School Board Meeting - 01/21/2026

001All right. Uh, one update uh, as we get going tonight before we move forward with the agenda. Um, at our last board meeting, uh, we did um, um, appoint uh, Miss Mercier to fill the seat uh, that is open by Miss Ames. uh due to unforeseen and unexpected personal reasons by Miss Mercier, she has uh elected to no longer pursue the board. Uh and so with that um and given that the town meeting is uh just a couple of uh really weeks away and that the nomination process for that has now opened uh the board is just going to wait until the town meeting happens in March to fulfill the seat. Um, so we wish Miss Mercier the best and um and uh yeah, that's it. So, uh with that, we'll move forward with uh

002reviewing changes to tonight's agenda. Any changes tonight's to tonight's agenda? >> No, sir. >> Okay. [clears throat and cough] Uh any items off of consent that the board would like to discuss tonight? >> No. >> Okay. We have the summary of non-public actions from January 7th, 2026. Mr. Mr. Shoemaker moved to approve the non-public minutes from the December 17th, 2025 meeting. Mr. Plansky seconded that motion and that carried 4 Z. Uh Mr. Shoemaker motioned to adjourn the nonpublic session at 7:45. Mr. Plansky second that motion and that also carried 40. Uh we do have some presentations and recognitions tonight. Uh and first up we have our LMS principal, Principal Grantham. Welcome. >> Thanks. >> So I feel like we've been talking about this for a long time. Um, and I'm hoping that tonight we can

003make this official. Um, having [snorts] a therapy dog at LMS will make such a difference to our students and their ability to do so many things as are pointed out in this uh, flyer and handbook. Um, one of the things that we have noticed in the last nine months since we were joined by Sully, which if you have LMS students, I'm sure they're familiar with Sully, who is a service dog for one of our staff members. um and he has been attending school on a daily basis for basically the last school year. Uh we have adjusted for allergy strategies for our students with allergies to make sure that they have an environment that can be dogfree when they need to be. [clears throat] Um and we have no students with allergies that are so extreme

004that they can't be in the same building with them. It's just not in the same classroom. So we have developed several strategies to help to make sure that kids with allergies have the ability to function in classrooms that don't have dogs present. And what we'd like to do is add Sully is technically a service dog and when his vest is on, he is a service dog for the staff member, but when his vest is off, he's really a service dog for our school. Um the kids in the classroom, he he kind of has his little place. He walks around. He sets his head on people's laps when they're feeling a little sad or frustrated. and just watching the faces of the kids as they get a chance to give a little belly rub as he's

005laying on the floor or, you know, read one of their passages to them or for some of our more nervous kids, they like to go visit Sully to, you know, give him a treat or take him for a walk. Um, we've seen such a difference in the environment both for our students and staff, we'd like to duplicate that with a dog that's meant for that purpose to be a therapy dog at LMS. We've done a lot of research um in regards to the things that it can offer. You'll see some of the details in here. I'm not going to go into all the details of the reasons [clears throat] why a therapy dog is awesome for kids, but there are a lot about emotional mental health, about academic and social benefits, and school environment and

006behavior. Um, so what I would like the permission from the board to do tonight is to go forward and get a therapy dog. How will that work? Um, the goal is to make that have no [clears throat] impact directly to the taxpayers. It will not be a budgetary impact. Um, Miss Starling and myself have been able to contact Primex and there is no requirement for the district to carry any additional insurance as a result of having the dog. Um, since the dog would reside with me and I would purchase it out of my own pocket. Um, I would get my own personal rider of insurance to make sure that that dog is covered if there were any accidents or anything that happened with the dog in a school setting. Um, and it would go through

007a full gamut of training. So, what [clears throat] I'm asking the board tonight for is permission to do some fundraising for the training and the like um assorted things that dogs dogs can be expensive. And I'm talking about purchasing out of my own pocket, but for the idea of having it at school every day for the kids to have a dog to be able to use and whether it's in a classroom reading with kids, whether it's there for a kid who's disregulated and needs to settle down. I've seen it in action in a middle school with Sully as a a mini set. I've seen [clears throat] I've seen it in my previous district um where our school resource officer had a comfort dog as part of his daily operations and it happened to reside in

008my office in my previous school. It's just it's a wonderful thing. So, I'm hoping for approval from the board tonight to move forward with starting that therapy dog process for LMS. And with the idea that that could be duplicated, we could share if there was an issue at Campbell or there was an issue at Griffin, we would be willing to share up and down. It would not just be for LMS if that's needed. >> So, how does that work in terms of like if you're the dog's are I assume the dog's handler, do you have to be with like do you have to be with the dog the entire day? >> The dog would be in my office the entire day or it would be I would be my goal is to be out of

009my office as much as I humanly possibly can. >> Um, so the goal would be the dog would travel with me. I would be with it because I'm the one that would have the training and the explanation for how how that needed to be handled as it was with kids or with other staff. >> Any concerns from an administration perspective? >> No. Um my previous district, one of the elementary schools, Dunarton had a dog um comfort dog, therapy dog just like this. Very similar with the assistant principal's dog. went through a training process or certification process to be certified, I guess, as a therapy dog. Um, and licensed that you can go through. I'm glad that Julie and Jim um took care of the insurance part. No additional insurance. Primax assured us of of any

010risk for this. I think Sully's been great for LMS. I know it's a different different type of program because he's a a service animal versus I'm a therapy dog, but I just think he's been a really nice addition to kind of the team at LMS. Um, and I've seen it be really successful in a number of schools. Um, they have great calming effects. Um, we've had the call-in dogs at schools I've been at in emergencies and it's been um, they're just amazing to have. So to have one in the district, I think would be great. >> Great. Any other questions from board members? >> Nope. Not for me. >> I mean, I'd love to have a dog at every school. >> Yeah. you know, if this is successful, maybe pursuing some other things. >> The

011policy said horses or donkeys or something. >> I think horses are not allowed. >> I would [laughter] hope horses are not allowed in this. >> We've been talking about this so much. I will tell you a story. One of my teachers uh over vacation, she had a dream of a comfort cow. It was one of those tiny little Shetland [laughter] cows. And so she called and she said, "Jenn, if we're not getting a dog, I think I need to get a Shetland cow." And that's going to be it's going to be called Betty White because it was a white cow. And I she told me the whole story and I laughed. And I was like, well, I don't think cows are part of the policy, but therapy dogs can be. >> I don't know. I

012would recommend any hooved animals, >> right? [laughter] >> Right. Exactly. >> Okay. Uh, entertain a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Plansky. Additional discussion. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Post. Abstain. Four zero. >> Yay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Welcome. Thank you. >> All right. Next up, we have Principal Mitchson from Campbell. >> Uh, and Miss Bson. Yes. Thank you, Council. >> And part of that. Yes. Okay. Thank you. [snorts] >> All right. Hi. Um, thanks for having us tonight. Um so [clears throat] this is usually the time of year where um we come seeking approval for the [snorts] program of studies for the 26 27th school year. I know that's wild to think but we have to

013really start um getting next year's schedule sort of already in our brain and thinking about um [clears throat] the course selection process for students. um we will be getting that started just as soon as we have our program of studies. So um I sent two links. One is to the completely revamped um all grownup program studies document. >> Um that was a labor of love between myself and Miss Nelson. um getting all the content um in there and giving it sort of a glow up as we would call nowadays. >> Um and then the other document is the kind of summary of the changes that are in here from last year. So there are some wording changes here and there. Not um nothing that goes against any current policies or practices um but some simplified

014nuanced things. But the big changes um are obviously like the the grading system change. So um that's reflected in the new program of studies. Uh and I really just kind of included the total points part of it because I thought that was enough to explain like hey this is our grading system and by the way all the detailed information can be found in the grading manual. We have a handbook for that. I didn't think it appropriate to paste copy and paste that entire thing in the program of studies. So I linked it so that um people can then kind of find it right there. [snorts] Um we did have to do a lot of work around some of the graduation requirements because they are changing starting with the class of 2030 which are next year's

015freshman. So, not only you'll see there's a different chart for that group of students um which starts um and there's a table of contents um and in the table of contents that has the graduation requirements. So, there's the current graduation requirements which are for the classes of 26 27 28 and 29. Um but then if you scroll to the following page um two pages rather you'll see for the class of 2030 and beyond it's not a major change. Um [clears throat] there are it it really the biggest change I I would say is like the social studies piece that we have to include now. Um so in for the previous grade level um graduating classes the social studies credit requirements were only three. Now it's going to be 4 and 1/2. We still reach the

016same number. Um so it's still like 24 is where we get to. Um it's just they shifted some things around and what the 24 credits have to be. So, um, and what we did too, um, and speaking of that, if you start then looking at some classes [snorts] and a good one to take a look at, um, if you go to social studies since that's where some of the credits changed, um, and I will go to page 37. >> Thank you. So if you want to start with social studies. So um right off the bat if you look at US history. So what we did was for each first of all for each content area we provided a map. So it really kind of introduces each content area and have a whole map of you

017know what some of the required courses are. Um and then elective options um some of the advanced courses. So like every content area is introduced with this kind of overview. So for if I'm a student too, I think it's nice to kind of see like, oh, this is this will be the path I might take um just mapped out for me right here. And then if you scroll down, it gets into each individual class. So US history is a good example to look at some of the bigger changes to how this document is set up. So you have the course itself. You can see the row that tells you that it's a one credit course, that there's an honors option for this course available, which is explained up in the um previous sections. Um it's

018a grade nine only course. There's the description. It lets you know it's a year-long course, that it fulfills the grade nine social studies credit, that it's an NCAA approved course for any um students looking to go pursue a career in college athletics. There's certain classes that do and don't fit into what the NCAA is looking for. Um then the final row in every almost every course and if it's not included it's because it doesn't apply will have what it is going to fulfill for a graduation requirement for the group of 2030 and beyond. So you'll see here it says it's required to fulfill the one credit of history, government, and the constitution of US and New Hampshire. And it's required to fulfill half credit of logic and rhetoric. And that requirement is across a three

019course series. But that's this is just an example of the information that's you're going to see in this program of studies versus previous years that didn't have sort of the whole snapshot that you would see when you're looking at a specific class. Um so then I we really just clarified the honors option. Like I said, it's now listed um under any course where it could be that kids can take an honors option. Um I think the pathways and the prerequisites were more clearly defined and Val did a lot of work with her team and the teachers and the CF groups. Um we asked, you know, what are some of the prerequisite courses we want to see students taking? Um and that's listed now on each course so that it's not like a guessing game. And

020then just I think the overall streamlined information and organization. I think it's a little more simplified. Um you know I tried to focus my message on you know that this is a tool to help kids plan to help parents, families um whoever's involved in a student's um you know education that they can sit and use it as a tool. um consolidated some redundant information that didn't need to be repeated and really kind of consolid and reorganized some of it because I was finding things that had to do with graduation requirements for example where some of it was on page six and some was on page 36. I'm like why isn't that all kind of you know right in line? Um, and I think there's just a clear def like definitive separation between the graduation requirements

021versus how we grade versus, you know, what is offered. Um, and it's clear, I think, what's required. >> Did you? No, I mean, it was a definitely a labor of love, um, with all of us involved in all different parts of it. Um, Jen is a formatting wizard, so that was I learned a lot from her, which was amazing. Um, and also ju just because things change and the ED 306s have changed so much this year and I've been part of so many meetings at the state level with Sarah and um that's been a great resource but like to actually spell it out luckily it's coming in with the incoming freshman so then we have like those four years to really fine-tune and make sure that we have everything we need. But um I think

022it it came out really great and my counselors really love it. Um makes our jobs clearer. Um and especially with like figuring out, you know, alternating classes. We don't offer all the AP classes at once. Some are even years, some are odd years. So really being able to spell that out for scheduling purposes when I'm when I because I'm in the process of starting to build the course request process and eventually the schedule. Um just to have that concrete and consistent is great. >> Um and there are no new courses. So um the CF group we met I think it was September and decided >> um to kind of let the concrete cure and get a better handle on how we can improve our master schedule and maximize um >> everyone maximize everyone's teaching schedule

023load. Um, so I think until that's settled, we're good where we are. We did, however, um, there is a senior English course in there. Um, but it's not a new course, but more um, taking a bunch of existing courses and smooshing them into one. Um because one of the things that we recognized when I took a look at the schedule um coming in with fresh eyes is there were too many electives being offered for English for senior juniors and seniors to take and it was creating a little bit of havoc on the schedule. Um, you know, you would have students where there may be 25 course requests to take a class, but then all of a sudden that class ends up running during the same time as some other class and kids are like, I

024don't want to take that anymore. And now it's down to six kids. So now it looks like we have these tiny little class sizes, but some other class has, you know, 28 kids in it. Um, and it and [clears throat] the more you have, the more that might end up happening, right? Um, and we want to provide awesome opportunities for kids to take classes that are interesting to that that they like and that they want to pursue and that might teach them something that sparks their interest of what to do when they're done high school. Um, but for English, what we decided was to sort of merge all the little, you know, um, mythology, sci-fi, all the different kinds of individual courses is just going to be one yearong class, [clears throat] >> right? And

025that that that English that senior English there was senior English that was a semester long course and then honor [snorts] senior English which was a full year course. Now there's senior English full year honors senior English full year. So we just streamlined it and made it clearer. That's probably the biggest that's the only >> and um >> and graphic design has been moved from the arts to the computers. And the plan um I know the plan moving forward too is to um start to build um courses where instead of us having an honors section that it's a dual enrollment class. So that would be the honors option if you want to take honors senior English. It's really >> a dual enrollment colleges >> course through either um the community college system of New Hampshire is

026really I think the direction that I prefer for other reasons but um ornew is always a good option too but that's what we want to really try to work on for next year is building more of those dual enrollment opportunities. >> Great. Um, I really like the pathways and the prerexs. I think it makes it a lot easier for the students to be able to figure out, all right, what classes do I want to take this year, but also have a plan for next year? >> Question being like, is it also going to be made digitally? Right? So, as they're as they're enrolling and figuring out what that plan is, right? Yes, they have this as a reference, which is great, but are they going to be able to see that electronically as well to

027understand, all right, even though I'm making this quick selection, this is what that means. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I mean we publish this digitally. We don't print do a print a copy. So this gets published digitally >> but like actually like in powers school or where wherever they're making the class selections. Can they see like this is the prerec for that class and this is >> where it lists like when I'm I'm just right now doing the course requests for next year like building those templates where they click the boxes and it will say like this is a prerec or prerec required. Um we really like and we're going into their classes starting the week of February 6th. Um we're starting to meet with our rising seniors not next week, the week after in individual

028meetings. So we do a good job at like outlining. I don't I don't think it shows specifically in Power School. I could find out if that's something we can >> So you thinking more like looking forward? >> Yeah. So like, so like I understand like you could check a course and say, "Okay, well this you have to take this prerequisite, but you're kind of saying like if I take this course, it'll enable me to take, >> right? This is now my next steps where I can take >> I'm going to translate between you guys because I know what you're asking. I [laughter] know what you're saying. >> So like do you guys use worksheets and like the fill in the boxes like now you've met this requirement?" >> Yeah. So I think if we could

029figure out a way to digitize that, that's what >> uh in Power School. It doesn't have to be in power school. Just like some way to digitize it so the kids have easy access to it. Maybe it could work on their Google Drive. >> We're good. >> Yep. >> I think they [laughter] talked about doing something >> because they do it all by hand. I know what you're asking. Like cuz they're mapping out like I want to hit my requirements. I have my projecting out like my junior year I'll have three open slots. These are classes I have at my disposal. They do that by hand. It's a box airplane. >> Exactly. Yeah. [laughter] >> And we did have conversations about providing that >> already. Yeah. >> Do I don't want to go on a

030tangent. Are we using Navian? >> No, we use Zello. >> We got away from Navian. >> Yeah, we got Zello. >> Most schools got away from >> and Zello's a free resource from so we're >> we guinea pigged it this year with our seniors. So, we're learning it. So, I think that I think that that's going to be a really good resource because I know that we can build like the course selection process into that so that students have a way to track what they're doing. So, there is a tracker in there. So, um, that's another >> that might be a good place to to do that. >> And if there I don't know if there's a way we can add I know other CIS programs you can put different indications um like a way

031once a kid has has completed a course and we know it fulfilled X requirement. It would be great if I could tell. >> So, we have that, >> right? >> We have it's called the graduation ceremony. I use it all the time. I'm clicking on it and being like in like checking credits to see who make sure things are fulfilled. So it it does when I when we create the course groups they're on the back end in of powers school somewhere in the basement like they're loaded into these course groups so it automatically does track that way. But I don't know if kids have access to their graduation. That's another thing I should probably find out. >> Right. We do. I do. Like we're the ones that hound them all the time. that um graduation

032summary. >> Any other questions, comments from the board? >> Great work. I mean, that looks a lot of work. So, yeah, this was a nice >> I might have bled a couple times, but that's [laughter] to walk away. There were times I got I had to go walk away. >> It's worth it. It looks outstanding. >> And hopefully Thank you. This is now like our new template that we can just update. >> Yeah. >> Um so, >> I know the board's just seeing this for the first time tonight. Is the board prepared to approve it or would you like uh a couple of weeks to review it uh in detail and then approve it at their next meeting? It's the will of the board. >> I wouldn't mind some time to sort of read through

033it more thoroughly. >> Do we Is there a pressing >> Yeah. >> timeline on this one? >> I think you can build You're safe to build everything and then >> can I can I So I can still have students do requests in the next like we're going into classrooms. We're meeting with we're we're scheduled to meet with our our rising seniors um not starting next week, the week after. And then we meet with our underclassman classroom starting the week of February 6th and we have 8th grade parent night on February 11th at like we're we're in go mode to like get requests in >> read fast. >> Well, my other thought is um >> I think you can start that whole process. I think we can do we can fit it all >> because I

034think again like none of the the only course change >> um and all we did we clearly defined which electives will run which years so that that's outlined and so we don't run into the AP you know halves and have not can and can't take >> um and the English is really the only place where any courses were changed um but it's really just >> and that came through the committee too right >> but that was a condensed more than like it's nothing new like the curriculum units exist. Um but I think if you want to make any any >> I would say blow this up but I just I don't think I have anything that would blow this up. I just think I'd like to >> sure >> fully fully read the document. >>

035I appreciate that because it took me a lot of time. [laughter] So, um, but I wonder if, um, like I think we're good with the courses. Like I don't I don't unless I'm nothing changed other than the English one. >> I think you guys can continue what you need to do and I think you guys can review it and prove it at the next meeting. >> I'll translate again. [laughter] Everyone can get >> No. Well, if you think of something else I could add in here, I think I the more you know, whatever is going to be helpful, I'd be happy to add. >> Yeah. I used to think of this as the program of studies in today's day and age is kind of like a rolling document almost like yes you come to the

036board for approval at some point but like even things such as CTE right we used to run into this problem um at my previous school is they're changing their offerings as they go through their process right and it's not always on our same timeline so we have to be um responsive to those different kind of changes sometimes you see it with staffing like as staffing changes you might change courses because of the people that you're hiring and specializ izing in. So, obviously, you come to the board to get those approvals if you're going to change courses and and that type of stuff, but the program of studies in today's day and age is more of a rolling document. Not that we're constantly making changes, but we have to be responsive to the needs of our

037kids, which can change as kind of the year goes on. So, >> and speaking of CTE, what we decided to do because of that very reason >> setting you up there. >> Thank you. [clears throat] is instead of listing out all of um the course offerings, we I made one of those sort of um charts tables, listed all the programs that they offer over at the Palmer Career and Technical Center, but then there are links to their information which is live right to their website. So, >> yeah. Right. >> Well, so it's almost like right [laughter] if you >> So, if you want to make a change like I don't have to go in and make a change. it'll just >> and CTE is a good example of that. Like when they have specialized programs,

038I don't want to misspeak on one of their programs, but I'll use welding as an example. I don't know if they offer that over there. >> That can be a challenging teacher to find. Like if that teacher was to leave in the spring, >> they may not be able to offer that specific program next year. They may change that to a different CT offering. So be responsive. >> And they changed like their health and hum they used to call like health health and human services. Now they have health services and human services split up and that was like a last minute. So they're constantly changing. So, the fact that we can be linked is great. >> Okay. Great. All right. Well, we'll uh take a deeper read into the into the program of studies and

039if there's any feedback certainly we'll talk about it at our February 4th meeting, our next meeting, but I think to the superintendent's point, I wouldn't anticipate any major changes to what's been presented. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Oh, excuse a moment. Next up is the student representative report. >> Turn it over to Dom and Zoe. >> Oh, so for our winter sports, uh, up first it's going to be the girls basketball team who are currently two and six. Um and they're playing Kier Sarge on the 23rd. Our boys basketball team doing a little better with the three and seven uh for the record. Uh also also going against Kier Sarge on the 23rd. The wrestling team has competed in 11 dual meets. Uh and I

040from what I've heard they're doing pretty well through those as well as the pack hockey team who is two and five going against Plymouth tonight. Uh, so up first for the past events, um, the theater department announced their spring musical, Anastasia, Anastasia, what? Yeah, Unifi Basketball had their first two home games. Um, didn't go too hot, but we're we're trying. >> Hey, you guys did great. [laughter] >> You didn't blow out your knee, so that's a good first step. Um and uh December 19th was the Christmas tree lighting um put on by Campbell Student Council. >> Uh so for the current events going on right now is on the 20th. Um our midterms have started. Uh the Spain trip will also be or where our meeting is going to be for the Spain trip on

041the 22nd. Uh the senior almost there breakfast has been uh is coming up on the 26th. Uh the mid mid mid mid midyear celebration is coming up on the 27th and on the 30th is the John Brick is he's coming in to give a speech. Chelse to Campbell for the future events the winter carnival is coming up which is the week before our February break which is kind of like a pep rally. Um on the 13th, February 13th, uh student council is going to hand out chocolate covered strawberries and from the 9th to through the 13th, they're going to hand out flowers outside the lunchroom for Valentine's Day. >> Um down at LMS, we are gearing up for the Winnie Dip on March 6th, which raises funds for the Special Olympics. Their boys basketball team

042is on a great winning streak of four games in a row so far, and girls are also doing great. And today was a seventh grade sustainability fair and over 29 students participated with many parents and peers and members of the school community um attended the fair and got to see all the students at GMS. They had their annual title which is their math and literacy night and that was [clears throat] last night on the 20th and they have an upcoming Winterfest on February 5th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and their GMS Olympics start on the 6th. Thank you. Okay, excellent. Lots of stuff happening in our schools, right? Hopefully, uh, the midterms are going well. >> Yeah, lots of fun. [laughter] >> Nonest man. >> I just sense the excitement there. >> Yeah. Any questions

043for the student representatives tonight? >> No. >> But when you get Are they actually going in Lake Winnipe Hockey? >> Yes, we are. >> Okay. We need video footage of that, please. >> On March 6th. And then they sign their video release form with >> [laughter] >> All right. Uh, moving into community comment on agenda items. So, this is the first of two community comments tonight. I will turn it over to the community >> for public input. >> You have um >> I have my own slot. >> You have your own slot. Yeah. Yeah. >> All right. We'll close community comment and turn it over to Vice Chair Plansky for correspondence. >> Okay. sort of a light week. Um January 9th, Ian Inorati uh sent out the credit card manifest. On January 10th, Mr. Oblenus

044made a request for um FY budget surplus information um provided and Mr. Cutter, Mr. Okonnell responded. [clears throat] Then we had a 403b manifest on January 14th. Also on the 14th um the chairman of the budget committee forwarded the slides for the budget hearing. Then on the 15th we had another two more manifests for live checks and accounts payable from an Moratti. On the 17th uh Mr. Oblenus requested um FY26 actual expenditures to um forecast for the un this year's potential underspend response provided by Mr. cutter. On the 21st, Miss Antel uh gave some feedback on the consideration of half days at GMS and also today on the 21st, we had another small manifest submitted by Ann and Morati. >> Okay, great. Anything else uh received by the board that should be added? >> That

045was as of about 2 o'clock this afternoon. I don't think anything else has come in. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Plansky. Uh shifting gears into general business. Uh we do have a new agenda item uh this evening and a standing agenda item. Uh we've invited Mr. Peoples, our representative, uh to attend board meetings uh as his schedule permits. If you want to come on up. Um and those uh the the agenda item will be called a legislative update uh where we hope to have open dialogue uh with Mr. Peoples who is very active uh as a state representative especially in the education space for uh up and conquered. So >> and I have some news for you. >> Excellent. Thank you Mr. Peoples. >> I didn't bring enough for everybody. >> You can share.

046Yeah. >> So I appreciate you having me. Hopefully uh having a little more interaction will let me uh help you a little bit. I'm just going to show you this stack of paper. This is two days of public hearings. This is one in there is nothing more than the bills and some written testimony that came to us. Um but this is what we we have we process on average. Now mind you um this was six bills. So the it's it's we're deluge with information. Um since I got the email from Andrew, I was a little, you know, perplexed on how I can report to you adequately and in a timely fashion. So I I thought I'd start by being proactive. Here's the agenda items for the 22nd and the 30th. So, if there's any bills

047in there that you see that might spark your interest, um, you know, if you take a you can go out and take a look at those and let me know what you think because >> 1288 is top of mind for me. So, >> 1288. >> Yeah. >> Well, I will tell you that the the one that I got the most email on only [clears throat] thing that's even come close um was the car inspections was. [laughter] So, I'm going to tell you that the since I've been a state rep, the three things that I've got the most email on were car inspections and HB675, followed by only 20 or 30 about an abortion bill. So, when I say a lot, I probably got 7 or 800 on the inspection bill and I had to have

048300 on 675, which was a school budget cap. um up at the state house every day we we we go through public hearings. I like to like write on the top of my agenda what I thought the day really represented and the and this is from Tuesday. It says accountability. So, [snorts] with everything that's going on, I'm sure you're all well aware of of the Claremont Claremont debacle and there appears to be more schools in the state that have those kind of same similar problems. Um, they just now haven't surfaced to that level yet. So, a lot of the bills that we're seeing that are coming in are around accountability, both accountability for financial matters and accountability for um internal operations, grading, um procedures, policies that relate to putting making sure people are accountable for

049to the citizens for all the money they're spending. Um we at I'm on school funding. Uh there's a second school committee which is policy and administration. Uh I try to follow their work as best I can. I have a couple of friends on there that I eat lunch with. So I get a little bit of a briefing, but certainly not as much as school funding. I will tell you right now that we're working we're working our butts off trying to figure a way to do a better job of funding schools from the state. We have a problem. The problem is this. If we gave you all the money in the world, let's say the state can figure out a way through some miracle, and it'd be a miracle, to pay for schools. Everyone wants local

050control. So, there's nothing that precludes the schools from spending more money than what the state allocates or how they spend that money. So, we're always in this conundrum. How can we give you more money and and do the one thing that everybody wants, which is property tax relief? that the calls across the state there most communities the people are screaming for property tax relief and as we know schools that eat up about 80% of the municipal budgets that come in. So we we have to find a way to to to do this preferably without another broad-based tax because all that does is give us room for another broad-based tax. So all I can I can tell you right now we're working hard. We're in public hearing mode right now. we haven't started to ex exeect

051the bills. So the process is all bills have a hearing. Uh sometimes the hearings are short and we have [snorts] uh one maybe one person that comes and presents the bill and some testimony maybe some online testimony. Although I will tell you that people that show up um their testimony see tends to hold more weight with the people that are on the the committees. It's just the way it is. Um we have other bills where we spend hours hours and hours listening to people, you know, usually about three minutes, four minutes and it changes out. There's another person there giving you their testimony for and against and some of them get pretty heated. Um so we take all that in and we try to make an intelligent decision based on all the information we have.

052Um the um last two agenda items from uh Tuesday the 20th, we had um [clears throat] authorizing the state to issue bonds to fund public schools. So we had somebody come in present a bond that said, "Forget about how we tax them. Don't worry about that. Let's just go out and bond our schools so that we can give them more money." Um we had one for uh was relative to the cost of an opportunity for an adequate education to restructure how the the the base adequacy aid and special education stipens and such whatnot. I don't know if that one's going anywhere. Um repealing the education trust fund targeted aid cap. So, um, somebody wanted to that was the city of Manchester. As you know, a few years ago, the city of Manchester benefacted to the

053the tune of $10 million by accident. So, a piece of legislation actually increased their targeted aid by $10 million. So, the legislature corrected that last year, and now here's a bill to reverse that. um [clears throat and cough] establishing a grant program to support school districts extraordinary needs and fiscal capacity disparities relative to providing an adequate education. Again, special education is crippling every district in the state in one way or another. We just can't seem to come up with any um real way to give the districts enough money to cover cover the costs. And of course, the way the laws are structured, uh, doesn't leave us a lot of latitude in not paying for it. You have to do it. And that's the end of the the end of the, um, story. We actually had

054one person tell us the other day that it didn't matter if you lose your home. Didn't matter. They didn't care as long as you meant the intent of the law and paid for the education. That was uh, pretty shocking, you know, that we won't take care of our neighbors. Um we have relative required to state funding providing opportunity for an adequate education again different bill different mechanism. Um and then moving on to Thursday. Uh well that's uh the 22nd. Um [clears throat] 15th. On the 15th we had uh bills authorizing school districts to extend free and reduced lunch benefits for special education students. As you know, with the shift in in the age groups for students uh that on special needs where they gave them an extra year, unfortunately the laws that re that revolve

055around the federal food programs ends at 22. So if you have a student that's in your care for an education and they turn 22 in January and they were on some kind of food assistance program, they're not entitled anymore by the USDA laws. So, we're looking at a way to do that within the state um to kind of close up that gap because we created a problem. Um there's a bill to to allow uh the commissioner of Department of Education to withhold funds from public schools if schools are not providing special education services in compliance with state law. That already exists in statute. I don't see that bill going anywhere other than away. Um, another bill modifying the state average expenditure per pupil um, relative to students in special education. That one was to increase

056the the the special ed um base the base adequacy as well as bring down the cost for catastrophic needs. So instead of 70,000, bring it down to 60,000, we're talking about bringing that down to 50,000. The problem is, and uh we're meeting with the Department of Education with Caitlyn Davis over this, is we can't tell what that number is. The the data collection processes through our school districts are terrible. Claremont's an example of that. When you ask a question to department head, and we had Caitlyn on the phone yesterday, a couple of us talking with her, you can't get the information because they don't collect it. And we so you know we wanted to lower it to like one and one half times the amount. We have no idea what that would cost the state

057because the data doesn't exist to say what what that amounts to for students at different cost brackets and stuff. So we're looking for ways to collect more data for that and to to get that legislated in so we can give [snorts] more money back. Um it's not that anybody wants to withhold the money. They just can't write a blank [snorts] the legislature just can't write a blank check and [clears throat and laughter] That's where we're at with that. Uh so there'd be more to come. I'm I can see that we are going to I'm pretty sure this legislative session we're going to make some improvements on how much money that we're doing in base adequacy. I'm not sure if we'll get up to the number that the judge um wants, but uh there there's a

058lot of bills in the in the process. So, um, from an administration perspective, right, I I know we're tracking NHSDA and kind of those communications, were there any questions from bills that you've been tracking that you wanted to have a dialogue about with Representative Peoples? >> Yeah, I think so. Thank you, Mr. Peoples, for coming in. >> You're w you're welcome. This is great cuz like I think just talking directly with you and like kind of sharing some of the things we're seeing boots on the ground and maybe you can come back with it. And I'm going to start with a relatively simple example of like something that like we could use clarity, right? Like like and so I don't know if Julie Do I have it? I have it. Yeah. Okay. So >> on

059my report >> um on your report. So just give me one moment. And you have to remember the process for a bill to become law is is a long and arduous one. >> Yeah. >> So I I think one of the things that like we on our side um like I'm going to Can [snorts] you give me access >> is the mandatory [clears throat] reports that we're supposed to kind of publish right like that. >> Is that the bill that I co-sponsored on? >> Um it may have been I'm not sure who who did that. >> Students first act. >> No. No. >> Yeah. So it's the student first act. We were at the budget hearing last week and we showed, you know, the graphs that um have the four categories that we're supposed to

060show, right? Like the um average cost per pupil, average teacher salary. I think Julie just gave me access. Yep. So, I'll put it up on the screen. And uh we had sent this to the union leader a couple weeks ago, so we put had it because we're supposed to put it into the local newspaper and stuff like that. And >> about that as well. >> Yeah. And to be like straightforward, we want to follow the rules and there's no clarity on what we're actually supposed to like show for grants. So, we went down the road with a bunch of districts to model them in this this way. >> Mhm. >> That showed like these are top four administrators in terms of pay, in terms of average teacher salary, a average cost pupil. And then like

061this week, we've learned some other school districts, not all. Some are doing what we're doing, but some others are doing a different way. So, this is version two. [laughter] And >> all we want to do is like the right thing. So, like if when and I don't know how all the legislative stuff works and and everything like that, but like we just want to like follow the rules. So, like what is the right way? And if we could get some clarity or if legislation can work with the DOE because we follow their advisory style. >> Can you can you email me those, Brian? >> Yeah. >> Both both copies. >> Yep. >> Is that comparing state like state average versus >> No. Comparing the actual um statistics versus um rate with the rate of inflation.

062[cough] >> Yeah. I think the way we produced it is meeting the spirit in the letter of of what's been produced. >> That was what I thought. Um, >> but many of us in the school world are rule followers and we just like to be told the template do this. >> So, I will I will if you email me that's me. I will take that that up with the DOE and and >> and this is one of those things I'm hoping these conversations like >> I think this bill came out of ed funding originally. I'm not sure if it was ed funding or poly policy and administration and again I'm going to tell you right now that it is impossible as a human being. I don't care what legislature you talk to. Let you cannot

063remember a thousand bills. >> It and I don't even try to remember them. If I I document them, I put my notes on the bill. [laughter] It's it's insane. Um >> so I will I will try to get you an answer for that and that and that's what we're here for. >> Yeah. >> You know, >> because I think like we want to do the right things. Like another is the I think maybe some people overreacted but like the recording stuff right that showed up in the parental bill of rights like how do we find um like kind of a middle ground there's already a there's already a correction it coming because no that was not what was intended >> and that's not I don't think anyone thought was intended. So >> unintended consequences are

064the are the biggest bane to everyone's existence in local government in in any way shape or form. Well, actually, it's the biggest bane to in existence to people in in manufacturing businesses and the president's office. You know, you never know what you're going to do >> that's going to have something adverse effect down the line. >> And I know you're just one rep and we're one small town and school district. >> I'm one committee and and you have committee. >> You have four representatives and a senator. So, there's five of us to to answer questions. Uh Ralph is Ralph is on transportation. Rich is on criminal justice. Um, Victoria is on education on the Senate side. So, there there are plenty and we all cross lines to to get information. >> Yeah. >> In my

065case, I I'm focused on education now. >> Yeah. So, just like from from from like where we are like coming like doing this and granted this is the first time anyone's done it, >> but like I would say Julie's put 60 hours into this, 100 hours into it and like we don't feel like we're any closer to an answer >> and like that's that's time wasted, right? So, like >> send me those and I will and and I'll go back >> to the I'll go get the bill. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And find out who the sponsors were and we'll run the we'll we'll run it up the flag pole and go is this what you thought >> you know. So I don't know how we can like do that stuff and that's what I

066want to work on like how can we help you how can you help us to like before we have to like put this stuff in effect figure out like what what it is and this the same thing and this is one example these are graphs this isn't the end of the world but I think of something like open enrollment right like >> from like putting that into >> my next question >> putting that into place where like >> I I I've said this before like I I think there's like like I remember learn everywhere was like a big thing a few years ago and like I actually I think it was learn everywhere like went this was years ago went to a hearing and like like showed support for it right you know because I

067think there's some avenues that like we can apply this stuff boots on the ground that helps everybody right >> and I see like with the open enrollment I think there's opportunities there but like can we help you from like >> I see I see the opportunities for attorneys right now because the the the fact that Everybody's running out and crafting those the anti-open enrollment laws is >> and you know >> not all districts are doing that by the way there are only >> this is a good example like you were here that meeting we were discussing it was >> and you some of the things you said gave me pause right and I spoke with some other superintendents and they had gotten some pause too from from people they talked to and we pulled it

068right because we think that's the right right cause and effect so that that's the type of thing I want to us to like to to do >> so how I envision how I envisioned this going forward at least for a little bit um is that as I know what's coming up on the agenda I'm going to try to get that to you like those are the the next two agendas >> we have we the individual like little humans like me we really don't know that the the we have bills are placed on our docket um there's early bills like a lot all these bills that you're looking at right there have to be all done and and exeact out of our committee by February 12th. >> Yeah. >> So we have not exact one bill

069yet. So the the exact process is basically uh the bill comes up. It it's it's it's some bills go to a work session, some bills don't, some some are brought up when they the chairman opens it up for executive uh to executive session. We have to do a number of things. We either OTP which is ought to pass right that's that's ought to pass with amendment OTPA ITL inexpedient to legislate so that's that's death or um we can we can send it to interm study which is we sent some bills to interm study last session because the bill itself as it exists is is could be some another potential piece of legislation. So, some things went to interimm study maybe just because it could be the the the body or the framework could be salvaged

070to move another piece of legisl legislation form out of the process bandwidth, you know, so that you might have something come up that you can move forward now instead of waiting to put it into September and [clears throat] next January it'll be um start to get to a public hearing. So there's, you know, I'm going to call it a political maneuver, but interm study is like death. Unless it's brought back from the brink and and into a committee, it's death. >> A question about I think a bill that was discussed this week. Um our regional BA group was talking about it. Um with regard to um having audits needing to be completed within 3 months, I believe after this the start of the year, is that >> that one's that is a bipartisan bill. Um,

071as a matter of fact, I'm a co-sponsor on that. It was put forward uh from the other side um of the aisle that came from the Democratic caucus and it's it's these are knee-jerk reactions to Mary Henry and the Claremont issues. >> So, this is a good one. I know exactly what you're going to say, so I'll sign up. [laughter] >> Right. Well, just >> I I it I know it's riddled with technical problems. First thing is where are we going to find these people do all the audits? >> Yes. And then I'm out of time, right? Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Like like >> we still don't >> we [laughter] >> right like and and where it's at right now is even though I'm a co-sponsor on that bill, >> it hasn't come to a

072public hearing. >> Yeah. >> So once it comes to the hearing, that's when we're going to we're going to discuss all that stuff and that bill may go ITL. >> Yeah. You don't I don't think it will though because there's a there's a lot of support for right now everybody is a little gunshy with what's going on because we do have problems with in a bunch of other districts >> and they're >> if we can provide some just some feedback on this particular one like >> that's like it's impossible like within 3 months if you expect us to have our audit report right like and then we don't want to be failing the system like we have auditors who come really early in July and start the process, right? And it is January and we

073don't have our audit report because they're so they're they're so overloaded in work >> and and consequently this is what happened in Claremont. They didn't complete their audits and their audits were late and actually there was no time frame on them. They could not do them >> two years. Their audits for years though, >> right? And they didn't ask for audits. So, but like that's what I mean like how and I'm not trying to be like confrontational. >> I'm not I'm not either. I'm just saying you do it. >> I have brought back I've brought up already in in the behind scenes in the talk with the the the sponsor of that. >> Yeah. >> About where are we going to get these auditing firms? >> Yeah. Like there's I think two or three in

074the in the state, >> right? This is New Hampshire and they they just audit firms that are reputable just don't grow on trees, you know. >> Yeah. and we're we're like early >> you know more than anyone Mr. submit it to the so there is a mechanism for someone >> so that bill that bill hasn't come up for for public hearing yet when it does we'll we'll have that discussion >> and like I watching the Claremont stuff it was kind of horrifying us to see their lack of audits I mean while we start the process right away right like in July we get while we haven't gotten the final report we're >> did you watch the hearings when when the interimm superintendent and the and the interimm business agent came up to Cochran to testify

075to us. >> I did not. But just following along through other avenues, it's it's a challenging situation. But like I think like for our district, Lichfield, right, we schedule well in advance. We get them here in [snorts] July. We're in contact through them throughout the process. They um advise us on all of our forms we're submitting to the state. You know, the DAOE's, the MS's, all that type of stuff. But we still don't have a final audit report. So, like I feel like we're in the spirit like we are trying to make sure our books are accurate. So, again, I I I think you're going to see that bill go into public hearing >> and with a a real chance that it'll end up in a working group. >> Yeah. >> And then go out

076and and have some amendments to it because again, the the time frame we're we're all sitting there. I mean, >> like how you going to do that? Where you going to get these people? I mean, we we recognize that. Yeah, but [clears throat] that's good to get that feedback, you know. So, here we are for this district. We still don't have our audit from >> a final final. >> That's a normal year for us. >> Yeah, >> that's that's been the process ever since I've been >> Yeah, I I know it's again, this is these are knee-jerk reactions to other things that are happening in the state >> and the one in a billion chance our auditors are watching at this exact second. It's not cuz we know they're not working on like we're in

077contact with them and everything. It's nothing on that end. Just >> they're at capacity. [laughter] the districts too. >> I I know when I worked for Stanley Elevator, I was deeply engaged in that kind of work. So, I know how complicated it is. >> So, I want to make sure the board has a has an opportunity to ask any, you know, remaining questions of Mr. Peoples and being sensitive to time. Uh, any top of- mind questions for >> So, I actually got a couple on the agenda. At least my questions are for this Thursday. Um, >> tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow. Yeah, I guess that is tomorrow, huh? Um 1729. Do you Brian and Julie, do you guys use an ERP? [snorts] >> Yes, you guys use P school. That's >> Oh, is this the Alma one?

078>> Um there's a push to get a centralized collection system for the state >> student information. Sorry, >> I was going to say for what? Because an ERP can be just about anything you want it to be, >> right? So that's and those are in some other bills and there's some bills that are coming that are there's some work being done right now is again the data the data is the issue in today's world. We should be able to get information on just about anything. The problem is you got to collect it, >> right? >> And it's not collected the same way in every district. Every district does their own little thing a little bit different. So, one of the one of the things that's come out it's come out of the whole CL I

079mean I keep beating on Claremont. It's terrible. Um but we we we are suffering as a state because of all the Claremont lawsuits. There's been about 16. So I I guess >> it's it's just to come up with a a framework a statewide framework centralized and and some of this has put some pressure on DOE um for that collection of of different data points. >> Okay. So I >> I don't have the bill I don't have the bill in front of me so I can't tell you. >> I would just be careful because an ERP is meant for like resource planning. Yeah. >> Like and not like data analytics and data collection, >> right? E ERP is a catch-all term like AI is a catch-all term. >> Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I I want to

080>> be careful with that. And going back to a comment that you made and what you also just brought up about data collection, um, having done broadscale data analytics and stuff, it it starts out like for me it starts what does the state want for analytics and then understanding and pushing that and then saying all right people here's how it needs to get to us. >> I was at a meeting yesterday and that was exactly what I said. We need to determine exactly what data points we want. Yeah. >> And then we can design a system or or or framework to get to that because a lot of people start with a system over here and that's not how it works. Got to be down got to be in the bug dust. Get rid of

081the bug dust and then and you can move it up into your system. >> Yeah. So that that's a project I have ongoing at work right now is everyone starts their own thing and everyone goes but it doesn't match this >> but I like yours better. So now it's time to centralize. >> And again that that's one of the things I have experience on in my my industrial career. Yeah. >> You know. >> Okay. >> Um I have a SQL database administrator so I understand a little bit about collecting the stuff. >> Okay. So it's Thank you. I appreciate >> Oh, you're welcome. And and again as those things come come through you know I I want to be birectional but often times I may be sitting there making a decision that is contrary to

082what you might think. um only because it even though I represent Lichfield, I'm also representing the state, right? We have we we have to get the job done. And sometimes what's good for one little node or one little town isn't good for the whole state. And we have districts like Manchester that have an excess of 5,000 students and districts in Lichfield, 151. You know, it's and we [snorts] have districts that are much smaller than that. Um, so everything we're doing has to to fit this giant range of things. It's it's it's difficult. So not all decisions not all decisions that I'm going to make will look like they're good for Lichfield, but sometimes they're good for the state and that's good for us, too. >> Um, on another note, so what I'm going to do

083is I'm going to try to get those to you ahead of time. >> Um, I'm going to email them if that's okay. >> Great. you know, so that you that you can as soon as I get an agenda, I'll send it out to you and you see something that you want to comment on one way or another, let me know. >> Um, you all have my contact information. I think >> we do. Yes. >> Um, and this is a standing agenda item, right? So, for our meetings going forward, right, we'll we'll have a legislative update. To the extent you're able to make it, Mr. Peoples, with your schedule, great to if you're not able, we'll it's here and we'll move on. >> I apologize for missing the FIC meeting. I had a meeting at church

084I had to attend yesterday. >> Nope. I completely understood. I got your email. I appreciate the heads up on it. I really do. >> Uh uh you happen to mention CTE. So I was appointed by the by the speaker this week to the CTE advisory council over at the DOE. So you'll be hearing more on that. >> All right. Excellent. >> Excellent. Mr. >> Peoples. No, thank you very much. We appreciate all you're doing for us as well. >> You're welcome. Yeah. >> All right. Uh before moving into the superintendence report, um I'd like the opportunity just to see if the board's willing to let our student representatives uh go home and enjoy the rest of their evening. >> Absolutely. All right. >> Absolutely. [laughter] >> Have a good night. >> thank you. >> Best

085of wishes. Uh and best of luck with your mids. Tom's going to study hard. [laughter] All right. Uh, we'll turn it over to the superintendent to get things started. [music] >> Yeah. Um, I know we want to have the discussion about some budget related items. So, I just left that as a kind of first agenda item. >> I did put a link to the default budget calculations there if we don't have to use that as any launch point. I know Mr. Cutter you. >> Yes. So, Mr. um, please come on up. Right. So, um, just for public awareness and board awareness, right? So, uh, there's been a lot of, uh, email exchange and correspondence with Mr. Oblenus. Um, so just [clears throat] to kind of alleviate some of that back and forth, [snorts] I did

086invite Mr. Oblenus to tonight's meeting where hopefully we can spend 10 or 15 minutes kind of walking through some of the open questions um, and uh, and addressing some of the um, some of the emails that have have triggered this back and forth. Um, Mr. Welcome. Thank you for taking time out of our evening to join us. Um >> I'd like to just note this, you know, a dialogue is helpful. Um without commenting too much, just coming and me commenting without any feedback is part of what creates the difficulty. So I I very much appreciate the opportunity to be here as a part of a dialogue. >> Excellent. Thank you. just to kind of tee things up, um I figured it would be helpful to put together a couple of materials, couple of slides, um

087just for really public awareness, uh and making sure everyone's aligned to what it is we're talking about. >> Um so just uh allow me a [clears throat] couple of minutes to kind of go through this. So, one of the questions that has triggered this back and forth um is regarding our fisc year 25 underspend. Our fiscal year 25 underspend is essentially last year's budget because we're currently in fiscal year 26 and what we're going to the voters on in March is fiscal year 27's budget. So everything that we've been talking about with the with the the the budget committee, all of the meetings that we've been doing for budget preparations really starting in late October have all been regarding fiscal year 27. Okay. Uh all of that information for public awareness is on our district

088website. So it is under um the finance and operations section of our of our website. Uh so under district and finance and operations, you'll see all sorts of archived information. You'll see our current FY27 information out there. You'll [cough] see [clears throat] our current year FY26 out there as well as um many years in past underneath archived information. So this is all public. Uh you'll see MS27 forms which are our formal state submitted forms with that budget that are signed um by various committee members. uh all align to what voters have approved in those respective years at town meeting. So just some some background information there >> and I have gone through all those things. >> I'm I'm sure right. So for fiscal year um the open question was hey you know why did we

089have so much underspend for that particular year right and so the number that we've been referencing in in meetings is we've had 1.4 4 million dollar in underspend for fiscal year 25. The actual that's rounded. The actual number is 1.351, right? So 1,351,000 was the actual number of underspend for fiscal year 25. What that means is what we budgeted for and what the voters approved in our operating budget for that year which was 26,348,136 right is um is is different than what the actual spend of what was which is 25 million197970. So the difference there is that 1,35192 where that underspend occurred in that budget is across various lines within that budget. And so one of the documents that was shared with Mr. Oblenus again is on the website that is really helpful uh and

090is shared with the budget committee in seeing all of the lines with fiscal year 25 data is actually the fiscal year 27 budget, right? Because you see >> the 27 budget, but you also see here's all the 25 fiscal year 25 budget items compared to actual expenses. >> Right. And the challenge is is that document's 109 pages, which I appreciate. It's a lot of information to go through >> and I've been through the whole thing. [laughter] >> So what I've done is I've tried to summarize it, right? And so what you see here is the primary areas of underspend in that budget. 1.328 million of that is related to PAR monitors and salaries, transportation, teacher retirement, professional services, social security, and health insurance. This is a fact, right? If you look at the functions that

091all the underspend is tied to, that's it. Now granted, there are some lines throughout that budget that are over spent. There are some lines there throughout the budget that are underspent. But the main nuts and bolts of where that underspend is is here. Just give me a moment. Sure. The pair and monitor. Where does [cough and clears throat] that show up? In what lines or what category? They'll be in the respective schools. There's a line that is like when you really go into the individual lines, the line is titled PAR moderate salaries. Um, depending on if it's a special ed, PAR professional, it will be a 1200 account, right? Or 1201 functions. Yeah. >> 121 121. If it is a regular red monitor such as a lunch monitor or regular red parah genet parah then

092it will be in an 1100 account. >> Yeah. What I've done is I've gone and taken all the the categories and summarized them. So >> yep >> or so I can see which groups. So that's why I asked which okay. So that's in the 1200. Yep. That I can see that. Yep. >> Okay. So if you go to the next slide, right? So for [clears throat] fiscal year 25, the voters approved our operating budget. So when we go to warrant, right, you'll see two numbers on the warrant. You'll see an operating budget and a default budget, right? And so when we go through the budget process with the budget committee, the discussion is always centered around what that operating budget is, right? And then in addition to that, the business administrator and the administration works

093to put together what that default budget number is and that's presented on the warrant to the voters. But that's a separate budget altogether. So really the voters are given an option of two budgets that are entirely they're they're made up of two totally different um uh calculations of how we get to that bottom line. >> And I understand that. and I fully comprehend what you're talking about. >> Okay. >> My difficulty comes from the transition to the 25 26 budget. [cough] >> We're going to get there. >> Okay. So, for fiscal year 26, the default budget was [clears throat] what the voters voted in, right? So, fiscal year 25 operating budget, fiscal year 26 was the default budget, right? and that was voted 998 to 880. So what is that default budget? That means that

094it's the same appropriations for fiscal year 25 which the voters approved the operating budget for. >> Correct. >> Plus contractual increases. >> Correct. minus any positions that we removed from that operating budget through the through our through our operating budget discussions >> as part of the 26 >> as a part of as a part of the 26 operating budget process. >> So all the contractual increases minus um any of the positions that we removed as a result of that budget process. Okay. So now if we go to the next slide please. This is where um the kind of the highlights are for you, right? So, and this is lifted from what was presented at deliberative and at budget hearing last year uh for what the key drivers were for that operating budget. So the major

095budget drivers as presented to the voters for the operating budget are uh personnel and uh some some additional uh some additional drivers for like out of district tuition, transportation, etc. So from fiscal year 25 operating budget to the fisc year 26 default budget, the increase right there was 1 175 million. So even though the voters handed us or or or voted in a default budget, it still increased our budget by $1.175 million because of the LEA warrant article that was previously approved because of salaries, because of insurance, uh because of our contract with the busing company and transportation, uh etc. >> Yeah, understand that. I I fully okay acknowledge that and that's yeah >> so out of that operating budget for fiscal year 25 the budget process we removed 10 pair of positions and one

096full-time employee from that pos from that budget right so that also was removed from our default budget >> and this is the difficulty I have following knowing what that happened. This is this is my bone of contention. >> Okay. >> And as a for instance, you know, I asked to have the the underspend detailed out and um the slide that you showed the underspend in the 25 [clears throat] >> two slides back. Yeah. >> Uh is that the one there? Yeah. >> All right. So yes, it's in salaries and I understand the transportation. I can see that. I know where that came from. >> Uh but the majority of the u unersspend is in salaries and professional services. And what I was having trouble understanding is specifically why were what was the underspent between the

097budget and the actual the reason I bring it up and I'll use an example because you asked me to go look at it and you know without giving me the details so I did and as a for instance Um, let's see if I can find that sheet. >> So, there's really only like 25,000 missing from the 1351, right? >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> 97% of that is >> that's it. Right. This is the high level summary. And again, there's also across the 109 pages of our budget, right? There's also lines that were over spent. There are some lines that were under spent, but the highle summary. So, but for the positions that we cut, right? So, so we came in under budget, right? Because we had unfilled positions, >> correct? >> But then we cut

098>> positions, correct, >> for the following year's budget. >> So, correct. So, then we cut 10 pair of positions and one full-time employee position as a result of this underspend. And then from the fiscal year 26 budget, right, going into 27, right, we cut an additional three paras and an additional three FTE. So, so of that 1.328 like we made those cuts already. >> So, in the past two years in summary, 17 positions have been removed. >> And that's the difficulty. There's no way for me or actually the budget committee to understand that because it's not been detailed. And I'll give you this is this is the line that I I went and looked at specifically and it's um line 110. It's LMS regular education [cough] and uh this is out of your budget. So

099it had an underspend I should have brought my glasses with me had a budget of FY 2025 of 1,125,380. the actual was 1 million uh 89,866. So that um represented Oh. And then the next year the budget for 26 which is in the default budget increased to 1,174 331. What I then did is say, okay, well, the 2025 under spend was $35,000 in this particular line, and the increase between the uh 25 and 26 [clears throat] was was 4.3%. So, if you then go back to the underspend and add 4.3% to that, you end up with a calculated budget. If all things had remained equal, they would have come out at 1.1 million 337 237 compared to the budget actually was in there of 1,174,000. And so that represents then a difference between what you're

100now proposing of $36,000 out of a million dollars. The reason I'm asking the question is I cannot and and some of the things you're talking about I could understand but I have no way of gleaning what that is. If you go into the budget that you're just talking about, I see this year's total and I [snorts] see the listing of what you did this year, but I can't find or I have no way of knowing what the actual was in the columns. And that's why I was asking for the specifics of the underspend. How many teachers where was where's the difference between what you proposed in that budget and the underspend? And for instance, what it would likely be is that you didn't fill all the positions you budgeted for. >> That is true. >>

101Or you had overbudgeted certain categories by, you know, each one has a potential salary range. You might have had more people at a higher range than you actually did. But I can't see that. I have no way of understanding that. >> We definitely had positions that were not filled as we've reported, right? And then we've also had teachers in some cases leave the district, right? And we might fill those positions at a lower salary rate, right? >> There's a number of scenarios that happen. >> And that's the point that I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to say I want to be convinced that it's you're not carrying excess through the budget. And to that point, all I can see is what you budgeted. I can't see what you actually spent and how it was there.

102And that's all my point. >> Can I pull up this year's default? >> Yeah. like I I think it might be helpful >> and I and I've looked through this year's department my my and we can I appreciate the opportunity to speak to it but I hope you understand as I try to go through and actually glean the specifics between what was the underspend I don't have the ability to get there that that's I see a column that says okay this is what you estimated did. And I can't go in then and say, I don't have actuals. Did this teacher actually spend $87,000 at grade such and such? Did the fifth grade teacher spend 56,300 or was the fifth grade teacher actually expended at $46,000? That's what I am saying is I cannot glean the

103details. And so then if I do the calculation just in that one line of carrying the budget through based upon the actual and then taking the rejection increase that you said I come up with about a $36,000 reduction on on a million dollars. And [snorts] that's why I if in fact the report that I highlighted and asked for in the meeting exists that would be helpful. I don't know if it does and it's it's the one that you know Mr. Harley mentioned at your July 9th meeting that we're prepared to give a detailed assessment of the underspend. >> Yeah. And we have that's what was shared with you but what the superintendent >> so like when we're looking at this year's default for example and this is how we go about setting the default right

104we have this FY26 column right here is our current budget right like the amount of money in that particular line there's about >> so that's for specific positions right >> that particular one that salaries line right here is regular ed this is where the severance pays payouts are and some other that classifies as salary but this is not a specific position this is things grouped together in salary in that particular line. I'll go down to some others here and um and it could be subpay in there. It could be a bunch of other factors in there. Right? If you go into the fund 10, which is a different file, it lists all the details associated with that particular line. Like >> if you can give me one moment, so like FY27 budget, I'm just going

105to go to fun 10, which is everything. >> This is that line I'm I'm referring to. I'll try to zoom in here. Hold on. That first line in the Excel spreadsheet I pulled up is this. This is our expected grade changes, our severance payments, vacation buyback pay, uh admin longevity payments that we're going to pay out. So that first salary line there, that's the detail behind it. Okay. So when we have our default in that particular line this year is 47 um,000 and change. The proposed for next year is 132. Everything that I just showed you in this fund 10 is in people's contracts. So like we have to include that in to our default, right? Because a contractual obligation. You you pay me back for some of my vacation, right? That's the money. Like

106I haven't I didn't take that vacation last year. So you pay it back to me. tutor salaries. It's only a dollar. That's not the greatest example, but we did put a dollar in there in case we need to transfer into that line next year. So, we put a dollar in there, >> but it's not anywhere in FY26 is not necessary. So, it flips to the FY26 amount. The zero amount >> social security, it's a contractual increase, right? Based upon those other items listed in that salary thing, we have to still pay out social security for severance, for other payment types and stuff like that. That line this year has 11,13. It has 14,083 in it. And we go with the higher amount because they're contractual obligations that we kind of have to pay out. All

107right. Try to find a different example with some teachers. >> Well, if you flip back, I I just want to highlight um Brian. So, which for public awareness, I'll just stand up here. It's good to stretch legs anyways. [laughter] >> Right. So, in this report, and again, this is publicly available. You'll see there is a column for fiscal year 25 actual and fiscal year 25 budget >> and this is across the entire report. >> For discussion, can you go to the same line that I was referring to which is on page nine? It is uh it will show the same details >> the 110 >> 7 8 9 regular. >> All right. So 110 regular right here. Right. So we bud if you scroll up just a little bit please. >> Right. So we budgeted

108um 1,125380 and we actually spent 1,89866. >> Y >> that's that's the this is the line or this is the category I I analyzed. Yes. Go ahead. >> So that's it. So in this particular case for fiscal year 25 on this line there would have been uh an underspend. That is that is that is >> it is an underspend. Yes, >> there would be an underspend here and that underspend would have been somewhere in here as a result of >> and yes >> a position >> and what I can't under what I can't glean is I don't see I don't see the actual of those expenditures compared to the budget for 2025. So he's looking at he's looking for a percent a dollar amount in each one of those lines to total that 1 million25

109>> because the underspend is is either in you didn't fill the position that you actually budgeted >> or the position was less paid less than you budgeted. I'm just trying to understand >> he wants the table budget come >> well. So when we're >> in that in because that grouping represents $100,000. So when we're budgeting when we're budgeting based on a filled position like a position that we already have filled, we're budgeting based off of where we know that person's going to be on the scale. I think is your question like if we have an open position where we're budgeting within the scale? >> Well, my question simply is is you you put that budget together for 2025 on an expectation that's what you're going to spend, but you didn't. >> Why? I mean, I

110the answer is probably because we hired someone at a cheaper rate. >> That's what I'm asking for. >> But I think what you're asking for, I won't say is impossible, but we don't run reports that show that detail. >> And in this report, right, all of these numbers in the on the far left column, they're all associated to employee IDs. These are all >> when this report was run, these are all real people. Now, whether these employees are still here or not, I I don't know. Yeah, that's that's that's for the coming year that that's not related to 2025 >> when we pay out salary. So like if we print a report out relevant to this line >> and all the expenditures this line >> we're talking hundreds and hundreds of expenditures cuz it's every

111single paycheck that goes out there. >> I appreciate that more than you can imagine what that would be. >> So yeah, and there's an audit trail for all this. Like what we report on the official reporting documents is like this was the budgeted amount and then this is the actual amount. Like we don't go into on this pay cycle we paid out x amount. Like that level of detail like could you do it but you're talking weeks of work >> that we don't do for state level reporting. So I guess >> because like we accept in our business that like we're going to change our staffing, right? Like you the statute is specific when it comes to budgeting for all this stuff that you budget based on your current salary at the given time, right?

112And that's the numbers you represent in your budgets with the you don't update it as you do the different hiring throughout the spring. >> So if you have a vacancy, it's based off of the last person that filled that position. >> You usually budget a standard amount. So we stand for a teacher, we would budget a vacant position at master 7 with I think a twoperson health insurance. Correct. As like a budgeting placeholder, right? And then you might hire someone less than that. You might hire someone more than that. Like when we cut a vacant position, like if there's a teacher position, we're cutting from vacancy. >> Moneywise, what we're cutting is master step seven with a twoerson insurance. in if we're cutting an actual person, right? Like we've we've reduced this person's which we

113did this year. We reduced by some real people this year. It's the actual salary that that person makes. >> So I think that that kind of helps highlight where there's where there could be some variation that we wouldn't have a known qu like an exact known quantity in the budgeting process. >> And I I'm cognizant of that. Um, I'm not sure we're gonna >> I mean, my concern, Mr. Blooms, and I'm not trying to be difficult. You're asking for level detail that we don't even produce to our auditors, right? Like, so we don't have we can't press a button and run a report that I think is trying to give you the detail you're looking for. >> But, but we're looking at 35,000 bucks out of $1.2 million, right? Well, and I think it's across

114the entire budget, though, right? So, we're talking about one page in this example, but it's across the entire budget at this point. And this was helpful because now I I have a a better appreciation of what >> The question is, right, because it was coming across as you're looking for a report comparing FY25 budget to actual, which is what this is, >> correct? I I'm looking why did the expenditure occur? Where was it? I mean, I did budgets. I had to prepare them. I had to oversee them. I had to manage them and I you know these are the type of when I over I ran or under Iran I had to explain to the detail why and so that's the reason I asked the question. The only reason I'm asking it is is I

115want to have a level of comfort that um that the default budget actually represented what you should be spending because it it increase subseantly over the actual without any adjustment. And that's my point >> and I think this is what we're showing here like we have to like this is LMS salary in a particular section. I I shouldn't look because I don't want to identify a specific person. >> No, don't. >> If you look at this default the middle of the screen right here and look at the salaries, right? There's a change in teacher in this particular position. So we budgeted FY26 at >> where are you pointing to? >> I'm in line 52 right here for an example. >> Right. Yep. >> So this we had we changed over teacher in this particular area

116last year, right? The teacher we had in that position last year, we made a salary of $60,000. The teacher we we hired and then their proposed salary for next year, we haven't passed an LEA contract, so it's pretty easy to get the proposed is 51,765. So we've accounted for that difference in the default. Now there was actually because of the plans right not to get into this person's individual health insurance stuff but even though we switched teacher and save salary the insurance plan for that person is different so it's increased by a little bit so it's contractual increase in that particular category there's a slight increase in dental slight decreases in disability social security teacher retirement those are things are based on salary and other other pieces of of the pie for the particular individual

117this shows you when we make a decision around staffing whether it's to hire hire someone at a more or less expensive rate, whether we reduce by a position, whatever the case may be, we factor into those those the numbers into how we're doing the default budget here. And that's the that's the question that I I'm actually looking for is okay without details and without numbers. Okay, going back to that that line that I had, you had 20 people budgeted >> and a hund it came in a $100,000 difference. It represented three people that you know during the year come in you know just I'm not looking for the detail I'm just looking for context so that I can have a level of comfort that um it was not it was estimated accurately at the time

118and something changed during the year that was accountable and that okay what do you then because of that what did you do in >> and I'm not looking for detail. I just want some level that you and I think >> so 94 is exactly that line we are referencing here on page nine right like middle school regular ed right yeah so >> thank you >> the FY26 what is in this year's budget which is based on a default calculation right is 1,100 it's the highlighted line there it's the 1,174 331 so like if you go to the fund 10 >> it's this budget right there right >> the default what we've actually put in a proposed budget next year because we h I'm I don't want to say who it is out loud. I have

119a pretty good guess on who this is. It's someone who's at a a lower pay rate that we hire, right? The change in that salary is more so because of other but bottom line, we're going to spend in our proposed budget next year less money on that line. So, we don't get to claim the higher line even though that's what was in FY26. we have to put in the proposed one because that's the true contractual value of that line. So when we do these reductions, it is reflected in the default budget >> and this is what we're audited on. Correct. >> This is what we're audited on. Yes. We submit it to the DOE. They have to approve it. >> The DRRA has to approve it. >> Default. >> Yeah. >> So it's not like

120we're just, you know, >> Yeah. In in summary, for me as a taxpayer trying to understand it, if there could be simply a narrative that said this, the majority of these understand because of without the D and I'm looking for individuals, but we had three people changed during the year and we hired them at a lower rate. uh we un unfill positions for such and such. >> I think it's a fair point as we go into our budgeting cycles, right? And as we look at the budget and present to the budget committee, right, in the narratives of these budgets, is there an opportunity to provide that type of commentary on why >> I don't mind produc producing some additional commentary, but we have to understand the limits here. >> Agree. you know, like like and

121it's just frankly time and people like we have one BA and one accountant. Like >> completely agree. But for like big items, and I'm not saying for like $50, right? But for those big items where there's a big swing, right? Yes, this is a result of three teachers and whatever the reason might be. >> And that's all I'm asking because there's this talk about, well, we cut three teachers. Okay, that's great. But what how does that compare to what you did last year, you know? So now we have I'm not looking for the world. I'm looking for some context that I can understand it. >> It's a fair point. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Yeah. >> And I appreciate and I'll stop there. I think that's sufficient for the for the moment. >> All right. Thank

122you, Mr. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh transitioning back over to the superintendent. Uh, was there anything else you wanted to cover off for default budget? >> No, I was just using that as a reference so I could find it easily. >> So, now we have GMS. >> So, I just want to update um the board on GMS projects. Um, obviously we're not moving it forward for a vote in March. Um, but that doesn't mean we're we're not continuing to do work on it. Um, so probably just go back chronologically because it's easier for me to remember. Um, yesterday we met with um Haramman and Harvey. um Julie and I did to kind of start to talk about um what the next steps in our work is going to be as we kind of

123move forward. Um so we're going to outline a calendar of if you can remember back to their presentation they mapped out like by week like how they're going to do the different steps and everything. Um so they're going to do a a calendar for now until the March vote you know um next year you know and the work and schedule of everything that we're going to do between now and then. Obviously, you know, um full transparency, they have other projects that will be on other warrants, you know, so we'll take a little bit of a back seat >> um in the next month as they kind of finish off some things with other districts. >> Um and then probably after March, um you know, they'll take stock of where they're at and shift some focus

124back to us from in terms of just the the work that that we're getting done with them and stuff like that. Um, our plan is to continue to work with them, um, using kind of the option 1B, I guess, is the best way, as kind of the baseline and then start having dialogue about fine-tuning that proposal in terms of the the classroom spaces and the um, site work being done and the different layouts and what is necessary and what necessary and like start to have more of that dialogue of what we want to keep in there, what we not want to keep in there when it comes to cost, educational needs, and everything as a factor of that. Um, we've asked them using the on-site insight report as kind of the baseline to legitimately price

125that out. They had given us some rough estimates just for dialogue purposes, you know, as we were going through the fall here. But we want to make that comparison point. I think it's important to have that price point in terms of just repairing that building as is, what is the cost to that compared to anything else that you you would do with it. And then like the board wanted and now we have time to really get down to all those nitty-gritty details about what everything's going to cost, right? Like this would be the flooring we use. It's going to cost this by square foot. This is where it would go and all those level of details. >> Um we talked about reaching out uh to the community post March vote this year. We don't want

126to confuse people and get too in the weeds talking about uh something on the ballot in 27 when there's stuff on the ballot in 26. Um, so maintaining the website, maintaining the information that's out there, connecting to the pro, uh, the project, postmarchch vote, um, possibly send something out to the community to remind people where we are at in the process. Um, using Emily, their PR person, as kind of the point person to help us craft all of that. She's actually working on something for us to have um, Saturday when we are at the resource fair, you know, with the town. So, >> um, >> do we do we have an opportunity at the March vote to use to gather information? >> Well, I think that's one of the things like what does the board

127want, right? Like this >> I think it's an opportunity because, >> you know, we talked at FIC that we have >> the ability to get that much >> exposure. Yeah. So, we talked about this at the FIC last night and the real question is what are we trying to gather? >> Agreed. And so I mean the one theory put out there is would you support a $29 million project, right? Or X millions, right? Because account for inflation and construction prices increases. It's not, you know, it's not 29 anymore. It's going to be higher. >> It was 32, but they had they thought that there was options to bring it down. It would taken out the site work and that stuff. So 32 35, right? It's going to be more. Well, I think I think what

128my what I'd be curious about like at this current juncture, what I'd be curious about is, you know, what what is the general feel towards, hey, we found out this number uh it was 32. I'm also curious like we were about to make a unilateral decision to cut out the site work like right is that do people even want like would you want to spend 29 and then have us have to figure out how to get the rest of it done and have not a fully baked out project like [cough] just some stuff that we were going to make decisions on. >> Right. So, and I think through the FIC we kind of talked through that and I think some of this other detailed pricing and other variants we wanted to get that information so

129then we could present that information at that time with that way we could bound it with here's your repairs only done by the construction company that's going to do it versus option 1B and then here's the things that we talked about that could be possible multiple variance thereof. >> I do think you need to do a survey at some point when you have that. And I would do it before the end of the school year. Maybe not March, but end of the school year where it's still on people's minds. I mean, March is not ideal. I just am thinking that like there's not a ton of opportunities where you have that many people coming out. >> I would love that to be a part of like a communitywide communication again. Yeah. Right. And have a

130QR code to a to a survey or something like that. Yeah. >> Um, but I think getting that information before the school year ends because will be critical, right? Like people leave for the summer, they're not focused on what school is and we can't it's going to be too late to do it in September, right? Like >> March is too soon. We talked we did talk about this last night. I think it's still everything's still. >> Yeah. I mean, it's it's >> I mean, we can work with with Harman and Harvey for specifics, but I I would like another look, attendance may not be great, but another community forum, right? like another time for people to come out in person and ask questions, right? And I thought there was good questions with the last one

131that we had, you know, um maybe like a again we continue to offer those, get a little bit more each time. >> Is there an opportunity then if we're not gathering information, is there an opportunity for us to produce something that's giving just a little bit, you know? >> Well, we were talking about maybe doing I can't remember who I had this discussion with. It could have been Julie. It could have been Arman. I've had a lot of discussions. I apologize. Doing a one pager that we mail out in the spring, right? like >> I'm just thinking about I'm thinking about you know again in March there's going to be a lot of people walking by >> is there you know even like a >> even just something like that's like a hey just for

132your awareness like >> this is where we're at with this like I know we talked about doing that but I'm just I'm just thinking about the fact that it's not often that we have that much exposure guaranteed exposure >> so maybe not even gathering information maybe just something that's justformational that's just like very like hey just so you know because now we're going to we can make put them on alert that We're going to be looking for more, you know, hey, this is where we're at. There's something is still going on and we're going to be looking for more information. >> I guess the one pager that Emily is working on for Saturday, is there a way for March that we might be able to take that modify that to say >> I was thinking

133that. Yeah. >> It is basically saying here's the one pager that >> and then it's going to look at we are planning another forum, another survey, you know, on mailers, right? Like I would love to do not just the mailer for the survey, but just like a mailer, you know, your one pager that you send out come the new school year. Here's where we are with the project. We are going to push that forward going into 27. So I that that would be my thing to try to bridge that because we're going to try to get that for Saturday anyway. >> Yeah. >> I it's it's it's an opportunity that we should capitalize in some way, shape, or form. Yeah, I agree. I like that idea. >> This year's a midterm election. >> Yeah. November.

134>> It's a November. >> Yeah. [snorts] So, working on that, continue to work with them. Um, we're working on the contractual piece. We'll provide [clears throat] those to the board once Legal's gone through it all to continue the work. Um, and what um costs are associated with continuing the work. We didn't get close to our cap on money for what we had taken out of the warrant. So there may not be a need to take additional money out. There might be. We'll see what we come back with. But >> do do you happen to have that number on the off the top of your head of what we spent so far versus what what was approved last year? >> Julie, can you look it up? >> I know we approved 225. >> While Julie's looking

135that up, just to continue. >> Um we met with bond council as well um who will continue to work with us for next year as well. The nice thing um with Renell who we're working with with that is most of the all the work that she's done thus far can carry over to next year because it was all preliminary work. We hadn't actually gone out to to the banks yet to do any of that and a lot of hers is just setting stuff up. Um so she carries over that work. No changes in costs at this time for bond count. So she bills us at the end um of it all. So um we'll continue forward with that as well. So, so far, um, we have expense $76,24.88. Um, and I have a invoice actually

136that we're just about to pay that was $3,1. >> So, there's a lot of money in there still. >> Correct. >> Yeah. Hopefully, um, with that, we should be okay. >> Yeah, we're hoping they're, you know, they want to continue to work with us. We want to continue to work with them. So, um, >> thank you. You're welcome. >> That's uh that's where we're going. Okay, more to come. >> More to come. [laughter] >> Time for some catchup on this agenda here. >> All right. Uh, we have some warrant articles we do need to revote uh this evening. Specifically, warrant article 1 and seven. Uh, good night. Thanks. uh there was some language changes and some updates uh in the budget committee revoted specifically article one and article 7 uh and at the budget hearing

137um last week and we mentioned that the the school board would be voting tonight or revoting tonight on these articles. >> Do we have to reread them again? >> Uh we should. Yes. So I can uh I can take that action since you want to. >> By all means go right ahead. >> Okay. So, article one uh and it's on the screen here as well reads the [clears throat and snorts] average cost per pupil for the preceding year as calculated in accordance with RSA 189751A is $21,174 ELA proficiency 58% math proficiency 41% science proficienc proficiency is 32%. Shall the Lfield School District vote to raise and appropriate as an operating budget, not including appropriations by special warrant articles and and other appropriations voted separately the amount set forth in the budget posted with the warrant

138or as amended by the vote at the first session for the purposes set forth herein totaling 28,431,538. Should this article be defeated, the default budget shall be 28,72,731, which is the same as last year with certain adjustments required by previous action of Listfield School District or by law or the school board may hold one special meeting in accordance with RSA 4013 10 and 16 to take up the issue of a revised operating budget only. Majority vote required. Uh the operating budget has an estimated tax impact of 23 cents. The default budget has an estimated tax impact of 5 cents. This was recommended by the budget committee by a vote of 72. >> I'll make a motion to recommend. We have a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Dwit. Additional discussion. >> All those

139in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Abstained. That carries 40. That uh we're going to jump down to article 7. Uh so again, article 7 requires revote this evening. Uh, article 7 is the employee benefits non-C capital reserve fund. Uh, there was some updates because it does include the word non- capital uh, which is aligned to the RSA uh, and specifically the the change from 2022 to 2023, which was a typo. So, allow me to read. Shall the Lichfield School District vote to raise and appropriate up to a sum of $50,000 to be added to the employee benefits non- capital reserve fund established in March of 2023 for purpose of funding the payment of negotiated employee benefits including but not limited to health insurance reimbursements changes in coverage or policies chosen by employees

140severance benefits and such other benefits as are from time to time negotiated and become contractual obligations of the district with this sum to come from the June 30th fund balance available able for transfer on July 1st of this year with no additional amount to be raised for taxation. Majority vote required. Estimated tax impact is zero. Uh this was recommended by the budget committee by a vote of 81. >> I'll make a motion recommend. >> We have a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Duet. Additional discussion. >> All right. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Opposed? Abstained. That carries 4. And uh just a special thank you to the administration for all your help on the warrants this year. [cough] [snorts] >> Uh well no that'll be part of your release

141report. Something else will >> signing them. >> We'll get to that forms. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> That's it for one articles that we have for that part. >> All right. We have cyber response plan. >> So we talked about this last time. I said I just would share it with the board. Um just if anyone goes clicks on it publicly, it is not a public document. So that's why you can't access it. Um it's protected by RSA that we don't make our emergency plan public if someone hacks into our system. So strange. >> So like there's not a mistake. Uh it's protected. Um and we don't share that out for everybody. But for the board, you do have a piece to it, notification piece. So um please let us know. It's still in draft form.

142Like I mentioned last time, we'll be working with the Adam group to finalize it um in the month of February. So >> great. I did read it and it looks, you know, pretty thorough and aligned. So >> friends done a nice job with it. Yeah, it's just a matter of you know for those incidents you know what is the is there a mechanism in place for proper submission and reporting. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. Uh we have the resource fair. So I know we were just talking about that a moment ago. >> Yeah. I was hoping to have a presentation linked here but I'll be frank I I I don't have it in any form yet to share with anybody. Um we have a resource fair this Saturday uh hosted by the veterans

143group uh as well as the town. It'll be at Campbell High School from 10 to 2. Uh the superintendent and myself will be there. Um all are welcome certainly and there'll be a number of groups and organizations. I know Mr. Peoples has talked about it as well at least at the beginning. Um there'll be a number of groups and organizations there. So it should be it should be a good event. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. 10 to two. Come visit us. um is we're going to highlight some um information about GMS. We're going to highlight just some general information about the school. Is there anything the board would like us to uh touch on um beyond general information on the GMS project? Obviously, we'll answer questions as people come around and stuff like that, but none

144off the top of my head. >> Yeah, I think that much I think we have it out there. Yeah, I didn't know if there's anything in particular. It's we got we're good. Yeah, no mystery turf project. >> I'm sure there will be people there will be questions being asked. >> There will be. And like I said before, Emily's working on a a little resource for us to to make it look fancy and nice. >> That's great. I look forward to seeing that. >> Yep. >> All right. Um, anything else? >> I do not have anything else. >> That's it. All right. We'll turn it over to business administrator Darling tonight. >> All right. Also, um I did want to talk about the school expenditure report to voters as we touched upon a little bit earlier.

145Um we did [clears throat] have um a presentation for the budget hearing last week um in which we um displayed the report that we had planned to um post for um for voters on school expenses. Um and it had um just the raw date I mean I'm sorry just the adjusted for inflation um line as we had interpreted previously with um other um business administrators across the state. There's also um with regard to the way that the um law interprets an administrator. It lists specific positions that they that constitutes an administrator. Um there are a lot of conversation amongst BAS with regard to there's a one graph um that is the average administrator salary but then there's a table for the top administrator salaries and I think that the agreement that we had all kind

146of came to was that the administrator um salaries would be like would be the any administrator that is listed in the law. So it would be superintendent. Um they had assistant superintendent which we do not have in our district. Um there was other u director of um diversity and equity which we do not have for our district. So we would only be including on the graph specifically the administr administrators that were um mentioned in the law. But then we have a table for the top administrator salaries and for that we included the top administrator salaries for our district, right? Regardless of whether or not those administrators were mentioned in the law because we want to be transparent that those were the top four paid. Um now we are learning again all of these things are

147kind of changing because um attorneys have been become involved um and you know people are seeking guidance understandably about this and so now our the advice from our attorney is that we should only be including um the administrators that are listed specifically. So it does change the information on one of the graphs as well as the table. But the other piece that I was surprised about was that um in the law it does um specifically say that the statistics that you have on the graphs have to be adjusted for inflation. Um so we just had that one line. Um what we're now learning is that other districts have started using both the raw data so the actual numbers so you can see the comparison between that and the inflated numbers. Um, I did not think

148initially that that was going to be permissible. I don't think a lot of it business administrators thought that that would be permissible, but now that seems to be um what other local districts are doing. So, [laughter] >> so Ray help >> it changes a little >> back to our earlier discussion [laughter] said two slides. >> Yeah. Do do they I I didn't read the law, but like did they say what they proposed the value of this is? Like >> cuz we're not it's not like like what's the value in this? >> The the value is to the to the taxpayer. >> What though? >> Transparency. >> Okay. But like transparity are the watch words of the the house. >> But but shouldn't there but like shouldn't there be some context? Like what does this actually

149mean? Like so I look at it's like okay well the superintendent has paid that, right? Okay, great. Well, like >> why does that matter in isolation? Like >> if if I compare it to, >> you know, a cohort, then maybe it makes sense. But like to to look at it in isolation, it's like, okay, so if you're someone that makes $30,000 a year, you might say, >> wow, he makes a ton of money. But like in reality, for the amount of work he does, like in probably I haven't looked at other districts lately, but compared to other districts, like quite frankly, we're probably underpaying him. So like, >> you know what I'm saying? Like I just don't say that. [laughter] Like I'm just I mean >> I can only tell you that the purpose the

150purpose is accountability and transparency. >> It's purpose is to show the graph go up and show costs going up. >> But I mean I guess I guess >> it's only a test and if you could do a graph yes >> thanks. >> I guess I just to me it's like you know we're if if if these are like some sometimes where I think there's a little bit of a disconnect like someone said oh it's transparency but it's like okay well cool. So, we've made them do a bunch of work and I I just don't see the value of like what this is. >> Yeah. I mean, I think you're right. Right. You know, for the average resident who doesn't follow along, this is not going to mean anything, right? Okay. >> But I do think

151in terms of relative to our surrounding towns, to our cohorts, if you know there was some type of comparison, I do think that's more meaningful data, at least for us as a board. Well, especially when you look at our look at warrant our warrant article that now has to have this like extraneous ridiculous language at the beginning of it that makes no sense. >> I appreciate the transparency, but specifically uh relative to the warrant article I just read, that language added to that warrant article has no bearing on that warrant article [snorts] whatsoever. It makes no sense, right? So, you know, >> except for except for the fact that now you're also highlighting like, okay, like I mean, if you look at it, it's like our proficiency looks like we are a bunch of morons.

152So, so now it's like, well, why vote for the budget? because we just have a bunch of morons anyways like that it's just crazy >> even though our English proficiency is above the state average >> again it's now in comparison to state in our in our cohorts and you know but they're not getting that picture so >> I think that would have to be part of the voter guide >> to make that even a thicker document >> right [laughter] >> sorry >> um >> you had something you want to say to that I mean I did >> well no really just you flip the other side of that is you know um a lot of people are asking for that information. They want to know what proficiency is. They want to know that the public

153school systems are producing the the talented individual children that they expect. >> And and I don't disagree. I'm not saying we should hide the information, but what I'm saying is there needs to be context to it. It's like >> watch some of the debates. I encourage you to to in the evening like I do sit and watch some of the some of the stuff. you just go to the general court on YouTube and you can go watch some of these hearings and see the people that have testified, see the people that put the bill in. Um what what the sponsors are are are looking to accomplish. I mean it it'll bore you tears, I guarantee it, [laughter] but um it's it's a nice night. >> You need to catch Stranger Things, Mr. keep us. [laughter]

154>> You know, the stranger thing about all that is I actually go watch the other committees because you have to vote on all the bills. So, when I can I watch uh for only an hour today, I watch the education policy and administration folks, you know, they've got some bills coming up. >> Well, all for transparency, right? We um >> Yeah. >> You know, absolutely. in the budget hearing this year. That's not that was certainly wasn't required, but we do we do want to certainly make this information available to the extent that we can. >> So these um the postings have to be um it's very specific. Um there has to be two 18 by 24 pages that need to be um displayed. So I guess I'm just asking which version you would prefer to

155use. >> Look, I I think the version that you've already produced that we that we presented to budget hearing, I think is what to go with, right? It's um I think it meets the intent again the spirit in the letter of what the the law was stated and our in our interpretation of that. It's what was presented at budget hearing and uh and that needs to get posted by tomorrow. Correct. >> Uh Friday is the deadline, but yes, I'm going to post it tomorrow. Um I guess I was just because of the information we received from our attorney. I wasn't sure if you wanted >> Julie's a little more worried than I. I think [laughter] like >> it's only going to be you that's hauled off in here >> trying to do the right thing.

156That's >> I think our we are trying to do the right thing, right? Like >> but that right thing changes every day. >> You have to post them by Friday. >> Yeah. >> Right. >> I would post them both. >> Well, that's right. Because then >> that's the other part, right? You can't include additional information on these. So, >> it's so specific on what you can actually post. >> You can have an additional page though. So, that one thing I do have um linked here is just if if you're interested in doing that, just to provide a little bit of context. Um we can post something. >> How much time is it going to take you to do the other one? >> It's already done. >> It's done. >> I Yeah, I can. >> If

157it's done, then post >> I think she's thinking about that page. You're talking about doing these graphs with both. >> Okay. >> Um so, yeah. So I I I just created basically um another page if you wanted to post that next to it that explains where this information is coming from, why it is presented the way it is. Um you know just a little information about each of the the graphs >> if you wish to email. >> What email? >> Will of the board. What do you think? Just post it all. >> I think we should post it all. >> Send you an email. Post it all. That's fine. >> Post it all. >> Yep. >> All right. Will the board post it all? >> Post it all. Okay. All right. >> Yeah. Thank you.

158All right. Um and then the only other thing I had was just a very brief solar update. I've kept the solar usage information. I'll just continue to keep that on there so that people can access it. >> Um and there is a we do have a meeting scheduled. Um Jan and I will be meeting um with with with Kay on Friday so we can get some of those um questions answered. >> Yeah, I plan on sending out an email if I don't get to it tonight. tomorrow about here's the information I'm kind of looking for just that way she has time to or they have time to get it together and present it >> and now that we're kind of getting towards the end of January I'd like to see if we can solidify a

159date for the path storage unit like when's all that taking shape >> yes and I did ask um about the trees there was some question about how much clearance had to be provided so she gave me that information she said it's about 15 ft that she thinks is actually going going to have to be cleared um with rings and whatnot, but she doesn't think there's going to have to be a lot of actual tree removal, but that will all have to be, you know, the past the building inspector will have to make sure. >> Are they going to take care of the removal of the trees or is that going to fall on us? >> No, they have to. They Yeah, they are taking care of all the site work. That's all on dynamic grid.

160Okay. >> Um yes. Um so that is all I had for my report. Um I do have the DRRA forms. The one form I don't have ready for you to sign um is the um warrants and that's because I needed to have you vote on those tonight. So um I can have those provided. Um I we do have to have all of these posted on Monday so I can have them available and I can email the board um when they're available if anyone's able to come by. If this is easier, we can have them here. Um or if you prefer to come by the school, whichever is easier. >> Just let us know when they're ready. They don't have coffee here, so I'll >> That's true. Okay. So, it is um and I did attach

161um the the three forms that um we need to have signed and posted um by Monday is the deadline um per the DRRA. Um the first one is the MS-27, which is our operating budget. Um that's just for your review, but the budget committee actually signs that. Um obviously, Mr. Carter, if you'd like to sign that, you're more than welcome to. Um and then the default budget I do have um prepared for you tonight and that can be the school board or the budget committee. So if anyone would like to sign that um I can pass that around. Thank you. Um and that was all I had. >> All right. Excellent. So we'll uh we'll move forward while those go through signatures and we'll turn it over to curriculum and Dr. Taylor. >> All right.

162>> We miss you. >> Thank you. I know. >> Which one did I say? >> So, um, Superintendent Okonnell, can you please plug in >> to show our amazing infographic? So, I know on the, um, >> uh, student rep report, they touched on the sustainability showcase. Um, but I wanted to talk about it a little bit more because I went [clears throat] to it today and the work that the seventh grade [snorts] students and Miss Peterson put in was nothing short of phenomenal. Um, so the students in seventh grade um were learning a lot about just a lot of just different various environmental topics. So, um, Miss Peterson gave them a choice of, um, four different broad range topics to choose from. So, they got the, um, pollution impacts, agricultural and land use, species and

163biodiversity, and global impacts. So, obviously within each of those four categories, there's a lot of different um, things that students could delve deep into to research. So they chose different topics that were kind of passion to them, researched, they went out and they interviewed different community members. Some interviewed people from UNH, local businesses um and then they put together these there's an example of a project um there. So they put together a visual presentation in a variety of different ways. However, they felt would showcase what they learned the best. Some developed a website. Some developed some games that you could play. Some developed these like um trifold that you would see like a a um science fair to go along with their um slide deck. Um, and then today in the library, they were all

164set up and they had different classes come through. So, they had to talk to their peers and answer their questions. They also had to talk to other adults such as myself, Superintendent Oonnell came, other teachers, and then they also had to present to other outside community members like other family members that came. And as you can see, they had 300 um student visitors that they needed to speak to and they had 42 parent visitors along with various educators and there were 22 projects showcased. I learned a lot about fast fashion and then we have the um forever chemicals that are in food, plastic waste in the ocean, climate change, ozone. There was just an abundance of information and these students had voice, they had agency, they chose how they were going to format all of

165this. Um, it was phenomenal and just really wanted to highlight all of the great work that is happening in our district and so proud of these students and they should be proud of their work and Miss Peterson for putting this all together. And they also had Panera. So Panera at the end of the day, at the end of the night, will throw away their food that they don't sell that day because they don't do leftovers. So they went to Panera and got that food donated to wonderful >> serve to people that came today. So really showing how you can recycle and um not have added waste. So >> maybe um just an idea, not that I don't like your presentation because I do, but maybe an idea would be to have a couple of students

166or some of the students come and present to us. >> Oh, I like it. >> Yes, absolutely. And this >> hear the fast fashion >> fast fashion. I was obviously all over that. I was like, okay, what is fast fashion? So, but um this is something that I just um Amy Provincial actually put this together for me. Thank you, Amy, for doing that. and Karen Dejan came and got the numbers because >> it was just so phenomenal today that I needed to showcase that >> tonight. So, I love to have a couple of students come and talk about their experience. >> Um, and along with Miss Peterson hopefully if she could make it cuz like this is the stuff that this is what we're doing. This is what we're here for, right? is to get

167students passioned and there were a lot of, you know, the some of these topics could not like if you're just standing there talking at students about it, they're just like, "Yeah, whatever." But just really engaged and enthusiastic and that was just emanating in the library today. >> Well, and also it speaks to the class itself, which is a newer class in our district, right? And so it'll be great to hear kind of voice of the students, if you will, and how that's going. >> Yeah, we can get Well, Jen left, but yeah, we'll get a couple. >> Absolutely. It's just so exciting. I'm so excited to um talk about that and commend all the work that went into that. So yeah, we'll um work on that. And then the next the last thing to I

168know they also touched upon it with Griffin last night. We had our title one um family math and literacy game night. Um, it was so again, these are things that just like fill your cup, you know, like every day you're I'm looking at data. I'm doing grants, doing all this stuff. And then when you actually get to see the kids come in, we had a pajamas and hot cocoa night. So they came in in their PJs with their families and we had some refreshments and hot chocolate and then we had all the learning games that they are playing in their title one groups and the students are teaching their parents and grandparents and siblings how to play these games. And then we made take-home packs so that they got to they went to a table

169and they had a journal and they had books to choose from and math games to bring home. So then they can increase and hone their skills at home as well. So it was just a really fulfilling night to see. And we had um about 17ish families come through with siblings. So we had a nice um full cafeteria. of students and families and it was just it was wonderful evening. So I was >> great update. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any questions for Dr. Taylor? Were there any other updates? >> No, I do have some but we had a packed agenda. So >> we do tonight. Yes, >> We will table them. >> Okay. All right. [laughter] Thank you. >> Uh we have our annual meeting. Right. So this is coming up here in

170preparation for town meeting in March. and preparation. We have our deliberative on January 31st and and all that's going into those preparations. Um I know the superintendent and the business administrator have started to put together some slides. So thank you again for your support with [clears throat] that. >> Yep. >> And as we do annually uh we kind of go through the slides itself and divvy them up. >> Yeah, we're uh working on this. We're probably like 95% of the way done uh based upon your feedback tonight. Um Julie's updating literally a slide as we're sitting here. [laughter] So uh but first is deliberative. Um uh usually the chair, at least the chair last year, uh Mr. Cutter did this slide that talks about who's on it. >> Um and [clears throat] then the budget

171chair um talks about who's part of the budget committee >> and then last year the moderator or I guess not last. It's true. moderator reads the actual slide uh or the article and then we have budget committee do their highlights and then budget committee with the summary uh and then this is where we take we had uh budget chair from last year do this. Is this still appropriate to do the budget chair with the major drivers? Is this all budget chair the first? >> Well, so this was lifted from the budget hearing last year and so I would anticipate lifting it from budget hearing this year. Right. So whatever the main slides were in the budget hearing. >> Yeah. So we updated here. This is updated with the information. >> That's the same information. >>

172Yeah. Right. >> Yep. And then budget chair chair wait budget committee chair presents it. Correct. >> That's correct. Yes. Yeah. So chair present these slides align to what was presented um in the budget hearing and then the following slides once we get into the specifics. >> Yeah. So this is the details. Correct. This is in process of being updated. No one look at these numbers yet. [laughter] Right. So, this is something that I will then take over and present and talk to you about, you know, the differences in revenues, the differences in in in some of our grants and then the tax rate impact. >> Yeah. So, we have the three different and then the revenue comparison year over year. Same slides from last year updated with this year's numbers. Um, >> yeah. And we

173can get rid of the 24 column from that one. >> Yeah. We're going to shift it over one to have all them and it's to have 27 and stuff like that >> in the elementary land row then. >> Yep. And then this one is fund balance return to taxpayers. Just again update where we're at for all that. >> Perfect. >> Okay. And that's all you. We'll leave you there on the bottom. Right. >> Do you will will you [cough] >> I don't know if it's necessary, but will you mention like when we talk about fund balance return >> um you know we're continuing to try to move towards an actual budgeted number and I don't I don't know that people necessarily understand why that is like why you even budget for something like that or

174why we're setting it at 200 where it's been you know a million but it might be worth kind of highlighting that in terms of stabilizing tax rates and stuff. >> Yeah. Yeah. And we can talk about, you know, if we're if we're ending our year at the 98% expense or spent rate, right? That's really a win for us, right? We never want to be at 100%. Right? But we always want to be just under that at 98% as a target is a great great percentage to be at. And within our budget, we um we we do budget 200,000 to return to the taxpayers to offset um the the tax rate and to level out tax rate setting as much as we're able. Article two, LEA contract. Um, this is it. This is the article. Moderator

175reads it. Um, again, match. We had LSSA up last year, so we tried to match the same slides, just updated on this one. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> Yeah, we figured you negotiated. So, part of it goals and negotiation, same thing. Competitive salary shift to school care 1.20 20 and some language changes is what are we accomplished. Um and then the increase of the summaries the year one increases broken down by the three main categories. So to get to that number >> and >> you guys have access to this. So if as you read through if you want provide anything else let us know. >> Three is just moderator Perry. >> Yep. And it's just the special meeting. >> Yep. >> And then four is the baseball field. Um we had t um >> when

176we presented this to the board in November, we had people [clears throat] come up and speak to it. >> Um I think some of those people want to speak again, you know, of the baseball field. Um we can work on organizing that side of things. So we did put kind of this is the article and we did put kind of a placeholder here with the actual letters of the people who wrote them and stuff like that, but some of them might actually want to speak if you're comfortable with that to kind of speak of of coach Gorm and stuff. Yeah, that's great. And um Mr. Plansky, I put your name on this one, right? I know you knew uh Coach Cororum, right? Had a >> an awareness of him more so than any of us

177did, right? So, if you wouldn't mind just taking this article and reading it. >> Sure. Of course. Great. >> All right. Argo 5 building maintenance. Um again, the article for the moderator. Uh very similar to the slide. I think it's literally the same slide we presented last year because not a ton has changed with it. >> Yeah. So again, it's just talking about the on-site insight reports again as a reminder, right? And what we're saving for. So I did get up and speak a little bit about this at the budget hearing. It's really the same comment, right? >> Can you there's a plan for this. >> Can you also drive home I think this is a good place to drive home why we're doing this from taxation. >> Yeah. >> You know, I think that

178we really need to highlight for the community that >> you you want things maintained. you need to budget to maintain things and that's you know been an active goal >> and it saves you money to do it this way. Right. >> Right. Yeah. >> But but you know it's important for people to understand like we I think there's still a lot of confusion around no no impact you know no impact or raising it through taxation. I think it's important for people to understand that like we are act taking an active approach to budgeting. Well, I think the other key thing to mention and and I don't know that the community it would be hard to to to pitch this so the community understands, but the community already voted this, >> Right. This current year, right?

179And they've already agreed to the to the increase in taxes for this. >> So what this is, we're already paying for this as taxpayers and we've already agreed to this 12 increase. This is just carrying it forward another year. It's not a net new additional 12 cents to what we're already paying. It's saying we've already agreed to this 12 cents in the current [cough] year for taxes. We just want to continue that, not [clears throat] raise and appropriate another 12 cents. >> Right. So, the next slide kind of shows that we passed it last year. This is and the fund balance that kind of runs with it. We put 325 in here because that's what we had last year. I don't know if you want us to just go to 250. >> No, I think

180we should keep it at 325 because if you look at the CHS roof and the estimates, we need to get to that 2.1 number somehow. Yeah. >> Right. So at at >> with everything going on, I know we kept it at 250 this year, but I do think starting next year, we do need to look at that. >> Yeah. >> Doesn't mean we push it back one year. >> We can, right? I mean, >> we're in the window of life expectancy, right? Like anywhere between 25 and 30 years. And we're in that window [clears throat] 25 to 30 years right now. We're not having any significant issues with the roof. So like we're good. Um, but like that gets just to year 30 of the roof, the fiscal year 31, if >> that makes sense.

181[snorts] >> All right. Article six is capital improvements expendable trust moderator. And then looks like Matt, you got drafted for this one. >> Sure. >> This I didn't know what how much you wanted to this is uh we didn't have this last year. So, we're targeting GMS project for it. I don't know if we want to talk about GMS here. If you want >> Well, I just think we talk about the needs. >> Yeah. >> Right. At GMS. >> I think we just have to clarify what the difference between capital improvements trust fund versus building like I think that's the biggest thing is like just one point on >> the purpose on there. >> If we can put the purpose on there >> past materials, right? So, it's just Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, we

182might find >> be able to highlight the difference of like because I think a lot of people get confused by what this is for. >> So, we might I would appreciate feedback if you have suggestions on this slide on on what you want in here and stuff like that. So, >> I think the the purpose would be >> Yeah, we'll add the purpose. >> I could Are you not coming to this? >> It was the 31st. >> Yeah. >> I should be able to make it. >> Is it in your calendar yet, Matt? >> I think Are you on number eight? >> I put it on my own calendar. [laughter] Thank you. >> All right. Argo 7 employee benefits uh non-capital. You >> put me on anyway. >> We got to add you in. >>

183Well, put you put So, put >> So, I'm out. [laughter] >> No, put Dan on that one because Dan's been doing the FIC stuff. [clears throat] >> Uh >> I mean, not that I don't mind taking it, but that seems like >> this one. Article six. >> Yeah. >> I don't want people to think [snorts] we don't let Dan talk. Um, seven is the employee benefits, not capital article to 50,000. And then looks like Matt, you got drafted for this. Um, >> someone really likes me for this round. >> That's fine. I can do that one. >> We did, you know, the budget committee asked us to show the difference between the two. >> That's perfect. No, this is >> Yeah. So, they separate the two out with the with the money it's kind of

184associated with in there. So, >> that's a good idea. >> Um, and then the technology. I know this uh >> that's what it is. We did add a little bit. We asked Brendan after the last budget committee to show us what some e cost of some emergency items would be that are technology related because at this point while we're working on that 5-year plan for technology, any access really would be for emergency stuff in terms of tech. So, these are some costs associated with it. So, people have an idea of what this stuff costs because I certainly don't. >> Looks like Peter, you got drafted for this one. [laughter] >> Okay. Um and then summary of the one articles with tax impacts and the total for there. Um and then summary of ones that have

185no additional tax impact but what is associated with them. So the first two are no money is attached to them but then the other ones um uh would be money shifted into the reserve funds and stuff. And then the last slide is just a reminder to come vote. Cool. >> I will be there all day. >> Great. >> Excellent. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. >> How long does this deliberative meeting? >> Um, you know, look, [laughter] I mean, >> I think this year we can plan on an hour, maybe an hour and 15 or so. >> Planning purposes. That's all. >> Buckle up for next year, though. >> Yeah. Next year will be >> I will clear my Q1 Q2 calendars. I thought they were going to do us in the morning and

186then uh the town in the afternoon. >> They're on two different days now. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, it's I think the town lawyers had >> It is legal usually connected to legal. Yeah. >> So, um >> yeah, we took the first date actually in January the 31st. >> Um so, those are slides. The rest are just kind of just reminders. We haven't changed from the agenda, the legal timeline for all this, different posting dates. Um draft warrants we discussed earlier. Um and then a summary of the action dates. So nothing more associated with the meetings at this point. Um just want to go over those delivery of the slides. >> All right. Great. Any other questions? Okay. Uh we have the public minutes from January 7th. Make a motion to approve. >> We have a

187motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> We'll second. >> Second by Mr. Dit. Additional discussion. >> Okay. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. 4 Z. Um, before we get into policies, uh, and just watching the time here, I would like to open it up for community input. We're approaching here four minutes to 8:00. So, uh, this is our second round of community input this evening. Uh, there's any public. >> Good evening. Once again, just name and address this time, please. Warham leas 15 river circle and I want to again acknowledge the the cordialness that we could have regarding the discussion on the budget and I want to talk about school and I hope you know I'm I'm uh would like to simply just be able to continue that uh wonderful you know sense of

188give and take and just I'm offering comments as truly trying to represent concerns I have heard from taxpayers. Um, and one of the things that's that's difficult to understand is um how we could expect taxpayers next year to vote for something that is equivalent to what they so hardly voted down as a new school. It's it's difficult to conceive of that. Um, so with that, I really, you know, it's going to beginning to raise questions about, do we actually consider sending our kids to Elbert? I know people don't want to hear that, but you know, as the superintendent says, the offers are on the table to do that. 35 million it makes it extremely what's the word I want um a tangible option and will solve a lot of other problems. So, I'm I'm afraid

189if you continue to go down the renovation of such a large number, it may really make people say, "Let's consider that." And I I want to say this without sounding too whatever to have onsite the on-site insight report reviewed by Heramman is I think inappropriate and the reason I say it I've been trying to as an engineer trying to come up with a reason of why that is going to be so difficult. And the best thing I come up with is it's like if I took my car to Edwards and say, you know, what what do I need to do for the next year or two to keep it going? I'll get an estimate of two $3,000. I need a CV joint and some tie rods and a few other things. But if I went

190up to um u work and went in and looked at a you know pretty late model vehicle and for 60 $70,000 or whatever and then said, "Oh, by the way, how much would it cost to to rehab my car and make it go on three years?" Well, that estimate is going to be completely different than I got from Edwins. And that's the illustration I'm trying to make by saying that the repairs that On-site Insight presented are doing it in a almost a systematic um replacement in kind. And I really do feel we need to look at it legitimately and do it from the perspective that on-site insight suggested and I suggested previously is hiring an engineering firm to oversee looking at that what they do because in all honesty herman and Harvey look at it

191from a major construction point of And it's the same comparison that Barker did. Their estimates and Heramman come out exactly the same, but we have two estimates that look at it from a repair point of view that come out very similar, but wildly lower. And so, as an engineer, I'm looking at it and saying, I know that there is different approaches to this, and it's going to come out different ways. And I'm just trying to ex offer that until we really look at it conservatively and and approach it from a a realistic point of view, the public is not going to support it. And I'm I'm here not to make push us out another year, another three years. I've repeated the number of times we see it. the same problem's been there for 30 years

192and I don't want it to continue. And so at some point I would, you know, in fact, you know, I contacted you. I wanted to sit down and talk through why what I reviewed with the principal based upon making some repairs had some merit. And I still think that's viable. And I said the other night and Matt, this is the plan I showed and it shows using the existing facilities with the class sizes are there. And the the validation of that is this from Herman. It is it is there to be that uses exactly the same classroom sizes as it's there now. What they do to make that work is they use the state standard of 36 square feet per student and you have to limit class sizes based upon that. That's why they presented

193that to you. >> That was also shifting students to other schools. >> No. Yes. Exactly. >> Right. But the 50s and 60s building in this 2B is utilized exactly the same size as exists today. And classes one through two are placed there. And it also includes renovating the building. I'm I I'm really trying to just offer a perspective that says I I'd like to help you look at this legitimately. And like I said before, if I can just go back to what I did with this building and when Pat asked me to go on to it, I had no intention of considering this building. I thought we could renovate the old town structure and add a small one there. But after we looked at it and I was convinced that the structurally couldn't do it,

194then I became the champion for this. And I did the presentation for this building to the town when we were in LMS in the auditori gym there. And I'm not sure Peter, you might have remember that the the auditorium was full of people and I I did the presentation that started I had 20 slides about why we had to fix the other one. The the audience finally told me, you convinced me what do you want to do? The point being is I think we demonstrated sufficiently that you can't fix it or you can't repair it in this case. Until you actually do that sufficiently, that question will linger and you'll never move forward. And so I appreciate the opportunity to have that. I would appreciate, you know, maybe Andrew or others to sit down and

195just kind of a little more discussion of that. Um, one thing I I went to the FIC last night and we have accomplished a lot in the last couple of years And I'd like to highlight some of the things that were done. Uh if you remember, one of the concerns that [snorts] uh was voiced at the new build rationale was the proximity to 3A. Remember that? >> Mhm. >> Well, the committee working with with um Mr. Mitchell and and others took the discussion about controlling the access out of it as a solution and the committee recommended to you that solution. So we found a way cheaply to solve a very you know difficult um problem by collaborating looking at it from a what can we do situation and the other thing is the the water

196problem that's in the building. Previously we said you know unfortunately you know there was comments made by previous administration that's rivers that's running underneath the building. We now know that's not the case. And so there's a solution to that and it's the ventilation system. And so there having been an engineer and been responsible large buildings I all I'm saying is I would if you simply look at it from from a [clears throat] completely you know complete operation and I and I'm convinced I'll be your biggest champion for $35 million. In fact I was previously when the new one Matt you remember that >> right? But as I after the fact of looking and found out that things that were stated weren't entirely true, then I said, "Okay, we got to go back and look at

197it from a minute because here's the other option for you." And I'll leave it at this. You have two options. And every engineering study has this option. Do nothing. That is option zero on every engineering study. do nothing. I don't want that to be the solution, but if you present 35 million, it will be or I'm really convinced. So, I I appreciate the opportunity [cough] wrong. I appreciate the, you know, the willingness to listen. Uh, and I would, you know, if there's some opportunity for us to sit down and have a further discussion of that, if it's warranted, I'd be happy to do that. But I I appreciate the the opportunity to >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other community input this evening? >> Yes, Mr. Peoples. >> Ray Peoples, 205 Charles Bankraftoft Highway.

198Uh something I neglected to to mention a little earlier and I wanted to is one of the things we have is a couple bills revolving around school building aid. Um recognizing the fact that new school buildings are not really a thing in the state of New Hampshire right now with declining enrollment. We have a couple of bills out there that are shifting to consolidation and and money for consolidation and construction and studies like that. Um another bill that restructures how school building aid is delivered. Right now, we know it's a pretty unfair process where you get in line and you hope like hell that you don't get stuck like Lichfield with $7 million in the queue and a $49 million $49 million job in conquered. Is that sitting ahead of you and we only fund

199>> 40? Yeah. >> Well, no, but they they only qualified for $49 million in building aid. >> The state of New Hampshire was only funding that to 50 million and out of that they had to pay all the money they borrowed out. They call it the tail, which eats up a considerable chunk of that money every year. So, it's not available to give out to you. Just to let you know, as you look forward to um where you're going to go, you know, before you start dropping things out of the plan, there may be hope. Um we'll have to see how it all sorts out, but I mean, I'm fighting hard for um to restructure how they deliver school building aid. >> Great. Thank you, sir. All right. Uh, we have some policies this evening.

200Back at it. >> Did you guys approve the minutes? >> We did. >> Okay. Sorry. [laughter] >> And Dan. >> Excellent. Yep. I'm good. Uh, [laughter] policy updates. Uh, we have some first reads here. Um, just to give you quick highlights. The first one there is actually no updates. We just changed the template. So, you're just uh just updating the board. EB. These are all based on, excuse me, the New Hampshire School Board Association fall update as well. Um, and all the updated policies are to match the schoolboard association. So, the first real one to update is with the AEDs. We actually did this policy earlier this year. Um, but they provided another update, which is actually a helpful one. They streamlined it down to just one um coding for it. So, live in the

201E now. Um and res and if we accept this policy we'll move it to the E category and rescend it in those three other categories. Um the next one updated ones I just want to open them and because I wrote little notes to remember. Yep. On that first one with the clerks of the work one uh HB506 updated the amount from a million to $1.25 million. So that's the update in that policy throughout it. [snorts] And the next one, employee student relationships. Um, not relationships. We shouldn't have relationships. Relations. [laughter] >> Yeah. Really, either way, it's >> words matter. Uh, the list of prohibited interactions has been updated with the passing of HB231. So that section has been updated um to match the uh updated HB231. So that's the change to that one [snorts] and

202school year calendar. I think we updated for another uh statute change. Um there's a couple language changes updating distance learning to remote learning. Um there's an updated uh 306 rule that got updated in the policy and an additional line about career and tech education uh aligning your calendar with your CTE centers uh and RSA was updated. So that part was updated as well. Um along with some holiday language um and keep going one by one or if this works or not. Um advanced coursework. I think there was some updates to um additional opport language changes to do an updated RSA and additional opportunities for kids in that realm of advanced coursework that we want to highlight. Change your school assignment. This is best interest and manifest hardship. Um again updates um due to updated RSAs.

203The context of this policy didn't really change but they did re kind of organize it and make it a little bit easier for the reader to understand. is still a very lengthy policy, but um it's a schoolboard association example. Uh same with the bullying prevention updated um with some update language from various RSAs that got updated throughout uh last legislative session, but the heart of the policy is the same. And we did this one earlier as well, but this got updated language as well. The emergency um plans related to sports injuries and after school participation co-curricular stuff. >> So, we can go one by one or >> No, man. I don't know. The only thing I just was like combing through the the relations one. >> Number 12. I think you forgot the word shall

204not be alone in a room with with student with a student. >> I may have. Yes. Let me reopen that one up. >> I don't know if we can. Number 12. If the staff members shall not be in alone in a room by themselves. I don't think we care. >> Number 12. Staff members shall not be alone in a room with a door closed, a locked door, or with the lights off. >> Shall not be alone in a room with a student, I would think. Right. >> With a I can add with a student. Yep. Don't think because I mean otherwise like do we care if they're in the room by themselves? >> Nope, we do not. So >> sometimes they do that just for >> they turn the lights turn the lights off. >>

205Yep. >> Sorry. Anyway, >> simple enough if everyone's good. I just added it. >> Can we just take them all as a first read? >> Yeah, please. >> Would you like to take a motion or do you want me I'll make a motion. >> And this is your Bailey work right here. >> Okay. All right. [laughter] I will make a motion to approve for first read policy EBBC, policy F, policy GB, EBB, policy IC, policy IH CD slashleb policy JCA, policy J, policy JL CJ. Second motion by myself, second by Mr. Shoemaker. All of those policies were the policy references uh that the superintendent has just read. Additional discussion. All right. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Abstain. Those carry 40 for a first read. They'll be on our February

2064th agenda for a second read and final read. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Um I'm just going to move on. uh enrollment, not a lot of changes. Uh I think uh we're pretty stable in terms of the school year, turn of the semester. So sometimes you gain a couple kids, lose a couple kids as the semester's turn over. Um pretty consistent. Um school calendar, if the board is comfortable with this, I would like some additional time to work on this with various stakeholders. The school calendar, we don't have to approve it till March 30th. I know we had talked about it last time. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Um if you don't mind, I just would appreciate that. trying to reach out to the bus company and fine-tune some things with them. Uh if we decide

207to do any changes, make sure those those eyes are dotted and te's crossed and >> um some other work related to this before I bring it to you to approval. So, I hope you don't mind. >> Yeah. And if there's a third option or another option for board consideration, just let us know. And as mentioned at our last meeting, right, if the public has any comments uh or >> That's another thing I want. I hadn't sent it out. your direct opinions on these calendars. Um, you know, we we'd certainly welcome that feedback. >> Yeah. >> Um, I'm gonna try I meant to put it in my message this week and I I just forgot. So, >> in your in your message that you sent to the district like to like Is that what you're talking

208about? >> Yeah. Yeah. Because I do think it'd be it'd be nice to >> Yeah. I said I was going to do that and I I I didn't. So, I need to do that in a message. So, >> under both options, I mean, I I have fielded some questions from community. >> Yeah. I I would like that input from >> from just I mean it was more about when does school start, right? So [laughter] general questions. Yeah. Right. So in both options at least at the moment and I think will probably stand uh the first day of school is scheduled to be August 31st. >> Yes. So that's the week before Labor Day. That's our traditional start day. So still after Hudson just making note like it's still a week after Hudson. [laughter] They're wild

209over there starting two weeks in front of Labor Day. Um yeah, but we did want to provide a accompanying document that's see there at the schoolboard meeting calendar. So you can also review that as well. Um and maybe we can do both um next meeting school calendar and then schoolboard meeting calendar as well. So I don't know if you had any qu I'll take any feed I don't need it right the second but feel free to provide feedback on that. Stick to the first and um third uh Wednesday of the month like we traditionally to uh I said Thursday of the month like we traditionally do. We guessed at that July date, but if you want to adjust that a little bit, we usually just meet once in July. Um, >> and uh we moved

210it off of the first one because it's literally July 1st. We're just flipping over the fiscal year on that point. >> And uh so if you want to adjust that date, let us know or any others for any reason. So >> I on school board meetings, I would um actually schedule or plan a June 30th, 2027 meeting. Right. So there's three Wednesdays. >> Got it. >> And I would do that uh to close out encumbrances. Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Right. Because I doubt by June 16th and that's probably the last day of school on or around, right, that you'll have that finalized. Yeah. >> Yeah. That'll probably be before school ends, too. So, there will be a little bit more, >> right? >> Yeah. To do. Yep. Good. Thank you. >> Okay. >>

211All right. >> Anything else on that? >> Nope. Not right now. >> Uh, we have manifest this evening, so allow me to read that into the minutes. So we have manifest of accounts payable $156,49152. We have another accounts payable of $171,320.74. Um we have accounts payable uh of $333,63259. Accounts payable of $5,372.33. Payroll $367,80020. 403b $8,4156 and our credit card manifest of $5,2162. And that covers what is in this pile that the board has signed and all have signatures. [cough] Uh, all right. Excellent. We'll turn it over to school board comments this evening. >> Just moving along. Moving along. Yeah. >> More to come. Okay. Uh, with that, the board does have non-public uh, business this evening. Um, I will entertain a motion to move into nonpublic. So move. >> Second. >> Motion by Mr.

212Shoemaker, second by Mr. Plansky. We'll do a roll call vote. Mr. Plansky. >> I, >> Mr. Shoemaker. I am an I. Mr. Dit. >> I. >> That carries 4 Z. Good night everyone. Thank you for hanging with us. And our next meeting is February 4th. I would like to say I appreciate the opportunity to speak with Caner and some >> a collaborative.