001and good afternoon. Uh, welcome to the next session of our budget adventures. I'm going to open the Keen Board of Education special meeting for Saturday, January 10th. It is 12:15. Uh, eight of our board members are here at the table. We also have board member Jennifer Freriedman uh attending remotely via a phone connection. Got it up, >> Rob? >> Okay, there we go. >> All right. Um and and Jen, you'll just have to if you want to give input on any particular topic, you'll just have to speak up so that Rob will know and Okay. All right. Got it. We're really loud. All right. Um, do we have any public input ahead of the school district meeting? All right. Sorry, my Chromebook is moving really slowly. It thinks we've been here a long time, too.
002All right. Um, do we have a recommended budget from the finance committee? I say knowing the answer. Someone want to make a motion? >> Yes. For the 82 uh yes we do. Finance uh committee recommends to the full board uh a budget in the amount of 82 million 334. So moved. >> Second. >> Nope. That was a motion from Jacine. Second. >> Second. >> We're We're on to full board now. [laughter] >> All right. Thank you guys. Seconded and thirded. >> All right. Um I think everyone here has sat through this um for two weeks and about 12 hours of budget discussion. Uh that said, um I am open to commentary from the board as well as we will probably do a brief rundown of the highlights of this budget in case there's people that
003are tuning in only to this meeting and not any of the previous meetings. But I think first commentary from the board on this budget proposal. Heather, >> hi. Thanks. It's nice to be able to speak finally, >> right, >> after 12 hours of listening. Uh, yeah, I I want to speak to some of the changes that were just made. Um, I agree with what Chris said about it being an increasing liability as our tax rate goes up and families want to move out of the district. I also think that the opposite can happen. I think when we're um not careful enough about cutting positions and therefore sacrificing the quality of the education, the Keen School District starts to become less of a district of choice and that also affects families decisions whether to send their
004students to our schools or not. Um I think we have to be mindful of both. Um in thinking about the positions that were cut just last round. So we were able to decrease the budget the requests by $1 million and increase revenue by.5. So that resulted in a shift of $1.5 million. [snorts] I think that it can be you know as humans we want round numbers. We want things to look neat but it doesn't necessarily have to be rounded off. You don't have to round off to exactly $1.5 million. And in this list that we just got, there was one person who lost their job today. So, there was one position that was cut that is going to result in somebody not being employed by the district. If it's my understanding the other one was
005a more flexible situation, right, of a temporary position. So in the name of not having to round off our numbers, if we kept that position and kept all the numbers the same, then instead of reducing our budget by a million, we would be reducing it by 892,9393. I'm subtracting the amount of that position 107607. That means the overall shift is only is one essentially 1.39 million instead of 1.5. That's going to change our tax rate. We started the day at 16.5% and we got it down to 12.7. That would get it more in the range of 12.9. So, we decreased our ch tax rate today by 23%. And by giving that person their job back, we're only we're only changing that decrease by 21%. It's not a big difference in the budget, but it's a
006major difference in that person's life. I think that if we're going to stand by our strategic plan, pillar four is about uh retaining quality teachers. It's really important to me that our faculty and staff don't worry from year to year about whether they're going to have job stability. And I think that's something that is really important that we think about. So I would encourage us to consider adding that position back in. doesn't make a very big difference to the bottom line of that tax rate, but it does make a big difference to somebody. >> All right. Thank you, Heather. Um, procedurally, what we have is a motion on the floor with the proposed budget from finance committee, which I had the number a minute ago. 82426334. Heather, is the position you're discussing the middle school
007reading interventionist? Okay. Um, so procedurally, uh, what you're suggesting is a motion to amend the budget by $107,67 for the purpose of returning the Keen Middle School reading interventionist to the line item budget. Is that correct? >> That sounds good. >> Okay. So, um, we should go ahead and make that motion. Just say so moved because I decided >> Okay. So I motion to put the reading interventionalist position back in which would change the amended budget uh to decrease down 1,392,393 instead of the $1.5 million that was achieved. >> Second. >> Who was the second? Was that Dylan? Okay. Thank you. All right. Um you heard Heather's justification. Anyone else wish to speak to this? The motion on the floor is to um increase the proposed budget from finance by 107607. Uh Mr. Roberts, [clears
008throat] what we did on um the finance committee and looking at the way the numbers were coming in. A lot of decision went into the fact that we couldn't just look at one year. We were looking at the possibility we we could try to protect money for one year, but next year would be worse and the year after could be even worse. And [clears throat] know one of the things we're coming up with a bunch of contracts next year. If we get a lot of trouble this year, based on what I've seen in the past, you will not get any of the contracts passed in next year. So when we do these cuts, we look at the long range. For the longest time, we were just looking year to year, but under the situation now,
009we're looking for the long range. And so that's why these numbers are in. Is that Jennifer or Ron that wants to talk? Okay, go ahead. >> So, I I appreciate the concern. I appreciate the motion. Um, we had lengthy discussion about this and Mike, I want you to correct me if I misrepresented anything in, you know, the way it should not be represented. Um the discussion that um ensued regarding this position was that each of the six clusters already have a reading teacher in them at the middle school. Additionally, when we added the um second assistant principal a year ago, we felt that okay, given the added support that was provided a year ago, we were going to be able to navigate this um reduction a lot more. competently now than we would have prior
010to having those additional pos that additional position in there. And you know, it's not ideal. You know, anytime that you've got to look at all right, well, where can we make reductions? um it impacts a person, but with the number of students that have declined over at the middle school over the last several years, you know, when I first started, we were at 750 students. We're down to nearly 600. This is one of the few places that we have actually reduced at the middle school over my tenure here. and it's not something that we feel will bring instruction and learning to a screeching halt for the students at the middle school. So, if I've misrepresented that, Mike, please. Not at all. >> And just to add, you didn't misrepresent anything at all, but um with
011added um like some of our PD initiatives and instructional leadership team taking on more professional development and again with the new assistant principal um who is going to be focusing more on academics and offering that kind of professional development, we can get our bang for the buck with those uh initiatives and and those people and those strategies. So yeah, definitely not something we took lightly, but um in terms of student impact of student achievement, I I still think we can do what we need to do. >> All right. Um anyone else wish to speak to the motion? All right. The motion is to add back in $17,7 to the proposed budget from the finance committee. So, a yes vote um returns that position to the budget. Those in favor? Those opposed? It fails two to
012seven. >> Oh, that's right. So, I was right. Two to seven. Good guess. >> Yep. Um, Paige, we're going to be until at least one. Um, if you need to, you should go ahead and go. Okay. All right. Uh, Chris, >> just a procedural question. If we have someone coming from on the outside, are we required to do um a voice vote on everything? Is there a legal requirement? We [snorts] have to do that in the city council whenever we have someone who's coming in from the outside. >> Yeah, I think I think you're correct. I think when we have somebody who is remoting in that all all votes should be a voice vote, >> right? >> Yes. >> Roll call vote. >> Roll call. >> Call for every over. Jen, you want to call
013the roll? >> Mr. >> Uh, no. >> Mr. >> No. >> Mr. >> No. No, >> no, >> yes. Oh, yeah. Still two to seven. [laughter] >> Yes. Thank you, Chris. I should have caught that, too. It's been a while since we've had someone phone into a meeting. All right. Um, are there motions for other changes proposed to the budget? All right. So the standing motion on the floor is um still for and this would be the dollar amount that would go into the first warrant article. Um it would leave the default budget at roughly a million. I have the exact number but that might change so I'm not going to read it off but it's roughly 1 million less or 1.24% less than the proposed budget. Um, I did have motions based on the
014original administration, but um, everything that I moved has already been addressed. So, uh, well done finance committee and administration. Um, I want to commend everybody that worked on this budget. I know this is a really hard budget year. Um the drivers on this budget are largely external um combined with lower enrollment here, but u reduced revenue from the state. Um a $2 million hit to uh special ed that is not a number that we can particularly play with because it's largely having to do with services to charter and private schools that we're obligated to cover. Um and then a million dollar increase in salaries and benefits based on contracts previously approved by voters in Keen um really left the finance office and then the finance committee with negative wiggle room this year. Um I was
015impressed last week and even more impressed today with the work that everybody has done to try and come up with a responsible budget in a really difficult year. That said, any Chris I know the budget has been um real difficult this year, but one of the things I I don't want to overlook is the effort that Mr. Roar has put in for the last five years, unlike a lot of other um school districts. He ensured that the COVID money that we had went into upgrading our facilities. If he had not done that, we would be in the position of right now, do we cut the needed maintenance to keep our schools safe like we had to do in the past? And I just think the board and everybody else needs to be commendable of the
016effort that Mr. Roar and Ken Duly did. They saved the they upgraded our schools. Our schools are much safer, give the opportunity of better quality education, and very little of that money came from the King taxpayers. I just personally want to say thanks Kim for Tim for the great job. >> Yep. Go ahead, Dylan. >> Thank you. I just also wanted to thank all the cost center managers and principles for all the time that they've put in. This is obviously a really difficult budget process, especially with what we're looking at this year. Um, and I just wanted to also say that it's going to take all of us as community leaders to get this across the finish line, not end up with the default budget that is going to be even worse than what we're
017looking at. So, um, yeah, thank you for everyone that put in all the hard work. Um, and hopefully the community can see all the work that we've done on it and, uh, agree. >> Any other comments before we vote? I just wanted to uh say thank you to my fellow finance committee members for um sticking with me this year and uh with these past two Saturdays. Appreciate you all very much. All right. So, the motion on the floor is um a motion from the finance committee to a proposed budget of 82,426,334 the 2627 operating year. Jennifer, can we have a roll call? >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Mr. Omar. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roberts. >> Yes. >> Miss Walker. >> Yes. >> Mr. D. >> Yes. >> All right. Proposed budget passes
01890. Um I know finance committee has talked about this separately. Uh is now well actually let me discuss what happens next with this budget. Um this is a recommended budget now from the school board. We are not even close to a final budget yet unfortunately. Um, the next step in the budgeting process will be a public hearing on January 20th. That's a Tuesday night. It's at the public hearing will be at 7 PM. We will be here in the same room, the JD conference room. Um, and we will be streaming that. Um at this meeting the board u primarily the finance committee will present the budget um not line by line um but they will highlight um the important changes to the budget uh what the drivers are what the expected tax impact will be
019and that sort of thing. Um and at that meeting members of the public can attend and ask any clarifying questions that they may have and make suggestions. Um this is not the meeting that the public can change the budget. This is the one um where you have direct input to the school board and administration um with your concerns and thoughts about the upcoming budget. So we do encourage interested people to come and share their perspective. Um and at the conclusion of that public hearing, this body will um make any further changes based on input that they might want to make and vote on their proposed budget for 2627. That will be the last time that this board acts on that budget. Uh the next step beyond that will be first session which uh first Saturday
020or second Saturday in February >> 7th. Okay. First Saturday. So February 7th that will be over at the high school at 9:00 a.m. Uh and that is the meeting that the public can come in and make motions to add or subtract monies from the budget and then all the voters in attendance will make that decision. Yes. Go ahead. Jen Freriedman. Sorry we have two Jensen. Thank you all so much for getting me in and >> thank you. >> All right. So, yeah, reflect that in the minutes and then we don't have to do roll call votes anymore. Yep. Oh, that's right. I was in the middle of first session. Um the uh number that comes out of first session um is what will go on the ballot um on March what is it the 10th
021this year? Yeah. For uh keen voters to vote on. So the next time that the public can have input will be the 20th of January at the public hearing and school board meeting. >> Yeah. I had starting at I had a good transition into my next thing, but that was too many interruptions and I forgot it. So, I guess we will move on to Oh, I know what I was going to say. Um, it is now um already time for the board um and the administration to start figuring out um what we need to explain to the public to tell them why this budget is important, why we voted the way that we did, and what um why we hope that people will support our budget going forward. I do think Um, we're going to
022be need to be very clear in the goals of this budget, why it is what it is, and why we think people should be supporting it for our students. And that's the other challenge in a difficult budget year is explaining why we have the expenses that we do. That that is on us, the board, and it is on us, the administration, to present that to the public. All right. Now, I'm done yapping. Uh, next up is the recommended um, >> No, that was that was the budget for the public hearing that did that >> warrant articles, school district warrant. >> George, >> yes, >> you're not taking official positions on these warrants until after the public hearing, >> right? >> But you do need to tell me what articles you want to show up for
023the public hearing. That's your right. >> Yep. So, um, article one we're done with. You just have to put the numbers in. Um, article two, uh, we don't have anything at this time. Um, I agree with you. It's unlikely that we're going to have it done in time and we may have to petition for a special special hearing, but we'll see. Um, hopefully, uh, they'll come in just under the wire and we'll have an article, too. Oh, I have my fingers crossed. I really hope so. Yeah. Um, articles two and three both refer to the classroom assistance contract, which is the only contract that we're negotiating this year, and they are coming right up to the wire on that. I assume no one on the board objects to that going on the warrant articles if
024it gets over the finish line. >> All right. Um, the two um unexpended appropriation funds, the finance committee, I understand, brought forward a $1 recommendation on both of them. I assume that's just so that we can discuss them. Um, do we need motions on this or do you just need direction on this? >> I need I I need a motion. I need you to direct me through motion or not what articles you want to show up at the public hearing. All right. >> So, I just need to know what you want included in your warrant. >> Right. Um, refresh my memory. If we go with a Z value on these appropriation funds, they do not appear on the warrants. Correct. >> Right. Okay. All right. Um, article four is the unexpended appropriations to the maintenance
025fund. Um, motion from finance committee. >> Uh, yes. I'll make a motion to include article 4, unexpended appropriation fund in the amount of $1 to the full board. >> Sorry. >> All right. The $1 is in there for uh discussion. In a normal year, um, we usually put in, um, 250 or 500, uh, numbers like that. This year, um, if you were following along in the previous discussion, we're actually hoping to hold a public hearing. Finance Committee is likely to hold discussions on that at their level and recommend a public hearing to take money out of the maintenance fund to cover some safety renovations um that we have just finished removing from this year's budget. Based on that, does anyone want to make an amendment to the dollar value? Mr. Roberts, >> you were reading
026my mind based on what Tim said and based on what's going to be the um difficulty in the budget and this would be coming people a lot of people could perceive this as adding to the tax rate. I would then move that we drop it from $1 down to zero. >> Second, >> Tim. Sorry, who was the second? >> Raleigh. Okay. >> Sorry, Tim. If the motion as presented fails, then there is no warrant article, >> right? If they tell me not to put it on, there's no warrant. >> So, so with the motion that was first presented, there's no need to necessarily change it from a dollar to zero. >> If they all vote down, if they all vote down this warrant article for a dollar, I'll remove it. >> That's correct. >> Okay.
027move. >> Withdraw your second. >> Draw my second. >> All right. Do you guys follow that? A yes vote puts this on the warrant for $1. A no vote removes it for the year. Does not remove it forever. This maintenance fund still exists. We'll have this discussion again next year. In a more normal year, we could start putting money back in. All right. All those in favor? Opposed? fails 08. All right. Repeat the process for the special education fund. >> Uh yes, on behalf of the finance committee, uh make a motion to recommend article five unexpended appropriations to special ed fund in the amount of $1. >> Second. >> This fund um we actually stopped putting money into about four years ago, give or take. Um we did it in a difficult budget year but
028we did not um start putting it back in because it became apparent that um as Tim mentioned in the previous meeting in most years we don't have the overage in this fund to need to tap into this. Um and when it does happen it's generally more than the amount that we keep in this fund. So it doesn't actually help us any. So we actually stopped funding this one a couple years ago. Um, so again, as Chris has been pointing out previous one, this is a tough budget year anyway, and this isn't really a fund that we um count on anymore. That said, anybody else wish to comment on this one. All right, same as the previous, a yes vote puts it onto the warrant as a $1 amount. A no vote removes it for the
029year. Those in favor? opposed. Feel 08. I almost forgot to vote. All right. Um, article six, open enrollment. >> Mr. Malay, do you want to take this? >> Tim's gonna pull up some sample language that we have in consultation with legal counsel. Um, >> hang on, Rob. Let me let me set the stage for all looking at the paper. [laughter] So, um, the the um state legislature has passed a bill that allows districts to opt into open enrollment. Um essentially meaning yes, we will you can opt in either as an accepting school, a sending school, both um neither is your kind of your default. Um there have been several lawsuits working through the state court system having to do with how the funding works for that. Um, and based on that, the we directed the
030administration to look into whether or not we should have um a warrant article um either opting into or out of any of these options. And that is what Mr. Mole is about to speak to. Thank you. um three months ago, we would probably not be recommending an article of any sort regarding open enrollment because it would not have impacted us in our specific area, so to speak. Um there are only two open enrollment districts. One is Prospect Mountain, the other is the Franklin School District that have gone through the process of having voters approve accepting students. Not a huge concern because the commute from Keen to Prospect Mountain or to Franklin um would more likely than not impact any of our residents to say, "Hey, look, we really want to send our to Prospect Mountain
031or to Franklin. That landscape has changed and it's changing very quickly. Currently, Prospect Mountain also will be operating a virtual academy for tuition. Beyond that, there are several districts in our region that are also going to have an article to become open enrollment for their district as well. I know specifically that Kir Jaffrey Rin and Moma or is it Msenic? It's one of those two are are going to have already shared that they are putting forward an article to become open enrollment. That becomes problematic for us in that if a resident said, you know, we we want to send our kid there and we haven't the opportunity to make a decision on this, we would be obligated to pay the tuition. This has been tried in court at the Supreme Court level with a family
032from Pittsfield who sent their child to an open enrollment school and then the bill went back to that district in Pittsfield. So where there is a level of risk, we need to take some type of action on whether or not we want to become open enrollment to receive students and what we want to do in terms of sending students. So we've worked with legal counsel to draft a warrant article. the highlighted portions are absolutely the portions that we should be discussing um in the event that we want to put those protections in for our district. So why that's important? If one of those districts in our region becomes open enrollment and we have a student that or a family that wants to send their children child to that district, we would be responsible for the
033tuition to that district. We didn't budget for that. If there were 20 kids, that would be 20 tuition. If there were 30, that would be 30 tuitions. And that would be the responsibility of our taxpayers to pay those tuitions to other districts. So there's the risk, the inherent risk. What we put in there was a recommendation of up to 5% of students from outside of the Keen School District. And we'd have to clarify that language. 5% of students based on our current enrollment. So I would have to modify that a little bit. >> Yeah. Yeah. So what we would say is, you know, and I'm just going to round the number off for WEO, you know, as an example. Let's say enrollment at Welock was 200 students. Are we willing to take up to 5%
034of that 200 outside of the district to Welock. Are we willing to take up to 5% of the 210 at Franklin? Are we willing to take up to 5% of the 280 at Simons? Are we willing to take um up to 5% of the 300 at at Fuller? We'll have to fix that language so it's much clearer to the people who would be voting on that. >> So that's part one of the article. The second part of the article is what is the percentage we're willing to budget for and allow to attend. >> Sorry, but before you go on because I want you to do it as part of the first part. So the first thing is would we accept them and how many? But that doesn't prohibit us from, let's say we say we're
035going to take 5% at Wheelock and we have 22 to 25 kids in our fifth grade and a fifth grader applies. We don't have to take them if we don't have room. If they have discipline issues documented and there's some other criteria that's in the law. So this says we'll take up to 5% but they still have to have we still have to have open seats to allow them in. Sorry. Next section. >> No, he's correct. And so the second I'm glad you clarified that. Thank you. That's why it's good that we tag team stuff. The second piece of it is what is the what is the amount or the percentage? The second piece has to be a percent of that we're willing to send to open enrollment districts. I put in a number there
036that I think um well I'm recommending a number that you can see. Uh that is my recommendation. Um on the first side of that it could be a hard number. It doesn't have to be a percentage. I used a percentage. It could be a hard number. You could say up to one student. You could say up to whatever number you wanted. Um but we need to to one have in my opinion I think we need to have an open enrollment article and then we just need to be specific. It doesn't have to be only at the elementary schools. I put the open ele I put the elementary schools because we don't have a agreements at the elementary school level. we do at the middle school and the high school level and those are longstanding tuition
037agreements with some partners who have been tremendous to us for over four decades. So um over five decades now so I didn't want to impact those long-standing relationships at the middle and the high school level and that's all that's the only reason I put forward the elementary schools. Tim, no. There's no monetary impact on this. Do you still need a motion? >> I need to know if you Yes. The board still decides whether they want this on the warrant or >> All right. >> Do you want this on the warrant? >> Yes. Can I have a motion stating No. A motion to direct the administration to include the open enrollment warrant article. You [laughter] >> guys can rock paper scissors now. >> It doesn't matter because you guys didn't make a recommendation. >> All right.
038Um or maybe you did. Whatever. Thoughts on the wording or the numbers that the administration has put up there? Tim, you added some additional details there about like if there's student with some documented discipline or other things. >> Do we need to have that in the warrant article or do we need to maybe not so specific, you know, like this? We need to have some >> pending um you see where I'm going with this some kind of additional statement. So that specificity according to our legal counsel does not need to be in the warrant article. >> What we need to do is be clear about what we're trying to say and >> we'll do that. >> What we need to know in general 5% elementary and don't allow any of our kids to go elsewhere.
039That that's the three tenants in there. If you're good with that, that's what'll go in there. But if you want to change those ideas and you could change them after the public hearing, we need to know that. >> Really? >> I think Mr. R just answered my question. I wanted to make sure that the 0.0000% pertain to the whole district, not just elementary. >> I think we can be more clear on that. >> Rob, how extensive has this conversation gone? Like we're saying the elementary this would opt in the elementary to being receiving schools. Has anyone talked to the elementary schools about that? >> No. [laughter] No, not specifically. We have not um had that deeper discussion. Um >> but we are receiving for elementary now if private pay comes or something like that. I
040don't know how drastic this would be but have our kindergarten numbers suggest we would like to have more kindergarteners next year, >> right? >> Yeah. I think at this time all of our elementary >> So I I don't think it's controversial for us. >> So we have Mr. We haven't had extensive conversations on it because the uh protections for us that can go within here allow for it to be similar to our variance procedures. So we we already have this in place in our district. This would be expanding it out and uh in some ways there's opportunities where we we can have capacity and there's times when we don't. So I think as long as those measures are in there, principles will proceed forward in that same type of conversation when we accept the variance
041around capacity. That's usually where we start first. >> Right. Kathy Rody Fuller principal. Um, I guess I just want to represent the the anxiety and the concern of my staff. We're going down to two sections in grades four and five and have up to 25 students. You know, I could see capacity up to 20, but if we're looking to add beyond 20 in those grades and it's due to open enrollment, it it just it becomes more challenging. And um you know, I guess that would be my only concern. >> Yeah. Yep. And I think that's valid. And I think um Ben and Tim spoke to that a little bit in that um you know, if somebody says, "Hey, I want to come to your school." And they're applying to um a specific grade level in
042a specific building and that is at capacity already. We have the ability to say no, we're at capacity as we already do for variances or can I don't know if we do. I know we gave you guys the authority to that. >> Yeah, absolutely we do. And we we manage the capacity in a way that allows for, you know, not to be against the wall in terms of enrollment. So what Mrs. Marott is talking about is is if it's similar to our variance procedure, then it won't be much of a change because a lot of that control is at the building level. >> All right. And and your anxiety is so noted as well. I just had a note from his headings that um we may have to if this passes at the warrant level
043as written then we probably um will need to bring it up at the policy committee and talk about some policy procedure that governs this as well. All right, thoughts on the numbers that they have in the sample up there. Realizing that the wording is a little rough at this time. All right. So, a yes vote um directs the administration to uh clean this up and give us a full properly worded article to vote on the [clears throat] January 20th meeting. All those in favor opposed carries 8. All right, that was it for the warrant articles and I think that's it for the budget discussion. stuff. Yes. Anyone actually Oh, yes. Thank you, Jacqueline. Um, we should have mentioned this earlier because people, I'm sure, have already tuned out. Yeah, Tim. >> Yes. Thank you for
044giving up two very long Saturdays. We appreciate both that and the amount of work that you guys have put into building the budget this year. Appreciate it. um people interested in applying to run for the Keen Board of Education. There are three three-year terms up for election um and one two-year term. Um if you wish to board members reapply for your position or if uh a member of the public wishes to run, the filing period is January 20th to the 30th. January 21 to the 30th. and you can apply uh at central office um right next to the middle school here in Ke. Any other public business? Unfortunately, seeing none, I need a motion in accordance with RSA 9183 to go into non-public for uh staff and negotiation. >> So, move roll call. Jen, >>
045yes. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yep. >> All right. That concludes our public meeting. Uh board will um probably reconvene in one of the side rooms in just a couple