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COOP School Board Meeting 8/19/2026

Video

We're ready to start pull my agenda.
[clears throat] Can you let me know when
we're live? Oh, great. [laughter]
Okay. It is 6:05
on August 19th and I am going to call
the co-op Hollis Brookline Cooperative
School Board meeting to order. Um,
[clears throat] do we have any agenda
adjustments?
>> I have none.
>> Great. Uh, we have a consent agenda. We
do we approve that right away?
>> Yep.
>> Okay. So, I need a motion to move the
consent agenda.
>> So, moved.
>> Moved to approve the agenda. So moved by
Amy,
>> second by Cindy. Are there any
questions?
>> It's on the It's on the
res a resation.
>> All right. All those in favor?
Three opposed?
>> Absention.
>> Okay. So 31
>> 01 31
>> 301.
>> Thank you. 3001. Motion carries.
Next, I need to appoint a process
observer. Could someone please raise
their hand?
I will disappoint you.
You did actually good at it.
>> Always so good at it.
>> I'll do it again. Whatever.
>> Oh, thank you, Cindy. I promise we'll go
quick. Okay. Um, and now we need to look
at some minutes. [clears throat]
So
we don't
we don't need correspondence. Okay. All
right. So I need to approve some
minutes. We need to approve some minutes
from the um Hollis Bline Cooperative
School District meeting on July 15th,
2026. Um Rob and Kate were not here. I
have a few amendments. Page five, line
38,
replace
accommodations with commendations. Page
9, line 32, members should be plural.
And page 10, line 42, delete could that
following. So I need a motion to approve
as amended.
>> So moved.
>> I I'm sorry. Who said that?
>> Cindy.
>> Cindy. Thank you. And a second.
>> Second.
>> Okay. Are there any questions or
comments on the minutes from July
15, 2026?
Seeing none, I'll take a vote. All those
in favor
zero. Motion carries.
We have nonpublic We had non-public
minutes as well from July 15th and there
are no amendments. So I need a motion to
uh oh sorry my things out of order.
Thank you. And the motion to approve is
presented.
>> Moved by Amy.
>> Cindy. I'm [laughter] sorry. I don't I
can't see. I sound
I know. So I guess so.
>> Cindy made of the motion. I need a
second.
>> Amy, [laughter]
>> are there any questions on the
non-public minutes? All those in favor
[clears throat] zero. Great. I feel like
I did not. Let me see where I
confused by my Oh, yeah. There we go.
Okay, there we go. Okay, moving on to
public input. So, public input is
scheduled to start at 6:10
p.m. Um, seeing that we are kind of
ahead of schedule already. Process
observer, make note of that. Um, I am
going to start public input at 6:08. Run
it for a half an hour till 6:38. We will
go move on with our meeting. Seeing I
don't believe we'll have much public
input since nobody's here. Um, so I'm
going to open the floor for public input
at 6:08. And if someone could set a
timer and um shut me down at 6:38, that
would be great. Um okay. Or [snorts]
6:40 actually because we're supposed to
we were supposed to start at 610. So
let's go to 640. That's the number.
Sorry, I was doing the math wrong.
>> Okay. Um actually, I should probably
take a moment and have us do
introductions for the public. So I will
start with Cindy.
>> Cindy Vancone, Paula, school board
member.
Uh Amy Kelner from Hollis,
>> doc flarity, assistant superintendent
for curriculum instruction.
>> Lauren de Janeiro, assistant
superintendent of student services.
>> Gina Bzog, superintendent.
>> Holly Derilla Babcock, uh member from
Hollis and chair.
>> Rob man, member um of the school board
uh from Hollis.
>> Tom Solan, [clears throat] school board
member, Brooklyn, Patrick West,
principal of the middle school.
>> Jacob Hess, principal of the high
school. Thank you guys for that. Okay,
so moving on with our agenda, we have
our athletics report uh from the board.
>> Yeah. Um it is hard to believe, but
another year of uh HB athletics kicked
off. Uh football started um last Friday
on the 14th while all other sports began
uh this past Monday. Uh student athletes
at the middle school will first uh start
taking the fields, courts, and trails on
Thursday, September 3rd. Current
registrations are showing strong
participation numbers across the board,
and an official breakdown of those
numbers will be included in the
September board packet. While summer has
seen no shortage of action in the world
of athletics, we're looking forward to
uh the buzz of the official start of all
of our sports teams. In addition to the
start of the fall season, uh we've also
completed impact testing at the high
school level and will be offering the
opportunity to our middle school student
athletes when the season begins.
Mark your calendars. Homecoming weekend
will also coincide with our New
Hampshire Tackles hunger campaign and is
scheduled to take place on Friday,
October 3rd and Saturday, October 4th,
with all games happening on the turf
field and culminating in a homecoming
dance following the football game on
Saturday, October 4th. A full schedule
events will be posted on the athletic
website. Um and we have some district a
uh athletic openings
um at both the high school and the
middle school. Middle school is looking
for a girls basketball coach and the
high school is looking for a variety of
assistant coaches and a few head
coaching positions. Um so please take a
look at those.
>> Are there any questions on the athletic
board?
>> There are quite a few coaches openings
but most of them are not for the fall.
>> Correct.
>> You have one question. There
[clears throat] are some significant
though fall vacancies. Yeah.
>> Are we um having any other schools use
our field this year because of uh what
happened in Nashville last year with the
stadium
>> oh
>> being unavailable?
>> No, there's there's back.
>> They're all set.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> So, the answer is probably not.
>> Great. Good question. Thank you. Any
other questions on the board report?
We'll be seeing more numbers in
September. That's great. Thank you.
>> All right, moving on to the principal's
report. Uh that would be I guess I'll go
for you're not you're listed as second,
Mr. West, so it's you.
>> Sounds good.
>> Uh our opening days, we do have uh an
update from when I submitted this.
Unfortunately, due to all the
construction that is going on in the
building, we are going to have to cancel
our student open house days next week on
the 24th and the 27th. Uh last year, we
are in a similar situation. We did have
one uh day, but uh as I'm sure you saw
coming into campus, and if you haven't
looked down that hallway, uh there's
still quite a bit of construction uh
that doesn't allow for [clears throat]
students and families to come into our
building next week, which I'm very sorry
about, but hoping everybody can
understand. We've got to get the
building ready to open for the first day
of school. Um, and as much as we can for
the uh 31st when staff come back into
the building. Um, we're still planning
to have our seventh grade orientation on
September 2nd as we've always done uh
which is dedicated seventh grade
students to come into the building for
about a half a day uh walk their you
know do their schedule, try their
locker, get their Chromebook uh and just
acclimate to a new building uh with
roughly a hundred new students that they
have not met. Um, PTSA [clears throat]
is looking for volunteers to get
involved. Uh, I've included contact
information there. Uh, extended school
year, uh, run by student services
administrator Katherine Ransom, uh, put
on another great, um, program this year,
roughly 28 students involved, uh, and
just a really great ESY program. So,
thanks to her and all of our staff as
well as students and families for such a
positive and enriching experience.
Uh
supply lists have been sent out as well
as other beginning of the year
information. [clears throat] Uh
facilities work I included. Our facility
crew here does a really great job uh
getting the building ready. Uh but
they've also been managing how to do
their normal job while all the projects
go on in the building. Uh I think I
forgot to mention this last board
meeting. Uh but in room 110, our life
skills room that is getting a full
renovation. Uh
and I included a picture there and it's
looking really great. Uh it's a pretty
old classroom there with some pretty old
uh kitchens that are I think we're
getting two new kitchens for our life
skills and hopefully some other
opportunities around clubs, maybe
cooking and baking and things like that.
Uh our enrollment is currently uh 350
students for this coming school year.
176 7th graders and 174 eighth graders.
Uh I've included our new staff members.
We do still have open two para educator
positions um and a admin assistant
position that we posted for um and there
are some upcoming dates. I did want to
also mention I met with a Rotary this
morning. Uh we've been looking into a
guest speaker that Brian Bumpus has uh
been working with Jake and I on uh Mark
Linewaver. He's a MLB
uh agent for about 75 agents, but he's
also put together this really great
bullying awareness and prevention uh
presentation.
>> What's his name?
>> Mark Lightver. Uh he's for he's from uh
Why Character Matters. Uh we'll have
more information at our our next board
meeting, but I just wanted to put this
out there that this is something Jake
and I are working on um not only to kick
off the year with some changes around
our bullying policy coming. Uh
[clears throat] but just to be a little
more intentional this year around
bullying awareness and prevention.
October is bullying awareness and
prevention month. So, we think the
September 22nd date is a nice date to
kind of kick that month off. Um, and
be really intentional this year with
conversations, bringing in a guest
speaker that I think will really
resonate with our students, um,
considering his background is maybe not
education, but, uh, athletics, and he
has a really neat message. Um, again,
we'll include some more information next
month, uh, his website and whatnot, but
I think we're all pretty excited to
bring bring
>> anybody questions.
So, I go ahead.
>> No, go ahead.
>> Couple questions. Um, in terms of the
enrollment, is that around the number
that you were expecting when you went
into like the year like or were there
moveins or move outs or a lot of changes
in the enrollment numbers? Well, our
seventh grade number we were expecting
because it's uh sorry, our eighth grade
number.
>> Well, it's who we have. I was just right
wondering how many
>> um
we've been roughly around that. We
haven't been over 200 in my five years.
Yeah. But that was somewhat what we were
expecting. I guess I was expecting a
little bit more.
>> Right.
>> So, it is a little bit lower than I
>> was expecting to figure out projections
versus reality. And since you guys are
on the ground, I thought I would ask
that. And then my second question is
related to the bullying presentation. Is
there any thought or you know
consideration to try and do something
not just for kids but also maybe for the
community adults get the adult get
parents [clears throat]
>> in the room so they have an
understanding of definitions and you
know I don't know stuff like that.
>> I think some of that work is going to be
maybe even sooner than that depending on
when policy updates come. Uh Mark did
say that he was planning to fly in the
night before and he'd be open to doing a
parent presentation. He also did give us
the okay to record all presentations.
We're going to do a seventh and eighth
grade presentation and break out with
leadership.
>> Um and then I think the high school
>> 9 10 9 12
>> and then some breakout and we're allowed
to record that and then share that out
with parents.
>> Great.
>> Thank you. Does you had a question Tom?
>> Yeah. I was just wondering do you know
if um
the [clears throat]
the delay I'll call them delay are they
delays
with the facilities work or is it just
the sequence of events uh i.e. is the
level of completion what was anticipated
or are we um seeing extension of the
overall schedule? So, it's what we were
expecting. Um, but based on our
experience with the crane at the high
school, um, if you recall at our
facilities meeting, the cranes, the
scheduled days for the crane were in
that week. And so, I just don't feel
comfortable having people potentially
here and then cancel last minute. Um,
and then the other thought was, well,
even if the crane was set, could we just
open the south end of the building? And
at the end of the day, it it just didn't
make sense to open part of the building,
but students not be able to see the
north end and where all their classes
were. And I just thought it would be
safer for everyone if we just um chose
not to move forward with those days.
>> The crane days, you know,
>> I just didn't know if this was a sign
that the schedule had slipped. No, I
like I said just with
>> just logistics
>> logistics with this with the crane at
the high school getting the solar
equipment on the roof created quite a
few um
just like scrambling we got to move you
know camp for this and and we're going
to close the gym for this and I just
didn't want to do that again. So I felt
>> lessons learned as to how much birth the
crane needs in terms of how much
>> well if the crane is there we don't want
anybody in the building
>> right
>> um and so if the crane is delayed
>> and then I have to send a last minute
cancellation
>> yeah complicated
>> okay great any other questions for
Patrick or related to the school opening
>> well congratulations thank you to the um
to the custodians because it's a lot of
work that they've done all summer and
those pictures look like
>> well the shiny It's really pretty. So,
>> go this way. Everything looks great and
normal. [laughter]
>> The shiny looks great. Okay. Thank you.
All right. And Jake, you are now up.
>> Yeah. Um, we are open. Our opening days
are also uh right around the corner.
We're excited for our staff to return on
Monday, August 31st. We will have our
freshman and new student orientation day
on Wednesday, September 2nd. And I mean,
our first bell rings at 7:35 that day.
Uh, they meet with us in the auditorium.
We run them through their schedules.
They meet their advisories. Uh we feed
them lunch. We do some games and
activities, lockers, all that kind of
good stuff. Um and buses, uh pick them
up at 12:15. And we're excited to
welcome our new students and the class
of 2030,
uh which sounds like the future, uh into
the high school. Um our first full day
of school for all grades 9 through 12 is
on Thursday, September 3rd. Um,
[clears throat] we're going to run seven
period days on uh the 3rd and the 4th.
Just a reminder to parents and students,
there is no PLC Friday on Friday the
4th. So, our school day will start at
our regular 7:40 start time. More
information is coming out and schedules
for me tomorrow about all that. Um, our
facilities work this summer. Uh, picture
there. Our new looking makeover of our
gym floor. It looks fantastic. um you
know, light wood, the blue paint, uh the
multi and a new logo in the middle.
Looks really sharp. If you get a chance
to check that out, uh it looks really
nice. Um they've already broken it in
with some basketball camps and
volleyball practice and stuff, so looks
really nice. Um
>> is that the blue we're leaning into,
like a darker blue?
>> Uh the pan tone is [laughter]
>> 7272
D8 or something. Like I've Gosh, I've
said it so many times over the past few
weeks, but yes, that's the that's our
blue. That is the
>> So like the blue that Patrick is wearing
versus the blue that you're wearing.
>> Mhm.
>> Yes.
>> There's two different blues, but we're
leaning more into your blue than Patrick
>> for high school. For the high school.
Okay.
>> And the panone for the middle school
different color.
>> I see.
>> And they're all tied to the SA41 tree.
>> Oh my gosh.
>> Wow.
>> We rebranded. [laughter]
>> Good to know. Thank you.
>> Um, our building looks great. The
custodian staff is doing a wonderful
job. Um, you know, floors are ready,
classrooms are ready, everything looks
really nice. Uh, if you walk around, you
might see a few new murals on the wall.
Uh, Mr. Etin, uh, our assistant
principal got, uh, you know, his Vincent
Van Go itch this summer and did some
painting, uh, and they look fantastic.
So, give a shout out to Mr. Eton as
well, uh, this summer. So,
>> he's good at math and art.
>> Yeah, many things he's good at. Um, and
so, uh, we had the crane last week
putting stuff up on the roof, uh, for
the solar panels. Uh, I believe they
were moving some rocks the last couple
days, so that was a little loud. I'm
glad we were at our district retreat and
in the building for that. So, uh, it
looks great. Um, our enrollment numbers,
uh, as of last week, um, total
population at the high school of 737.
um 186 incoming freshmen, 173
sophomores, 183 juniors, and our class
of 2027 sits at 195.
Um we have two new teachers joining us
this fall uh in math department, Jessica
Schulty, and in English, Emily Skinnel.
They're both uh veteran teachers coming
and joining our staff. Really excited
about having them.
Um important dates are listed there.
We've started sports. We've got new
higher orientation happening next week.
We've got our staff days and everything
kind of listed in there and um a lot
more information about some specific
things will be coming from me um
tomorrow. So keep an eye on your email
uh parents and community. And lastly, uh
I've attached our student handbook and
the handbook change sheet. Patrick did
his uh last month. We had a few things
left to work on. So I have that here and
I'll start with the report and then we
can talk about the handbook itself
after. questions on [clears throat] the
principal's report first.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
>> Are there questions on the principal's
report?
>> Just a general question on the schedule.
Um, which day is uh the new there's a
teacher welcome.
>> It's next Tuesday and
>> the 31st is the Do you mean are you
talking about new high orientation or
talking about
>> I think where the assembly invit
>> August 31st.
I have a draft email that I have.
>> Are you going to invite us?
>> Okay. Well, we don't know.
>> No, [laughter] I'm inviting you.
>> And what's the start time? Do you know?
>> I do know. Um
>> 8
>> 7:45 to 8:15 refreshments will be
served. 8:15 is the opening address.
We [clears throat] are welcoming our
smallest group of new hires this year.
So we have the largest percentage of
returning teachers in the past decade.
So we're excited about that.
>> The bulk of our new teachers are at the
middle school.
>> Anyone hitting 50 years yet?
>> Oh, we already had someone
57.
>> Oh,
>> 557.
>> I thought 56 last year or something.
>> Any other questions on the board report?
So 737 is a little higher than I was
expecting. I was I didn't think we were
going to get close to 740.
>> I think we had like a I think the last
number I heard was like a net gain of
five students.
>> Yeah. I mean I think Nest had us staying
around 720 for quite a while. So um it's
not our highest numbers by any means. I
mean, we've been higher before, but um I
was anticipating based on NASDAQ
projections to be in the 720s for a
while. And that 737, it's only 17
students, but when we only have 737
kids, like
>> it's not bad.
>> So, a lot of excitement and buzz around
the uh adventine and stuff high school,
I hear.
>> Yeah. Everyone wants to [laughter]
>> awesome.
>> Any other any other questions on that?
>> All right, moving on. We'll look at your
change sheet, um which is in the packet.
rel related to the handbook.
>> Yeah. Um so a lot of basic stuff uh at
the beginning as far as you know new
letter from the principal updating the
list of admin and teachers that sort of
thing. Um the new bell schedule is in
there that reflects our shift with
advisory in cavlock. Um so we've updated
some of that stuff. Um the biggest area
where you'll see some changes is we've
tightened up and refined some of our
consequences. um within the code of
conduct and and in the other areas
>> and we have an actual page that's a code
>> we have an actual code of conduct in
there now um and then in you know the
the discipline section um you know we've
we've tightened up some of our um
consequences and and when when
detentions happen and and that kind of
thing. Um the biggest change with those
is um you know we really reflected last
uh this this summer about how things
worked with cell phones and you know
strike one this happens strike two this
happens strike three this happens if we
get to strike four um it was pretty
burdensome for teachers and
administration to um kind of navigate
and and keep track of and do so um we
are having last year and a letter that
will come from me in the next day to
serve as their last warning when it
comes to cell phones. It's a strike and
you're out situation. If your phone is
out, it'll be confiscated for the day.
You can pick it up at the end of the
day. If it happens again, same thing.
And we're adding a 60-minute detention.
[clears throat] Happens a third time,
same process, 90-minute detention, and a
parent meeting um where we really have
to then create a behavior plan for not
being able to follow a state law while
within our building. So, we really tried
to tighten that up based upon kind of
how how things went last year.
>> And when you say pick it up at the end
of the day, the student can pick it up
at the end of day. The student can pick
it up.
>> The student doesn't need a parent.
>> Um, and is that all is it that's all in
keeping with the policy, right? Because
we remove the consequences out of the
>> We didn't change the policy at all. Just
updated our procedure for what that
looks like.
There any questions on the changes and
the and the student handbook?
>> Okay. Yeah. No. No. No. Okay.
>> All right. Moving on. We have uh Thank
you very much,
>> Jake and Patrick. Um we are now up to
our data dashboard discussion which I
think is John Buché is here, right?
>> Uh yes. So let me uh do a little
introduction. This is John Buchet. He's
our director of technology. He has been
working, we've been thinking about the
data dashboard for a year. We had
planned to roll it out uh before the
start of this school year and then of
course there was some discussion at some
of our annual meetings around the
petition war article about sharing data.
So this was something that we had in the
works already. As an admin team, we've
been talking about monthly like what
should go on there, what shouldn't,
what's appropriate, what data do we want
to share. It's still a work in progress.
This is in its beta phase. Like I said,
we'll we'll we'll post it to the public
site before the start of school. We just
wanted to give you a little preview. And
it's easier to add content rather than
have something and then remove it. So,
we figured we'd start with some data
that we could all agree on and then move
forward from there and see how it goes.
>> Excellent. Well, thank you for having
me.
>> Should we on the by the
>> He has a microphone.
>> I have a microphone.
Do I know how to use the new light?
>> That's what I don't
like.
>> That was beautiful.
>> Looks great.
>> Perfect.
[clears throat]
>> So, as Gina said, this is um kind of our
beta edition uh ready to be published in
a couple weeks um right at the start of
school year. Um,
as she said, you know, lots of
discussions about what data belongs on
here, but then how to present that data
in a meaningful way. Uh, most of the
data that is on here is publicly
accessible. A lot of it, most of it
through the DOE. If you've ever tried to
access data at the DOE, it's a bit
cumbersome. I'm not sure if that's by
design or not, but uh, you know, to
collect that data and then present it in
a way that makes some sense. So down the
lefth hand side of the screen, uh it
starts off with an overview that
basically gives a very quick description
uh of what's found on every page with a
link um when appropriate uh to perhaps
the DOE uh where the raw data was
collected. So um one of the things about
data dashboards is of course you need to
be able to keep it up to date because if
if it's not kept up to date then it's
not a very useful tool.
>> So everything is accessible this way.
Before you run away, just on the first
sentence, I think you want to delete the
first sources.
>> Should it be source?
>> The the data presented in these pages
are from several publicly available
sources. So,
>> that's the first occurrence of the word
source.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> So, we will have uh down the left hand
side um menu options. So it starts with
the overview. That's where the link will
initially uh take you. And then uh we're
just going to work down the side of the
page so we can see what type of uh
information is available. So the first
one is state testing. So when you click
on state testing, it brings us over to
the state testing page.
I'm going to resize it. Uh so we can
look at some historical data to begin
with. Uh math is on the lefth hand side,
ELA on the right hand side. And I went
back a few years because uh it's
important to show uh the starts of
trends, see some history with it. Uh it
is interactive in the sense that when
you take your cursor and hover over
numbers, they highlight so it's a little
bit easier to read.
ELA on the right hand side, again, math
on the left hand side. Scrolling down
the page, we can now take a look at
where we stand uh
in relationship to a bunch of other
districts in the area. Uh so you can
pick a year. It defaults to 2025. And
you can pick a grade. So since we're at
the co-op, let's jump up to grade 8.
Grade 8 happens to also have the science
assessment. So the science data is
populated over on the right hand side.
And this list auto sorts uh Hollisbrook
line cooperative is always highlighted
in blue which matches the panones uh as
well. State data is highlighted in gray
and it shows our relationship uh with
respect to other districts. This is
percent proficient. So these are levels
threes and fours on the data. If you're
interested in other years, you can
simply switch to other years. Everything
auto updates. Uh and of course as we get
the data from uh you know the next year
typically around November it would be
updated with the new sets.
>> Oh one thing if you just scroll up again
you scroll should it say Hollis
Brookline Cooperative School District
instead of Bedford School District?
>> Yes
I copied it. [laughter]
>> So this just pulls from from the state.
So as the state changes this will
change.
>> No. So uh I pull the data from the
state. So as the state publishes new
data I will pull it uh and then on the
back end of this is a series of
spreadsheets um that feed into this so I
can update uh that information from
there.
So that's the state testing. Enrollment
data takes a look at across all of our
districts
defaults to the um the most recent year
I have data for. So this is the 25 26
school year. We can see grade level uh
from zero which is kindergarten through
six of Brooklyn Hollis and then co-op
obviously from grades 7 to 12. And if
you're interested in the enrollments in
previous years, you can go back to
previous years and the date updates.
>> Could you consider adding
um a note somewhere in [clears throat]
the top area that just gives the most
recent
um date from which you've pulled data.
So that if someone's looking at it and
they say it doesn't match, we can say
this is when it was pulled and that
it'll sort of take that
You know what I'm you know where I'm
going.
>> Yeah. So each of the pages the data
becomes available at a different point.
So on each of the landing pages we could
identify
>> one of the
have a field in the spreadsheet that is
pulling from that populates it. So when
you do a spreadsheet update on the back
end one of the one of the fields will be
the date at which that update occurred.
I really like how you're presenting this
data because it's very consumable. Is
there a way to do something similar with
the test scores? Because for me, it was
a wall of numbers and if there's a way
to I don't know how much work that would
take, but if there's a way to do it,
that's not too much work.
It it plus the consistency from a user
experience. I'm seeing a lot of data,
but I'm seeing it in a consistent format
rather than, you know, state testing. I
see a lot of schools and a lot of
numbers.
>> Are you looking for cohort overtime data
like or how third grade looks 23, 24,
25?
>> Yeah, like if I'm looking for for a
particular grade, maybe it's it's it's
bringing that data into some sort of
graphical form rather than just tables,
>> right? But I
because this is something we've been
talking about for months like how if
you're not a data person,
how do we make it
>> right,
>> the most consumable?
>> Um, and so this is just,
>> you know, do I guess are we looking at
sixth grade over time or this cohort,
right,
>> over time that you're looking
>> or are you looking at all the grades at
a snapshot in time like you did on the
next page?
>> Right. And and we can we can do it. I
just don't see So I feel like one of the
things that's missing I'm not on the
microphone. I feel like the one of the
things that's missing when people talk
about testing when they get up at our
meeting is they talk about a moment a
day a day that we
>> that these kids took the test. But what
our teachers are doing is working with
those kids so that those scores can to
see growth, right? So, I would love to
see some sort of something that shows
cohorts over time because when someone
looks at sixth grade, they'll see like
this 52 7 like they'll see those numbers
data point. But what we want to see is
>> like where that sixth graders where they
came where they're going,
>> how they how they, you know, move them
up to seventh grade where they came in
eighth grade.
>> Yeah. A little bit of that. I don't know
if you wanted to do all of it, but
something like that would be I think
really helpful.
>> I think you but if you've got this if
you've got all the data there and it's
just a an issue of making couple of
additional pages. You could have a
submen that says by grade, by cohort, by
year.
>> Yeah, I wouldn't get rid of this because
like
>> there may be people who want that want
the data that way. But for somebody who
wants a high level like what's third
grade doing or what's you know and can
see that [snorts] and have those options
to look at this kind of complicated data
in a different way.
>> Um
>> I don't necessarily have a solution.
>> No, this is helpful. Like I said, we've
been going back and forth for months
>> trying to figure out what is helpful for
people. Well, I think it's important for
people to understand that we're teaching
kids and educating kids and they're
growing and they're changing and you
know, and sometimes we might see that
they're not successful, a cohort might
not be as successful and that we have to
be transparent about that, but we have
to show what we can show which is
growth. Um, those tests mean nothing if
they don't show us how they did
>> over time. Yeah.
Okay, moving on
below. And it's hard to see on the the
screenshot. I promise it's uh much
clearer on a screen, but I can zoom in.
So, schoolwide enrollment by year.
So, this is in order uh from the 2223
school year. So, you can just see total
uh enrollment from the school
So that's interesting. 706 is that's
going to go up to the 737,
>> right? So we're going to bounce back.
We're getting really close to that.
>> Yeah. If you recall, I kept mentioning
last year's senior class was an
incredibly small
>> class, one of the smallest, well, the
smallest one in a decade.
>> And middle school's at 350
>> and now they've graduated.
>> So that's declining.
>> And this is also the October one be
beginning of year data,
>> right?
Can I reference that?
>> Is that usually higher or lower than
than than
uh opening day or isn't there a usual
>> So what we find is opening day is
usually higher because some families
who've cho chosen to um transfer out or
go to homeschool or any number of
options haven't notified us. So, we
don't know that
>> and you know they might hold a complete
schedule and it's not until they don't
show up on the first day that we find
that out.
>> Okay, moving on. Athletics. Uh, this is
most applicable to the co-op. Um, so I
work with Brian Bumpus to get athletic
data.
So it starts off with uh well shows a
graph of both uh the high school and the
middle school participants uh and all
sports programs but you can drill down.
So if I'm interested perhaps in girls
soccer uh I can click girls soccer and
now I can see the participants uh for
girls soccer of both the high school and
the middle school over the last several
years. If I'm interested in combination
sports, I can do that. So, if I'm just
interested in anybody doing soccer, I
could scroll down to boys soccer
and add them in there, too. So, it's it
can be additive or I can look at one
sport at a time and uh if it's only at
one school, then the other school just
disappears. So, I can see for instance
what the football uh participants uh
numbers have been.
Scrolling down the page, this is back to
a table. Uh, and we've played around
with this as a graph as well. Uh, kind
of going back to that last conversation
we had. Um,
trying to make it the most accessible to
everybody. Um, so this is uh
participation. Um, and it's it's broken
up by total team participants versus
unique student participants because
oftentimes we have a student in multiple
teams. Right. And so then it compares it
to high school enrollment and then we
have the percentage of students on an
athletic team uh at the high school. So
we can see that over time as well.
Moving on to co-curricular activities.
So this is band and chorus.
So we can pick the activity. It's broken
up uh MS for middle school, HS for high
school. So, if I'm interested in eighth
grade chorus, I can see now the
participation in eighth grade chorus
over the past several years.
And it works the same way as the
previous page. If I'm interested in how
many kiddos took a chorus at the middle
school, I can select both of them and
get the total number.
Or I could choose concert choir, let's
say at the high school, and pick concert
choir
and see what participation is there.
Yeah. Are there any other co-curricular
activities that should be on this list?
Not just band and chorus, but should
there be like robotics on this list or
some of our other large larger scale
co-curricular activities that have been
topics of conversation in the past or
>> Yep. So that we uh will be adding that
data. This is easy to pull because it's
from P school.
>> And it's just a an enrollment in a
course. We are looking into adding range
of participants for all of our clubs
because it, you know, maybe September
everyone wants to go to French club
because they're making crepes but then
they stop showing up later on. Um and
then um and then they at the end of the
year the adviserss completed a survey
partially to look at the stipens but
then partially to look at how many
students on average over the course of
the year are participating in this. And
so it's going to be less specific but
range of like participants per club.
Okay. And not
>> if these are are some classes,
>> right? So that's what I was just going
to say. So not to be fussy, but like
>> not every kid who is in band is actually
doing after school band. So are these
co-curricular activities or is this just
visual and performing? Is this just
performing arts? Are we just having like
we could have a performing arts um tab?
But I think it's important for people to
because that's been one of the biggest
issues we've had is the com the
conflation of the curricular aspects of
performing arts versus the co-curricular
aspects
>> versus extracurricular. So yeah, so
we'll we'll co-curricular considered
both
>> courses co- like after school clubs
>> extras. Okay. All right.
>> But but if it's in power school it's
>> that's co-curricular.
>> It's a course.
>> Okay. It's a course. It's
>> curriculum. Correct. So these are things
that
>> I thought co-curricular
>> I thought
>> it's not
>> because we were told the co-curricular
supports an academic area but it doesn't
include the classroom portion.
So that's where So here's we'll leave
that to you, but that's something you
guys could like dig into for us because
that's confusing for me. Like I
>> feel like that course is the course and
then I know they have
>> stuff that they do at night related to
like middle school, right?
>> Right. So I thought co-curricular meant
not of the classroom, but I'm not I
guess
>> so. Extracurricular is something that's
not connected to a course per se. So the
extracurricular would be purely an after
school club that's not connected to a
course.
>> Okay. So that would be like robotics and
those kinds of things.
>> Well, well and and even for performing
arts like the school musical wouldn't be
co-curricular. That would be
extracurricular.
>> All right. Forgive me then. I had the
wrong definition of what co-curricular
was in my brain. I'm not sure you did
because like
>> um some of the band some of the bands it
doesn't matter what so long as we're all
>> on the same page
>> speaking the same language because many
of the meetings that occurred
>> a clear distinction was made between
stipended positions for co-curriculars
>> extracurriculars
>> no we called them co-curriculars
>> it's tricky
>> and tricky and um salaried positions for
the classroom activity. And I just want
to make sure that if we're in a
co-curricular tab, um John, could you
please put up the menu of what they can
pick from
>> like the drop down?
>> Yeah. No.
>> Oh, I'm sorry. For the for the
co-curricular
>> it is exclusively banding course.
Correct. But yeah,
>> if any of these are considered classes,
>> they are
>> that are
taught by a salaried staff position
as opposed to the co-curricular activity
which is
staffed by a stipened position. I
would I'm uncomfortable having the
classroom activity
appear under this heading.
>> Yeah. So to your point and I hear you
because I I understand what you're
saying now. This is purely the course
the co-curricular experiences that exist
um for the festivals and those things
that only the students in these courses
have the opportunity to go to the
majority of those. Those would be the
co-curricular activities if we wanted to
highlight that data.
>> Okay,
>> if that if that makes sense. So this I
this I agree with you. This looks like
it's purely just the course enrollment.
So this is more enrollment in these
courses, but the co-curricular
activities
>> and I can name them festival all state
all that would be. So I don't think
that's the right title. So that would be
the co-curricular activities. If you go
to the all new England, you go to
Manadnok, you go to whatever they are
without being enrolled in those courses.
>> Not not some of them. Yes, some of them
no. redetermined but it does have to be
connected to
>> some correct some of them for for all
state yes that is
>> is it fair to say that what we're seeing
right now would be considered curricular
>> this is course enrollment yes this is
purely enrollment course enrollment
>> so that's the confusion so we just need
to clarify that and then if you do pull
up and create a
>> co-curricular
>> with those activity
>> data I think it's important to bring in
some other
>> or maybe to have an extracurricular tab
too I just feel like I don't want to
just be focused on performing arts and
not all the other pieces that kids are
engaged with.
>> Yeah, this is
this all the performing arts.
>> No, this is just
>> you just been in court.
>> Okay, I didn't know.
>> thank you.
>> Y
>> Moving down the page, uh we have percent
of students participants uh
participating in middle school abandoned
course and high school abandoned course.
And then finally we have graduation
Um so looking just at uh right now uh
HBHS graduation rate in comparison with
the state graduation rate
when
the state testing
can we identify
which which ones are the default state
tests and versus the ones where we use
uh the SAT
SAT is the default state test for 11th
grade
>> for us. It is
>> for the state of New Hampshire.
>> It is now.
>> Okay. Because what I'm what I'm
wondering is um I I don't know if you
want to broaden
the title of this from graduate
graduation data to something more
encompassing, but some of the other
non-state
measurements. Yeah, we were looking at
adding all of our EP testing results.
The question is it becomes
really cumbersome. Um I mean we could we
could just do a um the same kind of
graph that we have in our um profile in
our school profile but we could also
drill down to course performance you
know like a AP US history AP world
history and look at that over time but
it becomes really
>> a lot of a lot of information and it's
difficult to look at but that is
something that
>> we have and we're talking about adding
but
>> this is just the best way to present
that without it just being so much
information you can't read through it. I
have one more question about state
testing. Is there any way to um
put the data in? I mean, one of the
conversations and one of the things that
Tom did in the presentation at the
annual meeting was talk about our um
optouts.
>> Thank you. the opt out numbers and how
to get that data out to folks to have an
understanding of the impact of opt outs
on
>> our test on all the tests.
>> Is there a way to do that?
>> We could do person participation.
>> Absolutely.
>> Just a question. I don't know how that
would look and if that would help or
not, but
>> I don't know if that gives anyone ideas.
>> I think it all looks great. I mean,
>> graphics are good.
>> Are are you done with it? Can I move
back to my seat? Absolutely. I don't
want to blind [laughter]
out.
>> And like we said, this is still in the
beta mode where there's, you know,
things are getting thrown in here and
there and we are adjusting colors. We're
adjusting um in particular with the page
currently titled co-curricular
activities. Uh in athletics, we have
similar data, but one's represented in a
graph, one's represented in a table. We
keep on going back and forth and which
which is the most meaningful.
>> Are there any comments other comments or
>> Yeah. Um, have you done any
>> Make sure you're talking to the mic,
Tom.
>> I'm talking to him. I don't care about
Mike.
[laughter]
>> Um, have you done any mobile testing of
this yet?
>> Um,
no.
>> Okay. I would ask that you you you do um
and I don't know if there's a plugin or
something that would allow that would
perhaps reformat it, but I can say with
high confidence that this will be
accessed on phones pretty regularly.
>> Do you want to know the important
question? Where could you find this
>> right now? I hope you can't.
>> You can't. But where would you be able
to find it?
So, um, the SAU41 school district web
page. Uh, we were thinking, sorry after
I told you you could move back. Uh,
>> under our district like this,
>> under our district, uh, we can take up
one of these slots right here to add the
data dashboard. And then at every single
uh, school, we have an R school. And
there's an slot right there that we can
add it to. So, uh, very similar place.
>> I would rather see it. a direct link on
each page,
>> but where
>> can have it before or after that the
four or to the right of resources or to
the left of our school or under
or on the blue pop banner bar any place
you want it, but I would like to see a
direct link.
>> I don't know that we can.
>> Huh?
>> I said I don't know that we can based on
what we're allowed.
>> Allowed by whom? um the website company
>> domain.
>> I actually kind of disagree with you. I
think data is important but I think
everything that we do is important and
the fact that it's underneath our school
and in that list of other things that
talks about our st I mean it talks about
our calendar and events and
announcements and our staff and our
newsletters and all of that and data is
a part of that but it's not necessarily
more important than that.
>> That's my opinion.
>> Yeah,
>> that's my take as my kids say. That's my
hot take
>> and my um my counter to that is that
that may be your belief but the the the
thing is I don't know that that I don't
think that would be an intuitive place
to look for.
>> Uh and and that's the problem that we
run into is if people don't find it
quickly and easily, they say it's not
there,
>> right? It would be searchable though.
Mhm.
>> Maybe after we launch it, we could have
a a popup on the website for a few times
kind of announcing where it is, the
location.
>> Yeah, pop-ups are always helpful for a
while.
>> Yeah, at a minimum, I would think go to
resources
because that that's
data data download.
>> Maybe we can put it in both places.
>> No, I'm just saying you definitely want
it on on resources. But if you can get
it on there just just as a click button,
I would advocate for it.
>> I am advocating for it.
>> Just having built this, I'm pretty
confident we were limited and so we had
to limit our scope as to what we were
going to call those four spot
>> and the three spots up top.
>> Is that because of they have a a very uh
structured template that you have to fit
within?
What's down at the bottom?
You go to the bottom of the page.
>> I'll just look at it while
>> that do these do these pull or is this a
separately constructed menu? Do you
know?
>> What do you mean pull?
>> I don't know.
>> Under parents and students, does does it
pull from you? We I mean but we could
put a link here and a link up there
easily.
>> Multiple links. Many many links.
>> Any other questions or comments?
>> Well done. This is
>> Well done, John. This is great. Great.
>> Awesome. I did open it up on my phone
just as a as a quick check and it's
actually quite nice. I mean, it is the
web page um but it's pretty easy
actually to zoom in and out so you can
see the tables pretty clearly. Okay. I'm
not saying it would. I just wanted to
make sure that we do that we do that
test.
>> And the pull down menus, even though
they're they're smaller on the screen,
when you click them, it's actually nice
and big so you can scroll through it.
So, it's actually not that.
>> Great. Thank you.
>> It is a Google product that we use to
build it. So,
>> are you you looking on an Android or an
Apple?
>> Apple.
>> Oh, cool. So, what what would be your
road map for actually releasing this
>> or what? releasing
>> releasing it.
like how are we going to roll it out?
>> No. When Oh, timing. Oh, we wanted to do
it at the start of school when school
started.
>> So, it's in beta now. What
What are the next steps between what
we're seeing now and release?
>> The errors that you guys identified and
Hollis didn't identify any of those.
>> Good job.
>> Look at us superstars.
and make some Yeah. Brookline, but make
some adjustments and like I said, it's
easy enough to add to it over time. It's
harder when it's presented one way and
then you change it. So, I'd rather
>> When you say harder, you mean acceptance
is difficult. It's technically not
harder.
>> No. Right. So, it's um more of a
challenge to for the community to think
that something was there and then it's
gone now.
>> To lose to lose something than to
>> Right. And so I'd rather
>> that makes people suspicious as well
because they think why did you take that
down? Was that not right? Or was it in
her?
>> We're hiding it
>> or we're hiding it.
>> I'd like to clean up what we have and
then you know I'm not so worried about
having everything present and on the
dashboard
September second.
>> Do you want what you put up there to be
accurate, appropriate, and clear? And
then if you have other ideas or we have
other ideas, we can add stuff to it as
we move on. But you'd rather not put
something up there that's kind of messy.
Yeah. And then have it be
>> a problem and create and then have other
people say like, "Where did that go?"
>> Exactly.
>> And we've been tinkering probably every
day. I've been in there tinkering and
and changing language and moving things
around and you know, obviously that'll
stop. [laughter]
Uh so yeah.
>> Well, thank you for that. I mean, I
think this has been asked for for years
and years. So, this is great that it'll
be like up and running. That's awesome.
Thank you.
>> Our lifetime.
>> And I wasn't trying to be mean about
data. I just don't like it as much as
some people. [laughter]
>> He's very offended.
>> Thank you, John. Thank you very much.
>> Where are we now?
>> 25. Okay. Audit update, which we just
got hot off the fences. I'll go ahead
close in.
>> Oh, thank you. And I am now closing
public input dawn [clears throat] at
6:58 p.m. So there's lots of time to
have gotten down here if you needed it.
>> All right. So moving on to
discussion. We're in discussion. I'm
sorry. I'm a little confused today.
>> The FY25 audit update.
So I just wanted to share that the final
report has been posted for that. This is
the FY25 audit. over a year ago. Um it's
when the auditors were on site a year
ago in August. Um the report is
complete. It's there. We're not going to
go through it. It's always published on
the website. You can see all the years
located. I just felt like we got the
report and I just thought it would be
nice to also put it in the board packet
at the same time as our FY26.
So it was posted like this afternoon. I
thought it was already there and it
wasn't. We've been on the retreat. So if
you refresh it would be linked to the
agenda. But um but anyway, the FY26
audit the the auditors were um on site
the first week of August and they
actually so normally they take five days
sometimes going to a sixth day. This
year um right around lunchtime on day
four they were done and um it was the
easiest audit they'd ever had with us.
They have um some a couple of small
changes as they always do ready on
Friday the 7th and normally it's they're
working for days afterwards providing us
with you know movements and um all that
kind of good stuff. So I am incredibly
impressed and pleased with the results
of that audit and um obviously I have
the business office to thank.
>> Yeah, congratulations to them. They were
in a lot of transition this year and
that's amazing. That's really great
news.
>> Yeah. So, that's all great.
>> But the audit that's in our report is
not the one that you're just referred
to. This is the one from last year.
>> A year ago.
>> Right. It takes um a whole year
>> or 11 months to write the report.
>> Are there any questions on this?
Great. Thank you for [laughter]
moving on. Thank you for that. Um we are
now up to summer update staffing and
facilities.
>> Okay. So the principal's reports did
most of the updates. Like I said, we
have quite a few new hires at the middle
school. Um only two new teachers at the
high school. Um given our consent agenda
with a recent resignation in our English
department, knowing that we had some
flexibility with um available teaching
slots, we're looking to fill that in
internally with existing staff and not
having to hire another teacher um for
that. And so we're still shuffling
things around and um you know working
with department chairs Jake and Holand
are working hard to get all that set.
And so some some students will notice
some shifts in their um teachers that
are assigned to them. So
>> So can I ask a more specific question on
that? I don't know if does that mean
that some teachers might end up teaching
like an extra period outside of their
like outside of their contractual five
periods or
>> they might teach outside of their
>> certification
>> certification, but no one will have an
extra class outside.
>> We won't have to pay someone for an
extra class. Okay? and we won't need to
bring in any kind of long-term sub
codes.
>> Okay, great. Thank you for that. Um, are
there any questions on that?
>> No. Okay, moving on. Student support
services in schools. This is Laura.
>> Yeah. Um, so I drafted just a one-page
um memo for you guys to take a look at
regarding um a potential part
partnership with Greater Nashville
Mental Health. So, the administration is
considering um allowing
some therapy services to take place in
the school during the school day. As it
outlines here, this is not um being
provided by our district. It's not being
funded by our district. It is simply a
location for students to receive
therapeutic services when there are
barriers for them to receive um therapy
or support outside of the school day.
So, I've listed, you know, down here a
lot of the barriers that we're seeing
with after school counseling
appointments being limited um often
being booked um with parent uh with
trans transportation barriers um
students may lose instructional time um
if they have to leave and come back um
during the school day. The the
partnership is really to provide a
designated confidential space within our
school building. Services are only
available with parent and guardian
consent and by referral only. Um the
greater Nashville would determine the
clinical eligibility, provide the
treatment. They maintain all records. It
is provided um through parent insurance.
Um and it's build directly to the
family. So the school has no portion of
that what whatsoever. Um the school
staff would be the ones to to leazison
and make the referrals as needed to the
greater national mental health provider.
>> Okay. So I just wanted to bring this up
for discussion. you know, get, you know,
feedback from the school board. Um, this
would be at the high school only.
>> Any questions?
>> So, um, my question
is, is the school in any way liable?
>> No. No. And so, we have a memorandum of
understanding that we would be entering
into and it outlines all of those
components. Okay.
>> Where would you anticipate
it um, being taking place? the location
likely in the school counseling office,
but we have not determined that at all
and that's going to be in cooperation
with the administration.
>> I'm just wondering [clears throat] if if
this were accessed
>> with as much frequency as you would hope
it could be,
would we have to find alternative
dedicated space to not impact other
services
>> potentially? I mean that's something
again we wanted to kind of you know have
this com this discussion um and then
we'd look at those next steps to see
where we would have that it would be
once a week for a designated period of
time. So it would not be this would not
be a daily service. It would not be
something that would you know occur to
that level of frequency likely. Um but
we could talk about where that space
would be.
>> So you're thinking like one therapist
would come once a week
>> and and correct for designated hours of
time
>> maybe sessions. Correct. It would
probably be like three three to three
and a half hours.
>> And if [clears throat]
if there were more people seeking to
access the service than were available
in that slot, how might you decide who
gets access to it?
>> So that's the referral system working
closely with our school counselors and
our social our social worker to
determine that need and make the
referrals to greater Nashville mental
health. Um and we'd have an internal
process for that piece of it. Um the
therapy you know again also may not be a
student seeing the therapist for a whole
year. It may be for a segmented period
of time. So there would be a wait a wait
list involved as well
>> as we look at slots and openings
>> and who's managing all of that
>> as far as the referral process?
>> As far as weight list
>> social worker
>> um just
>> she would be our designated point of
contact. I apologize.
>> No, thank you.
>> Please finish.
>> Yeah, that was it. She would be her our
designated point of contact. Um, so just
in case people are thinking at home
watching us, are there any budgetary
impacts for this program?
>> None at all.
>> Has [clears throat] has there been any
outreach to
the
potential customers for this service to
find out if there's any interest in it?
It has come up in conversation as
parents have expressed to us a lot of
these barriers and what's going on and
you know if there was ever anything that
could be available um and surrounding
districts are part do partner with
greater national mental health as well
and we've gotten some some fe feedback
from them on how it's been working.
Gina, does this require any board action
to implement or
>> No, I I just wanted to make sure discuss
publicly and that there was
>> um a general feeling of support to move
forward.
>> I mean, I feel like
>> you're always good at um create creative
ways to help our students and that's
>> I think one of the things that our
district does really well and this seems
like a creative, you know, solution that
would help some of our kids. It wouldn't
help all of them, but it would help some
of them, those who have who are
experiencing these kinds of barriers.
>> Um, and
>> what I like about it is that it directly
addresses one of the
perpetual comments I have that we've
been placing increasing burdens on our
professional staff to provide services
that they're not necessarily equipped to
deal with,
>> but are necessary in the schools. And
this seems like a uh
a very good opportunity to address the
need and uh remove some of that that
burden from the professional staff.
>> Agreed.
>> All right. Thank you.
>> Thank you for presenting that.
>> You're much appreciated. Thank you.
>> I don't think [clears throat] you're
getting any perspective, so you're good.
>> Um moving on. Um sub pay for grading and
assessment.
>> That's what's next on the list.
>> Am I talking about that?
>> [laughter]
>> We would like to um bring back the
grading and assessment subcommittee.
>> Um I'm on board. [laughter]
>> And uh in order to do so, we would be
looking for um some board members who
might be interested in participating in
that subcommittee.
>> So um do we have any idea
when these meetings would be and how
many board members would be necessary?
Would these be after school meetings,
evening meetings, or during the school
day meetings?
Because that's what board members need
to know. They just need to know in terms
of their availability. Like they need to
know when they're going to be
>> because if not, it's going to be me
>> because I seem to be available.
>> I I believe in our subcommittees
in years past, we had one board member
on the subcommittees. We had multiple on
the overall.
>> We had two on the one that I was
>> I feel like I had two on mine as well.
>> I I think we usually have two. I think
we can have just one. I mean, it's fine.
We don't need to have more than
>> three on the steering committee and and
generally two.
>> We had three. We had three on the start
time on the weighted and unweed. I feel
like we had two
>> on the advisory. It was Kate and me
[snorts]
>> was on I feel like grading assessment
only had one or maybe one.
>> I think Christa was on it and and Beth
maybe um was on grading grading
assessment. So, I think two's great, but
if people are limited in time, one's
fine. Um, but any idea what this would
be in terms of uh time frame?
>> Historically, they were this this
subcommittee just because I participated
in it was right after school.
>> Jake,
>> how many times a month?
>> Uh, no more than once a month.
And the goal of this committee obviously
has to be developed by the committee but
the work is about looking at
so we had developed thank you. Um
[laughter] we had developed the purpose
of grades you know the purpose of a
grade. Um and then the next work would
be looking at assessment looking at the
purpose of common assessments practices
aligning practices across a course
regardless of the teacher. Um and then
sort of establishing some schoolwide
um a schoolwide philosophy around
retakes and you know
>> rewrites, retakes,
>> opportunities to um build on success.
>> I got it.
>> Support the creation of the committee
[clears throat] if there is a
well-defined
deliverable to the school board at a the
defined date.
>> So, um I would agree that we need a
deliverable. Um but I think it needs to
be developed by those on the committee
and we can bring that back to the school
board.
>> I'd almost think that it's this board's
responsibility if if if we're chartering
it and we want it. I mean we could take
their input but I think
>> so
>> why why if it's going to be a board
board
>> driven subcommittee
>> I believe that there was a purpose
developed by it when so maybe we need to
bring that back for next month like the
what the purpose that was
>> developer
there was a I know that the committee
themselves worked on creating a purpose
like a purpose of the of grading right
the purpose of grading so we don't have
that in front of us. So, it would be
good to see that and then we could Do
you need Do you need approval on this
tonight?
>> No.
>> For approval tonight.
>> Were you hoping for approval tonight?
>> I was hoping to get people together to
start the conversation because I don't
this is so much more nuanced than um
start time or um
or uh top 10 because
>> or even waiting versus unweing or even
advisory. that's like are we going to do
it or are we not you know so
>> so this is going to be like a shift in
philosophical approach potentially for a
lot of teachers and in sharing that with
families I uh I don't know that it's as
black and white as I
would like any committee to be right
like we're not coming with a proposal
for a bond that would be easier uh so
this work is challenging um and if you
recall Well, the last time we had the
committee, I believe it was two years
for us to come up with one statement.
I'd like to move at a faster pace than
that, but um
but I don't know that coming back with
that purpose of grading is going to give
us a clear-cut answer as to the charter.
But I do think a conversation offline
with a group of people that are
interested in this work and maybe the
group of people said, you know what, we
there's no work to be done or we're not
interested in moving forward. But I
don't think it's something that can
should be developed by one person like
let's say DOT as assistant
superintendent of curriculum um to be
handed down to a committee. I think
there needs to be collective buy in and
thought. That's my opinion.
>> Do you see this as
starting out addressing the question of
about competency based grading
or is that a downstream
question?
>> I think that's a downstream question.
I messy topic.
>> Well, the reason but it fundamentally
puts you in one of two camps.
>> And
it's almost
the the kind of thing that if if you
haven't addressed it
and you're trying to
address any other topic
in both contexts.
That to me sounds extremely difficult.
This is a difficult topic and there are
a lot of different beliefs and
philosophies around it and it's almost
like we need to form the committee and
tackle the first question about what is
the purpose of reading and until you can
come to a common understanding on that
you really can't move forward with some
of the other pieces. So if they've
already come up with that purpose this
the last committee
>> know what's already
>> so maybe we need to look at that but
also
what my under what I'm hearing and and I
could be hearing this wrong is that so
the committee comes up with this idea of
what the purpose of a grade is but then
we have to bring the staff in so that
they all understand that like we're sort
of tweaking the purpose of how we're the
purpose of grading our philosophy of
grading. So part of it is committee
work, educating staff, hearing back from
staff, more committee work. Is that is
that Yeah. And it's going to happen on
multiple levels. I mean, just at our
leadership retreat this week, we started
to to tackle the muddy waters of what do
we mean by rigor and what do what does
that mean for expectations? So there's a
lot of tenants that become intertwined.
And I know I know that a big part of
what I've heard because Christa was on
it and she and I chatted about it quite
a bit is that there's a lot of
conversation rel related to like
soft skills of like work ethic and how
much that plays into whether or not that
should be reflected in a grade and then
actual skills which obviously you know
should reflect in grades and how do we
make sure kids get those. And so there's
a lot of
>> nuance and very and and people have very
strong feelings about
>> one way or the other,
>> right? And they get really frustrated
about the fact that you could possibly
be watering down grades. So um or
grading just be test scores. Should it
include all of those other things like
effort and soft skills, right? And if
you do retakes, does the new grade
replace the old grade? and are we
looking at progression of learning
versus just a snapshot of when you did
it? Did you know what was on the test?
Right. So, there's lots of different
layers.
>> Yeah. Just looking at the grading and
assessment subcommittee had it first
meeting October 21st, 2019
>> and it produced the statement of the
purpose of grading August 15, 2023. So I
think that's what but I think that's why
Tom wants us to have something more
concrete because that was a lot of like
a long time to get to
>> years of not coming. It was four years,
three and a half years of not well we
had 2020
not to do.
>> So I think maybe the people who are
educators are the best people to guide
us as to what would be the most
appropriate way to approach this. But we
have to then decide as a board which
direction it goes. Um I guess
>> I what I'm wondering is [clears throat]
What is
triggering the desire
to have this subcommittee work done?
What I'm Is this coming from the board?
Is this coming from the administration?
>> I have a feeling like maybe is is this a
board committee or is this a is this an
is this a committee that has to happen
without us? Like
>> Well, more importantly, I'm just I'm
just trying to find out is this a Um,
is there what is the perceived need that
you're trying to address by having this
committee? Is it is it that you're
trying to um respond to
public? Is it that you're having
difficulty
um generating
curriculum? Is it that you've got staff
discontent? I I'm What's the problem? I
think a lot of it's rooted in our
philosophy of meaning all means all and
consistency of experience. And if the
three of you are all teaching geometry
and I have three friends, we could all
get a B in that course and what we did
and the experience we had and what we
learned could be very different. So it
doesn't mean anything. So there's no
context to what does a B mean. So a
parent see a report card and they say B,
they think that's good. But what does
that really tell you about what your
student learned?
>> It doesn't tell you.
>> So it's from what you've expressed, I'm
hearing two things. One is
how do we maintain
consistency
among
among grades
and what
does the grade uh communicate?
>> Yeah. So our the statement about the
purpose is a grade identifies that what
it it wants you to communicate right
>> um and that the purpose is to
communicate information. The hard part
now is relating that to instructional
practices. Um, and
in my opinion, that's the purpose of the
instructional practices committee. And
then this was a subcommittee
specifically looking at um grading and
assessment and looking at common
assessments and are our common are are
the assessments that we are um giving
are they meaningful? Is it a waste of
time? Are we checking a box or is it
truly giving information about what a
student knows and and can show? Um so I
mean it doesn't have to be a board
committee but more like PLC work or is
that like each department it's it's not
>> it has to be bigger than that. um for it
to be done well,
>> Um and like I said, it doesn't have to
be, but given the framework of the fact
that we have an instructional practices
committee or we've had one in the past,
>> we don't have one right now, right,
>> with the subcommittees under it, it
falls directly under that, but if we're
not looking to continue to make it a
board committee, you'd rather have it be
a district committee that we report out
on.
>> That makes it easy. I mean, I know that
one of the
complaints that I've heard and that I
experienced while I had a students here
is that there's an inconsistency in um
philosophies from different educators.
Some educators think that like if you do
all of your homework, then you can drop
a quiz grade or you can um retake a
test, but a kid in the same exact class
might not have that experience, but
they're taking the same maybe common
assessment at the end of a unit. Like,
so
the kids themselves have been frustrated
with that lack of consistency, like that
doesn't seem fair and and they don't
really understand. And so, um, I do
think that there's definitely a a
conversation that needs to be had and a
committee and I do think it's important
to have students and community members
on that because families, parents, and
once you start to invite students and
parents, then I do think board members
need to we need ears in the room so that
we can bring that back to the board
because it's, you know,
>> I'm not sure that that that the first
conversation that you described does
have to have
um community and students in it.
>> Well, I'm just saying once we start
having community and students involved,
then I think we need to have board
members involved. But
>> maybe the way to do this is for
>> I don't even know the difference between
co-curricular and extracurricular until
today. [laughter]
So, I feel like maybe the people who are
experts on education should kind of
develop like what you want and then we
can commit. And does that make sense?
>> Where or at least what's
>> kind of like the facilities committee,
right? We do all the heavy work and then
we
>> put it together and then we bring it.
>> Right. I think I think the board and and
the community needs to get involved, but
I I just don't know if we need to get
involved until we know what we need to
get involved with. Does that make sense?
I think when you have a kind of a messy
big committee like this with the topic
big I mean not necessarily the size but
if you think about what you want at the
end this isn't going to be a one-year
committee right but you need to have
your end goal as to what it is that you
want to accomplish and then have set
yearly goals for what you'll accomplish
during this year
>> or you can just spin your wheels
>> when when Jake suggested the visual and
performing arts committee he presented
us with like a layout of like what he
would be doing over the course of the
year to solve the not to solve
>> to look into the issue of where how we
got here in terms of visual performing
arts and roadmapped it out for us. So
maybe we need a little bit more of that
because I just hesitate like I don't I
haven't taken I don't know all this
stuff you know and I think as a board
member we can learn really fast but
clearly it took two and a half years so
we need some more direction.
I I think I think it's
>> it's not that it's not a messy and
complex issue, but I but I think that
the path can be simpler than than what I
hear being described
in that um
the the first and fundamental thing that
that there seems to be is there needs to
be [clears throat]
agreement, complete agreement, not just
majority the agreement of
um how do we implement something
anything uniformally
>> among multiple classes of the same thing
>> agreed and that seems very basic
and that is not
>> oh I mean it doesn't seem basic at all
it becomes do you become dictatorial
>> or do you try to build consensus and
compromise,
>> right? And that's what and that's what
takes time. Um it's not
>> Yeah, we we can absolutely do that. It's
just it's hard to say this is our end
goal because and I'm predetermining what
that goal is and you need to gain
consensus on where it is that we want to
go and we feel we as a community can go.
But um I'll work with DOT and we'll come
up with something. We we did have um a
purpose for that committee years ago.
Obviously, it took time. Part of it was
COVID. Part of it was some years it only
met once. So there were a lot of reasons
why it took a long time. Um and the
committee members changed over that
period of time. I I want this committee
to meet consistently so that we the
conversation doesn't die out over time.
Um, but it's I I think there's a level
of urgency for it and I think it's
incredibly important work that touches
upon all the other things we're trying
to do. So, it's really important for me
to move forward with this and um and do
and I can spend some time
>> national discussion though, isn't it?
>> What's that?
>> This is a national discussion,
>> right? And isn't there part of the ED
306 law that requires us to be
competency based, but we kind of are
competency based because competencies
are built into our curriculum. And is
that what that means? And
>> yeah, and they've been around since
2009. So we've already have competencies
built into our curriculum. We don't do
competency based grading
>> and the law isn't telling us that we
have to do competency based grading. We
just have to have competencies built
into our curriculum.
>> You also have to have all the staff buy
in to whatever your determination is at
the end. And that's that's where it
becomes very difficult because everybody
has individual personal things,
>> right? Everybody has individual ways
that they want to teach and grade
>> and we can't decide the end result. Like
when we started the advisory committee,
it wasn't we are having an advisory
committee to put in advisory. It was we
are going to have an advisory committee
to look at whether or not advisory will
work for us. And then once we got to
that point where the committee really
felt like we should move forward, then
it was not just the what but the how.
How are we going to get there? So, um,
you're right. We can't like this is the
deliverable and this is the decision we
want you to make. So,
>> well, there is a but there is a concrete
deliverable. It's abstract,
>> right? I understand.
>> But, so why can't that be stated?
>> So, do I will come back with the next
month.
>> Do you have an idea of what the
deliverable should be? It sounds like
you do. How about you just say it?
>> Just did say it. He did say it, but I'm
and I'm arguing that it's not as
concrete as as stated.
>> But we'll come back with um we'll go
back to the original purpose of the
committee, all the work that was done.
We'll we'll review it because I haven't
showed her that work. Um so we'll take a
look at it and then we'll figure out um
appropriate next steps.
>> Okay. Feel like that'll work. Okay. You
>> good with that? In the meantime,
question number two. Will this be Jake
an afterchool thing? You think
>> the vision performing arts exam?
>> No. The creating
>> I don't think I don't think you want the
board to be on it from what you're
describing.
>> I'm not I don't know what I want. I
don't want anything. I'm just throwing
out all
>> I'll say that I don't think the board
should be on it at the beginning of the
discussion. It needs to be kind of a
workshop between administrators and
teachers to get an idea of what your
personnel is going to lean toward. I
mean, I know you're not going to have
the same people, but if you have 10
people that want one and one person that
wants the other, then it you'll be able
to do a little bit more discussion, but
if you have 5050
>> during the school day and
>> so this would be most likely an after
school thing. Okay. So that's so because
what I would love to do is by next month
have a little bit more of a flesh out of
what you want from us. If you feel like
board should be on it. If you feel like
you're at the point where you want to
bring in community and students, then
board should get on it. And then I'd
like to be able to at least reach out to
the board and have some volunteers for
the committee, at least one or two board
members if we're ready for that. Okay.
>> But if not, then we can wait until we're
ready for that. Um if uh if it's after
school
>> like 45 minutes on this
>> I didn't make the agenda. [laughter]
If uh if it is after school and you want
to assign it, we would need to have to
the where from the budget we're going to
pay for it.
>> Just did that for something else. Okay.
Okay. [clears throat] Great. We're good.
there after school. Okay. Town of Hollis
Capital Expenditure Advisory Committee,
which is actually called the CAC, which
I really don't like the initials of
that. I'm sorry. You need to you need to
and say change this because this is CAC.
How can you say that? Update.
>> He anything that's written more than
three word letters.
>> It's too many letters and it's also
weird letters. C
>> because if you get to four, why stop at
four?
>> They three of three of them are exactly
the same exactly the same. The seas are
silent.
>> Silent C's.
>> Okay. So, um are you giving us the
update?
>> Yes, I am. Um there's not really much to
update uh since I I sent the memo in
July. Um we continue to build our view
on the data that we received. We did
have a couple of questions from our last
meeting that I needed to reach out and
thank you Gina for uh the clarifications
on some of these things. Uh, personally
I not a big fan of having you and your
team do extra number crunching. Just
give us the projects and what they cost
if we need to aortion them. I personally
I think we should do that work and not
you guys. Um,
but we have what we have and it's great
and we're going to take that information
and continue building on it and uh
hopefully as we move into the fall maybe
there'll be updates that we can bring in
to that work uh and continue the you
know what the what we're trying to
achieve as a board. Um, I continue to
think that the work product that we give
the town and maybe the Hollis district
um is probably or should be different
than what we give the the co-op because
I think it's a different entity. We have
we have Brookline to consider. Um,
and although it's not built to guide
Brookline, there are aspects in it that
I think should be at least considered.
Maybe Brookline may want to look at this
and and and have a little understanding
of what the co-op is doing. So, for
their planning, it's not within our
scope, but at least the work product
we're building should be portable for
that. So, I I'm
I'm still [snorts] I I don't necessarily
have a solution yet, but I I I'm of the
mindset that what we give the co-op
should be probably somewhat different
than what we're giving.
>> And what will the work product be? just
like a list of all the different capital
expenditures that are
>> it's a list over time of what's what's
being planned whether it's bonded or
leased or whatever and its impact um to
the taxpayer of Hollis primarily
>> somewhat is isn't it all somewhat
hypothetical because these are needs or
things that we might want but they not
might not necessarily ever get approved.
Well, it's not about necessarily getting
approved. It's that if they were to
pass, this is what we're up against.
This is what the taxpayer can
>> expect.
>> Expect.
So, there may be aspects that Brooklyn
is interested in, too.
>> Oh, sure.
>> And because for their planning and it
also gives each one of the entities an
opportunity to say, hey, there's a lot
going on
right now. maybe this is not the year to
bring what we're thinking forward. It's
kind of a perfect storm. It it's those
kind of planning, high level planning,
uh and and and the high level insight.
It it doesn't necessarily mean it's all
going to happen. And I I keep bringing
that message into the committee. I said
just because it's on the the the the
CIP plan,
>> it still has to go through a very
rigorous board discussion before it
actually becomes an approved project and
that we're applying, you know, funding
uh strategies and things like that. The
rest of it is just like, well, yeah, we
got these projects that are coming our
way, but we haven't even decided that
that's the year and that's the number
and that's how we're going to pay for
it, right? All that is like
>> that's what I mean. Like there's a lot
that's up in the air. I mean, it just
feels like it's it's great. I'm I'm I
I'm so glad that you were on this and
dealing with the minutia of this with
within that committee,
>> but I feel like we're feeding them a lot
and I'm not sure what we're getting
back. I assume we're going to get back
is a list of things that could be
happening, but for example, I know the
town of Palace is is considering like a
significant project for the police and
fire.
>> That's right. But that's so significant
that in my mind I'm like, is that ever
going to pass? Like, so it can be seen
as like,
>> okay, well, the school could potentially
have to do something 10 years from now.
That could be a little bit of a scare
tactic for the for the voter, like, oh,
well, we have all these things coming,
but they're not all necessarily. I guess
the other side of that coin is they're
planning to bring that project next year
>> and it's
attach some big number to it. I don't
want to throw in the
>> number. Yeah.
>> But but then do we want to at the same
year say we're going to add a wing on to
the school for
>> another big number that may cause us to
say hey probably not the best year to do
both. uh maybe it creates other
conversations between the entities and
say well what what really is the
probability
um you know those kind of things and I I
agree that we need to make sure that the
committee is bringing something that
each one of the boards can use
>> useful for us
>> useful absolutely
>> so my I and I like the idea of of
engaging in that conversation what
concerns me a little bit is that I'm not
part of the convers conversation and I
don't know that I want to be uh but um I
was at a halls budget committee meeting
last year and I was in conversation with
one of the members and he was like it's
there so it's happening
>> it knew it's not there it was I knew I I
pulled it from FY27
>> it got dumped into 28 but we haven't
really even talked about the
realisticness
of any of the things in FY28 and then
and then this year the request was to go
out to 10 years So, you know, I spent a
lot of time looking at the age of all of
our windows and all those things,
thinking that windows have a certain,
you know, lifespan.
>> Lifespan. Yeah.
>> Are they Are we really saying 34 year
we're doing third floor windows? No. But
I also don't want to spring that on
someone like all the windows went and we
didn't plan. We know it's coming. I have
no idea if it's 2034 or or when. But we
should have in the back of our minds
that our buildings are aging and so you
need to have like routine care and then
complicate the factor of the 55%
part and it I was too deep into fixing
it. The amount of time it took to and I
know it sounds really ridiculous.
Look at all the numbers that were there
and try to make sense of what was
already there to potentially make
corrections because it was calculated at
55% and I'm thinking I've never seen
this number. Oh, let me go back and
figure out what 100% is. Okay, now let
me go back and translate it back into
55%. And that and if I
>> We don't do that.
>> Yeah. And if I put that on a Warren
article, everyone's gonna say, "No, the
number was this was 55,000 and now
you're telling me it's 100,000."
>> Well, no, because the 55,000 was for the
Hollis voter, but the total crowd. So, I
I just have I love the concept. I
>> I'd like to see how this year plays out,
but part of me wonders if it's going to
achieve the intended goal, I guess. And
I'm more than happy to take that
feedback as and represent that at at
that committee level to make sure we're
driving something that is actually
useful and helps planning and if it's
not then we have to ask ourselves then
what
>> you know either what are we doing
>> or what is what do we have to do to make
it better and that's a lot of questions
we're having too.
>> Yeah. Um, and I I'm just calling out
that I think the co-op is a unique
entity. We are we are
>> and we need to be sensitive to that as
part of what we're producing and what
we're
>> participating in a Hollis only
capital improvement plan committee,
capital
>> advisory
>> expenditure advisory committee, but we
are providing facilities for for a whole
other entity. And so we are not that.
But yes, they need to weigh what we
could potentially be doing in this
advisory committee. But it is only an
advisory committee also. That's the
other thing that's really important.
It's an advisory committee only. Nothing
happens without the select board of
approving anything go and also
fundamentally nothing happens
>> that's outside of just the regular
budget. Well, actually, nothing happens
without the voters's approval, whether
they approve the budget or the bonds.
So, um, that's why it's it's hard to say
what is going to happen.
>> And and that's why I'm I think I'm a big
fan of us just producing your projects,
planned projects, and the the costs as
you know them without aortioning
aortioning them at all. this is what we
call
>> because then we have a work product that
we get a view that
>> Brooklyn can use like
>> just because it's part of the math
>> and and so we're not we're not overly
focused on Hollis because we can we can
build the view for Hollis but the
numbers
>> I got
>> kind of reflect what what the co-op is
doing
>> in Brooklyn. So,
>> are there any other kind of Yes. Are
there any other questions for Rob on
this one?
>> Okay. Thank you, Rob, for that
>> a little long. Sorry.
>> No, I made it long. My questions. All
right. Facilities committee update. I
think we kind of got it when we talked
about the cranes, but go ahead.
>> The committee hasn't met since the last
board meeting, I don't believe.
interested in
>> if we can use [clears throat] this time
to get a quick update of uh the uh
status of both buildings in terms of the
project.
>> They're on schedule according to the
Gant chart that was provided at the last
meeting. So, we're good. Like I said,
I'm I you know, we had like a week for
the crane and then given what we
experienced at the high school, I just
was a little bit nervous about having to
shift things around last minute. So, so
I made some changes.
>> Well, I told Patrick to cancel the open
house. And I know that's disappointing.
And I know it's really helpful for
students, especially seventh graders, to
get the lay of the land, but I also
think it would be a little upsetting if
families took a day off of work so that
they could bring their child here and
then we canceled at the last minute. So,
>> makes perfect sense. Is there any
input from the board through the
facilities committee as to
anything that that they want the
committee to be looking at next because
that has been uh bit of a question mark
for the committee.
>> So I think that when we approved this
committee it was we did approve it to be
a standing committee but not to meet
monthly but to meet we're
>> meeting quarterly right now. quarterly
and I think it's just kind of to
coincide with
>> Rob's work which is on this capital
advisory committee like what's the
capital improvement plan what kind of
big projects are coming up and is there
anything that needs to be developed
specific to the co-op related to bonds
or you know those
>> I thought we thought in the facilities
committee that might be you know the you
know [clears throat] the list that uh
Lance presented
>> anything in particular that for the
upcoming
year or maybe more that we should make
as a a next priority that would benefit
from a committee a facility committee's
oversight or participation in it. Um
it's the board, it's also to to the
administration. I don't know what the
the next big thing is that we might want
to be looking at if there is anything.
I don't think you haven't really talked
about any immediate needs for expansion.
Correct.
>> I don't think we have expansion needs
right now. I think we have some other
needs, but just looking at to your point
at our other districts, I think there
are more pressing facility needs in the
other in our two elementary districts.
We also have a teacher contract coming
up. So I don't know that
>> the one that
>> pressing [clears throat] needs right now
>> that we've been hearing coming up a lot
that we haven't really
figured out is the whole paving
>> parking lot the parking lot and paving
situations of whether we want to is it
is it near enough that it's going to
happen that we've already got that
mapped out
>> the high school parking lot.
>> The high school parking lot.
>> Um well our budget meeting is tomorrow.
the our the our internal second budget
meeting is tomorrow. Uh, I don't
remember. Is the back parking lot on
this FY28?
>> I think so.
>> 29. I don't remember.
>> Another question about alternative
access.
>> It may fit into that.
>> It may be tied together because we
>> we started that project of um an
emergency egress, right?
>> Going off of um our track,
>> the love lane.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> But that's for emergency vehicles only
or in in an emergency, not
>> that's facilities related and saying
it's in progress.
>> we had money already approved for that.
>> So, is it is it are we at the point
where you guys don't really have much to
do because it's just the capital
improvement plan or
>> we don't we the facilities committee as
it as it has existed so far has been
solely focused on
>> H the HVAC for both buildings.
>> We're now at the point where that's an
implementation.
So the question is
is there any ongoing need for the
committee to meet and if so what should
be the next topic or topics for to be
addressed by the committee and in in the
facilities committee meetings itself
it's been a blank.
>> Okay. So, why don't you give me until
next month and we'll take a look at some
of the larger ticket items that we had
put on the capital improvement plan to
take a look at because the parking lot
is well for right now it will appear for
FY28 but that's I don't think you need a
committee to talk about a parking lot it
just needs to be replaced at some point
but there are some bigger items that are
more of is this what we want and I think
you you're aware of um the facilities
shed bed slashnackshack slash storage
fac like is that something we are
interested in moving forward and with or
are we no on that and then that would
direct some other work so I feel like
that's more committee work
>> um and there are a couple other items
that are like that that are scattered
around in the next 10 years and I think
that's
>> so my call how we got there is that
>> we how we ended up with a with a board
facilities committee was that when the
original bond was put together for the
very first bond that failed for the
solar project. It wasn't even a solar
project. It was a replace propane
replace oil boiler replacement project
and we had no input. It just kind of
came to us as a board without us even
kind of knowing much about it. And then
we tried to ask questions as a board and
then we got like hammered at the meeting
because we hadn't really had
conversations with folks about energy
efficiency and renewables and all of
that. And so we really got slammed. And
>> there were discussions that a school
board just can't spend a lot of time on,
right? So it made a whole lot of sense
to create
>> to create a committee. And we thought
like because there's been other times in
my time on the board where we can't
where there was a presentation where we
were thinking about um some science
classroom upgrades and some media this
build changes and they kind kept coming
to us in a way that was like we what is
this so like how's this coming to us? So
the idea is like now I think it's time
for the facilities committee to look at
those kinds of things and say is any of
this going to come to the board need
board approval in the next couple of
years and if there really isn't anything
it's just going to be like paving as
part of the budget and this is part of
the budget and window replacement then
maybe it's time to say we'll meet once
every six month like maybe we'll meet a
little less I don't know you guys as a
>> I don't see any reason to meet unless
there is a project
>> right or unless there's like a planning
for a future future project that we know
is going to happen in a couple years.
>> But but my point is, right,
>> if we don't have a topic, there's no
reason to meet right now. We've got
another meeting scheduled and all we
would do is get an update on the middle
school and high school and that's not
the purpose of the committee.
>> But maybe the committee has to have a
conversation and look at the com capital
improvement plan five years out and see
if there's anything that we would you
would want more feedback on, you know,
>> particularly if the
>> board or not the committee would do
that.
>> The committee. Yeah.
>> Well, the committee could come to us and
say, "We see these things as things.
You're going to need more."
>> And particularly if some of these
projects have a lot of moving parts and
require a lot of deep understanding and
detail. Uh maybe arguably maybe just
carving a paving a parking lot doesn't
have those aspects. Maybe it does. Don't
know. But but there may be things that
come up in a in improvement plans,
particularly building related or
property that we might want to as a
board refer to the to the committee.
>> Right. I I just don't want to get
caught,
how do I say this? Like flatfooted
again, like where we where we were like
we were like on the on our heels trying
to figure out at when that happened. And
so and and we of course knew that like
propane tanks needed to come in and oil
like we wanted to present that but I
feel like we got sort of so having the
existence of this committee which the
board could say okay we really need them
to meet because
>> yeah maybe we we take a hiatus and you
reconvene at another time. The only
reason I I brought up the paving is is I
had thought that there were ongoing
questions as to whether it was going to
be a repair versus a reconstruction
>> or redesign versus something that more
extensive. So
>> So you guys can talk about that the next
meeting and figure that out. Well, well,
we the facilities committee serves the
board. The board doesn't serve the
committ.
>> I understand that. I get that. I And
that's exactly but
>> so until the board says please work on
this, I think the facil facilities
committee should should be sheld for a
little while. Well, I mean the members
can still be it could still be
identified
>> core members
>> and the core members identified
>> but maybe we meet once or twice a year
if if there's nothing going on. Um but
if this board decides, hey, these two or
three projects have a lot of moving
parts. Let's refer this to the to the
committee. Then the committee gets
reactivated again, right? But but we're
not we're not as a committee, we're not
going to say, "Hey, we're going to jump
on that."
>> No, no, no. I'm not saying that. I just
feel like the facilities committee's
role could be in like looking at that
improvement plan and making a
recommendation to the board of like
these are what like like the budget
committee makes recommendation like a
recommendation like we see this as some
things that need to be done and might be
bigger projects or we don't see anything
like that. So between the superintendent
and the committee,
>> I think it just comes down to is it a
new project
>> or is it a more of a maintenance project
or is it a a a maintenance with
redesign? Those are the type of things
that we may want to say, hey facility
committee, take take a look at this,
will you is there meat on the bone or is
not
>> Got it. Okay. I don't know where we left
it, but I think you guys are meeting one
more time, so we'll just figure that
out. Budget committee update. Have you
guys met?
>> No, we haven't met since May.
>> Tomorrow night?
>> In theory.
>> Is there a forum tomorrow night?
>> We'll find out.
>> We'll see who shows up.
>> There was supposedly a
>> You don't count as a quorum now.
>> There was supposedly a quorum last time,
too, and there wasn't.
>> Doesn't matter. You don't count,
>> right? Sorry.
>> That's okay. I don't go. [laughter]
>> Stipen committee update. I think we
don't need we don't need. Okay. Moving
on to
>> deliberations. deliberations 7
>> 51 751 you're on time
>> I'm on time I'm one minute behind all
policy memo I'll let Scott take that and
then um do our principles need to be
here
>> I don't know if they needed to be here
for some of the policies but let's let
them
>> okay and they don't need to be here for
nonpublic
>> we'll update them
>> non-meating nonpublic
>> can I bring up one point before they
leave and
>> no
yes Um [clears throat] I've um I've been
reading stuff not because of the board
but just on on uh high performing high
performance teams and one
[clears throat] of the things that
caught my attention is uh a lot of
studies that have been done on the
characteristics
for efficient meetings.
And one of the things that they say is
that fatigue is a major factor in
meetings and that the topics that are
most important
should be done as early as possible in
the meeting. And I understand that some
of the things we put early in the
meeting are done specifically to allow
our administrators and some visitors to
leave early rather than sitting through
deliberations and stuff. But if you look
at the things under deliberation, it's
usually policies,
decisions that only the board can make,
which I would see being characterized as
probably the most important work we do
and also some of the most stressful work
that we do, particularly after we've
been here for an hour or more.
>> Would there be any appetite to taking to
re restructuring the way we build
agendas
to put those items earlier in the agenda
and even things like possibly public
input or some of the presentations that
are very informative but don't require
debate things like that.
>> We debate everything Tom
>> but the uh [laughter] why are you
debating with me? Um but one of the
impacts would be if we move things like
reports to the end
that would impact our administrators
being able to exit early. But if we kept
our meetings to 90 minutes, which I'm
sure you read is the maximum number of
minutes that really any meeting should
be, then that would be fine. Maybe here
>> 15 minutes. But
>> yeah, like 90 minutes is what um at my
other heavily involved in another
organization in town and we try to limit
to 90 minutes.
>> Our policy doesn't allow us to go after
8:00 without approval.
>> Is that true?
>> Whip out that policy. [laughter]
take a vote. We're supposed to take the
vote at 8:00 reviewed that
>> I had no idea.
>> Yeah. But
>> lessons learned.
>> I just wanted [laughter]
>> I just wanted to ask a question now
while they're still here so that they
when they sometimes find and see if they
do see an agenda that has reports moved
to the end, they know whose fault it is.
>> Particularly because
>> the reports we received from the
principles are quite thorough,
>> right? So
the fact that they give it us to the
board, they don't have to read it and go
through it. It's very thorough and very
clear. And I I I want to save them as
much time as possible.
>> So one thing we could consider as board
if we want to make those kinds of
changes is the idea that we both of our
principles attend. Um I think other
boards not all principles attend. So
maybe we could, you know, we don't have
to have both the principles here. They
could alternate or do something like
that or have one principal here or, you
know, a member of it.
>> All good good conversations to have and
good thoughts and um I'm the person
who's supposed to help build make the
agenda. So I will take this under
adisement. Is there anyone who has a
comment on this?
>> I'm a big fan of an efficient meeting.
[laughter] I happen to
>> So sorry.
>> Sorry.
the Hollis the chairman many years ago
decided that it's optional for the
principles to come.
>> And it's worked out really well. But
>> they still submit the report. Everybody
>> they do. And what we do is invite them.
>> They did.
>> Yes. [laughter]
>> What they did uh is usually a open a a a
beginning of the year. What are we
planning to do? What what you got? and
tell us all the great things. And
usually at the end of the year, they
came and said, "Here's what we
accomplished."
And
other than that, throughout the year, we
got great reports just like we get here.
>> So, the only thing that complicates that
a little bit is that at the co-op,
although we don't have someone here, we
usually have a student um a student
council president, student council
representative, and
>> they don't know, none of them really
know us, not even us. they they know the
principal like with the principles when
they so it it sometimes is a little bit
comforting for them to have the
principal in the same room. So I I would
hesitate to go principal free. Um but
most of the students who come here even
if Patrick's not their principal now
probably would
>> you're saying we we shouldn't operate
without principles.
>> Yeah. I'm not saying I'm not saying I
would like to I don't I would love to be
able to say it's optional for principles
but I do feel for that student but maybe
I don't need to. Maybe the student's
fine.
>> Anyway,
>> it's also only once a month.
>> I don't want to speak for Patrick, but
>> I'm here once a month. It's not like
>> to meet every week. I'm here for six
>> Thanks for Thanks for thinking of me,
Tom. Like, I appreciate it. I mean, the
candy bowl didn't make it over here
tonight. I will go I will go out there.
>> I swing the candy. Someone else has to
rotate the ball.
>> Helping him. She's working on a Boston
half marathon.
>> I'll try. I'll try. Don't say that on
public record. Not [laughter] I have to.
>> Why you say it? So what were you going
to say? I just feel that the
conversations we have here um I think
involve the principles more so than the
elementary district. So I think it is
>> I agree
getting rid of I wanted [laughter]
>> it may they instead have to
tr matter is if we shifted the them to
the end you wouldn't necessarily have to
go through the whole thing we could just
say thank you so much for your principal
report does the board have any questions
on we could just ask questions and then
you wouldn't have to go through it like
you do sort of read them and I do
appreciate that because many members of
the public don't know how to access our
agendas and
But that being said, if we were really
efficient, we could just we we are
supposed to have read them, which we do,
every single word and and look at the
pictures. No, I do. I read them all. Um
but, you know, we could ask questions
and then be done. So, um and we don't
necessarily have to move them to after
discussion. We could do deliberate first
and then
>> just less presentational and it's just
like, well, you all have the information
there. any questions that we need
answered or
>> anything like that?
>> I'll think about it. I hesitate to have
deliberations come before discussion
because many times we discuss something
and then it leads to a deliberative
item. So, I do think we have I can I can
certainly think about it. I'll take all
of your feedback um offline on that one
because it's something that you can feed
me your thoughts on it and we can talk
about agenda building and we'll pro next
month's agenda will probably look very
much like this month's but we can start
to
>> the main point was take the things that
require the most thought and do them as
early as you can before we're burnt out.
>> Yeah. And I would agree.
>> Save the save the ones that are more
informative but just absorbing and and
move those later on. That was that was
just the only point I wanted to make.
>> We can talk about that. The policy
committees, the policy committee is the
ones who feed the feeds this memo. So
maybe we can talk about it a little bit
in policy and see what people's thoughts
are that way. keeping in mind that even
though policy is probably our most
important work, it's also work that's
done extensively behind the scenes and
we basically prevent um a lot and more
and more and more policy work is being
done by our attorneys.
>> It's it's and it's not because we're
deferring it. It's because it's getting
more and more complicated. So, speaking
of policy, look at our memo.
>> But we we can now excuse it. May exc you
guys can go home now because we don't
need
>> but you don't have to
>> but you can stay if you want [laughter]
but you're welcome to leave. It's only
once a month
you know you leave [laughter]
>> people
thank you and also Jake I assume we
won't have a student until like October
right?
>> Uh I'll probably try to wrangle one for
September for sure. I do feel like they
need sort of
>> I mean there's so many jumping up and
down to join us. So
>> maybe you can rotate rotating.
>> Thank you everybody.
>> Enjoy the last rows.
And so of policy and attorneys.
>> So this is on dot the policy memo today
because this is very much attorney
heavy. Go ahead. the um JIC was coming
forward to you for a third reading
today. Uh the the subcommittee is
recommending that you approve um JICK
tonight. However, it's coming right back
to the policy subcommittee. There was
some major changes made very late in the
year um before the legislature departed
>> three weeks ago.
>> And we've already been in con um
conversations with the attorney. We were
just with her on Monday at our
leadership retreat. She's taking a look
at this one and two others,
>> but we would like to adopt it tonight
because
>> there are
starting and we need to we need to have
an alive active approved policy later.
>> This one is substantially different than
what is currently in place. Yes, there
will be some
>> I understand that part, but but we can't
live with what we already have because
this is already changed significantly
from the one that's the one that's live
right now is very different than this
and then that. So,
>> so does that mean what's coming back to
us will go through first read again and
multiple
>> one or two. Okay. Yeah, because there
are some significant changes in it. Um
and the there always um oftent times is
a lag between policy and law. And so if
we um came into a situation where we had
to implement um
>> bullying, we would follow the law um
even though it isn't necessarily it
could be out of sync with our policy.
Does anything that we're going to be
asked to approve tonight, implement
contradict or violate the the law that
was just implemented?
>> No. So, um, as far as the process goes,
there are some additional process
requirements in the law that will be
following as law, like certain
notifications and certain pieces that
are going to be added to the policy. And
there's some definition changes of
bullying and of other definitions which
a little too complex. going right in the
second um that are going to be changed
but we will have to follow those
definitions per the law. So our policy
structure is perfectly appropriate.
Nothing violates anything. The law is
more
>> restricted.
>> Are we going to go through those? Is
this going through it now?
>> So we this would be we're on third read.
>> No, but I mean is this a disc is this
the place to h ask the questions about
that policy?
>> Motion you guys. Oh tend to take each
one separately.
>> Well, I thought I didn't think there was
going to be a motion that we do the
whole memo.
>> Yeah. We had let's go through the memo
then we'll make a motion to approve the
memo but let's try not to spend because
we're not going to approve them
separately. We're going to do them all
at once but let's just look at the
>> JCA is coming to you for a third read
with minor change and that was just to
remove the word designate throughout the
document.
JLCD
is coming to you. You saw this very
frequently. You approved it in April, I
believe. Um, yeah, you adopted it April
8th. There are, um, two small changes.
Um, this came in on the spring memo. We
were actually ahead of what was being
recommended. And so on, um, page 127 in
your packet. All we're doing is a
grammar change, striking out small A1 to
make a capital A, and then um, linking
it to policy JLCE.
Um, so that's just new language. We had
already, it's in the policy further
along linked and it shouldn't be linked
there as well.
>> So that one we're actually asking for
adopt, right? Yes. Because it might
already improved it.
>> And then we have three that are here for
uh first read ABCA, crisis prevention
and emergency response plan. This is
just a recommended policy. Um, but it's
one that because if there was a crisis
or an emergency in the building, it just
adds extra strength that the district
has looked at this has a policy. It
follows what the law requires anyways.
Um, and so we're bringing it forward for
a first read
>> and this is a completely new policy. We
don't have to
>> that's a new policy for us.
AC non-discrimination and equal
opportunity employment. This comes to
you every several years. Um, we don't
have a lot of Yeah. Every year, we see
this one every single year.
>> There's not a lot of leeway in to change
things in in this. Um, but it is coming
for an update. And the major change on
the second page, letter F, complaint and
report procedures has been um
eliminated. It was a small paragraph and
they've just um expanded it and
separated it out into reports and
complaints as one, grievance procedures
and investigations too, and consequences
and remedies three. So, it's just become
more specific as to the steps.
>> And to be honest, when we go back, we'll
make sure that the we'll have the work
on the formatting because the formatting
is off clearly when you look at this.
That'll be our second thing. And then
finally, DAFF, which is the
administration of federal grants. Again,
this comes to you on a regular basis,
um, every couple of years. This, um, is
something that we need for our federal
grants. Gina has to sign off and say
that we follow, um, the federal grant
procedures in order to apply for any of
the federal grant money, and we don't
have a lot of, um, leeway to change
things. This is the way that it has to
be.
you cold
>> breathing so cold in here.
>> February.
>> So, um, are there any questions or
comments on that? Things that you need
us to fix now or do you want to put a
motion on the table to take and then do
it at during that? Okay, I'll take a
motion to Hold on. Motion.
I need a motion. Where's the motion?
>> Where's the motion?
>> Um, a motion to accept
>> to accept the policy memo.
>> There we go.
>> As written.
>> Yeah, I have it. Okay. Yep. Good. I
won't see it here, but motion to approve
policy memo as written.
>> So move.
>> Moved by Rob.
>> Second by Cindy. There any discussion on
that?
>> Okay. very simple. Um, this whole
bullying question thing, can someone be
sure to touch base with principles if
they're talking about having a speaker
come in on this topic? Want to make sure
that that person's
discussion is aligned with law,
>> the policy and the law. Yep.
>> Yeah, absolutely. We'll absolutely do
it.
>> Absolutely. And we'll make sure in
policy committee and now that it'll be
reflect that'll be reflected in the
minutes and we'll make sure that in the
policy committee we have
>> appropriate for schools.
>> That I'm not so worried about in the
sense that I suspect but the fact is
they've done it but I'm really concerned
with New Hampshire is sort of carving
out its own place in the world.
>> Really?
>> This
okay I think that's a very good point.
Okay. So, all those in favor of the
policy member as presented.
>> 5 Z. 5-0. Okay. So, we will take um that
motion carried.
>> I have a code in my car if you want to.
>> That's so I don't go anywhere without an
overlay. Like I don't And I'm not I
don't even get cold, but I don't like
>> I'm usually cold.
>> And this school is notoriously one of
our coldest. There are two very cold
schools. This is one of them.
>> Okay. So, moving on. And I just need a
so I need a report out from the process
observer.
>> It's 808 right now.
>> We are at 808 and the presentation on
the data was great. I think that was a
perfect feedback for him to be able to
>> get to review it ahead of time with the
beta and the discussion on grading and
assessment facilities went lengthy but
still
>> made our time. So good job say if you
want an meeting I should just be quiet.
Okay. Um all right. So now we need to we
need to move into a non-meating and
non-public. But I was just thinking
about this like we really need to make
the motion to go into non-public and
then we can go into a non-me after
nonpublic.
>> Should the non- meeting be after we
adjourn?
>> Yes. Okay. So the non-me is going to be
after we adjourn. So we're making an
agenda adjustment now.
>> Never happened.
>> I know. I know. I didn't know. I asked I
wanted Emmy to put it on here because I
wanted the board to be aware that we had
to have that. Okay. So, I need a motion
that the board by roll call go into
non-public session pursuant to is it
>> A NC
>> um pursuant to RSA 91- A 3 2A the
dismissal, promotion or compensation of
any public employee and C to discuss a
matter which if discussed in public
would likely affect adversely the
reputation of a person other than the
member of the body or agency itself. So,
I need a motion.
>> So, moved. Moved by Cindy, second by
Rob. I need a roll call vote starting
with Cindy.
>> Cindy I.
>> Amy I.
>> Holly I.
>> Rob I.
>> Tom I.
>> So we are now in non-public at 8:10. The
board will adjourn after non-public and
then go into a non- meeting. Are we
doing this somewhere else where it's not
cold?
>> Let's go somewhere.