three standard positions that we have every year and then for committees we have the policy committee we have the finance committee we have the teacher luncheon which is a fairly shorter thing at the start of the year then we have governing board policy committee so that's at the SAU 41 level we have SAU 41 governing board budget committee so that's a little difference there says this school and town service committee I think that's been overcome by events I've been on that and you've certainly before you were even on the scoreboard but I think that one's completed now and then the superintendent performance evaluation committee so we'll have chair Vice chair there's
002I would suggest the finance committee potentially being the same person for Brookline and SAU I would suggest similarly for the policy between SAU 41 and Brookline and then the uh teacher luncheon and the superintendent evaluation and last and not least the there is the Manifest signatures which traditionally goes to the newer board members so just so you're aware of that that's that's everyone's favorite so that's why it's a rite of passage and two people have to do it okay so anyway we will we will go through those at our next meeting but if you could think about what you're interested in too in advance that'd be great that way we don't have to lose another cycle of meeting then can that's two for the Manifest but one for everybody else correct thank you yep I
003didn't yep okay uh so with that then um we will go into non-public then so correct it'll be a motion to go into non-public the three existing board members will vote for the two new board members are invited guests to non-public okay um I will make a motion then that the board by roll call going to non-public pursuant to RSA 91a3 2A uh dismissal promotion or compensation of any Public Employee employee and 91a32c to discuss a matter which if discussed in public would likely affect adversely the reputation of a person other than the member of the body or agency itself see you in a second okay and we'll have three uh roll call here just for now uh Colleen will start with you okay and can I so we are a non-public at 5 35.
004back in our public session at 605 now uh uh we will start with any agenda adjustments yeah I have a recommendation under the liberations I would recommend that we table uh BCA code of ethics and DFA Investments and do that on the 29th as the foam board yep okay and that would be it okay great uh I believe we do have something under correspondence resignations retirements and nominations yes I have two pieces first of all I have a um wanted to make sure I thank the community for coming out yesterday I've already congratulated Tracy and Allison and I want to thank everybody who ran that's greatly appreciated and for all those people that came out and then we have a retirement and Dear Mr Molinari and Mr Corey I'm writing this letter to let you
005know that after much thought and deliberation I'll be retiring from teaching the reason for taking this year off was due to family situations I have decided to continue to support my family even though I will greatly Miss teaching my teaching experience at rmms has been rewarding in gratifying over the 24 years that I have been teaching at rmms I've been able to watch the kindergarten program grow and change to meet the needs of the community it has been a pleasure to be part of the rmms staff I have enjoyed working with Mr Molinari and my colleagues working with the students to create a classroom family then watch the students achieve both academically and socially has truly been a wonderful experience that I have enjoyed immensely the parents of the PTL have always been supportive in
006helping the teachers offer many enrichment activities for the students both to school and off-site it has been a pleasure to serve the community of Brookline with gratitude that is from Lauren Arruda no and that is uh obviously with regrets from us to her and I would need a motion and an acceptance of that what is is the effective date at the end of this year uh this yeah she's out now but it would be in June 30th of this year thank you okay motion to accept the letter of intent to retire received from Lauren Arruda with an effective date of June 30th 2023. that's what you're motioning okay very good and you second that all right okay um any discussion thank you for your service yeah certainly right I think we okay all right um
007all those in favor three to zero yup you're good with hands now okay the other piece just so that the community is where uh next Monday we will be welcoming a boy Jonathan verite uh Jonathan is coming to us from SAU 39 he will be taking over his uh special education administrator for the Brookline School District uh Jonathan has his Advanced degree in education limit leadership from Plymouth State University he has his masters of education and general special ed from Southern New Hampshire University and he has his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of New Hampshire uh we're very excited to bring Jonathan on I'd like to publicly thank SAU 39 for their willingness to work with us in order to make this happen at this time of year and um we can't
008wait to see him arrive on Monday so that was just an informational update on that that's great and okay that ends my pieces there great okay uh so at this point we are open for any public input um I always quickly do a summation of policy bedh we allow for 30 minutes to hear public input uh it may be extended by majority of board vote into individual speakers are allotted for three minutes per person chair will recognize speakers on a first come first basis please identify yourselves and home address for the record and except for otherwise provided in this policy members of the public may offer comments on agenda items so with that we'll open up for any public input hello there Casey Petra 7 Smith Road Brookline I just want to say thank you
009thank you Prime and congratulations to both Tracy and Allison really excited that you guys will be serving and appreciate it so I'm here this evening to bring a serious issue to everyone's attention earlier this month I received a phone call from csda about a deeply concerning incident targeting one of my children as a mother of biracial children I knew the day would come when they would experience racism firsthand but I never anticipated it happening in elementary school my heart sank that day but I will be forever grateful to have learned that the incident was not only witnessed but also first-hand accounts were reported to an adult as I received more details I learned about the widespread use of the n-word this is by upper elementary kids at csda children have no reason to ever have
010heard this word at home or elsewhere it shouldn't be one that is ever used and certainly not in the presence of children how incredibly sad for both my family and each of yours additionally three families have come forward to share that their children have also had also been present when other students have used the n-word at school and on the bus if what I've shared so far wasn't bad enough I've also found out that bullying in general has significantly increased at csda and become more problematic and trending issues excuse me trending issues for our teachers staff and administrators to deal with what I find extremely Troublesome there are a number of children that do not feel safe speaking up to report this Behavior I think it is important for parents to be made aware of
011these issues including the steps taken in school to address them those which aren't considered private and specific to an individual or individuals of course we need to empower our kids the students the teachers and the administration to fully challenge bullying and racism when it occurs or the message that gets sent to the offenders that it isn't condoned and in turn continues to fester and spread which creates a hostile and unsafe environment for our students and staff to my fellow parents please talk to your kids they don't have to like my kids they don't have to be buddies with my kids they don't have to attend each other's birthday parties but what they must do is at the very least be kind not cruel or offensive that is what I Ask of You from One concerned
012parent to the next together I believe parents teachers administrators along with the school board and SAU can partner to ensure everyone especially our children and teens feel safe welcomed and valued in both Hollis Brookline and Hollis because issues that start in early Elementary School often follow the offenders and their targets into middle and high school as well I'd like to close my input with a request I would like to know how csda and ultimately the SAU as a whole will be addressing these issues head on because at the end of the day my son and each and every one of your children and teens deserve to feel safe and included at school thank you for your time thank you thank you good evening my name is Kathy Lovett to bridge Hill Road Brookline thank you
013so much for being here this evening thank you for opening up to public comments I'm a teacher myself I've been to school board meetings and sometimes they're just extra fun this evening I was looking at the sa-41 website before I came to the the school board meeting to look for any policies or procedures about hate speech and racial slurs at school and I did not find anything I did find the diversity equity and inclusion committee page and it reads in progress in progress in progress and I believe that was introduced maybe in early 2020 2021 from the mission and vision portion of the SAU 41.org website the fourth line item reads quote the staff services and culture will enhance student self-esteem and employ a variety of strategies to meet the academic social emotional and safety
014needs of all students every time we lose a student to death by suicide because of bullying and discrimination every time a student drops out of school because of bullying and discrimination every time a parent pulls their child from our school and enrolls them elsewhere we're failing to meet those above rest excuse me we're failing to meet the above reference to mission and vision values our silence implies consent our failure to condemn racism and bigotry on our campuses ultimately condones racism and bigotry on our campuses there's no such thing as it was just a joke in these situations we're no longer allowed to ignore this in the hopes that it will go away we are no longer allowed to pretend that quote there's no racism in Brookline kids bring to school the family values they're raised
015with and kids repeat at school the racial slurs and hate speech they hear at home School administrators school board members community members I implore you we must do better I ask administrators and school board members to demonstrate your commitment to the mission and visions referenced above the staff services and culture will enhance student self-esteem and employ a variety of strategies to meet the academic social emotional and safety needs of all students demonstrate loud and clear your commitment to ensuring your strategies meet our students needs thank you very much I'm very much looking forward to news of our progress and success and the achievement of our mission and vision in our school districts thank you very much for your time okay just want to make sure thank you all right thank you uh for your public
016input this evening I I guess for as a first of all I'm sorry that that happened to you and your family um I think typically for these there's not going to be a lot of action that happens tonight as as part of this um we are forming our policy committee next in our next meeting and I I would just uh suggest this is something that we discuss as part of policy as we as we proceed forward that worked everyone for the for tonight I just wanted to um say I'm sorry also and that you did a wonderful job of preventing um and I do think we have an issue that needs to be addressed but that we all have a road map for that that we might have been taken away from but the roadmap
017is really social emotional learning to start with in Dei also and we can't be afraid of people who are coming at this okay to get abused we have to help our children I also wanted to say thank you very much for coming forward I know that that was a really difficult thing to do and it reminds me that at our last meeting um before the meeting the public meeting cycle and the hearings and the budget cycle we heard from a young student a young person from csta who was failing ostracized um I think the term they use is dress coded and my perception of that student's testimony was that they didn't feel safe at school and that that wasn't enhancing their learning so I really appreciate Kathy for you bringing those words from our mission
018statement forward because it did make me um we call that students public testimony and so I I think that in addition to policy um you know I think it does give us pause that we need to look at the superintendent's Dei Task Force and and see where we're going with that and also um we have made moves to look at a climate survey for the faculty and staff in our buildings I think we need to figure out a way to find out how our children are feeling I know last year there were also's parents who came forward with concerns about bullying and so I'm concerned that our kids are not feeling safe and if our kids aren't feeling safe at school they're not going to be open and ready to learning and growing which is
019what we want them to be doing so I just hope that as a board we can come up with some actionable ways to to figure out what's going on in our schools and how we can address them and improve them for our students and our families I just want to say one more thing backing up what Kelly said is that I think we're starting to use data a little bit more in non-academic settings with the climate survey for teachers but that given what I've heard as a mother in particular and what other people have shared some some students are not feeling safe they go to school because they have to because their parents make them and we need to figure out how many of those students there are and no student should feel unsafe but
020how big of a problem we have so that we can tackle it so I would love to see a student survey I know it would be with parent permission we don't want to give to any survey to a student whose parent doesn't want it but to find out for the majority what is going on I've heard from parents that are saying their kids are going to Physicians and getting that typical survey you get and finding out oh my son or daughter doesn't feel safe I've heard stories as a mother of girls who are called I'm not going to say it here but slurs based on their weight and on their sexuality put together it's and maybe this is just one grade and maybe that's what I'm hearing but I have a feeling it could be
021more widespread so we owe it to our kids to get the data just like we do on academics and then move forward with that it's nobody's fault it's a societal issue but we have to address it and not be afraid of it thank you for speaking up I think the other thing I'd like to make sure that we address and look at based off of the comments is how students feel and in in terms of reporting issues when they come up there should not be a singular method I want to make sure that we've got multiple ways for our students to report issues and concerns so that there's a comfortable way for each student to be able to do so and I would like us as a as a group to make sure that as
022we move forward to try to make sure we're meeting our mission and make sure that we're we're addressing all areas of the concerns that that is something that we we make sure we look at and that might come play into a student survey of where do you feel that how how do you feel safe reporting when something comes up because not all students might not have a trusted adult they might not feel comfortable putting on paper so what are those ways that students and I think get that input and have multiple means of communication from when reporting so thank you and I'm sorry you guys are going through that um yeah I I do I I don't disagree with anything I totally agree with everything um a lot of that stress still strikes me as
023policy personally we have it Choose Love campaign that I think we can really continue to pull at we had the dni thing that we uh did during the covet time that we can pull at and we have a curriculum coordinator that we're gonna be able to hire now too which will help with I think these efforts too so uh we've got some uh steps ahead uh it won't be immediate but I think brainstorming and hearing the community feedback is very valuable we've made it through a budget cycle now so uh that's always oh frees up some School Board time too which is great okay good thank you okay so with that um we will move over to deliberations and we'd have one this evening uh and I'm just I'll put a motion out and then
024we can talk to it does that sound okay make a motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation for Teacher nominations as presented in a second from someone okay so that's on the floor to discuss now is there anything else we want to go over are we good okay so we did talk about this in depth and non-public um so I have no further comments unless anyone else does we have three voting members again for this one uh so all those in favor 3-0 very good thank you as we discussed we are going to skip the two policies until next meeting and now we're down to the informational section in your board packet I had provided you uh with an update as of 3 13 23 on our revenue and expense report as uh the board members
025who have been going through the year will notice we are making significant progress in a positive direction we are currently showing that we would have an unreserved fund balance of fifty three thousand ninety one dollars back in December that number was a negative but as we have been telling you all along that's because we use a encumbrance system of accounting so as money frees up month to month we never expect to go below the number that we uh put there in under the unreserved fund balance what we do expect it to continue to expand when we take up our meeting on the 29th of April we'll have some discussions around the ADA compliance projects that we've completed as well as the special ed and start to discuss if we want to look at either one
026of those two trust funds to uh take care of that balance the dollar amount that we would be funding through the unreserved fund balance is 55 000 which is what the voters approved because as you will recall the fire alarm system was tax payer funded so that was funded last night to the voting so that is taken care of and then please understand that we need to fund the retained fund balance but we have the retained fund balance which we have not touched yet so from a mathematical piece it's kind of a wash but from a year-to-year basis in August you would re approve the unretained fund balance while you could decide to send that back to the taxpayers that's totally your call um I'd like to thank the business office as they continue to
027do an outstanding job because we were you know running very tight this year because of unexpected special ed costs they provide us these reports month to month as we go through the spring just so we can stay well informed on that so you'll see this back here again on the 29th uh and we'll know our status down and that'll kind of lead our discussion on that are there any questions about the revenue or expense report seeing none I'm going to turn it over to Gina so she can talk about this all right so taking a look at the calendar it looks similar to what it always looks like our teachers would return the Monday prior to Labor Day students would start the Thursday prior to Labor Day on August 31st um September would just have
028our traditional Labor Day um October 5th would be an early release scheduled just so we have four in this calendar and I put cspt that would be our plan suicide prevention training that's mandatory for all staff so we would plan it for that day October 9th Columbus Day School holiday um so some tips real quick yeah is why are we doing the fifth instead of the sixth out of curiosity so just as we did this year we are putting our early releases on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and not on Fridays for to encourage School attendance and also because the co-op has late start Fridays so it's difficult when you have a late start and early release um to have school in the middle yeah okay I I hear you it's I'm just thinking of the
029disruption that it caused I just wonder if like Tuesday the 10th and we could do or something I don't know okay thanks yep um looking at November a difference would be a professional day on November 1st so we don't have the voting on the 7th so we thought November 1st the day after Halloween might be a better day for a professional day um then we have Veterans Day the 21st up against our Thanksgiving holiday would be an early release so that would be butted up against the holiday or the Thanksgiving recess I should say moving into December always important to look out when that vacation week is so the 22nd of December would be the last day of school before we have our week off and then Monday the first is um the holiday returning
030January 2nd on the Tuesday Gina is the early release on the 22nd that's another afternoon of training for the teachers or we just barley released November 21st I'm sorry the 21st yes yes okay yeah anything that says early release is a professional development area yes the teachers are working together for the two hours yes thank you um we have January 5th 15th as a holiday January 29th is a Monday early release for our third one of the school year our fourth one of the school year is February 7th so we're trying to front load these I will say that um you saw in the budget a little bit of literacy uh training and Math training so we are going to be doing very intensive math instructional training and some literacy pieces with the Intensive literacy
031training the following year so these early releases were scheduled a little bit earlier in the year to make sure we could front load them and review student data along the way so that was intentional of Shifting them a little bit our February break would be scheduled for the last week of February which bleeds into March 1st is that still a week after the Massachusetts ones yes awesome I love that schedule I just want to say that out loud I love it so do the ski mountains okay um moving on to March so I have placed the second full Professional Day on March 12th which is voting day which I know is preferred for the Brookline School District so we don't have students at csta okay uh looking at April it's you know we often have
032the last week of April but really what we try to do is follow Massachusetts so Massachusetts has the week of Patriots stay and um so it actually for us would be April 22nd through the 26th so our students would return on April 29th to school uh may just has Memorial Day June 6 would be the last day for preschool I don't know why there's another school right there but I'll take that off um June 19th would be um oh I understand what I did so June 18th is would be the last day for students including all five snow days June 18th and then June 19th would be the last day for teachers it's very similar to every year the difference would be the PD days and when they're scheduled I'm really happy that March 12th
033off I heard from um parents yesterday morning um who were very concerned about sending their children to csda yesterday even though it was a half day especially being on the the day after another school shooting in America um and you know despite our best efforts it's just not can't really account for everything I did speak with the Brooklyn supervisor of the checklist um because I knew that we were going to be discussing the calendar um first draft of it anyway and the other election day that will fall in the school year calendar will be probably in January or February which will be the presidential primary however um the Democratic National Committee has said that New Hampshire can't be first in the nation and the Republican National Committee has said that New Hampshire will be first
034in the nation and so we certainly don't have a date for a single primary at this point in time and I think there's the potential that there could be two separate primary dates for each party but I feel really strongly that we not have School in session on those days or that voting not take place in one of our school buildings so um I don't have a proposed day but I guess I just would like to um you know I don't know if there's an option to have those be like potential snow days um you know when those they when those dates become known um or if there's any possibility of looking at an alternative location I mean the whole town of Hollis which had I think almost four times the number of Voters that
035we did in Brookline yesterday um conducts their voting at the Lawrence Barn which is a much smaller location than our gymnasium at csda so um I just want to put that out there I would I would back that because if you didn't bring that up just now I was about to um because I also heard the the same thing and my husband came out from voting and said the exactly who goes I could have gone left or right nobody would have stopped me in the day after and had our daughter been in the upper elementary school she wouldn't have gone to school yesterday it's just despite every best effort that we tried to do the culture in this nation right at the moment we have to do everything impossible possible we don't we don't want
036to wait for something to happen we need to be proactive so I would say we need to watch where those dates are going to fall and have a plan um if possible yep so I think this is always um of discussion and I continue to request the March date and there's a lot of pushback from our other two districts because that's not a concern for them um but I continue to bring it forward so we try to compromise every year but I think if you have if you are looking to make a suggestion to move a voting especially for us relatively smaller election then I think that's where the conversation needs to start because it's really it's really about the location and what can manage the voting yeah so I agree um I'm hopeful that
037we can hold the March 12th this year uh last year that Lawrence Martin is that's what drove it so that's why it's nice to get ahead of the schedule now before it's voted on and where it lasts in the order um we talked about using the convention center in the past um I think we could look at that again I think one of the concerns that got brought up was handicap accessibility if I remember right Lawrence Barn has one side that's paved and then there's a bunch of dirt on the other side I think the convention center has one little concrete slab and I think that was the the problem um but it's certainly something we can look at because this is going to be put into place in the next month or so so
038stuff that's out there is unfortunately not going to be covered by this what about this has there ever been in this conversation about the safety complex in Brookline so that's new so that's another option that we could look at certainly and I and we had we had kind of batted this around I think it's a great thing to look at um in parallel and because I I think I think we consistently yeah I think that concern that they've brought that they've responded to in the past was the parking however you know we don't decide where voting is but the town does so I the the more conversations that can be brought to the town the better so I think we should we're we're hot on it again let's keep it rolling um yeah you mentioned
039the complex safety conflicts I was thinking somewhere else that we um which I don't think would work but uh the big building next to the transfer station the new can we do something there too I don't know but there are some options that we can look at so okay so we're yeah I just want to mention if it I mean I hope for everybody's sake that we don't run all the way till June 19th with especially for teachers that have to come the day after but that is Juneteenth which is a holiday so I just bring it up for yep so it's so um that is a holiday not all holidays are days off um first for our full year staff the Juneteenth was observed on an alternate date just to support like the financial
040aspect of of the day off but we ran into this last year and we handled it the same way okay I will reach out to the town and see if we can do some different pieces I'll also reach out to the teachers union I'm not a huge fan of a remote day if that gave people peace of mind that might be something we can consider especially if it was on the calendar well in advance because I do understand the concerns so we'll do a little leg work and hopefully have some updates for you on the 29th so that we can make a better informed decision if you decide that you just don't want to be open that thing it's something you just need to let us know we'll figure out a solution thank you thank
041you what is the 29th is that April so I think it's April 19th that we're referring to the next School Board that's right I jumped into okay because I'm on vacation that's a Saturday thank you for catching that no worries okay uh any other discussion on that are we good to can I just say sorry one thing before we adjourn to say topics anti-racism topics um anti-bullying topics they're really difficult for us as adults to talk about um in open and honest ways I know we we deal with that at work and we're trying to figure out ways to you know to do that um and I can't imagine that it's easy for children to do that um and so I think it's really important for us to lead by example and I just wonder
042if as we're looking at policies and procedures and ways to move forward with this really important topic um how we can do that as a board as administrators as teachers um to get some training so that we can speak open and honestly about what's really going on um to be able to listen um and to lead by example so I just wanted to put that out there I think it's really important for us to do that okay thank you okay uh uh I'll just make motion to adjourn that's abrupt but all those in favor three zero 640 right on the nose good job thank you meeting