School Board Budget Workshop 1-8-26

001Welcome to the meeting of the Londereerry School Board to be held on Thursday, January 8th, 2026 in the cafe at Londereary High School, 295 Mammoth Road, Londereary, New Hampshire at 7 p.m. The meeting will also be broadcast on local cable access channel 8 as well as the district YouTube channel. Could we rise for the pledge of allegiance please to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. We have three uh retirements. We are going to um acknowledge them at our next meeting. Um Kristen Brooks, teacher from middle school. Kevin Kiski Kaniski. That was close. Thank you, Jay. Uh teacher from the high school, and Cheryl Rich, our financial director from district office. So, we'll have

002a write up for those folks in uh at our next meeting. Um, jumping down, we have some upcoming meetings. January 15th, 2026 will be a budget public hearing here at the cafe at 7:00 p.m. And January 27th will be a regular schoolboard meeting here in the cafe at 7:00 p.m. And on February 6th, 2026 will be the deliberative session right here in the cafe at 7 p.m. Uh, could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda, please? >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. Second. >> Second by Amanda. All those in favor? >> I 5 Z. Thank you. >> All right. Announcements and presentations. 4.1 filing period for candidates. Wednesday, January 21st, through through Friday, January 30th, 2026. Um there's two school board members. Both are three-year terms. To file, please contact Amy Finemore,

003school district clerk at a phenomore lenary.org or call or text at 603396872. Amy will be at the district office on Friday, January 30th, 2026 from 3:00 to 5 p.m. for the purpose of final filing. Uh jumping down to five committee reports. We have our student representatives here. Welcome. >> Hi. >> Um so it's a new year and student council has a bunch of new activities that events that we're getting ready for. One of them is a box good food drive that we're planning to run sometime in February and so we are prepping for that. >> We also have the spring semi coming up around the end of March. Um, we got approval to decorate the hallways. Hopefully that'll get people excited and ready to do the street demi. >> Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so

004much. All set. >> Thank you. Uh, school boy le's office. Can >> you come back to me? >> Sure. >> Uh, big news over at North is just that playground equipment was installed between the end of December and through here. So, new playground equipment is in assuming can get out in the weather. >> Awesome. That's that's wonderful news. Um I I council um they're in the same position we're in right in the middle of budget hearings and that. Um so that's all I've got at this time. So with that, >> I'm ready. >> Oh, you're all set. >> Sorry. This wasn't loading. Um so the Mooseville PTA has their first ever DPW uh ride along that they're selling tickets for. So tickets can be purchased in the end uh in January and the winner will

005win a ride in a truck. >> Awesome. >> That's all I got. >> Thank you, ma'am. All right. Um we could jump right into public comment. Um what I will do just we keep public comment open during the budget um discussions and that what we typically do is uh any any presentations or any questions will go through the board the budget committee and then the community. Um, but what I'd like to do is if anyone has any public comments other than budget items at this point that would like to come up before we get into the budget so you're not sitting through the next hour or so, uh, just come up to the mic and uh, state your name and address, please. >> Hi, good evening. Is this on? >> I feel like Tony here

006exhausted the mic. Is he [laughter] not here? Good. Just walked my back on that one. Hi. I can't do this. Hold on. That's awkward. >> Hi, Katie Sullivan, assistant principal at Londere High School and Lendary Resident. I'm here just to get the blessing from the board. I already got the blessing from my wonderful principal Rick Barnes to have our second annual bring back the trades expo. myself, Patrick Cheetum at the London Police Department and the Rotary Club along with the bring back the trades group have been meeting for the last couple months and we are going to publicly announce our date and open up the event for vendors to sign up. So, I'm here just to ask for the blessing from the board for this wonderful secondyear event. We're the only high school in this

007area who does this. We're extremely blessed. Last year we had it during the week of April vacation just due to time and dates and it was our first year. We had over a thousand people attend then. So we're looking for it to be even bigger this year. So before we announce it publicly and put it out on social media, I'm here just to get answer questions and ask for your approval for this wonderful event. [clears throat] >> Thank you Katie. Any questions for Katie? >> Y thank we are good. That was a great event last year. I know the weather wasn't the greatest. Hopefully this year it'll be a little better for the outside trades that were there, but great event and we can't thank you guys enough for the opportunity for our students and

008surrounding students that that attended it as well. So great event. >> Yes, good point. Uh Mr. later. For those of them who are watching around the world here, um if you do go to a surrounding high school, it is open just not to Lendary High School students, but to any other public high school, Catholic school, anything like that. Any child who wants to come to this event, we are more than welcome to open our doors to you. And as a citizen, I just want to take the time because I'm that person who watches from home all these meetings. And I just want to take the time to publicly thank our budget committee, our town council members, and our school board because throughout this time, the time and effort you guys put in for this town,

009I've lived here 50 years. So, I appreciate all of you and your time that you've done everything. Keep doing it cuz the positive people out there who are watching and looking at you and want great things for education in this town. We appreciate everything you do. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Hi. Uh, Christine Perez, 5 Wesley Drive. You're one of your state reps. Um, I think we dodged a bullet today. I'm very excited about it. Um um I'm also in big trouble for it, but I um there was and I want to thank the uh administration for this packet because that I used this packet when I spoke on the floor today to kill a mandatory um schoolboard budget. Okay. So what it is is they were

010you can put in a cap. anybody can. I tried to last year. Um, and you all turned it into a study, which was the best thing that ever happened. And thank you, Tony, who's not here. Um, but it showed that one size does not fit all. And it showed how this would a cap would not work for London area. And I work for London. So, the cap was almost identical that they wanted to put in. And I'm going to tell you, I got hundreds of emails and this was pushed really, really hard by leadership. So, they're furious. Okay. So, what happened was is that amendments were put in and a group and I'm going to say a group of women um got together and put in an amendment uh that really trashed the bill that

011they were trying to put through. But it was a very important amendment and something you all need to think about because you heard me a couple of years ago say the biggest rises are administrative sauus and that's been over years and years and I'm not speaking just to London during and the bill that Lori Ball put in was um to cap the administrative budget at 6%. And that's the one that we were able to pass. And I spoke to it. Now, it didn't go through. That's not what's happening, but it didn't go through. And I spoke to it on the well today. And I started off by saying that I had put in an attack uh cap for London and a study was done and I quoted a lot of things from your actual budget

012and um from the study and it went very well. It angered leadership tremendously, but it went very very well and it was voted in and um I'm very happy about that. But then the whole thing was killed and then uh reconsideration was also killed. So it will not come up again this year. But I really would like to ask you and the budget can um you've got to cut you've got to cut down the taxes in this town and I know you're doing a good job but it will come up again and I think the really best thing and I said this a couple of years ago going forward is going to be to split the two budgets administrative SAU and operating budget because that's what people are complaining about. And by doing that, you

013can't go to a deliberative session and have come back and say, "Well, we're going to take this away from the teachers or we're going to take this away from the kids." So, I just want you to know that that is the future. Okay? And I know when I said it a couple of years ago, I got a lot of flack. You're trying to get the the administrators and the teachers to fight and everything, but that is the future coming. and it's going to come real fast. So anyway, thank you for your support on this and um you might want to vote for me next session because I don't know if I'm going to get in after this. Thank you >> Christine. Thank you uh for advocating for >> Oh, not a problem. >> For the

014children. It's basically for the children >> and for the Yeah, it is for everybody. You just one size doesn't fit all London very different than Boston. So, >> thank thank you so much for your your work. >> Anyone else for public comment before we get come on up? >> Hi there. Uh, Amanda Longo, 424 Street. Uh, after that, this might seem really silly, but uh, I just saw that the calendar was being proposed uh, for next year. So, I thought I would put something out for consideration. might sound a little silly, but um in October we have Columbus Day on the 12th and then there's a teachers workshop on the 21st and this has actually come up with a bunch of family, friends, co-workers, things like that. Um that Derry does the teachers workshop the

015Friday before the Columbus Day holiday so that families can kind of coordinate a little easier for a 4-day weekend versus a Monday off and then the next week a Wednesday off. So, just putting it food for thought for you guys to the calendar that maybe we make it a 40 weekend instead of two random weekdays off in separate weeks. So, there could be a strategy to that, but just in case. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Anyone else? Seeing none, we'll move along and we will uh jump into our budget workshop. We're going to start with 7.1 in the discussion. um on open enrollment. >> Yeah. Um in in the in the board packet a couple weeks ago, uh I put a lengthy memo around open enrollment. So I'll I'll kind of go over the highlights

016because it's pretty dense. Um but uh you know, open enrollment in the last month has become, you know, a big discussion topic. So I try to give everyone the the sense of where it came from. Um, so we are not an open enrollment district, but we do allow for tuition students to come to London area. So we do have a handful of students that don't live in London area that do pay. It's largely for the high school. Um, you know, I think that's where parents are comfortable or, you know, kids leaving their normal community. Um, and we have a policy that kind of guides that and we look to it every year u when people reach out to us. Um, but open enrollment was actually a law that was passed in 2009. It was kind

017of an obscure law at the time. uh not a lot of activity. Franklin accessed it when one of their neighboring districts kind of broke broke free from them back in 2015. Um and ba basically what it allowed them to do was still charge tuition to a sending town who was no longer part of their school system. Um and then basically uh in the last 5 years, Prospect Mountain has been the only other district to to think about it. Um, and the dynamic kind of in the lakes region where they are is very different than than where we are right now. But they there used to be a lot more combined districts up there that have splintered apart. And I think what Prospect Mountain has done is they've kind of looked at with declining enrollment. They

018they've used open enrollment to try and um increase enrollment, increase their revenue. Uh there was recently a court case that happened in October that basically said there a a community that was next to uh Prospect Mountain where where a few kids started to go to Prospect Mountain because they were open enrollment that that town had to pay uh tuition. Um and that was a big court case and that's kind of what sent everything into motion and you know um there's a lot of moving parts here. I mean, I think we could give our advice uh after the school board uh talks about it, but I tried to share a couple of the things that are happening in the state. I shared a war article that Kirarge is is bringing to their voters this March. Um

019and basically what they're saying is, you know, they're if if you do want to become an open enrollment district, you have to go through this process of bringing a warrant article uh to your voters. And, you know, they're basically saying they don't want to allow students to leave to to be part of open enrollment. they're they're not up for for that model. So, that was something I shared with with the school board. Um, and I gave the entire law so you guys know about it and I think, you know, after you guys have your discussion, if you want to kind of hear some of our thoughts. I mean, uh, this is a fastmoving and kind of new thing to be thinking about. But I I think we'll just kind of turn it over to the

020school board. Let's see what advice you want from us. >> I guess I'll start. Um we we know we have how this discussion gets started just so the budget community is aware of it is um the high school optimally can run at about 1,600. Is that the right number J? >> Yeah I think so. >> Okay. Um and we're we're about 1220 [music] 12:30 right now students and um we you have hooks we have anou with hooks students their primary high school is Pinkerton um but we we get between 80 and 100 students at this at this juncture we were higher and enrollments dropped in hooks as well um and if we have um room to be able to have other students students tuition in why not open the doors for additional revenue. Um so

021that's how the discussion started all over the state that we've been tracking. Um and to the superintendent's point is you know some of these warrant articles are written which I don't I don't fully understand is we're going to open our doorst open enrollment but we're not going to allow any from lender to leave. So I you know there's there's some some real discussion here. Um I I think it would be a benefit to us if if we had this you know uh revenue-wise um you know give students other opportunities. I think we put out a really good product in London for education. Um, you know, and I think that would uh give it would it be nice to get say a town that was interested in shifting, you know, like Hookset and um, you know,

022entertain talking with us that, you know, that may be a possibility too and be, you know, a neater transition to to bring students in. But this is kind of the topic to this whole thing and it's going around the state all in different phases and nobody knows really the next move at this point from what you you guys have told us, right? >> Yeah. I mean uh Jason was able to go to the local uh superintendent meeting uh the day after we had our last board meeting. So he might he might, you know, share a few few tidbits of kind we got from there. Yeah. Um yeah, again there there a lot of districts and a lot of superintendents want to work with their boards and really take a wait and see approach because they

023don't know the legal ramifications of this. What will be challenged? Um to your point, Bob, uh them h having a percentage coming in but not allowing anyone to go out will probably be challenged and end up in litigation. So there's just too much unknown at this point um even to try to work together. or anything we want to wait and see. >> Okay. >> That stipulation as far as being able to set that limit at zero for sending students elsewhere. That's is that currently in the RSA? >> Yep. >> So, you're just we're speculating that that will get challenged in court if and when passes theirs. >> Yeah. I mean, I think we're just projecting a lot of litigation because a lot of these things are just untested. um you know so I think that's

024one area that could be tested. Um I think special education is something that's very not very clear right now >> and we all know that you know students with special needs could have much higher cost than what are your pupil pupil rate. So those are the things that we worry about too. So we're just seeing a lot of litigation and then in the end if the legislature picks it up again because they did talk about this a lot last year they didn't make any movement they could kind of trump anything that happens at the local level too. So I think there's just a lot of moving parts that we're just trying to keep an eye on. Yes. So, so what I'd like to come out of this is if you know some input from us

025if we're inclined to look at this moving forward as well as the superintendent, you know, inclined to do this at the same time and just any input that the budget committee may have towards this whole, you know, wheel that's set in motion here very slowly. But um chime in if you have anything now that there's a little bit on the floor of what your thoughts are. >> Yeah. So I guess uh just taking a quick look at this. Are there any so we go through we have open enrollment. Um is there a limitation for like distance that a student is from in the state? So for example, could a student a child from Berlin want to attend London High School and could they go through the process for open enrollment? >> They could. Yeah. And

026then uh so that that brings me to my second question. Transportation is that does that burden for paying for transportation fall on the child's parent? Does it fall on the school district from which they are living or does it fall on us? >> So the the way the law currently is it's really up to the parents and potentially the sending district in your example. But you know some of those things aren't clear just yet. >> Okay. It wouldn't be on monetary. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. So that's I just right now that's all I have. I'm I'm sure I'm going to have more. >> I'm thinking about um course registration. Would our own students who live in town have priority? Like with classes are popular, they fill up fast, would our residents

027have priority over out of town residents? Do we or or would that be considered unequitable? Like I I'm just concerned by having a bunch of people coming to our town that kids who live here won't get to take the classes they want to take. So take that example for academics and think of that example for sports too. >> Yes. >> So where we're at right now with Hookit, we have a relationship. >> Yep. >> We talk to them when they're in eighth grade. We ask what courses they want to be part of. They get part of our master schedule built. We're ready for [cough] it. >> In this world, in theory, if we become open enrollment, we don't really know who's going to show up every year. >> Yeah. >> And then we have to

028kind of adapt to it. And I think that's that I mean that's just a that's a scary prospect to begin with. I'm able to plan for something. But but that that could be an outcome. And I and I look at sports and >> I you know we again when when the kids are folks that come here they're l they're part of Lancer Nation. >> Y >> but in theory in open enrollment we can start we can also get into scenarios where you know kids from very far away are taking sports spots from kids that live in town and that's a dynamic we never had to deal with you know and those are the things that that you know kind of come with this too. >> Okay. The qu the question was raised at the superintendent

029meeting. but safeguards are in place to prevent discrimination around the screening of incoming applicants. There was not a good answer for that. >> So again, there was a real caution to not pit districts against each other and to try to uh really collaborate and work together um as we examine this and see what developments are taking place across the state. >> Yeah. And and that the the when you're talking about that too, so let's say there is a child who because property taxes are based off of enrollment and the different some kids are more expensive quote unquote than other kids. And I hate using that terminology. I just don't know how to phrase that any better. Um, if there was a child who was, let's say, lives in Bedford, they're an expensive child. They want

030to come here. Is Bedford covering the entire cost of that or are we just everybody pays $18,000? >> Yeah. The the way that the law is written right now, it's based on 80% of that district's Pew Purple spending from what I understand, and I think there's a lot more a lot more details I got to get into. So >> that's where the special ed part of it Yeah. isn't clear, you know, and I think those and that's different for our relationship with Hooket. If if a student does have higher needs, we're able to work with Hooket to kind of account for that. >> We don't have the same control in the scenario. >> Okay. Thanks. >> So, Kate, um, under the 194D subsection 8, um, it does reference that as far as preference being given

031to resident pupils. >> Okay. um where it states that um people who meet the admission requirements of an open enrollment school and who is a resident of the district where the school is located uh shall be given absolute admission preference over a non-resident pupil. >> Yeah. But that's admission. That doesn't talk once once they're in. >> Yeah. >> Right. Right. >> And once they're in subsequent years, they don't have to reapply every >> correct. Yeah. >> Yeah. I have kind of a just a higher level like logistics aside, London area is a very, you know, strong sense of self. I wonder even justically, [clears throat] would the town even want to open itself up to, you know, diversify residents wise or is it that strong sense of core that nation is we're lendary? Is that

032even something the town would want to entertain like higher level than the logistics behind it? But just the the fundamental question of do we want to become what could potentially be just an amalgamation of any number of towns uh to the point where if our population drops low enough, we may at some point find oursel or or if we have students leaving find ourselves where they are actually not even a majority of London area anymore. And if we're already bringing in say 400 roughly, we're not epically far away from that tipping point. It's just from a very high level. To me, that seems a little scary. We'll come to you in a minute, Christine. Okay. I just want budget committee first. Anyone else have any questions on this? I know it's early on and any

033input will >> Yes. It's it's not really necessarily budget question, but do we have any sense of how the kids in London area today re react to having kids from other towns? Like do we know what the kids think of this concept? [music] It just even anecdotally like based on what we already see. >> I can speak to the the hooks at um you know that we have th those uh students become fast friends. They're on the fields together. They're playing music together. Um, you know, like it was mentioned before, they're all Lancers and that's how they're seen. Um, you know, I've had three sons go through this high school and they've gone into Hookset into those neighborhoods and spent time with those families because they've become friends and vice versa. We've welcomed them into

034our home. So, again, it's been a wonderful relationship. I have never come across in my years as a principal and even outside and now at the district office anyone um pointing fingers or there was no competition of this student's from here and shouldn't shouldn't have any priority over me. They're all answers. So I've not come across really any agida or any uh situation where there's been conflict >> and I can speak to that personally as well as I I went to students who are um also from Hookit as well as here at London. So I just just like Jason said, you know, the first month I you're also getting to know other folks in town that you've never met. So I after after a month like Jason said, you're all Lancers. You're all becoming friends

035joining different clubs together in classes together. Uh so the lines it's not, you know, oh, you know, you're a hookster kid. I'm a London kid. The lion sport. I will say too though with Hooket there is a bit of a uniqueness in the sense that a lot of the youth programs between London area and Hooka are also blended whether it be for sports or for other activities. So those kids oftentimes come in having a relationship. I know like my son both my boys who came in knew multiple looks at kids before they came into even middle school and they're friends with them now. So when they go to the high school, it's not a um like a new introduction necessarily and it's not a brand new like one student going into know and nobody. It's

036usually this some groups in there. I'm sure that's not true for every single student. I sort of I can't say that. But I think in general there was a lot of youth blending between those towns prior to them getting to the high school level. And if we became an open enrollment uh district, would we when we limit it in the war article, would we be able to limit it towards like just 9 through through 12 or would it be K through K through 12 that we have to be able to allow? >> Yeah, you you can you can target like you could say 6 through 8, you could say 9 through 12, you can make it K to 5. You you can kind of specify how you do it, >> right? because the discretion's where

037we have space. Correct. That's that's how we based on that. >> Do we So I'm like my immediately my gut is to like jump in and try to figure out a problem. This may not be a problem that doesn't we may be making something into a problem that isn't even going to be a problem. Do we even know what the interest would be in kids who were outside of the district attending London High School? >> Yeah. You know, going going back to Kevin's point, I think, you know, when I look at I don't again, I don't know enough about Prospect Mountain, but I know that that part of the state used to be more of a collection of multiple small towns coming together for high schools. So, they were used to kind of giving up

038their identity to come together. What we are used to is competing with other division one schools, Cardinal Nation versus Lancer Nation. The Astros are right over there. there is this strong sense of identity down here in the southern part of the state and it's definitely a little bit different. We have no idea. Um you know I I to your point I think this is a big complicated uh you know question and I think of even our journey around kindergarten. I mean you know Amanda and I went to the to a preschool last year and despite all of our effort for [snorts] all those years we met these parents of two and three year olds had no idea what was going on. This is a big complicated thing. Um and and especially everything in a warn

039article was so legal ease. We we could ask a non-binding question since we're seeing de Don't don't don't quote me on this. Since we're seeing since we're seeing declining enrollment, are you at all interested us in in us pursuing recruiting other families and school districts to join us? Yeah, that's a very simple question. It would still take some education, but it's, you know, that that's a that's a basic question we have to kind of answer first because we don't really know what thinks about this. And the the way those warrant articles are written, they're just so complicated. That's a that's a heavy lift to educate, you know, >> and going down that road leaves for a path for students to exit our school if they want to choose something else, too. So, there is a

040a bit of a risk factor there. >> Yeah. Is it could we do like we did with the um the tax cap, make it a study or ask people if this is something that they think we should consider >> like Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay, Christine, you had a question. >> Sure. >> This is a very hot topic at the state and there's several bills coming forward on this um and there's a lot of discussion about it. So, it's another thing that um right now open enrollment in a district. Okay. Um, so if I have a kid in north school and I don't want the kid in north school and I want them in south school, a law is coming forward that says you can do that. Okay, if you think your child would

041fit better there. So that's within district. Okay. Um but there are there are bills coming forward that going to directly impact the open enrollment [music] and um and it may be end up be the reason why I didn't want the cap is because it was a shell and not a may and some of this open enrollment stuff that's coming through is coming through as a shell not a may and again I think that's wrong. I think it needs to be up to the district. But I had a question. You have kids coming here now that other than the Hookset kids. Is that correct? >> Yeah, we have we have a handful of probably families from, you know, maybe Derry or Manchester that do pay to come to the high school, too. >> So, do do

042they pay the same as Hooksit does? >> We we make it simple and we kind of make it that same rate. >> Okay. Because I years ago, Hooks It wasn't up to par and I fought that with you all for years, too. So, does that represent approximately 80%. Does that what they're what Hooks and is paying and what these other schools does that represent 80%? Um, so it's 80% of the sending district to my understanding. So, it would be different for each one, but it's I would have to check and see what Hookit >> um is uh to get there, but it's probably pretty close. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, just keep talking about it because it may be out of your hands. So, Right. Right. Well, that's that's kind of why we wanted to

043bring it up and have you folks while you were here um get get as much input, but and and I don't know if anyone else wants to speak, but I think just getting this open um to you folks, Dan, to your point is let's see what transpires and as as we're hearing tonight that there's some legislation possibly going to be talked about this spring and that at the state level and we can just kind of keep keep our eyes and ears on it and monitor it. And I don't even know because we would have to decide tonight if we wanted to do an article for, you know, just to get input from the community so we could have it at the public hearing next week. Um I myself I think it's a little early because

044we don't have enough information. >> Sure. >> And you know, we may not even have a choice depending on what states are. So I don't know how everybody else feels just we just go along with it. you guys do your work and bring it back to us as you hear from, you know, your colleagues and in in the superintendent's office and assistant superintendent and districts because I think we want to support one another too at the same time. If it's going to happen, we want to kind of all be on the same page and not be competing and trying to tear public schools apart. That's the part to Kevin's point is um it's different if a town approaches us. you know, we do have room in the high school similar to Oxet. >> That's an

045easy that's anou that's that's bringing them into Lancer Nation now and and that that's easy and and clean. Um but I think if everybody else is fine as we just keep moving forward and waiting for more direction and more information. >> Yeah, I I would like more information. And I think about it when we're talking about high school and what we're doing now. And it's like, okay, maybe I could wrap my head around that. And then just working in an elementary school, I think about like what that looks like and that culturally, but also just like logistically and numbers and who's coming and why are they coming? And I I don't know. I'm like down a rabbit hole about it. So, I would like to keep talking about it and just kind of hear what

046you guys are hearing. Um because I tend to feel like I I'd like to keep it how it is. But I'm open. >> Just have a quick question. The kids that are tuitioning in here, are they mostly staff members kids? >> No, not I mean there are there are a few, but there are just other families that kind of reach out to us and say we want to be part of Lancer Nation. >> Would you say it's like 50/50? >> I don't I don't have the I I don't know, but maybe a little bit more. Yeah, maybe. Maybe >> more outside. >> Yeah, probably more outside than teachers. Yeah. Yeah. You guys good? That sound good? Okay. Well, thank you for Oh, sorry. >> Hi, Janstein Boyd Road. Um, I agree with it being just

047a study for now. Um, I think putting it on the ballot is going to open up a whole can of worms that we're not ready to go there yet. >> Yeah. >> So, >> yeah. Thank you, John. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Cool. Well, we'll just keep moving forward with it and go from there. So, appreciate you putting this together, Dan. >> All right, we'll jump on to 7.2 discussion of warrant articles. >> Yeah. Do do you guys want to talk about the operating budget first or do you want to talk about the other warrant articles or >> Yeah, let's let's do the operating because we had uh you you guys did some extra work over the holidays for us. >> Yep. >> And that we appreciate. Okay. So, u you know, probably AMD will

048jump in at some point, too. But, uh, you know, based on our December 18th meeting and kind of the task you gave to us, we we uh we we look through the budget again. And I think the thing to keep in mind is, you know, we're we're we're we're basing the budget on the information we gather in late September and early October. December is a couple months later. There were a couple moving pieces where we could change the budget, so we're going to share them with you. School board does not need to take them. if you if you want to reverse them. You know, this is the meeting where the budget goes from us to you and it becomes it becomes your numbers. >> Um, you know, so we looked at our capital reserves. We

049we thought about the comments um kind of along the way. So, we we did cut out the athletic mini bus and the the buildings and grounds truck um you know, trying to get a couple more years out of both those things. So, that's a $100,000 reduction um in in the capital reserve. Um then you know in terms of moving pieces um we we did have a staff member internally move from the IT department to a new position um and the IT [music] department and this happened like the second or third week of December um that that position was open that they kind of moved into and the IT department determined that we no longer needed the position they moved from longer term. So that net was about $30,000. Um, you know, that that was a

050that was a good discussion for us to have kind of in late December. Um, so that so the budget literally, if the board's okay with it, you approve it, it dropped by $30,000 um since um the operating budget since December 18th. Next [clears throat] one's a little bit more complicated. Based on our collective bargaining contract with the support staff union, their raise is based on the octo October CPI rate. there is no October CPI rate because the government was shut shut down at the time. So we built the budget uh around 4% growth. Um but literally on December 18th the November CPI rate came out. Uh we sat down with the union over break and kind of based on the fact that there'll never be an October 25 rate and based on what we got

051from November, we adjusted the rate the the growth from 4% to 3%. They agreed to that. So by going down by one percentage point that saved $62,000 but because that's contractual both the default budget and the operating operating budget came down even. So that that's a complicated one. So that that changed. We don't normally do this but that was that was kind of um the u you know based on the government shutdown. Uh and uh you know sadly for the middle school we did remove the marquee and again at this point you know it's the school board can either agree with that or not. So, we did take out $12,500 to fix the the middle school sign. So, what you'll see um and we had we forward you guys a couple documents. [snorts] What you'll

052see now is the differential between the operating budget and the default budget is about $163,000. So, we made those changes. You can agree with them or or not. It's it's it'll be up to you. >> And the default and the um proposed now are $62,000 less. So that's the differential but the those numbers are also different. >> So we lowered the operating budget by about 100,000 the default by 62 and the cap reserves by 100. Um you know then you know the school board tked us with are there ways we can reduce the budget without affecting the academic and co-curricular program. We tried really hard. Um we did not make these changes. uh uh uh so what we try to do is kind of group potential ideas and kind of just you know share the

053the dynamics the risk associated with it. Um so again in the in the pupil services department um when we build a budget it's kind of based on information from late o late late September to early October. Um since that time uh we did have one out of district placement child who we know will graduate a few months earlier next year. Um, so we we were proposing we could reduce the overall added district placement number by $25,000. And I think if you've been watching the budget for many years, that's a number that changes a lot, so we got to be careful there. But but I think we could absorb that. Uh, another change we could consider. Um, so many years ago now, um, we we moved our elementary school report cards out of Aspen into an

054outside program. It was pretty cheap, uh, seven or eight years ago. Um, a lot of technology companies are just uh constantly raising the prices on us. Um, so it cost us $14,000 every year to produce our elementary school report cards. Um, we're hopeful we can kind of return that process back to Aspen. That will take some work that will create some stress. Um, you know, I I I think our elementary school teachers have done such great work over the last couple years with curriculum changes. I don't want to create stress in their lives. And um kind of looking at that bill was tough every year, you know, but that is potentially one change we could do. Uh it doesn't mean there isn't consequences to it, but potentially that's one change. Um we kind of look

055through a lot of our salary accounts and you know in the postco years um there there's a lot of reasons why kids could have tutoring. Sometimes a kid gets sick or they break an arm and they're not in school and we have to kind of tutor them. We did see a lot of tutoring requests, you know, in the postcoid years. those requests have come down. Uh so we thought we could reduce uh the funds we have there by about $9,50. Um you know obviously you know the cost could rise again for any number of reasons but we thought we could handle that. Um and then you know the last la the next one um we we had the student services department. So I thank him and her team and we kind of looked at all

056the IEPs again. uh there's always a lot of turnover in our career professionals and how it relates to uh to needs. So, you know, we think through attrition um we probably could um go down two more par professionals overall. That's basically two staff serving for 6.25 hours a day. That's about $50,000. Obviously, there's risk there. Um you know, parents and and teachers, you know, always want to make sure we have these resources. you know, we think will be okay, but we can't guarantee it. So, there there's risk there. Um, and then the last one is, you know, again, we build a budget kind of in late September and early October. Uh, nothing has changed from what we know of our staff right now. I mean there there's definitely a couple of situations we're we're keeping

057an eye on in terms of retirement or attrition, but somewhere between now and May, most likely though, we we will probably have one retirement or attrition that we can handle that that would not dramatically impact our academic program. Um, you know, can't give you the specifics. Uh, there there's a little obviously a little risk there uh if that doesn't play out, but what we think uh that could happen. So, um, you know, those that's about $196,000, uh, the school board could, uh, cut from the budget, um, if you should so desire. So, that's, uh, kind of the task we we did as the entire administrative team. So, all the people behind me as well. And, you know, ready to have that discussion with you all. >> Great. Thank you. And truly appreciate you going in

058and doing a a review of this. Um and um I you know I know it opened your eyes to a few areas which I think is a healthy thing to do too and it it is a fair amount of work but um you know truly appreciate that. Does board have any questions on these items? >> I don't have questions. Are we doing feedback on them right now? Okay. Yeah. >> Um I I guess the car professional cutting is a concern for me. Um the kids who access those people are kids who typically need more support obviously and um who need most consistency and higher trained staff and it's hard to find those people. So it's hard to hire someone um with the training needed to do a job like that. um and even kids who

059aren't necessarily identified with behavioral or academic challenges that still kind of fall on the lower end um really access these helpers and um they're invaluable. I guess I worry about the academic and and just cultural impact of if you're having, you know, a student who's not receiving that support that they need. I know I always talk about behavior, but that's when you see behavior. So, um I guess that's concerning [music] to me to think about and we always have situations where we need to hire a pair. Like we're never like, "Oh, we have too many." Like, you know, it's always the opposite where someone moves in or someone pops up and is having a harder year. So, I just really don't love that. But it's just me. >> Do we ever find out how many

060buses we have? That was a question that came across last week. Yes, we have >> three. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And they're two 2016 for two of them and 2018 for one. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So going into before we did this after uh December 18th below default we about 120 below default at that point. >> Yes. So doing the math between these pages, is this an additional drop potentially with all of this of uh 238,000 more? >> So So if the the first round like if if you guys are okay with not having that IT position and the and the sign, >> we're about 162,000 below default 63. If all the other ones come in, we would be >> if if we did the other ones, it

061would um make the differential between them uh $359,259 if you did all the ones you just described. >> That's what I was coming up. Yeah, because we had the 120 and the additional drops to 238 and a half. So that's where I was coming up with. >> Yep. >> 358. >> Round about >> Yes. >> Yeah. if you took all of them, but you you can you can take them in pieces and then it >> with with default also producing I know. >> So the the only thing that impacted the default change was the CBA um for the support staff because it was contractual and normally we go into budget season having that number >> um already but because the government shutdown there was no October. So that's why it's a late change to default.

062But bottom line, if all of these changes were to go in for what gets on the ballot, our operating budget is going to go in at 359,000 or so below default. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Question about it. >> Yeah, I had a question. The 100 report card software one was that he said he switched over many years ago. Was that many years ago? roughly five like five or so. >> I think it might have been eight years ago. So, >> how many was it? >> Probably eight years ago. Um and and again, it was like $4,000. I was like, "Okay, yeah, we could do that. That sounds like a great idea." You know, and and >> I'm trying to remember cuz I remember like specifically at one point there was a massive shift in

063how the report cards in elementary school changed. >> Yeah. >> And it was really for the good. They became to my to my mind from a parenting point of view, they became much much much more useful. >> Yeah. And I'm wondering would this set it back? Is this going to reset the report card structure back in doing this? Was that why we moved to this or were those two just >> Great question. Yep. [music] No. Uh, you know, I might I might I might I might bring Paul up here because, you know, he was he was integral to to this move. Uh, he's the one that got in my ear uh many years ago. I mean basically what we saw in Aspen seven or eight years ago it was really hard to create a standardsbased

064report guard for elementary school students. Um so we went to different software. We are hopeful um that between you know Paul's skills in Aspen our IT department and what our curriculum coordinator does right now we can reproduce it. We just haven't done it yet. So there's a there's a big risk there but I will say we don't know if we can do it. [music] We're hoping we can do it. I don't know Paul if you want to say anything either. >> No, I think there's two sides to it. It's the data entry by teachers, you know, getting grades into it. Um, and then how we reproduce it and what it looks like to the parent. Um, so the formatting was, you know, I go back to the it was really the standardsbased report card when

065we made that switch. Aspen at the time wasn't able to handle it. We switched to teacher uh for several years and then we switched to um and that's kind of where we are right now. But to specifically answer your question, Alma carries out the functionality that we haven't identified as to be able to do. >> Yeah. >> So the risk is that you guys the somewhat it and a group of people will have to work together to try to effectively reproduce the functionality you're getting out of this software using Aspen software that prior attempts failed, but you're hoping that now it's advanced enough that you can get to that point. >> Correct. What we'd be asking Aspen to do to to produce two [music] still two different report cards, right? A standardsbased one and a

066traditional report card for the middle school and high school. >> Yeah. It sounds risky. >> Again, there's risk to it for sure. We we agree. >> Are there other cheaper softwares besides Alma or I don't know anything about that. Yeah. >> I feel what happened with the technology world and schools and co is now they take advantage of us. everything was free and like, "Hey, we'll help you get through this and take it." And the bills have just never gotten lower like and [music] and I think we're we're just victims of it now. It kind of sucks. I don't know if he has any comments. >> And if you're going to switch to any company, it would probably make more sense to invest the time into Aspen, which we already know we have. >> Yep.

067Okay. >> Right. And that's that's our hope, right? That our our one student management system can carry out >> what we're asking it to carry out. So all makes sense to us. >> In this case, and Kevin had some good points, great points, and Paul, thank you for that. Um, does it make sense to leave this alone, do some research, and see if you can work on it throughout the year to see if we can just give it back at the end of the year and fund balance? >> Sure. >> If it's in the budget and gets approved, I just think instead of taking the risk and trying to is when it has some time and and that you can try to reproduce it, see if it works. and you know for for 14,000 if

068if we can give it back it'd be in fund balance at the end of 27 or uh 26 school year um rather than take the chance and gamble that it doesn't work and it's it's just not working out then then we're you know we're not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars but talking a small amount but if we don't need to use it and we can get it in in in use then we will have some fund balance additional fund balance so I don't know what the budget committee thinks of that. I just think it's anything that's risky. We don't >> I don't think it's worth it. If it was a couple hundred grand and they thought they could do it, then maybe we look at it. But some great points. I think with that

069one, you know, at this point um is is is a point to wait on. But any any uh anything else from budget committee on any of these items >> uh for the uh the $9,000 decrease in it. >> Yeah, the tutoring. Um so I talked about one a decrease in the in the need over the since co um has there already been within the budget itself has this line decreased >> no >> with that. So >> yeah it was kind of where it was you know 3 to four years ago when it was much higher and I think we just haven't seen the needs and what we're saying is I think we have smaller needs. >> Okay. And then I I guess what what's been the percentage drop since and when you say since co

070are you saying 2021 2020 [music] 2022 it >> it's all a blur you know [laughter] >> those two to three years were terrible but >> yeah 21 yeah probably 21 >> yeah and and what would you say like the percentage decrease for that was um >> about a third >> yeah so there's probably about 18 to $20,000 still in those accounts to to to pay for tutoring when we need it. >> Okay. You said this would be >> 30% >> the 30% cut >> 30% >> drop both in um moneywise and non-enrollment wise but needwise. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Anyone else? I guess uh the only last question I'd have is I I know there's obvious reasons why you would have to put the language in the last line item, but given that it's

071a good chunk of the savings we're talking about off operating is it in all likelihood the 98,000 will come off. >> Yeah. So >> on the wall? [singing] >> No. No. That that's our that's our standard kind of if you remember if you go back to the ad swap sheet that's what we're carrying for an average FT cost. So what we're saying is we think one will decrease and we'll be able to >> the likelihood. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Thank you. looking at these other than I think um Amanda brings up some good points on on par professionals um that always seems to be uh up and down like a roller coaster as the year goes on and different people identified um just having the security of that additional funds and the 14 um what

072I'm hearing is there's some concerns on those two. Um, and I didn't hear much about the other three. Would everybody be comfortable with leaving them two in the budget and reducing by the other three items on the board? >> Any other thoughts? >> So adding back in the 50,000 in the >> in the 14. Yeah. >> Yep. So we'd be taking 64 off of that 196. So it would be what? One 132 I think 0. >> Yes. >> For another reduction. >> And Dan, are you comfortable with that as superintendent? >> Yep. I just want to make sure we calculate it correct before we do it. Y 132050. I I I I believe we can handle that um with with minimal risk and and and staying away from major academic uh impacts. And we and

073I appreciate that. we wanted to make sure that didn't happen and affect any of our programs or education needs um and that. So truly appreciate all that work. Anybody else have any questions regarding that? >> So for for your reference that would just mean the differential between the proposed and the default would now be $295,259. >> 295 what? >> 259. Do you have the new operating budget number? >> Um, I would just have to >> Yeah. So, if we can have a new default and new operating. >> So, default will stay the same. Um, >> that's correct. And then it would be the 804us 250. math in action. >> Yep. 94938754 >> 94938 >> I believe so. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Okay. I think psychologically that helps at 94 million to be honest. >>

074Yep. >> Yeah. >> What what I like about it is it's it's a true budget and it's been vetted you know several times by the budget committee by ourselves by the community and um you know in a public hearing you know it can be looked at again too and you know one more look at it before um deliberative as well. So seeing no other questions uh oh Patrick Yes, excuse me. I apologize for my voice. [clears throat] One or two quick questions since this topic just just come up here a couple of times regarding the second biggest line item there that you just um it sounds like want to restore this special education support staff. Um I note that two staff are listed here. How many staff total are there doing this? [clears throat] >>

075That's a big number. >> I would have to look. I was four. It's 400. It's a lot. Um >> for the pair of professionals, these that are listed here. >> Yeah, we we we have a number somewhere. It took us a little bit of time to kind of dig. >> Okay. Um and when it says here two staff serving for 6 and a quarter daily hours, is that 6 and a quarter together for them or 6.25 each? >> 6.25 each. >> Okay. And like roughly what is the ratio of PAR professionals to students in IEP programs? >> It it's it really varies. Um, so some of our self-contained programs like our our kids with autism or or big developmental um disabilities, it might be one-on-one, but then there are kids who have uh, you know,

076kind of lesser lesser [music] needs IEPs where uh, you might have a pair of professional supporting four or five kids, you know, so the the ratios change a lot depending on the need. >> My my guess is >> 250. that one. >> Well, it's hard because it's not all the same as >> Yeah. The problem is the support staff covers our secretaries um and a whole range of other positions. Um I think it's around 180 par professionals we have in the district that support special education. Something like that, >> but I I could be off by a little bit. >> No, that that's cool. Thank you. >> Okay. Y appreciate it. >> Okay. No problem. >> All right. So, seeing no questions here, let's let this sit for a minute. We'll go through the warrants

077and then we'll vote on the budget. >> Oh, sure. Come on. >> On the warrant articles, >> Janet Bourstein, Boyd Road. >> We're going to discuss them next. Janet. >> Okay. I just wanted to change this >> default budget in the um schoolboard budget that's on here. >> Yep. >> Cuz that's going to change, correct? >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll make sure it's done. We're going to go through them now with everybody. >> Thank you, though. >> We'll post for the public hearing. There will be a public a public hearing folder on the website that will have all the updated documents, too. >> All right. [cough] So, let's [clears throat] um jump into the 7.2 discussion on Warren articles. We can go right through them. >> Yep. So, so we did uh article two just now.

078Um but article three is the uh full kindergarten article and and again the way we're writing it where we're articulating that based on the one-time reductions and the additional revenue the operating budget would decrease by $28,000 and we would gain $548,226 in revenue based on our projections. >> Okay. And we'll we want to go do questions in case just so we don't have to go back. >> Any questions on article that was article three, correct? >> Yes. Any questions? Article three. >> I don't have any questions. I just have to say I love that it's so short because I think it's um it'll help people understand. Yes. >> Yeah. Um question. Yeah. A question I had. Is there where it's a negative number, is there any definition we can put in front of it or

079a color like red? Could those numbers be red where it's negative? >> We can we can ask >> on the ballot because that would stand out and I it probably can't be, but it's a question I just kind of thought about to your point, Sarah, >> if it could be read and it's a negative number or just a word that it's a deduct of 12, something to that. >> Sure. because people say, "Oh, it's 12 cents." They don't see that little lines, you know, or the parenthesis. Um, so just something to think about. But great point, Sarah. Thank you. >> And other in future warrant articles that that are listed here and there's some bolded numbers um in those warrant articles. Could we at least bold, you know, will decrease by $28,000? [music] That >>

080even that would stick out, you know, decrease. Yeah, >> you have a question. >> Yes. Take home six minus one circle. Uh, I just wanted to commend you guys for being able to put through with your attorney and the uh, state DRA the wording on this article to be able to include the wordings that it's a decrease of the 208 and the increase in revenues of the 548. I think that's huge for the voters to be able to see and to be able to read so they can actually understand that this is a huge savings for the voters going forward and this isn't just um a pie in the sky thing that we're trying to push through. >> So I think this is huge and a good push forward by the staff and by the

081board. Thank you. >> Thank you chair. >> We again this is a legal thing instead of impact could we say estimated tax reduction or is that >> reduction? Yeah. Yeah. Estimate tax reduction impact. >> Yeah, we can look into that. [cough] >> Jennifer, boy road. Um I have a question about the revenue that's coming in. Is this all state and federal revenue? >> Just state. So So basically right now we only get, you know, half the revenue per kid because they're only there half a day. By being full day, we get the full revenue. Does that full revenue fluctuate at all? >> Um, yeah, depending on the kid. I mean, enrollment, right? Depending on enrollment. Yeah, it could go up or down. We So, we we like everything we do with revenue, we make it

082very conservative. So, it could be higher, but we're trying to be as conservative as possible. [music] >> Okay. So, we get X amount of dollars per student. >> Yes. Correct. Um, has that amount I mean I know a lot of the revenue that's come in it's been um they've stopped some of it or reduced some of it or some of it we're not getting anymore. >> Yeah. We have not seen a dramatic change in adequacy. The exact number was 42 31. >> Yeah. >> So this is basically half of that. We're getting a half additional only half of that that we don't get right now. >> So we'll get an additional 2,000 plus per kid. >> Okay. So, this is pretty much guaranteed revenue >> and we we verified that with our state revenue uh

083people just to be like we're sure, right? And they're just as excited as we are to try and get at this. So, they verified several times. >> Great. You would be good on this one. >> Let's um move to article four. >> So, you know, article four the uh the school board hasn't officially uh voted on yet, but we're doing hopefully later on. But we have a new collective bargaining agreement with the custodians. They have already ratified it and this is uh what it would look like uh over the next three years. >> Any questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Article five. Article five, you always have that one just in case the collective bargaining units don't pass. You're allowed to have a special election and kind of renegotiate and and kind of go through that

084process. So you always have to have article five just to give yourself that second chance in case it fails. >> Okay. Thank you. Article six. [music] >> Article six is do you want to accept federal grants? So um you know we think this is a good thing. So this just just basically lays out the total federal appropriations we project we're going to get uh next year that we do hope the voters uh accept. Any questions on second? Moving on to seven. Uh, article seven is the buildings and grounds capital reserve fund. Uh, we went over that I think at December 18th. These are just uh some of the major projects just kind of keep up with our old buildings um to make sure they're not breaking down. >> Any questions? Article seven. >> Article eight.

085>> Uh, article 8 the IT department uh talked about when they were here in December 18th. This is just uh the infrastructure fund we've had in for a while to kind of replace the infrastructure needs at a steady rate rather than big costs when they come along and we found it pretty effective the last couple years to have this. >> Any questions on our >> Thank you. What is the current balance of this um infrastructure capital reserve fund? >> Uh you will tell us >> it's it's in your budget um the book. Um, it looks like right now if you look on page 281, it's got about $85,000. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? Same. Article nine. >> Article 9 is one we we typically have yeartoear. It's such it's the back

086of the budget, too. This is this is what we use to buy desks and chairs and furniture. Um, you know, and kind of each school makes their list every year. Um, and this is this is where we we fund it. >> Questions on article 9. >> Article 10 is the one we changed. It used to be $137,000, but we took out the bus and um the truck, and all that remains was the what was it called again? I'm sorry. the infield machine. >> Infield machine. Yes. So, so that pays for the infield machine for our fields. >> Any questions on article 10? >> Article 11. >> Uh, article 11, this would be new. Uh if you go back to our school care problem, what we're proposing is if we do get um a return from

087school care in the future, we want to start putting money into this fund just in case we get huge spikes in the future to kind of lessen the impact uh on taxpayers. So this would be a brand new reserve fund that that's specifically to help us with any healthcare spikes in the future. Any questions? Jenner Bornstein Boyd Road on this article you said in past years we have gotten a lot of money back from the insurance company. >> Yeah. >> What would we do with that money if say it was sitting there for three or four years? >> I mean they think it discuss. So, you know, so let's say let's say over a couple years there's a million dollars in this account, >> right? >> Let's say we're all of a sudden get another

088huge bill out of nowhere from school care. We would use that money to lessen the costs and I'd have to ask the taxpayers for more money. >> Yeah. >> Okay. What? Say we don't have a large bill. I mean, how high are we going to let this fund go up to? I mean, say it's up to a million dollars. >> Yeah. >> And you know, the next year we're still getting money back. Sure. >> Then we're still getting money back and we're still getting money back. >> How high I mean is there a limit to where this fund can go. >> So we would have we don't have we have a limits on how we could use the money. We could use it if we ever wanted to change or self-fund or anything like that

089the way that it's written. Um we are just asking to start it with 10. However much we get for a rebate if it happens in the future wouldn't necessarily go into this account. >> That would be left up to our discretion. would be the discretion of the board to decide is it going to is it going to be returned to offset the rates for the coming year. Does that make more sense or does it make sense to put it in this account? So this establishes >> I I am curious about that that point though because we have our guidelines for the unassigned fund balance and the limits that we're allowed to hold in that for a separate fund reserve fund like this. Do we have such limits on those as well? We don't but you

090would have to put it you you guys would have >> count towards our maximum >> it does balance. Okay. >> So all our funds total >> total that number >> total to that number means we can't be at more than like right now it's like 3.7 million. >> So >> well these are capital reserves. So, so if they're established, if you look at this list, we have some that we are not adding to that have money that we haven't accessed in a while, but we've just always left it there for when when that that event happens so that we have it there, but we don't have to fund it with more money or put the money in there. That would be discretion of the board to decide. >> So, you might decide as a board

091next year, we might if say we get a million dollar return. I don't foresee that happening, but you might say, um, you know, we want to put 20,000 of it into this account. The rest would offset rates. That would be their decision. But once it's in there, it would have to be used for the purposes of listed for the establishment of it. >> Okay. >> So, you're saying we have other accounts that we've put money in but effectively not had to use that money >> for capital reserve. It's not based on the the operating budget. You have a year to use that. The capital reserves are established and held by the town >> and then we decide how we're going to access them based on voters and then in the spring we ask for that

092money to to cover that. But they can sit in that account until >> we have a need for it that's based on what it was established for. Like we have the special ed one. >> Perfect example. We have about $130,000 in the special ed one. Maybe a little more. I >> think we have more than that. Um because you know what we've seen over the years is these huge swings in addition replacements. If it happens, we want to be able to to lessen the cost if there's an emergency. >> So we've had $200,000 that have sat that has been sitting there. We haven't added to it in some time, but we keep it there because there could be a time where we have a catastrophic placement cost that we need to access it because there's

093no room in the operating budget to do so. >> Okay. So this is something that we're actually not going to add to every single year. That would be the >> it would depend on the board at the time. >> Okay. >> Say say there's a half a million dollars in at the end of the year or we get a holiday pay from our insurance and they give us a million dollars, we might put $500 in there and put 500 back to the taxpayers, you know, so it's going to vary depending on who's sitting up here. >> Okay. So basically you're in the past years where we have gotten money back, [music] we haven't had a fund to hold it >> for insurance purposes. >> So this fund is just going to >> where we just

094got hit with that $2 million. We figured it was time to >> you know with with the administration to have that safety net on this like we do in other areas um in the district. So >> Okay. Thank you. You bet. >> Any other questions? Seeing none. Uh, article 12. >> Article 12. So, there's a big meeting uh right before this meeting. Um, Mr. Parent and Mr. Smith are kind of chairing a committee to to start uh capital capital campaign basically. So, this allows us to kind of start that and and uh you know receive all the benefits from that and then also fund raise for large capital projects if we do have them. Specifically, the first target is a potential turf field. question. >> I have one question. Um, does does RSA dictate whether

095or not um gifts can come with strings? So, for example, if Verizon makes a 5,000 or $5 million donation for a new football stadium, as example, do we now have to can they put in their contract we have to call it the Verizon Lancer Stadium or something like that? Or do we now have to switch all of the tele communications over to Verizon or like how does this work? I'm just cons I just don't want to large donations with the strings. Right. >> Yeah. >> So the committee's you know talked about and entertained um naming rights for that that sizable donation but we wouldn't we couldn't and wouldn't impact other areas where we're going to have a new phone line because it's at the year. >> All right. So like naming but not operational. >>

096Correct. >> Got it. Okay. >> Yeah. This is just a legal way of holding and retaining the money to be used to that project. >> Okay. that nothing with any contract issues [music] or that. So, >> and this way people are aware of it. They know what we're doing, >> you know, with this and it's all new to us that we've been working on >> and uh hopefully be for come forward with it in the near future. So, >> okay, great. Thanks. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Um, article 13, we're going to pass hold on that. So, article 14 will become article 13. >> And this is um this is just to, you know, support uh the new district office project that the town is kind of working with us on. And this

097just gives us the language to kind of go through that process um uh with the town. So, is this because I know there's the the bond for this on the town side and now this is the lease agreement on the school side. Do both have to pass for this to occur? And what happens if one passes and the other doesn't? Like, it's obviously not a big deal if this passes. Um um but if the and the other one doesn't pass, that's an obvious. Yes, we can enter a lease agreement, but there's going to be no building. There is no lease agreement to be had. But what if that passes and then this doesn't pass? >> Well, the more important one that has to pass is on the town side because they have to be able

098to lend us $2.5 million. If that can't happen, there is no project. >> Right. Right. So, but why what I'm saying is what if this the town side passes and then this doesn't? We would need them both to pass. >> Okay. >> Yeah. They need them both pass. Yeah. What >> is is what I'm getting that nothing would happen. >> Yeah. So So basically the the town would be authorized to build an extension onto the town hall and then we wouldn't have an an agreement with the school district [music] for that. So yeah. So I guess it's a >> so that that is a very >> excellent question. [laughter] Can can we look into see >> so I think we have a better clarifying point. The reason why this one is here is so we

099can be part of a lease. >> Yes. >> Right. >> But >> yeah, >> can't can't the school board enter into a [music] lease on behalf of the community? >> Yes. >> That's what I'm worried. I mean, if the money is appropriated, do we really need this to be there because it's >> it is right. I mean, if the funds are there, >> Yeah. >> we'd lose another whole year, >> if the people don't approve us to enter into a lease with the >> That's what I That's my concern. That's right. But we But but our legal counsel said we have to There was a difference between what had gone on >> with the lease we're in now compared to this with the payback and the other pieces of it because it will impact future

100budgets. >> Okay. >> But could we run that by him again? >> Sure. with those concerns, please, before the public hearing. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Yeah. [laughter] >> I I I think what we were trying to do is just be as safe as possible because we go back seven or eight years. >> Yep. Yep. >> It it caused a stir. >> Yes. >> You know, so we're just trying to do it by the book. >> Yeah. You know, but where and to the point the the town's money is not even a bond. It's fund balance. >> Correct. Yeah. >> So this it's it's only simple majority. Yes. And it's funds available to save our taxpayers over 700 plus thousand in interest fees because we don't have to borrow money. >> Yes. And I'm Yeah.

101And I'm wondering if it could be a com like maybe on the town side if this is approved this means that you know this will be built and the school district will be entering into a an agreement to pay back x amount of rather than having two separate articles because again >> there's that what [music] >> what if no means no. >> Right. Exactly. >> Right. unlikely, but again, [laughter] >> correct. >> I had a more logistical question on this. Um, why is this at the bottom of the ballot? >> Sorry. >> Why is this the last article? >> We got to Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I I we we had this conversation. I think we have to get voter approval to pay the money back to the town. It's not just the lease.

102We're borrowing money to do it and then entering into the lease. >> So, we have to have voter approval >> to pay back >> utilize our fund balance to pay uh to pay on a yearly basis the lease. >> Yes. Because we're paying back their their $2.5 million to them. So, I think we have to get voter I think that's how Gordon explained it was that we're paying back the $2.5 million from our our side. So, we have to get >> we we'll we'll get ourselves educated by next year. It goes back to the >> the original one. >> Yeah. But that we don't really want to talk about >> but we didn't have a >> we move forward with right and >> let's let's just see if we really do because I don't see

103a lot of difference in then what did happen seven eight years ago. I I don't >> I think the difference is is that we're borrowing the 2.5 million from the town and we're paying it back. So in the [clears throat] it says that we have 10 years to pay it back. So I think that's the difference. We were just paying rent or we are paying rent to where we are now. >> But that's basically what we're doing. >> You could change the word to rent rather than lease and it would be the same thing. >> We'll get a clarification. >> Yeah. Just draw it to legal ammonate. That's all. >> Yeah. I'm just concerned to that point is the money's there and no means [music] no and >> right >> we can't move into the

104place a year early and we're stuck >> right >> so all right >> any other questions >> sorry oh sorry >> so is this new because I don't remember this being presented in the past board meetings >> y when we're when we were kind of going through the final stages of the budget creation. When we met with our lawyer, they they recommended we put this in there to just line it up with the town. >> Okay? Because I know when we've been having our conversations about this building that there would only be the warrant article on the town side for this, >> but legal review came back and said we needed to do it when we when we met with him. So, I I'll get the I'll get the the reasoning for it, but we

105are paying the town back for the money. >> Of course, I understand that. It just may be convoluted and confusing for the voters. Yeah. >> So, >> yeah, >> hopefully we can get some clarifications from the the attorney. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Part of it also is us authorizing to use 1.4 of our own balance, too, that they need to vote on >> we can do that. We put it in there. >> So, we have to That's what I'm saying. >> Doesn't need to be so wordy. We'd have that discretion >> with the fund balance. We made the allocation to put 2 million additional in and earmarked it for this project and gave back 1.4 to the without the vote, you know. So that that's what got me gets me thinking a little bit.

106Do we really need this? >> Um but appreciate it. >> Question. Yeah, I was just going to make a comment that um that this particular project or this these warrant articles around this project, I think um they're good candidates for some like [music] good PR around what's going to happen here, right? Because when I think about the previous um like kindergarten last year for instance, you know, I think people just didn't understand where the savings were. And even reading this, it doesn't, you know, I don't I don't see like, oh, I'm going to save rent later or I'm not going to pay back, you know, percentage because I'm getting from the town or whatever. So, I think uh like definitely calls for some persistent education of >> agree the town. >> The town does not

107have an interest correct on That's where the savings of a 15-year bond is over 700 plus thousand. >> Yeah. >> Yep. So that's a lot of the information we need to get out to the community on all fronts with that means you guys too. >> And maybe to that to that point if it does have to stay in maybe it can say 2.5 million interest free from the town or just maybe there's some way to work in some wording. I mean, I think it would be better if it didn't >> if it was on it >> on this list of war articles, but >> there might be a way to >> leave some of that in. Yeah. >> And then also to Tim's point too about moving it up. >> Yeah. >> Um, you know,

108just with always having the fear of ballot drop off, you know, >> voter fatigue by the end of the ballot. >> Yeah. So, I if we could have that, I don't know, underneath the sto kindergart. >> Yeah. Four or five. >> I would actually say the I feel like voter fatigue is is definitely real, but I would absolutely say that when people get to the end of the ballot, it's the hardcore people that know what's going on. >> Yeah. >> And they would [music] want this and they would see the tax impact of zero. >> So, I don't know. You can both ways as well. So, >> could you make the tax impact? No, I don't think you could make the tax impact negative and indicate savings, could you? No, I didn't think so. because

109you wouldn't in the first >> you wouldn't see it for next year. >> Right. >> All right. >> So, let me do you do you want if if we were going to make it a different article, I would propose making it article 7 before we start the capital reserves. >> Okay. >> Um or leaving it where it is. >> Okay. >> Yeah. That right after the school lunches. So I'd say move it up. >> Yeah, >> that personally >> from a superstitious perspective, I'd much rather see it as article 7 and 13. >> Joking. [laughter] >> Good call. >> Janet Boenstein Boyd Road. The other thing is is um the lease agreement that we have for the district office right now. Do we have any idea what that would go up to? >> He said

110he would um he would honor the the typical uh increases we've seen the last couple years. >> They're CPI based so between 3 and 4%. I think it's captive four. >> And what are we paying now on that please? >> It's about 220. >> Yeah. 220. But then we also have to pay taxes and the other things associated. >> Right. So this is going to save us a substantial amount of money. >> Absolutely. >> But to your point about advertising, >> you're right. I have not seen half as much in regards to this that I did with the last two school building district office things that we were going to do that didn't pass. So I think education is going to be huge on this. >> Yeah. I think we we normally wait till after

111the public hearing and then do the our full push >> mark in case anything changes. >> Yeah. This is probably I think this was great. I don't know who came up with this or how they come up with this but this was absolutely wonderful. Thank you. >> You bet. Thank you. Great. No other questions. That wraps up Warren articles discussion. We'll jump into um well we can do the calendar real quick. I don't think there'll be much question on that. Um for the board any questions on No changes, Dan. Everything's the same. >> Nope. I just just to go back to the the comment uh earlier. Um we see a dramatic difference in attendance when workshop days are on Wednesdays versus Fridays. >> Okay. >> Yeah. A lot more learning happens on Wednesdays and Fridays.

112>> All right. Uh, any questions for the board on the calendar? >> I don't like that tendance piece, but I do feel like parenting wise, it's well, it's a lot easier for people to be able to take a long weekend off. And I will say we recently switched to workshop day in our district, the Friday, and I was worried about attendance as well, but surprisingly it was better than I thought many staff members did attend. questions. >> I'm just saying to bring up that point is >> question. One question we got is would the freshman orientation be on Friday night the weekend before for parents and students or would it be during the day >> cuz somebody was concerned about having it on Yeah. with a Monday start. >> Yeah. >> I don't think we

113got that far to the timeline, but it it would be before we started on the 31st. >> Yeah. >> So the 28th. >> Yeah. The exact time of the day. I don't think we've gotten there yet, but yeah. Yeah, that was just a question somebody that's a great question about they were concerned where it's on a Friday night. What would what you get? >> Yeah, >> I'm sure the high school administration will identify a night during the teacher workshop week of you know being able to host where they could capture the most >> students won't be on that Friday night. >> Correct. >> Yeah. Okay. It's not a great time. >> I don't think they would do that. >> Yeah. Okay. It was just a good question I guess. So um but there's consensus with

114the the way it is there made that point that >> yeah I'm okay you said but if other people feel strongly >> and what do you >> Yeah. No I I mean I'm not trying to I think when we did it on a Friday after we did it I vowed to never do it again. >> Do we do it on a Friday before? >> Yep. um four or five years. I I forget exactly when, but >> Okay. All right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> Y >> we're good. Calendar. Do you want a motion and all that to make it legal? >> Watching my kids on that day. [laughter and cough] >> Um I'll look for a motion to approve the calendar for 2627 school year. >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by

115Tim. All in favor? >> I 50. Thank you. All right. Uh let's jump into uh 8.2 and to see what the action action the board will take regarding the proposed board warrant articles to be forwarded to the public bond hearing on January 15, 2026. Um the only change I will say is that we changed the default I mean the schoolboard budget itself to 94 million with the adjustments we made with the uh reductions in a few areas. The default stays the same and that article 14 if needed we'll move to article seven. I think that covers everything with that. There's no discussion. I'll look for a motion to approve the warrant with those changes, please. >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by Kevin. All those in favor? >> I zero. Thank you.

116And we'll jump to a quick if I may. Um, so on January 20th, budget committee will be meeting to discuss and vote on the school budget and the warrant articles. So, just want to throw it out there. >> So, next Tuesday. >> Um, Tuesday 20th. >> Yeah, the 20th. So, two >> two weeks. >> Yeah, two weeks from now. >> Yes. >> Got it. >> Where are you going to meet and what time? >> Uh, so it'll be Sunny Crest um conference room 700 p.m. >> Thank you. And on the uh let's see board 8.3 see what the action the board would take regarding the appropriation for the general fund operating budget and warren articles to be forwarded to the public budget hearing on January 1526. So now we have the budget and the warren

117articles. I'll look for a motion um uh regarding the appropriation for the general fund operating budget articles. >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by Amanda. All those in favor? >> I 50. Good. Okay. That is all we have for you. Um we're actually going to um pass on the next five line items and move them to our 27th meeting because it's got some discussion in that on policies um and that. So uh we're going to finish up with a few things, but if you guys would like to retire tonight and we truly appreciate all your work and effort and we'll see you uh on the 50. >> Yes, you're on the Thank you. Hi. >> So, uh, if everybody's okay, 8.4 to 8.88, we're going to move to the January 27th meeting

118so we can have a better discussion of those if everybody's okay with that. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> I I think we incorporated all the feedback from the prior time. I think I think it all works, but look it over. >> Yep. Thank you, D. Uh, 8.9 uh tenative agreement for the custodial union. agreement. Uh so what what you have is the highlights of the the language changes that happened. It's not the full uh agreement, but it's it's the highlights of all the updates. Um a lot a lot of work happened around how the department structured and and wages and that was that was the bulk of our work this time around. Um so there's a lot in there. Um and then a few other language changes. um some some around sick leave and and

119things like that that we thought would just make the department more effective and you know Tim and Bob were intimate part of that. So is there other things more to share? Um, yeah, I'll just hit on the uh it it took a lot more meetings than we typically would with this size group of about 48 people, but um between uh Lisa and HR and uh Joe with B&G um came up with a with a whole new system um with job descriptions and and that which is much more efficient and easier for our employees to interpret and change some job descriptions and leadership roles. So, I think that was a lot of the confusion for a couple extra meetings. It wasn't so much the money. They were very accommodating in the money. We we instead of

120going with the CPI and percentages, we went with dollar amounts. Um, which is much more simpler to work with accounting wise as well as for them to understand how much more they're going to make a year where it's a three-year contract. And then there was just some wording changes in a few areas. But Tim, anything else I missed or >> n that I think uh overall it was a great collaboration between the two groups and they seem to be pleased. I don't know what the final vote was of them ratifying but I I know it passed and um everybody seemed to be pleased. So well done. I think so. >> Thanks for working on that you guys. >> Yeah, no problem. >> There was a round of applause in the room. It was nice. >>

121Yeah, there was. [laughter] Yeah. >> Yeah, it was Uh it was it was great. So um >> you I need an approval, right? >> Uh so if I could have a motion to approve the custo the the tenative agreement of the custodial union contract, please. >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by Tim. All those in favor? I >> I 5. Thank you. All right, Dan got anything on this? >> No reports to be made. >> Come on. I think I spoke enough tonight. So, [clears throat] >> all right. [snorts] Uh, anyone can anything? >> All right. With that, um, I'll look for a motion to go to non-public session requested [clears throat] under RSA 91A colon 3 section [music] 2B and C, please. >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second

122by Kevin. And a roll call vote left [snorts] and right, please. >> I, Kevin Gray, I Tim Porter. I Bob Slater. I Sarah Loftton. I >> Good night, Mon.