COOP School Board Meeting 10/19/2022

001it doesn't matter the mics aren't are working go ahead Amanda just do your final Amanda Zeller assistant principal at the high school student body president thank you thank you I just realized as we were doing that that it didn't really matter because I know who everybody is but that's right let's just start with the math and just keep moving on all right party games call to order check okay I need to appoint a process Observer would there be anyone willing to do that raise your hand if yourself Cindy is doing that great and agenda adjustments I believe you had one yes uh Tim was just going to briefly talk about the youth risk behavior survey uh so we could put that under discussion we could get an email uh yesterday I believe it was asking

002about our participation for the spring of 2023 so we thought we'd put it on the table tonight and then have a formal discussion uh next month great thank you uh it could be the last discussion item correct okay nominations are there any other agenda adjustments or any other suggestions okay so nominations resignations retirements and correspondence uh we have none zero great thank you um I need to move to approval of the minutes so um the first set of minutes that we are looking at is the Hollis Brookline Cooperative school board minutes of September 21st 2022 the following amendments were offered page 5 line 31 replace address with addressed and Page seven line 34 replace involved with involved I need a motion to accept as amended moved by Tom seconded by Beth um I think we

003were all here so all in favor seven zero zero and then we have non-public minutes from September 21st 2022 I need a motion to accept as presented moved by Tom second and by Beth um any comments seeing none all in favor seven zero yeah I think you were there zero zero okay so at this point um we have advertised public input starting at 610 we're at 608 so we can begin public input anybody who comes in in the next half an hour would be able to speak because that's the new law that we're following um we ask the public to State their name and address for the record um and that they understand that this is not intended to be a back and forth discussion and we give each member of the public three minutes

004um is there any public here I'm opening the floor for public discussion at 608 pm and seeing none I'm going to close the floor at 608 PM as well um again with the caveat that if someone were to come in be by since we said 610 640 if somebody comes in by 6 40 um they would be allowed to speak when we could fit them in I know I did that now really fast 10 plus 30. oh look at me [Laughter] okay so moving on so um in our board packet we have our principal and athletic reports so I'm going to start with the um athletic report please and I think that was submitted by Mr Bumpus but he is not present so I assume we are going to be hearing from Mr cruzone on

005that okay thank you so much yep um I'll take uh I'll take that um our fall Sports uh everyone is wrapping up regular seasons our football team will wrap things up this this coming weekend playoffs ahead for girls soccer boys soccer girls volleyball you have our cross country state meet in about 50 minutes our girls field hockey team will be hosting the first playoff game now the first time they've hosted a playoff game Brian and I went back I think it was 15 years so wow that's fantastic so they're hosting up there congratulations congratulations to those guys and the golf team took Park in the state championship last weekend um last week on the 13th and the unified soccer team Tacoma big win against our boys varsity team at turf field last week oh that's

006fantastic yeah I just so um uh all sports um a season The Fall season is a wrapping wrapping up um but um several of them have are in playoffs uh coming up in the coming days and weeks so good luck to all those teams Mr did you want to do the Middle School uh I can okay sure since you are since you're actively involved in the Middle School sports we'd like to hear how they're doing sure yeah and we are on we are live just yes cameras are on again uh so uh fall Sports season at hbms has been full of success and accomplishments um both boys and girls teams I think the girls team finished first place in the regular season the boys team has taken in second place uh so both teams will

007host uh at least first round next week the girls have their first playoff game on Friday and the boys have their first playoff game next Monday uh this past weekend the cross country team held their first ever Invitational on campus with four teams total uh great day of running for all leave our assistant superintendent was there helping out too a special thanks to all the parent volunteers who made the day possible both boys and girls teams will be competing in the Tri-County League Championship on Saturday 15th which I guess was this past Saturday uh the presentation of Marion Hudson while the rest of the teams will begin their playoff runs during the week of October 24th winter sports are going to start up the first week of November that's all I got for Middle School

008sports great um so on to uh any questions for uh yeah um no I did notice that there's a congratulations for um Becky so I wanted to at least mention that we congratulate her coach Balfour uh just uh Tacoma 450th win that's excellent and that some money and some food was collected for NH tackles yeah tackles hunger there's a there's a table set up in the back lobby right now um that'll be something that uh excellent yeah you know if there have been any updates since uh Brian wrote this as far as filling positions um I don't think as far as filling like finalized filling them um but there's been progress made uh in in uh in some in some of the position uh application processes are there any other questions on the athletic report

009congratulations to all the teams middle school high school all of them whether they're in playoffs or not the experience is what matters according to me Kumbaya so moving on to the principal's report I wanted to highlight a couple items which we'll uh I did hand out the school profile it is part of the board packet and if um if we could just take a look at that there's only a couple highlights there um if you head to our second page we have all of our standardized test scores there for our school day SATs we're once again well above the New Hampshire State average as well as the US and international test Acres average the gpas you can see the distribution of gpas that's last year's graduating class the class of 2022. and our AP scores

010you can see had a nice rebound from what I will call the you know the covid year so the 2022 score as you can see we had 81 percent of our students scoring a three-year higher we have listed There Our National Merit Scholarship finalists and within my report this month I identified we had four uh commended students as well this year as our as our two National Merit semi-finalists that will be highlighted last month so we have four semi-final I'm sorry I mean it's two semi-finalists and four commended students this year last year you can see we had three semi-finalists and two commended students so um our our students continue to Excel on the national National landscape and then we monitor ACT results too I saw an article today nationally are way way down they

011also said that it was also an article linked to it but it but it's similar that the colleges that are you know a testament optional are running into real difficulty in fairness of the application process I would imagine yeah that's I was curious but we have had any feedback that uh our strategies are helping produce anything like that well um if you look at the last page and you look at you know the schools that our students are being accepted to not only is the list extensive um you know we have the Dartmouth on there you know there's there's a the High Caliber schools are represented there as well as you know the volume of schools too so I think we continue to do well um it sounds like the school day testing is working

012out really well um I wasn't expecting people to be complaining I was wondering if I guess that seems to be a strategy foreign I think it is I I think the the concept of using the SATs as the state test not only goes well for us as a school because it gains the buy-in for our college-bound students to you know perform at their best for the for the assessment um but I think um also leveling playing field making sure that all kids have access to the test um during a school day is obviously you know the idea of what we're trying to do as well so um I don't know if that answers your question but one of the concerns we've always had is that standardized testing right don't necessarily get they don't necessarily get

013the participation quality and the SATs are our state reporting tests as well is that correct have we seen that it has impacted our our positioning in the state I think we continue to perform above the state average as we had prior but I think the volume of students that are taking it be higher and then also in addition to that um the fact that it is our state test scores compared to kneecaps right kneecaps prior I think that without looking at the data in front of me I would assume that you know we continue to perform above State averages because everybody's still playing on the same playing field everybody still faces that's it was facing that same Battle of getting students to perform on the state test that there may not have been the buy-in

014for but the use of the SAT for the state test is a an option that's not the default test is it yes and not many states do it that way so in some ways when you look at the SAT scores in New Hampshire you know that every almost every kid who's that student has taken them so you know just speaking personally with test test scores being optional across the country the SAT has become something that not every kid is taking three four five you know as many times because there's just not as much pressure to apply with that sat for most schools it's optional right now and so and the ACT is optional as well and our school students have never really taken so to our ACT scores would be so sporadic because only a

015handful of kids really take it right even even when they even when the test was required I don't think a lot of not many of them took it or took it in you know a couple times I know these are just from one day but know I don't know what point I'm making but I thought I got there well you do so right you're looking at 200 students taking it rather than any other Administration you might have five kids taking eight you might have a hundred students taking it so it's really um you're not doing apples and apples comparison when you look at the average performance of the students on the assessment but and that's why it's important in here that it's identified as the school day administration because that means that for the most

016part all 200 students took it if you were to compare that to a an isolated group you're going to see very different things but to your point has this assisted those students who were already going to be taking the sat on their own yeah because it gave them an opportunity to take it without having to pay for it without having to take up a Saturday or whatever so they're getting that additional practice if you will and also for the juniors in in high school to have they're taking the SAT to not have that other state test happening at the same time I mean I think when our kids were a seniors of high school there was the SAT multiple times if you took the act and then you took all this day testing as well

017I mean the kids were being tested up the Wazoo in 11th grade and then AP tests it was just you know this is a really good move on the state's part and on the Educators in the state who pushed for that thank you Andy yeah thanks Andy yeah um the other thing too is if if someone were to say take this profile and compare SAT scores from before this right because this profile's been the same for many years going back to say like 2010 or something those SAT scores weren't from one moment they were from kids taking them multiple times and prepping for them so this is a one-time in March also in March and it's important for folks out there to understand that that's in March so some of our kids haven't even finished

018Algebra 2 when they're taking it in March or haven't even finished the math or whatever it is so there's a lot to be said for these being clearer scores to compare over years and cleaner data I would think so oh my God didn't you do a comparison last year or two years I remember you pulling some SAT scores and looking at some of that yearly year by year comparison yeah so I just look at the school day Administration and I don't really pool I have access to and I look and I'm and I'm sort of curious at the differences but it's I think it's important to look at school day Administration compared to school day and not try to mingle with others but yeah thanks Jim any other questions on the profile did you have

019more you wanted to cover on the profile because we interrupted you not the profile no um but I was going to just continue on um with the with the principal's report before we move into program studies and yeah well that's some discussion so and we want to do principles report I'm gonna do Patchwork report we want to do Austin's report yeah okay all right so I just wanted to uh recognize uh we had some Performing Arts accomplishment recognitions we had 14 students accepted into the 49 Square students New England all New England Coral festival at Plymouth State University as well as a second Festival the Monadnock Valley Music Festival so according to Mr Barbosa is about there's more than half of our honors choirs students and tying a record that we set back in 2016

020so the Performing Arts not only the numbers are kind of rebounding but we're again back back where we um where we were in 2016 with the highest number of students accepted into this program so congrats to Mr Barbosa and our music department for all these accomplishments I just have a couple dates I wanted to mention we have the um NHS induction ceremony scheduled for next week we have our Veterans Day assembly which we're coordinating with Mr West's assembly on that Thursday the 10th or for the holiday and then we have our parent teacher conferences on the usual evening the Thursday prior to Thanksgiving and then that Monday the week of Thanksgiving so and I'm open to any questions or comments anyone has jerk maybe I just wanted to answer Tom's question quickly on the coaches

021we have for winter coaching all of the middle schools have been filled and the high school the only ones I don't know for sure are ski head team head coach and uh indoor track but the other ones have been filled for winter those two were the ones I was referring to I think there's progress being made right and those they're still listed as yeah so great thanks any questions for Tim on the principal's report on his High School principles report congratulations to all those students who are doing a great job representing us and you know performing arts and also on those uh Scott and Cecilia and Ava and John for their commended thing I didn't try their last names although I do know Anna's last name is um okay Patrick uh so this year we've

022tried to build in a little bit more positive reinforcement for Positive Choices by students so we came up with the hbms nightly code of honor um this is just to recognize students for making Positive Choices focus of being empathetic being helpful being kind and then if a teacher Witnesses a student doing this the teacher can give over a code of honor ticket where they walk down to the main office turn it in and hopefully have a conversation with somebody in the main office about that to again positively reinforce the positive choice and during our monthly Community meetings we pull out some of those student names and give out some small prizes to students and just recognize them in front of the entire student body and so far it seems to be well received by everybody

023in the building we have our monthly community meeting on Friday it seems like students get excited for for those types of assemblies again it's nice to to host those Red Ribbon Week next week this year's theme is Celebrate life live drug free the theme is to call Action to speak out in support of healthy choices it also serves as a reminder that we are all empowered with shaping the communities around us through positivity bravery and strength we're going to have daily dress-up themes next week um I think we're going to do our big red ribbon picture out back from last year we have a student that has a drone that he'll be taking the picture again this year lots of things going on in the library this year we have our 25 books plus book

024club challenge already started with a number of students taking that on and our International dot day the 25 plus book challenge is just for any students that read more than 25 books during the school year uh they get the option or they they get a reward for a lunch of their choice at the end of the year I think last year we had about 15 students complete the 25 plus book Challenge and we're right around that same number as of right now but we're hopefully it will get more students engaged on an international dot day is just something that we do every year establish create celebrate creativity courage and collaboration students and staff were given the book to read by Peter H Reynolds called The Dot and that was during Rock and those are just

025some samples of uh actually you guys can see them right out there um just the dots that some students made parent-teacher conferences I'm sorry for the typo that should be November 7th and November 15th we're going to hold After School parent conferences in person this year similar format to the high school we're actually going to do them individual teachers instead of the team-based conferences just to hopefully have more of a conference style conversation between parents and teachers parents who are not able to schedule one of the times during those after school times can set up meetings with team teachers during their common planning time we're going to be offering a series of parent information nights this year the first one is going to be November 9th on Executive functioning our new director of student services

026here at the middle school Catherine Ransom who's been a great addition to the building is putting this one on and going to talk to parents about uh just defining skills of executive functioning and look to offer she's going to be offering some tools to support those skills not only at school but at home as well we have our Veterans Day assembly that Mr grazon just mentioned we're welcoming veterans to start at 7 30 a.m for some breakfast treats and some coffee PTSA will be helping out with that our student council will be helping out uh course and band will be performing some poems will be shared and we have a couple of few uh keynote speakers we are still accepting applications for our technology education position so if anybody knows of anybody please encourage them

027to apply and then there are some important upcoming dates below I did not include a Washington DC update I apologize for that but as of right now we have 175 students registered out of the 208th graders um we have more to come because there's been a huge over five thousand dollars of scholarship donations um so we're reaching out to the families and students that haven't registered yet to kind of see if uh there is some financial support need there um but that is uh that's a pretty good number for just two weeks of registration 175 registered out of 200 out of 200 it's great and you said there's been five thousand dollars in additional donations given since the beginning of this year that's fantastic yeah it's great full scholarship donations from from families of eighth

028grade students that's terrific that's really good news and we are going to be hosting a dance in December uh and all of those proceeds will go towards the DC trip either to hopefully lower the cost for all students or just add more uh scholarships for students excellent are there any other questions on Patrick's report well I as I said but I always feel like I have chalk so no actually it looks great I mean I think some of these things are the initiatives of the nightly coat of Honor that's excellent and all these different creative things to get kids engaged it's just wonderful to see lovely thank you okay so at this point I'd like to move to the student report right is that what I said I was doing okay so that would be

029Austin and Gracie Gracie entered a couple minutes ago 6 28 that's for the um don't worry Gracie it's okay it's just for the um it's for the secretary she's watching um go ahead Austin as of right now student council we just finished up with our old homes days fundraiser so we don't have anything we're really working on besides our um spirit week because we are trying to reconstruct that to gather more student input because as of right now the skits and dances weren't a huge fit uh people weren't loving it but we're trying to get a lot of people involved now and our Halloween week is coming up next week and we have dances and our Halloween assembly coming up on Friday for that excellent did you have something else to add Grace um juniors

030are in charge of the Halloween ISM and then we have an assembly plan which we have our MC's for and we have everything else ready so that should go pretty smoothly excellent excellent and kids can still wear costumes yes there's a costume contest at the assembly as well excellent news thank you very much you're welcome to stay and give us more input as we go through um or maybe after we talk about personal studies you can leave I would like you to be here for the program of studies conversation that would be if that's okay with everybody else um so I'm with principals and athletic reports check okay moving on we have the um discussion section of our evening and uh we are going to move on to the SAU 41 anti-discrimination plan who's talking

031about that okay so included in your packet is the anti-discrimination plan for the district this was you can see that there's a bit of a trend here with Concord passing some laws that require policies and plans to go along with them so this was a requirement to go along with some of our updates to our various anti-discrimination policies so this plan is one single document that has a lot of sort of polls together all the policies that we have in our district that address the various components or um pieces of our of what we are not going to be doing and it really identifies who to go to if there's a concern and with with various pieces things that you might come across so it's really just it's a it's not so so long but

032it's a healthy document 15 pages or so so I wanted to put it out there for you to review take some time and potentially vote on it next month I was going to say this requires a vote of the board and is this one of those things where once we vote on the this plan the only time we'll vote again is if it's changing changed or is it something we have to vote on every year um no only changes but this essentially just identifies all of our policies so as each of the policies that are in here change then the plan changes as well um so this was it was identified that we needed to have a plan but unlike some of the other laws that have passed it really didn't say what that plan

033needed to look like or what it needed to Encompass so this is um you know doing our best job of trying to understand and trying to pull together what made sense so who put it together is there a committee um so our compliance and communication specialist helped me with it and I worked with HR and our attorney's office School Board Association did not have a sample one there aren't very many districts that have one in place because it was a recent law passed last year I think it's very well done yeah thank you and does anyone else have questions posted posted on our website any portion of this be proactively yeah so some of the policies are we are required to share them with both faculty and families every year and so those are part

034of the handbooks might just be useful to be essentially a an addition and a framework for that distribution it could be um it well to take a look at that it might get a little clunky because this refers to a policy it might pull an excerpt out but then I I'm required to provide some of these as policies in their entirety so it might just um get a little bit clunky and because this is a discrimination plan for the entire SAU I don't have a live links because we have three different policies for our three different districts so um we we certainly can push it out we are in terms of training for our faculty and staff we have our annual trainings that we that are we're required to do um I think it's also

035important to take a look at the policies that that either the ones that are just part of the staff handbook or all of the board policies that everyone's required to follow but we're looking into ways to incorporate some of that into the mandatory trainings to kind of guide that and ensure that that we're making everyone aware of everything that they need to be aware of this could be part of that comprehensive but it seems very well constructed yeah and and as you said introducing it ties things together I think it would be to the sau's benefit to have this um very visible so that before somebody asks a question they have this this might create that so if it's the website's going to be the primary place to have it there could be front and

036center prominent platinum on essentially every every landing page that someone's likely to start at that's a good idea um foreign and even if um you're not handing it out and make reference to it the context of the stuff you do sure enough to distribute yep and we can put live links in those linking to this but what I was going to say is another component of this if you recall last year I brought forward AC Dash e not a policy but it is one document that identifies you know you go to this person for this you go to this person for this so it's really just sort of helping it's almost like a flow chart right right because we have so many different policies and you can get lost in the policy manual but it's

037like this is the go-to of what do I need to know who do I need to talk to so my question is does this in in all of your work that you that you pulled this together does this trigger some policy work that we've or have we no so we agree on those policies yes so all of these discrimination and anti-discrimination policies have been we've been doing the work yeah that's what I thought I've been on the policy committee but I just wanted to make sure student handbook work will this trigger more work unless your handbook or where those two this document's married to the handbook pretty well so the handbooks and the staff handbooks are done it's a favorite activity at the end of June and they um you know they go through Page

038by Page and make sure whatever policy has been passed in the school year that's updated but of course you know if we pass something July 1st well yeah it's going to be out of date immediately but yeah no we do look at that every year okay and my other question was does it have to be posted but it is going to be posted yeah excellent perfect any other questions on that so next month you're going to need a vote from us please okay let's remember that then okay um high school program of studies I think that goes back to Mr kazum it doesn't I'm going to um pass the buck uh to my colleague Mr seller who um within the packet um I think it made it in the packet the chain uh the highlighted

039changes the page looks like 24 uh has the the kind of table of contents of the highlighted changes so and then the changes a little bit different format than last year hopefully it's a little easier to follow um or I'll highlighted in yellow so pass it over to Mrs Zeller there aren't any massive changes um I'd say the biggest comes under probably the the physical education which you've already discussed and that was the new strength and conditioning course but they're structured in the list here in the order they appear in the program of studies so it if you're looking for the next change just keep turning Pages until you see yellow or scrolling down until you see yellow one thing that did need updating and it came up in several different contexts and that's the

040Latin honors language to make sure it truly aligns with what we decided to change when we changed away from ranking in the top 10 and so we made sure that language fit and had been tailored to reflect the change we wanted to make for our academic achievement recognition so we tighten that up a little bit and we made sure it was in alignment with conversations about policy regarding enrollment and full-time status so we need to make sure all those things lined up the next section that comes under one of the headings is career exploration that's where we do things like work study and elos which are Extended Learning opportunities and we updated our basic ELO offering it used to be called career opportunities something else and we fit it into what we've been using now

041which is Dr Don bro oversees our Extended Learning opportunities and it's a very rich opportunity for students and so we wanted to make sure it was something they could access more than once they could apply to earn Credit in different ways so the language makes it more flexible and more encompassing and students can do more than one of those without it looking like they're just doing random things that have the word work or career in it it unifies a little bit of that approach um we think that's a good idea for kids to have these outside learning opportunities that feel like they're more ingrained in their Academic Program instead of just random offerings so that was the attempt there to pull it in line with what what students really want to do we have the

042new physical education course intro to strength and conditioning if you've been anywhere near the back of our building this year you'll our gym is alive and well and our PE classes are high energy the staff that are leading them are making the gym kind of a hub a center of activity we have groups of kids that eat lunch with PE teachers we have kids who want to go during their study and work with with the coaches that are teachers and that whole back area is just kind of alive it's really neat now that my office is up there I get to see it a lot it's a really great view I feel like students are re-engaging in great ways in our PE program so I think I think this new course is going to be

043a good thing I think we have students who want to make that more ingrained in part of their day so I think this offering is going to speak to some of that social studies most of the changes here there are really updates according to what the state has asked us to incorporate into our social studies education program the citizenship test is not new but this is the first year in which we're having our Juniors take this as part of their civics program they have to pass the U.S citizenship test with a 70 they can take it more than once until they reach that 70 percent and so our savings teachers are working quite average late to make sure that this is an authentic and good implementation of that new piece another new piece that was

044fairly recent was needing personal finance instruction and the good thing is it works right into our economics course so we have a nice pair of courses that support these new things that the state has asked us to verify our part of our graduation requirements and they're right there easy to incorporate and very authentic in how we're doing it which I think is the Hallmark of how to do these well is make that make it authentic as much as you can so the personal finance piece has worked in there one of our courses Human Geography was very popular for a while but it was very much tied to a staff member who is no longer in the department and so we saw the popularity of that course just take a dive and knowing what we want

045to do for class sizes and elective offerings for student students we've taken that off of our social studies menu students seem pretty happy with what remains I don't think there's going to be an outcry for that course if there were I think we'd reconsider bringing it back but right now it doesn't seem essential student services we've shifted a little to use the neck program and so we made sure that was reflected in our student services description we consulted with the people who are running that program and is implementing it at the school to make sure that language was accurate and up to date for the programming that we're offering those particular students so that's been updated in our student services section and Visual and Performing Arts probably has our our biggest question um a shift

046we're proposing based on the music instruction choir and band and that is a shift from an every other day approach to music education and those who want to participate in it to a full credit all year long meets every day course for abandoned choir um we discussed all aspects of what this means what does it do to students schedules does it limit students to choosing one music versus the other will We Will We cause one program to shrink and the other program to grow if they have to make that choice will we limit students opportunities to have a study in their schedule and balance their day and after lots of discussion this seemed to be what we wanted to pursue and that was allowing students to earn a full credit and attend a music Ensemble

047of their choice every day Visual Arts took we always come across the idea that there's a bit of a bottleneck for years it was fundamentals everyone had to take fundamentals before they could take another art elective and our art teachers have very nicely opened that up over the past couple of years and this year they added sculpture which used to be called 3D design and sculpture really taken it just to sculpture if you've been I want to say University programs have done this right recently and that's these cardboard sculptures has anyone seen one of these displays it's the going thing in art classes it's very Hands-On very constructive and so this is the the direction that our art program wanted to move in was stuff like that that would excite students and have a high

048display quality so that art could be participatory not just for those who are in the class but for those who can now see what the class has made you can put it on display so that was quite appealing to remove that prerequisite from that class to allow students to take now Ceramics digital photography and fundamental rentals without taking any other class first those are your entry level classes that don't require a prerequisite and I like the option to open up art to a lot of students with a lot of different desires as to what they're doing in their artwork I think oh and we removed painting too it was undersubscribed and those student needs were met in other art electives a lot of students who if they couldn't fit painting two in the schedule there

049are plenty of other options that they wanted to engage in on an artistic level so it just didn't feel like it was holding the right kind of space great I think that's the overview of everything questions um so now that we're required to teach the U.S citizenship I'm assuming we were teaching a lot of that stuff but have we had to add anything only the format of the assessment really that's the only addition is to to make it match the U.S citizenship test so that we can show they passed it with 70 proficiency they taught all of those things it was all embedded it just needed that that assessment piece that we could say yes yeah they got that 70 percent so have we given it yet or no not I don't believe so no

050they're still pulling together for the semester we're about halfway through the semester so we have time and just another thing to consider about that though is that we will need to have all of our students test regardless if they take it on Velux or they transfer in so this is a mandatory upload to the state um upon graduation so we will have to find everybody it's like our ICT portfolio where you get a half credit for it but you do it in multiple venues yeah I know ITA for Mr Duval and every quiz I give them he has four bonus points that are part of the citizenship test so they are constantly um they're being exposed to it oh and each one is different so I haven't given them the same question twice and this

051happens for every I don't know about um I think it's called food um but for two valve classes I know they always see it and he constantly is asking them about it oh great thank you yeah any other questions on program studies okay we've got Kate so again the citizenship ultimately when they're tested and students are tested they're taking the whole 128 question test at once I don't think have we landed on that as the decision I think so and if students don't make that 70 I know they can retest will they be required to retest the entire test or like will it be segmented where they can just do portions Gina's dining that is a really good question that we have asked the state multiple times and have given been given every answer but

052the answer to the question asked so my assumption um and this is how I'd like to go and I've sort of shared my thoughts with the social studies Department we are competency-based state so we are going to pass the competencies and if there's an area that we need to retest then we will retest that portion awesome yep but there is zero clear guidance in the multiple Tas that have come out from the state so I had a quick question says in that section it says about oh that's good language because I can tell you we've switched it a little bit okay this is Phoebe about yeah yeah we flipped it we flipped it to say that half credit is about this many hours yeah that that was made about five minutes after he hit send

053on the on the packet yeah so you are correct good eyes and we got it yeah Beth did you have a question it was just a quick clarifying question I would concert choir and Jazz car going to a year right that daily whole credit that's matching what honors are is now already correct like honors choirs [Music] um I don't believe so but I'd have to I want to pull out the old one to double check no I believe it's every other day so you could take you could take honors choir and honors Jazz choir so you could end up with a full credit but it's taking but it's two separate courses so you could opt to take one or the other and have a half credit that's always wondered and maybe I would misunderstandary but

054honors choir is listed as a full credit in here but it's not highlighted so that's why I was just curious about changing just two of the fires so those those ones that were proposing switching from half day to full day correct upper level yeah these are often underclassmen taking it with only the option of every other day so what can happen is a student is boxed into well if they only want to take let's say jazz band they're forced into a study hall the other day because that's not another every other day's offering yeah oftentimes that half a half a study is not sufficient so then you're taking the study into half and that's not ideal either so you don't so for jazz um the band and [Applause] concert band those are often um different

055students and younger students being the concept was bolstering the offering these are often kids who want to be there and then on the other day they're just taking a study hall anyway so it should really strengthen to the offering in the program well they could do both if they had the room for it too they could take two periods yeah so what the way it was explained to me was that um is not a lot of overlap for the bands but there is for the choirs the choirs is often the same kids taking half a credit one day and then they take and take the other day and the concept would be within the concert choir it's the same kids that show up one day and then the next and really the curricula are married

056to begin with so the concert choir would potentially absorb the Jazz choir and for the band it would be end up likely end up being two separate options because oftentimes in the band there's different ensembles that require different um instruments it would be a one credit course and it bolsters the middle basically it takes the the concert choir or band that used to be every other day yeah but it it the attempt is to bring more kids to that level because they can earn credit and they don't have this wasted day in between full credit there are two separate full credit cards it looks like there are two yeah there are two in the honors is listed as a credit the um participation will be that students will take concert choir because within it they're

057getting the Jazz choir education as well and how are you offering the other one because at this time it's offered as 2.5 so to remove that uh it's not the honors was one honors was one last year yeah honors honors Jazz and honors honors choir and honors jazz band were both a full credit so we are offering an additional full credit course yeah you're talking about honors or the the two courses that were not honored not honors yeah the regular ones are basically absorbing the concert choir and the Jazz choir yes but you're still offering a full credit concert fire and a full credit Jazz choir that's correct they're both going from a 0.5 to a 1.0 offering but where's the absorption part of it because likely it will be the same kids and the

058patient will be that the students will end up taking concert choir and not taking Jazz choir because within concert choir is a full credit they'll receive the Jazz Club I offer jazz people and that's of course we could absolutely remove it um we felt like this year similar to the conversation we had in the spring with personal fitness and say strength and conditioning leave it see if it if it populates if students are signing up for both then we want to at least offer it and if not then you know like human geography if it's under subscribed then it would come off in the following year so this is a two-year concept the concept is this year you're you're going to offer concert choir and Jazz choir see what the numbers are both so these

059will definitely be offered different periods so a kid could if they have room in their schedule take concert choir period seven and Jazz choir period six or whenever they're offered and then you're going to see how those numbers work and then potentially next year if one or the others under subscribed you see it potentially being down to one concert slash jazz choir it's like a concert choir but the Jazz choir will be with the concert curriculum there'll be some jazz what usually happens in that case um is that there'll be a day or two of the week that is set aside for that practice so I remember when I was in choir Thursdays was Jazz choir day and you'd you'd have standard choir for half the period and then the the smaller Ensemble would rehearse

060we had four or five smaller ensembles but they were they it it didn't feel so much like you were on the top or to the side it felt like we have a concert choir and then there's a group that stands out from there but the the idea that you could earn a full credit just going to sing even if you weren't that great was very appealing to a lot of our students at that time I think that's a possibility for choir I I don't think that's true for band no right but I don't I don't think you're going to get you'll get data but I don't think the data will will be driven by what you think it is as far as making a choice you run the risk of making a choice based on

061schedule convenience rather than content preference if you had to push it one way or the other Tom which way would you go well if if concert choir incorporates Jazz choirs that seems to be at this level the more Equitable option and then gives the opportunity to then move on to honors of one or the other or both I'm thinking of this more entry-level introductory perhaps less sophisticated less specialization just from what you described I don't have a preference I'm just trying to figure out how you're going to get from point A to point B so and then honors choir isn't there is no honors Jazz choir right it's just there's honors jazz band I know and then there's honors concert there's honors choir and then honors jazz band it's a little bit there was there

062used to be two RS required I don't have I think that's what it was every other day and that's what I was remembering yeah there are times we've run two sections of it maybe that's different different things and the choir got up and especially during the holiday season one would sing sort of classic coral and others would sing the very Jazzy so it'd be like a jazz and like a a classical thing so having kids who were in choir recently yeah they had the concert choir would come out and then the Jazz choir would come out and then the honors choir would come out and then the acapella group would come out so there were multiple groups and that's an extracurricular they do that all on their own so are there any other questions on

063this program of studies yeah I don't know are you done I'm sorry yeah the first question I have is regarding the Latin honors description which I think is great but information in the profile that talks about academic members and lists highest honors of honors I was wondering how how that relates to well that's like honor roll yeah yeah honor roll yeah the pro the in the profile we have academic honors and its highest honors and honors which would be honor roll and then below it says when we recognize using the Latin owners just already completely yeah this is done for this year yeah but next year we're saying match the language yeah I released so the Latin honors is a graduation accomplishment and not necessarily an ongoing recognition which is different than honorable I think

064there was okay full graduation recognition yep and I it seems to have the sort of like a footnote only in the profile I have a question about the uh personal finance aspect hi what is the state requirement I mean do they just say you have to discuss everything and say you have to have a course in personal advice we do have those underneath consumer science so yeah we do have that of course um but the required though no um so I guess the question is what do we have to give wait we have to teach certain skills um that are identified in the law but it says it can be a separate course or it can be incorporated into another existing course such as economics so it was already part of the curriculum that we

065teach just person personal finance from my background is very difficult in economics kind of curious how you do personal finance if it's truly an economics class it's an economics class I would say personal finance is not a good descriptor of what it is that they're asking us to include oh really no I the reason I say it's too bad is like personal finance is valuable a very important aspect um say and I didn't play a role in becoming a requirement but I I'm certainly not opposed to it being a state requirement um if you going forward can see a way to make that content be it's not mandatory at least extremely accessible and recommended that would make me happy one thing that we didn't talk at all about because it didn't really get updated is

066that CTE stuff and you know a few people here were in that call that just took place for the region came really clear is at least to me is that the schools that have the programs are mainly worried about the students that are in those schools despite what the law says and the requirement that they cover everybody their focus on the schedules of the curriculum how it relates to everything else is really geared towards that and Andy was on the cloud we were sort of texting doing it one of the things that he said to me by text was perhaps we in order to give advantage to our students in the CTE program we need to narrow the focus of which partner schools we're working with so that we are sending more students and they

067have more leverage because a real big component of Success Through schedule coordination and where we have three to four different regions it's very difficult for us to have any kind of meaningful sway in what our partner schools do include we're a very small in particular where we have multiple schools offering the same title reading the description and stuff they're not identical but from a general subject an area of interest I'm wondering if there is reducing a number of cases that we're sending our kids so that we're sending more foods to the places we moved in that direction a few years ago if you I think we used to go to messinic and now we don't [Music] but when you read down some of the programs actually send the kids to scenic um the language that

068we put in to to start that kind of narrowing for the reasons that you're talking about those aren't those aren't new concerns but they're just bubbling up as something we should be considering a little more uh if a comparable CTE course is offered at both National and Milford whenever possible and subject to availability the principal may use discretion to decide which program will be attended by students that was our first effort to say let's let's send a group in one location instead of one here and one here and one here if there's more movement in that direction I don't think it would be a bad thing to think about um it does come down to scheduling and availability of the program so by keeping more available we we do have more kids that can participate

069because maybe if you didn't get into this one there's a spot available over here okay um that's correct it's a conversation worth having it definitely is because our CTE programs are they they feel like more kids are paying attention to them on a on a school-wide level more students are looking to that to get them set up for the next phase especially some of the students who don't see what they want here they like to reach out and see what our surrounding communities have it's very popular for some of our students School I think it's easier for them to say let's have let's have the same professional development that sort of thing whereas if you've got one kid going in there and another school kids right great thanks Tom are there any other questions my

070only I everybody asked the questions I had so we're good I just there's some there's a bit of spacing issues in the um credit to like 9 to 11 and then one credit so that's in quite a bit of like that's yeah we got the formatting right it's always the document to a PDF something moves and you try and reopen it and you can't get it without making it line up as a headache and it's the lake when does it get locked in can you improve it next month yeah and and then ELO is that all new language under ELO or is it just the title under yellow uh a few of the phrases it wasn't highlighted it was just the yeah it's it the I don't think we changed anything terribly specific in the

071wording itself um we looked at the wording around credits to say that it's not a strict equation it used to be this is a half credit this many hours is a full credit we that was the biggest shift is to make it less tied to exactly how many hours you spend and then my only other comment is in the very beginning I guess I did not all my questions in the very beginning of this when we talk about um course placement and teacher recommendations I brought up last month or a couple months ago um I think of a kid completes a class passes a class and there's no and that class is a prerequisite for another class and there's nothing underneath that class that says that they need a recommendation from a teacher then they

072that class should be open the next the next following subsequent class should be open but in so in the course descriptions we say when a teacher recommendation is required but in the beginning of this document we say that teacher recommendations are required for core core subjects so I would just want some clarity on that and some I don't think a teacher recognition should be required if kid gets a c in English 10 accelerated and wants to stay in English or English not accelerated and wants to stay in English Channel accelerated or whatever B minus or whatever it is that we say that class should be open to them that's my opinion other people can disagree but I would like some consistency we have a project slated for our program of studies review because that's a

073big project to have the different departments and with two of us with Yolanda and myself now working with our different departments we actually have a bigger opportunity to I Envision a big table and each department and lining out to make sure that those prerequisites are consistent and do I even had to go through and make sure we didn't say department head and department chair right so we really want to and then also the teacher recommendation piece which is in the beginning but it doesn't really follow through yeah so it's okay it's just something that I'd like to see it's a it's a project we have put on great on the to-do list and fantastic just a follow-up if we're going to be asked to vote on this next month next month is there any opportunity

074and appetite to look at the consolidated before next month it tends to take time for us to get communication information from the programs and I think we'd need more say that again no no to to just get the information we would need to figure out where it would make sense to send our students I think I think a month turnaround would be hard for us to get the information from the receiving programs to to make a thoughtful choice about that I think there are also some programs that are more desirable than others and so I would not to the students um because they leave with something that makes them employable versus an experience that they maybe want to go into that field or maybe decided they don't want to but if you leave with the

075certificate in hand you know I always talk about the Health Sciences one because you you walk away as an LNA and you are fully employable and you can continue your studies and but but you have quite a few options so some of those programs are more popular and if we limit anything then we are gonna we always have more students who are interested and apply than get accepted so I would so don't limit that one but some that we that I know we're not over subscribing to yep that are not certificates just is there any willingness to even look at it or is this my voice from my breath I'm not interested in looking at it turn around I think you're asking two questions is there an appetite to do it and is there an

076appetite to get it done by next month I think the answer is yes and no yes people have an appetite to do it but no people want to take more time to process it and come up with it before next month yeah happened that's the sense I got we're going to be here well I wish we'll share one one piece when we did eliminate one of the locations um and it was the year that we invested in the Vans and so then when we went to do the van scheduling we had too many students going to one location and we had to send two Vans to the same location is anyway no I know but so then we ended up replacing it with a bus which was sort of defeated the purpose of the so

077I'm just saying that there's a lot oh we just have the three locations I can't find messinic in here so it's under right the language from students three schools right now that we signed to work well I shouldn't say schools I should say districts so and and all three are are currently well subscribed to remove certain options would be um I I understand the kind of um the bigger picture in making maybe a better program but at the end of the day we would potentially be removing options for that next sophomore who's interested in that thing at Milford or a Nash or south or but to remove one of those receiving schools leadership you're saying is hypothetically true but based on on our looking for additional enrollment they are having difficulty and several of them

078I know are trying to find ways to improve so that they don't lose the programs the problem is is not enough see this guaranteed positions for outside schools but the scheduling conflicts are preventing many students who want to go from going so they become if they're not subscribed by tuition in schools then they can fill up positions within within their own District uh it's it's what you're describing is technically a risk and if we got to a position where we were using up all the positions a lot and do we had more kids the more income I'd say great open up another place if I find a secondary location it's just not the same it's not necessarily the same offerings at every school right and and if if somebody wants a certain teacher for English

079but it can't fit their schedule they go into a different language these are easier if you're can't have a perfect situation where it's not the same program but the result is they don't get any program because the scheduled conflicts are too great there are more kids not using CTE because they can't make it work with their schedule and there are kids who are going to lose it because it's not the program that's my opinion and it's not based on just I guess this is I've been watching one of the moments are going not just here but in general you mean the you mean the calendar scheduling though like in the professional days or days and it's also got to do with the four hours Hard Times yeah and all that yeah I I think what

080Tom is hitting on is is accurate from the standpoint of the state has reached out and say said we need to do a better job of making this more accessible for students and superintendents started that work a year ago and probably took it say from you know 40 conflicts of the master calendar down to 20 because of early release days and all of those things we have some districts that start 10 days before Labor Day in some districts Who start after Labor Day so there's a host of issues that are there and as a result of some of the vocational components are undersubscribed now we've done a pretty good job getting our kids into a number of places but to Tom's point when you're on those calls as a non-cte center we're looking for some

081sort of Leverage to be able to provide what we can provide for our children because again if I'm one of the CTE centers and nobody comes over from Hollis Brookline all they do is sign kids up that are in my own building so I'm not losing anything so it's kind of we're we're looking for more of the leverage at the the bigger discussion to Tim's Point than the nitty-gritty you know like trying to finish a child's English classes in once in a while is difficult because they're going to CTE for this block and all that so we've started some discussions for the first time ever well if there was that type of conflict could they not just take the English at the school they're going to because if it's my passion that I want to

082go over to a certain CTE program and I could just start the day in a English class there and then go right into CTE would that be better so the the conversations are changing but as Tom will tell you because he was on the call it's very frustrating because they own the building and it's not as flexible as maybe I think the state would like to see it because again it's funded through Perkins money which is federal money and we need to maintain services to continue that funding and when your overall student population is going down in your state you're already catching an issue so I I agree with the yes and no I think we need to take a look at this and continue those discussions because they're looking for Hollis Brookline to sign

083on to another 10 or 15-year agreement and prior to Tim and with Rick we haven't been willing to do that because it it's not we're not getting enough in a contract yet to say yeah we'll sign on the line so that's where you know Tom is echoing that so um I think that you know when we look at the program of studies we move forward with this year but I think in terms of the the next couple of discussions coming up for calendar and that we have to beat the drum a little louder on the calls from like people like myself and some of the non-uh CTE centers because you also have some districts choosing to go to centers that are not their Center so towns have just decided we're going to go to this

084Center even though we're supposed to go to Manchester so it's it's really kind of a bigger issue that I'd say two or three years Thomas started real discussions and it it is somebody who sits on the calls and toms on them it gets very frustrating because at times it feels like we're not going places but we are making progress and it's that Balancing Act between I don't want to hurt a child who's sitting in our classes now but I want CTE to be better for the child who's sitting in sixth grade in either Hollis or Brookline when they get to the high school thanks Andy larger conversation that'll take but if there's more passion behind it it sounds like at this point yeah you know I mean Tommy's wife last year I mean I give

085Tom credit because Thomas attended wearing two hats School Board hat of Hollis Brookline cooperative and he's on the Milford Advisory board for it so he really appreciate that he's he sees it from two different angles which has been very helpful and I think it's caused some people to pause because not many people in the room are wearing those two hats I think if we make sure that the conversation isn't tied to our program studies review point that might make it so you don't feel like we discuss it once and then we don't do it again until we pull up the program of studies if it can be made a separate topic then the time you're looking for in the discussion can happen so it's not in a small subcommittee of people in the building who

086can a building yeah here and that's why this is I was hoping to see something different this year same that's frustrated that's why the discussion is happening tonight I apologize there um ladies any comments on the program of studies as all the courses that are offered to you in your classes at your High School career any comments it's okay I'm putting on the spot you are totally okay to say I'm good we'll think about it and we'll add to it next year next month if we want to um I think the one thing was I you mentioned like the difficulty between scheduling because I originally did want to go to Albert and do the JROTC but um I wasn't able to because of my scheduling course I was choosing to take some courses that I

087wanted to more um but either way like I there are like I know there's a multitude of like some of my peers that that has been the issue for them like they can't take it because even though they want to okay thank you for that thanks so much all right and you guys are um the rest of the is there anything else on this program of studies at this point it will come up next week next month um you guys are the rest of this is um probably something that you can stay for but you're welcome to go home if you'd like to as well or something or or go up go elsewhere I mean go locally home your parents would say go home go watch your field hockey yeah updates yes yeah keep us

088in foreign I assume the reason the profile's on there is we've already covered that right right right yeah right yep all right so um articles of agreement is that just the episode I just want to give the board a quick update probably over the last 18 months or two years we spent uh quality time on the articles of agreement so working with Council we put in the board packet of the latest most up-to-date information which includes the final order from the State Board of Education from July 14 2022 the current articles of agreement as certified by the state board a copy of the October 5th 2021 special meeting warrant the certification of the posting of the warrant the evidence that it was published in the newspaper and then the minutes from October 5th 2021 the

089district special meeting including voting results so what will happen now is these um articles which have been updated will be posted on the website and they will be the guidelines that we will follow until either we receive a citizen's petition or the board were to decide to do something different and take action that would amend the articles of agreement so I want to thank everybody who is involved there were quite a few board members who were involved in this process all of us spent an extra night out in the district special meeting to get this adopted but it really is important and I really commend everybody for their their work and I think I also just want to mention uh there was some bills at the state level that would make co-ops illegal and would

090be disbanded by those bills were all put together in a group of three and they went back to be reviewed and they have formulated a study committee to look at cooperatives I will be serving on that committee representing our two communities because I think although we sometimes have differences these articles of agreement demonstrate our willingness to come together and work together and the results that you see in Tim's profile I think sometimes the the conversations we have that are difficult to have lead to outstanding results so just because something is difficult doesn't mean it shouldn't be done so I'll be representing us but I do watching all this new information that Jim has provided we'll go on the website for the two communities to be able to review enough five-year uh I think there's three

091more I think this is we're in year two yeah and the five-year increment is the requirement to look at the the formula the minimum right I always oh you could be like Tom down there who didn't think he was going to be dealing with some things and then all of a sudden you're back so you never know what's going to happen you know will just rope you back in yeah and with the boy she has permission I'll turn it over to Linda who worked walk us through revenue and expense for two years all right so ending June 30th our FY 22 year we had our audit in August and our year ended up I was first looking at the expenses out of a 26.2 million dollar budget in expenses we have a 1.9 million dollars

092that we did not spend so some key points on that are things that really I've been bringing up all year unfilled positions unpaid leaves for salaries Lane changes which is when a teacher goes for example from a bachelor's to a master's degree not happening which were in the budget we had unfilled coaching positions unfilled advisor stipends professional development funds not being used unfilled maintenance positions and of course everywhere there's a salary involved there's corresponding Savings in taxes insurance and retirement so that's across the board but really the the key driver of this 1.9 million is 1.2 million of that was special education and when Kelly uh presented to the budget committee she made a little um primary drivers behind the scene uh spreadsheet where one out of that 1.2 million for special ed part of

093that was Transportation part of that was students moving out of the District of students declining Services Program changes unfilled positions just across the board so large balance 1.9 million but let's look at the revenue side now and then we'll put it all together on the revenue side out of the out of the budget we had a savings of 364 000 well 364 000 in it over budget that we we got in in excess of what we budgeted really half of that 364 000 was was coming from federal grants and the other half came from if you remember we we had a Health Trust Surplus refund of about a hundred and eighty thousand um from our Health Trust vendor who is our to health and dental provider so if you put the expense balance with the

094revenue balance it brings us to the unreserved found fund balance of 1.9 million and then if we take out the maintenance trust 200 000 the special ed trust 25 000 and the retained fund balance of 188 000 that brings us down to 1.5 million going back to the taxpayers by reducing the tax rate so that is how we ended up FY 22 fiscal year are there any questions on that let's move on to the current uh FY 23. so this is as of October the 12th so the story here is we still have vacancies and we still have people on unpaid leaves and we still have Savings in benefits corresponding to those things happening um on the saving side on the negative side we have an increase in electric oil gas diesel diesel fuel putting

095it all together right now out of the 27.6 million dollar budget we are showing that we're not going to spend 487 thousand dollars but I will caution everybody of course this is the first quarter and so much can change during the year on the revenue side um at this point because it's so early we're just saying the budget is what we're planning so we're not showing any excess or decrease in the revenue side so if we fund two hundred thousand dollars to our maintenance trust and 25 000 to our special ed trust and a 188 thousand dollars to our retained fund balance again for fy24 um it would give us a projected fund balance right now of 73 662 dollars and I think that is all I had to say about FY 23. so are

096there questions on FY 23 . is there an offsetting revenue from donations working through elevates or they're separately on that so Tom's referring to on that first page under site improvements that 38 thousand dollars and that I don't know the answer to that if there's an offset to that yeah I'll have to check with Kelly um on that and get back to you well those are site improvements right because I'm not sure it's just um what encompasses the 38 yeah yeah and if and if it is I mean that's something that we could see whether elevator yep yep okay I will check [Applause] any other questions on the um fiscal year 2022-23 first quarter revenue and expense report so we are sending 1.5 million dollars back to the taxpayer that we are it's about five

097percent um if you think what we do our budget now for 18 months from now um we're within five percent of what we thought and of the 1.5 1.2 is the special ed piece which is is always very volatile I mean we could have a student move in tomorrow and that could be hundreds of thousands or vice versa we could have a student move out tomorrow and that can result in a huge savings and I did want to really bring home the point that that FY 22 budget was submitted in April 2021 so if you think about it from April 2021 all the way to June 2022 a lot happens and it's you know we no I'm not political I'm just um there we go excellent and I want to well we're there we're already

098starting on the FY 24 and two pieces that can have come up the budget committee does want us to look at either our unreserved fund balance line or a contingency line because they are just worried about as the budget grows if one or two things go wrong Capital wise is not a lot in reserves uh and number two we will probably see some Savings in special ed with children aging out of our programs as well as Simply Having the programs for those of you who are not aware crotchet Mountain up north in the last couple weeks has closed so there are many students returning to districts who need programming need Staffing and have all those costs because just like we're having trouble Staffing several places like that so a lot of these in-house programs and

099when um the high school brings up the fact that we you know we're bringing neck to the high school which was a middle school program that means more children stay in District and get better services in my humble opinion so there's a there's a concerted effort and we're going to work with the budget committee on do we look at the increasing the percentage of retained fund balance or do we go back to the old contingency how do we approach that you know the other nice product the co-op is we made some really nice progress on a Capital Improvements pieces because uh while still managing to give back the Surplus to the tax based offset the taxes we've been able to catch up on some of our maintenance projects um with in terms of parking and

100Paving and a bunch of those type of things you know our roofs I think we're I want to say phase four roof eight section is this year and I know it sounds crazy but that I think is one of our last sections of what was 2.5 million four or five years ago and we're paid as we go and the other Advantage you get is 25 years from now you're not having to do the whole roof again you can approach it in sections so I have a question about the budget committee and um the special ed trust like we've kind of we're at the point where we've maxed we've kind of maxed out what they had always recommended that we we're at like 250 right with our last 25. so is there any conversation about needing

101to make that continue to build we are going to look at that because of this the the rate special ed costs Amanda in the state they could only go up by five percent per year but there are very few places that we do have students placed um that do not go up by the at least to five percent uh with that said just so you're aware uh we've had some staffing changes around special ed so uh right now we have about five or six children who are out of District that are being uh overseen by a um a staff member at the high school so Lauren can assist with uh special ed services over in Brookline because that administrator has decided to move on and take a new position um and this is the other

102piece we're going to see that would never happen years ago is people leaving um at different times of the year you know you used to get a contract and be all excited you had a contract and now what you're seeing is um you know there are advertisements all over at jobs New Hampshire you know and some people looking just more getting closer to home better quality of life those type of pieces so there's a little shift going on in that we'll have a further update uh next month but we believe we'll be able to cover all our mandated requirements we have you all know Bob that Bob will let his part time now over in Brookline helping out as an administrator to help with some administrative duties and we have a retired Hollis teacher who

103was uh for many many years a wonderful special ed teacher slash administrator who's coming back on a part-time basis to do uh preschool and kindergarten special ed just as we balance this out because it's going to be very difficult to find people in the coming months breaking contract uh yes and no I mean most of the administrative contracts they have 60 days notice so they're not breaking the contract so these are not uh well you have that too but if you talk to Tom Clawson he'll tell you it's it's just like any other industry it's just sufficient notice and they're gone it's not you used to be able to say to people you weren't going to release them to from their contract that really is a a mute point at this time is it a

104two-way street um no Deborah is thank you for that summary okay thanks a lot all right so um at this point we'll move on to deliberations no we have to go back to oh I'm sorry Tim for his update on the uterus Behavior thank you see your solar topics so we received um notification discussing the possibility of spring so Andy and I have talked today about potentially doing that we wanted to give you guys a notification considered it if there was a conversation that wanted to give you advance notice everyone Card results yeah 2018 I think right before 2020 right yep and it was you didn't used to be done in the fall um it was always been the spring I don't want to say always yeah yeah and I I wanted I asked him

105to bring it up tonight because I wanted to alert the board that we're discussing options um Tim and Brian and other administrators and staff members have done a lot more of reaching out to our students through various means you know we have a a captain's group now for athletics we have National Honors Society we have student council and we're just trying to determine is there a better way to find out what our kids need than taking a survey that some of the questions I don't think are valid and some of the questions concern us um so we're going to be working over the next month to bring back what I'll say a couple recommendations for the board to consider around this because where Tim came from and I've talked to the superintendent up there in

106Beau they had what I'll call Leadership Retreat where they attracted a very diverse group of students across their High School population and they met during the summer and kind of talked about all of these areas and where they wanted to focus as a school now prior to Tim Rick did a really nice job of taking out pieces of data and making that our focal point so you might recall we spent years where uh around proms we had the the police come in with the goggles and all all of that around drunk driving we did prescription drugs was with emphasis at one year so there's a variety of different things that can happen we're just wondering um if we can tailor it more to meet the needs of the Hollis and Brookline students and use some

107of our own expertise in the community which we have quite a bit of in terms of if we know we want X Y and Z to be offered I'm sure we can find X Y and Z through our community or resources that we have so um so does participating in the survey allow you access to resources that you wouldn't have otherwise the participating in the resources assists some of the I'll say the private vendors or groups that utilize that data to apply for grants that put on programming but a lot of times we are because of where we sit that programming might say come through the national Boys and Girls Club right and we're not going there or the Milford boys and girl club they're always welcoming and we take advantage of any program that

108is is great but we don't necessarily have a hub in our town so it's more just want to take a really good view and then we'll make whatever decision or recommendation we think is best and let the board uh tell us where we'd like to where they'd like to see us go no it's it's optional we have to opt in well the only thing we won't get is we wouldn't get back the data but we would just we would come up with a new way of gathering the data of what our focal points would be based on our student population yeah do you have concerns about losing that I do and that's why we may look at two components we we might recommend that we participate in the study but that how we utilize the

109study is based on uh our students internally because what what happens a lot of times is the study gets publicized the grants go out and then the programming that's set up may not be an issue that we have because our students make up you know a small population of the overall study um I think there are always some concerns around confidentiality um I think they're um uh questions that if I put on my dad hat concern me not so much as it you know a school administrator and not from the vantage point of how we use the data but just if it was my son or daughter taking the test I'll be honest there are some questions that I I know Tim and I sit there and go I don't necessarily like that question I

110understand why that question's there but also remember that our demographics are different we are a small town compared to a big city like Nashua a big city like Manchester yet we we fall into those same kind of large groupings so that that's why we wanted to bring it forward to kind of tell you our concerns and then let us have a discussion next month after Tim and I have had what we'll say quality time to digest it because it just came in yesterday the email from the state which says are you going to participate in the spring so we'll need to get that back after our November meeting um yeah that is a link I I can get it to you yeah I'll send it out yeah I think that I think that would be

111a valuable piece if everybody could take you know or it's lengthy so maybe Tim we even sent it out and just asked people to look at sections if you have time to look at the whole thing that's great but if we assigned everybody you know questions one to twenty uh 20 to 40 it might just kids have to take the whole thing we can read the whole thing you sure yeah I just know that there are other things going on in your lives yeah yeah just sit and do it um I was just gonna say I think the thing that pattern I've noticed when when it's been reported on is that it can the the survey confirms what we already knew so um but sometimes we need that because we have folks out in the

112community who don't believe us necessarily or I don't want to say they believe is but when we say our kids are really we're seeing signs of increased anxiety among our student population it's nice to be able to say and the youth risk behavior survey you know it supports it it supports those statements when we have concerns um and we you know principles and and administration makes decisions about Staffing and whatever based on some of those concerns so I would hate to lose the data point that that this community likes in that we like that kind of data but I do think it generally says like yeah we know our kids are you know it's confirming stuff that I think people who are in the buildings and the teachers and the people who live with those

113kids kind of know already so I'd love to hear more about it yep we will put we'll give a good chunk of time next month great good chunking time on the youth risk behavior survey excellent everybody get from here take it yourself see how risky your life is okay um any other questions on that that's all you want to do on that one okay so now can I use delivery yes ma'am thank you deliberations to see what action the board will take regarding the administration's recommendation to adjust the school calendar regarding voting day in March so should we make the motion or do you want to talk about it first I think you can make the motion in a second and then we can okay Tito give us a quick update motion to amend the

1142022-2023 school calendar by changing the March early release date from March 7th to March 14 2023 moved by Beth I'll need a second second by Kate okay and then we need some discussion on this all right so um it was an error in putting the date on the March 7th it was intended to be put on the voting day and I just made a mistake and we realized it so we would like to the other two boards have already moved it we would just want to move it to the March 14th as csda became quite um cluttered at dismissal time with that's when sort of voting sort of starts to hit a peak and buses are trying to get out then it just made sense if we had an early release on that day so

115we already had the early release schedule for the seventh for the seventh correct are there any questions or comments on this you have a question are they go going to be voting in our school yes they are voting at the high school on November 8th in csda on November 8th um on March what's up in March not the not the November 8th but what will happen is yeah yeah unless it's it's just to keep the calendars it's okay I'm gonna call the vote all those in favor seven zero zero motion passes I'm not rushing yeah we've closed the school on November 8th which is the big day and then what we have found is there's not that much traffic but where the problem lies is if you have normal bus dismissal for whatever reason that

116seems to be a peak voting time and it's a major snap food um yeah because the buses aren't trying to get out of there because you have buses you have carpool and you have voters no you have a lot of parents who are doing carpool and then hopping over to vote so then you have just no place to put any everybody okay so but that's oh Holly was really good at checking her right off going down the line um I think we had a good discussion on the program studies thank you Amanda for doing all the work on that um and I think that Tom's right I think it would be nice to have some updates on the CTE stuff around other times than programming but other than that we're finished ahead of time excellent

117thank you very much Cindy um at this point I need to make a motion we need to make a motion we're going to non-meeting aren't we and the reason why is we're going to be discussing a contractual CBA issue but the boy could decide to take an action if you're a non-meeting you can't take an action yeah yes all right so I need a motion that the board by roll call go into non-public session pursuant to RSA 91-a colon 3 to a that's missile promotion or compensation of any Public Employee moved by Tom second and by Beth and now I need a roll call vote I'm sorry Cindy I Christa I Holly I love Kate I okay so we are now in non-public at 7 51 and if anybody's watching we will go straight into

118the German after that so yeah and we're going to use the special ed conference room