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SAU#68/School Board Meeting/06-11-2025

Video

Yeah.
All right. We will call to order the uh
school board meeting. First up on the
agenda is the approval of the
school board minutes. And I get I guess
um there's no objection. We'll approve
the uh minutes of May 14th and the
nonpublic minutes of May 14th by
all. All right. hearing no objection
then they approved. Um first up is early
acts. We have a crowd of early acts.
Yay.
You can stand up for me.
So I had the pleasure of running early
act this year for Rotary. Um these are
some of our officers. I'll let you
ladies introduce yourselves and say your
position as well. I'm right and I am the
favorite. I'm Alex and I'm the
president. I'm Maya and I'm a member of
I am Ray and I am the president.
So early act is a program through
Rotary.
come up this case. A program through
Rotary to start service projects in the
elementary school and it's offered to
grades three through five and if you're
in fifth grade you can hold officer
positions. Um some number stats that I
wanted to share with you guys I thought
was so cool. So grades three through
five, we had 60% of those grades
participate at least a few times. We
had, let's see, 22 students participate
50% or more of the meetings and 17
participate 75% or more of our meetings,
which was awesome. We meet every other
week during their lunch and recess. So,
they sacrificed that, you know, break to
come um join the meetings. And then we
had three super attenders who came to
every single meeting, which was Maya,
Railen, and Riley Clark. Very nice. Um,
so yeah, and we just wanted to give you
a little summary of the projects that we
worked on this year. Every year they
choose three projects. A school-based
service project, a community-based
project, and an international project.
So, they're going to give you a little
summary of that.
Sure.
For our school service project, we
brought recycling back to the elementary
school by adding recycling bins to
common areas.
Uh presentation
ideas to director directing of buildings
and grounds. Miss
Mr. Hood and assistant principal Miss
Young for approval. Miss Hood gave
guidance and information on what the
local recycling center accepts. Create
posters to advertise and educate what to
recycle and how. Empty liquids, plastic
and cans only.
The project has been successful. People
are using the brims.
thoughts to expand the project next year
by partnering with Staples recycling
program to increase how many items we
can recycle and to earn points to spend
in the store supporting our future
projects. Volunteer at the Langwood
skate park. I'll pause you just for one
second if that's okay. So, they wanted
to recycle in the elementary school,
something we've done in the past that is
kind of difficult to do. Um, and they
presented this idea to the director of
buildings and grounds, Mr. Mr. Hood, um,
and the assistant principal, and they
gave us guidance on how we could do it,
how it would be possible, and the things
we would need to do to make it work, and
they worked really hard at making
posters that explained how how we can
recycle, and how we can actually make it
effective. Um, and then Mrs. Yangheim,
she's not here, but she she helped us
out a lot as well. she brought the idea
of partnering with Staples who h they
have a huge recycling program um
incentives to earn points at their store
so that we could potentially get
materials for our future projects. Um so
that's something we're thinking about
next year. So the next we'll talk about
is the community project. Volunteer at
the Lwood skate park.
Build better days.
assist with collecting trash, raking
leaves, trimming brush, and spreading
water.
Uh, this is now our international
project. We supported Interact with
their 2026 Believe Service. Interact
presented at one of our meetings showing
a slide show of their last service trip
to BISE and the projects they were able
to complete at the local school. They
also provided photos of one of their
upcoming projects, which was building a
kitchen at the school. Interact asked if
we would let if we would want to make
signs next year for the kitchen. We
decided we'd support um them next year
with signs and also wanted support them
with this year with a donation towards
the cost of the kitchen. Interact
attended another meeting meeting to
accept a check for $150.
So Interact is Rotary's um middle and
high school service program. Once you
get to seventh grade, you can
participate in that. Um sixth graders,
there's a gap between fifth grade and
seventh grade between inner early act
and interact. Um, but the sixth graders
are encouraged to join uh, Interact on
kind of like a volunteer basis to see
what they do, join in the projects and
see if it's something they want to do
the next year. Interact has been going
with the lease for several years now.
Um, they didn't go this year, but
they're going again in 2026. So, that's
the project that they supported.
Anything that you guys want to say about
your experience in our lab, which who's
it fifth grade here? who will go into
sixth grade. Okay. Y So, and we talked
about that at our last meeting. We had a
pizza party and talked about the amount
of kids we're we are going to lose to
sixth grade. Told them how to be
involved um in that kind of gap year and
uh kind of make plans for next year. Any
pros or cons you want to share?
That's okay. Any questions from you
guys?
I'd like to say thank you for what you
do.
It was a really incredible experience
for me. They were really hardworking.
Everybody showed up to the meetings
every day ready to be involved, full of
ideas, full of energy. It was a great
experience. So, I really appreciate all
your hard work. Thank you ladies. Thank
you.
All
right. Next up, we've got uh Mr.
Webster. Yeah. We're gonna dim our
lights here so you can get a little
slideshow piece here. Oh, that's very
So, most of you are all of you know, of
course, I'm Dave Webster. I'm the high
school science teacher. Also, I've been
working in the the STEM realm for a
little while and doing some robotics and
stuff, bringing that stuff here at
Lynwood. And my counterpart here today
is Danny Halerin. Yeah. Um he has had
uh he had a couple extra periods free
and instead of letting hands go to the
bad side of life, we've we've taken him
into the good side of life. So he got to
spend about three or four uh periods a
day with with me and working in the back
of the room and we came up with a
project for So this is the ROV that we
came up with. It's called the hoodie,
named after our illustrious uh
head of maintenance here. So,
some of you may ask what a what an ROV
is. This is what an ROV is.
It's not a complete autonomous robot
that just takes off and does its
wonderful things. This one's actually
tethered to someone. This one was
actually telling today I'm like a big
umbilical port of a 100 feet to my
laptop. His laptop.
That's what we're doing.
Wasn't all just willy-nilly. I know
these are small, but if you ever wanted
them printed out, we can do this. These
are some of the actual standards um that
I matched up with what Dan's tasks were
doing. uh because he did get a grade for
this so in an independent study. So we
still have to match up some science
standards, some tech standards um to to
allow him to, you know, get his grades.
Yeah. Yep. So this is the RO.
Um it has four motors uh which allow it
to move forward, back, left and right.
And then it also has a thruster on the
bottom which helps uh pitch it up and
down. Um and basically the whole goal of
this was to dive into a body of water
and be able to see what's at the bottom
and also get some sensor readings as
well. So, there's a temperature sensor
right here on the side and there's
another sensor which measures the parts
per million and that is basically how
dirty the water is or how many like
parts are in it.
And
yeah,
it took a lot of work. There is you
can't see it from here. I'll turn it
around. But in the inside
there is a lot of electronics. So I used
was called an Arduino and that was like
the motherboard of it. That was the
brains of operation.
And this Arduino allowed me to control
each motor individually using a Xbox
controller. Cool. So I connected this
Xbox controller to my laptop Bluetooth
uh through Bluetooth and I had about how
many lines of code? What was it? It's
coming up. Oh, okay. Yeah, you'll get to
these. So, then you these are some of
the slides of his different parts as he
was creating um as we're going through
now prototypes. Not only did he have to
learn just robotics, but he also had to
go back and learn he had taken another C
class with me. So, he learned how to do
the soldering, the welding, how to work
out certain things electronic wise that
we normally wouldn't cover just in a
regular science class.
Uh, one thing was really neat with this,
and Dan's going to walk around with a
couple parts here. You see these legs
here, um, and you'll he'll talk about
these other parts here in a minute, but
these are all handdesigned, 3D printed
right in the science lab. So it's not
like, you know, going out and just
buying things willy-nilly. He just he
actually, you know, blueprinted these
things, created them, and printed them
right there in the lab.
So the 3D printed parts, we have uh the
things that hold the motors right here.
Um this is like a clamp which holds the
thruster to the bottom, and then all the
sensor holders, the camera holder, and
even some parts on the inside. And those
are all 3D printed. And then there's a
board on the inside which has uh mostly
electronics mounted to it and that was
made with the uh laser cutter new glow
forge that we glow forge.
Not sure many people will understand
this as as well as I don't understand
half of what damn good did um but you
can see that it's just just a not a true
circuit diagram blueprint like I did
like in the newer world. No, that's just
the one I have. Yeah. So this guy gives
the just a basic idea of you know some
of the wiring and stuff that he had to
do.
Yeah. So this is uh we played well he
played with three major Arduino boards
and this massive amount of code and then
got it down to it was like 600 lines of
code in totals. Um and I got it down to
about 200. Yeah.
So, this is just an example of some of
the coding that he was able to do. Um,
he had taken some classes, a coding
class with me, but he's also done some
independent um advanced studies in
coding that um online stuff. And this is
the kind of stuff that got him, if you
notice his t-shirt that he's wearing,
has got him into WPI for college for
next year. Yes.
work.
So, here we are at the pool side. This
is uh thanks to Mrs. Stvali and the the
school's van, we were able to load the
van up and my truck up with not only the
ROVs and all the parts. Uh but we also,
you know, had to bring the tool box, the
tool chest, you know, the whole thing
with us. So, my back truck was filled
and the the van was filled with this
stuff. You can see we got the laptop and
then behind the laptop right there is
the RO camera. So that's a separate
digital camera. So we can do recording
video and all of that stuff as well as
we are going under. This is what uh Mr.
Bossy would like for his his uh gold
project extra extracurricular activities
project.
Um one of the things that we had to do
though is this was a lot of work. Danny
did all of this work himself except by
the time we realized we needed some
other guys with us uh when we went out
to do actually do some of the testing of
it. So we had we pulled in a couple
other students that had taken some of
the STEM classes with us and really they
were like imperative to be there. I mean
it was just really important for them to
be there because they were able to run
around figure out this this sensor may
be working this sensor is not working.
this is what's going on. So, we, you
know, that was day one. Um, you'll see
some video of some of our
troubleshooting. And then day two, much
better, much simpler.
Is this for taking water samples? Uh, so
that's a ballast tank. So, basically, it
sucks up water to make it sink and then
um it pushes it out to go up. So, that
was one of the prototypes. Yeah. Yeah.
So, this is not not what you use. No,
it's not what we use. Yeah. So,
basically, I well, I looked it up. I did
a bunch of research and I thought they
would work, so I made them. Um, and then
I tested this in your fish tank.
And I put the same amount of water that
that would displace in here and it
didn't work. So, it it worked a little
bit, but it didn't sink it as much as I
thought. Um, so I had to not use those.
But next time, if I were to do it, I
would use those. I would just have to
make some tweaks. And then it would work
a lot better. Yeah, these were and then
we we were, you know, limited in the
size. I guess we could have gone bigger,
but he fit two of those in here plus all
the electronics. It was really great.
Yeah, it was.
We talked about that already. Yep.
Let's talk about this. So, I had no clue
how to basically make like it's almost
like a web page kind of thing with code
and I didn't know how to do it. So, I
had AI help me do it. And um basically
this shows like all the sensors cuz I
have temperature on the outside which I
said I also have a distance sensor I
forgot about on the bottom and that
tells you how far it is away from the
like pool or ocean floor, whatever it
is. Um, and then I also had a moisture
sensor in the inside which let me know
if it leaked. Uh, and also a tilt
sensor. So that told me like the pitch
it was at in the water, like how far it
would tilt it up or down. And um, also
like the joystick readings on the Xbox
controller. So when I move one of the
joysticks, little dot in the middle, it
would move like according to this. Um,
and yeah, so that was the the gooey
thing called it.
So, here's just a quick one of Dan and
the team looking here. We put in, you
can see it instantly had some buoyancy
issues. These are the things that, you
know, you have to be in the field to
test. You know, a fish tank can only
give you so much, you know. Um, so you
can see that happened.
Here we are just he's testing the
motors, of course. Sorry, this was
filmed on my phone. It was uh and I was
so amazed everything's working. I'm you
know doing one of these things.
Apologize for that. But you that's with
us testing the motors.
And then we got two short clips of
success here. You can see the motor
spinning and he's gliding across the
pool bottom. He can then the next one
away. Yeah.
So this I was turning the thruster on
the bottom of it. Um so it would lift
off the bottom.
You can still see that we we do need to
still have some work done. Yeah. A lot
of work. Yeah. A lot of
usually Yeah. I'm sorry. Yeah, making
things like this like um there was a
channel on YouTube I saw that were
making a similar like device or
submarine and it was taking them like
two or three years to perfect it which
is like a crazy amount of time for so
the success video you just saw there it
it does we have here to verify it does
move around the pool and the whole works
I just was so excited I couldn't I
wasn't I wasn't filming
So, what did I learn over this? Wow,
this was an amazing project. We are not
going to be able to just have turn one
of these out in one year like Dan just
said. Um, it it does take an amazing
work. uh you know having a single
student working on it was fantastic but
I really want to include these two other
boys and anybody else that's wants to
join in with this um and and and get it
uh you know really great up and running
machine for us. I know that Joe wants
this as well. So came up and talked
about it.
I learned a lot. Uh so coming into this
I knew nothing about electronics. Uh I
knew how to somewhat make 3D printed
parts on Tinkercad. Um and I didn't
really know much about CC coding which
is for the Arduinos. I knew a little bit
um but not enough to do something like
this complex. Uh also Python I had a
little bit of background in uh not much
though. So I had to do a lot of
research. Um, I had AI help me research
because it's better than Google in my
opinion. Um,
I agree. Um, yeah. I mean, I had to do
like a lot. It was probably like tens of
hours of research.
Mr. Yeah. What?
Well, just like, you know, Mr. Webster
and I talked about, you know, was the
the extra people that were there were
really helping out, right, with ideas
and and helping prep, put weights, take
weights off, and just, you know, just um
being in a field test and realizing
like, you know, you look at that machine
and they do all the testing, yep, the
motors are running, everything looks
good, and then you put it in, you're
like, oh, well, okay, this this doesn't
work or this fell. You know, it's like
when you look at it and then you f you
think everything's going to go well and
then all of a sudden it's like it's
tilting and we put a little too much
sand in, not enough. And then it it
really was it was amazing to watch. Um
Danny, your two boys were I kind of
learned that's how engineering is. Like
even with those syringes, it took me
weeks to get them perfect because either
they weren't spinning or they weren't
spinning like fast enough or like they
weren't
life. Okay. Um, but like every part of
this I had to print like multiple times
to get right. Um, just because it's so
like detailed and stuff. Like the gears,
you remember that acrylic thing I had?
Yeah. So, the gears on the syringes um
right here, I had to print these
probably 50 times because I had to get
them perfect to the point where there
wasn't too much friction between them.
Um, so it could basically and also the
threads. Um, so in in this gear right
here, there's a thread for the screw
which allows it to go in and out. And
that thread has to be like perfect,
perfectly leveled and perfectly cut. So
that took weeks to get right basically.
So you're programming the 3D printer to
Yes. that Yeah. So this went some of
this originally was all done 3D and then
then it turned into the glow forge being
with that in there in the room. So,
we're able to cut because it's laser
cutter was able to be used so much more
precise and do do that work. So,
without the laser cutter, those wouldn't
work.
We we we'd love to have you come up and
check it out. Guest get up, break your
legs and look at it. It's pretty amazing
piece. That's what we have to for you
guys tonight if you have any questions
or anything. What kind of batteries do
you use? So, I used a 12vt
3 and a half amp in here. Uh, it's like
a blue battery and then there's what is
it? Three or four batteries in a series.
Yeah, I think. Yeah. So, you must keep
that waterproof then for all all the
electronics. Yeah. Yeah. So, this side
of this here, he again using the Glow
Forge, he created a divider that allowed
just the electronic cables through but
no water to go through. And then this
side had all the electronics nice and
sealed up. Yeah. And then all the holes
in this thing I went over like two or
three times with epoxy and um water weld
and a bunch of other stuff so it' be
waterproof. I kept the hardware store in
in business class. I am amazed. Very
great. Very very proud of you, man.
Because that that type of electronics is
completely different. And I mean I can
rewire a B-52 bombers oxygen system like
nothing. And I would never know where to
even start on that stuff. Yeah. No, it
took me a while before I knew where to
start with it. Yeah. This is just such a
big And like I said, those boys are, you
know, they're that came with us want to
take this and go further with it. Of
course, you did all of this just this
school year. Yes. Wow. Wicked proud.
That's incredible. Can Dan, can you also
like I just think that this is so
impressive, but there's a whole another
side of Dan that gives back to this
community. So, he had a really unique
schedule and we were allowed to fill it
with all kinds of cool things for him.
Do you just want to share what you did
this winter? Just to share that you did
this, but you also did something pretty
amazing for in the winter. I volunteer
with Neds. Um, and I I'm a pre-adaptive
coast there. So, I do a lot of
volunteering with them. Um, I've done it
since freshman year of high school cuz I
first went there I think seventh grade
and I um got a little taste of it and
then I just kept going back and it's
been a great experience.
He spent several half days Oh yeah.
coaching at Ned's. It was a good fil so
many credits and college credits. He
just had to spend a half day skiing at
take a break for
That's awesome. And then he was in like
my biology class as well as regular
which is amazing. That's fantastic.
That's awesome. You should be proud of
yourself. That's pretty cool. Thank you.
D What's your major at? Robotics and
then I'll do a fintech minor.
What's Where did the idea for this come
from? Yeah.
Yeah. I I just thought it would be
really neat to challenge them in
something that was beyond a Lynwood
current capability and just say, "Hey,
can we do this and what can we do to
push the limit of Liquid's
capabilities?" You know, and I'm I'm
really hoping that the STEM class that
that I'm doing, you'll see more I hope
to have you guys down more often and see
some of the stuff that we're actually
creating down there because it's all
complete hands-on. You know, just
learning to solder is amazing for, you
know, for people. Why do I need to know
this? Well, go to college and try to fix
your speaker, you know. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. One of the things we've been
talking a lot about on the board and
administration is project based
learning. And this is like a
exactly the type of thing that we're
that we're hoping to incorporate for,
you know, a broader range of students.
And I think Edman here will say that,
you know, out of my room, I try to do a
lot of this kind of stuff. We do a lot
of that. And it seems like you found
that this was a valuable experience for
you and enjoyed it and something that
you could sort of take take with you,
the stuff that you learned. So this
experience is probably the reason I'm
going to WBI. Yeah. Because their
curriculum is made like it's focused on
project based learning. And I mean in
classroom learning, I don't learn
anything. But doing this, like I learned
things so quick doing this compared to
anything else. It's crazy. trial and
error and research and learn. Yeah,
hands on. Yeah, that's awesome. Well,
well done. Yeah, thank you. Great job,
buddy.
Miss
Thank you. Thank you. This is awesome.
Where are you working this summer? I
don't know yet.
Figure it out. Sounds like a good job.
Probably for Mr. Bossy.
on the plane, too. That's it. David's
very I pay well.
Knowledge just came in. I pay Well,
thank you.
I have cats. You're killing me now. All
I can think of is how does that bottom
sensor work? Is it sonar?
We're We're working on that using like a
lar sonar sonar. Maybe a metal detector.
Yeah, that's what he's looking for.
That was very cool.
Love that stuff. Me, too. That's a smart
kid right there. Young man, not a kid.
Young man. Yeah, there's just so much
depth to him, too.
Graduation. He seems like an amazing
human. Yeah, that's good. I think that
this this type of thing that we'd like
to be able to offer to a lot of
students. I think the lawsuits would
thrive in that in that and that's what
we're trying to build and that's why we
moved Megan will start that process Mr.
Webster will continue it at the high
school in the small project base out of
his class and then um for middle school
they have a period where they're going
to be able to try different things and
we're hoping to be able to get that
teched person in so they can learn all
the welding all the tools that might go
along with building whatever it is that
they want to build. So we that is what
we are doing. So next year we started
this it just you know kid like Dan is
smart and he could have gone home the
rest of the day and he wanted to be
engaged. So I think we Mr. Webster had
that and we all gathered together and
said what else could be in this kid's
life and it was just a really great
experience to be able to do something so
individualized for a student and then
we're starting to replicate that because
it is such a small school. we do have
that flexibility. That's fantastic to be
able to do those things. So, and the
idea of keeping a keeping a project like
that going for other students to get in
and be a part of and refined and and
that's it's exciting opportunities.
Yeah, it is. And I and Dave and I talked
and this is something that you know he
wants to do and we do too as admin want
to have more often is these types of
presentations next year to the board
just to promote STEM and just you know
let everyone Yeah. Yeah. All of that
just to um so you can see what's going
on how we're utilizing you know using
all that equipment. So yeah, so
hopefully that's going to be a um a goal
of ours and a plan moving forward next
year to see more presentations coming
out as the STEM line. Speaking of next
year's schoolboard meetings, I know they
had um elections for next year not too
long ago. Did they elect a student to be
on the school board? I I don't think so,
but that's something we're gonna really
try to work hard or or it may not be
even there's different ways you can get
representation. Um so
Mr. Stavali is going to work with that
around what that could look like. Y so
you guys can hear updates directly from
the students. It's really important.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even if it's not the
same student every time, right? And when
I on a board that I was on, it was a few
students, but they wrote like what the
teachers did, a letter, and they came
and they gave the update and then they
just left. Okay. So, because they're so
involved in so many things that like one
more thing for some of these kids, we
don't even keep them here all night.
Exactly. Right. Exactly. Along that
border, right? Exactly. That's a good
idea though. That is something we could
do. First thing, rearrange the agenda
and have that student presentation
first. Yes.
On a different board that I was on that
they gave their update. We needed
right after,
but that way they can go off and get
their homework done or to their practice
or whatever. Exactly. Yeah.
invention to convention. Yeah, I know.
Like we're looking to bring something
similar back. Um there's some regional
competitions around and Megan's really
excited about that. We went out again to
Cardigan Mountain School, private
school, middle school um for boys and
they have an amazing STEM lab. So I I
went there last year and that's kind of
where we got the inspiration and then um
Mr. Stali when I and I went out again
this year so we could just reflect back
on what we've done this year and where
we want to go and to hear their
reflection. So they've been really good
partners with us to speak about that. Um
and um yeah great
like
good. Um all right we next up is
communication. you did get the letter
from the story she just, you know,
wanted you guys to be aware that she
completed this and it's really exciting
and um I'd love to read that out and
have make it part of the minutes. I
think it'd be a great thing for
everybody,
too. Um, can I read it for us? Yes. It
says, "Dear administration and members
of the Lynwood School Board, I want to
thank the administration and the school
board for supporting me through the
teacher education conversion program for
ESOL with NHTI. After 24 years of
teaching Spanish, I did not think I
would be attaining another
certification. When Dr. Steady
approached me back in December of 2023
with the recommendation of getting my
ESOL certification, I was hesitant to
add this graduate program to my already
busy life. One of the highlights of
going through this certification is
being able to work with students of all
ages. It has been amazing to work with
students in our K through 12 community.
After some time of not having an
established ESOL program at Lynwood, I'm
happy to report
Lynwood has a certified ESOL teacher and
another one on the way. Thank you again
for supporting me on this journey. It
has been a positive experience and I'm
grateful for the support and furthering
my education and profession. with
gratitude. Dory Weeden,
let Dory know how thankful we are for
her to taking that on and getting that
done. And that's fantastic. We're such a
small school that having um you know
teachers that are certified in multiple
things is great and we appreciate her
stepping up and that's a lot of work
that she did that she did. Yeah. Yeah.
Um I do have one communication that came
in after um Dr. Brahman and I have
spoken on the phone a few times. Um I
think he was the principal here when I
was a elementary school student. I went
there. Okay. So um he's now living in
Florida. Um his wife has deceased but
he's written a book about her and um
some of the things they of people who
knew her um put on social media and he
created her book. So he sent me a copy,
but I didn't know if one of you wanted
to read it before
myself before I read it. Um, so if any
of you guys do want to read this, it's
you can take it tonight or it'll be at
the SAU office. But he sent this for us
to enjoy.
It's awesome.
Great. And CES newsletter.
All right. Uh, is this administrative?
when you were um
passing around. I usually jot down notes
and I don't put a report in your packet
because I'm usually doing that at the
last minute, but I wrote a lot of things
this week. So, I figured it might be
easier if you have it in front of you.
Um there are actually um the
transportation aid, that's an agenda
item, so we'll talk about that when we
get to that. um
audit engagement letter which isn't on
there and so we were just talking about
that but need to be signed um which Jay
signed and the auditors will be starting
on July 8th just doing internal controls
and a walk through that day and then
they'll come back for the big audit in
October. Um okay so on here I was just
talking about some revenues that we
received. We received our federal forest
revenue in May. It always comes in May
$55,000.
Yeah, the federal forest revenue is a
revenue that we receive that is doesn't
come from our local taxpayers
um or any other revenue sources. And in
the fall when we set our tax rates, the
department of revenue says, "Okay, this
is how much you need to put in for uh
federal forest reserve monies." And and
I just hope every year that it comes in,
especially this year, I wasn't sure. Um,
but we did get our Federal Pors reserve
money and it came in a little bit higher
than what they had told us to budget at
$52,000, but because we got an email
from the Department of Ed saying a lot
of towns there was a shortfall in that
they got less than what was said. And
that affects, you know,
if it's big enough, I mean, that's a it
could be a substantial shortfall that
you're kind of scrambling at the end of
the year saying, "Okay, where's this
money going to come from or how are we
going to offset that shortfall?" But has
it ever been a shortfall? It never h
it's always pretty close, but again,
this year was the first year I received
this memo saying and I don't know what
towns, you know, it's mainly the towns
up north or anyone in the national
forest that has national forest lands in
their towns or districts. So, um,
okay. So, the other thing is I I wanted
to go over, you know, I'm constantly
reviewing the budget, but I wanted to go
over a few things in the budget, um, as
we're winding down the year, and that's
why I wrote all this stuff out. So,
special education, which will be we will
we have an agenda item on here for
special education capital reserve. So,
there's a few lines that we went over in
the budget. When I look at the different
function lines, our total overall bottom
line budget is fine, but um it's closer
than normal. Um so, special education,
we we were we're over in that line. And
the reason is we and we talked about
this. We had a few uh special ed
placements that we had to pay for um
beginning of the year that weren't
budgeted. How significant are we over?
Huh? How significantly are we over?
We're over enough that I'd like to take
money out of the capital reserve
account, the $60,000. So, and also
there's a bigger um placement that we
usually budget for that the cost of that
was a little bit higher than what we
budgeted for. Plus, when we budget, we
don't budget the whole thing because we
we know we're going to get special
education aid and we say we're going to
take some money out of the capital
reserve account if we need it and then
we'll replenish it when we get our
special education aid. So, that's what I
want to do tonight and cover that
$60,000
of
uh special education aid that we know
we'll get sometime next year. Gotcha.
Um so, that's a special education. um
SAU services. We are over in the SAU
line primarily due to the strategic plan
expense, but we talked about this
earlier in the year when we reviewed
changes in the positions last fall for
budget versus actual salaries and
benefits. We had about $80,000 in
savings and we said, well, okay, that
can cover our just because of some of
the positions that we moved around um
positions that were filled that uh or
that weren't filled. Um, so we said we
would cover this cost of the strategic
plan, which is $60,000 for this year. We
we felt comfortable doing that with the
savings that we had. The thing is, I
charged the $60,000 to the SAU office or
the SAU services for the school plan.
Gotcha. While the savings and salaries
and benefits are all over our budget.
Yeah. Okay. So So it just looks weird,
but it just looks weird, right? You
know, we knew totals we were okay, but I
just wanted So, when you look at that
line, you'd be like, "Oh, why are you
over?" That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. So,
facilities, we're about $70,000 over in
facilities.
There's so many factors here. So, we had
some of the sprinkler inspection we had.
So, we had some deficiencies. We had it
fixed there at the high school. We had
the elementary school pipe that burst
about $5,000 for that in total. Um,
we've had some middle school hallway
lighting that we replaced, 4,000. Again,
these were things, yeah, we budget
maintenance, repairs in our budget,
but we don't budget specifically all
these things. Okay. Right. So, um, when
they were doing the vestibule, the
entryway project last summer, we we
replaced some flooring out there that we
hadn't budgeted for. It wasn't in the
grant that we got. We did the new garage
site plan study, $4,000. So again, these
things are adding up. Electricity is
$20,000 higher than budget. And I think
this was more of a budgeting error
because I had used prior year
expenditures where we had received some
credits and I didn't back those out when
we were doing the budget. That's some of
that.
Oil tanks. This all happened within the
last few weeks. It's very it's a
compliance audit that we get every 3 to
five years.
We didn't budget for this. We And it's
kind of hard to budget for because you
never know what they're going to come up
with. So far, the cost right now is
$15,000 worth of invoices, repairs,
things that we've received in the last
few weeks. Um, including a $10,000 spill
bucket repair. I mean, there's a whole
bunch of invoices in this week's uh
5,000 um other issues like precision
line tight tightness testing, which has
to do with a single wall tank, which is
what we have up here, cathotic
protection testing, integrity tightness
testing. The list goes on, and so does
the costs. So, about $15,000 of expenses
that have just come in the last few
weeks. No, we're in compliance now. We
are in compliance once we get So there's
the the spill bucket repairs the $10,000
there that hasn't been done yet. Um we
just got the quote to do that. Yeah,
that's just on one tank though, correct?
Yeah, that's just on one tank. That's on
the high school tank. So again, these
are just things that come up, you know,
that some years you get hit by a lot and
some, you know, last year the safe grant
project and I don't know if you recall
this, but I went back to the July 17th
um schoolboard meeting. So, we had some
expenses that weren't in the grant. They
were like change orders. And of course,
like, yeah, last July, yeah, we had
money in the budget. Um, we thought we
could cover it. And I did say I've had
the school board meeting minutes that
said if the budget's tied at the end of
the year, we can always hold a trust
fund meeting. I don't think we really
need to take any money out of the trust
fund because overall we haven't over
expended our budget but we've
overextended the facilities line and we
know why we overexpended the facilities
line because of all these things. Um I
don't think we need to take money out of
the trust fund to to cover these we're
covered in total. Anyway, just, you
know, we're constantly looking at these
things and,
you know, especially at the end of the
year when you get hit with some of these
things, you get um it's a little
nerve-wracking, but we are watching
these, you know, again, when we looked
at we had savings in the beginning of
year. Can we do the strategic plan this
year? Can we pay for that? Yes. So,
we're we're constantly moving money from
line item to line item. Well, we still
have the money left over to put into the
trust fund. I think we we will because
well
so right now when I'm our our budget
we're probably
about have about 160 to $200,000 again I
still haven't received all the invoices
this year and I'm trying to like think
of what haven't I received you know I
try to encumber as much as I can um but
we're also Well, we got this
transportation aid money. So, when you
look at we might have say $160,000 left
in expenditures, but now we have extra
revenue, too. And that go all goes into
when we're calculating our year end
expended. Yeah. Balances, the surplus or
whatever you want to call it at the end
of the year. So, because we're going to,
you know, I think our plan was to
increase the amounts we're putting into
something. We did. Yes. I think it's
160,000. So I think we'll be okay there.
But then the question is how much can we
uh retain. Yeah. After that we also have
the re you know the retain fund balance
from last year. You don't use it. It
kind of goes back in and it comes back
into this calculation too because we
never and then we can so that'll be part
of the calculation too. Oh okay. So you
subt
that that technically goes back in but
then we can also retain that. We can
retain. Yeah. And then Yeah. Yeah, we
just can't put it into a trust fund
right directly from here. So, I think
overall we'll be okay. It's just, you
know, we we had a lot of pluses and
minuses throughout the year and that
happens. We got we we set the budget. We
start doing the budget a year ahead of
time.
Yeah. Things change.
That's what a crystal ball would come in
handy. Oh, right. Debbie, thank you. Uh,
are there any other questions? No. Is
that all you have? Yeah, that's all.
Okay. And there's a couple of things
that we're going to need to Right. Yeah.
Thank you. All right. Dr. Steady. Um, I
went to the North Country Charter School
graduation. We did have four students
who recently graduated. Um and I just
although it's not our school, there is a
significant commitment on the board's um
behalf to make sure those students have
slots there and that we transport those
students there. So um thank you guys for
allowing these kids to have another
alternative path to graduation.
Um in your packet you'll see the
chemical hygiene plan. This um plan
fulfills both legal and board policy
requirements. you don't have any
immediate action on this, but I just
wanted you to see it and be aware that
it does exist. And just a huge thank you
to Katie Parent, her exceptional
leadership and guiding um Sharon,
Debbie, Mark, and me through the
completion of this plan. It was a lot of
work on her behalf to get it here and um
really keeping us on task to get it
done. when I have reached out um to
other people, they're not nearly as far
as we are on it because it is a huge
lift, but Katie has done an exceptional
job meeting this. We still are on target
for our website to new website to launch
on July 1 and thank you Sharon for
keeping us focused on that.
Um I don't on June 25th um we have a
meeting scheduled. it's the second
meeting and if it's not um I don't feel
it will be necessary. Um so you guys can
make the decision. I definitely want to
show meeting or not. So you'll need to
let me know if you want to meet or not.
Um I know. Oh wait, actually I can't
meet so I'm in a training and Peter's in
a training. Yeah, I'm at a conference.
We're definitely going to meet then.
Sounds great. Just let me know whatever
you guys decide. just my our strategic
plan is coming along nicely. Um we met
last week in person for about three
hours where we really spoke about what
does it mean to be a learner in this
district. Um there were about 40
different ideas that came back from the
community from all of those online
meetings surveys
that was narrowed down um to some more
manageable ideas um where there's
another review u will continue to work
on this through the summer hopefully be
able to get some feedback from community
members possibly from board members we
will definitely get feedback and opening
days or the very beginning um from the
staff on that then which a draft will go
to for, you know, kind of some review
with a hopefully a final strategic plan.
Really, as it turns out right now, it's
very focused on maybe not necessarily
using the words project based learning,
but um
crosscurricular interdisciplinary
hands-on experiences.
Um so
that should be um ready for possibly for
you guys to make a decision in October
of this year. Um, so yeah, it'll be
really exciting if everything that's in
it comes through. Um, I think you guys
will be really pleased with how it can
shape the education here. Just want to
make a comment on that. I listened to
the podcast, the podcast wrapup and what
an innovative way to deliver information
about it. Yeah, that's pretty simple.
So, it's all AI. Yeah, we when I went to
we went to Google, um, they showed us
that. So, it was very simple. Um, you
take a notebook LM from Google. You take
all of your documents. So, I uploaded
the email from them, the powerpoints,
all the minutes, and I just put it in
there and I said, "Make me a podcast for
this audience." Um, no longer than 15
minutes and of this. And so, it created
it for you. It's very cool, isn't it?
So, that's why I figured when I came
back from Google, it's never a thing I
want to try to do. see if I can make one
of these podcasts. Simple. Yeah. Yeah,
that was fun. Really smart piece of I
mean obviously you didn't with any AI
you got to verify it against you know
yeah I listened to it so I didn't I
didn't go through the you know check
verification but you know at first
glance I thought it was a really
innovative way to test new technology
and come up with a a new platform for
other people to digest that information.
Yeah. So I sent a few I sent it out to
the CPG group and to the school
community um the teachers um and so from
that people did say they liked it. We
worked with Troy and Troy Trey to be
able to get access to this versus staff
members and to make sure that Gemini
which is an AI device that staff have
access to that. Now, um the reason that
we like the Google platform is a lot of
times it's well not it's protected. So
you can pull the information from
outside from like a Google any of the
search engines, anything out there, but
if we were to put anything in it, it
doesn't gets pushed out to the universe.
So our stuff stays confidential, but we
get to um access everything else out
there.
That was a good trip.
We did learn a lot there. Um, you got
the letter from Dory. I just wanted to
let you know a couple of the summer
programs. Um, we have we'll have our
traditional special ed ESY program where
kids will be off in NEDs, too. We'll
have our middle high school summer
school. We will be offering golf again
at the a partnership with the G uh with
the Jack. We'll have the boys and girls
of summer hiking. Uh, we possibly have a
new program here called Impact. We tried
to bring it the last two years, but the
enrollment wasn't enough. Um, and it's
essentially for kids who um may have um
some sort of learning difference, but um
might need assistance with uh credit
recovery, but also interviewing skills
and job performance. So, they get paid
to participate in this program and go
out and learn job skills, but also
they'll leave there with a resume and
interview skills and things like that
and credit. So, we're hoping to be able
to have that. Um,
Grant State Independent Living, who runs
it, really wanted a set number of
students. We have that population, but
because other schools aren't able to
offer it, they're going to possibly be
able to offer it for one or two of our
students. even though it's going to be
small, still um going to be impactful
for our students. And then we'll have
again our STEM and robotics program
which is really exciting and Megan Full
and Kiss and Batter will continue to run
that with partnership with Whimsy. In
addition to I just want to say Whimsy
has just recognized our efforts efforts
in um STEM that they have a new they
have a laser cutter they gave us um
which
is will cut like metal and things
different than what ours does. It's used
from them. It's not as powerful as what
they need but it will suit our needs. So
I picked that up the other day when I
was in Littleton for a meeting and so we
do have it here. It's with Trey. So
that'll just be another tool that we
will have in our hopefully STEM lab by
the end of next year. Everyone nice.
Um unfortunately
we do Oh, am I there? Look at me run
this. You just keep going. I know,
right? You know this.
Okay, I'm not there. Um, Jazzy
Burger, we will need to um if we could
reschedu the July 16th meeting, we
that's the day of our admin retreat. Um,
and the proposed day would be July 23rd.
The only item we really have going
towards that is the student handbook.
Next year, I'm going to try to get it
earlier at this meeting. Um, and unless
we have hiring, that would be the other
thing for that meeting. So, it would be
a short, very short meeting.
I thought we said we weren't doing the
July, right? What's that? We're not
doing the July meeting, right? No, I
think I think what she's saying. The
student handbook that you have to
approve and that was always in your July
meeting. This the June the second June
meeting is the one that we're not going
to do. Oh, July 16th. So, July 16th,
July, July 23rd. Yeah, it'll be a short
meeting
unless you want to do a remote meeting
where you approve it remotely.
I mean, I think moving us to the 23rd
signed something that gonna come up.
That's why I Yeah. Okay, that's fine.
And then your old study meeting, you
wanted the date for that to be moved and
so we're suggesting September 24th.
Is that the regularly scheduled board
meeting? Yeah. Okay. So, it would just
be kind of before or after that. Yeah.
Anybody have any issues with that? No.
Then it is done.
Um I think I'm just about done. Just um
your dates for our admin retreat, our
new staff orientation. Um you return
August 19th and the first day of school
is August 23rd.
No, I'm done.
You need nonpublic or No, I don't think
Oh, the meeting's not done, but I'm
done. No, I meant
No.
Do you have anything for public? No, I
don't think we need to. All right. Thank
you.
Thanks. Uh, exactly what Mary said.
Um, yeah, it, you know, we just finished
up our field trip season. It was great.
Um, our last field trip was just the
other day, Tuesday, Rebecca,
Log Railroad, right? Yeah, I'm sure
you're going to talk about that, so I
will not say anything else. Um, and we
had our varsity baseball and softball
teams, you know, make it to the first
round of playoffs this year. Had great
games, played really hard. Um, you know,
they came up short, but they had a
fantastic season. Um, Booster Club had
their annual banquet. You know, and I'll
say also kudos to the booster club again
without their support boy. They they do
an amazing job for us and the children
of our um school district. Um, and you
know, that's basically it. Uh, we're
having field days wrapping up this week.
We only have uh, you know, limited time
left. We have Thursday and half day
Friday and we're out. Um, field days are
tomorrow and Friday. tomorrow for
elementary. And what time do they get
out on Friday? 11:45. 11:45. Good job.
Yeah. We'll have lunch and then 11:45
they'll be dismissed.
Yeah. And um and then we have um 8th
grade continuation where we welcome our
new freshmen. As we said goodbye to our
seniors on last Friday, we'll welcome
our new freshmen. I had a question.
There was 27 graduates. How much money
was given away in scholarships? That
would be 3,000. Why?
Isn't that amazing? Living an amazing I
know it is amazing. Debbie and I are
going to work on putting our article for
the paper. That's awesome. Thank you.
Yeah, that's a lot of money. Yeah, some
of the kids it adds up quickly for them
and you're like, it's incredible. It is
very nice. It is great for them that
they have. We have a great community. I
love it. Yeah. So, yeah, that's it.
That's how we're wrapping up the week.
So, tomorrow begins fun for our
elementary school. They're so excited
about field day and the and the buyer
trap the slip and slide and the slip and
slide and all that. Yes. Oh. Um. Yes.
So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh,
we had committee reports. I saw that we
had the
uh minutes from the facilities
committee, but we talked about all that
stuff last week. Um, policy not tonight.
What do you got for us? You have tons
next meeting. Okay. Yeah, quite a few
that are just reviewed. Um, a couple to
withdraw and then there was a few
changes as well.
Okay.
Uh, nothing tonight though for nothing
tonight. No.
And we have uh staff nominations,
recommendations, and resignations.
Um so for uh resignations Seron he's
going to be going on to higher editional
college um getting his masters need to
express possibly interest to come back
to sub and Cheryl Peltech um she is
going to spend more time with her
grandchildren and but she's going wants
to sub also so both of those letters are
in there um and then um Jack it is
although he's not an employee they feel
like it is. Uh he uh did retire. We had
a wonderful celebration for him after
the awards breakfast
um for the middle for the high school
and then we celebrated at each lunch and
the kids signed a big thing on the wall.
We had cake and we good for him. He will
be missed. He will be missed. Yeah,
definitely. Yeah. Um send the board's
congratulations out there. let them know
that uh we'll miss it.
And we haven't placed any of the pairs
yet. We've had some interviews and we
had an interview with our math teacher
and so that'll probably be the July
meeting. Yeah, hopefully. Yeah, but we
did we have worked through the PAR and
um have put a plan B in place for the
map. I don't necessarily want to do
that, but um we are. Do you need a vote
to accept their resignations? Um, with
the Paris,
[Music]
I mean, they're not contracted, so it
wouldn't Yeah, they're not a contract.
Well, they are a collective bargaining
agreement, so maybe we should do it.
I'll make a motion to accept Sarah
Cronin and Cheryl Peltex resignations
with regret. I'll second. Thank you,
Tammy. Thanks, Jasmine. Any further
discussion on that? All those in favor
signify by saying I. I opposed
extensions and the motion carries.
Thank you.
Um, special education capital reserve.
Yeah. So, since that's a capital reserve
account, we don't need to hold a public
hearing, but I'd like to um
move $60,000 out of the capital reserve
account into the general fund to cover
the shortage in special education
special education services. And that
represents roughly the amount that we're
going to get reimbursed from the state.
Yes. In special ed. Yeah. And that's
basically how we've been trying to
budget.
at least one of the placements and the
other two we didn't even know about.
Right. Right.
We just need a motion. I'll make a
motion to take 60,000 out of the special
education capital reserve and put it in
the general fund.
Thanks Tammy. Thanks Joe. Uh any further
discussion on that? All those in favor
signify by saying I. I opposed
extensions and motion carries.
transportation aid. Yeah. So, the
transportation aid I it's read a memo
there. Um we discussed it at our last
meeting, but I didn't realize and I was
talking to other um schools that
received the money and they said you
really should vote to accept that money
because it was such a large amount. Um
and
so again that was just uh and it was a
reimbursement from two years prior from
2223 and 2324 as money that was in the
state budget. It is going away after
June 30th. Um we need to vote to accept
the transportation aid.
Yeah. I'll make a motion to accept um
the $104,868
from the transportation aid grant for
prior year's vocational transportation
expenses and to recognize it as
unanticipated revenue for 2425 2024 and
2025 final. Thank you Tammy. Thanks Joe.
Uh any further discussion on that? All
those in favor signify by saying I. I
opposed extensions and that motion. I
think we covered the July meeting date
and the goal setting meeting date. We
have nothing under new or continuing
business.
We don't have any students, but we do
have staff.
How's it going? Good. You um from Diana
Pamplin and Sarah Bowden with
kindergarten classes spent the last
month investigating ocean creatures. Did
you know that the wingspan of the
largest manta ray is 29 ft or that a
shark's bumpy scales are called dermal
dentacles? Did you know that a sea star
sea star pretastes food with its rays?
Well, the kindergarteners know these
facts and many, many more. They use this
learning to inspire and instruct
theirformational writing skills. Please
take a few minutes to walk down the
hallway tonight and look at the walls
outside the kindergarten rooms. They're
very proud of their learning. Thank you.
And I did hear from Heather Krill that
the high schoolers had their last
reading buddies and they made jellyfish
also as part of this tied in together.
So there's pictures of one room and the
the big kids and the little kids. I I do
suggest you look at it. They dragged me
and showed me every little thing of
them. Fantastic. Very cute. Yeah. I have
a kindergarter, so I've been learning a
lot.
You know some of these facts. Tell me
about Tell me a fact you know about
starfish, Dad.
She asked me about ghost shrimp.
No, it's good.
Um, they're learning. Yeah. From me for
the last few couple of field trips.
Grade 8 had a fun and active three-day
camping trip in May to the Halbert
Outdoor Center in Vermont. The fan
favorites were ziplining, climbing
elements, canoeing, and archery. Food
was delicious. Staff was great, and the
weather and bugs were kind to us. They
were able to the kids were able to bond
and continue to find their independence
as well as their cooperative skills as
they embark on high school. Thank you
for supporting this trip. Awesome. Thank
you for all the work you do on that
trip. Yeah. They love it. Yeah. They
seem too short though. You think? Well,
I asked some of the kids. I was like,
"Would you want five days?" And it was
kind of a split. They But too short for
you. No, no, no. I mean, I guess Google
advice. Now I'm seeing where it comes
from me. At least you said that just
when they were like really into they had
Yeah. Yep. And then other kids were
like, "No, it was just enough." Or, you
know, I don't know. But I Yeah, I
thought the same thing. I was like, they
they keep them busy. Super cute. Um and
then yesterday we took Parade 7 up um
Mount Washington to experience the
summit weather and get a tour of the
observatory. We rode up the cog and were
joined by staff from the observatory to
take measurements of temperature and air
pressure as we ascended the mountain. It
was a positive experience for the
students climbing the highest peak to
walk in the clouds. Some getting over a
fear of heights while others were
intrigued by the mechanics of the train
cog. So, thank you also for allowing us
to have that trip. Be cool. We didn't
see Nimbus the cat, but maybe still.
Um, and also last month, a handful of
seventh grade students chose to
participate in the first annual state
um, middle school science fair at NHTI.
They designed and conducted their own
experiments, which included testing
different fuels in a sterling engine,
finding out if different citrus juices
can make invisible ink, and learning
about why different colors absorb
sunlight differently. We had a couple of
second place finishers in the chemistry
and physics and electronics categories.
So, congratulations to McKenzie and
Juniper and Charlie and Henry,
respectively. Um, I'm proud of the
students and the work they put into
their project, answering questions from
five or six judges that morning and
representing Lynwood well alongside
students who work there from
sciencemies. Nice. So, hopefully we'll
have more students participate next
year.
Thank you.
I don't see any communities because you
said that we do not either publish or
nonpublic motion to adjurnn. Thank you.
Second
case,
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unanimous.