001All right, I'm going to go ahead and call tonight's meeting of the SAU 29 board to order at 5:32 p.m. Uh, we will start with introductions. Claire in Harrisville >> Jeff Miller Marlboro >> Candace St. John Westland >> Rob Mle superintendent >> Egga Cordell Chesterfield >> Raley Omarrod Keen >> Tim Roar business office >> Andy Shroud human resources So move second. >> Uh any questions, amendments, concerns? All in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Passes unanimously. Uh we're going to move right on to the financial report of 2425 followed by 2526. And I'm going to put Tim Roer on. >> Hey. Hey. So, you have two financial reports. It's in the year that we're in here. So, on your in your packet online is financial report for last year ending June 30, 2025. You're going
002to see changes happening. Why? We had several years, a long period of vacancies. Um, SAUS are a little different than you'd find in your school district. They were more like turnover and it's hard to fill. Um, where we couldn't hire at some jobs in the schools for a long time. COVID and and the fog after that's changing slowly except with our most critical specialty positions at the schools. Um but at the SAU we've been fully staffed and you're going to see a drastic change in the amount of unreserved fund balance we have which is our biggest amount going into a revenue for any year which is going to affect in future budgets how much each district has to contribute. Um, so you see that last year we had half a million dollars in surplus as
003a revenue. There was a little bit less going into this year and there'll be even less going into next year with the budget we're going to look at. But we ended up with uh a total fund balance of $398,000 586. So slightly less about $100,000 less and you'll see that reflected. This amount from 2425 actually affects the 26 267year budget. The SAU is a strange animal in that its unreserved fund balance has a two-year lag when it becomes a revenue. That only happens because of the mechanics of an SAU budget, not in your budget. It's each year is affected. So, it's a two-year lag. So, this is the amount that you'll see in your budget for next year. But that is almost entirely from health savings due to vacancies. Um, and some buyouts in the
004IT where we had budgeted for a plan, but they ended up coming in and not taking health insurance. That's really where our surplus came from. We did have about $50,000 in additional money for uh the federal overhead recovery. That is the indirect cost we get for servicing grants. Um and those grants are starting to dwindle as you know. So that number will be going down as well. Um we had additional interest of about $28,000 which doesn't sound like a lot but our budget's relatively small compared to most school budgets. But you know this was four years ago, maybe $5,000 and now we're getting $38,000. So, it's quite a difference. Um, we don't have a lot of extra cash in the SAU because we only bill quarterly. So, it's not like we get all the money
005up front. We bill each district quarterly. We just don't have a lot of cash. Um, and no big surprises, we have $55,000 that here. Um, but we do have a PO that we're carrying forward. um for HVAC design changes at the SAU which we desperately need. Um there's been all kinds of reasons I won't get into here. What's holding that up? Um and travel started to come on. Two things happened. The world opened up again. We started going places um for PD for meetings and the cost per mile has gone way up. You know, we're at 70 cents a per mile now. And if you go back a few years before CO struck, we were like, I don't know, 55 cents. So, you know, that all adds up. So, but that's where we are. You'll
006see that there's some incumbrance. We had 466, we encumbered 68. Those are carry forward POS, including this $55,800 for designing a UHVAC system at the SAU. Um, we I probably should tell you a little bit about it. We put in mini splits uh for air conditioning, supplemental heat. Um that building was built in 2011. Uh and those systems are good for 15 years. It's really end of life. The problem is is that they have new regulations and the coolant that's used in that system is no longer being manufactured. So the cost of that coolant is going to go like tfold over the next several years. making it unaffordable to work on because they'll just have that that they recover from systems to resell. Uh and the new systems aren't fully developed to put in yet.
007Uh the new and so we're kind of in limbo waiting for what we're going to design. There's some difficulties with the new coolant may be more flammable and require a different install which may require additional sprinklers or notification. So, we're waiting for that to kind of work itself out and then we'll be designing a new system. Keen has also uh encumbered the construction costs for that which are quite high something like $400,000 that they have encumbered and they're moving that along waiting for us to for the systems new technology to fair itself out so we can build a new system. That's where we are. Those systems are great and they're inexpensive when you put in, but the problem is is that they don't last like we're used to having buildings where heating systems last 40
008to 50 years and now we're putting in systems that last not very long. So that's the problem with those systems and Keen has a lot of them. The whole middle school has a bunch and SAU has a lot. Our heating system is built for 50 years. We have a wood chip plant and that works fine. All right, next financial report is this current year. Our first look at this current year where we're at. Um, look at that. $43,000. You haven't seen a number that low in a long time. We're fully stacked. We don't have a lot of savings in salary and benefits. In fact, we're close to break even on salary and benefits. We have one unfilled position which is a part-time training position that I don't even think they're posting for for uh technology.
009Everything else is fully up and running and that means our budgets almost all salary and benefits. I'm not expecting a big surplus. Um so we have to be careful on overtime additional time and any kind of because we're on the edge this year. That's where we are. So, those are financial reports and I'll ask answer any questions. >> Yeah, >> just quickly the salaries and consultants. Um, those aren't the same line item. You just combine those, right? How does that work? The >> SAU budget because it's so much simpler of a budget. We don't have all these different departments. Our budgets are broken down into salaries, benefits, staff development. As you see, there's a few consultants that are in the salaries and they're very small. There might be $2,500 in for HR if we had
010to bring in a consultant or something like that, but it's a very small amount of money. When we get to the budget, I can show you where those line items are. >> Okay. >> But there it's a small very small amount of money. Like out of the salaries, maybe $4,000 as consultants or so. It just means a purchase service that's salary related. >> Um, relative to the federal overhead recovery and medicaid, >> are we worried at all about actually collecting those or are we having delays in collecting them at all? >> Uh, there's two different things. The f federal overhead recovery has been delayed. Those are indirect costs that we get for servicing grant funding. They haven't been delayed. They pay every month. So, we haven't missed any of those. Some of those grants were
011delayed and started late, and that's been a hassle, but once they've started, they've paid regularly. No problems so far. Uh the Medicaid, which is the bottom line here, is paying for a 50% of an administrative assistant in our building and a program that we bought for $7,500. And we spent $7,500 last year for training, which I don't think we're going to have this year, but that $7,500 pays for a electronic system for us to file for Medicaid reimbursement. We're up to date with that. But these are the costs that we take out of our revenues. Our expenses directly offset these. Um, so we, let's say we collect $300,000 in Medicaid. We take off 49,866, the exact amount of the expenses that we use to collect those, and then we distribute the rest to the district
012based on what each each person's each district's aotment is. I hope that was clear. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> So, I'll probably should have done that prior, but I'll take a motion to accept those financial reports for 2425 and 2526. So, >> so we might as well keep going. We don't want to go over the budget before the public hearing because that's what we have to do at the public hearing. But we can go after we can talk about the employee benefits, the salary and hiring ranges um for both groups and we can get that out of the way and get those presentations. We don't need to vote on those till after the public hearing, but we might as well do that. So, we would start with central office employee benefits, which is
013Rob style linked. So, it is the same with a couple of Here it is. Number 16 compensation. This is about being frozen. Um, in the pre in current policy, an employee who is outside of their salary range or pay would get a 2% payment not to be included in their base lump sum. It's been 1%. I mistakenly said it moved to 2% the previous year when we met last time. It's not us, it's caps that went to 2%. So, I marked it up as if it was 2% and I'm recommending that you consider making it 2%. Um, but you do not have to. Uh, and anybody outside of their range will be frozen. They will get a 2% payment, you know, but they won't go into their base. So, they don't continue to make more
014and more each year until the range catches up with it. >> Can you reconcile the first sentence with the last? So, what's employees above their range? >> Yeah, it used to have this qualifier on it that said you were only frozen if you were 10% above your range. We haven't implemented it like that. So I wanted to be clear that any employee who's outside of their range gets frozen regardless the percentage above that range. >> So the range is effectively went up 2%. >> No, they're not related. The range >> No, no, but I mean if you're if $100 is the top of the range and you're making $100, you're going to make $102. >> You're going to make $102, but your base is going to stay at >> 100 and then the next you
015make $12. Unless but unless and if the range if the range changes then clearly if it surpasses where you're earning then you're no longer >> right if the if the range catches up with you then you're back on getting whatever raises you guys approve. >> Yes. So that's one change >> and that's annually. The 2% is annually until it catches up. >> Yeah. Annually. Y >> is it does it hit as a form of like um a bonus in terms of It feels just like regular pay in terms of that taxes. There's no difference. The retirement system and IRS treat it just like pay. >> Okay. >> But the difference is is well, it's written so you're supposed to just get this here's your 2%. It's just all at once is how it's written. One
016lump sum it says. >> And I think the thinking you would just get it. So you get that all at once. >> Okay. >> If you're here That's what I think the intention is, but I don't want to answer that because I don't know what day they're paying on. I don't know if they're paying at the beginning of the end. I I just didn't check. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> I don't I just don't want to answer because I don't know. >> Should we specify? >> I don't worry about that. >> I I I think the one lump sum is my guess is they spread it, but I want to go back and check. It says one lump sum, but I think what it meant to say is that it doesn't become part of the
017base. I don't know why there would be a reason why we would pay. Here's all your I have to go check and see how that's done. >> What would you like us to approve tonight? >> That's where I was headed. I I'm concerned. >> Well, how would you like it to work? I want the language to reflect our intent and purpose. >> If you make the language affect your intent, it doesn't really matter how we're doing it. That's how we will do it. >> I'm just saying it's a little ambiguous. I don't think that we're paying a lump sum, but I don't know. >> Can I just suggest we take out that in a lump sum payment to satisfy that because then that gives payroll that flexibility to have it be progressive throughout the year
018with each payroll. That's how I would recommend it. Then it just becomes part of your pay for the year. >> So they will receive an amount equal to 2% of their salary >> but not in their base. >> That's how it should be done. >> Yeah. So no single payment. That's bad. No lumpsum. >> The lump sum doesn't make any sense to me. So employees whose pay is above the salary range receive the equivalent of an additional 2% in compensation >> right >> I'll vote in favor and I'm confident you guys will work out the >> well how about you guys amend it to reduce the language that says redact the language that says in a lump sum payment just that portion and the rest reads fine Claire, did you just make that motion with
019the amended language? >> Yes, I did. >> Jen, did you get that language for the minutes? Thank you. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Raleigh. Any continuous discussion on this? We can bring it back again next year if we're finding that it the language is still ambiguous and not being followed with fidelity. Couple other comments on that section. Do we want to >> Yes. Just that >> we ready to vote on that? >> Amended language. Yes. All in favor? I >> opposed. That part passes unanimously. Um, besides the dates, there are no other changes to this policy. Paige has some questions about the policy, so go for it. >> Um, I think I would I think we need to clarify. We have terms uh different terms referring to the board throughout the document.
020Sometimes it says the board, sometimes it says the SAU board. Uh sometimes we call it the SAU, sometimes we call it the district. And um one of the questions I had was another uh spot we've got SA SAU 29 member district. What is a what is a member district? So then when we referred to so um let's see one two third paragraph section one second line coverage is not provided by SA29 or any SA29 member district. What's the difference? >> Well so SI29 is its own entity and the member districts are independent as well. So this is saying >> okay >> you can get you if you can get a buyout if the SA29 which is not Keen or Marboro it's SA29 only you don't have coverage through there or nor any district that makes
021up SAU 29's catchment area which is independent. So we don't want to So Keen's paying I don't know 70% of the bill, right? They don't want to be giving them health insurance through Keen School District and paying them a buyout through SA29. So they're separate entities. They need to be referred to separately. >> Okay. Thank you for clearing that up. um little ticky tack things. Section two in the starred section adding some dollar signs. Um I don't know if this is like a a typo but section three in the middle paragraph it starts with should an employee leave the employee or is that the employment of the central office >> section >> two she said >> no three >> employees right >> no she did reference section We need to add dollar signs in some
022of the numbers and the figures in section two. So, we'll note that and clean that up. >> And then according to >> Jeff the grammar man, we can ignore my section three question. Um, >> okay. So, you keep notes on this. >> See the final paragraph, Tim, in section two? >> I do. I see. Yep, that makes sense. Those are just scribblers errors. Yep. >> Yeah. To And there's I mean there's a couple other ones spelling out numbers. We can um Okay. Section four, the second paragraph. I was unsure why in the fifth sentence or fifth line, months of employment, why we have employment in parentheses. I see it. >> I can't answer that. >> But this would have come from an attorney at some time. I don't know if employment is defined somewhere. I
023the policy. >> Yeah, it's not. >> Tim, is it possible because this is referencing disability benefits that employment has a a connotation that ties into the disability benefits language? So, in this case, we're identifying that particular >> it could be. I I I mean, we had an attorney write up language that we shopped around to all the district's policies. I just hate to make a change without understanding it. >> Yeah. Well, I'm not saying it's wrong or right. I didn't understand why they were >> I don't I don't >> Okay. Um and then So, whatever we want to do with that. Yeah. I think I think I think it makes sense because they refer to the fact that issues that are prior to their employment uh for those three months before the commencement of their
024employment. So even if I I think it's just trying to make it clear that those first 12 months of employment I think they're trying Yeah, I knew what I was going to say. It's not making sense now. If we were to hire somebody that's But again, I'm cautious policies because it's really hard to I think that the Gordon Graham's law firm wrote this for us years ago. I just couldn't answer. I mean, >> yeah. Well, maybe we can to your point, maybe we can just add it to the get clarity at the next whenever we review it. So, the next two paragraphs, the short-term disability payments and the long-term disability payments. I'm wondering if this is intentional that the language differs because I couldn't figure out why. uh starting with the 60%. So the short-term
025disability payments shall be paid at 60% of the employees salary. >> The long-term disability is shall also be paid at 60% of the employees pre- disability earnings >> because their earnings are going to go down uh based on the short-term disability for 90 days. >> Okay? So, they want to make sure that you're not recalculating their benefits for long-term disability based on that discount because they have only earned for the last 90 days 60%. So, that has to stay. >> Okay. >> Or you're going to be >> Now, now I that makes sense that they don't want to do 60% off of the 60%. >> Exactly. >> Okay. Got it. Um the number five briement leave is approved by the superintendent. What if the superintendent has to have briement leave? Should we should we >>
026right? So should we >> is it different policies? Okay. Uh scrolling down to section eight. I was curious about the the days in excess of 40. Um, are we talking about roll are we talking about rollover days? Maybe it's just a term >> talking about rollover days. If you don't use up to 40 days by June 30th, they roll over till That's I I know what rollover means. >> Oh, they roll over till September 1st. So at June 30th, if you have 44 days on the books, you get four days that are rolled over into the new year for two months. If you don't lose them by September 1st, which is two months, then they go away. You just lose them. >> Okay. Um, uh, I just wanted to make sure section that $2,000 reimbursement
027or loan repayment was the correct number. >> Correct. >> Okay. I feel like I was reading it was different and higher somewhere and so I wanted to make sure that was okay. We just that one. >> That's max for the building. So if you had 10 people that apply >> Yeah. I I just in all of this stuff I thought I read a different number that was higher than two and so I wanted to make sure that it was reflected. But um number 18, what is what is is what is compensatory time? Is that is like an extra vacation day or is it a stipen pay or is it >> a comp day that you can take off work and still get paid? >> Yep. >> Only for meetings that are required on nonwork days
028called by the school board. >> Yeah. Okay. >> For example, the budget work session on January 3rd equivalates to a comp day. >> Yeah. I just from the wording I wasn't exactly sure if it was going to be a day or a or a dollar. Got it. Okay. Thank you. That's all. >> But but not for working on the weekend or anything like that. Only when you when the board has a required meeting on a nonwork day. >> Yeah. >> Right. So like Tim often comes in on the weekend to do stuff. I go in on the weekends to do stuff. We're not accumulating compensatory time because we're choosing to do that. It's when we're to be at a one of those that comes in. >> So if we have a one hour Marlboro school
029board meeting on a Saturday, have you guys come, you get a full day off, >> right? >> We'd be pleased to do that for you. >> No, thank you. >> Yeah, >> that's why you offered that. >> That is true. But you you moved your budget work session from a Saturday to a weekn night. So then there's no compensatory time, >> didn't you? You did, right? >> No. Used to be used to be on Saturday. >> Pass that. >> Y. Did you want me to open the door and let the public in? >> Second. Sorry, I forgot to use the mic. Did you get that? Okay. So, uh, we're going to start. Um, Tim, I'll leave it up to you. I know on the agenda we've got the salary ranges, hiring ranges, hourly salary ranges,
030and hourly hiring ranges. >> So, I'm going to go through the budget. I won't go in great detail, but I can go in any detail that you wish. There's a lot of detail you can go into with this. I put a nice summary in. Um, hopefully you had time to read that. I'll go over it a little bit. Um, Can we take questions remotely? >> So if there's no member of the public here at the meeting, why? >> Yeah. But but it's a hearing, >> but you have to get the budget presented to you anyway. >> Oh, we do. So it's so we benefit also, >> right? We're not doing it twice. >> So I mean, we would go over the budget anyway. >> So this budget comes from the advisory committee. It amounts to
031a 3.4% increase budget the budget. It'll be higher than that based on your just your contributions which we'll get to. What's included in this budget? You know, 80 almost 89% of your budget is salary and benefits. So, that's where everything happens in your budget. Um, and this includes a 3% raise for central office leadership team and a 3.9% for all other staff. There is, and we'll get to this, but there is one person frozen after HR is recommending different hiring ranges and salary and pay ranges. We're going to get to those before you vote on a budget. We're going to start with those building block pieces and we'll build up from there. If the recommended ranges come out, this is how much your budget would cost. Um, it includes uh the change to a 2%
032payment for those that are frozen. Um, other drivers are a 10.2% increase into all the health plans. They ranged from 7.6% to 10.6. All of our plans are a 10.2% increase. Um, and that is a $60,000 increase to the budget. Um, however, you end up with a decrease in surplus of $170,000, which we went over just a few minutes ago. Um, And this coupled with the increase in the budget of about $150,000, you end up with about 309,597 in an increase to district contributions or 8.66%. Uh get to the budget. So this budget calculation sheet is 18 pages long. It has all the basic information you need to understand how your district contribution happens. There's footnotes that talks about your specific district. I won't get into all those details, but you can see that we're
033talking about $149,000 increase to the budget from 4,363,000 to 4,513,000 or 3.4%. Revenue is a big piece of that as you can see. The revenue is down here, $170,000 or 160 overall from non-contribution areas. And that changes the contributions up quite a bit. The contributions are made up of different types of contributions. There's a general contribution, then there's special aortionments. Um to look at those different changes, you would go to this sheet that kind of shows the general distribution and the special aortionment share, your total share for this year and your total share for next year. So you can see Chesterfield's up 10.5% and a low of 7.8 for Marlo. Why would that be ne negative? Yeah. Why would that be? If you went to the back of this, it would show All your equalized
034valuations that are used to come up with this, half your contribution is based on your valuations and half are based on the number of students you have. Those relative values to everybody else. And Marlo, you can see their valuation went down from year to year, meaning they're going to be paying a smaller percentage of the SAU costs, and that's why they're going down. Consequently, their students also went down from 2 point what's this 1.6% to 1.3% of the total population. So that's why you'll see a sharp decline in their valuation. Um and it lags a little bit because you need equalized valuation. This is the last year equalized valuation is available was 2024. So it kind of lags a couple years but that's where we are. The student population is based on the previous year's
035average daily membership. Um so the 06 the 2627 valuation is based on the 2425 actual uh daily membership of your students. Only the students in your school if you're sending them to another if you're sending them to Keen they're part of Keen's cost not your cost. Okay. So that gets an idea of where we are in these sheets. Each district has its own page. Marboro's pages here for example and it has a little note to give you an idea in pros what we just talked about. So you can see that Marboro uh had 5.6% of the property wealth uh compared to 6.09 for next year. So their property wealth percentage went up. They had 4.2% 2% of the student population versus 4.3 in the next year. So, their student population went up a little bit.
036So, their allocation is up from 4.9% of the total allocation to 5.2%. And so, each district has that. Yeah. I I think one thing to to note is that even if your your student enrollment numbers went down, those percentages are in comparison to the entire SAU, not just your district. So you could have an increase in student population even though you actually had a decrease. So I think it's important to note that because sometimes you might say, "Well, our enrollment went down by four students. How come it's going up on this and it's going up on this? >> It's your relative percentage. >> Yes. Right. It's a percent of the whole population. >> Yes. Of all member districts. And then the special aortionment each have a page. This kind of gives more detail on a
037on a sum, but each page of special aortionment. So this is the 5050. So these are positions that are split 50% town, 50% keen. Some positions are 100% town, some are 100% keen, and some are general share. Um, there's a handy dandy page that I like to print out, but my software expired, so I couldn't do it. I will do it. Um, we bought it today, but it's the chart of it. It's the organizational chart. It looks like this. I like to do that because it's a visual of all the positions we have and what percentage each is charged and how it works. When we make a model change, those changes can mean a lot. For example, right now Keen gets more tech services because they're larger and the general share really doesn't do it
038justice. So they have three techs that are 100% in Keen. The rest are general share. Even though Keen's paying something like 70% of those, it's they have three all their own. The towns years ago decided they wanted their own business administrator. I do work for the towns. I was in Chesterfield all morning, but um you have a business administrator that focuses just on the towns. So his position would be 100% split up among the towns. So there's different positions that do different things. Payroll is 50% each week. So payroll would be 5050 because although Keen the towns are smaller literally half the year she's working on Keen and SAU and half the year she's working on uh the towns so or the towns in SAU. So that's it in a nutshell. Um I don't know
039how much more detail you want to get in. I have some other areas like the line item budget and the salary and benefits we could go down. Um, I put the salary and benefits in the drive in your book and this represents the recommended from advisory and it has everyone's salary and benefits, how much they make um, and their total costs per person and it goes down each section. That's exactly what goes into the budget. So, that's in here. um as well as the Munice report that we call it and it has each column it has last year's actuals this year's budget and level one is what we're budgeting including all these start with revenues and each line item and all the expenses. Um we can certainly go through this in any detail that you
040want. Um there's not many changes in this. Most most things are status quo. There's a few ups and downs, but it's very basic. So, I guess I want to know how much more detail do you want to go and if there's anywhere you want to go through the document in detail, I'm available, but I'm not seeing a whole lot of let's go line by line. So, but that's it in a nutshell. And I can make you a budget book, send this to you electronically or give you the paper copy if you like. I just need to know who that would be who wants one. >> Huh? Electron and just leave it in the drive, >> right? But all Yeah. All of those documents are currently in the drive. >> All the documents are in the
041drive. >> Is is that org chart that you were referring to? No, I haven't made that yet. But I just put through the to purchase that today. >> Uh because I just got that today. But uh I will put that I will send that org chart out to every member electronically. >> Mean you don't want to just make it in a PowerPoint. What is this 2025? >> Well, it's been in VO for a long time. It cost $27. I just can't keep using Vizio. But I will do it as a PDF after I make it and I'll send it to you. And it's good because I do a proposed and actual every year. So you get to see so I can show you this year's actuals and next year's proposed so you can see if
042any changes. So that concludes our budget portion. >> Any questions on the budget piece and again that explanation sheet that you create Tim I know it takes extra work but it's really helpful. So thank you. Um it definitely gives us the highlights and the big drivers and changes. um makes it a lot easier to comprehend the spreadsheet. >> So, we can close the public hearing unless there's any questions or comments from the public. Jennifer, >> but we have a lot more to do. Seeing no public input, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and reconvene our regular meeting at 6:16 p.m. >> Uh Tim, do you want to go through? >> So, we have >> Let me just tell you what's on the agenda, what we have to get done. >> Yeah,
043>> we have to review the >> administrative salary >> salary ranges and hiring ranges, which is new idea for us. We have to do that for administration and and staff. >> We have to approve the raises as recommended, the 3% for everybody that's in Colt, the central office leadership team, and 3.9 for everybody else. If that were to change, then the budget will change. And then we have to approve the budget. Those are the things that need to be done. The committee has seen all this stuff, but you as a board haven't. So, I think we should go through it. And the committee really didn't see the final recommendation from Andy for the hiring and salary ranges split because we weren't recommending that at the last meeting, but the committee insisted, no, the committee suggested
044that we do this. So, I think that's where we should go next are the salary ranges and hiring ranges for admin and for hourly. Keep in mind, we had about five people being frozen at our last meeting, and with these changes, we're down to one. Um, and so we should review those to make sure that's what we want to do. So, let me get to the administrative salary ranges. All right, that's hiring. I go too far. Here's salary ranges. So there there are some changes. To my surprise, Andy did a lot of research into figuring out what he thought was recommended. Um if we go with these salary ranges and advertise these, our fear was we would bring in people too high and be frozen right away and lead to disgruntled employees. I know it
045seems counterintuitive, but what we decided the last meeting through a lot of people's input from here and Jeff's knowledge is we would have a hiring range that we would advertise which would be based on the 75th percentile of our salary range. So that would leave people room and this administrative salary range that Andy what we kind of came up with I mean other people I didn't put but Andy did all the work was this. I thought maybe be way out there for superintendent for my position. Um, I didn't feel unsure about the other positions, but I'll let Andy talk about what he discovered when he did his work. >> Thank you. Uh, Tim, so the approach I I took with respect to the top three positions, uh, let's talk about superintendent first and foremost. Um
046I I looked at SAUs that were similar in size and they tend to be division one schools, schools that have you know uh comparable amount of students and um you know one of the things that I I found and just from a foundational standpoint um I used Indeed, Salary.com, Sherm as as uh references for for the information. You can go on the internet and ask AI, you know, what is the average salary for a New Hampshire-based superintendent in education and you'll get a number. Uh the number I got was 193,000 and change. Okay. So, um when I looked at the uh salaries for about 20 different SAUs about our size, um I came up with a a an average salary that was about $190,000 and change. So when we uh came up with our salary
047ranges, I thought 130 to 196 was relatively um conservative. When you factor in, you know, in in my expertise, when you talk about an average salary to mean that's typically at the 50th percentile. So um you know, in our case, we've got a a a seasoned superintendent who's been here 10 years. Um and then when you look at the complexity of uh an organization like SAU29 where you've got seven different districts um 3,700 students uh I I believe that you know 130 to 196 is a is a is a reasonable range that I think uh the taxpayers will look at and say we're not we're not going crazy. Um yes sir. >> What what r So you found There's sort of an X number of data points in comparable SAUS that you found incredibly comparable.
048What what was the range of salaries from those positions? And what was the med? >> Yeah. Yeah. The median um salary that that I uh got was $193,500. Okay. And and I'm you know. >> And the average was >> the a Well, the mean and the average is the same thing. >> No, they're not. >> They're not. >> No. >> Oh. Oh, the mean. I'm sorry. I thought you said the median. >> I said the median. >> The median. The median is the average. >> No, the mean is the average. >> The mean is the average. The median is what is the middle salary of the 20? >> Oh, I don't have that number right at right at my fingertips. I can tell you the high end of of that number was $210,000. >> That
049was the highest. Yes. >> Do you remember the lowest, Annie? >> The lowest was um it was about $150,000. >> I I think it was 162 >> 162 >> for division, but division one division one type uh SAUS. And do we know much about sort of the experience of the superintendent? >> See, that's where it gets it gets tricky, Jeff, because that information is not is not out there in the public domain in terms of number of years. When they do these surveys, they don't ask that question. How many years? And again, uh, complexity is another another variable that is that you have to really really really dig to to understand in terms of the number of districts that uh that are that are part of that uh that part of that mix. >> I
050I can tell you that all of the others have turned over during my tenure. Well, I know it's probably not incredibly helpful now, but there is, you know, you can kind of like snoop around on like LinkedIn, for example, if you know the district, you could like look in and you could look investigate that person, right? So, I mean, just for future, >> not everybody uses LinkedIn though. >> Not everybody, but it's pretty common. >> Now, I was going to also um speak to the region that we are in. We do need to be mindful of the fact that how although we are New Hampshire, we are competing with all of New England and quite often states like New York, states like Connecticut um and New Jersey and and for these leadership positions and although
051we do use New Hampshire as our main driver for the data, um I think even within New Hampshire itself, if you want to go out to the Portsmith region, you'll see some some bigger bigger numbers. If you go up north, you're going to see some smaller numbers. But I do think when we look at these ranges, we have to be reflective of the the the complete region that we live in, which really does cover a much larger northeast uh landmass uh for lack of a better word. Um and I know um some data just from the superintendent association about longevity about um salary as related to longevity. It is a little tricky to align someone's salary in a district when many superintendents are hoppers. They'll do three to five years max because they want to
052be transformative and they don't want to settle in. They're coming into a crisis situation. they're being paid to solve a massive problem. There's a lot of other factors that come in. So, I think when we look, I like to keep it sort of as homogeneous um as search as possible so that we're not looking at outliers nearly as much. Um in my experience with superintendent, um if you get one that stays longer than five years, other districts will look at you like, "How did you do that?" We have a great history at SA29 of being able to keep our leadership. I think that speaks well. Um, but I do think it was time to calibrate and look at what those ranges really are reflective um, including in our New Hampshire um, economics. So, I I
053did some of what you suggested, some of the LinkedIn searches. Um, uh, I ask a lot when I attend national conferences. um what are you paying in your state? What's the longevity of your superintendence? Do they leave for other states or do they try and stay? You know, are they staying in their regions? So, there's a lot to be said and um I've done a lot of research into how you know if you think hiring a custodian is tough in your school, try hiring a superintendent. Um you know, the salary is not the deciding factor. So, we need to stay competitive. We need to be marketable. Um, we need to keep our valued professionals as well. But I think this is forwardlooking, Andy. Um, I think our range is more of um uh a model,
054not necessarily reflective of um our our salary base, but looking at what ranges are reflected in our state and in our overall bigger region. Um, that's how I see it. >> Massachusetts, I think, is a little bit more aggressive on the salary side. I know the Greenfield School District, which only has like 1,400 total students, their salary range, Jeff, 180 at the bottom, 200 at the top. So, um, you know, obviously when as an HR professional, I always think it's my responsibility to figure out how to compensate in order in order for us to be able to attract and retain the talent that we need to do our mission. It's it's a it's a two-headed monster. We want to be able to attract, but we also need to retain that talent. And and that's kind
055of the the mindset I always approach when I'm coming up with salary ranges. >> Raleigh Thank you. I've heard a couple pieces that suggest that the low end of the superintendent is too low as well. Um you talked about Greenfield which is just across the border. You mentioned the lower end of 180 to 200. I think Rob mentioned a number of like 156 for the for the low end of the average. So why are we going down? What what's the rationale for the low end? But superintendent at keeping that at 130. >> I think part of that was what the advisory asked for. We were the ones um the advisory sort of asked to massage those ranges, but we didn't ask to raise the bottom because potentially after having a 10 or 15 or 20
056year superintendent, it's very possible you either have somebody moving up through capacity or you're hiring somebody relatively green. Um, and we didn't look that far ahead. We looked at the fact that were we competitive more for a seasoned professional. So when the advisory sort of asked for that massaging, I I believe we didn't really ask for it at the bottom end. We wanted to make sure we were paying off at the top end. Is that how you remember it too, Claire? Okay. Thank you. >> Right. >> I have a piggyback on rallies because I was gonna ask the same thing. Um, but relative also the superintendent assistant and CFO just wondering why the bottom end of the range was not touched but like we did for the special ed admin and the payroll so we
057touched >> it's it's difficult you want to have a job that you can attract but you don't want to overpay unnecessarily and if I was gone tomorrow and you had someone apply with zero years of experience what's has happened before Rob was here We went through like four or five superintendents in a very short amount of time and we had a few that were brand new, not certified. It's nice. I think that for example, in my position, maybe 110's a little I mean maybe you could raise it a little bit, but if they had zero years experience, never done it before, and you hired them, you don't want to overpay them. You want them to get a few years and then give them an equity adjustment. And that's the way we behave. So it's less
058important to us, but it will change the midlevel because we're doing a hiring range at 75% and we do it based on like 20 25 years, right? So we step them across based on that experience. Um, so if you move that up, it's going to change where you bring someone in. I think that gives you enough, but you make a good case. We could adjust those. The problem is when we start to adjust those, we need to start thinking about how did it affect all the downwind jobs from there. So, it's easier for us to adjust the top end. But it only comes into play if you hire someone brand new. I think if you had someone who had been a teacher, got their certification, no experience, but you like them and you put them
059in, you would pay them 130 and they'd be happy to get it because they'd be coming from making 70, right? So I want to ask first clarifying question then another question going back to Andy's data. So when Rob you said every everybody else has had turnover since you came by what do we know about the what do we know about the years of experience of the of the superintendent? What do you know about the years of experience? >> You probably the LinkedIn search by now. >> Yeah, I think it runs a pretty wide range of of experience um from building level to central office level. So, I don't think that I could I could give you an average just going through some of the players in my head. >> I mean, how long have they
060been superintendent? My question, >> some of them are relatively new. >> So, it's sort of a So if I play this back just to make sure my my mind is clear on this, we have a comparable group of what you might expect to see in terms of a a varied pattern of experience in the position, but in but in reasonably comparable sized districts and challenges. And the average salary of that group is >> 190 >> 193 >> 500. >> And but yet the top of this range is like one or two% higher than the average of that group, which seems to be low. It would seem to indicate that if Rob retired to Tahiti tomorrow when we were and we wanted to replace him with someone with long years of experience, we wouldn't be able
061to do it at the average salary of those comparable schools. >> You wouldn't. But if you were grooming someone from a succession planning standpoint, look, let's say Ben White who's making 134,000 right now, and as we go to the next slide, we're trying to go to the 75th percentile, which would take the high end at basically 180,000. I I I think in that scenario, Jeff, you you you could be competitive. But if you're trying to hire someone with similar expertise as Rob. Yeah, I agree. 196 is maybe too conservative. So yeah, what that mean I don't mean to put too fine a point on it, but it it says to me we're going to be um taking advantage of Rob. >> Says to me we'll be looking at again next year. >> Well, because there
062is a difference between I mean you have to look at the you've got and you have to have a range of say you know the the whole idea is where do someone's capabilities fit in and in this case we're there's was a combination of capabilities but also connected to time on the job which you hope translates into that I know it's imperfect but I go okay and then when you go to replace that person that's an entirely different range because it depends on what you want to bring in so for example Rob goes to Tahiti and at the time Rob goes to Tahiti and retire we look around and we go you know the team that's in place is really really strong. Doesn't require a ton of hands-on management. The challenges, you know, I don't
063know, for some miraculous reason of, you know, kids that behave better. I mean, things go. So, you're like, "Wow, we are really clicking. We're going to bring in a young go-getter because we don't need that those, you know, I don't know what my analogy would be." Yeah. We don't need we don't need Rob at this point. He's got a Tahiti. So, then the range would be going, we wouldn't be going out and telling people the top of the range is 196. We might not even telling them it's 180 because that's not what we're looking for. Because if you tell them it's 180 and we're looking for a new person, all that person hears is 180 and then you're kind of trying to explain the 130 or the 140. But I my my interest now is
064kind of the here and now which is says I don't know if I'm Rob looking at that and knowing everybody else is an average of 193 and I've got more experience on almost all of them. I don't know. And then life is not cheaper here in the Manhattan region really. So I think that's too low. We've never been success. You know, I agree with you. I was shocked at the numbers that Andy pulled in because I was looking at all the superintendents in the state, which is way different than when you just look at division one. But we've never been successful at hiring a division one sized superintendent into this role. You're not going to get that person. I don't care if you put 230 on there. They work in a single district at a
065like-sized district in exit. They're not coming to Keen. I'm not bashing Keane. I'm just saying the reality of it. No one moves from a single like-sized district to a multi-dist school. What we would have to attract is somebody that's making 110 at a small district with experience into this or something like that. Or I'm not saying it's right. We could go much larger on this with the numbers that he brought in because we had been looking at in our last meeting superintendents at a whole which the range is like I don't know under a hundred because there's part- timerrs and small districts in there to 210 I guess. But so that range makes our range look pretty competitive. But when you look at just the large schools and the numbers that he's bringing in, then
066I would agree that this is low and we should look at it again next year. But keep in mind when we go out, doesn't matter what we make this range, I don't see a scenario where we successfully recruit someone to replace me or you or an assistant from a large district that has fewer less complexity. No, the superintendent from London does not apply for our district. It just hasn't happened. We've been >> Yes. True. That's why I use that one. But I'm just saying it doesn't happen. They don't go They don't take a job that is pays the same similar has the similar prestige and size and say, you know, I've only had one school board for the past 10 years. I'd really like to go to seven school boards if we want. That doesn't
067it doesn't happen. the dis everybody moves in the other direction. So the people that we will be trying to get are people that are in smaller districts maybe the the convals or the whatever to move that's that's where our power is going to be and just point that out. But I would really like to look at this again next year and say do we need to change this completely? Um, but if you put this, let's say we went with your average and you made it 150 to 220, which sounds entirely appropriate for the numbers that we're looking at, but if you put that into context in all the districts, it would look very high. You know what I mean? >> The only other data information worth noting is that this is based off 2425 salary,
068not 2526. and this is 26 27. So the data that we had available was from last school year, not this current school year. And we're talking about next school year. So you know that there's a lag in that as well being able to pull that data. >> Well, we data that went into these ranges. I'm assuming we updated it by adding a couple years worth of nominal increases. >> I did. So if we're going to come back to this again next year, do we need to continue discussing it? Leave it as it is knowing that we're coming back next year. >> Was that a motion clear? >> It needs to be. And I want to remind everybody the advisory does meet as well as um that overlaps with the comp committee and the comp committee
069does take um uh >> yeah it's through the advisory now but it takes on the role of the comp committee with regards to assessing this and and several years ago we went to a every other year model. Thanks for that Rob. Um and it didn't last long because we did find that it was prudent to look at it every year. So we will absolutely be looking at it again. >> We leave it as it is right now. Come back to next year. >> Right. As presented >> with those with the new reds, whatever it was to the new reds. The bottom stays where it was. We'll second that if that's your motion. >> That's the motion for the administrative salary ranges >> for these ones. >> Do we have a motion? We have a second.
070Any further discussion on those? >> All in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Thank you. Now we can move on to the administrative hiring ranges which are different. >> The hiring ranges are are simple. We don't need to get into detail. They are formulically driven. It is 75% tile of each range. And do we want to do that? >> I move we approve them as presented. >> Yes, >> we have a motion. We have a second. Any further discussion? All in favor? I >> opposed. Thank you. >> So, the pay ranges for staff are as follows. There's fewer changes but some changes. Uh payroll assistant bumps up a little bit at the bottom. This is affecting no one's actual pay uh except for those who were frozen in the technology field technician. Uh that would
071be three individuals who would have been outside. Um, but I would characterize these as conservative as conservative as the last numbers we looked at. But again, Andy did the research on these. Um, these are difficult because you can find all kinds of different comparables, but if we look at schools, we feel like we're well positioned to be competitive, which is a different market in some cases. and and with respect to the people that are incumbents in the central office, these this particular range allows us to give them the appropriate increase that that you all are approving. So, uh, no one's hurt, >> one person. So, there's one technician that makes $33 an hour now. They've been frozen many times over the last 10 years. Um and uh they would get the 2% non-lumpsum payment >>
072which I mean we don't have a we don't we don't mind if there are people frozen right because it means they are paid at the top of their game for their job and they are free to leave because they're probably not going to find a job that pays that well anymore in a similar environment and if they do it means our range is wrong. >> So I don't mind having people frozen. I mean, great, but they better be doing a really good job. >> Yeah. So, before everybody's time on a on a school board, we did a real deep dive into where our folks were. And at that point in time, we were like, "Wow, we are grotesqually overpaying right now." And so, >> yeah. I should have said everyone except >> I should have
073and most folks have caught up to the range. There's still one. >> So was uh parsed out by district um and put under the SAU. That was a heroic effort and it made a lot of sense, but it did put a few of the old-timers in a salary range that was just not conducive to the new model. So, I think you figured it out. I think that's what we're seeing. And it's great to see that actually that person who you would worry, oh, they've been frozen and they've been here a while, they've stayed. >> And why did they stay? because they knew they were overpaid. They weren't going to go get it anywhere else. So that's the system. I mean, it's good. I mean, not not their fault. Just, you know, that means it means
074we were right. >> So the hourly payment >> is wrong. It's you. >> Claire, did I see you make a motion on the hourly pay ranges? >> I make a motion that we accept the hourly pay as >> presented. All in favor? I >> I >> the hourly hiring ranges are the exact same formula. >> And I'll move those. >> I'll second those. >> Any questions or discussion on that? Appreciate it. Thank you. All in favor? I >> post. Did we do minutes? >> Yes. >> Good. Thanks. >> All that's left for action items are the final action to approve that 2026 27 SC29 budget. >> We got one more thing before that. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I wish I didn't. >> We don't want to slow us up. We're making good. Uh we need
075to talk about the raises >> and I just need the admin the advisory recommended 3% and for all employees that are cult driven which is your top level administration and 3.9 for all other staff members. That's what this budget reflects. It has one equity adjustment and that is for the man the >> Marcy which is the um finance manager and she gets about 6% in this $94,000 >> everything else is the same >> but it's not 6% plus the 3.9 just flat out >> so the advisory committee agreed with the recommendations of the leadership of the SAU. >> Yes. >> So Jeff, was that a motion? >> I'm I'm Do we need a motion on this one? >> Oh, yeah. >> Yes. >> So Jeff made the motion. >> Page second. And if you need
076clarity on that, Jen, Tim can give you the exact language of the motion. Any further discussion? All in favor? I >> I >> pass as you. >> Thanks, Tim. >> I know there's a lot of detail in here. I sometimes feel like I'm not doing it justice, but mostly I'm boring you. But we presented a budget that's 4 million with all those changes, $512,627, an increase of 3.4%. What's your pleasure on that budget? >> I will move we accept the budget as presented. Any further discussion, questions for Tim or Rob while we're here? All in favor? I >> opposed. Passes unanimously. Uh we move down now to district updates. This is something it's kind of a dinosaur that we used to do decades ago. Um, if you have something you want to share regarding your
077district, this when you know when we had even more robust attendance at the SAU 29 meetings, um, it was an opportunity to share what was going on, good, bad, um, ugly, all kinds of things. Um, but I'll just share, you know, happy holidays everyone. Please enjoy your break, stay healthy, and I don't even care what's going on in school right now today. Everyone needs like to breathe. We're going into budget season. Um it's it's stressful and I just want everybody to feel really good moving forward. Um as far as school boards go, I feel honored and blessed to be able to work with all of you. I think all of our schools are the crown jewels of um this region and I'm just so proud of the efforts that we all make as public servants.
078um the representation that we do when we judiciously hammer out every dollar and cent and the courtesy and kindness that we show to all of our staffing um and respect for the work that they do. So that's my share. It has nothing to do with my school. I love my school too, but they're so busy. I'm gonna let them do their thing. But for future SAU 29 meetings, um, you know, I I'd like to get it out there that I would love for people to come with just a couple of things that they'd like to share. And for it for everybody, um, my mom had a life-saving event, um, a near-death event about 354 days ago. So, I really have been out of my zone, but she's better. Yeah. So, thank you. Um, anybody does
079have a district update that they want to share with us briefly? >> I'm just proud of Harrisville's improvement in our schools. >> Thank you, Claire. >> See, snaps. There we go. >> Um, district updates uh for administrative, pardon me, administrative updates. Rob, is there anything you want to bring us up to speed on? Not not entirely. Um you know the state board will be here next week on Thursday which is very unusual that they're not in conquered they will be here. Um someone from the commissioner's office came out today to inspect the the space and they were like incredibly they were like wow this is amazing. So um that's pretty nice to be able to showcase. Tim was the brainchild of redesigning this this particular space that we're in. um a lot of thought and
080a lot of work went into it and it is it is a showcase type of a um space that can be utilized and so we've got breakout rooms over there as well. So kudos to the work that Tim and his folks put into reimagining a space that was really um >> Was this custom built? >> No. No, it was it I mean it didn't look totally dissimilar to this, but it wasn't really um I don't know. It looked more like a big cafeteria. >> Yeah. And so, >> yeah. So, there's that. Um, next week, Friday, we have the Southwest Superintendent meeting in that large conf breakout room over there because we're going to have training here for our folks in the building who answer the phones um to be better equipped on how to respond
081when they get like phone call threats, you know, hey, look, there's this in the building or that in the building. And so Tim has coordinated a huge effort to bring that training in. So they'll be in this and we'll have the Southwest superintendent meeting in that um large breakout room. On the agenda for that superintendent meeting is to dive into that report from the commission to consolidate SAUS. So, we're going to dive into that and we're going to hopefully have some talking points to be able to share a lot more openly with folks because that will impact all of us, right? Not just us in SAU 29. That will impact like the entire state. Um, and our group is pretty proactive about taking a look at things and and saying, "Okay, what do we need
082to make sure our communities are aware of?" I anticipate that will lead to another public forum like we had in October with regard to open enrollment. We'll have one on the consolidation probably sometime in January. Um so that folks have that awareness and they can write to their their lawmakers as well. So that's happening as well. Other than that, the high school instrumental uh concert, winter concert was last night. It was hugely successful from what I understand. I was in a budget work session and a board meeting last night. Didn't get to attend that. Next week, Tuesday, is the final concert for the qu the coral director at the high school. Dr. Lease, for those of you who are familiar, he's done an incredible job of of just building that program up. And it will
083be his final concert as he will be leaving us when the break hits. He has a wonderful job opportunity back in his homeland of New Zealand. And you know, you can't fault a guy um for that. He's done a great job. Tim got to see a small sample today because he was at the high school. He has taken choir to a whole different level by creating a unified um yeah band. He actually did the band. Sorry. um a unified band where we are have students who um are identified performing with students who are not identified similar to what we do on the sports fields for for soccer, basketball, and track. Um so it's really quite an amazing thing. We actually do a unified prom at Keen High School to just so folks feel that sense
084of belonging and I I can do what my classmates and my peers can do. So, next week, Tuesday, 7 o'clock, over in the auditorium at Keen High School will be his final performance. Those are all my updates. >> I'll just I'll just say yes, the band the concert instrumental was fabulous last night. Um particularly if you have a chance to see the instrumentals the uh the strings as well just just an incredible and the jazz is good too. I was there. I can report positive. >> I think it's a big reminder too that we were not our programs those programs were not just decimated during co just prior to that we lost two very long-term collaborative music instructors at the high school both in the coral program and in the instrumentals and they worked hand
085inand for so long um and you have to always rebuild after that and Dr. release has been transformative as has Joe and I can never remember his last name. Isn't that awful? Ki, thank you. Because I call him Joe. Um, but yeah, I I we are competitive in our musicianship at the high school and I'm I'm so proud and so impressed with everything. >> The the only thing that I think that we we didn't actually mention and I think we should is that I do want to thank George for staying away. He let us know he wasn't feeling well and he decided to keep his with him not here to share with us, which I think is a great gift as we head into the holiday season. >> From all of us at at central
086office, we want to wish all of our board members, all of our districts, all of our communities a great holiday season. Um, it's time to be thankful, to be joyous, to enjoy company, and to celebrate. So, thank you. Who's going to make a motion to adjourn? Jeff. >> All in favor? We are out of here. Happy holidays, everyone.