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MVRSD School Board Meeting 5-12-2026

Video

Ready to order? Please rise and join me
for the Pledge of Allegiance.
>> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
>> All right.
See, first thing we have on our agenda
tonight is approval of minutes, public
and non-public from April 28th.
Uh would someone like to make a motion?
>> I move to approve the public and
non-public minutes from April 28th.
>> I'll second. All right. Just a second.
>> Any comments, questions, corrections,
concerns?
I didn't see anything that jumped out to
me.
How about you, remember there?
Everybody good?
All right. Cool, cool. Um all right. All
those in favor of approval of minutes,
public and non-public from 4/28, signify
by saying aye. Aye.
All opposed? Abstentions?
All right. Public comment. Anyone here
for regular public comment
at this time?
>> I guess that would be me.
>> Oh, yeah, sure. Just state your name and
what town you're from for the record.
>> Uh Jean Mitchell, Grafton, New
Hampshire.
Um I had approached the superintendent
and been also in contact with one of the
members of the school board via email
about nightlights being a possible
solution to some of the school funding,
school tax funding issues.
And I know it's been in constant contact
and I started back in August and I've
been a little disappointed because
there's been zero movement.
Um I know I've been willing to do
presentations, information sessions. I
mean,
as as a taxpayer, I'm not sure what more
I can do to try and get you folks to
look at this because it's a viable
solution and it was something you were
supposed to do back when the school was
first created.
>> Okay. All right, thanks.
>> [snorts]
>> Okay. Any other further public comment
at this time?
Okay. Uh next up we have is uh Galapagos
students presentation.
So, go ahead. Take it away.
And uh you guys can you guys can move
over here if you want to move your seats
to watch.
That's fine.
>> So, you're going to be wanting me over
there too?
>> Yeah. The art you're going to help me
out?
>> Did you go?
>> You went, Abby.
>> Um what you guys are going to see
tonight is just a small um snippet of
this larger presentation.
Um there have been a lot of AP tests
over the last couple of weeks, so some
of our students have yet to have the
time to finish sharing their reflections
on the trip. Um we will share this full
slideshow with you upon its completion.
>> Okay.
>> All right. Uh I'm Carl Russell. I'm
junior here and um
I'm a Spanish student
and
this was a very cool trip. So,
we spent
uh uh
a day in Quito at first on mainland
Ecuador and uh
we did the zip lining, we visited the
equator, we visited the chocolate farm.
Um
I enjoyed the zip lining especially. Uh
there were
eight uh individual zip lines throughout
a rainforest area with a little bit of
hiking between each
uh launch, so that was very cool.
>> I'm from Adlai E. Stevenson
uh I'm a senior with Spanish 4.
Um I thought the
equator museum was really cool cuz they
showed us like
the um
specific facts about the way the equator
or the way water spins differently in
the north and south.
Um that's really interesting and how it
goes straight down from the equator and
spins differently.
Um and the history behind
Ecuadorian people which is really
>> I'm Abigail.
I'm a junior and I'm in Spanish three.
My favorite I'm going to talk about
farm. We got to taste raw cacao like
straight from the
bean. It was really quite an interesting
taste. Um maybe it was our taste.
But it was really fun. There was a lot
of different like chocolate products we
got to try. Some traditional like
Ecuadorian hot chocolate before it was
actually like our traditional well-known
hot chocolate is today where it's just
the crushed up cacao nibs in hot water.
And it's actually used for medicinal
stuff. It was really interesting. And I
think
we got to try like
12 different of their flavors of
chocolate and it was really delicious.
And we got to make our own chocolate.
Like not make it make it but
um we got to harvest the
beans out of the pod and cook them and
crush them and turn them into a base
which was really cool.
>> Hi, I'm Jayden B A G. I'm a senior. Um
I made it to French three. I'm one of
the two French students
>> [laughter]
>> You plural Jacob three.
>> Oh three. I got
Which was a great opportunity. Um
I'd say on the mainland of Ecuador it
was probably the ziplining that was most
entertaining to me. All of it was a
great experience. A lot of learning.
Especially coming learning the French
culture not knowing much about the
Spanish culture. It really I really got
to learn what it's like you know, how it
is in Ecuador and how
um some areas are more developed than
others and it really helped me kind of
show, you know,
some of what I've learned in French I
translated into the
So as much as I didn't know Spanish, I
was able to still kind of know some of
their language.
Um
at the uh
Yeah, at the Equator Museum, it was
really cool. There were some guinea
pigs. We actually got to find out we
could eat guinea pigs down there.
Um unfortunately, I didn't get to try
it, but
um that's another mission for another
day.
>> And the Galapagos
>> Islands themselves, we were on four
islands. Uh Baltra briefly, just
arriving at an airport there. And then
we were on Isabella for four nights,
Santa Cruz for one, and Santa Cruz to
Baltra for two. Uh I particularly
enjoyed Isabella.
Um did some hiking there at a volcano
called Sierra Negra, which is a very
cool hike and a very cool volcanic
crater.
Um
And uh that was probably the highlight
of the uh the nature for me was the
volcano.
>> Um yeah, on the next island this is uh
Santa Cruz.
And we went to Las Grietas, which is
this um
this natural lake.
>> The the volcanic swimming hole.
>> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um yeah, so a volcanic
swimming hole and it's like 60 ft deep.
Um so, you like go off a dock and you're
already like treading water.
Um and it was like super refreshing. We
hiked up to get there. Um and that was
definitely by far my favorite part. Um
it was like the coolest thing ever.
Um
went to the Charles Darwin Center, where
we saw um baby tortoises um
and adult tortoises and we saw Lonesome
George, who's the last of his kind
until 2014. Um
And
uh we visited Tortuga Bay and we saw
turtles there.
>> Pretty cool.
>> Next we went to San Cristobal, which is
we did snorkeling with the lions and sea
kayak king, which was in the morning and
then
we split into two groups. One group went
sea kayak king and ended up getting out
of their kayaks and snorkeling. We were
in really close with sea lions. Some got
like caught less than a couple feet away
from people. It was amazing. We saw a
lot of huge um sea turtles. There were a
lot of really, really large ones that we
got to see that time. The water was
beautiful. There were a couple There
were a lot of birds. There's always
blue-footed boobies that you can see,
which is really cool since
it's really unreal how blue they
actually are.
And we did the sea kayak king and we did
lava over the year, which was also
really cool. But my favorite was
definitely the snorkeling. It was
amazing.
>> Nice.
>> Um they took us by the islands. So
>> [laughter]
>> My favorite was probably Isabella. It
was a nice small culture, you know. It
felt kind of like home, you know, small
town. Everyone kind of knows each other.
Everyone gets along. And we were really
like accepted in the town of
in the island Isabella. Everywhere we
went, you know, they were super
welcoming. Never had an issue with us
being there.
You know, and it was really nice being
accepted and shown what it's like in
their culture.
And just kind of the small town that
they live in.
>> Our service day was on
uh our last day on Isabella and we split
into groups, but each group in the
morning we painted murals. The group I
was in, we painted at a school. We They
had
a little uh basketball court with a
covering. So we we we repainted the
benching around that and we painted two
murals nearby.
Um we had local high schoolers painting
with us. Um
and there were two that were in the same
group as me uh painting a mural of
a uh sea otter. And
uh they were very cool.
Uh boy named Orly and a girl named Rue.
And
you know,
I spoke some Spanish with them. It was
fun.
Um
yeah. I really enjoyed talking to them.
Um the painting was fun, too, but it was
really quite nice to be able to talk to
um
the local teenagers, too.
>> Yeah, Abby and I were um
in the other group. We were at a senior
center um painting a mural
for their
senior center. Um and we got to meet
some friends. Um we talked in Spanish
with them, and one of the boys got to
practice his English with us. So, it um
kind of benefited everybody. I mean
Yeah, we made some friends.
>> I could really hit it off. They wanted
to film a TikTok dance with us on the
beach.
It was It didn't happen, but I wish it
did. It would've been really fun. After
um painting, the two groups went
separately and did roadside cleanup on
the way to the beach, and then did a
beach cleanup. We For it being a very
like remote area, and it being like they
still really care about their
environment, there was still a good
amount of trash, not as much around
here, but it was good to see the impact
that we made picking up the trash on
that road. There were a couple locals
There was a couple tourists that were
like shocked that we were doing this,
and thought that this was amazing. There
was a marine biologist that stopped our
group, and was like, "This is so cool.
Can we take a picture of you guys, and
like tell people about this?" And it was
really amazing just to see the impact we
were making.
>> Um kind of with the service project, I
was with Carlos' group. I ended up
painting benches. He was painting the
murals.
Um
but it was really nice to see how clean
their waters were, how clean their
beaches were. Yes, we were there, we
picked up some trash.
Um
um you can't go anywhere without some
trash being on the side of the road or
something.
Um but it was really nice um just kind
of see that how much they care about
their environment compared to you know,
if you go to a beach here
you see the beaches lined with trash.
Um
but at the end of the night, so
we went to the beach, we went swimming a
little bit with uh
uh schools and that stuff. At the end of
the night we went to go play bingo with
uh senior citizens, which was super nice
and that was really where we felt like
we were a part of the island.
Um at the end of the night, there was
two um
I'm not totally sure who they were, but
there was uh gentleman and a woman who
ended up singing to Señorita.
I
cannot tell you what they said. Um
that was a little bit harder to
translate, but
um it really was nice to know that
we were there and they wanted to see us
there and they were really grateful for
us there. Not that we were considered
tourists and
just another person to pollute their
environment or make it worse.
>> You kind of read the emotion from what
they were singing. Um and it was just
very heartfelt. The woman who was
singing, she sang about you know, she
would keep us um in her heart even after
we'd left with hope that we would return
and that she would see us again. We
would like remain there in her heart.
And saying this, looking me dead in the
eyes the entire time and I just started
crying.
Um another woman gifted me a necklace
after and said she had to leave and
would like wanted us to have things and
it was very very sweet. So we have a
little video we're going to play for you
guys that kind of sums up our service
day. This was put together by the
organization we were volunteering with
on Isabella.
>> [music]
>> It's very important to make sure that
we're taking care of our environment.
And then here in Ecuador, it's amazing
to see all the different animals that
we're able to see all the different
vegetation. Um and it's absolutely
important that we're making sure that
we're taking care of our carbon
footprints, making sure that we're able
to keep these animals alive um so that
everybody can enjoy them and really see
the magic that the world has to offer.
>> [music]
>> And so, this was their video that they
put together for Earth Day this year cuz
we were doing this service project the
day prior to Earth Day.
>> Did you like Did you change Did you give
them t-shirts from us?
>> We did. The travel company actually paid
for them. The travel company that we
were traveling with um paid for them for
us to get matching shirts with the
people we were volunteering with.
>> That's great. Just really cool.
>> Here's some more pictures.
>> Oh, those are the murals you painted up
there. All right, cool. Very nice.
Um
and at the bottom left
um
so, traditionally when you see bingo
here, it's like the paint goblets or
whatever. I don't know what they're
called or the chips.
Um there we use fresh corn
combs kernels instead of the traditional
bingo chips, which was really hard cuz
we didn't have a table. So, we were
>> [laughter]
>> trying to hold the cards steady,
I'm to figure out. Um but it was really
cool that
you know, they're not using artificial
products and they're using the fresh
stuff that they grow in their island.
>> Did you learn some Spanish numbers for
that?
>> Yes.
>> [laughter]
>> Yeah, I think
my favorite one of my favorite parts was
the Sierra Negra hike.
We go all the way to the top and that's
the bottom left picture.
You can see like the whole expanse of
the crater is like
like unbelievable.
Um and then
we got to learn about all the animals
there, especially the blue-footed
boobies and there's three different
kinds actually, the red, green, and
blue-footed boobies. And the one in the
top left picture is
the yeah, green yeah.
And a fun fact, they're actually not
blue and their feet are actually gray
and it's just a trick of the light, so
sorry to
ruin the magic.
And I think that this trip is just
overall super beneficial to like immerse
people in
a completely different culture and
environment.
Like I know there are kids that haven't
left New England or haven't ever been on
a plane.
And so I think this is like such a good
way to like really dive headfirst into
another opportunity.
>> Yeah.
So I I mentioned Sierra Negra earlier.
Adeline just has not been to but that
was truly it was an incredible hike. We
hiked up
we hiked along the ridge for a while. It
was just a huge crater, very beautiful.
Um
and I enjoyed I enjoyed the group a lot.
There's a picture of us at the aquarium
museum. Um
I enjoyed the group we had a lot. I
always had nice
other guys to room with.
Last night um
we had a lot of ice cream. It was nice.
>> [laughter]
>> Recently
>> Oh,
oh, Carl.
>> Too much
>> But it was it was speaking Spanish with
the local kids on the service day
especially that I really enjoyed.
So the two that I talked with during
um
the actual painting it was very fun and
then uh
we sat with another guy and it was very
nice to talk to him. He spoke
I mean certainly better English than I
spoke Spanish but we were on a similar
level.
So that was quite fun. And I definitely
learned a lot of Spanish from talking to
him and from exposure to street signs
and whatnot.
>> Oh, um
my favorite part was definitely the
service project. It made just
the trip feel so impactful that they
wanted us there. They wanted us to come
back. They were actually like welcoming
us into our community. When we were
doing bingo I ended up winning and we
were giving our prizes to one of the
local seniors and the senior came up to
me after and like said how much it meant
to him and I gave me a hug and then we
were taking the group photo he saw my
and he was like oh come here come here
stand next to me for the photo and it
just helped like resonate with me how
welcome we were and how the community
and the locals which the seniors are
like
the people who run their community. And
how much they wanted us to be there not
just the younger students and the
parents how much the people who found
their community really wanted us there.
>> Um my photos are the top one is me and
Caroline and Estefani. We were painting.
the mural. Then we've got some penguins
that we saw on our boat ride out to Las
Tortugas Island, I think.
And there was the volcano, which was an
amazing hike. The crater is absolutely
huge. When I got up there, I didn't even
realize it was the crater. I thought
this was oh, just like okay, we're at
the top. I didn't realize that this vast
expanse of like black lava rock was the
inside of the volcano.
>> [laughter]
>> It's absolutely huge. And then the last
one was just a beautiful beach. This is
was on our way to a natural wave pool in
the mangroves. When we went,
unfortunately, it was low tide, so there
wasn't very many waves, but it was
really fun.
>> All right. So, first thing I kind of
want to say is I want to thank
all the teachers that helped out and all
of you guys for approving us to go and
helping us in every way.
Um this will definitely be an experience
I will remember forever. Um
I learned a lot. I got to see what the
environment looks like. And I learned
some Spanish, which will help me
wherever I decide to go in the future.
Um
my favorite part was probably just going
to see all the animals. Um my favorite
animal was a sea lion. I've never seen
one in person. Um
didn't know the noises that they made.
>> [laughter]
>> Yes.
Um
but it was definitely an experience that
I will never forget. And it was
um
very helpful taking French for the 3
years that I could correlate some of the
French to the Spanish.
Um they are different, but they're not
as different as you would think.
Um
but I think
everything that we did was super fun and
super enjoyable. Even the hiking, which
I
hate hiking.
>> [laughter]
>> You know, I First part of the hike, I
was like, I'm going to stop at the first
watch point, but I ended up going
through the whole thing.
>> All right.
>> Um
and, you know, that
it was a really great to see the inside
of the volcano, especially knowing like
we were talking to some of the tour
guides and they were expecting it to
erupt in the next 10 years.
>> Wow.
>> Um which was kind of crazy to think that
we're right on the brim
>> of an
>> active volcano.
>> Anybody have any questions for us?
>> What was that? What was that?
>> That Yeah.
>> Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, cool. Thank
you so much, guys. That was just
fantastic.
>> Awesome. Yeah. Any questions from the
board?
>> How big were the cacao beans or shells?
>> Fairly big.
>> The There's two. There's the native
Ecuadorian one, which is a lot smaller.
It was That one was I feel like less
zingy, so I have to describe it. When
you put the raw bean like beans in your
mouth, it's like I don't know how to
describe it. It was like sweet, sour,
slimy, also kind of like an electric
fusion. It was very
>> [laughter]
>> zingy.
>> Good.
>> Some people enjoyed it. I think it was
somewhat unpleasant, but
>> [laughter]
>> the smaller the native Ecuadorian ones
are about this big. They're small and
yellow. And the like genetically
modified red ones like are about this
big.
>> Yeah. Cool.
>> What were they saying would be the
medical or the medicinal purposes for it
or properties?
>> I think it was It had a lot of magnesium
and iron in it and just like
very good for muscle health and
something about being good for women.
>> All right.
>> Thanks.
>> It also helped that it was much more
natural.
>> Yeah.
>> Everything down there you could tell is
more natural. I'm like, you know, you go
to a grocery store, it's a lot of
processed, sugar heavy, you know, that
stuff. And like the chocolate down
there, you it's a different taste when
you first taste it, but it's also not
covered in sugar and whatever else is
in, you know, Hershey's chocolate or a
chocolate bar today.
>> Well, do you want to talk about how you
know, all of the the the the treats we
had
were a lot different than the treats we
get here. The same brand.
Remember how many of you guys had like
the Gatorade or the Coca-Cola?
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Powerades.
>> I mean, most of the labels only had four
ingredients.
>> Right.
>> I mean, Gatorade, what did they call
Gatorade? It was called Sportade. And
it's
>> Well, they did have Gatorade there, too.
>> Yeah, but it had like less sweet. It had
like the colors were normal colors,
which is insane.
>> It's like that once you leave the United
States.
You go to Europe, Red Bull is brown.
It's just here where that we love
chemicals.
>> I guess.
>> [laughter]
>> Red 40.
>> Yep.
>> Cool. Cool. Any other questions for the
Lord?
Um so, if you were talking to somebody
in 2 years, want to do this again, and
you know, kids will if would would you
tell kids this is more like This doesn't
sound like a beach vacation. This is an
actual like learning trip. Would you say
like that you were in school while you
were there?
But you had fun, too. I mean,
>> Yeah, we had fun, but I learned so much.
And it's an experience that I like My
sister, she'll be in Spanish 3 in 2
years. Hopefully, she'll go on this
trip. I will push her to go on this
trip. Well, my parents will push her to
go on this trip. They're [clears throat]
the ones who are very jealous, but it's
like I'd recommend it to anybody who is
in Spanish 3. They are able to have that
opportunity, they should take it.
>> Or apparently French 3.
>> Or French 3.
>> Yeah, how was I mean, it was nice for
you to share that.
>> Yeah, it was uh
it was good experience. You know, we
unfortunately we may have gone to
collect this year, but it wasn't said
yes fast enough.
Um but I got notified Jacob and Coral
got notified that
we would be able to go on the Spanish
trip.
>> Nice.
>> Which at first I was a little iffy about
just not knowing culture, not knowing
any of the language or that stuff.
Um
So, but you know, my parents kind of
pushed me and I reluctantly said yes and
I had a great time other than the jet
lag coming to school on Monday.
>> Yep.
>> Um that was
definitely tiring
It was an experience that I'll cherish
forever and hopefully someday I can go
back.
>> Yeah.
Awesome.
>> I can give a little more feedback on
that. So, we did invite
Did we invite both the French four and
three and four?
>> I Yeah, I believe any any French
students that would have been juniors
and seniors
this school year.
>> Yeah, so we felt that it was important
to give that opportunity to the kids
because they had missed out on a French
trip for multiple years, right? So, we
run alternating trips. One year is for
the French
club, one year is for the Spanish club.
And so, we thought why not go to the
Galapagos?
>> Yeah, that's right.
>> Still give them an opportunity to travel
and have that international experience
during their high school career that
they might not have otherwise.
>> Yeah.
>> You feel that the common roots of the
two languages helped you with the
Spanish?
>> Um yeah, somewhat. I mean it was still
hard cuz
you know, learning French I'm still not
fluent in French, I'll admit it. Um
I My plan is not to go into a four-year
degree in French, so
but
um it obviously if I wanted to go back I
could probably get myself around.
>> Yeah, right.
>> Um but yeah, some of some of it helped
some of it I looked at Senorita and I
said what does this mean? [laughter]
I had no idea.
>> I think one of the benefits of this trip
is that it allows you to practice your
language skills, but you're also very
much supported by your chaperones and
also the guides that the travel company
gives us both our
Galapagos naturalist guides of which we
had three this time and our guides in
the mainland of Ecuador and they're
not necessarily 100% fluent in English,
but they're very fluent in English. This
is what they do for a living. These are
their jobs and so they're able to help
kind of barter with the students for
that meeting and that understanding when
they approach those language barriers.
>> Cool.
>> And I think also like
for me
and all the Spanish students, I think
everyone
got better at their Spanish by actually
going and speaking to people that speak
fluent Spanish.
You know, I think here it's hard as much
as we can learn
it's different when it's actually an
environment where we have to use or use
it as much as possible
instead of, you know, use it whenever we
want.
>> How many of you were surprised by how
much Spanish you were able to use?
>> I was.
>> Yeah?
>> Yeah.
>> All right. Good deal.
>> I was surprised by how much Spanish I
heard the kids using everywhere we went.
>> That's good.
>> I would say 90% of the students anytime
we went to the store, anytime we went
and got food, they were really utilizing
the skills that they had and trying
things and making mistakes and learning
and to me that was the coolest part is
that, you know, didn't That's right. You
don't get that chance around here and
you really really do, but
you know, when you're there you do, but
you have to be the one to put that
effort in and so many of the kids did
this time. That was so cool to see.
>> They were taking advantage of having our
guides. They were asking them questions,
you know, Alejandro, how do you say
this? Annie, how do you say that?
Um
Alejandro was a smart guy who then
flipped the question on me to test me
before he answered. He would go First
words out of his mouth when I met him, I
was like, "Oh, these are my Spanish
students. They're really excited to
practice Spanish." He goes,
"Well, I don't know Spanish."
And I went,
"Okay, sure." Um
and I [clears throat] didn't know his
sense of humor yet. You know, I just met
the man.
Um I quickly learned he was just messing
with us, but I wasn't really convinced
at first. I thought, "Okay, maybe maybe
you don't. I'm not going to make any
assumptions, you know?" And on the
fourth time he said that to me, I caught
on.
You know.
>> That's good.
Sounds like you guys had a good
uh guides everywhere you went. Good good
really good experience.
>> Cool.
>> Any questions from anyone else?
>> What was the best food that you guys
ate?
>> Oh.
>> [laughter]
>> You're asking hard questions.
>> Yeah, get to the nitty-gritty.
>> Or just like one awesome food you ate.
>> Yeah, what's the food? Appetizer,
dessert?
>> [laughter]
>> Your choice.
>> Juice.
>> Juice?
>> Yeah.
>> So good.
>> Every meal we had juice.
>> Fresh juice.
>> was fresh juice. Like they were blending
it up.
>> Fruit you wouldn't like like the
store-bought juice. Remember that?
>> Yeah.
>> Sugar juice.
>> They had some really good blackberry
juice, too. Blackberries are invasive
there, so I love the fact that they're
utilizing the blackberries as much as
possible in making
>> Good.
>> you know, delicious juice.
>> Yeah, blackberries are invasive in my
yard, too. They
>> [laughter]
>> I'm ripping them up, though, yeah.
Any other questions from anybody else?
All right.
>> I I would just suggest
um if you get the chance, I would also
throw Costa Rica.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> They're they have a lot of environmental
and eco stuff. They have an entire eco
resorts, and it's a great place to use
your Spanish and your French because
they have a lot of people from Africa.
>> Oh.
>> And a lot of the Africans speak French.
>> Yeah.
>> So.
>> They used to go went Rica when I was in
high school.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Yeah, Costa Rica is really really
awesome. It's a great trip.
>> Yeah, good to keep in the in the pocket,
for sure. Yeah.
Great.
Awesome. Great. Thank you so much, guys.
Thanks for presentation. Welcome back.
Glad you made it.
>> Thank you. [applause]
>> All right.
All right. Up next, Abby, you're not
done cuz the student representative
report is next.
Nope.
>> Okay.
For my school line on the B side of
things.
So, in general, AP testing is underway,
as we have heard based off side shows.
>> Yep.
>> Um
that was today. Um
what sports? We have baseball.
Um so far, two losses.
And same for softball, again, both
against Stevenson and Palm Mountain.
For our track and field, uh
boys and girls teams took second out of
18 competing at the Stevenson Twilight
Meet. Did not have throwing, though.
And Sam Joyce won 100 m. Sophia Smith
won the girls high jump. And Montana
Bell won the girls triple jump.
>> All right.
>> And on May 1st, they had four distance
runners at the Saucony Distance
Festival. And Carl, who was just here,
took 17th out of 41 runners in the 5K.
>> Nice.
>> And um all of these teams also competed
on the 8th, but I don't have the scores
yet. And I will put them in our next
one.
>> All right.
>> For the art department, the jazz band is
performing on the 17th as an opener for
the Upper Valley Community Band in our
auditorium.
And then, just everyone else, I mean,
the band is working on our marching.
We've been marching in the fields
recently on Tuesdays and Thursdays to
prepare for the Memorial Day parades.
And we have the senior recitals,
graduation performances, and final
concerts.
For art, we have the district-wide
exhibit. A lot of students have been
accumulating different projects that
they would like to display in our show.
And we have a couple students who have
their artwork on display at Kingswood as
part of a Magnified Voices Magnified
Voices Expressive Arts contest.
For clubs, Student Council is planning
their end-of-year retreat and their goal
is to reflect on activities from the
previous year and then plan for next
year.
And they're trying to plan a spring
spring fling for the afternoon of June
5th
so they can have fun, inclusive,
entertaining after afternoon outside
similar to a field day.
And they're going to host their student
council elections this year on June 10th
ahead so they can have about 3/4 of
their council organized next year to hit
the ground running when they return to
school.
>> Can they do student board school board
reps?
>> Yes, Sweetland was talking to me about
that. Asked if I wanted to do it next
I will. I will
be gone for the first 3 months next year
though.
>> You are? Where you going?
>> I'm studying abroad.
>> Good for you.
Where in South Korea?
Oh, we have to work up an alternate I
guess then. So.
>> Um NHS, we have our faculty breakfast
with the optional $2 donation to the
Zimele Foundation where they help women
and children empowerment and education
in community in Africa.
And they're holding a car wash on the
17th to raise money for our club.
Other new things, Rise Against Hunger
for Interact went really well. We packed
14,000 meals which is 66 meal boxes
which will feed a student for an entire
school year.
>> Wow.
Wow.
Where Do you know where those went? Did
they go overseas or did they
>> Uh I think I believe they go to Africa.
>> Cool.
>> Um
>> Yeah, you never really know. They just
have you pack them. So I don't know if
>> Yeah, they showed us a video but I don't
think they specified what country I
think they select multiple.
>> Cool.
>> Um Interact, not Interact, Theater, um
they have selected their play for next
year. It will be a Romeo and Juliet.
>> Oh, classic. All right.
>> Um
anything else on DI, Destination
Imagination, they're heading to global
finals next week.
>> Yeah, nice.
>> Their prop truck heads out Thursday.
>> All right. Best of luck to them.
>> Granite State, they're planning on host
We're working on hosting a meet for next
year.
>> Awesome.
>> Last year was our first year hosting and
it went well, so we'd like to host again
next year.
>> Okay.
>> Um junior class, the grand march was
delayed due to rain for prom, but
everything was amazing. And
it would be great.
>> Yeah, it was fun.
>> For other school news, we have CES had
their Jump Rope for Heart and they had
120 jumpers and raised over $10,000 for
the American Heart Association.
>> Grandma
>> just finished up their SAS New Year's
for grade one and two.
For EBS, they had a Jump-A-Thon
fundraiser with the PTA.
And they spent their specials running
laps outside or in the gym.
And each class that ran the most laps
would win either an ice cream or pizza
party.
>> All right.
Cool. Anything
>> I think that's it.
>> Okay. Any questions for Abby?
All right. It is a busy time of year, so
best of luck to you and all your
classmates.
All right.
Uh next up we have on our agenda
Communications Committee.
Um
I don't know if I'm seeing Oh, there is.
>> I think that's all right. I think these
are from the previous one cuz it says
Joe and Diane were there, not you.
>> Yeah. I can't get this to
>> The date is right, but the
it's like it didn't save or something.
>> Yeah, because the I have a paper copy
here that has Joe as absent.
Oh, yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> The copy in my packet does not have
that.
>> My packet will not load anything right
now. I don't know why. I keep Like I can
see it, but I can't load any individual
documents on it. So, I'm going
>> Uh yeah, so it was Tim and I and then
the usual suspects. Um
>> Yep.
>> By default, I became chair.
>> Yep.
>> We approved the previous minutes. Uh we
talked about um
So, the previous time before that we had
talked about working with the teachers
to do a SWOT analysis and I think there
was a little bit of confusion when we
talked about doing the SWOT analysis the
first time.
Um because SWOT analysis is
something that um
is not really an individual activity if
you want to do it right. It really needs
to be more of a brainstorming section
and I think that that wasn't clear when
we talked about it. Like we you did we
put some kind of questions in there for
people to think about, but it wasn't
like answer these questions and so we
talked about having that be more of a
led activity like a brainstorming
session at um
uh like a work day to be able to really
kind of glean what we're hoping to
understand there
um
about about our district and our
schools.
Um
So, that was we got some clarity there
and hopefully we can do that.
Um we talked about signage, the the new
sign down there. We revisited the
policy. Does the policy still fit?
Should there be any amendments to the
policy? There's some very minor tweaks
to the policy just to be able to support
the whole district when we would like to
with the utilization of that sign.
Um
and um
Overall though, the sign policy is
pretty solid. We didn't decide. Um
And then next time I talked about um
going to do kind of just a quick brand
analysis for the district on how do we
make sure we have kind of a cohesive
look, feel, message, voice, all of that.
>> Cool.
>> So, that was that.
>> Cool.
Any questions for Donna on
communications?
>> Well, Joe, I think we
um you were the lucky volunteer to get
over to go over some of the SWOT
analysis stuff
in the professional development meeting.
>> I can gladly do that.
>> Okay, good.
>> Well, I brought I brought those
questions to professional development
and we had like an email exchange of
like that, you know, of going to our
teachers first to see what that is and
then like, yeah, going to that. That's
fine. I would gladly do that.
>> Do you suggest you post it notes on a
whiteboard or something?
>> Yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah, post it
notes on a whiteboard is a great way to
do it as well.
All right.
Um,
so up next we have finance and
facilities. Uh, we met last week. Uh, we
had I'll I'll get into the report the
presentation from Frontera Energy
Advisors. But first, uh, Matt and Dan
gave their updates. Did deep cleaning
over the April break. Got some head
starts on some things for the summer.
Um, moved some rocks around on the hills
in the playground area at CES, uh, to
make them a little safer. Flattened up
that hill. Um,
just talked about leak in the lobby of
the roof right here. And while we're on
that note, uh, he had a roof company
that gave a report on the high school
roof. So, they have a whole Matt has a
whole like drone shots of the roof and
all the different points which are going
to need to be fixed at various points
and, you know, all different things like
that, which is great. Um,
we decided to go back out to bid for the
CES paving project, um, because after
talking to, you know, the principal
there and talking to people about pickup
and having to have two lanes to pick up
and having to have cars sit on that
pavement. Um, so Matt is reworking the
bid on that. Uh, we're pretty confident
that we can still come in with the bid
under what we had budgeted for it. Um,
based on the companies we've been
working for with.
>> So, is that the lanes in front that go
around the back?
>> Yeah, that's right. The lanes The lanes
are around the back. Yeah, so that you
can line up two cars instead of just one
car. Um, because that will
>> drive two cars like two lanes anyways?
>> Yeah, yeah, and it's a mess. So,
hopefully those will get a little bit
better directed and more cars off the
road and try to, you know, get that
system flowing a little bit better.
Um so, that's been good. Um yeah, and
Matt went to the National School
Facilities Conference, uh which is a new
which is new for us. So, we were able to
He was able to learn a whole lot of new
stuff, bring a lot of great stuff back.
Um so, he's been working with a lot of
professional development on on his
facilities team, which is awesome to
see. Um so, heating system slowing down
and Dan's now smoothing over to
improving and working on the uh air
handlers over at IRS, improving the air
quality over there. Um graduation is
good to go, whether it's inside or
outside. Tina has made the necessary
arrangements, and she has all of her
plans in place. So, I I'm very confident
in that.
Um we didn't have any updates on CIP
audit or budgets. Um right now, for
Fresh Picks, our negative lunch balance
was over $12,000.
Um the high school's negative balance is
7,000 of that. It is primarily at the
high school, and maybe just over 3,000
uh just over around 4,000 at the middle
school, and the rest is the two
elementary schools with a couple hundred
each.
Um
so, that's where we're at with that. Uh
transportation, Butler's bus will be
using different software to create the
routes for next year. I just got an
email, even though I'm not a kid, I just
got an email from Deb Davis saying, "Hey
everybody, put in your updated
transportation information, cuz we need
that information ASAP for next year."
So, that's good to see. Um didn't have
any uh manifest review concerns, no
policies, and drivers ed is going very
well. It's the company's been really
great to work with. Tina's really happy
with them in the building. They run
classes kind of off cycle with the ones
that they run in Hanover and Sanborn so,
they're all at different times, so kids
can go to any of them. And it's been
working well. Like we've had kids from
Hanover and Sanborn come up here, and
just our our kids have gone other places
in the past, so
uh works out pretty well. So,
um so, back to what we were I was just
uh saying before, we had a presentation
from ReNaer Energy Advisors. Um you can
see in the minutes from Finance
Facilities, it was a his presentation
about net metering, and using solar net
metering um to be able to
enter into some agreements so that way
we can get buying solar and cheaper
rates
and saving that passing that savings off
to taxpayers. So we like it was very
nice and very cool, much easier to do
this than to build our own solar panels
and have to worry about maintaining
them, which is nice in theory to have
our own solar fields, but this would
allow us to tap into existing solar
projects that are underway and currently
online and about to come online. And we
like basically what it is is you promise
that you're going to buy those from them
and they pass the savings on to you and
by agreeing that you're going to
purchase from them, it gives the energy
company it gives the utility company
like constant customers so they can
count on that for the solar part of it.
And so
yeah, so he has a good explanation in
here.
We can talk more about this at our
retreat. I think that would probably not
be a bad thing to talk for a little bit
about that.
But yeah, that's that was the
presentation we had from there.
Um any questions?
That's a good question.
>> added some panels to one of our roofs
last year and just like thinking about
it from a financial standpoint and we
were like wondering whether or not we
were going to have to take out loans.
>> Yeah.
>> And the it just it was like such a it
was such a
good return on our investment because I
feel like it was like less than 10 years
we would have paid it all off because
some of the panels last for like 50
years.
>> Nice.
>> Yeah, we didn't like usually
we make like like almost triple what we
use in the summertime, but in the
wintertime they're covered with snow.
But like this roof is like constantly
getting sun so I just feel like moving
forward it might be worthwhile but like
from an environmental standpoint but
also from a financial standpoint
thinking about doing solar for the
schools.
>> Yeah. The the issue like the trouble
that we've had in the past, I mean this
is this is great and it would be nice to
like just have a work session where we
just talk about this if that's what we
want to do.
Um the issue that we've had is that for
the amount of land that we have like we
have a lot of land and we're allowed the
sun, but they won't let us feed the
solar into the grid here. Like that's
what Liberty Utility Liberty Is Liberty
or Yeah, Liberty Utilities they run this
line here and they're like it can't take
any more energy at this point. So like
Yeah, that's what
>> They tell us we can't meter
>> Yeah.
>> and produce be production on this
property.
>> Right. Exactly.
>> Because of the infrastructure out there.
>> Outside Yeah. So we have to like figure
out a way can we make you know enough
where we can offset what we have here?
How much is that? What does that look
like? But I I like it. You're right.
Like we get so much of the sun.
>> I mean I know that the batteries was
kind of like not a great option. So I'm
not sure like how that technology is
advancing, but I just feel like it might
be something worthwhile to think about
in the future just cuz like if you paid
off in 10 years or whatever and then it
lasts for 50 years, it's like
totally awesome.
>> Yeah. It would be
>> might be something to look at down the
road, but I mean
under current administration there's not
a lot of renewable energy
credits, grants, those kinds of things.
You'd [clears throat] want to do some
kind of analysis on the roof to make
sure there was structural support or
Well, that's a big so like yeah. I think
this is probably a really good option in
the before we're able in the meantime
until we're able to look at that
probably more seriously.
>> Oh yeah, and then they said if you if
you change your mind and you don't want
to do this anymore,
um you tell the
the solar provider and they have 1 year
to find somebody to um take your space
in the net metering consortium and if
they can't find anybody, you're only on
the hook for 1 year the previous years
of savings that you got. So like if you
got, you know, $30,000 of savings,
that's how that's your exit penalty is 1
year's worth of savings. Um but I highly
doubt, you know, they said that they
have plenty of people ready to go. So
it's it's not that they would be able to
be hard-pressed to find somebody to
replace us if we decide like if we
decided to do our own solar and then,
you know, drop out of the net metering,
that's that's a possibility, too. Um but
yeah, I I think this is something that
we could we should talk about at our uh
retreat, for sure.
>> So, there's no commitment, there's no
initial outlay.
>> That's right. That's the big thing,
yeah.
>> Just Just a commitment.
>> Yeah, just commit. There's no cash that
we have to pay. There's no money we have
to pay for net metering, which is a nice
attractive part of it.
Would we save as much as if we had our
own solar? Not as much, but yeah.
>> It looks cool.
>> It's cool. No, it's yeah, it's good.
All right. Um
>> [singing]
>> anything else on finance facilities?
Okay. Uh superintendent's report,
Amanda.
>> Uh you do have my written report in your
packet.
Um you can see the picture on the bottom
is our main focus. So, that's Audrey
Webber, and she is the winner of the
Congressional Art Competition for
District 2 in Hampshire. And you'll see
um Representative Maggie Goodlander
beside her. Um pretty big honor.
>> Yeah.
>> Pretty big honor, right?
And if you really kind of look at the
style of her artwork, you should sort of
feel like, "Hey, that looks familiar."
>> Yeah.
>> Because she's on the um our annual
report cover. So, um Audrey was also
chosen by our own Martha McDonald to
grace the cover of the annual report.
You're right, Tim.
>> Martha's got a good eye.
>> Yep, Martha's got a good eye.
>> [laughter]
>> Congratulations, Audrey.
>> She should.
She should.
Yeah, that is about Partridge, isn't it?
I think.
>> I I
>> It looks like it to me, like
>> Could be. Could be.
>> Scott, I think I see your house in
there.
>> It's It is. Yeah, Scott would be the
expert on that.
Only the one on the easels is hers,
right?
>> Yes.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
>> And if you drive slowly enough past the
sign, you will see that it is
beautifully done.
>> I think she had this one at Ava, too, at
the
I think I saw it there, yeah. Yeah.
>> I congratulated her in person at Jake's.
>> That's
>> [laughter]
>> That's right. She worked at Jake's,
yeah.
>> Just, you know, so we do expect
Representative Goodlander will come here
and do a visit here at the high school
to see Audrey. So, I think it's great.
Really really proud of her.
Very thankful for Beth French,
our teacher, who, you know, really
encourages these kids and gets their
artwork out there.
>> Yes.
>> Cuz without that encouragement,
you know, she probably would not have
thought to enter this, so very thankful
for that.
And just the one last repeat of the
you know, the bills that are on
watch by the New Hampshire School
Administrators Association.
You know, hoping to see some more ends
here in the next few days, I believe.
Things close down till probably May
14th-ish.
>> Yeah, yeah, but they go until the
They might go until early June. So,
we'll see. Oh, wait, last day for you to
Yeah, May 14th, so yeah, that is. Yeah.
>> So, coming up is
>> Next yeah, this week.
>> So, we'll see. We'll know We'll know
soon.
>> [snorts]
>> Yep.
We'll know some of this for sure. Yes,
that's good.
Yeah, I That's a good point you
mentioned about Beth French. I think
I've seen our kids art in out in the
community more in the last 2 years than
I have in the previous 8 years on when I
was on the board. So, like getting those
kids artwork out in the community is
awesome to see.
Yeah, just awesome to see our teachers
really getting our kids out there, so.
Anything Anything else you need me to
cover?
>> That's all I have.
>> Okay. Any questions for Amanda?
All right.
Business Administrator's report. You
have it here in the packet, Michelle.
All yours.
>> In my report, you've got the
April financials.
I just wanted to share that back in
January I applied for the transportation
grant, the CTE transportation grant, and
we did We were awarded that grant.
$79,256.16
to be exact and that goes back towards
the vocational aid group that we pay
Butlers
for this year. So, that was nice to find
out. The state grants are underway and
Matt's been getting his quotes. He's got
the work lined up for the summer.
So, that will be great once we get all
that
key card access pads. IRS is getting the
new parking lot gate to direct vehicles.
So, that will be good and then
I'll have more information on the year
end amounts and I've been asked that a
few times but
>> Yeah.
>> It's still early.
>> We know. That's right.
>> [laughter]
>> It's usually It's usually later May
anyway.
>> Usually later May.
>> Yeah, like religion.
All right. [clears throat] Any questions
for Michelle?
>> All right.
>> Thank you very much.
Um bus routes update.
Um I think
I thought we had I thought we had CES 7.
>> Why don't I see it on the agenda?
>> Bus route change.
>> You do have a bus route.
>> Okay, good. Oh, it's Oh, this is it's
included here under bus routes update.
>> Yes.
>> Okay, all right. Yeah, yeah. All right.
So, you see here we have CES 7. It was
adding one stop. I know this is really
late in the school year.
We don't I don't think I've gotten one
this late but it's the very first and
the very last one. Very first one in the
morning, last one in the evening, 272
Turnpike Road.
I'll make a motion that we approve bus
route CES 7 as presented.
>> Second.
>> Okay.
Any Did I That was pretty much it. It's
just adding that one stop.
>> Yes.
>> And the only kids that are impacted is
the kid at that stop because it's not
inserting it and delaying anyone else's
stop or pushing it up. So,
yeah. Any other questions?
All right. All those in favor of change
of approving that bus route CES 7
signify by saying I.
>> I.
>> All opposed, abstention.
All right. And we didn't have any other
bus route updates.
>> I actually do but I don't know if I want
to bring that news but I'm going to just
make you all aware of the fact
that
that not Not are we still short one full
driver, right? One full big bus driver.
Um next year they're anticipating two
more drivers leaving the district.
>> Oh my gosh.
>> So, as of right now, we are looking at
starting the school year three drivers
short.
>> Okay.
>> So, um I know and I think it's probably
a good idea that the board has asked
that they build the bus routes around
the current drivers that we have, the
numbers that they're sure they have,
rather than the numbers we should have.
And I think that's probably the best
thing to do at this point.
>> point, yeah.
>> But, you are going to see bus routes
that are going to be long.
>> Yeah. If If they're still missing three
by early August.
>> And I just, you know, knowing how
um it is to get drivers into trained
drivers and to get them certified and
licensed,
>> Yeah.
>> you are potentially There's in my
opinion, and having done this for a
while, there's no way to get three
drivers
ready. So, unless drivers walk in with
the school bus certs in hand, ready to
drive,
we will not see three drivers in the
next two or three months.
>> We tried to get that crossover with New
Hampshire and Vermont, and we
not going to drive in Vermont.
>> No, they Did they table this bill?
>> I think they did.
>> I think they tabled this bill, yeah.
Yeah. It was a good try. They tried
opening it up a little bit more, but
>> It would have been nice to, you know, my
New Hampshire driver's license is okay
in Vermont. So, I would love a Vermont
bus driver to be able to drive in New
Hampshire, and that just doesn't happen.
>> Yeah.
>> Um without the training, right? They
want you to go through all the training
yet again. Our teachers, you know, there
is reciprocity for that.
Um so, it's an unfortunate thing. Um
but, I just want you all to be prepared
that we will probably be looking at bus
routes well over an hour. I am going to
ask that they
focus on the elementary
runs
>> Yeah.
>> um to make sure, you know, we do have
that one Canaan run that does take a
little bit longer cuz they're one short,
but I would rather short the high school
middle school, you know, if we're really
really going to be in that much trouble.
I just I don't know what else to do at
this point.
>> We can talk to bias. Let's talk about
some facilities too about this.
>> I was hoping that with Beacon taking
over that they'd have an abundance of
drivers or be able to pull drivers from
somewhere else. I haven't seen any of
that. As a matter of fact, I think it's
worse.
>> What about smaller buses? Why can't we
go back to that? Cuz
>> Um
right.
>> The vans.
>> In the vans, but we're very limited on
the number of kids we can put on the
vans. And so, having a ton of vans is
almost not cost effective for us.
I need certain numbers of big buses and
then certain numbers of vans that go to
some of the farther outskirts.
So.
>> Um I wonder if we can talk to Vance
Transit, maybe, about for like the high
schoolers and stuff to at least move
them move them up and down Route 4 a
little bit. I'm not sure if that's an
idea, but I know some people we can talk
to about this. We can talk to bias
facilities.
>> I mean, I just I think I I hate to do
this. We pay this bus company a lot of
money and I feel like I'm constantly
solving problems for them.
>> Um well, speaking of one problem we have
to solve for them, it would be I think
we should put hiring bus drivers on our
side. I know there's a lot of stuff on
our side, but like that's an urgent need
that we have. I don't know if that I
don't know if we did talk to
communication about overcrowding on the
sign. We don't want to do that, but that
might be a good backup one to just have
in the
back pocket. Pop it up all the time
whenever we need something up there, I
guess. I don't know.
>> I I will talk to Andy who was recently
hired in for Steve Landon's position. I
will talk to him again. I met with him
over break or the week after break and
he did not
tell me, so I think these two new
resignations
for next year are new.
So, I I'm hoping that they're looking,
but I just
knowing past history just can't imagine
them finding and licensing enough
drivers for us to start fully staffed.
>> I I think also building the routes to
what they have start the year and then
if they get more drivers then we can
split the routes later, but at the same
time because we contract knowing that
we're going to have X number of routes
and if they give us X minus seven number
of X minus two number of routes, you
know, we're two routes short so we
should be getting credit for those two
routes we're not getting. So if they're
only running
you know, seven and we should be getting
nine we need to get credit for those two
even if we've only published seven
because our contract says
>> Oh, absolutely.
>> Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just
want to reiterate that we are going to
be tracking that. I know we've been
tracking that this year so we'll see how
that goes with that.
>> So I know Lebanon they employ their own
bus drivers, right?
>> Right. Yeah.
>> Is that the same with Hanover?
>> No.
Hanover's contracted.
>> Hanover's
>> Who are they contracted with? Is it the
same?
>> Uh I'm not sure off the top of my head.
It could be First Student, it could be
STA.
>> Have we done any kind of analysis of
like what the competitive rates are?
Like
>> We have Our drivers are actually paid
pretty well
>> Yeah.
>> compared to
>> Yeah, I just
>> We like I would say when we did not the
last time but the time before we went
out to bid, we raised a lot of bus
driver wages. We brought them very
competitive with all the other ones and
I think what what hurts us is just that
it's long routes. I I think, you know,
like that's my impression cuz I see a
Hanover bus come through town every year
every morning at 8:30 after he's done
picking up and done his kids.
Yeah, and then I see him coming back in
the afternoon and like 3:45 and he's
done, you know, he's already on the way
back here. So I can I can see how that's
attractive. Um but, you know, if you
live here, it's you know, it's it's a
nice thing so.
All right. Any other thoughts?
>> Just find out who the driver is.
>> I know who the driver is. I'm at the
>> I was just saying Worcester knows who he
is.
>> Yeah.
>> We tried.
>> We tried. We tried. And he might have
driven us for in the past. Like I don't
know. Like
People like that.
All right.
>> [sighs]
>> We'll try with that. So, yeah, we'll be
on that for sure.
Um next on our agenda, class size
projections.
>> We do need to table that.
>> Table that. Yeah, I was going to see
that in here. So.
>> The high school is still working on
that. They've had to eliminate some
classes. Some of those classes you saw
um last time where there were two kids
in a class, they found alternative
classes.
>> Yeah, good news again. Good deal.
>> They're looking at um sections and still
moving things around. So. They asked
today if we would table that.
>> Awesome. All right, yeah, we can table
that and bring that back next time. Um
next thing on our agenda is the wellness
initiative. This is still the CCBA
stuff, but we had tabled this last time
to find out if we could find some more
information about just a different
similar but different something to fit.
Did we have any updates on that or not
at this moment?
>> Um I don't have any updates. Did you Did
Patty have give you any information on
what it looks like through school care
for reimbursements? That was what I was
most curious about was the school care
reimbursement. So, we'll need to um
follow up with Patty on that.
>> Okay. Cuz we do need I think there are
some um
good reimbursements for people and that
way they could choose not to use the
CCBA.
>> Right.
>> They could use this one down here. I
think you said that or they could, you
know, just
>> live closer to the central one or yeah.
>> or do whatever they wanted to do.
>> Yeah.
>> Um
that way. And Diana I know said that she
got a full reimbursement through school
care. So, rather than us go out on a
limb on this, we might as well let our
insurance which we paid earlier on
>> We do [clears throat] pay for the
yes.
>> take care of it.
>> Yeah, this I mean this is a great idea.
Like this is a good start, but like if
we can just do it so that, you know, 10%
of whatever they go to or something like
that just as an
incentive to hopefully reduce our
insurance costs. So.
>> Okay, we'll bring more information to
>> Okay, cool. So, we'll table that. Um all
right, school board retreat dates. Um
pull out your calendars. Typically we've
We've like a Sunday afternoon.
Um Amanda, what is uh
What are you thinking of?
>> Um I do believe that Let me pull up a
calendar cuz in June we have
um the senior awards night will be on a
Monday.
>> Is it the 8th?
>> Yeah.
>> Great.
So it will be there.
Um I would greatly prefer if we were
going to do a weekend that we did
something after graduation.
>> Okay. That's fine with me. I don't
argue. I can't. I don't disagree with
that.
Um
>> Graduation is the 12th. 12th.
>> 12th.
>> Yep.
>> I can do the 20th or the 21st. Um
>> I will not I can't do the 20th.
>> The 21st?
>> 21st is Father's Day.
>> The 21st is Father's
>> Oh, that's right. It's Father's Day.
Um I can't do the 27th or 28th. I'm out
of town that weekend. Um
>> I'm not opposed to the 14th.
>> Okay.
>> That's after graduation.
>> That is I'm going to have a lot of
family in town.
>> Oh, yeah. It is graduation.
>> I'm out of town that day but I'm
working.
>> [laughter]
>> Um
Let's see.
I mean I'm not opposed to early July
either if people would like but I know
you want to do you have your you want to
go with um have some of the stuff ready
to go before you get into July.
>> Right.
>> Um I'm not opposed I don't want to do
4th of July weekend so yeah, back to
June. Um
>> You want to do an evening? Would an
evening be better for
>> Yeah. Honestly, an evening the weekend
the week of the 22nd.
>> You could do an evening then just about.
>> Yeah, cuz we're only going to like we're
only going to have one board meeting
in June
on the 9th.
And we don't have anything on the 20th.
Oh, no, it's the 23rd. Oh, sorry. Yeah,
we would do the 23rd. We could turn the
23rd meeting into a
retreat if you want if people wanted to
and just do that.
Yeah.
I mean it'll be a publicly posted
meeting anyway. If we can push a lot of
the meeting stuff to the 9th,
um we could do base minimum stuff for
meeting and then do mostly a retreat
type work session um
that night the 23rd.
How does that sound? Does that
>> That works better, yeah.
>> Okay, that way we don't have to do a
weekend. Everyone will keep their
Saturdays and Sundays.
>> We're already committed to Tuesdays.
>> We're already committed to Tuesdays,
that's right. Okay, that that works and
we'll get some snacks and
>> Zip lining?
>> Hm?
>> Zip lining?
>> Yep, we'll get some zip lining. Yep,
yep.
>> [laughter]
>> Oh, it's not that kind of retreat. There
is zip lining on it.
>> Don't be deceived by the word retreat.
>> It just be It just be It just be talking
about it.
>> That's four [laughter] totally different
things.
>> Yeah, it just means a deep dive. Oh, you
sweet summer child. All right,
um okay, up next here we have our
passenger minivan bid approval.
Um
let's see, they're recommending the 2026
Chrysler Voyager. I guess I'll start
saying Dodge Voyager.
It's only Voyager. Um
Yeah, Amanda any or Michelle any
comments on this?
>> Um sure. So, this is
uh
>> Just replace that vehicle.
>> In order [clears throat] for us to
transport students to or from school to
home,
>> Yep.
>> we have to meet certain requirements. Um
so, this would eliminate Sometimes we
have to transport kids uh
for They have a short day or something
like that. And right now we contract out
with either Door to Door or with
Butler's.
>> Yeah.
>> So, as long as we have people who are um
certified with an SBC, they'll be able
to do that and are rostered and Butler's
has agreed to do that for us. So,
>> I think most of the SAU staff is
rostered and certified to drive.
>> Okay.
>> Um but our vans The vans that we
currently have are not able to do that.
They're too large.
>> Oh.
>> So, we can take our athletic
teams to places. Um the
>> only van that we could transport kids to
or from school to home is the handicap
van, the wheelchair accessible van that
we have, which is why it has that
awesome
school bus sign on it.
>> That's right. That's right.
>> So, what we're looking to do is to
continue to be able to do that and to
potentially pull away from door-to-door,
um, from Butler's doing those extra
runs, which costs hundreds of dollars a
day. Um, to do that through, um, this.
>> Okay.
>> Also gives us another way to transport
kids to athletic events, cuz that cost
is becoming extremely large, so, um, you
know, gives us three vans that we can
take to transport them.
>> Cuz this is a traditional minivan, uh,
with seven, six seats plus driver.
>> Yes.
>> And so, that that plus one of those
vans, you could conceivably easily
transport a whole team and then take
another van with another team. That's
awesome.
All right, so they're looking for the
And so, it would be the 2016 Chrysler
Voyager at $39,017,
right?
I'm reading that correct?
>> You are.
>> Okay.
>> And this will come out of the year-end
encumbrance, so you'll see that on the
list when I present that next month.
>> You got to get that ordered.
All right. Got it.
All right. Uh, I'll make a motion that
we approve the bid for, uh, Chrysler
Dodge Jeep for the minivan purchase.
>> I'll second.
>> All right. Any further discussion?
All right. All those in favor signify by
saying aye. Aye. All opposed?
Abstentions?
All right. Next on our agenda is the
golf cart lease, which has been
incredibly valuable. We've had them for
a number of years here, and this is to
replace the older one, correct?
Cuz we have two We have Is one of them
technically IRS and one of them's
technically high school?
>> Yes.
>> So, this is the high school one, right?
>> the lease is up.
>> Yep, lease is up. All right.
Okay.
Um, is this the same company?
>> Same company, yeah. It's the same
company we have them with.
>> And they have
>> to sign the lease agreement now.
>> Okay. And they have, you know, they've
been great to work with. Any mechanical
issues that they've had, they've dealt
with.
They have no complaints from
It has made getting around this campus
so much easier during events like
homecoming
>> Or even during the sporting events.
Well, but I mean even like the like I
mean how many times have I seen that
golf cart like with a kid that got hurt
but it wasn't ambulance worthy getting
them off the field.
>> All right.
Okay.
Um so it is awarding, let's see, where
is the price?
>> $241 a month for 12 months.
>> All right. What is it per month? Okay.
>> Yeah, so it's a 5-year lease. Same as
the other one.
>> Okay.
Oh, yes.
Okay. Within the budget. All right. I'll
make a motion that we approve the lease
for the golf cart as presented for a
5-year lease
with the budgeted amount.
>> Second.
>> Okay.
Any further discussion on this one?
All right. All those in favor signify by
saying aye.
Aye.
Opposed? Abstentions?
All right.
Next thing we have on our agenda is just
the SWAT survey from the communications
committee. So this is the questions that
you were talking about. These are the
questions came up with. Were you just
looking for us to approve those for us
to work with?
>> to train the PD committee on how to
facilitate
>> analysis.
>> analysis.
And they're just questions that are like
ideas for people to think about. It's
not
>> Yeah, yeah, we're not looking for No,
these are not necessarily like I'm not
like I'm I'm not a marketing person, but
I am adjacent to marketing people and
the idea here is just to get thoughts
going. That's That's my understanding of
what these questions are meant to be. So
um and yeah.
>> That's It's much it.
>> Brainstorming prompts.
>> Yes, exactly.
All right. Well, I'll make a motion that
we approve the SWAT survey for Joe to
bring to the um PD committee.
>> I'll second.
>> Okay. Any further thought, comments, or
questions on this?
No, this is this is great. I I mean,
when you can be kind of self-reflective
on stuff and how your organization runs,
and hopefully they've built a culture
where they feel like they can share this
stuff.
Yeah, I don't know. Maybe figure out a
way to do some anonymous ones, too, but
not always.
>> I mean, as Yep, I mean, the most honest
feedback that we can get.
>> Yeah, is how Is that where you can do to
get honest feedback? I guess
All right.
>> Is this all teachers, and who's doing
this?
>> Yeah, this is going to be presented to
the um
professional development committee.
>> Which it'll
>> And we'll go from there.
>> It's a teachers and and uh support
staff.
>> Oh, and administrators.
>> And and administrators.
>> Nice. Okay.
All right. Uh all those Okay, ready for
that? All those in favor of uh the SWAT
survey signify by saying "Aye." Aye.
All opposed or abstentions.
All right. Uh agenda items for next
meeting.
Um if anyone wants to have an NHSBA
resolution for the fall, if you're
thinking of anything that NHSBA should
do, let us know.
No?
Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, you have an
idea? You don't have to have it right
now, I mean
>> I I mean, I have it. I I think it's
something that I
>> up?
>> Yeah, throw it out So, this is this is
from my field. I work in special
education. Um I think it's um one thing
that I think is kind of
um
a real short change for some of our
students, specifically with um
uh our most impacted disabilities, is
that um students are allowed to get
services all the way up until the age of
22. Um and our um and some of those
skills are definitely necessary. Some of
um due to some of the constraints that
are in the graduation requirements,
these students do not get a high school
diploma.
>> Oh, man.
>> They um the state does not allow that.
Um we are one of I believe we are one of
three states in the nation that does not
have a modified diploma.
>> Mhm.
>> Uh
we and special ed cannot modify
curriculum in order for kids to meet the
high school requirements. So, everybody
has to pass algebra. Everybody in the
state. And if you are able to
um
and we can't modify curriculum in order
to do that. You know, 47 other states
can do that.
Um
New Hampshire is one of the three that
does not.
>> Mhm.
>> So, um these are our students who are
very um where I believe a high school
diploma would um is a very useful and
earned because those kids are working
hard and they get a certificate of
attendance.
>> Or completion.
>> And
that is what it is. So, I would like to
bring that forward as a
motion for the school board association
to um put forward.
>> Cool.
>> Yeah, let's let's uh yeah, let's work on
that. I like I like that idea. I like
that a lot.
Um cuz I didn't know that. I had no
idea.
>> Yeah.
>> We can have we can have a student under
working
with uh with teachers for 7 years in a
high school, 8 years in a high school,
and they do not receive a high school
diploma.
>> That's nuts. Especially cuz there's so
many other states have figured this out.
>> Yes.
>> So many other states have figured it
out.
>> Right. And then when you're going for a
job, it's like it makes a big
difference.
>> Yeah, sure does. It makes a huge
difference.
>> what their life will look like.
>> Right.
>> I love it. I like that. Yeah, let's
let's get that in. I think that's really
good.
>> They're putting more more effort in than
>> Yeah.
>> Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
>> For sure.
>> Cool. All right. Um so, yeah. So, we'll
talk about that more. We can I mean, if
you want to draft a little kind of
>> sketch you can make a blurb.
>> I can make a blurb.
>> Yeah, yeah. Make a blurb. I think we
have to get them in by July. So, um
that'd be great.
All right. Public comment. None left.
Okay.
Um
personnel report and nominations. So, we
have those here.
So, we have our title title one
nominations on one sheet and then we
have our regular nominations and
resignations listed as well on the other
green sheet.
So, if anyone would like to make a
motion.
>> Go ahead.
>> I'll make a motion to accept the
nominations and notifications sheets as
written.
>> Okay.
I'll Oh, you'll second that.
>> I was trying to get Scott a chance.
>> Okay.
>> [laughter]
>> You're both being too nice.
All right. Uh any discussion on any of
these? And then did you have anything
you wanted to bring up on any of these
people?
>> Um I do have to say that we are you can
see by the resignations we are
in a season of shifting, which is a
little bit unfortunate. It makes things
a little tight. We do we are starting to
see some other candidates, you know,
that are coming in, but it's a little it
gets a little bit tricky.
>> Yeah.
>> Um this time of year.
>> Yep.
All right.
Uh
anything else? All right, seeing nothing
else. All those in favor of accepting
the nominations and resignations of the
vets signify by saying aye. Aye. All
opposed? Abstentions?
All right, so we do have non-public for
tuition agreement and anything else?
>> Uh hiring.
>> All right, so I'll make a motion that we
go into non-public for tuition agreement
for and not and for hiring.
Do I have a second?
Scott seconds. All right, Don.
>> Yes.
>> Tim? Yes. Joe?
>> Yes.
>> Scott?
>> Yes.
>> Laura?
>> Yes.
>> All right, we are in non-public.