All towns · sau-106

TRSB Meeting 09/03/2026

Video

Mr. Benson is down the front.
Come on, Mitch.
Here.
Mayor Ansberger.
Here.
Walla Caine.
He's excused.
Anna Manthorne.
Here.
Kate Connison.
Here.
John Woodworth.
Here.
Jack Sapia.
Here.
Everyone stands for the pledge.
To the quiet of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
Cronation, under God,
and indivisible authority and justice for all.
Are we known to the public meetings of August 13th?
Two.
except the meeting, every minutes of the meeting
in August 13.
All right, motion by Jack, do I have a second?
Second.
Second by Alyssa.
Any discussion?
Let the record reflect that Jack was prepared for the meeting.
Who would be noted?
Hi, buddy.
All those in favor?
Opposed and abstain.
One abstention.
Thank you.
That's pretty good, y'all.
All right.
Student, staff, and family share.
Who do we have with us today?
So we're going to introduce Principal Mensis.
As you know, as a board, transitions are kind of abundant in school systems, and I would make an argument that maybe some transitions are more important than other ones.
So we have kids every year that transition from our elementary schools in grade five up to the middle school at grade six,
coming together as four towns in a unique group, but they're going to spend their first, you know, those three years together.
So trying to think of ways that we can connect these kids to the school before and also
and maybe empower some of the students that are already there.
there.
So Mr. Ments is going to roll through a little bit of transitional programming that went on this summer here in Timberlane.
All right.
Welcome, guys.
As we have a number of participants this evening.
It's the number of participants.
There.
And one more for you.
All right over here.
She's like, no.
Just to give a quick overview as you have in front of you.
as you have in front of you is we've talked about a lot of transitions of middle school.
You're going to six trades a very big deal when you're coming from the four towns,
going to big school, melting pot.
So this summer you're talking to students and their experiences, as well as families, talking about
how they're very nervous over the summer.
I would say parents are a little bit nervous as well as they're looking at some former parents
of kids coming middle school.
It's a big deal.
We recognize that we had an untapped resource, which are our own students of student, house
representatives, which actually dates back to working with Dr. Preble, the
board recalls. And the House of Representatives was born out of that work with Dr.
Preble, our students, staff, and families. We also have Student Senate, which has been
an amazing group of young people in our programming for a long time. And the two groups said,
maybe over the summer we could actually give tours to our students. So the students led the tours
themselves. And they're going to share a little bit, but since they're just slightly less
nervous than our non-suitators. So they're accepting some softball type questions,
please have those lined up. I figured if you could introduce themselves, name and town,
and then maybe some of their town reps could ask them a nice easy question.
That's the homework for you guys right now. Let me start over there, just name and town your friend.
Hi, my name is Kimboy and I'm from Sandown.
Hi, my name is Ryan Sturdy and I'm from Beckett. My name is Ethan. My name is Ethan.
I'm from Blasso. My name's Savannah. I'm from Danville. My name's Audrey and I'm from Sandown.
So far, doing great, right? So everyone here have participated in a tour, right, during summer?
Awesome, well with parents. Okay. Any softball questions? Would be welcome from any town for your
representative to the child. So you all gave the tours, is that right?
Received. You received the tours. Okay. Could you all just
Whatever you want to do with this question, but what did you find most helpful with the...
Anybody wants to jump in about something that they thought was most helpful about the tour?
Need to know where things were in the middle school.
So do you feel like you had a better, like, you knew more going into it, that that
tour helped you find out where things were?
Because we saw classrooms, gym, calf, bathrooms.
Did you guys have your schedules beforehand so you could find the classrooms that you were actually going to?
We got them at orientation. Okay.
Which was after the tour.
Which was after the tour. Are you still getting lost in two sand down reps?
No. I still have nightmares about getting lost, so legitimately, legitimately.
To be fair, though, do you get lost in middle school in the first there too a little bit?
It's a little bit quick.
Melissa, did you have something?
A common middle school anxiety point,
getting into your lockers.
Did they go over how to work a lock on the lockers during the tours?
No.
Well, we'll do.
So, actually, that sounds like that's on the list.
Yeah.
The hard part of that was that was we'd have to have the locker combinations.
Well, but maybe some practice, maybe some practice locks.
Okay.
Okay.
Jack, did you have something?
Yeah, I do.
To the young man from Mackinson.
Who's your favorite school board?
Yeah.
There you go.
How have you done?
You guys all feel comfortable with being in the school with bigger and older kids?
I mean, is that I'll treat you right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's how easy follow-up is.
Who do you ask if you get lost in middle school?
I saw her.
A teacher nearby?
Anybody?
Anybody?
Any t-shirt?
Yeah.
How about an older kid?
Would we ask one of those?
Yeah.
Okay.
Older siblings, no problem.
Just one quick follow up. Do any of you plan on taking cooking classes?
Oh.
Just so you know, we have a cooking team here.
And we think we beat the middle school last year, so there'll be another competition.
It's going to be an annual thing, so study.
So, my advice you would study her in cooking.
I have a question.
Wait, Sean, then Don.
Hi, Doc.
I didn't know you.
I was going to say, is name something that is really surprised you.
You know, you're going to middle school, you're expecting all these new experiences.
What's the thing that you most remember for you, that was a surprise?
How nice the teachers are.
It's the beginning of the year.
Okay.
Anyone else?
No.
I'm serving.
I got a couple of points.
Hold on.
Hold on.
No, Sean.
Is there anybody else want to answer Sean's question?
Let's press the other four of you.
That's a great question.
You got into that building for the first time.
What was something that was surprising or that stood out or that?
Maybe it wasn't as scary as you thought.
Didn't think, didn't match what you thought you were going to see.
intensive look.
The deep thinkers.
The real final on this tomorrow.
All right, now, Don.
I want to know from each school,
what was the best thing served at lunch?
Oh.
That's a good one.
That's a good one.
Notches.
That's a confident answer.
Monterellis.
Nice.
Pizza.
Yeah.
Anything.
Anything?
That's nachos.
I just thought that would be kind of interesting.
Oh, yeah.
That was a good question, man.
I thought it was a softball question.
How is a salad?
I would recommend the yogurt.
You know, I would recommend the yogurt, you know, and they put granola on it.
It's awesome.
Okay?
What?
Perfect.
Nice.
books?
A little more sophisticated, they're done.
They're finding their voices like that.
Right.
Before I bring up the other group, just to see, is there anything that you might have talked to
your parents about before you'd want to share?
Because I feel like there was some conversation maybe on the ride here.
If you don't want to, that's fine.
I'm just trying to put it out there in case you had something that you're like,
maybe you can say that.
And you have to ride home with your parents, so spill it now.
I think had one question then we'll let them.
I had one kind of related question.
I saw on the flyer that said, you know, parents, if you're more nervous than your kid, this is for you.
Did all of you choose to go to a tour this summer or did your parents influence you?
I chose to, huh?
Yeah.
I thought, yeah.
No?
Chose.
I wanted to do it because it was.
I was like, good answers.
Thank you.
I'm going to bring up the tour guides, if that's okay.
Yeah.
Nice job.
Thank you very much.
Absolutely.
This is a veterans here.
So we have tour guides.
Also, if you could just do, aim at what time you're from.
We've got, we had a kind of mix up of some folks who became available, so not all towns were represented,
but awesome kids here.
So start right down there.
Hi.
I'm Olivia Shute.
I'm from Sandown.
Hi, I'm Piper Ferranti and I'm from Plastow.
I'm Lila Sukka and I'm from Plastow.
I'm Chloe Seer and I'm from Plastow.
So these are the students who volunteer the time over the summer to come in to lead the tours in front of their parents and the students.
So.
I think I know what you were probably hoping to supply the students, but what were you hoping to get out of doing this?
Why'd you do it?
I personally did it because I wanted to help the students, me being a sixth grader, having to be able to see the school before all the kids and the bells came in.
That was really helpful and it also helped me get more public speaking skills and leadership skills out of it.
Yeah, I think I really just wanted to help people know where they're going and what they're doing.
I definitely think, like, I was such a nervous kid coming into sixth grade.
I still am, but definitely like,
definitely like being able to help kids but get less nervous about that like that just makes me feel good that I'm the one helping them because I would want someone to help me.
I remember being nervous going into sixth grade so I just wanted to help the other kids.
Awesome I get it again literally I still have nightmares occasionally so yeah
what was your favorite part about giving these tours?
How many questions the kids and parents have?
kids and parents have.
Was there a specific question that kept coming up?
No.
Variety?
Okay.
Seeing the kids actually engaged with us and kind of talk to us.
So let me, here's a, I don't know, if someone bonded up really, maybe you Mary Ann,
do you think the kids struggle more or the parents?
Parents.
They're the ones, just so you six parents know, they're the ones that need the most help.
They're struck.
Definitely parents.
Yeah.
All the parents behind you are nodding.
You can't see it, but that's what they're doing.
Any other questions?
Marian?
Were there any questions that stumped you?
So there is one area of the school that we have never seen.
That is the think tank.
So we all, we handed the kids' maps.
So before they left, they were able to ask us,
questions and one of the ones that came up the most was, what's the think tank?
And we responded with, we have no idea, that in the courtyard, because we haven't gone out there.
I think that's the eighth grade pathway.
So we, I personally haven't seen the courtyard, so that is the unknown terrain.
Oh, I would always get us.
What is the think tank?
The think is what we have in the administrative meetings or parent meetings.
So I'm not typically students.
You guys gave some tours.
I don't know how many each of you.
gave but have you, I know Liv you haven't because you've transitioned to the high school, but have the rest of you seen the folks that you toured around and give them a little wave and a high to connect with them? Have you been able to see them since the tour? I haven't seen them. I have seen them. I have seen a couple pass by in the hallway or waiting outside to go into the building. I don't think they've actually recognized me, but I've seen them. Yeah, I've seen them, but I don't think any of them really.
who I was.
You guys have all spent at least a year at the middle school already, right?
I'm interested to hear about what was the thing you were proud to show off or talk about,
whether it's a space or something that happens in an area or what a building looks like in a certain
area, like anything that you were able to describe and you just felt proud being able to do it.
I would say like kind of all of it because I've made so many memories there and I had such a great time
like being able to like connect through the school and like make so many new friends.
So just kind of like everything I was just kind of like so like about because I don't know that.
Like I was there for like felt like ever.
So I liked being able to demonstrate like how to open lockers.
Even if we couldn't open them, be able to tell the kids how to do it because for me personally,
the lockback was the scariest part.
So being able to tell them that I've mastered them, this felt so good.
I feel like just being able to show them around the school made me proud of myself
because like I figured out my way around and I was so nervous about it at first too.
I agree with what she said being able to know where you are and show them around.
So thank you for sure.
Thank you.
Just to summarize it is they did a couple of tours.
We did over a hundred, over 150 students came in roughly two-thirds of the six trade class.
And I'm vision now the words got out that it's a new thing that we're doing.
We'll plan on doing it annually that we'll only get more organized and hopefully get as many of the kids in there because it was very valuable as you heard.
I have a question.
Mitch, does that sweater come in the larger size?
You can see about that.
Instead of the competition goes.
Well, thank you guys so much for coming.
I'm glad six graders that you guys had an opportunity to maybe make it less scary and thank you now.
seventh graders for being the leaders and taking upon yourself to go and show them.
That's really admirable of you guys.
So thank you so much.
Appreciate your time.
Thanks, Mitch.
Yeah.
She's a freshman.
She's an eighth grader on the student rep.
So she's still held.
As I said, I know you haven't seen kids in the hallway because you've transitioned to the high school.
I'm sorry.
Sorry.
No, she's a crash.
All right, hi.
Kelly, do we have any delegates or individuals?
All right, could I get a motion to move?
delegates individuals to the end of meeting.
So moved.
Moved by Sean.
Second section by Sean O'Neill.
Any discussion?
Follows a favor.
Unanimous.
All right, cool.
Very exciting to introduce our new student rep,
Noah Darnsted, right?
All right.
So let you take it away.
Hello, everyone.
I'm Naud, I'm the new school board representative
for this year.
I'm very excited for this new position
and looking forward to working with everyone.
working with everyone on the issues and be able to present the information and the
different things going on at the schools around the district.
Mr. Currier and I talked leading up to this meeting about changing the dynamic of the
informational presenting that the student school board does.
Student school board representative does.
My mission is to connect more with the elementary school and middle school administrations.
for a better understanding of the day-to-day operations that go on at the school.
So I've had my little present.
Things have been going pretty normal, smooth sailing at the beginning of the year.
Freshman orientation saw 93% of the class there, which is very good for these freshmen upcoming,
who's, you know, like the tours, they don't know much about the school yet and their teachers.
So it's very good that we had a big number there.
From my point of view, everything has been relatively smooth and routine-like.
A few things would be just some maintenance things that could be better at the high school for the first day.
So different things to work on over the summer, so the water fountains, having the filters change,
so they're not red when we get for the first days of school.
which is kind of disappointing to see and then just different things that I noticed.
And then moving on to the athletics.
All the middle and high school sports have started.
The athletic department is focusing on keeping determination throughout the season.
As right now, football is starting tomorrow, first home game against a lot.
home game against Londonderry at 630.
Boys soccer, when their first game on Tuesday against the third ranked Wyndham team, which is very good.
Girls soccer is one in one at the start of a promising season.
Field hockey is also off to a good start at two and one.
The golf team won their match yesterday in volleyball.
all unfortunately lost their first game, but still looking forward to the rest of the year.
Mr. Fantasia has started talking with the captains of each individual sports teams
for the expectations for the upcoming seasons for fall sports.
I think athletics is an important part of our school district and plays a big role into the reputation
that we get from other students at other schools.
and parents, not only in the district, but throughout the state.
So going over the pack.
Marching band camp has seen a huge success in the preparation for their first performance at the
football game tomorrow night.
They'll be wearing their new uniforms and would like to say a big thank you to the school board
and the Timberland community for their support.
This past weekend, the music department ran a chorus.
camp ended with the performers singing the national anthem at the Fisher Cats game
on Sunday afternoon.
And they would also like to thank Timurland Music Association.
And I like to say congratulations to the performers for really an amazing feat.
And then for the middle school, there's lots of positivity and energy and excitement
for the beginning of the year.
I saw all the kids come in.
They were excited.
The teams at each grade have been taking time to build a community within each other,
you know, with new kids on different teams and classes and everything.
Upcoming events, sixth grade is going to Camp Lincoln for team building.
Seventh grade is going to Camp Trickland Falls in east to Kingston, I believe.
And the eighth grade is going to Adventure Laura.
These experiences,
are about helping students connect, challenge themselves, and develop a strong sense
of belonging at the middle school.
Over to Pollard, they had, they were very, when everything went pretty smooth with that Pollard,
they, uh, very happy with the new H-FAC system and it's working great.
Uh, they want to, so we want to give them in the maintenance.
So it's been very good about helping them, you know, fix any issues and directing them through.
this new technology and they want to give them a huge thanks at sand down north
first graders are easing into a new full day routine and making connections
making connections with uh staff and students as they have their first
yeah they had their first uh school-wide morning meeting on mondays that will continue
every week throughout the school year uh say now
Central students are settling into routines you know these new students that haven't
been at a long school yet their early childhood multi-age classrooms are also settling
and students are making new friends and exploring the new toys that there are and they want
to say huge thanks to the PTA for a great welcoming back and then Atkinson
They are planning to have a very exciting school year.
Their HVAC systems are up and running and they're waiting for the ones in the main office to be finished.
So they're excitedly waiting for that and their first fire drill with their newly updated alarms went very smoothly.
That's a picture of the parat educators, welcoming back. That's all I have.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, all right.
Good night.
just make a comment. Sure. Oh, was she?
Shawna first. I just know, can you tell us what grade you're in, where you're from, a little
bit about you and what you do at the high school in terms of participation? So I'm a junior.
I'm from Danville. I play football. I'm in student council. I've had the Tope,
NHS, social studies on our society. That's it. School board wrap. School board wrap,
yeah. So don't have much time, but I work a lot.
Yeah, welcome. Thank you. Jack. Yeah, I was about to say welcome. And even though you can look around
the room, we're a fairly casual group, but you're wearing your sport coat shows a certain amount
of respect, which I appreciate, but not as much as I appreciated the candor in your report
in the little fixes we need to do around Dodge, because if you don't talk about it, you don't know
about it. So thank you very much for, that was a great report, your first time coming out of the box.
Thank you.
On the current business, first thing on the agenda is going to be the second culinary curriculum
revisions. Like Mark is here, so is it going to be you, Sandy? I am happy to take this. I do know
that he was planning on coming. He had something happening beforehand, but I'm happy to take it.
This is the second read. You brought this to you last month at the August meeting. So there were
some changes to one competency and curriculum components associated with that. And if you were
remember that competency had more to do with the job-related opportunities that would
be more in a program that might help to prepare students for food service references and
things like that in the future, which our programming and our facilities right now are just not set
set up in that way. So it's not that they are not teaching that content or engaging students
and conversations about what career opportunities might be available to them. It's just
it's not a specific focus of what you're doing. So the competencies you'll see the revisions
and the units that will follow. But in essence, that's kind of the rationale behind it. So this is a second
read. I don't know if anyone has any questions. I'm happy to take those. And it looks like there
was no changes from first or two second. So does anybody have any questions or comments about
the second rate for culinary curriculum revisions? Make a motion to approve the second
read of the secondary culinary curriculum revisions motion by mark do have a second second by jack
any discussion all is in favor pose and abstain oh yes i did for it all right all right cool
unanimous all right so mark thank you so much all right next up on the list is uh 2026
FY 2026 summary i believe this is you just yes i'm happy to walk you through a fiscal 26 summary um
my understanding is that this should begin on page 45 of your packet it's fairly detailed but
i'm going to kind of walk through the framework of it and then certainly happy to engage in any
discussion or questions that would result of that so there was certainly interest from the board
to be able to hear a summary of fiscal 26 uh really what you've got in front of you are four
kind of distinct areas uh one kind of begins with uh budgetary reductions made by the school board
to align to the voted 26 budget there is some brief uh discussion there about their impacts as
second third there's a section of administrative measures that we undertook during the actual
calendar year in order for the district to meet its obligations and then lastly i just want to include
a breakdown of the three major components of the budget i think it's a good illustrative example
of how they work together to support one another uh in terms of aligning to the voted budget
there were really two things i wanted to remind the board um after the 2020 march district ballot
and at the march 20th meeting uh we presented a 6.6 million
dollar delta that existed between the proposed budget and the voted budget at that meeting we
presented a draft plan that plan covered about six point two million dollars in reductions
left about a four hundred thousand dollar delta we came back at your next meeting in april
we revised that plan to include the entire delta of 6.6 and at that meeting those when the reductions
were made and they're summarized in the large graphic there that's for you below
um you can find the exact presentations that were given to you
in March and April in the link but really the summary and action there really breaks down the
large components so we made decisions to eliminate about three point eight million dollars
in positions and benefits million dollars in capital about nine or thousand dollars in what we
call the principal and director lines and these are lines that are lines that are
directly tied to schools and departments we reduced the transportation budget by nine
thousand dollars and we got to that total so those were the actions we took before the school year
began um to summarize
what those pieces are i'll start with personnel in total the board eliminated 37 positions
10 of them were a reduction in force or a rift five were through attrition so not filling uh resignations
or retirements and then 22 positions were eliminated that were vacant to break that down further
in total we look to begin the school year with 15 fewer staff working with students or supporting
district operations and 22 fewer positions
fewer positions or draw on salary to help support any contracted service needs in terms of the
reductions in force they included an administrator the director of special education whose primary
job responsibilities were shifted and added to the director of student services it included one
technology teacher at each of our elementary schools for a total of four and their primary job
responsibilities were shifted to technology specialists in classroom teachers
the board eliminated one adjustment counselor at the middle school and those
job responsibilities were absorbed by the existing counseling departments two high
school teachers were eliminated their class sizes were absorbed by existing teachers and one high school
library paraeducator and those primary responsibilities were absorbed by the existing librarian or not
being able offered to students at this time breaking down the attrition piece one of those
attrition were a special education teacher at the middle school those primary job
responsibilities including case law caseload size which is how many students they
serve and the service delivery actually what they do for students were observed by
existing special education staff limited one PE teacher at the middle school again
class size for PE and health were absorbed by the existing staff we removed
one administrative assistant at the middle school those primary job
responsibilities of the main office receptionist which there were two were
absorbed by the existing staff and administrators still in the building
we removed one English teacher at the middle at the high school class size
absorbed by the existing department and we removed one intervention teacher
at the high school and those primary responsibilities about intervention were
not available to students across the year with regard to benefits we reduced
health insurance line by a million dollars and I want to reflect back to the
board where we came in as an actual at the end of the year as we overspent
that line by seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars in terms of schools and
departments we looked at a close to 180 discrete lines of either elimination or a
reduction of funding there's a high level summary there for you below but I also
included the actual hundred and seventy some odd discrete lines for you to review
there and their account numbers looking at the curriculum and professional
development budget we eliminated plan purchases of new elementary writing
and social studies instructional resources and reduced in-service
professional development and that's in service including for staff
administrators and contracted service personnel student services we eliminated the
and navigate 360 software that we would use for alice training and did that in-house
instead technology we eliminated a v presentation equipment and classroom projectors and smart
boards that were planned for staff we reduced the replacement for computers for staff
by half eliminated the increase of any video coverage for outside school buildings in terms
of video monitoring special education we had a reduction of equipment supplies and professional
development as well as a reduction to online access and professional reservices that were
specifically related to speech and language.
At the athletics and the Performing Arts Center,
we eliminated replacement equipment and instruments
and we made reductions in replacement and new equipment and supplies.
And at the school levels, again, these are these principal and director lines.
We reduced our eliminated equipment supplies at all levels,
early childhood, elementary, middle, and high.
We had a planned elimination.
We had a planned route to get a CTE bus for Pinkerton students.
We pulled back on that and did not make that an offer to Pinkerton students.
we chose instead to continue to reimburse them from mileage.
We had a reduction of a middle school field trip transportation line by 67%.
In the end, two-thirds of that was made up by school donations and fundraising that was made.
So I don't want to make it a claim that any students missed that trip,
but I want to make it clear that two-thirds of the trip was funded outside of the taxpayer base.
And we also eliminated elementary professional development in terms of building principles,
being able to draw on resources for their staff.
Transportation I alluded to, we made that reduction before.
We also, at the end of the year, overspent that line by $870,000.
So you can see the initial projection was really right on target.
In terms of capital, the school board made the district decision
may have reduced capital line by a million.
The spring of 25, the board voted to use 25 monies
to complete the fencing project and the Belfrey at Atkinson Academy.
Those were two C.I.
projects that were approved for fiscal 26 that the board decided to move on in fiscal 25.
At the close of the fiscal year, the district did not complete the two other CIP projects approved for this past year.
The work for the high school bathroom project was kept at a design stage, and the work of the Danville will not be completed in fiscal 27.
If you remembered, you encumbered that money to move to the next fiscal year.
In terms of administrative measures, a few things that we did, initially I reported out that we met with the district's legal counsel at the outset of the year,
knowing there was concern and just wanted to map out all the opportunities and pathways available to the district.
At that time, we identified February as a good middle point.
We would have eight months of actuals, six months of actuals with operations,
and if anything we needed to do that was drastic, it could be done at that point.
When I came in your meeting in March, I announced we had a spending freeze that we initiated in February.
And in that, there's some successive bullets here about us kind of recounting out.
Here's some of the substantial things that we either said,
No two were reduced across the board from March to the end of the year.
We canceled professional development training of staff to complete the Fifer.
That's a reading assessment and purchasing those kits.
Currently we use, we contract out for those specialized evaluations.
We cancel the purchase of additional technology to assist with academic testing.
We currently use paper pencil protocols and we'd like to move forward with some electronic
versions, including for host of regions to help us with storage efficiency and just student
engagement along the process. Cancel the purchase of writing and social studies resources.
We canceled the purchase of summer reading books for K-to-5. We canceled consultants to support delivery
PD at both March in June staff days. We canceled all drop-off professional development for
staff beyond the contractual benefit. We removed all funding for student field trips transportation,
with the exception of elementary State House in the 5th and 6th transition. We delayed repair of snow
damage to the main fence. We delayed repair to the SAU.
generator we delayed a replacement of the sand down north underground oil
tank we delayed the replacement of heat pumps at Danville in the middle school we
canceled the softball renovation that was scheduled and we delayed high school bathroom
renovation and additionally as a safety gap if you remember we applied to expend
additional revenue that we received beyond progress projections received
approval from the Commission of Education and to remind the board we did not
need to execute expending any of those additional funds we did not need to actually
pull that trigger. In terms of looking at the whole picture, the last page in the summary
really takes the operating budget and puts it into those three parts we talk about often,
salaries, benefits, and the operating piece. This is really how we end of the year in these
three big areas. We have variance in salaries of $1.8 million. We had a variance in
benefits in the negative of a little north of 400,000, and we had a variance in operating a little over
a million. And you can see as you put those two, those three pieces,
together it's really the unassigned fund balance that was reported out to the board
at its previous meeting so you can see how there are pieces where we have years
where we will need to take from one area to help offset some things in there
and other years where it may need to move in the opposite direction but having that
flexibility to support a bottom-line budget is useful and you kind of see it play
out there that's really a comprehensive view of kind of what we did before the year
and during the year and where we ended up at the year I know the board's
interested to perhaps have some
conversation or discussion or questions and Sandy and I and Ginger are here to answer
anything that you may have. First I want to say thank you. Excuse me. I want to say thank
you because I know we've been kind of looking for that type of a report to get an
understanding of the impact of all the work you did to keep within the budget. This
first time I've heard it all that completely. It's overwhelming in a sense. And I
want to congratulate the district, the SAU, the teachers, the administrators, the custodial staff,
everybody involved. Because the semblance of order was maintained, there's a sense of confidence,
I think, still in the schools. There's some good things that we learn about, you know,
how to be efficient and whatnot. So, but I don't want people to underestimate what
that challenge was. I want to thank the business folks that gave us an ongoing report
on where we stood and helped us try to understand why it looked a little different from month
the month. But thank you for that comprehensive.
Any comments on the information?
Mark?
Thank you for our putting that together. It's a lot. It's complex. There's a lot. There's a lot. There's a
lot of nuance there. Bottom line, $6 million was cut from the proposed budget. And I know there's been a
lot of talk over the years and there will continue to be talked. They can do it. The money's there.
They can squeeze it out. They just have to run more efficiently. Agree. We do. It's unsustainable
the way taxes are going up. But this is what efficiencies look like. It's cutting programs. It's cutting
supplies. It's cutting field trips. It's increasing class sizes. It's not buying.
books, replacing computers, delaying repairs that will need to be done, be they water
or roof repairs, and it's laying off people. So I'm not suggesting that tightening the belt
is not required in these times where we're getting less state aid than we ever have. But this is what it
looks like, and these are the impacts that it has in their ongoing and their rolling impacts. So
we're at a kind of a lose-lose situation. Thank you for articulating what those costs.
are both in dollar terms as well as people in services that we provide. At the opening day,
some of the services that were provided that I was unaware of, that the school does not just
educate. School does not just mentor their students into further education or career paths.
They also supply nutrition that some of these kids wouldn't get otherwise. They supply some
resources, clothing resources that a lot of our community students do not have access
to. Dental care, that's something that I would like us to discuss and create some visibility,
because I'm embarrassed as a school board member. I was unaware of the services that our community,
that Timberlane community provided to its students who, you know, who have some unique
wants that I think are often overlooked. So it's not just the books,
It's not just the teachers, it's not just the technology, but as a community, we provide much more than that.
And it does take resources and the generosity of our public.
So thank you for putting that together.
I look forward to more discussions, you know, will and forth.
Marianne, Shawna, and then Jack, did you want to say something?
Yeah.
Okay.
So I was curious about the purchases of some of the resources for writing and social studies and summer reading books for
to five, can you elaborate on the impact of that to our students?
Sure, I'll start with summer reading. So traditionally, we'll go back several years.
We used to have a summer work policy where we have required summer reading or
all grade or things like that. A few years ago, that was amended and it's not optional.
That said, because we know that there can be regression in summertime when students are
engaged in learning. We for many years have strived to
provide a variety of texts, leveled, aligned to where students are at, at their
individual reading levels at each grade level, so that they can take them home, engage reading
activities, keep them engaged with the school. So we canceled that last year, so we did not
do that. The social studies in writing, that was we knew early enough on that we were entering
the spending freeze that we pretty much just halted the research into the different resources
that we might be looking into. But the district's really been engaging, and there's a lot of
revisions to curriculum and social studies. You heard a lot about it when we were hearing about the
306 rules and the changes to course and credit requirements and things like that. So there
had been a plan as we were working through some of the curriculum to investigate instructional
resources. We halted that for now. So that will come eventually because it is a need, but we
recognize that we had to prioritize it. So we slated that for the future. And that would
be the same thing for writing. Our elementary schools, especially this year, they're really
leaning into writing and their literacy focus. So it, again, will still be a need, but we've
just deleted. And for the summer readings books for K to 5, do you partner with the local
libraries to maybe have... So they do a lot of community outreach. So yes, there are
always options of that sort, yes.
And the other question I have is around the professional development
where you couldn't contract out.
What kinds of professional development do you bring outside people in?
It ranges. We, for the past,
try to generalize for the past three to five years.
We had a huge focus in math, so we were able to bring in
in an organization that's really been focusing on math instruction around just bringing teachers
up to date on having a common language and approach to their instructional practice. So that was a group
that we brought in a year ago that we likely would have brought back. We did not do that.
We also have been doing a lot of work around social emotional learning, bringing in
experts who are able to support teachers and developing proactive strategies
strategies to help support students that might struggle with behaviors in school
and try to have a proactive approach to that and provide supports to teachers so that they
understand how to better address those things when they arise. We cancel that as well. So it's not
that we're not providing training, but we shift to a model where it's all done in-house. So those are
just two examples, but we have literacy trainings. We have a variety of trainings.
Thanks.
Shana?
No, I'm going to ask you this question and then when other board members have the opportunity to share the information, I want to come back to you so that you get a minute to think about it.
So there's a lot of big talk happening here about monies and budgets, but you are a student who lives in this community.
You have lots of friends and family in this community, and so I'd like you to think about sharing with us any impacts that you have heard as a student yourself or through your peers.
or through your peers or through your neighbors or anybody in your community related to
um budget cuts okay so i wanted to give you a minute to think about that so
do you have anything else you know i just wanted to ask no jack and then don so i happen to be
sitting in a room the other day with a bunch of paper guys and uh a segment of that industry that's
going up dramatically of the public eight other publishers of educational stuff
And if I remember correctly from one of our meetings, you said our buy used to be 100,000 a year and now I think you said last year was 5,000 in textbooks.
For textbooks.
Right.
We always talk about proficiency and proficiency rates.
And supposedly kids learn better from books.
That comes at a cost.
The other thing I think that you don't realize it's kind of like what would have happened if if we manage
and maintain and invest in our assets that will be a long-term savings that you really
never get to see but I'll point to the belfry a couple coats of paint and general
maintenance on the belfry would save this 1.2 million off the top of my head but we let things go
and that's one of the big impacts that we've had around the district so i think that's a lesson
learned i think you know that the facilities department is doing a good job
a good job of putting together an audit and making sure that when every bolt needs to be replaced,
it's going to be replaced as general maintenance. So all those things come, those are costs,
if you defer them, we'll end up costing you more in the end. So that's it. Nice job.
I want to follow up on everything that's being talked about, especially curriculum pieces.
As Anthony presented to us, kind of a plan for a couple of years just to do work on the math,
Department, curriculum. Changes from the state really made it important that we have a comprehensive plan to address curriculum over the years. We have to be able to stay current.
And when it came up about what we were doing, what we weren't doing, as much as we're doing in math right now, there are limits on who can do that work. Who has the time to do that work?
We can't afford to pay teachers to do work beyond their school day and their hours.
They only have so much time and you can't just assign it to them as homework, you know, to do what constitutes really another job all the time.
But we used to have money for that, and we could pay them during the summer to come in and do it.
We weren't able to do that. We won't be able to do that in the current year.
We, we, the work gets done.
if it gets stunned by a few people, we end up with problems like we had with an assumption that because a few people are creating something, everybody's going to be on board and that it's going to go well.
We get feedback that people don't feel like maybe they're up to speed on the changes that are happening that they have to go and do the work for.
Because we're not doing a good enough job because we're not affording to do a good enough job.
We're loading all the work on to a few willing workers.
We're eliminating positions that used to do that work.
And then we're bemoaning results in terms of student performance when they're not up to
speed on a curriculum that should have been already in place.
And it's going to go on because, okay, we're doing now, what comes next?
Social studies?
Is that going to take a couple of years?
You're going to go to science?
Is that going to take a couple of years?
It's going to be 10 years before we get back to math again?
Maybe.
You know, and this has happened before in the district.
And when I say, I'm going to go back to what Jack was talking about,
this deferred maintenance piece is not new.
It's a tradition.
Okay?
It's a creative tradition of making great suggestions and doing a portion of it.
portion of it and then failure and then all of a sudden, you know, work that's incumbent on us to complete in an emergency.
And if you've dialed that out to every aspect of what we do, whether it's bullying and harassment, whether it's, you know, coming up to speed with helping out people who struggle emotionally, people who are special education, no funding, you know, right down the road.
Right down the road, we set ourselves up for misery.
Misery here, trying to figure out how to do the best we can when we're not really equipped to handle it, you know, in an organized way over time.
So, you spelled it out, you know, wonderfully in terms of, you know, what it cost us in terms of what we could provide and resources and whatnot.
But I think the real damage is what we're doing.
what we fail to provide and the impact that has on our community moving forward.
So we have to be thankful for the work that is getting done, recognize how heroic some of the
people are in our district doing the work, you know, right down to the custodians.
You know, we're working sometimes with two or three directors in a year, you know, with shifting
focus based on immediate needs.
you know trying to get equipment to do the jobs well in a tight budget you know it's
we're trying to find good ways to do it we we argue over you know how to make that you
know change we need to protect the resources in most efficient way financially
sacrificing what we know might not be what the standards are you know
professional standards you know I hear Jack all the time trying trying to bring up
you know ways to save money and still get it done
on it efficiently and you know we struggle with things that we're still not
doing you know I know that it's hard work and and I don't want people to
underestimate the effort it is to try to respond to where we are in terms of you
know what what the economy is like now what what the limits are and that to
brace themselves for you know what the impact is going to be over time
that sounds good
To expand on what you're talking about with Don is one of the things that is the
accountability aspect of it and it's the decisions that are made here at this table
years gone by we affect that are those decisions are in our student bodies as
we speak we have to also accept some of the responsibilities
to hear of our own you know failures and some of them we we we don't
nobody likes to talk about these kind of things but some of the decisions that
were made years ago uh relative to to curriculum decisions you know everyday math
is one that comes to my example it's been proving that that was just another
failure in the industry and being propelled out over the years and you know if kids are
doing bad in math
do we who do we really got to look at at the mirror is it the decisions of the
educators to decide to use our student bodies and I'm not trying to put the
blame entirely on them because where do they get their information researchers
in academia at Harvard and every other you know you know Ivy League school they
come up with their studies and then they push this down those are the
kind of things and then we turn around here and absorb all that stuff and we make a
decision that let's go down in this direction and the kids are the ones that pay
the ultimate price of that decision I agree with you I think that you know when
when a program gets adopted out of a median need instead of through kind of a
more organic process that involves you know the staff the community to agree
the professionals and and research
that we do about what's available and what's best and what will work.
But even with something like that, I bet if you surveyed, you know, the teachers in the district
at the time we were adopting something that was, you know, purchased, you know,
and agreed upon at least administrative list, you know, that they probably wouldn't have
wanted to do it then, you know.
So I think that I think that best we can do is try to be as inclusive.
in this process and we're going to talk a little bit about what we need to do just
to meet some of the requirements of the state is asking us to do regarding bullying
policy etc the good thing is that they expect us to involve everybody you know
in in the process of having input and when we fail to do that I think we end up with
problems like you're talking and then the other problem I also see with this
and then probably going to say wow you're actually saying this is is our
federal government. When we're in a crunching, we're looking at, you know, ways to find money
and the good old Uncle Sam holds out, hey, no, you know, no child help, what is that?
Propel the hell that. Repelled a hell. That's the advanced rope's course. Yes, thank you.
And it's, you know, there's a lot of other things that are contributing to this. And one of them is
the carrot and stick that the feds hold over states and so forth to force you down.
So they come up with this education program and they're like, oh, you adopt it, we'll give you all this money.
Well, you know, financially everybody here looks at the finances of it.
Well, maybe we should probably look at that program because, you know, a lot of numbers at the end of that grant that we could use.
It's just it's, we got to start looking in the mirrors and all these, everything's on the table, including us, teachers, and whatnot.
What? Yeah. You know, we went from finance to education, which we're here to talk education, which I think is great, but is the other compelling part, which I see very different, maybe from when our kids were in school, Sean, or when we were in school, you can't put the kid on the bus, can't put the student on the bus and keep your fingers crossed. And when he gets off the bus, the school day is over.
It's a 24-7 thing around parenting.
communication with the parents and the back and forth.
Because I don't know how.
And not every kid is going to be a rocket scientist.
I get it.
But we need more parent involvement, in my opinion, because I was watching CBS the other day.
I'm going to bring it up on the new business, the American President Physical Fitness test, right?
And I had commentators going, well, you know, we've got to be thinking about everything.
And I'm just like, no, get into, like, you have to do the work.
You've got to do the work as a student, and you've got to do the work as a parent, right?
So anyways, back to finance.
Well, no, you've heard all of us jibbering and jabbering.
Ms. Manthor asked you a question if you feel inclined to answer.
Yeah, of course.
I have actually been thinking about this as I've been reading through, and I have a few different
things that I've noticed from a high school or at least.
So one of the things was the fact that we had to eliminate a librarian spot in the library,
which is the effects of that have been widely seen throughout the whole school, I think.
So for study halls, usually, kids like to go down to the library.
kids from other study halls, I'll go there, socializing.
So now that there's only one librarian who's doing a fantastic job.
But she's running around constantly.
Libraries close.
She can't always be there.
And it shows.
Like, I heard a teacher talking in the hall the other day saying that he tried to get time in the library to go over, you know,
reading books, what have you.
And she was booked out all the way until the end of September, which is a lot for one person to handle, especially at our biggest school with our most students.
And the efficiency of the library isn't working as well as it did last year, especially, I think.
So, you know, we talked about how these eliminations can make us more efficient, but in the long run,
Are they really?
And then another topic was the instrument in equipment replacement.
So as a football player, equipment is a big part of the safety that we have on the team.
Helmets, shoulder pads, they keep us, you know, pretty much alive on the football field.
And that's not an exact duration.
So, you know, we have limited.
I shouldn't say luxury, but I should say safer, you know, helmets especially, but only a certain amount of kids get those because, you know, there's only a certain amount.
So then you look at, you know, the underclassmen who may have never played football before, trying it out, and they don't, and they're not as safe as, say, the upperclassmen.
And that's where issues we can see, especially because they have never played football before, you know,
That's, again, like I said, the safety aspect of a helmet when you're doing a contact sport is incredibly important.
And not being able to replace those or get them fixed is, you know, very difficult for the team, especially because then you deal with more head injuries, and that's not something that we really want on the team.
We also talked about the field trips.
So that is definitely a burden on, you know, parents and teachers to get the money together to take field trips because they're all educational field trips, whether they're educating in teamwork or educating on the topic that we're currently on.
And, you know, being able to get buses and everything set up.
So field trips play a big role into the things that we are learning in class.
And I think getting rid of funding for field trips can be seen throughout the whole district, not just the high school, because, you know, elementary schoolers, they take field trips.
Like I said, the middle school is going on a whole bunch of team building field trips.
And, you know, for parents having to pay for those, that can be a big burden on.
some households. And I think it's definitely a big issue. Well said.
Yeah, that's really appreciate you putting some thought into that and using your lived
experience, but also thinking about the impact as it trickles down to some of the younger grades
and younger kiddos. So thank you so much for sharing with us.
Don?
As you said, a football player, how's the locker room space and condition?
Um, this year we have smaller numbers, so there's more space, but last year, between both the JV and varsity,
Ocarums, very crammed. Um, there's a lot of stuff everywhere, you know, that, that reflects on the kids,
but at the same time, at the same time, it's just the space that we are given. And, you know,
they're not always clean. Again, that reflects on the kids, but it also,
are they getting clean, you know, over the weekends or at nights or whatever?
So it's, it's just things to think about.
How about the shower areas?
What do they look like?
Those are really messy, too.
I mean, not that there's no showering anymore, really, but.
Is there equipment in there?
Is there equipment in there? Is it used for other things?
There, there is, yes.
And in one of the locker rooms, it has been gross,
the past few years and really nothing has been done.
I just like to tell you, for the 20 plus years I've been involved, there's always a plan
to redo that whole athletic wing.
And again, it goes to deferred maintenance.
I actually had an official who was the CEO of a major company in New Hampshire referee games.
And he says you never do one here ever again because they put them in
closet that had no heat. So I very much appreciate your candor on this.
Again, when people realize what's going on, maybe there'll be an effort to fix it.
Okay. So thank you.
Just one last thing. No, I'm going to put you on the spot again. You did great, so I think you can
handle this. You chatted about safety and equipment and things, but one of the things
that I note and reflect in terms of safety is the reduction of front of
staff in our middle school and high school. You are a student that comes and goes for that
high school office and there is one adult in there both checking in guests, visitors,
students, attendance, right, things of that nature. And that's happening at the middle school too.
And so as a parent, when I go in there, I get, you know, a little nervous that only one person
is sort of watching that. So do you notice that as a student?
I think there's definitely more this year, especially, you know, after, so I'll all
saw all these, not just in the front office, but, you know, walking around the hallways.
Last year we had, I have not really sure the number, but five to seven teachers on hall duty and
just patrolling, going around the hallways, and now, you know, maybe three. So when I go to the bathroom,
taking a chance whether I see a teacher and, you know, where we are now in the world,
that's not safe and anything could happen really. So I think it's a very difficult thing that we had to
get rid of staff and that really give a safer feeling for students at the school.
Any other questions or comments about the FY 2026 summary?
All right. Moving on is going to be the 2026 unassigned fund balance.
Which is directly connected.
So Maria's got a few things that I think has been presented to you before, but also some new additional
pieces of information that may provide some more context for you.
But we are looking for some action tonight with regard to any decision on retention.
I added a little bit more information just for context to the executive summary.
Some resources that maybe helps better understand what they on assignment.
and what is used for.
I think the main thing to point out is that the unassigned fund balance
not only gets returned to taxpayers if it is not utilized,
but it is also a great tool, a mechanism for cash flow management.
So that is something to take into consideration that I would put your attention.
attention. It really helps us to manage the cash flow. As you know, we work with
our towns to also help them manage their cash. So we, we, our schedule of payments
with the towns follows their cash flow. But as we have less and less on balances,
our cash flow gets restraining and restraining. It is really an excellent.
exercise of the cash flow management.
I will appreciate if you can consider retaining some balance just to help us navigate the cash flow challenges.
Before we get to that, would you go over the unassigned fund balance and what that breakdown was?
I believe it's page 51 in our packet.
So this year, the unassigned fund balance is 1.162 million.
Basically, most of it is just additional revenues that we receive.
When we look at the expenses, the budget was $82 million.
Our expenses were $82 million.
We ended up the year on the expense side with $28,500 in many.
So that's how much we did not spend compared to budget.
So basically, on the time from balance, it's additional revenues that we received over what was projected.
We have a 1.162 on a central imbalance.
Our ability to retain is 2.5% which is 1,4193,404.
Obviously, on assignment balance, it's only 1.162.
So basically that's what the board has available to retain.
In terms of history, Marie is also provided
table for you there. You can see what the board is exercised to do over time, not retaining
anything fiscal 25 and 24, and then being fairly consistent for the last years.
And the other thing that Marie and I have talked about when we work through this is that
despite the board deciding to retain monies from fiscal 14 to 23, never did it execute spending
those monies.
And every year it lapsed back to taxpayers.
So that's been the history here in Timberlane, I think is important for the board to understand that.
understand that.
Isn't this the only last year unless state law changes that we're able to even retain any type of,
okay.
Okay.
And for clarification, should we retain and then want to or feel the need to expand those funds,
the process we would need to notify the community?
Yep.
The board would notify the community.
You'd hold a public hearing in which you would be presenting what you'd want to spend that money on.
Then you would have to formal.
have to formalize that and the only way that money is spent is by this body conducting a vote
and approving that expenditure.
Go ahead, Don.
That's just a question of the significance of some of stuff I'm reading here regarding
recommendations of the GFOA and the DRA, so the Department of Revenue Administration.
And, you know, wondering, you know, at 5 to 17 percent, they're saying, regardless of the size of the
the size of the group, like us, municipality.
How come there's such a discrepancy?
So, municipality is operating in a different manner that is school districts.
School districts is up to the borders to approve percent of retainage that they want,
and we can only go, school districts can only go up to 5 percent, which has been argued
over and over that school districts, the size of hours or Manchester or NACA is not enough
retain to retain 5 percent.
Why?
Because as a general rule in any institution, in any corporation or institution, the list that
you should have is two months of operating expenses in your safety fund, right?
Our average money expenses is actually $6.9 million, so $7 million a month, having $500,000 as a retention is...
There's 114 of what the DRI recommends.
Something I will recommend.
I know and I understand that school districts work different than corporations and municipalities,
but again, is to put it in perspective how little or how reduced that fund balance will be.
for what is a standard recommendation or prudent.
I think to remind the board, too, when you had your auditor here last year,
I think you asked him that exact question, like, where is that?
And his response was, it is dependent upon the community and what the community is able to generate
and partner to tolerate and what it can afford to do.
And he also made the comment that it's about the size of your budget, right?
A 17% unassigned fund balance does not make sense from an organization
of a school district. It's got a $90 million budget. It doesn't make sense. That's not the sustainable part.
So what I heard from him is it's about talking your community and not just sticking to the numbers,
but figuring out what you need to actually work and make things run.
Well, I think the common 0% would be unacceptable.
I think it causes concern.
Yeah, or it would be inadvisable. But, you know, where we end up?
I just was looking at, how is that range?
even a possibility.
To put the perspective a little bit more.
So we began this year with $2.2 million cash, right?
If the towns couldn't collect the taxes,
if the towns couldn't give us in July their payments,
we only had $2.2 million dollar cash to meet our
obligation.
So.
real possibility some years that counts might struggle.
I know some towns came in a little later than others,
you know, and traditionally that's going to happen.
You're going to have different aspects of things that don't go well to town.
So yeah, I think that this is important that we recommend an amount that we can predict
will cover us through the most types of things we're familiar having happened.
happen?
Yeah, and again, it's a tool throughout the year that if we don't,
the board doesn't need to utilize an emergency,
then it goes back.
It's just a mechanism to manage.
Just as well.
Seeing as how, if I'm understanding correctly,
we ended up utilizing 99.8%.
We've got to the 0.2% unexpended or something to that effect.
I think the DRA, you know, even if you average it out to 10%,
or a one-month spending,
I don't think the public has the appetite, even though the monies would go back to them to retain that amount of money.
I would be very uncomfortable retaining anything less than, I'll say, 500,000, knowing we have a history of retaining that much and never actually expending it, but we have seen that things do occur.
And we no longer have the historic, you know, I'm expended funds that we would have had in the past to, you know, to address these.
potential emergency situations. So at the very least, I think $500,000 is the starting point from where I'm coming from.
Jack, go ahead. So we've never used it. Is that correct? We never used it.
Last year, we did have some town struggle to meet their obligations in a timely fashion, correct?
Yes. And in one with the monthly, not as, that's a scary thought.
and I look at the budget, and I equated that last year with the surplus to one physical event in the district and a couple snowstorms.
So I'm going to listen, which is rare for me, but we've never used it.
Go ahead, Michael, laugh away on that one.
Yeah, let me ask you this. You may have said it.
Say we retain a half a million dollars.
what does that mean per town per say on a $300,000 house?
That's always the perspective that I think residents understand.
Is it $15 a house?
Is it $15 a house?
And I know for each time, it's going to be a little different, but could you give us a...
On the second page of here, I know it's...
What it means now, I will have to do the math for the specific value of the home.
But this is for a million dollars.
So that's the, there's division within the times.
Those are the percentages that each time is responsible.
So for that, can you just...
Is math?
Am I reading that, right?
So for, say, we have to raise an appropriate a million dollars.
So at case him is his responseable for 22%,
then dollars said response to all for 18.4%.
Right, but say on a half, you know.
So say you live in a half a million dollar house in Atkinson.
I have two of them half.
That is something that puts it in perspective for the taxpayers because there are people out there right now saying,
but you're going to keep a million, you're going to keep a half million.
They really don't know what that means to them in their town, right?
Those seem like very large numbers, but divided out by four towns, divided out by...
How many reasons do we have in town?
It's really not.
And again, to put a point on it, it's not substantial.
And historically, every single dollar has gone directly back the next year.
It's a say it's an emergency fund.
I know what it's for, but I was saying to you, just like when we found it what the surplus was.
See, easy peasy.
This is, oh my God, they kept another.
I want to know what I think it's fair for the residents to understand.
understand right what that really means well if you take a million say we the
million dollars and you take Atkinson which that whole entire yeah 222,000
four and twenty three dollars and say do you have like what seven thousand
residents roughly roughly so if you're going to do that you have to go by the
household yeah yeah but yeah but I mean you're looking at thirty one dollars
right so that's not the whole correct math
I had a long day, but rough, roughly.
We're not talking.
Right.
So that's no.
Yeah.
So, okay.
And I understood that.
It comes back if not spent.
Would somebody be interested in changing that 500
hearing the discussion or folks comfortable with that?
If not make a motion.
Yeah, 500,000 is what the district's done in the past
and it's just.
So just something if I can interject here.
Yeah, go ahead, John.
We have a one point.
162 million that's the upper max you can make it because that's all you have.
Yep.
So that would be the upper bound.
Yeah.
The fund retention balances you can have up to 1.493 million, which you won't get there because that's not going to fit there.
So this is going to be less than than 2%.
I mean, from 2.5% would be less than that.
So it's probably going to be probably, you know, around, yeah, right around probably 2%.
probably to present the full amount.
So I have a question.
If we retain funds in order to actually use them,
we have to have a special hearing.
A public hearing.
So how does that help with cash flow during the year?
Say in November, we're low on cash.
How does having that retained amount of money help you
navigate those dips and things like that.
It's a reserve.
So we do have those funds reserve.
So they...
So you have that reserve, so you have that reserve,
so you do have the cash available to fund any deficit in any particular month.
So you have a half a million dollars that is always there
help you to fund any, any screpancy in cash flow.
So, for example, if one of the...
one of the towns cannot pay for that specific month
and we do need to make payroll and tables,
then you have that half a million dollars to support that month operation
and then it goes back to...
So it's just...
You have to put it back.
So that's safety one.
Say something happened and we had to spend.
Safety net.
Yeah.
Just, yeah, it's cash flow.
It's a tool for cash flow.
management.
John, go ahead.
From my experience, you know, the SAU has done a good job.
Basically, your office over time, prior to you, people, done a good job of basically freezing budgets
to avoid having to dip into, you know, a retention fund.
You know, but, so you manage the budget in a lot of ways that there are things you haven't
spent yet that you might not be able to spend it on, and you have to determine.
you know, school of school, you know, what's, what can you do without at this point,
you know, whatever that might be.
It could be February or March, when you're looking at where you have to get to,
you might not have enough and you have to say, where do we slow down with what we do.
And that's predictive stuff.
It has an impact.
It could be in books that it is or equipment could be a number of things.
You have to start to not deliver on some of the intent that you had going into the year about how to
spend their money. You know, that's how you try to avoid having to go to the town, you know, to have a, you know, a meeting like that to be able to dip into a fund to do it.
But there might be times when you can't rescue it that way. And I think, you know, that's, you know, kind of the
the wrestle match you have with, you know, how important is it, you know, to make that move and not spend, you know, money that we have.
dedicated to something else, maybe to fix a roof or something.
Sean, are you come, you're more municipal experience than I do.
You're familiar with some of the cash flow constraints that towns deal with.
Are you comfortable with $500,000? Are you thinking that it should be greater,
knowing we have a history of not spending it?
I am, I like the, I'm okay with the $500,000, you know, personally.
One is the, you know,
What's that's going to do?
It's going to reduce.
Because what's going to happen is when they go to set the tax rates and all this stuff, they're going to look at, okay, this run on the sign.
If we put zero in there, then $1.162 million will be then it gets what's reduced off of that because we keep that.
Right. So what they're saying is now is what that will leave to do the quick math, 500K.K.
So it would be $62K is what it would be used to reduce the taxes and the 500K is put off to the size.
I do agree that it's not going to affect the needle kind of thing because you look at our household is that.
One is I do like the fact that if we do have to tap that, it's at the table, you know, with all the prerequisites that is already defined.
But one of the things that I think is, is what do we learn from all this process, you know, going through this stuff?
is we know that the pendulum swung one way, one year, and back the other way, and creates a lot of havoc.
Slow, methodical, increase.
There always things are going to increase.
We know that.
Thanks are Federal Reserve, but that's a different topic.
But the trajectory is, well, we want to control the slope on that and have it nice and methodical.
And that was the problem is that we were going on that road, and then all of a sudden, boom, it went crazy one year,
and then all that stuff, and I will agree that when you have 13, 14, 15, whatever the dollar amount is,
million sitting in your cash in the bank, you don't have cash full problems, zero,
you know, and I think it was a good exercise for our SAU office to go through this stuff because
they got to see some of the stuff that the towns actually experience in dealing with this stuff.
And like I said before, you have four customers, the four towns, pretty much that comes in like a social
security check always going to be there. We don't have that luxury. If people don't pay their
taxes on their houses, we don't, we just, you know, there's all the process, but that just accumulates
and then depending upon a variety of other things, you know, then we get in the pickle. So you're comfortable
with 500,000 weren't suggesting it's higher than that. That's what I'm here. Yeah, I'm not going to go higher
than that. In that case, I would like to make a motion to, let me find there it is right here,
to retain 500,000 of the 2026 year and unassigned general.
Funds. Motion by Mark. Do you have a second? Second by Don. He's got his hand up faster than you spoke.
Any other comments about this? All those in favor? Opposed and abstained, unanimous. Okay. But you are right, Sean. Like moving forward, like the towns, like it's, and I think that's one of the big things with this district, like, we're going to have to really think about is like the district needs, but also, too, like our communities, like,
Yeah, the effect. I mean, there's a lot of things. What are we, what are we going to do to help with them, but also get with the school district needs? It's a, it's a work in progress for sure. It's, it's, it's, we're all vying for the same tax dollar for a household. You know, usually, you know, you know, you can assess what can people absorb. And we're all here on this board, you're looking at, you know, you take the lion's share of it. At the town level, you know, you know, then people don't feel that.
they can affect the district because other towns can move in the needle.
But you know what? You can really affect your town. And then what happens is you just run out of, I've got no more blood to give out of this rock. And, you know, and that's what it is. And then we, we pay the prices for it.
Some of these issues that you, you've talked about, you know, earlier about that. I mean, yeah, we don't have students, but we're facing the same things in the towns. You know, we have programs that don't get funded, deferred maintenance.
all that kind of stuff because we just don't have it.
It's a resource. It's a finite resource. We've got to utilize it and get the most efficiency out of it.
All right. Moving on, I think it's the Budget Committee presentation calendar. Is that correct?
Yes, it is. And I think it's just informational. You've seen this before. We just wanted to put it back for you as we're getting into the season. We're going to have our first Budget Committee next Thursday on the 9th.
We're going to provide them the historical review. We're going to go over the funding review.
the money comes from. We'll have a brief legislative update. Go over this calendar. And then we really
kind of want to ask the budget committee to set some goals for the year and to be able to provide
some parameters and rules of the road and some direction for Maria and I as we move through
that process. To remind you, we've got an additional meeting that's a joint meeting this year. We added that to the
calendar. So we've got one on September 24th and one again on November 23rd. That first joint meeting,
there are no budget presentations. And the thinking here is that we get
these two bodies together, the governing body and the committee, and we have some discussion
about the priorities of both of those bodies. And I think as a group, we get to that point
where we can maybe give some collective direction out of the administration and we can begin
those budget presentations knowing we're within some parameters of the road that both bodies
feel are going to be good for the district and also concurrently for the taxpayer. So questions about the
calendar, items that you wanted to raise or you want me to bring to the budget committee to talk
through any potential revisions for them.
I don't think so. Does anybody at the board have any questions, comments?
Okay. All right, so the first, our first joint meeting with them is, again, September 24th.
So if you can be there, that would be great. If you were not able to be there,
but you have like questions or goals that you want to express, please email me or mark.
That way we can compile that and be able to talk about that at that meeting, okay?
Let be here.
Yeah, here, right?
Yes.
And Marianne is the rep this year as well.
So you can also email her too.
Okay.
And Marie and I will just be sure that with a packet we create for the budget committee on the 10th,
we'll also share that with you.
So you've got the same info that they've had.
So when you're together on the 24th, you've both seen the same information.
All right.
Thank you so much.
Moving on to the next agenda item is the end of year dates for high school.
All right.
Remember, this is Patty Mangini, giving you some dates.
No, I may have some conversation here.
We've reviewed these dates together.
He approves them all.
But it helps us set the calendar.
It helps us start making reservations and getting things,
and we can always adjust as we get through the year and things change.
So I'm looking to kind of lock this stuff in for planning purposes.
Okay.
Noah, did you have anything you want to talk about these dates?
All right, cool.
Anybody else have any comments about these dates?
I think we just have to make a motion.
We have the motion to approve the high school's proposed dates for the
2027 end of year events as presented in the 27 graduation date of June 12, 2027.
Motion made by Shaughness, seconded by Marianne. Any other discussion? All is in favor.
Opposed and abstain. You know, ma'am.
You can't us. Great. Next on the list is the 2026 New Hampshire School Board Association Delegate Assembly.
All right. So that is scheduled for Saturday, October 17th. It's in Concord, the Caponi Center.
And we are going to start talking about like which one of you folks are going to attend on behalf of the board.
If you already haven't determined that.
So I believe last year, Mary.
was instead for you because you had, but then I think this year you're going to be away.
Okay, so who wants to go?
I nominate Mark.
Yeah, second.
All right, so this is October 17th.
Correct.
It is a pretty interesting day.
You threw the packet ahead of time, but then you hear perspectives from different.
from different school districts. You also get to meet school board reps from other districts and school districts.
My son is getting married. I won't be happy.
All right. Well, between the people left over and think about it and at the next board meeting, we're going to make a decision.
Unfortunately, I can confirm that I am double booked both professionally and personally.
Sorry, I have an open house at work and my son is traveling for basketball.
So I'm not available.
Melissa.
Sorry, friends.
We've got two sports games scheduled that day.
Yes, it's me.
Cool. All right. It's me, Justin.
Okay.
We will prepare ourselves.
All right. Next, deliberative session dates.
We're going to do some action.
So, so very. Yeah, stop saying you're sorry.
I really am.
I'd rather not be working on a Saturday.
I wish I did it on Sundays are much better.
Saturday's sports.
I'm not taking time off of work.
All right.
Deliberative date?
Yeah, let's go.
Okay.
So you got an executive summary there for yourselves.
Again, a review over the past 12 months.
The districts engaged as communities and stakeholders regarding a potential date change for the
2027 deliberative session and this summary outlines those efforts and some of those outcomes.
The timeline is there for you.
I think this is kind of a rehash that you remember.
We've had these conversations here.
You partnered with me.
We went to the Board of Selectmen.
We engaged them in those conversations.
conversations. They supported the survey that we generated. They helped support getting that word out.
We had that survey open for two months. You review the results of that survey last board meeting.
You made a determination to move it to a Saturday but wanted to hold off on identifying the date until this meeting and come back with some additional info.
So other factors relevant to consideration for you as you make that decision tonight.
Number one, the statutory window. It's there for UNRSA 40-13. It provides a timeline that the towns can hold their deliberative
sessions on the first Saturday and the school district can hold it's on the second Saturday.
So by statute, it can work.
In review of the last three years, we've looked at when the towns deliverer sessions were scheduled.
They were all scheduled on the first Saturday.
You can see that information in the table.
Postpomements of any deliberative session, factor three here,
by RSA must be held within 72 hours.
So the old thinking that I think some of the towns had that if you had it the first Saturday,
your postponement date was the next day.
date was the next Saturday, that can't happen.
That's outside the statutory window.
If it's held in the first Saturday, the moderators must move to have that happen within 72 hours,
which protects the statutory window of both the towns and the school district.
We've also engaged the district moderator about this.
He has voiced his support of the date change, kind of looking at the same survey results that you did.
Since sending this packet to you, I've also engaged all the Board of Selectmen, again, let them know.
that this was going to be a conversation for you to set the date.
I heard that I think Danville has actually taken the vote
to support that move to the second Saturday.
I've heard from the BOS from Sandown.
They review that email at a regular scheduled meeting.
They're also in support of the district moving that day.
I know Plastow has engaged with both myself and some Plastile reps.
They have a couple things that they wanted to speak to concern.
I think that maybe Shaw, you'll be able to present that tonight.
I haven't had any feedback.
back positive or negative from the town of Atkinson.
Yes, so for Plastow, the only thing that they were okay, after talking with them,
they were okay with doing it for this year.
Their really only concern was the fact of the survey about the ability for individuals to get
on a different log-off and then open up a new screen and do it that way.
And then also the low turnout of participation, but again, we did as best that we could.
So they were okay with still supporting it because it was the majority, it did not affect
their their their their because they had Bob Harb the moderator for which for
Plastow as well and was okay with it but what they did ask is that and that was
something that we could bring up here once we vote for the date is that they
suggested maybe doing like a Warren article survey that way it hits the bigger
population for continued years and seeing if the Saturday is what the
population wants to do is for continued that was a suggestion it's not a bad
idea to see if this one worked but that was just the
feedback that they're okay with it, but that was their only concern.
Shawna, did you have anything else you went?
No, and just to add one other thing too, I thought that that actually was a really great
suggestion opportunity because by the time it's voted on as a worn article, we will have
already experienced having it on a Saturday and what that feels like so voters will be able
to have a lived experience and sort of give us an indication.
They would continue.
The point of information as to whether or not continuing it on a Saturday for the following year is
is workable, doable, livable.
Make that a warrant article and make it right now.
We'll move it to the warrant.
Yep.
Okay.
So does someone want to make a motion to have the...
I'll make a motion to move the Timberlane Regional School District.
Deliverative session for Saturday, February 6 at 10 a.m.
I think it's 7.
Six.
It's a 6th.
We're not because we had two things for time.
We had two things for time.
and then we've got to figure out where we're going to host it,
whether it's going to be at the pack or if we're going to move it to the gym.
So today is just the lock down the date.
So I'll just amend my motion to have the Timberland Regional School Districts.
2027, deliberative session on Saturday, February 6th, 27.
Motion made by Sean. Do you have a second?
Second and by Mark?
Any other discussion?
All those in favor?
Opposed and abstain, unanimous.
All right, guys.
And then, yeah, if the board is good with doing that sort of.
then to add to the warrant, then that would be something we can do.
So I think it's a good idea.
Any other comments on deliberative session or anything like that?
One comment, put in people's minds.
Though there will be a cost associated with having it in the gym in excess
to what it would be in the pack at 10 o'clock.
These things can run on, people don't be getting hangary
and their blood sugar is going to be dropping.
There are opportunities to perhaps have some sort of subtle nourishment
for those in the crowd in the gym that we would not have built.
would not have available to us in the pack. I don't want people feeling lousy because it's
two o'clock in the afternoon and they've been there since 9.45 with nothing to eat. Just a thought.
Some of these town walls have gone on for a real long time too.
My thought is in the gym. You could have some luchess club selling hot dogs in the pack and people
could jump their face and come in.
Okay. Yeah, I want a hot dog at 9 a.m.
Don't judge me. They're starting to tell you that. That's what's available.
Tacos.
We'll see all hungry.
Food trucks.
There you go.
Oh, my gosh.
Food trucks.
All right.
Anything else on the little reception before move on?
All right.
Minister's report.
All right.
First, thank you for all the support and help with engaging the BOS.
I think that was an 18-month process that was really productive and useful and we'll continue.
So we made an allusion to some of the fiscal 26 budget summary things.
So I would like to ask Ginger to kind of have the first report here, but also to read
remind folks and kind of put the face to the name, when we talk about taking those responsibilities
for the director of special education, and we talked about absorbing those or them moving other places,
there's one place they went and they were absorbed by Ginger and the student services,
and that she's managing that department right now, and is doing an exceptional job.
I really, we are working to get our feet under us across the entire department.
we have welcomed all of our students back.
Everybody across student services is putting, you know,
all their effort into connecting with students and families and getting everybody acclimated
from our littlest of littles to our oldest students at the high school.
So all hands on deck there.
I am happy to report that we did do quite a bit of hiring over the summer.
We were able to bring on some ISEP paras as direct hires, which was wonderful to come
of staff specialized positions within our categorical programs.
So that was a plus.
We had a number of positions that turned over over the course of the summer.
Fortunately, we were able to hire either directly or through contracted services.
At this point in time, we only have one position,
which is a case manager position at Sand Down North that we are looking to fill.
Aside from that, we are fully staffed between both direct district hires
and contract services across the district.
So I'm really pleased with that.
Again, we're working to get everybody acclimated,
but I feel really good about the team that we have moving for each year.
The only other thing that I wanted to touch base on is,
which is the nine-month topic that I feel like we've been talking about,
which is the PAG's audit.
We received, as you know, our report back in July,
July 9th is when it actually came to us here at the district.
We reviewed it with our lease.
our liaison through the DOE in mid-July.
I think the redacted copy was uploaded to the DOE website sometime in the end of the month.
And we have been given until, I think, it's October 9th to do our corrective action plan.
So that is something that's in process.
There are already things that have been adjusted, things that we have kind of addressed already
that were brought to our attention in the report.
So when we come back together the first meeting in October, I will have a presentation
for the board at that point in time to kind of review the report, the findings that were within
it and the corrective action plan that we have put together so that you will see all of that
and actually you'll get a chance to have a glimpse at it before we submit it to the DOE.
Yeah, Sean.
And your assessment of the deficiencies that they found, what's your assessment of them?
Are they, you can have, you know,
really, you know, concerned issues?
These are trivial and we should be able to clean these out very quickly.
The report that we, because let me back up and say, when we met with the liaison through the DOE,
what I kind of wanted to get from that individual was how did we fare in comparison to other districts?
Because you can look at the report, but you don't know really, there aren't any other metrics to compare it to.
She shared with us that she thought that we did very very,
well in our report across the district. I know we've kind of floated this number out there before,
but we had 36 IEPs that were reviewed. Each IEP had 20 to 22 different areas where they were
looking for compliance. So that was 796 actual areas where there could have been a finding
or of noncompliance or something was missing on an IEP. We had 18. So when you kind of break
you kind of break that down, it's about a 2% error rate. Some of the things that we were cited on
were, they were definitely errors, but they were like placeholder, you know, phrases that were put on an IEP
so that after the meeting somebody could go back and add in parent comments or things of that nature.
And that wasn't done. That wasn't taken out and the parents' comment wasn't put in there. So there were
some clerical errors and then some documentation errors that we need to.
address. So we are definitely taking some action around how we're going to be, you know,
documenting our IEP services. I'll talk about that a little bit more in October, but some things
were clerical, technical errors and that we're working to figure out how we're going to address
some of those as well. In addition to the things that we're findings, we have to provide some
professional development, you know, to make sure that everybody is trained so that we don't
continue to see those types of things popping up in the IEPs. But I think overall, the report,
I think we did very well. There has been a lot of work that's been done within the department
over the last few years to really try and get everything consistent across the board,
the way that we're operating, so that we're kind of doing things the same way at elementary,
in middle and high school. And as you can imagine, it's challenging because there's a lot of people
involved in these systems. But I do think a lot of good work has happened, and I think it showed.
Anybody else have any questions for Ginger about that?
Thank you. I just have two short things. So one is I just wanted to recognize along with Ginger.
We had a really great two days welcoming our new staff, professional staff to the district.
It's your new teacher induction. We welcome 31 staff who were able to
come and join us for two days. We provided high-level sessions that were designed to help
them to settle into the district, get all of their log-ins to all of the different
components that they are required to use, ranging from power school and all the way to learning
management systems, visits with HR and the business department, connecting with, actually,
Mr. Broad, who is here, to hear about our teachers' union.
after the end of the day, and then the next day was really devoted high level to instruction
and curriculum, working on teams, and then on their last day, they're able to meet their mentors.
It was a really great three days. That was a couple of weeks ago, but I just wanted to recognize that.
And then the second thing that I wanted to share with you is just kind of announcing something
that you were going to be hearing more about at the next board meeting that came out of policy committee
earlier today. So I just wanted to highlight for you that one of the policies that you'll be seeing is policy
JICK, which is bullying prevention. And the reason you'll be seeing it is that there was a new law that
was revised. So House Bill 131, which amended RSA 193F, 4, requires each school board to the greatest
extent practicable to involve pupils, parents, administrators, school staff, school volunteers,
community representatives and local law enforcement agencies in the process of developing the policy.
And so those individuals, those stakeholders, we will be starting a process.
We do have a timeline to get this done. So we are actively going to be engaging in some public
outreach to look for individuals who might want to connect with us to be able to dig into the policy.
Much of this policy, as you can expect, is guided and dictated by law.
So this amendment to the law goes on to explain that those changes that that group would be able to weigh in on
cannot impact the pieces that are legally required and things that all school districts
across the state must do. However, it's an active form of public engagement.
So I just wanted to put that out there for you. If you yourselves are interested, if you know of any
individuals, please send them our way.
And you'll be hearing more about that through our policy agenda item at your next meeting.
Quick question on that, do you see that, do you see that kind of taking form of a DIA program?
Uh, so I just want to clarify, it could, it could, but what we're looking for is
individuals who will work on the policy. So to revise the policy right now, however, from the policy,
it could result in us operationalizing the policy to create safety programs and things like that.
That could be dare at the monitor level.
But, yeah, potentially.
Is that J-A-C-K?
J-I-C-K, J-I-C, J-K, J-K.
You have something?
Well, no, actually, I had the same thing, but she did so thoroughly.
She made my job.
But I think when we start getting charged
with creating curriculum around these things, you have to realize that it's not really changed to our curriculum that we have now, but it's more that we have to make this its own curriculum.
How are we, for every age group along the way, giving the message, be kind, be respectful,
you know, and what does that look like in middle school and high school kindergarten?
Thank you, Sandy.
All right, thanks, Sandy.
A quick opening day report for you is that from every school, we had either 99 or 98% of our student body in attendance on that first day.
So just a big thank you to the families out there.
It is a hard transition that first day of school and getting kids there is difficult and challenging.
So thank you for getting to our schools.
We were really impressed to see so many kids.
Kate from the Historical Society was at your last school board meeting.
Her and I had met since that meeting.
and I've learned a couple things.
One is that there's 40 homes in Atkinson that were built in the late 1700s that Atkinson has built like a trolley ride for.
They've got three sold-out trolleys.
They're bringing 115 people through a tour of these houses that kind of show off the history of the time.
I think that's awesome.
She talked to me more about what she's really looking to do.
And it's about how can we use the academy building to perhaps teach the kids that go to the school at the academy,
more about their history and more about the history of Atkinson.
So to take that first step, we're going to set a meeting over there.
We're going to look and pull all the old plans we have from doing the work at the Belfry
because I want to understand the structural integrity of that building before we start maybe setting up a museum room in there that we can bring kids into.
And so they're not falling through the floors and falling out the windows that are there.
So we're going to take that first visit, look at the instructional plans.
Mark Brander will join us over there and a lot of the stuff that EEI has done about that
professional reporting will be there for them to use.
So we'll set the invitation for any of you that want to join us over there and walk Kate through the building.
Elwhart Pollard, you've heard a little bit about the HVAC update and upgrade.
I think the last meeting and let you know that the staff were there on August 20th when the
building opened because we told them it was going to be ready that day and it was, and they were there doing
great work.
But I would like to do a couple things tonight with regard to Pollard.
I want to read to you a report from Principal Sullivan about how she feels things are going
over there. I want to present some data that we're gathering from the actual computer software
that's running those pieces. And I want to give you the big vision that we're how we're taking
what we learned over at Atkinson and applying over at Pollard. So Principal Sullivan, this
is her report. We've been so happy with the change in the ear quality at Pollard since
returning. EE, CTI, and our TRSD facility staff have gone above and beyond to respond
and act quickly to any issues that have arisen. As a staff, we fully understand it will
take a little while for the system to regulate.
There is a big difference between an empty building and a full building.
Staff have been using the feedback sheet that goes directly to EEI.
They're having any issues with temperature or humidity, and having the opportunity to provide
direct feedback has been welcomed by our building staff.
We have seen a variation in temperatures, but I can say that as of today when I walk the building,
all but two classrooms were registering between 68 and 72.
With our staff and CTI in the building, the two rooms that need to be brought up to temperature
were done so quickly.
I am sure this will continue and need to be adjusted.
and tweaking until all pieces are communicating correctly.
But as the building principle, I'm thrilled with the work that's been done.
We have much more comfortable learning environment for everyone.
Some data. The square footage over at Pollard is 75,000 square feet.
A little bit bigger than a hole.
The square footage that was impacted by this work was about 50,000 square feet,
about two-thirds of the building. On-site since the first day has been our facilities direct
are HVAC tech, members from CTI, members from EEI, and Doc Martin making visits over there.
So the visibility has been really apparent.
What we're learning is that the average temp today across the building was 71.
The classrooms are behaving a little bit better than the larger open spaces like hallways and gymnasiums and cafeterias.
That's to be expected.
But we're really looking for a range in classrooms between 68 and 74.
in 74 degrees.
We're getting there.
What we learned over at Atkinson was allowing teachers to get into a direct sheet, to give direct feedback,
to allow us as administrators and the folks at EEI and CTI to see that feedback,
who can then use the controls to make those adjustments.
That's going to take some tweaking and some owning.
Talking to Principal Harris over at Atkinson, it was about a three-week period to allow us to kind of dial things in.
So hopefully it's going to work a little bit faster.
a little bit faster over at Pollard.
But this is kind of where we are.
There are areas of the building that are not 68 degrees.
But what I want to stress is that when they're getting there,
there's a system that that gets corrected that day.
And each correction we make kind of tightens that system over time.
Anything about Pollard that you'd like to learn a little bit more about.
A couple of two quick things before a larger one.
This is the last year of our food service contract with Wittsons.
We're in the fourth and final year.
We will be needing to create a request for proposal.
Maria is working with the food service folks.
They've got some templates for us to work at,
but that will be something that we will need to organize as a district this year.
Yes, sir.
Is this like the bus thing?
I mean, we have Wixen, but are there multiple food service companies?
How many bids, Maria, did we receive for the last RFP?
There are several companies, though.
It doesn't be more.
that's okay my point in that was my point in that was
my point in that was if i i kind of expected to hear what i just heard kind of sort of
to read to do research and go out and invite people you know just because you put the rfpo
is very different than sending out invitations and making people aware i've learned i've learned that
Sorry.
It's a big deal.
It's a big deal.
The food service contract has a lot of money and it feeds thousands of people across our district every day.
House bill, 1,300, tax cap bill, a significant update for you.
On August 31st, there was a lawsuit filed in Merrimack Superior Court.
The plaintiffs are seeking an emergency court intervention to prevent the ballot question from a pure
on the November ballot.
They are citing a fundamental right to vote violation in New Hampshire Constitution,
and they're signaling three different arguments.
One is that the argument is that the language that is used is confusing in the ballot.
Two, the claims made are misleading.
And three, that the bundling of options is not appropriate.
So this is kind of where this stands now.
We'll stay monitored and see where this plays out through the court system.
system and any changes to the current law will report back to you.
Lastly, I want to share with the board that I went to Concord New Hampshire last night,
and I saw a screening of a documentary called Gone Guys.
And it was essentially a film made in Vermont that did about 45 minutes
of research-based pieces that was really highlighting the challenges facing boys
in young men at a national-wide statistical level.
And I'm embarrassed to share with you that I,
I was surprised by some of the statistics that I was learning that night,
but they reinforce some of the things that I have observed anecdotally
over the last maybe 10 or 15 years of my work in the profession.
So it makes me think about two things.
One, I want to come back to the board.
I want to present that work that was really done by Richard Reeves,
and I want to present some of the larger statistical trends
that are now really clear that exist.
And then I want to start working, looking at our own data,
here in Timberlane in seeing if our trends for our boys and our young men are aligned
to those national trends.
And if they are, they're deeply concerning.
And I think we should know that and be able to start talking about doing something about it.
I'm talking about trends related to addiction, suicide,
achievement in school, college entrance, college completion, isolation,
and just the appearance of just falling away from school, society,
or work.
So again, alarming numbers, I'd like to present those to you,
and I'd like to do some work here in Timberlane and dig into
where are our boys and young men stacking up statistically.
When we look at SAT scores and GPA and graduation right,
and how many kids are in CTE and what our attendance rates are like,
and how many kids make up males or make up our special education population,
how many of our confirmed bullying occasions are perpetrated by boys and young men.
See where I'm going?
where I'm going, I want to really understand where those numbers are.
That's all I have for the C.
Moving on to personnel report, we do have some that we just need to read into the record.
So can, to include in the meeting minutes for tonight's meeting,
the following names provided on the electronically signed personnel reports that were dated
July 31st, August 5th, and August 24th, 2026.
The professional nominations of Christian
Peterson Special Education facilitator Sandown North,
Casey Middleton, special education teacher Danville Elementary,
Jessica Roberts, Library Media Specialist, Atkinson Academy,
and Leanne Mayer, Interventionist, Sandown North Elementary.
In addition to that, the professional resignation of,
oh wait, yes, that is, sorry, professional resignation of Brian Benson,
Science Teacher Tim Burling High School.
All right, thank you so much.
And then we don't have any to nominate with us currently.
No?
Okay.
All right.
Moving on to committee reports.
I'll start with Sean.
What is that noise?
Vacuum upstairs.
It's a vacuum.
It's a vacuum.
All right.
Sean.
Okay.
Mary Ann.
So curriculum and assessment.
Don alluded to it earlier
that we will have information
and forthcoming on an instructional resource plan, which is due to the board by October 15th by policy.
And at the meeting, we had some good discussion on the process by which curriculum is,
curriculum updates are initiated and handled and go all the way through the process,
including instructional resources as necessary.
And there will be some more curriculum documents, I think.
Okay.
Awesome.
Nothing further than what Sandy already addressed.
Okay.
Shawna.
I know that Wellness Committee will be scheduling their first meeting of the year, probably sometime in October, I'm guessing at this point in
time.
Connect with Ginger about that afterwards.
I did just want to mention an update.
I know I've been chatting about it along the way as updates come, but Justin and I have been
able to communicate with Dr. Bill Preble about some of the
climate and culture work that was done here in our district.
Some of the initiatives that the district has set up,
some of the events and student-led activities that have resulted
in a lot of the work that Dr. Purple did here.
He has been very excited to include a lot of the wonderful things
that are happening here at Timberline in his research.
And correct me if I'm wrong, we're talking about thousands of schools
thousands of schools and participants in his research.
He gave me the numbers, but it is across 40-something states.
A lot of folks were part of this survey,
and just to share out that our district is being considered a bright spot
as part of his research throughout the process, which is really exciting.
And so Justin and I hope to bring some more information
sooner rather than later to the board about that process,
and then some.
of the initiatives that we want to do because a lot of the work was done at the middle school level with Dr. Preble,
but now a lot of those students are at the high school, so making that transition into the other parts of the district.
So I just want to share that out.
Very exciting for the district.
Mark.
Nothing other than Sean and I had the opportunity to be at one of the opening days with the teachers.
That went very well as it generally does.
It was great to see some of the newer folks who were enthusiastic.
enthusiastic.
The older folks who are still enthusiastic and fire it up.
Some of the data that, Justin and Chair, that he'll be discussing more detail at the next meeting
was a little bit eye-opening and concerning, but it's good to know so that you can address it.
So I appreciate the efforts in that front.
Yeah, Safety Committee is just getting ready to gear up and start meeting throughout the year.
We did, one of the big things that Safety Committee has really been focusing on over the last several years
was our Alice Training and Operationalizing.
and operationalizing it and then looking at some of our plans and stuff like that.
That is coming to a close.
So at the first meeting, it's really going to be kind of some redirection at what we are,
that committee is now going to start focusing on, so excited about that.
And then just on a personal level, the, I met the new out-of-district coordinator, which was great
because I knew we were going to get a new one, but Mr. Charles, England has been great,
contacted my family and was letting us know, hey, if you have not heard from the bus company for,
your child, you know, by this time for out of district, let me know, whatever, and that was just great.
And because that can be very, every year, it can be very stressful.
So that was really good, really appreciative.
And he seems like he's really eager, so that was good to hear.
But, Don?
Yeah, just to again reiterate what we talked about regarding the bullying policy and
the bullying prevention work that has been done by, basically,
it's out of tremendous need, but because it's a state law.
state law. So within RSA that's asking us to, or telling us that we have to put a group together,
the greatest degree possible, including all the major stakeholders in this. And again, that list goes
students. So we're going to be looking for help from our
reps to get us some reliable students that will speak through like you did today. Thank you.
Parents, administrators, school staff, faculty, school volunteers, people that
work with the kids that know the school and understand kids, community representatives,
and local law enforcement. We might have some people to know some local law enforcement people pretty
well, right? So we're hoping that we can meet a December 15th deadline to create a report
that we have to submit. It has to be, by New Year, they have to have it. If we have to put
it in their hands, we can't work on our past that point. So we have a lot of work to
do we have this fall to get it done basically so we will be putting out some
detail on when we want to have first meeting trying to get that that group
populated and start to take a look at how we are already doing things and how it
has to change to meet you know your pieces and make and create things that
maybe don't exist right now that are not necessarily addressed in the policy
but which might be if
we find it's important enough.
Yeah.
There's not too much that parents care more about than the culture that their kid is going to school with.
That's what this is about. How is each kid feel safe and respected and comfortable in the schools that they go to?
And that's what this is about.
Okay.
Jack.
Okay. Do we have any other business?
I'm going to let Shauna Mark and then Jack.
Yes.
friends at the table. I was really, really very grateful that all of you were willing
to change the previous board meeting in August to a 630 start time.
And I would like to get a pulse on the board in terms of adopting that as our practice.
I am aware that policy committee meeting does meet on the first Thursday of the month from 5 to 630.
But I'm also aware that maybe some of those folks might have like to meet a little earlier and end a
little earlier because they're hanging around waiting until 5 o'clock potentially to start the meeting.
But I do feel like given the agenda size it's going to be increasing over the next few weeks based on budget and, you know, bullying and policy and reports and things that an earlier start time would do us some good.
Shear genius.
How does the rest of the board feel?
I think Jack just seconded that.
Well, is it home.
I do think that we do spend a lot of time on here on other things that, you know, I mean, it's goodwill, I will agree, but let's, we spend, at the start of our meeting, we spend a lot of time with the student populations bringing in and stuff in here.
Maybe we could think of say, have that on a separate school board meeting that we don't, that's all there is, is all these people coming in and presenting to us, they're different things so that we can get in here and start.
the business that we have to do. That right there is going to save you 15, 20 minutes.
True, but I will say even before we started doing that, which was a school board initiative to operationalize that part, like starting at 7, even if we got in here and we started doing things, it's like by the time of the end, it's like, for me, my brain is tapped and honestly starting like 30 minutes earlier, even when we did, like, it was for me, that extra 30 minutes was nice, regardless of all the other stuff that was at the beginning. Jack.
Yeah, so I agree with what you just said, Sean.
I have always been an advocate for for recognition night, but you have the staff that is here all day long and is going to stay here for that extends that up to it.
Now, if somebody on this board can't do the 630, then the thing is going to be like a unanimous thing, right?
But you have the staff that's here all day long, and that would help them out a little bit.
and we'll end a little bit sooner. You have people that sit on policy that have to sit around for an hour with nothing to do, although I know he likes taking me on the dinner.
So I think from a, from a logistical standpoint, it really helps a lot of people in the room.
But I appreciate what you said.
Don. Well, I'm all for the 6.30 start. I think we could be a sufficient with our meetings all time, but I do not want to eliminate.
student's voice from our consideration and hearing it, seeing it each week for 15, 20 minutes, to me, or, you know, probably to many of you, you know, I think it's an important reminder of why we're here, and I want to keep you going.
So does the board want to start?
I'll make a motion to rolling forward, start the board meetings at 6.30. Should we? Should we ask Paul? Because, like I said, unless we can all
do it? I don't have a problem with that. I think it's a good idea. But if one person can't do it, you kind of
I'm speaking from speaking with Paul, and again, this is unofficially speaking with Paul here, a lot of his issues with when he does have them, it's flights and planes and he's in
in Des Moines, so a half an hour is not going to protect that. And he was here at 630 the other night either.
Yeah, no, I, I, no, I did it's doing it on earlier too. Are you want to? Yes, I made the motion to rolling forward to have the start time.
at 6.30?
PM.
All right. Motion made by Mark. Do you have a second?
Second by Jack? Any other discussion?
Can I just ask Sandy just with in regards to policy? So would that be like a half hour earlier for policy start time?
Do we want to confer with anybody else from policy before we make that decision?
I would just want to make sure that our staff who sit on policy can make it. But we can work for
Okay.
Any other questions, comments?
All right. All those in favor?
Oppose and abstain? Yes.
Okay.
Shana, did you have any other business?
No. Okay. Mark.
Can I just...
I'm sorry.
Go ahead. So does that mean that's starting the very next meeting?
Yes. Okay. I just want to confirm that.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Mark.
The information we received this evening regarding special, it was great.
special ed was great. I'm looking forward to hearing more with the Pags report.
Pags report. Could we align that with some additional information for special education?
So I'm not as well-versed as I would like to be.
I'd the benefit of going to a special meeting that you would say Andy were at.
And I believe Sean and Marianne were at the Danville Library.
I think that's where it's held at memory serves.
It was enlightening to me at the time.
I think there are other board members who may benefit from that, from additional
information, would you be able to present in conjunction with that data? Just some of the trends with special ed.
The percentage of students are the percentages of students going up or down?
Are the services increasing or decreasing? Once a student's on, what are we doing to provide them the services
and perhaps allow them to matriculate away from those services?
Because an increasing number of our tax dollars are going to specialize education.
And I think it's important for all of us and then general public to have a better understanding as to
why that is what's optional, what's not optional, what's required by law, et cetera.
I think that could be beneficial for everybody, especially with these constrained budgets.
Yeah, I think that could absolutely work together and put together some significant trends that we see
that are specific to the district. And even further, why wouldn't we, let's reflect those back
to you folks and maybe let's have a work session with folks that are maybe able to attend.
I think we did something similar with Marianne and Sean last year. And it allows for some
conversation about whatever the data is. And I think that we've learned questions just
leave them more information. So that would be helpful. Would it be appropriate to invite
members of say on com as well? I'm just get the get the information out there to
those who are interested. So are we wanting an agenda item for yes I would like an
agenda item for the next meeting. I would like an agenda item and if a workshop is to
follow if there's a need for that first the agenda item okay an agenda item what I'm hearing
is trends and special education trends special education uh funding resources requirements by
law what's optional what's not just for a greater understanding similar to what you had done
for us in the library just for the greater board and the general public that we'll be able to hear
as well okay so agenda item for that and then possibly a workshop to follow okay all right and a
coffee for the young man there okay all right anything else working you good i'm good jack okay so i have a
few things here one the president's physical fitness test um there's a kid growing up we had the president's
physical fitness test and then it was replaced with the marine physical fitness test um i think it's
i i really think that that that's good because it kind of tells each kid kind of where they are in the
spectrum so i i don't know if we have plans on
adopting it or looking into it or uh and that's you don't i didn't expect the answer right now
but it's something that that's being tossed out around there and we just grew up with it i mean we
always had it as kids so uh you know you climb the rope and all that kind of good stuff uh the
second thing is los angeles i can't believe i'm going to la but they just came up i shared this
with sandy earlier uh they came up with the uh a screen time
grid if you will where uh and i was going to have it printed up but i didn't get to it
early end of first grade gets no screen time second or third grade gets 20 minutes a day
fourth to fifth grade gets 30 six to eighth gets an hour and nine to 12 gets an hour and a half
it's basically a graduated uh hourly rate per kids as they get older um like you
is a ton of research but i found it to be informative and i found it to be probably productive
uh on that same note uh like i said i was in a uh meeting on tuesday and everyone was talking
about book grades uh relative to everyone's going back to books across the country so there's been
a big rush publishers uh their business is picking up and that's kind of an indication at least for me
looking at it more from an educating standpoint as opposed to a business standpoint
um that's the direction which i think a lot of the country is going right now um uh that's it
that was it okay just want to follow up and i was listening to uh oh because it was a
um tonight they were talking about um libraries and um talking about um
talking about lines and mobile book scores there's been a huge increase in um readership
that people are reading more people are reading books more um you know i tell us the business
that they're doing promoting reading um you know is kind of supporting what he's saying is that
you know there's benefits uh to people taking time with with the book uh these things are really
important too but they're they're different use of time you know these create a lot of stress
uh and urgency and uh they're important for quick transfer of information and you know it's a
skill kids need to learn is to you know when to be doing this and what great things can come
so i just want to say yeah i think we need to you know make sure we're not getting away from
the skill of learning from reading yeah that's true i have i think i uh personally own stock
in the barns and noble over here but i have i usually either have a physical book i have my kindle or
i have my kindle app on my phone so that's what i'm saying all across all media saves um anybody
have anything else for other business yeah i'd like to bring up a topic that i'd like to explore
um the presentations of
of all these orientations that we've had opening up the schools kids coming in all great stuff
uh i got a note from one of my residents and um they i'm gonna just read it it's very short it says
what's timberlain's flag policy in classrooms question mark this is orientation tonight
walked into my 11 year old daughter's sixth grade science classroom tonight at middle school
to a pride flag and another trans rights flag on the one
wall the u.s flag was small and pointed at a downward angle because i was furious i ended up uh
you know fordness off to justin to get his commentary on it and i've just forwarded that off
to the individual um i had some follow-up discussions with him and he you know it's sixth grade
i mean we started off our evening tonight with six graders on here and to be immersed in something
as adults have problems talking about this kind of stuff
immersing them on their first day of orientation
their first thing in and having to deal with this where now a parent has to explain to
their child what a various flags mean because that was the questions that they
were parsing it forced the parents decisions of
of when and where they were going to introduce these kind of topics to them some individual
teacher here decided to take it upon themselves to force that discussion indirectly
on the parent to the child i would like to actually advocate and to explore a school board policy
where we remove all these flags period we are not in a condition
a condition that we are like stellar in our academics and this is a very what i call noise
it's always noise causes you to to not focus on the task at hand reading writing arithmetic that's
where we need to be and until we can do that folks i think we should be all this other stuff is
noise it becomes a distraction and we got we should fix this problem and just eliminating all the noise
and now it's not one we're side where the other and so forth it's just remove it we don't need
that kind of stuff in our classrooms so what action are you wanting the board to take i would actually
like to have the school board create a policy to remove them these flag any flags from our
do you want to make a motion well i'm making i am trying to get that on out to do to create a school board
policy to address this issue that i have and i'll be all open-minded to see where we're
going to go but address the main concern that we have here it's the noise and the distraction
that causes all these kind of issues and it's it's actually causing us i would say educational
issues as well so just for the record so is your motion to for the school board to create a flag
policy is in the classroom flag display policy in the classroom correct
or remove all of them the the flag policy should to explore that we could say remove them all
except for school board's approval and if somebody comes in here and saying hey we're uh
the patriots are going to be in the super bowl again we're going to have a flag day for you know
whatever something like that i think we can all you know use common sense and it's like we know that
that's not going to be controversial there's only a couple people that are like Miami dolphin fans around here
but the the main issue is that's not going to cause the distraction
okay so the distraction that we have is because it let's admit it's it's it's it's the
third rail topics being introduced at sixth grade so it's it's not right in my opinion
so are you good with the with your motion being that you motion is to for the school board to
create a flag policy for the display in the classroom correct okay so
Sean made a motion.
Is there a second?
Jack, Jack, second it.
All right, any discussion?
So yeah, so Sean reached it for complete transparency.
He reached out to me and said, do you hear this at all?
So yeah, I hear it all the time.
And I have had, and I usually direct these folks to Justin.
Some of them pick up the phone, some of them do, some of them don't.
But I have a slightly different take on this.
So I did prepare something.
tonight. Didn't know whether he was going to bring it up or not, but he reached out to me.
So, and I, I have parents calling me that are beside, they, they don't know which direction to go.
So I want to make my position very clear. I'm not taking a position far against any particular
flag, political movement, ideology, or social issues. That is precisely the point I'm going to try and make
here tonight. I believe that schools should be neutral, safe, and a walking on place to
every single child and every single family. They should be neutral with respect to politics,
neutral with respects to competing ideologies, and neutral with respect to outside influence
that have nothing to do with educating our children. The building and resources we provide for our
students should not be walking billboards or particular political.
social or ideological or ideological causes I have served as board
member I've had two children go through this district I've experienced some of it
myself and I'm not talking about any specific issue here I've spent
considerable time listening to people in our communities and I have received
plenty of feedback on both sides of these issues I'm not taking a side
here and not do I think anybody should I've had parents reject
out to me who were generally upset and in some cases didn't know how to navigate
with what their children were in encountering in schools. I am not saying that because
I have one particular political agenda, quite the opposite. I've watched these issues
take place at the local, state, and federal levels for better part of a decade.
So my position is relatively simple.
we should display in our classrooms and on our school board walls should have a clear educational
purpose and they should be relatively direct to what is being taught i'm not suggesting we strip
the school of educational materials history culture of our legitimate content what i am suggesting
is we establish a clear standard so what our classrooms aren't you so our classrooms aren't used to promote
politics, a social agenda, or any type of ideological viewpoint. Rather than debate,
flags and all that, what I would like to do, and I think it's kind of piggybacking on Sean's
policy, motion. Motion, thank you, uh, is that to ask the policy committee to come back
within two meetings with the proposed policy establishing clear viewpoint neutral guidelines for flags,
banners and displays throughout the district. My starting point would be the American
flag and the state flag. Other displays should have legitimate educational and institutional
purposes rather than serving as advisory for a particular political or social or an ideological
position. The policy should have a view, should be viewpoint neutral and applied consistently,
regardless of which side of any particular display uh and i i want to be clear
nothing in what i've suggested or what i'm looking at because i struggle with this myself i'll be
very candid with you um none of this should ever restrict anyone's first amendment right to speech
and that's not what i'm saying here what i'm saying is should our assets be used and i have
seen them abused over the 20 plus years i'll
been at this school i don't think willingly i you know i'm sure it's not willingly uh
but i can tell you the feedback that i get from my residents the feedback and not all of them
and the feedback that i get from parents that call me up on a whole broad host on a very host of different
issues is sometimes extremely concerning to me so i i think it it would
least at the very least policy the policy committee should look at this absorb it explore it
explore it and come back with what they with what they find okay um i know sean you mentioned
that you got an email or communication from your constituent and then you communicated with justin i
haven't heard that communication from our um superintendent so i would love to hear um um um
about the information that was shared across the two of you well no he's here so i'm
going to ask him um to share if you don't mind um what the two of you discussed or shared just to help
i'm happy to do so um what i'd like to do is not paraphrase i'm going to read it to you there's no
identifiable information um so i'm happy to do that um thanks for writing and sharing a concern from a danville
resident i'll please share with them that i appreciate the opportunity to both address the specific
concern raised and the broader legal framework and district practice
here in Timberland and across state of new hampshire that are relevant to the concern most
importantly please reinforce they may reach directly to me or the building principal
for follow-up if needed and then gets into some substance
Timberley Regional School District does not maintain a school board approved policy specific
to flags and classrooms we the Timberland Regional School District does provide
professional discretion to its staff outside of approved curricular materials specific to
establishing a classroom and school environment that is safe provides pathways for students to
and tangible ways for students to belong to this end there are a wide range of
items across all of our schools including flags of other countries and sports teams to
vacation photos but all of them have the purpose to promote safety connection and
belonging among our student body with respect to the american flag the district
issues a standard American flag to all learning spaces each day at the middle
school students are asked to rise and recite the pledge of allegiance while facing the flag
in those learning spaces in the visit to the specific classroom cited in the concern
today i did not observe the american flag to be presented in an improper manner however there were
some student-created flags that we provided guidance for hanging and reposition the
american flag for prominence for a broader legal context the new hampshire legislature has
considered the issue with respect to limiting flag displays in public schools but house bill
one one three two was sent to study at this time there's no existing statute
across the state of new hampshire the districts of kyrsarge bow and hudson have also recently
explored the question posed by the danville resident if that has helped for them to explore further
thank you so yeah it's this is you're right it's a third rail thing uh i'm afraid that this
would prove to be something of a slippery slope i remember when i was in high school we were
uh prohibited from hanging anything in our lockers uh because it was going to scratch the
new paint uh the tape would be on it so i so i so i ended up tying with string
an american flag a picture of chief joseph and a picture of the pope and i believe it may have been
mr woodworth who had to deal with me at that stage uh and you know what are you trying to do here
mark uh i'm sure there are students who are of a similar ilk now i think it would create many more
issues than it solves uh i don't think a flag represents promoting
uh if you put up a red sox flag you're not saying hey you should be a red sox player saying
this is something that i am comfortable with i support this team uh i would be for banning yankee
flags uh i would i would consider that uh but then we have to define what's a flag so does a flag
have to be made out of fabric what about a picture of flag what about a banner and you know what if so
decides to display a picture of a prominent non-s say gay tennis star would that be offensive
to some i think it would when we start restricting the expression that is not political i i
don't think uh political uh flags or banners should be displayed but when it comes to creating an
atmosphere of a supportive atmosphere you could put up a red socks or a bruin's or buffalo bills
it doesn't mean that you're going to treat the students who are not buffalo bills fans
or patriot fans any differently it's just saying hey i'm accepting those kids who happen like the
bills for some reason i grew up in buffalo i'm i'm twisted that way uh far the for the reasons
that i think this will take us into a dark area and potentially create more issues than it solves
and create an atmosphere for those students who are at higher risk for dropping out of school who are at high
risk for feeling alienated ostracized and uh and in engaging in self-harm i am not supportive i'm
supportive of education and a healthy atmosphere and environment for all of our students this is not a
they're not recruitment flags uh you know it's i'm not willing to touch this one i think any action
uh no matter how neutrally intended would not be neutral in its effect
okay don and then jack yeah look i i think people are concerned about the pace that our students grow up
you know how how they're able to internalize you know really who they are based on this
you know everything that they they see around them uh they see a lot of things that whether it's tv uh in their own
households or socially in any activities they do there's a wide range of people
and i think all these flags are representative of that you know there's a lot of a lot of uh fear
about what say a sixth grader or an eighth grader first grader second grader you know how does seeing
that impact whatever that is you know what happens you know in their mind about that
i think you know from from what i've i've seen through my own kids that a lot
times it creates questions that they bring home and some parents are going to be very
uncomfortable having to deal with some of those questions that look i think especially around things
like gender issues and you know anything that had to do with violence or war or bullying and
harassment anything that takes a broader understanding of the fact that we are wired
differently all of us and we have to respect each other regardless of how different you know
somebody's life view um appearance you know habits flaws impediments disabilities
i mean and i don't want to be a district that is
unkind to people because of any of those things and by shutting down aspects of
of expression of who we are what we are sensitive to it becomes the norm
and i think we risk saying we have an idea of exactly how everybody should be and then
everybody who doesn't fit that mold is going to feel terrible
okay you're we're not going to put obese people in a picture we're not going to put skinny
people in a picture we're only going to put you know pictures of the left tackle for
kimballin high school there you know with the perfect haircut you know and uh flight manners
in a you know it's not reality you know i think we have to be able to be great
with understanding each other and also great with exposing who we are in a way
that's responsible so i i don't want to see how land is things you know i don't want to see
shock value stuff that's going to upset people but i do think that we have to have some freedom
you know to have our schools reflect the real world jack so i find this quite enlightening
this isn't just about flags there's something posted on facebook not too long ago i had
but it's that in that classroom um it is about messages that are delivered and everyone's welcome
to whatever opinion they want to have but uh this this goes beyond the flags okay and the slippery slopes
it will have been sliding down a slippery slope for quite a while now quite frankly in my opinion okay
um and for everyone that you're afraid of
you're alienating other people this is why would a 35 34% proficiency rate in science
our focus should be on getting the grades up our focus should be on educating kids and i've always
told my kids the way i brought them up judge someone or you should be judged not what you are but who you are
okay um people should refer or identify as classmates right so what we're doing here
is it is it is it goes well beyond the flags this has got nothing to do with the
well kind of got to do with the but when i have mothers calling me up bawling their eyes out when i
have a father caught me and say oh my god my kid was told to come home and tell me this
I think we need some guidelines I think we need some firm guidelines when we start
coming in this room every time and talking about proficiency rates if we were 80 90%
across the one we're never going to get the 90 but we if we're even 75% across the board I'd
be tickle-picking we'd have time to discuss some of this stuff here's another little thing I
picked up here's a distinction the difference between an adult expression and and the
environment we create for children adults have a right to have their own opinions beliefs and
political ideologies and i'm not suggesting otherwise but when an adult is acting within
a public school in a position of authority and in an environment where children are required to be i
believe we have an additional responsibility to make sure that the school environment itself
isn't being used to promote a particular view viewpoint to those children and i can tell you
specifically my own experience with my own two kids and other people in my community
that i trust and and and and i respect have come to me with the same exact stuff so this
isn't i know how you guys are taking this but that's not the perspective that i'm coming from
i've been dealing this with for over a decade not to go and have policy look at this to be closed mind to say
how can we improve this and not improve it for everybody there's no side here that's why i use
the word neutral right everyone should walk into those classrooms feeling welcomed
everybody and if we have i believe and i watch the munchkins get out of the cars every single
morning cute as the day it's the highlight of my day if there's one step thing our staff does and
does as well as anyone anywhere in this country is they make those kids feel loved and welcomed when
when they walk through the door i've seen it i see it every single morning so this whole we don't
want to alienate a kid and we don't want to that that's you know what life is as i brought up
earlier in this meeting right i'm watching cbs with the physical fitness thing well we're gonna
make sure that every little kid doesn't that's just not life but we preparing them i had a
discussion with another board rep earlier this week around academics my question is that we
preparing these kids for when they walk out the door in grade 12 for the real world and there is
a real world thing out there and if one of my kids ever disrespected a fellow student i'd have a big
problem and my kid would have an even bigger problem don't know that i wouldn't tolerate disrespect
i don't tolerate disrespect to another person but that's a two-way street and i know we all kind of
have different political viewpoints in here that's fine i respect you guys hopefully you
respect me but all i'm asking for is let's have policy look at it and is there a better
mousetrap that we can have where everybody feels comfortable because i have had parents look at me
jack i still i mean they struggle they want to take their kids out of the school is that what we
want i don't think so okay any other discussion um i'm gonna let mary ann and then sean if you're okay
thank you um i was just a question i realize we don't have a policy on flags um do we have a policy
that covers um political statements on boards or political um basically any display of political
information i would want to pull it up to be specific but um we absolutely have something that speaks
to adults staff members in the role that they have not exerting unnecessary influence with
regard to political ideology that would also that would also be in the code of ethics and conduct
for all licensed professional educators to me that um we're not the discussion here isn't
about restricting students um freedom of speech in any way it is
what's appropriate in the workplace with our district resources and how it may or may not
influence students so um and we already have a precedence whereby politics has been ruled
out um and i don't know if that code of ethics and policy rule out anything else but i'd like
to look i think we should look at that as we look at this flag policy i can tell it's not
Sean and then Mark yeah the two points i want to bring on up is is is relative to the
parents parents will be hesitant to come i mean i can see them talking to various school board members
one-on-one but i do not see many or if any moving forward with the bringing their issue directly to
the teacher slash Justin out of fear of retribution of their child because it's
there's going to be a talk with the teachers and no matter what you say it ain't
going to happen again you know i hope it never happens of course but as a parent
knowing that you're going to bring this issue on up and your child is in in this case
might have been sixth grade and it was in sixth grade or there's another case of it somewhere
else um they have to worry about that and it's a it's a reality and then the other part is that we're
you know some of the comments are making here is about you know all feed being welcome and stuff
yeah i want everybody to be welcome as well how do you say that a kid with peer pressure
being having to go through and having these topics discuss they feel uncomfortable
they're going to come on out and say that i i don't want to want to discuss this or i don't you know
I want to have zero part of this and discuss what a trans flag a gay
pride flag a real quick so if there is a flag displayed the teacher cannot that we've got
ethics and everything that they cannot force that ideology on any children that's correct so
that means there's no conversation teacher led in the classroom about that
correct there should not be unless it's related to the content or the lesson that has
being taught and then the parents are known ahead of time and they have the ability to
opt out correct parents have the ability to opt out a particular course materials
curricular materials there are alternative placements and assignments for students so if someone
does not want or child does not want to we have avenues that they can take come out of it
correct correct so help Sean had some other things go ahead I just want to make that go
ahead no what I'm trying to say is is that we're making
we make people feel uncomfortable talking about these topics and it's it's it's not a part of
of the classroom education part to add to like you know yeah the teacher might not be saying but then
you know mrs jones well what's this flag why is it all cut different colors i can't tell you that is that
is that going to be a response i mean we can't talk about that you know they're going to probably
most likely tell them what it is i i would say shan answering a child's question is different than
presenting without the question okay right responding and giving kids answers to things they're asking us
is a very different thing in my book than the teacher going in with a pre-planned presentation
that is usurping that child's question or anticipating it and presenting before it actually
all right so so this teacher has set up their classrooms they might not have done some research on the
students and stuff so they know maybe a little bit of things on there and i mean i don't think
the profile a kid that's you know wires are one of the first things that they're going to see
coming into a classroom they want to you know they're all excited to be in there and then they see
this and then later on i mean it's probably not the the the main focal point but there's um
the questions that allude from that to the parents and it's like the parents didn't want to have that that
discussion forced upon them but it was forced upon them because of the decision of the
district which is because if we have a very loose policy let's say if there is
one and that allows this to happen and that in conjunction with our dismal you know
stats on education i'm just like this to me is really becomes don't even we're dealing
about a a noise that contributes nothing to the fundamental education of reading running
the arithmetic i think it's i think it's important that we have these discussions
these are difficult discussions to have i get it i understand it but i appreciate the fact
that we can sit around this table and have this discussion that's what's important as far as opting
out goes up with a few parents who opted their children out and they feel as though their child
didn't get treated fairly or equally they felt as though the kid was that their child was
disenfranchised from being part of the class in a particular you know whether it be a book or
whether it be a subject matter and that's the feedback right unfortunately jack i don't think we're
going to be able to make everyone happy you know i i know that but by doing this you're you're you're
you're affecting this segment of the population to support that segment of the population and all
i'm saying is you know i would direct you guys to uh a interview between mike wallis and
morgan freedman and that's kind of a good philosophy and i won't even bring it up i don't want to
talk about it but go watch it um all i'm saying is a neutral our district i'm
believe should be neutral it should not be a place where any of this stuff is promoted unless it's
that's why i kind of wanted to send it off the policy because there are things that you can incorporate
into a policy to make it not as sterile i guess is is the word i'm looking for so i'm just saying
nobody should feel disenfranchised it should be completely neutral and i'm not just talking i'm talking
politics ideologists if someone decided if they wanted to put up a confederate flag is that
going to be okay if they want to put up a nazi flag is that going to be okay uh if they want to
talk about and promote sharia law is that going to be okay where you talk about slope we'll take
you write down a slope you don't want to go down well i think we're going to go back to this topic
though alissa's got a point mark has a point and then we're going to call the vote alissa go ahead um
that this does need to be discussed further.
I don't necessarily agree with the way the motion was made as a mandate to make the policy.
I do believe it needs to be reviewed through policy but probably through a lot of other avenues too.
I don't think it should this type, I think this discussion needs a broader audience
than what we can give it and even maybe even more than what just policy.
policy can give it. So as it stands the way the motion was made, I would not be in favor of that. I would be in favor of voting to review things and to then further discuss, but not to mandate a policy.
I'm willing to admit my emotion. What I'm looking for is for policy to come on up with something to present to us that we can further discuss in
open it up to a public discussion if we need to or whatever we decide.
What I want to make out of this is an action item, that we're going to do something.
And I'm looking to, I'm open-minded to see what could be presented out of that artifact that's going to come out of policy
and then to let it live or die on its own merits.
Mark?
I'll try to be brief.
Things have changed in Cyrus in sixth grade.
In sixth grade, I think most of us were aware.
uncomfortable with what our gender was, with what our sexuality was.
I don't think any flag that I'd seen at that stage would have challenged me or challenge any of my classmates.
Today's students, by the time they're in sixth grade, the access and the exposure that they
involve themselves with, I don't think a flag is going to rock their boat.
I'm surprised in this age that any parent wouldn't have already have those.
discussions with their sixth graders. Anytime you listen to the radio, look at a video,
YouTube, TV, there's exposure to non-traditional, I'm saying the Norman Rockwell style,
lifestyles. They're always going to be uncomfortable subjects, be it slavery, the woman's right to vote,
you know, Indians and reservations. I think any action taken on this by its very nature
cannot be in, will not be neutral.
Let's not fool ourselves. I'll say the uncomfortable thing. This is about non-traditional life.
This is, this is about gay. This is about transgender. Okay, that's what it's about any action.
You forget. Hey, hey, hey, excuse me. It's not. No, hey, hey, hold on. One person's going to speak at a time.
We're not talking over each other. Mark, we finish. This is how it will be viewed. We can wrap it up in bows and ribbons and talk about neutrality.
That's not how it's going to be seen by the general public. That's not how it will be seen.
I would say that's not how it's going to be seen by the student population, especially those most vulnerable, the 10 to 12% of students who do not conform to what is traditional. It will not be seen as neutral because, in my opinion, it's not neutral. For that reason, I will not be able to support it. It's not the right thing to do.
All right. Motion has been made in second. The motion currently stands. Hold on. Nope, nope, motion currently staying.
No, point of order. No, I'm reading out the motion.
Okay. Is that okay? You're calling the question and we're still debating it. So why do you get to decide when we're done debating? That should be a motion. Because she's the chair. And it's just passed with the two. I'm saying what the motion is. And then I was going to give you all an option to either vote it as is or if someone wants to make an amendment to what Alyssa was saying. All right. So the motion currently stands that the motion is for the school board to have the policy committee create a flag presentation.
like ability in the classroom. There's been a motion by Sean. There's been a seconded by Jack.
A couple more things. Then we're going to vote. That's fine. Thank you.
In nowhere, Mark, in anything I read,
even slightly resembled how you just painted that at all because I have other issues around politics, around ideologies, around
broad sweeping things that you and I would probably totally agree on. We disagree on a lot, but we also agree on some stuff.
My understanding of his motion was what Alyssa had kind of articulated the way she would like to say.
I just want this to go over to policy to see what they can come up with. And no, I reject your spin on that because I have
that community as much as anyone in this room.
What's the origin?
Pardon me?
What's the origin of this?
It's from a parent that was offended by a transgender or gay pride.
That's what kicked that off. But I've been dealing with this.
And I've shared it with you, Mark.
Kids that come home during presidential elections and are told by, I mean, I've shared this stuff with you, right?
My daughter who was said, who was told by a social studies teacher, if you bring up that
candidate's name, anyone in the class will be asked to leave the class. Those are over steps.
Okay? That's, I'm talking, a broad sweeping across the board. And this way here, no one's going to feel
offended. No one's going to be put out of place. What I wouldn't tolerate is for a student to be
disrespected or not welcomed, okay? And what I want to do is put some Godrails and some controls on this stuff,
which, oh, by the way, is the law.
So I'm just, to Alyssa's point, I thought your motion was to kick this off to policy.
Yes, it is. It is. That's what it is. Shana and then Don.
I want to frame this appropriately. Obviously, we have a duty to our students, our constituents, as well as the faculty and staff that serve our student population.
I think this is reasonable conversation when it's brought to a
a board member for us to engage in. I do think that it goes deeper than to just
shove it off to one particular committee. I understand that's the mechanism of your
motion because you want action, something actionable. My training as a therapist
and concern is related to Title IX protections of our marginalized
vulnerable populations and some of the protected classes.
that are involved in this just in terms of policy procedure and law related to certain
populations of staff and students as well.
So I would not be in favor of kicking this off to the policy committee until we do a little
bit more investigation and deeper dive into all of the factors that would be related to making
a decision.
I do not feel that I can make an informed decision without having the macro-microskine.
of this information that we need.
So.
John?
Well, I do think it's kind of great that we're having this conversation.
Because I think we all think about this stuff.
When you think about what's right for our kids,
you know, and what should they be exposed to when?
And we have a curriculum that kind of reflects that in terms of
of progression of their skills, you know.
But this is, you know,
this is another skill. When I was a kid in school, we had a part portion of the day in elementary school called current events.
And so it might have been women's rights, right? It might have been, you know.
You're not old.
The things might not have been the same. Some of them are.
Later on, when I was in high school, yeah, gay rights, that was discussed.
We were a heavy,
heavy district in terms of big Irish, big Polish, big Jewish, you know, population.
And so all of these groups wanted to have their, you know, their background reflected in the current events, you know,
and some people didn't like it.
And some parents didn't like the fact that things were discussed that way.
So this is not a new thing.
This is not a new thing. It's kind of new material.
But it's not a new thing that you have a controversy of ideas.
I think it's healthy to be able to try to frame that.
I think the policy committee might want to look at what other people are doing.
Take look at some policies, see what we see and report back about it,
prior to taking a vote about establishing a specific policy,
but not saying we shouldn't.
shouldn't at some point have a policy, but I think it should be a, just like everything we're trying to do with the policy that has been, you know, said the state we have to adopt and we have to create, you know, a policy to reflect, you know, that.
I get it.
If people want to have structure to, you know, these important issues and how to handle it.
And I think teacher education has to be part of that too.
Well, how are we going to deal with difficult questions on this topic, this topic, this topic?
What are the limits that you should have?
You know, to what degree is okay to have that reflected in the way you have your rooms set up?
I think these are good, you know, problems to address.
I say problems, challenges, you know, not necessarily a problem for many people at all.
But, you know, when it becomes challenged, it's a problem.
And here, I think we had some people who were offended by what they saw,
and they reached out to the school board, the school board member and the school board member in the
superintendent schools to address it. Thank you. You know, this feedback we need.
I think we have to be careful about the, you know, any rash decisions about policy,
but I do think that policy committees should be looking at it and say, what can we,
what can we bring back for people to look at? What do we learn from, you know,
exploring what other districts are doing across the state, the country, whatever? You know,
what makes sense? What's working?
You know, how, and is there any evidence that says that, you know, if you discuss these things, your grades go up or down?
I think we make some assumptions.
We're mad about our test scores.
We look for scapegoats, you know, and this might be one.
But I think we should do a little bit of work on this before we rush to, you know, something too fast.
if I do think the direction of having a policy.
I was surprised we didn't have a policy, you know, honestly, and thought about it, but I am surprised
we don't have one.
We might have something that reflects dress code, other statements of who we are, you know,
that, you know, like people might not like, and we've been all over the map on that.
Oh, yeah.
So I guess this fits into that type of a category.
from where I think we have, it's a moving target.
I think we need to be careful.
Anything new to add.
Yeah, yeah.
I just wanted, to Sean's point, right, Title IX,
to Dawn's point, remember, I spent a year in the high school,
so I saw an awful lot before your tenure.
Isn't policy where that work gets done to do that exploratory stuff?
I mean, that's my whole point.
I think that's what you just said.
that policy does that due diligence for the board to come back to us with their findings.
And I'm telling you, this isn't, I did not direct this research.
This has been stuff that I've experienced that parents have come back to me with that.
And, you know, that's, I mean, imagine if I went out yesterday in front of the,
tomorrow morning in front of the middle school and handed out MAGA hats to everybody,
I wonder how that would be received.
probably not too well. So I'm just saying let's get our arms around it a little bit
because it's something that we have to deal with that not everybody is happy about. So it's an
issue. Let's deal with this. This is what we do. This is what the board does. The board creates
policies. It's one of our major responsibilities. So, and I'll respect, I mean, I respect everyone in this
room. So wherever it goes, it goes, but I just know it weighs heavy on a lot of people's minds.
it should be addressed, in my opinion.
Okay.
Motion's been made second.
Any of the discussion?
All those in favor?
What?
Sean's.
Sean's motion.
Creating a policy?
Of charging the policy committee to create a policy?
To create a policy?
To create a flag policy.
Can I amend that?
We just called the vote.
Okay.
So all those in favor, it's Marianne, Sean, and Jack are in favor.
All those opposed.
All right, motion fails. But what I do think what we can do, though, is charge the policy committee to look at, see what other districts are doing, and also charge the administration to make sure that we're following all laws and report back to us.
Okay.
Any other business, any other business episode on that?
Is that a motion or?
We could just charge them to do it and then bring it back.
Who's the we?
Well, this committee, this board, I mean.
Which is done via a vote.
Well, we've done other things in the past that didn't require a vote, but if it would,
But if it would make the board feel better, we could make a motion to charge.
It's whatever you all want to do.
I make a motion to ask the policy committee to take a look at policies that are relevant to this conversation,
so for future report back to me.
I second that.
Motion by Don, seconded by Jack.
Any other discussion?
All those in favor?
Unanimous.
All right.
Okay.
Any other business at this time?
Do we have any delegates or individuals that wish to speak?
this time. You can just read it. That's fine.
Deborah, you come on up.
You guys want to have the daddy daughter son, I think?
If it's okay with the chair, I'm going to have Representative Marquo to join me,
only because we're working on this together, if that's okay with you.
Working on what?
What I'm going to discuss with you?
Thank you. First of all, thank you to the board and the chair.
I know the hour is late, and I will be as brief as possible.
When Superintendent Krieger spoke earlier about his enthusiasm about looking into what
goes on in the life of young men and boys, again, I wasn't prepared on speaking, but
it hit home with me because Representative Markell and I in Concord have been working
with a company called Thrive.
And I don't know if Superintendent Krieger is involved or has no, any knowledge of them.
Thrive is a group that does a lot of work and research on sex trafficking.
I was quite surprised to find out that young men and boys
are targeted more so than women and young girls.
So I wanted to open up the dialogue with Superintendent Krieger and the school board
to maybe get some information from Thrive to help these kids who are sex trafficked.
Sex trafficking, most people think, is a situation where there are people in a situation where there are people
in a nefarious part of a particular community engaging in certain activities.
And that's not true.
So I think that educating the educators and educating most of the community is really important.
And I can get some information for superintendent or anyone on this board.
to look into Thrive.
It is, the work has been difficult.
My eyes have been opened in a way that I never wanted them to be opened,
but it's an important part of society that we are prepared to help these young men and boys,
as well as the young women and girls.
Sex trafficking starts at birth.
That's shocking.
I'm sure you can.
to all of you, but it does.
Sex trafficking doesn't always include a stranger.
It sometimes is the parents.
So rather than get into anything really any deeper than that,
I want to open myself and Representative Markell and I have ongoing meetings with Thrive on a weekly basis,
talking about what the state can do.
insofar as legislation is concerned, laws are concerned, and so forth and so on.
So I'd like to open up the dialogue with any of you here.
Well, this is time for delegates and individuals.
We don't really do back and forth.
No, no, I get that. In the future.
Okay.
In the future.
This is why I wasn't going to speak tonight.
But I wanted to open it up so that if anybody wants to contact me,
they're more than welcome to do that.
And I will.
be happy to have discussion on the phone later on with Superintendent Krieger since
you're going to be doing this hard work anyway.
Representative, you could leave your contact information with Kelly Salovich there.
I'd be happy to reach you, learn a little bit about Thrive, and I could also share with you
some of the resources that are available to us as school district personnel with regard to sex
trafficking and education around that.
That's great.
That's great.
Yeah.
Yeah, I appreciate it, and I appreciate the time.
And anybody who's listening, if they really need to, they can contact my information
is on the state website.
But it's a very frightening situation that's out there, and it's becoming more and more and
more and more and more prevalent.
This is not a situation where somebody is grabbed, sold to another country, and you never
see them again.
That's not what's happening all the time.
just isn't. It's more in depth. So thank you for your time. Thank you. Have a good
evening. All right. Any other delegates individuals? No, sweet. All right, cool.
We do have a non-public. Oh, yeah. I make the motions going to non-public under 91A
no, 91-a-3 subparagraph C. All right. Motion made by Shawna do have a second. Second and by Mark.
Can I get a roll call-no, please?
Yep.
Oh, yeah.
John.
Yes.
We're down to the last week now.
We're down to the last week now.
Yeah.
John and Manthorne.
Yes.
Keakin and said.
Yes.
John Woodworth.
Yes.
Cepia.
Mark Sherwood.
Yes, please.
All right.
Sorry.
She's being a vision.
We'll be back until just to seal the minutes.
Thank you, everybody.
Have a good evening.
Wonderful.
Thank you.
I said no.