001I'm gonna go ahead and call us to order. No, >> don't make me use the gas. Um 7:05 officially for our note taker. Thank you everybody for being here. I know it's a very busy time of the year. So, thank you all who sent to be here. Um we will start with agenda review and then um move into public comment. Um members of the board, anything to reorder or add to the agenda? I would like to suggest that we actually bring under the committee reports. There are two pretty substantial and I know one of them um Renee the budget update happened last night so it's more of an FYI but I would like to move that and the um creek not committee sorry >> district employee committee update. Thank you. up into business requiring discussion.
002Are there objections to that? Okay. So, we will add that to the end of business requiring discussion. Um, and with that move into uh public addressing the board. So, some of you are probably here to address the board. Um, so a few um items or a few few things just to help us move smoothly. Um, I'm just going to read from this because it's easier if I read. If you have comments relative to a specific item on the agenda, we request that you wait until that item comes up for discussion, at which point you'll be provided with an opportunity to offer comments. Per our public comment policy that is attached in assembly, we ask members of the public please to provide their name, the town or residents, and if they are speaking on behalf of
003any organization. Um, and that you limit comments to three minutes. And because there are so many of you and we want to give everyone as much opportunity as possible, we are going to be pretty strict about the three minutes. Bett is going to help me out with that. Um, and you cannot seed time to someone else. So why not? Um, and I also just want to give you a heads up that you may not get a response from us tonight on these items. Okay? Um, we want to make sure administration has an opportunity, especially as you know with new administration coming into the race next year. Um, we are grateful to have your comments to help with that transition. Um, but you may not get an answer from the board or administration tonight. So, um,
004with that said, you may have noticed we did, um, we do have the food service. Some of you may be here for that. We do have that on the agenda already. So, I'll ask people who are going to be speaking about food service to hold off until that point in the agenda. Um, and then if you are here for other items, um, we did add some of the letter, the letter, maybe just the one at this point. Yeah, the letter that we received um, earlier this week. Uh, we added that about technology. So, I'm certain that's one of the topics to be hearing about, but the floors. So, please come on up, introduce yourself, what town you're from, your name. >> Um, I'm Matt Ukerman. I'm uh from Hanover and I have the letter that
005you referred to about technology. >> Matt, can you also spell your last name? >> Uh you u e c k e r m a n. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Second M to trip you up. >> Um so would you mind if I read the letter please? There is mounting evidence that excessive screen time can harm young children, contributing to anxiety and depression, delaying social and emotional skills, increasing the likelihood of of obesity, straining eyes, and decreasing detention spans. We limit screen time at home, but we don't even have the ability to monitor how much screen time our elementary age children are exposed to at the race. How can we teach our kids at home about a healthy relationship to technology when a school's uneven, impromptu screen pedagogy promotes unhealthy behavior? Repeat the board's urgent
006course correction now and request this issue be a top priority for the incoming administration on day one. We are not anti-tech. We recognize intentional technology can be part of a wellexecuted lesson plan. Technology helps make required standardized testing standard. Also, assisted technology can provide important access when written into students IEP or after collaboration with parents. We ask that the school board make clear to administration and teachers what good acceptable uses of technology are and also what sort of screen consumption and duration are out of bounds during school time. Mindless screen time cannot be the solution to understaffing or challenges with differentiated learning. We asked the school board to define what potential screen time use should look like at the race school and then work with the new administration to implement a policy that will prioritize
007educational goals through administrator accountability and teacher support. We want our teachers to know that our community has confidence in their ability to teach without flashy apps or videos. We want our teachers to know that we would choose them, our value teachers, over a screen any every day. Because effectiveness is not just about test scores, we demand deeper measures that include the preservation of a child's curiosity, joy, and mental health. We ask the school board develop a policy that aligns the school with best practices. Direct instruction should be the default and before an edtech app is used in the classroom, it should be independently vetted for safety, effectiveness, and compliance with existing laws. So, please steer the race school toward a better screen culture with an intentional tech policy to make our school a distraction-free school.
008>> My name is Sarah. >> So, I am Sarah Yuberman. Um, and you just heard the letter that was signed by 23 parents, although there were a lot more who uh agree in some way um for brevity. Uh, and for the people who asked for examples of things that concerned me, here are two personal stories that happened after I started organizing around this. Problematic screen time is so embedded into the kids' schedule that it continues to feel hidden and hard to talk about. Even for me with everything I was already doing and aware of. Last week I got a chance to add it all up. One day in May, my fourth grader had a minimum of two and a half hours of screen time. Some of it was required staff testing. Some of it was
009I Ready testing and both of her specials classes centered video or tech. Maybe it seems silly to argue about the five minute video at lunch or the 15 minutes of movie trailers. But overall, the screen time has displaced some significant activities in a single day. I wish there was more transparency so that we knew how many days look like this. Why can't the schools see the big picture and help specials teachers avoid screams on SAS testing days? But maybe you think that day was an outlier or there were extenduating circumstances. Let me tell you about my son's second grade experience over the year. 12 hours alone on a screen during doing I Ready math lessons. Another 11 hours doing I Ready reading lessons. I'm guessing 12 hours total for those three time yearly I Ready
010diagnostic assessments. There were five movie days with Disneyish movies with a combined runtime of 10 hours. I can't tell you the screen time in technology class, but I'd guess that it's at least 10 hours. And I'm not going to add in the videos during gym, music, and art. So what is my son learning during those 50 plus hours of screen time? He's learning that screens regulate him, reward him, assess him, and teach him because sometimes the medium is the message. And with that much screen centered time, the message is that sitting quiet is teachers. Our children are seeing that their teachers are tech support and entertainment is education. What are we teaching our children? That learning looks like sitting alone being rewarded for clicking next on a screen. I'm here because I feel lucky. My
011story isn't worse. Some parents have told me that their children have access to the ad- free school version of YouTube in a way that seems to be unmanaged and prolific. Kids are on YouTube or viewing YouTube content daily. I don't want any kid at the Ray School to be that unlucky. So when you hear others public comments, keep in mind that with an intentional technology policy, we would have had we would have had more confidence that it was all time well spent. I know that people may have specific stories about I Ready and I'd ask the board to think about I Ready even more broadly as well. With the roll out of the new arts and letters curriculum next year, what will be the point of doing I Ready reading? If the point is differentiated
012learning, then teachers need to be confident in adjusting settings and parents need to be empowered to check in and advocate for the proper level for their child. All of that needs transparency, communication, and parent training. If the point is teacher support and occupying little kids with busy work, then data needs to be collected on the gap in staffing that led to a prioritization of 20 plus hours of computer instruction for a seven-year-old. And if the point is higher test scores, then we need to see correlation between I ready time and SAS scores or whatever metric we care about. We must add here three. This is the last bit. Okay. It is unconsionable that my seven-year-old had to wonder why the iPad math app still thought he was bad at math after he thought he had
013proven himself the latest hour-long diagnostic. He should not have had five hours of below grade level math and been the only one who knew something was wrong. Human teachers have empathy that scripted ed techbased lessons do not. Please make sure we are using screens intentionally and that we don't forget what good teaching looks like. >> All right, Chris Ran from um and I don't was a state about affiliation with something or if your work represent >> represent PTO or something like that to represent myself. Um, so as I said like a month ago when I was here, screened pres three schools went in favor of that. Um, I taught through COVID. I saw firsthand what it was like when students went basically with 100% screen time and the data speaks for itself. Scores did not
014go through the through the room. They went through the floor. Right? So, it's just clear that uh more screen time does not equate to better performance outcomes. Uh even if last night, Harry, you mentioned in the school board meeting that uh you have trouble retaining knowledge from webinars. I think what I said. So, I think you know it's it's true. We all feel the same way and I'm sure you know young kids um don't even have the ability like adults do. Um, I'll just one last thing throw out a number for you. Uh, next year the budget for tech is $567,031 and the increase of the overall budget from one year to the next is $479,000. So if you got rid of technology budget, we would actually drop the overall budget and scores could potentially
015increase. So, budget down, scores up, win-win for the question. >> What else? >> And for folks online, feel free to raise your Zoom. >> How many people are online? >> Well, convers Um, thank you for the opportunity to share comments for everybody to my name is Anner. I'm from Hanover representing myself and my family. Um, I'm a physician at Dartmouth Hitchcock and I teach medical students and residents. So, a different age, but certainly about um my favorite role is as of to my first and second graders and we're really grateful for the commitment and competency of our educators at this point. We will have four quick points. First, that early technology education is valuable and appreciated. And when Hazel was first in kindergarten um and explained for lessons in safe engagement with technology, it made
016me think >> we're getting reports that my >> Oh, sorry. Your closer to >> And for the people, >> I know that's a little hard, but we're seeing folks kind of deal with this. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you. Sorry. Um might be fine actually. >> Yeah. He gets people behind. Okay, sorry. >> Thank you. >> Um, so I'm Ann Cooper. I also teach to older level learners. Um, and for our four points, I would just say early technology education has been a wonderful and welcome addition to education for my elementary school kids. The fact that they were being taught deliberately um to be savvy consumers of technology made me feel reassured. we're equipping our patient our pardon me our our kids to to move on um in the inevitable technology focused um uh aspects
017of our lives. Um our second point though is that over time it feels like some use of educational technology or edtech. Um such as I Ready and other screens hasn't followed the same principles of safe tech use. Um, I Ready is a new addition. Hasn't been evaluated as it per whether it performs based uh up to the level that it's claimed. When my daughter kind of impromptu showed me I Ready because she wanted to do it at home, I saw scant evidence of meaningful personalized learning, superficial, repetitive content, unnecessary fat, flashy gamification, and worst of all, she mentioned she doesn't feel like she learns much. It's just for the games. Um in in research I found evidence of nationwide criticism about I Ready um with some positive statements but with concern about thin evidence of
018educational value based most on mostly on studies paid for by the company and concern for student privacy uni-dimensional learning without social and emotional development and regarding backing of the company by private. Um elsewhere in our students experience we safeguard them through background testing for all staff and volunteers. I just got my fingerprints again. And I would say that until we put edtech resources through a similar thorough vetting, edtech is bringing virtual strangers and unproven teaching into our children's lives and reducing time with each other and with our outstanding and thoroughly vetted teachers. Third, our teachers are a priceless resource and I'm beyond grateful. Um, with their years of study and apprenticeship, our teachers are the best able to provide personalized education that is multifaceted and socially and emotionally in touch with each student. My kids
019and more than 10 other parents and educators I've spoken with would always rather learn from them directly than from a screen or through group learning and in other ways just stewarded by their teacher. We know there are many pressures on teachers and schools and want to share our admiration and support to try to be creative partners. Finally, the challenge of how to incorporate technology will only increase with time. We're asking the school board to address this head-on in a sustained and deliberate fashion. We ask you to please consider a durable ongoing process to specify intentional tech use and vet new software, including a time-sensitive review of I Ready before it might become a permanent integration into our curriculum and possibly also consideration of other ways in which funds spent on edtech might also be fruitfully
020applied. We're so for your care and look forward to setting the example for our students of being savvy consumers of technology. and thank you. Thank you. >> My name is Deborah Ryan. Um, you can call me Debbie. Um, >> Ryan. Just Ryan. R Y A. Yeah. Um, I have an eighth grader, a fourth grader, and a kindergartener in the school. We moved here two years ago, and I've been thrilled with the school. and thank you all for serving on the board. Um, I did want to I was concerned and signed the letter because I am concerned about intentional use of technology in the schools. Um, I support a lot of the comments that were made tonight already. Um, and one example that I had from actually volunteering in the classroom was during a reading block.
021So, what happens was the teacher would pull out small groups of kids and this was in third grade. um they would go with the teacher and then the rest of the kids were supposed to do a short literacy activity and then the rest of the kids were supposed to be reading quietly. Some of the kids had physical books, other were read others were reading on epic and the kids who were reading on epic on their iPads, a couple of them were engrossed in their books. All the kids who were reading physical books were deeply engrossed. Um, but about three to four kids were just scrolling through titles of books, kind of like a Netflix catalog, and they weren't getting any reading done. And I kept asking them, "Come on, you can choose a book now."
022And they just weren't doing it. They would maybe choose a book, flip through some pictures, and go back. And so I thought it was a disservice that, you know, parents and maybe even the teacher thinks that they're getting this reading time and they're not. And this was happening, you know, multiple times a week during the reading block. And so I was just thinking about the lost education there and what they were supposed to be doing. Um, and that if maybe they would not read if they had a physical book, but that would have been a boring choice. Here they're being entertained with pictures and scrolling. So in some cases, I appreciate the um that some apps have assistive technology and they're great for kids who need some extra help, but in some cases they're not
023the right choice. So So that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Any other members of the public want me to speak on this matter? >> In person in person. >> Hi, my name is Carrie Vas R I G and we live here in Annover. And I also am just speaking on behalf of my um so I'm very much in support of the comments that have been made so far and in thinking about how the race rolls out an intentional tech policy. I think it's a it's a big undertaking. And so the two points that I'd like to hit on in the short term are for um there to be more transparency in terms of what tech use is being used in the classroom um between the staff and the administration. I think some of
024the conversations that we've had is that it's very teacher specific and that we're not entirely sure that the administration knows how much tech is going on in each classroom um and for what purpose and to the point of how much time. So step one should be transparency between the staff and the administration and then ideally that makes its way down to the parents as well so that we can be tailoring our at home instruction or how it uh conforms or does not conform necessarily to our family values in terms of tech. And then my second challenge for this incoming request um for this year would be to say that there would be school sponsored opt out options. So, um, not expecting a complete overhaul of the tech policy in year 1, but for families that
025want to opt out, there should be school sponsored options for those students rather than having to volunteer or physically leave the school grounds. Um, so we hope that the school in the interim can figure out school sponsored options for those families that do want to opt out in the short term. And that's it. >> Right. Anyone else is in person? >> Anything not religion? Yes. >> Hi, my name is Elena Turvan. I'm in handover with my whole crew. Um, a proud and grateful mom of two race schoolers and one future raceer. Um, I wish to second and strongly support everything that's already been said and especially the proposal to create an intentional technology policy for the race school. All I'm hoping for are just guidelines when to use it. I'm hoping that technology and screens
026are a last resort, but that's not to say they shouldn't be used at all. And some guard rails, strong guardrails. It's already being done and thought about in Atlanta and LA. Two of the country's biggest school districts with some really high achievers. And it can be done here. We need not start from scratch. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> All right. Should we turn to online? >> Yep. >> So, Michael S, you can go ahead when you're ready on your side. >> Mike, are you there? >> Mike, if you can unmute yourself. Hello, this is Michael Swanwreck, SW WK. I live in Hanover and represent myself. Um, and I just wanted to support uh the letter that was submitted. I didn't get a chance to sign it, but uh support what it says and really encourage
027the board to think about intentional technology and letting our teachers teach and less screen time. So, I will keep it short and keep way under three minutes. Thank you. And I see one other also move over just mute yourself. Jesse, you're good to go. Jesse, if you're talking, we can't hear you. Give us a few more seconds. >> I think they're >> Can you hear me now? Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you now. >> Okay. Sorry about that. My name is Jesse Papiligus. I'm the mother of a fourth grader at the Ray School. Uh I work at Hanover High School and I'm a vice president of the Ray School PTO. Um I just have a I I support everything that has been said about the intentional use policy. Um, and I
028am urging the school board to take measures to review all of the current dialogue as um, Elena said, not only in major cities, but for instance, the Wall Street Journal recently published an article um, how YouTube took over the American classroom. Um, and it focuses on the fact that 94% of teachers in public schools are using YouTube to teach lessons in their classroom. Having gone through um the kind of public health and research aspects of instituting a no cell phone policy at Hanover High School and listening to all of the conversations, I have to say that it was a very wellthoughtout process that referred to a lot of the current research and discourse. And so I would just urge everyone to pay attention to the national dialogue and the findings of these studies on Tekken
029schools as we hopefully move forward with an intentional use policy for the race school. Thank you so much. All right. There is nothing new to add to this topic. Yep. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> Right. First of all, uh, thanks for all your comments, guys. They they do not go on and we probably have some good we have some news for you on that front where I am the chair of the policy committee for SAU. We spearheaded the cell phone policy as someone just mentioned last winter. And that is the the source of the people that go through the granular line by line emails for these things. that takes a long time which are also fully public meetings by the way. They happen roughly every two weeks. We have another one for this day and
030throughout the summer we will be tackling. We'll be adding to our queue which we've already done an AI policy a um screening policy which for those you've done the annual survey which is why we asked those questions. We have been trying to get in front of this as well. The stories are doing today are very contributo to this process. Some of them are news to me some are not but many of them I think warrant some sort of change. I'm speaking for myself on that on on behalf of the board. And in terms of some of the earliest survey results about that, they are not publicly available yet. We anticipate they will be at some point next week. We are running and going to get it done by the official end of the school year.
031But just in terms of put results pertinent to this, there were 688 responses across all four schools, which is a 16% increase from our previous record they've gone over. We thank everyone for their time on that. The question about screens, the free text comments had Stephen Brother had 109 responses across all horse and rules and on those I believe 29 were specific to the race of excuse me largely I think what you folks are saying there are some variations and across all 187 people who took the race survey the results are interesting and I'm very excited to hear your feedback when we see it next week. I know there's going to be a lot of talk about lunches. There were 174 comments about lunch, which is a personal record from surveys I guess across all
032schools. Specific to Ray was 53, which you can think about that's roughly a 15% response rate on free text alone across all the kids. So, we plenty to say on that we are you um and we'll talk more about that later, but just want to give some background context. look for that in an email from Robin all four schools and say by any big PDFs coming your way and that'll be at some point next week. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um and I you know I will say knowing this was coming along tonight I you know just speaking with administration speaking other board members I I think there is definitely shared um concern about technology in the classroom and it's a question of what now app right what do we
033do next? So I think um again something gave you time to share your thoughts. Um and we are we are cogitating we are working on it. Um so thank you guys. Um all right we will move if anything else from the public doesn't have to be >> and there's a second option for public comment at the end of the evening if someone call this up as well as well as subject specific lunch etc etc. >> Okay. Um I will move us along then to the principles review which is attached in assembly and um there are some pieces of it that also address these questions. So thank you Colleen for putting that together. Um was there anything you wanted to highlight um within the principal's report? There are some gorgeous pictures of music too by the
034way. >> Yeah. Um, and one thing that didn't make it Oh, sorry. >> Uh, one thing that didn't make it into the principal's report because it started after I submitted it was we started the race field post office uh the first graders to do their whole community um lesson and social studies. And part of that was we should have our own post office at the race school so we can send messages and letters to our buddy classes and our teachers. tremendous and it's been such a huge hit. Even implementing it in the last week of school where we were saying, "Oh my god, how are we going to do this?" But it's been amazing. We get letters daily. People are writing back to each other. It's been really, really fun and we're figuring out how
035we can do it for longer next year and build on it. It's been really successful. So, lots of writing happening, lots of good things happening, lots of compliments and nice things being shared. So, that's been great. uh ramp it up for the end of the year celebrations next week. We went to Stores Pond today and we're super psyched to find out that there were lifeguards there today so they could swim. That was a huge tip. Um yeah, it's been great. We're we're ramping up lots of fun activities planned. Buddy Day is Friday. Send your kids to school with sunscreen. We'll send out a reminder of that. It's going to be a hot and humid day. We're ready for it. >> Great. Thank you. Um before you sit down, Colleen, I make you stand up. Um
036we may have questions. Any questions from the board on? Yes. Yeah. Go ahead. >> On any part of the report. Okay. Um I one I just I just loved every aspect of leader and actually hearing the music was so fun. Um I have some questions on the various tests and uh so the least and I and forgive me if I missed it in there but it sounded like like the deep div stuff and forefront math are required or well testing for those things are required. We've chosen those tools. Correct. >> And then of course there's the SAS which is required. Is I already a required thing or is it filling a required need? >> There's a district choice to to administer that test. >> Okay. And then >> the need. Okay. Awesome. because I think
037that that that the one of the questions I had was I think you mentioned in the in the nodes that it was kind of replacing the Miwa and so super curious of like what was the kind of thing you were trying to solve by switching um and just getting an understanding of that. Yeah. >> So, can I talk about that? We originally wanted benchmark testing so we could see how kids were progressing through the year with the growth over time specifically in reading and in math. And originally we took using the NWA testing, MAP testing, but Mary and Cross was using I Ready. So we had two distinct categories of benchmark testing and we weren't having any kind of aligned data to look at. So this year we said well let's try I read it
038at rate that way we have common information as kids are moving into middle school and we can see how students are progressing on the way. The difference between the two is that there's also another component for the ready which involves like some tutorials and pieces like that. So, it's something that we've already been talking about this year and that we will continue to discuss to see whether it's meeting the needs that we had hoped it would meet. So, you're asking great questions. We appreciate that and it's something that we always have on our radar. You know, we try things. If it's not doing what we needed to do, then of course we'll look and see what we need to do with it. So, I don't know if that answers your question. add on. I think
039the the points there are clear, but Chuba would like to share what we shared with SAP when we roll this out because I think it also addresses the questions around the problem that we're trying to solve. Um, the switch from maps testing meanwhiles that we share that folks are the most important. The reports that we get from I Ready are more robust. They're easier to generate and they're easier to understand for teachers. That was a huge difference from the means lab and maps testing. And if we're going to gather data, we need to do something with it. To do something with it, we need to understand it. And that test uh the test generates very understandable and usable reports for our teachers. Additionally, the parent reports are cleaner and more parent and familyfriendly. One of
040the commitments that we were making is sharing more data with our community to do that. We went through both sent home reports that we don't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to read. So that was another thing that was very beneficial but at least thought to be a benefit um when it came to receiving the data meaning what testing and map testing was pretty confusing to disagregate into a lot of professional development to really understand what the reports were trying to tell us and what the data was trying to tell us and our work with our Mary and cross colleagues and looking at their data it was clear that I was a superior product in that way as well because the data was easier to understand out of the
041gate and much easier to disagregate without selling hours of professional development required. Um and then finally the other point more but these are the highlights. The other point uh when we were making this decision was that the testing interface is far more intuitive for teachers and for student users. So we had students that would engage in NEA or MAPS testing who would get caught up in the interface itself and it really get in the way to um having students perform in a way that was accurate um and really measured their their understanding and their skills because the interface itself was not very friendly to use. The I Ready interface is much more friendly for students, a much more accurate representation of what they know versus how well they can navigate through an interface. One last
042thing I would say related to this is it takes time too to implement in programs such as this and to see the value. Um Mary and Frost now has been doing it for four years and I've observed over time the robust data that we've been able to pull from doing the testing and looking at overall growth for students for individual students. we've been able to work on some interventions and things like that. So, it's a work in progress, but obviously we always look at how things are going and make changes based on what we think's best for students. And if I may offer one just clarification, it sounds um in listening to >> don't remember where I heard it, but um it sounds like there are kind of two parts to I already, right? There's
043the assessment part and then there's the the pathways tutoring piece. Is that right? >> My path. Okay. My path piece. And so the the the assessment pieces that you're talking about, Laura, that's on the assessment side. Is that right? >> Yes. >> Okay. Just wanted to clarify that. Yeah, you >> that that was my question because I think that there and then my followup is >> can we disagregate my path and I ready is like can we use one without the other? >> Yes. >> Is that is that a choice like what are our levels of choices here because I know that >> hearing a lot just yeah one is take everything out one is take some out one is don't change. So, okay. So, they they are not the same, right? >> Um, oh,
044we made the the decision to implement it this year as recommended and as Marian classes is Susan felt that we if we're going to use it because we to send to the middle, >> we should use it the same if they're using it. So, we made the decision to use it that way this year knowing that we're going to use it for the year and we're gonna reevaluate. Does this mean our use here at the right school? Does it meet the needs of our students? the needs of our families and our teachers. Um, so you know, we just finished the learn the last round the spring benchmarking. So we had a hot minute to really sit down with the zip data as a staff and as a as a building. So that is on our
045list of things to do and we have every intention of doing it and make some decisions leaving. >> Any other questions for Colleen? >> I just have an observation that I wanted to say out loud because I did it was alarming me. Um, our third graders have all three of these testing components, the divals, the forefront, the I Ready, the SAS. And so of all of our grades, I don't know if that's a lot of testing time. And I'm wondering what is the value in each and are they all really necessary and required? I'm I'm very curious of that. And then uh it it seems like our second grade may be heavy on that, too. I don't know, but it seems like that third grade I don't have a third grader. I did not talk
046to any third grade parents prior to this, but uh I'm really curious about that experience also from the teacher side. I imagine there's a lot of logistical things there too. The dills and SAS are required testing right from the stage um and early literacy and obviously SAS testing provides us with information about how kids are doing over time in math, science and reading and um yeah I write is not required. We implemented that as benchmark testing so we could watch student progress over time and see if we had areas of weakness. Are there areas that our students are not so in love and doing it for a year is not going to a lot us with that in-depth information. We'll have to do it over time. >> Just a little more information on Diddles is
047a quick interview. It's less than five minutes and it's done by our intervention team, not the classroom teacher. So, they're not tasked with doing that as well. Okay. Forefront is the same thing. It's a quick interview I mean five to seven minutes. our grades have um a short given portion of it that doesn't take very long for them to do. So it's not it's not time consuming. It's done pretty quickly within 5 to 10 minutes. Um and yeah, the difference is is required to >> Yes. Okay. >> This is not about I already this is just about >> I'm okay with that. >> Okay. It's a different part of paper. Um I just want to make sure this is a numbers thing. So you know as was already highlighted my skill with numbers but um
048um the like mapping of student progress over time. The current fifth graders math percentage looks like it's gone down significantly and I think just wanting to name that I don't know you know >> for last year's notice that >> yeah so just wanting to like I don't just a noticing and a concern about what is happening from that fourth grade to fifth grade in terms of math >> proficiency. >> Yep. I was going to ask if I I know this is kind of a first like data dump. I assume this is something you guys are going to be looking at and we'll have a chance to find out next year. >> Yeah. >> Yes. I just wanted to point out as this is Sarah Ukrain that Marian Cross has reported on their I Ready test
049scores at a Norwich schoolboard meeting to evaluate the percentage of kids one, two, or three grade levels below expectation. And that's not reported here. Um, which the end of the year, I get it. I Ready has a larger testing burden on our student population than the SAS testing, but here only SAS scores are represented. And while I don't want us to care more and more about I Ready, but if I knew the intention behind I Ready, I'd know what to look for here. In the absence of knowing that intention, I'll just share that I've heard from teachers and EAS and other staff people that they feel conflicted as kids struggle on I Ready adaptive test questions. So, the fact that I'm not seeing how this costly data informs the school at a systems level surprises
050me. >> Yeah. >> Um I vegan. Um I'm all testing >> is all the testing done on a device or are there paper options and if there are paper options how does that then get pulled into the data >> the testing is all the the device >> I was ask and has that is that the three options that you were talking about those are all device driven no more paper testing options And >> yeah, >> what about the writing test that some of the grades take? >> Third, fourth, and fifth grade takes a writing test as part of the it's part of their ELA scoring. It's it gets clumped in together with the reading score on the SAS test. >> I mean, is that also >> Typed or is it >> typed or voiced to
051text? >> Maybe voice. >> You can you can Yes, they can do that. We have students who don't type. Is that an adapt an adaptive versus a student choice? >> Yeah, adaptive part of an IEP, part of a 504 plan. >> I'm gonna make some odd observations. My I my oldest is 19 now and I remember when he was at the Ray School, the comments around our kids are not tech ready. We're not doing enough to get them tech ready. Everything is tech once they get to the high or the middle school once they get to the high school. And then hope, right? And then, you know, this move towards everything's tech now. And what do we have in high school and college where I teach? Nothing on the computer anymore because we can't, right?
052So everything's those blue books, they're back. >> The blue. >> So everything's kind of shifting back that direction now, right? Blue books were like basically out of business and now like you can't keep them in stock. It's crazy. Yeah. So I I mean you know those those trends those shifts are really interesting to watch more in like a oh look at that kind of way but um understanding that um yeah that the tech I think is struggling to keep up to with some of what we're trying to as a math person I can say wholeheartedly that I hate the idea of kids taking these tests on the computer because they don't do math on the computer in school. Yeah. class and lessons. We do it in pencil and paper on the whiteboards >> with manipulatives.
053We don't do math on a computer and no matter how many times we see it, take a pencil on paper, solve that on paper, write it that way, they just don't >> they will click through and they will make choices that they wouldn't make if they were doing it on paper. >> It is frustrating. >> All right. Um, last Yep. Last thought. I'm just curious if we're gonna talk about my path at all as like because of the it's there are curriculum components and as a board it to me has inklings of like our RMS conversations about math and so I'm wondering about the appropriateness of that conversation because that lots of anecdotes about how it is not ped pedagogically effective at teaching. >> Yeah. And I know I'm going to kind of pause on
054hit pause on that because I know that our administration is aware of my path and some of you know some of the things that maybe aren't working as well. Um and so I think if you have individual comments about my path um I'm going to sorry go ahead and encourage you to email um those to Robin or to Colleen um because I know the administration is is taking a good hard look at that. Um, so I think that um and and again acknowledging that we have a new principal coming in um a new associate principal coming in and so wanting to give that new admin team a chance to also weigh in on that. So um while I do think that curriculum discussion at a board level could potentially um be beneficial, I actually think
055the administration is maybe doing doing that at this point if that makes sense. And I I just want to encourage Robin to respond uh to our little chitchat here. I think there's a little bit about transparency about the stuff you guys are doing >> that would be helpful to hear because I know in April um we had heard from Colleen at ebook report that you had done a survey with staff about tech use as a way to my understanding of that was like let's hear what are what are we doing because I know that as a parent of young children they are not always the best uh most reliable witnesses and the stories that I might hear are just you know maybe the most interesting thing that happened in the whole month was that one
05630 minute video that they got to see. I don't know. And it's like, is that the thing that they want to tell me about or did it happen all the time? I don't know. But the the idea of data to drive decision- making feels really important. And I know that you have thought about it and so I wanted to offer an opportunity to make sure the community heard where you guys are on it, even if we're not very far. >> We did an initial text survey of all of our staff and after we went through the results, we said we didn't ask the right questions. We didn't get to what we wanted to get in these questions. A couple of them we did, but not so Chantel and I have been looking at revising some
057of the questions to give to staff again. So, I guess we can get more specifics about what we were asking. We just we didn't ask the right questions on them and thought we had a good survey and then we said that didn't get us what we wanted. So, we are working on that. We worked on that and we'll share those results as soon as we've got results that matter and make sense. Just just ask a quick question about that. At what point in the year was that? Sorry. >> Uh represent myself. Um at what point in the year was that >> we did that evaluation? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Just so you know, this is on YouTube and live. So recorded. >> Okay. >> Hello. My name is Turbon and I'm a
058fifth grader at my race home. Um, so I'd like to talk about the limited screen time idea. Um, I think that too much screen time isn't good for kids. A lot of children already have some sort of device that can that they can be on daily and school shouldn't add too much more to that. Screen time also takes fundamental learning with teachers and interacting with other students away. Some apps might also not help students as much as teachers can. For example, take I Ready. I love math and I think I'm pretty good at it. But the lessons I'm doing on I Ready don't make me think of that. They're boring and repetitive to me. But a lot of my peers and friends also think the same. But I also think that some screen time is
059okay, but women should be added for children's fast consider. >> Thank you very much. >> All right. >> Yes. Oh, sorry. One more. or I'm so sorry I didn't see your hand. Please go ahead. >> Hello, my name is Georgiana Turbon. I'm a second grader here at RE school and I would like to share my experience with I Ready. It is said that I Ready is supposed to boost test scores and help kids learn and boost their test scores as I just said. But for me, I Ready is not helpful. It is boring and repetitive as my sister Theodora said and I also I just don't feel that it's helpful right now. I'm understanding number lines and I and I did other stuff that was ahead of that back then and I went back to
060understanding number lines. It's very boring and repetitive for me. I also asked one of my friends, Michael. He's one of my very best friends. And I asked him, "Michael, would you like I ready if it were on paper pencil, proving that he doesn't like it because of what it and open?" He said no. Proving that he doesn't like it be because of what it is. He He likes it because it is on the iPad. >> A lot of other kids in my grade also don't like I Ready and also think it's boring or repetitive. That's all. And thank you for listening. I hope you take this in into consideration. >> Thank you. Thank you both for speaking up. We appreciate it. >> Um all right, Colleen, I think we're good on the principal report because
061we get to hear from you again on the parent survey. Lots of similar things coming up here. So, um we will move on into business requiring discussion. Um, I'm going to propose with the board's indulgence that we actually move the f food service contract just up a little bit before the policy discussion. Is that okay with everyone? Yes. Okay. I want to hear the um survey results first because I am hoping that that's going to um give some information for some of the comments on food service. Um but um so we'll start we'll start with some very boring stuff first. Um the AP approver any volunteers you are see thank you anybody else I haven't done it in a very long time I withdraw my be the best part of your name >> and now
062you don't have to check your Yeah, that's >> we can help you if you need it. I have faith in you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, moving on. Legislative update. And I It says Miss McConnell. M. McConnell is actually going to pass this right off to Ms. Nelson. Um, because Debbie, you're you're all up on the legislative matters going on right now. Well, I think the important thing to know is that the legisl legislature is done for the year and there are bills that have are being moved over to the governor's desk and whether she signs them or not, it's an opportunity for parents to be aware that one of the bills 434 calls for Danny books and materials and things in the classroom. So, you may have an opinion about that. There
063is another one on um which is oh so sorry um 1300 which is a mandatory tax cap bill that will have to come before the voters in November which is not exactly when we usually talk about school budgets and it has a lot of confusing language. There's an absence of clarity. So again, you may feel compelled to call the governor and share your opinion one way or the other about that. I also spoke last night only 24 hours ago at the Dresden board meeting about uh Zoom that I was on regarding the federal voucher bill and that has already been the governor has com signed New Hampshire into that and it involves giving a direct tax break to parents who donate $1,700 to an SGO. It's uh it will diminish your tax bill by $1,700.
064And if you think that uh well anyway um so I have prepared a a sheet of notes from a Zoom that I was on and shared them with the board and they can be made public if you want. I don't quite know what the attach to an agenda. Yeah. >> So that happens. That's really all I have. >> Do you want to mention the governor's number? >> Oh, I did mention the governor's phone number last night. That again, it's area code 603271 and usually you just get an answer at the machine, but sometimes someone calls. So, don't get disturbed about having a conversation. You can just leave a message. Um well, open enrollment, which some of you may have been following, but I know it's sort of fun. We have some of you here. We
065can tell you that died. Um it will come back, but right now it got squashed. Um so pay attention to who gets elected and who is in conquered next year to see if this comes back >> and what gets nestled into other builds, which is a tricky little thing. Um, and for those of you who are perhaps just tuning into some of these meetings for the first time, um, we've we've really tried to increase our engagement with what's going on at in conquered um, at the legislative level because there are just, you know, I've compared to a fire hose, but just a fire hose of bills that are relevant to education and some of them never make it out of committee. Some of them um, suddenly are fasttracked and they're going to vote on it,
066you know, in three days from now. Um so we've had to really kind of um tune turn our attention to that um because it has tremendous implications for the functioning of our schools. Um in some cases for curriculum that we are required suddenly from one week to the next to begin delivering. Um and um in some cases it will have potential implications for already approved budgets such as the tax cap which would then retroactively essentially um force us to reduce our budgets. And so um there's a lot of these sorts of things going on um that that we're keeping your eye on and trying to be more proactive about sharing with the public. Yeah. And I would say that all of our concerns are motivated by a commitment to public education >> and to the
067value of a publication public education in our country and to democracy. And so we try to make sure that our conversation centers that native point. >> Yeah. And part of this increased publicized of our efforts on on disregard our direct response to base surveys where last year survey had multiple questions about politics coming politics and we had over 80% of our response wanted to be told in advance of what's coming down the pipeline, what's coming into law, how we're trying to interpret that. And for those of you who do public surveys, getting 80% in one direction, it's pretty remarkable. So we have taken that to kind of keep working on ourselves to be more aware of it and make our opinion matter more especially at the conference level whereas you may or not know handover
068typically does not fall in line with where the rest of the state tends to go. So at least three of us go to conference with some regularity and give testimony and things of that nature all which is on to the appropriate places and so we are doing this to represent handover 70 and 712 to make our citizens heard. So we are trying Right. Thank you, Deb, for the update and we'll attach those notes to the agenda. Um, we're going to move on to the parent survey results. Um, Colleen has added a really nicely put together document summarizing everything. So, thank you for for all of that work. Um, it's about three pages and I apologize to those of you who don't have access to assembly here. Um, but it is available online. Um I don't
069know if you wanted to kind of give us any highlights you wanted to point out. Um I'll just while you're thinking on that, there's um some good percentages um indicated on homework, the the high level homework. Um kids being really happy about coming to school um which is great, feeling safe and um they have strong relationships uh at the race school which is excellent. Um there's a lot of detail around her work. Um and then I really like Colleen's divided this into glows and grows which I thought was a very um race school appropriate way to to kind of put things together. Um and then a lot of next steps. So I don't know if there's anything in that that you wanted to highlight. Technology and food service definitely feature prominently. So >> we'll address
070that. that you're capable hands to take care of that. Um I think the important things are the next steps that we are. I'm so sorry. I know. >> I apologize. Thank you. >> Um the next steps part of it is looking at all the stuff we've done this year, the I Ready, all of our our testing data, everything that we've looked at. So how are our students growing? What where do we need to what do we need to work on and what we need to put in place for that tab? Um it's all about the students and what's working for our students. We have a lot of things coming down the pipe. We have our new arts and letters ELA program which will incorporate a lot of writing. There were comments about writing and parents
071want more writing. This program has got it. There'll be more writing. We'll be doing letter writing and we're going to continue letter writing because it's been really successful. >> That will help too. Um now we are working on we're moving into our fifth year of implementation here at the race school and teachers are building in some building thinking classrooms uh linking tasks where students are working collaboratively. Teachers are asking me to go to other teachers classrooms to start building their capacity and finding something happening below me above me. How am I how am I preparing my kids for what's coming next? What do I need to do? So we're working on next year when I get to go back to being the math coordinator. I will be working with teachers on getting into other teachers
072classrooms and then coming together as a group call we're trying to find a catchy name for it math fat math lab or something I don't know when we go like it's kind of an exploratory thing when we go in classrooms together as a group we talk about things and what we what we want to start implementing in our classrooms um technology and screen time we're on it communication um preschool administration we're Kelly has indicated that she will continue to read these letters as we have done. >> Principal Kelly everybody looks at me. >> Principal Kelly, he plans to continue with the weekly newsletters. Um teacher and I know that almost every teacher in the building I believe sends a weekly newsletter. Don't know of anybody that doesn't send a weekly one because I get them
073all too. So, I get 27 emails every day. Um, um, there was a request, there was a couple requests about getting the benchmark testing data a little quicker. Typically, we've been getting it out within two to three weeks. We're going to push to get it within one to two weeks. Takes a while to fully everything and get everything printed. And it's easier to print wait until all students have finished testing. And the window is typically about three weeks for each of these tests. when we wait till all students have finished printed up and batch printing, we send it off home at one time so that there's not somebody saying, "We had our test results. Did you get your test results? Why did you get your test results?" It's easier to send them all at the
074same time. Um I think the biggest highlight for us is for staffing. Um what the work that we did this year, the um around special needs support of our students, we had a really robust book study um on autism. About 30 plus staff members participated in it, reading two different books related to autism. And we got to students the neurode divergence and it was remarkable the conversations that we had um the work the teachers did and how they're going to implement it in their classrooms and how they're going to make things more accessible for all students. Uh we had a really great panel of students parents um and former teachers um that came in and did some work with us and it was just it was profound. It was listening to the students about their
075experiences in school and what worked for them and what doesn't work for them was really great. And so it left a lot of teachers going, "Oh, okay. How can I how can I change my practice and better support those students?" But they've asked for more work with that. So we're looking at what we can do next year to bring to them moving forward with that. >> Some questions. So questions for Colleen though I think we will hold off on the food service specific questions until right after this piece. So >> I just have a quick question regarding the uh special needs support. You mentioned uh specifically UDL and has that been a training that's been done before at all in this. >> Sorry I answered your question before you finish. >> I was just curious
076if that's because it says more as if they've been trained in the past. Some teachers have done it independent. >> This year we're doing it at the high school. >> Okay. >> High schoolwide. And there has been some training done in the past. >> Okay. >> At different levels in the district. >> We have several teachers went out and training the >> Okay. But it's like it hasn't been the >> this year high school. Okay. >> So, >> um homework is always like a thing. I'm wondering did did the percentages change if you did were we able to like look at like K2 versus 35 like >> Yep. >> And are these numbers like irregardless >> overall? I didn't I didn't disagre I can do that. I can share that with you. >> It it
077would be interesting to know like I mean I'm I'm assuming that this data will drive some sort of decision- making. And so is it that the higher grades don't have enough homework or and the lower grades felt like the homework was just right and so it's 0% and 4, you know, like how you know. So I like that your math, you know, this I'll break it down further. >> Yeah. I mean that so I would be interested. >> Yeah. Um, and along those lines, I think I'd be curious if it is all, you know, fifth grade parents, like how how do we support the community in terms of understanding best practices about why perhaps it is what it is or why it isn't what it is. You know, I think, >> you know, homework within
078the education field, the ideas of homework have shifted over time about and depending on grade and age and developmental. So I just think there's piece for me around um yeah how do we support the community and understanding the why behind different decisions at different ages? Yeah, >> it's very and you're reporting specifically about the parent survey or the SAU70 survey >> the race the raceful parents. >> So this is sort of a general comment for both. Okay. because I just wanted to point out that one of the most concerning anecdotes I received um that had been reported to administration not addressed from what I can tell and then when I went to look at the free form text responses of the 2024 2025 survey from last year that it had been entered as a free
079form text response there as well and so while the survey version some teachers give kids candy and put on Mr. produced videos was not quite as striking as the story that I heard. It should have been a red flag that the board or the principal uh should have tried to understand. I was going to share that story now, but I get the sense you guys are done hearing about text. So, um I just wanted to note that I'm hopeful I'll share it. I'll email to you. >> Um I'm hopeful that other people's comments are not just summarized in a sentence and then life moves on. I very much don't think that's going to happen, but I'd like to know whether the board is able to identify those red flag sort of uh comments, whatever they're
080about, uh in the survey, and how responding to them might become part of the yearly survey process because some of the data that I collected, we could have gotten two years ago. >> Thanks, Sarah. >> So, thank you for highlighting Mr. Beast's comment, which I remember fondly, kind of fondly. Um and the issue with that is that it is an anonymous survey. We do not track anything IP addresses or anything like that. Although the surveys have the technological link to do that we deliberately don't for obvious reasons. And when that happens that was not identified as a particular teacher or particular grade. What we had for that particular one was the race and gender of the student and that's it. So we cannot identify which teacher may not things like that. However, if teachers or
081any staff aren't named within the SEU survey, the administration handles those very deliberately and appropriate actions taken. So, for those of you who have done that or this incoming survey, which one person has seen so far, unfortunately, um the administrative is a named person or we can figure out specifically who we're talking about. So, do not hesitate to get specific in these surveys. doesn't that's not a say go out and do things you shouldn't believe or anything like that but they are all read very carefully I can handle that >> and I'd just like to follow up that I think that it would be a reasonable thing having uh entered the survey myself that I parents sometimes this is the way that they communicate and I think it would be reasonable in the survey to
082say if you would like your survey if you'd like us to contact you here please put your email here. Um because I think that um with the amount of time and effort that parents are putting in um at least when I did talk to this parent, she would have been happy to tell you more. >> I'm having to be a back and forth. >> Oh yeah, I'm sorry. >> And this survey was first done at the SAUY which had not been done before. It was in 2022 and within that we did have as the very last question if you wish to identify yourself please do so here and we will reach out to you and contact you for followup discussions if a member serves there's four years ago approximately 40 people across all the SEUs
083did that which was ballpark 8% of the parents and SU administrators were su administrators ranging from superintendent assistant superintendent myself etc had interviews with those parents The vast majority of them like high30s out of 40 said what now? >> I didn't what? And they forgot about it because it took us a while to get through them. We are trying to move faster. Now the results we'll be able to in weeks rather than months which is hard to do at the administrator and schoolboard level. We were trying but when we did that before those conversations while helpful were not really productive. Most of it was I I said that before I don't remember what I said or I'm busy working and that so we have not attempted that again deliberately and it was also a fairly
084big burden on staff for the interviews or the half hour each and we saw that said if there's enough appetite for it we are always we speaking a little bit about that politician we're always happy to listen >> I just want to say that uh if there it's sort of like a surgeon like if the surgeon closes up and there's a sponge in the person, you really want to know. And I think that it could be a like with a carefully worded question. I think that the value of finding out those red flag this should have never happened um is valuable, but I accept what you've said. I certainly don't want to increase the burden. Um I I just I I want to prevent bad things from happening. >> Thanks, Sarah. Thanks for that comment.
085Um just >> yeah go ahead. Just an observation of my interpretation of what you were saying, Ben, is that it is a deliberate choice that you and administration made to have those conversations with folks. There's another way to ask that question of if we have questions and would like to follow up with you, would you like to would you share your email address so we can contact you? And therefore, if it is a red flag, then it's a okay, I'm I'm gonna contact the Mr. Beast people and it's like one person and not authority. So, I do feel like there's there could be some intentionality there about how we phrase that. Um, and it doesn't automatically assume you're going to do a reachout unless that's what you want. And so, >> the last thing that
086we'll have on that is several parents identified themselves within the survey just as part of the question or identified their kid and that will take action as a part >> and obviously these things are redacted when they get parent level. They'll be redacted next week. At least that is for obvious reasons. Many parents identify themselves or identify their kids or identifiable if a certain third grader says something that's very specific to them and could be figured out who that is. We redact it. So, >> thank you for the work that you do. >> Yeah. While we're here, >> that's probably the least patients who work on them. Um, acknowledgeable. I will say uh to the community in general, if there is a red flag issue and you choose the survey as the way to communicate
087it to the district, I have a problem with that and I would request as a person, not as a school board member, just as myself that if you contact our administrators who are very available. So, I would like to not include this on the survey ever because I don't think that process is appropriate and I would really object to it. So duly noted only to reach out to us, the administration, Colleen, Rob, and what the opponent said other schools as well as the school board chairs of which there are four in case you're wondering. Um, we hear from parents all the time. Some of them get to that level, some of them don't, but we are all available. Our emails are publicly available in the letters that are sent out from the superintendent and I
088believe from the principles as well. So if you have something you like to say that's urgent or not, please don't hesitate to reach out. We will get back to you ASAP and my issue with us and that's not ASAP. We will get back to you at a reasonable >> Andrea meeting four hours last. >> All right. Well, I'm going to move us. Thank you, Colleen, for that update. Um, if you haven't had a chance to look at the results, there is more data there, more details. Please sit with them. Um, we're gonna move into the food service contract now. So, um, Teresa, I'm gonna let you kick this off. Um, and I know there are some updates, um, which is a lot of numbers. Um, >> because I just received young. >> Okay, that's fine.
089And there I it doesn't seem like it changes >> does change some of the increases. So, um, I'm gonna let you kick it off. Um, okay. So, the contract tonight being um up for review is the same contract that we've been signing pretty much for the last seven years, right? This would make the the seventh year. Um the contract of the details is primarily focused on the food service legality, them operating the program, um our expectations, but it does not go into great detail very specific food choices that is written into the contract that we as a district can um that we as a district have the last word that if this is how we want this is what we want to serve or this is how we want it to operate then we need
090to communicate that to the food service program to the to the food service management company. So I just want to kind of put that out there. Um, so the approval of the contract tonight, um, as I was asking was primarily about establishing a contract with a food service company because we do not have the means or the time to establish an in-house program or go out to bid this year. We have focus groups that are starting and we have started them up to pull people together. Um so that we can start looking at the program in not just here but in our other schools too as this last spring has just really brought about just a lot of feedback, a lot of um contention about the program too. So, we'd like to work as a
091group, pull a group of people together. We have a focus group that's districtwide, but we also have discussed um which I'll say for now, Marian Cross has a subgroup. So, I'll call it little wellness committee. Again, Ry should absolutely have a wellness committee. So, that group I do have a signup sheet for anybody interested. So, I'll leave it down here. >> Yes, we will need people um and input and that's what we're looking for. Um absolutely. So whether we decide to postpone the contract or not, we don't participate in National School Lunch Program, we're not held to July 1 deadline of having this approved. So, if you choose to postpone it tonight, there's no side effect of us saying, "Hey, let's come back in August and approve it. We've worked out." However, to my knowledge,
092I have done extensive research. In the past, this contract has not been uploaded for all the public to review and voice an opinion on, but given the passion and investment that, you know, parents and everybody want to put in, I think it's important enough that again, it will hurt nothing to postpone it. Yeah. Um if this contract is logistical in nature and you are um underlining the fact that we have limited options for the coming year in terms of provider options. Um would it be your suggestion that we sign the logistical or we as the board consider the logistical portion of this which is this particular contract but then the conversation continue about sort of enforcement of the sort of maybe the healthiness or the menus or the whatever the aggregate concerns but I did
093not have an option to renew. Absolutely. But I understand that there are going to be so is that your recommended? It is my recommendation. I mean and um my one concern would be that if we wait till August, this is the only other big concern is that at that time that the food service company says, "Hey, I didn't have time to prepare this summer. I can't do your program." Quick followup question. If we do um approve the this logistical contract um does that remove our option for the subsequent school year to as part of this wellness committee or whatever format we decide to um pursue an alternate option. >> Oh, we have all rights to pursue. Okay. >> Yeah. signing the contract. We wanted to really investigate >> each one is a a one-year contract
094each time we sign this. >> So, I think originally it might have been a three year or something starting out and then um but after this it's a one-year renewal. So, if >> and it has a 90-day out clause. >> Yes. Okay. So we would absolutely be able to pursue another option that we might consider. >> It is and and it is already a consideration because as we move forward looking at like I said focus group is meant to be districtwide so we can unify certain things and then individual schools have their own individual needs. So we still need that kind of feedback. Um, so if we find as we're moving along that it's just not going to work, that food service company that maybe we find out in the long run there's a chance
095that we could do it in house. Although with the employment stuff that's not a competent, but um but either way that's part of our goal is to really analyze this, look at the program and everything else and see what changes can we make to make this sustainable. So, I'm going to frame this just a little bit and then I'll take your question. So, when I look at the contract, I see um there is language about what is served and that very clearly says while we'll while the the contractor so the fresh pegs will give recommendations, it is up to the client which was us right to determine the menu and the pricing that would come from that menu, right? That that really resides with us in this contract. Okay. Um, and then on the other
096the other big chunk of the contract, the bulk of it is is to Terara's point, the hiring, the indemnities, the insurance, the um all the other logistics, cleaning, cleaning, sanitizing, those things. Um, and so I'm going to give Ben a chance to talk to any other board members, but um, for members of the public who have comments, it would be helpful for us to understand if your concerns are confined to the food sort of piece of things or if you also have concerns about um, the financial and logistical side of this contract. So, I'll let you think about that um, as boards finished kind of making their comments. So, >> thanks. Just wanted to add some historical context to this specific food company in this food arrangement. I was fresh on the board back in
0972019. I want to say there was a committee that grace rule. Two of the two of the four people in that committee are still here. Well, Lauren was the first person deciding which vendor we were going to use. We did our RFP, a request for proposal sent out to everyone nationwide. And we got two reasonable reg uh regional companies that came to us. They brought food with them. They had samples, some had lobster, some had kale. They they were they were pushing hard and we made logistical decision and at the time Fresh Picks, now Cafe Services, now whatever name they are, >> was the clear winner. It was not close. They logistical advantage, the cost advantages, the food advantages. The other one was the Abbey group. Abby has since been bought and sold by or
098bought by cafe services which now also has au and they've been there has been in my opinion as a parentable drop in quality. That said they do have a near monopoly in the region though if unless we want to bring in internally there's all sorts of logistical concerns there. It is very hard to get away from this company whether we want to or not for the previous company before this. We went out to bid the employment situation was untenable. >> Lots of no-shows, lots of issues. You people you not want your kids to be nearby. Lauren was often recruited slash told she is now the lunch lady for the day. She would find out roughly five minutes in advance that you are now serving lunch and she do it for about two hours every day.
099That is not good for a physible notice of your time. That is not fair. It was brutal. That has not been an issue with this company. They are very dependable. That could be very good or bad depending on what what you mean by dependable. The answer is yes. So just with those caveats and distinctions about why this company is here and why they are still here and why they might be very hard to get away from >> other boards then other board member questions or comments. >> Yes, Rene. Um I forgive me for not remembering last night's discussion in detail. Um but uh so I'm just curious about there looks like the increases in this contract around 6.7%. That was 1%. Can you just >> um and it's and again it's the food service thing.
100It's it's the >> um breakdown of the different costs that are related and everything else. So there's different costs for the high school side of it versus here some of the wages and stuff, >> okay, >> are a big factor. >> So here there's >> we've got less personnel being working in the kitchen. >> Okay. >> Everything else, but the Yeah. Um so I crossed off. I didn't want to totally when I updated that on the on the assembly, I didn't want to do away with what you might have read. But when I got this today, I'm like, "Okay, let me go in there and just kind of update." Um because like I said, I had concerns over the fact that they were presenting like a 15% that um so I had them go back
101but and review it again and the personnel and stuff. So, yep. Fantastic. Um, thank you for editing it like this so as to not confuse us. I appreciate that. That was very helpful. Um, just to be consistent with last night's question that I asked, um, these are anticipated, budgeted, not actual revenues and expenses. How correct do they compare to what we anticipate actuals look like? Like are these numbers in the same ballpark? um >> or is there the other >> um there's just I had it up on screen but as I was looking at the um this is in my food service reports and stuff like that that are attached to the financials but um what we're looking at right now um for the numbers is possibly close to like $22,000 difference at the school
102um supplements. >> I did see that. Okay. So was it that >> and it's often we do we do every year we supplement the program. >> Were revenues higher than anticipated were no >> expenditures >> and they weren't and it and it's kind of >> lower >> and I think they weren't um higher and everything else in >> um tell you what the actual numbers are. >> It was it was a 20,000 I remember >> about 22,000 change. Um but that the difference there is that I think that what we're talking about is what we're seeing is that the drop in the revenues not only like at the high school level at this level but the drop in revenues were the lack of eating the lack of participation. So, and I and I think there's
103also a myth too that because I've heard this directly that well, I'm not going to eat that. I'm not going to have my student eat that food because I don't want to give them the money. Except the the revenue that's earned is 100 district. We're still going to have to pay for those workers to be here every single day. The food that's purchased if somebody chooses not to eat it. I'm not saying eat it if they can. Not saying eat the food if it's bad. I'm just saying that with the lack of participation, it's going to bring the revenues down. >> So, the revenues were down. The expenditures were probably >> just pretty much um and um >> All right. Yeah. >> Okay. I will open it up to members of the public. Is there
104anyone in Oh, yes. Okay. I'd like to talk about the race to school cafe. Um, so for a lot of people when I asked my peers what are they are excited about for sixth day they were usually saying I'm excited for the food. School should be a place where kids are excited to eat the food which can make them excited for school in general. I also see that options for food are limited and unhealthy. For example, although there are salad bars, a lot of people still choose the main menu, which usually consists of things like hamburgers, pizza, hot dogs, nachos, and mozzarella sticks. All these options are unhealthy and aren't good for people. In my years at the race, I have eaten some spoiled milk, sugar clumps in pancakes, and packaged waffles. The contract states
105that the food and beverages will be wholesome, palable, and nutritious. This is not true in my experience. Um, and that's it. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> I would also like to talk about the Ray Cafe. Um, in my years, um, I choose not to eat it because it's the food. It doesn't look appetizing to me. And other people also think that it's not healthy. For example, whenever whenever it's pancake day, Nikki, one of my other friends, he always puts the fluffy in quotation marks because he says they're as hard as rock. My teacher even even she got maple syrup because corn syrup is so unhealthy for kids. And waffle the fluffy waffles and pancakes are just one of the options for kids. I've also seen hamburgers, veggie burgers, mozzarella sticks, pizza sticks, and I've even
106seen spoiled and frozen and frozen milk. I mean, all the milk's frozen, but milk is the best of ice. >> Um, yeah, I would really like you to change the food and bring also the contract you signed, which is freshly a refresh for that. Um, it also says the food is going to be healthy, nutritious, filling, and yummy. In my experience, me and my peers, they all think that it's not that you should do something about it. Thank you for listening. I really hope you take this into consideration. >> Yes. Tough act to follow. My name is Zach G. I live in handover and I represent just myself. So I don't want to belver the point about the subjective comments about the quality of the food. I think we all heard enough of that and
107I think your information was actually very helpful. It sort of allows us to kind of focus on the task at hand tonight. Um, to me it sounds like a delay would be uh I think a wise a wise decision and take that 90 days to potentially >> exert that option on some of the choices that you said we're able to make individually while continuing to move forward whether it be focus groups, wellness, whatever programs we're looking for and tweak this to moving forward. I think to continue on the same path and sign this basically because we're being pressured from time is often not the way to move forward. Um I don't have you know as far as you described sort of separating the financials the logistics and the quality unfortunately I don't think that's a
108reasonable or possibility to separate those things. Unfortunately they are so intertwined that every choice is going to affect another choice. So there's a balance there that fortunately we're going to have to make some concessions on all fronts. But I think we can agree that if our focus on is on quality um nutritional value and really just overall health of the kids participation we would assume would follow and revenue would follow in kind. And I think if we can make those choices with that in mind and all the other stuff I think should fall into place based on the option we have um you know we just do the best we can. Thanks. >> Hi, I'm Renee Sergeant from Hanover. Um, and I easy to ignore in an affluent area such as handover that there are
109children who's like this is their only food that they get during the week is at school. And so I think that there's also like some sort of moral obligation to make sure that what we are able to provide to them is something that is sustaining and fulfilling for them to get to the next day and to make sure that they are able to learn appropriately because their bellies are full and they're not worried about it. I also think that in terms of pricing, I know that my son um he's a first grader, he's seven years old, very active, but like he cannot only get a single serving. Like there's just no way that that will fill him up. So he gets double lunch every time that he gets lunch, which we limit to once a
110week. And the only reason we do it once a week is because I just need a break from packing lunches to be able to get to work on time. And so I've kind of conceded to letting him do it once a week, but it's always double. And sometimes he'll be like, "Mom, can I get triple?" And I'm like, "All right, like let's just pack some extra snacks. Like let's kind of rein it in." But to try to balance the fact that most of the people that I talk to also get double meals. And so maybe there's something that $4 for a single isn't enough to improve improve the quality, but somewhere between four and eight and to try to consider keep that into consideration as well. Thank you. And the right boundaries. >> So not
111not to belabor the point, but the the upcoming survey which I may should be ask what are your thoughts on lunch? Is it a quantity issue? the quality issue all those hard >> now I know you had >> I don't know for sure but I'm guessing you did so all that will be available in roughly a week >> and I wanted to do a brief comment on the the quality of the food issue where when I was on the food service committee deciding the new vendor ballpark seven years ago we had hard data from our previous business administrator numbers aren't available tight obviously it's been seven years and she's the previous group did try to have soal healthier things, kale chips, all of our stuff. And whether we liked them or not, the kids did
112not. We had hard numbers. They ran away from it screaming. So, as much as we like the idea of our kids eating healthy food, >> that is not what happened the last time we tried. We have tried this before. It's not saying they're not going to try it again. We all want to do the right thing there. But the last time was a total financial failure. to make sure everyone knew that history, >> right? And I think it's striking the balance too between I mean you mentioned lobster, right? Like I we could >> did not win because >> well we could I mean there's that balance, right? I think if you're trying to keep costs down, there's a certain set of options and and perhaps I think that's is where the focus groups come in,
113right? Because finding that balance between quality, quantity, and affordability, right? That's that's going to come down to what what we want. And we talked today um with Teresa about how that equation likely looks very different at the Ray school and at the high school, right? Where I I have a kid at the high school who, you know, if he doesn't like what's there and then he just goes across the street to the co-op, right? Like it's a very different um same vendor, >> right? And so, you know, that and that's where there are sort of the bigger logistical cost concerns, but then also individual school concerns. So, yes, Steph, I I had one concern, which is with something that you've said about we can always put it off until August. >> Yeah. Makes me nervous.
114Um, and quite frankly, I would love to see wonderful food options and the whole puckoo platter. Um, but I I really worry that if we put it off, there is that window of possibility that we could not have a food service when school starts. And as Renee pointed out, there are children who need to be fed. And there are I mean the increasing demands on parents >> are so ridiculous that I have to believe that in this community there are a lot of parents who lean on the fact that there is a school lunch their child can purchase and as someone who used to volunteer in a first grade classroom I saw all the kids line up and go and get their food and come back. There are a lot of children who buy lunch.
115So I don't want us to be in a position where we have, as my mother used to say, cut off our nose to spite our face. So can you say to me if we put this off, much is going to change, number one, and two, that we aren't going to possibly not have a food pro service provider. I mean the reality is is I said what I said about that but I still strongly believe that the contract itself right >> serves the purpose of ensuring that we have somebody here serving the food >> following the legal guidelines making sure now as far as separating it's the fine line but I think we can and have to separate the contracts on the food and how we um and how we want to move forward but between
116now in August when I come back and say, "Do you want to sign it?" How many parents, how many people am I going to get a month and a half from now have participated and rewritten the whole program? It's highly unlikely. I think it's going to take more research and time which is why whether we want to sign a contract or not and I don't really want to say it that way either but but in our best interest I believe signing the contract is our best interest but also the most critical thing after that our very first step is to make sure that we start putting into place um what we need from a group from a committee and anything else to establish, figure out what's wrong, what's not working. If we don't know what's
117working, I can go to another food service company, but if there's something internally not working, we're going to find it out later, too. >> So, I think Yeah. And I know we have one line who wanted to speak as well. Um, I want to take Car's comment first. I did I will just say as as board chair um I'm I'm not comfortable heading till August without a contract signed. So for me I I would I would challenge us and I think there is lowhanging fruit perhaps things that can be changed administratively quickly that we recognize you know that the corn syrup syrup is we're not going to do that anymore right like I think that I just picking that as an example >> okay hot dog we're not going to do hot dogs anymore right
118so I think there are things like that that administratively over the next >> month right we I'll sit down. We can stem whatever we can say, okay, it may cost a little more come August, but this we're we're committing to getting rid of these three things or whatever it is, and we're going to add the focus group and start to make incremental changes, right? >> Um I'm not comfortable for the reasons we've all stated heading into August without anything in place that I I just I can't do that. >> It makes me nervous nervous. >> I think I kind of earlier >> I don't need to say, but it makes me super nervous. Um I I don't think anybody is going to participate in the in the summer on a focus group about food or
119very few people will be people have vacations we can sign a contract and still >> yeah and we can try but summer's a hard time to gather people it's hard to get engagement like people are not consistently around um so I agree with that. I just want to clarify. I realize I don't understand when you said we because we don't participate in the federal the national school lunch. Does that also mean that like those general standards that schools have to follow in terms of like this much veg this much >> correct >> me and not that that is necessarily the best guideline but I just mean it's a guideline >> right and we actually have policy I get it I think it's EFA is it >> and a couple others on the wellness and stuff.
120Um, but if you if you look at that, we literally talk about the one of our policy says that we're going to follow some of these vendor guidelines, >> but we I would say that theoretically we don't really, >> okay, >> because they don't have to. So, going back to the lobster, should we choose to serve lobster, we can't >> I'm just curious. I mean it's good to control so things like that are not regulated >> and a little bit of history on that that was a choice >> because we felt that those standards were not healthy enough for our kids. So that and and I again I feel like things have shifted and I'm hearing from people not having any elementary school students um I'm hearing from people that um we need to relook
121at that perhaps as at least some guy I mean that's something we can put in and say fresh henceforth you will follow this >> well and I wonder I mean that also again has like a mass like when Renee was talking about like it's not enough to feed my second grader we have fifth graders like I'm going to eat healthy lunches, so they need to feel full. Um, and >> it gets bigger as they get older. >> But, um, >> but Rene knows my kid, I I was told I could not get two lunches that it wasn't set up that way. So, we sent a second lunch for my child when he was here. >> So, and I have a kid who probably eats half a lunch. So, you know, like kids are different sizes.
122But I just think like um, you know, I'm just I think for me, what is that guideline if we don't have this federal regulation? That's a piece of the conversation I think that could happen. >> Correct. And I mean again we still have wellness policies. We still have guidelines that we should be following and I would say there's a there's an extent that we obviously are following >> but there's also a level when I was reading I mean the amount of documentation going back to everything the 2019 with the contracts I've read all through that documentation what was presented what was said going to happen. The contract initially was with the founders of Fresh Picks Cafe Services. Um so the everything was implemented in the right way. >> Fortunately this last year they would have
123purchased >> and they purchased the Abby group competition. So, in my past experience working with working with both of them over the last 10 years, they've been fantastic to work with here. And we've had haven't had food quality issues. And now all of a sudden, this year and and again, as many meetings I've come to in the last year here in Hanover where talked to people, there was no talk about, hey, the food's terrible. It never came up until maybe March or April for the first time all of a sudden. And so I think that the I think that this last year they themselves have gone through a transition and you know they're the food service workers have done a fantastic job with the what they've been also given but I think it's time for
124us yes negotiating the contract I mean I don't want to say it that way either the signing the contract and and everything else just solidifies that we have an operate. We have a group that will operate the program for us. We still have the last word. We still get to tell them this is what we want. >> And if they don't do it, we do have 90 days to say your 90 days start. >> And even if it's after 90, if they if they are not doing what have requested and what we've all agreed to, it's a breach. Yes, it's a breach of which there's Yeah, there's language in that. >> And have we engaged the contractor with any of these concerns? >> Oh, we we've had meetings all I have non-stop all year. And
125um and it's not just like like it hasn't been so much about Ray School because there's been it's been up till March, end of March or something. Um prior to that, the Marian Cross School, we've had multiple meetings. Um we're Now I'm attending the farm to school institute kind of pulled into that but that's okay. I'm kind of excited about it now. Um but because I think it I think that no matter what it's going to benefit but we the meetings that we've had started with because people were unhappy at the high school. >> It just has flourished and then it was Marian Cross and now it's right school. So it's just kind of grown. It's a district-wide issue at this point which is why we needed a district-wide focus group also so that our
126commit our people from different aspects of the because you could have you be one parent you could have your three students in three different schools and you should have some sort of regulation there an expectation that certain things are going to be the same also so that's part of the focus group but then in the individual schools like I said you still have to have that level of understanding what what those needs are. >> How are they responding to the feedback? >> Uh they've been actually really good about it. So in Mary Cross um one of the things that we started over the year like the lowhanging fruit what can you do? But one of the first things that we said was you can absolutely um put down a portion control you because they do
127participate in national school lunch program. They don't have a choice as the whole state of Vermont does. But if they say, "Well, you can serve 4 ounces," then don't give them 6 o because it came that way. Give them the four so they're not throwing 2 ounces away. Um, you know, certain things like that. Um, there were just some of the choices, you know, >> so a little engagement has gone a long way starting to rectify the issues. >> Absolutely. I mean they're they're they're participating. They're also part of the focus group. I talk about um the food service workers at all the school and even though Richard um the Richmond school does not they actually operate in house um that was a choice I guess a long time ago long before me. Um, so
128they're still part of our group too and everything else because they're still operating a food service program within our district and they too have their struggles. The food quality over there has has been questioned lately too. So it's not just because of our food operating company. All right. Um, we need to I think start to wrap up. So um I know we have the online speaking very patient so that and then I'll take yours after that. >> Jesse unmute yourself Jesse carry on. >> Thank you for waiting. >> Sure. Sure. Um so I understand the position that you are in Teresa and I appreciate your thoughtful analysis. The race school food has not only deteriorated, it is an abomination. It's abject garbage. We do not need a focus group. We do not need a focus
129group. I have a degree from Duke. I've studied nutrition. But anybody who's living under a table in McDonald's could tell you that the Ray School is serving fast food to our children every day. It's not about portion control. It's about the fact that they could eat as much as they want and not be satiated because the food is not real. I don't understand be I might be naive but why a private equity company that's based in New York City is shaking down through witsons and fresh picks a public school and we're saying we want to have a focus group when it's evident that they are serving our children ultrarocessed foods visa be dorito es hamburgers. Uh I you know every day it's something once in a while the menu says a fresh apple as opposed
130to like what an apple that you know has been uh kicked around and has a few bruises but you might be able to eat half of it. What is that? I asked my son every day my fourth grader every day what was for lunch. I have substituted at the Ray School and I have watched children whole classrooms say we hate the waffles they're not good and they just throw them away and they don't eat lunch. This is not about portion control. This is not about being judicious about the menus. This is an enormous problem that is affecting our children and I feel your pain in knowing that the contract needs to be signed. But a focus group is not going to fix this. It's going to take somebody standing up to this company, which is
131a private equity company, and saying, "You must either meet the national standards, or you must present us with some kind of plan to provide nutrition to our children, because that's what we're after, nutrition." And I understand the balance between yeah, they're not going to eat at all because the food isn't yummy and having some modicum of a a nutrition and real food available to children. And especially as Renee said, if if that is a a chief meal that our children are getting, if we are worried about food insecurity and we think that the food that these kids get at school is the most quality food that they get, I'm telling you, the stuff that you get in a continental buffet at a comfort in is 10 times the quality of what they're serving as at
132breakfast at the Ray school and lunch. So this is a a problem that should not that should not be disegregated from the contract and I feel that enough parents have spoken. The the food at the Marian Cross School because they go by the standards is far superior to the Ray school. And I know that we have the option. I have the option of sending my child home lunch, but not everybody has that option and we really have to do better. And a focus group is not what we need. It's some common sense people looking at the fresh pickics menu and saying you guys are absolutely shaking down a public school district so that you can make a profit. Full stop. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Um I just have two logistical questions
133if I can ask. So >> yes, >> thank you guys. >> Very easy. So, if the contract gets signed today, um, how much leeway is there to change the menu for this upcoming school year? And then if the school were to start shopping additional bids, how soon would that process mean to start to put something in place for the following year? >> Excellent questions. Um, I think the answer to the first one is, um, I think once we sign a contract, right, there's there's that moment of like, well, they can refuse to do what we're telling them to do. But the language of the contract very clearly says that we are in charge of the amenities. And if for some reason they're not meeting what we ask them to do, then we can break that.
134>> Right. I mean, it's a breach of contract. So, >> Right. But, Right. Right. So it's awesome to have a legal right if you but can't enforce it is essentially worthless right. So I think knowing what the timeline that question is very important. Um and I think part of the challenge has been there's not >> out there and so then you know as you said what we used to do was in house. Um and and I think that just has risks because if people don't show up you don't have lunch right and so um I think I don't have the answer to that question. It is the question, right? But I don't have an answer to it. Um, and I think maybe Teresa does. >> Well, just on your first question, like the menu spirits
135haven't been established yet. So, so those those wouldn't come into play during the summer, those types of things do happen, the menu setting and stuff like that. So, um, so with that being said, the conversations that we're still having with the food service company and stuff like that and changes that we want to make, um, we have every time, not every time, we have more time to be able to establish that and set the ground rules before school starts even. So, that one I I feel like that one is kind of an easy answer, so to speak. But the second part is the same thing as um again doing we'd have to put an RFP and everything else. Um putting that together there we have um obviously we have our RFP from last time. So
136starting rounds that we put the RFP out but we still have we would still start that probably in the fall looking at that and putting that out and usually probably about 90 days or so. Great. Thank you. Thank you. >> I just want to learn. Thank you. >> I just want to add one more thing. Um in conversations about food quality, there's some things that often come up is making sure that we have enough staffing in our cafe to make that actually. We work very closely um around the master schedule so that the time that it takes to prepare and serve fresh food is taken into account. So as we move forward with the with these conversations, just also recognizing that there could be some other impacts that we need to be prepared to um
137think through so that we have a great schedule that works for learning and for eating as well as um the financial backing of the staffing that would need to occur to make sure that the food is prepped and served to be there. >> Very quick question on the numbers in this contract. If we gave or through you, if we say Teresa, would you please go to this contractor and inform them in advance of this contract that we are going to be requiring our community fresh um with the expectation of some high quality food based upon specific feedback from a number of families. Do you think that that would change the pricing um the anticipated revenue and expenditure numbers that we have in this bill? Oh, I I mean I absolutely think that that would be
138um a factor. And and again, regardless of whether people think it's a good idea or not, I mean, part of that whole focus group was we we got to go back to the same thing. If we're not looking at every aspect of the program and we're not considering, you know, the time and and absolutely Lauren hit it and that's one of the things that I kind of mentioned was that in order for the program to be sustainable, we have to be able to equalize everything. help because we can serve anything we want any and but at the same time I've mentioned before when these things come up that you just have to know you're going to have to pay for it and if people are willing to pay for it then there's no problem but
139at the same time is this going to be like some of the other budgets when they keep growing and growing and growing because now you want so we have to the focus group was more about not just it's not just about changing a menu because that we can sit down and we can say, "Well, this is what you we want you to serve 100%." But again, if it's not prepped right, they're not going to eat it. So we can buy the best food you can buy the lobster but again if it's if the food quality food quality can be there but if we're not looking at all the aspects of the program but portion controls everything and the portion control example that I gave was something that Mary and Cross themselves felt like was one
140of their top things. So for them that was a concern over here it may not be but um but yeah I guess that's the whole point is that um I think I've mentioned this before. I don't think any one person can sit down and just write this out and say this is what we're going to do and this is going to fix the whole thing. I think that input from parents from students at the high school level those guys were interested in participating. Um, I think that the administration, um, staff, parents, who did I forget? School board, sorry. But I think that input from, um, each of us because we all have something to offer that the other person has not considered and we're all look we're all trying to strive for the same program.
141We're all striving for the same outcome, which is making a successful, healthy program that is sustainable um in every level, not just financially, but it's got to be sustainable in a sense of the environment, our our minds and our bodies, I guess. Um so that's why we're trying to pull a group together to actually look at that, not just make a decision about, oh, we're just going to change the menu and that's going to fix everything. I don't think that's the answer. >> So, in answer to your financials question though, the only financial um that this is committing us to is the $6,291. >> The budget is an attachment. >> Yeah. >> So, it is an attachment. However, >> that was my question. >> It's a it's a budget just like our it doesn't mean
142that's actually how expenditures and revenues go. It's of best. >> Yes. >> And that was actually going to be my question. The the attachment that you have, that's for us. I don't think that's part of the contract. >> Correct. Yeah, >> correct. I just uploaded it as one. It's not part of the initial contract. It's not part of the actual and I probably after I uploaded I thought I shot probably should have separated those. >> Okay. >> Um and everything else because yes, the the the budget itself is a whole separate document. And again based on in the past a lot of times the contracts were written that um if the cont if if our budget was 210,000 like last year or something then what they did was they divided into 10 equal payments and
143the program ran like that. Well the feds have changed that's that's something that no matter what state level had participate national school lunch program or not they have to bill us for truly accurate um actual going forward they can't do an estimated contract price and so this can change absolutely >> and the food piece would be >> money in money or or food bought food charge for right I mean that's yes >> would anybody objectify us and finish up to wrap up discussion >> I think that's a good point yep thank you Teresa we good okay um all right thank you everybody for contributing to this conversation. Um, board members, when we get to business requiring action, um, we will need to decide if we want to, uh, move to approve this tonight. Um, if
144not, I would ask board members to plan to be back here to approve it sometime in the next month or so because I'm not willing to wait till August. So, um, those are kind of the options that are on the table, I would say. >> Um, moving on to policy. Okay, everybody has seen these three policies before except for you guys. Um, and so while it's a first read for handover, it's not a first read. So I'm just going to quickly remind >> meaning it's been discussed by us and other >> either Dresden or SAU, sorry. Um so one of them the policy is equivalence in instructional staff and materials. And I'll just remind you that this is required for all title one schools. We already comply we already do all the compliance procedures and
145provide the asurances. This is just putting the policy DFB into place. I'm just going to keep going. So unless you want to make me fall over. The second one is background investigation and criminal records check. You might remember that there are six additional words in this policy which is except for interns and student teachers. We don't pay for that. And this consistent with another policy that we've already passed that says we don't pay for that. So six words. Last one, the career readiness exploration pathways and credentials. This is simply so that we comply with the new ED 306 rules. This used to apply to just to high schools and now it applies to all grade levels and a reminder that this was supposed to be implemented no later than the 25 26 year. Um, so
146those are those three policies >> and I will just point out based on my memory of the ELA uh presentation that there is a fair amount of this integrated into the ELA programming that we're >> Oh, absolutely. Well, that's ELA. >> This is everywhere in all three schools. So, we're just complying with either previous policy from us or a policy from the state. Questions? Thank you, Deb, for that succinct presentation. Um, all right, Tracy, you got a little break. Now, we're on to the financial report, which has many, many, many, many, many attachments. >> Is that a positive number? >> Yeah. >> All right. I'll just I'll I'll just basically cover the top page. The rest of them really are supporting documents that just kind of go um in detail more in detail and everything
147else prior to the first page. Um so the revenues are all broke out and everything else. um the anticipation of 15,184 214 and um was our budget set and the anticipated like I said we came in um with a deficit in revenues of 320,746 primarily um a big chunk of that is the 366,677 um for the expenditures again we've we came in um we would have had 1.3 just over 1.3 million in unexpended expenditures would have been a surplus but we had the $263,895 assessment. I broke that out this time so we could really see how how it affected the school district for that um New Hampshire schoolare assessment. So, we still ended with total net expenditures surplus of just over 1 million this fund. Um, and I'm just going to say the same thing
148I always say. If nothing changes, this is where we would be. But, um, everything that's encumbered already is expected to be spent. And then there's some things in maintenance and stuff that are not necessarily incurred right now, but I know that we're probably going to incur now on June 30th. So, I've included those in um in the grand total. Anyhow, um with that being said, we're looking at a net operational fund balance of about $766,000. Our fund balance that we retained enrolled was just over 494,000. And that leaves us with a projected fund balance available at 1.2 million. And then we committed 980,000 to its offsetting taxes for the 2026 tax setting which would leave us roughly 281,000 just over 281,000 um to be able to retain which is very soon. It is um >>
149yeah very just >> we'll take it positive number we'll take it but it's not doesn't set >> um I want to ask question but also um right now for board members it's the special revenues uh report which is at the bottom of the first column um silver linings fund. Thank you everyone who donated to that. That's a very healthy amount. It's $1,600. So that's great. So that's good. Um wanted to thank the community for that. Um and uh there's a lot of money in these funds and so I just wanted to understand um are they all earmarked? Are they >> they are all the special revenues are either um they're very specific on the they're all the 27s and yeah and as I have the report that has the breakdown showing everything but everything that
150is still in there >> which um the principles unrestricted everything so all each and every one of these is technically earmarked for that use said it's labeled but >> yes very specific. >> Okay. >> Um questions from governors. >> Um and I I'm sorry I don't know if we have this. Do do we also have the um in here somewhere Teresa the current balance of our special education reserves and our capital reserves? I actually did not conclude that. I can look it up real quick and tell you what that I don't I >> maybe >> I actually get the report. You know what? That's one thing that I'm hoping this next year that I've already talked to the trustees about getting a monthly >> because I only get it at the end of the year.
151So I know what we had at the end of last year which has obviously been posted and stuff and I it was just over 300,000 or so that we had our special education and just under about 300 for our um maintenance but that would be helpful to see just to Terara's point to get a sense of our overall financial health right what is in those reserve funds um for it's something >> I would suggest quarterly would be longer because it would be like beating the It's not hopefully quarterly. >> Yeah. On those that I Yeah. >> I think the big thing is getting >> right. Yeah. Yeah. And I I think the big thing is like I said going forward because I think in the past it's been the same way and then this last
152year I'm like oh um yeah I used to where I was before I get these monthly reports and so that's something that I wanted to implement this next year so we can keep on top of that to the interest and post it. >> Great. Other questions for Teresa? >> I'm just going to um make a statement. I'm so excited to see some of these numbers especially for the silver lining fund. This is Sarah Yukerman. Um, and I just as a community member, I would love to have some visibility on these specific funds. Um, because it has been very difficult for me to get information about this and I am actively interested in taking especially the silver how much money is actually needed by the Ray School um to outside funding organizations. So, I understand that
153the office is very very busy. Um, and like I'm if this is the forum that I'm supposed to ask, then this is when I'm asking for it. Um, but uh it would be very helpful for these funds that have an opportunity to be community funded to be reported out yearly. It can be anonymous but uh the information that I need is I need to know how much the community has supported it, how much it has spent out and how close it is to running out because I I would love to take the silver lining fund and go to some of those outside organizations. And I just feel like personally I can't do that without those donors. >> Thank you. >> I'm so excited that they exist now. >> You did good work, Sarah. Thank you.
154>> Um so as far as like the the financials what um what is what is being spent out of those or coming in we can provide that to you but how the program is working and working effectively you really need to get from the school at the school level. I only need the numbers give you numbers I trust you guys trust the school seems good. >> All right. Um, Teresa, thank you for that. Okay, where are we in this now? Um, >> we get to approve a donation. >> Good segue. >> Um, I don't know if anyone wanted to speak to this donation. It's We've seen it before because we authorized them, I think, to go out and get these funds and now these wonderful um, young men have this fund, these funds, and they
155want to put their basketball in. So, we just need to accept them. Um, so that will be in our uh I believe Yep. in our approvals. Yes. Okay. Um, thank you. >> They started out with the intention to raise $5,000 and they have raised $12,000. >> We're going to be meeting to talk about what else >> how many basketball. >> That's great. That's wonderful. >> The actual doc we have is 6,000. >> Sorry. the annual dime 6,000. >> That's one donation that we they received was so we because it's more than 5,000 we need your approval. They've raised an additional $6,000 through other smaller donations and different things that they've done to none of those donations exceeded $5,000. >> Okay. I don't >> I need to add that. >> I was going to say I
156don't see it because I was logged out. So, if you log back in and then refresh, we will send. >> Okay. >> All right. Um, and I had said we were going to move up your reports. Um, and I did that because I didn't want it to be at the very end, but everyone was tired. So, >> good thing we're not tired. Okay. Um, so we're not the ones that we are. We're going to do these two reports first. Um, so the two committees and I would love to hear first from Renee's committee on Rene and Tara, sorry on budget and Robin. >> Sorry. >> Uh, so how lovely that everybody is here uh with us at the SAU address conversation last night. Um for everybody else, uh they're part of the SAU's committees over
157the past few months has been a budget process review committee. Um the with the purpose of reviewing previous budget cycle to recommend efficiencies, improve communication, and recommend ways to improve the process moving forward. Um Robin uh our colleague in Nor Michael Costa, Tara and myself were all on the committee as members. Uh the reason it's important for our handover board is because each individual board has their own each individual budget which has their each individual budget committee. So as an SAU committee, we could generate recommendations because we're all working together and thinking about uh efficiencies kind of SAU and districtwide. Um but each individual district has to do the things that are recommended. Um, and so I wanted to just highlight a couple um, important pieces that came out of this. Um, for those in
158the room, all the details are online if you would like to scour sibly for them. Um, or I would say watch last night's video, but it was >> I don't know. Um, so basically uh, you heard the overall committee's charge. Um we as a committee had talked a lot about um kind of four key areas. One was on administration and board capacity and support. The second on strategic alignment across preK12. The third about efficiency and effectiveness and the fourth about communication. All of those um have subsequent recommendations underneath them and corresponding rationale for those recommendations. Um one of the big challenges we had uh moving from year before last year into last year uh was key staff turnover at the board and the SAP level. That shows up in how we are recommending support for
159the new board members um and ongoing board members really in the budget process uh and also recommendations for the SAU under Robin. Um the second section about strategic alignment across preK12. We often have had um conversations as I just mentioned within each individual district. Uh we all serve the same students pre-K12. We should be talking about things across preK12. And so that's where those um kind of recommendations come to light. and the efficiency and effectiveness uh is about the board's ability to set better targets about budget guidelines um at the start of a year that we really need to be thinking about and if you're here in August we start talking about in August so fun but that is a really important piece uh of the puzzle to get right so moving up a lot
160of documents and materials that we will definitely look at later um to get a better picture at the very beginning um as we're aligning across all of for various districts. Um and then communication was the last set of recommendations. Um and this is about uh the ability to find documents better. Um and know which documents are the final documents uh and being able to more deliberately and act proactively communicate with the handiness committee which for our particular board is a very critical recommendation. um if you happen to be following along there is no number 12 in my numbering and so I don't know where it is but it's probably with my brain um and if you find it let me know on that uh it is well it behooves me to mention specifically um last
161night we had talked about wanting to make sure we are very clear about our asks and what we are actually moving on explicitly within these recommendations. 14 is a lot. Um I think some of them are low hanging fruit and so I think budget committees individually can decide how to move forward on some of them. A few of them are bigger than that. Two in particular, recommendation number eight, which I'll read for those in the room because we actually have people in the room. Um and recommendation nine, I'll cut to the chase. We recommended uh we voted as um an SAU board to uh request authorize I don't know what the word word is um to task Robin um with working on them u for towards the summer. So a recommendation eight is to improve
162this is under efficiency and effectiveness um to improve our ability to plan for next year in the long term through a multi-year forecast. um develop a high level multi-year forecast three to five years out to bright three years back to understand how key budget drivers are anticipated to impact the budget of the future years. This would also include high level revenue projections to ensure the board has insight into full revenue and expense forecasts and assumptions behind each. Um the rationale behind this is really grounded in there increasing uncertainties um within Vermont and New Hampshire education policy and funding. we have major investments specifically in the capital projects area um that have the potential to dramatically impact our budgets. And so multi-year forecasting can help us better plan for those fluctuations in revenues and expenses in
163ways that are not visible when we only look year-over-year or if we look only at expenses in isolation of any revenue um or deficit estimates. A major caveat to this which I know we talked about as a committee um and came up last night is we we don't know revenue especially in the out years and that's okay. >> Let's make a guess. We need we have we can make some sort of determination to have at least >> good conversation. >> Y >> um and we're comfortable with that and that it's good business. Um the second recommendation uh that Robin and team are going to be working towards um and I say that as I know you're here and we're talking over but Robin is the person that the board can authorize to do work. So
164if you're following along in the audience or online that's why we say Robin. Um it is her team too much. Um so number nine is improve our ability to better establish budget guidelines which I mentioned are the thing that we do initially that allows our administrators and staff to go forth and do the actual work of developing a budget um in order for us to do that better as a board. We are recommending reviewing um specific pieces of data as part of a strategic alignment meeting um early in the budget process which would be late August um or very very early September depending on our schedules um which includes surplus and deficit rollovers reserve funds revenue projections capital project benefits which includes healthcare and if you were paying attention last year and probably any year
165prior it's a big deal bigger deal last year um multi-year modeling would be included in that conversation strategic priority priorities and performance and all of that is to be able to drive that conversation around okay what do we want to recommend as that guideline where do we land strategically across our districts what do we want to be working towards um the only other thing I'll mention uh that is attached if you would like to review it um from an annover lens is the uh reflection phase um of the budgeting process we had a moment with Robin's leadership team for the budget process review committee to have a conversation about one what is our committee but then more importantly um what are our priorities moving forward where is their alignment where is their drift between the
166board administration that kind of a thing um and so takeaways from that conversation are uploaded to the reason that is included in the budget process conversation as well uh is because it talks about strategic alignment and then also key investment areas um things that we weren't able to do this year. Again, if you're following along last year, there was a conversation about a social worker that was unable to be actualized. Um, so that was raised as part of things that were important for folks to think about as well as different grades. And this this spans K preK12, so you'll see you'll see a lot of that information there. I'm happy to go into it if you desire, but that um felt important to include given our conversation about budgets. in that look back look forward
167document is a direct input into our August strategic alignment conversations. It's like the brain dump. >> Great. Thank you, Renee. >> I don't intend any other discussion for this board, but I'm I love the mix. So, >> thank you. Um I'll just point out for members of the public that all budget um board budget meetings are open to the public. So, please um do feel free to pay attention to those and come. They're not usually available on Zoom. Um so it is a sort of in-person moment. Um but they are open to large participations. Um any long discussion on this last night so we'll move forward. Um the other committee I wanted to hear from was it was you guys. >> Exciting staff staff and employee children >> employee non-residential students attending Ray Research. agent
168title. >> We met a few hours ago, >> president. Um, and it was a it was a good meeting. We have talked about this before a couple months ago where just for everyone else's benefit. The general idea is what how should we handle children of staff members which several schools around us have done this including Lemon and our colleagues at Norwich of having those students come here conditional on the full-time employment of the staff member. So we danced around what Norwich has done. What we talked about doing was a very involved conversation. All sorts of what if scenarios going on. What if the the person leaves us mid year? transportation issues, what about special ed issues, spacing, class size, uh who has the authority, the school board, superintendent, or the principal, other things like that.
169Um the Dresden conversation, um how does it happen if we discontinue this policy while students are still in it or siblings, grandfathered in all the different weather scenarios? And we went through the Norwitch policy as it exists with COM and we settled on no change was already needed. We even thought about there might need to be a transportation update, but it turns out Norwich actually does have it. We somehow five of us all missed three hours ago before we got tired of who knows. So there's there's dates and application times and all those sort of things. There's an R version already and we felt comfortable bringing this to the board for adoption, possibly even having a vote tonight since there is some urgency to this in terms of next year. That said, if it sounds
170like we're already meeting this summer to discuss launches, this might be an easy thing to add on. We did ask the administration, which Lauren is bringing on to get us some more data. We have seen data before and I don't think anyone here expressed any concerns. I think this is somewhat of a shoe in and so we are fine to bring this for a vote tonight if everyone else is based on previous discussions. That said, if you want some slight confirming on very minor issues, we can wait till July or August. That's just for >> any regulation document that's uploaded since to cut off the text at the end of the line if there's anything important. >> We went through the R version meeting as well was mostly just copy pasting elements of the policy
171itself and the policy itself I think was just uploaded. >> So I'm not missing >> um just I just don't know this. >> Oh yeah. Yeah, I was going to offer um July for members of the public who might be wondering kind of how this come about. Um this was brought to us by uh members of the Ray School staff. Um and from a you know, as as much as we we do love and appreciate our teachers, I our responsibility is also to create the best possible um staff for our schools, right? And and so from a board standpoint, we're looking at this as a retention question, right? This is something that was brought to us as um something that has already cost us teachers and um ED assistants who um ended up needing to
172stay in their home district because of um travel uh issues with kids who were going to school in those districts. Um very few of our teachers are actually able to live in district. um even fewer of our edit assistants live in district. Um and so that um that was kind of the okay how how can we look at this and we can potentially make it work. um from a financial standpoint it seems advantageous for the board to consider this >> and I think one thing we haven't talked about is we did discuss like the Dresden piece this would just be for Ry just like Marian cross is just for Mary and cross it's a different ball like and that that would be stated really clear that we Marian Cross has had this policy I think
173Lauren shared for two years and they have a review process at the end of >> each year to really see like is this policy effective anymore are there any concerns and they're haven't been any major issues or concerns that have been brought up or that they've run into. And I think um we did make a conscious decision to just follow that that Dresden is a different ballax and not where the focus is right now. >> Yes. T. Um, so did you discuss uh if the non-resident employees hometown is in Vermont for example, what the liability is to us for special education because I'm not sure how our statutes would translate over the state line. has never had to deal with it before because Marian cross deals with it and believe deal and so I'm asking
174the question because I do not know the answer. >> Yeah, it's one of the questions that administration was asked to impact us but again this is as a couple hours ago so they have not done that. I would suggest that I cannot vote for this in a positive manner. was about how >> we did >> there was something raised that um and I don't know if this I think we the research needs to happen on that but specifically there was a piece around like if there's a way to do a clear like0 contract if that was needed with the with no tuition with the special ed language in there that was brought up by um a community member that shared who was more involved in the process when it came up the last time around
175that it seemed like there was a clear workaround around should that be needed. >> Um I'm inclined to agree with Tara that I think yeah pushing rushing this through with outstanding questions as much as we appreciate the work you guys have already done. It sounds like there could just be a little more work to be done to make sure we're all comfortable >> too in the summer already which sounds like we're going to >> which we may be doing. We'll see. Yeah. >> Um we certainly could do it in August. I it is sounding to me for for staff members who have a very vested interest in this um and who are eagerly awaiting the board's decision on this um it it sounds to me like there is a general positive feeling towards somehow making
176this happen. >> Absolutely. >> I think it's so feel good about that but I think we need to iron out logistics um and contract full language before we move forward. >> Yeah. I think the reality of a I mean and I don't mean to be like negative Nancy, but if we don't discuss this until August, it does take it off the table for reasonably that we would expect a staff member member to not enroll their child in school by like that's a piece that is really hard. Um I don't know when our first meeting is in August, but >> um >> I can call you back anytime I want. >> Yes. And so I think there's that >> there's another concern is that when this was last brought up as a board roughly two or
177three years ago we've obviously had board member turnover since then. These concerns are what I think kind of sunk that conversation. >> We do have a lot of employees. So I am worried about the legality and potential lawsuitability. If we do this a certain way, we need to find out about that. >> The rules not want to do that. I do want to support this policy, but I want to check since we decided that years ago have come up identified. That's that the cross border thing is certainly well not sorry the administration has great thank you guys for that update. Any other questions on that one? Seeing none um we will move into business requiring action. So, I will take a motion for items B through E, which is expenditures, minutes, non-public minutes, and authorizing
178the superintendent to approve hires should they come up over the summer. Deb, >> I move to approve items B consent. Is there a second? Uh, Ben, thank you. And we're all here. All those in favor, please raise your hand. >> Yay. >> Excellent. When people are online, we have to do a roll call vote. Hence the excitement in how to do that. Um, moving on to Yes. De move to approve the service contract >> as written. >> Yep. >> Okay. And a second from Carrie. So, I had a motion from Deb and a second from Carrie. Is there any discussion on this before we vote? Yes. Um I'm just curious about uh if we are moving to approve it. Are we like the what is the commitment? So when that group is meeting for the
179next steps >> that's separate that is that's separate. >> This is the contract. My motion is to approve the contract. >> Okay. Would you like to amend the motion? >> No, but I know that's >> Okay. Any other items for discussion? Yes. I would suggest just as a matter of sort of reflecting upon all of the cleaning and well that we heard this evening that we say that we um propose approving this contract while also in tandem um support the administration's efforts to on the subcommittee that was measured and researched different options for next year. I think that's really important to research different options because this is a one-year contract only >> if everybody's okay with that. Okay. >> Oh, okay. That's I will I understand that for for our poor noteaker who's trying to
180um formulate formulize this motion. Can we perhaps restate the motion? >> Sure. I we will let Tara residate the motion. Terra, would you care to take you've got it through that? I'm amazed. >> I'm not sure what the motion is. >> That's got >> Yes. >> Okay. I would >> withdraw a motion. >> Okay. Would someone like to make a motion? >> Go ahead. Yes, I move to approve the food service contract as presented and to also in tandem uh encourage administration to form the raceful wellness subcommittee um and uh pursue research for different and alternate food service options for the following to begin as soon as possible. ASAC. Sure, I'll second that. >> Thank you, Deb. All in favor? >> Um, and thank you. We do hear you. Um, and we will we will
181not let it go. I promise. I promise. >> Sign up, right? >> Yes. Please sign up on your >> um sign up your friends. Exactly. >> Yes. >> G. >> We need to do G, which I'm still not seeing. So, someone who sees it. >> No, I don't see it either. or I'm going to add it. >> Oh, what's from above? >> From above. >> Go ahead. You can make the motion. >> Uh move to approve the basketball donation from Positive Traps as submitted for $6,248 with gratitude. >> Second and Deb second. All in favor? Select unanimous again. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now we are moving on to any other committee verticals. >> Yep. Yeah. CIPC. Yeah. Technically, um the only update is that the committee is is going to figure out what our
182directive is for next year. And so there's kind of thoughts that are going to the select board of like hey the various committee members think maybe we should be evolving committee in this way shape or form which could include prioritizing projects looking at financials or other help us figure out what you want to do. Um so there's nothing for our board but that's just a thing of where that group is. They're trying to figure out how to better engage >> engage though. Yep. Thanks and thanks for your service. for awareness of finance committee is legislative landscape state and we're going to do a quick update meeting with the chair tomorrow just to make sure >> aware or worried >> aware >> is aware and concerned >> and just sort of the quick conversation tomorrow which
183I will report >> thank you for your service on that complete chair of any other committees that we we have to heard from nothing new with NHSBA. No, that's it. >> Um Robin, >> yes I did my report. happy to have you all read it. But I also do want to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Colleen for serving as our interim principal for the year. I have easy task to step into at the last minute and I'm greatly appreciative of having Lauren be my sidekick for the year and continue in that role for many years hopefully. Um, and but thank you so for all of your work. I know how hard it is to do that and we greatly appreciate all you've done and I'm super excited to see you back in the
184direction. >> Uh, are there questions for Robin on reports? Sarah? >> Yeah. I just thought that I'd share that I looked into the Jim Knight's data rules elevating teachers with objective reflection that you referenced in your >> self-evaluation um to inform your leadership uh team meetings and I found the 10 data rules and I just wanted to quote from the last two of the data rules. The number nine is data should be easy to gather and review. When teachers decide what data to gather, they should consider whether the assessment is worth best are powerful and easy, revealing great insight into the students well-being or learning while also being easy to administer. And also the number 10 rule, data should be validated by research. Conversations about data are not productive if the data being gathered have
185little impact on student achievement or well-being. We suggest, this is again the quote, we suggest prioritizing data that aligns instructional practices validated by research with areas of desired improvement in student outcomes. So, I was really encouraged to see that that was already in your leadership thoughts and I was hoping that maybe you could apply that further down the chain to the uh teachers and students as well because I don't know if this is currently true when we consider how data like the I data but other data too is being used at the race school and additionally to support the SA70 strategic plan and areas of focus in that plan I'm surprised that the administration has not provided an an opportunity for a schoolwide reflection significantly before fall 2026. I understand that the summer is coming.
186Um, and I just want to uh I would love to be a helpful point of reflection on not just what we do in the classroom, but also at the school board and at the SAU70 that this is like a a big concern and it's a system concern and I think you have a lot of great pieces. Um, but I I just wanted to thank you for your reflection on your superintendent. >> Any other questions? >> You're still here? Here. Thank you. I had any about um job security. After tonight's very robust discussion on assessment, I feel like um we've been here for three more years. In my high level, I have curriculum, instruction, and assessment. I thought those um and I'm grateful for the feedback and I look forward to continued partnership around that work,
187not just at Ray, but for our experiences for students through 12th grade. That being said, um I have submitted my very lengthy report that I would encourage you to take a look at. I will say that it has been an absolute pleasure to be your technology director several months and I very much are looking forward to handing that over um uh to somebody who is also for me but closely tied to my work today around technology as well. Um so really looking forward to both passing that along but having a thought partner in that area too. Um, I would like to highlight a brief that uh we have reinvigorated our partnership with Dartmouth and our own teaching staff. And so if you have not had the opportunity to take a look at the attachments along
188with my really riveting report, I encourage you to do so. Um, we're having an amazing kickoff event in August where all staff members um and board members here from SA70 and several other local districts are invited to partner with some really cool Dartmouth professors who have a lot to share in some really interesting areas. Um, I've uploaded the event schedule along with uh the link for the kickoff event. And if you see something, anybody that's listening or watching, if you see something that you're really interested in, please reach out to me because I'm not sure that we would limit it to just now. So that's my report and I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Um I just the length of it in the detail. It's just great. Thank you.
189Um I hope that you did not spend more time on this than JB for us. for our purpose. I guess I'm just worried about the amount of time you're spending on. Um the question I have is uh around summer work. I know you mentioned this the other night too on Dresden. Um and I just am not familiar with it. Uh but you mentioned like the 15 teachers resped summer work uh time specifically for arts and letters and another which sounds great. Another 13 requested time for curriculum um alignment documentation and revision. Does that is that like a per like do like from a budget perspective is there like a perdm rate thing that we should be thinking about is that a higher number than people like what is that? >> Yes. So that work is
190done at track one step one for anybody that signs up to do that work. >> Okay. >> Um some we do budget it in each of the school budgets. Okay. >> And also um and contributing to that through some title funding as well. And we have to approve you. You not we you approve people doing that. So it's not just the entire staff can choose to do that. Correct. It goes through you with a specific person. >> Yep. I send out a survey. I model it after what Robin has used in the past. Um send out a survey. Requires folks to detail what they plan to do. Um when they plan to do it, who they plan to do it with. We prioritize groups of folks collaborating together on something. Um we prioritize uh being
191at the school and having other uh experts involved. So for example, everything arts and letters related. Um there'll be involvement from Cassandra, our um literacy specialist here. Uh any other curriculum work I will be present for and they will actually submit their products to me to take a look at so I can give the feedback as well. >> I just want to applaud you for the revival of the joint loss and safety committees. I remember those. I was back on those seven, eight years ago when we watched them send their way away and I'm glad they're back. >> Yes. >> Anything else, >> Jim? >> All right. I don't personally need public. Do we need >> There's something on the agenda, but I don't know. >> I think that was discussed. has anything else they
192want to say? >> Yes. And that I'll give you so there is um see that >> no um yeah I think I'm good. >> Yeah. >> All right. I will take a motion to Oh my Renee. >> Sorry I know it's really long. >> You're good. Just really good. And I apologize for missing last minute reintroduce yourself. >> Rene Sergeant in handover. Thank you. >> Um I know you guys thought you got rid of me because I missed last month, but you didn't. >> Uh the raceful PTO meeting was up the exact same time, which will not happen in the future. So um I just um I just wanted to ask or first inform you. And I know that a few meetings ago we had talked about the Baptton County Sheriff had signed the ICE
193agreement and I wanted to make draw to your attention that um she withdrew her signing of that really because I think she needs to get um voted reelected. Um, but I did know that we had t we sorry you guys had talked and I had heard about coming up with an ice plan or if and when we came into the school a few months ago and I haven't heard any update on that if they're gone. I see a lot of shaking of that public. >> Okay, great. Anyway, that's fine. >> Yeah. >> So, I just I'm Sarah Ukraith. I just wanted to thank the board and SAU70 and all the teachers and administration. I'd also have worked on all of these issues and I'd also want to thank parents who attended and who signed the
194letter or told their stories or whatever level of participation felt right for them. Um, problematic screen use is bigger than one person. We're not trying to call one person out and the solution will be bigger than one person as well. and we all have a role to play. So, I'm looking forward to where we go on these this issue together in the future. I know what I should do next. Sarah, >> like I mentioned, that's going to be discussed that policy throughout the summer next Wednesday and those are publicly available. Everyone can join the policy committee. It's a it's a policy committee issue at this moment. >> Yeah. >> I would just like to thank all of you who came this evening and stayed >> and stayed. I think you are sitting on almost the
195most uncomfortable seat. >> Anyway, I I really really do appreciate that you came, that you spoke up, that you brought your concerns to us, and that you spent. Ally wonderful. >> Agreed. Thank you. Yeah. >> And I just want to reiterate for anybody who, you know, is just tuning in now. Um there was a request um I believe it was about like my path like the stories sending those to whether I guess Colleen, you're still in your seat, so you're still principal. So, Colleen and Robin um because they were more related to the curriculum piece like getting that information as you're thinking about okay what are we doing with like my I Ready my path next year um having those stories it sounded like was another request that we had on the table I wanted
196to name that again >> and on that same note if someone wants to sign up for the committee for the subcommittee for wellness and discuss food service and the options. How should they do that if they were not here and able to fill out this piece of paper? >> I should say something about that because um it just said if somebody did show up tonight obviously would be we're signing the form. So they want to email me directly that would be probably helpful. >> And I did share emails of anyone who contacted me directly and I think I've received now 14. I've gotten some more during the meeting tonight. Um so 14 or 15 um and I've shared those with Teresa. So Congratulations. You have been added to the emailing list. Not necessarily committee, but
197>> email list. Yes. >> Sorry. I just didn't quite understand the action item. So, you would like parents to submit stories about my path. >> I think, let me rephrase that. I think if you have something that you didn't feel like you got to share tonight. >> Oh, sure. You can always send that either to me as the board chair or to Robin directly if it's something related to curriculum that you wanted um Robin to see or um Colleen um if it's Ray school curriculum specific. >> Are you directly asking parents? >> I I'm going to go ahead and say I don't think that's required. I think the message has been received. Um but if there's something you felt like you really had a responsibility to share that you didn't get a chance to share,
198that would be the place to share. Is that true for anything regard? So, >> for sure. >> Okay. >> For sure. >> Thank you. Thank you for your clarity. >> Yeah. Yeah. No worries. >> Um, anything else? All right. I will just say um a final thank you to all of um the staff, everyone who works and the administration, everyone who works in the race school for doing such a wonderful job for our kids. Uh and she all a wonderful sign. And with that, I will take a motion to adjourn. I move to adjourn the meeting at 8 oh 9:52 p.m. I like your first one better right now. Second from Ben Solomon. >> No, yes. >> Yes. >> And McConnell. Yes. Thank you everybody. >> Jim, thanks for sticking with us. >> We get
199word about that. I'll reach out to you like