001alive everyone, so good evening. Welcome to February 6th school board meeting. Tonight we're actually going to start with a public hearing, so we're going to hold off on the Pledge of Allegiance and calling the meetings to order for the school board. The public hearing was posted a couple of weeks ago. This public hearing is for the board to hear public comment on the consideration for withdrawal of up to $60,000 from the capital improvement expendable trust fund for the purposes of extending our contracted services for Herriman and Harvey Construction for the continuation of services throughout this calendar year and into next year into 2027 to get us to a March of 2027 vote on a GMS renovation. Did I Yes, that's Get that correct? Perfect. So with that, I would like to open it up to
002the community for input and for any feedback to the board on a potential motion this evening on that withdrawal from that capital improvement expendable trust fund. Now, there has been a lot of social media commentary on this, so I just want want to be really clear on the intent and purpose of this. This is not a net new ask or withdrawal for a specific new purpose of this capital improvement expendable trust fund. This is funds that the voters have already approved and set aside for GMS renovations and this is a continuation of the contracted services we have already already have been in contract with for Herriman and Harvey Construction and allowing us to get to that March of 2027 vote. So this is a continuation of that service for for 2026 and into 2027 and
003just a continuation of those services. I'll make a motion to approve the withdrawal of $60,000 from the capital Up to. Up to. $60,000 from the capital improvements expendable trust fund. Thank you. There's a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. I will second. A second by Mr. Dewitt. Any additional discussion on that? Okay, we'll do a roll call vote on this. Mr. Shoemaker. Hi. I am an I. Mr. Dewitt. Hi. That carries 3-0. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh and with that, that closes our public hearing this evening and we're going to move into our regularly scheduled school board meeting. Uh and with that, I will call the school board meeting to order uh and we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
004republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Just in terms of a quorum this evening, we do have three representatives. I am expecting Mr. Plansky to join a little bit late this evening. I believe Mr. Peoples is joining. I haven't heard otherwise, so we might see him uh uh momentarily as well. Uh in terms of consent or excuse me, any any changes to tonight's agenda? In terms of consent, anything off the committee reports the board would like to discuss this evening? Nope. All right. Hearing none, summary of non-public actions from April 15th. Mr. Shoemaker moved to approve the April 1st public meeting minutes. Mr. Plansky seconded that motion. That carried 3-0. Mr. Shoemaker moved to approve the resignation of Alexa Romanello uh as the GMS school nurse.
005Mr. Plansky seconded that motion. That motion passed 3-0. Mr. Shoemaker motioned to approve the retirement of Robin Corbeil as an LMS computer science teacher. Mr. Plansky seconded that motion. That motion passed 3-0. And with that, moving right along, we have presentations and recognitions this evening, and I'll turn it over to the superintendent. >> Sure. So, I'm going to welcome uh Beth Bellanger and her daughter Amelia Bellanger to come up here for a special presentation. So, if you guys want to come up to the table. Hi, welcome. >> Hi. How are you tonight? So Of course, yeah. >> [laughter] >> As long as it's okay with them, it's okay with us, yeah. Um being recorded anyway. >> [laughter] >> So, a little background for the board, uh Beth had reached out on behalf of her daughter
006um in the fall, I think it was originally, right? Um because Amelia had an idea of to to support her friend in terms of adaptive swing. We thought the fundraising was going to take uh a while, and it didn't. So, we're [laughter] here much sooner than we anticipated um in doing that, and and uh so so I'll I'll let um Amelia say her piece, and then we can talk some more afterwards about some of the other stuff, so. Hi everyone. My name is Amelia Bellanger, and I'm 8 years old and a third grader at North School in Londonderry. Today, I want to tell you about my really special friend Ellie. Ellie is a first grader at GMS, and she is one of the funniest and bravest people I know. She has a very rare condition,
007and every year I like to do a fundraiser for Ellie, and usually we help places like hospitals that take care of Ellie and other kids because helping others is really important to me. Last summer, I noticed something that made me a little sad. When Ellie was at school, there wasn't a swing that was safe for her to use, and Ellie loves to swing. She does love to swing. >> It was one of her favorite things to do. So, I asked my mom, "Can we do my fundraiser this year to get Ellie a swing?" And she said, "Yes." She helped by talking to to all the right people, and we got permission to make it happen. Then I worked really hard to raise money. With everyone's help, we were able to order a special swing just
008for Ellie and other kids who need it. Tonight, I'm so happy to and proud to present one to GMS. I hope it can be installed soon so Ellie can swing, smile, and have fun at recess just like every kid should. Thank you to everyone who helped me make this happen. WOW. >> [applause] [applause] [laughter] >> NO, YOU HAVE SUCH A BIG HEART. THANK YOU VERY much for that presentation tonight. You did such a wonderful job for your friend Ellie. You have a lot to be proud of. She's really good for him. Yeah. Yeah, very impressive for an 8-year-old. Very, [laughter] very impressive. Yes, so we're here tonight because um we have to formally accept the donation of the swing. The swing is here. I'm not taking it out of the box right this second. >>
009[laughter] >> For everyone's um who don't know what what the adaptive swing looks like, I put a picture um on the screen. Um this is where the company we we worked with to to get it from. Um you can you've probably seen this in other playgrounds and different places. It's like a latch swing with a different type of seat in it. Um it's an adaptive swing because any student can use it. Um it's not exclusive um to um uh to any student can use it, right? Whether disability or it's irrelevant. Um so it will be open to all students, but obviously Ellie is is who we we want we're kind of targeting here for for use and stuff like that. Um we've been in contact with um the playground people here, Burke and stuff, to
010make sure the installation goes well. We'll take over as long as the board accepts the donation. I have a feeling you're going to accept it like as long as the donation um moves forward, we'll take care of now the installation and everything kind of associated with that. We've worked on that. Uh we're fortunate that our swing bay um meets the requirements already to to handle this type of swing. And we're going to try and get that done as soon as next week. That's our plan to get it up. Maybe this week, we'll see how the weather holds up, but >> [laughter] >> as soon as we can get out there and get it because we've been working on that part to make sure the installation goes very smoothly from from our standpoint. So if the
011board is is willing, I'm asking for your permission to accept this donation on behalf of the board. Motion to accept that donation. All right, we have a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. I'll second. Second by Mr. Plansky. Additional discussion on this one? Nope. All right, we really appreciate all of your hard work. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. I. Opposed? Abstain? 4-0. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. >> [applause] [cough and laughter] >> WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU OUT THERE AND SWINGING SAFELY. So you guys are welcome to stay, but >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah, so this is a good picture, you know, kids of all shapes and sizes can kind of use it. Yeah, that's fantastic. It's easy. It's a latch there. It's very safe. Yep. But also very simple simple to use.
012What's that? Is it easy to install? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We have to have the right installation like bolts and stuff and there's a guide to it that we worked with to make sure that we had in hand so we can take care of this, but it will fit right on our bay, which is nice. So Okay. Checked with Primex, all the insurance Like there was a lot of those little details that we worked on behind the scenes and we are ready for for all that stuff to get this up. I'm grateful a few years back we had new swing sets put in. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> All right, next up we have food service. >> Yeah, I mean food service is also exciting. I don't I I I get >> [laughter] >> Kind of a
013hard act to follow. >> It's really That's a really hard act >> [cough] >> You just say you fed all of LMS. I fed all of LMS today. Not me personally. Um it was a team effort. But yes. Hi everybody. Hi. What's going on? >> Oh, you know, same old same old. Not well. It's been a year. It's been a busy year. Um but I think it's been a good year. It's been a very productive year. Um so we'll dive right on into this. I have a relatively quick presentation and then um I'll finish off with some highlights and uh yeah, I'll be on my merry way, hopefully. So, we'll rip the band-aid off. I don't think it's going to be a surprise to anybody that we will operate in a deficit this year and
014I will go into detail about that as well. Um but I do want to reiterate and remind everybody that if it weren't for labor coming out of our budget per the National School Lunch Program, we would be golden. Um operationally speaking, we would be self-sustaining, no problem. But because the labor, and that includes my salary all the way down to a food service sub, since it has to come out of the food service budget, that is what causes our deficit every single year. Um unfortunately, because it's federally subsidized, we have to follow their their guidelines. Um which again, I will dive into. But let's uh So now we started on a downer, great. Let's go back to some good stuff. There are a lot of good things that have happened this year. Um so overall,
015we're up 3% on breakfast, uh about 500 and all of this is through April 30th. So um we did just get back from break, so we're kind of food service always kind of operates, you know, fiscally like a month behind just because you have to report everything at the end of the month. So compared to last year, we're up uh 3% in breakfast. We are down about 1.7% in lunches, but that's not something I'm necessarily worried about. Um for value lunches. And our a la carte uh revenue is up $6,800 over FY25, which is about 7.8%. Um we've had a lot of um success with our a la carte programs. Um but honestly, and I was surprised putting this together, not in the way that I would have thought it was um where like I
016thought it was going to be successful. So, I'm very excited to share that with you guys as well. So, increasing a la carte has been primarily at I genuinely thought it was going to be at middle school. It's been primarily at Campbell. And it's actually been the vending machine. Um that vending machine that we purchased a few years ago, which by the way, next year we will own outright. So, um we are up it's doubled over last year. So, it's increased uh 4652 over FY25 for the same time period. Um our girls at the high school, I have one of them, she is obsessed with the vending machine. She keeps it full, she keeps it stocked, she has new items rotating in and out. Um bagels and cream cheese, you we can't keep them stocked
017fast enough. So, kids are buying, so um again, it's it's increased $4,600 um from compared to this time last year. In addition to a la carte items, um iced coffee alone has also contributed about $1,100, and that's not because Matt's been buying all of it. You haven't. No, you've been quiet. I was worried about you, actually. Um So, the um which I thought that's would have been more of the driver, um but it really the vending actually blew me away with how much money it's been making. And again, we will not be paying for that next year, so all of that will just be cash money coming in. Um we did increase in a la carte at LMS as well. Not as drastic. Of that like what was it? 68, 78 7.8% the majority of
018it was like the the Campbell increase, but the addition of offering a second pizza slice to grade six through eight has added in $1,800 in sales. It actually went from about 690 on this time last year. Like individual slices to over 1,500 this year, which has been really, really great. Our team at the middle school are fabulous. They've added in an addition of featured hot snacks. So every Tuesday and Thursday, they'll do things like they'll do like a little corn dog basket or they'll do curly fries or there's something to and that's added another $3,600 in sales. Um Another thing that this again boggled my mind cuz when you're in the day-to-day, you don't really look at these kind of like numbers and stuff, but my demand for catering alone and I am the department.
019I am the catering department for the district has increased 90% over last year. And I actually think now that I was thinking about it on my way over, I think it's actually doubled, which is awesome, which means all of that money is coming back into the program. So that's been a really big increase um just in creativity of being utilized in in in the district as well. Like today for example, again, we did we fed myself and my two girls at the middle school. We fed all of the middle school breakfast this morning. Um which would end up being a catering event type thing. So that that's gone really, really well. And this year to get creative, I dabbled in retail baking a little bit. It's part of my background educationally. I am actually a
020pastry chef and learned on retail baking. So at Thanksgiving, I dabbled with some pumpkin bread that went over pretty well. It was available limitedly publicly. Um I didn't want to suddenly get smacked with like 600 orders of pumpkin bread and I'm one human. Um it's very helpful that we have that second mixer now because guess what we're doing next year. Um but that ended up giving us about $475 in sales and I mean I don't want to call this person out, but like it was pretty good, right? Oh, I was going to say. >> [laughter] >> I get a message I did No, I get I get a message that I'm not even home and I've already eaten the loaf. Like it was it was I will say and >> [laughter] >> Yeah, it was
021great. Um they could get So we dabbled with that. I limited to two per household and I added on like a maple whipped cream cheese that they could, you know, if they wanted to add on or not. Um and it went really really well, which has inspired my ideas to go a little bit further and I'm thinking of doing more retail baking, which is legal in our program because it doesn't use like government food. It's all, you know, stuff I would buy normally. So it would fall under the catering, so it doesn't have any kind of um it's not sketchy in terms of like dealing with like an audit. And it's a creative way to get a little bit more money in. So we're looking at expanding I'm looking at expanding that into next year.
022So to next slide, please. Thanks. So in terms of everything again, because it is default this year, we do have the same budget as as FY25, but we are very we're trending very similarly to FY25 in terms of um our spending. It's not very drastic from month to month and our revenues are pretty Again, they're pretty even with all of that and especially with the increase in those two um schools. Um so kind of added everything up and kind of looked based off of last year and knowing all of this, we're anticipating another about $110,000 in revenue to come through by the end of the year and that includes daily sales catering reimbursement rates and a bunch of other stuff. You know, that goes in we all know what revenues are. Sorry, I'm is very
023tired. >> [clears throat] >> And I do anticipate actually I I know there's going to be a massive decrease in our operating expenses. So right now in May I have we have stopped purchasing snacks. We have stopped more and we're just running things down um as at the middle and the high school. So that's about I'd say 25% of our expenses. We're not buying drinks anymore. We're not buying snacks. It's just we're running running running down and it's a way to kind of clear out some of the miscellaneous odds and ends that we have in our our freezers and get a little creative and you know, sell things out as well to our students. My goal as it is every year is to not spend a dime in June and I'm usually pretty successful with
024the exception of milk and pizza because those are weekly orders. Other than that usually by the end of May I have placed our grocery order for the rest of the year and that's we kind of wrap up then. So based on the last two years with where we're kind of going, I'm anticipating and I think it's a pretty safe anticipated deficit of $90,000. Obviously it's not ideal. I would love to sit there and go it's not going to happen, but unfortunately again as I feel like I say all the time the program itself is broken. The amount of money we get as a reimbursement rate does not cover all of the expenses it should help offset and it's more than just food and labor. It's utilities, repairs, equipment. Goodness, laundry. Oh my god. All the
025thing furniture, technology. It It's doesn't It's just not It's just not It's just not. So um I do want to put that reminder in there And the reason why I anticipate it to be higher than it was last year, it was about Well, we said 89. So, actually we're kind of right on target. But if if it is higher than, you know, the what I'm anticipating it to be, we did have the LSA say contract that even though we are in default budget, it did increase. And again, labor comes out of my budget. And health insurance increases as we all know and are aware because we've been living our health insurance lives um the last year. So, that would if affect our deficit and it would it it affects our increases in the labor side
026of our um expenses. Um if labor, [clears throat] like I said, I keep saying it. I'm sorry. If labor was paid out of the general fund, we'd be fine. And I would be like, I don't know how to spend this money down. It's unfortunately just it kind of is what it is. And I I don't agree with it, but here I am. So, in comparison to our cohorts, which is next? It is next. Right. How are we Well, I'd be I would be so happy to answer that for you. Uh before we get too far into it, I just want to ask the board um your opinions and thoughts on this. Um this initial right here that we have, I've taken out Bow and Pelham and I moved them into the second slide of this.
027This is the cohort that when I started in Litchfield was the this is the cohort we use. I don't think it's an accurate representation and I don't find it to be very um even though geographically they are our neighbors around us, their enrollment is so drastically different from ours. Yeah, and I just I don't feel it's a Right. Yeah. Yes. I don't know why Sanborn is on there, but And like like and I do I do know and talk to a lot of these directors. Um so, I do have the this is all their current pricing and whatever. I find the second slide has a lot more it's a lot more consistent with what we are in terms of enrollment. So going forward, if it's okay with the board, I would like to just reference
028this group of districts. I mean, we can change it if you like and maybe not focus so much on the larger ones cuz I just don't feel like it's accurate. It's helpful just to have a barometer of what everyone's doing. >> Yeah, sure. Mhm. Just to see kind of that benchmark of where we fit in with everyone else. >> Sure. So I mean, I think breaking apart our cohort into just a geographic cohort versus a cohort based on enrollment size. >> Sure. I mean, theoretically there's another cohort which is based off of taxpayer base, but we don't need to get over complicated. >> Yep. I think this is more than sufficient to give us an idea Right. Okay. I agree and I and I think the story, at least from the numbers that I see
029is we're still one of the highest. >> We absolutely are. Yes. Um, I will say over the course of the last two and a half days, three days, whatever it is, I've reached out to many of these directors. I I have it all written down. Um, so I did not hear from it's easier to list that where did it go? I did not hear from Sunapee, Hopkinton, Winnisquam, or Gilford. And then in my presentation prepping, I forgot I completely forgot to email Bo altogether. So technically I didn't hear from Bo either. Oh, we sent a text real quick. Yeah, just text her. It's fine. Hey Tip, sorry. Um, allegedly she just got back from Italy, so she's busy anyway. Um Oh, we Everybody Right? Everybody that I have talked to, so Hudson, uh, Windham, Hillsborough,
030Deering, Merrimack, Epping, Milford, Pelham, Raymond, and I said Merrimack already. They're all proposing meal increase meal price increases. Hudson actually did theirs mid-year. >> They just did it recently. They did and um everybody that I just listed, Hudson, Windham, Hillsborough, Derry, Merrimack, Milford, Pelham, and Raymond are all anticipating ending ending in a negative deficit this year. And this is different than other past years because I'm like small school districts for Windham and Hudson to be ending negatively, I think is is pretty telling of where the program is kind of heading. Um Hudson I at the time was into I just know this cuz I helped her with her board presentation. Uh they were anticipating $400,000 in the negative, um which is terrible, especially given their, you know, um enrollment size. Um so of the ones
031I just listed that are stating that they are going to end in the negative, most of them cited labor increases as the cause. So again, same similar boat to what we're doing um or what we're facing. So for the enrollment cohort, Mhm. the ones that are ending negative, are they are we on par with the I didn't get into specific numbers per se. I kind of I kind of just asked like, you know, what are you looking at for are you proposing a meal price increase? Are you, you know, I'm not proposing a meal price increase. And if if the board wishes to discuss that, I mean, have have all the fun doing it. Um I'm not proposing that cuz again, as it was pointing out, we are still pretty high all things considered. Um
032but I didn't get into the nitty-gritty of it. I know like for like I had a full-on conversation with the Windham director. Hers was not labor-related, but in in it was through an initiative that one of the high school principals put them through and they lost like $25,000, which would put them in the negative. The thing is with this is a lot of these districts, um not Hudson per se, but like I'm going to use Windham specifically and Epping, their fund balances have been able to sustain them throughout. So like while yes, they will end this year with a deficit, they're not going to have a negative fund balance overall because they've had very fulfilling ones this whole time. Mhm. Do you have a total picture of the fiscal year revenue from last year to
033this year? All right. Not in front of me. Not in front of you, >> [laughter] >> but I'm just interested, right? I mean, obviously we have cost increases every year, right? You've mentioned and highlighted all the good work of the a la carte menu and the additional revenue that's coming again, right? Obviously coupling that with your cost increases, I'm curious and to maintain a really our projection a level deficit, are we increasing services but maintaining the same deficit or is it a story of jeez, our revenues are going up or they or they going down? Like, where's the picture of revenue in all this? >> The revenues are going down a bit. I mean, but but Yeah, in terms of like reimbursement rates and stuff or not rates, but like the reimbursement we're getting, I
034am seeing it trending down a little bit, but it's not like I said, it's nothing. But our a la carte, like I said, is going up. So, it just depends on which facet, I think, of the program. Um I can pull that information. >> simple as math if I'm understanding your question correctly. Sorry. No, it's fine. Yeah, but this is how I view it, right? >> That's a Like, we negotiated new contracts with the support staff. It was approximately a 4% increase on their salaries, right? So, just to maintain the same deficit, we need to increase our revenue by 5%, right? >> Or cut other Or cut but we were in a default, which put it right back to where it was the year before, right? So, for that math to have a deficit that's
035approximately the same, knowing that our expenses, which the labor expenses go they're not at the mercy of default, right? They legitimately went up 4%. We're using approximations, that means our revenue probably has to also increase by about 4%. >> that >> increase cuz of all the cart or >> I think it's more driven by all the cart because we did see the decrease. >> it's not from Yeah, cuz we did see that slight decrease in the reimbursement meals and that's the revenue that comes from federal grants and and Federal state and federal and state money. Yes. I think there's food costs gone up dramatically. Um yes, we are part of the New Hampshire buying group so that the bid prices are very much locked in but there are still exceptions where produce specifically right now
036there is it's produce is a nightmare right now to to deal with. I'll be very honest. A 25-lb thing of tomatoes is $90. So I'm not buying tomatoes. Um we did I did allocate a lot of our commodity money into our favors which is fresh produce. That list is very limited and that's the only way I'm buying tomatoes because we have the money allocated for it but you're looking at only 5 lb versus 25 lb. So and where it think the only saving grace is that's at the end of the school year. There's also we have a whole part of our program that's called buy American which is it kind of it it's supposed to promote purchasing, you know, local produce. Not local local but like, you know, US produce. Domestic is the word I'm
037thinking of. And this year they've put a cap on non-domestic items. It's 10% of your total food budget you can spend on non-domestic items and that's really limited us as well because while New Hampshire's great for like apples, that's about all we got is apples and oranges. So bananas and pineapples and things I've had to really watch what I'm buying even though those would be cheaper. So right now produce is a big concern of mine that I'm watching very carefully. Again, thankfully we're at the end of the year where like if we kind of phase something out it's not going to be a desperate like big disruption. Um but in terms of going forward next year and beyond with the the Maha movement there they want us to do to double our protein servings, which
038is great, but that doubles our food cost. And they're not proposing any increase in in reimbursement rates. So, it's we're we're in a lose-lose. We're Here's the rock and the hard place and we're just getting, you know, No, I don't know if we're in a I understand what you're saying. >> Yeah, I From that point, I feel like we're in a lose-lose. >> on yourself, right? Like you've seen some of the initiatives that we've done. You highlighted them at the beginning. Sure. >> the initiatives that we've you've undertaken and how they have increased revenue in areas where we have control. Yes. >> Right? Like the vending machine is an area we have control, right? The a la carte menus is stuff we have control over. And we've made positive progress in that and it's going
039to be slow, but it's going to be systematic and we're going to have to chunk at it little by little by little. Matt's favorite topic, I don't want to get too far in the weeds on it, is the >> the cafe. >> is the cafe. [laughter] Here comes the cafe. >> but steps behind the scenes are being taken to to do that idea, which will we anticipate being very helpful to the bottom line for for for the high school and stuff like that. So, we are taking those steps and I think that is positive work you've done this year with Oh, it's so hard to not take it all personally, so >> Well, and you're going to experiment, right? Like [snorts] and like the pumpkin bread was a byproduct of you having a lot of
040the the the pumpkin at the time, right? >> Yeah. And it like dawned on us like oh, wait, there's something here, right? So, I think building on those type of ideas that kind of unfolds. And it's the creativity behind it. I'm trying so hard, you guys. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Trying so hard. You don't At least I can speak for myself. I think the rest of the board probably would agree with me. Like I don't There are so many things that are outside of your control. >> Correct. And I really feel like you're doing everything you possibly can to control all of the things you can. You know, I think you're doing an excellent job. I appreciate that. Yeah. I mean, just put in perspective for people cuz I think you know, rightfully, like I'm
041not disparaging anyone who who don't think of it in this context, but think about you going to buy like a sub at like K L's or something like that. Like it's costing you like 15, 16, 20 bucks now. >> Yes, it is. >> Right? I've been there recently. And that's because And like they need to charge that because of the cost of the food, the cost of their labor, right? And for our food service employees, right? We have to be competitive with the food service industry, not necessarily exclusively food service in schools. We need to be competitive with food service in general, right? So, if you look at what we're up against, it's not just like, "Hey, we need to make sure our our our our pay of rate is the same as schools." No,
042it has to be the same as Subway. It has to be the same as restaurants. It has to be same. And they they're they're paying people a lot of money. So, we have to kind of mirror that. We have a great team here who are invested in our kids. They could probably take their skill set and make a lot more money doing what they do, you know, but they care about our kids. Many of them live in our community, right? But we can get away like 425 for for lunch? Like where if you're going to go buy that out, like you're you're spending 15 bucks for same amount of food out in the restaurant. You know, we got to keep that in perspective when we look at this. So. Yeah. Yeah. And I get in
043the weeds and I know I I take things I I hate this borderline I love coming and talking to you all. Don't get me That's not the problem. Um but like just the knowing that it's going to come to this is so uh it's so disheartening even though I think the superintendent's right, right? I I think the story and the revenue question was really, you know, to maintain a deficit flat, I think is a positive story actually. >> Great. Okay, I appreciate that. >> [laughter] >> It is, right? Because our costs are increasing. We all know that, right? >> Yes. That's not That's not uh What? They are? What? lost on any of us, right? >> Oh my. >> it speaks to the success of the creativity of you and your staff, right? And the
044hard work of everyone in your department and the and the and the creativity of the ala carte menus, right? And the continued services of your catering, right? That is what is allowing us to keep this deficit flat. I appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate that. I I appreciate that very much. And I I will say just off the topic off record, I tell people how grateful I am for Sorry, Ray, you're not here, but the four of you sitting in this room right now. Ray, you too. >> [laughter] >> But I am I I tell people the amount of support I have from my board and my community and people like jaws drop. So, I know I recognize that I have a very good situation here and I appreciate those words back cuz I it
045like I said, it's hard to not take it personally, but I know it's nothing I'm doing. I'm doing everything I can, so it's just disappointing. I would love it to be perfect and everything's great, but that's not life. >> If you walked in here and all of them were in the black, I would take that personally. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. You know, Yeah. A a lot of them. It's not an easy task to sit here and try to solve problems that are being created at a much higher level that we can't control. So, I appreciate the efforts you put into that. I appreciate that. It's disheartening to try to do all that work and then see a yes red >> [laughter] >> line. But I mean, I think Andrew's point is spot on. You have
046to You really have to dig into where the successes are hap There are successes that are hap That's where I try to pull from, yeah. There's There is success. There have been really good things. Myself and my crew have been working our tails off this year. Like, we have been working really hard to make sure and like, not all of our initiatives work. I tried the hot chocolate program and my GMS lead was like, "Don't do that again. That was a nightmare." I was like, "Okay, so we won't do that again." Like, but I also appreciate that my staff can come to me and be like, "What are you thinking?" It was very It was a lot more colorful and I was like, "Listen, that's fine. If it's not going to work, we'll figure something
047out." Um but at least like the high the the high school iced coffee is going really, really well and I mean, I'd argue most of it is um SAU related as well because we have our little crew [laughter] that goes down every day and buys coffee and >> staff. Yeah, we we It's lunch and coffee time and we all we all go down, but um as of April 30th, we were at 495 iced coffees sold on the year so far. And for a school of 300-ish, 300 and what, 50, let's say, kids, I think that's a pretty solid Plus it was really cold this winter, so you know, I anticipate that to come back up and it just inspires me to keep doing more. So, here's some highlights. Let's end on a good note, guys.
048We We went through the tough stuff. I'm really excited and and very very thrilled that some of my um our new meals that came out. I found the egg roll in a bowl, which I If you talk to me, you know I'm obsessed with. I found that on TikTok over the summer and I went, "Every kid would love this." And every kid has loved it. We fed it to Governor Ayotte and Commissioner Davis when they came to visit. Um egg roll in a bowl is Rocco? It's pretty good. >> Yes. >> [laughter] >> Egg roll in a bowl is one of and I make it literally like at least twice a week at home. It's I It's so easy and it's so delicious and it's it's very much It's It's gone really, really well. Another
049one that went really well that I just sampled and I was like, "We'll try it." Cuz our national school lunch week theme was um school nutrition is your passport and it was a world of different flavors. Um I became the customs and immigration center for the district and stamped passports for the elementary kids literally all week that week. That was super fun. Um but we tried chicken tikka masala, which is an Indian dish, um up in the high school and I was kind of blown away with how many kids were like, "I love this. I'm so excited you're offering it. So, we have it with our whole grain naan bread and we make our chicken tikka sauce from scratch. Um we we make it cuz um the manufacturer who is happens to be a friend
050of mine. Um but she was like, we ran out for National School Lunch Week. I'm like, well, I know how to make it. So, we make it from scratch now and it's it the whole place just smells amazing. Um we had a um for National School Breakfast Week, we did a sausage patty and cheese sandwich on a that's a maple infused flatbread. That goes over really, really well with the kids. It kind of has that sweet and savory. We did add the little extra maple on the side. Um this big giant parfait in the middle is a dragon fruit parfait because the theme for breakfast week was um the quest for school breakfast. So, you think medieval, you think dragons and and princes and princesses. So, we had dragon fruit parfaits. And then um I
051was under the impression when we made Cubans one time that we didn't have any pork. So, I bought a real big old pork loin and then my staff went, "No, we have that." So, we threw it in the freezer and we did a slow roasted um Cuban style pork with roasted butternut squash and mashed potatoes. That was That was delicious. So, that was really cool and again, you know, um my lead at the high school, she's new this year, too, and she's done a phenomenal job. Her food comes out great. And so, those are some of the new dishes we did. Also, to highlight, obviously we catered for Governor Ayotte. Thanks, Brian, cuz that was on a whim and I was like, 100% I'm going to cater for the governor. And that that We didn't
052I didn't get any I was just so horrible the day Maggie Hassan came. I didn't get any photos, but I stole that from the video that Jen posted on Facebook. So, there's Maggie Hassan um visiting our middle school cafeteria. Um that was a really great positive visit. When you When I go to DC and I have these meetings with our with our senators and our people. Um here we are. Yay. You only get a couple minutes of face time. I had a solid half hour, 45 minutes of face time with the senator to talk all things school nutrition, all things like you know, that height we had literally just covered a month prior in DC regarding, you know, the new dietary guidelines for Americans, which will cause our program to have regulation changes and just
053all sorts of like the definition of ultra-processed foods. I won't go into it because we have all we don't have a lot of time and I could talk for hours about it. Um I've really found to move on to this. Obviously, we have this. Um I found a real love for advocacy, which is something I would have never thought I would have said. So, um obviously, went down to DC this year again as the um as the SNA New President chapter New Hampshire chapter president. So, I'm president this year next year. So, I went down with my colleague Dave there from Merrimack and um he's retiring this year. After I finish my presidency, I will be moving into public policy and really um I think we can do a lot more in terms of nationally,
054but I think as well like the state level. We can really I think we can do a lot of you know, I just want to do best for the state. I was also very fortunate to we're going to brag about myself now. Sorry, everybody. Um I was very fortunate to be selected and I didn't even realize I did this. I apparently ticked a box that was like, "Sure, I'll do the executive leadership program." And I got selected randomly. So, that's our cohort. We had a whole day at um Oh my god, where did I go? Georgetown University. Oh my god. And um we had one of their we had two big giant um sessions. Um one of their professors talked about emotional intelligence and leadership. And then the second one was a one of their
055professors that talked about like the um the impact that like long-term stress has on your body and your mental health and stuff. It was a fantastic day with like so almost 60 of my closest nutrition friends from all over the all over the country. Um I got asked to speak at a national conference this past couple weeks ago. So, that was exciting. Um and now I really want to do keynote speaking, which is probably not surprising to a lot of people. I like to talk. And I'm before I That was a hear from your peers session. So, it was myself and the Vermont SNA president and we you know, it was at the national conference for leadership and we smashed it. Honestly, it was great. And the last thing before I turn it over for
056any questions or whatever, um very excited to announce that on August 19th this year, our state conference is actually going to be held at Campbell High School. And I'm really excited about it because we have a national keynote speaker coming down. This is all for SNA New Hampshire. So, if you're around August 19th and want to pop in and check out what work I'm doing related but not related to school nutrition and what I'm doing for the state and what my team and I are doing for the state, uh please please feel free to stop in. Um it's going to be a fantastic conference and I'm really And I'm catering for that, too. So, I'm really really excited about that. Um So, those are most of the product the product updates. Yeah, okay. That was
057the There we go. Here we are. >> for a moment? >> You can be critical for a moment. >> about food in raw Hungary. I know. I was like, I didn't bring any samples. I'm the worst. >> [laughter] >> Fired. Get out. Remember how nice we were all being to me 5 minutes ago? We're just [laughter] going to GO AND NOT A THOROUGH UPDATE. Thank you very much. Any questions from the board? What time is that on the 19th, do you know? It It's going to run all day. Uh so, it's like 8:30 to I think it starts at 8:30 and it'll run till about 2:30 3:00. Good speaker. Yeah, he's His name is Joe Pettit. If you have a chance to check him out online, he His whole thing is called Seeds to Success
058and he talks about like it's a lot of gardening metaphors cuz you can't have the gorgeous garden without doing the work in the dirt. And leadership and working you know, in teams and stuff is very similar and he's giving it granted it's not through the district. So he's giving us a 2-hour keynote and he's he's fantastic. He's a nationally recognized speaker. He's amazing. So very excited about that. Any questions? I'll bring samples next time. >> [laughter] >> That was going to be my question. I appreciate all of you genuinely like I know how good I have it here. So It's thanks to the four of you. Sorry Ray, you're not here. Sorry [laughter] Ray, but now I appreciate it. >> Thank you again. Thank you so much everybody. Have a good night. >> Thank you.
059I did get an update from Mr. Peoples. Oh yes, okay. He's not able to make it. Something came up. So Great. Thank you for that heads-up. All right, switching gears into our student representative report. We're we're going to welcome Rocco tonight. Great. Let me get it up for you Rocco. Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> You good? All right. So I'm Rocco DeLucia my junior Campbell High School. I'm just going to go through some of the stuff that's happening right now at Campbell for our spring sports. We have the girls lacrosse team standing 2-2. Their next game was supposed to be tonight, but I believe it got canceled. The boys lacrosse team is 3-3 with their next game against ConVal today. And then softball is 1-7 and their next game's tomorrow. Baseball's 5-2 and they have
060their upcoming game versus Raymond. And then track is doing really well. They've had six meets so far and a couple school record attempts. Um and then next slide. For past events that we've had recently, we had the SATs for April 15th. I had to take that myself and I think they went really well. Um yeah, and then on the 17th there was the music All-State classical festival. On the 22nd there was the Spain info trip meeting. And the 24th was the blood drive. I was actually like at the table helping people check in and then like halfway through I wanted to find out my blood type so I went and got my blood done. Found out I was A positive. Ah, there you go. And then on the 23rd on the 23rd was the um
061National Honor Society bingo night. That also went really well. Oh wait. Mine hasn't updated yet, sorry. Um I don't have all the bullet points. So yeah, we had the bingo night You're good. You're good. You're good. You're good. Don't worry. >> [laughter] >> You're building. You're building. >> well without Wi-Fi. But the National Honor Society bingo night, that went really well. I'm in NHS but I wasn't able to be there but I heard there was a really good turnout. Everyone that did come had a lot of fun. We did well with like advertising, all things like that. And then on the 25th starter break there was the Spain trip which a lot of people I heard had fun at. I talked to some of my friends and they had a lot of really nice pictures
062from the event. Um on the next slide there was yesterday the spring athletic photos as well as today there was the driving towards zero presentation. So it was a big presentation about just like the safety of driving, the dangers of it. It went into like a lot of depth and definitely like like it kind of scared the kids because that's kind of what you wanted to do. It's like you want to like let them know that it is an actually scary thing. But uh starting yesterday, AP testing started. I actually took the first test. It was AP Gov. It went really well as well. I mean, I went into it really scary, but it was fine. Uh on May 8th, so this Friday, we have our prom. There you go. That's really nerve-racking because me
063and my friend Taylor are planning the whole thing by ourselves. >> [laughter] >> Right, cuz juniors plan it for seniors, right? >> Yes. And we had a very, very small committee this year. I even had to open it up to the senior grade just so like they couldn't blame us if they didn't like the prom, but >> [laughter] >> they won't They won't have to because It is, yeah. It's It's going really well. We have like a roaring masquerade theme, so we have some purple, gold, green, black colors, and some nice centerpieces. We'll have plenty of pictures of that at the next meeting, I bet. Um then on the 11th, or like right now through the 11th, we have the National English Honor Society book drive. We started the National English Honor Society this year.
064Um I'm helping to start it up, but we're having our first one raise is like a book drive. We just have some baskets in each like English room and every English Yeah, English room's classroom. And kids can just donate books, and we'll put that towards a better cause. Um and then on the 16th, uh we will be having our clothing drive, which we have annually. I should be at that, and we basically just like have all people drop off big bags, trash bags of stuff. A bunch of clothes that we can just donate. And then on the 21st is the senior project evaluations. I feel like there's a fashion show sometime soon? Yeah. Um so, on the 17th, that's not added in here yet, but Campbell will the junior class is also hosting a fashion
065show, which I'm helping plan with that as well. And basically, we've had a fashion show in previous years, but this year the junior class reached out to Miss Gaspar asking if we could help her plan it and use it as a fundraiser for our class. So, in response to that, she said yes. We've gotten so We've gotten like 10, 15 plus businesses to like donate money to us, and then we put their like businesses in our advertisements and the like pamphlets we fill out. We've made probably around like $6 to $800 in that. Uh and then we also are working with like David's Bridal. They're donating 25 dresses to our models. Wow. Wow. That's great. And what's the fundraising purpose? Uh it's just to the grade, like the junior class as a whole, cuz like
066next year we have senior activities. I'm sure. So, definitely need to get money so we don't have to like charge the graduating class like a bunch of money to do their own activities that they've like worked all these four years for. Really glad the junior class brought this this idea back cuz a lot of schools do something similar. They timing-wise we got to do it, you know, post-prom, but usually the idea is you do it pre-prom as like the like lead-in to it with the dresses and the the suits and like everything like that. I actually was going to add that. We renamed it this year as like a post-prom fashion show. So, because I just like recognized that like so many girls spend like $400 on their dresses that they wear one time. >>
067Probably an understatement. >> And I'm like, I bet >> [laughter] >> if they're going to spend that much money on their dresses, they'd probably want they'd probably be like proud of wearing it, like think it's beautiful, maybe they'd want to wear it at a fashion show. So, we're calling it the post-prom fashion show because people can wear their prom outfits, their prom tuxes and dresses. We have casual wear sections, but then we also have David's Bridal to provide us with dresses. Um and then for our future events that we have going on, on the 27th, we have the Academic Excellence Banquet, as well as on the 26th, we have the start of Spring Fest and the eighth-grade step-up day, which StuCo's planning and it's going really well so far. Uh on the 28th, we have
068the CHS Music Awards, and on June 1st, we have the senior dinner and cruise. And on June 8th is finals week. For that step-up day, right? One of the board goals for many years has always been transitions, right? So, what what is different or what is what is the focus of that day from eighth into I don't know if I can answer this one off the top of my head. I'm not involved in the planning on that one, so I can come back to that next meeting though. I can report out a little bit on it. Yeah. Um and then moving on to LMS, LMS baseball is three to one so far and softball's 5-0. The boys lacrosse team is two to one and the girls lacrosse team is 0 and 4, but the LMS
069track team has done great this season and they've had a lot of individual wins. For this week, the NACH SAS testing started and the students in grades five through eight are started by taking like the writing test. All students received breakfast served by the admin and the lunch team. And there were class meetings held on Monday with every grade that shared incentives for personal improvement to kind of boost those test scores. Um every student who improved their overall score in each content area will be able to silly string Miss Grantham and Mr. Peterson in June. And then every student who improves their personal proficiency score, like from a one to a two or three to a four, or stays at a four, will receive an ice cream sundae party. I know that these definitely worked
070for like the state science testing that the juniors had this year when we were told that we didn't have to take our finals. >> I definitely I was all about this. >> [laughter] >> I was sweating going into that, but I got a three, so I do not have to take my honors anatomy final, which made me very happy. >> Yeah. Um Next, [laughter] we have looking into the future. So, throughout like the next two weeks, we're going to have like all of the testing. There's Yeah, both of the readings and math for all grade levels. There's also the start of field trips. So, seventh grade is going to go to the Stone Zoo. Uh eighth grade's going to go on their Boston Freedom Boston Freedom Trail. And fifth grade is going to go to
071the Hidden Creek Golf Course. Hey, can I chaperone that one and bring my clubs? >> [laughter] >> Come on over. I'm sure they'd love to have you. It's actually donated as a donation. It's going to be really interesting. They're doing a physics Oh, nice. Okay. All right. with golf. Is grade eight actually happening? Would you like to talk about that when it happens? We can talk about it in a little bit. >> Yeah. Okay. I want to go back real quick. Um and then next is the I-Ready testing. That starts on May 26th through the 29th. It's both reading and math. And then for eighth grade events, on the 29th, they have their grad dance. And on their 11th on the 11th is their promotion ceremony. There's also their LMS field day on the 25th
072or on the 5th of June and the last day of school is on the 12th. There will be early release. Here we go. Uh for GMS on Friday, the 24th of April, they had their first ever wellness week wellness day. Uh the students were able to participate in a variety of physical activities. It was really, really cute. Um Sarah and I went down there to check it out and the kids were all too happy to tell us everything they were doing. There were so many different activities happening, so it's really cool to see this idea trickle down through um but it's a great experience for them. They get it to do some different things. Sounds fun. And then out the PTO sweetheart dance is Friday, May 8th, so same as prom, but I don't know
073if they'll be able to compete. Um the third grade has the Acton Museum coming up to present on the 13th. And the end of year Tiber tribe celebration >> tiger. That's all right. Thank you. The tiger tribe celebration is Thursday, May 14th. Um our chorus spring concert is also the 14th later in the night. And then the orientation for the incoming kindergartners will be on April 15th May 15th. at Yeah, that's May 15th. >> Um at 9:00 or 12:00 and it also means no school for the current kindergartners. And that's all of the current updates. Marco, let me ask you a question back on SATs. Yeah. Right? So, what does it mean to take high stakes testing to you and what have you learned this year on high stakes testing? Um I've definitely done like
074a lot of research on how to make sure like I'm taking it properly. Going into it, I'm like, "God, like I need to hurry up. Like I don't have a lot of time on this." But I definitely I found ways to prepare because there's a lot of stuff that like I didn't necessarily know unless I would have researched it myself. Like for the math section, you're allowed like Desmos that's added onto it. And for almost all of their questions, they have like a heavy portion of constant questions. Um you can plug practically every single one of those equations right into Desmos and it just feeds you the answer as long as you know how to use the program. So there's definitely ways to make it work. I think another thing that like gets a little
075like anticipating about it is that we had to wait like a month to get the scores. So actually on the 14th is when we'll be receiving our scores. Um I think I did pretty well, but also I know that you can like retake the SAT at other schools. So I think like now that the first time I've taken it, I understand like the flow of it, how it goes, and also like the right way to use like the calculators on certain sections. I'll probably end up like going to other schools and retaking it and either like super score and stuff like that. And one to follow up, did you feel like the PSATs prepared you for SATs? I think it did. Uh I know that my freshman year I didn't take it too seriously cuz
076I was like, "What's the point of this if it like doesn't actually count?" But last year I definitely tried and same with this year because like I wanted to try to beat my score from previous years. So I like created like a competitive aspect for myself. Excellent. Thanks for that. So your motivation was to beat your scores from prior years. Like is that what motivated you the most with that? >> Yeah. There There was like a combination because I definitely wanted to beat my past scores, but I also wanted to like kind of break like the the regular like scores that people get on the test so I can kind of like stand out and I don't have and I'm like able to put it on like college applications cuz I know some people if
077they don't score too well but schools look for a certain number they like won't put it on and schools like won't really penalize for you penalize you for it but like they can still see that like oh like why didn't this person add their score like they must have not scored well if they don't feel comfortable sharing. Yeah. This is for going down the road and you seem to be a willing answerer of these questions. >> [laughter] >> I think I take the opportunity right? Yeah right. Do you think having the midterms back this year helped? Yeah definitely. Um it like it definitely put together everything that we've done all semester. Like I know that I'm in honors pre-calc and before midterms we were like handed a packet of like review so like stuff we've
078covered all year and I was like wow like we covered a lot of stuff but it also just helped like resurface all those things that we did like to my mind and it helped me like make sure like like I have to focus this semester because I know that like I'm going to have everything from last semester and this semester on my pre-calc midterms so it definitely like made me more engaged because I knew it would like I was going to have like a tracker on me making sure that I actually followed through with everything. So can you say So you took AP Gov write that exam and then compare and contrast I guess we're really doing this. So compare and contrast SAT which is kind of like here's a day you're going to take
079this you don't necessarily know what's on it versus your AP exam which I'm hoping you had maybe not don't know the exact questions but you have a better understanding of what that's going to look like. Does that make a make a difference to you like how was the testing for both of those? There's a little bit of a difference which some of it might be my fault. Um in AP classroom you can take practice exams of the SATs but also all your courses. I took a a of practice exams for AP Gov. Um and also I think government's more of a strong suit for me because of like other stuff that I do. I just have kind of a mind for it. But going into it, I had done so much studying and practice exams
080with my friends that like everything in there was kind of just like a breeze. Um they also gave us a significant amount of time for the multiple choice questions. I think everyone in there had a good like 20 minutes left over waiting for the section to end. And then for the FRQs, like the free response, everyone had like 50 minutes left over. Like I even online I was looking and people were talking like they were taking naps in the classroom because of how long the testing time they actually gave you was. So it was less rushed with which I guess like took a little stress off. I didn't take any practice test for the SAT. So it was a little different and then like I feel like it covers way more of like a vast
081like it just covers like all types of math and all types of English. So it was like a little more difficult to prepare for. But it was still something that like I tried very hard on. Yeah. Awesome. Hopefully we can probe a little I mean not right now, but hopefully we can probe a little bit more hearing the aspect about the prep and some of the independent research that went into it. I'm wondering if we can, you know, present more without I mean you obviously have you know, a good desire to go seek these things out yourself. Mhm. Yes. Yeah. I'm sure you already I already picked up on that. And we already started doing some of those >> Yeah. They introduced that more this year. >> of stuff. Um and there's been a lot
082more kind of the assessment culture is definitely starting to shift in the positive direction which was a goal starting last year. So we're starting to see some benefits of that which has been amazing. Thank you for that feedback. That was great. Any other questions for Rocco this evening? No. Great job, Rocco. Great job, Rocco. Very thorough presentation tonight. Thank you very much. Um you're welcome to stay. You're welcome to leave and enjoy the rest of your evening. Up to you. I will be heading out. >> [laughter] >> It was great to hear everything. Bye. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all. Thank you all. Uh and with that, we have our first community comment on agenda items. This is the first of two community >> [cough] >> comments. Seeing nobody rushing up to the
083mic, we'll close this one. And again, there's a second opportunity a little bit later this evening. Uh and we'll shift gears into correspondence. Okay. Um on April 19th, Mr. Oblinus um made a request to post the GMS form online. Mr. Cutter responded. Um on the 20th, Mr. Oblinus provided some positive feedback regarding the um the topic of the discussion of the insurance insurance situation. Um on the 21st and um sent a request for signatures for manifest so bills would get paid on time. Um I think pretty much everybody responded and we got those signed. Also on the 21st, there were So there were two AP manifests on the 21st. There were two payroll manifests on the 21st. Um on May 1st, Andrew I don't know if this needs to be on this agenda, but I'm
084going to tell you anyway. I had some clarifying questions on the manifests which to which Anne responded. Um on the May 1st, uh we got the agenda for tonight's meeting. On May the 2nd, uh Ms. Farrow uh sent an email to the board regarding um her concerns with changes in the health insurance. And then uh May 5th, another 403B manifest and then today, a credit card manifest from Ms. Anne Moratti. All right. Thank you very much. Any other correspondence to highlight from board members? Hearing and seeing none, uh we'll move into general business this evening. Uh we don't have Mr. Peoples as mentioned, so we'll skip over legislative update tonight unless Well, I'll give two brief ones on that. I think since we last met, uh this the they voted on open enrollment and it
085did not move forward. I think it went to like one of those conference things. It didn't pass, right? So, it went to I don't even know all the terms, but one of those uh conference type of things, which means it it I mean, that has changed a lot, so who knows, but like it's likely not going to pass. There's going to be no changes to open enrollment for next school year at this point, right? So, we're kind of status quo on that. Now, anything can change from a legislative perspective, but based upon where that was, we don't anticipate any changes for 26-27 school year in terms of open enrollment. Uh next thing there was um just for awareness, there was an article in the Union Leader today. I just read it quickly, so I don't
086have a lot of in-depth feelings on it yet, but it talked about uh statewide vote on a tax cap for school expenditures. So, just might be something the board wants to just read up a little bit. I'm I know know myself I'm going to read up a little bit more on it uh to get a better understanding of what that proposed bill entails and stuff like that. >> And NH SBA has been sending out some updates on that as well. >> Yeah, so just uh just um that's it. FYI. Thank you. Uh back to you for your report. >> Yeah, if it's okay, I'm going to move something up from Sarah's section right now um cuz Ms. Kramer's here. I don't want to keep her too late. She's already stayed for quite a bit. Um
087but they have a a new course um that at LMS they would like to run, uh intervention style course that they want to run next year. So, I'm going to ask them to come up and talk about it. Do you want me to put it up on the screen? You can. Hello. Hello. Thank you. So, I brought with me this evening Kate Kramer, reading specialist extraordinaire and wearer of many hats at LMS. >> Definitely an extraordinaire. >> [laughter] >> She is phenomenal. Also serving breakfast this morning? >> Yes, she was. My secret deputy. Don't tell anybody. Uh so we've been talking for years looking at data looking at where our students were performing in my five years here it's been a focus of our school. And one of the things that we talk about is
088our tears of instruction and we've talked here about tier three with being our most intensive need students tier two being our students who are still struggling and then tier one being our instruction that goes to all students. Uh we have really decided in the past several years to focus our attention in on tier one instruction to make sure that we're improving the quality of the everybody gets instruction because we saw deficits and we saw holes based on the data that we had um seen and presented towards us. So Miss Kramer has been remarkable in helping with our vertical team meetings and helping to really help facilitate conversations looking at the data and seeing where we are. However, we [clears throat] still recognize that there's a problem here in Litchfield that it is either you're in
089the tier one instruction zone for middle school or you go to special ed. When you go from the there isn't a middle ground, right? And that shouldn't be the way it is and it hasn't been the way it is in any other district I've ever worked in in my life. So we have had a lot of brainstorming sessions about what could it look like? How do we get that extra instruction in for those kids who aren't special education but still are showing those deficits through either New Hampshire SAS data or Iready data or a combination of New Hampshire SAS Iready and um teacher observation. So Kate and I uh kind of talked a little bit about creating this program. Um you want to do you want to talk at all about your fantastic class? >>
090Sure. So this class is called mastering the Page and really it's designed for those kids in that tier two pocket. So, when I think about tier two instruction, I think about it like kind of like SAS. So, SAS has four levels. Level one is below grade level, level two is approaching, level three you're on grade level, level four you're above. So, to me it's really targeting those level two kiddos and pushing them from approaching proficient into that proficient zone. And I would like to do this do this through examining informational text and vocabulary. Everybody can learn to do this. Some kids might just need a little more instruction, a little more help, a little more direct teaching on that matter. And I think it's really important to to be using both qualitative and quantitative data
091because not everyone is a great test taker. Not everyone does well taking a test on a computer. How are they performing in class? And that teacher observation piece, too. I am the vertical lead for the ELA team and we work very cohesively to to track that progress like from grade to grade and who needs what and who's performing. I think that this course will also help route certain students the special education route and um help other students kind of not go that route cuz they're going to get what they need and then they can just be hopefully level three proficient moving forward. Do you have any questions on that? So, I just want to interject for a quick second of when is this going to happen because really it's about the number of minutes and
092hours that we have in a day. We know that our students require math, language arts, science, and social studies as their four core classes. That can't change. And we don't want to take them out of their language arts class that's happening here because this these are the kids that need more than what they're getting. So, when can this happen in the school day? This would be a one quarter class that would be happening when unified arts are happening. So, kids would have for next year, we're talking about shifting our how unified arts are being offered to be a four quarter classes. So, even classes like sustainability or computer science, which have been semester classes, would go down to a quarter so that kids have that opportunity to get more classes in. Um and we have
093the idea of including this as one of those rotations for a kid in a year. So, for example, if it was Mr. Peterson, who's back here and I'm going to say he's a let's say he's a sixth grade student and we recognize that he has some challenges that he needs additional support in in the eight opportunities he has for unified arts, he would have one in mastering the page to focus in on that vocabulary and informational text to get that boost for him. So, he's not stuck in informational in mastering the page for four quarters of the year and can't have unified arts for the rest of the year because we do believe we want to produce highly qualified, well-rounded individuals who have access to the things that they need to have. And what we're
094recognizing is they there are many of our students who need this additional support in reading. Miss Kramer, when I came reading specialist, if you looked just in PowerSchool, you would see, "Oh, they have a caseload of five or 12." because they were solely focused on our tier three instruction. We've spent a lot of time getting our special educators up to speed on providing that tier three instruction for our special education students, which frees Miss Kramer up to be able to support that level of students and get them >> [clears throat] >> to proficient, which is our goal overall as a district for our students. And that length of time falls right into the MTSS model with how much time you want to do a level of level two support and then move on cuz if
095they're not responding in that time, then it's time to have different conversations. If they are responding, then you're like, "Oh, great. They're responding, so we don't need more intensive >> So you were just like reading my face as I was listening cuz my question was going to be is one quarter enough? So what you're saying is that's the perfect amount It should be. And then if we're seeing students then go back and they're falling, then it might be another conversation of do they need another round later? Like but typically you at that point you have a real conversation in is this working? Are they responding or are they not? So we wouldn't have a situation where a student would be quarter one quarter two. I don't think that >> really You really shouldn't You shouldn't
096have that. >> or quarter one quarter three. You You really shouldn't >> You shouldn't have that. If they're responding If they're not responding, we should be looking at special Correct. If they're not responding What about quarter one grade five quarter two grade six? That is possible. That's possible because the level of the level of complexity goes up as you go from year to year. One of the things that we spend a lot of time focusing on when you look at our incentives for our SAS model, it's not just the number because the quantile number that the kids can score or the Lexile number that the kids can score on SAS. So let's talk proficiency rating. When you look at a student in I'm going to throw out a random number. This is not the right
097number cuz I don't have the chart in front of me, but let's say Matt comes in and he scores a 520 in fifth grade in language arts. That's a level three in in fifth grade. He goes to grade six and he scores a 590 but that's a level two in sixth grade because the bar moves. In addition to the number moving, that bar moves as well. So that the because the difficulty level increases as they go from grade to grade, there's a they might need mastering the page or something like it. We might It might not be on vocabulary and informational text. Maybe it's a literature focus. Maybe it's another focus as we go. >> Another question that I have is of as of now, right? How many students would fit into this tier two?
098>> [laughter] >> Uh a a fair bit Right. >> based on the data that we have. Um and this is one of the things that you know, dreams and pipe dreams. It's about peop- It's It's about people and who we have in front of us to help to offer these services. >> Well, that's where I'm going, right? And so now you have probably a large percentage of students that would benefit from this program, right? And it's being offered for all grades, but yet you're one person. >> One and a half. One and a half, right? She's really She's really skilled now. Right. So, I'm just questioning like how do you select kids across four grades that are eligible for one quarter? So, we were having a lengthy conversation about this actually this afternoon. Um in
099talking about what could this look like and when would be appropriate to offer it. So, thinking about the transition from fourth to fifth grade and knowing how how difficult it is for those kids coming from fourth to fifth grade, we probably wouldn't put them in mastering the page in quarter one because we would want to get to know them and get to know how they're functioning, benchmark them, see how they're going, and >> thinking about kids like that, too. When I see those those lower kids on I-Ready, I go through and I say, "Okay, well, who's identified in special education? Okay, this kid isn't." And I grab them. And I hear them read. I see them write. I go through other informal measures. And that kind of helps me route what's needed as well. So,
100I think the the critical components of this is we're talking about pe- people. And again, I'm going to say this is a reading focus, but there could be a math focus at some time in the near future as well. I will not won't doing that one. >> [laughter] >> What? I know. I've asked that quite Well, you brought it up so I'm going to say I'm going to derail it and ask it. I think the national question natural next question is like, "Hey, our reading scores aren't that bad." Math on the other hand, like we could really >> about math is finding the people to to provide that assistance. The state has just has in the last few years has they've done now a math specialist endorsement. >> Let's think about Great, but we don't
101have it. There's [laughter] just we don't have >> I can keep talking about what I I visualize, but what what we what we have discussed is it's important because Mrs. Primer has done such an incredible job of leveraging that great conversation of tier tier one and that deep tier one instruction that our reading and and language arts focus doesn't just happen in language arts, it's happening in social studies, it's happening in science, it's happening across the board. We're hoping that this is going to be that quick hit that's going to help those kids that are at that approaching level really, you know, talk about bumping [clears throat] them to that next category and not making this her only focus cuz she she's great at being the jack-of-all-trades and >> Do you like that? Yes. She
102likes to continue those important tier one conversations. So, she wouldn't have a course load that is you know, four four classes every day of this for the whole year because then how would we be able to continue that growth of that tier one instruction in that other other conversations that's important she's leading. We're lucky that we have a full-time reading specialist and appreciate your support in that. Plus, we have a half-time reading specialist who's there. So, we would see the two of them working together to fill that schedule and continue to support because part of what they do to support is supporting those kids who are on a 504 or have other other additional needs um based on that instruction. >> clear though on the question, right? The The question was like, how do you
103select kids specifically for quarter one, quarter two across four grades? >> So, what we would be looking at again, we would be taking fifth grade out of the picture for quarter one because they would not have we would not have any kids in mastering the page for quarter one for fifth grade because we want to see how they come in that that transition that benchmark. But, what we would be doing this spring and in our data conversations is taking a look at that look at that New Hampshire SAS data. Look at that i-Ready data and how do those align and then taking a look at those kids and getting parents to buy in, too. Because that's the other important piece. You have the ability to opt in and opt out of any piece of instruction
104and and getting them to see the value in learning and the value in helping them to build these foundational skills that are applicable whether they choose to be like Rocco and be youth in government governor of the year in New Hampshire or they choose to go work in an industry or >> Yeah, the question though, so would you just take the lowest performing on the SAS? No. So, what I would look at is I would use like multiple data points. So, I would use SAS, I would use i-Ready, I would look at both the spring, so like if you're talking about a current fifth grade student incoming sixth grader, I would look at the spring i-Ready benchmark which would be this June, the fall i-Ready benchmark which would be the first couple weeks of September,
105this past spring's SAS. So, those are my quantitative measures, right? Um I would talk to the classroom teacher and we would have those conversations within our PLCs. And I would also look at like the classroom grades. I would also want to see those kids um probably within the first few weeks of school and take them for a writing sample, take them for some informal assessments that take about 15 minutes per student. I'm envisioning it about the 15 students per grade. Um you really don't want to group like much bigger than that, especially if I'm one person in there in order for the instruction to be effective, but I'm envisioning the 15 students who meet that criteria that are not identified within special education. >> [cough] >> 15 students per quarter. But that could be across
106grades. No, I think it's 45 students per quarter. Or it could be Well, I'm kind of envisioning it two ways. I think you could have a As you move forward in the year, you could have a fifth, sixth grouping and a seventh, eighth grouping, but I think it could also be 15 eighth graders, 15 seventh graders, but I think allowing for that flexibility is going to help you identify the need and go where the need is. Like if there's 16 students who need it in sixth grade, I'm not going to be like, "No, you're out." Like sorry. Like Like we have to also see like who those kids are. So, it's about it's about looking at the data, finding those kids. We're not looking for the kids that have a gap that's this big to
107close. We're looking to kind of take the gap that this this big as our as our tier two step to kind of close that smaller gap because those smaller gaps are the ones that are easier to close. We're going to continue to focus on that tier three with our special ed instruction, with our instruction at that level, but to kind of take these people that are right on that cusp of being on level and getting them to move in that direction. >> your point about getting families to buy in cuz obviously we have very limited time in the day and we're displacing unified arts, which I understand that that probably makes the most logical sense. So, it would be presented as we think your child would benefit from this and we'd like to pull them
108into this. Is that how that would Mhm. Yeah, everything's done So, like when I see a student, um even when I do like informal assessments, like I um get parent permission, obviously, to do that. [laughter] Um so, everything would be done in that way. And I am kind of fun, so it might be a fun class. All right, don't get me wrong. My daughter got pulled out for stuff and she's like, "This is the greatest thing ever." I'm like, "Perfect." And just so that the board knows, this did go through the um, curriculum committee and was approved unanimously Yep. um, to go. So, just so that you know that I [clears throat] followed all the steps. Our pipe dream is that we would have a mastering the page and mastering the number as dueling possibilities.
109You know, not every student who's going to need mastering the page would need the mastering the number as another opportunity out there. It's down the line because we don't have the staff that's going to be able to support. We have a math tutor. She's wonderful. But we're looking for someone who has that specialist ability to really look at those pieces of information. >> training to do what Kate's doing. >> Correct. Did that answer? It did. Okay, great. >> [laughter] >> Very much. Yeah, got it. And then I assume you and you may have already said this and kind of like my head's spinning a little bit at this point, but um, I assume that there will be some sort of like tracking, outbound tracking to to measure the success of this cuz I would think
110that this is something that we would want to try to expand upon if we could. Right. So, I use the dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills. It's called Dibels um, elementary schools. It goes K through 8. It's through the University of Oregon and it's all the materials are free online. So, it's um, you benchmark uh, fall, winter, spring and you progress monitor in between and you progress monitor comprehension and oral reading fluency. So, that is one of the things that I use and that is something that like I would use um, with students who are like at the end of the quarter we would have something cuz I do like I I do see a lot of value in using I-Ready and I do use I-Ready as a data point and I do believe
111it is valuable data to use. However, I also want to hear them. I want to see them write. I want to see what they're doing and give them that opportunity so I can have those multiple data points. So, I think there would be progress monitoring within the course. There would be some sort of culminating progress monitoring um, or benchmark and then like as students are leaving that course, like let's say we're now in quarter three, um we can continue to have those conversations, and I think those are really PLC conversations to be having. Um like, "Oh, they're struggling, checking their grades." And then we can move from there. Do I take them again? Where do we go from there? Do they need something more intensive? Um Did that answer your question? >> Yeah. Yeah, and
112so this would also be presumably a good um like safety net or or ability to catch kids that may also need like an IEP or something like that as well. Yes. Yes. I think the other piece just to to clarify, coming from Griffin, we had this talk about the transitions, and this is one of the things Andrea asked earlier, is we have the kids who come from Griffin, and there's the suite of tutors that they have for Title 1 and for support that they have, and then, "Hi, welcome to LMS, and you're on your own, sink or swim, kid." We don't want that to be the case. We don't want that to be the case where they go from having this supportive nest that carries them along, and then, "Whoop, let's see how you do."
113We want to have that supportive nest that can continue to carry them through their middle school years and help that transition and help again close that gap from those kids who are performing close to grade level, but not quite there yet. So that they don't become a larger gap as they get towards eighth grade or and we have referrals and other things that are happening um towards the end of their career at LMS. And I so in June, I will finish my 16th year in this district. I've spent my entire career here. Um so I feel very passionate about making sure that when kids leave Litchfield, that they are able to read. That they're able to read, they're able to write in whatever it is they do, everybody has to be able to read and
114write, and I want them to feel really good about that. Um so I want to do what we can to maximize that impact. Love that. Thank you. No, you're very welcome. Fantastic. When can >> we get board approval for this? That? It's for next year, right? >> Mhm. It's for 202026-27. [laughter] It's going to It's going to be for 26-27. >> waiting till our next meeting, right? I'd like to solicit public input, if there is public input. I think it's a great idea. I don't think there's going to be any really pushback from the board, but I want to give the public a chance just to weigh in. Yep. Um and give them the opportunity to send us emails or just let us know their thoughts. Yep. Perfect. And And once again, any parent would
115have that ability, should this course pass, that that ability, as they can with any course material, opt out, should they choose not to be part of it. Any individual could decide, "Yeah, I want my kid to have a unified arts and not learn to read. It'll be okay." That's their [laughter] own choice. Perfect. All right, sounds good. We'll look forward to having this on the next agenda and going from there. Right. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Thank you for all you do. Of course. Do you want me to answer the the last question before before I walk away? >> Yes. Uh my email last night was effective cuz we got about 40 um permission slips back today. So, we went from 11 yesterday to around 50 today. Okay, great. Fantastic. We're closer to
116the 88 that we have in in eighth grade. I don't think they're all going to end up going, but um the due date is tomorrow morning. So, if you're watching at home, don't forget to get your permission slips in. All right, permission slips in for eighth grade field trip, right? And we have chaperones and they've gone through volunteer trainings and Or There's a There's a meeting tomorrow night at 7:00 at 6:00 that we're doing virtually to help get everybody trained so they can all be on the trip and ready to go. All right, excellent. All right. Uh I just wanted to tell you after the I don't know if I got to tell you this, after the move up day, which was very well done, by the way, I still am finding my way around
117the middle school, even though I've been there a few times. Um a bunch A bunch of the kids got to see Bay- right? And it was awesome. Like, the kids >> [laughter] >> It was really exciting to see cuz I hadn't like seen it yet. So, like, it was exciting to see. So, I I just wanted to say that was really cool. Thank you, Jason. >> daughter's super excited about She is coming along. She's attending her significant training. So, she had some training last week over vacation. She's had a few individual days prior to vacation, and she hits her full boot camp days. She's going to sit means sit in Londonderry. Um So, they are giving her her full comfort dog training, her therapy dog training, and she will have to pass the good citizens
118training in order to be a certified therapy dog, but she is well on her way. Good. Yeah, thank you. Awesome. She's not [snorts] here cuz spending all day at school and then coming I cannot picture chasing her around in here right now. >> [laughter] >> Need a break. Somebody let hold the dog. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good night. >> Thank you. All right, we'll move back to end of year events. Yeah, so I just linked there is the three lists from the schools about the end of the year events. We like to keep the board informed of different activities going on. You're always invited. I have the formal invitations for graduation that I will send down. It's the way here for June 5th, Friday night June 5th, 6:00 p.m.
119at Campbell High School celebrate class of 2026. Um And yeah, the lists include various events throughout the rest of the school year. So, happy Hopefully, people join us. Looking forward to to that graduation. Yeah, good business. Um next on we had our Alice yearly Alice drill at the three schools right before break. Good job. Better We do better [clears throat] every I've actually oddly seen all three of them because I came when I had been hired, and so this is my third year doing the drill with the district. Each year it gets better and stronger. Matt, you were there for for guys. I think all three actually. Um And definitely we saw improvements. There's always stuff to work on with these drills or ideas. I think one of the things we talked about is changing
120the drill next year. We've been pretty consistent on what the drill has been for the three years to help people get understand their responsibilities, their roles and those type of things. But one of the things we talked about is I won't say like upping the ante, but I don't have a better phrase, so that's what I'm going to use. But have people have more of a visual visual cue of what some of the intruder look like. So what we talked about is I'm a pretty recognizable person between the three schools. Have me act as the bad guy, you know, dressed in like a bright vest so people can see me. And then like if you made a decision to evacuate, was that the right decision? Well, if you can see me, that wasn't the right
121decision, right? Like if you come across me and like take that next step in kind of the drill to help people understand cuz what one of the things we're doing a really good job of is people this is like a key thing for Alice is you need to make decisions, right? Like making a decision is the most critical thing and then going with that decision. But we need to train people to make right decisions, too, right? So for example, one of the schools we had a class that that looked we had a couple classes that evacuated. For one of the schools it was a perfect classes it was a perfect decision. They had an exterior door, they got outside to a field safely and and they would have no issues. Another class, it would probably
122been close call whether they come came across the intruder or something like that. So if they had that visual cue of like, oh, we saw Brian, that was not we should have looked at that differently. So we're talking about doing those type of steps next for the drill. But overall very pleased. I feel you know, police and fire joined us and they were pleased with the outcomes. Again, gave us little things to work on, but I'm glad everyone did a really nice job with it across the district. So Yeah, I mean we definitely have to give a a thanks to police and fire. I mean, you know, having the having a history of like where we've been really working to build that relationship, they have been just incredible partners. Um the amount of time and
123energy that they put into that is like really impressive and they're very invested in like helping us get to the next level and make sure that it's, you know, we're the safest we can be. So, really appreciate their work. I was going to say and let's just say that that decision-making in uh uh I'll call it high-stress situations applies to everything. Right. So, being first aid trained and, you know, uh Red Cross certified, you see that with people. Do they actually need help? Do they not? You see that with people just as a, you know, we call it bystander syndrome of there's a car accident everyone's sitting around, no one's called 911 yet. >> Exactly, yeah. So, there there is a it's and you're absolutely right. Is it the right decision? I mean, if someone's
124up and walking around, probably don't need to attach attach AED pads. Right. Right? But it it's you get people that immediately go there. And so it it's making decisions, timely decisions, the right way. Yeah. Um one thing I do want to just add though, um hopefully not make Brian start sweating and and getting angry about the blue light system, but I'm not. I actually we have a positive update on it. Well, that's great. >> Yeah. So, we'll hear a positive update on that. But, um you know, one thing that we did discuss was the um the problem that occurs when there's like enough, you know, too much people discrediting like practice or false alarms and stuff like that. Um and so like that is one like, you know, kind of focus that we have to
125try to continue to address because we we don't want people to become complacent. And sometimes that even happens with drilling, too, just cuz people get used to it. Yeah, one of the things we stress and one of the things we got [clears throat] to work on is people hear drill and out of good intentions don't like they react almost right away, right? Like we get on the announcement, "Okay, we're going to do a drill." You're supposed to wait till the drill starts to actually start to react, right? But people get in the habit of like, "I'm in drill mode. I'm going to do this, this, and this, right?" Take a beat, right? Like and react more timely to the situation. I think that's why having like an active person involved will help that a little
126bit, right? Like with that type of thing. Cuz right now, which I think was the right way to approach it, it's all just verbal over the the loudspeaker, but there's a visual cue to next. I think that can help people with with their decision-making and stuff. But everyone did a great job. I don't want to nitpick too much. Yeah. You mentioned the blue light. I'll give a very brief update. I don't think we're planning on an elaborate one, but you you you heard my frustration with it, I think, during that meeting. Uh we met with them today. They're coming out next week. [clears throat] They solved the high school issue relatively quickly. Um uh they identified the problem cuz we had that kind of false alarm. It was a an easy fix. To summarize it,
127we had two panic buttons that were too close, so there was interference, so that's what created the trip in the system. Yep. And um so we addressed that. That's good. Um and we think there might be uh similar issue at GMS cuz we had a a little issue with that earlier this year. And so they're going to come and double-check to make sure that that resolves that issue. So that makes me feel a lot better cuz I was getting frustrated with the blue light system um going off unnecessarily. So um they've been very helpful. Um we'll talk next year in the budget season. There's some maintenance things we could do that would maybe We should have regular maintenance. >> Well, yeah. That would help prevent this from happening and make the the system more efficient,
128but that's a next fall budget conversation. We don't need to get into all that right now. So. And that's all I got for Alice. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Um I'll just start Keep ripping them off. That's all [laughter] hiring? Hiring update. I just want to give an update. We're getting into specifics not public with some actual candidates, but um we're pleased with where we're going with hiring right now. We're seeing maybe not the biggest pools, but we're seeing positive pools like when we're hiring candidates and stuff like that. Uh for example, we're doing um two teaching positions a little later today, and I would say we had genuinely, you know, four or five good strong candidates in each of those pools, right? So, we're getting um some good candidates applying for our jobs. Um you
129know, in the positions that we're not quite ready to present a hire yet, it's not because of lack of candidates, it's just we're not there yet in the interview process to [clears throat] present a candidate. So, I think that's uh I'm cautiously optimistic of of where we're going with that. Really happy with the hiring we have done so far. So, um that's been a concern across all of education, but it was a concern of ours last year in the depth of our pools, and uh we hired great people last year, so thankfully that all worked out. And right now, it's looking like we have some good pools, so that's a positive thing. >> continues to speak to Litchfield being an employer of choice, right? And we're open for business, and we want we want good
130qualified staff to come here. I think our retention was good this year, too. It has been. You know, there's always going to be turnover, that's the nature of the business, Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah, I was going through my calendar um for an unrelated reason, and just the number of final interviews I had at this time last year versus what I'm doing this year, it's it's much less, which is a good sign that we're just retaining good people and making good choices when we hire and and everything. So, um next up, budget committee uh schedule. That's more for an FYI for the board. Um for your knowledge, so you have it. And Andrew, jump in on any of this, but the budget committee um sent us their draft uh meeting schedule for next year. I think
131highlighted here is the joint um joint budget meetings that we have with the budget committee, um and then the various review sessions. Our plan is as we I think we had mentioned previously, is to do the budget on October 28th, present that to the send the final budget off to the board and and budget committee for review. That's prior uh good week in front of those joint budget meetings that we have. And again, our plan our plan is to have the building project proposal included in in those in all that. Fantastic. I would just highlight that, and I mentioned this, the budget committee, November 10th is a professional development day on our calendar. Um I understand the staff will be working that day, right? But just if that's a date that we need to move,
132I did kind of tee that up that we might need some flex with that day. It might be okay, I don't know. We can check. We have an admin meeting next week. We'll put it on our agenda and get it on people's radar to see if we can anticipate any issues. I think this past year it fell on Veterans Day, and we do have some uh veterans as part of our administrative team, so that was one of the reasons why I think we asked to to move it um this past year, but we should be okay, but that's a good note, and we will check up on The other thing we just want to make sure of um is making sure that like for deliberative, that the auditorium is reserved, and that uh even for
133and we can coordinate with Mr. Brunelle, right, for the joint budget reviews, that the fire station is reserved for those. >> Yeah. You know, we'll just book those tomorrow. I'm just going to make a note real quick. Awesome. All right, next up, Litchfield 250 celebration. Peter, jump in any point if I miss anything with this. Um I'm not going to go over every details of the celebration. I'm going to go over the school portion of it, which is um just a little bit. Um so, I had the pleasure of attending uh one of their meet planning meetings before vacation. Uh they the celebration's going to be on July 25th and 26th. Uh the committee has asked, and I see no issue with it, um using uh our parking lots at the high school for for
134parking, since there's a number of events going to be happening at at Dare as part of the celebration. I anticipate the board has no issues with allowing, you know, the committee to to use uh the space for for parking or anything like that. So, um so, we're going to go with that. Um they might expand I know there's some things in the works though. When I left that meeting, it sounds like they were talking about maybe using some interior space for an art show or or various music things or something like that. >> that's still sort of up in the air with where the artwork is going to go. I know that um Nikki Beauregard talked to the art teacher. Yeah. So, I don't I don't think they've nailed anything down. There's a another meeting
135of that group tomorrow. Yeah. But, does the board have any issues with with uh our involvement with with No, no, no. I'll talk about fireworks in a second. >> No concerns from my side. I just want to make sure that that is coordinated around like district painting and floors and all that stuff that we do during the summer. >> Exactly. So, that's why we're we're going through all this and making sure we can get everything kind of squared away and stuff like that. >> We need to do Saturday and Sunday. Yeah. We cleared out the fields, make sure that we're not booking the fields for any random baseball games, AAU games, or anything that weekend and everything. So, we we have everything cleared out. >> [clears throat] >> Um the second part of this is
136fireworks. So, there'll be fireworks. I think their their intent is to use Campbell as where they're setting them off. Not necessarily that's where the viewing of the fireworks would be. That would be over at Terra. Um so, a couple things related to that. Um we have been provided the certification from the firework projector projectionist. I think that's the official um term for it. So, that's a good cuz we have to have that. And it and because it's happening setting off at our Is there a policy on this or there? Well, we have to get This is where it comes into. So, we would have to be included on the insurance for the fireworks, right? So, is the board our responsibility is it's on our site that it'll be safe for them to set it off
137and we got to ensure that. Um So, we'll have the the group will have an insurance policy. I'm sure they can just They do. They send it to me. It's all It's all good. Everything. It's all standard. I'm going to check with fire tomorrow. We have emergency management, make sure that they're all good with it. They're getting a permit through. They might already have the permit already. They're getting a permit from the fire department. Whether it's come through or not, I'm not sure. Yeah, not sure about that. But, we'll talk about that tomorrow when we talk emergency management. I have no issues with them using the site for the fireworks. They're doing everything they're supposed to do from an insurance, whatever. But, I wanted to make sure the board was comfortable cuz we do have
138to be included on the insurance certificate as the venue as the venue of where they're being shot from. So, is the board comfortable with >> Yeah. Okay. Um and then it sounds like a wonderful event. We're trying to get some student groups uh involved in this. Uh we gave some names forward. Hope I don't know where all those communications left. I've been sometimes CC'd, sometimes not. So, Yeah, well, I'll make sure that Nikki includes you on every everything going forward. Um there is one change where we're going to have a um a petting zoo at Darris. Yeah. Right? And then uh the veterans um are going to offer a a much larger program and they want to do it at Campbell. Um I think on the football practice field. I don't know if Bobby's Jack
139has talked to him about >> communicated yet with Bobby on that. Um I'm happy to do so. I don't see any issues with We got to talk about what the animals are cuz there actually is policy connected to what animals are allowed on school property. [laughter] Um Goats and tailors tear up the field. >> Well, that Those are some of the things like who What are we talking about for animals? Where exactly? Like where their their little pens, right? You know, or however they're they're holding them. Um so, we got to iron out those details on how we're going to do that. >> like a hayride that would go out the back entrance of the school, the back exit from the school beyond the football field, and kind of go around the block for for
140the kids to take a little ride around town. Candidly, would this be an opportunity for us to market GMS renovation? >> 100% I think so. Yeah. >> Of course. >> Like I think if we should have some sort of something. booth >> Have a booth at the at the event. >> bullets, the case may be. I think it's a great opportunity to do that. So, yeah. Okay. Let us know date and time and I'll get FIC members to help staff. July 25th and 26th. >> 25th, yeah, 25th and 26th. Starts I think at 12:00 or I think 1:00. I would assume the animals would be gone by the time of the fireworks. Yes. Yeah. But there's going to be lots. There's going to be music throughout the course of of both days. >> Sounds great.
141>> There's going to be tethered balloon rides. >> there's notifications to abutters, right? To give them a heads up. That's out of my scope. >> Um I'll let that committee >> I I will I will take a note. I would I would hope. It is getting plastered all over Facebook and the town pages. Um So, I think people know, but we'll It's a valid point. >> [laughter] >> Why is there a cow in my front yard? >> [laughter] >> I I was going to say especially for the ordinance and the just the sound levels, right? There there may be half there may have to be an official notice from the town that that could be happening to the abutters. >> about notice for abutters for lights on on the field, right? So. >> [laughter] >>
142It doesn't say anything about cows. Right. Right. It's a farm town, I guess. >> [laughter] >> We've had cows escape in town before a few years ago. >> I've left this meeting and I've seen donkeys going downhill crossing. >> [laughter] >> No joke. No joke. I mean my my daughter saw the peacock from McQuesten Farm cross the road. And she was like, "What the" All right, what else? Uh that's all I have. These guys have some other stuff to add in, but for me specifically >> it over to business and operations. What do we have? Um so, we are continuing to address our encumbrances as we go, Um keeping an eye on our spending and working towards end of year. One thing I did want to mention, we do have a transfer that we were
143looking to have basically our propane, we got our last propane bill for the high school and it exceeded our budget mainly due to the default, but we had some money in the GMS fuel line that we knew we weren't going to touch. So, we were looking to transfer the money from that line to the CHS propane line to cover that in this in the amount of $6,900. Okay, I'll make a motion to transfer $6,900 from GMS fuel 624 to CHS propane 623. Second. Motion by myself, second by Mr. Shoemaker. Discussion? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? 4-0. Thank you very much. Um, with regard to solar, I do have another link there, the additional usage information. We were looking for some more information. I just want to make sure that that
144answers the questions that you had, if that gives you the information that you were looking for. I can certainly reach back out if this is not sufficient. You can have a look at it and just let me >> Yeah, I'll have to look at it and get back to you. >> I and I've read through the response and the kind of the timeline. I think my concern, right, is we're getting close to this now being complete, if I'm reading timeline correctly, towards the start of the school year, right? And I think the desire is to have this installed, operational without kiddos in the schools or in this building. So, I I we're we're cutting it close. We are cutting it very close. Um And I reached out again for an update on if we have
145a ship date, if we have a solid ship date, cuz it was supposed to be um mid-May um from uh for Toshiba um and I have not heard back um if there's been an update on that, if we have a solid date. Do we know if Dynamic Grid as a company is doing business with other firms, other municipalities, schools, That's a good question. >> Wait, are [laughter] we are we their customer? I mean, we keep getting money from them. Okay, well, we get money through the the payment thing, right? So, somewhere someone is giving them money and it's not us, so I don't know where that money is coming from. So, maybe they have relationships with other companies. I'm just I'm just really just curious, right, if, you know, other clients of theirs have a
146same have a similar experience. Yeah, maybe we can I know of no other schools, but that doesn't mean there aren't other schools, so we could certainly poke around and see what we can find out. It'd be Yeah, it'd be just be interesting to understand, right, if there are other grids and other types of systems similar that were of similar design that are kind of going through this through the same thing. Um I know that K has mentioned that, you know, it seems like she probably doesn't work with schools much, but specifically she was saying that, you know, um this project was a little bit different, designing it differently because of the more of the concerns that we would have in a school location than they would at other business locations. So, I don't know. I
147don't know what business is, so I can certainly look more into that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Sure. Um all right. And then we had, going back to the agenda, um student activity accounts. Yes, yes. So, on this one, right, I was having some conversation with um the business administrator on the student activity accounts, right? And I feel like we knew these student activity accounts are out there, but candidly, I didn't really know what are in these accounts, the number of accounts that are out there. So, um there was a report circulated uh on the number of accounts, and what we've learned is that there's a large number of accounts out there that are at the discretion of each of the buildings, um and there's about $400,000 collectively across all the accounts that are out
148there. I think that there's uh certainly a lot of opportunity for some at least a good portion of these accounts uh to tighten our controls cuz some of these accounts have been out there, I think, for quite some time, right? And to just determine what are the next steps for the funds that are sitting in these accounts. >> Did you say $400,000? >> Yeah. >> [snorts] >> Yeah, that's pretty typical for like >> Really? Yeah, so like the Bow one, when we're principal there, just the high school one, we carried about $300,000, you know, in our student activities. Now, that ebbs and flows over the course of the year, right? Like so, depending on each school there's like rules, and then there's other things, right? High school's usually the biggest cuz you have the biggest
149accounts there. For example, the class of 2027, the junior class, their account should be, I'm doing this from memory, should, if we're doing it right, have a pretty big number in it cuz they're they're selling prom tickets, so it should have a lot of money in that. But once they have the prom and pay that bill, that money's going to go back out of it, you know? So, there's a lot of churning over. The parking lot stuff is pretty high right now in student activities, and we'll pay that out in the summer when the paving and re-stripping re-striping of the the parking renumbering of the parking lots happen, right? So, those accounts will ebb and flow over the course of a of a year. So, the student activity account pays for the maintenance on the
150parking lot? The well, in this example, we have a parking fund, right? Cuz part of the parking passes. And for like the re- like painting, cuz we repaint them every year, that money goes right back to the parking lot. So, it like is a self kind of revolving door there. So, we don't budget for the repainting or the resealing of the parking lot. That's what the parking passes >> uh like $50,000 or something in that particular account. Does that cover the sealing of that as well? >> Yes. And there was a little extra in that cuz we didn't do it last year. >> Right. Okay. So, in terms of next steps for like identifying the the accounts that have been out there for some time and actioning them, what what are those next steps? So,
151right now actually at the high school, which is really the bulk of a lot of the accounts. Um I know that they're working um both Jen and um Amanda in the front office have been working to try to, you know, consolidate some of those. Um so, we'll definitely continue to work through that and I can work with the other schools as well to make sure that that's happening. Um and then as far as I think there was like at least one that was in there that was an old um scholarship fund um which we shouldn't have in there that um so, we should we'll talk to the auditors about how they want to handle that. Okay. All right. Excellent. Well, I I'd like to continue to monitor this in progress, right? Just so we have
152oversight of all that all those accounts and I think we should have that as a regular just monitor. Can we include this just in the Excel reports that you link to the Uh sure. Is there some way to do that? What's the best way to do that? I You don't If I want to warn you, you do not want to get lost in the inertia of student activity [laughter] accounts, cuz sometimes it's >> to be able to monitor progress. That's that's >> That the number of accounts is shrinking. Yeah, I think that's a good idea to do. Just to use us specifically as an example, as we were leaving Bow, one of our final projects was to audit the student activity accounts and we condensed the number. We found accounts that no longer were not
153serving a purpose. We said anything I was there 7 years, so anything that wasn't touched in 7 years, the money got removed and put into a general account, right? And then used for general purposes in the school. We just use that seven as a marker because I could say with confidence, yeah, we're not using that account anymore firsthand. So we've asked the high school, they did it on their own actually generally made us start it on their own cuz when we asked them about they're like, "Oh yeah, we already started that." So they're doing that work right now. So I think as the summer unfolds and they're making those decisions, we can definitely provide an update on where we are in number of accounts and whatever. Um I just want want to warn you you
154don't some of these like ins and outs are like $5 at a time. You don't want to get into lost in it in like seeing a hundred transactions of $5 in and out. I don't want that. [laughter] I don't want that, but I want it at the high level. So I think totals of it you can see the ebb and flow and There's 30 accounts and now there's 22 accounts in there. >> Yeah, and this is the total of it. >> What's the number? What's the total? >> hundreds hundreds of accounts, right? Yeah, we're talking quite a bit. So how many accounts do we really Well, anything that So that's a good question. Like anything you need to create a an account for like money, right? Like that's separate from our budgetary money cuz typically
155the money that is raised for student activities are done through stuff like parking passes, which is like an expense the kids that's going to do it. Cuz the key with student activity accounts is they have to be spent on kids in some capacity, right? Like the kids have to benefit from whatever the expense is. Or a lot like the vast majority of the funds there is something that has been fundraised at some point, right? Through some sort of or is generated through some sort of revenue that's not from a budgetary standpoint from a taxation standpoint, right? So like a lot of clubs and activities will have a student activity account, right? Like youth and government's going to have their own. The class each class is going to have their own, right? The National Art Honor
156Society is going to have their own. So you can quickly add up these like accounts and they're going to have, you know, a couple hundred dollars, a thousand dollars in it like kind of go. One of the things we saw in both that needed a lot of cleanup is they did the senior projects and like sometimes you need a senior projects and account for an individual senior project cuz they need to house the money. It looks like Campbell's gotten away from that, which is a good practice. So, I'm not saying to bring that back, but like if someone's like we were here with the Eagle Scout project that that if that was going to be a senior project like and where they were going to fundraise that through us, we need to hold there needs
157to be a place to hold the money, right? So, you would create a student account for that project for that moment. Now, if you're staying on top of your student activity accounts, once it's used up, you close the account and then delete it, right? Like because kid graduated, you're not going to access that account anymore. Close it, move on, right? So, we need to do a a good job of of doing that across the board and everything. So, I think those top level views, you know, we can do number accounts. Maybe once a year just update you on the list of them, right? You know, what's come and go. You can see the ebbs and flows of the year, how the student activity account moves, you know? Um and like so you have that comfort
158and that understanding of everything kind of going on with it. So. There will always be their accounts though with the zero balances in there cuz you can't actually delete or archive them in the e-finance account. So, those will still >> Oh, yeah, cuz they're in e-finance where we use QuickBooks so we could actually delete them. >> when I generate the list, I can do the active accounts. Correct. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Yeah, we use a different accounting system in both. So, we could literally delete it. So. All right. Appreciate that update. Alum Miss parking lot. Uh so, we are in a good spot. They have completed the survey of the parking lot and they're working on the [cough] actual design that we can hand to Continental for the estimate that we need. So, we're just
159waiting on that, which I think we be receiving pretty Yeah, seems like they're ahead of schedule. >> Yes. Cuz they were here doing the surveying. >> Which was wonderful. Two weeks ago. You know, then that was ahead of that schedule. So hopefully we continue to be in in good They understand our urgency with getting that and other decisions that domino off of off of that. So And the town is going to do Mackel Wayne? They are. So I don't know if Kevin has reached out to you as far as funding. >> we have. I don't know if he's talking to Tom recently. >> yeah, well I just talked to him when we had the the sinkholes discussion, but yeah. So I also had a citizen in town talk to me about this project and that
160we have that right-of-way that goes out through the over 55. Right. Um long-term resident who remembers everything. Says at some point that was supposed to be paved all the way through and out the other end. Um does that ring a bell to you? It does. At some point that egress was supposed to be connected into that 55 as a secondary >> Is that like if I'm going into the the pickup line, like you know, I just go straight that one? >> Um it's through the woods. I don't know if it's straight in line with you. >> It's kind of Yeah, it's kind of diagonal. By the leach field. It'd be across the leach field which which we couldn't do. Okay. But you might be able to take Mackel Wayne and go straight through Yeah. and
161get to that but it My understanding that was supposed to be paved and just have the gate. Yeah, emotions, but I know. Yeah. They want it paved. We want it paved. >> It was supposed to be paved years ago. Do we want it paved if we're Well, I mean as a secondary egress to that building I Be nice. Yeah. It would be nice It would be good to have then you can get a bus out that way. >> Right. An emergency or an ambulance in an emergency. >> Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. There's going to be a flood of people that come in here who live on that road if they hear you say that there's a bus going to be a bus going through there. Yeah. Yeah. I think it'd be more of
162the the the >> Emergency vehicle. Like if you were doing But that's what it was I don't think it's a bus. That's what it was intended for. Yeah. Okay. All right. End of year expenditures, um we are chipping away at getting quotes for these items. Um but one thing that we really I mean, at some point we should probably because we're starting getting the quotes, um it it might be a good idea for us to go through and if there's anything um that we know off the bat is unlikely that we'd be looking into. I just I'm just thinking as far as um making sure that we're Yeah, we don't want to waste anyone's time. >> right, exactly. Yeah, we want to refine this for sure. Yeah, so maybe that's something we can do at
163the next meeting is go through this list. For example, you know, a number of us are helping getting the quotes right now. So it was me today who was talking with the flooring people cuz we have in our in our CIP stuff some stuff related to flooring. Um if that's something that we have zero interest in, I don't want to drag people along and bring multiple people out here to get get quotes and >> Look, I've been in fairness, a lot of this is going to be dependent upon price of LMS. Yeah. That is true. So I that's why I think doing that prioritizing like there are some things I would advocate for like this is the next thing after the parking lot like if it is. And again, using the flooring people cuz I
164happen to be talking to them today when they came in today to >> [cough] >> do some quoting and measuring and stuff like that. They work with schools and they're like, we understand where you're at. Um and like let us know where you are from a priority standpoint and like where we are. So we can start to like if it's something you are going to move on, we can start to at least setting up availability for people [clears throat] to do the work cuz we know in schools there's a window of 2 months right essentially for some of this stuff. And but if it's not something and it's more exploratory, we know that too. We're not going to invest as much energy in in getting stuff ready on our end and stuff like that. So
165um The quote stuff has been interesting. I've been taking myself a little more active approach. It's kind of having talking to all these people about with things that they do. You learn a lot, like And I think it's TBD. To be Right. I think, you know, with the parking lot, you know, top of mind for me anyways is the $200,000 that we budget to return to taxpayers, and obviously all the warrant articles. Correct. Right? So, those are kind of the main things that I think about before any of this. Yes. I think it's Julie's I don't want to steal her thunder, but I'm going to. Um, she's [laughter] been working on like getting that estimate of that number. We're feeling pretty good that the if the parking lot came in at something like a half
166million dollars and uh the warrant articles of the warrant articles that we have that we're in position to do both of those things, right? You know, um now, beyond that, that's why I think we need to prioritize this list, right? But um we should be in good shape. We knew the parking lot was coming, you know, about a month ago now, so that allowed us to slow our slow our slow down on a couple things and um and uh but that's why I think it's critical getting to that next grouping here. So, like beyond the parking lot, beyond the warrant articles, what is our priorities and stuff? We have some opinions, obviously. We talked about it at FIC last meeting? Was that just last meeting? Yeah. Yeah. So, um formalizing that with the board a
167little bit more. Well, we we're still, you know, a month and a half out, two months out. >> was the FIC's opinion? They gave us a list I I don't I got to go find it. Yeah. I was remote that meeting, so I was >> Yeah. So, essentially, we started looking through this list and we had a couple of requests. One is if it contained on it or it was for the end of year, if it contained on the CIP, note it, and then if it is a part of the standard maintenance that we got approved for the next operational budget, we want that noted as well to make sure, like again, we're doing our due diligence, we're not double dipping. And then of the remaining items, people just started listing like their top two
168or three in terms of priorities. So then we took that list and then started sending it back to say, "All right, out of this giant list, right?" So we probably had 10 or 15 in there. Go start prioritizing one through N. Um the we kind of looked at safety, like life, health, and safety as part of it. And then there was the CHS auditorium um stuff because there was said that we were looking at that for several years in a row to do and got put off along with a few other things. I don't remember all of it off the top of my head. Um Yeah, I didn't mean to put you on the spot with that. No, no, no. No, don't worry about it. Yeah, it was a long time ago and there's been
169a lot of stuff in there. Um Oh, and the LMS soccer field. People really kind of want to try to dive into and figure out can that be done and used back again for LMS soccer versus transporting the sawmill. Yep. It's on the Leech Field. Yeah. It was once a Leech Field and a soccer field at the same time. Can we get it back to that condition? Yep. Okay. More than two. I think that you know, I think I'm going to save that conversation for next time. Yeah. If that's okay. Yeah, no. I It's just what people were throwing out there, right? It's what, 14 grand a year to for transportation? Yeah, well, I'm saving that conversation actually for probably not the reason that people think. Oh, okay. I want to talk about something else.
170>> Go for it. Later. Okay. That will help with that conversation. So. Understood. Yeah. All right. Well, I'll ask the board to spend some time over the next couple of weeks to review thoroughly the end of year expenditures and let's be prepared [clears throat] to come with some opinions um on what we can prioritize, deprioritize from the spreadsheet. All right, so I I do have something that Ray shared with me. I don't know if he shared it out with everybody else. There is like a state state educational like purchase power thing through the state that he has access to and he shared the link with me. So, there could be like he's seeing quotes from Zoll and Phillips for AEDs for 1,500 bucks a piece, which is when I need to like quote them for
171my company, it is like 10x that to to do it. So, for stuff that is physical goods, mats, like we we should make sure that we go through that because we probably have the ability to go through that. Yeah, I think there's a larger discussion. >> Yeah. Tonight's not the night to have it, but I think there's also a larger in an in an in an attempt with transparency, I'm going to try to thread the needle here, right? >> yeah. Like I think a good larger discussion on like sometimes to get access to that stuff, we have to react quickly, right? Like >> Yeah. sometimes we slow down in an effort to be transparent and to get all these quotes and to follow our policies and to do everything that we do, that we sit
172on things for a long time, right? Because we're trying to really like talk these things through and like show what it is. So, like what is the board's comfort with that? I know this district is um very conscious of the financials and making sure things are done correctly, right? And we really appreciate that, especially as being newer people in these roles. But, as we get more comfortable and we show that, you know, we're being responsible with with our finances and we want to pivot and take advantage of these things, but it means that we just have to make decisions sometimes like between board meetings and different things like what's the board's comfort level with that? Because these are the pros and cons of being part of those groups. And we saw it with some of
173the tech stuff right now. We talked about that at a previous board meeting. We had to react quickly to nail down prices because the prices are going so quickly, right? And the board was was gracious enough at the last meeting to allow us to make to give us the power to make those decisions. But like again, this is like in an effort to be transparent. We don't want anyone to think we're hiding, and we're just spending money frivolously, which is why we go through the effort of talking in great detail about you know, solar and parking lots and all this other stuff. But what's the right balance of of it and so? >> completely understood, right? There there's a balance and there's a line to do that. >> And that's not a bad conversation. We're
174very supportive, but I and and but we also are conscious of like we don't want to think people think we're up to stuff like Yeah. the same thing. >> I move on. I was just putting it out there. He showed me I plugged in random things just as a search term, and I was like, "Okay, that can help." Yeah, and like give you an example like this did not happen today, but I could picture happen like I talked to the flooring people in one of those spaces we were looking at in the music room. Like if they did not say this to me, everybody. But like I could see them being like, "Hey, if we can get this done in the next month, we have everything on hands. We can give you a better price,
175right? Like are people comfortable with us just making those decisions and doing it, right? It wasn't in our budget. It was something we were teeing up for an end of the year thing, but if we act now, we can actually just get this done and move on with it." And like I don't know. That's a larger discussion at a different time. So. Anything else? I think to Andrew's point, the parking lot price is going to be the be the Is the huge driver, right? Yeah, it's going to be the huge driver. That's the big unknown right now. Yeah. All right, and hopefully we're staying in close contact with Continental on that so they can also give us a quick turnaround on that. They were here like [clears throat] we talked about previous meetings. They were
176here originally when we were looking at what the problem was. They're the ones who suggested going out to do it. So I think they know what probably not all the details, but like have a general idea of what's going to come back to them. So hopefully they can move quickly with it. So Definitely like to thank Alan Major though for the for expediting their work for us because that was absolutely incredibly helpful in getting us closer to solving this. Thank you very much. All right, curriculum. All right. It's good to be back. I feel like it's been a minute. >> [laughter] >> It's been a minute. It's been kind of busy. Um so I know um Superintendent O'Connell talked a little bit about the professional learning. Um we are transferring our platform from Frontline to
177Vector. Um it's going to be so much more efficient. Very very excited about it cuz our current process is not efficient. It's very time-consuming on everybody's part. Um teachers, let's say they went to staff meeting. They and they want to get professional development hours for that. They have to put it in to Frontline and then they have to get prior approval from the building admin. Then they have to get prior approval from me to then go back in to then mark the activity complete to then get final approval from me for a staff meeting. And I'm like, "Oh my." >> For approvals? Yes, that it was it's I went through the whole thing last year. And like, this is not efficient for anyone. And then uploading their proof of attendance is another cumbersome. It's just
178it's been a very cumbersome [snorts] process and I've tried working with Frontline to try to get meetings to try to get an easier process and was met with, "Oh, well, if you want that level, then you're going to have to pay for additional like professional development for us to meet with you." I was like, "We pay for your product." It is it just wasn't working out. So, um I spent some time with the professional learning coordinators at each of the buildings um looking at different products cuz we have Vector for our compliance training. And we also have um PowerSchool, which is our student information system. Both offer professional learning tracking pieces. [clears throat] So, I was thinking to myself already, why do we have Frontline anyway? Like, if we have we're using two products, two
179platforms that offer it, what was the purpose of going to a different one just for that? So, we went through and we met with Vector. We got a demo from them and we met with PowerSchool, got pricing for both. Um Vector's pri- Vector's platform, first and foremost, is incredible in terms of use and efficiency and making it so that um for staff meetings, the professional learning coordinators at the building could set up a code for teachers to enter and it's automatically loaded into their um into their dashboard and there's no more entering. All they have to do is go in and choose what endorsement they want it to go to. Boom, done. Super simple. Um they will completely customize our workflows and our platform and that's not any extra cost, which is really nice. Um
180then I met with PowerSchool. Um they are a little less robust and less knowledgeable, which was really surprising about the requirements for professional learning in um how teachers have to earn their CEUs and all that kind of stuff. So, that was surprising and their um their pricing was astronomical. So, we decided as a group we're saving money, so it's almost a thousand dollars less than what Frontline what I budgeted for in Frontline for this next um fiscal year. So, that's nice. Um and it will automatically load their compliance training. So, right now Holly is doing like manual loading of all the compliance training and it's all going to talk together now and it's a single sign-on and it'll tell teachers like you have this many days to complete this training. Oh, don't forget. Do your
181training. So, it's got a lot of really good features to it um and it's just going to improve our system. Like so I'm so excited about it cuz and then we can bulk as administrators, we can bulk approve people like things, too. We don't have to Like right now, just to give you an example cuz I have to prior approve and final approve everyone for everything. I'll have 400 approvals to do that I have to sit there and click into each individual one to give them an approval. I'm like, holy time-wasting. Like, so just looking at trying to improve um efficiencies in systems and making things um better for everyone. So, um we are going with Vector and there I know Brian kind of mentioned that this as well and something that we want to
182look into cuz we're looking at our evaluation system right now and um they do offer an evaluation system um piece that you can add cuz they have a whole package that you can do with it. Um I did price that out and I did have a meeting and a demo with them with our administrators um just so that we can kind of look to see if that would even be something that we would be interested in pursuing and it definitely is. It's it seems like a really good system and again they customize things um to make it fit our system. We sent them what we currently use and they said they could digitize it for us to again help approve uh or improve our efficiencies in systems. So, um that was a little bit more
183costly. We did not budget for that for this coming year. So, and what in conversations with administrators since we're looking at doing some revisions to the system, it doesn't make sense to come and ask to see if we can add that into this year when we're not ready to do that piece of it yet. So, when we have gone through our evaluation process and talked with and kind of on board we're in the middle of a onboarding process with Vector right now. Once we have all of that and we're comfortable in there, and then we can look more at their evaluation and what would that actually look like? Can you mock it up for us and all of that kind of stuff? Then we might have more conversations in potentially adding it as part of
184the budget cycle. So, that's where we're at with that and we're excited about it. Any questions on >> When do you go online? Uh before next year. So, we're right in the middle of getting everything They just sent me some of the onboarding information at the beginning of this week. So, I've sent it to IT and we're working on the single sign-on stuff and checking the integration of all of like what we need in terms of their the specs and all of that kind of stuff. So, Do we have any contract break fees break fees with Frontline? We are ending We I have a year-to-year and I was very specific with Front with Vector as well cuz they wanted us to sign a multi-year and I said as a school district we are kind we
185are a year-to-year budget. We're at the liberty of our taxpayers. So, we can only commit to yearly. So, with Frontline we are contract ends at the end of the year. So, >> You don't have to give them any notification that we're not going to renew it at all. Cuz we don't sign a multi-year. We're just like, Okay, thank you. I'm done. All right. Sounds good. >> So, I guess when we do the year-to-year, call it renewal with Vector, does that include any updates or upgrades that they've made to their platforms and systems throughout that year? Does that come with that new fee? Or is that going to be an additional Well, there's always like for a Frontline for example, they typically assess for each year, you were you're looking at a 3 to 7% increase.
186Yeah. >> in price and I always budget for that cuz that will then come with whatever they have updated. Yeah, so I so I I'm talking about just their platform and their system itself. >> Right, so whether it's maintenance or I've seen it of where you're paying for the maintenance to use their platform and their system and then oh, you guys want to upgrade to the latest greatest that we've got? Here's a $30,000 fee to go get the latest greatest to transfer all your stuff over. Or is it going to be when we renew, hey no, this is a brand new contract, I need the next level of system. Yeah, if in professional learning systems, I've never seen them assess that much of a the typical it's it's they will include and this was also
187Frontline too. Like they every time you sign on with them again, they give you their latest >> Okay. updates and things. I've never run into oh, surprise, by the way, you know, they are like they say like oh, you'll get a better discount if you go multi-year and >> I've done multi-year contracts. Yeah, so so I mean if there is value in doing so, I mean, I think we'd be interested in understanding what that is. Yeah, and I definitely since because this is our first year going with them in this scale Yeah. I wanted to I want to see how it works, right? Like I want to see like cuz they're sales people, right? And they show you the shiny thing and you're like, "Ooh, this shiny thing looks really awesome." You want to see
188the good, bad, and ugly of what happens behind the scenes why I don't have service right there. Right. Exactly. I want to see like they're saying like all this is customizable and all this stuff and we've had good experiences and good relationships with them for the professional the compliance software and all that kind of stuff. So, it's been great. So, now I want to see what this piece looks like and then if like we start onboarding and they customize our platform and cuz I want to have all of this stuff done um by the summer so that cuz before the um teachers leave, I want to train our professional learning coordinators on how to use it because I want them to train others and I'm going to be I want to make the guidebook over
189the summer to help cuz I had to make I made a guidebook for Frontline even though we've had it here for several years, people still don't know how to navigate it um because it's so challenging to use. So, I but I still want to do a guidebook for um the new platform, but I want it to be trained so then I can play in it over the summer and really see how it goes. So, then I have a really a better idea in terms of do we want to look at their evaluation system and if we want to look at their evaluation system is going to be as good, what could the cost benefit be to looking at a multi-year because I want to have that information going into the budget cycle. Okay. Any other
190updates? Um so, I did finish the Did you get the graphic that I sent you? It's pretty cool. I sent you a really [laughter] So, yesterday was >> You sent it yesterday? No, I sent it to you tonight. Oh, okay. Um so, I just finished it before we came here. Um so, um yesterday was the culmination of all of the vertical alignment meetings for the year. We um I did I met with science yesterday and um another really successful meeting. Um it's a quite the undertaking, but everybody that comes in comes in, digs in, and I always laugh because I tell them at the beginning of the day, like, have you guys ever seen Overboard with Goldie Hawn? When she does all the yard work and then she's sitting in the chair going, "Buh buh
191buh buh." That's kind of what it's like at the end of the day. >> What movie? Overboard with Goldie Hawn? And she works on the boat. It's so good. >> Oh, man. It's so good. >> great movie. It's so Thank you, Dad. It's [laughter] so good. But, it she does so much work that she's just sitting there kind of like brain dead. Um so, it's a good analogy for what happens at the end of the day because it's so much work. Um so, this is just a um graphic I know I showed you one of the road maps for one of the meetings that we went over, but this just kind of synopsizes um the work done at all of the meetings that were held this year. Um basically, everybody is at a point where
192they're in the middle of They're in their standards breakdowns. Um ELA and math are pretty far ahead. They're almost done with that. Um and then we um are going to be going through like social studies and science both have really robust um frameworks. So, for social studies, their standards are C3 frameworks. And for social for science, it's NGSS. So, we really went and made sure that there's a deep understanding of what those frameworks are and then each of the dimensions within them and then what those standards really mean. So, we're really breaking those down and we're also doing cross-content standard um mapping so that they can see where like like Kate was saying, like to do anything, you have to be able to read and write. And you have to read and write in every
193subject. So, where are those cross-cutting concepts in each of these subjects? So, we've talked about all of that. And after we do the prior or we do finish the standards breakdown. So, Brian, if you go down a little bit, you can see what's [clears throat] coming next is finishing the standards, then going to priority standards, um re-looking at and developing our competencies, doing common assessments rubrics, designing UBDs to get a nice K-12 district-wide through line, which is going to be really exciting. And then um I send feedback surveys out to everybody that participates to see how they felt about the day. And overall, 94% of the responses um said that the day met or exceeded their expectations and that they really want more days like this because they're so productive and great. So, um I
194was I'm always very excited when the last one happens cuz it's like Okay. Um but it's such great work and I'm really appreciative of all the teachers that come in and do the work. I'm appreciative of the superintendent support cuz it and the building admin support and you know, everybody's all hands on deck on these days because there's has to be substitutes and there has to be, you know, lots of coordination. So, um but it's well worth it and there's already like the fruits of the labor are already starting to shine through, which is really great. That's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen someone put together. Why, thank you. It was with the help It was with the help of Jim and I. Yep, there you go. I was going to say.
195>> [laughter] >> I do not >> Seeing those all over the place now. But you have to know how to prompt it to the nth degree to get it to Yeah. spit something like that out. So, um yes, but I think that doing these things really helps get that nice visual, right? Like I did the road maps for every single content area so that they could see where they started, where they are and where they're going. And then I was like, you know, right before we came here I said, "You know what? I really want something that shows what's been done in everything all together." So, here we are. Awesome. Okay. Great update. Thank you very much. >> Yeah. All right, we have the public minutes from April 15th. Make a motion to approve them.
196We have a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. I'll second. Go ahead. I'll second. Yeah, we have a second by Mr. Plansky. Additional discussion on those minutes? Can we No, I they can be approved. >> Yeah, yes, three of us can approve you. You understand? Yeah. Okay. Um All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed? Abstains? I. That carries 3-0-1. Thank you for that. Uh and we have new business. Uh these policies, were they recently added? >> Yes. I have not looked at any of these, so. Yeah, they're the same ones on that longer list we looked at we looked at a long, long time ago that were included a long, long time ago. If you want to hold off, that's fine. It's my mistake. I thought I had sent this to Renee to add
197to the agenda. Until I looked this morning and saw they were not on the agenda. Yeah, I just looked at them real quick. They go back to like 2020 and 2022. I Can we >> What's that? add these to our next meeting? >> Yeah, that's fine. I haven't scanned any of these, so. Yeah, that's perfectly fine. >> Also, Andrew is very partial to keeping me on his timeline. That's on here. It's yep. I just want to be able to look at them, so. No, I [laughter] understand. I thought I had sent it to Renee and But, you know, the time is on THE CLOCK, [clears throat] SO. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> UH DO WE HAVE OLD BUSINESS? YES, SO enrollment um enrollment itself is pretty stagnant, which is good. We should be at this
198time of the year. We shouldn't have a lot of comings and goings in May. Uh positive kindergarten, we are up to 64 now. We are slowly making our way up on those numbers. >> so that's a solid four teachers. A solid four teachers. 60 16 kids per kindergarten, which is pretty good. Um if it's a completely equal split. Um we have kindergarten or this is a pitch public pitch for anyone still watching. Kindergarten orientation next Friday. Hopefully we can get a couple other people who maybe haven't actually registered their children. That is very important. If you have a kid going to kindergarten next year, please attend one of our two kindergarten orientation sections next Friday. Um they're 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Reach out to the to GMS if you have questions. They're happy to
199help you with all that. It's very important that we get kids off on the right right foot here at GMS, so. Especially if you are new to our district and haven't had a kid come through the system yet, so. 64, that's good. We had we've had a people reaching out still, so hopefully that number kind of continues to go up. I don't think we'll need five teachers, but unless there's something crazy crazy happens, but I feel good now. We have good classes for four teachers. So >> Great. Okay. Um athletic training. Uh I want to provide an update. We talked about this, I believe, last meeting. And I just want to walk through some different things. So, I I've plan A is So, Jesse, who's our current trainer, is going to leave at the end
200of the year. He got a different job out of state. Um We love Jesse. It's the right thing for his life. Good. So, Safe Sport, who we contract through, they're going to um obviously try to find us a new trainer for that. As we talked about before, [clears throat] they're struggling to find people for They have open other schools where they're not able to provide trainers right now. So, we are worried about that. But our first option continues to be continue our contract with them. Uh Tony's been reaching out to other um athletic training um groups that do this type of contractual work. Um there's pros and cons to that. For example, one company he spoke to uh yesterday was this company called Premier. They can help us with game coverages, but it's pretty costly,
201right? Like they're not able to provide us with um a full-time person, but could uh or they can provide us with a full-time cost person. It's going to be six figures. So, we're like, "Oh, let's let's pump the brakes on that." Um but what can we talk about with game coverage and can we do some stuff on an hourly basis? So, there's an avenue there where we can cover our essential events with with uh training services there. Um if we get into that point. Um we're going to talk about this at emergency management tomorrow. Um but one of the things we want to talk about is specifically at football games, making sure we have coverage, and that might result in EMT coverage for those games. Um it's a safety thing. We want to talk about
202how that could look and what would be the costs associated with it if we were to have to go to that and the necessity to to cover football games cuz of the um physicality of it and and other things like that. So, that's an option we're working on working within the parameters of what we've had budgeted for athletic training. I think we are definitely going to come forward with a position proposal related to athletic training next year because we're it's not just us a lot of schools who do contracted services are are struggling to find not because of the contract the relationship with contracted services, they're not finding people. Um kids are leaving college with this type of degree are either going the athletic thing they're making much more money doing like minor leagues or
203something like that. Or um you know, they're going to other businesses other industries maybe your guys's industries as well are now picking up athletic trainers or people with this certification to provide services for that. For example, warehouses are bringing in their own people to deal with this like this type of work and this type of support for their staff. So, and they can pay a lot more than a school can, right? >> Corporate Yeah, corporate world. >> Correct. Something like that. So, we're just not seeing people towards um towards schools in this type of capacity. So, this can continue be an issue. The last thing we're also as like an emergency and we can talk about the again, we don't make any decisions tonight. It's just updating the board in general is uh do we
204look to utilize part-time nursing as a cover-all to help if in event of safety emergencies. They wouldn't be able to provide us athletic training services. But, if we had an event and we wanted to hire a nurse part-time, that that role would be like, "Hey, if there's an emergency, they help us facilitate the emergency." For example, we had um I won't go into too much details, but even in-house we had a an athlete during the winter season um essentially suffer a heart issue, right? I think some of you know that and like by having a nurse present for that event, they would at least be able to like, "Okay, this is the the people you need to reach out to, right?" Like they're not necessarily Like during a school day, right? Like when you have
205a kid have a medical incident, the school nurse is there to ensure there's care until the emergency personnel can be present on scene. So, is that an option for us to look at some additional uh coverage utilizing nurses to cover certain aspects of it? Um we have some flexibility. It's not like every day, every practice has to be covered by someone medically, right? There are significant events, football games for example, where you want coverage from a liability standpoint. But, it's not like we have to have a trainer for every It's great we have that now, but like we're not bound to do that from a legal standpoint or anything. So, we're continuing to look at these options um as we get closer to next fall, we'll probably come We'll Again, best case scenario, we just
206have one because the contractual services were able to provide that person to us. But, as we approach next fall sports season, we'll have a proposal for if we are not down that avenue, how we're going to make that that coverage within within our budget and stuff like that. So, just general state of athletic training. This is the position that we went to warn [clears throat] it Yes. a couple years ago at this point. Yep. We're going to revisit it next year. We talked about that again in the budget process, but This coming budget or the following budget? What's that? For We're going to introduce it again this next one, right? Like FY28, and we can talk about whether it's the right time to do that or not, but um this is I won't say it's
207an issue, but it is something we need to have plans for if we're not going to have the same service or not have access to the same service that we've had before, right? And maybe that answer is like, "Look, not every school has athletic training services at the same capacity that we do right now, right?" I would advocate having what we have right now. I think it's very helpful and safe safe for our students, right? The reality is not we don't Not every high school provides that type of type of level of support, right? So, is that something we want to continue or not? Do we value that as a community and school and stuff? So, and if we do, which again I I think is a good thing, we got to get up to
208speed with how that's being handled like across different schools and stuff like that and with the times. And that's not it's going to be more expensive than the current model, I guess is the short of it. Sure. Okay. Um Give me Yeah, can someone just filibuster for a second? I got to pull up the specific questions I have to ask you about this. >> [laughter] >> Why don't we close out community input, right? So it's now 8:00, just past 8:00. This is our second round of community input. I don't see anybody in our audience tonight, so unless somebody's running at the door. Nope. >> Killing some time. Still killing some time. Yep, ready? We're going to close our second community input. All right. >> All right, I need you guys to answer this. This is
209directly from the So preface this before we jump into it. We talked a couple meetings ago about remaining on the building aid list, right? We did our application by the due date, we sent it in, they're happy with us for that, wonderful. But we need in our minutes, sergeant, very specific yes or no answers to four very specific questions that has to be documented in our minutes. So I'm going to ask you those as a board, can you say um yes and yes or no. Individually or as a >> No, as a board. Right, like that we've had this discussion, the board's like we understand. I guess more you understand, right? First one, the board desires that the project remain on the prioritized list. >> Yes. Yes. Good. One for one. The board is as
210it's described in the building aid application. We have not changed the description of the project. This project for just the listening audience who maybe don't know, to stay on the priority list, it has to be original project that was there, which is the new building project from 2024, right? We're remaining on the list in the event to give some context. Why we remain on the list, we're not proposing that project again, but we're reserving our spot on the list in case rules change around building aid and we can then we want to be flexible and and be able to access it if we can. So, are you comfortable with the project as it was described in the building aid application? Are you still comfortable with that being the project on the list? You don't really
211have a choice. >> Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you for not giving me a choice. Right. >> [laughter] >> The total estimated project cost listed on our application is the same cost that we've been using the whole time. So, we used the original cost, which was 44 million, when we did the application last year, we put a 3% increase in because of, you know, inflation and everything else. We took that number and we did an additional 3% um inflation, which means that the cost for that project would now approximately be $48,017. Do you understand and are comfortable with that number is the number for that project? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you. >> Not wicked comfortable, but >> But, in terms of that project, remember, that's not the project we're proposing next March, everyone. We're not
212putting a $48 million project on the warrant next year. All right. Um if this project is selecting for building aid, um and the project is put forward for vo- voter consideration, we will include that it's subject it is re- subject to receiving the actual building aid. So, that means in your warrant, as you put this on originally, you have to include that the numbers and figures how it relates to the building aid stuff. Yep. Good. Those were the four specific questions. Thank you for answering that. We have that in our minutes now, so we can send it along with our application. So, thank you. All right. Anything else on GMS? >> Yes. Um we met with our advisory committee uh last week. Um and the advisory committee came to the conclusion um, that it that
213there's not a lot of value in having an additional community forum at this time. We don't have a lot of additional information. We didn't have lot a lot of attendance at the last one. Um, so there's not a lot of added value for us to have an additional one at this time. That doesn't mean we won't continue to update the the website. We need to do an update with that. We've been in contact with with Emily, the the Herriman PR person to do that. Uh, we got the video squared away from the last forum. We'll put that out on our our social media and everything from there. Um, but it's the board comfortable with us canceling that that community. Yeah. Great. So, that was that was May 18th, but we'll cancel it now. We'll have
214them in the fall and we'll revisit it then when we have more relevant I think that's the right timing as we talked about. Right. Um, and then that's it for GMS other than the advisory committee is continuing to meet. Um, good good dialogue last week that was that we met. >> Did you get any further update on anticipated like uh, preliminary work that would need to be completed and timelines on that? We um, oh, so we do actually we have to talk about that the vernal pool uh, studies. >> Yeah, so a couple studies that we might need to do more sooner than later. One is a vernal pool study cuz it's vernal pool season. I'm not sure what a vernal pool is, but >> All I All I gathered from that conversation was that
215it that season ends and then there's no more vernal pools. What we do need to ask is that Herriman has reached out to us and said that between that study and there's also a wetland um, delineation study that needs to happen also in this like peak season. Like it has to be done at basically now like the season is closing. Um, so they have um, someone that they've been speaking with just to kind of get rough estimates of what it would look like um, and they can um, you know, ask for a proposal, but they wanted to make sure before they did that that they were going to be you know, in compliance with our process for um, for for current for procurement. Sorry. Um, so we do have um, let me pull that up
216though. I'm going to [clears throat] list what we have. So the wetland delineation study, um, is estimated between 10 to 15,000 dollars. And the vernal pool study is 4 to 8,000 dollars, their estimate. Um, so what we can do is ask them if they, you know, if we would like to just go with the person who is able to do this study right away, like they are available because of the, um, time frame that we're looking at. Um, they could, you know, ask to see if they could get three quotes, you know, but again, that's going to take more time and get us further away from the season. >> is necessary and essential to the project? They, yes, because essentially what it tells them is where they can build. Like if they come up with
217a design plan and then do this after the fact, they may have to redesign part of the plan and then cost a lot more money for it. >> So was this done the last year, miss? It was not done for the project in 2024. We actually had a letter from someone that someone had come in, um, basically to do an assessment, but in that letter their last recommendation is we continue to recommend that you do these studies, these particular studies, during, um, peak season, um, to actually have like a an accurate >> We didn't get as far along with the last one, I don't think, in terms of the deliverable. Well, I know we talked, they the, and correct me if I'm wrong, there was talk where it was going to go. We're going to
218have to elevate the new school. Yeah. But they, I don't think that they had done, I don't recall them doing vernal pool studies or, uh, wetland delineation studies at that time. This is above my pay grade. Yeah. We would have to go out to bid for services. With that? >> Is this already included in their scope of services? No. So, oh, as far as Harriman? No, this would be a third-party consultant. So this would be, um, something we would pay for. This wouldn't be, What's the drop-dead date? When does mud season end? I I In April. You mean the >> [laughter] >> thermal pool studies? Yeah, I mean this I think this season it it basically April is April to like is the peak. So like being at the we're at the tail end right
219now. >> it wasn't identified beforehand that we need these studies? That I suppose I should have asked I I asked this question at the I I asked them on this meeting whether there was any other thinking site-wise. Was there Is there any other site work that we're going to need, you know, at any point prior to this you know to to get to the final stage and they were like yeah, so these things. >> And I will say that those are the two studies >> than one thing or is this these two things? The thermal pool these these two things. Those are the two studies that I mean they're recommending now again for like to make sure that we're having accurate pricing for the plan that we're choosing. But they did give me other studies
220that could potentially be on the table, but we don't know that yet. So I didn't want to You know I feel like we spend a tremendous amount of money on studies. That's my like resistance to all this and we've spent a tremendous amount over the years on plans and studies and like it's really hasn't gotten us anywhere. So my understanding is that ultimately these are things that will be necessary in order for them to like actually complete the Put a shovel in the ground. >> It's not like a you know, oh well that help may may help us make a better decision. I think it's like a We >> understanding. We need to do this to get to X. Yes. To get to my >> That's my understanding. That was that was my understanding. Right.
221That was your understanding. I'm just surprised it wasn't in their estimates and or in their scope of services. You know what I mean? Like if they've given us a number right and that number is all-inclusive to get us to X Y, Z is above and beyond. Yeah. I think um if I had to guess, I think that you know, we packed a lot in a tight timeline and they've been trying to get every hit everything and I think that >> approving up to $60,000 and above that. That was why I just thought That was why I asked the question at the meeting. And I do see I mean, their contract does indicate, [clears throat] you know, their scope and that they there are other things that we may have to go outside of, you know,
222our contract with Caverman to do. I think part of it, too, is is we are asking for a lot of specifics around costs, right? And I think this is one of the things like they potentially may not put shovels in the ground until the the calendar year of 2028, right? In some areas of the project, right? And in some instances, I think when you're doing building projects, if you ran a you would have to do this study of some I'm I'm I I don't know if this is the truth, but like I'm trying to think of what could lead us to this right now. In some uh projects, you could wait to do this study vernal pool study next year, right? In in the April 2027 before you started the construction, but we've been so
223adamant about that number on the warrant being the number with no no exceptions to it that I think they're airing on the side of like, well, then get this done ahead of time so we don't have to say, "Hey, you know, we're going to have to add this extra thing for $10,000 because the vernal pool study showed you need this thing now, right?" I'm hyp- I'm speculating that's why we hadn't heard about it until the last advisory meeting because we keep pounding them in those advisory meetings like the number has to be exact, every freaking detail needs to be included in this, right? Like when we bring it to voters. So, I think maybe they're pivoting in the sequencing of some of this work to ensure that is the most accurate number that they can
224give us. Speculating, but that's >> So, in this case, right, to put a shovel in the ground, they need these studies to get permits. But, they're doing this as a risk reduction to make sure we don't come up with our plan, we get it approved, and then they go to do these studies to go obtain the permits, and then all of a sudden they're like, "Janice, crap. I get I got to shift this corner over." Then we have to hit a contingency. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean I mean I I we have a ROM request that we just apply with my company to do this, and then once we get go for permits, it's just included in that ROM request, but we we don't operate that way here. So, and and that's really hard
225to operate that way. And we did send them some stuff that was helpful, you know, after the advisory meeting. We some Julie had studies from So, what's the amount that you're looking to approve? Just like Uh well, I I mean, essentially, it it's not so much that we're looking for the approval amount at this point. It's to ask if are we good with having basically waiving the procurement process and having >> these when you look at these costs of these particular studies, this is something that we can cover from our current budget, right? Like a $4,000 vernal pool study, we can absorb $4,000 in this fiscal budget, right? We don't have to touch the money we set aside for the bigger Harriman stuff, right? Okay. And then, you know, I think the question Julie's asking
226is like the other one which could go over 10,000, it says 10 to 15, that's on that line of whether or not we need three bids before we make a decision on it, right? I don't think there's a ton of people who I do this in the time frame we're talking on. Harriman said they can get us a person. They can get us three quotes. It's just going to take longer to get three quotes, right? Or they can get a quote with someone they're comfortable with. Get the work done sooner than later. I'd say just get the work done sooner than later. Yeah. We have that flexibility in our policy. >> We do. Right. Yeah. And this fits in those exemptions of like timely decisions, right? Right. And this is like a This is different
227cuz this is the project, but like that longer discussion I want to have like is there trust for us to just do this? Right? We identified to do it. You know, the policy says the BA can make that decision, right? Like are we good trust-wise on the BA making those decisions and stuff, you know? So, I will also say is like let's make sure we get this signed off in official reports because then we should be adding this to our site documentation just in general cuz if someone goes, "Well, have you done this?" Well, the site hasn't changed. Here you go. Yes. And go from there. So, then it should be a delta study versus starting from blank. Well, thank you. I'll let Harriman know. Um last thing about GMS, the board had asked last
228time about cost of a new building, right? Like I think that question came up. They gave us a rough estimate based upon square footage and needs like cost of needs and stuff like that. They would estimate there's This is a rough estimate. I don't want to stress. That it would likely cost between 40 and a half million and 46 million dollars. And I would go with that high end so with where everything is right now. And that's in today's money. You know, you factor in a couple years down the road, you're talking more. So, you're talking at least 10 million dollar difference between the two. And that's without any land procurement there. Right. And which we have the land if it was going to be the same site, but just like this using the land
229at GMS Yeah. so on and so forth. Uh this is what I have for GMS. I have one last thing that's not here on old business. I'm not sure I'm sure I accidentally deleted it. FIC update real quick. Dan, this is more for you if Ray was here. If I have a couple of reach out people reach out >> Oh okay. community representatives. They've asked if they can come to a couple meetings and test it out first before committing to a 3-year term. I guess without Ray here you're speaking on behalf of the FIC and maybe the board in general wants to weigh in. Would would people be comfortable with with some community members coming in They're always welcome to come. It's a public meeting. I know. I I said that. It's a public meeting.
230They can sit in the public. I I don't have any issues with it. >> Yeah, I do have some interest but but everyone has been like that's a big commitment 3 years and I'm not quite sure what I'm getting myself into yet. So they've asked if they can come to a couple meetings. Told them like you can watch the videos. You I've sent some agendas and guidelines and stuff but I think the people want to explore for themselves what the commitment is. So >> great. Okay. Appreciate their interest. >> Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Uh and that's all I got for old business. Okay. Uh we have the manifest this evening. Manifest has three signatures. Yep. Okay. Uh in terms of the summary we have accounts payable for $310,616.56. That was uh health insurance. We have
231another accounts payable of $65,353.41. Payroll manifest of $402,7.30. 403B uh $8,426.53 and credit card manifest of $13,167.90. Uh we've already covered our community input. We'll move into school board comments. What do we have tonight? Nothing. See, we had our first CIP meeting. Monday? Yeah. Yeah. Fairly short organizational meeting. Uh Pete Stone's going to be the chair and Mike Parker will be the vice chair. Okay. Lots of activities here as we approach the end of the school year. So, thank you to the administration, the school staff, right? The teachers, the support staff, everyone as we approach the final handful of weeks or so uh and all the all the exciting activities in in our buildings. Truly appreciate the patience it's going to take to go through the next 6 weeks, 8 weeks, whatever it is. All
232right. Uh with that, that concludes our meeting this evening. The board does have some nonpublic business tonight under RSA 91-A:3, uh A, B, and C. Uh with that, I will entertain a motion to go into nonpublic. >> So moved. Motion by Mr. Sweeney. >> Mr. Speaker, second by Mr. Plansky. We'll call vote. Aye. Mr. Speaker, I'm an aye. Mr. Plansky. >> Aye. Mr. Hewitt. Aye. That carries 4-0. All right, everyone. Thank you very much. Uh