001Okay. Good evening. Uh we'd like to call the Londere School District meeting to order. Uh the meeting of the Londereary School Board will be held on Tuesday, May March 25th, 2025 at 7 p.m. at the London High School, 295 Mammoth Road, Lundere, New Hampshire in the cafeteria. The meeting will also be broadcast on local cable access channel 8 as well as the district's YouTube channel. So, we're going to stand for pledge of allegiance very shortly. I'm going to ask Mrs. Sullivan if she could lead us on it. And while when we're done with that, we're going to stay standing. I turn over to uh school board member Bob Slater to say a few member few words about a member of a community we lost lately. Okay. So, we're going to stand for pledge of allegiance
002and Miss Sullivan when you're ready. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Um we lost a uh an icon of this community over the years uh couple weeks ago uh suddenly. Um Ron Campbo uh was a tremendous school board advocate uh school board member for many many years, many terms, did a lot of positive things for London School District. um and his uh his work uh spoke for itself and uh always took lendary students and community first as well as building and developing the Lafa complex which is known as uh Campo Ron Campo complex. Um it's it's unfortunate to lose Ron uh at this time or any um it with this
003uh unfortunate incident. Um, but I wanted to give a moment of silence for for Ron for all his years of dedication to the Lond community, to all the athletes, to the Lafa community, and to the Lender School District, and to his family. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you. Thank you. So, the purpose of this meeting is the reorganization meeting. So, I'll run down how it works. This will be the reorganization reorganization of the schoolboard meeting. I sit here temporarily and we'll read a script from our attorney that explains the process to elect the new school board chair. Once that person is chosen, they will take over the meeting as per previous years. And from the advice of our attorney, the following process will be utilized for the nomination and election of the chairperson.
004Open floor nomination for the chairperson. Accept the nomination and ask for a second. Call for a discussion. Call for a vote. If the nomination fails to achieve the required majority of three, I will open the floor again for a nomination. Repeat the process. Our attorney has advised us that we should handle one nomination at a time. During the discussion phase, a board member is free to speak for or against the nomination. Indicate if the nomination fails. They would nominate another specific individual. Once a chairperson is elected, the chairperson would take over the meeting and conduct the election for the vice chair chairperson in the same manner. I would now like to open the floor for the nomination of the chairperson. I'd like to nominate Bob Slater. Second. Any discussion? Okay. If there's no discussion, I'm
005going to call for a vote. All those in favor, please say I. I. I. All those opposed, I'll abstain. Okay. The motion passes three to zero. Congratulations, Bob. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Kevin. First off, I'd like to say thank you to my colleagues for uh the all the time and that they spend in and out of our school district. um supporting staff uh to do things better for our students, being involved on a on a uh week to week, dayby-day basis whenever is needed. Um my colleagues do tremendous work and we're fortunate to have all of them on the board here. So, I'd like to thank them and Kevin, thank you for the nomination. Hopefully I can continue to serve you guys well and have everything prepared for you in the meetings and we
006can keep growing this district to be the best district in the state. So, thank you. Um, with that we will uh move on to 3.2. Um, and look for you have a appointment of Truan officers in your packet. And before we do that, can I just make a nomination for vice chair? Oh, sure. Yep. Skipped right over that. Sorry about that. No, it's okay. I would like to nominate Sarah Laughlin for vice chair. I'll second that. Any discussion? Seeing none, I'll look uh all in favor. I I Any abstain? I three to one. Welcome back, Sarah. And thanks again. All right, moving on. Let's try it again. Uh 3.2 Appointment of Truin officers. We have a copy in our packet. Does anyone have any questions on them at this time? Dan, nothing's changed. Nope. Not
007at this time. I'll look for a moment uh a motion for the appointment of the Truan officers for the 2024 2025, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Amanda. All those in favor? I I 4 Z. Thank you. and 3.3. I'll look for a motion for the readoption of our policies, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Kevin. All those in favor? I I I 40. Thank you. Jumping into consent agenda. We've got uh three retirements and we'll start with uh Carol uh Granara, please. Mrs. Carol Grdara is a cherished and invaluable member of the Moose Hill community. She makes everyone who enters Moose Hill feel welcome and her warmth and kindness. She's always a friendly face ready to greet staff, students, families, and visitors. Carol has an incredible ability to
008make everyone feel special. Her commitment to the students goes above and beyond. Whether it's through a smile, a kind word, or simply checking in to see what people need, she is a bright and positive presence at Moose Hill. Carol's dedication to Musel and the people in it is clear. She serves on the social committee, helping to foster a sense of community and making everyone feel happy and included. Whether it is organizing events or simply offering a listening ear, Carol is always thinking of ways to support others, both personally and professionally. Carol is our go-to person within the building. She always knows how to point you in the right direction or get the information. She's not only knowledgeable and hardworking, but she's also deeply patient and compassionate with every person she interacts with. One of the
009things we will miss most is Carol's daily announcements. She has a unique way of bringing joy to each day with a funny picture, a theme, or a song that makes us smile. On a personal note, Carol has become a great friend to many of us. Her caring nature, whether through thoughtful gestures like organizing collections or just offering a kind word, has created bonds that will not soon be forgotten. With deepest gratitude, we are sending best wishes to Carol as she moves on to the next chapter in her life. After 30 years with the Londoner School District, we are excited for Carol as she moves into retirement where she can fully enjoy her time with Bob, her children, and grandchildren, and relaxing on the boat. Fair winds and following seas. Mrs. Granara. Thank you, Kevin. And
010next up is Patricia Rogers, please. Trish has been employed by the Londary School District as a custodian since the year 2000 and has been what we call a model employee. She goes out of her way for others, does her job quietly and professionally, and is always pleasant to everyone. She always looks for ways to add that extra touch. Although she will be missed by Nor School, we all wish her well as she turns the next chapter of her life. Congratulations, Trish, as we wish you a long and happy retirement. Thank you, Sarah. And next is Susan Rose, please. It is our privilege to recognize Mrs. Sue Rouse, administrative assistant in London Middle School, who will retire at the end of this school year. Sue is best known for her ability to coordinate and run a
011very busy middle school office. Always with the highest level of proficiency, a smile, words of encouragement, and something nice to share with all of those who visit. Sue has devoted 15 years to the London School District, starting as an office assistant at South Elementary School and concluding her career as the administrative assistant to the principal at the middle school. Throughout her journey, she has held multiple positions, but has always been at the forefront front of welcoming students, staff, and parents to the school. Not only is Sue a resident of Londereerry and a mother of two boys who attended Legendary Schools, but one of her proudest accomplishments has been her volunteer of work with the Londereary Friends of Music and as a set designer for the LMS dropin club. An avid supporter of the arts, she
012has taken on many leadership roles within the Friends of Music organization, including president, treasurer, and uniform chair. Throughout her career, Sue has been instrumental in organizing and planning numerous band trips and has played a vital role in the music program. She is known for her attention to detail, dedication, and most importantly, her commitment to the school staff and the music community. Sue will be greatly missed by many at LMS, including students, staff, and especially the BLT, who have depended on her professionalism, organizational skills, and the welcoming office environment she has created. We wish Sue the best as she takes time to care for her mother in Ohio. her home state while also spending time with her husband and two sons in New Hampshire. Thank you, Sue, for all of you've been given to the LMS
013and the community of Londereary. Thank you, Amanda, and congratulations to all of our staff that are retiring. Once again, moving on on the consent agenda, upcoming meeting, April 8th, 2025, regular meeting right here in the cafe at 7:00 p.m. And April 22nd, 2025, again, another regular meeting. This will be held up in the library at 7:00 p.m. And um this should this will be deliberated later in the meeting. We have our uh updated meeting um dates and times coming. So we'll just confirm this uh later on. So I'll look for a motion to approve the consent agenda, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Amanda. All in favor? I I 40. Thank you. All right. We got a public hearing uh for acceptance of a CTE grant. So, I'll look for a motion
014to open the public hearing, please. So, moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Kevin. And I'll start with a roll call vote from my left to right, please. I Kevin Gray. I Bob Slater. Hi, Sarah Laughlin. I Amanda Butcher. Thank you. Public hearings open. Amity. Yes. This is very exciting. Uh, the New Hampshire Department of Education, Bureau of Career Development, established a $4 million grant for CTE transportation aid. Basically, to reimburse costs that a district incurs from sending their students to CTE centers across the state. Um, so we're looking, we were notified on February 12th that we um were awarded up to $326,000 for transportation costs that we incurred this fiscal year, last fiscal year, and the fiscal year before that. Um, so very exciting. It recognizes um our growing um population of students who
015are who are um going to these CTE centers and our commitment that we want to make sure that we continue those relationships and that we continue to provide transportation so people can get there. Um so we're looking for your vote to accept this award so that we can start um to to get the reimbursement for costs we've incurred. Great. Thank you, Amity. Any questions? Seeing none, I will look for a motion um to accept $326,000 grant, transportation aid grant, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Amanda. Any discussion? Uh all those in favor? I I 40. Thank you. And I'll look for a motion to co close public hearing, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Kevin. All those in favor? I I I 4 Z. Thank you. Committee reports. School
016board leaison. Amanda, anything? Yes, I'm ready this time. So um next week is the week of the young child. It runs from um April 7th to 11th. Uh there are many special events that day. Um and families can still sign up for the ice cream social if they wish to attend. Uh, middle school, a couple upcoming events. Spring sports try triyouts start next week. Tomorrow evening, there is a band festival. Uh, book fair is the week of 3:31 and the ice cream social is on 4:30. Thank you, Sarah. Kevin, uh, just a few uh, upcoming dates. Um, tomorrow night is the family dodgeball night uh, for North School. Uh the this Friday is the booster kickoff um culminating in the booster fund run on April 8th and the next um upcoming PTA meeting is April
0172nd and the uh lees family STEM night at LHS cafe as a reminder is also April 1st. Thank you Kevin and just like to hit on a couple of things. Um I know it was two weeks ago but um the elections were a busy day. I'd like to thank our custodian staff um and all our employees that took part in that and uh the setup for the the the kid voting as well. That was a big success. And I'd like to thank my colleagues that were able to work and uh and congratulate Kevin again for, you know, winning another term and look forward to uh some more great work by yourself and that for the London School District. Um so it was a busy day. a lot of paper to go through those machines, but
018they got through it. Um, so thank you to everyone that helped. Um, little bit on self school. I think they have a visit coming up this week on Friday to uh with the committee from for the Yeti award. So that's exciting and hopefully that goes well. So congratulations to South School. Um, and uh good luck on Friday. And then just want to uh recognize a couple of people. the uh that worked well with the school board. Um chairman Chad France and Councilman John Farrell. Um you know, worked with the school board. Um Chad decided not to run and John was uh not reelected, but uh they were instrumental in keeping the board updated and anything in town emergency wide. I believe with yourself, Dan, they did a good job. the council um keeping the school
019district informed with police, fire, emergency, and um did a did a yman's work for the community members and that. So, I'd like to thank them for all their years of service um and and hope them the best in in the future and like to just uh welcome the new council members uh Deb Paul and Dan Bushad and hopefully we can continue the relationship with the council, the budget committee and uh keep working to make Londereerry and Londereerry School District uh the best it can be. So, congratulations to you all and appreciate everything you've done. With that, I'm wrapped up there and uh Dylan, welcome. Hi. It's been a little bit. Um, so last weekend or this past weekend, a few days ago, this whole space was transformed, uh, into a dance and so, uh, student
020council helped set up, uh, some curtains and decorations and we had a little waterfall over there in the corner and, um, had a DJ right where you guys are and a photo booth over here. And so, um, we had less attendance than, uh, we did last year cuz it got snowed out last year. So, it was nice to have, uh, some people come in and, uh, use this space. Well, so that was a lot of fun. We, uh, if you also last week there was the uh, the seniors put on the hypnotist show, uh, which is very entertaining um, and hopefully a good fundraiser u for more of our senior events. Um, currently we're working on uh reorganizing our walk-athon into maybe just raffles and um there's some talk about um moving the Kate Sherwood
021fund and looking at different ideas rather than just the walk-athon. Um and this will be in a month or not in a few weeks uh coffee house is coming up and again that is in the space um where the music students audition. We send in a video and they go through and we have a nice afternoon playing some cool songs. Um, we're also working on a mural. So, the plan is getting finalized for that. So over in the 100s where all of the lockers got removed. Um we're working with uh the art students and now there's art nationals art national honors society. Um and so we're working with them and hopefully we can get a mural painted and the plan is is by senior week all the seniors are going to walk through the 100s,
022put their hand on the mural cuz be like a tree and then our hands are the leaves and uh write our name there and forever be in the 100s. So looking forward to that. Um two other things, we got classical all state coming up. There's a few students uh who made it there and so looking forward to the concerts and uh getting to learn working with other people as well as spring sports started up yesterday in the rain and uh as they start going on um come see some games and that's it. Thank you Dylan. Appreciate it. All right, moving on to uh announcements and presentations. 8.1 Bring back the trades with Katie Sullivan and Patrick Cheetum. Welcome. I'm going to stay in this. Mr. Chairman, congratulations on your reappoint. Members of the school board,
023the district's leadership team, and ladies and gentlemen here in the audience and back at home. Uh by way of introduction, my name is Patrick Hatum. I'm a police officer and a captain with your police department where I've proudly served the last 22 and a2 years and I'm also a legendary resident. I'm joined by someone that needs even a less of an introduction than I do. Katie Sullivan, my sister from another mista and uh we're here just to talk about a program that we've uh become very passionate about and that we're championing over the last couple three months. Let's bring back the trades. Uh Katie and I are both members of Railway. I serve as the police department on I can't hear myself. Can you hear me? Okay, great. Thank you very much. and Katie serves
024as the school district of uh the high school on and uh we attended a presentation at one show which is a fundraiser for bring back the trades which raises scholarship monies for young people not just high school students to try and educate them on the trades and uh Shaina Brun uh who's their executive director uh has a term I don't know if she called it or if she picked it up from somewhere else but the silver tsunami the silver tsunami is like for every five people that are retiring from the trades in coming months and years there's only need two people estimated to replace them. So anyone that needs a plumber, electrician, a hair stylist or anything that you would consider a trade, there's going to be a significant deficiency uh in those areas. And
025so they are really uh spending a great deal of time around New England trying to educate people and younger people as well. Uh as someone that, you know, has a college education and and and such, that was my path, but I think a lot of younger people don't know what they want to do. I'm 44 years old. I'm almost, you know, reaching uh retirement service age. I don't want uh know what I want to do when I grow up. Right. So, uh this bring back the trades event is uh after I heard that presentation, I spoke with Shaina uh offline and I said we need to do an event here in London and I said I'm going to uh co-chair with Katie Sullivan. Uh any opportunity that I have to work with Katie is a
026is a welcomed opportunity. And with that, I'm going to uh turn it over to Katie to say a few things about our event. We're going to leave some flyers. We need everyone's help here to help promote our event. We need attendees, young people, and it's not just for high school age students. You can, any age group uh is welcome. There is no cost to attend as an attendee. Uh and we're up to 50 vendors so far. Uh and each one of these vendors has paid a minimum of $500 to participate because they know that the monies are going towards uh scholarships and education uh to help # bringback the trades. Miss Sullivan, thank you. I have to thank Patrick because it was his vision to bring this to us. So, he is a lot to
027do with this. A lot a lot a lot. And then I have to thank the school district because once Patrick asked me, I then reached out to my principal and Dan and said, "Can you guys go on board?" And without hesitation, they said yes. I bumped into a few of us, the school boomers at our community popup and told you about it, and without hesitation, you guys said yes. So, we're really excited to host the first one, and hopefully it'll be an annual event. Uh, what we want the public to know is that it's open to we feel it should it we want all schools to be um an option for this. So, we have reached out to Pinkerton and Windham and Alvin and Lichfield and Salem. We feel it's important for all the kids
028who don't have the opportunity. We can we can do it. We can support it. So we want all the kids from surrounding towns to also be able to stop by and see this event. And our goal is to make it bigger and better every year. I think they're leaving London High School in one day and then the next week they'll be at Gillette. So we're extremely honored to have them here with us and hopefully we'll be as big as Gillette one day. Um that's our goal knowing Patrick and I we reach for the stars. So we will make that happen. Um, but for the parents watching or need anything, uh, myself and Patrick, um, would be more than happy to answer. It's really just spreading the word to get people out. Yes, people have said
029it's the week of vacation week and we understand that and next year we'll plan the week before that, but this is our first goaround and we it's uh, it's going to be a great thing for this town. And I really can't say thank you enough to all of the school district staff, uh, those elected and those uh, not elected because as a police officer, we reach out to you guys all the time for support services. Whether we have an awards night at the police department, these chairs have been over there, you know, a dozen times as someone who used to run those programs. And I can't say thank you enough. Really, we it's simply a phone call and a text message and everyone here gets things done and supports your public safety uh, professionals. And
030I really do believe in communities like ours, it's our it's our obligation to be able to support the region and the in uh and other communities as well that don't have the resources. They don't have the funding that we do have here in Londereary. So uh again, I'm saying thank you on behalf of bringing back the trades and and helping support our event. But uh again, in my 22 years, I've actually never addressed the school board, which I can't believe. I've never found a microphone I didn't like. But this is my opportunity and I really can't. Is that a timer? Does am I am I am I up? Is that the big hook? Uh and lastly, Mr. legislator, if you'll indulge me, uh you know, you referenced uh town council chairman Fron and uh John
031Frell. I know John's here in the audience, and I just want to take a moment to say thank you, John, for all of your support uh over the years. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes uh in public safety emergencies. And uh Katie and I, anytime there's a tragedy in the community, uh we're we're messaging and making sure that we're trying to take care of the families to help deal with that tragedy as best they can. And I can tell you that man over there uh is a fundamental part of that has been. And whether you're elected or not or sitting on a on a a town council, I know that you're still going to be uh there to help and support us. So, personally, professionally, John, I saw you walk in.
032Thank you very much. Take the microphone, Katie. Okay. And last, we just want to thank the Rotary. They're another sponsor for this event. Um they would have been here tonight, but they're at a meeting, but the Rotary's been a huge part of a lot of this, too. So, and they're a great community partnership with all of us. So, it's going to be a great community event. Thank you. Thank you. Or any questions? Any questions? Spread the word. spread the great and feel free to take anybody here take these tonight. We have more. Katie and Patrick, I can't thank you enough. This is this is huge. As you know, a lot of districts are going to the CTE programs. We're in the you know, the early stages of starting our you know, our process with that.
033Um so we can keep a lot of students here in Londereary. So this this is a big I think a big catalyst that's going to help us get ours off and running too. and but and I like the idea of other districts being invited. Let's give every kid in this the southern part of the state that can make it a chance to possibly get into the trades because it's a it's a good career. Um and there's a severe shortage as we all know in in in all all areas but especially the trades that you know build our buildings and you know fix our buildings. So uh thank you for all your time and effort. So at least one or two students who are intended at least one or two students are intended to receive a
034scholarship if they apply to one simply by attending our event. Nice. So, uh, that's something Bring back the trades has has has promised us and pledged us that, uh, that's what we're trying to get people to understand that if you show up, you could be walking away with several thousand dollars, uh, and maybe half a semester or term free education in a trade of your choice, locally or wherever you choose. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much. All right, moving on to 8.2, St. Patrick's Day parade band trip and upcoming band trip request surge. Hi everybody. Um, so last weekend we had a fantastic trip with the band going to New York and marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade on Monday. So I brought a few of our students. We have our two drum majors
035that went on the trip uh to share their experiences with you. Um, we have Nathan Bolio and Gretchen Murray. Gretchen, welcome. Hi, my name is Gretchen. I'm a junior and um I just want to say we had so much fun on the trip. We're so thankful that we got to go. It was an amazing experience. I did the trip my freshman year and then last year I got to do London. So, London was fun, but I'm glad that I got to go in the trip that I was familiar with. We started off on Saturday. We left early in the morning and um we stopped at the Danbury Mall in Connecticut to get food and then we kept driving and the after we arrived at the hotel we got ready for a dinner boat cruise which
036um uh was very fun. I liked the they had a good selection of food and um we had some dancing and hanging out on the top and it was just a fun experience. I'm glad I got to go. Um, and then, uh, I'm Nathan Bolio, sorry. Um, on Sunday we got to go to the top of the rock, uh, Rock Valley Center in the NBC building, which was, uh, pretty cool, but the clouds of course blocked our view. Uh, it was pretty cloudy morning, so kind of ruined the view. Um, and then after that, we went over and had lunch at Bubblegums. Uh and then uh after that we went to Hamilton uh in the that was amazing experience very educational um about it's about the life of Alexander Hamilton um the actors and actresses
037were were amazing it was truly phenomenal and um then after that we went to Dave and Busters uh where we that wasn't as educational but um we we uh had fun there for a couple hours uh playing games and um watching our principal get get to play Dance Dance Revolution as you can see on the screen behind you. They got me up there too. Want the audio? No, no audio. First time Here we go. [Laughter] I think we've embarrassed him enough. As you can see, he needs to keep working on his dance moves. Wait till it goes fast. Yeah. Okay. And then after the fun Saturday night or Sunday night, uh Monday morning was the day of the parade. Um we got to the privilege of leading the grand marshall in the parade and we
038were super lucky to have that. Uh the weather was perfect. It was cloudy. It was a little chilly but the rain held out. So we had a beautiful parade. is a great experience. Uh yeah, so we walked right down Fifth Avenue. It was about 2 miles. Yeah, it was about uh 2 miles. Um it was uh you like Gretchian said, beautiful out and it was awesome to march down a street where the crowd was amazing, giving us constant energy back, which is amazing. And the views were uh incredible as we got to walk down. Um yeah, the parade went very well. Awesome. Thank you guys. Great. Thank you. So, as you can tell, we had a great time and the students uh really had a great experience with all the things they saw and and
039um just getting a chance to uh march in a big huge parade with thousands and thousands of people cheering them on. Um and we were also selected to lead the grand marshall which was really a great experience. Um and an honor of course. So we were right at the start of the parade and um you know the crowd was really excited to to you know see the parade start. So that was really cool. Thank you guys. Congratulations Serge. You represent us very well and uh it was uh great to see you on TV as well. I'm sure it was better in person, but um thank you for uh all the work you do with the students in the band. It's uh quite a quite an accomplishment to see see our students on the grand stage
040and that. So, thank you so much. You're welcome. So, the next endeavor with the band is actually the music department. Um we're looking to um seek approval from the school board to uh take the music department next year to Disney. And uh I was just trying to bring up the information on my phone. Of course, now I can't get it up. Um so I'm going to wing it here. But we are looking at bringing the chorus, orchestra, and band to Disney during April Vacation next school year. So 2026. Um and um we are going to we're looking at tenative dates right now, Saturday, uh April 25th through Thursday, April 30th. Um so 6 day, five night trip. Um the goal would be to apply and march with the band in Magic Kingdom parade which is
041always a really great parade to march in and of course an orchestra would perform uh um on stage um at either Disney Springs or one of the stages that Disney provides. Um which is always a really just great experience. Uh nobody does performances better than Disney. Um and we'd also of course take in a lot of the u attractions and and parks and whatnot while we're down there. Um, and so right now we're working with a travel company to see what they can come up with for pricing. Um, and so we're looking at somewhere between 2,000 and 2500, which is pretty reasonable. Last time we went in 2022 was about 1,800. Um, so considering inflation and all that. Um, so we're trying to uh work that down as much as possible. And we're always always
042um you know encouraging parents to request financial assistance if they need it. Um we'll continue to do fundraising. In fact, should we get approval, we're going to start next month with uh some of our fundraisers and making sure the eighth grade parents and students know uh what's available for that as well and get them started on fundraising as soon as possible. So with such a big trip, we really want to try to get that process started. Um, so, you know, looking out a year ahead is not, you know, unheard of for something like this. Um, we want to make sure that our families get as much time as possible to fund raise and and either either that or raise their own money to to go. Um, I think those are all pretty much the big
043details that I have for you. Great. Do you guys have any questions? Any questions? No. No. It sounds uh like the more time you have uh the better chance you have of fundraising and that to take less burden off of uh the parents pocketbook. So, it's good to get the kids involved with the the fundraising sooner than later. Um seeing no questions, I'll look for a motion to approve the 2025 2026 band request to Disney uh April vacation of next year. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Amanda. Uh, all those in favor? I I I 4 Z. Thank you, Serge. Thank you. Good luck. All right. 8.3 uh LHS gym roof update, line painter, door replacement. Miss Small. Yeah, they're all um three trifecta things that we need to talk about. Um, first
044and foremost, I think you know, the business office always says at the end of quarter 2 report, um, pending any unforeseen circumstance that could happen. And on March 7th, we had a unforeseen circumstance with a windstorm that blew our gym roof coating up. Um, so it was pretty significant. Um, it made all of us very proud to be in the community. Of course, it was 4 days before an election and that's the only polling station. So everybody came together, STA, town, school, um all of our maintenance people and Theion roofing um was quick to be on the scene. Um so they were able to do a temporary fix and we work with um you know Theion and other roofers to we we've had a a succession plan of what roofs need to be worked on.
045This was not one of them. It was in great condition. It hadn't had any issues. However, um they have done a temporary fix to put the coating back on the rubber coating piece of it. Um but theion has reported that it it will need a complete replacement before next winter because another windstorm or something could come up. So, we've been working with our insurance company, Primeax. Um they are covering all of the costs minus our $1,000 deductible for the fix that they did to get everything there. Um but it's um Primex wasn't sure yet if they would cover anything about the roof replacement because it is over 20 years old. So they're sending out a roof inspector um that we're going to work with them. Um they said that it was in our best interest
046regardless to get an RFP put together because they they would require one as well. So we have an RFP that we've posted. We're waiting to see what they'll cover. Um and then we'll have to dictate where we go from there because we don't want to go through another winter with that. So I just wanted to keep you in the know. Hopefully by the next meeting we'll know exactly where we stand with that. Great. Um issue two is our uh line painter. We actually had the company reach out to us. We had approved or the voters approved a lease in our operating budget to do this. Um they reached out and said that they would love for us to have the um machine for the spring season so that we could get a full picture before
047next budget season to see how it operates for all the sports that we would use it for. There's no additional cost to us. they won't bill us um until July for what we um had agreed to for the lease. The only cost would be the paint, which we we would be using anyway. So, we probably would have a little savings with that. Um so, I didn't want to proceed with this and and have people wonder why we have the robot out when it wasn't approved for this fiscal year without your approval. Sure. The only thing is they're not coming out with a newer one in the next No. June and Oh, you're here's the old one for you. Nope. No. Um, and any it sounds like it would be software updates which we would get
048on our machine anyway. All right, great. Yeah, sounds good. Anybody have any questions on that? I think you're good to go. Okay, perfect. Um, and then our third issue. So, I met with the B&G team with Joe Parzek and all of his um crew to talk about the summer projects that are coming up. Um, and we've run into a little bit of a problem. We are not having any problems getting three bids for actual items um for things with the services. Now we're starting to get a little bit of we the same vendors have been some of the same vendors are consistently the low biders that we've worked with. Um so for the door project we have worked with New England school services for a long time. They have knockout prices for our bigger projects
049um that we have gone through. We have two doors that we would like to fix before the end of the the fiscal year. Um, but they do the service piece. Um, we would need their installation. So, um, we were hoping that we could proceed with these two. One of them costs almost $8,000 and one of them cost $5,500. They are both safety issues. One at South School and the back one was a a health safety violation for Matthew Thornton calf. So, Joe and I felt pretty confident, as did his crew, that um, we weren't going to get a better deal. They've reached out to three other door places that have not produced a bid yet. So, um, we wanted to see if you were okay with us proceeding with this group for these doors. You're
050good. The only thing I want to make sure is, um, that we're we we're documenting y, you know, the and put it in a file with this project that we reached out to this company, timestamp, no reply, you know, giving them the period on anything like this. Yep. Um, I know it smaller repairs like this are tough to lock somebody in or get bids to come in and do two doors. Yep. We understand that, but at least we can try. And we may want to look at similar things to these is is we'll what the materials and labor are broken out. Yep. And that way it'll kind of tell you if they're in line. Yep. So, if we get a price breakout, material and labor on each bid. Yep. Um, we'll know what the You
051You may get some companies that will bid the materials. Yep. And then we'll have an idea that materials are in line. That's all. Just some thought for the Absolutely. future projects because it is tough. Yeah. And Joe um plans to come speak to you in the next couple of meetings about what the summer projects are. He is a little worried for some of these summer projects that we have such a short timeline for the ones that um we are struggling to get the three bids for for some of them. Um so we just want to put that on your radar. We are documenting. That's why we wanted to bring this to you before we proceeded. um and he he's got some um interest in looking at a database that will help get word out there
052for RFPs if you type in exactly what projects are. Um so we'll continue to bring that to you. Good everybody good with that. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Amity. All right. 8.4 2000 2025 winter data report. Mr. Parent, would it be okay if the curriculum coordinators came up to Thank you so much. Good evening. I'm pleased to be joined by our curriculum coordinators uh from the elementary level, Nicole Treadway, uh middle school, Megan Nason, and at the high school, Dr. Kim Lley Susi. And we are here to There we go. Right. I don't need the notes. um to present the winter data uh K12. Um before we dive into standardized assessments, I think it's important to look at um the in-house measurement of our students progress and growth. And really uh that's accomplished through
053our report cards, which is the primary form of communication um on the grade level performance with our families. So, as we work with them, they're really navigating uh the the report card to look at how their students are performing. Um for a K to 5 report card, it's a standardsbased report card on a four-point scale. And we're really looking for um that designation of three, which is consistent and independent mastery. It's proficiency in these different areas um that they're assessed upon. um we expect that they may start low at the beginning of the year and we're looking to really see that progress. An example of this and we've shared this before um this is a Matthew Thornton first grade report card and it's really um I know it's difficult to see on the screen but
054it's divided up um where we look at some of the competencies and the portrait of a learner that our students are just being introduced to and the standards and how they're scored there. um the related arts or we call specials, how they're performing in over the three trimesters and then the rest of the report card really covers uh ELA and mathematics and you're seeing students proficiencies there. For the six through eight report card, uh they use traditional letter grades and those grades are comprised of summitive assessments um which are worth 80% of the grade and formative which are worth 20 that lead up to the summitives and then their report card comments cover our portrait of a graduate and again the skills and uh competencies we want to see in our students. communication and collaboration,
055problem solving, critical thinking, creative thinking, self-direction, and engaged citizenship. Uh their report card is broken into four terms or four quarters. Now, um and again, traditional letter grades with the comments that support it. At the high school, it's similar um but it's uh the grades and credits are granted uh by semester. So, um that first column of progress one is really after what was traditionally quarter 1. Um just letting students know and families know where their students are. Um the course average is at the end of that semester and then their semester end assessments or seas really measure what they know over that semester and that's worth 10% of the grade. they earn their half credit in the course and then either the progress comments or the semester comments are again tied to our portrait
056of a graduate. So that's really the breakdown and the most specific uh and comprehensive amount of information a family would receive on how their students performing. Okay, so we'll talk about the elementary data first. Um, we just like to draw attention to the tools that we use outside of the report card. So, I Ready we use for instructional purposes for both math and reading, but that's also our diagnostic tool that we use in the fall, winter, and spring. Um, spring with our right now currently with our first and second graders. And then um in the spring for our third through fifth graders, that's where we switch over to the New Hampshire SAS. Um, you won't see SAS data tonight because we don't have that yet for this year. We'll come back and present that later
057on in the spring or the summer. And then the one in the middle, Aadians are our dibbles. That's our screener um for literacy. So, we'll talk a little bit about that as well. So, we'll start with our math data. So, the first thing that you see here is some of our kindergarten math data. So these are the numbers for the students who are meeting or exceeding benchmarks for halfday benchmarks for some of our kind of bigger math concepts for our kindergarteners. Um this is obviously not all of the benchmarks on their report card, but this comes out of CFAs or common formative assessments that the teachers use with all of their students. Um, and we choose these ones because these are really some of those important fundamental mathematical skills for kindergarteners to move on to
058more of those complex concepts later on. So, as you can see, we are at or above or very close to, as you can see with number idea, 80%. Um, the other thing to think about here is that for kindergarten, the way their benchmarks are set up, most of them are moving targets. So, it gets harder each each trimester. The next one here you'll see is our first through fifth grade math data. This comes from I Ready. This one is a fall to winter projections or or um slide that shows you the change from fall to winter. So you'll see where all of our students started in the fall of this year and where they currently at. They just took the diagnostic in February, so where they're at for this winter. Um you can see on
059the far right hand column all of the growth there for each of the grade levels. uh we definitely tend to see a pretty big jump from fall to winter which is really exciting. Um the other thing that I just like to point out here is if you see on the bottom it says that little tag that an additional 8 to 13% of students in each grade level who are five or less scale points away from being on grade level. Um, and this we really wanted to share this and kind of call this out because we have so many students in I Ready who are when they get their scale score there has to be a cuto off for points as to what's on grade level what's not and we have a huge chunk of students
060in each grade level that are sitting just below that scale score which could just be a handful of questions on the diagnostic. We really have no way of knowing um how many questions that is, but it it really shows that we have a lot of students that are just sitting sitting right there and it might have just been a concept that they just haven't seen yet or maybe the wording of a question. Um but it really increases that middle column if you were to add another 8 to 13% to any of those numbers. Our our numbers for students on grade level for the winters looks very good right now and we're really excited to see what that looks like in the spring. This shows our cohort data. So this would be winter of last year
061to winter of this year but with the same group of students. Uh we do not have cohort data for first grade and I Ready because our kindergarten students do not use I Ready. So you can see first column for those second graders they were at 41% on grade level in first grade last winter. This winter as second graders they're 47%. Um and you can see that through all the columns. So our third graders, they were second graders last year at 48% and now at 52% in third grade. So obviously the goal for our cohorts is we want to maintain or increase the amount of kids that that are on grade level. Um so we're really excited to see that positive change in all of the grade levels in math and we hope to continue that
062trend with the cohort of kids into the spring. So looking left to right on the national and state comparisons, you're going to see that our school district has outperformed both a national and state average in each grade. Um so we are pleased to see that. I hope it caught Yep. Fifth grade uh is on that. So we're really seeing uh improvement and outpacing those, but again we want to still push for the spring to try to get to that uh 80th percentile. But it's encouraging to see us outperform um again districts around us and and across the state. Jay, I'm just going to jump in for a second while we're on these um just just to set a to set a point of a lot of questions in the community about how important full day
063kindergarten is. Okay. And if you look at the numbers of first, second, and third on the iating math, you know, first graders are at 8% coming in 13, 2, 13, and third. you get to fourth and fifth, they're at 32%. Um and then you look, you know, even into the uh state levels and that, you know, that that's why we've stressed and and heard from so many teachers and staff in the district and the superintendent um how important it would be to get that extra 103 days of education and services for our students where we could, you know, virtually uh hopefully double that number getting off to a good start with our students, which in turn, I think, would jump our fourth and fifth grade numbers to even a higher level. So, just so people
064know out there that this is the reason that we've been pushing for full day, okay? It's not a daycare. It's an education program for our kids that need services and we're trying to get our grade point levels up every year. Staff is busting their tail. Uh we're trying to bring new innovation into the education world and get those numbers up. Um the kids deserve it, the community deserves it, and and I just wanted to hit on that. Thank you. Okay, so this is probably I think one of the most important sides of the presentation. Um, one thing that obviously we we want to get to that 80%, we want to see the the cohort data. We want to see all of that movement, but the most important part is the growth in the students. And
065sometimes we have kiddos that maybe they're just not on grade level, but the growth that they show in from fall to winter for the year's growth is is just really important and something to celebrate. Um, so this one shows our number of students in each grade level in math that have are ready. So when you see that percentage who have met typical growth, so when I ready, they're given kind of based off that first diagnostic like what would typical growth be for this student? Um, so in that first column, that's the percentage of students in each grade level who have already met that typical growth, which would be for the year. And then the stretch growth is that like we we push them that little bit further. They um it's maybe putting them at the
066end of grade level or closer to the the following year's grade level. So again, you can see in that middle column the amount of students who have already met their stretch growth for the year um at the midway point. And then the third column is a percent of students who had improved placement. So as far as colors goes, this would be like a red to a yellow or a yellow to a green. Um but basically saying like a student who is maybe two grade levels below is now only one grade level below or a student who was one grade level below is now early on grade level. So again really excited to see the growth in the students at the mid at this midway point and hope to see the same thing in the spring
067with more students meeting that stretch in typical growth. I know this this slide might be a little bit hard to see on the screen in the audience, but this uh these are just some school highlights um that we wanted to just kind of point out some of the things to celebrate at the different schools. Um again, I'm not I don't want to read all of them to you, but you can see there's some winterto-inter growth there. Um we have some schools we started to look at, you can see in the top right hand corner the number of students who were below grade level in the fall. So we started really looking at that as well. Not just our kids who are moving yellow to green, but our kids that maybe again are below level that
068are now not below grade level. So looking at those percentages as well. So we just wanted to share some of those big kind of highlights and um again with growth in our students but also among the schools looking at those cohort changes and some of those spots where we've already met a lot of our endofear goals here in the winter. So you'll see very similar slides for reading, but we do have LEAP data which we're really excited about. So we have never shared LEAP data. Um LEAP and K have done a lot of work on aligning and looking at their benchmarks and aligning some of their curriculum and making sure that it's still appropriate for what LEAP students need. Um but also how do we get them prepared for moving into to kindergarten. So this
069is some of our prek data for letter identification and letter sounds which are two very important skills for students as far as those early literacy skills. Um and again these would be right now midyear it's kind of a moving target so that the benchmark gets a little bit more challenging but at this point we're close to 80% of our LEAP students um meeting or exceeding that benchmark which is really exciting. The next one you'll see our kindergarten reading data. So again, we tried to choose benchmarks that are really some of those key foundational skills for students for that for early literacy development. Um, so uppercase letters, lower lowercase letters, sounds, and the phonetic spelling. Um, which is one of those skills that again it's a more challenging like starts to really come into play mid
070to end of year for kindergarten. Um, so you can see here 90% of our students have mastered the uppercase letters. uh the 88% with the lowercase and then the sounds and phonetic spelling. Again, we it's those numbers are still fantastic at at 70 in the 70 almost 80% range. Um but those again are skills that as they approach end of year K, we'll start to see more students who have a better grasp on those. And then the bottom number is just 85% of students who are meeting the benchmark for the literacy average. So taking all of those benchmark scores into consideration, this is some Dibble data or Aadian data for our kindergarten. Um again, three pretty big in important skills for kindergarteners as they develop their literacy skills. Um phone segmentation, which is breaking down
071words into individual sounds, the nonsense words, um which is correct letter sounds. So basically they're breaking up makebelieve words into letter sounds. and then their composite score which is a combination of all the subtests. Um the really important thing to point out here is one we it's it's hard to compare Dibble's data from like fall to winter, winter to spring. Um because again the the benchmarks are changing in there constantly as to what is appropriate for that time of year. Um but the important thing is that for students who score at or above the benchmark, the overall likelihood of them achieving those reading benchmarks later on is approximately 80 to 90%. Um, and this is something that we use more as a screener to pick up students or to or to release students from intervention
072if we start to see changes in that data. So, next you'll see that first through fifth grade um I Ready reading slide. So, again, we only use I Ready in first through fifth grade. On the left hand side, you'll see the fall data. So, again, recognizing that our first graders do come in a little bit lower in the fall. Um but by winter we have those students at 50% on grade level. Um I think something to really call out here and notice is that our third grade right now overall across the district our students are at 80% um or 80% of our students are on grade level. Um which is a huge huge growth from from not only from fall to winter but looking from first to third grade. Um, and then we do tend
073to see a little bit of a dip in fourth and fifth grade, and you'll see that in the cohort slides coming up as well. But there's a big jump in expectations with literacy from third to fourth grade. So here you'll see that cohort slide. So winter from last year to winter of this year, second grade, those students would have been first graders in the winter of 2024. So they were 53% on grade level. And now we have that same cohort of kids at 69%. So that was a pretty big jump for our first to second grade cohort. Um again, still some nice growth in third grade. 71% on grade level as second graders last year at this time now at 80%. And then you notice there's a little bit of a dip there. So 81%
074of students in third grade on grade level last year now at that 66%. But there's a huge shift from learning to read to reading to learn that happens here from third to fourth grade. It's definitely an area that we are targeting and trying to determine what are those skills and what are some of those skill gaps that are third graders going from third to fourth grade and how do we target some of those prerequisite skills or um how do we review some of those skills as they come into fourth grade to try to keep and maintain the amount of students on grade level. Once again, on the reading side, uh the Lendary School District in grades one through five has outperformed the national and state uh percentages. Um and again, as Nicole mentioned, in third
075grade, we're really happy to see that 80% uh already in the winter. So, again, just celebrating some growth here. So, same slide you saw with math. Um on the left hand column, you'll see the percent of students who have already again met that typical growth for the year. And then the middle column, the students who have met their stretch growth. And then that far right column is the percentage of students in each grade level. Um, which you can see it's all above 50% for the students who improved placement. And then to close it out, some more school highlights. This one's a little bit more organized as far as it reads school to school across the three columns. Um, so the first one, so Matthew Thornton just recognizing some of the growth there. So the first
076one is cohort data and then the one to the right is looking at cohort data as well but looking at our students who were below grade level. So looking at students who were below grade level in third grade of last year in comparison to that same group of kids that are now fourth graders and noticing that change there in that cohort. North school um huge growth again in our cohort from second grade last year. Overall, we wanted to see a 10% change or growth over through the year for the year in reading um for each of these cohorts. So, seeing that jump already from second to third grade, they've already really have met that goal. Um and then again, you'll see a winter to winter for um the first grade to second grade there as
077well. So, same thing, meeting that 10% growth. And then south school um oh this is a winterto-inter comparison that first one so 24 to 25 so not the same group of students but we saw a big jump from last year's um group of fifth grade at south school to this year's group and then the next slide there or the next column there for south school again it's one of the cohort changes for looking at our students who are below grade level last year same group of students we saw a decrease in the number of students below grade All right, we're going to switch to the middle school. And although we have some of the same data collection tools, I think it's important to point out that our students are not learning to read or learning
078numbers um but they are taking what they have learned and apply it to more complex um grade level content. So, as we continue to work together to support the success and growth of our middle school students, I am here to share with you the data we have gathered. This data highlights important trends and insights into student performance, engagement, and the overall student success at LMS. Today, we will focus on key areas such as I Ready scores in math and reading, our academic achievements of our middle schoolers, um, and we will come back to look at, um, SAS in the spring, um, and PSAT we presented in the fall. Um, by looking at this data, we hope to better understand where are where we are excelling and identify areas where we can continue to improve to
079ensure that all of our students receive the support they need to succeed. And we're looking forward to discussing how we can use this information to guide future decisions and create a strong uh environment and more effective classrooms for our students. It's important to note that we're working hard with the buyin of our students. if you spent some time with middle schoolers. Um this assessment continues to be rigorous tackling grade level standards for middle schoolers. So this is our first slide uh which is our math data. It's a comparison chart of our fall uh 2024 on the left to our winter um which is in the middle um for our grades 6 through 8. We've observed positive overall growth in our student proficiency levels. A significant number of students have shown progress in their understanding of
080math concepts such as numbers and operations, algebra and algebraic thinking, measurement data, and geometry. This growth shows the positive impact of our current mathematical practices, which include spiral reviews, daily warm-ups, and our math and focus curriculum. This data is indicative of the student proficiency levels. And for those students who are just that five skill score points or less away from attaining proficiency, it's important to note that on any given day of an assessment, students may have a range of scores, but this just deepens our understanding of the percentage of students growing in our math classrooms daily. Our goal is to continue building on this progress that we've made so far while also addressing the areas where additional support is needed with interventions, and we use our storm time for that as well. And again, um,
081at the middle school level, grades six, seven, and eight, um, the lendary school district continues to outperform the national and New Hampshire averages. Um, you can see as you read them left to right. And one of our big focuses as well as the elementary is this celebration of growth. Um, as a model of celebration for our middle school students, we focus not only on the proficiency levels, but the idea of how you grow in your classrooms. Through team incentives, goal setting, conferencing, teachers are working with students to understand what that means, what this data means to them as a student or as a learner in the math setting. Typical growth refers to that expected progress that a student has based on their starting point of the first diagnostic as well as takes into consideration their
082grade level. As you can see, we had a good percentage of our students who were able to meet their typical growth expected based on that um winter diagnostic. The stretch growth refers to the progress um that would then exceed the expectation of their typical growth. These students are growing at a rate that surpasses their typical pace and often reaching proficiency levels a little faster than anticipated. Our goal at LMS is to support all students in reaching their full growth potential and improved placement. For students showing typical growth, we continue to refine our instructional and formative practices to keep students on the growth track. For students showing stretch growth, we'll provide additional opportunities to continue that growth and use enrichment. So, we're going to take a shift here to the reading data at LMS. Um, this
083first slide is our reading progress. Again, very similar to the first one from the fall to the winter. This data provides us with that valuable insight into how our students are progressing in their reading skills. So, um as you can see in the um domains that are there, most of our students by the time they get to the middle school have already um met um the benchmarks for funological awareness, phonics, and high frequency words. So, the bottom half of that vocabulary and the comprehension of literature andformational text is usually where our focus is. However, we do sometimes still have students that need the additional support in those early reading skills and we do our best to support them in our reading classroom as well. So, this data um we will use a focus on how
084they've moved through those proficiency levels, whether they stay on track, have they made significant improvements or whatever challenges they may face. And by examining these changes from fall to winter, we identify those areas for additional support, especially in our other content classes such as science and social studies. So, our reading data also applies to our science and social studies classes where students are getting a lot of non-fiction text. Um, this slide shows our student proficiency levels in reading and those students that are again that five points away. So, they're right there to attain proficiency. It's important to note again that any given day they could have a a little range of scores. So those five points do matter when you're talking about those early on grade level skills. Um this helps us to understand how
085our students are growing and again have that conversation around that growth mindset. Students continue to use these reading skills every day and focus on that non-fiction reading within their other content area classes as well. So once again, we're pleased to see on the reading side um that our sixth, seventh, and eighth graders are scoring anywhere from 11 to 14% higher than the New Hampshire average and significantly more than the national average for those taking the I Ready. And again, another focus on growth. Um, as our we continue to look at data with our students and look at their progress through I Ready and their daily classroom performance, it's essential to highlight that importance of celebrating that reading growth for middle schoolers where reading expands beyond just reading in ELA classrooms. Um, when students show growth
086in reading, we place an emphasis on that typical and stretch growth. Again, acknowledging that these achievements boost our students morale. They foster that sense of accomplishment and that growth mindset of hard work and perseverance. And this um slide shows our advanced courses that are designed to challenge and engage students who are ready to explore advanced pathways that help to boost their academic experience at LMS. These courses provide an excellent opportunity for students to push their academic boundaries and prepare for London High School. We offer opportunities with three world languages, advanced reading, earth and space science, and multiple math options. And we would be remiss to not discuss the final slide here that is indicative of the everyday learner at LMS. Within our second quarter, we had a high percentage of our students at each grade
087level who are working hard in their classes every day. With 50 to 60% of our students recognized in one of the three honors categories mentioned on the slide, we celebrate that student who shows up ready to learn every day. And continuing on, in winter, in winter, the data from the high school tends to veer off in many different directions. This is the time when our seniors are making decisions about their next steps. Following the apply New Hampshire event at the high school and looming deadlines for admissions and scholarships, seniors are making choices. Tomorrow night at the high school, we'll be hosting our what's next fair for those students who aren't yet certain what their next steps will be. At this event, students meet representatives from training programs in a number of trades areas, programs for
088students with disabilities, and various employment and volunteer opportunities. This week, our students in the adult education program are experiencing a career week to help them ascertain their next adventure. If we look at the first slide here, the number of students who are accessing dual enrollment credit courses while in high school continues to skyrocket with the early college program through Manchester Community College providing two free courses per year for every sophomore, junior, and senior. More and more students are taking advantage of the opportunity to take college level courses while still in the comfort of their high school. Similarly, Southern New Hampshire University offers another range of dual enrollment courses where students are paying $100 for three college level courses. Just since last year, we've seen the number of college courses taken by our students increase by
089nearly 20% just in one year. Students are preparing for the upcoming advanced placement tests. Thanks to a grant gotten by our assistant superintendent, all students who take advanced placement courses at LHS are able to take the culminating examination in May for no charge, which saves them nearly $100 per exam. The range of AP courses taken by our students continues to rise with, for example, the addition of pre-calculus last year, German this year, physics one, and physics 2. Just since last year, we're seeing a 34% increase in the number of students taking advanced placement exams. Looking at our SAT data on April 9th, our students here at London Derry, our juniors will be taking the a the SAT exam. And throughout the year, we look at the improvement that students are making between their PSAT, which
090they take in the fall, and then the SAT, which they take in um April. This year, excuse me, last year was May in April of their junior year. In PLC's in all subject areas, student teachers are looking at ways to help students succeed in both of these standardized tests. So, we're not limiting that simply to English and mathematics PLC's, but across the board and how can we add those skills of test taking into all different course areas. Also coming up for our juniors will be our New Hampshire SAS, the New Hampshire Assessment in Science, which we'll have that data to share with you in the fall. And we are looking at changing this year the way we administer the New Hampshire Science Assessment as a way to help students. and we're going to look at
091how the students achieve this year as opposed to last year where they took it over multiple days in multiple different classes. This year we're having all students have an extended A period class for them to take that science test. And we're hoping by emphasizing the importance of this test, which is about 20% of our ranking in the state. We want to make sure that our students are giving it their best shot possible. Our scores indicate that the practice the students do on the PSAT improves their SAT scores. And that see has been for the past several years where the range of scores on the PSAT increase as the students then take the SAT. And lastly, we want to reward all types of academic effort at the high school as the middle school does as indicated
092by student achievement and honoral status. Each year, each semester, we see an increase in the percentage of students who earn honor role status from their first year to their senior year. And we're proud of how hard students work to earn that recognition. I just want to conclude by thanking our curriculum coordinators, our principles, assistant principles, special education directors, and most importantly, our teaching staff who are working really hard. They're meeting in their professional learning communities, looking at student data, focusing on student growth, uh, both individually and as a class, adjusting their curriculum and instruction, really uh, trying to hone in on the data, you know, to to get toward the school improvement that we seek. Um, our future work, um, you know, and our attention will now turn to the spring assessments, but we're a
093lot of exciting work's happening in the district and there's tremendous buyin, you know, at all the buildings. So, we're really pleased with that and we welcome any comments or questions from the board. I just had a few things. Um, thank you for all of that great data. Um, something just to kind of for the future, I think that would be helpful. I think sometimes people look in at these slides in isolation. So, I noticed Nicole that you talked about your stretch data for the kids that aren't um necessarily performing at grade level. I think that's so important. But when you look at those kids, which is amazing that they're able to do it, the likelihood that they're going to have a skill acquisition rate that's greater that is equal or greater to their peers consistently
094to catch up is not is not likely, right? Like it's great that they're getting the support they need, they're doing that, but if they already have a learning disability or already have challenges, the likelihood that they're going to continue to do that is not good, right? So, I think highlighting some of the supports that they're getting within some of these slides just as a reminder because I think like I know that I know like they're getting pulled out for reading or they're getting pulled out for math or this kid has an IEP. But I think just highlighting that on some slides some of those percentages um because you know you look at it in isolation. It's like well what what about the other 20%. Why aren't they on grade level? Um you know and they
095might have started out like non-verbal right or in a specialized program. And so I think that could just be helpful to someone who maybe isn't sitting here um week after week um just as as some you know some just like little data points that this probably took you long enough as it is but and can I just make one comment on it? I think I mean we talk about that a lot and it's like how much do you put out there, right? Like how much do you share? But there's a huge when you're looking at it the yellow kids, right? Like those below grade level. We always say we wish there was like a like the here's the kids that are in this part of the yellow and here's the kids that are in this
096part of the yellow and here's the because they put them in such a big category. Um, and that's why we started kind of sharing those like here are the kids that are so close and here are the kids that are. So, we've really been encouraging teachers though too to make sure that they're like digging really dig into that like just because it says the kid is below grade level like what does that actually mean and where are those deficits and how close are they? Because it is you have to put them somewhere right in the system to be able to show like what what is that cut off for grade level? What is the cut off for above grade level? Um, but it is such a that that yellow group is such a big group
097of kids that um I think we do that and try to do that with our teachers. Like let's distinguish that. Let's make sure it's clear like where those kids fall within that. Um but it's definitely something that we can yeah try to share and tease out a little bit more for each barriers to the skill acquisition and like you know are they working on you know just responding to group directions or you know like what percentage of of of them are just currently you know not available to learning from the curriculum I think is important. Um and I'm not sure if I'm repeating myself. I know I said it to Dan, but I just wanted to shout out um the teachers in the older grades that are um organizing raffles and incentives to have the
098kids um try harder on their testing. I know that I definitely heard about that at home. Um and you know, who wants to really take a test like this? And so to give like to have those items of things they really want um available and have having raffles for bigger items and just kind of creating that like little extra motivation um I think is super important and I I've seen it personally um make a difference and I know um that's just extra outside of work time that people are spending. So I just wanted to comment on that because it does make a difference in in the test scores and how hard the kids are trying. So thanks for the sour patch kids. Do you mind explaining uh some of the things that you do for
099kids who are two or more grade levels below um especially the obviously the elementary and the middle school? What are some things that we're doing interventions um to help those students right away? So trying to get their scores up and get them potentially on grade level down the road. I don't know if you can explain some of the things you guys do. So that's a hard one. Um, so for some of our students that potentially have an um goals um in an IEP, they may be in a different course. Um, so they may be in a skillbased course for math or reading. Um, but we also have our storm time where um teachers are using that time for um pulling students and and working on, you know, what they're doing in their classroom, using reassessment
100and really kind of digging into that data. Um but interventions are definitely difficult when you're when you're then tackling grade level content as well. So really just trying to maximize those opportunities when we can. Um and for us in reading um I was looking at it with a group of teachers today. Um this small percentage and what do you do for that small percentage? So really looking for um those prime opportunities to be able to kind of pull them and work with those students. Um sometimes we turn on that IRA instruction. We don't use that for all students, but we do have licensing for that as well or um some of uh some of our students may be using a different reading program as well. So, we do have some of those opportunities. And I
101think at the K5 level, I mean, a lot of those students might be going through that process, right? What what that looks like at the middle school might look a little bit different because we kind of have that we have that trail of the student and we we know a lot more about them. Um, but that early intervention piece is super important. Getting the kids, you know, teachers bringing up students to RTI or to MTSS and um, having those those data conversations. I think that's something that we have gotten a lot better at is really using the data to kind of tell that story, but also digging deeper into it. So, we can't just say a blanket statement that they have difficulties with reading. Well, what is it specifically that they're struggling with and how
102do we target that so that we aren't taking away opportunities for other areas that maybe they're excelling in or that they are on grade level. Um, but we really just have to target these specific skills. So, how do we do that outside of the classroom during those intervention blocks? How do we do that in the classroom? Because all teachers do have blocks within both their math and reading time that is more of like a intervention within their room as well. Um, so I think that the the better we get at that and are able to really target, it's a lot easier to provide them with that targeted instruction instead of that kind of like I have 20 kids in my room and they all need different things. Um, but it's we're working on reading. well,
103these kids are going to be working on this, these kids on this, and really just targeting those skill deficits while also still providing them access to grade level material and content so we're not making that gap bigger and bigger and bigger. Um, and again, we we fall on different if they're in intervention, they might be using a different program. If there's something that they've been using foundations, they're in third grade, it hasn't been working, are we shifting to a different um program for them within interventions? So, we use a variety of programs and intervention as well to target to target those skills. And one of the other interesting seeing these numbers um go up and and the positive data for all this. It's it's still nice to see those kids that are in the red
104and really taking a look at those kids because that that's what makes my mind go crazy. You know, how do we get those kids in the red up to the yellow and up to the cup to the green. So, I think it's really uh digging into that data as well um to see how we can just improve things um for years to come. So, just important to keep looking at that information and see how we can get kids on grade level and even from two grade levels below to one grade level below, you know. And one of those other things within that assessment, especially in reading, is that you have all those domains, but it might not be all those domains that they're struggling in. really digging into that specific domain and then within the
105test it will give you the um what they can do and then some ideas for next steps. So once teachers can start to utilize you know this is the domain but these are the things the students can do. So I don't need to focus on that. I need to really focus on what what is their next step. What is that targeted um piece that that they can work on in the classroom that will then help them to overcome. Yeah. That's like an individual learning plan. Like you have to really look at each student individually and figure out what domains they need that help in and see. So takes a lot of work. Like I said, it's all data. I'm looking at that one by one and seeing how we can reach all those kids. So
106thank you. One thing that's help Oh, go ahead. So at the high school level things are obviously a little bit different but even there we've been working very closely this year with our special education department and determining how it is that we can best help students within the class and having special education services pushing into those content area classes and looking at how we can for example embed our reading specialists into content area classes to help those students who perhaps have the knowledge of the material but when they're looking at the written work in front of them they're struggling with that reading to learn piece of it and finding how we can work on those students reading skills and what things we can be doing to assist them even at the high school level. Yeah,
107thank you. I was just going to mention one thing that helps to assure at the primary level is the master schedule like when they built that in and they designated that sacred time where every student it's uninterrupted and they're exposed to grade level content, materials and resources but those intervention blocks are also built in. So, it's really well articulated for the teacher to look at that designated time and that's where the focus is. Not that they weren't doing it before, but this really clearly outlines it. Yeah. And I'm sure you're focusing on your PLC's, too, is giving them the time to really extract that data from each of their students and figure out what interventions are needed. So, it's important to keep focusing on that. Yeah. Thank you. Great points. Um I know the kind
108of along the lines of motivation and um you know getting students to put the effort in the test kind of parallel to that is the number of optouts you guys tend to get and I know that that negatively impacts a lot of these scores that we that we see here. Um do you think that's been trending up or down or there any anything in place that's kind of telling you where those numbers are heading as far as the optouts are concerned and are there anything we can do to combat that or is it more just a challenge. Well, we certainly are looking at the incentives and what are the things that we can do. We have gone through this year with our PLC's looking for example on the New Hampshire science assessment where students hadn't
109done particularly well and yet these are great students in science class and actually having one-on-one conversations with those students. This was your score, but clearly you're a good science student. What happened? and trying to drill down a little bit and figure out what was it and the number of students who say, "Well, it just didn't seem that important." And so much of it has been a paradigm shift for the teachers at the high school, too, in terms of emphasizing it. And not only do we have the incentives, but even Crystal Rich put together a beautiful graphic of these are the incentives, so teachers can have those in their Google classroom. But it's tough. And I know our letters have gone out about the upcoming SAT and the New Hampshire Science Assessment. And literally the letter
110hadn't gone out yet when I got an email from a parent saying, "I think those tests are a waste of time and I don't want my student to take it." They didn't even hadn't even yet received the letter about it. So, you know, that's within a parent's right to do that, but we wish that they wouldn't so that we could really show how much our students do know and how much they're able to do. And when they just take that zero for the test, obviously that we can't then use the data the following year either. The four of us attend monthly u meetings with curriculum administrators, assistant superintendent um in the South Central region. And unfortunately for London, this seems to be somewhat unique to us with the uptick of optouts for these tests that
111it it is not uh the amount of optouts. It's nowhere near uh the number that we receive each year for whatever reason. I don't know why it's indicative to lender in our school district. We clearly need to do a better job articulating and working with families to show the importance. Um but that's a a huge area of of growth and a huge challenge for us. Good. And I would I would just add to that that I think as far as that communication piece with families and something that we definitely can improve on um is that our teachers are using this information to inform their instruction as well. And I think that that's that's really important for parents to understand, especially if we have students not taking the Ready Diagnostic in the spring. we need a
112data point on those students with the with the SAS with New Hampshire SAS that allows us to then inform our instruction for where are we going when we look at that gap specifically like third to fourth grade that data is really important for us to then drill into like where are our kids struggling from third to fourth grade and how do we now help them with that transition so I think we can do a better job at at informing I think we've done a nice job with our kids this year with that incentive piece piece, but also that like we're using this to help you so that we know where you are as a student and how we can best help you and align our instruction. Um, but same goes with the state test. Our
113teachers are really using that data to inform. They're using practice questions in their classroom with the New Hampshire SAS to inform their instruction as to, wow, my kids are really struggling with fractions right now. I need to adjust my instruction, maybe present it in a different way, give them more practice. So, I think that's that might be part of the missing link is that it's not just to assess the the students ability or what they know, but also we need we use that to then change what's happening in the classroom. How do you adjust not just for a whole group of kids, not just for a grade level, but for those individual students? And I'll add in we even react to some of that data where, you know, we noticed our students had an issue
114with fractions. we purchased something to help support them with that and we are seeing improvement there within our math numbers. Um we seem to get a lot of them at the middle school and I know um students don't like to take assessments. We're trying uh our best to make it as uh SAS a part of our everyday so it doesn't feel like it's so overwhelming when they sit for that assessment in the spring. So using the modulars and having conversations and doing practice with the students. So again, it becomes part of that everyday language. Um, but I would encourage um, you know, a conversation if if for families to the schools of how we're using that information and to know that no matter the pathway of life for students, there there are assessments um, you
115know, when you get your driver's test and um, when you sit for if you want to be a plumber, an electrician, and your SAT. So there's just many times that you can use this as a practice opportunity of how to sit in those moments and take those types of assessments. Good. Um to that point, um you say you have these monthly meetings with other districts and that and you're not they're not finding this drop of students. They are not. They are not. So what do we do? Well, I think some cold calls are needed to have those conversations with families to explain how we use it, how it benefits their student, what our teachers are using it for, and how it informs their instruction. Um, again, people think about their own individual endeavors and sometimes
116it's a difficult or a challenge. It's it's it's difficult for us or or presents a challenge to convince them to come in and take this test, take it seriously and it will inform them and their family how the students performing. It's another data point. I think they sometimes simply rely on the report card and that's enough. Can can the principles put something together to get out to these parents how important it is with the what you guys just presented to us? how important it is to know where we need to change, when we need to change, so we don't fall further behind. We've got to come up with a proactive way to get that information to our parents that it's crucial that they take these exams because it's it's not doing us any justice to
117get any better and get our grade GPA up where they should be at grade level. Um, it's hurting us day after day. So, if if we could look at something to that point to get it out and um have I'd love to see 90% of our students participating in hire. It it's going to help our district. We have to push that on our parents to be fair to what we're trying to do as an education, you know, facility for our students in Lenary. It's um it doesn't make us look good in out in the world in the state. Um, so that that's some of the stuff we need to do right when it affects us. And we can't take no for an answer. We've got to find a way to get this information to them
118and tell them how crucial it is. Um, and that and I and I know Kim, you said with the science how it's one of the lowest in the state, you know, are there and you're trying to move it to a period, I believe you said, and see if that gets them, you know, first part of the day and not lagging. Um, we we've really got to work on this as a as a district. So, I appreciate everything you can do. Yeah, Bob, to your point, the state expects 95% of our students to take these assessments, yet they allow for an opt out, which we never get there, and that's really difficult. It really puts the schools in a bind and the districts in a bind, and they take a zero. So, that impacts the scores
119that we have. I I get so the only adjustment that they've made to my knowledge is there's now a designation that reads in the in the database refusal to take the test. We still take the zero for it. It doesn't help us, right? But you know a brief history point you know um I don't remember the exact year when it changed but you know let's say in the late 201s if if you know and and back at that point in time we tended to have you know pretty much 92 93 94 95% of the kids take the test. It definitely changed in co for us. Um at least at that time if if it if someone didn't take the test and we're below 95% we weren't penalized for that zero. the state department, New Hampshire
120Department of Education made that conscious effort to recalculate and kind of penalize schools for that zero. I never got a good explanation why, but I think that's that's part of the that's part of like I think the political dynamic we're caught in too is like we're trying to value it. We're being held accountable to it, but then there's this ability to get out of it and then we get penalized for it. You know, it's it's a strange dance that we're in when we're still trying to make it valuable for our kids in a real way. And I get it. We just we've got to come up with a formula um through examples to our parents that you you've got to work with your student, you know, to to help us take these tests. We got
121to get up to that 95% 90 95% somehow someway. It's I can see if it's all of Southern New Hampshire or whatever, school district after school district's having a problem because, you know, they're they're not taking these tests. But if we're one, there there's an issue. Yeah. So, all right. Anyone else? All right. Thank you for that and look forward to hearing the uh fix to the issue. Thank you. All right. Sorry for anyone that's been here for a while. Uh, I I should have uh moved up public comment. If you're here for public comment, I apologize. I forgot this was going to be a lengthy uh presentation, but I'll uh open the floor to public comment. Uh just state your name and address. If you have something to say, please. Christine Perez, Five Wesley
122Drive. I'm here speaking as a uh state rep and to the point about the law being changed at the state, I'm more than happy if somebody will work with me in the summer to put in a bill for next year that you don't get the zero for the kids. I mean, if that's a problem and it's something that changed, I'm more than willing to try to get that. I can't solve the problem of why uh kids are not taking it. Um, but I can try to get so you don't get dinged quite as much. So, if somebody wants to reach out to me in the summer, I'm more than willing to put in a bill. Thank you. Okay. Um, I also wanted to state that I am very sorry that the warrant didn't pass. Um,
123I don't know why, but I'm I'm very sorry. I'm here to talk about EFA's education freedom accounts. I have always stated publicly that I believe in education freedom accounts and I have never said that I do not believe that they should be universal. In 2022, I was asked to run by parents to represent them and their families at the state house. I did then and I do now work to represent them and childrens of all ages in these matters. I remind you that every child is unique and perhaps what we're offering here in our public school does not meet the specific needs of certain children. Parents know what is best for their child. This does not mean that I don't support public school. I do. I definitely do. But I also support all parents and
124children and they are my constituents. I think we all agree that some things need to change and I commend this board for making those changes. Um, and keep up the good work. As far as EFAS, AFAS, I publicly stated that at this time my concern was centered on the state budget having lost the COVID money. That remains a fact and I have been closely watching the incredible progress that is being made on the budget. I have also attended several information sessions on EFAS. I've listened and I've learned. In addition, I met with the speaker of the house and the majority leader and expressed my concerns to them and many others. when the amendment was made to the EFA bill prior to the vote house vote with a moderate increase this year and universal in 2026
125and knowing that the budget would be finalized and passed this year I supported it. The second reason for my support and a very important reason is that the Senate EFA bill would begin EFAs universally in 2025 and is a very concerning bill for other reasons in my educated opinion. I am offering you the most recent complete analysis on EFAS funding to read. It's eyeopening. It's very detailed. I also need to make a statement for all those that hide behind Facebook and chats to criticize. I ask, have you attended information sessions on EFAS? Have you researched the actual impact of EFAS? Have you worked with the financial analysis of EFAs? Have you attended hearings andor spoken to your concerns on both the House and the Senate bills? Are you a state representative? Well, I am and
126I have. And if you don't like the job I'm doing, then complain to the 7,830 people of Londereerry residents that voted for me or run for office yourself. I cannot state stay to um hear the unsolicited rebuttal that will you'll be hearing to what I've said. We have 101 bills 101 bills to vote on Wednesday and Thursday. Many of those bills are going to affect this town dramatically. zoning bills, for example, changing in how the um the budgets are put together and several bills that are going to also directly affect the the schools here in Londereerry. My focus is on that, not on what other people have to say. Thank you. I don't know if you have this or not. I I think I do, but thank you. Anyone else? Good evening. Beth Morocco for
127Westwood Drive. Um, I just wanted to say, um, two weeks after the election, um, thank you, like a a really deepfelt thank you to everyone who put in such a concerted effort to, um, give our taxpayers the very best um, proposition to end our our endlessly long and expensive uh, lease agreement for the administrative offices. to give our kind kindergarten kids that 103 days that they are woefully missing. Um to give LEAP the space that they need for their educational programming and on and on and on. You did what you had to do. You did the job. You did far above and beyond what other districts would have gotten um from their committed members. You went above and beyond that and the budget committee recognized it. Um I you know the the town counselors recognized
128it. A lot of people in the community did but um we failed you. Um the administrators, the schools collectively had to take hits. Moose Hill teachers had to just grapple with the fact that the school that they have loved and and learned together with their students in would be different. And they had to make those concessions to meet the voters where they were. and the voters didn't show up and then again the next day lots of people are concerned, lots of questions. Oh, I I supported that. Really? You were very quiet when everybody else was, you know, arguing the pros and cons. You were very noticeably quiet. So, I think the voters failed. Um, I I I am grateful for the people that showed up, but the community needs to do better. We are very
129privileged in Londereary. the fact that we can opt out of tests and um the fact that we can send our kids to you know literally anywhere in our country for to celebrate their band talents. We are very privileged and yet we don't provide for our kids um in the way that we are capable of doing and that's on us. We're going to have to figure it out and we're going to end up paying more money for an administrative office and that is on us. Um, but we need to stop complaining and we need to start showing up consistently. It is not enough to just figure it out the day before a vote. Um, so again, I apologize on behalf of the community that didn't pull through for those kids. Um, we need to do better.
130Um, but thank you very much for trying so hard. It must be so frustrating. Um, and I feel that for you, but thank you very, very much. You've really done us proud. Thank you. more Ryan to Snowberry Hollow. Um, so the zero requirement comes from the federal government and the reason they did that requirement because there were school districts who told parents of children on IEPs to opt out of testing so that they could boost their scores, which is not ethical. So that's why you have to live with it. But on top of that, um, less than 6% of students on IEPs are incapable of being on grade level and all of them should have a plan to get on grade level. That's the law. So, I think you really have to think about what
131you guys are doing here because your students on IEPs deserve to be on grade level and deserve to succeed. Thank you. Um, John Frell, forehead, Dr. I'm sorry to be laughing a little bit, but it's kind of uh all these numbers are a little little funny, but um so I want to give you a little context. I'm going to lead into something that I'm going to address about policy here. But to give you a little context, um I went to my oncologist the other day. I was 118 over 76. And he said, um, I look more relaxed than I've looked in years. The funny part about it is is I am. And, uh, and you know, one of the things I did was is, um, after this this election period, I haven't looked at Facebook
132in two weeks. Oh my god, this is such a positive community without that social media piece of garbage. And the people who, you know, the people who care come here, right? So, my questions are really dressed around policy to the board. I know all of you. I know you're all good people. Um, and I know there's probably not a whole lot you can do, but I learned none of this on Facebook. So, we went through the renewal of teachers contracts and there's some people who didn't get tenured and and and I found out through this process that we don't tell them why. I mean, okay, maybe that's the CBA, maybe that's a law, maybe it's not, but you just presented all this data about all the things we need to do and how we need
133to tell people how to do better. Well, you're the policy board. People come here, they work here. I assume we hire them because we think they're pretty good, and then we tell them for whatever reason they need to move on, but we don't tell them why. That's just kind of silly. You can't treat people that way. We keep putting ourselves on a pedestal saying we're better. Well, I'm asking you as the policy board. Please do something. Don't treat people this way. I mean, I served for years on the town side of government and everybody got a straight answer about whether they were their employment or what they needed to approve on. Please do something about the policy. Please don't treat people this way. Maybe they know it's coming. Maybe they know it's because they're teachers.
134Maybe they they know better than I do. But it's just not right. So, thank you. Thank you. I just want to keep you here longer. Katie Sullivan, 216 Winon Road. I'm here as a booster club member of the girls basketball team and I want to publicly acknowledge that the 23 and2 season was an incredible run for the girls basketball team. They made it to the state championship for the first time in 10 years. And being a booster club member, I can't rave enough about this team, the parents and the community. Uh we had a thousand point scorer with Sammy Sullivan. We had a thousand rebounder with Reagan Anderson. We had three all um American academic students. We had first team. We had all all um honorable mention defensive. So, I just want to publicly acknowledge
135a team that um not only are they great athletes, but they're outstanding uh students academically and outstanding citizens because I tell their parents all the time, I brought them, you guys approved a trip for us to go to Vermont preseason and I was the room mother or whatever you want to call it and I couldn't rave about their girl, the girls to their parents enough and what they represented Lendere High School. And I also wanted to acknowledge um Ary and Charlie Sullivan. They were announced as the legend super fans of the program at the banquet the other night. And I also want to acknowledge I'm not going to say their names, but uh those of you who went to the championship game, we had 157 students get in free to the game and they showed
136up and they showed support to our girls sports program and it was because three uh community members uh took out their wallets and bought tickets for every single kid, high school kid who showed up. So to talk about the community that we live in, um that's a a big celebration that three gentlemen who two of them were alumni of this school reached into their wallets and said, "Katie, every kid who walks through that door, we want to pay for the ticket so they go and celebrate something that Lendai High School is showcasing." Bedford did get the best of us. We promise that we'll get the best of them. Um we only had two losses the whole season and both of those were to a great talented and very well coached Bedford team. So, I give
137them all the credit, but I wanted to publicly acknowledge Coach John Dohy and the girls program tonight. And thank you all who supported them throughout the year. Thank you. Thank you, Katie. Congratulations. [Applause] They were fun to watch. Group, great group of girls. Anyone else? Seeing none, I'll close public comment. And apologize again for having it a little late tonight. Um, we'll jump into deliberations. 10.1 we've already covered with the overnight trip and we'll go into 10.2. Did anyone have any uh thing to add to the 10.2 10.3? Um, anything on the cell phones on the 10.4? Um, nothing's changed since our last meeting for um between 10.2 and 10.6. And 10.6. Okay. Anyone have any changes on their packets? You guys good? Good. Okay, I'll go through these. Can you just clarify something? I'm
138not sure if this is rumor or not. Someone was telling me there was 400 detentions given the other day. Um I I checked it on day one. It was under 15 total. Oh, but I don't I didn't check on day two. Where it gets around. Yeah. So, the the detentions were were not high. Yeah. I know any any numbers from the high school 10 today. 10 today. So much smoother. That's good. Yeah. Good. All right. Let's uh get through these. 10.2. Um I'll look for a motion to approve the third reading to resend policy JP joint custody. Please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Kevin. Seeing no discussion. I'll uh all those in favor say I. I. I. 4 10.3. Uh look for a motion to approve the third reading to resend policy
139JHCB immunization of students. Please still moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Amanda. All those in favor? I I I 40. 10.4. I look for a motion to approve the second reading to adopt policy J I CJ unauthorized electronic communication devices including cell phones please so moved motion by Sarah second second by Kevin all those in favor I I 40 10.5 look for a motion to approve the third reading to amend policy ad educ educational philosophy please so move motion by Sarah Second second by Amanda. All those in favor I I 40 Z. 10.6. Um I look for a motion to approve the second reading to adopt policy I KL academic integrity policy. Please moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Kevin. All those in favor I I 4 Z and 10.7 is um we
140talked about at our uh just before our non-public of back on March 10th uh regarding uh coaching I sent it to you guys ahead of time. Did you guys have any questions? Dan, did anything jump out at you as So I I think the red Yeah, the only question I have is so so the the general idea is this would sunset by June 30th, 2026 and then it would just kind of go away. Okay, that's all that's what I want to clarify. Yeah. Any questions by the board? Any discussion? All right, so what I would like to do um I spoke with the attorney. we can wave the first two readings. So, I will look for a motion. I'll read it um and we will bring it back to do the prior two at future
141board meetings. But this way on an emergency case uh we have to wave the first two readings um as um this needs to start like tomorrow. So, and that so I've got the uh the wording. Um, I'll look for a motion on a temporary basis due to the the time restraints to wave the two readings um of amending policy BBBA. Board member qualifications, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Amanda. All those in favor? I I I I abain. you're going to abstain. Okay. So, 3 01 and um 10.8 we there was no change to that. We had submitted both of them to make sure in case two had to be changed. So, there's no change that there's no reason to to get into a reading and that. So, I will eliminate that
142from um the uh policy readings and that. So, that finishes that. Just want to make sure we don't have anything else. I think we're good. Uh we'll go to the proposed 2025 2026 school calendar. Yep. I think um I believe we're at this point. We're ready to approve next year's calendar. We we looked at lots of different options, but in in the end, I think we we've settled on on this. Um I'll throw out there for the future. I know Amanda, you brought up some point a community survey. I think if we did a survey of the calendar, we should kind of do it late late summer, early fall before we start constructing a new one. This is generally what we've been doing for a long time. So, I think if if people had specific
143feedback on things we want to do differently, I think we want to capture that earlier before we start um designing it for the next year. Everybody good with that? Yep. All right. I'll look for a motion to approve the proposed 20 2526 school district calendar, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Kevin. All those in favor? I I 4 Z. Are we going to uh pop that out on the website or the Facebook? I feel bad. I feel like we wanted to talk about it and we needed to and now people are waiting for it. We could we could push it out tomorrow. Okay. All right. and 10.10 proposed 2526 schoolboard meeting schedule. Yep. So what what we generally have is two Tuesdays every month except for July where we do one. Uh
144it tends to be the first and third uh Tuesday of each month. Um and then uh from from one member's request, we change December and January a little bit. Um, so by the time we get to budget workshops, we shifted them to Thursdays and then I made the decision um because if if you remember I can't remember when we changed but there was a point in time where we used to do Tuesday board meetings and Thursday budget meetings. Those are killers um just in terms of uh your life force. Um, so for December, I figured we'd have one regular meeting and we would do that with the 18th. That tends to be the shortest of our budget presentations in December and then we could have one regular meeting on January 8th, too, uh, to kind
145of go along with it. So, we could definitely, you know, change this calendar along the way, but this is just a a a good placeholder to kind of get next year moving. Can you scroll down? My my iPad died. Sure. Thank you. I'm sorry. You want this one? 26. Amanda. Yes. Okay. Those days good for you, Sarah. Okay. Anybody else? And don't forget, reach out and we'll do if we got to move something. I know you guys are busy with kids and all that, so I'm very I'm probably the most flexible, but um whatever works for you is everybody good with what's here tonight? Mhm. Okay. Y good. All right. I'll look for a motion uh to approve the proposed 2526 school board meeting schedule, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Amanda.
146All those in favor? I I 4 Z. All right. Superintendent report 2023 2024 donations to the school district. Amity. Yeah. Um I'll keep this short and sweet. We're very grateful. We have a lot of generous um community members and PTAs who do a lot of things for us. So um we do have as part of our policy to share a donations list annually. So, um, that's what you have in front of you just to see the generosity of the groups and things that they've given to us. I did want to highlight that, um, there was recently Maple Sugar weekend and that the Peterson Sugar Shack, they raised money from a raffle to donate towards um, some lunch, which was awesome. So, we always have uh, community members who want to do good things for us.
147So, thank you to everybody who does that. And there's the list. Any questions? See? Yeah. And on behalf of the board, we'd like to thank everybody that helps our school district and uh a shout out shout out to Peterson Farm. It was a great success over there. Uh seen a lot of good pictures and that about it and that I wasn't in town to attend, but uh appreciate uh Mr. Turkot and his significant other for putting that on and helping us out with uh his donation as well. So, thank you to everybody out there. Appreciate it. All right, it's 11.2 two, understanding our federal grants. So, I've been getting a ton of questions around federal grants. Um, so I thought I'd just take a, you know, this this won't be long, but I just wanted
148to kind of go over what our federal grants are. Um, and generally what we were told and we were told at our last uh local superintendent meeting that the federal grants that we have now should be fairly stable for next year. I think the question is the year after that. Um, and I think that's what we have to kind of keep an eye on. Um, my understanding of the process is, you know, by September the Congress and the president need to come up with a new budget and maybe that's the time where we could see potentially dramatic changes in federal grants. But what we should have for next year should be somewhat in line to what we're seeing here. um if there is an impact, it would be for that following year and hopefully we
149would know that before the budget season on our own, you know, so that that's hopefully where we are. So, I'll go through this quick if you guys have questions and kind of go from there. So, there there's a number of federal grants we get. Um, you know, 87% of lender uh voters that showed up said we should receive millions of dollars, which I think was a good choice. Um, so there's title 1A and Title One is meant to focus on um, students in poverty. I mean, that's kind of where it came from. It came from the 1960s. Uh, and and basically, you know, the way it works out is the percentage of students in your district that are under free or reduced lunch kind of determine your Title One funding. We're pretty small in the
150grand scheme of things. Um, all of our Title One funding actually gets directed at South School. That's our highest percentage. um we use it for intervention services for reading and math teachers and we've done that for a very long time. At some point in the past um the Londereary school board also chose to make sure similar positions are also at Matthew Thor and North school. Um so if there's any changes to title one you know that would be the impact. Um what are we doing with our intervention services potentially um in the elementary schools? Um there are times when we do have um kind of leftover funds in title one where we we have spent it on curriculum supplies but it tends to go to people. Um you know so that's how title one is
151funded. That's something we got to keep an eye on. Title two is very different. It's the the the intention is professional development. Um and if you look at our budget, there's a large chunk of our budget that's part of a collecting bargaining agreement where our teachers are allowed to access professional development funds for their own needs. And that's a good thing. Um, a lot of them use that to to um pursue their master's degrees or take workshops to keep their certification um up to date. We use title 2A for a number of things. Um, you know, we've definitely used it for mentoring in the past. Uh, we've used it for additional supports for teachers that need it. Um, we've used it on a lot of our bigger work around implementing a literacy program or some
152of our our our math work in the past. So it kind of allows us to to direct the learning in the school district. Um so um obviously if if we didn't have access to those funds, it would really hamper what we could do in terms of learning collectively. Uh you know our staff would still have access to funds for their collective bargaining agreement, but it's a little bit different when we can't bring in presenters or we can't kind of work with them in the mentoring or even some of these bigger picture things we're working on. So that that would be, you know, a big change for us and one we have to kind of keep an eye on. Title four is very different. It's one of the newer title grants. Um it kind of came
153out maybe 10 to 15 years ago, you know, and the way I looked at Title 4 is I think everyone was like, "We're focusing so much money on literacy and math. What about everything else school does?" And that's kind of what Title 4 was. It was for mental health services. It was for the arts. It was for um technology. So, it's kind of this catch-all title grant. Um and as as little as two or three years ago, we used to get about $75,000. that has been dramatically decreased. We never got a good reason why. That was generally what happened within the whole region. Um so we've seen less and less of it over the years and uh due to Mr. Parents hard work. We direct it all towards that advanced placement testing. Um if you
154saw from the high school data tonight, what a what a great benefit that's been for our our students. I don't think we really understood how much that was a barrier for our families. So, by taking away that barrier for their that AP uh tests, um we've had such a huge uptick that we want to keep that going. So, uh that makes me nervous because I think that's been a real success of ours in the last couple years. So, if title four is affected, that would definitely affect the plans there. Um you know, so I worry about the first three grants, but I think the next uh the next couple ones are what I really worry about. Um you know, we get over $1.1 million from IDA. IDEIDA is our special education law and there's a
155there's a grant that goes behind it. Um, you know, the the the the function of every federal grant is to supplement the district services, not supplant them. So, these tend to go to district-wide positions like psychologists or special education teachers or par profofessionals that kind of build out um build out our our system and what our needs are. The funding for IDA has been pretty stable. Uh, we haven't seen a lot of changes over the last couple years. Um, but you know, when a student has an IEP, we have to comply uh to what's in the IEP. So, any changes to IDA definitely makes me nervous. Uh, I've seen over the years occasionally we drift towards these conversations. Is it general ed versus special ed? I never want to be in that scenario. But if
156suddenly uh we don't have the same level of federal funding for special ed, we would have to make up that difference. we can't just say no, we're not going to provide those services anymore. And would that create a dynamic where we're cutting general ed to fund special ed? I would hate to be in that. Um so I think that's that's one that really worries me a lot. Um um so it's something to keep an eye on. The Perkins Grant, um I think every year, twice a year, we go to adult ed graduation and we're really happy to see what the Perkins Grant cut does for us. It supports our adult ed program which really helps kids who may have struggled when they got to high school find a really good path out and a good
157path the rest of their lives. Um so the Perkins grant is a really good grant. It really does a lot of benefits and we see it uh dramatically every year. I I would hope that there there are no impacts on that one. Uh and then the other one that that definitely caused me uh concern is food services. you know, so there's no title grant behind it, but we get more than a half a million dollars from the federal government every year to kind of support feeding children. Um, they're self-sustaining right now. Um, it works. If for some reason that level of funding is there or it's gone, I would hate to be in a position where we have to, uh, of course we're going to feed kids. Of course we're going to find a way
158for families that are in need to eat. we're not going to deny children food, but then obviously we'd have to find um the funding in other parts of the budget or ask the taxpayers for more money. So, when I look at the the impact of IDA and food services, those are the two that are are really making me nervous. Not that the others don't because there would be big impacts there, but you have to make these really difficult choices to kind of move forward if there's any uh changes from the federal government. So, I thought that was just a good time to kind of lay it out there. next year. From from what I'm hearing, we nothing should change dramatically. It's we have to kind of keep an eye on what the federal government decides
159in their budget, which I think their deadline is by September of next year. They have to come up with a longer term budget, and that's when we would see if there's going to be any changes from what I can see. Okay, questions. Um, just want to hit on two things before we close out here. Um, kind of on what Mr. Ferrell had brought up. I think we all know how the po how it works uh the process and that and I think a lot of us have some questioning on that for lendary school district. So what I'd like to do is possibly put an agenda iter on item on Dan the next meeting to talk about the process for London schools with the tenur and and how we handle that. So if we could just
160put that agenda iter on and Sure. I'll uh try to put something together um in that and get it to the board members and then we can start a discussion on how we're how we can look at it to be different and um and that so that would be great. Um, the other thing I just want to finish up with is I back in January I sat with uh I spoke with you Dan and and about sitting down with William and Rick um on u the curriculum um and they like the idea. I just haven't had a chance to follow up with them with elections and everything else. But, you know, the real world skills built into our uh curriculum and grade level starting at the middle school. Um, just don't know where it's at.
161I don't they they said they were going to communicate together. Um, so I'd like to kind of put another thing on your plate and see where they're at. And you know, so you know, Jay and I have monthly meetings 6 through 12. So we talked about it last time. Okay. you know, and I think um you know, we we want to look towards what we already have in place and map it out a little bit better, you know, um be and that that's kind of our our first step to kind of see what we already have in place. Um and then what are what are easy things to fit in and what are harder things to fit in. That's kind of where we left the conversation. Okay. Yeah. cuz I just I think it's important
162that we start at that middle school level because you're just seeing more and more students that need that guidance um for real world, you know, uh you know, and getting them ready for the workforce or family or whatever it may be once they leave our buildings and that. So, I just think we need to do more of it today than we have in the past. So, I just I I really haven't had a chance to follow up and see where it is, but if if I'll I'll meet with the two of them again and see what they have in place and and just take a look at it and um and and then we can go from there. But I just wanted to bring it up to you on a followup. So, appreciate it. Uh
163anybody got anything else? Keep Sarah Amanda up. Dan, you're good. We're good. Good. Good. All right. All right. I will look for a motion to go into non-public session requested under RSA 91A 3 section 2B and C, please. So moved. Motion by Sarah. Second. Second by Kevin and a roll call vote from my left to right, please. I Kevin Gray. I Bob Slater. Hi, Sarah Laughlin. I Amanda Butcher. Thank you everyone. Have a