School Board Meeting - 12/17/2025

001All right, we are live. Good evening everyone and welcome to the December 17th, 2025 Litfield School Board meeting. It is now 5:30. We'll call the meeting to order and begin with the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Uh do we have any changes to tonight's agenda from the board? >> Okay. Hearing seeing none, uh anything off consent tonight? All right. We're going to be making some changes to uh assignments. to uh to the communities in just a moment. Uh summary of non-public actions from December 3rd, 2025. Uh the board didn't uh move into non-public on December 3rd, 2025, so there's no summary. Uh and next

002up on the agenda, we have vice chair elections. So, just as a reminder to the public, uh Miss Ames uh did hand in her resignation to the board at our last meeting. Uh there is a vacancy on our board. uh we are momentarily going to be going through uh an appointment process with those who uh who have shown some interest in filling that seat uh from now until March. Uh but before we do so, we are going to fill the position of vice chair with the members that are sitting here uh and also go through the reassignment of subcommittees that Mrs. Ames was uh was assigned to. So with that, is there any nomination for vice chair? Who wants to draw the short stick? I don't know. >> I guess I'm the longest standing member.

003I would step in if it's me. >> I will nominate Peter. >> All right. We have a motion for Peter Pansky. I will second. Additional discussion. >> Nope. >> Does anyone? >> Pretty straightforward. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed abstain. >> That carries 301. >> Congratulations, sir. >> Uh yes, and we're going to be going through that new system tonight. Um with that, we do have uh member Ames's uh committees that uh she was participating in. Notably, uh Heidi was part of the backup for budget committee. I have been covering most of those, nearly all of those, I think, except one for this year. So, I don't think it's going to be that heavy of a lift, but as we get into the final parts of budget season, it is nice

004to have a backup in the event that it's necessary. >> I can take that. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, we also have joint loss. >> I can do that one. That was >> Yeah, that that one's a quick one. >> Appreciate that. Uh, we have curriculum. Well, let me ask you a question. If we're going to appoint someone, will they sit on committees? I know. >> I don't think so. Temporarily, right? We'll wait until >> lucky. >> We'll we'll uh wait until the reassignment for that. >> Sorry. Continue. What were you doing? >> We're on curriculum since they won't volunteer. I guess I'll >> Okay. >> Thanks, Matt. >> Uh and wellness. What is how often does well >> is that the one that meets with Lauren? >> Yes. >> Yeah. It's like quarterly. >>

005Yeah. I'll do that one, too, because she told me that that one basically never meets. >> That's quick. Okay. And then I'll do policy. I'll dust off my policy hat again as as I did a couple years ago. >> Excellent. I've got a bunch waiting. So, >> great. So, I can draw between budget committee and policy. >> What Brian doesn't know is I'm going to audit. >> I love it. I love it. >> All right. Great. So, that was uh pretty smooth. Thank you uh to the board members for for those reassignments. Um any questions with that? Do we have all that for the for the minutes? >> Yeah, they're all done. >> Were there any other subcommittees that we needed to talk about tonight that I missed? >> No, the only other ones are

006FIC, but we still got Peter and Dan. Emergency, which is Matt and Peter. Learning outcomes, which is Matt. Um CIP, which is Peter, and then Dan is the backup. stands on energy and economic development is Peter. That's all. So >> that's all. >> All right. Uh moving forward with our agenda tonight, we have presentations and recognitions. Uh at this point, we uh are going to move forward with our school board member appointment and interview process. Um just to kind of tee things up, we had four applicants uh to fill the seat from now until March. Uh I'm just kicked out, so let me log it back in. Um, we had Mr. Ray Peoples. Uh, we had Miss Did I just get kicked out? Ryan, I don't >> Yeah, I don't know why this is doing

007this for sure. >> I can do the names. You want me to do the names? >> Yeah, you can do that. I'm not >> uh Mr. Ray Peoples, Miss Ally Mercier, um, Miss Lauren Bryley. >> Bryley. Okay. And then Miss Erica Ruggles. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. And as a part of the process, the board has access to the submissions um of the forms that they can certainly read. But we do want to take a moment and interview each of the candidates that are here tonight with the exception of Miss Rugles. I know Miss Rugles unfortunately is under the weather. Uh we, you know, the board is interested in interviewing Miss Rugles. That will have to wait until our first meeting in January. >> Okay. Uh with that, um can we start with Laura?

008Lauren, if you have Lauren, yeah, please come on up. >> Just share a little bit about yourself and why you're interested, please. >> Sure. Um, so I'll probably have similar story to Ally behind me. Um, um, grew up here in Lichfield. Um, from the age of five until I went to college down in Mass. Um, lived there for a bit, got my nursing degree. Um, I work as a nurse director at Massioneer. Um, and now I'm back in Lichfield and it's full circle. I live 8 minutes from my parents still. Um, and they're great help with the kids. Um, and I have a three-year-old and a 2-year-old, so I'm familiar obviously with the school system. I was a little bit behind Ally, but the second graduating class, um, full graduating class for Campbell High School.

009Um, so saw a lot of the sports start, saw a lot of everything start with Campbell High School. um and excited to be back and have my kids go through this school system and especially hopefully see older faces and you know new faces as well. But I always loved the Lichfield school system coming from a smaller town obviously and then going into Mass and going into Boston and living there for a long time. Um I think it set me apart to be honest and I loved every part of it. So, I'm happy to be back and I would love to be a part of the process and new processes for the Lichfield school system. Um, and I think that's about it. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. I have one question I'm going to ask

010all of you, right? So, I guess the other two have a little bit of an unfair advantage for their mind. >> Right. So, the board has kind of a key uh a key discussion tonight, right? in that big discussion and uh I believe even even a vote tonight is on GMS, right? We have a GMS warrant article that's part of our discussion tonight. And my my question to you is, you know, if you're if you're staying in kind of in tune with things that are happening at GMS, right? How would you approach GMS in terms of balancing taxpayers as well as just the needs of that building and and and what the current state of that building is, >> right? Um, so obviously being a part of GMS too, I saw it continue to expand

011and continue to grow and you kind of I wasn't there actually when the buildings or the pieces of um, construction like went up outside like into the parking lots and everything. Um, but I do believe that's where we start our school system. That's where we have our initial part of our kids going into the program. And I think that I I do believe I've talked to probably not all the people that would disagree with it, but I've talked to people that would agree with it, even with people that don't have kids in the school system, that it is I think we're putting our kids at an unfair advantage with the growth that we need to develop. I mean, we're just going to continue to grow and continue to grow. I feel like in Lichfield where

012I think it needs to be talked about more and hopefully with expansion and with the understanding that I think that that does have to come to people that go into a small town that's going to continue to grow and especially starting here. I think that has to be kind of the expectation that the taxes will go up because of growth and that starts with our children. I really do believe that and I think that I think we'll continue to see that. I mean I feel like we've seen that. I driving by Campbell. I think it's continued to grow and expand just in the sports complexes around it and everything too that I really believe that that kind of needs to happen to continue to expand our knowledge and expand our kids knowledge. >> Great. Thank

013you. >> Yeah. >> Other questions from the board too that are not as compens. >> Yes. Yeah. >> Is how is it going to be getting here for I mean you're here obviously today. We meet twice a month is is a 5:30 meeting. >> Yeah. No, not an issue. I have a little bit of flexibility with my schedule being in management and leadership. So I can kind of make my own schedule based off of that. I also have uh direct reports that can cover me while I'm not there or anything like that. So that that was never been an issue especially with having like smaller kids. My goal is to kind of be home at a reasonable time. So >> when you're close or not. Uh, it's true. It's true. >> The traffic says an

014hour. >> I Yeah. Yeah. >> It's just stur drive. It'll be fine. >> Yeah. I don't hit stero, so I avoid that piece. Yeah. >> My uh my only other question u is would you I mean obviously you haven't experienced this yet, but would your intention be to run for the seat again because this is not a longterm appointment? >> Yeah, I'd love to. I mean, I obviously want to see how I think this is why it's a great opportunity is because it's an interim type of position to grow and like to learn about the board system. I mean, I also am very recent of being back in Lichfield. So, I think this was a great opportunity that I saw right away to get involved and to see what happens at the board meetings. Um,

015and especially, like I said, with a big passion of mine in education and especially Lichfield education. Um, so I think that that would be my goal eventually to run because I I'm hoping that I enjoy it so much and hopefully can bring forward some good ideas but also listen and learn more as well. >> That's awesome. >> Um, have you been able to follow along with the whole GMS project as it's sort of been regenerated after the last election that failed in 2024? >> No, I have not to be honest because this has been a recent move for me. So, um, it's been kind of like a long-term thought process of moving out of Massachusetts and coming to a place that I wanted to be and be close to my parents. So, I have not.

016>> They can't hear >> that. Um, that's sort of the one that's our big issue right now is >> Yeah. So, >> yeah, >> I'm good. I'm still learning this process. Okay. All right. Excellent. Well, thank you for coming tonight. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. So, am I all set? Do you want me to stay? >> You are. Uh, you're all set for now. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, >> Ally. >> Hi. Welcome. >> It's nice to be with everyone this evening. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, just tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're interested. >> And so, like echoing Lauren, I'm basically a copycat right now. I grew up on Lichfield on Pearson Street from the age of two onward. Um, it empowered the rest

017of my life in a way that's almost indescribable, especially being among uh the first graduating class of Lichfield. I think we got some really wonderful years in there and some magic and I got to capitalize that in the biggest way. Um, now after going to school in Boston, working in New York City in youth development specifically, um, and then coming back home, uh, and bringing my 7-year-old, almost 8-year-old and 2-year-old, 2 and a halfyear-old into the school district, I'm really excited about supporting the schools in whatever way I might be able to. um bringing the acumen that I have from being a thought leadership at a national level in youth development to our local levels to in the same way that Lauren felt so passionate about these schools and about how much they meant to

018her and her development as a human. I want to be able to contribute back to the community and I Roland Berseron was another towny that I know is really involved. He was he's a cousin of mine. Um so we're a very serviceoriented family. Uh I live just down the road and I work from home uh for an organization called UKG where I mentor a lot of young people coming in. Um really excited about just working to build this town up in whatever ways I can. >> Fantastic. Fantastic. So same question about GMS that I had asked. What do you think? >> So I think obviously it's a challenge that's incredibly complicated otherwise we would have solved it years ago, right? I remember back to Bo Schlifter's video of him kind of being like, "Look at

019this and look at this and look at this." And I love that man. Like I've always applauded him and laotted him and we have to work within reality. And so the focus needs to always be on student outcomes, student safety, and the priorities need to be there. If we need to cut expenses, we can get creative with academics. I know that because I've been in that seat and gotten creative within academics. Um, I also have uh some grant writing expertise that I'm happy to bring to the table, having have a tech track record of bringing millions of dollars to New York City public schools. Um, and I'm happy to bring that to the table as a way to help as well. So, definitely getting creative and working with community expectations as far as we want

020good student incomes, students need to be in a environment that really facilitates their learning and doesn't distract from their learning. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Absolutely. I mean, my first question is pretty easy if you work from home. I would imagine it's not hard to get here for 5 minutes. >> I mean, it's really rough. It's four minutes. >> It's a four-minute ride. Yeah. Um, I bet the other question still applies. Would you be inclined to run for this or is this more of a >> I would actually I I when I got my house and I misspoke, I had said in 2023, it was in 2022 um September. um they were going to go with an allcash offer and they went with me because of my history in the town and because

021of my kind of impassion plea of wanting to invest back in the community and they invested so much in me and allowed for my success at a very young age and I'm just I'm a woman of integrity so I'm doing what I'm doing and whether it's in the schoolboard seat now and the schoolboard seat in the future or in auxiliary support in any kind I'm here to be of Amazing. Thank you. >> Same same sort of same question about have you been able to follow what's going on with >> Yeah, I I've been able to I and even like even when I was in New York, I kind of stayed in touch with things that were going on with this town because of how much this town means to me. And again, I would repeat

022the kind of concern about the budgetary constraints don't need to impen academic success. And what we need to do know is work closely with the schools, right? And find out what the most important things for child success is in those environments and focus on putting our funding in those spaces. And where we can't put funding, that's where we get creative. In the art world, we talk about how it's the constriction that actually can make the art piece. And I believe that the same creativity can be applied in this this setting of getting to the academics in a different way. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. over >> still. >> Yeah, I'm still all set. >> All right. All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate you coming. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> Mr. Peoples, >> good

023evening everyone. >> Good evening. Thank you for being >> I know you had a busy day in conquered. >> I'm pretty a little less wordy tonight. Um >> I was waiting FOR THE QUESTION. OH, >> IF you could just share a little bit about yourself and why you're interested in filling the seat. >> Uh been a resident of the town since 1990. My son graduated with Ally, so I'm a little bit older than the other two. Um I've served on pretty much every uh town board and committee at one time or another. And my interest in the school board, this is the second time I'm sitting beside you to fill in a seat. Basically, since I've been elected as a representative, I'm sorry, my voice is gone. Um, I've been deeply drenched in education at

024the state level. Um, being on education funding, um, a couple of special education subcommittees and things like that. So, I've been really coming up to speed on the education side. I just got back from New Orleans where I went to the national uh education summit down there. So, I've been doing my homework to come up to speed. So, um I can do the best job possible. >> I don't want to make you talk too much. Okay. Right. Um I obviously I know you've been very well in tune being part of the facilities committee with GMS and things like that. So, my same question that I asked the other two, right? How how do you balance um the kind of the the agenda item on the board tonight, balancing taxpayer needs and the needs of GMS

025and the infrastructure? >> I I think whatever the proposal is this time, it'll be so well vetted that uh the transparency question won't be an issue and then it's basically do the voters support the increase in their taxes. Um we got to make some adjustments there. no doubt about it with with the declining enrollment. So, this is probably the best time we have. >> Thank you. So, I mean, we know you're doing a lot for our schools up at the state in conquered. Are you thinking of is this something that you'd run for again with us or are you looking to just fill it? >> I my first thought is to fill it till March and decide whether I want to continue after that. >> I know I know you're quite busy with the state.

026That's what I was curious. >> It has streaks. >> Yeah. I I can't ask the question. I mean, Ray's part of the FIC, so he's >> Yeah, he's >> in tune with >> But don't worry, Dan came up with one. >> No, I haven't. >> Are there any other questions for Mr. Peoples? >> No. Okay. Um, with that, uh, thank you, Mr. Peoples. We appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Um, is the board, uh, inclined to make a motion tonight or would you like to wait till our first meeting in January when we have an opportunity to talk with Miss Rugles? I I think it would only be fair to allow Miss Rugles to come and and speak to the group. Otherwise, I think it would be do her a disservice. >> Okay. I agree.

027So, at this point, we're going to wait till our first meeting in January to make a final decision. Uh we'll give Miss Rugles an opportunity uh to come in and speak to the board as well. And at our first meeting in January is when we'll we'll make that decision. All right. >> Thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. All right. Um, shifting gears into uh back to the agenda. Next up is the student representative report. Uh, Dom, I know you've been kind of chomping at the bit to present tonight. >> Is that what I was hearing? >> He's loving school. >> Two days before break. Nothing else he wants to do. It should be coming up there in a sec. Um yeah, so for our winter sports got we got

028um hockey, basketball, and wrestling going on right now. Girls basketball team sadly lost um against Fall Mountain. So that was our first game. So they're currently 0 and one, but their next game is tonight against Hopington. Uh the boys basketball team is one and one. Um their next game is tonight against Dairfield. Uh the wrestling team has had their first meet on December 10th and the hockey team is competing against Karge in Plymouth tonight. So the past events that we've had is a student council winter conference that was in Gtown. So we had a lot of student council members attend that. Uh the St. Paul school summer program presentation in the auditorium for the CDHS students. Uh s the Santa's breakfast which was put on by our national honor society at Campbell and Christmas in

029Lichfield event that happened on the 13th which I was volunteering at that and a lot of people came and it was really fun and I was at the pictures with Elsa stage. Um so the current events the things are going on right now uh winter course and band concert is coming up for CHS. The staff breakfast is on Friday which is going to be put on by student council and the Christmas tree lighting which or Christmas tree lighting assembly which is also on Friday during school. The things the future events that are coming up is the winter carnival which will be right before February break. um the student council, the volunteer work that we have coming up for the Manchester Food Bank as well as Christmas vacation. >> Are you excited for Christmas vacation? >>

030I'm ecstatic. >> The energy is just I couldn't tell, man. >> So, unfortunately, LMS um had not get back to us to put anything on the slides tonight. So, we're going to skip over to Griffin Memorial Schools. Um they had the holiday concert on December 3rd which went very well. Um congrats to Miss Perry and the third grade or just the GMS chorus. Uh the PTO holiday store as usual is functioning well. And this Friday is the holiday spirit day which kids can wear ugly sweaters or >> Oh, thanks for >> Christmas themed stuff. >> And that's it. >> All right. And shout out to LMS for sure who uh those kids um who participated in um High School Musical. >> Yeah. >> Edition did a fantastic job over this past weekend. If you had

031an opportunity to see it, they really worked hard and um it was a great show. >> All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Um okay. Next up is community comment on agenda items. This is the first of two community comments. Seeing nobody running up to the mic, we'll close community comment and there's a second round a little bit later this evening and we'll move into correspondence. Uh I have um >> I think whoever did this did a fantastic by the way. >> Thank you. Thank you. We there's a new process for correspondence where it's now hyperl to the agenda. Uh just so as correspondence comes in I can keep track of it and add it really quick so we don't lose we don't lose track of what's being sent. So I will

032read read correspondence tonight. Um, so for uh December 17th, we have December 4th, 2025, Mr. Oblenus uh sent an email on on-site insight in a summary spreadsheet. There were no responses from board members. On December 10th, 2025, and Inarati uh sent a credit card manifest, no responses from board members. On December 11th, 2025, and Inarati sent the manifest. Again, no responses from board members. On December 11th, 2025, Superintendent Okonnell sent a text message to the board uh regarding the Alvin fire and the situation over there. Uh there were responses from all board members. Uh on December 12th, 2025, uh Brooke Roman uh did send out a Christmas carolling summary from student council to the board. Uh no responses from the board members. On December 16th, 2025, Annardi sent a 403b manifest and no responses from

033the board. And then December 17th, 2025, today, Mr. Mitchell sent a community forum three thank you note to the participants of that forum and no responses uh from the board members. >> This is nice. I really do like this. >> Thank you. >> Uh and so with that, that does take us up until this afternoon. I don't believe there's any other correspondence that came in uh since that point. All right, we'll shift gears into general business and turn it over to the superintendent and we'll move into the GMS project. >> All right, let's talk GMS, which I think is why we're here. >> Uh just so a quick summary um from I I believe all four of you were there, but from the community forum we had Monday night um our third one about the

034GMS project where the focus was um costing out the various options that we had been looking at. Just to refresh people's memories, option one, there was an A version and a B version involved uh GMS only um renovations and or additions at that building, uh including soft costs, um between 34 and $35 million. Um and there were subsections within that um of the different pieces of that would entail. And then the second option looked at reconfiguring the grade levels um which reached costs um of about 37 38 million. Um and again there was subgroups broken down of that of what different aspects of the project would cost if you were for example renovate the 60s part of the building renovate the main core of the building with the secure entrance so on and so forth.

035So different pieces of that. So we presented on that I thought it was really positive form obviously had a Q&A uh section at the end. people came up and asked um a lot of great questions relevant to it either through the um just coming up to the mic or through the the way they had people just send in their questions through the QR code. So um I've got a couple questions since then just via email from people who attended um or saw the video on YouTube and we've been able to answer those questions as well. Same themes just kind of detailed questions and stuff about what they were seeing. Um, and so we had all the information, just presented it out to everyone so people could see what the costs are associated with this and

036the different subp parts of of the project and um, where we can go next with with this. So, we're here tonight um, you know, warrant this all kind of ties together. Warrant articles, budgets are the next two agenda items. So, um, we're here to talk about JM's project. If we want to move forward with a warrant article connected to it, really should figure that one out tonight and then start the work. Julie's been doing a lot of work of um getting the bond stuff ready, estimating payments and rates and tax rates and everything connected to that for various scenarios and stuff like that. We have been in uh since Monday night continue to converse with Haramman and Harvey to go over different pieces and different options. So we can talk through some of those conversations

037that we've had with them uh with Julie and I have had with them as well about different subgroups and sections of of these proposals and then kind of figuring out what we what we want to do next um related to the project. >> So just to get things started here, right? You know, when um we have option one, option two, right? Option two was kind of the redistricting of students. You know, option two no longer on the table. Uh we removed that warrant article just given all the feedback received from the community. And so we're solely focused on option one at this point. >> And it's more expensive too. >> Well, and it's more expensive, right? Variety of reasons. So what you'll see in terms of warrant articles is option one, which is um which

038is the renovation of Griffin Memorial specifically uh with no redistricting of children. Uh and so that that is what's presented in front of you in terms of a warrant article. >> That's linked to the agenda. >> Yes. Underneath warrant articles, you'll see that there are no numbers in there yet. Um but what you'll see and what we want to talk about are numbers tonight. Uh based upon um what was shared with the board uh the and in the community at the community forum, right? The numbers are far higher than I think any of us expected or anticipated. >> Uh and so you know what does the board want to do, right? Does the board want to move forward with the plan uh in putting kind of the full project on warrant this year? Does the

039board want to consider a phasing type of approach where um we look at an alternate option of doing some of the work right in a structured way for less cost with the mindset of doing a secondary phase at a later point in time. um or is there a third option that we're not thinking about or you know maybe that third option is not doing any of it. >> My concern with the phasing is just that um I think like people conceptually will say oh well you phase it and it's not going to c like we're still bonding everything right so we're going to so so you're going to still have these payments and that it's going to have tax impact. I mean, yes, maybe you might do a let's just say you did two phases,

040like maybe for the first five years, it's going to be slightly lower, but then when you do phase two, you're going to have two bonds at that point. So, it like I don't think we're going to ever get out of there's no way to get out of the overall cost of solving this problem. I I I just don't know. >> So, do we have number new numbers from Herman? >> What do you want? I have lots of numbers. So >> well I think that one I don't know that we're necess that the and not an architect didn't even pretend to be an architect but if you can take the spreadsheet and move stuff around you can do I don't think we should just dismiss redistribution because the CHS is still 45 or 55% populated. um

041with I took the spreadsheet that I had sent to you, Brian, and I literally cut and pasted different pieces. He has an option 3 3A and 3B. Um and GMS, I think, doing what you're talking about doing the the renovations and the secure entry um and and then nothing else. Um is about 18 million bucks, 17 million bucks. So, we asked them to price out um doing the secure entrance, >> the like main heart of the building, like that main stretch of the hallway, then the renovations associated with that, new systems related to it, and the 60 section livable but not fully renovated if we're going to phase it out, right? like if there's a phase plan and you have the 60 section which is the roughest part of the building, right? Excluding the 30s

042cuz we're not using the 30s right now. >> Um but the 60 section is the roughest part of the building. If you just did enough to make that livable, you know, safe enough, secure enough that no one's going to like health is not going to be an issue and stuff like that. But fix everything else, including soft cost. They got to 236 is the number they sent me today. So I took what they had building renovations with replacement systems and secure entrance. >> Yep. >> 13582. >> Yep. >> With about 3 million in soft cost 17 million >> and I think that included full repair of the 60s building. >> No, it did not. Option one does not include >> okay >> for renovation. So this full repair of the 60s is under option two

043and that was 7.7 million alone. >> So and that's just because in Harvey's explanation with that was you're essentially rebuilding it without tearing it down. It's that it's that it's that >> I think I asked that question at the last >> It sounds like it's right in the middle though, right? Like it sounds like when you talk about making a little >> more I'm looking at it now I see that it's carved out here on on 2A but I think I asked that question at the last advisory that it includes that it included everything. So my bad. So you add that back in. It's >> we go off the number he just went off 26 whatever 20 24 >> 236 call 24 right on round round numbers right. So 24 million and the full project

044and I in my mind right in my mind I'm going to say option one a the two is there one is the two floors right so option 1B is the one I'm thinking and that was 30 >> 35 million >> 5 million soft >> and with and I think one of the things with any of these things that we're going to talk about is these prices include the site work landscaping and redoing the fire lanes, right? My advice would be to regardless of what we decide tonight is if we move forward with something is hold off on that stuff. >> What was the what was the cost for all the >> depend Yeah. Depending on the project, anywhere between 3.1 and 3.8 >> and I did not include that in in my little cut and

045paste document here. >> I think you got to take that out. So if you look at that if you look at take out that and that includes soft costs. So on the the first option it'd be about 31 million. I don't think I don't think it makes a diff if you're between 31 and 35. I don't think it makes a difference. I'm >> just saying like if you're looking >> I get where you're coming from, but I mean >> that's a big difference. >> It makes a difference. >> Yeah, it's 10%. >> Now >> I understand mathwise, but I don't think when someone goes to the voting box, they're going to say, "Oh, it's only 31. Okay, cool." and then we end up with a project where now we're at what point are we ever

046going to finish the the like to me it's either it's going to be substantially less money or you just >> I I think all those millions matters especially with the other capital needs in the town that you know the taxpayers will be asked for over the coming years. >> Now I I don't I didn't get this fully priced out only because we're moving from Monday night to to now, right? We haven't even been 48 hours yet. Um, but one of the things we talked about is like, can you take any of these options and bring them down, right? And they think they can get um, at least the the the option 1A, the option 1B if we remove the site work and landscaping and make some small adjustments. They think they can get them, this

047is still huge numbers, but they think you can get them both under $30 million >> With soft cost. Yeah. I don't know exactly what that looks like. I don't have that spreadsheet yet, >> but as we were bouncing around like cuz we were just going back and forth about different >> Yeah. >> different things, right? >> We are in the project, right? >> Um they think with some modifications um maybe some adjustments to some design elements, they can get it down to like 29. You know, they estimating on soft cost you know what soft cost is not just furniture like you know and I think that's important to distinguish but furniture is part of it. Like I don't think we need well I know we don't need to replace all the furniture in the school

048right like a lot of that is in good to fair shape we are alreadyating you know >> there's other things too like it's not that's 25% is not furniture but like every dollar counts right like it might not be fully 25% those soft costs it might be 20% and then that makes a difference right >> well I think initially when they bid the project they did say the soft cost would be about would be 20% that's in their bid >> I think it was in everybody So, I want to structure this conversation and make sure we're we're moving the conversation forward, right? Are there options the board does not want to consider and we can just rule out completely? >> Well, I I mean, Peter started by saying something about the re reconfiguration. I I

049don't see that as a reasonable option at this point. I mean, I I think we examined that, but the hope that if that was going to be the option, it would be substantially cheaper. And >> it's it's I don't think it's going to be cheaper because there's there was a lot of work that that had to be had to be done. >> So, to me to like have to then upset, you know, interrupt three three schools and then also remove our any potential flex, right? Because now we're we're putting everything at the max. >> We're setting the town up for >> I don't I think Campbell would be at the max for a period of time. The other schools GMS certainly would not be near max like 300 kids. Um, so it's a and we

050have our best building is underutilized. >> I I understand that, but I don't know that if we were saving money by doing it, then I would say, okay, but we're not saving money by doing that. >> But we're also not going to be $30 million. >> You take what we're $38 million. We could do it for I did this and again took out the the site work and all that sort of stuff. >> $22 million based off the numbers they gave us. That's building um doing the stuff at GMS CHS renovation and moving the SAU to the portals at GMS. 1752 $222 million. >> Are you redoing the 60s? >> No. Uh, no because whatever I took it would not have done that because it's not in that number one >> building rena with replacement

051systems and secure >> because I think on that second option to reconfigure you need to redo the 60s like if you're putting us you have to keep the 60s if you're putting the SAU in the portables right because you need the classes right so like I think that's >> another 7.7 plus soft >> right >> so you're at roughly 30 We got to think of a number that's going to pass, >> right? What are your thoughts, Dan? >> Uh, >> in ter back to the question of what options can we rule out? >> I options that we ruled out, we've already ruled out, right? It's sending kids out of district is just it's off the table. It's gone and it's that's just not going to happen. There's too many unknowns. I personally feel the redistribution

052among the school buildings in my mind is out. Not only is it more expensive from coming from Haramman, but it's also there is a larger scale domino effect that that creates that I don't think we we don't understand and we don't know what that's going to do. I mean, that's going to disrupt middle school sports. that's going to disrupt um I mean I I know I touched upon it before and so is Brian. Um certifications for teachers, right? There there's just going to be some there's going to be some um turnout of just teachers don't want to teach in that model. And sure, we can get new teachers in, but now we're leaving good teachers. We're letting good teachers walk away. Um >> it's also it's also like a year longer, isn't it? Didn't they

053say that? That was like a 36-month. >> It is longer to 27 27 to 36 or something. >> Yeah. So, it's a longer construction period. The other concerns that I have >> and you're impacting all three schools, >> right? It's all students in town. >> And I guess in my way, the way I look at this, GMS would be the last to be touched because in order to move students out of GMS, you got to move them to LMS. In order to move students out of LMS, you have to do CHS first, >> right? So it's going to go CHS then LMS which is minor playground and a little stuff right >> LMS is >> right so it it's maybe that can go in parallel but then it's GMS so now you're touching all three

054schools potentially at the same time now you don't have swing space so one of the biggest things that Harvey kept bringing up is as we do any of these projects you need swing space for you to touch a part of the building and no one be there >> right so I also agree with Matt and Dan on this one Like I I just don't see impacting all three all three buildings in every student in town and then changing the sports, changing the way our our our model works is a viable plan. I just and plus it costs more per the estimates to do it. Like I just like it doesn't seem like a good that's that's a good option. Um, >> I would say that if that option included going down to two buildings, which

055we can't do, right? We just have too many students to do that right now. >> The time the time to talk about that was before we invested the 7 million in LMS. >> Yeah. Right. >> 100%. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yep. And just because >> different board though at the time, right? >> Yep. Did you see a laser hit you like when you trash? >> Yeah, I I get because then you just save the utilities on a third building, right? It it's that that can be substantial, but we're not in that situation. So, >> yeah. All right. So, that leaves us with option one, right? In 1 A, 1B, right? What are the board's thoughts on 1 A 1 B? >> 1 B. 1A is the what was described as the ranch style one floor

056bigger roof right L style as an addition 1B two floor a little bit more money because you have stairs and an elevator >> but of scale in terms of >> less of a footprint gives you gives the town more opportunity though for future expansion because it saves on space uh in terms of land that you're building on >> you expect a little I mean marginal but you would expect savings to I think that with anything that we do, like the the big question is like are we how much are we future proofing the town, right? And we can't ever be 100% certain about that. >> And so I think that anytime you're doing something like this, you should try to choose an option that's going to leave the door open if there's a need that

057we're not foreseeing. So >> I mean they were very clear like yeah we could do the ranch but like if we ever had to add a second story onto that like we >> exoskeleton the code is going to be the same. So >> right >> to me it's yes it's a little bit more money but I think it's >> I think it's one. >> Yeah. >> Would that then necessitate the removal of the 60s building? Well, if you're going to do it all at one time, then that's that's the idea that that essent essentially that addition takes off the six building. >> Okay. So, let's stick with this. Could we >> to >> So, I just want to make sure we're not going on different tangents, right? So, 1B costs what? >> 35, but I

058think you would take off the site stuff. So, you're looking at 32. >> Okay. So, 32 million. All right. And then the other option is so now let's take that 32 million and compare the other option of a scaledback phased approach which is addressing the the infrastructure at GMS keeping the 60s building the 60s wing but doing so in a way that isolates it and allows the envelope of that building to be safe and secure right but allowing it to be decommissioned at a later eight, keeping the portables. Keeping the portables, right, for now. And that'll be part of phase two where then you you take away the 60s building, you take away the portables, and you build an addition at that point in time. >> So, I just have two questions. The the first

059would be what would the you okay? >> What would the ultimate financial impact be? Right? Because I think that there's going to be some people that will ask that like at what point are we looking at doing the second phase and like what what are we actually saving people by doing? >> I think it might depend on population growth. >> I mean and that savings is somewhere in the ballpark of 9 to10 million now >> cuz >> right now but I mean is are we saving that for are we saving that for two years? Are we saving that for 10 years? like I guess what's the >> couldn't tell you and and the board has to be comfortable with continuing with the portables, right? Which were never meant to be a long-term solution. >> Well,

060and we know that the portables, we just discovered that the condition of the portables was not that great. So, >> that's the hardest pill I have to swallow is we have to live with the portables for >> x amount of years. >> The other question that I would have is, you know, what what does it really entail to make the 50s60s building livable, right? Like how much money are we going to invest in that that we're going to then potentially demolish? >> That's I think that's the variable right now that we have any information from it. >> If from what they sent me today, it looks again they were doing this quickly, but about $6.8 million to make it liveable. >> How livable does it need to be? >> That would like make it more

061secure. When I say secure, like make the systems more efficient. Make the um you know, there's bird nests that we've had to dig out of there. And like >> close the envelope roof, right? We're going to >> look it's it's new flooring. It's like it's it's creating a new safe space for that 60s wing, but not changing the footprint of it. >> Right. >> I think the hard thing with the the envelope, I just want >> um >> it does not include the envelope. Correct. Includes mechanical stuff, >> right? It's the mechanical upgrade. >> So So why are we the system operates but not the >> Yeah. So, well, okay. So, by closing the envelope, I would assume let's plug the holes so we don't get bird's nest. >> Let's seal the air gaps, but

062let's not insulate, >> build out the walls to get the value of the improved mechanicals >> because we're taking as as they've said, that's the least efficient portion of the building. >> Yeah. Well, it's that this is >> I think the hard part is that that section of the building is really poor. Like as we gone through that far gone are we doing a new roof? >> We're doing a new roof over the whole building. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> If we do this, >> but again, this plan was to remove that. So now we're talking about keeping that >> like I think these are the things we have to kind of go back and forth with them still on. Like if you're like here's the thing with the phase project and I don't know

063the right answer. We're talking through this together right now, right? Like you're gonna invest whatever amount of money it is. $5, $7 million into that 60s building which if everything goes as planned, you're going to tear down, >> right? So like it's a tough pill to swallow. >> But if that gets everything else done, then maybe that's the pill you have to swallow, right? But like I if if you were going to actually save that section of the building, >> then like we have pricing for that and would then save that section of the building. But it might not be efficient because you're boxing yourself into that footprint so much. >> Yeah. >> I I I think that the other thing that we're not calculating again is like if we're not taking care of the

064envelope, we're not getting the efficiencies that we're hoping to gain from improving. So like now there's it's not just $7 million, it's $7 million plus the loss and savings of >> So but and I guess my vision when I suggested this is that you take an in kind, right? You don't go for the high-end efficient systems for that building to isolate it. You get a small boiler just to do that building. >> It's going to be the 60s >> just to do the 60s. Let everything else go high efficiency. renovate, fully insulate, do all the stuff there to take that advantage, and then you just again, right, I call it a band-aid with the notion of it's a stop gap. Now, for at my company, when we do major building shuffles, this is exactly what

065we do. >> We we do a small piece. We shuffle people out. We make it livable, revamp it a little bit because it's going to go five, seven years. And then they're going to go move people back in, completely redo wholesale other complexes and buildings and then they just start playing that game as they go. >> The difference is that they can plan they're they're planning for the capital improvement down the road and they make the decision. >> Let me ask Yeah, exactly. >> Let me ask the question that is the question in my mind, >> right? Is the board's appetite to invest and do this once and do it right or is the board's decision to uh get something that passes this year? >> Peter, >> uh I think we need to get something

066that passes because we've we've let this linger forever. Not we necessarily this group, but boards going back and the town going back 20 25 years. We need to do something to make the conditions at GMS better. Um and we'd love to have the Cadillac, but we just We just >> Well, let's be clear that we're not talking about a Cadillac. Like, we need to be clear about that. >> Let's be real about >> Well, but someone said we don't need state-of-the-art and like, let's just be clear on what we're designing, okay? Like, there are elementary schools that are costing $150 million. Like, we're designing an elementary school that we're renovating an elementary school that we're spending $30 million on. Like, I know it's a lot of money. >> They're in either in conquered where where

067the voters have no say, or they're in Massachusetts where they're building these monstrosity of schools. But the fact of the matter is I'm just saying like but I just don't think it's fair when we say state-of-the-art or >> what is your position on my question? >> My position is that I think the problem I understand and I agree that like we need to get something done. However, I don't think that we have any grasp of what this is going to look like from a long-term plan. And I think that if we get just a small portion of this done, we may be putting ourselves in a position where we can't get the rest of it done. And we're still on the hook to maintain, you know, a building that we're going to we're going to

068put, you know, inkind replacements on. We're still going to be dealing with the, you know, the situation with, you know, the utilities costing what they're costing. We're still going to be dealing with undersized classrooms. We're still going to be dealing with no emergency lane around the building. Like all these things that we may never solve, like but we're going to solve a couple of them. And I get it. It's good to solve a couple. >> We We need to sol We need to solve something. And if if we ask for $35 million, we're going to get nothing. >> I I feel like if if we ask for 32 million, we're going to get nothing. I mean, when we started this, we talked about 20 million and under. We thought that that could pass. >> But

069what we're find what we're finding >> understand that's what we have. But so now we need to think of what can what can the town what can the taxpayer >> correct? Regardless of like I we all understand the need. We all want to address it and do this right. What can taxpayers afford and what you don't know and what right but what do we want to put on the warrant article that we think is worth >> you walk around town you're going to get half the people are saying I can afford nothing >> right agreed but what do we think is worth asking what do we think is that fighting shot and working and worth asking that you think you know what this does start to address some of the problems we are moving the

070needle it's been far too long let's go for it >> to me that's the 23 and a2 >> all day long >> 23 and a2 which gets us the keeping the 50s and 60s. >> Keeping the 50s and 60s. It keeps the portables, which I have a real hard time with because those things need to go. >> Let me ask let me ask uh >> It is what it is. >> How many How many classrooms do we have in the 50s and 60s? >> There's a decent amount. >> Six, seven, eight. >> I was going to say the bath when I need it. >> So, I guess my take on this is we're not going to get the full project passed. As much as we all want it, it's just not going to go. There

071may not be a phase two for a long time. >> Right. Right. And and it may mean Right. So Matt and I hear you on the 50s and 60s >> 12. >> We had the portable Sorry. We had the portables at LMS for 30 years. >> Yes. >> I'm I'm almost inclined to look at a I'm almost inclined to look at a portable solution in conjunction with that plan as opposed to keep putting money in the 50s and 60s. >> I think we have to do something to the 50s and 60s. Well, my thought is my thought is swing a wrecking ball into it and put portables >> for like >> we're going to spend $7 million for something that we're going to tear down. >> Any idea what it would cost to tear that

072down? >> To tear it down? >> A lot. >> I mean, it's in the millions. >> It's in the millions for sure. >> It's in the millions. >> We know that. >> Yeah. >> To to >> to tear it down. >> To tear that part of the building down is in the millions. We know that. So Matt just >> so to to help your discussion or to muddy your discussion, I don't know what I'm about to do. >> Like let's say 23 and a half and then let's say 32 because of the site work. Is that $8 million difference worth holding on to the portables? >> It's not ideal, but I think it >> Yeah. I mean, >> again, it's all about what can we get past. Yeah, that's and that's what I mean. I've

073known that since the beginning. >> So, I'm going to turn the question over to Julie. >> I'm gonna put you on the spot. Sure. >> Right. Do you have any modeling from a bond perspective that we could start to take a look at and tax impact? >> Yes. I was actually working on that as we came to the meeting tonight, so it's not complete, but I have some rough ideas. I'm looking at um bonding for um 23, 29, and $32 million separately. Um, I can give you. All right. >> You have that 23 one. >> Yeah. Let's look at what's 29. >> I think it's the other. >> 29 is when we were just having conversations with her. They think if you got rid of the site work, they could maybe drill. Like if you

074were to take option 1B, get rid of the site work. Now you're down to 32. They think there's a chance they can knock another three off. >> I would be more comfortable with >> for some reason does not work. really dialing that in >> and figuring that we could through our own capital planning tackle site work without having to go for bonds. >> I would agree. I I would say that's an option. But I guess my thing is if we're able to do a phased approach and keep 60s livable, right? Let's say phase 2 never passes, >> right? We don't get the $13 million edition or $12 million, but then it's 8 million to redo the 60s, right? So then we can go back and redo the 60s back up to current codes and standards

075and everything else as a phase 2 backup. It's 75% of the cost. we get the full capacity, but we don't address the capacity concerns or the educational concerns that Dan Mitchell has, >> right? Which I I >> we don't really know what they were talking about doing on the inside of the building as far as collaborative space and stuff like that. They just sort of gave us >> Well, they were they were going to rightsize the classrooms. >> So, >> all right. >> Julie, take us through the numbers, please. What do we got? So, so this is for a $23 million bond here. Um, we have um options of 20-year either level or uh level principal level debt. Um 25 year for both as well and then 29. Y >> um overall we're looking at

076let's see if we're looking down um go down u lower we have the estimated tax impact um for the first year and then also for year two. Um, so year two, um, is going to be obviously be a little closer to the ongoing impact. Um, >> so let's take a $600,000 house, >> which is five something, I think. >> So the first year is this column 19 right here. You all, we shared this with you, too, if you can't see it. >> Oh, we see the house, right? >> And then this would be year one, but year one's not as much of a payment because it's only half of a payment essentially. >> Um, and this is how much it would be for a 650 $600,000 house. So about 17380. That's across the board for

077all of them. That next year, which is when you do a full payment, that 33 is the jump here, depending on what you're doing. >> And I'm sorry, this is for for what project? >> 23 million. >> This is 23 million. 20-year principal, 20-year debt, 25, >> right? And so for I don't know if this is being projected on TV or not, right? But in transparency, so for a $23 million project for a house appraised at at um $600,000 after year one, so beginning year two, that equates to about $630 increase in taxes >> if you're doing that 20, you know, if you did a 25 year, >> right? If you're doing a 20 year, if you're doing a longer bonded, that become that's less, but you're paying more. That >> was that was level

078principal or level debt? >> Level principal is the first column. >> Okay. Because level debt, you get a smaller payment. >> You get a smaller payment, but you're paying higher. >> Yep. >> Interest. >> So, what what is the current tax rate on a $600,000 house? What overall tax rate? >> Let me see that. >> So, 14. It's $14%. >> It's like 1414 per thousand. >> So, on 600,000. Is that what you're saying? >> Yeah. Um, crap. >> Well, I mean that that's what was that's roughly what was posted out on the town's web page. It's $14.14 per thousand. >> It's right around there. >> Yeah, that makes sense. >> So, that feels like it would be like a 10% increase in people's taxes just for those. >> We have a huge problem. Oh, agreed.

079>> I mean, it is >> 1420. Thank you. >> All right. Can you Can you show us what this will look like? I don't want to look at 29. I want to look at 28 million. >> All right. So, 28 million that I'm still working on, but I can give you um some rough numbers that the bond bank gave us. >> Couldn't use 29. >> We use 29. That's fine. >> Do you have 29 up there? >> Yeah, she does. >> It's going to be pretty close. >> Is that these ones? >> Yeah. >> You got any part >> uh let's see. Yeah, I don't have but I have it on here. Uh so we'd be looking at for like year two. So FY28. Um for the level principal 20 year we'd be looking at

080um a $134 estimated um tax >> and what was tax impact and I don't have the calculation for the on the assess value >> was a$16 here$16 >> so just on a $600,000 house right the 23 million is a 7.4% 4% increase on current tax. >> What is the I think people are going to better relate to what the actual dollar like that what Andrew just said 634. So what let's just try to figure out what that >> Well 634 on you know $600,000 I just did it here that's $8,500 and 20 $8520 a year in taxes. >> Yeah. On a 29 million I'm just going to rough estimate in my head it's going to be somewhere in the $900 range. Well, that much of course. >> Yes. >> Millions. You're talking adding millions. Yes.

081>> I understand that. Thank you. >> What did you say? 1.34. >> Yeah. I think 804 is what I just got but don't >> for 20 >> for yeah for 20 right and that's for love principal >> okay I mean so that's it right that those those are the numbers right so now the board is seeing the actual impact of these decisions right and what that looks like for So, does that change any perspective from board members about what to do on a phased approach for this warrant article or the full 1B option and moving forward with that? I I would be inclined to take off the landscaping side of it and to try to find a way to budget that through our through our budgeting process over a period of years because that's something

082we could control. Um I still am very strongly opposed to phasing it only because I don't think we're doing anyone a service by doing that. I think we're gonna we're gonna waste $7 million trying to get this portion of the building livable for some period of time while we're gonna then ultimately if we want to do what's right for the district and and the kids to get the rightsiz classrooms and to fix the problems, we're going to come back and ask for it again and they're going to still pay for it and they're going to pay more for it because we're phasing it because it's going to be more expensive down the road when we do it again. So, I don't think we're >> Do you want anyone to know? >> But it has no

083chance. It has no chance to pass. >> But you can't even tell me that 23 has a chance to pass. Like >> I can say it has a better chance. >> And if we get nothing, we're waiting a whole another year, potentially two to even to do anything and to address any of the systems. And I have a real problem with that. >> We have to do something. >> Well, the good news is that I'm one of four votes and it sounds like I'm going to get outvoted. This is why it's important discussion, right? >> So, I'm just going to make a motion and we're going to do it through a motion. Right. >> I'm going to make a motion to put on the warrant article 23.5 million. >> I'll second. >> Motion by myself,

084second by Mr. Dit. That motion is purely based upon a phasing approach of what we talked about tonight. I think that personally I think we need more detailed information before we make before we vote on this and whether that's another week or we have a special meeting but we have kind of ballpark ballpark estimates and we would need as solid number as we can get because if it's 23 >> we have that from Haramman >> but that's what they've done over the last two days right it's not I don't know how confident they are in those numbers >> we got that tonight >> and they're confident in those numbers I there is a level of confidence with it. Yes. >> They're looking for us to make a decision so we can get to that. >>

085One of our conversations is that in their line of work they they get to this point a lot with districts with municipals where it becomes about a number like and they'll do the work to the number that you give them, right? Like so if the number is 235, that's the motion right now. They'll do everything they can 235 and we'll work with you to hit that point, right? Like they gave us estimate today which was like 23.6, right? I'm assuming they could get that down to 23.5. That's ultimately what the number is with a little bit here, a little bit there and we can they'll figure it out and they'll get that work there if they think that's the number that we can passive. One other just food for thought. We asked them to look

086at the on-site insight report and if you didn't do any upgrades, you just renovate the existing building. They think it's much higher than what's listed in that report. >> Yes. >> And if you put in soft costs, it's approaching $23 million. So, like that seems to be the number that it's going to take to at least fix that building is $23 million. So, now they base that on that I have a whole long email here from them. I won't get into every detail, >> but you know, even Tina, who was the engineer who did that on-site insight report, when you go back and actually read the report, she acknowledges that she didn't price out insulation for the 60s building, and that's a huge thing herman's on, right? she didn't price out some of the construction

087fees, some of the other work that would have to be done to do that. And then if you go back and look at the minutes from when she came and spoke to the board last year, she spoke of that's an incomplete number. So, you know, Harvey priced it out, they think with construction, it's about 18 and then when you put in the soft cost, it gets up to about 23 to just fix the building. Like if you were to bring it up to current >> conditions without changing the footprint, without the secure entrance, without any of that. So, >> so Mr. cutter. Do you remember the video walkthrough of the second FIC meeting that I went to where you were there and you saw me racking numbers in my head as we walked around the

088building? Do you remember the number I told you? >> No. >> I I said 23 to 29 million just to renovate ju just to redo that building as is. I said it was 23 to 29 is what my estimate would have been. So, I mean that that falls exactly where I would expect it to be. >> My my inclination is to not put something on the warrant this year >> and just to wait a whole another year >> and to because I don't I think that we're sitting here right now just as you taking a shot in the dark at what we think the taxpayers are going to support. And the reality is we had how many people were at that last one? I mean, all we get accused of is no one knows about

089this. >> About 50 people, I think. >> So, we had 50 people there. So, 50 people understand now that we've now looked at a renovation >> and it's going to cost us 30 something million dollars. >> I'm not afraid of asking. It sounds like you are. >> If it fails, it fails. >> I'm afraid of asking for less than what we need to solve the problem. >> Let's see. This is where you and I are going to just disagree. And that's okay. Right. >> So, I I'm I'm confused. the on-site insight report that was done a year ago, whatever it was now. >> Yep. >> Um it was a really low number, right? And we had some people harping on that number. It would just be that that was all in kind and we all

090agreed that we weren't going to do it. We're weren't going to replace a boiler from the 1940s with another boiler from the 1940s. >> But it was my understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, that Haramman was not pricing their work out based on that. It was going to be new. >> Correct. Correct. >> New HBA, new heating, all that sort of stuff. >> Correct. >> So, what's this other 23 million or >> I asked them to be prepared to talk about the on-site insight report >> and like to start reading and digesting that report because as I would expect and I think these are fair questions from the public. You have this report that says, and we've heard it in public comments many times, that it's going to cost, you know, $7 million according

091this report to just fix it. Where if we have these people looking at our systems, tell me what the real cost is for this, right? Like, is it $7 million? Like, you're in there anyways looking at all of this. Tell me what it's going to be. So they did that for us so we could get a price of like if you just did what's in the on-site insight report and do it properly and you bring it up not in kind but into modern stuff it's going to cost you this $23 million >> which again is not addressing the educational. >> No, it's just dealing with the current building. >> So we're at $23 million >> $20 million less than what we went to warrant article >> a year ago. >> A year and a half

092ago. Two years ago. I I guess >> and that project would cost you 48 to $50 million. >> And then you get to add interest. It was 53 or 55 million or something last year. >> So let me I'm just going to I'm going to call the question. >> Okay. Get a second. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Me. >> Sorry. >> So question another question. If we if we vote on this, right, is to to put the warrant article on the ballot. Does that also say we're supporting it? So, right now we're not voting on the Warren article. Right now, we're voting on the 23.5 number >> to put on the Warren article and then we can then we're going to vote on Warren articles after >> today or next meeting or >> today

093because they have to go into budget committee. So, right now it's do we agree to the 23.5 number, right? And then we have to agree on the language of the warrant article. So, do we have why does it have to be done today? Can we get can we take another before another another time before the next meeting to get a more fine finer point on it and have time to really sort of digest what it's going to be and see what it's going to be? >> Our next meeting is January 7th. >> Yeah, you're going to have to do a bond hearing on probably January 15th. So, that's like your drop dead. >> And when's the budget hearing? >> Same day. I would do both backtoback. plan we cuz we have a window where we

094have to do a bond hearing. You might as well do them both back toback. You either start with the bond hearing and then go into the budget the budget hearings or you do the budget hearings and then into the bond hearing. I would do bond and then budget is what I would do and just do it on one day. Bring everyone out because every that's what everyone's going to talk about. So you might as well just do it on one day. So I would do it on the we haven't officially scheduled that yet because we needed this conversation first but tenatively that's what we have kind of lined up. >> Yep. I would be more comfortable if we had more time and let let the advisory group and maybe even the FIC have a chance

095to sort of digest this and me have a chance to digest it better than just this conversation here tonight. But that's just one man. >> I mean I don't know. So >> So if you're if you're I mean you can I mean just to talk you through different things, right? Like you can um do a warrant article with a number on it that you have through deliberative to alter like if you want by motions, right? >> You can still change this. >> You could change it to $32 million at deliberative, right? You could change it to $1 at deliberative, right? >> You can change it on the seventh. >> You could change it at the seventh. You can do whatever you wanted to. You don't have to. You're not locked into the number you pick

096tonight. I think what the decision what I would ask of the board is a decision of whether or not we're putting a warrant article at all on related to this project because we have a bunch of work associated with bond people if we're going to do that. If the decision today of the board was like we're not going to do this great we can hold off on that bunch of stuff. If the decision of the board is like we're putting something even if we are still going to work through the number a little bit then we got to schedule a bond hearing. We got to get all our ducks in a row and do everything. So >> I think in our conversation on Monday, you mentioned whether we voted on an article this year or

097next year would not change the start of construction. >> No. Well, I followed up on that. I did say that the other day when we spoke, but like following up with Haramman, >> that can't be true. >> That that's not true. Like it's take it back. If you waited a year, it like right now if it passed in 26 it would shovels would go in the ground in 27, right? >> If you waited to 27 to pass it, shovels would go in the ground in 28. >> It's a year-for-all. >> Yep. My view is full steam ahead. We have to we have to ask. >> We have to ask. And you want to ask for a week what this we've known for we we were this entire process we were expecting to be able to

098do a project that started with a one that >> it's what we asked. >> We've been on the facilities committee for two years. This is what we've been pushing for >> and now you're going to back out. >> No because I think that because because >> blowing my mind >> you're trying to do half a project. >> I'm trying to do a project that passes and addresses the needs. >> It's not addressing the needs. It's half a project. So, call a vote. >> It's address. >> All those in favor of putting 20 of the phased approach in 23.5 million. Um, >> please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? >> I abstained. >> I'm an I. >> Sorry. >> For which one? >> Question. I'm really torn as to whether we should put it up without

099the more information, as much information as possible. >> So, we have up until deliberative to get that information. >> I need to know what he's voting for. >> We have two yes, one no and one I don't know. >> One I don't know. >> I'm going to say I'm a no. >> Okay. So, the motion fails. 22, right? And we're back to no number decided amongst the board. Okay. That being said, does the board want this warrant article this year? Because that's what we're talking about now. >> I thought I would be comfortable putting a warrant article on this year if it were if we had if I if I felt more comfortable with the information that we currently have. >> So, what do you you're looking for exactly what we're going to get? I'd

100like to I'd like to see what you have seen what what they're talking about. >> I mean, is that are they giving you a guaranteed maximum price for that? Even >> they're not giving me a guaranteed maximum price yet. >> They need our direction and our our what our motion is our final decision to get to that guaranteed max. >> They they've made their presentation on what they would recommend, right? With without money being a factor, you know, within reason. Money is a factor, right? but like an efficient thing. They're comfortable if we give them a number. This is your number that we think that it is and they'll do the most that they can with it. And we'll probably have a lot of conversations throughout the design process of what that officially entails. The

101bones of that conversation would be renovating the main part of the building, doing a secure addition, and making the 60s livable, right? And what that entails would probably vary depending on how the process is kind of unfolding, right? And if that's the number we give them, that's the number we give them. They might do it for less. You know, they're not going to try not to do it for if that's the most, they're not going to do it for more. They're not going to do more work than what we give them for money. They might do it for less. And then we might have conversations like, "All right, you know, this only worked out for $20 million. You got three million. What do you do you want to start any more work? Do you want

102to do this? What What do you want to do with it?" Or or not. could be exactly what they say they're going to do for them. So I I they're prepared to work with whatever number you give them like you've seen different aspects of this costs like if you don't want the whole thing you want to do a phase approach give them the number and they'll do the work. Well, I think the 23 was sort of going to be the FA would be the phase number, >> right? >> I mean, this one that they gave us today approach redoing all the systems, right? The renovation idea of just renovating the building, that's 23 something, right? like 23 something feels like the number like that that >> that like whatever we do unless you're going to

103fully go all the way with the 60s >> any partial work to the 60s is going to result in a a final number of around 23 something. So in order to give the ad admin team some direction does the board still want to pursue moving forward with a warrant article this year? >> I do not. >> I am a yes. >> Okay. So the direction is to move forward with the warrant article. Uh and what is that direction to move forward with? What number? Full project or phased project? >> For me it would have to be a phase project. >> For me it's phased. >> Phased. >> Okay. So we need a we need the direction is to get a more lockdown number on phased and to share that with the board so we have

104a clear picture of what that will entail. >> Okay. for somewhere in the $23 and half million dollar range and uh definitely what the scope of that work would be. >> Okay. >> Can we ask if there's anything in particular that you would like to make sure is addressed within that? >> We'd like to fully understand what's included with the 60s building and what's not >> specifically. >> Okay. Can I add a caveat because I actually liked Matt's idea of what if we just bulldozed it and put portables there to replace the 60s. because they would be more efficient. They would be insulated. You're and the building's not falling down. I I I know it's another variant for >> you can ask the question, but I don't know that's a viable option, right? >> Yeah.

105No, I I understand. >> It's not crazy. We'll ask. >> Yeah. I It's again that way it's not a sunk cost, right, to put 6 million into the 60s wing. >> Mhm. And sure, it's a rental cost, but it's not completely sunk, lost cost. >> Buy them, >> right? Can't sell them. >> Well, I mean, we bought the ones that are there now, right? And they're only like eight or nine years old, right? >> Right. But there's a lot of >> And there's there a problem. >> Yeah. >> At least there may be a >> Okay. So, that's the direction. So, we're not going to have a number for the warrant article tonight, unfortunately. We'll share that news with the budget committee. I know there's members of the budget committee watching tonight, so they they

106already know. Um, and that's just is what it is. >> Okay. Now, tomorrow when we meet with the budget committee, we have our warrant articles that we're going to present. >> We are going to we are going to present this warrant article, right? So, we're going to review that warrant article momentary and the language of that warrant article without a number. Yeah. >> Right. So, I need the board to um at least >> give an opinion on uh the language of that warrant article, number aside, to make sure you're comfortable with the language. So, let's move into more articles and take a look at that first article, article one. So, I'll just read it so everyone understands what it says. Shall the Lichfield School District vote to raise and appropriate the sum of X to

107fund the design, construction, furnishing, equipping, and related costs of a renovation, and addition to Griffin Memorial School, and to authorize the issuance of not more than X of bonds or notes under and in compliance with the provisions of the Municipal Finance Act, RSA 33, and to authorize the school board to issue, negotiate, sell, and deliver such bonds and notes to determine the rate of interest thereon in in the maturity and other terms thereof and to authorize the school board to apply for, obtain, accept, and expend any federal, state, and other aid, if any, which may be available for the project to use such funds to reduce the amount of bonds. I just lost my spot. or issued for the project and to comply with the laws applicable to said project with the balance of X

108to be withdrawn from the Lichfield School District capital improvement expendable trust fund established in March 2020 and to raise and appropriate the additional sum of X for the first year's payment on said bond or note and to authorize the school board to take any other actions as necessary to carry out this vote. Now, this is a a lengthy article, but it is mandated to be written in this fashion. uh under the RSA. >> Yeah, just to go over a couple parts of it. So, this has been vetted by two different uh attorney fir firms, our own attorneys and then the bond attorneys that go over this. So, this is what they recommend writing here. Um you see X's for dollar amounts that we have to to do. You could, and we left it in here

109for now, withdraw any amount of money from the capital improved expendable trust to um go towards the project. You we can remove that if we don't expend any of that money for the project. That's fine. That's that's up to the board. >> That's optional, right? We don't Does it require us to >> Doesn't require you to do that. Correct. >> Take out the and add edition, right? Because it would just be a renovation at this point. >> Um yeah, if that's where it was. Yeah. >> I wouldn't maybe or I wouldn't take it out. >> We can make that decision on >> right >> once we have an understanding what that is. >> Um so that part can come out if we don't end up taking anything out of the fund. But if you take

110any bit out of the fund, that's what that language is associated with that. Um, new this year is anything anything anytime you bond or lease a project, you have to show the five-year tax impact. There's a couple of different ways approaching it. Julie left a note there on the right. Um, this is based upon a 20 just the hypothetical here is based upon a $23 million 25 year level debt bond and you estimate for the five years. Um, you can play around and try to also um estimate the town valuation for those five years. We've elected not to and just making a stable estimate for years two through five here, but there's different ways you can approach that. >> Yeah, I would keep it level and not guess. Yeah. Um, so that's year one, year

111five, but you have to show the first five years. That's not required by by 29 cents the first year, 77 the second year and another 77 that correct another 77, >> right? Cuz it's it's based upon like you putting it on top now. Like if we were to like have a budget a year from now that was under, right? Like it may not end up being a.77 increase like for example, right? Like that's just what it is. Now, once you put this in, if you like level fund it, for example, you actually don't see the tax increase because it's just them part of the budget. Like, think about the lease you have for the middle school right now. It's just in there. You're not seeing that tax increase every single year because you've accounted for

112that in your budgeting. >> So, you have to show it in this warrant, but that's why it's level from there because that's the level amount in the budget kind of moving forward. >> Why is it continuing to go up after year three? I would think that it's the same amount at that point and not compounding year after year after year. >> That's what I mean. Like you have to show like what is I don't know if I'm doing a good job of explaining it. Right. >> So because my thought is it's compounding, right? Is that what you're saying? >> That that's what I'm saying. That's that's what I I know you're saying, but I don't think that's actually what's happening here. >> Right. Like it's not an additional 7 then an additional 7. It's not

113an additional Right. It's like year one there's like on this year's budget there's be a 29 on it. on if we took this year's and rolled it over a year forward there'd be a 77 and then the third year it's still if everything else so those so four and five I think that's confusing >> I know it is to me it's not a great RSA >> that's in in reality that year four and five would be zero >> it would be zero but people are still paying 77 even though it's a new7 through five are >> yeah three through five are zero if you think about it cuz once you establish lish it. >> Right. >> I thought it was the first three years. >> No, it's the first two >> two because this the

114year two is when you're starting to make that full payment, right? >> Yeah. So, so >> the is asking you to show it from zero. >> You know, we've got this out to the attorneys, so maybe they'll correct us, but that is our understanding of how this has has to look. So, >> okay. So, in terms of language for article one, that is the way the article reads as per the legal team. Any comments? I know we can look to play around with the word addition once we have a little bit more clarity at our January 7th meeting. >> Okay. >> Article two. Article two is the budget. Um I've asked Julie to talk a little bit about the budget which we'll do so a little bit later tonight. Um and just to give an

115update on the budget committee budget process to the board so you all have a a view of that. But article two is Shadow Litzfield School District vote to raise and appropriate as an operating budget not including appropriations by special warrant articles and other appropriations voted separately. The amount set forth on the budget posted with the warrant or 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 the Lisfield School District or by law. Or the school board may hold one special meeting in accordance with RSA 401310 and 16 to take up the issue of a revised operating budget only. >> These numbers

116have food service and the grant stuff in it, >> right? So these are all in budget all in numbers. >> How is this different than what was presented? Because I thought these numbers were different when presented. >> So we present food service is a separate account is so we have to present it separately. >> Yeah. >> And then is it grant revenue? Is that what that is? Right. It's >> right. So you include grants in your budget and then it's offset as revenue at the at the end. >> Okay. >> And then with the grants you have to raise the money and then you get the >> And then you get reimbursed. Right. >> Right. Exactly. Got it. >> So, you have to factor those two things in. >> Understood. Thank you. >> Okay. Any

117questions on article two? >> Okay. Article three. Shall the Lichfield School District vote to approve the cost items included in the collective bargaining agreement reached between the Lichfield School District and the Lichfield Education Association, which calls for the following increases in salary and benefits at current staffing level over those paid in the prior fiscal year. Uh those increases would be for next year. 2627 $263,711 in the following year 2728 $483,100 and to further raise and appropriate well I just read that $263,711 for fiscal year 27 and such sum representing the additional costs attributable to the increase in salaries and benefits required by the new agreement over those that would be paid at current staffing levels. So, this is the um this is the new teacher contract for two years and uh and the the impact

118of that teacher contract questions. >> Nope. >> Okay. Thanks again to Matt and Heidi who might be watching for all your hard work on this one. >> Of course. >> Uh article four. Shall the Lfield School District, if article 3 is defeated, authorize the Litfield School Board to call one special meeting at its option to address article 3 cost items only? Any questions on that one? Article five, uh, there's a hyperlink to this one. This is the renaming of the Campbell High School baseball field. Uh, shall the Lichfield School District authorized the Lichfield School Board to name the baseball field at Campbell High School after James Gorm. Coach Gorm was the original baseball coach at Campbell High School and led the Campbell High School baseball team to six state championships. Looking forward to getting that

119one passed. Article six, uh, shall the Litzfield School District vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $250,000 to be added to the building maintenance capital reserve fund established in 2005 for the purpose of funding such are school capital improvements, building maintenance, and repairs in the Lichfield School District. >> Any questions? >> Yep. This is consistent with years past. Uh, we will say that this does have tax impact. Uh that was a uh board discussion at our last meeting and consistent with our actions from last year. Okay. Article 7. Shall the Litzfield School District vote to raise and appropriate the sum of $50,000 to be added to the employee benefits reserve fund established in March 2022 for the purpose of funding the payment of negotiated employee benefits including but not limited to health insurance reimbursements,

120changes in coverage or policies chosen by employees, severance 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 for transfer. on July 1st of this year with no additional amount to be raised from taxation. This amount is consistent with the amount raised for severance payments that were not paid. >> Oh, I got Yeah, that got to remove that. >> That's got to go. >> Yep. So, uh, just for public awareness, this $50,000 is, uh, is for, uh, employee benefits as, as read, uh, and also, uh, to build up some health insurance, uh, protection, uh, given the school care, uh, issues that we dealt with earlier this year. And just a bit of a reserve

121in there for, uh, the risks that we've seen related to school care. Any questions there? Nope. >> Okay. Article eight. We're almost there, guys. Uh, shall the Litzfield School District vote to raise and appropriate up to a sum of $50,000 to be added to the technology capital reserve fund established in March of 2016 for the purpose of funding the acquisition and replacement of hardware, software, and other technology equipment with this sum to come from the June 30th fund balance available for transfer on July 1st of this year with no additional amount to be raised from taxation. >> Questions? >> No issues there. All right. Article nine. Shall the Lichfield School District vote to raise and appropriate up to a sum of $100,000 to be added to the capital improvement expendable trust fund established in March

122of 2020 for the purpose of funding the study planning and cost of new construction or renovation of existing facilities in the Lfield School District with this sum to come from the June 30th fund balance available for transfer on July 1st of this year with no additional amount to be raised from taxation. So, we left this one here kind of tied to article one whether or not you wanted to ultimately include this one. So, this is what we would include if we were to include it. >> Yep. I'm okay with it. I don't know why there's question marks at the end of these though. >> The way they have to be written. >> Yeah, they told us to write question marks. >> Okay. I don't know. >> It seems to change every year. >> Shall shall.

123Yeah, I guess. >> Yeah. But sometimes they they they >> you're voting yes or no. They're asking you a yes or no question. >> I know. >> I guess it's more of a Yeah, I guess you're right. >> I guess this one should um Okay. Article 10, the final one, and this is a new one for the board tonight. Right. But given past discussions uh about redistric or or the um >> I'll give some explanation to >> Well, let me read it. So, the shall the shall this >> shall the school district vote do we want to say shall the Litfield school district like every other article? Yeah. >> Shall the Lichfield School District vote to designate um well actually it says it the next sentence or the next line. Shall the Lichfield School District

124vote to designate the Lichfield School District schools as open enrollment schools programs under the provisions of RSA 194D to allow up to 20 students who reside outside the Lichfield School District attend Litfield School District schools and to limit the percentage of Lichfield School District students who may attend open enrollment schools programs located outside of Litfield School District to 0%. There's a lot of Lichfield School District. >> There is a lot. Yeah. Um, okay. So, we talked about open enrollment last time. Jump in anytime you want. >> Um, we talked about open enrollment a lot and I actually had said last time I was hesitant to put a warrant article on, but that was two weeks ago and a lot has changed in two weeks. So, now you see a warrant article. So, it seems to

125be that most school districts are putting some sort of warrant article out this year to protect themselves so they don't get caught with students leaving and then getting bills from other school districts that declare themselves to be open enrollment. So, there's the Pittsfield and and Prospect Mountain case. Just a refresh, we talked about last time, but quick quick refresher, the Prospect Mountain is open enrollment. Pittsfield students enrolled there um without Pittsfield declaring themselves one way or the other of being an open enrollment district. And the Supreme Court ruling was that it doesn't matter if Pittsfield has as long as Pittsfield has not declared that they're not an open enrollment district, they have to pay the 80% tuition for those students attending that open enrollment school. So this is >> not ascending district, right? >> What's

126that? >> Meaning not that they're not ascending district, right? Because >> Yeah. So Pittsfield hasn't put didn't declare anything like that they weren't ascending or receiving. They have nothing on their books in either direction, which is what currently is true for the vast majority of school districts in New Hampshire, right? Um Prospect Mountain is a receiving open enrollment district, but not an ascending out district, right? So Pittsfield students went to Prospect Mountain and because there's nothing on the books in Pittsfield, Pittsfield has to pay the tuition for those kids to go to Prospect Mountain because there's nothing on the books. So what this warrant article is saying is that we would allow students to attend our schools from outside the district. There's a process for this, a qualification process. You have to develop an application.

127You can do that after a warrant article is passed. And 20 is the number we put in here. We could do more or less, right? like we're just putting a number out there for now for the purpose of of this discussion, but we do not want to allow our students to attend other open enrollment schools. Why this is kind of taken a quick sudden turn is um and I don't know all the details. I have a meeting Friday morning to discuss this in in greater length. But it seems like with the Prospect Mountain, who is an open enrollment school, they have a component of their own version of Vlax, I guess, is the best way to describe it. So students could attend Prospect Mountain and just take remote classes through Prospect Mountain. So before there

128was like, well, are we really going to have any, for example, Lichfield students attend Prospect Mountain up there? No. like that because we don't pay for the transportation. Like there's just uh we have some time on our hands. But this fact that they've opened up um kind of their own uh remote school option that would allow say a Lichfield student to just take classes through Prospect Mountain through their remote school and never have to physically attend Prospect Mountain does put us in a vulnerable position from a from a financial standpoint that we could have kids access that >> and then you pay 80% of your tuition, >> right? Like that's what it is. It's crazy >> for them to for a person to go to remote school. We >> Right. I don't know if that

129was the intent of all this open enrollment stuff. >> Like I I don't know if that was the intent of like of what this open enrollment stuff is. Right. We've talked about >> shaking his head no. So we're going to say >> yeah like there's pros and cons to open enrollment. We don't need to rehash that whole discussion here. I mean we've used an example here like if um you know we were fully enrollment open enrollment you like CTE is a good example of like we send kids to Alvin to take classes there because they can do different programs and that's a different type of thing but it's the same general idea other schools different >> does this if we say that we're we do not send outside >> it doesn't affect that at all

130>> doesn't affect CT >> right yeah it's a different type of agreement >> so what this warn article would do is allow students to come here if we wanted to I mean we could not allow any kids to come here as well, but and it doesn't hurt, you know, to put it out there. >> So, hypothetically speaking, if they're trying to come here from a district that has voted the same way we have, >> correct? >> Then they personally would be responsible for their tuition. >> It's a it's no longer an open enrollment situation, right? Like it would have there there are other mechanisms for let's just say Manchester for hypotheticals here because >> yeah, >> there's a portion of Manchester on this side of the river, right? If Manchester was to put this similar

131article in, then they we believe, but there's no court law for this yet that Manchester wouldn't be on the hook of paying that tuition bill to us. The family could. >> The student wouldn't the family would. Yeah, >> we're certainly not. >> We're not like required to accept it. Correct. >> Now, there's other things we can talk about with the application process would be, right? I just sat through a three-hour webinar on open enrollment yesterday. um thrilling and about some of the there's a lot of gray with special ed still and like who's responsible and different aspects of it that has to be kind of sorted out still. Um and just because you said you're willing to accept open enrollment students does not mean you're on the hook yet to accept any of these open

132enrollment students, right? Um you need to develop your process and you can actually be selective with who you're accepting. Um is the understanding of the current law, right? Like >> way >> Yeah. Like if you were a school that valued arts program is what they use, right? Like and we in our open enrollment program is because we're trying to build up our arts. Our music program for example, we could make that a qualifying part of our application. What would you offer our music program? Right. >> Got it. So it can't be discriminatory. >> It can't be discriminatory, but you can invite certain certain people in. >> You were 6'10 person and we were trying to build our basketball program. >> You're happy to bring >> Yeah. I mean, that's >> just to take a pause,

133right? It's just past 7 o'clock. Dom, if you want to enjoy the rest of your evening and get to jump on uh holiday, you know, break activities, go for it, man. >> Are you guys having a good break, Chris? You too. >> You too. Thank you. >> So, I have what you see here for an actual Warren article is kind of a mish mash of different versions. I've seen this is a Kaj has one out, so this has similarities to that. The um webinar I went to yesterday was hosted by Drummond and Woodson, which is an educational law firm here in New Hampshire. They had a sample warn article, which is um a lot of where this language is from there. And I've sent this to our um legal council to review. I just haven't

134heard back yet on what suggestions and changes they would have for this as well. But I wanted to get something in front of you this evening and have that discussion about what how and you want to proceed with this type of stuff or if you're comfortable with a warn article related to this. And it it would be we we will not send kids outside. That's zero. 0% the real number. >> You you >> No, you can do zero is what we've been told. >> You're not the the reason this exists is school choice. You can't tell a student you can't go to an outside school. >> But we're is we're not saying they can't. We're just saying we're not going to pay for it. >> Yeah. >> They can still use EAS. >> I can

135I can definitely share there are other districts doing this exact same thing. >> Yeah. And I think right like to be transparent, I don't want to do any of this. I'd rather let the legislation sort out what their intent is for it. But from a district standpoint, we have to protect our our own liabilities here. >> I I understand that. I'm just saying that this may be one of those unintended consequences that gets fixed. So >> yeah, let's hope so. >> Yeah. And that would be great. And then if this like if we move forward with this and legislation in session now makes this void in a year from now, great. But like we don't need to be in a situation where say we have five kids attend Prospect Mountain to take online classes and

136we're dishing out, you know, 20 grand >> $100,000, you know, like that. That's going to put this district in a hole that we That's not good. >> And bear in mind, no transportation is included in this. You're not responsible for transporting. >> No. >> That's why that online thing is like really dangerous, right? Like because, >> you know, I don't want to base judgment on why they've made those decisions over there. That's not my place, but like my responsibility is Lichfield School District and that that's vulnerable for us. That puts us in a in a challenging spot. >> Any other comments or questions on article 10? >> I guess my only other thing would be with respect to accepting students. Um my only concern would be, you know, from from a special education planning perspective,

137right? Like we are always subject to moveins. Um, but beyond that, we have a pretty good like finger on the pulse of what's happening with our identified students in terms of what we anticipate for services. If we accept 20 uh and this is expanded to then apply to us needing to cover special education costs, that could also be the have the same impact as us paying for students to go out. >> I put 20 there as like literally a random number, right? I think I'm wondering if until this is hashed out that should be zero >> or five. You know, I've seen other districts go much smaller, right? >> And small number, >> you know, and again, I think districts are looking to protect their own liability with this right now. So, the general consensus

138is most everyone is going to have something here that puts that 0% which means, you know, no one's coming, right, or going anywhere because everyone's going to be at zero. So, I mean, if you want, I can change this to five. >> Is that going to expand? Like, would that actually I guess I just don't even understand what would happen for special education, though. Even if it if a sending district said we don't cover anything, >> it's still being sorted out. Honestly, >> this is where we can be creative, right? I'm not suggesting we do that now, but just strategically you can. If you're lower in a in a grade or a subject matter, you could write this article in or structure this in a way that says, "Hey, for grade, we can accept grade

139one x amount, grade three x amount." >> You can get as specific or as broad as you want. So if you're lower in >> well if you're lower in enrollment for a particular grade and you're trying to encourage stability so you're not laying off teachers or whatever it might be. You can structure this in a way to do that. >> And for the special education, right, it's 80% of the sending school tuition. >> There's some uncertainty about the special ed costs, right? Like and who's responsible for it. Um would if could the team like where does parent choice and the special ed team like come through like who has priority on right that like cuz with special education it's always a team decision right you know um so when you talk about FAPE in these

140open enrollment situation like is a parent refusing FAPE if they've gone the open enrollment option uh how the >> free and appropriate free and appropriate education that you have to provide that we are mandated to provide all students that's the heart of the special ed law which is why you know you can have big costs for it because you're giving them an appropriate education right but so for example like homeschooling right if a if a family decides to pull their student from the school system to homeschool their student wave vape right like we as a district are no longer responsible for the special ed services because they they've made a choice with their education there's some uncertainty about how open enrollment is interpreted in that formula, right? Like for example with charter schools which is

141not open enrollment but shares a lot of similarities with open enrollment sending or it's not a sending district but the home district does have some responsibility with special education when it comes to the charter school menu. So for example, if you have a student that attends a charter school, typically the home district will meet with the team at the charter school. they'll come up with the best special ed plan. And that may involve the home district paying some special ed costs, maybe the cost of a pair or contributing to the cost of a pair, whatever the case may be. The open enrollment, there's just an unknown. No one's tested it yet. Um what on who's responsible for what aspects of it? >> All right, I want to make sure we're keeping this moving tonight. I

142want to go back to the beginning and take some board voting on articles. >> Are we prepared to do that tonight? >> Yep. All right, we're not going to vote on article one as discussed. Uh, but I do want to start voting on article two. And again, uh, just because we're voting tonight, if numbers change, say the budget committee changes numbers on article two, which they're still, uh, they have the ability to do, that just means we're going to revote if that happens. >> Um, okay. So, I've already read article two. Um, I'll entertain a motion to approve article two. So, moved. >> Motion by Mr. Shoemaker, second. >> Second by Mr. Plansky. Additional discussion. Okay. All those in favor please say I. I. Opposed. Abstained. That carries. 40. Article three is the teacher contract.

143>> Motion to approve. >> You have a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Plansky. Additional discussion. >> Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Abstained. That carries. 4. Thank you for that. Thank you again for your work on that one. Good one. Uh article four is uh the teacher contract. If that gets voted down, we can go back um and renegotiate if necessary. >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Duet. Okay. Thank you. Uh additional discussion. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. >> I >> abstained. That carries 310. Thank you. Article five is Campbell baseball field. >> Motion approved. >> Motion by Mr. Shoemaker, second by Mr. Plansky. Additional discussion. All those in favor, please say I. >> I.

144>> Opposed. >> Obstain. That carries 40. Article six is the building and maintenance capital reserve fund, which is raised by taxation. 12 cents. Uh, and this is for $250,000. This is technically a motion to recommend, right? >> This is a motion to recommend. >> Yeah. Motion. Motion to recommend. >> We have a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Dit. Additional discussion. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Obstain. That carries 40. Article seven is the employee benefits reserve fund for $50,000. Motion to recommend. >> Yep. We have a motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Plansky. Additional discussion. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed? That carries. 4 Z. >> Article eight is the technology capital reserve fund for $50,000. >> Motion to

145recommend. >> We have a motion by >> Mr. Dit to recommend. >> Second by Mr. Shoemaker. We're really screwing up the minutes right now. Additional discussion. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. Abstained. That carries. 40. Article nine is the capital improvement expendable trust fund for $100,000. I will make a motion. Really screwing it up. >> Second >> to approve this one. Uh, sorry, Jan. Uh, second by Mr. Shoemaker. Additional discussion. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed? abstained. That carries 40. Uh, is the board comfortable voting on article 10 tonight? >> Yes. >> Uh, I'd like to see what we're gonna Can we change it to a lower number if we need? Are we changing to five tonight and I'm comfortable? >> Yeah. >> Okay. I'll entertain >>

146pending legal approval on this last one. I don't know if you want to add that. Legal is still bad. >> Why don't we just wait to vote on this one until we vote on one? We can vote on this on January 7th, >> but the budget committee does not need to actually >> It's like right now. Yeah, they don't have any. >> Go read the Go read the bill. >> Well, I'm reading the statute right now. >> Okay. Why don't we table this to our next meeting? There's nothing pressing on this particular one. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> No, it keeps changing like you keep getting more information, so it's just it's changing by the day. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you for all those motions and going through those warn articles. All right.

147Uh, next up on the agenda tonight is a budget update. Uh, I'll turn it over to Julie for a quick update to talk about the budget committee process and kind of where we landed with all that. Sure. Um, I've attached the document that we've been utilizing that's been capturing all of the motions um, between the school board and the budget committee. >> Do you guys see that attached? >> I do not. >> Oh, sorry. I don't know. >> I think it's in a report. >> Oh, it's in a report. Okay. >> Yeah, >> just go there. >> Should have hyperl to that specifically. Sorry. >> Yes. Um um so essentially um we are we are at currently um the general fund budget is at 27,45 $45,024 which represents a 213,892 increase or um a 79

148increase over the current um year's default budget. Um we've you know certainly worked very hard to um come in with a proposed budget that is responsible um to the taxpayers and also um making sure that we're you know now that we have a full year under our belt and we know um you know what our needs are as a district. Um we've we really worked to create a budget that um is going to be helpful um moving forward but also um can accommodate you know a warrant such as um the building. So um there have been fairly minimal cuts um through the budgeting process. Um and again you can see the um outlined motions um and how that has affected the overly budget. It was just the one meeting so far, right, where you guys

149made cuts. >> We had two. >> It was two. >> We had two. Uh and just just for board reference, this year and the current budget where it stands is approximately $30,000 over this year's default budget. So, I mean, we're very close to >> What were the cuts? What were the total budget committee cuts? >> There's a Can you see the sheet? If you go into Julie's um PA report >> and you click on that document document >> 171K, >> right? You'll see all the motions and >> 175,000 there. >> You'll see BC BC there's a BC changes tab there too, >> right? So the the the larger one there was they the budget committee did action $158,000 reduction as a bottom line salary and benefit reduction. This is I in line with uh past

150year's attrition cuts. Uh this is on on top of the $150,000 um reduction that the school board made. So um and then there are some other motions that they had made as well. >> Where did they So I didn't get to watch the last one. I watched the one before it. Oh, they did reduce the PSATs. they they did but uh for a less amount uh based upon number of students who were taking those PSATs. So there was logic behind that. It wasn't a full we're just cutting PSATs. >> Yep. >> So that won't impact the PSATs that we're administering. >> It shouldn't. We should be okay. Yeah. Unless we have a ton of >> we should be okay in that we're going to find money somewhere else or we should be okay in that

151they based upon our actual projected enrollment we're fine right um now you know for every kid over than that we'll have to find the money for that particular test where it's not the end of the world you know we can >> plan is to still issue PSATs >> yes >> the same number of PSIs >> same grades I think the important thing is >> y okay any questions on kind of where we landed from the budget committee perspective I just, you know, I just want to say it. I mean, we came in with a really light budget this year. You guys came in really streamlined. Um, and a lot of that streamlining was based off of attrition. Um, you know, I get that everyone thinks that it's easy to say, "Oh, well, there's unfilled positions,

152but we are basically signaling that we don't really we don't really care to potentially meet certain needs that were we should be needing meeting needing. So >> yeah, I think it's a I think it's a reflection of we're making the right decisions to rightsize the district based upon student population where we need to be in in each of the buildings. Um and it's taking a hard look, a different look, different perspective of making sure that the we have the right number of um teachers of paras etc. and making dec tough decisions about positions that we're just not able to fill and just stop not asking for that in the budget year over year. So >> yeah, no, I just I feel like we did that already. So then when they doubled it, it's just >>

153Yep. And I, you know, part of that is also we have reserve accounts as a protection for us as well. So >> uh Okay. Uh, and just as a reminder, the budget committee can still action on budgets, and if that is the case, we will revote on our warm article. >> All right. Uh, there is a new fundraiser. >> All right. I'm going to lighten the mood quite a bit. I hope that's all right with everyone. This is going to be quick. >> So, we're uh we were >> I'm just going to go barrel head head first and then we are we still in Julie's report? >> No, we're coming back to this back to the agenda. Yeah. Um, so there was like an independent professional wrestling group that approach I told you the hammer

154Valentine is coming on. >> Uh, turn here. Lighten the mood a little bit. And they want to host a couple events in the Campbell High School. This would be in the spring in like April. Um, and as part of the agreement, you know, they would host the event in our gym, sell tickets, and we would uh get a profit of the tickets that they they sold. Um, you know, it's pretty light work for us. They just need a venue and they're looking for a venue down here. And, uh, happened to catch me on the right day to entertain a conversation and I said, "Hey, I'm to explore anything." Um, that kind of helps us from a financial standpoint and stuff like that. So, we're vetting the group to make sure there's some some sort of

155legitimacy. We're not just inviting any random people into the building. I met with them. Was that just last Friday? Yeah, I met with them last Friday. Um, that was a trip. They came in with their championship belts and nice um big guys like bigger than me, you know, like it was it was interesting and stuff. So, uh we're not officially confirmed all the way for this yet, but like uh it seems to be all right. I just wanted to bounce this off the board uh before we go all the way through with this and make sure >> it's the middle school floor that needs to be replaced, right? >> Yes, it's the middle school floor. What's that? Well, they want to Campbell because of the stands and stuff like that. >> I was just saying

156they put someone through the floor. >> Yeah. So, does the board have any uh as long as they we don't we're you know vet everybody who's part of this organization to make sure we're not dealing with any any uh unsavory individuals. Is there any pause from the board on us pursuing this? >> Love the idea of uh new money generating sources. I would just want to make sure the gym floor is protected. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, they've done this in other uh gyms before, you know, um and they have apparently, you know, we walk the venue or at the venue. We walk the gym and they showed me what how explained to me what they're doing and stuff like that. Um they've invited me to come up to their practice facility and and uh >>

157he's going to be in the room. >> We discussed like >> superintendent is going to get >> we disc I don't want to reveal he's going to snap into a slim gym for this event. >> I don't want to reveal too much but there might be some involvement from some school people here to make it uh make it exciting for the kids and stuff like that. So, um, and make it like family oriented and >> sumo wrestling. >> Yeah. A little bit a little bit fun. So, >> Fisher Cats. >> Um, so I I think we're going to pursue it because it could be kind of fun, kind of different, kind of unique. Like I said, involve maybe a handful of school people so the kids get a kick out of it and stuff like

158that. But, uh, >> it's it's different. >> Certainly different. >> Did they give you an indication of how many they normally get to attend? Yeah, depending on the size of the venue. Like they just did one I guess at the Manchester I think it was Manchester Community College and their gym and hosted one there and they had >> they said over 500 people there, you know. So, um that's why I think they look at Campbell with the bleachers and and stuff like that they could fit. I guess to phrase where I'm coming from, right, is I want to make sure that like >> whatever we get for potential profit is going to cover the custodians and the and the staff and everything to cover. >> So that we also I mean they would go through

159our our rent facility rental stuff where there's agreements to cover costs associated with these different things, right? >> Um so that's part of the deal. It's not just like hey you get all of our people for free. We go through the the >> um facility rental fees and everything associated with that. So that's >> we might wave the actual rental fee if we're getting kick back from the event, >> but in terms of like >> the utility cost, the custodial cost, those things associated with it, like we take care of that with them. >> So there we go. >> Way to lighten the mood. >> Something different. >> Run with it. >> All right. Can't wait to see what your outfit is for this. >> Look, we talked about >> it's a diaper. a whole

160like storyline they want to do with me and uh how this is going to play out and uh I mean I'm a '9s kid so like I watched Stone Cold and you don't have to seek this out. >> Look when they first called our like reaction was like this is literally what it was. Renee called them back and was like, "Yeah, we'll have a conversation with you if you promise to let the superintendent like get a chair shot to the back." And they were like, >> they were like, "Are you serious?" We're like, "Rene wants to ch, >> right? Renee probably does." Um, so they were like enthusiastic that we we were into it, too. So, we'll see how it goes. >> All right. Thank you for that one. >> Uh, all right. Julie, BA

161report. Um so we did go over the budget um with regard to um tuition rate setting. Um we had discussed at the last um couple of meetings actually the tuition rate. So I just was looking for a vote um with the final rates that I'm going to talk. >> All right. So we've uh gone through this a couple of times at this point. We made some adjustments based upon board discussion. Uh this is the approved tuition rates for 202526. the elementary uh at an annual rate of $22,223, the middle school of $20,610, and the high school Campbell at $23,795 >> for a district average of $22,28. >> There's the cost. We have a motion by Mr. Plansky, second by Mr. Shoemaker. >> It's insane. Um, additional discussion All those in favor, please say I. >>

162I. Opposed. Stained. 4 Z. >> Um the safe grant um applications were due uh last Monday. Uh we have submitted um three applications. They did um narrow the scope quite a bit this time around um for the categories um within the categories that you can apply for. Um and so with that there were some limitations. Um, but we did, um, put in an application for all three schools. Um, and so we're hoping to hear back, um, somewhere between January and March is usually when they, um, let districts know, um, who is approved. Um, with regard to solar, um, we did receive, um, confirmation from Chief Nickel that the New Hampshire Fire Marshall's office, um, has approved the energy storage system plans, um, that Dynamic Grid has submitted. Um, so that is allowing us to allowing

163Dynamic Grid to move forward with the build and installation of that storage system. >> So, I did review that battery plan. >> Okay. Um, I'm actually kind of surprised that it's just a metal container. Question that I kind of had is the main disconnect for the battery system is on the side of that container. Yep. >> And concern that I have is it has passive fire suppression, which is basically they seal it and they let the oxygen run out. Um, so if that box ever gets hot enough, is there another disconnect somewhere in the line to shut it off from the school >> somewhere in the building >> or externally on the building? >> Yeah. Or externally. Sorry. So the the switch is on the external of the battery container, but like there's no active

164fire suppression. >> There does have to be something separate on the fire panel itself. >> Okay. Okay. That that's >> I thought the box did have fire suppression in it. We talked about that. It it stated passive fire suppression >> passive passive >> which is just let me run >> which from my understanding is this isn't like they don't emit foam they don't emit like a smothering um >> because of the type of equipment in there. Yeah. >> Right. >> You just can't dump water on it. >> Right. You can't dump water. But they have foam suppressions and other systems that they can use or a powder suppression. But passive to me is that they literally it's a sealed box and it just waits until the oxygen is gone. >> So let's figure out what

165what that is, what passive is exactly, just so we have some clarity on that. >> I believe that I I'm probably not going to get the technical terms correct here, but um I believe that K from dynamic said something about um within each layer if it if you call it um that there is um like basically there's no way for um if the one part of it got on became um caught on fire that it would move on to like the next layer that there's something sufficient there. >> If there's questions I can get more >> if there's questions um feel free to set up a call. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> That way you can get them addressed. >> Sounds good. >> Okay, >> cool. Thank you for taking a look at that one. >>

166Yeah. >> Do we have a timeline now on like when that pad's getting installed and what? >> I do need to check in. I think that one of the um things that may delay things a little bit right now is not uh is the building um inspector. Um we do need to receive some more information about the site work um before some of that stuff can get >> especially we have a parttime one I think right >> coming in in three weeks. I think he's he's here part-time for three weeks to handle but I don't Yeah, I think we're ready. But I mean, let's be honest, it's not the ideal time to be pouring concrete anyway. So, >> it's not it's not >> take as someone who's having concrete poured this week. >> Yeah. Fun

167addition. >> More kids. I should >> Okay. Um Continental. >> Yes. Um we did receive a quote from Continental. Um with regard to the LMS parking lot, um I've um attached that quote um for the school board and also the budget committee has access to that. Um, I did want to talk a little bit more about though that um, it does cover the layout of the parking lot as is. Um, and I know there's been some concern by our facilities director about potential um, issues under like the drainage issues underneath. Um, so there was a question of whether or not you know the board would be um, interested in doing some a survey or a study prior to moving forward with work. Um, >> is it really necessary? >> Like, >> well, didn't we talk

168about doing a study a couple years ago? >> Like, I just I I'm tired like how many how much do we need to continue to spend money on studies like in terms of just addressing the problem? >> I think what they're trying to get to is something so they can see what's going on underground and if they rip up the tar and all of a sudden they need to do new culverts and all that sort of stuff, that's going to add to it. >> So, shouldn't we just do the whole thing? Shouldn't we factor in a contingency to this? >> I just requested access to that quote. I don't >> Yeah, I don't have either. >> I think I think you're right. We should build we should build some buffer in there. >> There should

169be buffer and I think you know the bigger thing for me is it's inind. I get that >> but that parking lot is not ADA compliant, >> right? And so if you're doing the parking lot, how do we make it futureproof, right? And >> some money to design it. >> Well, so that's where my head is going is how do we make it in a way that makes sense for the future and bring it up to where it needs to be in terms of standards. >> Well, isn't that what you're saying is have a survey like have the someone come out and do a like actual design for it. >> Correct. They they would they would check they would look to see if there's any underliers. I think they have cameras that can go underneath

170to check um like some of the piping. I guess um there was some concern about there being some significant rot. Um and then um you know any other design um issues that may be present in the parking lot that we would want to address. >> Now would could Continental do that or would that have to be somebody else? >> I believe that would be someone else. I would need to look more into that. >> Yeah, >> man. I would think they have some services that do that. I'm sure they I'm sure they certainly Yeah, I'm sure they have a guy. >> I I mean I I think we should be looking to do it correctly. So >> I'm I think we need to look at what's the end solution. >> Okay. >> I mean all

171I mean not that this is like a small number but it's not >> it's less than talking about it's not as bad as >> at the end of the year. >> Yeah. This can this can >> traffic control if needed. >> Well this this can this can spiral out of control. The number is $287,500 just for public awareness. It's a It is a big number. It is less than what the board was originally talking about at one point in time. This can spiral out of control. That parking lot is in significant need of uh of a complete overhaul. There's no question about it. Uh that being said, um if we're starting to talk about retaining walls and other aspects that need to be addressed uh at that, this number can can go real high real

172quick. >> Very fast. Yeah. Yeah. So that's just something to be in my flow. >> Yeah. I mean, we should be I we should be getting engineering done. >> So look, I mean, you know, we're in December, right? If there's any opportunity to do anything like this, it's year-end encumbrance. If we even have year-end encumbrance, like it's a big number. Who knows, right? Um >> it'd be good to be prepared for the June time frame with something like this. >> So, >> if we can start to identify what that might look like between now and then, that would be good. Absolutely. >> So, by June, we have the number >> that we need to work towards. >> Yep. >> Sounds good. All right. And then um the last piece I had um was a there's

173a few pieces of legislation um that have passed um that will be effective um as we move into January. Um one of them um was House Bill 771 which required an expenditure line um for open enrollment um tuition which we did include as just a dollar placeholder um in our budget. Mhm. >> Um I did and this is something that again is kind of evolving as we go. Um initially there was not guidance as to where exactly you put that line. Um there was a general consensus it would be a general education line districtwide. Um so I did have it as an 1100 function. Um and then recently, actually yesterday, um the Department of Education, um the finance department actually is um requesting that we or suggesting that we use an 11:09 function, which would

174just be very specific to open enrollment. So that may be something that we would um if if we wanted to do that um and keep that consistent um but we may want to change that. Okay, >> that function line um with regard to um another bill house bill 557 um is the requirement to have the average cost per pupil as calculated by the DOE. Um as well as school district achievement proficiency scores printed on district ballots for SB2 districts, which of course we are. Um we are currently I was at a um conference on Friday um with business administrators throughout the state. Um and essentially what we're looking for is the DRRA is working on template language for that. Um so once we have that of course we want to be consistent. Um and so

175once we have that language we will provide that and we'll make sure to include that on the warrants. >> Would that be for this March? >> Yes that is >> what article would that go? Um so we have to that's a good question. There's a lot of question here like it's the the um >> budget line >> it actually scores like >> immediately preceding the question of adopting a school budget. The following information shall be printed >> preceding school budget. So that's our article for >> so it will be like a preamble to the articles. So that's why we're kind of waiting for the DRA to tell us because they ultimately approve our warrant articles, right? Like we have to submit the warrant articles to them to make sure that we are >> have legal

176warrant articles. So that's why we're they're developing everyone develop a template that they would be okay with that meets this this law. So >> but we are well aware of it and are ready to go with it. We just need that >> template template. Right. >> Correct. um >> average cost plus proficiency scores, >> right? >> And there's other stuff, >> but those are specific for the ball. >> Yes. Um and then um the last one that is um it's definitely a big change for us is House Bill 1265. Um and that this is a um House bill that has a lot of implications. Um but one of the things um in particular is there's a document that's very very specific. It has to be um two pages on 18 by 24 inch paper um

177and it has very specific graphs um and um information that needs to be on it. it has to have um it's basically a look back of 10 years um that includes teacher salaries, administrator salaries, um cost per pupil um and there's a lot of requirements. So, um, with regard to the business administrators, um, association here in New Hampshire, um, we have, um, a template that's been created by one of the business administrators that the majority of districts are agreeing to use so that we are consistent. There's been a lot of conversation back and forth between districts because there are some things that are um, like who do you consider an administrator? Um, there's a lot of conversation about that. So, we're going to be as consistent as the other districts. We are going to use

178the template. We've already started working on it. Um, and we will have that. It does need to be posted prior to um deliberative in January. So, we will be sure to have that. >> So, this the legislature didn't come up with a template. They just said, "Here, do this." >> Uh, yes. >> Correct. >> How government like to do that? And there's also um some new updates as well that we're working for working on for the budget hearing as well. Correct. >> Is that what this is? That's the stuff. Okay. >> Y that you're referring to. I think the >> Yeah, the RSA >> I just had it up earlier to the >> Yeah. RSA 189 I think it is -76 >> which is the related to that log Julie just talked about. >> Got

179it. Thank you. >> Okay. Lots of important updates there tonight. Thank you. Any questions? >> All right. Hearing none. Uh we'll turn it over to Dr. Taylor for a curriculum update. >> All right. So Matt, great schools. Ah, I knew you were going to come back to something. I'm sure it's riveting. Let's hear it. >> So, um, it's unclear, but I have some information. So, they do their ratings on three categories on a 1 to 10 scale. The categories are what they call student progress rating which is academic growth which in their waiting has more than the other two categories because um they say growth is the most important so carries a little bit more weight. um college readiness rating which incorporates the SAT ACT scores, grad rates and participation in AP C courses like

180and if we have international balorate and then dual enrollment and then >> is that do do you know is that on like a percentage basis so that it's it accounts for district size >> um I don't it does I couldn't find those specifics um but I c I couldn't find what their specific weights were for each of these different categories, right? It says that their student progress rating carries more weight, but I don't know what that means in their formula. Um, and with that academic progress rating, it's intriguing because they said that in states where the student growth level data is not um, available, they have their own um, rating, they do a proxy calculation. Um, and I'm wondering if they're using that for our high school where we only have one state SAS test.

181We do have the SAT and but I'm just wondering what growth data they're using because SAT is taken once the science SAS is taken once >> right so it's like there's nothing to measure there unless you're looking at PSAT but so I don't know >> that wouldn't be different in other districts right >> right it's and the growth calculation too for us is really hard because We have one elementary school and that one elementary school has like four now it's three um third grade classrooms and then the fourth grade classrooms and that's it. Other districts have multiple elementary schools that also have three, four and five in that school. So Griffin is a little bit of a disadvantage in these types of situations because our sample size is so small. >> Right. Um so then

182they also have the test score rating which is it measures achievement. So you've got growth, then you've got achievement and then the college readiness. So that's kind of how they um do that. and then their one to 10 scale. If you're in a rating of one to four, you're below average according to their scale. Five to six is average and 7 to 10 is above average. Um, so what were we? I forget. We were like five >> five. >> So we were still in the average range in their calculations. We're not below, which is good. Um, and >> swinging for the fences. >> Right. But it solid >> it's kind of like what we were talking about when we're talking about being labeled a um school in need of improvement and stuff like that where

183we're at a disadvantage already coming out of the gate because we have such a small sample size >> comparatively to the other districts in the state. Um but there's way things are we're doing a lot like the teachers are >> oh yeah >> amazing and so um the needle could move and I look to see like how often this is updated and they update it as often as they can get the data from the state. So for us, it should be updated yearly from what I can tell. And that was just >> How often do we get the data from the state? >> We get it yearly. >> Like I have the data already, but we've just been in the throws of all this. So I haven't done another >> data update, but I have

184it all ready to go. >> So we could always send it to say just in case you don't have it. >> Just in case. Yeah, because it just got released. >> How proactive we are. It got released in November. So, um, yeah. >> Gotcha. Thank you for that update. >> You're welcome. Um, and any other questions on great schools? >> No. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, so we have our professional learning days on um, Monday and Tuesday. Yes. Um, really excited to >> um, have those two days. >> Some of the staff were talking to me today about it and really excited about the AI components. >> Yeah. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Um it's going to I'm really excited for Monday morning. Um we have really great presenters coming and from in district and from out of

185district. Um I think it's going to be a great experience for everyone. I'm looking forward to the feedback on that. Um so we can kind of be more robust if we need to in the future. >> Lunch on Monday >> and um lunch on Monday is being provided by our very own superintendent. >> Wow. who has graciously um >> in the kitchen to make a lunch. >> So, >> we're going to see the slims cater to the allergy people. >> Got some glutenfree stuff, >> gluten-free aspect. So, >> um that was awesome. So, and then um our very own amazing Lauren Crowley will be providing lunch on Wednesday on um Tuesday. So, um really excited for that. The afternoon of Monday, I um teachers are going to be given time to do that, um instructional

186resource log that we have to have prepared by October. So, I rolled out all of that with a very scintillating video, I must say, for how to fill it out. Um and a guide for how to fill it out. Um, so hopefully it's as easy as um possible to get that done, but they'll start that work and all of that has um gone out to them as of the last couple of days. So, it's exciting. Um, lots happening. >> And the holiday break. >> Oh my gosh. Yes, holiday break. >> Awesome. >> Yeah. Where I might be finishing writing grant activities. >> That's great. >> Yes. >> Looking forward to hearing the outcome of uh those two days. Y >> good. >> Well, you'll see the one of the big outcomes next fall when we

187do that resources guide. So, we're starting that way in advance to kind of deescalate stress around >> a lot of time. >> Um, a lot of time because essentially we have to go through every resource that we we have document it and catalog it and everything like that. So, it's a good productive use of that time and everything. So, we'll see. >> All right. Thank you for the update. >> Yeah. >> Uh, we have the minutes from December 3rd, 2025. Make a motion to approve. >> Motion by Mr. Shoemaker. >> Second by Mr. Dit. Additional discussion. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. That carries 4 Z. Uh we don't have any policies tonight. You're all lucky. >> Yeah. Uh evidently they're coming. Uh enrollment really no changes up to >> um

188may Yeah. May I actually go back to policy for for one second? Yeah. >> Um we got a technical advisory this week about audio video recording um and how the adjustments to the parental bill of rights law and some tweaks to to um interpretations around audiovisisual recording. So just like an FYI uh to families out there um we uh need written consent for a large a larger window of video and audio recording activities. So everything um at least from our technical advisory we got including like if kids are videotaping for a project in class and stuff like that. So we're working on um probably a form that might we're going to try to align it with second semester to go back out to families explaining that additional um permissions connected to to different things around

189audio and video recordings that comes up >> like linkscast. >> Yes. Like links cast for example, right? um even though it's an internal kind of instructional tool um that we're not necessarily broadcasting. >> Why isn't it on the YouTube channel? >> Well, there's different aspects of it. They do some of it just inside the building and then there's stuff that goes on the social media and everything like that. So, we have some we need to expand um our permission forms with that. So, we're going to try to do that in a timely way that coincides with the start of semester. So, just an FYI, but even things like performances, right? Like we have a Windsor concert for CHS right now. We need explicitly permission to record that if we're going to record that in any

190capacity. There's a bunch of different things that we have to do that's a little bit more detail oriented than it was. >> Like you need an iPad when people walk in. >> Yeah, kind of. Yeah. You know, athletics, which is like bonkers because, you know, they're taking pictures for the newspaper and for this and stuff like that. Um, so we're working on on that to make sure we follow um the intents of that correctly. So just an FYI for the >> Yeah, that's going to be hard to >> we got a plan actually. We actually do have a >> plan that are public spaces, right? That you can you can record anywhere, right? see those people on Facebook the parental >> and the parental bill law there tighten that up a little bit that if

191it's some sort like a concert for example in the auditorium in the evening >> like that you need explicit permission to to record that like if we were recording that concert tonight putting it on YouTube we need to explicitly get permission to do that >> even though it's in that common area you know any random parent can be videotaping their kid >> like up there and stuff like that so um we're working through the technical advisory too. We just got it this week. I got it yesterday or Monday, excuse me. So, >> anything on enrollment? I know we're up to >> Yeah, it's the same. >> Okay. >> Y >> uh manifest, we have accounts payable uh of $161,77621. We have another accounts payable of $153,89 $8904. We have a credit card manifest of $12,5498.

192Payroll $44,3921 in 403b $9,25156. That is what all of this is. And I think it all has three signatures. >> Yes, it does. >> Fantastic. Um and with that, that gets us to our second community input this evening. >> Look at that. Right on time at 8:00. >> That's I mean, if we're running early, actually. >> Yeah. No, no, that clock is wrong. >> I got three minutes early. >> Three minutes early. Yeah. Name and address, please. >> My name is Joel Lassard. I live at 14 Dearwood Drive. Uh I'm also the co-chair of the FIC committee. I just wanted to come up and add my two cents on your discussion on the GMS project. I am, excuse me, I'm in favor of the phased approach that Mr. Okonnell presented and that I feel like

193that number is the right number to start with. I think you can go back and forth with Haramman and probably fine-tune that a little bit, maybe even come in a little bit lower. But I think that approach gives you a lot of benefits, right? Because what it does is addresses the majority of your building, the main part of the building, takes care of all of those systems issues that we have, all of those other deferred maintenance things that have never been done and sets the your infrastructure up for a longer period of time. Yes, it doesn't address your space issues, right? You're still going to live with the portables, but it gives you flexibility, right? Because that main building is done and taken care of. You could live with the portables for a while. You

194could upgrade the portables and just replace them with new portables. Or you could eventually do that addition, but at least your main building is taken care of and you've addressed those concerns, the heating equipment, the stuff that is deteriorating that you're going to have to replace no matter what, right? Those things are eventually going to fail and you're going to be having to either pull it out of emergency funds or do an emergency bond or whatever you have to do to get the funds to take care of those things. So, if you can take care of that main building now, I suggest doing that and then you'll eventually be able to come with a second phase or maybe never come with a second phase. Who knows? But at least your main building is now secure,

195weathertight, has the right systems in it, and can last you for years to come. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. >> Any other community input this evening? Really quick, Ray Peoples 205 Charles Braftoft Highway. Um, on the wrestling front, we've done it at LMS in the past. It has been done here before. >> That's interesting. >> LMS. All right. >> Frank the Hammer Valentine was there, by the way. >> I don't think we're getting that level. >> So, it can be done in LMS. There you go. >> Hey, my kid was was in that school 2004, so I >> Excellent. All right. Anything else this evening? Yeah, just some food for thought on >> Just name and address, please. >> Alli Mercier, 19 Lock Mill. >> Thank you. >> Um, some food for

196thought on the elementary school bill. Obviously, with two kids headed to elementary, I'm particularly invested in it. I am I I work in sales for government, right? And what I know about people right now is that no one has any money. Um, not merely government, but individuals with what's been happening as far as the federal cuts have gone. And I'm concerned if we don't postpone the vote to a date where voters that are parents are more likely to be able to attend. I know more seniors vote on offcycle voting cycles that no matter what that number is, it's not going to get passed. and I just know the frugality of town and I'm wondering if we could do any um community engagement projects, especially with the 55 plus community to show them the value of

197it and the value of home prices going up and that sort of thing once we have a space that is worth it for our children. Um to your point, it's heartbreaking to hear our the trailers would stay on as a long-term thing. When I first saw them, I I I gratefully to Mr. Plansky's point did not experience that when I was at Griffin Memorial School. When I saw them come in, I was like, how dare we as a town make our littlest kids go through that and to I mean, I don't see a phase two taking those away. >> Yeah. >> Um, so that's just a plug for the parents out there that aren't in this room because all the parents I talked to are ready to vote for whatever we can to get our

198kids in a school that's safe, again, conducive to learning. Um, I obviously understand that conraints not to engage, right? But that was our warrant article two years ago that failed. >> I know, right? >> I know. Well, and it's it's just a matter of >> again, I think about community engagement. My neighbor across the street is uh Bobby who helped install this veterans park. Um, and it it's just a matter of like who do who do we leverage, who do we inspire, who do we bring into this conversation that might think that like they can't handle that, but don't know that their home prices will go up in value as a result of these things. You know, my my in-laws live on Long Island and I'm sure they would be looking at these 55 plus

199communities if it was going to support a school system that they thought their kids, grandkids deserved, you know. So, just wanted to voice that piece and >> thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you. >> All right. Anything else from community input tonight? All right. We'll close community input uh and schoolboard comments. >> I think the only comment I'm going to make on this is, you know, I hear what you're all saying about this. My problem is that we're using 23 is just a magic number that we've looked at and said, "Well, we think we can get them down to 23 by doing half the project." And we think that the community is going to support that. I mean, when we came to the table with this, right, the one thing we knew is that

200the community did not support a $44 million new building, right? That that's what we knew. We still don't know what the number that they support at what value proposition. We know based off of the survey that they care by and large equally about education and cost. Uh the the largest portion of people care equally about education and cost. And the reality is we found out a week ago that this project that we were looking at that we were hoping was going to start with a one is going to start with a three. We the community doesn't even really have that information. I mean they do if they watch that that one form that last form we did. So my biggest problem with this is that it would be one thing if the community came out

201and said the number is 23 and like we will vote yes for 23 and like we had that information but we actually don't know how the community feels about doing half of a project at 23 and or or doing a whole project now that they understand that the renovations would in fact cost this. We've now looked at not just a new school. We've looked at renovating this school as well. We don't know that they might say, you know what, at 29 it's worth just getting it done and then fixing it completely. And so that's my objection to this. Let's vocalize that. >> Yeah. And I think, you know, the 23 is not just a number out of a hat, right? The 23 is a number that we received from the firms that we work with,

202right? and it is a number that is real and and does address the problems that we've been talking about now the main problems at Griffin does that does that still leave me concern and pause yes it does still leave the portables which I look I I don't see as a good option but if if it addresses 90% of what we're trying to achieve and we've been talking about this for years like we we got to do something to move forward what will the community vote on 23 million. I have no idea. The only way to find out is to vote right in March. >> And if they vote down, they vote down. >> We don't know if they would vote on 29 million either. >> I have no idea. But I I can say 23

203million has a better chance of passing than 29. >> That I know. >> I will go with that. It's we're not in it's not a great Can it potentially get us to the ultimate end solution? Yes. Right. that this is how I run projects at work when doing this. It is I mean you see it in airports, right? They look at a 15-year improvement plan and they phase it. They do it in chunks and phases and they appropriate funds and they go raise funds in phases. Um my I don't like that that's the solution that we're looking at. My concern is one doing nothing and then we have a catastrophic failure in a system that we have to replace >> and it's coming like >> I mean I I'll go with a pipe goes for

204the boiler and you get an engineering firm in that says I'm not touching that unless it all comes out and I have to redo it all. that that's coming with that system and that's going to be in the millions >> and we don't just to be clear we don't have the reserves to cover that like we don't >> so I I think it's a solution I think I agree with Mr. Palansky that any data that we can get between now and deliberative as to what 23 and a half would get us, I'm all for. I I really like the solution of maybe we do just bulldoze the 60s and we put in a pack of portables, right? Sure, they'll last 15 years, but they're efficient, they're insulated, they're new. I'm not worried about the floor

205heaving anymore. Um, and you know, it it's for the community engagement. Uh, I we've tried to engage with the 55 plus. We've put it was on Facebook. It was on the town pages. It was on the town calendar. It was So, it >> we direct mailed several 55 plus communities. >> They're generally in favor of it. >> The ones that we've met with, the one right next to the library, we had a an information session. Was it last year? Right. 10 years. I said 10 years ago. Geez. Yeah. And you know they we're parents too was their message, right? And we support education. We just want to know, right? That was their message to us. >> No. Um I don't like that this is what we have to do. But I mean it's the same

206thing to it's the end solution to what I want to do with the house, right? Is I can't do everything at once, right? So it's I I got to bite off chunks knowing that in the grand scheme of things, like listen, I'm gonna say it a phase approach is going to cost more overall to get to the same result to the taxpayer. It will nothing is as cheap as it is today. It will not be cheaper tomorrow. I'm going to do two bond votes. That's two interest rates. That's two compounding sets. It's but it's a number that people that people can get behind because there's that they can plan for that next initiative. I >> And we're all balancing that with a tax increase that we all just saw in our tax bills, right? for

207me that, you know, that's $2,000. My tax bills just went up. I don't know about you guys, but that's a lot. >> Yep. >> Right. Two. Right. So, you know, we're all balancing that, but I'm not discounting the need at Griffin. Like, I'm trying to find that happy medium to balance. >> Have to find the sweet spot. >> Yeah. I >> Yep. >> So, we'll do more work obviously. You know, >> Herman and Harvey's been great partners so far and >> we keep throwing stuff at them. They keep throwing stuff back at us. So, >> is most of that information in exchanges with them in a folder or on the FIC drive or anything? >> It's not on an FIC drive right now. A lot of it's in my email. >> Okay. >> Like with

208them right now and just like back and forth spitting, you know, >> hey, what about this? What about this? Give me this, you know. So, >> at some point we got to clean it up and >> uh document it a little bit. >> Yeah. Distill it, put it in the FIC drive for the FIC committee and everything else. >> Yep. spin up the communications in media. All >> right. Anything else for schoolboard comments tonight? >> All right. This was a good meeting. Thank you very much. The board does have uh some non-public business tonight under RSA 91 A3 A through C. Uh with that, I will entertain a motion to move into nonpublic please. >> Motion by Mr. Shoemaker. Second. >> Second by Mr. Plansky. We'll do a roll call vote. Mr. Plansky. Hi. >>

209Mr. Shoemaker. I'm an I. Mr. Dit. >> I. >> Uh that carries 4 Z. Thank you very much everyone. We hope everyone has a great Christmas. Happy New Year.