School Board Budget Workshop 12-9-25

001of the London area school board to be held on Tuesday, December 9th, 2025 in the cafe at Londereerry High School, 295 Mammoth Road, Londereary, New Hampshire. The meeting will also be broadcast on local cable access channel 8 as well as 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 the consent agenda. Uh some upcoming meetings. December 18th, 2025 will be a budget workshop plus a regular schoolboard meeting right here in a cafe at 7:00 p.m. On January 7th, 2025 will be adult ed graduation over in the gym across the parking lot at 6 p.m.

002And again on January 8th, uh 2026, I caught that the typo. um budget workshop in a regular schoolboard meeting right here in the cafe at 7:00 p.m. Could I have a motion for the consent agenda, please? >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by Amanda. All those in favor? >> I I 5 Z. Thank you. >> Um I'm going to come back to public comment. We're going to open up the floor with public comment as we go through each department. Um how we will work the uh budget workshop is the presentations will be made the board can chime in on any questions then the budget committee and then we'll open it up to the floor and then we'll come back around if there's any additional questions and try to be as thorough as

003we can um as we get through this budget session and I appreciate the budget committee for being here and uh our few guests. So welcome. So, with that, uh, and then I will have a a regular public comment after the budget presentation in case somebody shows up and and wants to comment on anything else on in the school district. So, with that, I'd like to uh jump right into the budget workshop at 5.1 personnel, Mr. Black. Thank you. Um, so what we have is is a presentation and and you'll see presentations from from all the different schools and departments tonight. Uh we can find all these presentations online and if there's any questions just stop us along the way. Um so the first one is staffing and personnel. It's the biggest one. It's 80 81%

004of our budget. Um you know and just keep in mind in the nearly 300 pages you have here um you know what we're trying to do with our kids is make sure they're college and career ready and provide them with a really good learning environment outside of the classroom too. That means clubs, the arts, other opportunities in sports. and we really believe in that well-rounded approach uh to helping our kids [snorts] and most of this budget pays for the people that does that work. Um you know, so just kind of keep that in mind. And you know, I think another big picture thing [music] is we're all striving for this this portrait of a graduate where we want to make sure our kids are good communicators and collaborators, problem solvers and creative thinkers. They have

005good self-direction or engaged citizens. These are the big picture things that we're all driving towards. Um and you know, as a quick reminder, I did this last time, so I'll go even quicker this time. is our staff have really done an excellent job in the last two years raising our public facing numbers. Um very in a lot of respects becoming leaders in the state and we should be very proud of them for all the work they've done. So here's a few highlights from uh from the last school year. Um you I'll take the high school and a lot a lot of good stats came out of the high school from the PSATs and SATs but the one that really caught my mind was the advanced placement tests. We had more than 140% growth in the

006number of kids taking those tests while at the same time raising our passage passing rate by more than 20%. We won't see that bump in the US News and World Report probably for one more year. Um but it'll be nice to see it and a lot of our departments outperform the state and international standards and that's kind of what the [music] chart is below. We're very proud of that. When I look at the high when I look at the middle school um what the eighth grade team last year did was wonderful. They had a huge uh jump in their literacy scores, a huge jump in their math scores. They got a huge jump um out of the eighth graders on a nth grade PSAT test and a really big jump in in the science test.

007Really, really good. And and and I know the middle school team is working hard this year to see similar progress in sixth and seventh grade as well. So, a very good job middle school. When I look at our elementary schools, I was so impressed by the systemic jump we saw in our math scores. Um South School led the way. um the in many of our grade levels, they were more than 20 points above the state average and they were in many ways um you know kind of competing with some of the the districts we we strive for all by themselves. But we saw another big jump in in North school as well. They jumped above a lot of their statistics from [music] the prior year and above the state average and the same thing with

008Matthew Thornton. We were so proud of all of our elementary schools. Then we get to our littlest learners. Uh, Moose Hill is is is a is a great learning environment and they do a wonderful job making sure our kids meet those half-day standards year in and year out. I have no doubt they're going to get more than 80 to 85% of their kids above those halfday standards. They do it consistently. So, it's been great to see. Um, and you know where we're at in the budget. This year's a little bit different. Um, you know, and I went over this last time, but I'll do it very quickly. What's similar in what we do [music] is we we try and match our budget to enrollment. And I'll go over that at length tonight. Um, we definitely

009are always cognizant of where the op operating budget is compared to default. We're below it again. Uh, we worked hard to get there, but we also try and make investments. We want to make sure we have a strong academic program and a strong co-curricular program. Um, [clears throat] and we want to keep on doing what we just did in all those slides. We want to make sure we can meet those goals and keep on getting better. The big push we've done over the last couple years is make sure we have a much stronger academic program and we're doing it and and it's great work to see. Um, and then you know the last thing that that that's pretty similar is we always have to worry about our old buildings and making sure we keep keep

010up with them well and that's sort of what some of the capital reserves accounts are for. What's different about this year's budget is, you know, we were blindsided a couple months ago with uh skyrocketing healthcare costs and that's going to be a big theme of tonight and I'll kind of tie that in towards the end. Um, and it's unfortunate but that's one of the big drivers of why the budget's [snorts] so up. Um, you know, another thing that was kind of came out of nowhere over the summer is we had federal funds that were actually scheduled. We were ready to run programs and JC groups and I and all those things and they suddenly went away for 10 weeks and we were kind of scrambling. We didn't want to make we wanted to make sure

011our kids did not lose out. So, we're responding to that probably happening again and other federal funds going away. So, that's new. Um, we are also continuing to make investments in career connected learning. Um, and I think what we saw in the in the the vanishing federal grants over the summer really gave us a pause, and I'll go over this in a little bit, is now we want to take some things over locally. Um, we can't really trust what Washington is doing, and we don't want London kids to lose out. Um, and we want to make sure we're doing what we can for our kids. Another reason why this budget's uh, you know, up a lot is there are collective bargain contracts. Uh, we have the last couple years. they have made us so much

012more competitive and hiring new staff which has been great but obviously then the costs are up too. Um at some point uh the next meeting on December 18th we'll talk more about full day kindergarten um and and where it says is a Warren article. Um and then you know one thing I'll touch on tonight too is you know there is probably a loss of some part of our academic program this year with the budget that I am presenting. The smaller we get the harder it's going to be to kind of keep up with everything we do. Um, so those are some of the different themes in probably the last couple years. And you know, here's the overall budget. Um, we're up by 4.33%. I'm not sure how that can round it up to 5% in

013the local press, but it did. Um, but you know, we're up from last year's budget, but again, we're down by about $120,000 from default. Um, but obviously a big jump and we'll go over why we got there. I'm going to reference a lot of things in the budget book and if I'm moving too fast, you know, raise your hand and and and slow me down. But probably the biggest thing I'm going to keep on referencing again and again is on page 15 is the ad swap sheet. It's how our staff has changed heading into next year with this proposal. Um, you know, and maybe some staff are decreasing, a few things are going up and I kind of go [clears throat] over that in a lot of detail. The next most important thing is these

014organizational charts you'll find on 174 to 183. It's kind of how our district is staffed. So you can kind of see a lot of details by building, by department, and by district about how we are staffed. I always think pages 39 and 40 are a really great way to understand the budget because it's like the highle summary that you can dig in underneath it. You're going to see a lot of detail from all of our schools tonight about um what they're doing with all the stuff in their building. And then um the staffing summaries are also from pages [music] 192 to 202. And basically 81% of the costs are in those 10 pages. And kind of where we stand with staffing is the way to understand us is there are, you know, full-time staff and

015that means some people work 260 days. Uh some people work only the school year. Um but those will be your FTE counts and you'll see that in teachers and allied health or administrators or some people who are not in any unions are not affiliated. That's mostly the IT department and a few other people that don't fit into any one of these boxes. Uh then we have um hourly staff and that's mostly through um our school secretaries or our a lot of our student services department or a lot of our custodians. So when when you look at us sometimes it's full-time equivalents or like actual um you know employees or people that are broken down by hourly and this is like the snapshot of the entire district all at once but it's the same detail you

016kind of see in those organizational charts on um 174. And you know what we basically have um in in all of our schools is you know you have people that work for our academic program that's set that's most of our teachers. Um you have people in operational roles. Um that might be the district office or the buildings and grounds department or IT. Um you have a lot of people in student support roles. Sometimes that's to help catch kids up. Uh sometimes that's to have enrichment programs and sometimes that's for student services and specialized learning. Then you have a whole bunch of people in roles for health and safety. That's a lot of our allied health nurses and occupational therapists, other administrators. Um the duties that the staff take on also fall into that role. And

017we also have SRO. The SRO are not in our budget. We have a great relationship with the town and paid for [clears throat] there, but they are a intricate part of our our um school community. And you know, the way we get at staffing every year are kind of these five things. The most important thing is enrollment. So I'll spend definitely some time tonight kind of going over enrollment and kind of how we got to it. um you know the number of kids will drive the number of staff that we need. Um but on top of that we also need to make sure we're looking at the academic programming and make sure we we have a good academic program a broad one and one that has you know a lot of things going on in

018the clubs and sports [music] and arts for our co-curricular. Um you know obviously there are some kids with very complex learning needs. Um and we always have to kind of budget for that as well and make sure we have enough support services there. Um, you know, it the incoming classes in K&1 are consistently driving me more and more crazy every single year cuz it's really really hard to kind of really figure [music] out what's going on uh in our youngest learners. So, we always need to kind of in terms of how many of them come every year. So, always need to be able to be prepared for fluctuations in enrollment. Um, you know, so that that's another driver of what we do. And then, you know, in terms of a lot of our operational roles,

019we need to make sure we have enough custodians and other people to take care of our buildings. So, those are kind of the main drivers of how we staff our schools. Um, here is our enrollment in a in a large snapshot. And I do apologize. I made a mistake. It was my mistake uh in the budget book originally. AMD uh cleaned it up uh online today. So, I moved the wrong eighth grade class into the high school. So, the high school actually uh next year will have 1,256 students. Um, I didn't move up the current eighth grade class of the high school last year and I and I caught the mistake. So, I do apologize for that. So, she [music] changed my chart on page 10 and then the chart around page 75 for the

020high school. So, that was my mistake and I do apologize for it. I'm glad I caught it and I and I thank Rick for not giving me a hard time or too too hard of a time. Um, and so, you know, the high school's up probably by about 37 kids next year. that they do have a big incoming uh 9th grade class and we do see uh stronger enrollment with hooks at 2. [music] Uh the middle school will be down about 22 kids. Uh North will be down about 28. Matthew Jordan down 16. South down about 30. Moose Hill [snorts] um if it's you know half day kindergarten we expect it to be about the same and and Leap's been there [music] too. So, our total enrollment for next year, that includes um some students

021who are above 18 and because of their uh IEP, they'll be with us through their age of 22. [music] And all the kids that are currently in out of district placement, which we'll see in the in the pupil services department later, we have 3,791 students. That's about that's down about 60 from the prior year. [music] And if you look at the bigger picture, um you know, we kind of you know, the last couple years we definitely have lost enrollment. Um and and and I'll I'll go over the main driver of that. Um last year was a bigger drop, but this year is a probably heading into next year is probably a smaller drop. You know, the main reason why we're down enrollment is we're getting smaller classes coming in. So there's our current K1 and

022two compared to all the grades above it. You know, for for a really long time, we had pretty stable enrollment around 300 kids in a class. uh that has changed and I and I'll go over that in a little bit, but you know, our second grade and first grade are about 20% smaller than that and our kindergarten is about 30% smaller. We do see kids come in in first grade though, um more kids, which which we do plan for. When we first started to see this drop in enrollment a couple years ago, it was like, huh, what's going on? Uh that was in 2023. Uh we reached out to Nestec, um which is a regional organization that kind of helps study enrollment, and we're like, [clears throat] what's going on? um for the longest time

023we've seen about 300 kids in a class, this 220 in a class. Is this an anomaly? Uh what's going on? And their conclusion was um at the time, you know, a couple years ago, um they thought that London area was different than most Northern New England towns they work with. They're like, "You guys have a lot of construction in town." Um and they don't see that all over the place. And historically, when they looked at all of our numbers, when a family leaves, a new family moves in. So, we we went with that assumption two years ago. Um, we are no longer going with that assumption. Um, I think enrollment is down. Um, and I'll go over that in a little bit why. Um, but you know what we're seeing and what we're planning for

024now is basically the level of births in town are probably going to drive the number of kids that show up 5 years later. For the longest time, it was burst plus all these moveins who seem to have lost those moveins, you know, with within our our plan. And I think regionally, I was asking the other local superintendents if they're seeing these drops in K1 and two. We're the only ones seeing these dramatic drops. So I think there is an element there where not having full day kindergarten isn't helping us compete for new families, too. Um, you know, so that's the bigger picture on enrollment and, you know, so we're adjusting to lower enrollment, kind of planning for the future. And, you know, I I think there's lots of moving parts per probably why our enrollment's

025down. Um, new construction no longer means that we're just going to get new families. I think there are people moving into town, but they may not necessarily have families. I think probably 15, 10, 20, 30 years ago that was probably different. Um, and you know, not as many families are moving into town. And I think when you have high housing prices and high interest rates, um, that's a really hard thing for first-time home buyers with young kids to to move into town. You know, that's going to be a detraction. Um, and again, regionally, when I kind of asked, uh, other local superintendents are they seeing the same dynamics in K1 and two, they're not. um some of them are stable, some of them are growing a little bit, maybe they have a couple grades um

026here or there going down, but not the same systemic drop that we've [music] seen. So, I do think not having kindergarten is making it hard for us to compete uh for new families. [snorts] Um and then I think also established residents are moving out of town less cuz when you have high housing prices and less housing stock with high interest rates, why would you try and you know sell your house if you can't really get a good deal moving into something new? So I think that's that complexity is driving most of this. Um and so what we're keeping an eye on while we make these projections are uh we're going to project kindergartens closer to birth 5 years in the past. Um we do uh make a projection for the number of first graders coming

027in. It's tends to be a multi-year average. Last year was a jump. I can't explain it why and I'll get to that in a little bit. Um we do get a new crop of nth graders every year. Somewhere between 15 and 25 uh kids from Hookset join us. they become part of Lancer Nation. It's a great uh relationship we have. LEAP uh has been stable, but you have to understand with LEAP, [music] our preschool starts here and then it grows from the fall or spring every year because every time you turn three or four, you get to jump into LEAP. Um and then addish placements, we're not seeing a big swing in addition replacements like we did last year, but I've done this enough now. Addage placements swing in either direction many years in a

028row. Sometimes you get more, sometimes you get less. just got to kind of keep an eye on it. And um you know there's there's big costs there that'll be part of the student services presentation in a little bit. Um and you know before I get into our staffing plan it's like I just want to reiterate like every year if we are reducing staff um you know our goal is to maintain our academic and co-curricular problem a co co-curricular program you know as much as possible and I think we've generally done that with the budget um and I think I was more confident that in the last couple years I think this year um I you know I will be transparent there are some options that are coming out um and that's unfortunate but I think

029as the smaller we get it's an economy as a scale thing we can't always do what we've we've always done. Um, if people disagree with that, they could certainly put, you know, more funding in the [music] budget and and make sure we have all the programs we have right now. But it's just this dynamic when it could be in when we get smaller and smaller. So, here's kind of how, you know, staffing reductions have looked over the last couple years. Um, you know, we were able to make a lot of reductions three years ago to to adjust to enrollment. Uh, we made more than last year. And then, you know, here are the ones I'm going to review tonight. Um, we're we're reducing overall staff by 1.4 at the high school. I'll explain that. Uh,

0302.0 at the middle school. The there there potentially could be reductions that we that [music] we do at the elementary schools. That'll be mostly uh explained next week when we go over the full day kindergarten uh warrant article. Um, there is a a part-time position we can reduce at within special education and there are about $45,000 in support staff that's hourly uh that we can reduce in this year's budget. So, the overall net savings is about $400,000 and and [music] again, the majority of what we're able to offer academically and co-curricular is still in place. There are a few things we're probably losing in these cuts as we as we look at lower enrollment um and how we get to those staffing levels. Um, it gets a little bit more complex as you get older.

031I mean, generally in the elementary school, you got your elementary teacher, then you got your specials, you got your art, your music, and all those things. Then you have your reading specialists and your special ed teachers, kind of some of the ancillary services outside of that. Uh, in the middle school, they're organized by teens, which I'll go over in a little bit. Um, and there and there's [music] all the electives they can take, too. And then the high school is the most complex. Uh the master schedule is a huge undertaking every year where you try and make sure you can satisfy the requests of,260 kids and keep everyone happy and it's a big process and something we study a lot to really make sure we're doing the right things. Um so now I'm going to

032delve into uh all the details uh by grade level. Um so we're not proposing uh any changes in the elementary schools at this time with half the kindergartens. remember the the operating budget is half the kindergarten. Um because by not touching it, we're we're maintaining our current academic programming. Um we're keeping with, you know, class size expectation that that people were used to and and have the same level of services. What really surprised me this summer is when I was sitting here in August 5th, you know, kind of going over our ability to have full day kindergarten, uh enrollment looked a lot lower. We gained about 50 kids in August. I don't know why. I wish I can explain why we suddenly got 50 kids uh in our elementary schools uh in August and it

033basically drove us up by about three classes. We were able to make it work. Um but that was a change that we haven't seen in the last 3 to four years. So I don't know why we suddenly got um you know 50 new kids this August, but we did. Uh and that definitely changed [music] what I thought would happen uh at the elementary budget uh this time around. I was I assumed there might be some reductions we were making, but heading into next year, I think we have the right amount of staff to kind of make everything work. I think there are some things we can do if full day kindergarten is um supported when we go from four to three schools, but right now I think we have the right number of staff and

034we can go into all those details uh with with questions. So that was [clears throat] that was a change in enrollment and it's definitely you know makes me you know keep an eye on obviously enrollment for next year. For the last couple years, we've tend to have [music] the number of kids we're going to have by May. And for whatever reason, we got a rush over the summer. I don't know why. Uh that that did happen historically in the past, but it hasn't happened in a while. [clears throat] Um so we're not proposing any changes for um elementary school, which in the operating budget is also half day [music] kindergarten. Uh middle school is a little bit more complex. So you know what you have is you have kids on [music] a team. So there

035are three teams in each grade level. and and you know, we can pretty much run the school efficiently when you have between 100 to 120 uh 120 kids uh per per grade level. So you see we're kind of right there in sixth grade, maybe a little bit under it in seventh and eighth grade, but grades four and five are actually bigger. So the middle school is actually going to get bigger [music] in the next couple years. Um but you know, we did look through the master schedule. We did look through the related arts. We did see some areas where we have opened it up to student choice uh on the related arts. Um that's anywhere from art to health to computers to band to gym and all the other things that could could go on

036in that building. Um we do think we can run the master schedule um keep the teams generally where they're at and and and run the middle school well with with two less overall staff. Um you know that will be a change. I think there'll be a little bit less offerings in the master schedule there. Um especially for the related arts. Um but [music] we are able to maintain uh the advanced classes. So I put it down there. We have right now 211 kids taking advanced math classes in the middle school, 70 advanced science in 8th grade [music] and 272 uh taking world language. So mostly the middle school options will stay in [music] place, but there could be a little bit less choice I think heading into next year with slightly smaller classes in seventh

037and eighth grade. slightly less choice, but there are bigger kids, bigger groups of kids coming up in [music] fourth and fifth grade in a couple years. Um, at the high school, the high school is the most complex. Um, if you look on pages 76 to 82, we basically give you a view of the master schedule. Here's how the kids kind of choose what they want to do and choose what they want to learn. Uh, within the high school, there are required classes. Uh, they do need they do need to reach 24 credits to to to graduate. Um there are course requests. Sometimes they don't always get them. There's electives. Um they [snorts] they pursue um we've expanded our career connected learning opportunities. Sometimes in the departments their certification uh really becomes the big driver of

038what we can offer. Um we're also expanding our ELOs's. We continue a a big dual enrollment offering. That's that's where kids can take a high school class but also get college credit at the same time. We're we've seen a huge growth in the advanced placement classes. um you know and so there's a lot going on at the high school. Um we do think we can run nearly the the exact same master schedule with 1.4 less staff from this year to next year and and and get there with natural attrition and retirements. Um and you know I thank Jason for having the staff because he's been high school principal for a long time [music] since FY200. So you know 16 years ago we have made um you know 34.4 for [music] reductions in the high school

039as we've gotten smaller. Um, and I know that's hard. That's a hard number, but we're still able to offer a lot of the building even though it's gotten smaller at some point. You know, some of those options might go away, but I think we're still in a good place right now. Um, you know, and again, the 3.4 reductions in in the high school, I think we can [music] we can get there with natural attrition um and and nearly offer everything. there probably will be some decreases outside of the main academic parts of departments [music] but not major changes but you know a few classes here or there we probably won't be able to offer. Uh, another thing that I think Rick did an excellent job doing is when we're looking at all the CO uh

040costs, he looked at support staff. And I think looking around his building and looking at the duty schedule, looking how it runs, he was able to come up with ways where we can save about $45,000 in hourly staff costs um but still run the same building safely and smoothly and efficiently. So, I really thank him for that. Um, we do project that there are some support staff in these roles. Um if these cuts are supported and they go through uh they would lose their positions but there are openings. Uh we we have plenty of openings in special [music] education par profofessionals in both the middle school and high school. So people might have to pursue you know new jobs and I think we would encourage them to do that because we definitely want to make

041sure we have enough staff for our our neediest kids. But this would result in a in a reduction in force. Um which is always something we want to avoid but sometimes there are tough decisions we have to make. Um and on the reduction in force I [music] think you know just to be transparent I think between the middle school and high school we have this big process [music] where we create these master schedules um and most likely between the two schools there will be one teaching position right now that where someone will have a reduction in force that's literally where they they do lose their job something we try to avoid um um but where the master schedule is where the enrollment's at it was hard to justify kind of keeping everything the way it

042is that process would play out if this is supported and it may not be supported. Um, you know, from February to April and and basically in between the master schedule creation and following the rules and the collective bargaining contract, we would narrow down on on who that would be. Um, we have, you know, a few guesses right now, but it's a process that kind of plays out um from the winter to spring. [music] It's an unfortunate one. That's when we want to avoid at all costs, but you know where the costs were with this year's budget, we were trying to be, you know, as smart [music] and and frugal as possible and kind of keep the academic program where it was. Um, so that's uh an unfortunate consequence. And again, another main theme, I know

043I went over this last week, was [music] we we lost our federal funds uh this summer, and it was kind of a surprise. Um what we lost for a time was funds for professional development uh funds that we have used towards paying for advanced placement uh tests for students and then the funds that support our adult education program. Um so I think you know that that that really gave us a lot of pause. Um we're assuming these funds are going to continue to go away um or not be available. So we want to be in the driver's seat and make sure our kids don't lose out. Um but we didn't take the approach where all the funds we lost were just asking for the local taxpayers. Um but what we did do and you know

044Rick Rick and obviously you can touch on this too is um we did build in um another $20,000 for our adult ed program. Um basically between the Perkins grant and [music] what's in our operating budget we we generally run adult ed about about $130,000 a year. We're proposing to try and run it at 90. um we may get that wrong and if we get that wrong we'll come back in a future cycle and say we might need a little bit more funds to kind of make it happen but we're trying [music] to run it frugally and and efficiently and see if we can still get it done. Um so we're assuming that the Perkins funds will go away. Um and we're trying to make sure our adult ed program doesn't lose out. uh that did

045uh inspire a lot of conversations we have been having um you know over over the over the years uh around uh lendary high school and I think where we're heading towards by the 27 28 school year is being in this three house model from a fourhouse model um and you know 90 to 95% of the kids would be in those three houses and then you know creating something new called Lancer Academy um I think adult ed is is has served a great purpose for a while but I think we want to transition into something new. We want to take take that program locally uh and and ma and basically basically make sure we have a good plan for kids who are at risk that could drop out, [music] but at the same time use Lancer

046Academy as something that um we can build our ELO program with um our 20 credit diploma and you know the areas where we need to be a little bit more creative getting kids uh towards graduation and thinking about the rest of their lives. So I think that's something that's on our horizon. We definitely have a [music] lot more planning to do. There's a lot of things we have to figure out. Um, but that's something we see coming and I think for better, for worse, kind of capitalizing on losing the federal funds was the right way to kind of get us moving in that direction. Um, you know, and I think we're we're putting a lot of effort into career connected learning, too. Um, and that'll that'll happen in Rick's budget. We'll talk about that. But,

047you know, we've had a 50% growth in that area since uh 2024, which is great. [music] you have a lot of kids that are finding a lot of success at Alurn and even Pickerton now. Um, and you know, we're continuing to build our ELLO programs, which you'll see in the high school budget. So, we have fire science, which are going to continue. We have a new BMT program coming up. Um, we're kind of reinvesting and and rethinking through our engineering program, which I'm excited about. I think that's that's another great uh career option for kids. And then uh within uh our food programs, we can have a serve safe surf serve serve safe certificate which allows them to potentially look at careers in in the culinary fields. I think that's good. And you know, we

048spent a lot of time thinking about our our CTE partners around us and building up more ELO's and and and really thinking this, which you'll see in the uh high school budget. And these are the types [music] of ELOs's again that we've done in in prior presentations. Um, here's a few other things you'll find on that on that ad swap sheet between the high school athletics district office. Um, you know, so we we did have a program that that was funded by uh through federal grants in the past that was a fresh freshman mentoring program and that that helped with the huge transition [music] we had from 8th to 9th grade. We're proposing bringing that into the operating budget because we don't we don't have the funds anymore in the federal grant and then we'll

049keep the program going and there's a lot of value there and you know Rick's Rick's a great person to kind of delve into that u when he comes up pretty soon. Um we're also proposing two honor societies in science and world language. What happens every year in all of our schools is when when new clubs are started, [music] they're started for free. Uh where the staff are not paid for them and and the staff have to spend a couple years kind of making sure they get enrollment, they build excitement, you know, they they build a they build a club and uh our honor societies in science and world language have done that. So we [music] want to make sure we give them stipens for that to continue that process. And then in athletics, we've seen

050uh some growth in a few programs. Our middle school football program is huge. Um, we want to make sure there's enough adult supervision out there for uh, you know, more than 75 to 80 uh, middle school boys in helmets and pads and uh, playing football. Um, so that that pays for two assistant football coaches. And then our our JV assistant coach for field hockey. That's another program that's grown and obviously had a really great fall season. [music] So we want to make sure there's there's enough adult supervision in those programs. So those are small investments, but I think they're good ones. Um, and then in last year's budget, if you remember, we we did cut a position at the district office. Um, everything generally worked well uh until we had uh the rush of registration

051uh in July and August, and it definitely threw off a couple of our normal functionings in the summer. There's a lot of work the district office does [music] to kind of turn over and get ready for the new school year. Um, so what we're proposing is uh $4,300 which allows us to bring on, you know, part-time support staff to kind of deal with that surge in registrations and make sure um we can kind of get ready for the school year because the last thing we want to do is not be ready for the school year. So I think um the cut generally worked, but I think that was uh one oversight that that we saw. We just need a little bit more capacity uh there. And then the final change um in the ad swap

052sheet is uh a part-time psychologist. um we believe we can absorb through natural attrition and declining enrollment uh over the next year which is savings about $50,000. Um there's a lot of staff that we're trending towards in student services that's going to be hard to replace and a psychologist is one of them. Um you know they can they can go make a lot more money out in the outside world and they they have very good qualifications. Plus, we also have this whole host of organizations that that, you know, basically offer us the staff through contracted services at a much higher rate. And and I think that's a frustrating place for us to be in. Um, we're not saying we don't need psychologists, but I think, you know, with this natural attrition that's coming, it's going

053to be very hard for us to to replace it uh and find it. So, we're going to hold on to the psychologist we have for as long as we can, but there's many positions I'm worried that are just being consumed by contracted services in the future. Um, so that's a total net savings amongst all those changes about $400,000. And again, I think we're still trying to make, you know, the the same academic program we we've had in the past and co-curricular as well, but we found some savings to to kind of move through the budget. Um, but, [music] you know, employee costs are up and and I think I know that's frustrating for everyone and I I try to give everyone a good summary. Um, most of it's from healthcare costs and that was an

054anomaly for us and I'll go over that in a little bit. Um, but some of it was driven by new collective bargaining agreements. But those new collective bargaining rooms were great. We got a we were able to hire a lot of good new staff and we had turnover. Um, and also make sure that our hourly staff are competitive and we were losing hourly staff uh and mass a couple years ago. So, you know, these are things we needed to do. Um, you can see the the large part of the salaries on page 40 and there's there's a lot of detail in the district office budget around benefits, but you know, I was just [music] trying to give you guys a sense of the changes. So, this time last year, our teacher salaries were about $33

055million and change. [music] Now, we're up to 35 million.5. That's about a 7.4% change. Um, support staff salaries were, you know, 6.7 million. Now, we're up to, you know, 7.2. That's an 8% change. And then the big driver was benefits. We were sitting here this time last year around 26.5 million. Now we're up to 29.4. That's about, you know, 11% growth. And I think that's a big change. And as I tried to say last time too, you know, the the the rate change we got from schoolare was an anomaly. We we've had we were lucky for a long time to have, you know, pretty modest increases. Um, you know, I saw regionally in the last couple years that we were doing much better compared to most people around us. But then we got a, you

056know, a a big cost increase. I think that's a national thing from from what you're seeing is any any employer um any employer provided program has seen a big increase. So that some of it's [music] just larger economics beyond us. Um, and you know, we'll do the best we can to to find solutions in the future. you know, and the story we got from from Health Trust was high cost claimants. So, they're just seeing, you know, a lot of people with, you know, very expensive healthcare coverage, you know, and they saw an 18% jump in these people. Um, and if they had 321 people that average $225,000 in cost, that's $72 million. That that's [music] a bit it's a big change. I I get it. I I understand why the economics, you know, changed. Uh,

057but now we have to foot the bill. And it's not it's not us. It's the entire pool. it's everyone that's kind of part of school care. And uh you know the only good news in that we were actually on the lower side of the cost increases. You know there were districts and municipalities that are in the 20% range or 30% range which would have been dramatic. Uh and again you know we're looking at strategies to you know to lower our future costs and you know we'll talk about a potential new warrant article next week too. Um so if you look at that that is 81% of our budget. I'm sure there'll be tons of questions, but we knew that the the the [music] staff costs were up a lot. And you know, 50% of those

058costs are salaries, 31% uh are benefits, and the other 19 19% is basically the stuff and services that are kind of coming next. But, you know, knowing the costs were up and that was a big increase. We we wanted to make sure we came in below default, which we did, 120 grand below. And we wanted to find ways to be more efficient with staffing, but also keep the majority of our program, which we think we did. um you know there there definitely might be some questions there and I and I try to give a a chart at the end to kind of uh give a sense of you know what may come [music] um so if if we're in this place where we're we're going to see you know 20 to 30% you know smaller

059classes than we've seen that's going to keep on trickling through the system um for many years. Um, so if full day kindergarten is approved and and we continue to see those smaller classes, you know, we're going to have a different focus every year for like the next 5 years. Um, you know, next year would obviously be if it's approved, you know, implementing full day kindergarten will be a lot of work. Um, but then we would probably [music] spend the next two years too really thinking about so what does our preschool program look like as a standalone? Uh, we have some answers. Um, but there's still a lot of work to do there too. And I think we would still spend the next three fiscal cycles really thinking through have we right sized our elementary schools.

060And this is all while we're doing that academic work we started this presentation with. We we have a lot of things we're doing [music] to get better at. Um and you know that's always going to be the bulk of our work but we're we got to keep an eye on kindergarten our preschool and making sure we're right sizing. Then you look at the middle school. I mean, I think, you know, year to year, we'll always look to see if there's efficient ways to do things, but [music] that small wave of of enrollment is going to hit them by 2930. So, I think we have a a couple years to really think through that and and plan and be ready for that while we're really making sure the middle school's academic program is getting stronger. Um,

061you know, and I think that's going to be obviously a huge focus over the next couple years. Uh, while we're getting ready for those smaller enrollment in a couple years, high school's a little bit different. I mean, I think, you know, a year out from now, I think we'll be ready to implement Lancer Academy and shift to that three-house model while we're still broadening our career connected learning opportunities and improving the academic program and then that wave of small classes, you know, won't hit them, you know, for until 2031, 2032, but, you know, we'll look at change that [music] that's that's possible and and get ready for it along the way. And then obviously the other big moving part of all these is our special ed department that that cuts through all of our schools.

062It's our it's our biggest department. Um you know, we're going to have a new director there uh next year and probably take them two years uh to really think through, okay, what are what are the things that that need to be tackled and work on. Um you know, next year would be a learning year and hopefully the following year would be here are some things to to take on. Um and while we're doing that, we have to look at the, you know, K to 5 staffing of the next three years, then the 6 to8 [music] staffing, then the 9 to12 staffing, all while we're improving uh you know, our outcome. So there there's a lot of work coming and I'm just trying to share with the public, share of the school board, share with the

063budget committee like we know we have to continue to adjust to lower enrollment if this is our fate if if we're going to see 20 to 30% smaller classes in the future and we're kind of getting ready for it at an organized and efficient way and that's a that's a big long [music] range view. There'll be a lot of work that gets done and I think we're just trying to do it at a manageable pace. So that was a ton of information in about 35 minutes. I know that's always a lot. Um, but if there are questions, I'm happy to answer them and kind of go from there. >> Thank you, Dan. Anyone from the board have any questions [clears throat] to start? >> I don't have a question, but I'm just glad to see

064that we're taking care of our teachers and our support staff. I we definitely and some of our salaries weren't competitive and um not staffed adequately as a result. So, it stinks that it's expensive and I know everyone's kind of struggling with that, myself included, but uh it's important that we compensate them in a way that's competitive for other districts. [snorts] >> Anyone good budget committee? >> I have a question. Yeah. Um h are you looking at the the volume of people coming in through let's say some of the new apartments being built in town and things like that? Um do you anticipate like uh an influx? >> Yeah. No. So we we do catch up with town twice a year and in the city and the town planner. Um we have just not seen the

065kids that maybe we've seen in the past. Could that change? >> Sure. at at this point in time uh we're not seeing it. Um you know and again I think with any enrollment changes you have to be [music] ready ready to react to it. Um so if if if suddenly there are increases [music] we will have to respond to that. We're just not seeing it right now. >> Thank you. Just one quick question. Mhm. Um you talked a lot about some of the um let's call it reductions through various means to staffing. Do you expect any net additions to staffing? >> Not really. I mean I think you know knowing where the costs were this year we were very cautious. The the only real additions are are these smaller ones and I'll get to that

066slide. Um sorry. So, you know, $3,800 for uh the freshman mentoring program, $950 for two honor societies, $5,000 for two assistant football coaches, $3,000 for the JV assistant coach, and that $4,300 for, you know, part-time work. So, you know, within it, it's less than $15,000. I think we did that on purpose, knowing we we're seeing big costs, a big increase. This is not the year to ask for new. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. Sorry, I have one more question. >> Um, uh, >> oh yes. Um, you were mentioning, you mentioned a few times like a potential decrease in offerings. >> Just, uh, just to make sure I understand. So, am I right in understanding that to be probably in the middle school somewhere in the elective pool of classes? Is that accurate? Yeah, I mean

067I think um you know meeting with the the middle school administrators again this Thursday uh as they're as they're planning out um you know the master schedule those reductions would or the the less choice would probably happen in those electives >> kind of based on what kids are choosing you know so I'm not saying this is the scenario but let's say you know all of a sudden kids didn't want to do music maybe we'd see less music I doubt that would happen on an area but that that you know that that's kind of how it it's driven is like by student choice and and interests. >> Sure. So, if you see some things not that popular, that's going to be the candidate for >> those are the things [clears throat] those are the things that

068will probably decrease. >> Yeah. [music] Okay. Thank you. >> Great question. >> All right. And so for the 50 additional students that came in causing the one three class size increase, was there a higher concentration in the first grade versus the others or was it just spread throughout? Yeah. So, it was mostly it was mostly in this year's kindergarten and first grade, but then we had a couple second grades in two buildings that jumped up too, and then then we had one building with a bunch of third grade. So, I I don't know what drove it. That was definitely a surprise. Um, you know, I you know, I'm I'm previewing next week. [music] So, you know, our model for for elementary school has jumped by 50 kids between the summer and then our model for

069next year jumped by 75, you know, because of that, you know. So, it's like I don't know why all of a sudden we had a rush, but we had a rush, you know. >> And is this the first year using the new model to [music] try to track historically where Len has been at? >> Yeah, I mean, for many years it was easy. uh we we probably have about 300 kids in in in the class across the grade and it was like clockwork every year for six or seven years in a row. Then it suddenly changed uh three years ago. Uh and we were trying to react to it and and be responsible and now it just kind [music] of had a slight upswing of 50 kids. You know, it's hard to predict. >> I'm

070all set. Are you all set? >> One more. Um, so regarding the the little surprise there with Health Trust, and I know you said all the districts saw it. Um, I appreciate what you're saying here about what the district is going to do, but I'm curious, um, to what extent have we had an opportunity to talk with Health Trust and say what are you what are you all going to do to improve your predictions in the future so that you don't suck us with these kind of surprises again? >> You have the right people in the room to kind of answer that besides [laughter] me between Ed. >> Yeah. you want to >> start I mean yeah so just to start it school care works pretty we have a close relationship with them um so

071and they have faced a lot of fire for this across the state because it it the assessment hit everybody in bad timing so we've had lots of meetings we've talked with them they have a lot of um I forget what they call the adjusters that come in to to help them predict in the future and then um Bob has spent a lot of time with them and he is the latest member of their board. Um so he can tell you about that. >> Yeah. I just um when we when this came about us um myself and Mr. Porter uh had called a meeting up at the state level with the speaker and the uh uh Sharon Carson and a bunch of uh legislators and school care the director and that to kind of go through

072how this happened. and the secretary of state state um is the one that regulates the self-insured in the state. Um so he was part of that meeting as well and um you know we tried to explain that it doesn't work well when you hit us with something midstream of our budget you know in school um you know if we had known last fall we could have budgeted for this when you started to see this problem you know so there was a lot of things that they came forward with. We weren't there to beat them up. we were there to figure out how this is going to work going forward and be helpful rather than you know tear things apart. So the meeting went well. A lot of stuff came forward. Um I was asked to

073attend their um end of the year um gathering and election of boards and then there was one opening for an appointed position um of a school board member and I was appointed. Um, so now I can kind of get all the ins and outs and put some business thought into their board of directors, some trigger points and how to watch this moving forward. But in their history um, of this is the first time they've had an assessment. So over the last 10 to 15 years, we've recouped about 7 million which they call holiday pay because they're a nonprofit. they've got to give back to their um customers per se any extra money at the end of the year once they meet their threshold. This time we got they ran short with an influx of prescription

074cost uh major medical a lot of cancer cases all of a sudden hit and they seen it last October start to go and then the the bottom dropped out. So they didn't have a mechanism in place because everything was going according to you know a regular business model with no worry in the world cuz we we had stayed between 3 and 8% over the last 15 years with them. So I I just felt as though for the benefit of London residents and taxpayers that you know why not be part of the board for the next year while we look at options cuz we're not stopping there. We are working and looking at self-insured. We're looking at other companies while we're getting through this time, but there was just no way possible to open up uh

075and look for another company to start our fiscal year in July 1. We'd be talking about it now and trying to that would be opening up bargain agreements again with the teachers, which we just got passed last year. Um so there was just no time to switch uh in this budget cycle where it happened in October. So I attend those meetings um and I can update the board and the superintendent and the business administrator and uh try to put some mechanisms cuz they it is a good program. Usually the the rates are low. So they have saved us a lot of money. This this caught us off guard and we were able to with our staff, the business administrator and HR director meet with them and come up with a payment plan where there's no

076interest. So it gave us time to give them a deposit at at the end of this year, a third, and have till July 15th to pay the balance of the 1.4 4 million not to leave us with no money in the reserves in case something tragic happened during the school year and know where our fund balance is come July. So we've got mechanisms in place for Londereary now and we've got a thumb on what's happening with school care. >> Thank you very much. >> Uh budget committee is all set. >> Okay. Anyone from the public have any questions on the first presentation? Come on up, sir. >> John Wilson, >> you're going to gonna have to get Mr. We're going to have to get you to the mic. Sorry. >> John Wilson, uh, Tranquil Drive

077in Legendary. Um, I'd like to try to ask a couple questions that are reasonably intelligent having not gone through this budget at all. And uh, what I what I've come up with in my mind as I was sitting here listening is I'm very interested in K through third grade and what's going on there. Okay, I know a lot of changes are happening and so on. So in my I was thinking that to give some measure of what's happening there and what could be happening there I was wondering if it would be possible to put a ring fence around the budget for that particular piece of the education process [clears throat] and I don't know what that number would be but then basically have a discussion about where that number with where the output for those

078three grades would be if it was less or we put money more money into it. Other words, how what kind of an investment do we make for that piece of the pie that would give us what? >> Sure. >> Mhm. >> That that's the qu best that I can do. But I know that that's a really important section of this budget and how that how those third graders when the fourth >> is the measure of a lot of success. >> Yeah. >> I Yeah. I don't know if we have the means to do that right now, but I I think [music] I think what we we could do um so I guess the best way to answer that question is so obviously there's a lot of resources at Muso and that's kindergarten and preschool. Then

079you get to first and second grade. Um, and you'll see a lot of resources there because a lot of our a lot of our remediation resources like the the reading specialist or the math interventionists because we're trying to catch kids up a lot from a half day kindergarten program. We do put a lot of resources there. Um, I don't know how we would quantify that. Um, we could certainly try. >> Yeah, >> it'd be hard. >> Yeah. >> You know, we can I know what you're asking. >> Yeah. Yeah. I would be happy to talk to you about subjective experiences working in those grades and and what is in place and successful places and and not and kind of the anecdotal stuff surrounding that if that would be helpful. We we can set up a

080time to do that. >> Okay. [laughter] >> No, I think to go back to I mean I'll go back to some of these achievement charts. I mean, I I think what we've seen is much better outcomes overall in math particularly um over the last year and I and I think you know Jay can jump into I don't want to put you on the spot. We we just put a new literacy program in last year that we're now in our second full year with. So that might take a year or two to kind of see some of the jumps that we saw in math. Um, and and I think in my mind, maybe the best way I'm trying to answer your question too is I want to spend less resources on trying to cap kid cap

081catch kids up and more resources pushing them higher in grades K1, 2, and three. Is that maybe that's what you what you were asking? Yeah, the only thing I would add is there's a much stronger uh culture and focus on the metrics and data and our PLC's are really devoted to analyzing that and getting you know really granular with the score individual student scores and our our teachers are really honing in on that and doing a great job um to make sure they're proficient and at grade level. It's not just skill acquisition though. It's also like barriers to learning like what things are getting in the way of them even being available to getting the content that's presented to them. That's a huge issue in my opinion. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? So I

082know that >> just name and address please. >> Sorry Katrina White uh Paige Road in London. >> Thank you. >> Um so I know you had mentioned so like the two full-time education positions in the middle school that for the master schedule that'll kind of be removed or lost. Um you said that it'll be from essentially the electives somewhere in the arts most [music] likely and it's usually based on student choices. Do we have kind of like an idea of where that is? Do we know typically where that normally is? Cuz I know for the budget book, the high school pages um you referenced in here too. Um you have typical enrollments or elective choices for student counts. Do you see anything like that for the middle schools to >> who then that might be

083affecting? >> Yep, we we do have them for the middle schools. They're just not in the budget book. Um, you know, I mean, to be honest, I could I could I could probably answer that question better offline. >> Okay. >> But I think, you know, if if if if eventually these changes are supported, I could answer them publicly by January. I would want to talk with staff first so they know what's coming before we get there. >> Okay. >> That's fair. Um, and then in reference to because he had asked um what was because we were talking about losing budgets, your increase for your budget page for adding salaries for [music] everything. That was actually closer to 25,000 versus the 15. Just so that you're aware of that. >> That was it. >> Okay. Thank

084you. All right. >> Yeah. >> Anyone else from the budget before we You guys still good? >> Okay, I'm still set. >> All right. I just want to hit on one thing before we move on to the next. Um, and it's on the enrollment big picture because we get a lot of questions. >> Sure. every year uh regarding the budget going up and enrollment going down. And we do the best we can with staff as you've presented um here and giving the education to our students that we feel as though is the best we can give them. Um and what what we need the community to understand is the the only way we can do major reductions is personnel. That is where the major thing and to do that uh as you could see in

085the enrollment graph here you've got plus 37 at the high school minus 22 at LMS um 28 uh negative in the north 16 at Matthew Thornton 30 at the south and then plus one at Moose Hill. Um what what um the community has to understand is minus 22 at LMS there's 900 students there's three grade levels so it could be five kids from sixth grade seven kids from here so for us to really reduce any further whether it's a full grade would be at the elementary level but then you go to the elementary level and you've got grades 1 through five and if you've got 20 kids it could be five kids in grade 1 it could be four kids in grade three and two. So, I just want the community to understand, we look

086at all these possibilities of reducing class size and eliminating a staff member um and still giving that quality education, but it isn't the budget goes up because of personnel cost and health insurance, not never mind the upkeep and the maintenance of 700,000 square ft of building that are used 363 days a year, day and night. Um, so I just wanted to get that out to the to the public, um, to the budget committee because we get that question more than none and you guys have probably heard the same thing is we do everything possible to watch that and be able to adjust with personnel, the superintendent and his staff. Um, and and the only way you're really going to do a significant savings and reduction is if you were to close a building. and to

087utilize that. If your enrollment dropped that far, that's where you would see that significant savings. But when it's only a handful of students in each building, you've still got to run the buildings on a day-to-day basis. You may shut the lights off in a classroom, but the heat's still on. Um, you know, so it it it's a fine line and we just we try to work through every detail to keep that budget where we can. um we do our due diligence uh top to bottom as as the superintendent has tried to present here and we will you know look at this closer as we go through it but I just wanted to get that out there because I see a lot of that questions and a lot come this come our way on the board

088so I just wanted to close with that everybody good >> you guys good sir >> all right seeing that we'll go to 5.2 two and uh welcome student student services. >> Okay. [snorts] >> Okay. All right. Good evening. >> Good evening. >> Right. I've got my team behind me. We're here, >> okay, >> to present the student services budget. And just to remind the community that includes special education, our students um who are eligible for English as a second language, all of our nursing programs, Mckin Vento, which is the act that protects students who are experiencing homelessness, and any of our students who are involved with the Department of Health and Human Service, whether that is through foster care or court involvement. All right. So before I begin, I did want to just touch upon

089the fact that the 2425 LEA determinations that were published in April of 2025 had London Derry meeting all of the requirements for our programming. And this is based on both federal and state performance metrics. We'll continue to work on supporting our families and their students with disabilities in choosing to take the state tests. That was one of our performance indicators that we need to focus on and not opting out. Um in terms of highlights, however, we had above both the state target and average in student with disability who are graduating. We were below the target and the state average in students with disabilities dropping out. In fact, we had zero last year. Above the state target in students with disabilities accessing the general education environment and above the state target in average for outcomes of

090preschool students. We were also above the state average with our parents participating in the parent involvement survey put out by the department of ed every year and as I mentioned meeting all of our compliance requirements. I highlight that the oop forgot to move this one. I apologize. I highlight that because the department overall serves about 1,200 of our students here in Londereerry. You can reference the enrollment charts for each school on page 210 and a 24 uh year overview as well of our total special education enrollment on page 217 of the budget book. 21% of our students have been found eligible under IDA as a student with a disability here in London. factors that I wanted to highlight in terms of our enrollment is that our high, as Dan mentioned, our high school population includes

091students who are between the ages of 18 and 22 who stay longer than four years due to their individual special education needs. And in FY23, New Hampshire increased that entitlement through the age of 21 and funding did not necessarily increase um to include that impact on districts. Overall, our enrollment has increased and then remained steady in the last 5 to six years. And again, as Dan mentioned, our preschool population continues to grow and their enrollment is based on their third birthday. So again, it may be lower. It is lower in the fall than in the spring. And we need to always budget and plan for what that spring enrollment will be. It is nearly impossible to find qualified staff in March or April of a school year. Generally, Londereerry is mirroring the state trends in

092special education. The increase statewide from October 2023 to October 2024, which is the latest DOE metrics, was about 305 students. And since 2021, this group of students has increased about 10% statewide, the largest increase in 24 years. Again, in London, our identified population is up a total of 1.7 during that same period, but it did spike at 10% immediately following the pandemic. So, we are definitely still seeing some impact of students who had gaps in their education from that time. Our staff diligently works to identify eligible students while also ensuring that those students who do not meet eligibility criteria are identified as special education but still receive their needed supports whether that's through a 504 plan if eligible or MTSS and other general ed support systems. Our outofd district enrollment remains steady and as a

093reminder to the board and the community we remain the district of liability for any students whose parents have placed them at a public charter school. So we are still responsible for the provision of special education students enrolled in the charter school. And I'm very proud to share with the board in the community that last year three of our out ofd district students graduated on time with their cohorts. The fiscal details, the student service budget is $6.2 million, an increase of $170,000. And that budget's really driven by IEP prescribed services and equipment, some training, and then per pupil nursing consumables at each building. The budget details themselves start on page 220 and 221. And Dan mentioned it in his presentation. I'll reiterate the out of district tuition and the transportation related to that is one of

094the more volatile factors. However, going into FY27, um there is a decrease of about $300,000 in that line. Our individual nursing needs, these are students who require a level of nursing care, whether that's from an RN or an LNA, is an increase of $263,000. What is driving that increase is not only the cost of contracted nursing supports, we have tried to hire like LNAS on our own and not been successful in doing that. So, we're locked into contracting, but also we work very closely with our families. A lot of them request that we use their same nurses so that then when there are vacations and snow days, summertime, the nursing care that their students are receiving remains consistent and well trained. Um, we do have some of those students also increasing their day as they

095move to a higher grade level next year, which also factors into that increase. Um, software, I don't typically talk about this line, but it is increasing a little bit. We are just not using the old school pen and pencil options. they're being cancelled for online platforms both in our scoring when we have to evaluate and assess students and in the curriculum that they use. And then contractual increases in transportation are about another $108,000 of the increase overall. However, we also bring in revenue. There are three kind of main portals through revenue. special education aid, the schools to Medicaid program, and our IDEA grant within RSA 186C, which is the state regulation around special ed. The funding provision called special ed aid is detailed and mandates that the state contribute 80% of any of the costs

096above three and a half times the state average tuition. This has been misleading my entire tenure, however, because that reimbursement is always dependent on the legislative budget allocated for it, which has not changed in many, many, many years until recently, Governor Aayat has increased the budget for that. Um, in my tenure, we have always received less than that 80% and in fact in some years told to expect in the 70s or even 68% which is what we got last year of what we would have been eligible for reimbursement. Um further just so that everyone's aware that reimbursement comes a year after the district's expenditure. However, effective this year, SP 292 went into effect, which authorizes the governor to draw monies from the education trust fund to satisfy the state obligation for special ed aid. And

097um Miss Small and I have both been advised and so in this budget, you will see that we are forecasting that to be fully funded. Um so we're excited about those changes hopefully to come. Um, and in general, a Rockingham County judge over the summer ruled in favor of plaintiffs confirming that New Hampshire special education funding from the state is unconstitutionally low. And they do expect some changes to be coming down the pike. So again, something to be excited about to try to take the burden of that off of local taxpayers. Again, the student service budget is based nearly on all federal mandated individualized services, equipment, contracted needs, and as I mentioned, the tuition and transportation. Looking ahead, there are ma massive changes coming to the school to Medicaid program. We are awaiting more training,

098IEPs, reimbursement programs, and other state performance indicator reporting. Um, originally ESIP was going to be um shuttered at the end of this year by the state. I'm hearing that that is being extended for at least a year, but that will be a major change. Um, New Hampshire, the state's federal compliance with part C, our our preschool programming. So, there's an updated state plan coming our way. Um, all districts are now required to have a district CPAC, a special education parents advisory council. So, that will be something new across the state. and implications for the now signed House bill uh related to the definition of what special education in New Hampshire is and entails. Um and right now there's a commission studying the cost of special education up in conquered. So a lot of changes I

099would say in the next year to 18 months ahead statewide. And that brings me to the end of my formal 21st budget presentation for the London Derry School District. And if I may just take a moment to thank this board, previous boards, my team behind me, and all my fellow administrators and happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you, Kim. Appreciate it. Any questions from here? Good. Joseph, >> thank you very much. Just a quick question about the three revenue buckets that you um talked about which total $2.2 some million dollars. Um all just to verify are all three of those recurring or is the third one since it says it's a grant a one-off? >> They are all recurring. The idea grant is a federal promise that really is supposed to be funded at

10040%. We get about 12 on average of the cost. Um that's never been fully funded but that is a annual grant given to it flows through the state and then onto districts. >> Can I add to that Kim? I mean you know obviously watching instability of Washington always makes us nervous. >> You know a $1.2 $2 million reduction in our IDA grant would be catastrophic because the problem that we'd be in is um we have to supply the services for students with special needs. So if we have to go find $1.2 million, it'd be coming from other kids or other programs. So I'm I'm hopeful Washington wouldn't touch that. Um but I mean I think watching just how randomly some things are happening with the federal grants does make us all nervous. And here in

101London, that is primarily all spent on staffing. >> Yeah, >> you can look on page 271 as well. It shows where we were last year, where we anticipate this year, and then so you can see a little bit of the historical trends for all the grants. >> Can you Thank you. Can [clears throat] you explain uh the changes um mentioned in HB6699? One of the highlights is it really is how special education and what that entails is defined. And I guess for lack of a better umbrella term, a controversy around that in which um our folks have been conquered heard a lot from parents, advocates, um district special educators, leaders, myself was the concern that taking out related services very specifically from the written definition could result in less provision of supports for students. Um

102that would never happen here in London, but in other districts, you know, parents could have that fear. We recognize the federal definition, which does include related services, and the new state definition references the federal, but it no longer specifically calls in related services. So when you say related services, what do you really mean? >> Speech and language, occupational therapy, physical therapy. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All set. >> Anyone? >> One quick question. >> Um, so seeing the special transportation alone is over 2.1 million. Um that's because we're mandated to have to provide all the transportation for all these kids. So um the money that comes in from the federal government um to help fund these things is that spread just across the board or is any of it specified for transportation or >> um

103so it all goes back to the general fund. Okay. But when we put in like for special education aid and I think because the pie has been or the piece of the pie has been smaller there have been a lot more disallowed costs from the state level over my tenure. One great example is we do get reimbursed if a child is getting special education transportation [music] and their overall cost is three and a half times greater. We put in all those invoices. Things like attendance matter. So if a child is not attending school that day or in the Medicaid realm, if they are not receiving another service that day, the transportation becomes nonreimburseable. However, the costs are still there for us. Gotcha. >> Thank you. >> Anyone from the public? Come on up. How many

104children now recently have they outsourced to other uh providers for care? And I bring that up because I think over the years there's always been discussion about whether or not because some of these are long-term to whether or not to bring the expertise inside versus to continue to outsource and how where are we now kind of balancing that decision making process? We currently have 27 students who lead tuition out of district to private education, private special education programming. Next year, we are forecast to also have 27. Um, at the time of the budget being developed and through right now, we don't have any we're anticipating either graduating, moving, or bringing back, but that always can change in the spring. We have built a lot of capacity here in district. We're very proud of our indiscretate

105programming and so without the programming we have here I think that number would be a lot higher. >> So we're that's a continuing process you're saying constant >> in our house depending on what we >> Yep. >> And we have a on brought them back. >> Yep. We we would always prefer to have them in-house u but sometimes we're just not successful and and that's a partnership with the parents. >> Sorry I always do this to you. Can you speak to some of the reasons why we might elect to go that route? >> Absolutely. So the determination on whether or not a child needs to go to a more restrictive setting out of district is always driven by the IEP and the IEP team. So whatever is prescribed in the IEP, can those services and

106those supports be done here in [clears throat] the schools that is also always driven by the the child's current level of performance. Are they able to be safe? Are they able to be regulated? Is their behavior meeting the school code of conduct generally on a day-to-day basis with those supports? That is one of the main drivers safety and behavior. The other main driver would be if their level of disability needs such a level of intensity and frequency of expertise that we just have the staffing to provide that. For example, you know, students who might need daily one-on-one teaching versus some teaching and then a one-on-one pair of professional. behavior. >> Anyone else? So, page 217 of the budget kind of goes over the last 20 years of addition placements. You can definitely see back in

107FY17, we had 32. We went down, we went up a little bit, and we're coming down again. So, as I was trying to say, like add a district will always take wild swings. >> Yeah. Anyone else? Mr. Chair, may I ask one more question? >> Sure. >> Thank you. Um, actually, I'd just like to follow up on a question that Mr. Porter just asked, and you'll have to pardon me. This is my first year on the budget committee, so consider this me trying to make sure I'm doing this right. Um, so I see on page 48 of the budget book, to the point about transportation, that the FY27 board proposed budget for special ed transportation is 2.122 million. Um, and I think I just heard you say that there are 27 students who need out

108of district placement and therefore transportation. Is that correct? >> They most of them require transportation. Yes. >> Okay. Um, so if I calculate at 27 that's $161,000 per school year, but is it less than 27 students who need that transportation? >> That is correct. >> Okay. But our transportation cost also includes in district specialized transportation, >> right? >> And transportation for our summer school program. >> Gotcha. >> And those details are on page 207. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Yep. >> I know you guys mentioned this um just with a lot of the federal push backs with basically what keeps happening right now. Um, with that said, where the feds are trying to push a lot of kind of responsibility back onto the states instead of leaving it in the federal government, which is kind

109of why they kept trying to cut everyone's positions there. Do you see that we'll still be able to get those idea grant funds somehow if there is somehow that shift from the federal to the state? >> It's such an unknown. We just don't know. I mean, we're hoping for stability, but well, I guess we'll find out, you know. We we just don't know. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Um and then obviously the increase in the funding that you said that was done by AOT um recently to hopefully get us up to that 80% is huge. Um we did just recently have a state in New England that increased their age up from 22 to 26. Do you see either our state or even our town doing that in recent years coming up? Because health

110insurance overall covers our children until 26 as well. So are we going to be starting to match that? >> I do not forecast that happening. The reason New Hampshire moved from age 21 that birthday through the entire 21st year was to match the federal government's definition and entitlement. >> Okay. So unless the federal government moves to the 26 year, we're most likely not seeing that in New Hampshire. >> Yes, that's my opinion. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All good there. Kim, can I ask you one question? >> Yep. Usually you have a a nice round number in your in the budget book of what it would cost our community if we didn't um have our in-house programs for our special education program and what that would be to the taxpayers. I

111do. That is typically around $7 million annually. If the children that were being programmed for in our self-contained programs and some of our more intensive resource rooms were not able to be educated here in their local school. Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you. So, it's a substantial savings to [music] have our special education program internally and not to the taxpayers. I just wanted to hit on that because it's usually a very large number to outsource the whole program. >> Yeah. Over the last 20 well my tenure here and a couple years prior with uh Brian Bulky, we were keeping track of it and it had hit over $und00 million. >> Okay, thank you. >> Y >> everybody good. >> Okay, thank you Kim. Appreciate it. >> Um 5.3 curriculum, Mr. Apparently dining services. >> Okay.

112Is it okay if I >> Sure. You need to switch. >> I think dining service might be jumping in. Is that right or no? >> You want to go? >> Yeah. >> I'm ready. But it's up to you. [laughter] >> Come on up, Crystal. We'll get you done. >> We're just in the dining services. and Linda, we have some some lovely budget attendants who are going to share some of Crystal's treats considering this is an extra long budget meeting. >> Sure. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> I say that's something that I do look forward to every year when services comes around. I think >> they started without me. I wasn't even ready. >> There you go. >> How is everyone? This >> welcome. Yeah. >> Um, all right. So, the dining service budget presentation

113for FY27. The topics that we're going to be looking at are the free and reduced data, the federal reimbursements, meal pricing, our revenues, um operating expenses, the district-wide meal debt, the fund balance, and equipment needs. Uh just as a quick overview, the projected balance budget for FY27 is roughly $1.7 million. Um, we are a self-funded program. So, our revenues and expenses are budgeted to match per state law. And the current districtwide meal debt is negative 49,929. And that's as of yesterday. Um, so our free and reduced data, uh, the students enrolled in Lincoln this year came out to 3,830 students and that was a decrease of 80 more students from last school year. In our free and reduced data, our free students had an overall decrease of 1 percentile point from last year. Uh, reduced

114students stayed the same and our paid students have increased by one percentile point. Our paid and denied applications are a combination of 92% districtwide and of that percentage 99% don't fill out applications. Um but having said that with significant changes to the free and reduced application requirements, all applications are now verified during processing. So that has added time and back and forth between myself and parents. Um, with all of the changes, all of the new information has been shared with parents and guardians. Um, and all of that is on our website, in the welcome packets, um, and over the phone and email. Um, and per regulation, eligibility statuses and affiliate paperwork is sent back to families through email and the United States Postal Service. Um, and these rules do also apply to our students that

115are direct certified. Next, please. >> Um, so here you're going to see just an overall of our reimbursement rates. Um, we did have increases. Um, the breakfast reimbursements saw an increase across all of the eligibilities and it was 9 cents for free and reduced and it was 1 cent for paid meals. And our lunch reimbursements also saw an increase across all eligibilities. 17 cents for free students, 17 cents for reduced students, and two cents for paid students. Next, please. Um, so above I chose our surrounding districts and I just did a comparison of where we are, price point for our meals. Um, all of the surrounding districts listed had an increase that ranged from either nothing all the way up to 25 cents. So, London did raise their prices by 10 cents. Um, but we

116are still in a healthy point compared to everyone else. Um, and then of the teacher costs listed, we are the second cheapest at breakfast and the second cheapest for lunches. Um, and at this time there is not enough data to determine a price increase for FY27. So I will present that in the spring. Um, so our projected revenues, um, we are looking at roughly $1.2 million. Um, and of that the majority are meals sold. So, I broke everything down based on each school. And for breakfasts for the year, we're projecting 75,770 breakfast sold for the school year. And for lunches, 288,940. The number of meals um reflects that each location actually feeds 50% of their kids every day. Um, another area for our revenues is our federal and state reimbursement. We roughly get $430,000 in

117that category. Um, our main revenue is paid meals and alocart revenues. We usually roughly get back about 1.1 give or take million dollars. Um, catering revenues is roughly 40,000. And then our federal commodities, we get $140,000 a year. Um, our operating expenses, um, labor and benefits are projected at 3.5% higher than last year. Um, and then due to tariffs and stronger by American requirements and restrictions for food and paper, um, those prices are actively fluctuating. We are continuing to utilize the New Hampshire buying group and the co-op for all purchasing [snorts] needs. Um, and we are finally finished with our link software. So, thank everyone for putting up with that process. Next, please. Um, the districtwide meal debt. Um, this slide actually came from when I pulled the data on 106. Um, so just keep

118in mind that the numbers are slightly different, but not by much. Um, it's important to note that 90% of the students have upgraded lunch accounts. Um, of the 10% of students with negative balances, 2.5% of them have a negative balance of more than $100. Um, we are still actively working to let to collect these debts. Um they get week parents and families get weekly notifications and those go out every Tuesday and Thursday. We do send letters home monthly through the United States Postal Service. We do make u monthly phone calls from my department and we are still sharing the Google Docs with principles. Um, as a reminder, I do want to make sure that everyone knows that we take re we do not take reimburseable meals away if a student cannot pay and we are

119still happy to work out payment plans with families to get debts brought up to date. Um, but I did have one thing just to deviate very quickly. Um, I wanted to take a quick moment to thank our anonymous donors. So far, their contributes have totaled $12,3562. Um, these funds have been allocated per the donor's requests and the remaining funds totaling $1,540.50 have been allocated to the feed it forward accounts for North and Matthew and I wanted to thank them for their generosity. >> So, can I pause you right there? So, um, >> sure. >> Sorry. Um, so it looks like it's about just under 90% um on the right hand side there. So do you know how many that that that's in that's in numbers instead of just percentages? That'd be easier for me to

120understand. >> Um, I would not have the exact number right off the top of my head, but I can definitely get them to you. Exact numbers for each school. I can do that. Just curious. >> But but I think it's fair to say that a lot of that debt is the the bulk of that $50,000 is probably like 30 30 people, 30 children. >> So it's some pretty high level debt for a small population. >> That's what I was wondering. Thank you. >> Yep. Um just a quick reminder of the fund balance overview overview. The fund balance policy is 3% of gross sales. Uh and that totals the operating expenses of 277. Sorry, I knew it would happen eventually. I'm sorry. Um, it's going to be $277,400. Um, the current fund balance is at 3

121months expenses. Um, and just as a reminder, bad debt must be covered by the district's general fund. Uh, for equipment needs, dining is not anticipating any outstanding equipment needs for FY27. However, I did allocate $10,000 to that area just in case of an emergency. >> Thank you, Crystal. >> No worries. >> Appreciate it. Any questions from budget committee? >> Good. Good. Anyone from the public? >> Good. Okay. >> Thanks. >> Thank you so much, Crystal. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. I am sorry about that. >> And thanks for bringing the snacks. >> Enjoy them. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> All right. Now, we'll jump into 5.3 curriculum, Mr. Parent. Pull it up here. Good evening. I'm pleased to present the curriculum budget for FY2027. Our curriculum coordinators are also

122graciously here this evening uh to assist with any questions at the end of the presentation if you may have them. The executive summary and budget analysis report can be referenced on pages 231 to 241 in your budget books. Uh the curriculum budget is divided into four different areas. assessment materials, professional development, district learning materials, and the gifted and talented program. I also have grant funding information included in this presentation. As well as the superintendent previously mentioned and what you'll hear from the principles this evening, uh there are many positive academic outcomes in our schools. We are a state leader in in um a lot of areas including the AP test taken and passed at the high school. Our scores at the middle school and the elementarymentaries uh continue to exceed state uh and national averages

123and Moose Hill School continues to shine despite being in a half-day model. The curriculum budget analysis, our current uh budget is $485,995. This proposed budget is $524,995 and that is a difference of $39,000. Uh the request for increases can be found p primarily in two line items. Uh assessment materials, the AP exams, which I'll talk a little bit about later in the presentation along with library media uh AI um platform. So for assessment materials um besides grades uh and demonstrating proficiency in our proficiency in our competency based learning model, we also use diagnostic tools to assess student performance. In grades 8 to 11, we use the PSAT and SAT. At the elementary and in grades six and seven, we use I ready. And in kindergarten, we use the Acadians dibbles. And those line items are

124all level funded. Um, but due to cuts in that Title 4 grant funding that the superintendent referenced, we're requesting $25,000 to offset uh AP testing for our high school students. So, a few years ago, we had a big win with the uh with that grant and it covered all the tests for a few years and now we're starting to see it uh dissipate. Within the collective bargaining agreement, our professional staff K to 12 have access to course tuition reimbursement. Staff participate in courses and workshops to advance their knowledge and skills in the classroom while fulfilling requirements for professional credentiing. This is a level funded request at all six schools across the district. >> So does that like include like a college? We could pay for someone's college like 140 grand is a lot. So is

125that someone we're basically carrying someone from beginning to end in college or what? 23. So you can jump in. >> Yeah. So that's that's basically an allocation for all 350 um professional staff. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Right. But but not for their college degree like they have the degree and and credentiing. Okay. >> Thank you. >> But they could take classes with that. >> Yeah. There's there's basically a limit. Is it maybe $2,000? It might be a little bit higher. 2500 >> 2500 that they can take courses at one at a time both. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So for curriculum and media learning materials uh we videotyping.com and swank video licenses is all level funded again at each of the schools. What you'll see new is school AI is a

126a new request following a year-long pilot across the district. If you you might recall that presentation from that group. Um the cost uh for student and teacher access to activities and instructional applications is estimated at $15,000 and we split that up by grade levels 5,000 in each of those line items. We're once again requesting level funding for all gifted and talented programs which goes to destination imagination elementary education instructional resources academic memberships and the middle school resource kits. uh we also have used it for other requests that fall under STEM. And then with grant funding to offset spending, we continue to work hard to explore and garner other sources of funding. Um though we're now starting to see a decline in some of those areas. As I mentioned, um grant funding has significantly helped supplement

127programs and services we provide. Uh the writing and process for grant funding is very intensive and we're thankful that we have a federal funds bookkeeper Janette Evans to manage all of it. Uh on this slide you'll see the various grants we receive resulting in $376,000 in funding. And then this allows us to have uh reading and math intervention at an elementary school with title one um professional development and mentoring. Uh it covers mentors and coaching for new teachers under title two. Our career connected learning. Um we have middle school teachers participating in Aspire training which is sort of a takeoff from the letters at that level. And then supervision and improvement of instruction across the grades. As I mentioned before, the title 4 is where you'll see the dip. Um we have an allocation of

12823,28 for that. We had a previous allocation of 52,000. So, we've fallen short of covering those AP exams for our students and that was um the reason for that request. I thank you for listening to the curriculum budget and happy to answer any questions you might have. >> Any questions budget committee? Anybody from the public? No. Okay. So there's one thing in the elementary schools in Moose Hill. It mentions um the funding for the letters programs for coursings for um the teachers to help with that program. Some of the schools it mentions 80% of their teachers and then others it doesn't mention any. Is there a reason there's only a certain percentage and does that come out of kind of that aotment that she was asking about for like there's only a certain like funding

129amount or >> Yes, it has in the past um covered that. But um the letters training is is um in our primary grades because it falls into the science of reading and they're doing a lot of those literacy efforts. >> So I don't think I answered your question though of where that funding's coming from. It said it said it was kind of sponsored. So, I'm not sure if that's like there's already separate money aotments for that if that's coming kind of out of this curriculum's budget or where that is. >> So, so this has been a multi-year approach. Um, I actually started it years ago when I was assistant superintendent. Um, so over the years, we've used operating budget money and this title 2 grant to kind of basically make sure nearly all of our

130elementary teachers have been trained. >> The only ones that haven't been trained are the new ones hired in the last couple years. So, we'll have to find, you know, funds for a new cohort to kind of go through the same process. >> Okay. But that's also kind of sufficing for the differencing in where we're at, like 80% in some schools, for example. >> Yeah. I mean, we're I thought >> it's pretty close. It's probably higher now. I mean, we're very close to >> I'm just referring to what's in the budget book currently. There's two schools that list 80% and then there's three others that don't have any percentage. >> Yeah. Okay. Again, all the elementary we kind of laid out the expectation K to five. We want to get you trained so you you can

131implement the new program and understand the science of reading. So >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you everybody. Good. >> Thank you Mr. Par. Welcome. Appreciate it. >> And next up we'll jump into 5.5 the high school. Welcome staff. Good evening. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to present the principal's budget for FY27. Joining me this evening is Dr. Kim Lily Susi, our director of curriculum at the high school. We are an excite in an exciting moment here at LHS where we are actively reimagining how we provide education in the 21st century. As we navigate a rapidly evolving world, our goal is to equip our students for the exciting and demanding times of IAD. We do this through honoring our strong traditions here at LHS while blazing new pathways

132for our students with the goal of making them competitive in college, the trades, the military, the workforce, and beyond. As you've seen this some of these uh numbers in several slides already. Obviously, we're very proud of them for good reason. Um we'll start with the success. Our success at the high school and academics. The scores you see from last year reflect an energized student body is led by our talented staff making significant gains and rigorous advanced placement course work in both numbers of tests taken and related results. The class of 2026 in particular has demonstrated they are ready to meet high expectations, setting a high bar for others to follow. The same class did the very same thing in an all setting an all-time high for the numbers of students who were proficient in the

133state science exam, crushing the state average by double digits. Staff in the science department did an amazing job motivating and prepare our students for this exam. Beyond the class of 2026, we are seeing a steady rise in the number of students earning dual enrollment for credit high school and college for the work they are completing at LHS. This has the double effect of preparing them for college and saving families in our district tens of thousands of dollars in the process. Now, onto our juggernaut here. The success we have had in academic achievement has been met equally by a massive surge in the number of students accessing what we refer to as career connected learning. This is evident in the large percentage increases in funding in this category year-over-year. As Superintendent Black has alluded to, a

13450% increase in this item has led to some really amazing gains and opportunities for our students. Um, you I love seeing our students walking around the building, some of them with their welding helmets, which look like hockey goalie helmets, which are pretty cool. Um, but you know, we've talked about our fire program and I get to use my pointer, but you can see there for folks at home that there is somebody at the tippy top of that ladder. It's about 100 ft high and that would be one of our our students that's taking part in this really groundbreaking initiative here at Londereerry. Um and you can see some of the quotes on there talking about the they're improving their confidence, their leadership skills. We had a parent the other night join us and talk about

135how they've never seen their child so excited for class every single day. And this program in itself is kind of a metaphor for what we want to do. Setting that bar really high. That's what we want for all of our students is to be excited to come to school every day. That's the goal anyways, right? So, we're really proud of their success and we're looking to replicate that in ways that make sense for us here in London. So, we had the program in uh the fire program which we're looking to has gone up a little bit. We've added we're proposing an EMT experience um for the fiscal year 27 that we're excited about and partnering with the fire department again, hopefully able to maybe open that to other students. Um we also are looking to

136grow our our um family and consumer science culinary program. They are busting at the seams with ideas and literally from their space. That picture you see in the bottom is we recently had a culinary event at the high school career day where we had bit entrepreneurs from local small businesses and we're engaging our students and having conversations about what it's like to run a small business in addition to make food and expose our kids to all kinds of different careers. I don't think I've ever been to a career event in any school where kids were as engaged. There was a hundred of them that were there. That's a significant number of our students and just having great conversations with members of our community. And I'll get more into ways that we think we can replicate

137that and under what under one umbrella, but it's been a lot of great work. So, we're also looking at our multi-tered system of supports as a unified school community. We're embarking on the transformative journey of implementing MTSS at the high school. You can think of it as a strategic plan designed to ensure every student achieves success in school. It employs a systematic approach to guarantee that students receive the appropriate teaching and assistance when they need it. It includes frequent progress monitoring, teachers regularly looking at student progress and collaborating to identify challenges early on. Looks at targeted support. If a student faces difficulty, the program offers concentrated support to help them catch up and continue. This year, every member of our professional staff is one of the committees you see is a member of one of

138the committees you see in this slide. Every faculty meeting this year has been devoted to these 12 committees, engaging in the hard work of keeping those things that have worked well for us at London High School while finding new ways to engage our students to improve their learning and sense of belonging. We are grateful for their outstanding dedication that has been displayed throughout this process. So, one we talked about a little bit uh professional development tonight. One fantastic result was staff created their own partial PD day here in the building where they were able to work and collaborate with one another as opposed to spending money going out and leaving site. They were able to do all that professional learning here and they all cited as a tremendous opportunity and a data they valued a

139lot and that it was a huge success and we're looking to replicate that kind of collaboration because that's the type of collaboration that's going to keep these results that we've been seeing again and again tonight to continuing to grow. It's going to be us making creating our own success. We have more than enough staff well more than a high quality of staff to to make that happen. As we look ahead, it's easy to see why London Area High School adopted a four-house model at a time when the school was around 18,800 students. Since then, the model has been the foundation of the proud traditions that define our school to include strong connections between staff and students with an emphasis on student involvement. The four houses have continued to serve as primary points of contact, providing

140outstanding support for their students. With continued declining enrollment well on the horizon, we are at the point where it makes sense to begin the shift from four houses to three, plus an innovative program that we're introducing tonight and referring to as Lancer Academy. We propose this take place over a 2-year period beginning with the next academic year. Additionally, as you may be aware, the federal government has informed New Hampshire that the state's adult education diploma will no longer be recognized. The $20,000 referenced in Superintendent Black's presentation would be needed next year to supplement an anticipated loss of grant funding for this important program so they can continue. For FY28, we would plan adult education will eventually fall under the Lancer Academy frame framework where our students can work towards a 20 credit diploma that meets

141the criteria of the federal government in an environment tailor still tailored to our students needs. Lancer Academy would also allow us to accelerate the integration of large-scale ELO program with our students. Perhaps the best example of this is this year's fire yellow program. Programs such as that would be incorporated under that Lancer Academy umbrella. Major aspects of CTE programming will also be included allowing us to manage manage our transition to what we're call what I'm starting to refer to as CTE free agency. In the past, we've only dealt, you know, sent to a couple one or two schools, Alver and MST. We would like to be able to kind of make our own market if you will and be able to pick and choose the programs we want to and we believe that's possible. So

142things have opened up quite a bit and the work we've done with our consultant has kind of helped us open our eyes to that. An example, we've already started this would be the new partnership our director of school counseling, Mrs. Burkheart and I have initiated via outreach with Pinkerton Academy successfully securing five spots in their outstanding electrical program which is approximately half of our current enrollment at over at MST in their electrical program. This particular program also offers comprehensive preparation to assist our students transitioning directly into the workforce upon completion. As we have discussed, Londereerry is uniquely positioned in southern New Hampshire near where so many large and small businesses, some of which are eager to train students for jobs that is exist now and those that are soon to be created. Establishing new partnerships

143and opportunities through ELO's while maintaining what we have in adult ed and CTE programming in a fast changing educational landscape demands a significant investment in time. Having a dedicated administrator at Lancer Academy to oversee this important work will enable us to focus on these efforts. Upon receiving input information on how to pro to proceed from the board, we could begin work through the finer details involved in the process and that we would aim to budget to be budget neutral in terms of staffing over a 2-year transition period. While transitions like these are never easy, we are confident that it would result in an increasingly agile high school model that is a leader in the state in meeting the needs of our students are going to college, trades, military, the workforce as it exists now, and

144jobs that have yet to be created. Moving into our executive summary overview, you will see that many accounts were held at uh fiscal year 2026 levels, some that were increased or decreased based on recent history to reflect the needs. lines covering supplies and learning materials, books, and replacement furniture and programs include some thoughtful increases that support our students. It also meets the continued increase in demand for access to our career connected learning programs as evident by those the information I shared previously. Additional increases in this budget serve to support high student interest in our ELL firefighting program in collaboration with the London Fire Department and bridge the anticipated gap in federal funding in our adult ed program. This year we also comb through our program of studies for next year eliminating multiple courses that are

145traditionally underenrolled or not selected by our students which serve to streamline those our offerings. I did have the correct enrollment there. So I appreciate that supernet black. So our budget analysis uh page in slide seven. So on there I just put we're up just under 1%. Um, I listed the not kind of the notable what I believe to be the notable increases and decreases. So, we have $5,000 in world language exams which were um to help our students gain recognition and proficiency through the national exams. I commend our department as led by Senora Halpern for putting that out there. I think they saw the recognition that others other other subjects were getting and as an elective they wanted to see garner that same kind of recognition and measure themselves against national standards and that's a

146really exciting thing for our students. Our career collected learning line item is up about 23,000. Um that most of that almost all of that is through for the uh proposed EMT experience that we're looking to offer our students. I think it's worth noting if you look carefully in that line item, it doesn't necessarily reflect in the overall increase. Every year, um, Manchester School of Technology sends us about about a bill for about 25% of our tuition. So, this year, rather than just receiving that bill and not having anticipated funds, we increased what our per our tuition um budgeted for that in advance so that we're not receiving that bill and trying to scramble to find the money. So they are the only school that does that. So other schools can do that, have not yet

147to do that, but they do that. And so that is an item that would is actually a lot of extra money on here. Our adult education though, we talked about the additional $20,000 to fund that gap. Um some printing cost increase for us is a result of outsourcing our printing cost. We used to do those in-house, but with personnel everything that it was far more expensive than 3500. So, this still a relative savings, but it is technically an increase. I included the mirrorless camera. You're going to see an increase in requests now and in the future probably because of the cell phone ban, statewide cell phone ban. Students still need access to cameras. We're trying to find a way to balance that in a reasonable manner. I don't think every student needs a mirrorless camera,

148but we definitely need some in our classes to be able to account for them not to being able to use their cell phones. So, we're trying to be reasonable and thoughtful as we go through that. We're excited to propose the $2,000 increase to so we can offer Serve Safe certification. This is something students would typically have to go to our CTE center to earn, but they can earn it right here. And upon receiving that, they'd be ready to go to work in a restaurant and that restaurant would not they would they would be more much more desirable [music] um in being hired and we're excited about that. In terms of the some reduction highlights, our social studies textbooks, there was actually a pretty significant decrease overall in our textbook purchases. That came, you know, one

149year ago, probably almost to the day when it was made very clear we need to start to dial back our textbook purchases. Um, and we are grateful for the increase that supported all the accelerated learning. We're starting that process of reigning those bringing those costs way down. Um, we're also looking our student supply items trying to find money everywhere we can. uh because we recognize with an overall increase the district's looking at, every every dollar counts and we're just doing our best to find that. We've also decreased some in textbooks and we've had to decrease our AP training materials because we're pretty much trained to capacity now for our AP teachers. So, that's great news. So, we appreciate the support over the years that helped us make those rapid gains. Lastly, the um or almost

150last, we have our equipment capital reserve. I snapped a couple of pictures. The one desk on the left is uh affectionately referred as the one-armed bandit desks. They don't work well with uh in a onetoone environment with laptops. Um that's actually one of the nicer ones. Um if you've gone through our classrooms, there's I don't know how old they are, but they're pretty old. There are many that are actually broken. Um and we're looking at slowly redoing building up that capital reserve so we can begin to make purchases of desks and teachers have been thrilled with those. To the right is our guidance table where we host quite a few meetings. Um, and if you look closely, it's not in great shape. So, we definitely need a new table and some of the expense is

151something that's flexible because we use it for testing for the hundreds of students that we test. It serves as uh a meeting space, but also a way to test students. So, it's dual purpose, which is great. And then lastly, uh the gym sound system is in dire need of replacement. when it works, it sounds great, but if you've been in the gym, maybe one out of four times, it just kind of shuts off sometimes, and that's a problem. So, and it's been and it's just overdue. Um, and that's that's an a cost item that we put into that into that capital reserve. Lastly, thank you. I'd like to express my gratitude to the school board, budget committee, and our taxpayers for their strong support over the years. It truly takes all of us. And this

152slide of our seniors visiting their elementary schools at May shows we are graduating confident, capable students, wonderful young adults prepared to embrace the next chapter of their lives beyond our districts. And that is all I have and we're happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you, Mr. Barnes. Any questions? Uh out of curiosity where we see the um the opportunity to shift to the three house model and into Lancer Academy. Uh why did you consider it too tall and ask to not shift next year and have to wait until fiscal year 2018? >> I mean I'd be happy to answer that. >> So there's there's the ideal world and there's what we have to do. we could do anything in the I bottom line. But when I look at what the disruption would be for

153students, I'm primarily thinking of students um to just do it all at once. Students would be switching counselors and they've had because we've had a we have a pretty young new counseling staff. We've had a number of changes in that department. In my time, almost every year I think we've hired a new counselor. We've had new leadership. Um I think students have already had enough a lot of change. So I was trying to be thoughtful in spreading that out over two years. Um, could we do it? Sure, we could do it. Um, but there would be with when you do any kind of big change like that, there's always there's always going to be a balance of of what that is. Um, so [music] primarily, I was thinking of the student experience. It's a huge

154change for the school. Um, there [music] when you make changes like that, you would there's there's a level of service that gets provided right now that's really nice. It's a nice it's a nice thing to have. It defines our school culture. if you were to pull that out quickly and in one year I think you would see some dips and some upset quite honestly nothing that we couldn't handle but those are the types of things that I'm thinking about other good examples you know so so right now in adult education when I'm in there but not or if a student's in there they can earn a whole credit in a half a semester when we move away from that model we can no longer do that so that's actually a really huge change because adult

155ed really kind of speeds up the kids to kind of catch them up to make sure they graduate. We don't really know what's going to happen with Lancer Academy in the future when we have to use normal processes to kind of earn credits. Like there's there's probably going to be this model, forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn, where kids show up for the last two periods where everyone's here, and there's a couple periods after school that are new, but they're they're not going to earn credits as quickly as they do in adult education because we're we're we're under the the normal [music] set of rules. How that works and how we catch kids up, those are those are huge questions and we have to kind of sort through counselors and everything, too. and

156you have a a direct our current director, Miss Rich, who's been doing this a long time. And there's a need to shadow and to have somebody with her to see her processes to be able to carry those over. Again, you can do that in a year, but you can do it better in two is is [music] the thought. Um, and we'd be moving to a diploma that where there is an increase in rigor, especially between and math and science. We think most of our students are ready for that, but we don't there will there's a group of population of students in there who won't be ready for that. We're trying to figure out a way to to navigate that over a two-year period. So, it just gives us more time to deal with things that

157we are anticipating and things that we might not be anticipating. But you can do both. There is there is you can do you can't do either. There's just pros and cons to either. >> Yeah. Another good example is like the ELO's. >> Are are we trying to mash this together in Lancer Academy for efficiency? >> Yeah. >> Should they be together? Maybe. you know, and those are some of the things we're trying to really sort through so we have like a robust program for kids because I I know from talking with Crystal over the years is um districts that have like a strong CTE center may not have an adult education program because they have a place for kids to go to latch onto something to get to the next stage in their life. Our

158adult day kind of grew out of the fact that we didn't have something like that, >> right? So, like we're we're trying to hybrid together a couple things together and there's just a lot of unknowns around staffing and and how it all works. And again, you know, to Rick's point, could we get there next year? Yeah, you can get there. We want to get there well and thoughtfully. >> And one of the things we're thinking about too, it gives us at some time within our collective bargaining agreement. I would like I would like to see right now we pay stipens for the adult dead program to run at night. I think we have the staffing as we've started to look at these reductions over time. We know that enrollment is declining, but what if we

159could start to stagger some of our staffing and make use of the money we're already paying and be able to instead of reducing some we always there may be an environment we have to reduce positions, but what if we could shift some of those so maybe someone has a later start time and then they teach in part of the day in the high school, part of the day at Lancer Academy, which is a savings of not having to pay stipens, which [music] are a pretty good chunk of money that that they pay because I think they're based on their perdem if I'm not mistaken. I could be wrong on that, but I know it's a good I know it's a fair amount of money that they make on that, but if you just shifted it

160now, you're taking advantage of the staff that you have right now rather than spending more. Is it a huge savings? Probably not. But is it's something, you know, it's it's an efficiency. We're always looking for those. >> Another good example, something we haven't really figured out yet, you know, I'll go to page 89. Rick kind of alluded to this. So, every kid that goes to Alurn, you know, we pay $1,600 for their class at Alurn. most of those classes they get a certificate you know so that's great they have a certificate to go to something our ELO's right now are tending to be more expensive so I think we're kind of looking at this is like how do we make this interest and how do we make these uh investments without stealing from Paul to

161pay for Peter or whatever that phrase exactly is >> right so the initial the initial cost was proposed for for the fire the EMT program allin was about $80,000 or 70 excuse me >> so would I love to do that absolutely would our kids love that Yes. But is that the most reasonable thing to do for the taxpayer? Probably not. It's probably not to spend that much money. So, we're trying to find those balances and giving us two years allows us to balance where we're going, but doing it in a way that's thoughtful. We're not ripping something apart. And I'm not saying it can't be [music] done. I'm just that's behind it. >> And I'm just going to jump in on this on what Mr. Porter said is I agree with everything that's discussed there,

162but I think we need that where we're headed that way is the process should start July 1 with the director building the budget through the next year with the ELO programs we have cuz if we wait 2 years to implement we're another year behind before we're running efficiently. So I think if you come out of the out of this with the three house system Lancer Academy and you put one of those whether it's an AP or whoever in charge they can build this program with staff and a budget process going into it on the second year. So I think you're behind a little bit and Mr. Barnes I have never heard so much excitement when you did that presentation and pointed at those kids on that ladder and that. So that is that is a

163lot of excitement coming out of our principal and I I caught on to that right off the bat. So I don't want to lose that excitement. >> We seen those firefighters that were in here at the last meeting and this this is something that could launch something huge. So I agree with with with the superintendent and yourself. I think that person should be in position July one. Let's start building the program. Continue what we're doing. figure things out along the way. Year one and now you're in now you're in budget mode and we can start processing how we're going to fund these and not miss a beat and because I you will lose another year if we win. >> Sure. No, I understand what you're saying. >> So, just something to think about. I'd really

164love to see that process start. >> Yeah. No, I mean I I I think we're all agreeing. I think the the key point is that LA that last we're trying we're trying to be budget neutral knowing where the overall budget's at and you know and and I think we're just there's so many things we're trying to figure out on that plane too. >> Yeah. just as we go through budget. That's that's my thought is let that person be part of building this program and and try to go to that three house system for next school year and work out the kinks and that before we we're fully lodged into the ELO and the CTE director whatever it may be for a position overseeing um adult education and see where that goes once this is fully

165implemented. So, I think there's a lot of moving parts to your point, but I think we need to do it in a methodical way and that way they're building the budget and can manage it because if you put somebody in there and has no clue of how it's built, >> correct? >> You know what I'm saying? It's just it's it's a lot for that person to jump into and not be able to engage. So, just my two cents as we move through budget. >> No, I appreciate that. Thank you. [snorts] >> Yeah, I just had one quick clarification on the serve safe certification. It looked like um the $2,000 line item. Is that all inclusive of the program or is >> you're talking about the mannequin? >> Oh, the sur program. >> Was that an

166all is that all inclusive of the entire program for 2000? And that seems >> that would be enable us to um certify a number of students. I don't know the total number off the top of my head, but I think it would allow a number a fair number of students to get their certification. So it's not one student but it would be yeah comprehensive they could implement class program and certification and our teachers would get trained using their professional development money because they need to be they are right now both SER safe certified themselves but they're not ser safe instructor certified. So they would do that certification themselves which could be done relatively easily online and this would be cured for the first year to our advanced foods classes our intro to foods classes those

167students would not quite be ready for it yet. So by the time they would take the one of the advanced foods courses they could then use our state certification which would exponentially increase their chances of getting hired pretty much wherever they want to go in terms of entry level culinary programs. it also going to colonize them at the collegiate level as well. >> It also serves as one little building block. I do see with the enthusiasm of the staff that we have in this culinary program and the number of students that we're serving that this we could start to build our own culinary program. So, we're actively looking for these opportunities. We think we can do things better, but and it's just a matter, do we have the staff? Yep, we do. So, here's a

168way to start to add a building block as we start to build this out because I think it's going to happen. And serve safe is nationally recognized and any of our students who decide to go into the culinary field first semester. That's a course that anyone going into the culinary fields must take at the collegiate level. Most colleges will recognize as long as they have that certification, which like our new enrollment courses is a cost savings or an ability for that student to advance to a different course right off the bat, their freshman year, future level. >> Great. It's a great investment. >> Yeah, it is. budget committee. >> Yeah. Sure. So to kick it off, so there's um within on page 83 of the budget book, there's a $40,000 about well $40,340 decrease in

169the books and printed media. Is that attributable to the uh the one-on-one model or is that something that's planned with? So we kind we had a surge of book of support really from the community and the school board to get get our AP program up to where I thought we thought it needed to be. So a lot of those materials were front end and they are expensive um to get these courses running and so we we we've caught up and so we're now we're just not we don't need that we're not spending that money. We've always had about uh high30s $40,000 price just kind of baseline in there but it was up it was it was kind of getting up there. Um, and [music] we just have drawn it back because we're that's up and

170running for the foreseeable future. We'll come back for books or things like that, but we're not that's down the road. So, >> one one book we know about is probably algebra 1. I think that's something we're probably working on for for next year. >> Correct. In the US, the uh US history. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? [snorts] >> Yeah. Um, can we book go back to slide six in this particular deck for a second, please? >> Sorry, the Yeah, the numbers one here. Uh, one more. The one with the uh >> Perfect. Yeah. So, I'm looking at this, right? But then I'm looking in the budget book at page 40 and just appreciate your help to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. So on page 40 in the budget book, that number of 743

171is shown there as the FY27 default and the 748 is the FY27 proposed. Whereas the FY26 budget there is shown as 676. Again, this is page 40 in the um budget book. And that accounts for a 10.6% increase in school operations non salary. So I was just curious what's driving that 10.6% 6% increase which um only Matthew Thornton is also in the double digits. >> Yep. So I'll let Rick turn into the detail but you know basically they're you know five grand above default. That's the baseline we have. Um most of it I think is is probably that career connected learning and adult education. Um but and then a few other small things but [clears throat] you want to >> No, the bulk of it is the career tech piece. >> Yeah. the 20 the

172the pieces that I mentioned, the 23,000 um and the the tuition that's gone up over the years um and the adult ed [music] the additional 20,000 for the adult ed to cover the gap anticipated gap in funding. >> Okay. So that then that 50some is part of that 72. So, there's another 17 or so in here on page 40 of the budget book. That's just you're saying miscellaneous other small charges, >> right? Small things. I I kind of went for things that were close to $3,000. Otherwise, I would just been going through slides of line items. I just picked things that were kind of cherrypicked I thought were significant, but there are other things that would add up to get to that amount. That's correct. >> Gotcha. Okay. Um, out of curiosity, not to take

173too much time, but pardon my ignorance, what is a mirrorless camera? >> That's a good question. >> Your book? Yeah, >> mirrorless camera is the type of camera they need to utilize for our yearbook photos. So, it's a higher quality camera than but we are looking to increase camera usage because in the past, for example, our school newspaper, every student on the school newspaper took all the photos that you saw in the newspaper with their cell phones. Now that they can't do that, we need to have cameras and having just one camera for the classroom is not sufficient because on any given journalism class period, three or four students are going out taking pictures or doing interviews of staff members and other students etc. So now we need to invest in cameras. >> So is

174that the the cost of one of these cameras or a bunch? >> For that one, that is the yearbook. That's the one yearbook camera. That's a much higher quality though than what the students are using for other activities around the school that require photography. >> Okay. Thank you. >> What's the mirrorless part? What's What is that? God, I feel old [laughter] into details that I'm not too sure about either, but as it was explained to me, it has to do with the way the camera is refracting the light and comes out with better quality for something like the yearbook because you need that very specific pixelation of the photos and just everything I know. [music] >> So, the the other piece too, they also take photos for, you know, athletics and those types of things.

175And so again, the nice thing about the phones, as much of a nuisance as they are, they took great pictures. I mean, they really were fantastic. That's the one thing they're really, really well, they're good at a lot of things, but that was one thing they're great at. So, we need a couple at least a few of those. I mean, you know, there's probably going to be a request for more, but I'm working with the departments to manage that. I don't know that we need one for every every student in a class. Those classes are small. Typically, I I you need access to them. And then sometimes if we do need more or multiple, you know, maybe photography wants one. There could be some sharing. So, we're just trying to manage that process. We recognize

176we don't have phones anymore. It doesn't necessarily mean we need a class set of cameras. I put it on there just as an example though. You know, there'll be other camera requests that probably won't be that expensive um for lesser that are of lesser quality where it's acceptable. Um but cameras, recording devices for things like journalism, those types of things are starting to get the old digital recorders which I haven't seen in 20 years. So, the kids are trying to be really hard to be respectful, but and those are super cheap, so I'm not worried about those. But the cameras are something that's why I put them on there cuz sometimes they are expensive. They've been We've been needing some for some time. We I think we had some in the budget for last year.

177We ended up cutting them out of the budget [music] and so then now they're back. Now they're gone. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> It's all good. >> I have a question. >> Um I wanted to bring up dual enrollment for a second. Um I think that's on slide two. Yeah, right there. Um that's the number of So it says 428 for Manchester and 222 for SNHU. Is that the number of credits or students enrolled? >> That's the number of students enrolled in a course. Now one student may be enrolled in two or three courses. It's not the number of students taking dual enrollment courses, but it's the number of courses being accessed. >> Okay. >> Um, you had mentioned that that helps with lowering costs. Where exactly do you see the biggest impact

178with that lowering cost? >> Sure. >> I would say one of the places that we see it is when students leave us and whether they're going on to a two-year or a four-year school. Many students enter their freshman year with sophomore status because they have filled those courses, which then gives them the opportunity to either graduate early or to pick up a double major, start a master's program in their fourth year. It depends on the college they're attending, how they play around with those credits. But our students benefit not only when they leave us but while they're still with us of having that rigor of a college level course while they're still in the comfort comfortable setting of their own high school. So those courses may be more rigorous than some of the other courses

179that a student can opt to take but they have that opportunity to take that very challenging course with the teacher that they have known for a few years with their regular schedule with their school counselor right there. everything is there to help support them to make that transition. And for some [snorts] students too, they take a course and then say, you know what, this isn't really what I love and I've enjoyed this class and I've done well, but I don't want to major in that in college. So, in that way, it's that indirect savings for families as well, so that when students leave us, they can go into something that will actually keep their interest over the next couple of years. Mhm. >> So in terms of real money, if you just from a kind

180of to simplify it, knowing anecdotally and going through the experience now as a parent with a student in college, let's just say a college tuition probably on the lower end is $60,000 a year. Um I think anecdotally and and maybe our assistant superintendent can back me up on this. A lot of students I've spoken to that have come back everywhere have been saving on a what I would consider an average of a semester's worth of courses. So like 30 grand, that's a lot of money and that's a huge value. And the the the tu the tuition in quotes here is small dollars like a hundred bucks for a course or$125 versus $1,200 $3,000 depending on what school you're going to. So it's a real chunk of money for our families um when their students go

181to college after here regardless of where they go. >> Right. Do you see an impact with the school budget as well or is it just after is it individual for the student after they graduate I guess is my question. Is there an impact in lowering the school budget when they do a dual enrollment class [snorts] >> as far >> I don't think so because there's still materials there would be typically there's materials although the school the colleges have been very good about recognizing you know 20 years ago when dual enrollment started they're like got to buy a new book and so I was like no we're not doing that anymore so they understand that that you can't really do that to public school so they've been really flexible saying okay well you know what you're

182gonna have this book for 10 you know they stretch it out a little bit or you know what you don't need a So that's a really flexible partnership. The reality is they need money too. Declining enrollments hitting colleges too. So we can kind of take advantage of that as a high school because they love the love the tuition checks even though they're small money. It's a mutually beneficial partnership for our kids, for them, for everybody. >> Thank you. >> All set. All set. Anyone from the public? Come on up. Sorry. Sorry. It's a wireless mic back [laughter] the change from four houses to three. Is there a paper on that that goes into detail of exactly you know what went on? So >> we're not there yet. >> Yeah, we're not there yet. >> Yeah.

183more conceptually. Um, you know, I I think we we've had different conversations over the last couple years and I think the moment we lost that federal funding and, you know, we were thinking about, oh my gosh, where are we going to find 60 grand to pull off a double debt this year? It was kind of the end of this like we have to figure this out for ourselves and start to move ahead. Um, but there there's again there's a lot of details we have to figure out. So, [clears throat] did you understand my question correctly? >> Can you get closer to the mic, Mr. Wilson, please? >> Yeah. I was [clears throat] I was wondering if there is a paper that describes in detail the change from a fourhouse to a three house system that

184you're contemplating moving to. nothing that's publicly available, but I have notes on structures and ideas on how to do it. But I don't know that that'll be the way it actually ends up being done. But yeah, do I have like a thought process of how you would deconstruct it? Yeah, I have I have it all I have it mapped out, but I also recognize just cuz I have it mapped out doesn't mean it's going to change. It's not necessarily ready to be put out there. We're not quite there yet in terms of a document that that pluses and minuses and all kinds of things. >> But the model itself won't be foreign to the students and the families cuz it'll still be divided by alphabet in grades 9 through 12 as it I believe always

185has y >> um within that house student would have the same assistant principal, the same counselor after the alphabet is adjusted to reflect three houses from four uh and the same administrative assistant. So that structure will still be in place. That's understandable. >> Just one less house >> for a community, just one less house. >> So yeah, we have two houses right now that have around 200 kids in them and two houses that have 400. You would just be removing one house and having three houses with around 400 students. >> Okay. >> Yep. Thank you. So, I did want to give a comment before I had a couple questions in reference to the part where um the double education um CTE is just where um she was asking in reference to um like then going

186to college where it kind of only benefits like the student or parents for example. Um, we kind of see that ourselves where our son's ABA therapist is actually a previous lenary high school graduate and is in college currently. And it's made it not just that she's advanced, she can do her double major and it makes it so that she can additionally work to earn an income to try and help because this cost of education in college is so great. Um, so it kind of is a huge benefit to have in our high schools for the kids. >> I agree. Um in reference to um there's something on page 84 of the budget um purchase professional service pupils. What is that? Because there's never a budget allotted to that, but there's always a cost that's entailed.

187>> So that's a summary. Let me let me try and find the >> Okay. I'm like I might be reading this wrong, but I couldn't figure that part out. Yeah. So that part of the budget kind of summarizes the whole high school and then the page after that there's line items. So let me see. >> Yeah. It's it's the very top of that page. >> Yeah. >> Graduation. >> No, it's the >> No, cuz the graduations are like $35,000 for diplomas. >> Contracted services for what? >> For his. >> It was like 7,000 and change for last year, 11,000 year to date this year, whatever. But there's nothing in the budget for it really ever. >> Excuse me. Which page is that again? >> Page 84 the top of the budget on that page. >>

188Yep. Oh, so the that goes to we took on we saw a rise um and some concerns in the high school and I reached out [music] to the district office and we currently have a school to community counselor and we were able to add one part-time two days a week to support the other school to community counselor that we have. >> Okay. So that's for counsel and whatnot. Okay. And then in reference to the serve safe certifications, did you state that we currently have people going to Alurn for that or >> that's part of was part of what they put into their culinary. They have a wonderful culinary program there and that's part of one of the benefits of going there is they offer >> Yeah. So I have my certif certifications. I did a

189culinary degree. Um, I only ask because so it is a great certification to have, but you actually don't have a lot of people in necessarily the overall culinary world who carry the certifications. You typically only see that for those who are going into back of the house in reference to being a certified culinary chef, anything like that, baking and pastry management, then you'll kind of start seeing that. Um, so I wasn't sure if there was like an overall like per person interest you see going into that. I know the budget for it is super small. I wasn't sure how much interest. >> I see very high interest having been at a number of high schools. I see extremely high interest in this high school and that's largely driven by this this teachers. Um, they're actually

190looking to take over the school store at some point and put ovens in which we kind of had to slow down a little bit. Um, but that's the level of enthusiasm there is for the program. And because we have space in this building, I see us being able to eventually offer a culinary program as as part of the bigger thing. We're not near that yet, but we could be quickly. Um, and why not start to build these things in now? Um, because I think it's going to benefit our students maybe when they go to work, but also it's going to be something that they could we could offer here like other schools do. And then with the firefighter EMT is how we have it listed in the budget book. Um is it going to give

191them then the testing and the certification for their EMT or is it more of like an EMR that it's the programming and training for but they would still be going to get their EMT and whatnot separate. >> I think we're because we're trying to negotiate that price which initially was really that cost which was initially a little bit too high for us to absorb. It's probably leaning in the conversations with them being more of an EMR right now. But where you were pushing for more of one year versus two that would then push it more to EMR EMT. Would there be a difference if we moved it over the one year or two-year plan or >> I don't think it's a difference of the whether it's the one year. Do we plan if we the

192budget's accepted we plan on moving forward and finding a way to make it work that Londere Fire Department's been wonderful. >> Yeah. They've been great in displaying them and having the students do it at their open houses. >> No. So, it's we'll find we're going to find a way to make it work, but is it the full-blown EMT program? No, because that's something that was more than we could pay. There are other ways for us to do that if we have a couple kids out of there that are like, you know what, I really want to take that next step right now. >> Bedford offers offers it for a reasonable price. There's other places. I think Pinkerton might also offer it. Okay. >> Um, it just there would be other ways to kind of allocard

193it, but we're really just growing in this space right now and then trying to do it trying to manage the money piece because full-blown. It's just it's a huge bottom line cost. >> Okay. Awesome. Thank you. >> Welcome. >> Thank you, everybody. Good. All right. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Barnes. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. >> And 5.6 middle school. They have texturies and we're still going together. I'm going to take a minute recess after this >> just so people can do whatever and then we'll jump right back. >> All right, >> I got a little closer. Can you hear me? Okay, there you go. >> You got it. >> All right. All right. Good evening, everyone. Um, ladies and gentlemen, this is Mrs. N. This is Megan Nason. Oh, sorry. Sorry.

194>> If you can't stay out too late, that's okay. [laughter] Come on up. >> Will you know tomorrow how many people watch this on YouTube tomorrow? >> Yeah, there's a tabulator, I believe, on YouTube. >> That tomorrow? >> Yeah. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Sorry about that. Sorry. No, that's okay. Floor is yours. >> All right. Thank you, sir. I'll start over and just say good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Megan Nason, and I are here to present for you the middle school budget for the 2026 2027 school year. All right, this is N. All right, we're going to start with um diving into our exciting academic achievements here at the middle school. Our students have been working exceptionally hard and we are seeing that reflected in our numbers. Notably, our PSAT scores for

195the 2025 were similar to those of our previous 24 25 school year scores. This year, there were two students who received top scores of a 720 in our reading section of the PSAT. And additionally, we had 11 students in our eighth grade scoring over an 1100. This assessment covers grade nine standards. So, it's important that we celebrate these achievements and our eighth grade students and staff. Additionally, our Q1 honor role for 2025 is impressive, showing that many of our students are excelling academically. This honor role not only recognizes individual achievements, but also highlights our school's commitment to academic excellence. As we move forward, let's carry we want to carry this momentum into our winter and spring data sets, which include our I Ready and our New Hampshire SAS. Our academic programming is designed to provide

196diverse and enriching opportunities for all students. First, we'll talk about our related arts options where we're committed to broadening our students horizons. This includes offering coding and robotics classes in starting in grade seven. Next, we're offering three world languages as an essential part of preparing our students for a globalized world and additional opportunities that they will then take at uh Legendary High School. We also have advanced offerings in math and science, which are perfect for students eager to challenge themselves further and for those who want to jumpstart those high school opportunities in these content areas. In the arts, grade 8 students can now choose from three art offerings in photography, painting, and handbuilding with clay. And for those with a passion for music, our year-long music program for performance classes provide ample opportunity to hone

197those skills in orchestra, chorus, and band. As you can see on the right side of this slide is the number of students involved in these programs, advanced math, science opportunities, and world language. This year, we have the greatest number of students participating in these world languages um more than previous years with over 80% of our students taking one of those three languages. Well done. As we have in the past, we talk about what the middle school's vision of excellence is. We have three pillars that are resonate in that. And as a staff, we continually are driven to do taking what we do well and always striving for better. That tends to be our messaging. Uh we support this by the vision by three underlining pillars. We've talked about these before. for their academic growth, collaborative

198practices, and instructional environment. In addition, as a school, we have accomplished much, and one of the many highlights is a fully embedded set of values and beliefs that connect across all grade levels, disciplines, and roles of all those on staff, and they are respect, responsibility, and perseverance. These three words represent what we believe and value in our students. They are prominently displayed throughout the school and embedded within the daily practices of our teachers. The wall of excellence as you can see as a quick snapshot up on the lefth hand side is one way that we recognize these characteristics and our students each month each month in the middle school. Here we look at our executive summary is quick overview. If you if you like you can refer to page 111. um they highlight these four

199um these four particular areas and discusses them at length but essentially still look at our middle school portion of a graduate our competency model as we begin to develop that here in the middle school that transitions well into the high school. We have systems of communication that are very important at the middle school level from school to home and home to school an academic and instructional learning environment what those look like in all of our academic areas. and finally uh addresses our assessments and the things that our students are um assessed on throughout the course of the year and also our progress monitoring that we have there. Overall, there's an enrollment projection for the next three or the past two years and what we're expecting for next year. I think you've seen before um with

200an enrollment of 871. We do have a class of 309 coming in as we leave our class, our eighth grade class, which is very large this year and around 335 students heading to the high school. our budget analysis. Um, and kind of a quick synopsis, the current year right now is 196,931. Our proposed at 207386 with a difference of a slight increase of $10,455. Some of the increases we have for next year is we still kept in um the replacement of our LMS marquee out front. some of uh those you heard from last last budget meeting. I discussed this um with some of the things that were wrong with the marquee. I do want to point out though and and acknowledge that u many of the things I brought forward. Fortunately um our school uh

201um building grounds was able to get out there. They fixed it. It was really nice. Uh took care of some of the plastic rivets that were broken. Our letters fit and so forth. Um, we did keep it in our budget though because we thought it was an important piece of the aesthetics of our school and also our community as we are really the first marquee on the way uh south on Mammoth. So, we kept it in there. Something obviously can be discussed further. Um, we have um we did add 6 through8 student field trip scholarships. I'm happy to talk about that. But essentially what we're seeing is uh some of the things that our kids are doing in all three grades and field trips are a strain on our families and uh each year we're

202getting more and more requests for scholarships and so forth. We thought this was a way to help offset some of those costs for parents. Um we did add something called disposable supplies for science labs. We've increased the amount of science. We want kids doing active science labs. Those disposable materials, those things obviously used one time and they have to be discarded afterwards. And they can be as small as from straws to tape to different types of materials all the way from cornstarch and sugar depending on what the the uh science teachers are using those things for. Um we did add an additional $1,000 to our ropes course maintenance supplies. Both Mr. Small and I met with Mr. Non. He is the person who oversees the outside ropes course. um that has a lot to do

203with uh very restricted set uh safety settings. Um and we want to maintain that and he wants to move in a different direction there with some of those needs and and so requires just a little bit of additional cost. And then finally um something that we're pretty passionate about and that is really looking at our sixth and seventh grade social studies curriculum for next year and really trying to make some shifts in the way that we're doing things now. Currently uh align some uh new initiatives in there. We wanted to put aside a couple of resources and some funds to help offset that. In addition, we've had some budget reductions from last year. We um we are limiting the FRA math programs. Uh we took a little money away from the uh floating lab reduction.

204That's to help cost or offset the cost of floating lab. Um we have some general science resources that we cut back on, but as you can see, we kind of add some additional ones to the supply line. And of course, um, summer school expenses, we saved $1,000 there simply, uh, because we have had low enrollment or limited enrollment overall. Okay. And then finally, um, from the middle school faculty and staff, um, we are dedicated to implementing effective strategies for middle level learners, ensuring they receive the highest quality education within a safe and dynamic learning environment. But we do want to say something to our community and families because this is an important particularly in middle level education. We'd like to express our heartfelt gratitude on behalf of the faculty and staff for your ongoing support.

205We've had a terrific year this year and our parents continue to support all the things we do in our school. We are truly lucky to be part of a community that appreciates our schools and the efforts to meet the needs of our students and the families we serve. So, thank you to our families and um all of what we do at the middle school. And then finally, we do have an equipment capital reserve. These are things to move forward next year. Uh we have six small teaching spaces in our in our building. Um one of the things we're trying to do is to cut down and uh the the moving of materials from year to year. So every year that we clean these spaces, we have to shift these these materials around or some of

206the uh furniture that's in there to accommodate the teachers. What we're hoping to do is simply make it generic. In other words, in these particular areas are those that are servicing our students with IEPs. So, they have the the appropriate uh chairs and tables in there to work well and they stay consistent regardless if they're in sixth, seventh or eighth grade. Uh and in addition, um middle school kids are rough on furniture. I wish they weren't, but they're rough. Uh and at times we need to replace chairs and desks. So, as we continually do that throughout this course of the building, we take old furniture, things that are either broken or not working well, and replace it. So, those are the things we'll be using those uh equipment capital reserve funds for. And then finally,

207any questions for us. >> Thank you, William. Thank you. And Megan, thank you. Any questions? >> Good. >> All set. >> Public. the three new art offerings in grade eight. Was that this past year or is that just for this current year just where we do have the two full-time education proposed cuts out of it? >> Those three choices were added this year. >> Okay. >> Um in reference to you had um it was uh scholarships for field trips and whatnot. Is that in reference to like the DC trips and whatnot? because I knew I know that they do like fundraising and then you had 15,000 item in the budget just for that after their fundraisings or >> so um the 628 field trip scholarships are separate from the DC um trip altogether. >> Okay.

208>> Uh the DC trip is already um well supported I think by our community. >> I think there's close to $15,000 in there. It's been there each year. >> Yeah. Um and then the kids do a lot of fundraising as you said and then uh they do have monthly payments and beyond that um that is particularly for um those offsetting field trips and things like that. Um and particularly sixth and seventh grade um this year um we're really excited our sixth grade uh teachers have gotten on board. They really do two main things. We did something um with uh Board which is a escape room games. We just took sixth grade kids too. In the spring they look to do something with the baseball club in Manchester. So they all travel there together on educational

209day. Those are kind of like the sixth grade things. Seventh grade is working into the Brown Center is something they're starting this year which is like team based building stuff. Okay. >> In between those sorts of things is trying to help the offset of parents who may be struggling get the cost of kids to go >> and um I think is what we're seeing over over and above cost particularly with transportation is really tricky for us. No. >> Okay. >> That's where it says. >> Um, so in reference to the robotics um budget as well, I'm assuming that budget is outside of whatever their fundraising goals and everything [music] are for their competitions and whatnot. >> Oh yeah. You want to talk about COD Z and >> Sure. Yes. Um we do and we don't

210have the big um robotics club that I think that you're referring to. Okay. But ours is a web- based robotics. Um and we have a grant that we did um receive um in conjun in conjunction with the state of New Hampshire and um an organization called Coder Z. Um but we do a web- based robotics but we do have a number of small robots as well but we don't have the big um like giant robot competitions. But we start with the coding and then we do have um I think they're called the XR >> XR something Z maybe um robots as well as these other little ones. Um and then we do some like uh online through coder Z robotics. >> Okay. As well >> now is that just basically for like interest hasn't been

211there enough yet to kind of build that program or >> um we've been working on it but the the larger scale um I think we're we're just we just don't have that interest yet. Okay. Um there there is an organization I believe outside of the school that has that. Um but this is where we've started. >> Okay. And then the only other thing was the um like substance abuse programs and whatnot that was at a $2,000 just default budget look like. Um, I know on the November 25th meeting, um, there was discussion about starting kind of a lot more trainings and additional help earlier than the high school because of the vaping testing and whatnot um, that was going on. Was any of that considered into that budget or is that going to be maybe

212changed or increased along the way or looking for like free programs to add in? >> Is this for um, health education? are you talking about in talking about vaping with students is that we're talking about or what are we referring to? >> Yeah. So there there's a budget line item for like alcohol and abuse programs. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's part of the health curriculum. >> Okay. So just the health curriculum. >> Yeah. Yeah. They they embed that in there as well as we do uh Red Ribbon Week and so forth like that. So we do those types of things. And then you'll see there's an assembly line in there for $5,000. >> We usually utilize that to bring in guest speakers and so forth for those types of topics. >> That's kind of

213that's separate. >> Yeah. And this year we were just lucky enough we partnered with our local uh police department who then uh had gotten a grant from another local agency. We brought something called Vibe 17 18 that was the name of the organization and they came in and they specialized to uh target our our age group students. So but we were lucky there because the police department so they may get that again and that may be more of an annual thing for us but yes all those those funds go towards that. >> Okay. Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome. >> Thank you. Okay. All set good for now. >> Yes. >> Okay. It's uh 8:47. I'm going to give about a 5m minute break uh while the elementary and moose people come up and set up.

214Everybody can stretch a little bit, but use the men's and ladies if you need to. So, we'll be be back at 8:52. everybody to sit down and we'll continue on. Police curriculum coordinators and our Mooseville principal. >> Oh, the cookies guy. >> All right, we are ready to get started. So, good evening. >> Good evening. >> We'd like to introduce ourselves. I am Paul Dutton, North School Principal. >> Abby Slloer, Matthew Thornton, principal. Nicole Treadway, curriculum coordinator. Deb Sedtherland, South School principal, Sandra Mack, Moose Hill, principal, >> and we have so much to be proud of in in Lemonary and the elementary administrators are pleased to be part of this outstanding school district in presenting our budgets to you this evening. We are so thankful for our entire district-wide elementary administrative team that uh helped

215us prepare this budget. Assistant principles Kim Fero, Sean Flynn, and Scott Sakard. And special education directors Jill Connors, Kim Spears, Lisa Fernet, and Alexis Luclair. So, excellence in action. That's us. >> The next slide. You'll it'll make sense in a [laughter] minute. He's trying to set it up. But tonight, we're happy to be here and to present you with four fiscally responsible school budgets that reflect our needs and the goals of our elementary and kindergarten programs. Our four schools have worked in tandem to prepare our budgets that represent one elementary in four locations. Our entire budget is driven by our students curriculum and instructional needs. And we continue to strive for excellence embedded in our datadriven practices strengthened through collaboration at all levels and focused on engaging our students with high expectations for all. Our

216curriculum and instruction priorities continue to be grounded in strong evidence and research to ensure all students have access to highquality grade level learning. We have invested in comprehensive literacy instruction through CKLA and foundations. Strengthened our mathematics program with math and focus and dedicated fact fluency practice with reflex math and support the whole child with intentional social emotional learning opportunities. These investments both in highquality curriculum materials and in ongoing professional development for staff ensure that every student receives consistent rigorous instruction aligned to grade level expectations. Our commitment to equitable access and instructional excellence guides each budget decision we bring forward. This is a summary of all our schools. The um executive summary anticipation of full day K in the elementary schools pending warrant article. This year there will be a warrant article for full day kindergarten

217in each of the elementary schools. Full day kindergarten will give our students 103 additional days of learning. Registration for kindergarten has already started in order to give us more information regarding enrollment at the December 18th budget meeting. Full day K, savings, and revenue will be presented. If the warrant article passes, full day kindergarten will be at Matthew Thornton North School and South School for the 2026 27 school year. In regards to staffing for the 2627 school year at the elementary level, we are proposing to maintain maintain our current staffing and classrooms. If Warren article 3 passes, all three elementary schools have plans for space as to where these additional classrooms would go within our buildings. We look forward to sharing those specific details with you on the night of the 18th. We continue to refine

218our master schedule with the goal of maximizing student learning, ensuring that the structure of the day supports both core instruction and targeted interventions. Students benefit from a dedicated intervention block that provide additional support in math and ELA as well as foundations for direct instruction in phonics. Our schedule also protects sacred time during which all students are present to receive grade level instruction from their classroom teachers. Beyond these core areas, the schedule incorporates intervention time and opportunities for science and social studies instruction at grade appropriate levels, creating a balanced framework that prioritizes academic growth while maintaining consistency and equity across our classrooms. At each of our schools, we continue to refine our literacy and math curriculum and instruction. In reading, teachers are focused on providing explicit systematic and se sorry, sequential instruction in both foundational skills

219and comprehension alongside knowledge building literacy skills. This year marks the second year of implementing core knowledge language arts or CKLA in grades 1 through 5. In math, all three elementary schools and Moose Hill continue to use math and focus in grades K to 5, ensuring consistency and the systematic progression for all learners. In the elementary school, students also receive an additional 30 minutes of daily math instruction to practice, remediate, or enrich their skills. We are also committed to continuing our PBIS and social emotional learning programs. Our elementary school continues to implement a strong PBIS um framework which PBIS stands for positive behavioral intervention and supports alongside our social emotional learning program. These initiatives work together to create a consistent positive school climate reinforcing behaviors and teaching kind teaching students essential skills such as self-regulation empathy

220and problem solving. Ongoing professional development, updated curriculum resources, and datadrivend driven practices ensure that these programs remain effective and responsive to student needs. This year's budget also includes additional funding dedicated to schoolwide programming that will support our culture and community building goals. We are launching a refreshed multi-tered systems and supports, also known as MTSS framework to strengthen how we identify and support student needs. This reboot clarifies our data protocols so teams use consistent measures and timelines across all schools when reviewing student progress. It also establishes a more unifi uniform process for documentation, problem solving, and decision-making. In addition, we are tightening expectations for progress monitoring to ensure interventions are implemented with fidelity and adjusted based on realtime data. The reboot outlines a clear continuum of intervention services, ensuring students receive timely, targeted, and effective support

221in both MTSSA for academics and MTSSB for behavior. This um slide explains how our budget is calculated. Our budget is um anchored in a per pupil cost model tied directly to enrollment, ensuring equity and transparency. To ensure we receive learning materials, we've also allocated 12% shipping and handling, which is an increase um from the previous years of 10% um to ensure that we get delivery of our supplies, which um can also be an upwards of $2,000. Um, and we've seen that in our CKLA quotes. Um, the shipping cost for that. And that slide does give an example. Um, for example, our line item for art learning materials, which can include things like paint, project materials, crayons, pencils, construction paper, all those um, art materials. We take that um, per pupil number times the number of

222students enrolled in our buildings plus the shipping and handling costs to get a total um, for each of the curriculum areas that we are budgeting for. on this slide. Uh for next year, we are proposing through all four schools a small overall budget increase uh at each of our school budgets. This slide kind of gives a summary of those um big impacts. Um the increases are a result of one, our reading uh curriculum, CKLA, and all the materials and shipping costs with the change in their packaging, including boost reading software, which was included free in year 1, which was last year, but now needs to be accounted for. So at South School that will be an increase of $5,29. Matthew Thornne $7,233 and North School $4,484. And once again that's all the per pupil costs.

223Our math and focus curriculum materials increase in cost this year per pupil. At Matthew Thornon we saw increased enrollment lead to an additional $2,350 in curriculum costs and South South saw a rise of $400. Then currently in grades 2 through 5, we are using reflex uh computer program software which engages students while building fluency with math math facts both during the 30-minute block and at home. This year all three schools are also requesting FRA. It's an additional program for targeted practice on fractions for grades 3 through 5. The FRA math site license is $2,70 per school. for schoolwide programming. Um, we have added an additional budget line item for uh to support initiatives in all school assemblies for PBIS, which is also positive behavioral interventions and supports. That is something new that each one of

224the schools have added. And you'll see the costs up there for Matthew Thornton North School and South School are additional cost of $1,250 and for Moose Hill, $1,000. There is a postage increase of 4 cents a stamp added to the office of the principal budget line item. The annual replacement cycle of desk, chairs, and bookcases are included in the equipment capital reserves. And each of the budgets reflect a 2% increase in shipping and handling costs. Um, as previously mentioned, >> because our budget is calculated on a per pupil basis, the overall projected decline in enrollment next year will help offset much of these added costs resulting in minimal net impact. And you can see with the bottom asterisks that that is applicable to both North and South while not applicable to Matthew Thorne as there's

225going to be a slight increase projected increase in enrollment. The Muso budget starts on page 151 of the budget book for Muso School. The proposed budget is $54,419 with an increase of $2584. This reflects the addition of the $1,000 line item for schoolwide programming supporting our positive behavior interventions as well as an increase in the shipping and handling. This budget continues to be calculated on a per pupil basis, keeping the budget impact relatively low this year with a slight increase in projected enrollment for South School. Um, we're proposing an overall budget increase of $4,929. This reflects the addition of a $1,250 line item to support the schoolwide programming that we mentioned, as well as $5,29 increase um in coded costs for the CKLA literacy materials due to a change in the process of how we

226they package and um we order our materials. There's also an additional cost of boost which supports vocabulary development um which was not included last year. And as mentioned, we also are adding FRA to our reflex math site license, which results in a $2,70 increase. And we feel that this is needed to strengthen students um fraction fluency. The budget continues to be developed on a per pupil basis and next year's projected decrease at South School of approximately 30 students helps to offset um the cost increases and keeping the overall budget impact relatively low. So, at Matthew Thornton, we are recommending an overall budget of $151,000. Again, this is up about $16,000 and this is attributed to the slight increase in enrollment. And again, as my colleagues had stated, it is based on a per pupil cost.

227Um, and again, those learning materials can include science and social studies, library materials, art supplies, math manipulatives, periodicals, just to name a few. Um, and the most impactful drivers that we are seeing was the CKLA increase which was over $7,000 and again the math in focus which again is just over $2,000 as well as the shipping and handling um of 12% and associated with CLA is boost. In the past that was free. We are now seeing a $12 per pupil cost which is new and included in our budgets. And the new recommendations from this year is our all school or schoolwide programming just to initiate programming that strengthens positive behavior initiatives um and to further build a sense of community among our students and our staff. And again, that is about $1,250. And again, as

228Deb had said, in addition is the recommendation of FRA, which is just a little over $2,000 adaptive learning platform to support individual learning needs. Um, and we're excited about this because we're looking to strengthen the fraction fluency which will be essential leader with algebra and advanced math opportunities. And for Nor school, my proposed budget is $122,84 and that is a $3,476 increase. Overall, these uh overall there are decreases in the cost for learning materials and general supplies with the overall decrease to projected enrollment. Uh the three main drivers for North for that increase once again CKLA coming at $4,484 more um for the 2627 school year. the addition of FRA uh with the $2,70 increase or uh request and then the request for 1,250 to support our schoolwide programming uh with our all school assemblies

229and PBS uh initiatives. At this time, that wraps up our elementary and [music] presentation and we'd love to turn it over for any questions. [cough] >> Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. Any questions? Yeah, question. Um, sorry, let me just find where it was. Um, [clears throat] okay. Just to make sure I'm understanding. I think I heard you say this, but um so on a few of the budgets in the budget book, I'm seeing under learning materials and supply general look like those are uh have really increased by a by a pretty good measure um over the years. So like learning materials for Matthew Thornton for instance, oh well that that one we have more kids, right? So it's going to go up. Um but but is my understanding correct that the increase of those lines

230like you said is really just the materials are more expensive basically and we're offsetting that with >> whatever reductions because we have fewer kids at some some of the schools that's >> okay thank you >> first of all thank you great presentation as always I have two quick questions about the um on the slide about the summary of budget impacts. Um can you please refresh me? The second bullet MIF for Matthew Thornon. What is MIF again? >> Yeah, pardon. >> That's our math curriculum. >> Why is Matthew Thornon the only school for that? >> Because I have the increase in students. The other two schools are seeing lower enrollments. Mine is growing. So to account for the extra students, it's a per pupil cost. >> I got you. So all the schools actually have this.

231But because Matthew Thorn is the only one that's increasing. Okay. >> Exactly. >> Um the other question I had is with the addition of FRA math. Um I'm just curious where did the impetus come from to acquire and implement FRA math? Who proposed it? The math teachers or as parents or who? >> Yeah. So we actually started with reflex math which came from um one of our accelerated math teachers at Nor School. um started using it with her students and just kind of like the demo um and then it just kind of spiraled where it became very popular among all of the classrooms. Um I would say majority of our second through fifth grade, it is not offered in kindergarten or first. Um they're using it whether it's during that um extra 30 minutes of

232math, it might be a station, not necessarily every day. Some use it as a homework opportunity. Um, but it's really increased just their fact fluency. Um, which we've also seen a pretty good decrease because not a lot of that I think we all remember we probably flashcards all this time growing up. Um, we don't see that as often being done at home. So, and our kids do love digital tools. Um, so it's a very it's kind of a gamified approach to fact fluency. Um, so it started there and then if you remember from the middle school presentation, they had actually adopted Fracks this past year and tried it there. So we had left FRA math alone um to see how it went at the middle school, but we had fourth and fifth grade teachers that

233were like itching. They were like, can we please get FRA math? We have kids who have already met their fluency and their addition, subtraction, and multiplication and division facts. we really could see this as a benefit for some of our students who are ready to move on. Um so then when Megan told me they were going to look into something else for the middle school, we were really excited to jump on that. Unfortunately, it's a site license, so we can't say, "Oh, we just want it for our fourth and fifth grade students or but it does open up the opportunity that if we have some accelerated students in second or third grade that it we could open things up. But um but yeah, it was very teacherdriven. It came from from teachers. >> Thank you.

234And uh just [clears throat] one more quick followup. I I know it sounds like it's very new. So do we have any quantitative data yet to back up that this investment is yielding fruit? >> Yeah, I'm we do have we do have on our admin platform which to be quite honest with you, my view as an administrator on there, it is not as I can't see as much data as the teachers can. Um, so I think now that the teachers are using it more consistently and it's more of an equitable data point, then we can start to really look at or even compare classrooms that use it more consistently than others. Um, but we're in year three two or two or three of it kind of rolling out. So it started with just really like

235those couple of accelerated classrooms. Then it snowballed a little bit more. Now it's more. So I think in the next year or so we could use that data again so that it's more of an equitable look at it. Um but but also looking at comparing but I would just say even just teachers own like just their input of like I am seeing a huge increase in my um students fact fluency and the number of facts that they have and truly have. Um we definitely have heard that from teachers and PLC's and and whatnot. So, but there is data available that we can definitely dive into more. >> Thank you. >> Question. >> Um, I have a question in regards to Matthew Thornton's enrollment. Um, so on this presentation, it says for the 2025 2026 enrollment,

236it's 517. [music] However, on the superintendence um, presentation is >> I made a mistake. >> Okay. So not technically you did not. [laughter] >> So our when we when we start the budget process we take our October numbers. So last year in October our population our number was 517. We ballooned up to 541. Um so when you look at borrowing books and supplies from other schools that was my reality going into the end of last year. and to point out your keen eye. When Nicole and I really started looking at CKLA materials for this year um because you're purchasing them that year, we were running into we had some leftover supplies but not enough. So, we went through every single book, every single reader for every single grade to try to cut those costs. And

237what we found that initial quote was over $32,000, but if you look at the budget, we were able to reduce it to about 22. So, it is that numbers game and it is trying to be savvy with the supplies. Um, but with the shipping, it ended up being more affordable to buy everybody um at that per pupil cost. So, we were able to cover ourselves for that year. >> Okay. >> Um, but that that's a significant jump, but you're correct. >> Thank you. >> Yep. We also obviously it's so hard in October, right, to to say this is what we need for for materials. Um, so we try to always add a little bit of a buffer too, right? When we're looking at that, we want to make sure that, as you know, like students

238will move in. We want to make sure that we're not scrambling to try to find a workbook or a reader for a student, um, but that it's readily available for them. Um, and so we're looking at that as to making sure we have a little bit of a buffer for some of our actual materials. Digital license is a little bit different. That's much easier to to say, "Hey, we need this." And it's usually like touch of a button we can get that but the physical materials. Um but then we'll do this all again before we actually order. We'll go back to the table to make sure like okay how who's hoarding math and focus books in their classroom? Who has this? Who has that? Um so that we can make sure that we're ordering what

239we actually need. So even what we spend will that will change when it when it gets to the spring. CLA is a little bit different because all the materials physical materials are tied to digital license. So, it's more coste effective to just buy that all of the materials even if we might have extra copies of something because then we're getting digital subscriptions and all of that for free. Um, so that's a little bit different. But for foundations, math and focus, um our other hard copy materials, we'll go back and and again we'll go digging in closets in classrooms and make sure that we have a really good idea of what we actually need to purchase while still having materials available for students who move in. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anyone from the audience? one

240survivor here tonight. [laughter] >> Surviving will be used a little loosely on that part of it. [laughter] Um so obviously the warrant article 3 will be the full day kindergarten. So we won't have the details for that coming until December 18th. Um the gen ed supplies um that was mentioned um I could definitely be wrong on this. It looks like almost the per person cost for the projected year is different per school. Is that correct? What is that? What's the reason for that? >> Cuz like Matthew Thornton 7280 per North School 7305 South School 7280. >> I are you looking at the last year actual? >> No, for the proposed budget number. >> Yep. If you do that total dollar amount divided by the proposed enrollment for the total students >> 525. >> It looks

241like those numbers vary >> because the per pupil number varies. >> No, correct. So like per school the total dollar amount for that school divided by the total proposed pupils. >> Which I would ask which one? Because we have one for art, we have one for library, we have one for the general supplies. >> General supplies. Okay. Got it. All right. General 27, right? 10. Yeah. 610 610. >> Yeah. Our number should be the same. 610. So for example, Matthew Thornton has projected numbers for coming year was 525 students. >> For the general supply budget is at 38,220. >> So if you do that, that's 7280 per child. Well, it's the shipping. >> The shipping handling is at 12%. >> Handling is part of that. >> Okay. But that would be for each school. But

242what I'm saying is if you do that math per elementary school, the numbers are different. So is it the shipping and handling is a different cost to school, >> right? So it's $65 per student [music] times the enrollment number of enrollment in each of our buildings, which would >> then it's times 12%. So that because our numbers are all different enrollment for each of our schools, the shipping then you multiply the 12% on that makes our numbers different. >> Okay, that be okay. But I'll calculate the same way. [laughter] >> I just wanted to ask just because it doesn't specify like it just says plus shipping and handling. So I wasn't sure where those numbers were kind of deriving. >> In the past it was >> last year it was 10%. We we did bump

243it up to 12 this year because of those increases. >> Okay. Um, Matthew Thornton is the increase for this current year, but also for an increase for the proposed year. >> Correct. >> Okay. Um, what is the reason that you think that Matthew Thornton has got a proposed increase versus say school? >> Yeah. So, when we go back year after year, um, the center of town is typically more popular. we just tend to carry more students and we continue to grow. So we tend to hover around 80 to 100 students in grade 1 and then those classes continue to grow. So right now my third grade class is 127 students. That's a that's a huge class but again they continue to grow. >> Okay. So your numbers though aren't based on like she was asking

244earlier about how we have a bunch of apartments coming in and everything else where we don't really have those >> you know. >> Correct. It continues to be steady, but again, there's more of those single family homes at the center of town. Um, and it's always just been a little bit larger of a school. >> Okay. >> Some of the some of it too, like within the CKLA as well, sometimes there's it's the the classroom cost too. So, more sections, having more first actual sections of first grade, sections of second grade, sections of third grade, >> meaning 26 classrooms. >> Correct. So having more classrooms overall as well. So pure per pupil but also per classroom. She has more sections overall in it. >> Yes. Cuz for example, Matthew Thornton has the palace program, but

245>> correct. >> South has friends and flex. Um North school doesn't itemize that they have a separate classroom for flex, but flex as of last year was told it was dispersed to each general school or was it kind of disbanded in a way? Because if every school kind of has this separate classroom in special ed for the specific special ed programs, why doesn't North? So we we do have that space with flex and with PFS. >> Okay. So they do they share the general special ed classroom alto together though or is it there are three kind of separate classrooms per program cuz I think it's there's two classrooms for flex for example at south and then they also have I think three for friends >> it's shared space at north school >> okay so north

246is shared >> I think if you look at the enrollment I got I got one example up here um so if you look at the 25 26 six nor school. If you if you look at it, you know, back in time, the fourth and fifth grade right now were 98 and 104 kids. Uh the first grade's at 73. You can kind of see it dropped. Then you go to Matthew Thornon, there's been a drop, but but notice 3 4 and 5, 125, 105, 110, 80, and 99. >> Mhm. Then you go to South School, there was a big class uh in in fourth grade, 103, but then look at 32 and 1, 77, 71, 72. So forever reason enrollments dropping quicker in the north and south regions. Yeah. Compared to Matthew Thorton, >> correct? Cuz

247I know in the full AK budget, you do have that, you know, some work needs to be done on like building wall space in order for it to fit because of the capacity. Um, if South is decreasing in size, how much is the flex program that was kind of dispersed between the district making an effect in giving more space to South or is it not really seeing much of a difference cuz obviously that's your per student kind of space as well. So, our students at our flex program really they're not a self-contained program. They are really integrated into regular classrooms. It's a separate room just for if they need additional um direct instruction like social skills or it's more of like a pull out for that. So it's not really impacting that because they're not

248self-contained in that room like a friend. >> What I'm saying is because it flex you should just be at South were just at South so where they're dispersed between the different schools now. Um, are you an impact on size, especially where Matthew Thornton is over kind of? >> We haven't seen that yet because it's rolling as new students enter, but we wouldn't but we didn't take away students and send them to other schools if they were in third grade or fourth grade or fifth grade in flex or second grade. If they were already in South, they stayed there. So just incoming up from Moose Hill, they were going to go to their home schools rather than to South if they needed flex. >> So the ones that are already south stayed there. So, we haven't

249seen that impact yet and we just don't know. I I don't know who's coming up and we can't predict that right now who will need flex. So, I don't know if they would have been South students or would have been, you know, Matthew Thornton or North students. Okay. Um, to know if that's impacting us, like we could just by geography have had all of the flex kids live in the south side of town and none of them would go to the other schools and that wouldn't impact us or they all could go to one of the other schools and then, you know, next year we wouldn't see incoming kindergarteners or first graders from the flex program. So, I don't know who would be coming up and where their neighborhood school would be to know if

250there would be an impact yet. Okay. >> And I would say to your comment, uh, we are not over capacity. We just happen to be a larger school with more students and more >> if the full day K ends up going to you is when they the kind of restructure adjustment has to happen. >> And I think that's across all schools. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> To give you a hard and fast number, this year there were five students, three and two that went to North and Matthew Thornon versus going to South. >> Okay. So roughly like half to twothirds of a full classroom. >> They but they wouldn't have been in a class altogether. >> No. Correct. But that would be dispersed within that school. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> So you know what

251you'll probably see over time is that there would be more [music] space in South School as each successive grade goes up and flex as it kind of ages out in South School and kind of moves up. It'll just be more dispersion time. I just ask in reference to how that impacts because if we are to implement full day kindergarten besides that hope of maybe more student enrollment in the kindergarten through the school system um how that also impacts kind of where we are having more students who are enrolling into Moose Hill for example who are a part of like the IEP504 needs at their third birthday if [clears throat] they are going to start falling into those programs if it kind of pushed pushes you guys outside your classroom sizes or anything like that for

252those special ed programs. >> If I may, I think the most essential data point we have is how well the early intervention has worked with enabled us to move the resource room supporting that kind of flex population back into the neighborhood school because of the work that preschool and prek were doing. Mhm. >> You know, and then in terms of space, I mean, I don't want to get ahead of next week is we've counted every single regular classroom. We've counted every single remediation space. We've counted every single, you know, specialized space, and we have room in all three schools. And that's kind of what we'll go over next week. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Seeing none. Thank you very much, folks. appreciate the presentation and info.

253>> Thank you. >> And next on our list is athletics. should be doing. >> Sorry. Feel so lonely up here now. [laughter] >> Where's your gang? >> Yeah, I know. There's no help. >> All right. Um I'm Jimmy Lozan, athletic director uh here in uh Londereary School District. Um, under athletics is one of the, you know, largest and and most uh comprehensive athletic programs in in New Hampshire. Uh, we have over 80 teams between the high school and middle school. Um, and the middle school or and together, you know, it's about 112 coaches this year who I believe doing an exceptional job in uh trying to provide our students uh great experience. Um our participation rates continue to increase through uh within athletics. Um as does our desire to, you know, try to provide them

254everything that they need uh to be successful and have a successful experience. Um having said that, that also means our budget sometimes increases a little bit. Um and everything in this budget really is what it costs to to run the athletics program. It's really operational. um and just requirements uh in order to make it all happen for the kids. So if we want to go piece by piece um so game officials uh these figures reflect the um the cost for anticipated you know game schedules. Um you don't want to get me going on on the official rates but they continue to uh increase and um each sport is different. Um each sport requires different amount of officials. Um they've now taken into account mileage um as well. So those vary. So we did the best

255we could to kind of anticipate those costs. Um and then there's no way to predict how many playoff games and um tournament fees we might uh anticipate for next year. So we did the best we could. Um officials continue to to rise with the addition to middle school football last couple years. uh which requires five officials per game. Um and those continue to change as well. So uh within this budget line, we also take into consideration hiring police officers uh for event detail and those are pretty well mapped out, but occasionally we have an additional one here and there. Um and then tournaments at the end of the season, repair maintenance. Um, as our, you know, football helmets and shoulder pads tend to age, uh, reconditioning costs are also increasing. So, um, the combination of

256those two things in order to meet the safety requirements, um, starting to cost a lot of money and, um, and then replacing the ones that are rejected as well. Um the sorry the um middle school also covers reconditioning, football helmet, shoulder pads. Um we went through everything um this year like all the stuff that they they do with the reconditioning or I I tried to to see if we could cut any cost in that area, but um everything is pretty much mandatory. Um and we were caught a little unprepared. We I say we uh me. Um I was caught unprepared last year with the um helmet kits uh cost which has all the pieces and everything that it takes to um you know fix the helmets while we have them throughout the year. So those

257need to be replaced last year. I added those into the budget um going forward if we want to go to facility rentals. So, um, this will secure ice time, uh, for our JV and hockey programs, um, pool time for our swim programs, and we allocate $19,000 for our indoor facility rentals, um, for spring sports, some fall sports, um, and then the winter sports of volleyball, um, or sorry, fall sport, b volleyball, but also basketball, um, for the winter because the gymnasium's constantly being used kind of pushes our our teams [clears throat] out for practices. Um the increase in this line also reflects um golf course rentals, um gymnastics, facility rentals for meets, they have been added. Um both ice arena and pool rentals have increased. Um and then as I mentioned, the displacement of the

258teams that use the gym um and also the unpredictable weather um of New England. So we have to uh do our best I guess. Hopefully in the future um you know a turf field will help decrease this line. Um help general supplies um and this funding purchase all athletic and medical supplies required AC across all sports. Um the increases really baseball bats, tennis balls, um some shipping costs with those volleyballs, and as I mentioned, unpredictable shipping. Um supplies include balls, ice packs, captain bands, scorebooks, basketball nets, equipment bags, and volleyball antennas. These are just a handful of things that um I added from this year. equipment replacement. Um, this allocation covers football helmets and shoulder pads. Um, depending on how many are rejected this year um and deemed unsafe to use going forward, a significant

259portion supports our strength and conditioning program which um we've now extended to our middle school students. So that they're serving over or somewhere between 600 and 800 students um throughout the seasons that um it's just it's awesome. It's it's packed. They're doing a great job of uh training um all of our athletes from 6th to 12th grade and doing that. You know, a lot of our equipment takes, you know, wear and tear that we need to now replace. Um, and then with middle school, um, additional football helmets, shoulder pads, um, things that are just being overused. And we're also adding in lacrosse goalie equipment, field hockey goalie equipment, catchers equipment, not all year, not all at once, but um, those things seem to be coming up quite often um, year to year. So, we'll kind

260of rotate those through as to which one we're going to purchase each year. And then uniforms. Sorry. So the uniform line is down a little bit. Dan um you mentioned uh you wanted me to start with that. Um so for many years we've successfully utilized the 5-year rotation replacement. Um that allows us to kind of predict the budget. New to the cycle this year though is girls and boys track programs. Um they since the school opened track has you know reordered the same uniform styles annually. Uh moving them now into the 5-year cycle allows for fresh designs, updated styles, and maintaining that budget predictability. Um teams that are on their fifth year that will be ordering um this upcoming season will be high school boys soccer, um high school field hockey for the girls, um

261girls lacrosse and middle school cheerleading are all in their fifth year. Um and then the just the annual um replacements that are already built in and then practice jerseys which seems to be coming up quite a bit. So that's just like pennies and things like that. Certain programs need those year to year. And then dues and fees. Um, this line covers the essential memberships which we've really tried to crack down, make sure every high school coach um is on the NHIA um coverage and and we've just been kind of going through that over the last few years to make sure every one of them's on there. So we we get charged per coach um as well as any sport that we participate in in the NHIA. Um also charges us for that which can vary

262year to year. Um licenses for CPR, first aid certificates, twoear choreography, um etc. as you can see there. And then [music] just certain increases. Uh we noticed a big jump in the NHIA which does jump up a little bit each year but um also the increase in our software for film um velocity training for the strength and conditioning program. Um and yeah several several little things Tri County um junior high football league volleyball tournaments things like that. So, this budget really reflects our unwavering commitment to maintaining high quality, comprehensive athletic program here, uh, while adapting to increasing cost, enhanced safety standards, and evolving student needs. So, thank you guys very much. Any questions? >> Yeah, just to make sure I heard you. Um, >> so you're so did you say that the participation in athletics

263has gone up? >> Yeah. >> Okay, that's very cool. since the uh volume of students seems to be decreasing. Yeah. >> Overall, okay. >> Did you want to go over the Thank you. >> Did you want to go over the B&G capital reserve or the vehicle capital reserve at all? >> So, um they are Joe Parzik um our B&G director is going to go over the capital reserves next week when he's there. Um, I put them here just because they're going to be they're connected to what Jimmy I put the ones that are going to help athletics on his presentation, but Joe Parzac will go in detail next week. >> Got it. I apologize. >> No, no, fine. I asked her if I should be prepared. >> I had to slide in [laughter] case anyone

264lone survivor out there have any questions to close out? I only had like basic question. Um, so some of the strength conditioning and whatnot kind of itemized in there. Do we get like local sponsors or anything like that to help with any of these programs or do we not reach out for anything like that? Um, I asked because like we have like the new Apple Therapy that's just come into town and everything else. um if we get certain kind of town city participation to try and help support our athletics programs. >> Um no, I don't think we've gone down that route. I think whenever things come up that are unbudgeted, um Michelle Hart Miller, our strength and condition coach, she'll kind of reach out to certain teams to see if anybody's willing to um put

265some funds towards it, whether it's coming from a booster club or, you know, the school account. And so we're able to kind of, you know, make sure she has everything that she needs to to train our athletes. Um, but we [music] haven't looked in any other areas. That's one area we haven't had to fund raise for either, which is great. Um, this has been enough to suffice everything that, you know, she needs for the time being. So, we'll see. [laughter] >> Okay. Um, and then the only other thing is is um, like I said, for example, choreographies for our cheerleading teams and everything. Do we not have like our coaches kind of making choreography anymore? We actually outsource that. >> Yeah. And that's common practice amongst all high schoolers. So um yeah, that's and that's

266been built in for quite a while. Okay. Um I ask every year see if it's going to go up. But um no, it's been pretty well set and um >> yeah, that's that's common practice. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you. All set. All set. Thank you, Jimmy. Appreciate it. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> All right, Mr. Dan, do you have anything to add to close out? I'm good on your end. We're good. >> You're good on your end for now. >> I'm good. I'm good on my end. Yeah. >> Well, budget committee, I think that's it for this evening. Um, like I said, any questions you have on these, and what I'd like to do at the beginning of the 18th, uh, before we get into the budget, if there's

267any questions that you may have, write them down. We can go over those on tonight's presentations if they haven't been answered, and then we'll jump into the the last few segments of our presentations. So, if you do have those questions, they haven't been answered, but feel free to reach out to the superintendent or AMD at the business office uh in between now and the 18th uh or any board member if we can help you with anything. Uh be glad to help and uh we'll we'll entertain any questions ahead of the new presentations uh next Thursday. So, if you folks, we've got one small item that's some non-public, but if you folks would like to retire and I I know you had a long evening last night and that. So, uh, thank you for so much

268for being here and some great questions. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, jump into 6.1 procedure for vaping searches. >> Ready? So, okay. I mean, a as you guys I'll I'll project it. Um, as you all requested, I think Rick's still here. >> Y Okay. Um, what we did is we we worked with uh Rick and his team to to kind of model um a procedure. Sorry, 4 hours into it. The I'm not all firing, not not firing on all cylinders here. Um, you know, to kind of model after breathalyzer what this would look like. Um, we we we we closed some loopholes around contacting parents that kind of brought up last time. And what Rick and his team wants to do is kind of better inform the public and the school board

269just how this works in general next meeting. We we don't have the time tonight. >> Yep. >> Um, but we included the presentation they're going to give in the packet so you guys can kind of see what's coming. >> Okay, great. >> Um, but this is generally where things are heading. Uh, we think it works operationally. I mean, obviously it's in line legally with everything we've done in the past. It's just something different. And I don't know if uh Rick had any more, you know, um items to add, but we just we're just, you know, completing the task from last time and have a bigger conversation next week, um too. Okay. >> Yes. Superintendent Black said we just put some things in writing like we were asked to do and wanted to we have confirmed

270with legal that it all falls within legal guidelines. Um, and the purpose of the presentation would be just a public opportunity for people to kind of be educated on what the general process looks like because a lot of folks just aren't aware of what that looks like and how we could incorporate this tool to combat the the issue, better combat it. >> Okay. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Barnes? Take some time to review it and we'll talk about it on the 18th. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Sounds great. >> Okay. Thank you so much. Uh, anything else? Kev, you have anything? >> I'm good. Joseph, Sarah, >> Dan, anything, Jay? >> Good. >> Do you need to Did we do public comment on each >> on each thing? Okay. >> Yeah. >> All

271right. >> She left or else I would have asked if she wanted something else. Only one here. So, >> thank you for that, though. Um, okay. Seeing that, I will look for a motion to go into non-public session under RSA 91A colon 3 section 2C, please. >> So moved. >> Motion by Sarah. >> Second by Amanda. Uh, I'll ask for a roll call vote from my left to right, please. I >> Kevin Rick. I Tim Porter. I Bob Slater. Hi, >> Sarah Lover. I Amanda Butcher. >> Good night, London.