26. USB DRAFT Meeting Minutes 051326 with Reports.pdf
Rocco Ruggeri called the May 13, 2026 meeting to order. The board approved the 8th Grade trip to Mystic Seaport for May 26-29. Atonya motioned to approve a new $56,499.00 sales agreement with LaValley’s for the garage project, using $25,000 from the Oberkotter Foundation and $16,430.00 for site work by Kurtz. The motion passed. The June board meeting was moved to June 8th at 5:30 PM. For finances, Matt Angell reported a $378,571.82 general ledger cash balance and $583,112.23 bank balance. Atonya moved to transfer $122,619 from the Special Education CD and $210,920 from the Tuition CD into checking accounts to cover potential deficits; this passed. The Goshen tuition agreement for SY27 was approved. The board voted to contract with System Plus for IT services at $500 per month and accept Upton Hatfield for legal services, replacing Drummond Woodsum. Tyler services were retained for $18,699 annually. Several policies were tabled until the next meeting. Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16Xidz63v5xa0ac9wvYYNM7kqbhuh4afa/view
UNITY SCHOOL BOARD MEETING DRAFT Meeting Minutes May 13, 2026 5:30 PM Unity Elementary School Agenda Item Notes I. Call to Order Pledge Rocco Ruggeri called the meeting to order at 5:30 II. • Roll Call Shannon Popescu - absent Rocco Ruggeri - here Atonya Hart - here Darlene Ayotte - here Kelly Simpson - here III. • General Business • Agenda – Amendments and approval • Approval of previous minutes • 04/08/26 • Citizen Comments Atonya motioned to accept the agenda as presented, Darlene seconded, all approved. Atonya motioned to accept the minutes of the April 8th, 2026 School Board meeting as presented, Darlene seconded, Rocco, Darlene and Atonya approved. Kelly Simpsom abstained. None IV. Discussion/Action A. 8th Grade Presentation of Class Trip The 8th Grade class presented a slide show describing their plans for their capstone trip to Mystic Seaport. The 8th grade class asked the Board for permission to go on their class trip. Rocco made a motion to approve the request for the 8th Grade class to go to Mystic Seaport May 26-29, 2026, Atonya seconded, all approved. B. Action Items 1. Oberkotter Fund. Audit 2. Siding – Sue 3. Garage update – Sue No update No update LaValley’s sent new sales agreement due to the old one expiring. The new agreement is for $56,499.00. LaValley’s will build the garage on site. Site work was done by Kurtz for $16,430.00. The Oberkotter Foundation donated $25 K in June 2021 for the purpose of building the garage, $25 K in June 2202 received $15 K June 2023 $15 K June 2024. Atonya made a motion to approve the Superintendent to sign the new agreement with LaValley’s. Motion was seconded by Darlene. All approved. C. School Board Mtg June 10th coincides with Graduation – change date? (Action) After some discussion regarding board member availability, the June School Board meeting was moved to June 8th, 2026 at 5:30 PM D. Personnel Update SY27 Sue reported that since the SAU 109 website is not up and running yet, vacant UES positions were posted through the SAU 6 website. To date there has not been much response. Sue was able to get the SAU109 website up and has now posted jobs there (middle school math, anticipated music/art, librarian/media specialist, a part time night custodian and an elementary teaching position). Also posted vacancies on NH Ed Jobs. There have been no applications so far. E. Financial Update 1. Year to Date SY 26 (Expenditures & Revenues) Matt Angell reported: Cash balance - As of April 30, 2024, the cash balance on the general ledger was $378,571.82. The bank balance as of today is $583,112.23. Revenues through April 30th were $3,582,313.95. Remaining to be collected are $472,551.05 or 11.65%. Notable revenue for the month is the assessment payment from the Town for $243,062.11. Expenditures through April 30th were $3,026,900.81 and encumbrances were $563,743.68. The amount currently available is $364,220.51 or 9.21%. The notable expenditure (other than SAU services, salaries, and related benefits) are $57,338 for Arc Mechanical Contractors for condenser replacements. We have been working with the building Principal and new Superintendent, setting up next year's payroll, preparing the real estate tax assessment schedule, making sure all property tax forms have been filed with the NH Department of Revenue Administration, setting up users in important portals to ensure continuity, and helping communicate changes with insurance providers. We have been working on making sure the new Treasurer is up to speed on her duties, which I am certain she will be ready when the District moves away from SAU 6. Sue received from Matt the SY27 assessment from the town and this was sent over to the town and tax collector. She reported that the District needs money in the bank over the 4th of July weekend to pay the bond that comes due on the 7th. 2. Vouchers 3. Audit update 4. Treasurer Report 5. Other Sally Teague (Trustee of the Trust Funds) Kelly and Marjorie are not getting vouchers electronically. Matt will fix this. Matt has been working diligently with auditors. They should have draft reports by July 2026. Marjorie has set up her books and gained access to the UES accounts at CSB. She will meet with Matt and Lori on reconciliations and be ready to present a full report next month. CDs are coming due for the school $122,619 in Sped acct coming due on Friday. $25,174.47 in Sped checking acct. The District has a special education checking account and a CD account. The checking account is maintained for liquidity. Rocco - What is the timing on spending this money to cover any remaining deficit? Matt- Cash the CD and put the funds in the municipal checking account. The Board will have to make decisions how much needs to be spent to cover the deficit and then the rest can be put back into a money market. Same for the tuition funds. Money needs to be removed from the CD’s ($210,920 currently in a CD). This should be put into the checking account to enable the Board to use this to cover any deficit remaining at the end of the year. Excess money can be moved back into CD’s. School transportation fund has $32,403 in a CD. This CD can be renewed. School Trust account $5,882 Reed Trust contains funds that are only to be spent for children in need. Facilities trust funds are all in a checking account. $88,965.80. Atonya made a motion to remove money from the SpEd CD into the SpEd checking account, and from the Tuition CD into the Tuition checking account. Kelly seconded, All approved. F. Goshen Tuition Agreement (Action) The current Tuition agreement with Goshen expires at the end of June 2026. The new letter presented to the Board by Goshen is for SAU 109 with a one year agreement. Rocco – the yearly agreement enables the Board to review it every year. Atonya made a motion to approve the Goshen School District Tuition Agreement between the Goshen and Unity School Districts for SY 27 as edited (to change Lempster to Unity), Darlene seconded. All approved. G. Policies (Action) 1. DK (new)– 2nd read 2. DGD (new)– 2nd read 3. DJ (new) – 2nd read 4. DJB (new) – 2nd read 5. DAF – 2nd read 6. Tuition Policy/Letter The first four policies were waiting for Forrest Ransdell (new SAU 109 Superintendent) and Sue to meet to weigh in on who should be providing oversight. Since that meeting has not yet happened these policies will be tabled to the next meeting. (DK, DGD, DJ, DJB) Rocco – this is nine policies in one. There are 13 highlighted sections where it asks to choose either the Superintendent or the BA to provide oversight. Should these also await weigh-in by the Superintendent or should the default be the Superintendent. Forrest suggests wording such as Superintendent or designee since the BA will be only very part time. Matt - DAF relates to federal grants. All schools are required to have this policy. His suggestion is to approve it as it has been given to us by the NHSBA. This policy was also tabled until further discussions with the principal and superintendent. Rocco had provided a matrix proposal that still needs comments. He suggests that the Board continue working on this policy. H. New SAU 109 (Discussion/action) 1.Updates on IT – Sue • Domain name- Sue went through Go Daddy to obtain a domain name of SAU109.org • Firewall has been purchased through Whalley • Internet through Fidium Firewall needs to go in before internet access Go through the E-Rate (that facilitates bids through the Fed. Govt. providing discounted internet services). Once bids are accepted the government has to approve everything. USAC (Universal Service Administration Co) is the agency that does the approvals. They approve expenditures in waves and expect that we will be approved in the next wave of approvals. Once the approvals are given, Sue will work with Jason to get the firewall set up and then the internet so that everything is in order prior to needing full internet access. Sue- We have a windows server in the building that is old. Jason recommends decommissioning and using it as a backup for Power School. UES has already gone to ALMA and is set to go July first. All student information has been input as well as classes, teacher information etc. We are good to go live once the internet is in. Google domain (for online documents) and Enterprise through CDW – they are setting up a new account and have forwarded a contract to cover windows, Chromebooks, etc. Jason will supply them with all of our current equipment. Lightspeed will be switched over to us – content filters on all computers. Sue gets notified when someone is accessing a website they are not supposed to access. Phones – are new as of last year. They are currently programmed and connected to SAU 6. NHVOIP will change over phones to SAU 109 but we need to wait until firewall and internet are in. NHVOIP will monitor the phones and will provide their own firewall and voicemail. WiFi is through Extreme Networks. Sue has the contract – this will be completed before June 30th. UES uses Ipads to control equipment in the school (lights, etc). These are being updated and switching control to SAU 109. Copier is networked internally so nothing changes. Video system through Visualon – nothing has been done with this yet. Three quotes for IT services. 1. CCI managed services. They do not take care of Chromebooks (maintenance or recycling) but they charge $3967.25/month and they want t 3-year commitment. There is a large penalty if we cancel within those three years. 142821 in three years. 2. System Plus (Leb) currently work with SAU 6 $500 per month for antivirus and everything they are currently doing for us through SAU 6. They would charge on-site service at an 8 hr flat rate of $1000. We can buy new, get repairs, and recycle Chromebooks through them. 12 month contract required. 3. DHI in Newport. Sue is concerned with how the migration from SAU 6 would occur. Sue liked them other than they are more windows- based not google chrome books. $1850/month with one year contract and no early termination. 2. MOU – end of year closeout 3. Auditor 4. Attorney 5. Tyler/Visions 6. Other Sue recommends Systems Plus and would like permission from the Board to contract with them. Atonya made a motion to accept the Systems Plus contract for IT services for SAU 109. Kelly seconded, All approved. Rocco thanked Sue for all the work she put in to set this up. Rocco – lawyers from SAU 6 sent a draft MOU for the UES board to work through with Forrest and Sue. UES has contacted another law firm to represent Unity in the Separation Agreement which is being reviewed and discussed. Forrest – Upton Hatfield is now represented Unity in the Separation Agreement. They are now reviewing the agreement. She should come to next meeting. They are also looking at other agreements. Do we want to change auditors? Matt- he needs to file with the State of New Hampshire to tell them who our auditor is. He recommends that we stay with Plodznik until we get a clean audit and THEN go out to bids. Plodznik is willing to stick with us until then and he doubts that we will get anyone else to take on our audits other than a national firm that will be VERY expensive. Rocco wants to add the audit consideration to the legal discussions with the new Law firm that will occur next Tuesday. Unity has agreed to secure legal services from Upton Hatfield, which prompted a letter from Drummond Woodsum separating from Unity. Garry Bator – the Town uses Upton Hatfield – is this a conflict to have the school also use the same firm? Forrest thinks not. Matt confirmed. Kelly made a motion to accept the engagement separation letter from Drummond Woodsum, Atonya seconded, all approved. Kelly made a motion to accept legal services from Upton Hatfield, Darlene seconded, Atonya disapproved but motion passed. Sue – we are going to stay with Tyler (AP/AR service). They gave a quote of $18,699 annually with a one-time fee of about $3 K to transfer accounts. They will keep our archives from SAU 6 and will be able to port Unity over to a separate account. Marj will be trained in Tyler along with Jess and Sue (Purchase orders, Accounts receivable and accounts payable.) Forrest – We need to fill vacancies for a BA and Special ED/Student Services coordinator. Sue and Forrest met with Sheryl Mayberry last week. She has been a district BA in the area for a while. Sue and Forrest met with a potential SpEd/Student Services Director. Meeting went well. Forrest is optimistic that these two people will fill out the SAU 109 team and will discuss further when he has more information. He will bring contracts to Board when they are ready. Forrest is looking into website platforms to use to post job vacancies/bids, etc. I. NEASC update Sue – Unity did their yearly update but nothing else new. J. CSI update Last meeting was supposed to be today but the meeting was postponed. Last meeting will be in June. V. Superintendent Report See attached VI. Principal Report See attached VII. Future Agenda Items • School Board Retreat • Teacher presentations on data – plan to do one in the fall and one in the spring • 5-year rolling test plan • Parental Bill of Rights VIII. Future Meetings ● School Board Work Sessions May – none planned ● SAU 6 School Board Meeting – 5.28.26 @ 6:30 PM IX. Dates to Remember ● May 14 – 8th Grade Mandatory Meeting with Parents & Students ● May 22 – Memorial Day Remembrance @ 11:00 AM ● May 25 – No School – Memorial Day ● May 26 – 29 – 8th Grade Class Trip ● TBD – Summer Beach Day ● June 9 @ 6 PM – 8th Grade Capstone ● June 10th @ 7 PM – Graduation w/Reception ● June 11th – Last Day of School (Half Day) ● KKids: Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:00 PM ● BUILDERS CLUB: Wednesdays 3:00 – 4:00 PM ● Science Club: Wednesdays – grades 5-8 3:00 – 4:00PM ● Unity School Board Meeting: 2nd Wed of every month, 5:30 PM ● Unity PTA meeting: 3rd Wednesday of every month, 6:30 PM X. Non-Public Meeting RSA 91 A:3(c) No need XI. Motion for Adjournment Motion to adjourn made by Atonya at 7:44, seconded by Kelly – all approved. Respectfully Submitted Marjorie Erickson SAU#6 Serving Claremont & Unity SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT TO THE BOARD To: Unity School Board From: Kerry S. Kennedy, SAU6 interim Superintendent Re: Superintendent’s Report for May 13, 2026 Date: 5/13/2026 kkennedy@sau6.org Dear Members of the Board, Below, please find my report for May 13, 2026. If you have any questions about a specific item, please direct them to me during the regularly scheduled board meeting or to the Board President and me if your inquiry is prior to the meeting. I appreciate your support to carry out our SAU6 mission to “inspire, engage, and empower every student in Claremont and Unity to achieve academic excellence in a safe, positive, and personalized learning environment.” Respectfully Submitted. Executive Summary: Overview: Follow-up: ● We continue to work out the details for the separation from SAU #6- There is an SAU #6 meeting on Thursday, 5/28/26- 6:30 PM- SRVRTC- ● Superintendent sent out an email to NH School Board Association to Will Phillips and Amanda at NHSBA- Sharing results of board elections this evening and updating with separation from SAU #6- NB*** Email addresses with NHSBA and others will need to be updated once they’re all set for SAU #109*** Recognitions: ● We celebrated all staff during Educator Appreciation Week last week. We thank all educators for all that they do to support our students and families of UES! ● We were thrilled to see the various experiments from all UES students participating in the Science Fair. What creative and detailed reports from our students. Way to go, UES!! Thanks to Michael Copp and Jess Hiscoe for their support of this work. Academic Performance: We are finalizing our NH SAS testing for UES students. They began before April vacation and are finishing all components and make-up tests to be done before the 5/20/26 deadline. More to come on the results at a later date. Enrollment-historical data- Community and Family Engagement: UES continues to invite partners in to assist with student needs. Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) meeting- 5/18/26- 6-7 pm-Use In-Person Meeting at Maple Avenue Elementary School- All SAU #6 Families cordially invited to discuss upcoming needs for families/caregivers of students with IEPs- Discussion of IEP vs. 504 Plans Curricula and Programs: No new programs are anticipated for the upcoming school year. We continue to monitor student assessments, and we are working to plan next year’s Professional Development options. Alma, Student Information ServicesProgram (SIS), will be added over the summer, and staff will receive training on accessing this program. More to come on details. Professional Development (PD): Administrators continue to meet regularly to plan regarding PD for this year and next. We will be sending out a survey regarding PD needs. We continue to review any legal compliance needs, too. Facilities and Operations: ● Principal Schroeter and I are working to ensure that the Facilities Indoor Air Quality Report is completed before the due date next month. Finances: ● Matt Angell will present the monthly Budget/Actuals report for April-May ● Tuition matrix in progress- ● Superintendent spoke to Acting Superintendent, Chris Young, Fall Mountain- ● Waiting for an update from Lori Schmidt on the Tuition rates with an explanation- Fundraising: ● We are reviewing opportunities for more fundraising options for UES. Thank you for your wonderful support of our students and programs at our School Meeting Day. We appreciate your assistance in all areas & especially with our 8th-grade trip. They are eagerly awaiting their adventure. Human Resources/Personnel: Contracts have been given to the Teaching Staff. Sue worked with HR to ensure that they were delivered in a timely manner and had the updates for the returning staff. HR Files are in the process of being separated so that they can be easily transferred to HR files for SAU #109. Jen Guess, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, will be leaving SAU #6. Sadly, her last day is Friday, 5/12/26-We thank Jen for all of her work. Chelsea Weatherford, HR Manager, is also leaving SAU #6. Her last day will be Friday, 6/5/26-We also thank Chelsea for her work to support all areas of SAU #6. If you need assistance with HR/Central Office, please reach out to Tammy Cote at tcote@sau6.orgfor anything. Tammy has been a fabulousaddition to the office and is quickly learning all things to support both offices. We thank Tammy for her support. Principal Schroeter is a regular attendee at our weekly Principal Leadership Team Meetings and we appreciate her questions and insight into our planning. Technology and Innovation: ● We are reviewing technology options and needs for Unity. We are working on the transition plans to separate SAU #6 and form SAU #109. Jason Bonneville, IT Director, continues to work with Principal Schroeter and Superintendent Ransdell on this and came to UES to meet with tech. More after the 5/28/26 SAU #6 Board Meeting. ● USAC- Universal Service Administrative Company- e-rate/FCCholding company (not-for-profit) ● Lightspeed-content filter- will tell staff that studentsare on an inappropriate website- ● Phones-new phones in UES-e-911 linked- TSE is nowNHVOIP- new pricing- IT is waiting for the firewall/internet ● wifi-Extreme Networks- simple process to obtain wifi by 6/30/26- iPads for PK/K- apple vppaccount so that all machines have an (MDM)-Mobiledevice management program on all devices ● Avigilon-to finalize the transfer of surveillancecameras around the building ● Quotes from companies- CCI- Claremont- $3,965.25 (?) large penalty for leaving within three-year window- $142,821.00 ● Systems Plus-currently working with SAU #6-EDR, anti-virus-$500.00per month to do what they’re already doing, Flat rate- to be billed at $1,000.000- or $130.00 per hour- ● Areas for Attention and Next Steps: ● A more detailed plan for the separation from SAU #6 to SAU #109 is beginning to take shape and remains a work in progress. SAU #6 meeting on 5/28/26, 6:30 PM at SRVRTC with Unity and Claremont Boards combined for SAU #6- ● Waiting to hear back from Chris Young at Fall Mountain regarding Tuition Rates- ● Review Tuition Matrix- Compare numbers-Superintendent spoke to Acting Superintendent, Chris Young, Fall Mountain-SAU #60 ● Waiting for an update from Lori Schmidt on the Tuition rates with an explanation- their board raised rates this past school year- ● PD Survey to come out soon. ● Unity Elementary School Principal’s Report May 13, 2026 STATE OF THE FACILITY The Smart LED lights replacement will happen over the summer. Affinity was here at school and reviewed the building, lights, and process with Bill and myself. LaValleys is finalizing the plans for the garage with an install date in mid July. STAFF APPRECIATION WEEK Thank you to the Unity PTA and the Unity School Board for the wonderful food all week. It was greatly appreciated. We were definitely spoiled. SCIENCE FAIR Our 1st Annual Science Fair is Wednesday, May 13th. The projects are amazing and will have pictures to show you next month. Thank you to Mike Copp and Jess Hiscoe for an excellent job. UNITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY This week and next, grades 3 through 8 will visit the Unity Historical Society for one hour. Gary and Linda Ross will be our hosts. The goal is to intrigue our students to look into the history of our town and maybe even their families. We are looking to collaborate next year with more events and historical projects. NHSAS TESTING AND iREADY Students in grades 3-8 have finished state testing except for 2 students. In May, our final NWEA benchmark of the year for Grades 3-8; Grades K-5 will be tested in DIBELS. ENROLLMENT FOR SY27 As of today, May 13th, I have 97 students enrolled for next year. Currently, we have 5 students in Kindergarten and 5 students PreK. I am confident that we will begin SY27 with over 100 students. Respectfully Submitted, Susan Schroeter Principal