KBE Board Meeting 5/19/2026

001Good evening and welcome to the Keen Board of Education meeting for Tuesday, May 19th. If you could please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. And we'll open with public input. Do we have any public input this evening? Come on up to the >> No. Yeah. Come ahead, Mari. Mari Fouth 9 Starlight Drive. Um good evening board members and thank you for um all of your time this evening. A few representatives from our team at Simons are here tonight to ask for your support and consideration of a full-time third special education position for the 2026 2027 school year. We understand that our administration and board liaison may

002also speak to this tonight, but given the order of the agenda with public input being first, we had to speak um to this ahead of them. I first want to thank Dr. Ben White for his support and collaboration as we presented our concerns and need for an additional special education teacher. It is our understanding that he shared our concerns with the education committee and that Dr. White has been working with the administration's cult team to determine appropriate support. We appreciate his efforts and the opportunity to work collaboratively. A few years ago, when the decision was made to reduce a special education teacher at each of our elementary schools, the board set a case load range of 15 to 22 for special education teachers and case managers. At Simons, we have been operating with two special

003ed case managers ever since and often operating close to the top of that range or above. This year especially, we have been operating above that range. We have worked very hard at organizing and analyzing our data which has been shared with administration to demonstrate the need for an additional teacher when we calculate the required service hours across all current IEPs to include specialized instruction modified instruction evaluation and CA case management responsibilities. Our two current positions cannot meet these obligations at the start of the 202627 school year. Our data also shows on average how many new students qualify for special education services each year, which will only further increase our case load numbers as the year goes on. In order to ensure that we are prepared at the start of the school year to meet the

004needs of our students, we are asking for your support in hiring a full-time special education teacher at Simons. As you know, the hiring process can be challenging and timing is important, particularly with educators. This is the time of year when there is the best applicant pool. Our hope is that we can seek a new professional member for our team and be fully prepared to meet the needs of our students for the start of the 202627 school year. We are happy to provide any further information and data that you may need to better understand our circumstances. Thank you so much for your time and support. >> Thank you, Mari. Anyone else? All right, public input will stay open until 7:05. If anybody uh wishes to contribute, just uh signal to me so I know that you

005want to do that. Uh public input can also be uh mailed or emailed to the board care of Shaina Pelky at central office. Bear with me. I'm less prepared as I would likely than I would like to be. All right. Uh can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. Any corrections? Any documents people wish to have removed? Seeing none, all those in favor? Any opposed? Aries 70. Oh, I'm sorry, Mari. We are That is going to come up under um the report from the education committee. So, we're not we didn't just like hear you and wave goodbye. Sorry, my bad. Um that is part of the education committee report. All right. Um we have uh two student representatives with us tonight. Sarah Hun in her last meeting um and just

006joining us tonight um next year's uh student representative Gianna Gered. >> So yes, this is my last meeting and this is Giana. She is a freshman this year, so she'll be you guys for quite a while. Um for our report, we had our prom, which was very successful. Um, the police department praised our students more so than ever before. It was really, really well. There was not any incidents, as far as I'm aware. Um, we've got quite a lot coming up in June. We have our scholarship night, our CCC recognition night, and um, and prom uh, not prom, sorry, graduation obviously is coming up, which we are running, and we met about today in our meeting. Um, we have our Borette and our also our special recognition night coming up and then Salma Gandhi on

007June 11th right before graduation. >> That's all we've got for what's coming up at the end of the school year. >> Thanks. And I would be remiss to not mention you also just had your unified prom this last weekend which I did have a chance to poke my head into. For some reason it always coincides with the um high school drama production which I'm usually at. So I was able to attend both things for a while this weekend and that looked highly successful as well. Thank you Sarah and thank you for u being the representative this last year. >> A trip that the music department is taking next week to Williamsburg, Virginia as well. >> That's right. All right. Um report of the board chair. Um we are moving into the end of the year.

008uh Sarah just mentioned um but that's also for all of the rest of our schools. We have recognition ceremonies coming up for all of the buildings in the district. Um you'll have to watch for those schedules. A number of them will come up during um liaison reports tonight. Um the board will have to divide and conquer to get to some of these as does the administration every year. Um we will also be doing our annual um evaluation of the superintendent. uh by state law. That's one of the only three things that the board is actually tasked with under state law. The other two being um the development and administration of a budget uh and um the policy work. So we'll be doing that uh in non-public after tonight's meeting. Um a scheduling note for June

009because the June meeting would normally fall on what is graduation week at the high school. Uh the full board meeting in June will happen on the first Tuesday of the month and then facilities and finance will not be meeting for June. Is that correct Tim? >> Okay, >> you're good. I'll just repeat it. Um facilities is put off to August and financial business will happen at the full board meeting next month. Um, so the second Tuesday is is free of any board meetings. Uh, the other two committees will be meeting and they're normally scheduled dates. All right. Reports of the superintendent, Mr. Malay. >> Sure. You've got my report. It's a little bit more abbreviated as we do get into that end ofear time frame where we're focusing a lot of attention on on the

010celebrations at the different schools. You've got a listing for that there. Um, not in the report, but sent to you. And I just want to double check with our newly elected folks. Are you getting those emails? Like I sent an email to the governor and then I passed it to the full board. So I just want to make sure you're receiving those as well. Um our our lawmakers are are doing a really good job of keeping me busy. Um at least keeping me angry. Um maybe that's the wrong word too, but um certainly keeping me vocal and they passed a bill, House Bill 564 that would essentially be problematic for multi-dist SAUs. And so, you know, as soon as I caught wind of that, um, you know, activated my team, uh, reached out to the

011NHSBA, the school board's association, the NHSAA, the superintendent association. Um, sent a letter to the governor. I sent that letter to all of you so that you saw that. You know, my my instinct is that when you use the governor's email that it just goes in and somebody just logs that it came in. I don't know that she ever reads it. I did follow up with a phone call and I got what I felt was lip service of, "Oh yes, we've got your email. Don't you worry, we'll make sure she's aware of it." And I'm like, "Okay, great." Um, but I also tried to connect with her chief of staff who um at a ceremony, gave me his cell phone number. I called him three times and didn't get an answer, left messages, and didn't

012get a return call. Um but I share that with you because there is effort being made and um the school administrators, the superintendent association the day after I had sent that email and I had sent it to them as well actually had a sit down with the governor and I think they were able to make a little bit of progress. I'm not sure where that's going to end up landing or where it has landed, but um you know, timing is pretty important when some of these things are coming down. Um really important as we are faced with a lot of the things that are coming out of our state capital that we continue to do what we do really well for our students and have a collective appearance that we are stronger together. Because any

013other message is exactly what our lawmakers are looking for to say, you see, public schools are unraveling all across the state. Here's more evidence. This is why we need to do open enrollment. This is why we need to consolidate into monroity sauus. This is why we need to put tax caps in place because they're looking for us to to project that we're not doing a good job. And they'll use debate as evidence. They'll use um complaints as evidence. They'll use whatever they can as evidence. But as we've heard our student reps continue to report, you know, and that's just a small snapshot of our entire district. Our schools are really doing a great job. I mean, they really are doing a great job. And if you as liaison know that you go into the buildings

014and you see that. So, I just want us to be mindful of that. Um, folks are using what's happening around the state as evidence as they're passing legislation, pieces of legislation, amending legislation, putting trailers onto legislation that have nothing to do with original language because they are really working hard to divert time, effort, and resources to our public schools. So, um, happy to go anywhere in the report that you like or expand on any of the comments that I've just made or direct it to someone else on the team that's here in attendance. >> Any questions for Mr. Malay on the uh superintendent report? >> I do have a couple of questions. >> Okay. Is your mic on? I can't see it. >> My mic is on. >> Okay. Go ahead, Heather. >> I just

015actually had a couple of questions about the strategic plan dashboard. um getting to the end of the year here and some of these categories are one to three years, some are two to four and some are three to five. There are a number of categories that are in the one to three um year range that um are either not started or in some cases it says not applicable. I was just curious just to know kind of where they are. Um two of them are under nurturing high quality educators. Um, three of them are under safe, positive, inclusive environments. So, things like assisting students to identify one trusted adult in the building. Um, acknowledging multicultural holidays. Certain things that seem important to address and just wondering where where we are with them. >> Yeah. So, we're

016we're coming to the end of year two since the since the strategic plan was adopted. So, we're still within that one to threeyear range. We have gone to all of the building principles to help identify whether this is a a shortterm um target, a midterm target or a longer term target. And then based on those shorter term targets, they have got to prioritize which ones are most important in their context as well. So, yep, there might be things that are one to threeyear range that have not been started yet. Um that that is absolutely correct, absolutely true because there were other priorities where collectively we have felt that that was a bigger priority. Each school has met with their staff and has said all right um for our context for our building what are the

017big focuses that we need to hone in on first and foremost and that was how this was designed. There are 64 actions. No way that they're going to take 64 actions in any given year, even ambitious to do it over over five years. So, yeah, you're right. That's correct. >> And just one quick followup. Um, under nurturing high quality educators to section 2C. So all of those it says not applicable for Franklin school and a couple of other schools. What does that mean? So for instance, explore incentives to recruit and retain teachers beyond the first three years of teaching. Collect data from staff to determine unique benefits that strengthen recruitment and increase the number of applicants. What does it mean if a school is not applicable? >> So that wouldn't be an action that they

018would take at the building site. So which one you're looking at? 2C. >> I'm just looking at those purple ones in the 2C that that first column that's you're right there. So they don't and then there's some al also to the right. >> Yeah. So they don't do negotiation at the building site. So >> yeah, >> it would not be applicable. In fact, other schools should have probably mirrored what Franklin did. >> Yeah. Because the other schools that would be in the same category are not listed as applicable. So >> Right. Seemed clear. >> Right. And so Eric is is a little bit more active on this dashboard than some of our other principles. And we give them the ability to update that at any point in time when they are able to. Um, and

019I know Eric has been pretty active in terms of reviewing where he is with certain things. Um, it's not that he doesn't feel it's important, but it's not a responsibility for him at his school site. >> Franklin doesn't do the contract negotiations, you know, for example. So that would not be applicable for him. I wasn't going to bring this up, but now that you have it on the screen for everyone to look at, ongoing is one word. It bugs me every single time I open up this dashboard. And I was going to leave you alone, but now that everybody has to look at it, I'm going to say it. So noted. >> Sorry. Anything else for the superintendent? All right. Uh standing committees, uh facilities. Mr. Filio had to leave for um a city council

020budgeting meeting. Um I don't recall who was at facilities. If anybody wants to fill that in, I can probably cover. I was there. Maybe I'll do it. And if I missed something, Tim can jump in and tell me what I missed. Um the uh besides Ken Douly's always excellent report on um updates on what's been happening in the schools and and fields and grounds. Um they had uh an comprehensive dig into the activity buses uh showing the use for the the last year. Um, and Ken took a stab, I assume, with Ten's Tim's assistance at figuring out um, you know, ROI on those, how much it's saving the district. Um, and they had some numbers up there, but it's really hard to quantify because it's it's almost an apples and oranges thing other than the

021fact that we're putting kids on them. It's a very different thing to run it out of our own parking lot. Um but what the report really highlighted um was how it's expanded the opportunities for students around the district district. We have two activity buses now and they are out um con we have three now and they are out constantly wide variety of uses. The career center makes use of them. The um uh life skills program makes extensive use of them. U some of the science and other uh activity classes are making pretty extensive use of them. and then uh other schools besides the high school have been um getting trained and started to use them as well. It's really expanded opportunities for students in classes which was really the impetus when we finally got around

022to approve approving these. Um, it's really helpful to have these in-house buses, uh, when our bus contract only provides the big sized yellow buses, which look pretty silly when you put, you know, eight or 10 music students on it to send them around the district, for example. So, um, that's available in your facilities reports if you want to take a look at that report on your own time. Um, that also can be accessed from the district website if you dig through our agendas. Um we did have um a waiver request uh which the committee is still looking at but what that brought up was a broader discussion. Um the committee hasn't really looked at our policy KF in a couple years which is our um facility rental policy um and the rates. Uh so they

023talked about um opening that up for discussion, making sure that those rates are still appropriate and still serving the needs of both the district um and folks from outside the district that like to use our facilities. Um and then other than that, they did decide to hold a August facilities meeting, which they don't always do, at which time they're going to take a look at this summer's work at uh Oh, Franklin. Fuller. Fuller. That's right. That's right. We finished, Franklin. We're on to Fuller now. Um, and also take a look at um our long-term CIP at that meeting. I missed anything. I I think you did a great job. I do want to point out that if you go back as a board and look at um the documents from our last facilities meeting, you'll

024see a pretty good idea what it would cost to pay for if we didn't have those buses, all the stuff that we've done with them. you can't say we're going to save all that money because what we learned was a lot of things that we're doing we wouldn't have done had we not had those buses. Um and I think the other takeaway is the department that uses the buses to the greatest degree. the most uses is special ed where our students with uh disabilities, many of their programs are able to access community resources to a much larger degree including job placements, community trips, life skills like going to the stores, you know, otherwise you had to book a yellow bus. Um, you know, they're just out and about much more as a group. And that

025is one of the reasons that we brought these in to have more opportunities for our students. And so, uh, the data really kind of shows that. So, I thought that was interesting. All right. Thanks, Tim. Um, I think the agenda is out of order here, but I guess we'll take it in the order it's in. Education. >> Okay. Um, >> you got a busy one. >> Yes. We met twice since our last full board meeting due to the date switch. Um so I think if it's okay, we'll start with our field trips. Uh get that out of the way and then I'll give some updates on what we've been very busily doing. Um so the first field trip uh that we are presenting tonight is a field trip to Iceland which would take place uh

026over the February break of next year. Um, I guess we'll we'll make a motion um and move to approve the field trip to Iceland um scheduled for February 2027. >> Second. >> Okay. uh just to give some information. Um it will take place over the break. Uh and they'll be doing a pretty scienceheavy trip just because Iceland lends itself to that. Uh volcanoes and glaciers and geysers and hot springs and waterfalls and northern lights and um you know all of that kind of really cool geology. Um stuff will be on the agenda. So, it sounded like a fabulous trip. It will fit within the break. Shouldn't have any need for subs. Um, and it passed unanimously in ed committee to recommend um that we approve it. >> Any questions on the Iceland trip? All those

027in favor of approval? Any opposed? Carries 70. >> All right. Second one. Um actually this is the first that we're seeing of it. Um so but it is for Franklin. Uh they the art teacher there would like to take a field trip to the Fitsburg Museum of Art on June 4th. Um and you know the information is in the drive there. Um they're going to look at two separate exhibits. Um it looks like a a great outing for an early day in June. So um the ED committee did not see this previously, so we did not make a recommendation, but I will still make the motion to uh approve this field trip to the Fitsburg Art Museum for the Franklin Fifth Grade. >> Second. All right, just taking a quick glance over the application. Looks

028like everything's in there. They do have um certified CPR. The nurses involved. Um all of the fifth grade teachers are going, so it's well staffed. Does anyone have questions on this one? It's coming to us now because there's not time to bring it to the education committee prior to the trip. it will have already happened by then. So that's why we're seeing it here. All right. All those in favor? Anyone opposed? Carry is 70. >> Okay. With that out of the way, um as I said earlier, we met twice um during our April meeting. Um we had asked uh for a presentation on um the program of Spanish in the elementary schools and uh Eric uh Crest and Patty Jorgger, our two veteran principles who were around when the program kind of originated um and

029could give us a history came and presented to us on this program. Uh we learned a lot. Um the program predates every member of the ED committee and uh the overwhelming majority of the members of the whole board. So we we wanted some insight into that program and we got it. Um, we learned about the program that it is, uh, basically an exposure program. Um, that the elementary students in K through three, um, see the Spanish teacher for 30 minutes a week and in fourth and fifth for 60 minutes a week. Um, that they focus on oral uh, presentations, vocabulary, songs, and games. Uh, there are two full-time Spanish teachers working. um they divide the workload. Um one of them takes two schools every grade level, the other one takes the other two schools every

030grade level. So those teachers see um 500 students every week. Uh as a result of that, the program is very much geared toward exposure. Um there aren't really um you know because there's one teacher and 500 students there's not uh the kinds of assessments there's not um a lot of measuring um of what is being learned in the program. Um it it is purely exposure driven. Uh and you know it sounds like it's a well-run program and there's a lot of good things happening in there. Uh there are um some questions that the board members had uh about how a program that is, you know, based on exposure fits into a CBE model. there there aren't competencies. Um and there were also some concerns um around I guess the fact that when these kids after

031going through this program in the elementary school get to the middle school, they go into Spanish one classrooms um with kids who have taken Spanish and who haven't been exposed to Spanish in some of the town elementary schools. So um it was a very very interesting and informative presentation. Uh the the board committee took no action. It was purely informational. Um but I think I can I can say that committee members are interested in kind of looking a little more closely at this program um to see you know what what we hope to achieve with it and if we're actually achieving that. So that was our the focus mostly of our April meeting was Spanish. Um in May we invited Mike Smith to come and give us a presentation on um English language arts at

032the middle school. Um we are somewhat unique in that at our middle school uh English language arts is broken in two classes uh ELA and reading. And again, that is a decision that predates um the entire ad committee and most of the committee, most the whole committee. So, we did ask for some history and background on that. Uh Mike gave a great presentation um about the history of it that it was uh basically started around 2008. It was intended for the two classes um obviously more English language arts, more reading to improve uh test scores and also to push toward team teaching um that the idea was the classes would be aligned um and the concepts would be reinforced on both the reading and writing sides. Um since its inception, uh the two classes have

033kind of veered away from each other. Um and the team teaching aspect hasn't been as uh strong as I think that that it was intended to be. Um but in the middle of all of this uh the the the middle school is going through their NEAS process right now and Mike talked a lot about how they are looking at many many things and this is something that they are looking at to see if it is um still the right model if it is giving us the results that we um want from the program. Um he did also point out that uh for English language arts there are 52 standards or competencies um versus the 25 roughly for social studies and science. So having two periods of English and reading you know does make sense um

034uh in in many respects. Uh but this is something that they are looking at and we expect to hear more about it next year. Uh and we're looking forward to those updates. Um moving on to uh the other topic of conversation uh at May's meeting. Um thank you Simon's team for coming tonight. Um we did have a lengthy discussion. Uh there is material in the drive. The last two items in the drive for tonight's meeting um were documents presented to us at ed committee. Um they were put at the drive tonight fairly late. So if you haven't had a t chance to take a look at them, please do. Um Ben presented the fact that um the Simon he presented a really great graphic. I'm not sure if we can bring it up. Great. Um

035that um in I believe it was in February, even though this is April, the data is a little skewed because it ends in December when um Kate Adams uh left. She had been giving us monthly numbers um as far as our student services numbers were for each school and case loads. Uh Ben used that data to to put together this chart and when she left we were not getting the same uh student services updates. So that looks like a a very big spike over you know a short period of time and really it was but it it wasn't quite like that. Um, we also received a letter from the from the science uh from the Simon's special ed team uh with a lot of information about their workload, about their case loads, about um the

036number of hours um that that they are working and that they are projecting to be working um in in the fall. uh the the committee, you know, it was eyeopening. Um and a little bit alarming. Um we we we want we want to be of assistance here. Um I'm not sure how we can be. Um but this is this is a problem that we feel you know needs both an immediate solution but also needs a longer term look at workloads and case loads and waiting more time consuming students with less time consuming students. This is a conversation we've been having for a year and a half at least um if not longer. Um uh you had mentioned earlier um about the cutting of the four um positions, one at each school. When we went through

037that budget process, I asked a question, what happens if we go over? Um there was a lot of reluctance to cut those positions from some of the board members and um you know basically we we were told that we can't just keep people in case numbers go up. That we have to hire and release people based on realistic numbers and expectations. and we can't just say well the loads might go up and we need to keep extra people just in case. Um after that we were also told that if the numbers do go up we will hire and you know that is in the budget that is an expectation and that is what we will do. I feel like we are now in that situation and I would like to see this problem resolved with

038a hire and I would also like to bring it to the full board to have a a conversation about the numbers, the case load numbers that are in, you know, in place right now, how we came to those numbers, whether they need to be revisited and looking at workload case load model. Um we are getting a new student services director. We have just hired a new student services coordinator for the elementary schools. Um we are going to have a new team in place and I feel like now is the time to um take a take a look at this issue. So before we get into a discussion, I need to be clear. The board does not hire and does not make hiring recommendations. That needs to come from the administration. >> Understood. >> Um I

039had a question. I was at the education meeting, so I did hear the presentation. Um, and I had questions, but I'm not on the committee, so I couldn't ask them without turning it accidentally into a full board meeting at the time. Um, and this might be for Ben and Brian. Um, you guys were going over this graphic. It's probably Ben. Um, and explaining the numbers from trimester 1 and trimester 2. Um, what does trimester 3 look like? Is Simon still over? >> So, trimester 3 is not utilized in procedure because it's when we're pretty much projecting for next year. It's where we're transitioning students. It's the end of the year. So, trimester 3 is usually not even as good as an indicator as trimester 1 of the next year. uh because you often see some

040referrals that were maybe in the pipeline from the end of the year that kind of just are there and then after the year starts they kind of get a little bit of a fast track because we were already having eyes on them. And so that's where that procedure adds that 5%. And so trimester 1 projection is more accurate and a little bit uh buffered higher than trimester 3 would be. So that was the reason trimester two which is a high referral point of the uh I'm sorry it's a a settling out point of the year and trimester um three I'm sorry trimester one of the projected year would be utilized and we look at trimester 1 too as kind of like an initial data point to be clear this procedure was developed after the board

041had uh through the finance committee given us a target that we really needed to work towards um building for what we need and that's kind of where this whole conversation around developing a range came from and so we had a lot of thoughtful conversation and as Jen had mentioned we got to the range and then there was this conversation on okay when are we going to then implement a bringing on of another special educator and a procedure was what would the solution was at that point the the reason is we don't want to be in the practice of going above and needing to then say, "Oh, we're we're over, so we're going to need to look at this or being under by one and look at it. We wanted it to be a sustained projection."

042So, not perfect, but it is what we had available to us. And so, I thought it was appropriate to apply this procedure um in full transparency and then present that uh and work with the Simon's team. And that's why you see the spike and um that is that is why we use trimester we don't use trimester 3. So Jen is correct at budgeting both this year and last year. The question was put to the administration, what happens when case loads go over during the course of the year? And both years we've been told that administration would then correct that. Clearly that didn't happen. So, >> well, technically it has happened. Um, we we did this over at Franklin. We exercised the case loads went over. We hired over the summer. Uh, we saw that it

043was going to be projected over. So, we brought on another special educator and I think at that time it was the range had freshly been developed and we ended up needing to reduce that position and that was at the school's request because the case numbers fell. So, it was a little bit of a a learning experience in that moment. Since then, we never really ran into needing to utilize this. And when we got to this year, if you look at the the range um from the very beginning, this is tracking back into last year, the beginning of last year, just to give you an idea of what the the rhythm would be in a year overview and hovering around 18 uh to 19 to 20 21 and then back down. That's a that's a normal

044cadence for Simon since we've had this range. Um so it has been kind of in that bandwidth beyond these years. What was different this year was come uh we'll say April even though uh we technically measured it in May it spiked up but that spike is because we were not reporting the data points uh after the director's departure and that was kind of a common understanding but it wasn't that we weren't monitoring it and the the Simon's team was working with uh Susan Grover Susan Grover was working with me and we were working to mitigate and then we ultimately got into the place where we are now. Um so I would say that we've we have been especially Susan Grover principal has been working to mitigate the current solution current um overages through different creative

045solutions and we've been then looking now at what are we going to do in terms of bringing on a third special educator um and I mean transparency. I did I met with the Simons team. I I went down there. We we looked at this uh reported what we had looked at um in the ED committee. They have a lot of a lot of ideas. They have a lot of uh willingness that they want to contribute to the conversation. And I I think we've kind of there's a lot to solve and we've agreed that we really we want to unpack those in a thoughtful way over the course of maybe a year or even involving all of our schools because it's a it's a special special education model conversation. Um but definitely it was a good

046conversation around those ways to approach it. However, this is where we're at and this is what we applied. Thanks, Ben. Heather. >> Yeah. Can you explain what do you mean by this is where we're at? So, is there a is there a solution that's been devised? Like what? So, we are obviously out of compliance at the moment and we're predicting numbers that are right at the line or over the line. So, I see projected T1. So, this graph is slightly different than the one ed committee got. It's a little bit expanded, but 21 um what we looked at last week, it said 21.5 was the expected number for um trimester 1. So anyway, we're out of compliance now and we're expecting to be pretty close to the line next year. So what what are what

047is the solution? >> Yeah, I want to be careful with the word out of compliance because that's saying that we're not meeting the expectations of the IEPs. I can't say that that for certain is where we're at because I would need to then uncover within each of the service delivery um charts to see where we're at of compliance. So I I think that is something that should be done by the administration in combination with Simons and that work is in place, but I don't want to broadcast that if that's not actually the case. We are projected to be slightly above the range based off of the projection. And I did update this. I had um notified Jennifer in advance because I wanted to make sure we had the most updated data because again this was

048recently um elevated to my attention and um and I had made the team aware of that. So what we are have what we have done up until this point has been managing the situation we're in now. Uh the the plan then shifts to what are we doing for starting the school year next year because typically you drop off quite a bit with students transitioning to the middle school. That is the case. Um but again after applying this we it was decided that yeah we were going to need to do something about this. I was concerned that we were going to be above the range to start the year, which is not a place that I think we would want to be given the history. Um, and so we talked about some solutions. And then there

049was another solution that was presented through a deeper analysis of our district-wide case management numbers. And we have a school site that is well below the range and that has the ability to peel off a percentage and share some support to start next year which will actually equalize and create equity between both schools. And then it allows us to monitor this um this increase and see if it is going to materialize into a more sustained case load range. And if it does, we will then change course at that point. But we've we will be able to start immediately next year with bringing on board another special educator at a percentage that will bring uh both schools into a place that's below the range and equitable. That's conversations that'll happen with the special ed the special

050education coordinator, the two principles um and myself as needed. But that's really a very uh fresh development. >> Thanks, Ben. Other questions? All right. I had two other comments. Um I think Ben's right. Um out of compliance has some legal ramifications. That's not really what we're looking for. the um legal laws that apply here. It has been a long week and my ability to talk is not strong and I apologize. The RSAs have to do with um IEPs with um directly identified student needs and when we're not meeting those, that's when we end up out of compliance. Um what we weren't matching at the the last month or so at Simons is um we're not hitting a target range that has been set by the board and that's not even in policy. That's um I

051think it landed in procedure at some point. Um and it was that was u what three years ago now that we passed that out. Um and I do I don't want to to revisit everything that education talked about because it was a pretty extensive discussion. Um and that is available uh those minutes are now available um at central office if anybody needs to see them. They'll be in your drive soon. Um but part of this discussion actually gave us a clearer picture of you know from our perspective where we're not in the buildings on a regular basis. Um the direct ramifications of the case load versus workload discussion. Um and and that got a a decent um talking through at the education committee meeting. Um I know that that came up some in um the

052interview processes for the um new director of student services. Um what I took away from hearing you guys talk about it is that that is something that you're looking at more extensively now. Um, so I guess I would say make sure that the education committee is is um kept informed as those kind of talks go forward and very much stay on top of the case loads for the two schools that you're talking about. Um, and make sure that both of them stay within the range. Um, and if it as we get more confirmed numbers over the summer, if it starts looking like it's a problem, please come back to us with that information. I think through this process, Ben has done a great job communicating with the folks over in the building as well, and

053he's done a great job of pulling some of the data that wasn't easily accessible when you're not the director of student services. I think he's done a marvelous job of collecting that input, talking with folks, and making sure numbers were jing. Um, going into the state database to make sure that there was validity to numbers and so well done and I appreciate the collaboration, the communication. I think I think that when that these issues do come up, those processes of all right, you know, supervisor, here's what we're seeing. Um, we need to start thinking about this and supervisor, what are we going to do? I think those those conversations can help mitigate some of the concerns from getting to a point that it's a real big concern. I also want to commend um folks for

054thinking about how we can be more efficient by meeting those student needs as well. And it doesn't always mean that just because we have gone at a a self-imposed range that we need 100% more people. We and I think you alluded to that a little bit. Maybe maybe it's a shared position so that we are more efficient. Look, when we were having our discussions about our tax rates, nobody liked that discussion. But if we're not looking at ways that we can be more efficient and share resources from one building to another building. We're going to sink rather quickly. And so it's important that we're mindful of that. You know, we might not have the ability to say we have 100% people in this building and only this building and that's that and that's how it's

055going to be forever and all time created. And so, um, I appreciate that. We've got to be open-minded. We've got to look at how we can be more efficient because as we had these discussions back in January and February and into March, we're going to be in big trouble if we don't. And we'll be facing some of the same things that our neighbor neighboring districts have been facing where their budgets are not passing. We hear it when tax bills come out and we hear it loud and we're going to hear it loud in December. I can I can assure you of that because our revenue is down, our expenses are up and it's going to be a big hit. So, we might not have the luxury to say that we're bringing a person on solely

056to be in this building. They might have to move from one building to another so that we are meeting student need. And I just want to be clear about that. I appreciate the process. I hope the collaboration continues. Happy to come and sit in those discussions at any point. I know Tim would be happy to come and sit in those discussions at any point as well so that we can move forward but we can also be mindful that we don't have an endless supply of revenue. And so I just wanted to add that to this discussion because sometimes we get stuck on on specifics that well you know back in the old day we we only had We had this, this, this, and this. Well, our numbers are going down overall. We've got to be

057a little more creative in how we're sharing our resources so that we are more efficient. Who's I'm sorry was Susan. Um, >> I forgot to close public input. So, yes. steal a mic from Ben on your way by >> Ben, you've lost your screen. >> Hi, Susan Grover, principal at Simons. Um, just thank you, Rob, and thank you, Ben, for the support that you have provided the team. Um, we have really felt like this is a team to work on solving a problem. And um I just wanted to clarify um that our numbers um really by about February really climbed pretty high. So it's been since February that we have been operating with numbers above. Um and like Ben said, we have worked really hard to use the resources that we have at Simons to

058make the most for our students. Um, and just want you all to know that we do have data that we can share with you. And um, Rob, I hear you about sharing resources and it is just in our best interest and our students best interest to make sure that we can provide everything that they need um, to meet their needs. And I know that that is what everybody has in mind here. I think that's All I have to say. >> Yeah, thanks Susan. Um I do I know that um fall enrollment is happening now. So that could have a direct bearing you know what the incoming class looks like will have a direct bearing on all four of our schools. So >> yeah and and just I mean if I can just echo on like

059Susan saying I mean this this definitely I mean it's been a p I think it's been a pattern to see the Simon's numbers kind of hovering higher. It's been reported to ed committee for a while higher than like other schools and it was definitely a spike that happened and Susan reacted really quickly. Um, another factor I think that is going to be really helpful is that we've been out a special ed director but we've also been out a special ed coordinator for the elementary schools and that usually serves as the direct support to um the principal but also the the special education team. And I mean I I would like to I think part of just I think the team reaching out is that they they just that link has been a little bit eroded

060and so I think we've reestablished that and it's going to be a close relationship with the special a coordinator and so any questions from the team around um service hours or challenges and scheduling uh how to best deliver the services and be able to meet all the needs of students. It's going to be a collaborative effort and I think that support will be there and then based on that we will shift and pivot as needed. Um but I think that's just important context to have about that key position has been out this entire year too. >> Yeah, we've been bouncing around that a little bit. But um both of those positions have been vacant. Um and so we have new leadership at the top of the student services pyramid at this point. I think that's

061going to naturally lead to what Jen was alluding to. Um, a view um, you know, fresh eyes are going to come in and look at what our systems look at like like now and how we do things and how they can be done better. Um, and hopefully that will continue to be collaborative um, with the principles and um, through uh, the assistant superintendent as well. Anything else on this? I just wanted to share to make sure that everybody has this information. Um on average over the past several years there have been about 14 students that have um become special ed students following evaluation. So that is on average um per year. So looking at the projection with the contingency plan it's 22.5 to begin the year. Um and just knowing that in the elementary years

062that that is when students are identified um probably more so than in the middle school and high school years. Um and that is something that we just need to consider so that we make the best decision for our students moving forward. >> All right. Thank you everybody. and Jason grab a mic. >> Um, from my understanding, so it sounds like going into the fall it'll be a shared position temporarily. Is that right? >> Maybe. >> So if if that is the case, I guess I was wondering what what Mari would feel about that if that's appropriate. We're still in open open time. No, that's a discussion that the administration would have um with the buildings and they can bring that back to us afterwards, but that's not um we're already pretty far into a discussion

063that should be happening either at the committee level or in the buildings rather than at the full board meeting. >> Okay. I guess I was just wondering with with with the discussion we've had here today, is there what what is the movement from that though? >> And go ahead. >> Yeah, I can try to answer that. So, I've gone deeper than I probably ever would at a board meeting with this. Um, I think the reason that we're doing that is that things have developed so quickly and um, typically when we have a solution like this, it would go through the chain of command, which would be the building principal working with their team. And so, I like that solution was brought to Susan. Um, I'm not going to go meet with the team again. I

064think they know that it's not because I don't want to go see them. Uh, it's because we're we're trying to all work towards the same goals. Uh so that gets shared and that was recently shared um as of today and so it's really recent and it's going to be as Rob said it's going to take some time to understand like what that share might be because it's going to involve an analyzing the data that Simons is referring to which wouldn't go to the board necessarily like we have people to do that. So we would work with the team, use their data they've collected, use the dis uh district uh database data and ultimately kind of develop a plan for the percentage share. Um so we don't know what that'll be yet, but it'll be it'll

065be a collaborative agreement on this is going to be what's best for the kids at both schools. All right, I'm going to close public input a half hour late. Um, Jen, do you have anything else for the education committee? All right, then we're going to move ahead to finance Walker. >> And thank you, Simons folks, for coming out. Um, I know you guys are very passionate for your school. I know personally because my kiddos went there. So, um, It's always good to see you here and advocating. I saw those. I saw those consented and the new ones. Okay. I was just wondering why stuff wasn't together and now I understand. Okay. So, consent agenda items we've already voted on. But you should acknowledge the gifts. So those go into the public record. >> Okay. Right.

066Um so let's see here. Uh under the consent agenda, um I'm acknowledging the gift from Mr. Brian Lindort. uh he gave a aperture uh telescope and lenses that were valued at 1,300 to Keenh High for use uh at STEM activities and evening science fairs. Um acknowledging that with gratitude, um the Fuller School PTA gave to Fuller Elementary a basket adjustable basketball system valued at $9,91 plus installation costs of $1,500. So we are we have accepted that with gratitude. Um we also received a gift of $10,000 from Town Fair Tire to the Cheshure Khai Cheshure Career Center for 10 $1,000 vocational school awards which accepted with gratitude. Then we are voting on this next gift to accept it. >> Yeah. Okay. I will move on behalf of the finance committee that the Keen board accepts with

067gratitude a gift of $1,000 from Steven Chelinski to Keen Community Education for programs as needed. >> That was Jen that seconded that. Are you trying to bring it up or Which one? >> It's the Number seven district. Right. Any questions? Why am I so loud? >> Okay. All those in favor? Any oppos? Carries. 7 nothing. Uh, now we have the funds transfer >> just for the new board members. the finance committee. Rob and the finance committee have the authority to approve budget transfers. Rob can approve transfers under $10,000 and the finance committee can approve over $10,000 with the caveat that any transfer that includes a salary or benefit line item has to be approved by the finance committee. Also in the policy board policy, we have to put a report in to show you what

068they did. So you just vote on it as a report. If there's a transfer that comes in after the finance committee, sometimes that's come on your agenda, but the finance committee hasn't kind of like what happened today with and so you have two in there, but it's unusual. >> Yes. >> Next month you'll have those because there is no finance committee meeting. Just to let you know how it works. >> Okay. Yes, thank you. Um, and so the funds transfer report was reviewed by finance just mentioned and uh we would recommend approval. This sort of captures all of the fund transfers in one document that we reviewed. Uh, and we make sure that it all makes sense and there's no detrimental impact on students. Okay. >> Uh so I am making a motion to accept

069the funds transfer report asformational. >> Second questions. >> Questions on the transfer report? >> Can I have ask a quick question? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> I just you probably answered it because you said that you the finance committee does assure that it it's not any transfers that negatively impact students. I just was curious because some of these funds transfers this time around included things like um the funding was coming from accounts that took care of field trips and inservices and evaluations. Um I just was wondering is that because it's the end of the year and so those funds aren't being used. Is that why? >> Yeah. >> So if they have needs that are above their budget in another account, they'll look at their funds and say, "Oh, my field trips cost less or

070I have this supply." So they look to transfer from those line items. >> That makes sense. Thanks, Any other questions? All those in favor opposed carry 70. And then we do have a new transfer as well. >> The first one is the $23,626 put in by Mike Smith for the middle school. It's for the cost of a LNA in place of a classroom assistant. >> They give the reason where it's been posted for months and no viable applications. >> I will make a motion to approve this budget transfer from Key Middle School for 23,626. Second. Further questions on what they've just explained? All those in favor? Any opposed? Carry 70. >> There's a fuller one, too. >> I thought there was a fuller one in here, too. >> There is. Um, if >> it should

071be 6A, >> because I put it in myself. Here it is. >> Okay. >> N I have it in front of me. >> Here it is. >> Oh, yeah. That's >> it. Okay. Um, so this one looks like it is a transfer of $50,000. $50,400 for BCBA, which was supposed to be paid for from special education grant, but only part of the cost was placed in the grant. So, so this is was was really an error by that grant manager. We started the year without having the new grant money approved. So, we were working off our leftovers that go through their two-year grant that were able to still be spent. They put in about $32,000 in the grant and then never put the remainder in the grant and that position left. And then they called

072me and said, "Well, we have all these bills and we didn't put it in the grant. It's too late now. So, this has to go to the budget." So, I said, "Get a budget transfer in. Let's get it paid and we'll get it in this month." >> I did not. I don't think I just explained it. Um, I'll make a motion to approve the Fuller's request for a $50,400 uh budget transfer to pay for a BCBA position. >> Second that. >> Any questions? All those in favor? Opposed? Carry >> 70. Okay. Middle school and George mentioned the finance committee meeting in June will the business our business will happen during the regular board meeting. We will not have a separate finance committee meeting. Uh, one other thing that we touched on in um in uh

073our last finance committee meeting was the project keep uh program um I think we had a handful two that two what we're not going to be collecting. They're going >> Oh, I think it was about $32,000. >> 32. Okay. I can't remember the number of families, but I'm guessing it's more like >> 30 >> Seven. Okay. Um and then uh what I thought was really exciting was that um the school district will no longer be running Project Keep. It's not going away. Uh we are going to be more at arms length with the YMCA um staffing it, but renting out our facilities. Uh a lot of things are going to come from this. We're going to be collecting rent um and we will be able to take portion of that rent after um paying paying

074some salaries. Uh about $20,000 of that rent will go to fund a scholarship for other students to join Project Keep. Um and then we think we'll have a broader reach. We'll reach more students. We're going to be able to give 25% more time to the program so students can stay later. Um, and we will even be able to offer snacks. >> Anything else to add, Tim? >> I assume it's not going to be called Project Keep going forward. >> No, it won't be called Project Keep. It'll be the YMCA's afterchool program. We will simply be the lesser. But, uh, it'll cost families more. They'll get more. But for our poorest families, they'll now be eligible for assistance through the state where now the cheapest we had was about 1150 a student per day. That program

075for our poorest families will be free. The next tier will be $5 a week. The next tier will be 7% of their income uh weekly income. At that level, we will also kick in our now 50% uh uh scholarship that we are going to form as a district. Um we've also structured the rent so students who are eligible for re free and reduced get a discounted rate. We able to ensure that the way we structured it uh and the students will get a membership to the Y. Uh you know we could have a different contractor in two years. This isn't all guaranteed but right now we met with a couple partners in the city. We thought the Y had the best offer and we think it's a win-win. Uh really what we found is we

076were not effectively able to manage that program. And I want to tell you one of the reasons why. I don't want to just I'm not trying to bash us. I just want to be realistic. We didn't we we couldn't do as good a job as I hoped uh as we all would hope um with finances and running a safe program. Part of that is because We can't hire our own keen staff and it's really hard to hire someone to come work two hours a day after school. Um, and because we could not afford to hire our own staff because that would be overtime and then the cost of the program would be prohibited. This lets all our employees that get off at the end of school be able to apply to that program to earn

077extra hours. Um, so that opens up a whole hiring group for our contractor or our less or ley. Um, so we're excited about it. They're excited. Contract signed. We'll see how it goes. We did get some guarantee that we couldn't do ourselves. When we don't have enough numbers in a site, we would close a site or we couldn't hire in recent years. In that case, the contract states that they would have to transport at no cost to the families to a site that remains open. And that's something we weren't able to do ourselves. So, we're pretty excited about that. Good. All right. Thank you, everybody. Uh personnel committee, uh Mr. Roberts had to leave for a city council meeting. Uh Mr. Javon is going to fill in there. >> Yes. So, most of it's going

078to be non-public. Um, but looking at some of the job postings, um, we're getting pretty close, it looks like, on a student services director. Hopefully this week, we should we should hear back and know kind of where we stand there. Um, and then the food services director position um, has interviews this week. Uh, as well as the KHS math position and then, um, some of the speech pathologist positions. Um, there was one other thing. I didn't know if this was the right spot for it. Um, Chris had brought up the renewal of Rob's ability to um hire with us having with us not having to approve kind of right away and allowing it especially over the summer to run its course. Is that this meeting or next meeting? >> All right. Um, I don't remember

079the wording. Authorized. All right. I'm going to go ahead and make the motion because that's easier. Move to authorize the superintendent to accept resignations and to hire with the board's approval. Did I get that right? on the board's behalf. >> Do we usually put a time? Do we usually say until December? >> Usually until we do it just for the summer and then re reestablish in the fall. Yes. >> September. >> Yes. Until the September full board meeting. >> Thanks, Jen. Nice catch. >> You don't need to. Our stenographer is a genius and probably had that already. Any other questions? This is something we normally do particularly over the summer because we don't meet in in July and um we've in the past lost out on hires because they've had to wait for approval from

080the board. Right. All those in favor? Opposed? Carry 70. Is that it? Okay. Uh, policy did not meet this month. Um, I do think I have a note from education um to myself that I think policy is going to repick up the field trip policy. We've been kind of leaving that on board more time for the last year and nothing's happened with it. We need to get some clarity on that for the schools going forward and make it less ownorous for things like this Franklin field trip that we just had to approve here. And there's lots of other issues to look as well. So, I think policy committee is going to pick that up. And then there's a number of policies that are being sent back to us from various committees from the last month

081along with everything that the legislaturator is busy doing. All right. School liaison. Hang on. I got to switch to my other document that actually has your names on it. Uh, high school, Mr. Washer. Thank you. Um, okay. Well, happening tonight at the um high school is the spring instrumental concert featuring the concert band, the jazz ensemble, and the string orchestra, and the encorus ensemble. I'm sure that's going to be great. Um, 15 seniors are being honored with the New Hampshire Seal of Biiteracy. Uh the seal is given out on diplomas to those students who have achieved a level of proficiency in English and one or more additional languages. Um the students will receive a notation on their transcripts, a seal of biiteracy on their diplomas and an honor cord for their graduation regalia. Um congratulations

082to them all. And what else? Um the drama club performed a crucible last weekend and I'm told that it was um an outstanding production. Uh, congratulations to the cast and crew. Um, the prom and the unified prom were held uh, I think on Friday was the unified prom. U, I saw some pictures on the, uh, on Facebook and it looked like a great night and a great event. Um Autumn Jeffs completed an extended learning opportunity at the high school in the field of occupational therapy um by shadowing SAU 29's occupational therapists Melia Hol and Hannah French. Um Autumn's going to be attending Mount Holio College in the fall and will be studying occupational therapy. Um and let's see, the senior art show is on display at the high school until May 28th in the main

083hallway. Um the high school's model UN club um competed up at Philips Extter recently. Um they took home a best delegate award and two outstanding delegate awards. Um congratulations to them. And um let's see, uh senior lacrosse player Lucy Timmer uh had a nice article in the Sentinel celebrating her for scoring her 100th career goal. Um congratulations to her. She'll be playing for Calvin University in Michigan in the fall. And a couple events that I don't think were mentioned before. Um, tomorrow the music department at the high school is doing their annual banquet. Um, May 22nd, which is a Friday, is a half day, early release day. And, um, I think that's about it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jason. Chester Career Center. Miss Freedman. Um, okay. So, uh, they are just about completed with

084all of their focus group interviews for the comprehensive needs assessment. Uh, and their next step is to compile all the data into a final report. Um, on May 27th, they will have their scholarship and completion ceremony um, at Keen High School Auditorium at 7 PM. And on May 28th is new student stepup day when the incoming students come and visit the programs and you know get acclimated to the space and bring their Chromebooks so that they can come in in September on day one already connected and um and uh they will already be oriented which is great. And then on June 4th is their signing day. Um where the CTE students celebrate their acceptances to various colleges um or employment opportunities or the their military apprenticeship programs. Um whatever their next step is. Um they

085get to sit in front of the desk with the banner behind them and um celebrate their completion of school. and the next step that they're they're that they're going on to um uh the plant sales going on every day from 10 to 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 to 3:15. Um they're selling all the things that the horiculture students have grown uh from seed. So I stopped by and bought my plants there. Um is pretty cool. Uh cosmetology opened their Blackbird beauty salon. Um, so they are now doing nails. Um, in the salon. Uh, yeah, I think that's Oh, go ahead. >> Just what a big shout out to Richard Town and the team for the career fair that they put on. I mean, it was >> that was in your report. Yes. >> Yeah, it was

086it was phenomenal. um employers who came and did presentations couldn't stop talking about how amazing our students were and our students couldn't stop talking about how amazing an opportunity it was to learn about different professions, different fields that exist. It's been a long time coming. Richard and I talked about this when he first came on board and he's never lost sight and just had to figure out a way to pull this off logistically. And I think he not only met, but he exceeded all expectations with this first version of a a career exploration fair for our students at the high school. And I just wanted to give him a big shout out for that. I know we heard it at the regional region 13 meeting um but a lot of folks weren't able to be

087there. Um it it turned out to be quite a a dynamic event. Um, and hopefully we'll be able to keep that moving keep that in place moving forward. >> Else, thank you, Jen. Uh, Keen Middle School, Miss Walker. >> All right. >> Um, so Keen Middle School eighth graders just had their annual trip to Washington DC. They went uh before April break this year and it looks like it's going to happen again next year before April break. Uh just logistics in getting the availability of the perfect hotel. It's one of those hotels that has like the balcony around so you can sit in the middle and see all the floors and doors. Um so they like that one. Um the clusters have all been taking turns going up to high five which is like a

088high ropes course. building um fun stuff. Uh fly ups have been happening where elementaryaries visit Keen Middle School and eighth graders visit the high school. Uh some fly downs where guidance counselors um come from the high school to visit Keen Middle School. Uh exciting stuff. They're doing their SAS testing, which my son says is way too long, but we've had some great results with about 80% of kids having taken the test were showing, sorry, the ELA components. Uh we're showing a 60% proficiency rate up from last year's 52. I think I heard uh math will SAS math will be happening next week. Um, June 2nd is the National Junior Honor Society induction and the achievement day at KMS is on June 18th at 1:30 p.m. Um, and of course the word of the week I

089have to mention is evidence, which is factual information used to prove something. >> Thank you, Paige. Um, Franklin School, Mr. Denny. >> Yeah, Franklin. Uh, students are in the middle of SAS testing right now. Uh, Mr. Cres is projecting gains and uh, both ELA and math this year, both in proficiency and growth. It didn't have the numbers uh, from them, but uh, my son seemed like he was pretty excited to be over with one of the tests last week. uh PE and music teachers. Uh last week they did what was called uh uh cardio drumming. Uh it was each grade level got to uh participate in this. Um it's exactly what it sounds like. Uh so kids getting to bang on things to make a lot of noise and put put up their energy and

090be active uh in the school. Uh which a few of the days last week were kind of bad weather. So, I think that worked out really well on at least two of them. Um, annual field day is coming up. I believe that's June 4th. Uh, it's the first or second week of June coming up. Uh, typically that's done at Franklin. It's, uh, this year they've got they're going over to Robin Hood. Um, the, uh, they've coordinated to have lifeguards there and have the pool opened up. Uh, so each grade will get a a turn in the pool this year. Uh so they're pretty excited about that. They're a little nervous about taking it off campus uh because that's the first time they've done that, but uh everybody seems like they're pretty excited to get to

091use uh some some really nice city facilities over there. Um I got the the schoolwide read uh right now. It's a book called Magnolia Woo. Um I got to read about eight chapters out of it. Um they're going to have the uh the end of that that's coming up in about a week and a June 3rd, family literacy night. Uh so pizza is going to be available. Uh and everybody gets to keep the book that they've already got at home with them. And then they're going to send uh some art supplies and things like that home uh with the kids to have for the summer with that. Um and fifth grade students got to do their outdoor classroom uh over their April break. Um, and then next year they're planning on doing it at Pilgrim,

092uh, Pilgrim of the Pines. And that is all I have. Thank you, Russell. Um, Fuller School, Mr. Phyio is not with us tonight. Um, Simon's school is Oh, yes. Sorry, Heather. I moved off of my screen that has people's names again. >> Uh, yeah. So, uh, Simons had their Simon school community garden work party on May 23rd, the Saturday from 9 to 3. Uh, their fifth graders recently went to the outdoor classroom annual field trip for three days and two nights. Um, they are continuing with their SAS testing last week and this week. Uh, fifth graders have, as Paige mentioned from the middle school perspective, uh, the fifth graders um have been visiting KMS for tours um in anticipation of becoming sixth graders. Uh, the Rotary Club, uh, they have a program called Sneakers for

093Seventh Grade where every second grader at Simon School was gifted a pair of sneakers from the Elm City Rotary Club. And then the Rotary Club is also sponsoring the kids tomorrow marathon on Sunday September 27th which is a while away but they are encouraging kids to register now by May 29th so that drive is happening at Simons right now there are some upcoming events the kindergarten open house is on May 27th annual Simon's circus is on June 12th from 12:30 to 2:15 and then we've got the fifth grade funday on June 16th followed by fifth grade graduation on the 17th at 7 p.m. Uh, I have also been, as you can imagine, um, talking with Susan Grover about some of these challenges with the support services team. And so, you know, there's it's been really

094nice to be able to go to some assemblies at Simons and visit the school and kind of see what activities they're doing and also be a liazison in terms of speaking about challenges and that has been a topic of conversation quite a bit lately. So, I've learned a lot. I've read some of their data. Um, just learning a little bit more about the ins and outs of that. And I can say that it it does, you know, I guess I see more of the anecdotal side of the discussion that we had earlier tonight. Um, and see that there's, you know, there's a there's um a morale side to it as well that I think the staff at Simons are struggling with, but also very supportive of each other. Um, they kind of think of themselves

095as the Simons family. It's good to see that side of it. Um, last but not least, following Paige's model, the word of the week is tenacity, which is a great word for the week of SAS testing. >> That's all I have. >> Thank you, Heather. Um, Wheelock School, Mr. German. >> Yes. Lock just had their SC Scholastic book fair earlier this month. Um that was always one of my favorite weeks going there. Um they got the talent show coming up tomorrow followed by the spring fling on Thursday. Um the reading with Riby game is coming up on June 9th. Um they also have their annual fourth grade capital visit. Um which I was actually lucky enough to be able to join them last year on. Um and there's always a good time for the fourth

096graders there. Um, and then field day coming up on June 15th. >> Thank you, Dylan. Um, what's left? Oh, Jonathan Daniels in community education. Chris Roberts is not with us. Um, the Keen community ed um Rob, what do we call it? Complete. It's not a completion ceremony. >> Adult diploma. Yeah, adult diploma ceremony. Uh, also May 27th, same night as as the career center uh awards night. Uh it's going to be a busy night here. Um and other than that, the rest of that report will be put off till next month. Um NHSBA, um Paige is going to handle this report. Um I do want to ask Dylan, would you be interested in taking that spot for the coming year as our liaison? Um Paige was willing to stay on it, but I need her

097to be helping me. Um, and I'm sure she's willing to to work with you as well. All right. But, um, tonight um, we have, uh, proposed resolutions or continuing resolutions. Is the the deadlines coming up on that? The deadline for any new resolutions is July 3. I think my recollection is right. Um, and Okay. Um, and so I I thought I would I think George, you had mentioned why don't we look at the continuing resolutions and just make sure that we don't want to tweak them or make any suggestions. Um, so I should have probably asked Shaya to add this to the drive. Guess what? I did not. Um, there are six of them. Um, and I think I think that we will feel pretty good about them. The first one is uh that the

098NHSBA will advocate for minimum standards for public schools approved approval uh ED rule 306 that are consistent with the NHSBA statements of belief manual. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Comments. Um >> why don't you read >> them >> through them all and then we'll see if people have comments on. >> All right. Uh the second one, the NHSBA will advocate for laws governing governing impact fees to be updated to require local planning boards to revisit impact fee methodology, policy, and schedule at least every five years to ensure local ordinances reflect legislative or rule changes and consider other local factors and school district concerns. It's probably the longest one. Number three, NHSBA will support legis legislation that requires the state of New Hampshire to fund the cost of the youth risk behavior survey for all New

099Hampshire middle school students in the state in districts that wish to implement it. Number four, NHSBA supports legislation which prioritizes the well-being and safety of students and while recognizing the rights of parents to make decisions about their children. Also gives due consideration and weight to educators professional judgment in their responsibility under the code of ethics for New Hampshire educators to always act in a student's best interest. Number five, NHSBA opposes statemandated open enrollment. Number six, NHSBA supports legislation that would for that would for a simple majority to approve bonds intended for the maintenance, repair, or improvement of existing school district facilities, especially when the major portion of the B borrowed funds are essential to bring such facilities up to fire and other safety requirements or improvements necessary to meet the requirements of all the minimum

100standards for school facilities. >> All right. And those are the continuing resolutions, right? Okay. >> Continuing resolutions for 2026. >> All right. Um I am not opposed to us not bringing anything this year as a board. Um we have gone through a lot of personnel changes on our own. We've cycled through four NHSBA liaison in the last 18 months. Um, and quite honestly, we're getting buried under legislation from the state. Uh normally NHSPA proposed resolutions are asking the NHSPA to advocate on our behalf to the state legislature and the deluge is such that it's almost impossible to produce enough resolutions to counter what's coming at the state level. Um, you've heard in that list that Paige went through a lot of the hot button topics of recent years. Um, open enrollment, um, divisive concepts, um,

101book banning, um, which the legislature will tell you up and down that's not what they're doing. Um, and they lie. Um, but all of these things exist. Um, unfortunately, they're all going to get debated pretty extensively again. Um, but just to take the open enrollment one as an example, the current resolution, continuing resolution is very clear and straightforward. It's something the NHSBA can grab hold of and say this is what our representative boards wish for us to advocate for. There will be proposals to add paragraphs and paragraphs to that simple statement. Um, and honestly, I think we're best placed for the NHSPA to have simple guidelines right now. Um, they are underst staffed and under manned and trying to advocate for public education as are we all. Um, and I am inclined that we support

102them by not making that job more complicated. That said, if there's current legislation that any of you feel need to be addressed with a resolution, um, this would be the time to bring it up. June 4th, you said, was probably the deadline. >> Third. Yeah. So, that's before our next meeting. Um, so this is definitely a speak now if there's something you feel need to be addressed. Um, on the plus side, oh, okay. So, we can we do have next meeting as well. So you can bring something as a last minute to the next meeting and we'll try and hammer something out at that time. On the plus side, most of this stuff continues. Um, which sometimes is kind of painful to watch. But, um, you know, Dylan has been part of this. His dad

103is still part of this. Um, it will all come back again. Um, even the most distasteful stuff that get passed will all come back again. So, we will have future tries at this as well. I always find this part depressing. Anyway, anyone have further thoughts on that? Welcome to bring them next month when you've had time to percolate on it. Go ahead, Dylan. >> So, the one thought I have just going through those six, um, there was one that addresses bonding and kind of defending a district's ability to get those bonds. Um, last year what I actually saw in my committee in the House was a tax going after leasing and just other kind of avenues that districts could go through um, when it comes to how to fund whether it be different contracts or

104um, if we need appliances or anything coming in. Um, so I just don't know if we want to look into that wording and see if we want to make it more inclusive of kind of what funding options we have and what would kind of really hurt if there was a limit put on those. Yeah, it's the NHSBA supports legislation that would for a simple majority to approve bonds intended for the maintenance, repair, or improvement of existing school district facilities, especially when the major portion of the borrowed funds are essential to bring that facility that facility up to fire and safety requirements. Um, so while this obviously protects bonds, um, There was a bill that kind of targeted that exact case for leasing scenarios that would have made if passed it impossible nearly impossible to go

105down that avenue. I don't know what the adjusted wording would be though. Um, do you want to reach out to Tim Roar and ask him about this one and if he thinks it's a good idea to bring suggested wording to the June meeting? Okay, let's do that then. I do understand what you're saying. The intent of this is because currently a bond requires twothirds approval of um I'd say registered voters, but actually it's registered voters that bother to show up. Um, and this was an attempt to reduce that to 51% because twothirds is a really big lift these days in getting a bond approved. Um, across the state we've seen a number of get uh around 55%. Um, clearly the towns have been in favor but not at that level that you need to get

106a bond approved. So that was the intent of this resolution. But yeah, why don't you check with Tim and see what he thinks about this. All right. Um prompted um by a question from Jason. Um if any of you want to do the trainings that NHSBA offers, those will be covered by the district. Um you register for them and when it gets to the the part about what district you're in, you list list Keen as your district. Um and we'll get the district will get build. Um, just make sure that you you'll get a confirmation, copy that confirmation to Shaina Pelky so she knows that bill is coming. Um, and that way she knows that it's legitimate and not just something that got accidentally thrown our way. >> All right. Um, >> all right. SAU29.

107Um I we did just have a meeting this past week. Um I wasn't there. Um EGA was reelected as chair. Um I was reelected as vice chair. Um I did ask to be nominated for that. It wasn't a situation of you're not here, we're going to make you do it. Um which we did do to Jim Carly one year about 10 years ago. Um there was discussion about holding a retreat for the SAU board this summer. Um and as I heard heard the breakdown of that discussion from um three different directions, I realized that one thing that we probably need to talk about um if we can pull that retreat together is um a re-education on the SAU board versus town board structure and what the purpose of the SAU board is. Um, I think

108most of us that have been on it for a while think we know what that is. Um, but I'm not sure that we all have the same definition of what that is. Um, and I think it's important to make sure that we all know what the purpose of that board is um, in order to get its work done correctly. And I know Egga has some other ideas of things that that she might want to talk about. So, uh, stay tuned for that discussion. that will probably come in the form of um a doodle poll with some suggested dates. Um as I've mentioned before, by being members of this board, you are all automatically members of the SAU board. Uh if we do hold a retreat, um for it to be useful, we would need um

109the majority of the 33 people to actually be able to be present for it. All right. Um, and Rob, I realized we don't have an SAU advisory schedule to go over the results of the superintendent eval, so I have to touch base with Kathy and get that scheduled. >> Yeah, turn on your mic, Chase. >> Just on the the SAU 29 meeting, I I attended this last one. Paige was there as well, and before I went, I wasn't sure who who was supposed to be there, who was who was supposed to attend. Um it is a very welcoming message from Eggy in terms of that she would like to see all the board members of all the districts there which would be 31 people. Um so I I think that's great and I I would

110encourage everyone to come to a meeting. Bless you. >> Yeah, it's been interesting. When I first started this 12 years ago, um we usually had 25 or so of the 30 or so members attend. Um, and now we're most of the meetings we're down to not even all of the board chairs, just enough of the board chairs to get a quorum. Um, and I know EGA has tried all sorts of different ways to get attendance up. Um, the good news is the reason attendance is down now and was up then is because when I first joined there was still a decent amount of strife between the Keen boards and the other six towns that comprise the SAU. Um, so everybody came to make sure that their interests and voices were heard. um she and I

111have worked really hard to bridge that gap and make it a team effort at the SAU board level. Um and that has largely worked, but then that means that people don't feel like they need to go as frequently. So, um that's been a constant source of frustration for Ega. So, I know that that's part of why she wants to hold a retreat as well. Um, and I do think redefining um, what that board is and does and what their responsibilities are and what they're trying to accomplish could um, bring attendance back up again. All right. Um, old business, we talked about the agendas. No, we'll do it under other or new. I guess we'll do it under new business. All right. 2627 meeting schedule um, is in your drive. It's pretty standard. Um, it has

112the flip in January and it has the flip in um, May this month. Um, and I noticed that we're probably going to end up having to flip June again as well, but we'll have to wait and see when graduation is scheduled before we make that decision. So, other than that, this is the standard schedule that we approve every year, including the uh, budget sessions. Um, can I have a motion to approve the meeting schedule as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any concerns with this? >> Um, >> it was Veterans Day. the 11th. >> Yeah. Yeah. I had I looked it up when that happened and this was the first time it's happened in since we've been like saving the calendar back. So, back before I was on the board even, so it's pretty

113rare, but I I looked at that, too. All right. All those in favor? Any opposed? 70. Uh scholarships. Um I think we need to do in non-public in case anybody wants to bring up names and also we don't want it on the public record. Um what that is is there's um a number of scholarship one two three four five six seven scholarships comprising uh 12 students that are administered by the scholarship fund at the high school and those because the funds come from the school district they have to be approved by us. So, we have recommendations from the high school for those scholarship recipients and we will cover that in non-public because we do not want to announce those names ahead of scholarship night. Um, new business. I know um Paige uh messaged me asking

114me to put um a potential Keen School board retreat on um under new business. And that would be a working retreat. Um we haven't actually had one in about three years. I don't think the last actually no two because we had one right after the um strategic plan was approved. Um and we haven't really had one since and that one um got bogged down pretty badly. Um um but I think that we now have um Paige has some suggestions for potential topics and um I think we'll obviously as it gets if we schedule one um we'll open it up to some other topics and figure out exactly what we want to focus on. But I think the key is going to be to go into this with um a very clear purpose as to what

115we want to accomplish so that we don't get bogged down in in runarounds and circles and whatnot. Um, and when I first approached Paige about running for vice chair, one of the things I suggested was that she would take planning of the um of the next retreat. Um, just because I planned the last one, it didn't go well. So, we'll try someone else this time. Um the suggestion that you sent me was to hold a retreat in conjunction with the August meeting um which would be the second Tuesday in August um with the possibility of moving the date around um in order to get attendance because there's not really a pressing need to hold the meeting on exactly that date. Um is that as a concept something that you guys are comfortable with? um using

116our August meeting mostly for a retreat and maybe half an hour for just important business like Bravo present folks that he's hired over the summer and that sort of thing. All right, if that's good, then um we will work with Shaina to start getting some exact scheduling and and get some polls out about topics and I'll have you share your talks with the board at that time. >> All right. Just because we're running late tonight and I don't want to Yeah. All right. Any other new business before the board? >> Yep. Go ahead. One quick thing. Uh so the exceptional teacher committee met today. >> Um and we've we've got uh we had nominations, which is pretty amazing. Um so we we're we're pretty close on getting to our 10. Uh we have a couple

117questions out to three different uh school principles to just get a little bit more information to help us um get these last three names. Uh but one of the things that came out of it was we had some really fantastic literally like three paragraphs written on all of these exceptional teachers and we thought it would be a really nice thing like some of these I wanted to run to the teachers and give it to them and I don't know was it Brian mentioned that he used to do that and cut them out and put them on a little postcard and leave them on their desk. So we thought that another way to engage school liaison with their schools would be if we passed out this this form uh to you all and either copy and

118paste into emails sending to the teacher directly or if you want to do a handwritten tape and postcard thing uh that um uh so we We we thought that would be great and Jennifer and I both were if if you don't have bandwidth would be happy to help out with anybody who doesn't have bandwidth to send these things. Yeah, there there were so many teachers nominated who obviously 10 are going to get the awards, but um it would just be we we felt it would really be special to have these teacher to acknowledge these teachers and say you were nominated and this is what your student or former student or the parent of your student um you know had to say about you on your nomination. It's just a way of letting them know that

119they are appreciated. Um and give them that feedback. >> Now, obviously, I don't know what your form looks like. There was concern a few years back. Um, we when we were including nomination comments when we gave the awards, >> um, we had been listing who had made the nominations. Um, and somebody expressed concern that at least student nominations could be considered protected information. Um, so if there's a way to redact perhaps and just say a student or former student or colleague rather than the names of the folks doing the nominating. >> Yep. The form. >> Yeah, that's what I was going to say. If it comes that way already then. Yeah. >> And then Yeah, I think and I can read through. I don't think there's any names really. It's usually my son or my

120daughter. >> Um, yeah, >> just because we don't want to accidentally discourage future nominations >> and not to scare everybody. There are not 149 individual nominations. >> Uh so you're, you know, maybe have >> All right. Thank you guys. I know that's a lot to go through. I appreciate it. All right. Um can I have a motion to go into non-public session in accordance with RSA 913 for student personnel, staff personnel and wow and negotiations? >> So moved. Roll call, please. Jennifer. >> Yes. All right. All right, we will take a fivem minute recess and reconvene.