Litchfield School Board 8/2/23

001I printed it out this time good evening and welcome to the August 2nd Litchfield School District meeting I'd like to start with the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America one nation under God indivisible with liberty and the justice for all thank you [Music] uh yes uh we have Mrs Ames who's remote tonight hello Mrs Ames and tonight's hi everybody I'm here so Mrs Ames would you be able to share while while you're remotenating if you're with anybody sure I am on vacation in North Conway I am in the basement of my parents condo all by myself [Music] um that's it I will make a motion to authorize Miss Ames to participate in vote remotely this evening no second all those in favor say aye aye opposed stained I'm

002still posed all right the motion passes we'll be doing roll call votes this evening [Music] uh let's see any changes to the to the agenda tonight um just a couple of the linked documents were refreshed or livened up so otherwise there are no changes great uh committee reports so just for in terms of placenta Jetta consent agenda excuse me for Budget committee uh there were outstanding questions from the from the last budget committee meeting that I believe are still outstanding those are within the committee report I'd like to ask if we can't prioritize those in preparation for the budget committee meeting at the end of August so they have the answers to those questions in addition to that just uh on Capital Improvement we haven't met in some time where we're scheduled to meet in

003early July we're actually meeting next Monday August 7th that's it excellent I actually got an invitation to join the energy committee as a school board rep and the first meeting is August 10th so we'll have to add that to another bullet under committee reports um does anyone have any committee updates no just I guess the other thing that was mentioned is some some of you are browsing around and clicking through the school district website from the website committee uh has been refreshed with the new site there's still some work to do right with some forms and files not loading but I know the team is working on that and kudos to to Kayla and to Chris and to all the people who put in a lot of hard work to make that happen we had

004committed to doing that for early August and we felt rolling out a less than perfect if you wait for Perfection we never would have gotten it so we're ready to go and we'll keep fixing what's there so bear with us while the construction Banner is on there hmm great um summary of non-public actions from July 12 2023 Mr cutter made a motion to approve the June 21st 2023 non-public session minutes Miss Harrison seconded the motion the motion passed four zero zero Mr cutter made a motion to approve the June 21st 2023 non-public minutes Miss Harrison seconds the motion the motion passed four zero zero Ms Ames mentioned uh motioned to approve the nomination of Harrison erda as chspe teacher Ms Harrison seconded the motion pass400 Miss Harrison motioned to approve the nomination of Melanie Smith

005as Pre-K teacher Ms Ames seconded the motion pass400 Ms Ames mentioned a motion to approve the nomination of Chris derhock Christine der hack as CHS math teacher Miss Harrison seconded the motion pass 400. no student rep No No not tonight presentation recognitions wait Community content comment Community comments public comments are limited to three minutes per person public comments shall be made without expectation of a response by any school board member to matters raised by such commentary comments and statements may be made on topics contained on the agenda public commentary should be limited to three minutes per person and must identify the first and last name and address of the commenter the board vests in its chairperson or presiding officer to authorized authorized to terminate the remarks of any individual or closed community Forum when they

006do not adhere to the rules established in policy bedh do we have any Community comment tonight [Music] this is my turn I was not here in the last meeting so I have two meetings worth of Correspondence to report and I just need to grab it I'm under the wrong here we go this started on June 22nd JD Sun asking if surplus funds were a result of budget freeze June 22nd Dan Mitchell attached a statement from all three principals stating that there were at was at no time a budget freeze June 22nd Andrew Cutter budget committee highlights June 26 Ian Anna Marathi manifest June 26 Jan Sullivan draft minutes July 6 in inorati credit card manifest July 7th in inarati manifest July 7th um Kayla Collins sent us the agenda July 11th and in Marathi manifest

007July 11th Joyce Wilcox a request to reopen negotiation for the Litchfield support staff July 12th Jan Sullivan since that's draft minutes July 12th Eric of Ruggles asked where to find the agenda July 12th Dr Jetty sent us two new potential new hire information July 13th Kayla Collins sent multiple individual invitations to Future school board meetings July 13th and there were a lot July 13th Dan Mitchell correction to draft minutes July 13th Jan Sullivan correction to draft minutes oh Jan Sullivan so yeah Jan Sullivan correction to draft minutes July 13th requests for a variance to build a shed that was the wrong person that was Doug Doug asked someone asked for a request at CHS to build a shed on their land and they would need a variance July 15th Jan Sullivan meeting minutes Peter plansky

008comments on meeting minutes July 26 Kayla Collins potential new employee information July 27th Donna Boucher asking the board if we're if they would still like a meeting August 2nd Kayla Collins potential new hire information August 2nd Corey sullsin advocating for small class sizes and I stopped at 3 30 pm today going back General business superintendent report so um we've had a request apparently the town has formed an economic development committee and they have asked for a school board rep to be appointed to serve on that details are listed in the agenda the committee will meet on the last Wednesday of each month at 6 PM in the town hall and they are hoping that somebody from the board will join them is that the same as the energy committee you were just no it's different

009different Diane's my wife's on that committee so yeah I have to take her out to dinner afterwards anyway yeah so is that an acceptance sure I'll do it no yeah I'll do it thank you I will let um Miss Kleiner know and we'll add it to the list of committee assignments so that we get the reports back from that so I'm adding energy and economic development all right uh the second thing was a website update and uh I think the key thing is that while it is a work in progress remember the website committee is intended to be a standing committee we've talked about having a link on the website where we get feedback we want you know here's something I think would improve the website and then the committee would be tasked with reacting

010to whatever feedback that we get because we want this to be as friendly as possible um I think it even in its construction phase it plays better on the mobile device and it um it is easier to navigate it's more pleasing to the eye than the old website we've made some other enhancements so we'll keep at it but our goal is to get that website um organizing and tweaked out for the start of the year so we're working diligently and that is what I had for you tonight Doug this is an operation yeah so we are back to having North Branch on their subcontractors working quite a bit at the middle school so again the work that they're looking to complete this summer is the kitchen I'm modifying the kitchen so we can go from

011more just like heating stuff to cooking and preparing meals as well as finishing the HVAC in the uh cafeteria and kitchen as well as finishing up some other work from their past so that is North Branch which is separate so we have North Branch doing a lot of the HVAC the kitchen work and separate from that is the solar work which they're going through the final engineer designs and then they'll roll those into permitting and then we'll get the solar on the roof hopefully with all that going smoothly sometime in September they're thinking now and then the storage for the solar more in 2024 so solar on the roof solar hooked up the benefits of solar uh you know at some point in the fall is what we're thinking and then the future benefits of

012the storage of the solar and of energy next over fall of 2024 is when we'll see the first benefit no we'll see benefits this fall from the solar going on the roof just just like most people use solar That's How we'll be using it now are extended use of solar which is the storage of it and then and trying to kind of use battery backup yeah battery backup and playing that against demand charges that will be more of 2024. so by the time that's up and running and that reminds me that switch issue that we were talking about in tracking for a while that's now been resolved when we have that switch on hand yep we're doing that switch on hand and it's been installed Okay so all good news and and we had a

013meeting on solar at 3 30 this afternoon uh with fire um the town building inspector just to go through exactly where we are uh we made some good discussion and uh agreement about how we're going to plug out so it was a very healthy meeting and uh it's keeping us on track and K was on site we had K with us being able to answer direct questions so it was it was a good meeting I know this is a bit later than anticipated and then even our revised Target had solar I think being planned over the summer to be installed so is there any concern now with students going back to school and now construction once again on the roof for solar install definitely concerned you know any student especially middle school students sometimes are

014better when they're distraction free environment luckily where they'll be staging is kind of away from Windows it's in the back corner away from the windows they'll be accessing the roof at that point and it's a ballasted system that is weighed down and not necessarily screwed into the roof so there's minimal penetrations into the roof so will it be distracting yes will it be as distracting as when they replace the roof a couple years ago luckily no not anywhere near there so we'll look to minimize that as much as possible but there's going to be distract there's going to be noise do we know how long the installation will take about six weeks and you said it's going to start again one September September September is yeah I didn't think it was six weeks ago but

015it could could be that long I think it was six weeks to being fully operational okay okay I thought the installation time period was faster oh stop she might know how long will they be on the roof yeah I don't say again I'm sorry how long will they be on the roof so I I thought I heard two weeks okay and then you know tying everything and so forth but the actual installation the louder part of putting stuff up there was a two-week process but I could be off base on that Jen did you hear can I just time the other we've had Construction in the buildings we've had holidays down to scandals this is going to be a minimally invasive as possible with noises on the roof versus hard hats and then hi this

016we're gonna I mean we're taking an incremental step towards completion and we'll be excited that when they're up and ready to go um maybe you're getting to this that's my next question right is how are we doing inside the building with the kitchen renovations and the walls that had to be replaced and where is all that in process so so that's in a good spot so there's there is a lot of work going on some of that work you know you kind of go slow at the beginning as you're trenching and cutting new holes for the plumbing and the electric but that's all been now um cut and it's all been uh you know sealed over so they're starting to you're starting to see more of the progress now but we haven't had we have

017weekly meetings and they haven't extended the deadline on us at this point um and they haven't talked about anything that would extend necessarily the deadline at this point so um all the all the equipment's in-house it's it's actually in the cafeteria so it's just now a matter of moving it into the kitchen Plumbing it you know connecting the plumbing and the electric the electrical work of it which should start happening pretty quickly so remind me what the date the expected completion date for the kitchen is August 21st is the last cleaning date so I think the bulk of the work is done the week prior and then that they need that day just to make sure they so we're like two weeks out yeah yep could we do a board walk through like we did

018oh yeah with the renovations we could set one up or I could Jen's back there they're they're fully operating so swing by during the day and we'll get you a hard hat and take a wander through I mean all the all the work is really the stage the cafeteria in the kitchen um and you know you'll see like the ceiling grid is in tiles are starting to win I'm trying to remember because we did a few walkthroughs that we videotaped like during before the before the project began during the project did we ever do a uh this is what it looks like now I saw that in the in the cafeteria all of it oh yeah I mean did we have a video and post that though we you go back to when we were

019promoting the project we were showing the kitchen how cramped I mean we did those I want this is what it looks like now this is what your tax dollars these are the updates like mid-year like now like now now that it's it's up and rolling and but it's not the only thing that I would say yeah right right see that white foamy stuff right we like the Mini Splits and the kitchen renovations I think it would be nice to have an update that is visual yeah we can do that right feel how nice it is in here that kind of thing it feels great yeah yeah like in in the kitchen with the um the old cooler removed it's huge I know it's like a third bigger it feels ten times yeah it's unbelievable to

020see the space in there and then but all you're going to see right now is the hood is mounted and it's ready for the equipment to go under it but it's not there yet so um I mean we could do something certainly when it's done um as a recap to the whole project it could make sense to do that and maybe that's a facilities committee thing that we do yeah so on time now which again would be is going to be great for the students but also the staff because it's you know we've had students kind of come and some students have left but we've had some staff have been there the whole time and it has been several years now so uh thank you to them again and we'll hopefully be very minimal at

021this point oil tank oil tank is ouch okay fire was there when it happened um the fire department so we did not burning yeah um so the fire department's purpose in being there is they photographed every inch of that they made sure that there was no because if you're going to fill the hole back in you want to make sure there wasn't an oil leak that we're varying right yeah they verified that there was no issue everything went very smoothly with that the tank was then uh taken out mounted on a truck and all the way so and everything was done with all the permitting so it worked out really well that's good to have back on and just the land preservation and like free loaming and seeding where all their equipment was and part

022of the question today was about where the container is going to go yeah and so now that the decision has been made the containers back to its original location which is you come around the corner like compare and pick up and it's on the back side of the road there now we can loam and finish this so there's a question about whether we can move it across the road but it's back over here so now loam seed I won't say they'll be grass by no start school but at least well there's plenty of rain yeah there is plenty of rain [Music] thank you all right so speaking of kitchen and stuff we got Lauren here so Lauren come on up we have food service report so again this kind of happens twice a year somewhere

023in the middle of the year and then somewhere towards the end of the year so I don't know if you want to bring up tell me the report as well the Google sheet yeah so when we came kind of towards the middle of the year we were talking about the differences between um last year and this year so last year when everyone had free food paid because it was one of the covid type of Acts that happened um we had a lot more kids getting lunch and breakfast when we went back to having students pay for the food New Hampshire did then we had less kids we still have more kids than before coven so what happened was that we believe is that more kids experience the food more kids said hey this is good

024food and more kids kept on buying the food so a lot of I mean it's food so you tasted and you kind of go from there and a lot of stuff for our reimbursable lunches that you know I've been tracking since I got hired my first year running the program we did about 87 200 lunches just not breakfast just lunches and we exceeded that by about 2500 lunches this year with less kids in the district too so it was a it was wise it was a pretty good year pretty much every school every town in the state when it was reimbursed free reimbursal you know they all lunches did well and that was back to more reality this year so this year when we're coming Midway through we thought that um we were going to

025be in the negatives but we knew we were going to be in the negatives and we knew that we were going to most likely exceed the fund balance that came from last year for food service because again whenever you get a food service fund balance it doesn't go anywhere you retain it and then you spend it down as you need to and so we thought we might then need a transfer of around fifty thousand dollars luckily our revenues were up a little bit and our expenses were definitely down a bit um which you know a lot of that has to do with the work of of Lauren and her crew making sure that they were being creative on on the menu and and if something was in the freezer or fridge they were using that

026so especially at Middle School we cleared that completely out by the end of the year so with somewhat firm audited numbers so the audit happened last Wednesday Thursday Friday what they do is they come for three days and then they're right off to another school and the reason why we don't see our completed audit for months is that they're trying they just hit the schools three days two days three days three days type of thing and they're trying to get their schools and numbers that that I can go back and fill out the doe 25 as well as other dra forms that we need to get in for for also for tax rate settings and then so they're going to other schools to get them that information too and then they come they start compiling

027the actual audit that we then see several months later um so these are somewhat firm numbers I still have some emails going back and forth but for Food Service you know we're within like 500 type of thing or a thousand dollars so we believe as of now that the transfer the general fund will be around 16 and a half thousand dollars so better than predicted but again you know it's it's a transfer that that needs to happen um so as we go into next year not a lot is going to change necessarily with expenses some expenses will go down paper products have gone down about 30 percent yeah our paper bids down 30 from last year so that's huge right then there all waiting for the food prices to go down at supermarkets a little

028bit so that hasn't gone down as much as we thought it would at this point um hopefully it does go down a little bit more when I did start I'm going to interrupt you but when I did my Commodities order in March because you have to order it for the entire following school year so I spent all of our allotted money in what's called brown box items so beef chicken ham turkey cheese all the expensive stuff so we don't have to buy it so I tried to offset that as much as possible yeah so as we look at speaking of Commodities as we look at the budget for for next year with 694 000 but you pretty much we take away the Commodities because no money ever changes hands we're allowed at a certain amount

029we spend that amount um and we actually spend more than that because I ask you to spend more right and we always spent more because that's that's a better way to do it um so we really are expecting expenses of around 660 000 which coincide with where they were this year where they ended up being this year as well so we're not sure what's going to happen with food prices yet but what we do have control over is the more of the revenue what do we charge um and you know I think we said this different times throughout the years you know when we go to Dunkin Donuts now we're no longer coming out with a bill that we got two years ago when we go to McDonald's people aren't happy about it so when

030we go to McDonald's totally get it same thing's happening no matter where we go so what used to be ten dollars is now 18 is now 19 is 14 so you know when we're charging meal prices of three dollars 325 350 for for lunches depending on the school that they're at that really is a is a great deal because not only does you know is is a quantity age appropriate and decent but the quality of it is good too because again if you're serving lunch at school the purpose should be that the meals are healthy and the kids can learn after after they eat the food um so as we go into next year there are new reimbursement rates which we get from the state and the federal government which has to do with free

031um reduced as well as students who pay meals so when a student is fully paid meal we still get a reimbursement from from the federal government those rates have actually gone down so we're going to experience less of a revenue that way so there are sorry let me interrupt again I'm just filling in with information as it comes along with the transfer back from Universal free meals to um paid meals the USDA inflated the prices of reimbursement to kind of ease that transition back and it was brought to my attention back in like April by one of the people in the New Hampshire buying group that they were going to be lower rates so typically we would have had this conversation by now but I wanted to see what the rates were going to be

032before we went ahead okay great um so this is based off the counts from from this year so if everything stayed the same this year and we adjusted the cost of the meals this is what we'd expect the revenue to be if you scroll up a little bit so how far down no up up yeah there we go so in yellow all the way to the left you can see what happened this year for the counts and then if we kept everything the same what we'd expect our Revenue to be um which is up in yellow and then as you start scrolling to the right you can see if we start adjusting the prices for lunch and breakfast what our Revenue would be um so pretty much you're seeing that we're going up by 25

033cents and when we go by 25 cents we're bringing in roughly another twenty thousand dollars of Revenue so if we expect to have expenses around 000 and Food Services supposed to kind of be self funding which it is not in every district there are there are several districts that within their general fund budget when they're going through budgeting they budget 50 000 75 000 that they're going to transfer over to Food Service um and I think it has to do with kind of the size of the school we are Litchfield is is a smaller type school but you're employing some of the same people um so the the costs are shared by less less people um so a decision that we have to make at some point is are we going to adjust the prices

034and if so by how much and if I look at different posts yeah we did and that's what's represented I think in column B yep right and I think the proposal here is if we were to raise it to what's in column I we would still be short a hundred and twenty thousand dollars that's correct yep right and I guess if I look at correct me if I'm wrong I look at the proposed rates in column I and I compare it to the tab of other districts and it's the highest out of all other districts just about yep that's awesome Amherst and I base it just on like the high school and on the other districts tab I did pull the highest and the lowest of each grade level um Amherst has the highest high

035school level um priced meal at 385 and um we're pretty much right in the median right about now kind of just kind of in that happy happy spot there now but if we raise it again would it be the same for all three schools I think it should be um and my reasoning for that is at their very core the meals are pretty much the exact same at all three levels with the exception of pasta that the potion size or pasta graduates but everything else is a half a cup of Fruit of veg um two you know two meat two grain it's a whole qualifying crediting thing but at their very core they are all the same meal and you have the highest participation rate at the elementary school with the lowest price you know

036there's opportunity for Revenue there um as well Lauren how does portion size vary um it is pretty much all the same the only difference and really is the high schools can the high school kids can take up to a cup and still have it qualify minimum but your very minimum standard there is the same across the board and pasta is the only thing that graduates where four ounces of pasta for an elementary school kid up to eight ounces of pasta for a high school kid exactly pasta is cheap everything else is pretty much standard across the board though um oddly enough at its minimum this is Heidi do we know if those comp the comparison to other school districts are those that are last year numbers or are those their expected 24 numbers so um

037some of the districts did not raise prices so what I have gathered for information is what is currently being shown on schools websites and like I said most school districts do make this decision back in like March April time um so I think can you pull that just the other District sheet up just quickly please I think Pelham is the same is 22 23 pricing and everyone else has gone up and I have our current pricing at the bottom when do we raise the prices last April yeah I I I think the predicament here is again like now we're already projecting a shortfall if we were to keep it the same of a hundred and forty thousand dollars in food service that's if we still consider a food service self-funded right so we don't have

038a choice for next year's budget we have to we don't have money budgeted for food service right I know I know but if in the future we consider it not self-funded and we correct budgeted you know that the district the general fund the difference would come out of the general fund that's just a switch a change in philosophies yes so allow me to ask another question right so I understood through your initial presentation that we transferred approximately sixteen thousand five hundred dollars all right that's the final end of this current Year's FY 23 number that had to be covered by general fund correct yep we encumbered as a board 50 000. for Food Service transfer so where's the what are we doing with the additional 33 000 that was encumbered by the board and not

039spent to cover the balance of food service for fy23 goes back to reduced taxes it just goes automatically back to close up the numbers yep okay so that number that we were planning now increased by that amount by the 33 000. there were some things that increased and some things that that decreased yeah when will we see those final numbers next board meeting yeah I think it's tough to be the most expensive school lunches around yes given our our diagram demographic here in Litchfield um but I also understand the need yeah I yeah it is it's a hard line to walk I don't want to be the most expensive around um but I do think if at very bare minimum it should at least all be one at least all 350 at very bare minimum

040but that's for you guys to decide and I will just roll with whatever you know so you uh are you recommending um what was the lunch of GMS before we raised it in April 250. so now you're talking from April to this car and you're a dollar increase and LMS was uh to before the increase 275 to 75. everyone went up 50 cents now you're proposing an additional 25 . Doug can I just ask a probing question the board already authorized the 50 000 so it's been encumbered in uh you use 16 of it could they dedicate the remainder toward this year's scenario or does it automatically that's where I was kind of going with it I also understand the need to close the books yeah but I just if it's encumbered and held over

041could it could it be used toward this I don't know the answer I don't know I'd have to double check on that um I can double check on that I mean what happened with you know we have the unaudited numbers and and in between when we on before the Auditors came some things went up some things went down but we we're still around that 440 000 at the end of the day we thought we'd go to reduce taxes and we're still at that 440 000. so if we took anything else out we'd be lowering from that that's just that's why I kind of want to see where the numbers landed versus what we talked about in encumbered yeah and I and I wasn't thinking about dipping into more of that I was thinking about the

04250 000 toward Food Service yeah up utilizing the full 50 partly to close last year and partly to close the gap that we're looking at and that would reduce the need to raise raise prices by by somewhat because I think you're looking at a projection of if I'm reading it correctly you're projecting about 46 000 needed and so you where are you getting it so no I'm sorry where's the projector you're the next he's projecting that I'm sorry that's why yep 40 000. so of course up at the top is expensive around 660 000 and then the yellow you'll see how much revenue got it so okay well 36 would be something something but nowhere near what I was thinking sorry I don't know that I'm I am willing to make a decision on this

043tonight I I think what I like to to do is keep a pulse on it very closely over the next couple of months agree right and let's reevaluate as we get into the school year and see how we're trending for the first couple of months and what we might need to do I mean at the end of the day we're gonna it's it's being projected that we're gonna have a big deficit we're gonna need to figure out how to cover that we want to move all prices up to the same point or just kind of keep everything I feel a little more comfortable doing that just bumping the lunch the lunches to be 350 . I see I think where we just did that I don't want to do it again I want to do

044it again I know it yeah you did make the point I think if we if we set the prices tonight we don't change them for the year though because the state does not like that right so and there's a very good chance we're getting audited this year and I don't want to have that so yeah I think that's why regardless of what we decide we'll work with it but it I think it's easier to do it at the beginning of the school year than to change it Midway but we did it in April I know right we did it towards the end of this year last year we had to yep Heidi what are your thoughts sorry I was on the spreadsheet so then I got to go back to the meet and mute myself

045I'm struggling with it honestly I mean I think obviously we need to consider for next year right but not being budget neutral and budgeting for deficit because it seems to happen every year um I can't I can't I understand food prices are up all over so I I definitely think our families understand when there's a an increase but we just increased it literally you know four months ago um I'm leaning towards either column F or column I which is either keeping it the same or making everything the 350 at this point I agree with you though Andrew I think we need to keep a closer eye on this and might need more of the monthly count I also am hoping food prices are going to dip a little bit because we budgeted when they were

046really high um and the whole business that as things start to slowly come down we might see some relief but that's all I hope we have no idea so I would go with either keeping it the same or I would I could be talked into the making it consistent with 350 for all lunches Mr plansky some of the mind that given we just did it towards the end of last year we should leave it the way it is and I don't you know I I don't know who's confident that food prices are going to go down optimistic all right well I I think the will of the board and correct me if I'm wrong is to keep it as is for now in column A and let's keep a very close eye on it I

047agree no I agree it's okay I agree okay cool thanks for the update goals so while Lauren's here though actually the goal sheet and Lauren I'll pull your beautiful document up walk us through the goals sure Dining Services um pretty straightforward standard years um but a lot of our Focus obviously is going to be at LMS with the new kitchen which would increase the amount of homemade items at um not only their school but all schools I'm also looking to reinvigorate and revamp our breakfast service um two of our three schools are absolutely killing breakfast and it's great but I'm very hopeful that with the new schedule up at um Campbell that are probably are not prices excuse me are meal counts will increase there as well is that the school that isn't doing you

048as well yeah I mean high schoolers you know they roll out of bed and go to do things but with a little bit later breakfast we you know during when we had during covid it was very very successful so we're hoping to kind of have that happen again um and Middle School obviously you know they only were they were cooking for all those kids with just a steamer in an oven so this anything is amazing um our vending machine did come in at the high school and we were in works of getting that up and running so very excited about that and we revamped our online ordering for staff so last year we kind of had a it was me delivering sandwiches twice a week to the other schools and now all schools are going

049to have that availability for um like a rap bar or something even on a smaller capacity like not as big as the high school but you know staff can order sandwiches chips drinks and stuff so we're looking to increase our staff participation as well and we are kind of doing a whole we'll call it a Rebrand which was the very first Bubble Up top we kind of I skipped past it on accident but we're doing a bit of a Rebrand so um looking more at like what people would see out in like when they go out so instead of a reimbursable meal we're calling it a value meal and it will explain like it's included inclusive of the fruit and the vegetable which is what the prices we just decided on and then everything else

050would be categorized under a non-value and it would be um a different price but it would be technically a la carte so and really the kids are 90 buying the regular value meal anyway so it's not something that I'm overly concerned about getting it's just to kind of ease that people don't necessarily understand what a reimbursable meal is versus a non-reimbursable meal and it's kind of a mouthful to explain it all so I'm kind of hoping this kind of changes things around a little bit and um I think I get it more they wouldn't yeah like you see it at like McDonald's at fast food and stuff like that you're like oh that's the value meal it includes this and that so yeah yeah and it's going to be all explained up on our website

051all on Facebook um everything like that so once now that we have the prices I can actually I was just waiting on that to start a lot of the prep work for the school year so [Music] that if you want to kind of end with a with a plug for the two positions oh my gosh we are hi everyone we're hiring um no we do have two positions available both four hour positions one at Griffin and one at the middle school um previous Food Service experience is not required um we will train you we have lots of great um people that we work with and yeah so if anyone is interested in coming to work for us reach out to me please that's all I really have yeah Mr Mitchell serves you got a pretty

052sweet certificate though last year um great cool all right thanks have a good night preliminary overview of state adequacy aid so that the state has increased how much they're they're paying for for students um as you know as far as it goes for every student special ed student ell student um as well as students who might qualify for free and reduced so the projection has you know bumped up the funding we expect it to be somewhere around maybe maybe a positive 200 000 that would be getting more in Revenue uh they said though that the firm numbers won't be in until about August 21st um so wanted to I'll give you some more information after the August 21st time comes and goes but it should be positive it's positive for Litchfield it's it's pretty much

053going to be positive for for every school district um so if you hear about some school districts getting a lot more that tends to be the the school districts that have um higher percentage of free and reduced students so um they they are being helped more by the state that's where I'm at you have the list of transfers also from the last one um that's listed nothing over 5000. foreign the public minutes from the July 12th meeting I'll make a motion to approve the public minutes from July 12th do I second second um all those in favor Heidi hi Peter hi Tina I I abstain because I wasn't there four one zero four zero zero one thank you and we're old business kindergarten tell us about kindergartners we'll say perennial business because it's kindergarten every

054summer so I'm gonna invite Dan up to the table to join us but you can see the statement that's written out for the board we had this discussion at the last meeting um the current kindergarten enrollment is now 81. the trigger number is 76 so we're well over that trigger number yeah and so we feel that uh adding a fifth kindergarten teacher makes sense our recommendation is to uh to authorize us to make that higher um but to kind of take a wait and see approach on whether we need to dip into the reserve fund as the budget year unfolds so we don't think we need a vote tonight to utilize the funding that is set aside for that purpose um you know we we like to monitor we we still have unfilled pair of

055positions Etc so you know can we absorb that within the budget would be our suggestion that we we Monitor and see how we go but questions for Dan about the numbers or where it sits nope I think it's um I know we talked about this I know miles of the opinion let's wait it out for a few weeks and see where we land this is only increase and it's time to make that decision so I will make a motion to um approve the fifth kindergarten teacher for the current school year a second oh we both second and that's per policy that we have in place by the way we got two of those increase like seven hours after last meeting he actually said to me he thinks there's one more in the tank here that's

056the official number we believe we think we're at 82 so it's only it's a good problem to have right yeah it's a great it's a great problem to have further discussions um uh yeah so probably the motion to approve the uh program para also oh yeah yeah we'll just do it separately yeah yeah we have a motion Heidi yeah Peter hi Tina yes me yes yes I will also make a motion to approve the um the kindergarten para for the for the current school year a second further discussion all those in favor Heidi hi Peter aye Tina hi me I am five zero zero so the quickest update ever this is the best time I've had this table ever perfect great now we're moving on to our GMS land purchase so um just an update

057and this is really important for everyone remotely watching and those in the audience to listen to um the board has been made aware of a request from the seller of the land uh to expedite closing on that land um the warrant article and I and I have it uh in front of me so give me the warrant article that was approved in March of this year was written in a way that allowed the school district to ask for the land and secure the inappropriate the money for the land which we have in our accounts we have not spent that that money for the land and we have the right per the warrant article to present to the voters in March of next year the ability to to vote on a new school for that land

058and if that fails then the purchase and sale of the land ultimately becomes null and void the seller of the land has asked the board expedite the payment of the land of the money that we have in our accounts to pay her for that land but allow me to read the article so it's clear for everybody Article 2 of March of 2023 shall the Litchfield School District raise and appropriate the sum of 497 thousand dollars for the purchase of approximately 35 acres of land with no buildings or improvements thereon shown as tax map 15 Lot number eight on Litchfield tax maps The parcel is also known as bl114 of Albuquerque Avenue Litchfield New Hampshire nearly across the street from the fire station in further approve the seller's condition of the sale which is that the

059district will name the school to be constructed there on the robin Riley Elementary School this warrant article will be a special non-lapsing appropriation per RSA 32 7 Section 8 in section I'm sorry six and will not lapse until the closing on the property takes place once the construction of the new school is funded and approved by voters or by June 30th 2029 whichever is sooner if the closing does not occur the approach the appropriation will lapse and all funds raised will be returned to the taxpayers so with that and that's the article that the voters fully supported it was voted with a yes vote of 705 and a no vote of 641 so it did pass the March election we have the money in our accounts and it's in hold until at this point until

060we go to March of next year um with the request of the seller the board is considering a special election to be held somewhere in the mid to late October timeline to authorize the use of the funds to um to pay the seller the money for the land that is terms and conditions as well as an appropriation change right correct for for what was voter approved the board fully recognizes that and we're trying to obviously be transparent to the taxpayers be fully transparent to all of those that are very very closely tracking the school and the land purchase and we believe it's in the best interest at this point to move forward with a special election to uh to get voter approval to pay the seller for the land um I'll turn it over to

061the board for thoughts or comments so basically I what I got from our discussion with legal counsel it's one option is to um to hold to the current person sales agreement that we have that you know the the we payment is made once the land once schools the school is approved by taxpayers which would be in March or we could go forward with a special election to change the terms of the payment to to be able to pay to to pay the seller in a timely manner which they've requested so you know kind of the I think this is a you know this was a great A great win for the district when when the voters approved the purchase of this land and I think it's it's critical that we keep moving forward on this

062project the you know the kind of keeping the balance between what the voters approved in March and what's in front of us now I you know I think what my goal is to keep the ball rolling on this project but also to work with Mrs Riley and make sure that um she's comfortable with what's happening and and you know you know frankly we wouldn't be doing we wouldn't be doing this without that without her agreeing to that purchase and sales and I think if we can make accommodations for her and the voters support us in that um I think we can all you know end up in a good spot I agree 100 I believe that land there's no better piece of land in this town it's not on a side road it's not on

063a corner it's right on Albuquerque we can make it work further back there won't be traffic jams we won't be sitting on the corner of the road I do not want to lose this piece of land and to build a school in Robin's memory just makes it better and if she would like her money now which we have I would really like it to pay her in my view and just additional comments right the board fully understands the talent's position about the school going for special elections right right um we we don't take this lightly we are really trying to do what's in the best interest of the taxpayers as well as the school district for our kiddos we're trying to find a happy medium to meet the seller's wishes as well as meet our

064goals and objectives for ultimately going and putting forth a new school to the voters in March of next year so the by the special meeting would we'd go through all the steps we'd post the you know draft award article post it go through it have a deliberative session and then have a vote um mid to late October would be the proposed schedule so for me the um this came to the board today which was a little bit surprising and I personally would have liked a little bit more time to review all the documents and have a longer time to think for me you know the the vote passed very narrowly by what about 60 votes or something in the town I think that for me it was not an overwhelming approval it was approved I'm

065glad it was approved I agree with Liz that this is the spot to have the school however I think to go back to the voters again with another special election um is going to be painful it's going to cause issues within the town from and I appreciate Mrs Riley you know wanting to get wanting to get her money I truly do um but on this I'm a no to putting this forward on a ballot and Heidi we definitely want to hear from you I just want to re-emphasize one of the points made right we already have the money for this we're not asking voters to appropriate new additional funds for the land this is funds that we already have and we're just trying to expedite the closing on the land per the seller's request to

066the school district Andrew I think that's the sad sorry I cut you off no so so with that that's uh that's the really important update on the land purchase the board wanted to share with the public for full transparency this evening um with that I will make a motion um I'm gonna make a motion to authorize Council to proceed with a special meeting on the land uh and also to authorize School administration to plan a special meeting uh in accordance to legal requirements and again that special meeting will be mid to late October I think it will be a deliberative session correct that's correct there would be a deliberative session in advance as well her would be her requirements beginning of September ish so what we learned from Council is it's a deliberative session followed

067the correct number of days later with a paper ballot we would be walking into the gym at Campbell and voting on a paper ballot we have to do all the proper postings with the supervisors at the checklist and so forth to make sure that it's a an official legal election so all those steps of what uh this vote is authorizing us to put in the place that's my motion seconded somebody we all seconded um we have a motion on the board further discussion everyone had a chance to stay there another thing I would say is that we'd ask the voters for this with the two-year window and now we're sort of walking that back I I got that and I look I as mentioned I fully appreciate the fact that I don't want a special

068election either especially all after everything that happened last year with the special elections in years past I know it has a sour taste uh in the eyes of the voters I get it right this is a specific request from the seller we already have the money this is a little bit different than in years past and it's really just a a legal terms and conditions type of change in my mind of the money we already have for the land we have a first and second Heidi hi Peter no no hi Peter Andrew hi [Music] four one zero is that it um I we have our Direction now we'll uh take action tomorrow I'll give Gordon a call and we'll put a timeline out and um it'll be very similar to what we discussed obviously there

069could be a slight adjustment to it depending on how the time comes together but thank you for that okay new business NH SBA delegate assembly so the notice came out from the School Board Association that the delegate assembly is being held on Saturday October 14th at the Grappone Center in Concord the time schedule is about 10 30 to 2. so um we don't need to take action today on the delegate assembly resolutions if somebody's thinking about a resolution that they'd like to propose like the Litchfield School Board had one a couple of years ago that we brought forward now would be the time to begin thinking about that since the deadline is Friday July 28th in that notice yeah never mind then it's too late yeah okay you were on vacation I guess I was

070so all right we've been getting a lot of those more to come on the resolutions that are finally presented however we do need to appoint somebody to be the delegate and somebody needs to commit and again this doesn't have to be tonight but we should know who is planning to go on October 14th that's good I'll look at my calendar so I'll keep it on as old business perfect School handbooks I would like to invite Mr Hess up and his sidekick Mr G our new I think you mean our new assistant vice principal welcome to the twin so every year the board gets presented with school handbooks um our our hope is to get those approved as soon as possible the good news is that we no longer have to send these off to a

071printer and make multiple hundreds of copies of these this is an online document what you're presented tonight and received on Friday is the draft handbook that's one link and then each school has a list of proposed changes so they you can very helpful that's side by side and so it's really the pleasure of the board about whether you approve those tonight or you want to do that at the next meeting but this will be a great time to take questions or concerns about what is there and give us an opportunity to um respond to those and I I just first want to thank the admin team at the high school uh Dana Jean Paul our new assistant principal Val Nelson our director of counseling and uh Josh Knight our athletic director we all worked on

072this together um July is a weird time to work on a student handbook as we wrap up a year and try to start a new year so we you know we busted it out a lot of formatting stuff a couple little things um you know that I think will have some positive changes at the high school so I'll be happy to go about this any way you guys want if we just want to address questions you may have did everybody have a chance to preview I had lots of questions great um one of my first questions was to receive the GPA Edition which is a one to their GPA 1.0 for an AP class the student must complete the AP exam that's new this year correct okay Liz where are you page 13. are you

073on the proposed changes so let me pull it up on the screen for us just I know it hasn't been a requirement in the past yeah I would just I think we're we're seeing an increase in the number of students who take the class but don't take the exam and so we thought that this would be a way to help balance that a little bit more um and and just matter what they get on the exam it doesn't um and again you know it says a lot uh if you took a AP exam and don't submit your scores for certain colleges and that sort of thing we just thought this would add a little bit more to the idea of you know giving giving your full attention to an AP class throughout the whole year

074I mean the the exam itself and going through that process is such a big part of the class in and of itself so we wanted to just add this okay and I really like the ad in sophomore project completion is required to obtain a student parking pass so most of the kids I think my son was a sophomore when he got his license and that the sophomore project is always hanging over their head and it's like a carrot well and again this this comes from you know some interpretation of the the policies from last year you know I was going off of you know what I was told was 20 years of past practice um you know we we see a lot of struggle with um sophomores completing it so we thought this was a

075hey you finished this you can do it a junior has to have it done to get a parking pass that following year as well so I just I tried to clean up the language again it's one of those things that we're proposing um yes failure to complete paperwork equals no ho what does that mean honors option honors oh honors option I think it was referenced right before that okay so Liz I think Heidi wants to talk about is that her project I'm guessing is that yeah speak to why this was an issue last year uh specifically the language under the sophomore project if you scroll down I think it's more towards the bottom specifically said that sophomores were allowed to have parking spaces if space aloud um they did not there was no language that

076required the completion of the sophomore project and there are students who have earlier birthdays there was room in the parking lot software projects in my view is meant to be completed throughout the year that is the goal during their sophomore year I don't think students should be prevented from getting parking passes because they haven't completed their sophomore project yet when it isn't even due um so I firmly disagree with that um change because I think students should be able to park on campus yeah I get I mean I get it you know we we look at that as uh you know more of a a privilege for the the Juniors and seniors and those sophomores that become of age um the the due date is that it has to be done by the end of

077the it's like a rolling due date um the sooner they can get it in the better uh we encourage them to get it done sooner again it's something we're proposing if the board doesn't agree with it we just wanted to clear that up because that line came right after Juniors and seniors need to complete sophomore project so that was that was the language that had been used for years to say I can see the point you know it's not it's not that they're not working on it it's just that it's all right if there's space in the parking block imagine seniors and juniors get preference absolutely yeah it's just a then it from the other side then comes May 1st I've got 14 sophomores that Park that didn't do the project I'm now going through

078and pulling parking passes it's just another one of the parking passes if they haven't completed it on time I think to me it's more punishing students I haven't had an opportunity to fail yet and not get it done rather than I don't see it so much as dangling and carrot I think it is if you want to set benchmarks so you have to have and I think sophomore project advisor does have benchmarks in there you have to have your idea that by this day you have to have your presentation by this day this many hours you want to put rolling hours in there I would be absolutely fine with that I think the idea that it has to be completed and you've got someone with an October birthday I think that's not fair they're supposed

079to have the whole year to do their project and if their project is something that is seasonal um so for example we've had people do photo shoots in the winter we've had all sorts of different things they can't complete their project if that's what they've chosen to do and so I I think it punishes rather than entices and so I would like to see that language change with the caveat that if for whatever reason the software advisor feels like they're not meeting their deadline and they have nothing done by May 1st I absolutely think you have the right to pull the parking pass now and the last the last thing I'll say is that I I don't want to I think the word punish is is Harsh we're not punishing anyone parking is a privilege

080exactly at school so I think the word punish I'm not punishing anyone you know like we were going off of past practice if it's if it doesn't if it doesn't pass it doesn't pass we're trying to clean some things up the student is 16 they have a driver's license and if their parents are so inclined have a car for them they have sports they have accessible activities they have jobs just like the Juniors and seniors and it's safe for men Juniors and seniors should have first dibs for sure but if if they're safe they should be able to park there and if they are not doing their work then I think it can be taken away that's my opinion hmm next question two weeks I'm just kind of piggybacking off of that do we have

081any requirements as far as um maintaining I don't know like for the parking pass yes the parking pass that privilege can be revoked for academic reasons it can be revoked for any violations of behavior policies it could be revoked at any time okay on your cover letter within the handbook itself I noticed a reference to the former assistant vice principal oh that might have just been cycle for me this is a heads up you cheating on me yeah we'll talk about that tomorrow I'm glad we won't be using artificial intelligence anywhere yeah within the yeah second yeah I did have a voice updated it's it's in there as a suggestion it's crossed off right now okay so all the changes within the handbook themselves is in as a suggestion so unfortunately I I think it's

082been shared with the board as a view only and so you're not going to see all those everything that's on the change page is reflected here um so yeah we don't see that yeah okay so really working off that change document is important last comment and you know what's coming five days that was the one complaint my son said you have a due date and the kid I hand mine in on time and another student hands it in five days late and gets the same grade was one of the things that really graded on him as a yeah so everything everything would fall under everything would fall under the lake the new late work procedure which is on a formative or a summative in order to get an extension a student has to meet with

083the teacher show the work that has been completed explain why it won't be done by the due date and the teacher then has the discretion to Grant an extension or not that's for a formative or a summative that's very similar to the college level that's very similar you know Dr Jetty comes to me says hey I'm like oh I've got X Y and Z can I have a few more days I think that fits nicely um and it it gives our teachers um opportunity to use their discretion exactly and it's never the well I just didn't do it yet you're not getting an extension then type deal so I think I thought that kind of mirrored both ways of making it it's kind of a half step I like yeah I thought it was very

084fair and it encourages students to advocate for themselves exactly and after five days if not completed then the teacher has the right to not accept it doesn't that doesn't mean they won't accept correct they have the right correct and again you know it's the fifth day you know Susie's dog had to be put to sleep that night and so she's not in school the next day you know things come up I want to be fair to kids but I also we have expectations and you have to go that extra step and ask ahead of time and plan that you're not going to get it done inappropriate touching a person and or their CL that's considered aggressive we um which page are you on now oh that's page it's in a different font so is that

085from yours so there they look the same yeah well I could see that in middle school we met together with um Dana myself and Maura to make sure that that table aligned that's perfect and we were looking at is there anything that came up that was missing for example hypothetically speaking in middle school where someone were to be pantsed this is hypothetical yeah aggressive closed touching okay um it's hard you can't lift everything that a kid is going to do but when something has occurred perhaps hypothetically on more than one occasion you want to make sure it's synthetically addressed and nuts does anyone have any other questions or comments Peter Heidi did Heidi want to make a motion I did not have any other questions I do think that the parking the software project references

086it's in multiple spots should be removed um but that's my I don't know if I need the motion that or what but would you like to make a motion yeah okay I will make a motion to remove and I don't have it in front of me because I'm going back and forth um the handball High School the recommended uh changes and with respect to the parking um procedure which I believe was number 11 nope number yep eleven you have it it's 11 yes um and I think there was another reference earlier up when it talked about the software project as well there seemed to be two references to it correct so you can make a motion to remove the requirement for the sophomore project for it to be finished in order to obtain a parking

087pass correct we'll have it be complete absolutely agree but I do not believe it should be required to be completed in order to obtain a parking pass so that is my motion however it is appropriately worded do we have a second a second oh sorry you can have it if you want sure any further discussion nope thanks for bringing that up Heidi all right Heidi uh I'm an eye on the motion Peter hi Tina aye Andrew oh Liz nay no no no I I so that is four one zero I think so I think it should be done to get a parking pass okay that's just me okay anything else Mr House so well you know what can I make another proposal that it has to be somewhat done you can't just have one page

088done or I am going to coach soccer here's your parking pass I think that that's a something we could tackle later we're going to sit down with the sophomore project in the senior project advisors this year and it's a lit like and make a and revamp of the the process and the projects in general so I think that if we want to work in some sort of like if you have deadlines yeah they have to adhere to this to have that conversation or you know bang my head up against the wall every year we'll we'll do that too I agree with them having to meet benchmarks I think that's a that's a good practice I just I just don't want it to have to be completed I I agree 100 there's a there's a lot

089of people involved each step of the way checking everything this was a nice clean easy way if it doesn't work it doesn't work we'll go ahead and we'll we'll go from there so I sense comments in a few I appreciate that and if you want any parent input or board input on what that should look like I'm more than happy to sit in on any meeting you have on it Jake I just wanted to offer nothing I enjoy more Heidi than talking with you sarcasm thank you does anyone else have anything for Mr hiss hey Mr G no the the only question would be if and again it's the will of the board are you prepared to approve the the handbook or do you want to take two more weeks I do want to point

090out one thing that didn't come up but it's probably going to come up this year so on the second to last page of the change proposal page 54. it's uh it's in regards to our co-curricular and Athletics we added the line a student elected to a leadership or Captain position for an activity or team forfeits that per position for the duration of the Season any student in violation of this code of co-creative conduct also forfeits eligibility for any team postseason Awards so we are saying if you are a captain of a sports team or an elected leader to a club or group at school and you violate our co-curricular and athletic code of ethics you revoke your leadership position and you lose 4 forfeit the eligibility for postseason Awards we heard over and over again

091from parents that we do not hold our school leaders accountable for their actions so we are trying to hold our school leaders accountable I just wanted to make sure that didn't slip through anybody and then all of a sudden Jake how could you do that wave behind you clearly supported yeah thanks Phil Nelson can I can ask you a question I know they had talked about updating some of the the um what's the word I'm looking for athletic requirements and eligibility eligibility did they add vaping I know smoking was one of them like vaping and stuff like that the last time I don't know if they changed the actual language but it's you know tobacco use or drug use yeah but yeah but it would still fall under this smoking yeah because there were a

092few things that were very it hadn't been updated in a long time and I know they had talked about updating it awesome great thanks gross first wave ever [Music] all right Jen beat that minus it Liz just just clarify yes absent vote this is coming back to the next meeting that's what you would like to do that yes yes all those in favor Heidi aye Peter aye Tina aye aye aye aye five zero zero approval of the Campbell High School student handbook proved as amended thank you much Jen's turn with the Middle School so ours is shorter and sweeter um I I think just because I would smile and say we did a lot of work on it last year we we really peeled apart a great deal of it um you know we have

093work that is in our goals which are coming later in regards to fixing Mission Vision and goals so I don't feel like that was something we could take out or change but you'll see an overarching theme of the responsive classroom insert insertion that comes up through the handbook in regards to melding that with our PBIS we had 30 staff trained for three and a half days this year so that and you're going to hear the continuation of do your best at LMS but you're also adding a phrase of kindness matters because for middle school that was our that's our biggest weakness it's it's kids are not kind to each other kids are not kind to adults kids are not Middle School kindness matters so um that's going to be our overarching theme we're going to

094be looking to catch kindness and in action um throughout our school year and day amongst every all stakeholders um and so that's in the principles letter as well as in The Faculty letter uh we updated our Personnel um this year so we had some changes there we also updated emails we have some staff that are going by new names this summer either married or reverted back to previous names so keep your eye on that to see those changes as they come through um we added one of the things that was repeatedly asked for last year was a way to email staff absences that is here with um being able to email our new Administrative Assistant Kiara Chapel her email address is in the handbook to be able to know how to click and instead of

095having to call the line if the phones are down or if something isn't working you can quickly send an email off to her to to call your student out absent or um tardy will she follow up with a phone call just you know uh usually I follow up with a response to the email okay if that's the case so if you email a student out usually there'll be some type of response thank you have received your email your student has been noted um if if she didn't get the email then you'd get a phone call okay um section three one I believe that I can't going from the change list is not the way I can track what I change so sorry for the um three one was the I believe it's the promotion and

096it was about passing all about passing grades which is the end antithesis of what we do at this point in time so three one um it took doubt took out earned passing grades to demonstrate competency and it keeps that D or better in the current grade level and it adds students in grade five through eight who fail three or more of their courses Mr Sullivan who is here today did a great job with Summer Scholars and that's going to be something that we're going to really be looking at putting a little more teeth into when students are not demonstrating that competency to increase that academic rigor that they will be required to attend summer school in order to be promoted we're going to look at really building that up for next year um [Music] sorry

097I'm looking back back and forth between screens here um section 3.2 it's easy update uh any other questions about anything that was on here in regards to changes um I 9.6 I know in my school students leaving for fire drills is a huge issue and I don't I I don't know how it is in the middle I know in the elementary school they're pretty quiet and follow the directions but somehow when they go to middle school they think it's chatty chatty time and it's scary because our they need to be able to listen to all the instructions people shouting whatever the voice on everything and I hate to really take a knee gate but I'm going to talk about take a knee gate as part of how that came up last year um in regards

098to just redirecting students there was a significant safety concern last year one of our first fire drills where we had commented that's bad we had the fire chief the assistant fire chief we had Mrs Thayer standing there on the corner asking the kids to quiet down they'd pass missus there and they'd what it was like recess and they were jumping on each other they were tackling each other horrible it was not safe so we wanted to really make sure that that was clear the purpose behind whether it was take a need which I would not do again but if that were but I would still want to redirect kids because my goal is to keep your kids safe while they're with us my goal is to make sure they understand much over a crowd of

099350 kids for sure plus adults it's it's a question of just making sure yes me as well that's why it ended up every year is there a fire Chief to comment if it really is excessive it is it sure is so we wanted to make sure that that was clear the purpose behind being quiet is so that you can hear directions it's not just because I want to be mean and yell at kids it's because directions can change at any time the fire truck is going to have to we learned last year the fire truck might have to come in at dismissal per se or at a different time frame where we have to be able to get directions on how to move kids from one point to another so when that emergency drill is

100in place we want to make sure that kids understand why they need to be quiet to hear those directions and keep them safe well it's in the book now I'll make a motion to approve a middle school handbook and changes okay further discussion Heidi hi Peter hi Tina hi Liz I and five zero zero thank you and uh I know we've got a a second public session coming up shorter and sweeter uh not the sweeter part but the shorter you know our handbook as you can see most of the changes were uh basically clerical cleaning things up a few things I just wanted to point out for you and also because I actually have a chance to publicly um last spring someone said hey we're gonna go back to arrival before covid and I said

101I thought arrival was always at 805. they said no it used to be at 8 10. so we're gonna go back to 810 so we make that point um we have we've corrected the um just a price increase for lost or overly damaged library books and then and I think this is really Elementary School when the parents gonna look to the handbook we had before she left or leaving um Adrian kind of really spell out some of the medical stuff that has to do with medications um that are left abandoned meaning the parents haven't come and picked them back up and also um reasons for um excusal from school or non-participation in school and she did a um I'll say a detailed job on that section leaving no questions so those are kind of um

102the main points for us in changes anyone have any comments I don't remember it being 810 I believe you but I don't remember that I have nothing to go on so I just had to believe though I remember it being eight times I do yeah I remember it yeah and I think we added the five minutes because we knew there would be more parent drops yeah we had to we had to space it out and so yeah but students get off the bus at what time well A10 is about when the first bus is rolling into so yeah for for the past years it's been 805 there's usually one run of cars before the first buses show up I'll make a motion to approve the Chia handbook further discussion all those in favor Heidi hi

103Peter hi Tina hi Liz I Andrew hi you have to say it five zero zero five zero zero um I'd get that out just so parents are aware right of a change in times yeah so I've been doing the intro and now I'm gonna start doing the Facebook posts for like when does your Weekly Newsletter come out Weekly Newsletter comes back though for the Friday Friday awesome I'm on the edge of my seat at this time I'd like to have the second Community input does anyone any Community have any input please leave an address please Matt Shoemaker 20 Greenwich Road ah so I mean you guys all know I'm uh you know via million in support of the elementary school um with that said I do think it's you know incumbent on someone to to

104jump in and and talk about this I think um Peter's points were were you know fairly important in the consideration of going in March and asking voters to again vote for something um especially given that you know I I mean this is something that I think is great but I think it's important that people feel confident that there's not you know backroom dealings or anything like that and I think that this um unfortunately could have that that image to it um so I I definitely have a few questions I think obviously you've confirmed that this it was the seller that approached you for this right yes so there's no question as to to whether they approached you um and I I think you know the seller is doing a really nice thing for the town

105so I think I you know I want to be respectful in how I ask questions because I'm sure that I would presume there are some personal circumstances that have led to the seller raising this question I don't know what level of disclosure is appropriate or what level of questioning is appropriate but I think it's worth acknowledging that there probably will be some people that are at least curious as to you know what the impetus was because ultimately we are looking at uh you know roughly a change of October to March is not a very long time right before the the actual contract would you know Prevail essentially um I'm going to also you know presume that there may be some question as to whether or not this transaction would continue but for you taking this

106action otherwise I would assume that you might not want to take this action so uh you know obviously the level of disclosure that's appropriate for that I don't know I'm sure you talked to Town Council about that but I think it's just important to keep an eye on because I do think you know as someone who supports the project I want to know that in March when I go to vote for this that the people around me at least feel like everything was done above board um with that said I think that there's some questions that hopefully can be answered again you know Town Council wasn't here answering these questions so I don't know if these were answered for you but with respect to the the nature of the contract right so ultimately she's going

107to get paid out before the approval of a school this this sale or this purchase is conditioned upon the approval of a school and will continue to be correct so why not if we pay her the money well no I I don't think that that's been a certain period of time based on the Warren article we have what till 2029 right which was brought up at the deliberative why that was added and we were told that deliberative that it was required so if the voters that's special to answer these questions right so in a special election right if the voters we don't have we don't have the the finalized language of any articles being presented right so it's all just draft at this moment right but if the voters were to deny or not approve

108the special election in the terms and conditions changes in essentially the authorization of us paying the 497 000. it defaults back to what the voters approved in March of his past year meaning that the board will have a decision to make right do we proceed forward on a no vote at the special election in March of next year again and ask the voters again that's not a good situation to be in well we won't have any land the no vote is not on the question of whether there will be an elementary school the no vote is on well on the money the no vote is whether or not we are authorized to expect to spend the money that we've already raised so we have we have to have to pass in March in order to

109pay her the money in March but I think it's important to identify we have two things that work here we have a warrant article that was approved we also have a purchase and sale agreement those are two separate binding things right and so my I guess my question is would there be an amendment to the purchase and sale agreement at this point right because as the purchase and sale agreement which I don't have in front of me but to the best of my recollection as it stands that closing was not to occur until the approval of a school or 2029 that's right um and that 2029 Peter if my recollection is correct was um just to allow for the second half without the purchase and sale component of that to not have to be extended

110each time if a vote failed each time so it was just to allow that contract to remain binding until the the contract wouldn't remain binding if it doesn't pass within two years the purchase and sale is null and void what it would do is allow the district to renegotiate with the seller at maybe a different amount or they could return totally for different terms right but it would right but it wouldn't automatically cause it to terminate at that point um but I guess what I'm trying to get to is if the money is so if if this election passes if the vote passes and the money is authorized to be released would there be an amendment to the purchase and sale agreement at that point that would either have some either some sort of clawback

111where they could either buy the land back for example at you know full price right to get the town out of that or to maybe remove the restrictions on the land that it has to be used for school the answer is potentially we don't know what the article will say yet potentially I think that's included in it yes okay but there was but there is the potential though for this to be something so the tax so it would be actually it could be more favorable terms for the town too right I mean I did hear multiple people that expressed that that might be you know something that they'd be interested in so it seems like that might be a negotiating tactic because as far as I can recall this is this would require an amendment

112to the purchase and sale agreement that this is not the turn the terms of the purchase and sell agreement are unequivocally clear that this was not the closing is not to occur right so the seller has come to us and said hey I'm asking you kindly to amend the purchase and sale agreement for whatever personal reasons those may be and given this seller's you know situation situation and and generosity and you know stature in the town that I assume that the board feels that it's worth considering that so I think we cannot we can all rest assured that there will be some close looking at the terms of the purchase and sell agreement prior to the warrant being drafted to make sure absolutely 100 that's the intent all right thank you thank you anyone else

113school goals all right so the school goal documents so uh get this document pulled up and I'll I'll actually start off with the uh The District page and then we'll work our way back toward uh actually Dan will go first this time so we'll work our way up uh so basically this is an effort each year to link the school board goal document remember that's a 20 I think it was 2021 through 2024 so that document will um will sunset this coming school year um but we try to say based upon the goals that the board has set what are our action priority steps at each School level and also at the district level so um and so this document you're looking at is structured as sort of a report out on how we did

114last year and then what it is that we intend to focus on this year so there were three building I'm sorry three District goals the first was regarding the LMS building upgrades that's tied back to the school board goal on facility Improvement and our action steps for last year were to complete phase two which was the HVAC solar and lighting we are 90 done with that we're really tying up the kitchen work at this point and then of course the solar needs to be done so our action steps going into this year are to complete that kitchen and cafeteria that is slated to be done in August there will then be a punch list completed on the overall project and so we will need to get that done by October at the latest and then

115the solar installation um you know I had on here 12 23 we learned today relative to the battery storage components that it's actually going to be a little bit later than that so it's gonna have to bump out until March of uh 24. and so those are the things that we will continue to monitor this year and then we will be done with the LMS upgrades and project uh the robin Riley Elementary School as we've talked about tonight um the goal for last year was to get the purchase a sales agreement on the land and then to complete the building design and the guaranteed maximum price that did not happen we are continuing at the end of the year to build clear Community buy-in we have this new wrinkle that has hit us and so

116um we now going forward need to hold Community forums and information sessions throughout the fall winter to bring a bond vote to the 2024 annual meeting and then of course we now as of tonight have this special uh process that we need to follow through so I'll be updating those action steps based on tonight's conversation and then culture and climate action research um as you know we're looking to engage the center for school climate and and learning to work with all three schools last year and their teams and at the end of the year we had done that we had data that was collected by isha's school's teams and then this year we're going to continue that partnership with the center I know bill prebble has met with the high school and me on Monday

117and has upcoming appointments with the middle school and the elementary school and so the data that was collected is in the process of being turned over to the school teams and they will be using that to drive their action research this year Mr Polanski asked for an update on the data and it the intent is to bring the teams forward in the fall to show exactly what they've learned exactly what action steps they've set and to give a presentation to the board so that will be forthcoming for the board later on in the fall that's what I have for the school district goals reporting out and projecting forward so is this a next summer exercise where we refresh this or is it happening earlier so what we did last year is we did a mid-year

118refresh we did a mid-year update on where we were with the status so I would Envision that in January February we would drop off last year's action steps and end-of-year status and refresh that with an updated so where we are with the 23 24 action steps okay any questions or comments for me on the districts focal points no I mean so I'm assuming for this current year is this something that the board updates and we can add to this right under school goals and School District goals is this this has to be a living breathing type of document it's it's a living green document yeah okay all right then I'll switch over to Dan and uh have him talk about where he is with his goals and what his steps are so yeah as as

119was mentioned each school then creates goals that are based kind of within the framework of those those board goals and so the first one um that we have is a continuation of the gold basically to get plc's or collaborative team process up and running last year a lot of time was spent um building up the structures and the mechanics around that through Norm building and process loops and things like that and so this year um kind of combining that that newly formed structure as well as adding in more data points so we're going to spend a good amount of time with some PD that's uh owed to us through iready so we're actually be able to use some more of those formal data points as well as mixing them all in as I met with

120teams as you go through the PLC process or the collaborating process we always say um the the deeper you get into the data or the more specific you get the more uncomfortable it can get but um basically the more meaningful outcomes that you can get so we're kind of getting to that point too where we're going to get and then we can switch also then so the conversations go from data which is about student progress and then can turn that into instructional practices so basically it's not just about what the kids can do but what also we as instructors can do so that's where we see uh this next year going with that goal oh okay turning that up I'm freezing and you'll never hear me say that thank you sorry sorry Dan okay um

121the the second goal um has to do with um the social emotional learning and a lot of what happens with that counseling department um actually going back to the handbook which I forgot to mention too was a key change was that we went from school counselor to counseling department now that we're in year two of having a full-time social worker as well as a school counselor they kind of work in collaboration to meet some of those and so what we do hope is that the work that's done in that office kind of spread throughout the school and also act somewhat independent of that office as well so our hope is as Mrs Hayes continues her work what she's also doing is empowering the classroom teachers through tools through strategies through lessons so that the kids

122are getting um more of that of those uh those Castle Frameworks which aren't just about just social emotional but they're about self-reliance they're about executive function all those skills but they become more part of their day as opposed to just the half an hour that she gets in there you know per month so it becomes part of the daily activity so continuing that work which would make good strides on as well as continue to make those meaningful whole school meetings that we've had and recognizing students uh for for their good work and then the third one which was the goal that started with coming up with that kind of ladder of skills and so our hope is is that we can then have a document that is that is known that is published that parents

123can can look at that I don't want to look at and say we expect these students to have these skills before they enter grade X and we'll work on them so that by the time they leave grade X they'll have these skills and we started that exercise three years ago where we said what name all the skills we want our kids to have and we end up with 137 of them so it's taken us a while to whittle them down but there is a hyperlink in there it kind of Blends in there but there's a list and you can kind of see where we've left off with we expect kids coming into kindergarten have these and we'll give them these when they're kindergarten so that's first grade so now we just need to work um

124we've kind of done a lot of the hatchet work and now we need to do the scalpel work of just making sure that it aligns as well as we recognize that a lot of what appears in that list sounds a lot like the stuff that appears in gold two so kind of aligning those to come up with that final product so we're looking forward to kind of uh having our year three and hopefully wrapping up um these goals any questions great it's been an easy day at this table all right switching over to the Middle School it's great to be the middle child because you always know when you're going to go I never have to wonder if I'm going first or last I'm always in the middle Jake has two things to do um

125so our goals what just happened to my goal I just delete my goal I sat down hang on no I'm not on my screen oh that's my oh that's my screen that's wise you might have deleted your book hold on let me just make sure I didn't just delete while I was okay all right um so we spent last year um really working on getting to know toe dips into responsive classroom we had our October 7th um full school training in getting to know what responsive classroom was getting some basic information and then we really um had an amazing committed team who came in for four days of the first week of summer vacation to come in during live to learn and really get the full training and what we can say is of those

12630 staff they all drank the Kool-Aid they were like this is going to be great this is going to be exactly what our kids need to help them feel a sense of belonging and purpose to our school which is our overarching goal moving into next year um I know we said the word belonging last year but we spent the year just trying to not get anybody hurt with construction make sure that everybody had the lid on it and and we know that that sense of belonging I haven't seen the data yet from the survey but if I were predicting I'm going to say kids don't feel like they belong in the middle school it is it is a fact and they don't feel like they're part of the decisions and part of what's going on

127and responsive classroom is going to help to address some of those um disconnect that those the kids feel it's a time where kids go through some of their biggest developmental changes in their entire career in education from kindergarten through 12th grade I think Middle School is that toughest toughest time frame um because they go through so many changes and we want to be able to meet them where they are and address those needs as we go through that process and we'll be addressing that through academic and behavioral that academic and behavioral success will be a result from that implementation of responsive classroom across the board and we have a plan to have that team who was trained are going to be coming together in the next few weeks to develop a plan to help train

128our staff who were not able to come for that those that training at the end of June um can I ask a question yes absolutely a responsive classroom obviously I just heard about a lot of good things out of it I also heard you say that the students at LMS don't feel a sense of belonging at the school correct I'm not getting the action between the two and how responsive classroom is going to help the students fabulous responsive classroom class for program it's not a um it's a mindset and it's a way of how you interact and the language that you use with children it's a common language that becomes use it at my school it becomes how you speak with kids and two kids and help them Envision who they are and what they

129are to become it's about making sure that every day every kid in that school is greeted by name as they walk in to a classroom every day that in and of itself is a shift because there are kids who come into that school and duck their head and like don't talk to me don't look at me I don't want to know anything and right the hood the hood goes up they tuck it yeah um so it's about building that it's setting goals it's helping it's helping kids um talk that responsive classroom um has conversations that are built into how you teach both academics as well as that social emotional connection so it's about making different groupings of kids so that when you come together no you're not always going to get to be with your

130BFF and you all want to be with your BFF and you feel more comfortable there but as you become young adults you have to learn how to interact with people you hate across the room you got to know how to go over them and kindness matters and I I might not like Corey sells and just kidding good face with all love I would do weekend check-ins and say Jen saw this movie and a kid she doesn't like well I saw that movie too so they know they have things in common and it well it makes it more welcoming so responsive classroom you'll hear us use that term a lot it's just about responding to where kids are developmentally emotionally socially academically and meeting their needs so it's going to build our academic rigor because we're

131going to see where our students are and move them forward versus kind of I'm going to say going with what I've just heard is it helps build personal connections correct right and that then establishes Rapport and Trust among students and amongst staff to students correct okay and staff to staff because we're going to be through our plcs and through our staff meetings and through every it is going to be how we operate this year like if you would say Mrs McDonald this homework are stupid I'm sorry you feel that way Andrew how can I make it more interesting for you put in the trash then you have one of the kids in my class well um so our second goal are we okay is that yes thank you perfect our second goal is about that

132personalization of the best block again did I delete it that box is now empty so I don't know where it went oh the action steps oops I didn't do it they were they were just there Maybe not today I did it um so the personalization of the best block I know last year we shifted to all at the same time we shifted to um a process through the middle of the Year where um each academic class had the Opera because there was a misperception of what best was as it was morphing and changing from um when it was developed prior to my arrival uh as it kind of became a Lucy I'm going to say Lucy goosey a little bit in the course of my first year at LMS but it is designed to be

133academic minutes so I think that's where the confusion was in the best changes that occurred this year so allowing for that individualization and personalization allowing for the academic support and Remediation and acceleration where needed for students while allowing that choice in a schedule for each grade level that would allow every teacher to I don't want to say touch a child but to meet with the child if they need to um for a week so for example I'm gonna pick on Corey again because he's here and he knows he knows what I'm saying so if Corey the math teacher in fifth grade needed to talk to Liz before it would be like well I'm going to take him on Wednesday because I just feel like Wednesday is a good day to talk to Liz but Liz

134also needs to be taken for Science and she also needs to be taken for language arts and she also needs to be taken for social studies so those four teachers were battling over what day can I meet with Liz to help her either get caught up on work get figure out what's going on with how she's not understanding a concept or how she needs acceleration in the concept so the teachers designed a rotation through the week where even all staff including unified Arts had a designated day so they knew that on Mondays hypothetically it's Matt Mondays is math so that group knew that kids that needed math supports could be pulled during that Monday for that support we also implemented the instructional lessons in iready which is exactly where the student is targeted for their

135learning the best teacher on the planet can differentiate I'm going to say five three to five levels in a classroom iready will allow you to differentiate if you have 25 kids in your classroom it's going to Target each of them it's there's difference between the i-Ready instructional and the i-Ready assessment the already instructional is going through the lessons that teach them where their specific deficits are and build them forward so we built all those things in through our best last year um with I know there was some confusion with the difference between i-Ready instructional and i-Ready assessment we only do the I ready assessment three times a year and it's just to get that Benchmark of that dipstick of where they are at that moment in time the instructional is that designed to be done

136throughout each week and as we go and it's a program that we pay for that has proven um to to kind of close some gaps for a lot of our students and and improve where they are we'll look at the data that's see in two weeks to talk about that part um but improve the data in in some components we still have a lot of areas to work on and that need to keep that academic Focus during best is here and is is critical for us for next year so that academic rigor will be part of what best looks like but also we're going to be incorporating that academic advisory through responsive classroom during our best session our best is also moving from kind of the middle of the day to the end of the

137day because brain breaks and um physical activities are built into the way responsive classrooms instruction go so they're not going to need to uh the best walk was built in as part of covet protocols and although everybody likes to go out and take the best walk you can build that movement into activities that you're doing for academic purposes or activities that you're doing for that social emotional learning within yet that period as well so we don't have to see laps around the building so that's our best adjustment does that is that can you just reiterate how many days are they going to have I ready um two days so it could be math one could be reading an iready lesson is designed to take between 20 and 30 minutes if the student is focused and

138paying attention to what they will take the results from their test where they were if Mrs McDonald didn't do great infraction I would be getting fraction work right and it's not bad I really isn't bad that's my thing it's but oh my God what did I do sorry so it's real it's and when I was Title One in Merrimack that's what we use for math it wasn't title one but if you don't know how to add one plus one they put one apple up there and you'd have to put one so it's not every day it's not a punishment it's not okay it's not a punishment it's not and the students had that that expectation we're talking about holding kids accountable to complete one lesson in a whole week at home at school on the

139move on the roof in the car on the way someplace well one lesson a week in language arts and one less in the week in math and if those were completed they didn't have to do it during or what about a student who who is at a 10th grade level in fifth grade then they age out of the lessons and they were Exempted from that and had I know our seventh grade did an amazing book group with uh so they don't have to do it they don't okay that's how you mentioned the the whole best and the laps around the building right and how that will likely sounds like go away right I actually view that as a good I I viewed the walks as a good thing right because that was the mental health

140break the fresh air moment that a lot of the kids needed they're still going to have that opportunity it's just going to come in a little bit different ways and it's going to be embedded in instruction and in in their regular you know they might it's not going to be a 20 minute go outside and walk laps and throw a football down the walkway and lose that 20 minutes of instructional time it's going to be taking that fresh air break or taking that brain break or getting that physical activity that movement in whether it's in the classroom or out of the classroom is going to be up to the teams and how they decide that works in but it's not going away if does that make sense sort of so it sounds like it's still

141an option for depending upon the teacher in the day it's on the team in the day yep so I would say if if it's going to be a team decision it's not going to be just this class every time they go to math they all go out for a walk it's going to be as a team we're going to decide that period two this this day is going to be our movement break where we get to go outside we get to go maybe it's to the gym and do a team building activity because again it's talking about that belonging and coming together what was happening a lot on those walks is that's where our conflicts were arising that's where kids are getting into trouble because there's not directed in is also where a lot of

142kids were getting that just mental health break for a few minutes during their day right and now they're they may or may not have that opportunity they will have that opportunity just in a different structure the difference in a different way but through instruction where that wasn't necessarily instruction I think the the one key thing to keep in mind is that our middle school has one of the shortest days of any middle school and prior to this that was a study hall period which was done instructional time and when we analyzed it against the required minutes under the minimum standards we were not meeting those minutes and so we had to create the best period to be Alternative Learning to ensure that you know sitting in a study hall is not instructional time engaged in

143Alternative Learning activities is instructional time so part of part of the reason why best came about was to make sure that we met the minimum requirements so what Jen's proposing is that we can still have those movement breaks but they need to have an instructional component embedded can I can I borrow you for a second after I tease you can you come up for a second oh I mean Mr Sultan's a great fifth grade incoming class right kids who are used to having a recess will no longer have a recess and I know many students were looking towards that so can you talk a little bit about how much Movement we did during our four day training in responsive classroom as adults so I mean they modeled and that was a big thing as well

144as modeling everything and from coming in and kind of activities of greeting people and kind of welcoming to start the day to brain breaks so a lot of that is can be embedded into the way you either stop the class and re-energize or bring them back and it's the very specific types of activities for that um compared to like hey this is an academic like gallery walk so everyone has an article and that movement is our stations on the wall and the kids have to go around with clipboards and do stuff like that like that's movement within a classroom right which is much different than saying okay everyone it's time to leave the classroom and take a walk around the building and then come back so I mean especially on like rainy days we're kind

145of doing those indoor movement and activities in lieu of some of those walks on those days anyway so some of the kids are kind of used to those um and with our new unified Arts schedule we were able to get PE in every grade which it was missing from so we're back to that's a great thing that's that's also helping you know that was one of the areas that we recognized as an issue and with Mrs there's amazing creativity and conversation with all of our unified Arts teachers we were able to kind of make sure students needs are being met so I'm not saying kids aren't going to get movement in the day I'm not saying they're not going to get outside and get fresh air and be able to talk to their friends and

146walk around but it's just not going to be that you're not going to come in at seventh period during best and see the whole school outside walking labs for all those parents that are little listening I'd like to hear your feedback on how it's going right I think we need to be open to change yeah for how this how this operates and I think that that what you're saying right there leads to my next goal so I can talk a little bit about that thanks Corey um so the next goal is about increasing that uh Community awareness and strengths and needs at LMS we plan to take the feedback from the spring surveys my meeting with the bills on Monday next week to get the open text information the is it qualitative data we got

147the quantitative data rough and bills is this Mr Preble and yeah this is the center for school climate and learning so we got the quantitative draft data at the very very end of the school year we're able to share it with our C-3PO team at the very very end of the school year and kind of talk about what we're going to do with that launching back in August and then we'll have that qualitative data which allow us to kind of get into the the more specific and nitty-gritty issues that are recognized areas of uh strengths and weaknesses for LMS or perceived deficits for LMS we're going to continue to refine communication to help all stakeholders staff students and families to feel informed and part of the process and one of the ways that we're going

148to work on that is to implement a lynx Roundtable monthly with coming in to meet with me I think that one of the things that again working on construction working on trying to keep all those moving parts and pieces going an area that I I know I was not successful with getting out and meeting everybody in the community and getting being able to talk to and having them be able to come in and share him really upset about what happened with the fire drill or I'm really upset about can you explain to me what's going on with best or how iready works and and it will have that opportunity for that face-to-face not behind Facebook not behind I'll link to the loop it's that open dialogue an open conversation to be able to help so

149we have a monthly links meeting we have a coffee meeting with Mr Mitchell yep what are you doing yes it's breakfast with the administration or something yep so it's gonna be it's going to be just an opportunity for anybody who wants to come out and and sit and have have my ear for an hour and talk about what what you'd like to see changed as part of LMS it's an open Forum there'll be agenda items to kind of give a bouncing off point but if you have something that's interesting or you're interested in talking about please feel free to share and we're looking forward and while we're on the hiring bandwagon we're still looking for paraprofessionals and a lunch monitor so if anybody is interested in great Mother's hours coming in and spending quality time

150with 354 middle schoolers we would love to have you so please join us awesome thank you okay segue right into your diploma oh we're doing both these unless you want me to I didn't know what was also was on the agenda um so last year uh I kind of inherited the goals um you know I had sat down in the summer with Mike eval and Josh and we had could have developed uh based on that so um you know the PLC goal um you know we really looked at um kind of revisiting how those were so what we did is we really formalized the PLC structure um what the expectations what the Norms are we had a working agenda document for all departments to use admin sat in on PLC meetings throughout the year we

151even got uh Mary Woodman would join us in some of those as well which was fantastic in the beginning of the year we focused on instructional practices within the classroom student engagement and then looking at the needs and adjusting the second half of the year we really shifted to curriculum work and making sure competencies and units were aligning moving forward we're going to combine a little bit this PLC goal with the third goal the data usage goal we're really now gonna deep dive into our curriculum facilitators and our teachers having Hands-On that PSAT s-a-t SAS data and really looking at and I'm not a test scores guy we got to get our test scores up there's no reason they should be where they are in the decline over the past five years of where they're

152at so um a lot of it is really just they never experienced that type of questioning until they sit down with the exams and so really kind of looking at how we can align our curriculum I'm not teaching to the test but aligning our curriculum so that they're more familiar with those types of questions and those types of things that they will see across the building this isn't just an English problem this isn't just a science problem so really using all of our plc's this year to have that as a goal not listed on here but I think there's probably every curriculum document since the beginning of time at Campbell High School in a three-ring binder either in my office or the conference room I've been going through those lately and now I'm just going

153to turn them over to the Departments and say fix them update them make them better go so that's not on here but that's like my housekeeping thing that you know I gotta work on so um the second goal um was our advisory goal um this was something last year that really got pushed to the back burner that Dana and myself and actually Noah Benoit have really ran with this summer so it really started last year when you guys approved our Flex block we're now calling it KAG time cougar academic growth time so Monday and Friday we'll focus on our advisories uh Tuesday Wednesday Thursday will be our real academic but every student can grow regardless of where they fall so we're not talking interventions we're not talking enrichment it's growth for every student academic academically

154across the board but what we've done is we have um created activities and topics uh that's focus on our work study practices and core values that we'll focus on throughout the year we've got for teachers that struggle we've got to hey you can do this and for the teachers that excel in advisory we have hey just stick to this message we'll have my monthly hesus huddles so really those consistent messages across the entire building are flowing throughout the year we're also going to collect data and feedback throughout the year so that we can pivot and change you know this is the first year we're trying this big Flex time usage of time at the high school and we talked about this when we when we approved time it's going to be a little bit muddy

155at first you know we're going to spend the next four weeks really finalizing that adaptive scheduling and and where are kids going to go and how do we make sure that works and then we're going to use September and October to really gauge how this is working so that we can make sure that we're using our time effect actively in the ways that we have set out to use this time so you're going to have like a adaptive schedule that so on Monday on Monday an advisory kids will sign up I want to say Mr Hess I want to see the science teacher on and then on Mondays and Fridays little little Lizzy's fail in science but she wants to go hang out in the gym that's not an option for her because she's got

156it but how do we know that because we can set parameters on it so and I know it's always been a concern about the wandering during advisory no such thing anymore nice it's not going to be an issue and like so and so the student council has to work on a banner and they're dancing down the hallway or not on Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays they don't okay so it's a safety issue I know you are aware of it yeah yeah so the third goal is the um increase awareness and usage of multiple data types this one kind of fits into our first goal and to our last one um we really just this year this was really on just an administrative level we we looked at the data we looked at the test grades we

157look we looked at the graduation stuff we kind of talked about okay what are we going to do we've got our feet wet a little bit more as an admin team now we're really rolling this data out to our next level of our curriculum facilitators for those academic pieces and then we're using our Center for school climate and learning data our work with Bill Preble to kind of work in to our tweaking of our last goal last year is my first year in the building I really wanted to foster a positive staff climate and culture I'm shifting that to a positive School climate culture overall it's it's kids and adults we're going to use that data from the climate culture to um to make our action plans with the students make our action plans with

158the adults in the building I really want to work this year on establishing a Campbell Community Council that's made up of students admin parents and a board member to allow buy-in from all stakeholders in a decision making at the high school we saw that a lot in our feedback from students as they don't feel like they have a voice within the school I want to allow that opportunity and I want parents to feel like they have a say in in the school as well and and not just that I disagree with or hey that was really great but let's sit down and talk about what we want Campbell High School to really look like as a as a group of individuals instead of just small group that that's leading yeah yeah I made the joke

159I won't say the parent's name because they're not here but I always make the joke with this one parent if I hold coffee with Jay Cass this one parent and I are going to sit in the library once a month and have coffee together and we're going to talk about how great their child is and stuff but I I want more people involved in in to see the school as a resource you know I got plans for what open house can look like this year at Campbell and it's going to be different than what it's been in the past just having more kids being part of the whole situation instead of that same group that started in middle school and worked their whole way up well it's a different purpose too student council does amazing

160things at Campbell High School and I'm not going to change their focus on what they do this is a completely different structured Focus um and then I want to I got to continue the the staff climate culture events we had such a great year with our we had a family cookout night at homecoming staff could bring their families in and I cook for everybody and it was just really nice and then you know the coffee with admin on Friday mornings and we do potlucks together and just continuing those events to build relationships uh in camaraderie within the staff but that's really kind of what we're we're looking to do this year and again you know it changed with small tweaks in the student handbook expectations on staff as we start the year as well because

161those changes in the handbook for kids Echo changes and expectations for the adults in the building as well so you know stuff by step just kind of moving in this positive direction at Campbell's what we're really working on will you be training the teachers on adaptive scheduler at the beginning of the year yeah as soon as I finish my training on it we'll uh we'll get that if I can figure it out Andrea Andrea is going to hook us up this uh within next week or so so we'll be all set with that so those are our goals comments concerned Heidi anything I'm good thank you thank you so you met with a group of parents and you just got a diploma I oh my God what's it alternative alternative diploma well yeah so different

162I'm gonna I'm gonna backtrack for a minute um diplomas and all that other stuff I know it's recorded a nine so I'm not going to be too long-winded um when I first had a schedule when I first got to Campbell I was actually um I was actually taken aback because my experience isn't my last two districts um that there was only one diploma track um so you know it had been in the back of my mind's conversations with Val I had talked about with Sophia Fowler at the very beginning of the year about a 20 credit State diploma at the very beginning um and then you know a couple months ago we got emails from Chris Manson who were in the house today um talking about now we know why you're here talking about uh

163talking about an alternative diploma track for some of our students with IEPs and that kind of really just allowed um the the parents myself Vale Mary Whitman Sophia Dr Jetty on that conversation to have conversations about the different options for students so um you know as I look at this you know currently um we have we have one option at the high school it's and it's our 24 credit diploma I listed the requirements there and this works for approximately 90 of every student that comes through our doors um which is pretty good but not when you say that we want to develop a school that works for all kids um so you know in-house there are no other options really you either get the CHS diploma we send you our kids go to Londonderry night

164school or we lose them what do they get at Londonderry High School they get a 20 credit State diploma got it so we were thinking that really if we look at there's three groups of students that I think that were currently underserving that we could serve much better first and foremost students who schools not just for them or they struggle they want a high school diploma they want to work hard but they're struggling to reach that 24 credits and usually math is the Killer um we also have a group of struggling Learners who are super capable of meeting a ton of competencies but not all of them without modifications and traditionally those students would only be given a certificate of attendance and I think we're underserving a small population there and then finally our S3

165program you know a certificate of attendance when really they're working on life skills they're working on goals throughout their time and so we'll talk a little bit about just some language change there so the three additional diploma options that I we would like to offer at Campbell High School and I put the dates for when I would like to do this first and foremost is the New Hampshire State diploma it's a 20 credit diploma we can easily enact that for our for next year as an option for kids we'll talk a little bit about that in a minute um there's an alternate diploma that we'll talk about that I want to push off a year as an option because a lot goes into making that work and it's a lot of front loading to make

166sure we do it smoothly and then the goals diploma I put for the following year as well hypothetically we could also probably do that this coming up school year but I wanted to leave the option in case there's some things that we have to kind of work on so questions yes right NH State tipoma you just said for next year I think you actually mean this current school this coming yes yeah 23 24. because I am new to the various diplomas help me understand the difference between a Campbell diploma well let's take a look at the next slide Andrew thank you so much we talked about this at a time so listed up there is the New Hampshire State 20 credit diploma the bottom is what our diploma has additionally to what's on the screen

167so our so I listed it as that's what is less of what we have so it's less half hour art visual less half computer less half math one full less science half less social studies and a total credit less of electives it still hits you know New Hampshire says this is a diploma this is great it still hits on all this our diploma just goes above and beyond by four credits and how does that align to other towns like is it normal to have 24 in very school to school we had 28 at the regional when I first got there when I left they were at 26 and a half Windham High School is 24 credit but they also offer two alternative diplomas as well a lot of school you know it depends on I

168think souhegan's 20. I don't think that they might be a 20 or 24 as well they go both ways but it it varies across the state but the minimum is 20. you have to have at least 20. these align with the state minimum standards correct okay yep and one of the things that we talked about in this conversation was uh you know we have students who are graduating with 28 30 credits yeah right so the high school is an Irish principal for 10 years we had a 26 credit uh diploma and we had students graduating with 32. so this is not about I mean those students are still going to be able to achieve above and beyond these are the minimum right but what we're trying to do is close the gap for that 10

169that we're already sending over to Londonderry we're already saying uh in order to graduate you need to leave Campbell and get a different diploma versus can we offer something no is that only because we don't offer it at Campbell that's correct our diploma is 24 credits and when we get to slide 11 I'll talk a little bit about how many kids I think this impacts and that sort of thing so so this is the New Hampshire State diploma um the alternate diploma so this one's this one's a little tricky and that's why I kind of want to slow roll this for a year so there's a link that goes to a PowerPoint that the state of New Hampshire put out in 2017. so already things have changed a little bit since then we can keep

170kids till 22 now but the main things about this are this the curriculum can be modified alternate assessments are used students count towards graduation numbers right now a student that just gets their certificate of attendance doesn't count in our graduation numbers this isn't a standard high school diploma but we can count them in our graduation numbers they don't have to just complete it in their four years they can complete it for as long as they're in the building with us and it really only impacts about two students a year this isn't something that you know 15 30 kids get this is for students with IEPs students with you know some excessive needs when it comes to some modifications in certain areas and again there the slideshow we can go through more in depth at another

171time because it outlines a little bit more of what it looks like but the main focus on this is it's it's students with IEPs we can use alternate assessments and we can we can modify that curriculum as opposed to just providing accommodations for them Andrew what strain does this put on our teaching staff that's why I'm pushing an offer here I think there's going to be some front loading with our case managers our special ed case managers but again with the small number of students that it's going to impact each year I think with you know eight to ten months of front loading and really digging into it I don't think we're going to see too much of a strain when when we go to enact it and then finally the last one it's really

172just changing the name of a certificate of attendance to a goals diploma you know it's skills based it's not aligned with any of the minimum standards but a the IEP team sits down and says you know we're working on these goals let's make sure that when they leave here we celebrate the fact that they've worked on and accomplished these goals as they hear and again we're only really talking about two students a year at the high school that would fall into this category as well so things that we still need to iron out and you'll notice I put at the end probably a lot you know um the two main things are this especially for the 20 credit diploma who goes for that um with the alternative diplomas it's easier because there's an IEP team

173that sits down and makes these decisions the 20 credit diploma is School counseling and administration you know we need to sit down with a student you know at the regional we did it halfway through their 10th grade year we had to decide what diploma track they're on you have to sit down with a student you have to sit down with the family you have to sit down with counseling and you have to say here's our 24 credits here's the 20 credits what are the reasons we think we won't be able to achieve 24 why would we just do 20. um and and that's a little bit of a process and really it usually comes with our high math struggling students that it may take them three years to finish algebra and so just having those

174two credits of math removing one of science removing some of those electives so they can work through that more slowly you know that's where we saw the most success when we look at our students that we send to Londonderry you know we all don't have IEPs correct this year however a large portion of them did have IEPs now whatever the diagnosis was or whatever that we you know that's a whole other thing but this this track really is for the struggling students the kids that just High School is not a good match for them they want to be successful they want to get out of here but that that traditional high schooling you know um and then we got to talk about how flexible can we be you know and so you know this can't

175be a June 4th decision because a senior short a credit and a half and we're like yeah we give you know that can't but what this is about it's about supporting our struggling students it's about making sure that we have avenues for every kid in the building Community College except a 20 to 20 credit diploma any Community any Community College in the state would accept a 20 credit diploma some some non-community colleges probably accepted 20 credit diploma as well they accept geds they accept yeah I don't cover all my bases yeah I mean and that's that it's the state calls it a minimum standards diploma which is an unfortunate yeah because it's it's a diploma it's a high school state diploma like just the only difference is is we you we make you go through

176four extra credit Hoops like that's that's it um again what does this actually look like in practice really that's for that alternate diploma um and why I want to push it off from a year I've got great parents and great resources that have kind of walked me through this um I had great conversations with um the director of special services at Windham because they do this and so he and I have had some great conversations um but it's it's gonna take some front loading to really understand what it looks like in practice and how we can make sure that we're doing it and doing it well I've never given an alternate assessment in a building before I've never been able to modify State competencies so that's going to take some work to make sure we

177fully understand that and then who owns that you know where where does this extra stress come from making sure that we're I'm not burdening my staff more um type thing and then again there's a ton that I'm probably missing um you know that we'll we'll encounter it as we come into it and but um we have incredible resources within our building within our community and with our air neighboring schools that have been more than willing to to sit down and have conversations how does um the changing curriculum in the formative summative percentages how does that potentially impact the change in there or the diplomas and yeah I don't think it's going to impact anything along those lines um soft Duty work yeah and it's I I see it more as I think more kids now

178seeking an alternate diploma to meet the minimum standards because of the changes in curriculum I don't know I don't think we're changing any curriculum though you know we changed 15 for formatives we changed a late work policy um though our our approach is always going to try to continue to adapt to get more Hands-On more real world more student engagement um the curriculum we're going to try to always update so you know it's relevant to students um but we only change grading practices and and that's really just to try to hold students a little bit more accountable because they got really good at gaming the system you know they're kids absolutely so we're going to try to hold them a little bit more accountable we're going to try to hold the teachers a little bit

179more accountable when it comes to making sure we're giving quality formatives we're getting grades in on time across the board um and so it really is a great partnership within the building and then this just allows us to have avenues for again we're talking a total of 9 to 11 students a year within three new diploma tracks potentially yeah but that could be ten percent of the grade correct yep but that's like I'm trying to remember we had seven so our diplomas uh even when I worked at Campbell there were five to seven kids our data one's not for two more weeks but you know we had seven students graduate through Londonderry this year Alone um you know and that's those are kids that we could have kept you know in service within our building

180and provided the supports there yeah it's a it's another way for us to you know they're Lichfield kids from the day they start kindergarten to the day they graduate there are Litchfield kids whether they're uh links uh Griffin door or uh whatever they are no just kidding uh whatever cat they are once they graduate you know this is giving them the snake it's a way for us to keep our kids uh into service our our kids better way to incorporate the feedback that we've gotten and to keep all of our students in-house in-house and in the loop and and accomplishing what they can accomplish and you know in that the alternate one and again doing more of a deep dive learning more and more it it really allows us to stop banging our head on

181the wall with some of the things that we have to bang our heads on the wall with you know when we look at um you know whether it's um supports in the classroom when it looks at parasaur like it gives us the flexibility to better support kids in different creative ways and so I think you know at the end of the day it's a win-win it's a big undertaking which again is why I've kind of slow rolled it um but at the end of the day I think you know a year from now we're looking at servicing better more students at Campbell High School I'm thrilled absolutely thrilled and to your point the kids aren't going to be able to say you know what I'm now I'm a junior and I can only get to

18220. at some point you're going to say this is the track you're on if you don't achieve that yeah yeah a lot of discussion goes into that that's great Heidi do you have any questions comments concerns no questions I fully support this I think it's great to keep these students in house and provide the need for them and we can do it um so I'm I'm glad you're taking the time to make sure it's done right and um keep it up awesome so I think the only thing you would have to make a motion on now is if we're offering a 20 credit diploma this year at Campbell High School so moved second and further discussion all those in favor of adopting a 20 credit diploma Heidi I Peter aye Tina hi hi Peter I'm

183Andrew oh my God I'm sorry make it does look like we're at the list some except for we've got Peter and Andrew awesome I don't know which one that was yeah thank you so much um oh I have Goosebumps oh all right so where are we policy updates jbaa sexual harassment policy I do not have access to that no no this update in a required policy which I have to buy our attorney will be reviewed which it wasn't reviewed that wasn't reviewed today was it you see what I can do with the permissions on this if I can do anything so the policy committee I guess was scheduled to me today I didn't recognize that there was a time change and that got moved up in the day it did right so I didn't I

184didn't either I didn't realize that so the policy committee I don't think actually met today that would appear not the policy committee did not meet today right um I don't know if Heidi joined it or not so no so I I had I had to make I sent the request out to move the meeting because we had to meet with the fire department relative to the solar um and there's a there's one window of time where one of the firefighters is available so um do we can we push that to our next meeting yeah so but let me explain where we are and then we can have policy looking oh it's it's just the two of us right now the three of us and Heidi Okay so we've got a quorum okay yeah I I

185did the same thing I'm like oh wait a minute so basically this is one of the required policies the rewrite of the Title IX policy which is the sexual harassment discrimination and violence and Title IX policy procedures we sent this off to Legal um you can see that it has been marked up by our attorneys uh saying this is what you need to do with the policy um you don't see the I don't like it I do sorry yeah it's in there you you see the red line version all right yeah well mine's red yeah um and this also Andrew accomplishes uh renaming because this was policy jbaa and now it's being brought to ACAC so it's aligning with the and that was one of the recommendations yeah yep yeah so you know basically had

186we met today I would have said this is what the attorney's recommending and they've done all the alignment with the uh recommended policy from nhsba and and this is our own attorney this went to Seoul Leslie Kidder um and they returned and said this is what we suggest your policy be um but we're not in a rush to get this done um this is one that's required and we should be taking action on yeah and uh if we wait till next meeting that's not going to be it yeah I didn't have a chance to review it yep thank you but now you have the backstory on it and um as to why it's here and what is where the comments have come from there were other policies identified that were missing in our review a

187few weeks ago where are we actually in those two so uh Kayla has shared with me the next one that she worked on was the um oh God what's it called school safety program I think or some something along that line so that's in the pipeline okay so we are taking action as quickly as we can on getting those lined up but this is uh this policy got sort of priority because there have been some legal changes um that we wanted to make sure our legal team weighed in on and that's why it bumped right through all right next meeting yep yep got it fill in for the vice chair that brings us to school board comments so it sounds like iready will be a conversation point at our next meeting in seeing test results

188and we can get some of that analysis is that the data is aren't yeah so our next meeting is the annual I think there's a policy that says that there will be an annual data meeting um and that is the next meeting so the three principles will be back again uh with Mary Whitman they'll be presenting overall District data and then school specific data you're going to get everything from sat AP I ready data et cetera so you're going to get the data snapshot of where we are as a district presented to you at the next meeting so I think we're going to be able to do the comparison between using the on-roll example from a couple of weeks ago how many kids were you know high on earth compared to our standardized I'm gonna

189have a question disconnected how do we balance the disconnect between what the successes we're having and what we're seeing in honors and high honors versus the scores we're seeing in these tests yep okay I'll make sure um the other pieces that we have our administrative Retreat scheduled for Monday and Tuesday and so we'll be working on uh that data piece they've been we started that work in the retreat back in June um we'll keep working on that but that disconnect is something that is absolutely we're on top of it I mean we're aware of it I should say we need to get to a point where the periods and scores in the classroom match that ability school board comments oh I'm here I would like to give a shout out to the um Campbell High

190School athletic golf tournament that was this past Wednesday maybe eight thousand dollars on um like they had sponsors and I was able to be I called myself the social what was I the social social coordinator Cruise director basically I got a cart well they weren't going to give me a car but I got a cart I had Henry get me one and I drove around and it was just so and there were parents whose kids had graduated parents whose kids don't even go to the school it was just a fun there were kids there it was just so much fun and I I love doing it I've been to this is a third year second third year third year maybe but it was a great I hope it gets even bigger next year um and

191I really am excited for the alternate diploma I think all everything I heard tonight is just moving in the right direction and you guys know me I'm a traditionalist like do your homework everything I heard tonight from the high school it sounds like it just sounds awesome my other question right and I guess it's for you Mr Totten right and and great decision a lot of work went into it very clear right and I'm glad the board's support of that I'm assuming there's a financial impact of some sort to this too right if we're not sending kids to Londonderry and we're able to keep those kids in town is there is there a positive to that for the district I don't know how much do you pay per skill Bill Hicks when he came on

192board 18 years ago he was able to connect with State grant money that helps us support that okay so the actual Financial impact is absorbed I believe mostly by that Grant mostly by the grant yeah we pay a very small percent of that so that's okay that's all I have to say everyone else too I I don't know if Heidi has any super comments any comments Heidi we have the Manifest up next I know I have I guess manifest paperwork here uh at the start of the meeting um that one's for me um or just just before the maybe the meeting during manifest review at the beginning of the meeting right I know I highlighted that we didn't get paperwork in advance so I haven't seen it but it looks like this is from the

193previous one isn't it no this is from tonight no I think it's new there might be one that might have been carry over but I think they're all New Age we just had several weeks between this one and the last one right because we the last one was in the middle of July a little bit longer time in between I think most of them have three signatures anyway yeah I'll do uh not all of them oh there's one in here I don't know if you want to take a look at it that has one oh thank you okay I'll get that in a second um and we are and then we're closing our meeting and going into non-public losing our meetings does anyone else have any Community input ice cream thank you thanks for coming

194oh okay yeah okay so do you want to read the language for non-public times uh yeah right here sorry um non-public RSA 91-a good night three the dismissal promotion or compensation of any employee or the disciplining of such employee or the investigation of any charges against him unless the employee affected one has a right to a meeting and two request the meeting be open in which case the request shall be granted be the rehiring of any person as a Public Employee see matters which if discussed in public would likely adversely affect the replication of any person other than a member of the body or agency itself unless such person requests an open meeting yes yes all those in favor yes what's this also says D through LC citation what's that I don't know I've never

195seen that before D through L citation Heidi do you see that I did I don't know what it is so we're not going into non-public for that and we don't know what that is oh a b and c yes all right all those all those in favor yes Peter yeah roll call yes Tina Andrew yes thank you are now entering non-public