001Welcome to the meeting of the Londereary School Board to be held on Tuesday, May 19th, 2026 at 7 p.m. in the cafe at Londereary High School, 295 Mammoth Road, Londereerry, New Hampshire. The meeting will also be broadcast on local cable access channel 8 as well as the district YouTube channel. Could we please rise for the pledge of allegiance, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Jump right into our consent agenda. We have a couple of retirements. Uh first one is Barbara Bailey. Barbara Bailey has worked for the London School District as a special education assistant for 25 years at Moose Hill School. She has been an integral
002member of the Friends team and instrumental in the growth and success of her students. Barbara has been essential in providing educational support to help her students reach their academic, social, and emotional goals. Whether helping them to learn new skills or fostering independence, Barbara intuitively understands her students needs and how to best guide them, she quickly identifies how to help her students succeed, meeting them where they are and guiding them to grow to their fullest potential. Barbara is always willing to jump in whenever and wherever help is needed. She is very dependable and flexible, quickly meeting the needs of all the students she works with. Her wonderful sense of humor not only fosters the camaraderie and positive working relationships within the friends team, but also helps to diffuse tense situations. She has been an invaluable member
003of the friends team, leaving behind a legacy of kindness and dedication. Barbara's commitment to her students and her presence in our halls have left a lasting impression on the Moose Hill community. As she begins this well-deserved next chapter, we send our warmest wishes for a retirement filled with joy, relaxation, and new adventures. She will be greatly missed, but her impact will forever remain a cherished part of school. >> Thank you, Kent. And next up, uh, Beatric Winer. For 31 years, Beatatric Winer has been an essential and deeply valued member of North Elementary School community, leaving a lasting impact on student, staff, and families alike. She began her career serving in the kitchen, where her warm presence and strong work ethic were immediately evident, while also taking time to support students in the classroom whenever needed.
004Over the years, Beatatric's dedication and passion for helping children lead her to transition into a full-time special education assistant role where she provided support to hundreds of students. Throughout her career, she has been known as someone who is consistently dependable, highly dedicated, and always guided by what is best for students. Her commitment to the school never wavered, and she approached every task, large or small, with care and pride. You could always find Beatatrice on the move, assisting a student, helping a colleague, or stepping in wherever she was needed. She simply never stood still when there was work to be done or someone to help. Her strong work ethic and quiet leadership have set a powerful example for those around her. Beatatric presence will be truly missed at North Elementary, and while her daily contributions will
005not be easily replaced, her legacy will continue to be felt throughout the school. We extend our heartfelt gratitude for her many years of service and wish her nothing but the very best along with happiness and fulfillment in all her future endeavors. Thank you, sir. Um, moving down to 3.4, for upcoming uh meetings on May 28th, 2026 will be adult ed graduation right across the parking lot in the gym at 6:00 p.m. Um and then I wanted to talk on the June 2nd um regular it's supposed to be a regular schoolboard meeting up in the library looking at the agenda. Uh, I was curious if the board would like to forego that meeting with all the um high school graduation, senior rec recognition, middle school celebrations, uh, talking with the superintendent, uh, the agenda is pretty
006light at this time. Uh, so if you guys would like to forego that meeting because of all the other events, I'd be we'd be able to do that if you guys are in consensus with that. >> Yeah, that sounds good. >> That sounds good. It's a busy time of year. >> I can do that. Okay. >> All right. So, uh, June 2nd will, um, be deleted through that. So June 10th, 2026 will be senior recognition up at the Capitol Center at 7 p.m. On June 12th, 2026, graduation will take place at SNHU at 7:00 p.m. And then on June 23rd, we will reconvene at 20 uh 2026 for a regular school board meeting upstairs in the library at 7 p.m. Uh could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda, please? >> So moved.
007>> Motion by Amanda. >> Second by Sarah. All those in favor? >> I 50. Thank you. >> Jump into 4.1 student representatives. >> Hey Caleb, how are you? >> I'm good. How are you? >> Good. >> Um so for student council, we are hosting a what we're calling senior recess tomorrow during FNG periods. Um it's the senior class's reward for winning the class cup, which was granted to the most spirited class. Um we're going to have yard games. We have two food trucks coming in. One of them being a Ben & Jerry's truck, which hopefully with the heat will be really nice. Um, and it's just a time for them to enjoy the end of the year and enjoy some nice time off. So, we're looking forward to that tomorrow. Um, this Thursday are our
008inductions here in the calf. I believe they're at 6 or they might be at 7:00. I don't know exactly. And then next Friday is our state house field trip for the statewide student council conference. Great. >> So, that is a huge thing for us and we're super excited for that. >> Awesome. >> Um, one final thing is that over the summer we've been given the opportunity to go to the nationwide vision conference for student councils around the nation. It's being hosted at Pinkerton this year. Um, so we've taken this opportunity to uh myself, Lexi, and a couple other people. We're going to go there. It's from June 22nd to June 24th. And we're excited to meet people from across the nation and how their student councils function. So, we're excited for that. >> Awesome. Awesome.
009Caleb, um I'm sorry Lexi isn't here tonight, but the uh the board have got you and Lexi a card and that for your dedication to the school board. >> You guys have both done a great job and putting in the time here uh at many meetings and updating the board on a lot of the events here at the high school and through the district. So, we'd like to the board like to present you with these and if you could get Lexi Hurst, that would be great. Of course. >> Thank you. Great job. >> All right, I will jump into schoolboard leaison. Sarah. >> Yep. We have some upcoming dates for the middle school to be aware about. So for eighth graders, a lot of events coming up. Um June 2nd, we have Lancer step up
010day at the high school. June 8th is the eighth grade field day. We have June 9th Canopy field trip. The 10th is eighth grade dance and the 11th is the promotion ceremony at the high school at 12:30. This will also be the last day of school for eighth graders. The last day of school for everyone else is the 15th. The PTO is still looking for help for the dance and the field day. So, if you're willing to reach out um help out, please reach out to the PTO. Uh the high school, just a couple upcoming dates. Um, drama club is presenting spring theater night at the London Middle School. This will be on May 26th and it's $10 a ticket. Um, tomorrow is the National Honor Society induction ceremony. Uh, Thursday we have the class
011officer inductions. Um, on May 27th, uh, we have the high school music awards and on the 28th is the adult ed graduation. >> Thank you, Amanda. >> I don't have anything. Okay. >> Okay. >> All right. I've got some for Matthew Thornton here. Um, so following their extremely successful booster thawn, they've been already implementing uh the funds to install the different items that they were raising the money for. Um, in time for the heatwave, they put in new chill zones that are already being enjoyed upstairs by the fourth and fifth graders. Um, they have their last school store fundraiser during the lunches next week. And then they have their fifth grade funday scheduled for Friday, June 5th and followed by the following Tuesday on June 9th is field day. >> Thank you, Tim. Kevin, anything?
012>> Uh, only one quick note that um planning is underway for the fifth grade um field day and funday events. Um and your book and all that is wrapping up there. Uh than that, no new no new updates. >> Awesome. And I got one quick one for Cell School. Uh the Hawks Walk for Inclusion and Spring Picnic upcoming May 29th and that is from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. out at the uh cell school playground. Hoping for good weather. Uh last year kind of played havoc on it, but hoping for a nice day. Um with that, we'll finish up our leaison and we'll jump into announcements and presentations in 5.1. We've got an exciting group and team here uh to present from the LHS robotics team uh Brendan Mloud and students. Welcome. >> Hi everyone. My
013name is Brendan. I am the lead coach for the Linder High School competitive robotics team. Uh this is our 24th season competing as a team. Um we are comprised of about 25 to 30 students from uh Lender High School. Um we competed in this year's challenging this year's challenging this year's challenge. Um placing in the top 6% of teams worldwide. Uh we competed all the way up to the World Championships where we were eliminated as semi-finalists. Um this season we won our UNH division competition along with a team from um Manchester High School as well. Um we are here to talk a little bit about uh who we are as a team and demonstrate our robot to you guys. So I'll pass it off to some of the students who will talk about their time
014on the team. >> Awesome. >> Uh hello. I am Parker Gerard. I am the team captain of the team. This is my fourth and final year as a student on the team. Um, and yeah, >> I'm Jacob Dogren. Uh, this is my fifth and final uh year year on the team. Uh, cuz I started doing this in middle school, but yeah, we really enjoyed making this robot. We all had a lot of fun. There are members you don't see here tonight, but you know us, we all had a lot of fun doing this. I just want to say that. Awesome. >> Yeah. I'm Ben Simpson. I'm also a graduating senior. I'm the lead programmer on the team. Uh taken uh I took over as lead programmer in my junior year and yeah, it's first has
015been very first and this team has been very influential on my life. I've committed to Purdue recently for computer science because of this team. Uh yeah, I've met all of my friends here. It's been incredibly influential. >> Awesome. >> Um, my name is Orion Hartman. I'm I'm a sophomore. This is my second year on the team. Uh, my main position here is I'm on drive team. So, I'm the person who's responsible for driving the robot. Uh, this is, you know, like in terms of like being on the team, it's a very, you know, cool experience to be on. It's great that like Led Area as a town is able to support and have this STEM community. And it's great that we're able to do this every year, but uh like the effects that the STEM
016has had on me, I mean, I'm a sophomore, so like in reality, like, you know, like hasn't really affected me in like my careers, but like in the way my work ethic and things and what I'm interested in school is really influenced by this and vice versa. But it's great. This uh this team is a great way to like, you know, grow as a person and have a good circle of like-minded peers. >> Awesome. My name is Brendan Sage and I'm a junior and this is my fourth year on the team. Um, and you know, I have a bit more to say than most them. Um, because I do I did a lot of stuff that isn't represented here. Um, I worked with Ben on programming, but he's a lead programmer, so you know, you'll
017see more of that and it's more of his stuff. Um, what I worked on was helping the other teams at our competitions because our team, like you heard before, right, placing in the top 6% this year. We've had relatively very uh successful seasons, you know, for a long time. Um, and that means we have more resources that we can offer to other teams who are newer or don't have as many people or don't have as many like or as much experience as we do. And so what I did this year was I made um a a web app that our team collectively worked to use to share with other teams uh the data that we got uh with all of them so that they could have better match strategy and you know perform to their
018fullest potential at the events because you know at first we're all about um helping each other do the best and you know that's been a super important part of my life and it's something that I really uh appreciate about this team their dedication to helping as many other teams as we can. Awesome. >> Here we go. >> All right. Um, we're about to show you a demo of our robot in action. Um, this is our robot for this year's game just for reference. Uh, every single year it is a completely different task that we must complete. If we brought this robot to any other year, it'd be essentially useless as it's completely different game pieces and completely different elements in which we score. Um, so we work from January to March uh getting this robot
019ready. We spend those three months building it and from March to uh midappril we are competing as well as still meeting on upgrading our robot. Um, actually this year we built four different robots. Uh, this is the fourth and final iteration from our actual season. Uh, are you ready to run it? >> Um, the task from this year was pretty simple. Um, the main idea of the game is that to pick up as many balls as you want. Um, each ball scored inside of that thing, which is called a hub, is worth one point to the game. >> Um, yeah. So, uh, in case you didn't notice, we lined up to that hub pretty quickly. We use, uh, those, they're called April tags. They're essentially big QR codes that are posted inside the hub, and
020we have four separate cameras that are placed onto the robot. Our lead programmer, Ben, uh, worked on getting an auto score feature working. So, this robot automatically aims itself and adjusts its speed and hood angle to make it so we always are aligned to the hub and make it from any distance on the field. One of the things that's most impressive about this program is uh I'm a I'm a senior hardware engineer for Amazon Robotics. So, I do this all day every day as my job. Um, and as these programs get more and more complicated, uh, the the skills that these kids are learning are not only representative of what they would do in engineering. Um, very direct translation. Like some of these April tags, I took April tags from work. We're using the sort
021same exact algorithms, the same hardware that we're using in industry. These kids are getting that at the high school level. Um, as someone who does a lot of hiring for my job, when I see first on the resume, it's an instant like notice that these are students that know how to get stuff done. They're not just learning it in the classroom, but they're actually applying it. Um, and then they know how to take those skills and transfer them into the job market or wherever they want to see themselves in the future. >> Sorry. >> Um, so we wanted to thank the school board. Uh, you guys provide us our registration fees each year. Um, this year we made it all the way to the World Championships, which brings along with it around $15,000 worth of
022registration. Um, on top of that, we are, uh, privately sponsored through a couple corporate sponsorships within Southern New Hampshire area and the Department of Education. Um, we operate off an annual budget of around $49,000 each year. Um, and with our partnership with the Londonerary Foundation for STEM Education, which is our 501c3 booster club, um, we've been able to maintain that, uh, for the last five or six years. >> Awesome. >> Thanks, EVERYONE. >> BRENDAN, thank you for uh, coaching these these young me young students and their for future in their career, and that's quite quite an accomplishment. >> Yeah, we're Thank you. We're we're very fortunate to have around nine mentors on the team. Um some of them are standing over there. Our backgrounds range from software engineering to program management. Um we've we have
023alumni who are doing infographics for the CIA. We have people doing code breaking. Um our alumni and our mentor and fortunately most of our mentors now are actually alumni from this team. So, I was class of 2011. Matt was class of 2012. Um, Brian was class of 2011 as well. And there's there's about five or six more of us that have been graduated from Lender High School and now come back to support the team. >> Outstanding. Outstanding. Could we get possibly a picture um absolutely of these uh folks and that and the robot maybe? >> Do you want do you guys want to go over there? Be easier. Yeah, pretty cool. >> Crazy. All right. Everybody look at me and say robot. >> Robot. >> Awesome job. >> I just threw one away. >> I
024have the vanilla box. >> Oh my god. Really? Awesome. It's all It's a bucket. >> Seriously? >> Yeah. It's awesome. Such a tiny. >> Oh my god. It's very cool. >> Can I also for >> I give you a little shout out too. >> So they >> Yeah, cuz they have >> correct. They program like the different chapters each year. >> You'll stick around. >> I don't know what else to do. >> All right. >> I'll stay. >> All right. >> If if you want to come up right at right at the end there on that for hours. >> Thanks, guys. Smells And Jason's going to be your >> Y up there. >> Wow. They they packed up >> efficiently. That was quick. >> They come in and they're gone. Not their first. >> It's
025like nothing ever happened. >> All right. Well, after all that excitement and thank you again to the robotics team. Uh, congratulations. Um, we'll continue on with our announcements and presentations. Uh, 5.2 be dining service report from Crystal. Welcome, Crystal. >> Good evening. How are you guys today? >> Good. Great. Thanks. >> Um, all right. So, our talking points for today are going to be our financials, the revenue plans for SY 2728, our negative student debt, feed it forward, commodity changes, and government reimbursements, meal pricing for FY2728 and then incorporating kindergarten. Next slide, please. Um so our financial overview, the department will end the year in a negative. Um while this was anticipated, there were unexpected factors. Um pricing across all areas has seen fluctuations throughout the year due to tariffs, bid adjustments, and supply chain
026and vendor issues. Along with normal yearly fluctuations, the current political unrest has impacted our vendors and we have seen a 35% fuel charge added to our orders. Um, while the above topics are out of our control, I have monitored each school's expenses and revenues. I've cut down food waste and I've identified areas for improvement. So I will use this data and improve each kitchen's financial responsibility with the goal of increasing participation and alocart sales. Next slide. Um revenue plans for SY 2728. Um dining's main revenue generator is alocart sales. While snacks need to meet smart snack requirements, I do continually bring in new items to test. My goal is to find a balance surrounding compliance and student enjoyment. Part of this reestablishing part of this is reestablishing our partnership with Annie's frozen yogurt. Items have
027already been ordered for next year and the staff will train in August, ensuring students have access to the frozen treats come September. Um, another factor that affects our alocart sales um is lunch times. To combat this, we will leave the snack room open throughout the day at the high school. Additionally, changes to the high school lunch schedule will allow us to dedicate more time to the vending machines. Um, while we are ending this year in a negative, the above plan hopefully will offset those costs. Next slide. uh negative student debt. As of um 5526, our negative debt was $63,725.85. I do just want to make a quick note that this same time last year, um it was actually less by about $2,500. Um so, how are we reaching out and collecting debts? Food service shares
028the district-wide spreadsheets with all of the schools. Monthly phone calls are made from food service. Um, twice weekly emails go out from link. Negative balance letters are still sent out through the United States Post Office and we set up payment plans uh with the VA, the admins, and myself. Um, as always, I would like to assure families that eligibility status is not listed on any documents that are shared. And in addition to the above, we do continue to enforce our policies of not selling alocart items when accounts are negative along with the repercussions that the district office has set concerning extracurricular activities. Next slide. Our feed it forward balances. Um the feed it forward program has done much better than I anticipated. The numbers above are the current balances for each location. Um, and I
029would like to remind families that the feed iteward funds will be utilized at the end of the year to help pay negative balances at the schools where those funds are. And those decisions are made by the district office to ensure to ensure fairness. Um, and on top of that, I would like to thank the families that have donated lingering funds from students who were no longer with the district along with donors we had throughout the year that would like to stay anonymous. Next slide. Um, one of the massive changes going into SY 2728 is that we saw a decrease of $15,000 in commodity funds. Um, so I have already looked over all of the available commodities for the next school year and shifted planning to account for the loss in funds. By focusing on available
030fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy and meats, um I will get the most out of the remaining commodity funds. Um and while the state has not send sent any information concerning free and reduced reimbursement rates, it is safe to assume that no substantial increases will be coming for SY 2728. Next slide. Um the above prices are the current and proposed prices for SY 2728. Um due to cuts to commodity funding and increased pricing surrounding food, paper products, and gas search charges, the department is looking to increase meal prices for the upcoming school year. After completing the paid lunch equity tool, the recommended price increase was 35 cents. However, my goal is not to burden families with substantial increases. So, I am requesting a 20 cent increase across all grade levels and a 25 cent increase for
031teacher meals. The goal of this increase is to help with vendor fluctuations while providing a small bump to revenue. Next slide, please. Um, and finally, incorporating kindergarten and our Moose Hill meals. Um, we will continue to run the meal program at Moose Hill for our preK students um for any of the families that wish to participate. Currently, elementary menus are being adjusted to align with kindergarten requirements and um all of my elementary staff will be trained in August concerning safety practices that only part that only pertain to kindergarten students. Next slide. And then any questions? Thank you, Crystal. Any questions for Crystal? >> So, the negative student balance, it sits at 63,700 or so. >> Yes. >> Is that carried over year to year or is that start basically at zero in the fall and
032that's what it is built up to at this point? >> Uh, no. The negative balance carries over. Okay. Each year, yes. So you said last year at this point we So essentially have we just built up $2,500 more debt than this time last year? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> No worries. >> Pretty good. >> I noticed um it's it's kind of headline news that a lot of districts are dealing with this in different ways. So I'm sure you folks talk with one another. we do >> through that and I'm sure AMD's had conversations with um business administrators too and try to team up and do what you can and ideas passed along. So it just seems to be getting to be a chronic problem throughout the state and that. So
033I don't know what we can do more than what you're doing already. Um I think we've put every application that we can legally and and that without doing much more. So, keep up the good work and hopefully, you know, some more will come in the door here and get the balance down. So, thank you for your efforts. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Yeah, you. No problem. >> Everybody good? >> Mhm. >> All right. Thank you for the update. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate you coming. >> And we'll jump into 5.3 bus presentation. Miss Small. Yeah, this is just a quick um check-in from where we are with the two-tier bus implementation and then there's been some questions just about kindergarten being integrated in with the schools. Um so just as a little background,
034last year at this time we combined the LHS and LMS bus routes for 2526. Um we've had very few issues with the change. There's no significant change with any of the bus conduct issues. I spoke to um both middle school and the high school and they said it's about the same and sometimes it's a middle school to a high school kid and sometimes it's a high school to a middle school but it it's only if they like have been if they're close to where the the seating chart changes. So with um some seat adjustments they've been fine. Um and there's there's no big change. We are looking um just um some of the buses get to the middle school very early. Um, so our priority this summer is to work through that with William. Um,
035and just to make sure that there's less of a gap of how much time that the buses are are at the middle school. But overall, it was a success. I'm I'm grateful because with fuel charges and everything like that, um, you know, we are in a bus contract, but that would definitely factor when we we renegotiate a contract. So, um, we would call it a success with some minor tweaks for next year. Um and then for next year as far as looking at the K through five busing um the elementary bus routes we'll have K through five on the buses together. They'll be centered around just how we do elementary school now with geographical air geographical areas all on the same bus. So your neighbors will be on the bus with you. Um and that's
036how most of the people in the state with full day kindergarten run their bus routes. Um they will be released mid August. It's the most busy time of year um in our office once they get released with a lot of questions. Um we're going to look at the policy a little bit later with just some tweaks to that. But the stops are designed around where the younger students reside, but that doesn't mean that all stops will be where the youngest student is. Um so we can talk a little bit about that, but they do their best to accommodate all of that. And K and K and first grade students will be assigned seats at the front of every bus. Um, and that's how most people run. Um, having the younger students on the bus with
037the fifth graders. Um, as a reminder, we eliminated the midday buses uh from Moose Hill. Saved quite a bit of money on the budget, but there were five full day buses that were part of the Moose Hill fleet that are going to be reallocated to where they're needed for the school. So, the buses shouldn't be overburdened. We've already met with the bus company about putting those buses where the need is. I think probably it will be most of them at Matthew Thornton. Um, but they'll continue to monitor that as they put the routes together. And they for the first time used a different software to do the bus routes last year. So there were a couple of hiccups with that. We anticipate that it will go much smoother this year with that as well. >>
038So that's where we are with our update. >> Great. >> Just have one comment. Um I thought the for the middle and high school bus runs that the communication has been really good and in the middle or in the middle of the year when um attendance started to taper it was there the bus driver was very communicative in terms of like making sure that the kids knew that they'd be coming earlier um and that is very helpful. >> Yeah. >> And so I just really appreciated that. >> Yep. We hope that that continues because um you know for parents meeting the bus they they they will have it down to the minute um to know when the bus is going to be there. So we want to keep that up and be proactive so people
039aren't worried about where where >> and it is down to the minute 639. >> Yes. >> Every time it's impressive. >> Yeah. It's it's a welloiled machine at least on on my bus. So >> and it tends to be. But as a reminder to all families, and we'll say this again numerous times before the school year starts, the first 3 weeks um is really um it will run longer than it should and people get nervous, but they do once they hit that sweet spot where they know the kids and the stops, it tends to be very predictable. >> Any other questions? >> Great. Sounds like uh things are going well and and that hopefully uh it won't be any major things with the the kindergarten and that, but stay tuned. >> Yes. Thank you everybody
040for that update. >> Yep. >> And we'll jump into 5.4 LHS 111 NHSAS science test updates. Mr. Black. >> Yeah. Just sharing more good news. Uh the the junior science test is a random one. Um I think most of our juniors have figured out by now it doesn't really matter um what happens with that test. It's a random one for accountability. Colleges aren't really looking at it, but if you remember uh our scores a couple years ago were in the 20s and 30s. They reproduced it again this year. here they got out to 55% which we believe is somewhere in the top 10 to 15 in the state. Um you know it's only it's we've convinced the kids it's a prideful move to do well on the test and show you can do well and
041I think that's a good thing and you know we'll try and kind of capture that all in July but it was another good showing by the high school science department. So we're very proud of them. >> Awesome. >> Great. That's great news up what 30 30% roughly >> 25 another 30% jumps. You know they did a really good job last year. is reproduced again this year with a new group of kids. That's great. So, we're building a system basically. >> Yeah, great news. >> Thank you. >> All right. Takes care of announcements, presentation. I'll jump into public comment. Uh there's nobody here, so I guess I'll close public comment and jump into deliberations. Uh 7.1 is the first reading to amend policy EA-R student transportation services regulations for student riding school buses. >> Yes. So
042the the business office just wanted uh to make a couple of tweaks to reflect our actual practice. This this was designed when kindergarten was its separate entity. Um so we don't want any misinformation out there. So we just have a a couple of proposed tweaks. One starts on page two. Um it used to say kindergarten students will be picked up at their driveway whenever possible. We are looking to strike that and then add to the third bullet point um that the bus stops will be located closest to the residents of younger students especially kindergarten students. Um so there's that one. And then if you go to page three number five about threequarters of the way down says that the roots and stops are published on the school district's web page. Um, we do no, we
043do not do that anymore. Um, we don't do the I mean we don't do the newspaper, just the web page. So, we're just looking to keep that. >> Yep. >> And then >> 410 >> the time just above that. Yep. >> On that same page. >> Yep. >> So, that's 410 instead of four. Correct. >> Yes. Yes. Which is more the practice. Most of them are there by 4. Uh but if you're on the outskirts of town, there are some that might get pretty close to that hour mark. So we just wanted that to be reflected in that change. >> Yep. >> Any questions on this policy change? >> I will look for a motion to approve the first reading to amend policy EAR, student transportation service regulations for students riding school buses. Please. >>
044So moved. >> Motion by Amanda. >> Second by Tim. All those in favor? Hi. >> Hi. 50 Z. Thank you, Amy. >> I just have one question before. >> Oh, sure. >> Sorry. >> For the um like I see the section about the regulations. Who is responsible for enforcing that? Is it the bus company or the school district? >> So for for these, I think we work together in con in conjunction. Once they're on the bus, they're considered part of the the school operations. So the bus driver is the first person like a teacher so to speak. >> They enforce they go through and then if it can't be handled there, they give writeups to the um administration of the school where they're having problems. >> Okay? >> And you will see at the beginning
045of the school year a lot of our assistant principles reinforcing how bus behavior should be done if there are problems right away, especially with the younger kids because it's their first time with it. I just there's a lot of spillover from the bus because it's >> not monitored. It's monitored but bus driver can't leave her or her seat. Y >> so I don't know there is there consideration to like adding something about like that process you know I don't know I just feel like >> how they communicate with the administration. >> Yeah. If if there is an issue >> Sure. Um, the bus driver should follow up with their supervisor who will contact >> y >> who principal or >> it's it's the it's the writeups that they they have a partnership. It's Ryan O'
046Conor at the high school. It's Dave Sutherland at the U middle school and then it's the AP at each of the other schools or Sandra at the high school or at the Mousell. So, um, we can we can just put it up to the appropriate administrator for each school. um they do know who that is. And most of the time there is um an administrator out for drop off and pickup so that they grab them if if something is very serious, they grab them right then and there. Otherwise, the writeups come to the office throughout the day. >> Okay. Yeah, I think we could probably talk more about that. >> Yeah, we could we could add that for the second reading if you wanted another bullet point or two or add to the the ABC
047>> the hierarchy for the complaint. Correct. Yeah. whether it's AP >> um at each school or design of the principal y something to that point. >> Yeah. And Mr. Parent just brought up a point too that they have their radios >> so if something is happening they will in they can't get out they'll radio the terminal or the school and and take the kids back so it's dealt with at that time. >> Okay. Yeah. >> How often do the videos on the bus, you know, have to be viewed or I mean, how long do I mean how often do the administrators request video? >> I would say pretty pretty often. >> Yeah, that's what Yeah, I'm thinking that. Yes. >> It's a great tool to really figure out what exactly happens. Yeah. You know, there's
048there's a lot of hearsay on both sides and it actually helps us in many situations. >> Do the administrators have access to view that at the school or do they have to go? So the bus company, they have to request it from the bus company who drops it in a a Google >> and then they're able to view it. Okay. >> I would love some some sort of like connection like the expectation is like once you get on that bus now we're following the the disciplinary >> protocol from the school that you attend. >> Good idea. It's so much starts on the bus and some >> Yep. >> are more some people are more patient than others that drive the bus and that's not a good or bad thing. It's just it would be nice
049to kind of clean up. >> Yeah. And to that point, do do the students get any of this information prior to school or when they come to school what the protocol is for bus behavior? >> Definitely at the elementary school, they spend a lot of time. >> I'm just wondering if that would help too. Is some of this in in a in a format. So what what is it uh expected of them on the bus and what what the consequences are to your point? Yeah, that's great. >> That carryover would be really helpful for the bus drivers, but also like we don't do that here. whether we're on the bus or >> in the building because a lot of issues start >> there and so and obviously stuff's going to happen but >> um I
050think it's a lot of time it's like there's a disconnect like well the bus driver didn't say anything and then and then they do and it's like well this has been happening for four months and like I've been repeated by you know what I mean like I think it to be very and I think to let the bus company know that >> you know it's hard to maintain people in those positions whether it's bus driver or pair professional where they're dealing directly and don't have that. >> Yeah. No, they want support >> support. So, >> so we can look to add it like starting with number one, Dan, you think? Okay, >> I think so. >> Yeah, >> that'd be great. >> All right, everybody else good. >> All right, great idea, though. >> I
051did want to mention if you guys wanted to um take a vote on the price increase for lunches or did you want to hold off to do that? We didn't put it on deliberations. We probably should have. >> It's there. It's on there. It's there. >> Oh, it's there. >> It's there. Yeah. 7.3. >> Yeah. >> I must have an old version of this. >> I could have done it back then, but >> Okay. >> I wasn't on to that page yet. Sorry. >> All right. We'll uh jump into 7.2 purchase request. Must be why Brandon's uh up at the table. >> I'm Scott. >> How are you? Um okay. So, a little context before we jump in here. or a little maybe history. Uh we started a kind of a set device replacement program.
052Um maybe six or seven years ago. Uh before that we kind of had a halfhazard um when things got old, 11, 12 years old in some cases. They finally got swapped out. So we've been running a pretty successful program of making sure that we have um devices that are functional, up to date, and can do the work that our staff and students need for them to do. Um that number has been pretty flat for about the last five years at about half a million dollars. We've been very lucky that a lot of these devices are kind of commodity items and they don't tend to change. That is until uh this year. Um we saw a on average about a 25% increase across the board on all our devices which means um we had to make
053some really hard choices. Um, we know that incoming freshmen, they need a device. They leave in the middle school, a laptop. So, we have to buy those. Um, the incoming sixth graders all get a new Chromebook. So, we've got to make those purchases. And obviously all staff that come in as new staff that get hired, we have to buy laptops for them, which means basically everything else um Chromebooks at the elementary school, some of our labs uh that are both at the middle school and the high school, and some existing teachers devices are going to have to stretch in the hopes that what's driving this increase resolves by next year. So we don't look at a really big uh price bump when we come talk about the budget the year. So we're going to be
054able to do all the things that we absolutely need to do, but it's a dangerous slope to start kicking too much stuff down the road. So I don't know when we'll start getting more clarity. Most of these price increases are being driven really by one thing. The cost of if you want to get technical, it's DDR5 RAM. the RAM in these laptops, those prices are up 300 to 400%. And that's basically what's driving the 25% increase in the devices. Um, so with that said, um, we basically cut the number of Chromebooks that we're buying in half to be able to keep on budget and we're recommending that we purchase um, Lenovo 100 from YS. We got um, like 18 17 or 18 bids. Um, a lot of the bids were for, um, older devices, um,
055two or three years old in some cases, and we just don't want to hand the kids a device that had just been sitting in a box already for for two years. Um, and in this case, the price difference is not, you know, we're saving about $10 a device or so if we go back to an older device. So, this was the best price we had on a device um, that was current model year. um our interactive displays. We going with um a Samsung smart flipboard it's called or interactive whiteboard. Um we did get a slightly lower bid. Um this is for I believe 11 boards um for some smartboards, but we've been really moving away from that. I don't think we've bought a Smartboard in almost eight years now. So we're trying to keep consistent
056on the model. So um we're going to stick with those purchases. And those actually showed the smallest increase in price that was only an 8% increase um from previous years. So not as bad as compared to say the laptops which were over 25% increase. Um with the student laptops we're recommending buying um Lenovo Thinkbook 14inch laptops for the students. Um those are coming from a company called YNS. We've worked with them before. Again, there were a couple Chromebooks that were or laptops that were cheaper, but they were older model years or just really underpowered, and we didn't think we would be serving our students to give them devices that underpowered for small savings. You will probably see if you have the spreadsheet there, there was one quote that came in significantly lower. It's for a
057much older device, and when we started digging into the configuration, it's not one that existed. And um we also on searching up the company, it's one we hadn't heard of before. Um some not great issues about the company popped up high on the search results, so we were not going with them. It's was a little suspicious that they were $200 cheaper than everyone else, too. So anyway, that's why we're going with the YNS device. For teacher laptops, those saw the biggest increase in price because they have the most RAM in them. Um, we're going with a company called Connection for Lenovo. Thinkbook 16 inch. Connection is a New Hampshire company. So, it's nice to be a little local, I guess, to do those purchases. Um, and you can see all the device totals. I believe
058there are in the memo. So, um, yeah, I don't know if you want to take them one at a time for the approval or if you can just >> you want to just finish up on um Chrome Chromebooks. I think that was the first thing I talked about were the student Chromebooks. Yeah. >> Y >> any questions for >> Are the interactive whiteboards um replacements or new for class? >> They are um they're replacements. We are hoping Well, we're going to have to buy also some to give to the kindergarten because all the existing kindergarten teachers have them. So, we have some more kindergarten >> classes obviously opening up and we want them to have the same technology. So, we will be buying some for those as new. The other ones are replacing like 10
059or 11 year old smart boards. >> Okay. So, I was wondering how long they've been lasting for us. >> We can get about 10 years out of those interactive boards. They last a lot longer than the uh than the student devices do, for sure. >> Yeah. >> Question. >> Yeah. Well, to talk more about this come fall. >> Yeah. How many units are you talking that you're decreasing by because of the cost increase? Just >> so roughly we had in the past and our in our um like when we presented back in the fall what we'd hope to buy based on our uh best guesstimates then eight or nine months ago on pricing um 150 staff laptops. So that would be replacing old staff laptops and laptops for new incoming staff. We just cut that
060down by five. So, kind of shaved there a little bit. I mean, staff need working devices. For the student laptops, again, we only reduce that number a little bit. We know how many kids we have in coming in, and then we usually have about 30 or 40 for devices that are completely destroyed that need to be full replacements that we can't rebuild. But it's really the um the elementary Chromebooks is where we have some leftover stock that we can kind of swap in for ones that need to be replaced, but we're basically just buying enough to cover the incoming sixth graders as new devices this year. So kind of nothing is getting changed out unless it's >> really needed to be at the um elementary school as opposed to saying, "Okay, it's been four years.
061It's time for a refresh." So we're going to just stretch them as best we can. And we'll probably do that with the youngest kids um Chromebook carts because they get the least amount of use. So they should have the least wear and tear on them. >> Yeah. I just don't want to get into the habit where we've got ourselves back in a good position to get behind again where we're asking the taxpayers for, you know, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars to play catchup. So that's my only concern. Yeah, that's we've been real fortunate to be kind of right at that $500,000 number for the last five years, but I think we'll have to talk about that this fall. >> Okay. All right. Appreciate it. >> Everybody's good. >> I'm just going to make
062a motion for the units at that amount. And I I don't think I need to read the total in. It's here on the document. So, if that's okay with you, Amity, if that covers you. >> Yeah. >> So, I'll look for a motion. And I'm just going to do them all into one motion for the interactive whiteboards um to purchase from Insight at $1,389.90 per unit. The student laptops from YNS at $659 per unit. Um and the teacher laptops from Connection at $879 per unit. and the Chromebooks from YNS at $336.90 a unit. And let me just jump back. That's 375 of those. Uh 145 of the teacher laptops, 375 of the student laptops, and 11 of the whiteboards. And I'll look for a motion to approve those uh to purchase at those prices. >>
063So moved. >> Motion by Amanda. >> Second by Kevin. All those in favor? >> I 50. >> Thank you, Josh. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> We'll jump back to 7.3 and I will look for a motion to approve the price increases of dining ser that dining services presented to us this evening for uh next school year. >> So moved. >> Motion by Amanda. >> Second by Sarah. All those in favor? I >> I 50. >> Thank you. All right. Jumping into 8.1 first preview of 2026 27 districtwide attendance work. >> Yeah. So I'm just going to give the school board a few ideas we've been working on for a while now. Um you know we're kind of in the stage where we have a little bit more work to do on this with
064a council. I'm going to work on this a little bit with some of the assistant principles in June. is going to be part of our August retreat and then we kind of start some some I think new things in attendance. And you know what I what I what I'm sharing with you first is I'm part of this uh you know statewide task force kind of redesigning our accountability system for New Hampshire. One of the most compelling data points they brought out was kind of mapping out the connection between attendance and how well kids do on the math and ELA exam. Surprise surprise, the less you're in school, the less well you do on the exam. You can just see it in, you know, the the literacy exam on the first page and then the math
065exam on the second page. Uh New Hampshire is actually the only state in the union that does not include attendance in its accountability system. We are we are recommending to the legislature next month to to change and do that. So this is one of the most compelling things I think that we kind of came across as a team. And you know we had been talking you know in the background for attendance for a couple years now and I think this was a good kind of launching point for us to to look into things. So, we spent uh a better part of a couple months really looking into a lot of research around there around attendance and chronic absenteeism. And I think we went we went to a place where we want our students to succeed.
066Uh we want them to be in school nearly every day if they're healthy. And we know if they're there, they're going to succeed more. So, we try to put a couple things in motion. Um so, we go to the next page, Jay. Um you know, there's a lot of research we came across. It's almost overwhelming. I'm still sifting through some of it myself um and trying to distill it a little bit. Um but basically, if you look at a lot of the districts around the country who have turned around on chronic absenteeism, there's five things they've done coherently. It's not so much about being punitive with families, but engaging with them. Like if kids are not coming to school, just sending home a mean letter is not going to turn anything around, right? What are
067we going to do with them? Um, you really have to promote students coming to school for their social well-being, their mental well-being, and obviously their academic well-being. Um, and when you come to school, there's food, there's co-curricular activities, there's all these things that can go on that are going to benefit you greatly. Um, and obviously if they're really invested in their learning, they're going to want to be there. I think of what we just saw with, look at how invested all those kids are. They're really invested in their robotics program. Um, and then you know, and then there there's still going to be families that have barriers that we have to kind of work through to kind of help get them there. Um, and after looking through all this, we realize if everything's a priority,
068nothing's a priority. We have to start in a few places. I think we realize we really want to change our messaging more. Uh, and we really want to again really promote, hey, we want you here for all these reasons. And when you're here, you're going to succeed and that's the best thing for you. So, we're going to we're going to work a lot on our messaging next next year, just the importance of being in school. um and you know connected outcomes for kids, having teachers do that same thing. Uh we're going to have scripts for our office staff kind of every time they interact with families if kids are not going to be there. Just kind of going through some of the reasons why it's good to be in school. Um I think we're going
069to change our outreach. Uh I think we came across some research. Our letters that go home are definitely fall into that bucket. If they're very legalistic, they're very policy based. They don't really have a good, you know, welcoming approach with families. They're not going to turn behaviors around. Um, and then I think we we saw a lot too is if you have a calendar throughout the year that really targets dips in attendance, that also really helps the holidays when kids get sick before and after spring break. There's some obvious ones we want to get ahead of a little bit more. So, that's the main things we're thinking about with messaging. Um, procedurally, there's a few things we're going to do. Um, we're going to move to just you're present or you're absent. >> Being excused
070or unexcused just doesn't help us in this world. we just want kids in school. So, we're going to make a big change there. Um, and I think one thing we also realize, too, is perfect attendance doesn't always help us when colds are flooding our schools. >> But if if there's a certain threshold, and it seems like a lot of the research points to, hey, you should be here at least 95% of the time, that's going to be a good attendance record. If we can kind of promote that, that gets us away from kids who are showing up who are sick and spreading more sickness in our schools. I mean, we just we just want kids to be healthy and if if you're not healthy, it's okay not to come to school, but what's the threshold
071we want to be at? Um, so and kind of changing our celebrations around that. Um, you know, so I think if you kind of look at our tiered system, um, you know, 95% or better is where we want to be. Um, kids who are below that, you know, it's something we want to keep an eye on. And then chronic absenteeism is basically those 18 days. If you're not there for 10% of the time, that really adds up. And then you have these extreme cases and we have them ourselves where you know kids are out 30 or more days a year. That does h that does happen. Um I tried to share you know a couple examples within the packet of messaging we got from this outside group kind of doing a lot of the studying
072here. Um and and again you know I think what we realize is is our messaging tends to be more punitive. If we can sell the reason why school's important, why we want you here, why how we want to create a welcoming community, that's really going to help us in the long term. Um, and then obviously, you know, if kids are really engaged in their classes, they're going to want to be there, too. I think that that's obviously something we've been working on for years with all of our academic work. >> So, making that connection is going to be huge to us, too. So, I think >> between a few procedural updates, a lot of messaging updates, that's going to be our first big year. Um, we'll share our attendance from this year. That's like our
073baseline. We'll see if the messaging makes any differences at the end of next year. And then I think if you look out to the future, there's a lot more work we want to do. Uh Jay and the MTSS team have done excellent work standardizing behavior and academics. We can definitely weave this into it, I think, by by the second year of a big push. Um you know, so I think we're going to have the team look at a lot of the resources we came across this year and figure out the right ways to incorporate it. Another huge uh research area we saw is like if we can create uh community partnerships when local businesses are pumping up being in school or you know or even all of our you know uh sports teams and club
074teams around the community if we're all sending the same message that has a huge impact on kids going to school. So I think community partners is one area we want to look to you know and then down the road too I think we want to look at additional policy and procedure updates. Um, right now I think we have a system in the high school that if kids are not there, they don't do well and they fail, we have a the ability to kind of catch up with them and get them over the goal line. We don't really have a good system K to8 if you're not coming to school and you don't do well. Uh, and how do we address that? I think we're kind of caught. It's very similar to actually our our school
075foods program is, you know, we can bring down the hammer and have retention, but you know, at least the last time I saw it at the state, they're not going to support kids going beyond that 180 school days if you're if you're below high school. >> I did see when I was talking with the with the um with the task force recently, I did see a little glimmer that they're thinking about that a little bit more >> and maybe if they're going to change how we do things because I think there are definitely a group of kids who are missing way too much school that we shouldn't just be passing them on. Y >> in the younger grades, we got to come up with a better way to catch them, hold them accountable, and make
076sure they're ready for the next grade. Um, so I think there are probably bigger things coming down the road. Uh, so there's a lot there. Um, and and I know Jane and Amy to my right knows like all the different things we kind of sorted through for many months and we try to give you a taste of it. Um, but we can keep on bringing back some ideas. I think there'll be another another preview I kind of share later um, in the summer. But, you know, if you kind of scroll through, you know, here's some of the reports we look through. Yeah. >> Um, if you go down a little bit more, Jay, um, I think we fall into the bucket. Uh, there's another there's a chart coming pretty soon. Yep. Uh, yep. Like, you
077know, it tried to kind of classify where school systems are at. We're definitely on the on the on the far right hand side, but we don't have some of the extreme problems, but, you know, we still have kids who don't come to school as much that we want them to. Um, and I think we found that. And then some of the the pages down the line are some of the messaging tools uh we've been looking at. If if you go a little bit further, um right there. Yep, there you go. You know, so these are some of the scripts and ideas we're going to be selling a lot harder, I think, with our students and our parents um to just promote uh being in school board. So, that's kind of where we're at. Kind of
078see if there's any uh you know, initial questions from the school board. And again, we got time over the couple months to kind of talk about this some more before we have our bigger roll out of the whole school system in August and September. >> Question. >> I have a question. >> Okay. Um, so are you saying that you're we're going to roll out the communication like as a preventative just to see how it impacts the data and then it would be weaved into like any behavioral >> Yes. >> like con. Okay. >> Yes. >> Um, >> how this unexcused excuse thing. >> Mhm. >> How's that going to work with the weaving into behavior in the second year? So like for example, >> if you have an exc >> an excuse absence and then
079a student that I might know might get like a zero for participation >> and like I might say to that student who might be my child, you need to go have a conversation with your teacher because you know you had surgery like you're not >> you didn't have the opportunity to participate but like if you went to the beach because it was nice out like well then you shouldn't have an opportunity to make up that for participation cuz you chose, you know what I mean? I just I'm wondering how that's going to come back around in year two. >> Yes. So, so I think that the main shift we're trying to make is when you're not in school, then you need to go make up your work because it's not going to matter to us
080what's really driving them not being in school. We just want them in school. There there are definitely more egregious examples of kids who are are skipping school. Yeah, that that's a different problem than a kid who's not in school. We just want them to be there. And I think what we're finding is whether it's excused or unexcused, it doesn't matter. It's the threshold of how much they're not there that really matters. I think it would be really interesting to hear from some of the teachers about this because I think it's stressful when you have a kid out and especially in elementary when you know everyone else has their thing hung up on the wall and one kid doesn't have one and that teacher is now taking that time from the class to catch that student
081up. And then what ends up happening is like now the your the kids like you know you you better hurry you got to get yours done so you can I think it just creates a lot of anxiety for people. >> I think it'd be interesting to get their feedback on that. I'm not saying I don't agree. >> I just I don't know. I feel like it should be different if you were at the orthodontist than if you were you know and no like people can adjust you know my kids have been out for sports before. you have to adjust that in their academics and and map that out as a family and make those choices and people should be able to do that. But >> I don't know. I just feel like there's a difference
082there in terms of >> and and we're not saying we're not saying teachers won't react differently. What we're just saying is the most important thing to us is you being here at least 95% of the time rather than whether it's excused or unexcused. Like that's the most important thing we have to kind of nail home with our families and our students. I just think we need to look at like making people think twice before or K like it's more for the high schoolers and middle schoolers, right? >> Yeah. >> I don't know. That's my two cents. >> But it'll be interesting to see. >> I I think with all these things, there'll be these layers of procedures that we look at over the years. >> But we're just going to get started on we want
083you in school. It's good to be in school. >> Yeah. You know, >> I think that's a good place to start. Yeah, I see Amanda's concerns of the younger students especially, right, that there's a class participation today, they do all this, they're going to show it off tomorrow, that student's not there. So, that's the word. I think it's going to take time to get that out to the parents so they can work around the schedule and be able to get this work done whether they're going to miss the day or not at home in that situation. So, it can be hung up when they come in the next day if there's a class thing. So, I think some of that's going to be give and take, too. But I agree, we want him in school.
084>> Y >> and it it it's unfair to the teacher in many ways, right? >> Is trying to bring this whole class to grade level. Yep. >> By the end of the school year, and you've got this absenteeism with three, four, five, six students that miss 20% of the school year or 10%. It's it's a lot on the teacher. >> Yep. and it just hurts us as a district overall, which we've been fighting to bring up. Um, so I think there's going to be a lot of give and take to the fact that we want him in school, but how can we make sure that they still have that chance because they had a doctor's appointment. They had to miss two days because of a family thing. There's going to be some give and take
085with the staff. to your point. >> Yeah, it bleeds into special ed, too, because for the chronic cases, they miss so much instruction that they end up not qualifying >> and then they finally get far two years behind that they end up qualifying and then they can't qualify because they have too many absences. >> Yeah. So it becomes in that becomes our that's our problem and that's keeps us that impacts the test scores that impacts >> everything with regard to like all the data points we're trying to move >> right >> you know but some you're going to kids are going to have a year where you know they have an illness or procedures or whatever >> I and I think it kind of puts it on >> either way you know it puts it
086on that kid but I don't know >> what what what it's going to do is going to force a much stronger partnership with families >> correct to figure that out, which which I think is what we're we're heading towards, trying to do, >> you know, because I think now it's like we can just kind of send home like look, oh, you passed 10 days of uh being absent. Here's here's the kind of mean letter you get. >> That's not enough. We have to kind of shift what we're doing, the partners, >> more responsibility with the parents and the the staff >> on both sides, >> right? >> So, it's a partnership. >> Yeah. >> And I think it's I think it's a good way to start. >> Yeah. I mean, it's the biggest indicator for
087academic success. So, I think Yeah. It's good that we're doing it. So, Sir, >> I think um in district and I work I work at we've really changed the messaging this past year and like you said the the letter that we send now is not so daunting. It's more like this is what your child is missing like what are they missing in academics not like we're contacting DCF. It it's this is what they're missing like we want them here. Um, and I think the social worker, I know we only have, you know, it's they can do a lot, but I think the connections with them, um, the social worker in the school is going to be important. I think streamlining the process between elementary, middle to high and having those people get, you know, know
088the names that are coming up that have absentee problems and and get on them right away. Um, and I think the first, you know, the first point of contact is coming from the teachers. You know, if you look at September, if someone's out two days or three days already, that's the start of something that's going to be more. What are we doing right away? Is the guidance counselors reaching out in that first month, the September October push, you know, to catch on those right away? And I think messaging, you know, like on um socials or emails and I know a lot of the principles do their weekly weekly um emails, just putting something in like some stats in there like, oh, if your child misses more than 10% of school, you know, stats show that
089they're 20% behind or you know what I mean? Just >> just messaging like that. But like you said, I think the connections and the messaging is important. um and getting, you know, the counselors and social workers involved and just streamlining the whole process is is such an important um role, you know, and for some of these kids, it's a lot of it stems back on the parents, too. Some parents are just some kid like some kids are like, "Oh, my parents said I could stay home today, but I told them I'm going to school." You know what I mean? Like it's it's >> and and still it's connections, teachers connections with the kids. You got to make them want to come >> and who are they seeing and not be like, "Oh, where where have
090you been? You know, you missed this, this, and this." It's like, "Happy to see you back." Like, that should be the messaging. Y, >> you know, we're happy to see you. >> I agree. >> But we agree. >> I think this is all on the right path and it's a never- ending issue. Um, but >> it's so important. >> It It's a big task, too. You know, it's huge. Right. I was just going to say one of the key elements um that we discussed in in in trying to turn this around is to form attendance teams at the building level and districtwide to really look at this troubleshoot it with those those >> uh people that you're talking about, right? Social worker, counselors, teachers, administrators, families, so that you're really uh taking a macro view
091and a micro view to, you know, try to get get the behaviors to turn around >> with these kids. >> Yeah. And I think to your point, getting that message to the parents and building that relationship, >> we're really concerned about Johnny. You know, he's missed this many days and >> you know, we're in a bad spot right now. >> And just inviting the parents and the child in for a meeting like as soon as we start noticing that something's going on and having all those people there, admin, social worker, counselor, >> you know, it's just in an inviting environment to see how can we help you and >> you know, it it is so important. Um, but yeah, the the team, especially building level, I mean, weekly meetings, I mean, we make it a
092priority every week. Every Tuesday at 9:00, our whole team is there meeting on attendance and it's >> you talk about so many kids. >> Yeah. >> You know, but it it's so I said, it's >> it's Yeah, it's very important. >> Yeah. One thing that stood out to me I I liked seeing on there was the idea of the community partnerships. I know one thing that, you know, I've thought about for years is the impact of like the youth organizations. It's an interesting change when kids get into the middle school and and beyond and they're aligned with, for example, varsity athletics or athletic program in general or they're aligned with the extracurriculars that are through the school and suddenly their attendance in the school matters to their participation in those. Whereas the first really kind
093of the most formative years from kindergarten all the way up through fifth, there's no connection whatsoever between the two. There's no messaging, no positive messaging coming from youth organizations or any insight coming from the school saying, "Oh, you're doing this. he knows you haven't been in school, but you've been attending this verse, you know, and back and forth >> where I feel like there's a real chance to have that positive partnership to say, hey, you know, this is great that you're doing this, but it's all part of this whole view of the child. You can't just be doing, you know, this one thing that they like to do. It's, you know, we've got to build this whole um, you know, from step one all the way through of you got to be learning, you've got
094to be engaging with your peers and you've got to be going through the process and going to school and then you're attending your extracurricular and and you know for you know for the most formative years there's zero connection currently >> uh for most of school uh most of the activities like football I know you have to have your initial like for the wild cats as an example you have your initial Hey, you need your report cards, show you're in good academic standing and yada yada yada. >> But then after that day one, you submit that, there's zero connection from that point on and no communication back and forth. There's no alignment. There's no helping parents with, you know, maybe issues they may have with getting kids to school or anything along those lines because there's
095no there's just no communication there. So that whole idea of bringing community partners and working together to try to address this problem, I really like that concept and I'll be very curious to see how it plays out and how those how those conversations evolve. >> Yeah, we're excited. >> Yeah. And I like the business part of it too. Yeah. You know, of local businesses promoting >> what we're doing as school and what you know what kids are doing in school. So if we can get some partnerships there, >> um I think it's a great start. But um we'll stay tuned for more updates on that and appreciate the time and the effort as we all know. The more they're in school, the more they learn um the better better our whole school district does for
096our community and our our families. So um it's all about doing better for them um on our end. So appreciate the uh the time and effort into that. >> Everybody good? >> Yeah. >> I'll jump into uh 8.2 too. Lendary Art Council. So, new one. >> Yeah. No, I got I got invited to meet the Lendary Art Council last week. Um, they have two bigger goals. You know, they want to kind of where their organization's at. They want to find a way to increase student voice uh in their organization and kind of what they do. Um, and they want to find a way to kind of help support our our staff. And I and I think that's obviously the performing arts, but also the visual arts. Um, so I was like, yeah, of course, we
097would uh we're obviously aligned with that. Um, so we look for a couple areas to maybe kind of bridge the relationships more. So they have a youth art contest in the fall that we're going to try and promote within our schools and see if there's connections and kind of get more of the kids into it. Uh, they have a kids concert in the Leech Library that we can kind of help as well. I learned about I don't know if everyone knows there's Wild Apples. It is a literary and arts journal. Um, you know, so they're they're looking for submissions. So, you know, a little connection with the the the contest as well. and and obviously conscious on the common so they're looking for for more student voice as well and kind of participation. So I
098think I'm going to do my best to try and see if we can meet with the teachers the last day of the inservice day in June with them. Maybe we won't pull that off. You know the time is the time is short but if not we'll make time in August and try and just to kind of increase the relationship and you know kind of get that bigger picture moving for them. I mean they're very supportive. They're a nice group of people and obviously they support the arts in town which our kids benefit from greatly. That's great. I think it'll be a good partnership if we can utilize what they do because it's pretty phenomenal what Concerts on the Commons alone has done over the years with the events in the >> and the music they
099bring to the town, you know, on Wednesday evenings, I believe it is. And >> they do a great job. And I know last resort they use the calf, you know, so they don't like it, but they're they're glad they have it in case of a, >> you know, weather event. But uh thanks for meeting with them and uh look forward to more on that. Anyone have anything else? That's all I have on the agenda. Kev, you got anything? >> Amanda? >> Nope. >> Dan, >> I just had a quick one. I wanted to thank the office staff um and supporting staff at North School and Mousil today because they couldn't get into the northern part of town on some of the buses. So, the kids had to stay off the buses. um and be at
100school to get picked up. And both of the schools adapted super quickly, had a plan to get the kids to the right places um and just went with it. So, it was wonderful to see and just wanted to give them a shout out for their great quick work. >> Great. Great. Glad to hear that. >> All right. With that, I'll close out the regular meeting and I'll look for a motion to go into non-public session requested under RSA 91A 3 section 2B and C. Please. >> So, move. Motion by Amanda. >> Second by Sarah. I'll ask for a roll call vote from my left to right, please. >> Hi, Kevin Rick. I Tim Porter. I Bob Slater. Hi, Amanda Butcher. Hi, Sarah Loftton. >> Good night, London.