001All right. All right, we've got 6:30, so we're going to go ahead and open the April 14th meeting, regular meeting of the Keen Board of Education. Um, before we get into our agenda, what I'd like to ask is for legal counsel to go ahead and swear in our recently elected school board members. >> Happy to do so. Thanks, Rob. Uh, so to Heather Gilligan, uh, Jason Washer, Jennifer Freriedman, and Russell Denny, I'd ask you to please raise your right hand. Uh, >> turn on your mics, please. >> Have a shared mic. >> Microphones are on. Good. Thank you. Uh, do you solemnly swear that you will bear faith and true allegiance to the United States of America and the state of New Hampshire and will support the Constitutions thereof? And do you swear you do
002that under the pains and penalties of perjury? >> Yes. >> Okay. Do you also solemnly and sincerely swear and affirm that you will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all duties incumbent on you as a school keen school board member according to the best of your abilities to the rules and regulations of the constitution and the laws of the state of New Hampshire? And do you do that also under the pains and penalties of perjury? >> Yes, >> I do. >> I will ask you then sign yours in two places there and there. Washer there and there. >> There. Russ. Thank you. >> All right. >> I will attest to these and then they go back to the clerk. >> Awesome. Want to say thank you to Adam for being here to help swear in
003our newly elected or recently reelected uh members and welcome aboard to those who are brand new. So, we're going to start our meeting as we typically do with the pledge of allegiance. So, usually I take advantage of this one meeting a year where I get to open and call to order and promptly adjourn, but we won't do that today because we've got a lot of business to take care of. First order of business is that before I can hand the reigns back over to somebody else on the board, we need to elect a chair. So, I would open up the floor for nominations for chair of the Keen Board of Education. Move we nominate George Downing for chair. Second. >> Got a nomination in a second for George Downing to serve as a chair of
004the Keen Board of Education. Are there any other nominations hearing? None. We'll go ahead and close that and we will ask for your vote in favor. All those in favor of George Downing serving as the chair of the Keen Board of Education, please indicate by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? The meeting is yours. >> Thank you, Rob. Thank you everyone else for your continued faith in me. Um, and I now need a nomination for the vice chair. >> I move to nominate Paige Walker. I will second that. >> These are really loud, Tim. Good with the rain. >> Can you hear Jacqueline? All right. Um, a nomination and second for Paige. Any other nominations for vice chair? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? All right.
00590. So that's chair and vice chair. Um, I will do the committee assignments and the other board positions uh as part of the chair's report in a few minutes. Uh, do we have any public input tonight? All right, seeing none, public input will be open until roughly 7:05. Public input can also be emailed to uh, Shaina Pelky, selky sau.org, sau9.org. Uh, please include public input as the subject line. Can I have a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. Any corrections? Any documents people need pulled out? Seeing none, all those in favor? Any opposed? Carries. 90 for uh Jason and Russell's benefit. Um our board manual does require everybody to vote. Um if you're asked to vote on something and you feel you don't have enough information, you are welcome to
006vote no rather than approving. Um if you abstain you are counted as part of the majority vote which is also acceptable if you feel like in the case of minutes to a meeting that you didn't attend that you have to abstain you would just get counted as part of the majority. Um you can ask to be recused from a vote if you believe that there is conflict of interest. Um lost my place. Report of the student representative. Sarah, do you have something for us? >> I do. Yes. So, uh, this month has been pretty eventful. We had our Pride ball on April 4th, which was very successful. Um, our PSAT and SAT day was on April 8th, and seem to go well from what I know. Um, April 9th, we had a meeting for our
007juniors about applying to college for them and their parents. Um, 10th, April 10th and 11th, we had nostalgia, which was really, really, really good. Um, I went to one of them and it was it was amazing. Um, April 14th, which was today we had a college success program. Tomorrow we have a career and job assembly day. We have over 70 businesses come coming to speak with our students. Um the 16th to the 18th we have all state music festival. We have several students attending that this year. Um the 21st Screen Aagers part two um which is for parent viewing. Uh, April 22nd and 23rd um is during eye time for students to see that screeners part two. Um, and then spring break and our Puerto Rico trip. And then that's all I have for April.
008>> Thanks, Sarah. Um, are you with us in June or is this your last meeting with us? >> Um, I think I am here to help the the next >> Okay. transitionive and we're doing elections two weeks I think that so >> okay all right thank you all right board of the board chair so now it's my turn again um I do have to start with some housekeeping um there is no policy meeting for the month of April that falls during April vacation uh and too many of us in including our administrative liaison are not going to be available. So we won't be holding policy in April. Uh May is one of the months that we need to swap um the full board meeting and the education committee. Education will be meeting on the second
009Tuesday, which is the 12th. Um Jennifer, if that's a conflict, we'll figure that out. Okay. Um and the full board will meet on the third Tuesday, which is the 19th. Um, and the reason for that is to give the high school time to get the scholarships that the board has to approve uh, ready for us. Um, June, and this is not normally the case, but June is going to be shuffled as well. The June meeting is scheduled for currently the 9th, and the 9th is in the middle of graduation week at the high school. Um, the superintendent uh, and myself and several other people have various obligations pretty much every night that week. Um, so the full board will meet on Tuesday, June 2nd. Um, facilities and finance will be figuring out at their May
010meeting what they want to do in June. If they want to hold it on the 9th or not hold it at all, depends on what they've got on their agendas. Uh, May is also going to include the annual superintendent evaluation that is done in non-public. U, but board members should be aware that that's coming. I'll be emailing you some details about that prior to that meeting. Um, nominations for the exceptional teachers awards are now they're open, right? Yep. Are now open. Um, you can access them online at the school district website. There's going to be information coming to you all from your various schools. Uh, and we will be talking about that in more detail later in the meeting that is on tonight's agenda. Um, and the final housekeeping item, we've received an intent to
011bargain letter from the uh Keen Education Association. We did know that this coming year is renegotiation for the KEA. Um so I just need to get on the record that we've received that. Um we will have a brief discussion about that non-public tonight regarding um who is uh going to be on that committee. Um the other contract that we will presumably have is the classroom assistance continued from last year. So we'll briefly discuss that one as well. Um I do want to say we uh effectively have three new board members. Um, I know Heather's been with us for a few months, but um, this is her first full term. Obviously, uh, Jason and Russell are joining us for the first time tonight. Um, with Rebecca and Jacqueline and Raleigh um, all electing to, uh, finish
012their terms of service, uh, that's over 15 years of experience, uh, that we've lost. And, uh, we've suddenly become a relatively inexperienced board. Um other than uh Chris's Chris, you're in your 23rd year, right? >> Only 22nd. Yeah. Um so uh do watch for some um training um that we'll do. I think we're going to try and do it at a board level rather than engaging the NHSBA. Although we do have um Will Phillips um lives right here in Keen from the NHSBA and we may see if he's available to come in and support us with that regarding um expectations uh board roles um and that kind of stuff. Um I've also had informal discussions with quite a few of you about various initiatives for the upcoming year. So watch for those uh to become
013more formal discussions over the next two months as we um put in place a somewhat roadmap for our board for the coming year. Um especially around uh communications and transparency, how we communicate with the administration and how we uh communicate with the broader community here in Keen. All right, that is what I have tonight. Report of the superintendent, Mr. Malay. Thank you, George. Um, appreciate it. Hopefully, everyone received the superintendent report. If not, it should be in your drive as well. Um, I'm told that if you print it out, it's like 27 pages. I didn't realize it was really quite that long. Um, but I think that's a pretty good indication that we're providing a ton of information, more than we have in years past. And so I want to say thank you to my
014team again publicly for the work that they put into pulling this information together so that we are being more and more transparent than we ever have before. So thank you to that team. Um couple things that I just wanted to highlight in the report right up at the top right near the top. Um tomorrow at six o'clock right in this room we will have the state accountability task force listening session. That is an opportunity to listen to what the accountability task force it will be recommending to basically our lawmakers with regard to a state accountability system. I need to be very specific in say a state accountability system because we currently operate on a federal accountability system that's tied into the Every Student Succeeds Act. They're not one and the same. The one that you'll
015be hearing about is more directly tied into um holding our schools across the state of New Hampshire to the expectations in statute which um essentially articulate that schools must provide the opportunity for an adequate education and then it goes into some very specific details across content areas. So, I would welcome you to join us in this room tomorrow at six o'clock. Um, you're going to hear from folks who have been working on this since last June. There'll be a time to provide input, ask questions, have further dialogue. And if you're unable to be there, just let me know if you have any other questions because I do know somebody who has been very intimate with the process uh for the last year as well. So that and then in May, it's a little bit further
016down. It's titled a community conversation and it says save the date. We're going to have a community conversation over at Heertton Hall about the downshifting of costs from the state to the local level. And it'll be a conversation with the city manager, the county administrator, and yours truly. We've seen over time a continued downshift of a of cost. We've seen Ben, can you put the volume up, Ben? Ben White, can you put the volume? Check. Check. There we go. A little bit better. Um, we've seen over a long period of time costs being downshifted from the state to our local level. We've heard board members repeatedly bring that up um and the frustrations that it causes for folks at the local level. You know, the easiest example I can give, you know, uh, for downshifting
017goes back to, I think, 2011. And somebody can tell me I'm wrong if I got the year wrong, but in 2011, the state was contributing about 35% to retirement for public employees. That all got shifted down to the local level, and the local taxpayers are picking up those dollars. So, you know, that's a quick and easy example. We're going to have a conversation about this on May 6 again at 6 PM, but that one will be at Heertton Hall. The last thing that I did want to bring up, and I think it's on the agenda under the finance committee, so I might be stealing their thunder, but every year we are required and expected to sign off on general asurances for the federal money that we receive. About five or six years ago, they shifted
018that procedure to require that the schoolboard chair co-sign with the superintendent on those general asurances. In short, the general asurances are a list of covenants that we are committing to that say we will spend the money for the purposes they were intended to be applied for. That's the very short version of it. I think a copy is in your drive so that you can look at it in a lot greater detail. But the quick and easy is it's our commitment and our promise that if we take in the federal money then we're going to use it for the purposes that federal money was intended to go for title one moneya money title two money title four money whatever the case might be. What we are committing to is following what is allowable in terms of
019expenses of that money to help enhance and augment the programming that we do in the district. Did I miss anything with that overview? I know Jen's got it, so it'll be in the minutes, but um typically what we've done is we've asked the board to grant you the authority to co-sign that with me, if I remember correctly. And I think that might be appropriate if anyone would be kind enough to authorize the chair to co-sign the general asurances. Okay. I move that we um authorize the chair to cosign whatever it is >> the general assurance. >> Any concerns or questions about that? All those in favor? Any opposed? Carries 90. >> And so with that, if there are any questions in the report, I'm happy to answer them now. if you think of them later
020and you want to send me an email. I'll I'll do my best to get back to you as quickly as I can. Um, and you're always welcome to ask questions about anything in the report before we come to the meeting as well. So, >> this is just something that's irked me for a long time. Here we are. We're fighting over and over for an adequate education. I don't know any parent who doesn't want a quality education for their child. And it's just we're fighting over the bottom rung and we should be aiming higher for our children. I don't think you'll get any arguments in this room. Um but the law is written the way the law was written. So I don't think anyone's going to debate you on that. Oh, you want to touch on
021that, Ben? >> Just because it's connected to the general asurances and the title funding in the superintendent report, there is the U survey that's connected to what is our comprehensive needs assessment. And so essentially as part of receiving federal dollars and those title grants, we have to collect and analyze data across the Keen School District and then we identify themes and analyze priorities. Those priorities are then funneled into this survey as a requirement from the state of New Hampshire department of ed. and all community members, stakeholders are able to vote on what they feel are the priorities for investments in our title funds. And so we would just encourage that those who are watching this uh take that survey and there are there is an opportunity to provide just open comment and we will take
022those comments as well. So just as a reminder that that is available and will be open until uh April until we go on April break. So, April 25th. All right. Thanks, Ben. Um, report of standing committees, um, buildings and ancillary services, Mr. Filio. Uh, okay. Um, fairly brief meeting. Uh, started off with a communication or a personal appearance by, uh, the commander of the Keen American Legion looking for a discount or waiver um, from them using Alumini Field. We basically have staff looking at this um but we're careful about setting a precedent but before we gave him a final yes or no uh we asked staff to take a look at this so we will discuss it again with him uh next month. Um we had uh update on our activity buses that we have
023and starting with next meeting um we're going to get a better breakdown on it because uh the money that they're saving uh the school district right now based on uh having to uh rent buses um uh has been phenomenal. In March they were used 31 times. And not only did this save money for the district, but it allowed some events that we might not have been able to happen because we might not have be able to have provided transportation for them. So, um it's already been scheduled 27 times in April. But like I said, uh next meeting um we're going to start getting a monthly breakdown on uh exactly what it was used for and more specifically how much money this is actually saving um the taxpayers by by using these buses. Um, we are
024updated on uh the late work orders that the uh that staff is getting and there's a ton of them but it always happens at the end of the school year. Uh we update on the school projects. Two of the large ones are the entrance at Fuller School and the windows at Wheelock School. Um and those are two projects still being looked at. So other than that, fairly brief meeting um informational and like I said, we'll going to be a little bit more specific starting with next month's um facilities meeting. That was pretty much it. >> Thanks, Randy. Impressive weather outside. >> All right. Um, education committee, Miss Freriedman. >> So, I was not at the meeting. Um, Paige, uh, will give the report. >> All right. Go ahead. >> Okay. And talk loudly into this
025microphone. It's crazy. So, we met in uh March now because we're the last Thursday of the month. Uh we went over Ames web scores, the winter Ames web scores. Um when you see this, we tier the we tier the students into red, yellow, and green. The the 20th percentile and lower being the red. Uh the next is the yellow the tier 2 students and then finally the green which is proficient. Uh we like to see we measure them three times a year fall, winter and spring and we like to see the yellow and red shrink obviously and the the green to grow. Um and overall that is what we saw. We anticipate to see that happen again with the red and yellow shrinking uh and the green growing in the springtime. Uh we also touched
026on um CBE grade data and just trying to get a sense of how that looks overall. Uh and is there any parallel to the um tier one, two, and three on the AS web testing. Uh working on getting that to download without the teacher names associated with it. Um, so we're we're waiting on that one. Um, the search for the student services director is kicking off this month. It's very exciting. And we also had one policy to review on generative AI. So to to summarize, um, I think George said it best at the meeting, it is a messy policy. Um, and it really probably should be more about procedure than policy because procedures are quicker to change than policies are. And with the how technology changes, I think that's probably the route we're going to
027go. But at this point in time, we're we've kicked it off to it to tell us how they can monitor it. Um, and we want to get some more feedback from the teachers to um, tell us how they could use it, how they um, might be able to monitor and teach kids about AI. And then there was a big um, there's a big difference between AI and generative AI and that was not very clear at all. Um, so right now I think it's with it. Is that right? >> Yeah, I'll cover it more in the policy. Okay, >> perfect. So, it is no longer with education committee um at this point, but it will come back at some point. Um and then we just went through uh the next couple months agenda items. Um next
028Tuesday, ED committee will look at the elementary Spanish program. Uh and to back up, the next three topics that I'm going to go over are really to educate the new board members. Um because as George mentioned a lot of us are new. Um in May education committee is going to look at the uh reading and English programs that are separate at the middle school. Get a really a lot of this is history. Um and in June um we wanted to understand the eval evaluator position as it was separated from the or it used to be a separate position from the learning center teachers and now I believe they're combined. So again just some history on that. That was that was it. >> All right. Thanks, Pidge. >> What do we think? Can we get finance
029in in four minutes? >> Chris, did you chair that one? >> Microphone. >> Move to set accepted asformational. Let me get the word again. Yeah, but you had the um Oh, you put it in >> fun transfer. >> The fund transfer move to accept the fund transfer asformational. >> Second. >> Any concerns? The transfer list is in your drive. It's alsoformational. So, mostly it's just if you had questions for Tim to clarify. Right. All those in favor? Any opposed? Carries. >> 90. That's basically it, right? The rest of it's what we're going to have to cover on the public. >> Yeah. I I think one thing that was important is our budget has been strained this year a few times. Um we're not in deficit. Um, but we want to make sure we hit the
030unreserved fund balance or surplus that we warned voters we would hit because that means we didn't understate our tax burden. That makes sense to anyone. And we were in jeopardy of not hitting that for several months. Um, we did have all the cost center managers get together. We did what I like to call a voluntary partial budget freeze. We identified, every cost center manager identified areas in their budget where they could save money that they weren't going to spend and without impacting students to the greatest extent possible. And we were able to through that some special ed savings um and some savings and salary and benefits we were able to close that gap where I think we're safe uh to proceed. So, that was a big change for the finance committee and I thought that
031was warranted letting the board know. All right. Thanks, Tim. All right. We're scheduled to hold our public hearing at 7 uh 6:58. We're certainly not going to start um policy. We're not going to get that done. So, yeah, we're going to recess for a couple minutes and then we will um convene our public hearing at 7. Yep. It's uh 7 o'clock, so we will call to order the public hearing for the Keen Board of Education, which I opened an agenda somewhere and I've already lost it. Oh well. Um, the purpose of this public hearing is to discuss withdrawing money from our um Did the rainstorm stop? Ben turned me down a little bit. Yes. Oh, perfect. Thank you. Um to discuss withdrawing monies from our expendable trust fund to cover several um facilities projects that
032were removed from the full budget. um with the intent specifically to do this. Uh so to cover that information, I am going to hand it over to uh Tim Roar to talk about the projects involved and the monies involved. >> Thank you, George. So we have been looking at these two projects for quite some time. Um they were originally in our budget going into next year. These were part of what we took out of our budget uh along with about another million dollars in stuff uh people, projects, plans. Um and the idea was when we took this out that we would still prioritize getting this done, but we would use the reserve funds that were stored away for this for these purposes. So, we have about $2 million in our building expenditure trust fund. Um,
033I think it's called building maintenance expendable trust fund. Um, and those two projects were the multiffactor notification system at Keen High School, not the whole system, a start on the system. And we had identified about $400,000 for that. um and a window replacement at Welock Elementary School which was exasperated by a nearby fire of a building which caused us to evacuate the school in part. I can't I don't want to tell what part, but we couldn't either keep smoke out or open the windows to ventilate later. The windows are just drafty old and broken partway shutter open. So, we knew this was a problem. Last time we were there, we did identify additional funds in our budget when we had bigger surpluses and we did most of the windows in the school building, what we
034could afford. The there are other areas that aren't done small, less impactful, but there are four classrooms up front on the facade of the building with windows. I'm guessing they're from the 70s that uh are not functioning well and uh we would like to replace them and I think this board was enthusiastic about replacing them. Um I'll start with that that we went out to bid ourselves. We have someone in our maintenance department that works for Ken. Um part of his duties are to run projects like this. We got the the specifications, they went out, they got the bids back and for the main part, not the additional, um they came in at uh 476,850 was the high bid, 357880 was the low bid. um which we did not I'm I'm not asking for that
035number because I think that's too high. Um I didn't accept either bid. Um and went out to a partner of ours to go with a third company to see kind of check and see if these bids are right. They don't look right. We could be wrong. And what I mean by right, they're correct. That's what the competitive market gave us. But I don't think it was of very good value. The windows were about $5,200 an opening each window, which is high, but maybe the going concern with what's going on in the world and the price of glass. But the labor came in more like $4,200 an opening, which just can't be right. There's no combination of installation materials and labor that I can make that math work. So, we're out again looking for another price.
036I don't have that back yet. We're not going to make this summer, no matter what we do. I did come up with a plan to change the timeline. The windows are at least 12 12 to 16 weeks lead time. So, it's an issue. Um, that's the window on the multiffactor uh notification system, which is a new fire alarm system for the high school that uh also indicates other types of alarms. So, in the drive there's a picture of that uh called 2A. If you could click click on that, you've seen this before. But the system looks like so you see it's got three strobes. It's addressable. It will have three separate tones and it'll all be fully addressable so you'll know what the alarm is. The idea behind this is fireworks just as you would
037think. The amber would be any other type of emergency without using your fire alarm. A lockdown, uh, student in the hallways not doing well, a gas leak, odor, and it's addressable, so you can tell what it is. So, you don't desensitize a fire alarm, nor the blue alarm, which is um the reality of today, is a a a armed intruder with intent to be malicious. Um, unfortunately, it's become a reality and we need to, as other states and areas have, um, face that reality and prepare for it so that we can have the best outcome if something ever like that happen like that happened. It's expensive to do these upgrades. We've started at Fuller that'll be finished um because we are renovating that building. our next biggest priority. We we went there not because that
038building was our priority, but because we had to replace some fire alarm things there already. We're testing the theory there and the design. Um we've already learned some stuff that we're going to do a little differently at the high school. It'll work the same, but the amber and blue light will not be every location you are mandated to put a fire alarm. It's just not practical. For example, at the high school, we have a bathroom with 14 stalls in it. They all have a fire alarm strobe. They do not all need a amber and blue light strobe. Out in the general area will be fine. You'll hear it. You'll see it. Um you'll get your instructions. So we couldn't do the whole high school for $400,000. But what we did was if you go to
039the next slide. Uh not next picture. Next ne next. Yeah. Sure. Uh It could be either one. Uh, go to the next one. Sorry. Click the right arrow. Yeah. So, this is the high school. You'll recognize in this view, the career centers on top. Um, and uh what this shows are the dark blue lines are our current building fire separations. And why am I bringing this up? When you go to get the permits to build a building, you can't have just one big building that can all burn down in one event. So, you have fire separation at each one of these dark lines. Each group is its own standalone fire compartment with doors that shot, you know, burn, you know, maybe there's 90 minute separation between each s each building. Why that's important is you've
040all been in the high school. You know how large it is. We can use that to our advantage while creating a new system, a modern system, just like a skyscraper or any other system. When an alarm goes off for fire, it only has to affect that compartment or compartments that you designate. So, for example, if you're at the career center and working away and down on the tea you have a fire alarm, there's really no reason to evacuate the career center. meaning our alarms in minor emergencies impact less learning and less disruption over time. And what we're doing is making a more practical alarm situation, the the more you can limit the broadness of an alarm that doesn't need to be everywhere, that'll help. So this fire alarm will take this building and it won't
041drop it into this many because you need to be able to understand the sections. Then you have to feel like all this group and this group. The career center is an obvious group. So what we did was let's start at the career center and put this multi-notification system in. Then we'll pick another section and do that section. Then we'll pick another section until we get all the way through. So um the career center is where we elected to start. That budget came in at 360,000 or less. Um, so it can't be more than 360. And we'll be able to complete and upgrade the entire career center with a multi-notification system, new fire alarm, new panels, um, that are fully addressable and meet current code. So, we're excited about that. And that came in a little
042under budget. What I'm suggesting is that uh we have the authority between the two projects to withdraw up to $650,000. If the windows do not come in at a reasonable price, unfortunately, I say we wait a year and see if prices normalize. I think that uh the prices we have really they need to be done. I don't know that they'll go down, but it doesn't feel like a good value to spend that at this time. Um, so the board originally s thought 600,000. I would request that you give the authorization to spend up to $650,000 between the two projects prioritizing getting the entire career center installed with a new multi-notification system and and the additional money towards Windows if we can get that and I think that we can um get that down to that
043price. If we only spend 300 on the notification system and 300 on the windows, that's all we'll be able to withdraw. We won't withdraw money to turn it back as a surplus. We will pay for it and only reimburse out of that fund. So, no additional funds will come out of the trust fund that aren't required to complete the projects. Is that clear? Questions for Tim from the board? All right, seeing none, do we have any public input on this presentation? Make sure your microphone's on. It will glow green. >> Name and address for the public record, please. >> You think I'm going to blow it this time? No way. >> Uh, good evening. Jacqueline Hedings, Ashwat Court here in Keen. Um just wanted to speak in support of both projects. Um this this is
044not um by any means uh wanting to do you know extra cosmetic work if you will at the elementary school. This is not in terms of our notification system just wanting to level up and add some sort of new technology. Uh as Mr. Roar said with the notification system, we are woefully behind versus other states um in the country and also especially New Hampshire in general. We're we're not the only district right now that is in this position of not having um a more enhanced notification system. Um also uh I know from previous discussions, you know, Mr. and Kenduli, our facilities manager, have had many conversations with our local law enforcement, Keen Fire, state police, um our our first responder community, um strongly supports this. This helps them help us and our students and our
045staff and our faculty to be safe uh and and to feel safe on on the dayto-day knowing that we have this. So, um, I feel, you know, if if you're one that supports our local first responders here in our community, then it's a wise and smart decision to support us moving forward with the with the notification project. In terms of the elementary school with wheelock with the windows, this is also not cosmetic. These are windows from the 1970s. You know, if you have old windows in your house, you save up your money to eventually get replacement windows for safety, for energy efficiency, and and whatnot. Um, we have the extra added responsibility since this is one of our public schools, one of our elementary schools. Um, and we saw it firsthand, as Mr. Roar said,
046when we had that fire in the neighborhood last fall. I don't know. Time is blurring. Um, right. But again, this is not cosmetic. This is about safety and an added benefit with green energy savings. Um, for those that may recall, or if you don't, that's okay. Uh, part of our renovations at Wheelock included a whole new furnace heating energy efficiency. So, it's sort of like if you're going to have energy efficiency there, then it would naturally be part of the progression that we have energy improvements with the windows. Um, and this this is part of our ongoing projects that we've been doing at all four of our elementary schools. So, um, we we've got the available funds, uh, to use. And so, I I would strongly encourage again if you support the safety of our
047students, our staff, and our faculty, then the smart choice is to support us also moving forward with the window project. >> Thank you, Jacqueline. >> You're welcome. >> Any other public input? All right, seeing none, uh we will adjourn the public hearing. Does anyone on the board need a recess before we continue with the full board meeting? All right, then we'll go ahead and reconvene the regularly scheduled meeting of the Keen Board of Education. Um the next thing that we'll actually do is going to be taking action as a result of the public hearing. Uh before I do that, I am going to ask uh one final call for public input for the regular board meeting. All right, seeing none, I will close public input. And um now we need to take action um as
048a result of the public hearing. Uh does anyone have a motion? Um, I make a motion to approve >> authorize uh Tim >> up to >> administration to take up to 350,000 650,000 from the building uh maintenance trust fund for uh the we lock windows in the Keenh High School multifactor notification system. >> Second, did you get that, Jennifer? Okay. Uh commentary on the motion. Is everyone clear on the trust funds and how those function? Sam, do you think I should get that on the record anyway? Yeah. So, um the school district has three um longunning trust funds. One is this building and maintenance one. Um we have one for special education um overages and we have one uh that we don't use that is for the collection of advertising with the intent of improving
049the alumni field facilities. Okay. Um, right. And neither of them are doing anything right now because the the original intent didn't end up being accurate. Um, how these work is each year um the board recommends um a dollar amount that can be taken from our surplus budget amount and applied to these trust funds. Um the theory is that they are in place in case of emergency spending needs um such as the safety upgrades at these two buildings. Um some years we don't put as this year we didn't put any into either fund because our budget was very very tight. um in the immediate postcoid years um for various reasons we had more budget surplus than intended and we actually increased this particular fund um into anticipation of this kind of need. So taking money out
050of this allows us to uh do projects that were either unforeseen or were um not attainable through our normal budget and without um a further tax hit on local property taxes. Think I got that mostly accurate. So currently our building fund has about two million in it. Um I forget what our target was. It was more than that. Yeah, it was pretty close to that. Um, so if we take this out, it does mean that that fund is a little bit lower. Um, and hopefully in future years we'll be able to uh work on building it back up. Uh, it does tend to take a while. On the other hand, we don't pull from it very often either. So, the motion as stated is up to 650,000 as needed to pay for these two projects.
051Questions? All right. All those in favor? Any opposed? Carries. 90. All right. And we'll return to committees. Uh I believe we were on personnel. Mr. Roberts, anything? >> All in non-public. All right. Thank you, Jacqueline. All right. Policy committee. Uh we have three policies for second read. The first is policy IC school year and school year calendar. So I will move on behalf of the policy committee that the Keen board of education adopt policy IC as amended. >> Second. >> All right. IC um is on our books. ICA is also on our books and they basically are the same policy. Um there were some changes mandated by school law as happened so frequently. Um so uh we brought that to policy committee and then further brought it to um for input from um Ben White
052who chairs uh the district's calendar committee. Um mostly we wanted to make sure that the changes still work with the way that our calendar committee works. Um so that did result in some wording changes and also in some potential changes to our own policies and procedures. Other than that, it's the same policy that was in you guys' drive last month for first read. Questions on policy I see. All right. Seeing none, those in favor of adoption. Any opposed? Carries 90. Policy BBA, school board member authority. I'll move on behalf of the policy committee that the Keen Board of Education adopt policy BBAA as presented. >> Second. >> All right. This one is not on our books. Um it is discussed in our board manual. Uh it's certainly something that um anyone who's been on the
053board or is already aware of. Um and it's how we've been operating anyway. Basically, it's reaffirming the um state law that we don't have individual the board's authority derives only from majority vote uh in public meetings and uh a paragraph about who's authorized to speak for the board but you guys are mostly familiar with that new members we will be going over that with you uh in kind of an orientation training sort of thing but the legal council recommended that we adopt this NHSBA has it as a recommended but not required policy uh but the logic to having in is it it uh gives you all something to point to uh when your constituent comes up and says, "You're on the board. Do this for me." Um and at which point you can actually point
054to a policy explaining that you don't have individual power. We only have uh collective power. Questions? All those in favor? Any opposed? Carries 90. Policy imba online remote learning. move on behalf of the policy committee that the Keen Board of Education adopt policy IMBA online remote learning. >> Second. >> Uh this one we do have on the books. Um we first adopted it uh immediately following COVID when we actually had to put in some policies and procedures in place allowing um for that kind of hybrid learning uh during that COVID year. Um obviously the world has changed significantly in the five years since um as well as state law has changed significantly in the five years since. Um primarily the changes in this policy u it does include the bit that says we um are
055are limited in the kind of online learning that we ourselves can offer um per state law but it also includes a lot of language that covers the alternative learning plans that uh we're required to offer as um again as part of state law uh supporting student behavior. um many of those access the various public uh charter uh type schools and online um learning opportunities authorized by the state already. So this puts in place policy and procedure that allows the high school especially and to a degree the middle school to move forward with these alternative learning plans. Uh and this is fundamentally the same as what you saw as a first read last month. Um there's been a couple um grammatical changes and a couple wording changes to make it more understandable. Concerns, questions. Um IMBA
056has presented. All right. All those in favor? Any opposed? Carries 90. Um I'm going to skip first read for a second and go to rescending. As I said, we have both an IC and an AA in our drive. They're essentially the same policy, so it's redundant to keep them both. Um, at recommendation, NHSBA no longer has an A. Um, so at recommendation of legal counsel, I'm going to move that the Keen board of education resend policy a school calendar. >> Second and logic as presented already. There's no reason to have both of these on the books. All those in favor? Any opposed? Carries. All right, first read. This requires no action on your part. This is just notification so that you know that these are in here. These four policies are in your drive um
057for you to take a look at your leisure. These will be discussed by policy committee. What' you do now? >> You're looking Oh, yeah. Look, it's in both places. Bonus. >> Yep. Just three. Cool. Uh less work for you. policy III, class size, and policy JFAB, admission of non-resident students. U we more or less looked at these as a package in the policy committee. Um they are both in here to adjust the uh policies based on the uh open enrollment warrant article that was passed by our voters in uh March. Um this is the first step towards putting policies and procedures in place so that the administration is able to um orderly handle uh incoming applications as a result of open enrollment. Um class size also has some changes um because the it was based
058on the states class size limitations and those have changed. So we discussed um how that affects our policy. Um, I was troubled going into the policy committee meeting because the state's changes were based solely on how can we make education cheaper. Uh, there was no actual educational experts consulted. Um, but Rob and Adam talked me through the changes to the policy and it really doesn't change what we have in place now. It just changes the wording. Um it makes it more easy for people to understand the whole uh strive for and maximum numbers but it doesn't actually with one exception um we formerly did a K through three and then a four five split and the state changed to a K to2 and a three to five split and we did follow that wording because
059it seemed too confusing to not do those splits the same place that the state did. Um, but other than that, it's it's not as concerning as I was worried it was going to be. The other one is BEDG meeting minutes. Um, this is still oddly a recommended policy even though the change that we're going to be making to it is actually encoded in state law. Now, uh, this actually won't affect um anything that our stenographer does. She's already meeting all of the state law requirements both previously and currently for what how meeting minutes work. The big change for the board and this is uh not fully reflected in the policy yet and may end up meaning that this policy takes a couple months to bring to you guys for second read. Um most of you
060will know that sometimes we will come out of a non-public session and we will seal the minute meetings if there was sensitive information in those non-public minutes because otherwise they become available after something like two or three weeks I forget. Um some of those have been sealed indefinitely. Uh some of them were sealed with a time limit to them. Um often we'll say until this is fully negotiated or this you know legal decision is rendered or something like that. But anything that was either sealed indefinitely or did not have a time limit on it um technically is still sealed going back as long as we keep records. Um which I don't know how long that is now. Do you have any idea at this point? 30 years maybe. >> Yeah. So, um, new in right
061to know laws, sealed minutes cannot remain sealed for longer than 10 years without being reviewed. So, we will need to develop a policy or a procedure. Um, we'll need a policy for how we handle sealed minutes moving forward to make sure that we're remaining in compliance with minutes that we seal moving forward. Um, the ideal way to do that is going to simply be put a time on anything that we seal so that we don't have to review them. And we will also need to figure out a procedure for reviewing all of those older minutes. Obviously, we're not going to sit down in one session and review 30 years of sealed nonpublic minutes. So, um, we've asked the administration for a recommendation on that. Um, we've also asked legal counsel to go take a look
062at what other districts are doing. Uh, it might take us a couple months to pull that together, but those are the three policies in here. Um, I did also want to mention, it's not on the agenda, but EH A, which is, uh, the regenerative AI policy that Paige mentioned from education committee. Um, I've had public input on that one as well. Um the concerns from two teachers mimic the concerns that we brought up at education. Um the policy as written from NHSBA tries to do too much. Um and we discussed this in policy committee really. There needs to be a policy for students, a policy for educators and a policy for administrators because all three groups use AI in very different ways. Um as well the polic has difficulty differentiating between regenerative AI and simple
063AI. Um and and that needs to be refined. Um so there's going to be a longer philosophical discussion on what the district wants to achieve with AI. Um, one policy committee member did bring up the point that that you could argue that there is no ethical use of AI uh because of the environmental concerns and um the copyright concerns involved particularly regener regenerative AI. But um we also can't ignore the fact that it exists that our students are accessing it as well as the fact that both teachers and administrators are using some tools uh that access AI that is making their jobs considerably easier. Um so it's going to be uh probably a at least a several months process. There's no time limit on adopting this other than um you know obviously once we get
064it in place it gives teachers um a base from which to guide students uh and guide students AIU. We did talk about perhaps having something in place in the fall, but it's going to have to be reviewed by it. Um, and we're going to need input from administrators and teachers before we move forward with that one. So, that's where that one sits. All right, school liaison. Um, and I will mention at this point, your liaison will remain the same for the coming year. Nobody had to change. Uh conveniently, um Jason and Russell both had requests and those were the two that were vacated by Jacqueline and Raleigh. So moving forward, um Keen High School will be Jason Washer in um Fuller. Franklin, what did you request? Franklin. Franklin um will be Russell moving forward. That's
065right. You're Fuller. You have Fuller school, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. Um I'm going to go slightly out of order because I have the high school report and I don't have it called up yet. Start with the career center with Jennifer Freed. >> Okay. Uh the career center um everything is going well. Uh they're still in the midst of their comprehensive needs assessment. Uh they've completed the focus group interviews with uh business and industry groups and the SAU 29 school administrators. Uh they're next on the agenda is to interview the parents. Um actually that happened on April 9th. Um there was a meeting scheduled for April 9th. So that is ongoing. Uh the there is a career and job fair uh tomorrow. uh ad presenters um from the community, community organizations, city departments,
066military recruiters, uh colleges and apprenticeship programs will all be present at the high school um career center tomorrow. Uh and students will have the opportunity to go and visit them and talk to them. um enrollment projections for next year. Currently, there are 81 requests from sending schools for our programs. Um some of them are going to require a lottery for selection because there are more people who want to take the class um than there are spaces in the program. Um there are currently 41 requests for seats outside of our region. Um but we can't look at those until um enrollments from Fall Mountain and Manadnok and Keen are complete. Um but there are a lot of people who want to participate in these programs. So that is wonderful news. Um let's see program updates. Uh
067the business students went to uh the Our Future Business Leaders of America. Um spring leadership conference in Manchester and uh they had a a very successful and um good time there networking and uh I guess one of our students Calvin Cutler placed second in the introduction to marketing concepts. So a congratulations to Calvin. Uh our education students have completed their industry recognized credential um for universal design for learning uh and their level one mindset credential. Um we're always happy to see our students actually getting real industry um credentials that they can take into the real world and utilize. Uh computer engineering. Um they are working on Python. Uh cosmetology students are um getting ready to open their nail salon. Um so the Blackbird Beauty Clinic will be opening soon. Uh and the three level two
068students traveled to the New Hampshire State Skills USA competition. Uh and one of our seniors received a bronze medal at the skills competition. So that was good news. And uh in horiculture uh the spring plant sale is coming up. It will be running the whole month of May. Um and the floral design students have finished making the last of their design arrangements for the people who ordered. So that program is wrapping up and uh they had a person from Tree Hugger Farms come and do a lesson on chainsaw safety and the processing of trees. Uh so lots going on all over the place. Um oh and the construction department um is going to be working with uh Habitat for Humanity to assist with their sites. And the next career center regional advisory meeting is next
069Wednesday morning. >> I should be there too this year this week, next week. Um I have my my entire day next Wednesday is schoolboard stuff. All right. Uh Keen High School. Um Sarah Hon hit most of these things. I'm just going to hit a few highlights. Um, I don't remember if she did this one or not, but it was a huge deal when it happened, so I'm going to cover it anyway. Um, Holocaust survivor Katie Preston uh provided two assemblies at the high school on March 13th. Um, word that I've gotten from the students is that these were very powerful. Um, many of them were respectful of the fact that there's not an awful lot of Holocaust survivors left at this point. Um, and they were really appreciative of of wanting the being able to
070hear a first person account. Um, so that was an excellent opportunity at the high school. Uh, the high school jazz ensemble swept the awards for their division at the Clark Terry Jazz Festival at UNH. Um, which is huge. Uh, including outstanding saxophone, trumpet, trombone sections, and the outstanding big band in the class. They also were excellent at nostalgia last weekend. Uh the daughter of the American re daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Award has gone to uh Katherine Campus um as the New Hampshire good citizen award. Um so Kate was recognized for dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism and will represent New Hampshire at the national competition. uh a couple other events um that Sarah did not get to because she stopped in April, but we actually don't meet again until miday. Um so the
071horiculture programs plant sale is coming up. That's uh that begins on May 1st. Uh if you haven't accessed that, they have some excellent plants uh both hanging plants and uh some starters for your garden. Um there is AP testing going on. May 9th is prom and the 15th is unified prom. And this is a long way out, but I want to make sure people know that Keen High School's graduation is on June 12th. Uh that date is set. That will be at 6 PM at the high school. Um even if for some reason we have to miss another day of school between now and then, that they don't have to move that. So graduation is on June 12th. And I believe that is all I have for the high school. So Keen uh middle school
072page, >> right? Uh so KMS is in the final stages of submitting their New England Association school and college application to get um accreditation. Um they're really looking forward to this and in the whole process. It's a long um maybe 10 year thing um before they get accredited, but they're looking forward to the process and identifying some gaps in curriculum and answering a bunch of other questions to help improve the school. Um let's see here. Um they are as I mentioned they had identified some gaps in the curriculum and recreated all of the curriculum in the departments. Um Mike had an a real interesting way of describing it. Uh the curriculum is a backbone or a spine and then you have the programming hanging off of the spine. but to make sure that we've got
073the spine in place before we hang off the the little decorations. Appreciate his analogies. Um let's see here. They are the SAS testing. This is the state testing. Um is window has opened. Um eighth graders will be going to Washington DC next week. It's their annual trip. I think most eighth graders are going. Um, KMS recently had a winter assembly, a winter sports assembly last month and the spring sports have begun. So, people are off playing basketball, softball, track and field. Um, and the KMS achievement day will be June 18th, the last day of school at 1:30 and KMS has started a word of the week. Um, and their word of the week is persuade. That is it. Just one more keen middle school announcement and I'm sure all of you are aware, but we
074now have the state spelling be champion that eighth grader um Cass Oh, I'm going to butcher the last name, but Kuloki Kodaloki um won the state spelling be championship um March 31st. And so the Cardinals are the home to the spelling be champion. That's about 10 years I think since we've had a keen student be the representative for the state. It was >> Lizzie and Lucas's eighth grade year that that happened. It's one of their classmates. >> National. >> Yeah, it goes right to national. Yep. Yeah. Very impressive. Um Franklin we do not have covered this month. Um, Fuller School, Mr. Filio. >> Thank you. Before I get on to that, I do want to say um, getting back to the high school, my wife and I attended nostalgia night this past Saturday, and if
075anybody that didn't make it, man, you missed something. And I just want to say kudos to anybody involved in that. That was a phenomenal performance. I mean, and I know sometimes you go to school events and you kind of clap because like your kids in it, but this particular one, I mean, this was talent. And kudos to everybody involved with that. And you know, I'm hoping maybe it's a good crowd and I'm hoping next year we can even promote it even more because that was a phenomenal night out. So, kudos to everybody involved in that. >> Yeah. Let me let me jump in there before you get going, too, because I should have covered this. Um, this was the 50th annual Nostalgia. It started in 1976. >> Uh the the choir teacher at the time,
076Gene Nelson, thought it would be a fun way to uh educate students about um popular music from the last um the at that time the 50 years previous to that. Um so that was the original intent. Became a fundraiser. It became huge very very quickly. Uh has obviously been kept going for um 50 years at this point. Um but but very cool. Uh Mrs. Nelson still lives. She was my choir teacher too. She still lives here in Keen. Her daughter actually is the music teacher at um Chesterfield. Uh so um her daughter and uh Mr. and Mrs. Nelson came to Nostalgia on Friday night. Um and Joe Ki uh brought um her daughter Sharon up on stage to read um a um memoir of the history of nostalgia of how it started and how it's
077evolved over the last 50 years. And then um they presented Mrs. Nelson uh with several bouquets. Um so it was it was very touching for anyone who has uh been part of nostalgia over the last 50 years. while we're on nostalgia and I'm sorry I'm sorry Fuller for for um postponing this just a little bit but because I know we talked a lot about all of the talent that was on stage and the performances but there was also another significant talent that was the MC and led all of the programming and the acts coming out with tremendous professional ism, great humor, and it was our chair's son, Drew, uh J Down Downing, who was the MC that evening. He did a marvelous job. He was hilarious. He was appropriate. He didn't have a script in
078front of him, and it was just outstanding. >> Like by the like son, MCing, you know. >> Okay. Um moving on to uh to Fuller. Typically, I meet with Prince Rody Tuesday morning before the full board meeting. So, I have fresh updates. I was on my way to fuller school and got a phone call on the way in. She called in sick. I think she would have known I was on my way. Um, but to her credit, I I got an email just a couple of hours ago and I'll just go over some of the updates that are happening at Fuller School and thank you for personality for sending me the email. Just a couple of things. She mentioned that Fuller School has started, it's called a possum, meaning awesome program. And basically each teacher
079uh has five tickets to give out each week to students demonstrating they're full or full or four. Um that means be kind, be safe, be responsible, be respectful. So it's just uh an effort to show the students that you know um if you mind your P's and Q's, you can get a reward for it. And um you know, hey, sometimes it's all it takes. It's just a little bit of a extra incentive. So, they've done that and I guess it's gone off phenomenally uh well. Uh the past Friday, they held a uh annual full of school auction to benefit a nature's classroom trip and families donate um things for uh for the auction to raise the money. In addition to the auction that evening, they also hosted a by donation dinner. Uh during that time,
080they also participated in the city's all choir event last Wednesday, including all four elementary schools where they all go and sing two songs as a school. Uh let's see, the PTA has made a decision to donate two adjustable basketball hoops and cover the cost of installation. Once again, saving taxpayers money. And then coming next week, they're having an artisan residence that the school will pick up most of the tab um with donations. And as as I read these things, um it kind of reminds me when you're seeing and I know all the schools do that just right down to the nuts and bolts of just raising dollars for field trips and school events with all the negativity you see coming out of conquered public schools. this stuff gets just washed over and um I'm glad
081we don't let this get washed over the dam, you know, and I look at this and one of it just mentions how one of they they sold something for $55 exclamation point. And then I think of the $65 million that this administration of conquered is dumped up to EFAS to private schools. So kudos to our schools that'll raise 55 bucks and make a big deal out of it and not to conquer where they'll dump $65 million and pretend they don't know where it came from. We know where it came from. Other than that, everything's great. Thank you. >> Thank you, Randy. Um, Simons, I'm not sure why the agenda has my name on it. I haven't been the Simons rep in eight years, I think. Um, but anyway, Heather, >> I thought maybe I was
082reassigned. >> Uh, thank you. So, um, so Simons has seen an uptick in their attendance recently, uh, in part, uh, credited to an inspirational video that was created by one of their staff members and and sent out. Um, on April 10th, the Keen Middle School Jazz Band and Choir came to Simons to present a concert. Uh, there is currently an initiative to reimagine the Simon's Gardens. Uh it's being led by a Simon's parent and anyone is welcome to get involved in that conversation. Uh the fifth grade is gearing up for its uh trip to outdoor classroom in Great Bington. Uh the trip is May 13th. It's a twoight uh overnight trip for the fifth grade. They recently did a fundraiser through Little Zoies uh which brought in nearly $1,500 to help families pay for that
083trip. Uh there are a couple of concerts coming up. There's an inschool assembly of the band strings and chorus on the 14th. That was today. And uh tomorrow night the string ensemble and Keen Elementary bands concert will be at KMS in the evening. Uh there recently was a gathering of incoming kinder families who received a tour of the learning spaces at Simons and Mrs. Strong, who is one of the kindergarten teachers, presented her a day in the life of a kindergartener to those families. Um, as we know, there will be two classes of kindergarten next year instead of three at Simons. So, Heather Loun uh Lounsberry, one of the kindergarten teachers at Simons, will not be there next year, but she will she has moved to Franklin where she will be a first grade teacher.
084All right. Thank you, Heather. Uh, Wheelock, Mr. German, >> thank you. So, yeah, just to shout out that spring concert tomorrow night again at uh KMS. Um, recently we lock also with the reading with Riby with alumni getting back um in good condition and the Swamp Bats coming back to town. So, I remember doing that at Wheelock and it's just a great opportunity to get kids reading and get them a chance on the field with the Swamp Bats and see what it looks like from that viewpoint. Um the band course and strings assembly is this Thursday coming up. And then nature's classroom starting next Wednesday I believe for Wheelock with spring break then coming that week after. So exciting month for Wheelock. All right. Jonathan Daniels community education Mr. Roberts. Okay. um I probably have
085the date of the community education, but um recognition night, but I don't have it up the tip of my fingers. I'll see if I can find it before the meeting's up. All right, let me go to NHSBA. Let me look for that. >> All right. Um NHSBA page, anything? >> Uh I was just going to give a quick quick What is NHSBA? New Hampshire School Board Association. Um every the fall and this particular fall is going to happen on Saturday, October 17th, 2026 in conquered where uh all New Hampshire school boards have the opportunity to submit uh what they call resolutions. Um these resolutions will be either adopted or not adopted, but if they are adopted, the NHSBA advocates for them at the state level. Um there's a whole big packet of them uh that
086I would be happy to share if anybody is interested in reading through them. Um which we will do uh prior to the delegation assembly so that when we send our delegate to vote on these resolutions um we as a board will either support or not support. So the submission if we wanted to submit a resolution deadline is July 3rd, 4 PM. And I'm guessing that in our September September meeting will go over the resolutions uh prior to delegation assembly. >> Yes. And that does mean you and I have talked about this. We were supposed to have talked about this last month. Um, and then we thought about it after last month's meeting. Um, if we want to submit a resolution, we have to get moving very quickly. What was the date on that again? >>
087July. >> Okay. So, we have two meetings basically to pull it together. So, if anyone uh wants to take a look at the existing resolutions and thinks that they have one that needs to be um addressed, you can bring that to the May meeting. Um, it's normally we give you two months and I apologize for that. Um, on the other hand, um, Rob and I talked about this, there's not a lot going on that is not already covered by the continuing resolutions right now. Um, generally the issue is the 250 or so um, new laws discussed every year by the legislation. Now, that used to be maybe a dozen. Uh, it was not nearly so overwhelming. Um and so for the last three or four years, any proposed resolutions have been a reaction to what's
088coming down from the state. Um and you know, predictably anything that we've come up with, at least two other districts have also brought forward a similar resolution. And then um the annual delegation has to spend a good half an hour deciding which one to go forward with or how to merge them. Um we really haven't come up with anything for a while. Um the last one that we put forth that was u and it was ultimately adopted um was um regarding local control over guns in schools. Raleigh really brought that to the NHSBA and championship it and um teamed up with Dover in Portsouth to uh get something finally approved after working on that for probably about eight years that had been brought to NHSBA and generally lost. So, um, anyway, uh, one thing Rob
089and I talked about is taking a look at the existing resolutions and and looking at ones that might need to be amended rather than proposing new resolutions. Um, that's often the NHSBA's board of governor's um, solution when somebody brings a resolution that's similar to an existing one is to recommend an amendment and we're thinking it might be worthwhile to skip that step. Um, and that might be a um a longer term project for something that we bring to them next year. But something to think about as you take a look. The proposed resolutions are in say proposed. Did you take a look at what's in the drive? >> Is it last year's proposed or is it the ones that were adopted at the last >> It's um it's just the five. >> Okay. Yeah, it's
090the ones that were adopted last year that are continuing for this year. So proposed is a bit of a misnomer, but they do have to be approved again this year to become continuing resolutions. Um I can have Shane Pelky email a link to everybody to um the actual existing resolutions. You guys can take a look at what exists if you're interested. All right, SAU 29. Um I actually have something of import this month. Um the board chair of each of the seven towns is the de facto representative. um to the advisory board for the SAU board. Um as a reminder, you are all members of the SAU board um because you've been elected to the Keen board. The SAU board is made up of the seven boards from the SAU towns, which there's 33 of
091us all told, which is a large number um if we're all there, but that's a pretty rare occurrence. Anyway, the next meeting of the SAU board, and there's two annually, three because there's a public hearing that has to do with the budget, but there's one in the fall, one in the spring. The one in the spring is on May 13th, uh, which is before our next full board meeting here. It's at 5:30. It's in this room. That will be the meeting at which the SAU board elects their chair and vice chair for the coming year. Um, for the last five or six years, the chair has been Egga Cordell from Chesterfield. I've been the vice chair. Um, that's worked well as a as a team, but this is the meeting where we discuss um whether
092we're going to renominate the two of us or or look for um fresh people. Honestly, EGA and I haven't really talked a whole lot about um whether we want to continue. It has been a while since we've had the same leadership team, which has, you know, obviously both benefits and drawbacks. So, anyway, that's this meeting. Um we're hoping to get more people to the two annual meetings. Um it's some years we've only had the advisory board that shows up for the full SAU board as well. So having seven out of 33 um is not as uh productive of a conversation as it could be. So anyway, that's May 13th at 5:30 p.m. Okay. Rob has added the um the NHSBA statement of beliefs, which is the continuing resolutions to tonight's drive. So you can access
093that in there. Um, other than that, the SAU is uh gearing up for the annual superintendent evaluation. Um, the superintendent is actually hired by the SAU, not by the Keen School District. Um, so he works for all seven towns and all 33 board members. Um, which is quite a task. Uh, but it also means that the 33 of us have to do the evaluation. So the way that works is, and we'll go into more detail next month, but these seven individual boards get together and do do a board level evaluation of the superintendent and then the advisory committee for the SAU gets together and kind of merges those seven uh evaluations. All right, that was our liaison. Um, old business uh we have none under new business. I don't know what order we want to
094do these in. I guess we'll do the committee assignments first because that's probably the only thing you guys are interested in anyway. Uh this was a challenge this year because of so many changes to the board including changes in our existing um experienced leaders on the board. So I had to start by putting people into the chair positions and kind of work from there and make sure that we had some level of experience in all of our committees. So, uh, I did try and take people's preferences into into consideration, um, as well as, um, you know, what I know of you and what your strengths are. Um, this document has been added to the drive as well, so you don't have to necessarily take notes if you don't want to. Education committee, Jen Freriedman remains
095as chair, uh, with Dylan, Heather, and Russell. Facilities committee, Randy remains as chair with, uh, Dylan, Jennifer, and Chris. Finance Paige is going to take over as chair with Jason, Chris, and Randy. Uh personnel, Chris is going to remain as chair with Dylan, Paige, and Randy. And then policy, I'm going to remain as chair with Heather, Jason, and Russell. And that will be our most inexperienced committee, but Heather's already shown a lot of aptitude for that. So, um, and well, he's not on it yet. Rob is opining that probably Jason already has some aptitude in that area as well. Uh but anyway, we've also got myself and um Rob and um I understand Ben is is hoping to become part of that process as well. So I think we've got enough strength to carry that.
096School liaison, as I said, everybody remains where they previously were. Uh with the addition of Jason will be the high school liaison. Um and I've already preliminarily talked to Cindy Gallagher, but I will do a formal email introduction and you guys can figure out how you want to work together and Russell will be uh the Franklin liaison. Um I assume you're already at least somewhat familiar with the principal since Okay, I figured so um you probably don't need a formal introduction but um I will talk with both of you offline about what the liaison does. Um and a lot of it is kind of free form and you work it out between the building principles. Um SAU board as I said that remains me because that's the the board chair, um, NHSBA, um, Paige and
097Dylan. I think the two of you can share or we can switch it officially to Dylan because you're vice chair, but you can back him up. But that's essentially how you guys worked it most of this year anyway. So, uh, we'll continue that way. Um, Jen, if you're willing, I'd like you to stay on as secretary um of the of this board. Um, which may have um an added responsibility if we actually get a newsletter going. Um, but we'll see where that goes. And then Chris stays on as parliamentarian. The other thing we'll have to discuss is negotiations teams, but we'll do that in non-public. All right. Um, also under new business, capital improvement plan process. This one's my fault. Um, but we did already talk about it in facilities. Anyway, um, I have realized
098um, I also work for the city um, in uh, informational leaison capacity and that meant that this year I've had to pay more attention to city processes than I have in the past. Um, and I realized that their capital improvement plan process is actually really robust. Um, and I'm thinking that we used to do something similar to that, but that now mostly it exists in Ken and Tim's office. Um, which has not been a problem to be clear. Um, they know what has to be done. Um, they have a prioritized list. um they're able to access that when funds um get low or when we have excess funds. They know exactly how to tackle that capital improvement plan and where um they can find extra room or where they need to direct um you know
099bonus building money that comes from a grant they weren't expected or whatever. However, um similar to the way that the city does it, um I would like to propose um and Tim has already started brainstorming on this that um at least annually he comes to the facilities committee, he and Ken, um with that list that they've got um and present it to facilities to work through and discuss um what the board thinks about their proposed priorities um and whether there's any concerns that we see in their proposals. so that we have those answers, too. When the public comes to us and says, "Why are you working on blah blah blah?" We can say, "All right, well, here's the priority list, and here's why this jumped to the top when we were expecting it." That sort
100of thing. Um Tim's already on board. He says, "We used to do it that way. Chris probably remembers doing it that way." Um it probably stopped shortly after we developed that 10-year plan that Chris and Ed Murdo and Jim Carly pushed um about a decade ago. So, um that'll be moving forward at the facilities level. Um but I wanted to make it noted here at full board. All right. Uh last under new business is the exceptional teachers award. Um as I mentioned at the top, the nominations are coming up for actually open now. The exceptional teacher award is presented um by the school board. Um it's an annual award to 10 teachers. Um nominations can come from students, parents, other teachers, administration, and the public. Uh last year, uh the reason this is a full
101agenda item is last year we only um got uh what, eight, eight nominations for 10 positions and we had to go out and resoliced more nominations. In past years, we've had upwards of 50. Uh we'd like to get back there again. Um this is a real opportunity for um you know people that work with teachers firsthand to really nominate the ones that are making a difference in their students lives. Um there's other um criteria around it but um Jen and Paige have been brainstorming with um Ben White about ways to um really accentuate this year's campaign for exceptional teacher nominations. So would one of you either one of you want to talk about that? Okay. >> So uh as George mentioned, we only had eight uh nominations last year for 10 awards. Um so we
102wanted to we we got together this winter to talk about how to promote the uh the award. um and sort of came out with an came up with an outline uh which will potentially be in the drive and if not Oh, it is. >> It is. It's in there now. Yeah. >> Okay. Super. And also, um, Ben mentioned that he'll put it in the administration notes to go to all the, uh, principles, but, uh, Jen and I wanted to reach out to all of you school liaison as, uh, to really really champion this uh, this year getting uh, nominations. Um, so on the campaign plan, it sort of outlines a weekby- week ideas of of how uh we could reach out and touch different touch points. Um starting with uh if you could talk to
103the principles and suggest these various uh touch points such as email from the principal going to both parents and students. Again, this would be age appropriate, building appropriate uh touching base with PTA groups um in the principal school newsletters. A lot of the principles have a section on teacher appreciation. So, we really want to make sure that it's differentiated from the exceptional teacher award. They're two different things. Um maybe morning announcements, uh the SAU Facebook page, and when I met with Mike Smith, um he even suggested putting it on the school buses because that's where the kids have their phones. Um we created a flyer to go either on the school buses out to a groups. It'll be on the websites. It's got a QR code that goes directly to the form. We're really highlighting
104that it takes two minutes to do this. It's super easy. In the past, um it mentioned when you go into the nomination form in 500 words or less, that you felt like that was a little bit of a barrier to entry, nervous, nerve-wracking, you have to write 500 words. Um so I uh have both outline of the campaign week by week. Um, we've created sample emails to make it super easy. If the principles want to cut and paste, uh, cut and paste this, make it their own, do their own, whatever they want to do. Um, so it's up to to you all to hopefully champion this throughout the uh your schools. Um, and Ben made a bunch of copies of these. Wow. you can hand these out and hopefully we'll get a lot more nominations
105this year. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. And we don't need any action on that. That's just um letting you guys know that this information is available. Um and we're encouraging you to work with your liaison to make sure that the schools get it out as well. Um that was from what I saw of last year's nominations. That is what we were missing is is largely the um student and parent nominations. We used to get even at the elementary level we used to get some student ones definitely some parent ones in middle school and high school we often got student nominations and that was almost entirely lacking last year. So we would like to bring some more awareness to that. All right. Any other new business this evening? All right. Seeing none, can
106I have a motion to go into non-public session in accordance with RS91A3 for negotiations? >> Staff and student personnel. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Yes. Should we go to the back room? We'll just stay out here. Okay. All right. So, we'll recess for five minutes to make sure the video recordings are