001Um, that is why she's not here, but she'll be here eventually. And with that, we'll pick up where we left off two weeks ago. >> Turn it back over to Steve, I think, unless Diane has any preliminary >> or consideration. >> That's fine. Go ahead, Steve. >> All right, welcome everybody. >> Thank you. So we did did have a little meeting with Diane the other day and tried to get a little more insight in things that you might be looking at and thought was important followup. So some of this reflects that. Some of what I'll do real quickly here reflects directly questions that came from the budget committee. So I did uh so this this docu this document is a is a live document. It's posted uh to our to our website and our under
002our meetings tab. And I just want to point out the two previous meetings are linked here to this document. So you can easily go back and see the documents to proceed at this one. So the the agenda just hit you take a quick look. Those are the things that we've been asked to respond to and I'll be going through with you very briefly. I want to leave plenty of time for the questions other questions you have in discussion. All right. We'll begin with the SAU office budget history. And I'll let Patty kind of run you, walk you through that and entertain any questions you might have about the central office budget. >> As you can see, it's down 200,000 and that would be under the 2210 improvement of instruction. We do reduced the curriculum coordinator
003position and the Plymouth State residency program. So you can see there it went from 237 to 21,000. Um there haven't been any real significant um increases on the other lines. Um can tell you that um for superintendent because of Steve's um retirement um I definitely budgeted for a different health plan. So that would reflect on the in that. But other than that, um, some lines are slightly up, some are down. That's the the bulk of that. >> Can you speak more, Patty, to what's in two 22? No, sorry. What's in 2310 and 2319 and what's in 2320 besides salary and benefits? So board services all this these um function codes are all um governed through GASBY governmental accounting standards and what falls under there. So board services is not only board salaries, election salaries, but
004they define them more as like um insurance, liability insurance, um let me look up the exact lines. I can't think of every line that's on there, but it's not all just what you think it is, you know. >> That's what I'm asking. Board salary all total is just shy of 11. >> Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know. >> Good, good, good point. Might want to point that. >> This is all board salaries >> total. All five of us. >> That's why they're all here. >> It's just shy of 11 grand. So I don't know what the other >> I'll read some of them off for you. >> Otherwise, I think I need to build the district office for my salary. >> Yeah. So, our New Hampshire School Board Association dues,
005>> which is what >> and that's about $5,000. >> Um, we have some minimal supplies. We have our liability insurance um which we have just shy of 77,000. Okay, that's >> you know what I and um we have a contracted service um which is at we budgeted 20,000 but we only spent7500 but I anticipate probably we'll be using some of that contracted service money um for what was the >> um new hires >> um superintendency >> oh okay so it would be a search firm >> thank you >> and legal come out of >> two what >> to legal services. >> Um those would also come out of >> those are 2315 right? >> Yes. >> So they're in that. >> Yep. They're in that also. >> Exactly. >> Yep. Um e annual meeting expenses
006I have 7,000 budgeted. Our audit 24,000. >> That's helpful. Thank you. >> Okay. Yeah. >> And what about 2320 besides salary and benefits? Um 2320. Um >> is it a friend Steve? He doesn't make that much either. >> No, no, no, no, no. Um it's the it's the >> it's the admin assistant. The superintendent admin assistant. >> Okay. >> And the superintendent. >> Got it. And just those two items, salaries and benefits. >> And any any direct expenses, office expenses for them. >> Okay. Um Patty. >> Yes. Yes. Oh. >> Um so curriculum coordination doesn't go away. How are you handling it? >> Good. >> I was going to ask that. >> Existing administrators, building principles, superintendent to some degree. >> Yeah. >> Director of student services. >> So why why did we get one
007to begin with if it could always be handled through the administration? What's the advantage or disadvantage of not having um a curriculum coordinator? Um this is my opinion maybe throw it open to the leadership team but to to talk as well you know that positions had various iterations over the years I I can I can speak to you know the period 2016 with a bit of a bit of a gap and then recently um recently the position was it didn't do a lot directly with curriculum it was mostly around instruction residency program uh TCTLF those those programs uh in the past when Mel did it she was I know focused a lot on assessments and testing and gathering data that I don't know Mel help me out here other things that you did back in
008the day when you were you were districtwide basically >> well yeah and curriculum like K6 I mean K12 curriculum alignment so looking at scope and sequence and um making sure there's not too much overlap or missing key skills as it goes up through the grades. So that we were having teams meet um horizontally like so in their grade levels but then also vertically with the grades above and below them and um it would lead to just good conversations. So say sixth grade teachers could have conversations with the seventh grade teachers and see what are the skills um that the seventh grade teachers would really like the students coming in with um maybe their sixth grade year um and then just um a lot of collaboration. So will that collaboration continue besides the collaboration between the
009administrators? Will more of the teams at each grade level be able to meet with the other teams other grade level? Well, I mean currently I can speak to that for lakeway and the answer is yes. So we have um we have three different committees which are vertical committees. So there's representation from every grade level as well as our um specialists, special education and title one teachers. And one of them is the vertical team, which kind of picks up where um where we had left off with the back when I was in the curriculum coordination position. Um looking at a different um content area each year. This year we're we're looking at science and and just kind of going back and and double-checking that that scope and sequence, sharing resources, sharing instructional methods. Um so and
010then we have weekly um grade level meetings. So they get to meet in that horizontal um format as well. >> Okay. So how does that connect with middle school and school? So who do I ask that question? >> So so middle school we have also have multiple teams and a regular basis 7 through 12. So department again. So how do sixth and seventh grade teams meet under this new arrangement? Do they do they meet? >> We like to look mostly around things like arts and math. >> Is it coordinated then? like this year we're going to focus on this area because I think over the years in my time as on the board and then as a as a member of the budget committee we've seen this uh position come in and go out come
011in go out and so I'm wondering you know why do we have the back and forth is it just an easy position to cut when we need to cut for funding So, and what I'll be missing if we don't have this position because unless the stores are doing really well on everything, I can see that we probably need more communication back and forth. I'm not saying that a person has to be hired for that, but if someone is not in that position to do it, um, someone needs to pick up the lead on that. So, I'm just questioning how that's going to happen. Yeah, I think and I think just three observations and nobody yell at me, but have John yell at me if somebody's going to yell at me. He likes to do that.
012One is is he ready? See, one one is I I don't think it's necessarily the fairest question. It's a good question to ask Steve to defend a previous superintendent's argument and articulation for a position that Steve didn't ask for and that Steve recommended the board and removed from the budget. Right? So like to ask him to go back and explain why Dr. Har wanted this position and what that meant and why he doesn't feel like he needs it is kind of like you know a difficult situation. And then to ask the admin team how the curriculum is going to be coordinated on a going forward basis for this budget when we know that both the superintendent and the principal of the high middle high school was are not going to be here. It's kind of
013a difficult question right because we have we have leadership gaps that have yet to be filled and identified. The third and you're free to use the time however you want. I'm just mindful of the clock. We have a lot of budget issues to get through before you have to go down the hall. And that's this is more of a curriculum question. >> We're not going down the hall. >> You're our priority. You're our priority tonight. >> We got the night off from the board. >> We choose to wander down afterwards. That's fine. >> So just so good to know. I didn't know that. Just to be clear, we structured a group coming in at six o'clock for us to go into non-public for. So we we were not aware that that was the plan. So
014we might have to use >> I will I will very briefly pointed out though one thing we've tried to be do is to spread some of this work out instead of calling it on the falling on like a curriculum coordinator or or instructional support or whatever with our teachers. We've uh we've revamped the teacher leader teams. There used to be TLFS and now TL2s and that that consists of a lead teacher for the grade level at Lakeway and up here at the middle school high school lead teachers for each of the content areas and putting a lot a lot of training and time and effort into uh supporting those people building their knowledge base and trying to get more people involved with that whole process. I I do think that the uh articulation between sixth
015and seventh is a is certainly a critical point to be brought up. Uh we probably need to shore up the uh certainty of that a little bit more. It's more certain than happen stance. Uh but I feel pretty comfortable with the structure going forward. You know, again, what I like about it is we've taken our very best best leaders and teachers that are willing to step up and do this work. And at the end of the day that will I I believe will create a more authentic and more um collaborative process than having one person what is worth around I put a timeline to this but I do believe that some some of discussion on this position was generated when we were looking at math scores in the elementary school that weren't transitioning to the
016same type of performance in middle school and why this position was supposed to get high enough. >> Yeah. Because there was a gap back then that in in the curriculum was was a serious issue at the time. So hopefully though by you know maybe the first year we'll be okay. But as you know push comes to shove in you know changes in in administration etc that we don't fall back to having gaps in the curriculum and and not um producing desired results that improved test scores and if you read the front page of the main union today that is all reinforced. >> John separate question but piggybacking on what Matt was asking. Um, thank you for these um detailed sheets that delineate each of the account numbers. And if I'm reading this correctly, the the
017total on the general administration's superintendent services is from our detailed page is 77,000. Now, this page does say no personnel. So, but that's leaving a un unaccounted for gap or at least from these pages of 300 plus. So, not in this meeting per se, but if we could get a detail of what that other 320,000 is for, that'd be really helpful. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Question. This is again, I'm not going to read this to you. You have the packet, but for your reference, you know, how to how to pre-druce uh price meals, the qualifications, and so on. Uh so there there's two one's income based the other is other other uh identifying factors that qualify students for free lunches. >> Speaking of free lunch punches, this is one category we lead
018we lead the north country in. >> Right on Littleton. >> Yeah. Onward. So, you know, and I I so I I think you know, you you'd ask for some of this. We're going to see some comparative data. We'll see the same group of schools here in a minute on math and ELA scores. So, we're up there a bit on free and reduced. Uh that's districtwide. This was the official count 2425, which is the October 1 count. Currently, we're a little higher than that as a district. Lakeway alone is pushing 64%. Um the thing that I I wanted to point out here though and I think I think to me the most important thing to take from this is the fact that uh we have virtually no or very few delinquent lunch counts and we've been
019very uh we certain individuals Kappler uh Jenny Baird up here Michelle's worked with us JC a lot of people uh work in this district work really hard to make sure that families and students that qualify do the paperwork, get it in, and so many of our kids who qualify for free lunches are getting them. So, that's a good thing. Otherwise, is in in the past, we'd often see an uptick in unpaid lunches. Uh, and that's actually, like I say, probably a historical note. Spent percentage you'll see there, um, you know, ranges from a high of 29 to a low of 13. uh free reduced lunch again a high of 57 down to a low of 26 and you'll see the state average highlight these these uh those you're on the cost of ed study committee
020or or read that report probably recognize a few of those school Hinsdale um Pittsfield and so on those were those were part of the cost of ed study committee that's why I put them in there schools >> Steve um so on the free and reduce that number one position. >> Has that has there been a trend towards that direction over a couple of years? >> Going up a little bit. >> Yeah. And was it probably I don't we misaligned the state average say five or six years ago? >> We were we were still pretty high. >> We were still high. Yeah, we were still I mean back in and I've got I've got historical data too but we we we were back few years ago we were still we were definitely running in the 40s
021upper 40s a little higher than that at the elementary school >> but we where we've really come up in numbers frankly is middle school high school much higher numbers there it's not because the kids all of a sudden had more poverty although could be some of that coming up through but I just think we've worked really hard to >> to get those applications >> yeah I don't think this is an accident. This was this was something effort to people >> people. Yep. And then uh uh test scores. This is the New Hampshire SAS. Same schools, same list of schools that we had before. Um left hand side ELA profile leading the pack and Lynwood and Cedar Average Gorm and Littleton. on the right hand side the same uh same uh same set of school a
022little different order but uh you know I'm I'm not I'm not I don't think anybody here is happy with 40% proficient in in math but it's it's relative if you look at the if you look at the bigger the bigger uh picture here math scores been going down for a long time uh as a country and most recent results on the NATE and some of the other you know large scale standardized tests isn't terribly encouraging somewhat more encouraging on the LA than than >> so are there discussions going on in the school system about how to improve this and I know there are but >> we have we have we have some PDS we had last year uh we are doing a lot more assessment uh we restructured some things to so that we uh
023doing more math interventions. Uh our title one teachers particularly I mean the two that do the math are also doing math uh professional development with the same out same group that our math teachers are doing. We've increasing we've increased staff a little bit in math as well. uh we held out we held on to a math position advertised a math position last year clear through and actually hired someone very late and he's been a help. So yeah end the day we have to just keep really working on getting the best qualified teachers we possibly can the classroom. That's I mean the end of the day that's what makes the biggest difference by far. One of the things that you and I discussed when we met last week was what about those students that can do
024better but aren't receiving the assistance. If we focus on interventions to bring the students that aren't doing as well, but what about the students that could do better? Because that's part of those scores, that profile score, that's part of it. >> Yeah. Although although the the students you're talking of you they're definitely pulling that average up but they could they could be so they're proficient if they're low proficient high proficient doesn't make any difference on this score they're just proficient but if you look at the raw score which you which you speak to that certainly would make a difference so I do I I do know this the curriculum is designed the high school to certainly reach those students you know get them to the to the point where if they're if they're wish they
025can you know, calculus is the senior upper level math courses, but I know that's not what you're talking about. Why don't we get them moving quicker sooner? >> John, excuse me. >> On this slide, it seems pertinent. Now, I understand that the leadership, you're leaving this year and um it's uh the new principal in the high school and middle school. Mr. Smith is leaving this is his last year. So, I guess I'll speak to the board on this one. I know you can measure um the success of the school system by one test, but I would be interested to hear what metrics um we do want to measure to see if what we're doing is working. Are we improving? Are we falling slipping back some? And I haven't asked for well I do remember asking
026this question earlier, but um for next year I feel like we need to have some kind of these are our metrics. If it's not measured, it's not managed. Right. So, I think um I'm going to be looking for that from I'm going to say the board next year or the next superintendent or whatever. We do we do again this another standardized test. So, for always good, bad or otherwise, but the Renaissance SAR 360. We do that. We do that, you know, systemwide all the way through 10th grade. uh in reading and math. So we do have a different measure and frankly our our performance is better on on that assessment than it is with the the SAS. The SAS is state assessments all you ever hear. >> Yeah. I think look I mean you want
027to have metrics that have comps both comps to other districts and comps to previous years of your own district so you can measure your progress both against your past performance and against your peer group. Right? So the these are the metrics as to um what the plan is to attack these metrics and help move them in a more positive direction. I would say there's three um drivers of that, not the three only drivers, but three significant drivers that are as of yet unsettled. One is the strategic plan for the district, which is currently under development and being considered. the this the second and the third are the vision and leadership and plan that would ultimately be put forward and then ratified by the board but put forward by the superintendent and principal. Keep in mind
028too that we are this is only our second meeting post accepting Steve's resignation and you know having started a a retirement I should say and haven't started a retirement and resignation and haven't started a search yet. So, a lot of this is a little bit uh new for us and but that don't don't take that to mean that um the board is content with these numbers because we're not but I don't think we're prepared to speak on how we attack this problem in a large part too because the board at least in its current composition at least as as long as I've been on it or most the years that I've been on it has felt strongly that um the board's you know, job is really to set and enforce policy and to supervise the
029superintendent and really to to leave the educational pieces of it to the professionals uh who are educated and trained in that space, right? Which which we're not. So, we're we're always mindful of that as well. >> Yeah. >> Trying to dictate what metrics are, but I'm leaving it to the professionals to say these are the metrics we should be measuring by. >> Yeah. Yeah. And if it's standardized test scores, then I'll be honest, next year every line item is going to be how does this get us to improve those metrics? How does this item get us to improve those metrics? >> Yeah. >> And that's going to be, you know, full disclosure. That's what it's going to look like for me next year. >> Yeah. I think the challenge go ahead. >> U just um
030do I recall last year on is that senior year by the way? Sy >> school year. Oh >> yeah. See, I need education. >> Don't worry. >> We need an acronym glossery at least. >> Um, do I I >> What was our What were our comparative scores to this last year? Remember >> I always think we've gone up in math. >> I don't I don't have I can look I can look at that real quick. >> Yeah, >> I'll get I'll get back to you like like tonight. I'll look at that here in a minute. That's a great question. >> Thank you. We don't look at I don't look at that so much as we do by grade level, but uh but I'll I can look that up. >> No, I think we were in
031the 30s. >> By the way, >> that's what I remember. >> By the way, the I report the I report that again that link and again you can get this document through the through the website. that that link that is a live link. It'll take you to the source of these uh of these uh this data and then average teacher salary. And and I'm not I put that up there not to say, "Oh my gosh, look at where we are. We're so far behind." First of all, this was this was last year. We put significant money into the salary schedule for this year. Some of these other schools are above us, I know, had have put some money into SK into the salary schedule, too. uh several I think had had negotiations ongoing. A lot
032of them uh that had negotiations going last year when we did were or below us this time. But this I guess is to thank from my perspective is to thank the budget committee, thank the board, thank the negotiators that the board that that worked so hard last last year to get a uh to get a strong uh competitive salary schedule through negotiations. and to thank the community for overwhelmingly uh improving uh the the teacher salary schedule because had we not done that last year we we would been moving more and more and more to the to the right. I suspect when this these numbers come out that will reflect this year we will move slightly to the left. 2024 we were at 11 for math and 49 for ELA if you're using the high school
033data. >> Say again. >> 11 for math and 49 for ELA. If you if I'm looking at the >> that was high school. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. This we saw last time. I just left it in there. Uh the comparative budget summary. You have you have Patty. I I went through it last time, but she has an update for you. >> I handed out an updated um you had asked about C, which is disposal services, and it had New Hampshire retirement information in there from last year. Um so I did update that and that is based on our current pricing with our disposal vendor. But I do know that Dale said two meetings ago that he was seeking um alternative services and pricing. So in case we don't get a different vendor, this
034would be worst case scenario, but I do know that Dale is working on that. And the other item was the propane. So, we had our propane boilers installed. The installation started in the win uh summer fall of 23. They actually weren't up and running until the winter of um 24. So we didn't have a we just based our bud budget in the past two budget cycles on what the contractor anticipated we would spend for gallons or use for gallons. So it really took us that length of time to come up with an actual annual usage of propane >> what our actual uses winner of 24. Winner of 23 24. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 23 24. >> So is that up or down from the estimate? Oh, way down. Yeah. So, that's what it just took
035us that long because our budgets are created so early that every time the last two years we didn't we didn't know, you know, we were just estimating it based on their estimates. So, but it's >> you're a show me kind of person, aren't you? >> Yes. >> You tell you're from Missouri. >> You have to know. So that's those were the two I believe those were the only two questions you guys had from this. >> We could come up with more. >> Oh, okay. That's why we're here, right? >> This is per not to be too smart. Thank you. Per per request from uh last meeting staffing ratios. This is not this not student teacher ratio. This is all staff uh ratio students and staff by building. So, and that's uh for 26 based on
0362627 projection in the budget projection. Okay. a five-year facilities plan. Um Diane asked that we talk about that just a little bit. >> The reason being that after we left um the meeting last time, you voted to offer a light way forward. And so I asked the question, what are your building um plans so to speak for maintenance on on the buildings like way? What's what's happening? What do you >> I think it largely follows from the process that Steve did with the with Alapas. >> All that documentation that we reviewed the last >> Okay. >> CIP will need to be >> But if you'd like us to reconsider bringing light over, we're happy to do that. >> I wish we could. >> Well, I'm trying to You just hit it there. >> Yeah, >>
037just punch it. >> That's right. This is actually fun. >> This is funky as a computer. I'm not used to one that fancy. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, man. Okay. >> Thanks. This is so much fun. No wonder. So, anyway, there's a there's the plan um broke out. We did this as part of the CIP process. How well you can you all can see that. I'm trying to How do I get to the bottom of the Anybody know? >> Can you hit the up arrow? >> You reached the limit of my comprehension. >> Oh, there you go. >> Okay, those those we just kind of yearbyear totals. Sorry, this isn't working real. Should have had hard copies of this. This is actually pretty important. >> You're going down, I think. >> Is the up arrow
038up top? >> Go up. See the >> No, go see up there. There you go. Oh, it just >> Well, let me We'll move on. I'll see if I can figure that out. >> On that laptop. >> Oh, you should be able to do it on this laptop >> or it's not. It doesn't. >> Oh, that laptop. That laptop. It's hooked up to that laptop. Never mind. >> That's our meeting. >> That's the laptop for the meet the tops floating around. Here we go. >> There we go. >> And they're by category. So, Lakeway Academy. >> So, just you just kind of kind of see year by year some of the biggest projects kind of by the building and so on. >> You see that? Okay. >> You know, I think if you go to
039the three little dots in the upper right hand corner, you can you can increase the zoom. Uh >> I don't touch. >> I do. >> There you go. >> There we go. Thank you, Matt. >> There's all right there. >> Now, we have to slide up a little bit. >> Well, yeah, but at least at least we can now see it. >> And it's showing all of Lakeway. You see how they're grouped together by building? >> So, in essence, I mean 2627 the big projects on the on the plan. um access to L roofs, gym floor and lighting for the stage and a replacement boiler at the academy. You'll see there's and this is where you next few years some hard decision have to be made about how we utilize that building. I think in
040the future how much it's used uh we know it's used a lot besides what we use for the town uses a lot. Uh but there's some expenses in there certainly. Um, and you got 2627 and some improvements at the playground at Lakeway and Tyler the bathroom renovations at the high school. How am I doing? You guys get anything out of this? So for 2627 what would be the total for the maintenance >> because that would >> 400,000 >> 400. So what we have thus far does not include the 400,000 for these projects. Correct. In the budget. >> No. >> Right. >> Okay. So you still have to add have add that. >> We're going to continue to >> with capital fun. >> Yeah. have articles. >> Some will come to the capital fund and some
041will come out if we have any >> unexpended fund balance. We usually take a little of that. We usually you often use unexpended fund balance for some of this. >> Okay. So on our next meeting which is in two weeks >> correct >> that's when we hear the final everything's final by that time our draft >> your drafts and everything okay >> and we'll know more about these projects >> and we can talk about that a little better and I'll actually have a doc sorry so well >> are there any other questions about this committee. >> Yes. You want to click it back. Whatever. >> Whatever you did, undo it, please. >> Thank you. >> Nicely done. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Hannah. about this >> the magic touch adds to calculation. Oh,
042wonderful. Another document to Okay, let's see if this will work any better. It's It's a little less uh spread out, so it might work a little bit better. >> And your tax rate is also updated because we've done the the estimate from the department of ed for adequacy aid and swept. I updated the tax rate sheet also that was attached to summary. >> So I I'll have have Patty walk you through this but again we often talk about this. What do we get from this part? What do we get from that part? So this year we try to break it out so you can see a little bit about what comes from the base, what comes from previews and so on. Um, so basically this breakdown, it's pretty self-explanatory, is a co a column for
043the estimation of and then what we're currently getting for 2526. And it goes down line by line of how this is calculated and the difference comparing this year to next year's estimate. The bottom line is it is they're estimating 28,000 plus of an increase for next year between adequacy aid and swept. So if you want to scroll down so you can see the free and reduced aid is up 10,000 that's pretty significant only two students but because the base aid has increased the bottom line will increase >> and we get we get $2,440 for every pretz student. So that's why that's a big deal >> getting them not getting them identified. >> That's a bonus put us on top of the normal student. >> Yeah. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. >> And it impacts um grant
044funding. Our entitlements our entitlements are based on >> portion of that is based on free and reduced numbers. So it's very important and I think the last four years we've worked really hard in improving our processes in collecting applications from families which in return in not only increases our numbers but increases our revenue because at the time now we're getting reimbursed um from the feds for every meal served. So >> if you remind me what the acronym SWAT is for I always >> statewide educational tax property tax. >> Okay. >> Isn't that based on what our valuation tax base valuation is >> and then the percentage of that? And so when our tax base grows are swept >> Mhm. >> And it is grows but it doesn't mean it comes back >> right and it's
045collected from your taxpayers you know. >> So it's line on >> it's a separate line that's collected from the taxpayers in their bill. >> Do you see any gaps in there that you think oh gez they're not covering this and we're a rural community and we should really be speaking to it. >> I mean, at this point, no. I mean, I think we all all agree that the base of adequacy aid in the state of the state of New Hampshire needs to increase. Um, but until they agree and vote on that and conquered, that will be a struggle based on what the cost of education is and what we receive. >> Yeah, it's laughable. like cost of an educa adequate education is $3,300. >> Yeah, might buy a few books for that. >> Yeah. >>
046Um so I mean as you can see the the the ups and downs is a lot more ups than downs. So that's that's a good thing. Um our enrollment for this year is staying steady um right now and our extra well the extraordinary needs. Can you go down to the home harmless list because >> um in extraordinary >> yeah so um here that um it it's on like a sliding scale of affordability is really what it's on. We don't get the 95% hold harmless anymore. Um because we're considered a rich town. Um and we can afford education basically is their definition of that. Um so we're not guaranteed we don't get this subsidy amount amount to keep us at 95%. We're fortunate that we're up, you know, our we're going up for next year. Um,
047but some districts aren't, you know, and so they're not guaranteed the 95% for next year. Some districts only budget the 95%. That's all they'll budget is the 95%. Um, they won't budget the whole 100% estimate. I always have, unless I thought there was going to be a significant difference for next year or we lose it. So our um our uh what do they call free and reduced lunches the ratio that we have of that we're still considered the community that can afford >> that's property >> property we're property rich and >> income poor yeah >> so >> in a nutshell >> yeah but it's nice to see that we're in the positive for an estimate going forward. >> You know, as long as none of these numbers drastically change like enrollment or free and reduced,
048but our free and reduced has steadily been increasing. We're we're getting those families that we hadn't in the past, which is good in many ways. Patty, how did you handle the um the possibility of students choosing some other school or other students coming in here? >> Is that is that hitting this coming budget or is that later? >> It could. >> Yeah, >> it could hit fiscal 27. >> Oh, choice. If choice >> enrollment Yeah. >> Yeah. I mean ascending school, you're responsible. you're you're getting your adacy% >> for your student you're responsible for. >> Yeah. >> So even if our ADM increases what students are we responsible for >> that's kids that come to us >> they're 80% of the of the >> well that's what the LA Yeah the last bill came through
049at 80% of their cost per pupil. Um, >> yeah. >> And and what kind of leakage do you expect from our school population for next year going elsewhere for high school? >> I don't have an answer to that. I don't have an answer to any of it because it hasn't passed. >> Yeah. Okay. >> You know, um I think we we all some of us lost some sleep last year um trying to anticipate, you know, and then it didn't happen. you know, they got a lot more wrinkles, I think, to iron out. Um, >> so for example, I think we have four students right now. We're paying for that go. >> I'll just say elsewhere, right? >> Right. That would be a resident that's an example of residents um being tuitioned out of district. Yes.
050>> Okay. >> Are those are they tuition to residency school or they stay over? >> No. No, no, no. They're just day schools. Day schools. Yes. >> And they just not like it's a special school. It's just somebody preferring to go somewhere else. >> Well, I mean I >> But anything like that has to be approved by the board. I mean, >> no, they don't have >> Oh, our policy says that. >> No, it does not. We went through this with I you were here two weeks ago with >> we went through this at some length with council and >> the new policy >> which has just been updated. Well, >> when it was a contemporary issue that consistent with RSA, if someone makes an appeal for manifest hardship that if someone applies for manifest
051hardship, that ruling per the RSA is only made by the superintendent. The superintendent informs the board, but the board has no right to overrule and the board only gets involved in the judiciary capacity if the person making the appeal for man making the declaration of manifest hardship appeals the superintendent's ruling. Then it goes to the board of education. They can also appeal the board's ruling to the state board. So, so I noticed that it was 200,000 and four students and so I'm assuming is it not to be 100,000 >> it's 100,000 for those four students that he's referring to directly then it's another 110 for special education tuition and I'm >> is there things that we could do to >> for less than 110,000 increase to make it so there's not a hardship And we
052could save by providing the services ourselves. >> Which one are you talking either or >> special education one? I we can't talk about the $100,000 one. I understand that's a sealed issue or whatever. But the special education services that went from 378 to 488 >> um for a fairly large jump, but I'm sure that's because we had to place students other places because of the um registered hardship or what. So >> yeah, special placements do not have anything to do with educational hardship. It has to do with the students disabilities and whether or not we can maintain them and educate them here and with our alternative program we are able to do that with the majority of the people but there are some that were not able to meet their needs here >> and I
053can't really say more than that specific disabilities but >> so those students through the IEP process have been faced but it's not an educational hardship two things >> I was mixing them incorrectly so thank you for the clarification Um, do we look, you know, I'm guessing that you look at it and say, "Boy, if we did this and this and we could accommodate these students and then we won't have to be sending them out of district." >> We do that for all of the students. Sometimes it's out of our control because if a student is placed by the courts through DCYF and they receive special education services, we have no control over that. they if they're residentially placed, we're responsible for the educational costs. So if it's a school placement, yes, we very much look
054at can we are there other things that we can do because we always look at the least restrictive environment which is the public school. >> So on these four four students, so about 25,000 bucks a piece. >> Yeah, that's a deal. I know it's a sealed issue. Just have so many questions. >> All right, leave me. I have just as many. >> That's it. That's all the slides I have. >> I think Patty was going to talk about the career and technical uh revenues and how we get reimbured from the state on that. Do you remember that from the >> I do and I didn't write that one down. I'm sorry. >> And my computer just died. >> Yeah. Can we have that next time? And then the unexpended funds, the capital reserve funds. Do
055we have that's on the agenda? So, >> you want to just talk about balances? I mean, is that what we're what do we talk about for capital reserves? >> I I I think that was just balances. You can send that to us. >> Yeah, the capital reserve balances are all on the bottom of this. I update them every month until we go to um deliberative. So the district equipment account is 72,000, facilities is 219, CTE is 323, special education is 244, the lakeway is 202, and those are as of October. I have a separate question based on the summary that I was just reviewing practically. the um so the total increase is $499,000 and change and if I were to zero in on the $110,000 um increase because of the special education that we can't
056apparently do much about. >> Okay. >> And um then the the health insurance increase 400,000 at the top. That's and then everything else is some is up, some is down, and as you go down, >> right? >> There's there was that article in the paper that the school is going to have to take a $400,000 hit where other schools had to take, you know, like Conquered had a $2 million hit on the >> um insurance. >> Insurance. Yeah. >> Is that the 400,000 or is there another $400,000? >> No, we already paid for that. We paid for that out of last year's budget. >> It's already been accounted for. >> Okay. every Yeah. >> So, yes, the bad news is that 400,000 is addition to the 38 $383,000 check we had to write. >> Is
057that's because what the new rates are? >> No, that is because our claims were higher than our actual premiums. >> No, no, the the new $400 >> Oh, the four Yeah, that's on here. Yes. does reflect the rate increases and plan changes that staffing have >> moving forward. >> Yeah, >> it's adjusting for the threeall last year that we caught up on and it's a more realistic figure for the upcoming year. >> This is just based on our new rates for July one. >> Yeah. >> Which have been adjusted to reflect past performance that wasn't included in past rates. >> Right. adjusted. >> So, the 499,000 increase and then um we may have some more articles and talk with that for um building projects and we may have it you're going to um provide that
058information at the next meeting on how that's going to be covered. >> Yes, >> but there could be another one >> and I antic anticipate them being fund balanced. So, there'd be no tax on that. Steve, you mentioned I the last meeting that coincidentally with newspaper article on the insurance situation that you had gotten a mailer or something about somebody offering you new insurance structure and you were taking them up on it. >> We're waiting to hear. Yeah. From the broker. >> Yeah. We met, Patty and I met that was six weeks ago probably. >> And you're saying now that you're actually serious with about entertaining that? >> Yes. >> They're Yeah, they're >> Yeah, we're just another source of they reach out to carriers and design plans and things like that. So, yeah, we're
059just crossing our tees, dotting our eyes. But then the challenge is that whatever they present is a different structure and how that gets made to the employee contract. >> We have to see what we get. Yeah. >> Yeah. We have to >> our claims are our claims, you know, and that's no one no carrier is going to take us on and charge us a lower premium than what our claims history has been. So, I mean, we'll see. But was it our claim system that drove it or was our group's claim system that drove it? >> Our own every single group's premium are different. So I could got a 16% increase and then another district next door got a 34.6. >> Okay. So the you know they didn't explain that well in the newspaper. It wasn't
060like it was equally equally distributed among the students like Moner get $2 million and get 2.1 million. >> Okay. It wasn't just that that represented their percentage of teachers. >> No, it was based on our >> on their per So across the board everybody's performance was poor. >> Yeah, pretty much. Not everybody. Not not everybody, but >> there some school districts that didn't get an increase. I think there were some that were rather low. >> Rather low. >> And not just low based on employees, low based on >> So Mary, did you have a question? >> I do. And it's not a five minute question or a two-minute question. It's a rather big question. Obviously at a time of transition when uh one is losing a superintendent and one is reviewing the costs of the
061uh the office of the superintendent one is reminded of the fact that as they use were originally created to spread the administrative costs over multiple school districts. uh obviously the pendulum is swinging over to everybody is now their own little SAU and they have to have the full structure and overhead of of larger SAU because that they've decided to be their own little SAU. Um is there any thought being given on this part of the board to Oh, I haven't read the paper. I'm sorry. >> It's not about them. It's about >> Oh, no, no, no. But is there has has the board given any thought to trying to merge again with >> district? We met with um with the well let me be specific with the board's blessing. I met with uh the executive
062board of district 35 uh to talk to them about the possibilities both of pursuing consolidation but also uh as a as a precursor to consolidation, pursuing um sharing administrative services. Uh perhaps not just limited to the superintendent, but that was the focal point of the conversation. Um this was maybe four or five weeks ago. I was able to go in and have that conversation uh with them. Um and at the time uh the feedback from them after a good robust discussion was hey um it's an interesting idea that we would like to remain open to but at this time we don't think it is the right thing to pursue. That was their feedback to us. Um, we also, and I've yet to have the opportunity to even brief the board on this, but in the
063interest of remaining open to those possibilities, there's been a couple of more conversations with 35 and perhaps an emerging conversation with 36. There's also potentially the um option of talking some to Lisbon who's in the process of spinning off from 35. So, I can confidently say the board is very open to creative solutions. Um, you know, candidly, while the board is open to consolidation, consolidation is the most complicated and longest path, right? Um, and so it's it's not that one is is not like that anytime soon because there's a number of electoral and legal hurdles to get over there. But yeah, we've been talking um a lot about consolidation um about sharing services. But two things to keep in mind. one, we've not made any commitments because it all depends on the particular number one.
064Number two, it takes at least two to tango, right? So, we can want to do it all we want, right? But if nobody else wants to do it as well, there's there's there's not a whole lot that that we can do. And as I think I shared in the last discussion with you all, I want to underscore for you know members of the public or whoever that will watch this later, keep in mind that I think the the potential consolidation of school districts or even the potential of contracting for shared administrative services, superintendent, VA, whatever they may be. While there's almost certainly some nominal cost savings that emerge from that effort, it's not in the grand scheme of a 17ish million dollar budget, uh it in my view, it shouldn't be viewed as the primary
065driver of doing that. I think there are other things that are advantageous. It matters, right? It's not that it's it's immaterial, but there are other things I think are more relevant. I'll name two. One would be the ability to continue to attract and retain the right professional staff that you need to run a district in this competitive and rural environment. The other is the ability to have closer collaboration among districts for curriculum and instruction, right? are taking advantage of if if one high school is a really strong AP program and another high school is a really strong career technical program just to throw out a to hypothetical situation there's there's possibly a good a good path for cross pollination there. So there's a lot of things to consider. Uh we're super open to it. We
066we're having a lot more discussions about it uh including one tonight I'm sure. Um so yeah, good question. Yeah, you know, as you say, the devil's in the details. >> For sure. Sure. Um there's a pretty um pretty u significant article today in Manchester Union on consolidation of school districts. You might want to take a look at that. It's talking about consolidating across the state 12 school districts. >> Is it a report on the Is it a article on the report? >> It's about the county. The county. Yeah. >> We'll take hold. Yeah, that report came out. I've not seen the article, John. That report came out. Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah, that report came out a couple of weeks ago. Um, and we've talked about it some Steve circulated it to us uh in
067between this meeting and last and it was a source of some of the conversation when I went into the e port of 35 as well because it had just been released. >> I think it's born out of potential legislation as well, >> right? Yeah. They want to take the findings of that committee and they want to legislate them. So that leads me to the quarterly meeting which is the last thing on the agenda for today >> but the first thing in our hearts >> I know how much you love it. >> Yeah. So I had sent you an email um you had sent me an email after >> Yes. last meeting and I responded to you and saying that I had heard some frustration in your um comments about um things that are happening in
068the school system via you know uh conquered and um when I first thought started thinking about the quarterly meetings, one of the things I thought was an advantage was to um colle to talk with our elected officials um because when I was on the school board. It felt like we all had to drive down to conquer. Well, we don't have to drive down to conquer anymore. We have Zoom and we we have the capabilities of talking to anybody in on the state level if we so choose. And we also have our local um representatives and our senator. So, I would really like to see uh because the January meeting um you know, we've gone through the budget and everything, I was hoping that the school board would consider pulling together some of their thoughts of
069what they would like to talk to the um to our senator and our representatives, give them your thoughts on open enrollment or collaboration between the the school districts and things like that to have a a deeper discussion because I have been leaning it for a while and trying to figure out how to to get the conversations going. But I would really appreciate that if you would take that into consideration, pull some of your thoughts together um so we could have a deeper discussion with those officials that we elect and to be able to provide them with some of those um topics uh of discussion uh so they can prepare for it and they can also be um have a deeper discussion and a better response to what we are inquiring about. I would um I
070I'm going to put dad on the block here that um he would work with you in order to pull the the meeting together in January because I think it's really important. We are in a downtime on planning budget. Um but this is the time basically really to do it. um give their thoughts, get them rolling in the right direction because you are our representatives to them. You are our local um voices to them on what needs to be done in the school system or for our educational systems. We're not. You guys are. And so I would really appreciate it if you would take the time and the consideration to hold some of those topic areas so we can have a deeper discussion at the board of the meeting. >> Yeah, we can do that and
071we we will talk about it as a board. I will say just from my perspective, Dan, there are four things that jump out immediately, right? uh funding for building a projects or building a in general coming out on the length discussion. I for me is an obvious one. Second obvious one in that vein is the process by which county expenditures get imposed on taxpayers. not directly related to educational funding, but it it matters to us because of the way it factor into our decisions around how to proceed or not the way vote. Two others, again, we'll talk about it, but RSA 1933, that's the one on best interest. um the one that we didn't talk about 1933 section one in particular section two deals with if they appeal to boards section three deals with the
072appeal to state board it's a horrendous law that is in desperate need of changing uh and then the the um fourth area would be I think it's worth having discussion on the proposed um consolidation plan that was chronically I believe in the day of it um that some of them might want to legislate. We have not discussed it as a board. We will need to do that. I will add my own editorial comment, but I think it is atrocious and insane. Um and I think that it's worth having a conversation with uh the representatives about that because ostensibly they'll be asked to vote on it at some point. So, those are four topics, but those aren't four topics from the board. That's just my opinion. I'm sure the board agreed at least two of those,
073but we'll talk through and share that with you. >> Look upon this as an opportunity to educate them because, you know, there are elected representatives, but they certainly don't know everything about everything. Each one of them goes into the position with a little knowledge area that they know a lot about and maybe a few preferences, preconceived notions, prejudices about certain things. Uh, and then they have a whole lot of legislation to consider, a lot of which they don't really know anything about. So, of course, >> you can educate them about the school needs. >> I would appreciate that. So, >> well, we've already got four. It's a good start. >> But, you can discuss it. >> And Steve, could you um pull it all together and let Dan know what the topic areas are? And
074like to be able to invite those um elected officials as soon as possible so they can put it on their calendar. >> So speaking of things to discuss, we obviously have bunch of stuff that we haven't discussed. So our plan was to no disrespect to the budget committee, we did not know that that was miscommunicated. I apologize, but we're um needing to enter into a nonpublic session to discuss a couple things with some members of our team. So um >> I'll go down the hall and look to spend money. Yes. Down the hall if you want to go to the sewer uh meeting. >> Yes. Hopefully the flushes work. >> Earlier I found it. >> Thank you. >> Oh, okay. We appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. >> Good luck at the uh at
075the sewer meeting. >> We'll try to keep our minds out of the gutter. No, we're we're in public. We're going to need to second. I'm just waiting for the noise to come down. You sent me an email. You said >> I did. Thank you all. >> You're welcome. >> See you in two weeks. >> Thanks. >> Appreciate that. Okay. So, uh, what we're going to now look to do is we're going to look for a properly worded motion to enter into non-public taking with us >> the admin team Steve and Dus. >> Darn. >> You guys can go get dinner. I was hoping you were going to do it. >> No, we we're we'll do another one at the end. >> Oh, okay. >> Sorry. So, it's um what section? >> Let's see. Uh >>
076Two. Really? It's two. Just two. >> Okay. >> All right. Mr. >> I am making a motion to enter into a non-public session under paragraph 2 section 3 of RSA 91A column 3 of the right to know law for two the hiring of any person as a public employee will be taking with us all administrative team members except for the superintendent the high school principal and the Dale and our admin assistant taking with us Michelle Crystal, Kelly, Mel, Melissa, Patty. >> Is that right? >> Somebody made that motion. Somebody second that motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor? Roll call. Vote, please. >> Belgenda Cook. >> Travis. Motion carries 5. For now, it's on public. Are you sticking around to come back or you >> want me to? >> Hold on. We got >>
077um uh Well, yeah. I think I think it would be good. >> I will >> I'll just text you. Yeah, >> cuz I don't know.