October 4, 2022 - Grantham School Board Meeting

Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.

Recording

all right everybody we're on okay
I know she said she wasn't wearing
November
um
is this her trip I think so I thought
she said October oh it was October okay
yeah I thought she said she was gonna
have something in the October
[Music]
okay we're gonna go ahead and get
started so I'm gonna call the meeting to
order at 6 31 so our first agenda item
tonight is to approve the agenda
um so do we have any changes additions
anything for the agent to change on the
agenda I have to request an addition
excuse me yeah no problem okay
I'd like to request an addition onto the
agenda I'm going to ask the board to
waive the quote and bid policy for some
work bringing on the boiler
Okay so
maybe after energy audit okay
this is the quote
in the bid for the boiler yes
[Music]
have anything else any other changes to
the agenda
foreign
okay so we need a motion to approve the
agenda as amended
a motion from Denise second I have a
second from Ed so all those in favor
please say aye aye any opposed say nay
okay so the mo the agenda is approved
um our first agenda item tonight is
public participation we do have some
public with us um in person and I know
joining us online so just a quick
reminder
um if you are offering public comment
during this time please state your name
and your address before you begin your
comments so that we have those in the
record that's true for both folks here
in the room and folks joining us
virtually you can just have your name
um post your name in your address and
those will be read into the record and
for comments the board's job during this
time is really to just listen if there
are things that we can questions we can
address easily during the public
participation we will do that as
appropriate but if there are if there's
a further conversation that'll happen
later on in the agenda
so we'll leave the public participation
open for a few minutes here and see if
we have anybody
foreign
just for anybody who's at home the chat
was closed I just opened it
um if you were trying to use the chat it
should be all set now
foreign
I don't have anyone
speaking in person
so we will go ahead and close public
participation
and our first agenda item is our student
School Board liaison I think we have
Ellen with us we do excellent
Alan I'm going to move you over as a
panelist
s
hi
hi
all right
so if you want to just you are our
student School Board liaison at this
point
um and so we'd love to just hear from
you about how um the beginning of the
year is going uh if there are any
um any big updates or things that you
think the board should know about
um and just generally
um if there's anything you know that
you'd like to share with us
yeah um beginning of the school Year's
been going great
um we just had homecoming so like the
bonfire and football game I'm a seniors
so it was it was really fun
um we also had our first homecoming
dance in a really long time I'm not sure
how long but I've never been in school
when there's been a homecoming dance and
it was all of the grades it was like
freshman sophomore junior senior who's
in the gym and it was a considerable
amount cheaper than
um prom which was nice it was very
accessible it was really fun
and
I the clubs have been starting up again
and people from outside the school have
been allowed in so that's been good for
like
science ELO I'm doing so people from
um NHS which is like a science academy
connect come into the school now and
help us so that's good and yeah
it's been going great
excellent any questions from the board
all right
all right have you uh spread the word
about getting another student School
Board liaison from the high school
another Grantham student I was actually
just going to ask about that
um I'm a senior so I'm graduating and
there will need to be a new one and
maybe it would be nice to have one now
maybe like a freshman I could ask Bonnie
Robinson if she could put something in
the newsletter I can add about it
I'm not sure about the Middle School
um I reached out to the Middle School
principal so she's putting something out
but if you could spread the word in the
high school that would be wonderful yeah
yeah
now I'll definitely do that
are there things
um that you notice that are happening at
the school that are still like that you
would say are still under kind of the
umbrella of like differences um in covid
so like are there still things either
things happening in classrooms or in
activities like is there anything that
you're still noticing that is a
difference from before covid to now
I think
um the only thing that's different is
kind of external activities and what
other institutions have maybe changed
like including opportunities at
Dartmouth have been really scarce like
you used to be able to take classes at
Dartmouth as like a junior and a senior
and that was like a really good
opportunity for people you can't do that
anymore which is sad it's kind of just
been cut off so
that's the only really change that I've
seen
thank you
any other questions from the board you
look happy
[Music]
all right thank you hopefully we're able
to see you next month
um and maybe we'll have another
and someone else interested in joining
you but we appreciate it yeah
thanks Alan good night thank you bye
all right our next agenda item is the
playground bid and the board has the
information for that in our board packet
so this is the request for proposals for
the playground project so this is this
is it
this is the culmination of a lot of work
going into the final RFP and I do want
to say there are a couple caveats where
we're still making just minor tweaks
before the build the bid goes out on
Friday but it'll be out Friday at noon
um and I we have Emily Owens who is here
who is our project manager Clerk of the
works and Emily I don't know if you want
to add anything to the discussion
because I know that you spoke to se
group today about some final changes or
are they are if they're minor I don't
think we need to go over them but is
there anything big for the board no
they're pretty minor okay
um and she also brought like the really
big plans if anybody wants to take a
look at the plans which you can do now
or at the end of the meeting or if you
have any questions about the bed itself
okay so questions or discussion for the
board
for this RFP
this will go up you said the bid's on
Friday yes at noon and how long is that
going to stay open so the timeline
um is on the first date so it throws
site visits on
um October 18th but people are allowing
companies to request a different time if
they can't make it on the 18th questions
are due on October 24th with responses
by November 1st the submission deadline
is November 14th and the final bid will
be awarded at your December 6th board
meeting so it's about two months from
now we will hopefully be securing our
contractor okay
uh so would we be making that decision
at our December yes okay I just wanted
to clarify that and it will also go
through the playground committee before
that also the playground committee will
look at the bids and the companies Etc
before it goes to the board level
do you expect the playground committee I
think it probably depends on how many we
get but do you think the playground
committee will afford a recommendation
or I think it'll depend on how many we
get yes yes if you'll remember the last
time the playground committee was torn
between two and sent you two and had you
decide so things like that could happen
again okay
can you clarify I think you mentioned it
in your report but the piece about the
um Court work how that factors into this
right so the um we the board had
approved doing the additional design and
Survey work for the court problem where
we have the runoff at the end of the
Court which would basically mean
moving the court over you know several
feet so that we don't have it right near
that corner uh which would be part of
the playground project but it's not
included in the original playground bid
because we took that out due to keeping
the costs down so what they did was they
did what's an adult which is an added
alternative to the project so it would
be an estimate that the bidders would
give for the court plus the parking lot
works so we have to be really uh clear
about the fact that the runoff in the
parking lot work would have to be a
separate project coming from a separate
fund but there's better economies of
scale that if we can do it all at the
same time while the equipment's here and
while they're moving the court if we get
the funding then obviously it's better
to have the same contractor do
everything
so the benefit of doing the adult work
is to have the bidders give that part of
the bid in addition so that say in March
and we get the money we don't have to go
through the whole process again it makes
sense
is it boyfriend to walk us through some
of the food so can we do this and
through the bid with the blueprints
Emily do you want to walk everybody
through this
um so
I can give you
there
yeah nice picture so liberal is it okay
okay so I don't know if you've seen
a nice picture
this is
foreign
[Music]
it's got all of your
specifications for everything but it's
um so I've asked them to break it up um
they're going to turn off a couple
layers and print separate drawings so
it's actually legible I mean it's very
it's got everything you need on it but
it's very
it's
hard to Focus
um because it has all the stuff it has
everything yeah yes
um
I mean it's looking really good they've
tweaked the walk around so that you
shouldn't have any obstructive views
you know if you can stand you can see
the different areas on the playground
that's just what we're talking about as
they added this portion so there's
actually here I have a separate drawing
for the other so that fit
yeah so there's the edge of the
basketball court here okay parking yeah
we were talking about moving in the back
corner where that dream is from
you know this should for the others
elevations
so this is the demo plan because I'm not
saying what's going so that's nice
which is probably going to be the most
important
issues so everything in this walkway
that's our wheelchair accessible yeah
yeah
every part of this program right I mean
there's some rise and
so if you look at you can actually see
the elevation so there'll be slow so
there's space and this is the horribly
big enough horribly busy picture again
but you can see uh
so it's easier for me to show you I
figured you'd be interested as well
because of yes yeah so but these are
these are further apart so this is like
a very split slight grade and this is
The Big C sorry no that's okay so and
these are actually going to be your
drains essentially
so you're now you're adding this
this is existing
you're adding this and under here is
adding as well so there's going to be
substantial
ways to catch the water and it's also
going to be sloped to actually head
towards the actual yeah
it should make it much more accessible
in the winter time yeah safer much worse
yes where are they pushing the water too
so ultimately here
is it is it a culvert or something out
there all right technology
yeah so some people have been asking me
about you know the Pavilion wise The
Pavilion like a platform but to build
the Pavilion with our existing
Playground now it has to be at a
specific elevation to match the rest of
the drainage plan for when the rest of
the playground is built so that has to
be higher which goes to the rest of the
drainage plan in the future so
everything starts to drain the way that
it's supposed to be since drainages our
main focus
and it's right around here the Pavilion
yeah
yeah
that's exciting to see it is bringing
trucks
[Music]
so now and you understand all this yeah
I continue to write grants to try and
get things like the courtwork and I
submitted a grant to miscona Foundation
last week
um you know and I'll just keep doing
that to see if we can you know we won't
know anything until the bids come in but
I'll see if I can continue to get
funding to take care of as much of a
project as we can
um
[Music]
any other questions or discussions about
the playground bid it's been vetted um
and approved by both our bond Council
and climax so that should give you some
good feelings in approving it
foreign
for construction services for Grantham
Village school grounds and playground
Renovations
I have a motion from Leslie and a second
from Denise all those in favor please
say aye aye any opposed say nay
all right it's very excited it is
exciting
all right so our next agenda item is the
energy audit and so we have a memo in
the board packet and then I think some
additional information for us yeah so um
and I'd like to introduce TJ Alexander
who's here from the Grantham energy
committee so thank you for coming uh we
met I think it was in August when I went
to the energy committee and uh they had
talked to the town about completing an
energy audit which is a little bit
different than the initial approach the
board was taking in terms of looking at
a really comprehensive
um a comprehensive plan for services
which was the original thing that was
going out and I believe that was
honestly January of 2020. when you were
starting to look at that so
um the energy committee is proposing
that the town and school and the town
did complete it but the proposing that
the school completes an energy audit
which are usually for free and done
through it's the seeds organization so
it's like leads but seeds for schools
and they would basically just be giving
us a preliminary look at
um
some of the apparent and easy maybe
ready ready fixes that we can go for uh
without having to do the full
comprehensive plan so
um TJ I don't know if you want to add
anything else to this about your um your
interest in having the school do the
energy of it well you are correct that
that I was asked to look at the
performance Contracting document that
was prepared in 2019 and I found it
very technical and probably difficult to
have anybody bid on it but it included
all the town buildings it included all
kinds of
items for a Performance Contractor it
was kind it was kind of more appropriate
I think for a large
City or School District you know
Manchester I'm sure could get somebody
to respond to this kind of proposal but
for a small little small little town
like like we have here I kind of doubt
it I'm not saying that you if you think
you should you want to put it out
be my guest and give it a shot but one
of the recommendations that the uh
that the department of energy had is you
start with a very simple energy on it of
which we are doing for other Town
buildings
you actually missed the window for this
year
but there's always another year in
eversource covers those as part of
public monies that they have they have a
certain percent I don't know if it's one
percent or one and a half percent of the
monies that they collect that they have
to use for quote public good
and that's one of the things that they
do so we do have energy audits lined up
for the town offices the library's
already already had energy audits in the
last couple years
probably the fire station town offices
and some of the other ancillary
buildings across the street are going to
be looked at here coming up this winter
fall
um
we also did a simple walkthrough of this
building here
committee walked around just so that we
got an idea of what the building was
like in the school and offered some
basic suggestions nothing formal nothing
major
but they're uh you know just suggestions
on things that could be done
look like looked to me like there were a
couple of roof issues that probably
could be should be taken care of
so
um
that was just an informal little walk
around with uh told me
um
questions
energy wise everything's going up this
year
I hear everybody
I'm glad you brought that up because
um I thought this was since we're
talking about this I thought it would be
a good time to give the board an
overview of our energy this year because
this is around when we do our purchasing
um and then we start talking about
during a budget season so we were as
usual we are part of a school district
Consortium we do a group purchasing for
our energy so for electricity we wound
up with a
16.45 per kilowatt hour which with our
three to four months
um rebate for using hydro we do that for
about three to four months for those
three or four months it'll bring our
rate to about 15.95
the going rate elsewhere forever Source
has been about 22 23 cents so we locked
that in so we're pretty happy about that
at this point and then for fuel we wound
up going with um
we have
a propane for Irving we wound up going
with we you know went out and looked at
all the different prices for Rhymes and
Goodrich Etc and we wound up going with
Irvin and we got locked in at 1.573 per
gallon
um so and that's not bad either so you
know we were we were Savvy Shoppers this
year and we were able to lock in some
really good rates for energy this year
before everything started to Skyrocket
okay other questions from the board for
the
um
looking at this energy audit proposal I
do I do want to clarify one thing is we
didn't the the window you're talking
about for the energy audit is for the
municipal building so there are still
some that are available for schools so
if you do want to do this I don't think
we have to wait for the full next
Municipal window to open again if you
choose to do one and what's the
turnaround time once
I have no idea do you have any idea
from audit to support yeah
well typically it's a month
and how about securing the audit at a
difficult to get succumb in a timely
manner or
you're gonna have to tell me again
it's louder oh
um what's the uh scheduling for the
audits are they available or no no
now they're filled up for the year
and it would have to be in 23 probably a
year from now
availability for school for schools a
different availability for schools yeah
if you have if you have a window for
some other
other options there and somebody you
know because you can get
another who's who are you talking about
that would do it
so seeds well that's who's doing the
town right but the town and the school
windows are different according to
Margaret who we were both working with
well if you can if you can get her moved
in there by all means I hadn't had any
conversation with her in doing that for
the school
and uh that would be that that is the
basic level one energy audit that you
know is recommended and she is the one
that uh eversourced her company is the
one that eversource uses for
municipalities
[Music]
and that's a no-cost correct yeah I yeah
I wouldn't recommend doing a
I wouldn't recommend paying for an audit
there are enough free ones that are out
there I think you just have to take it
with a grain of salt when you get the
report because you're getting an energy
on it from an energy company right right
so you want to just we'll just have to
look at what they say before you make
any decisions about whether you want to
take any action yeah
okay
any other discussion from the board
okay
so we would need a
um
motion to
to
approve the energy audit is that what
to
um
to schedule an energy
audit a level one energy on it okay so
you need a motion a motion to a schedule
a level one energy audit someone second
I have a motion from Nancy in a second
from Leslie all those in favor please
say aye
aye any opposed say May
all right
so our next agenda item is the quote and
bid I'm waving the quote and bid process
for necessarily necessary boiler work
yeah so we're have we have two boilers
and we're having trouble with one and
we've had trouble with it for quite a
few years
um the people who came out to take a
look at it recently
I do not know the specifics about this
with the boiler but it has pin holes in
the front of the Furnace which is not
good and
um Toby has been reaching out to
different companies to try and get
repair and replacement
Etc it looks like to replace the section
that we need to replace it's going to be
about 7 500 it's not going to be a cheap
fix but we want to do the right fix and
this boiler really has been giving us
trouble for many years he has been
shopping around and calling around it I
don't believe that it will do any good
for us to try and get three quotes for
this because we can't even get anybody
except this one company to come look at
it so I'm going to request from the
board that you allow us to waive the
three quote requirement to be able to go
ahead and move forward with the boiler
before it gets colder yeah I support it
any questions or discussions from the
board on that
okay so we need a motion to waive the
quote embed process for the needed
boiler work so second there's a motion
from Denise in a second from Ed
all those in favor say aye aye any
opposed say May
all right so just to be clear the school
can be heated with one boiler it's just
so that somebody doesn't think that
we're you know half the building's old
or something like that we can run it on
one bullet boiler it's just not
efficient and then you're stressing out
that one boiler so we do want to make
sure that we get it fixed do you have a
timeline on that repair it's going to be
ordering the part which I think is
probably going to be the bigger delay
yeah yeah unfortunately yeah
all right our next agenda item is the
area meeting
that is coming up
so it's gvs's turn to host the area
meeting and it will be here on October
18th at 6 PM so we need to make sure
that at least one board member is able
to attend that night to represent
Grantham what day of the week is it uh
Tuesday
yeah I'm sure
think
I think I could as well so as a backup
or we both can
is that when what time is that one six
three yeah that one's a six okay
Denise and Brittany who is
agenda in this year Lebanon Lebanon is
yeah so when uh Dr Robert sends me the
agenda that will forward it to the
holder board but then you'll have the
agenda coming back so Lebanon is running
the more hosting yes one got it okay
all right
all right our next agenda item is um for
covet updates so we had
uh last month we had discussed that we
would revisit our what was happening and
protocols and all of that stuff to just
kind of check in and see where things
are
um the board got minutes from the last
progress monitoring committee meeting
um I'm sure Sydney has some updates for
us and Kristen might as well just in
terms of like numbers and feedback and
that kind of stuff so
it's been harder with staff and students
which you know is where we tend to get
it's not just that it's not just staff
cases we have to have more staff cases
than student cases but as always it's
hard for us with Staffing and coverage
and Subs Etc et cetera so I'll let Mrs
Reed speak to that of course
yeah it's been hard so um
not only staff cases but staff family
members that then the staff has to stay
home and take care of their family
members which is what they should be
doing
um and some staff members who their
staff members that you can't really
necessarily get a sub for so everyone
just trying to pick up the pieces and
get us through day by day and I'll tell
you our staff is phenomenal they are
working so hard and so flexible and
really doing everything they can to step
in to help their colleagues and the kids
so it's really nice but it does get
exhausting for people as they pick up
other people's pieces and they're
you know strained anyway
so it is hard
and we do have we have a great we have
great Subs
but never enough
um from the progress monitoring
committee meeting just some like some
big picture stuff that came from that
meeting I think the biggest discussion
what we were going to look at again this
month was the test to return policy
um that was definitely the biggest
conversation that that group had uh and
it was definitely a conversation not a
consensus there was overall just a lot
of
um
kind of indecision about it and
um understanding that the the desire to
match our protocols and policies with
the CDC guidance but the realistic
aspect being that you know we are a
small environment with a very tight
staff and so is that still a level of
mitigation that we can keep in place and
knowing from the health professionals
that were there that if folks are still
testing positive they are still
um you know capable of sharing that with
others
um and that the the acknowledging that
the CDC policy talks about
um someone being masked that at that
return and we have those points of
contact during the day that are
unavoidable where people are unmasked so
lunch snack being two big points and
then also recess so knowing that there
are at least three times during the day
that that following that you know and
some students may choose to mask outside
but it's not required they are not
masked in lunch and snack
um and so
that it is a little bit of a not a gray
area but it's a little bit of a
different situation in schools where
kids do need to eat
um and we're not gonna we can't set up a
policy just in terms of equity but also
in terms of Staffing we couldn't set up
something where like if people were back
they ate in a different location or
something like that we just don't have
the bodies to be able to do that
um so there was definitely a lot of
conversation about that
um
there was conversation about is the the
policy or procedure
is it the same for students as it is for
staff like what would that look like
um and then you know we talked about
um
the looking not having reliable data
from the state level that we can look at
anymore but maybe focusing more on like
our internal data so what are the
numbers right now within the school
um and one of those numbers was the
number of people that are still doing
pool testing which was great so there
were a hundred at that there had just
been a pool test right and there were
152 people that were in that pool so
it's about half yeah so it's a pretty
good
you know that's a that's another good
measure yeah so those are some of the
big things from that meeting
um I'd be most interested in Karen's uh
in what I just so trust her her training
and um that would be uh the most
important information for me where is
she at
she's on do you want me to ask if she
yeah
let me ask her first before
before you just promote her yeah what's
for dinner
[Laughter]
Karen can you uh raise your hand if you
want to speak or do you want us to
do the chat or would you rather not we
don't want to you could also just like
leave the meeting all right sure we're
gonna we're gonna bring Karen in
there's a lot of pressure
all right you're on
so you can hear me but not see me
correct thank you Karen
um my uh vote at PMC was to just go with
the CDC guidance
um
I think they're smart people and that's
what the guidance is so I think having
our own little
um rules just sets us up for
complaints and
I don't know problems
what would that change for you Karen
going with just CDC uh that everybody
and and it all would also let the
students and staff come back at five
days if their symptoms were improving
and they're feeling up to it but uh the
only thing that would change is I
wouldn't be requiring the covet test on
day five that on day six through ten
that people if they're feeling feeling
well enough and fever free and all that
could come back with masks in the
classroom for days six through ten
[Music]
and we did talk about in the meeting we
did talk about if families chose to test
like if if a family still wanted to test
at you know day five day six you know in
that range and a test came up positive
then they would keep they would yes yeah
they can choose to keep them home how
are you doing with um returning people
um at this point after day five masking
are we staying masked and we are most
people aren't returning until day 10
because their symptoms are they're still
there heavy yeah so it's a lot a lot of
lost School
which is hard on the classes the teacher
and the student
[Music]
questions for Karen we won't make her
dinner tonight was pizza thank you
where's Karen you're welcome thank you
any other
discussion about that do we want to
revisit that that's you know that's the
one piece that is different from uh
CDC policy right now or their um
recommendations I should say I'm not the
one in the building every day you are
and and I I would like your take as well
I 100 respect what Karen says as a
healthcare provider it does make me feel
a little uncomfortable saying that
people are going to come back in the
building and they're still going to be
positive you've been wearing a mask just
because
they're positive and can be spreading
um the virus but if a health care
provider is saying that
that's an okay way to go then I have to
trust them because that's their
professional
um wheelhouse thank you
would feel like Karen is a very very
very good sport last month ago it would
be nice to upon her recommendation to do
with the policy to what she suggests
it's just been so much change without
consistencies and
foreign
so to clarify it's their health family's
health care provider or Karen
Karen's approval they're ready to come
back no one or the other no but it'll be
we'll just come back
that their symptoms are improving
after day five yeah
Mass from six to ten um okay right now
they have to test to come back yeah okay
I see
foreign
yeah I also understand Karen's
perspective that when we don't follow
the CDC guidelines
even when we want to with all the best
intentions and there are good outcomes I
mean I've been feeling so good about the
covet numbers even though they haven't
been sort of thing
um I know it makes just as much it's
like two sides of a coin it makes it's a
lot of hassle for her justifying things
when we're not in step
[Music]
yeah so do we need emergency yeah if if
we want to make a change to that policy
then we would
inevident language
is the board in favor of do we does it
look like
we'd like to revisit that's that's the
discussion I'm hearing yeah yeah
okay so we would need a motion to
um update our covet policies to
um be fully in line with the CDC
guidance including the
removal of the test to return
it
was like I know I was like are there
more words I want to say there are five
seconds okay so we have a motion from Ed
and a second from Leslie all those in
favor please say aye aye any opposed say
okay all right thank you guys
all right and I think
um you know and one of the things that
we talked about in the the meeting too
and I think you know that this will just
be part of like the conversations and
the messaging around that is just you
know making sure that families know they
can still like if their kid isn't well
they need to still stay
it's not everyone Returns on day six
it's a symptoms it's a you know and that
that that's still there is there can
still be students who are out for eight
nine ten days so yeah all right our next
agenda item is the budget so this is
looking at our fiscal year 24 timeline
and then
um discussing and deciding on if we want
to do that Public Presentation and when
we want that to be to pick things up so
we have a
timeline and chart in the board packet
outlining the
um budget timeline here
any other information on that you want
to give us not really no I mean it's
pretty straightforward as to the way we
go through every year we've got the
public hearing and annual district
meeting with snow dates all scheduled
people responsible for each meeting and
dates and the different functions so
everything is pretty much business as
usual unless you just want to do add
that public forum which I think last
time you decided you would want to do
via Zoom right yeah
any questions or discussion from the
board let's look at the Timeline first
is there any
um any questions or
clarifications folks need on just on
this is our standard timeline
let me use our regular board meeting
that's correct yes yeah
we'll be here next month
right okay so then let's
um
decide that I'll be gone next month yeah
all right pressure's on is anyone else
you guys can come right yeah okay
all right
um You Better Be practice saying that
you're gonna make a motion and then
second it's just going to be yeah it'll
be pretty easy all right
um so let's look at the do we want to
have the budget Forum so we talked last
time about wanting to offer that again
um just kick off the budgeting process
but we talked about maybe delaying it
until we had a little bit more
information from the town
um about
assessments and tax rates and all that
good stuff we have nothing yet or be
upset
uh Melissa white has been on vacation
until today but have you would probably
know better has anyone gotten their text
yes no not the bill for the rate has
anybody gotten anything yeah
I don't think I don't think we'll get a
break
I think we'll just get a bill yes
typically and that usually I think it's
they usually due on December 2nd or 3rd
so sometimes beginning of the week
before we go Christmas shopping it
always seems like a great kindness you
know
before Christmas yeah
okay do we do we want to have the public
budget Forum with given all of that you
know is that something that we
last year we didn't we remembered we
didn't have anyone come to it we were
online and had a lovely chat for a while
and yeah
if the town follows sort of its normal
pattern we're not
even by our November first meeting the
chances of what's actually I mean maybe
the bills which you know maybe we've
just gone out maybe maybe
um
I don't know I
mean outside of I mean I guess outside
of this timeline what what else do we
talk about in The Forum and open process
it's just like the what the process of
how the process works and you know
people will often ask about some
you know big factors that might hit our
budget or people will sometimes ask
about how special education is funded
those are the usual questions that we
get adequacy questions public the bigger
picture State funding
but those could also come out during a
board meeting yeah
I I'm not sure
I see a huge value in doing it but
especially given I think the big
question will be the weights and we're
gonna have a big question mark for that
no matter when we do this
no thoughts anyone that feels strongly
that we should have it
no okay
all right did you still have a
like a standalone one of these years
there was like a standalone set of
slides I kind of talked about the
budgeting just kind of generally about
the budgeting process yeah is that
something that you have it's a Prezi I
did a Prezi presentation about it could
it be like on our website or is it not
enough I would does it need to go along
with I would just have to narrate it
okay so if I could if I could narrate it
then we could put it up I think if
that's something that's not that
wouldn't be a tremendous additional work
for you I think if it's something that
could be you know in an hour something
like that that might be helpful just to
have like something to kind of Point
people towards
um if if someone said you know are you
having that community community
presentation this year right something
that you could just say like nope this
is standing in its place or if you want
to adjust the Prezi to make it something
you don't have to narrate
yeah like an hour
I'm trying to think back to see what
exactly was in it I don't know if it
could not be narrated who knows you know
because I don't like things to have a
lot of text to the to begin with yeah
yeah and that was I remember because you
did that at our last like one in Eastman
that was like two three years ago now
just something to think about I don't
think we have to but if there's if
there's an easy way to do that and have
that as a resource just in case anyone's
looking for it yeah all right so we will
have our the next budget thing will be
at the November meeting then so we are
going to tonight we need a motion to
approve the budget timeline can I just
ask one more question yes absolutely
budget forum is listed in just November
December and January
so that's just that's just what we call
each of those sessions we do for the
different functions when we split them
up yep I was thinking of like yeah okay
great okay so and it's those things that
are in parentheses yes right all right
so so those of you who are here in
November you get to decide on everything
all right so we need a motion to improve
the uh but the Grantham School District
budget timeline
second I have a motion from Leslie in a
second from Ed all those in favor please
say aye aye any opposed say nay
all right all right next up on our
agenda see let me just pull this up
um the board
did receive and is acknowledging their
receipt of a letter of resignation
um to be effective June 30th from Dr
Sydney Leggett
so we are we've received your letter so
thank you for providing this to the
board
um and so our job tonight is to accept
the resignation effective June 30th 2023
of Dr Leggett and we would accept it
regretfully with tremendous gratitude
and we won't say anything more because
we still have lots of months of work to
do got a full year ahead yep but I just
really wanted to make sure that I gave
you a lot of notice so that you can
really start the search process and have
plenty of time to do a thorough search
because there's a lot of other places in
the Upper Valley especially looking so
yeah I want you to be able to get out of
the gate right away thank you thank you
I really want to say no I don't accept
it but I'm happy for you for another
opportunity thank you
thank you
okay so we needed a motion to accept
with gratitude and
um
all of the things to come
um the resignation effective June 30th
2023 of Dr Sydney Leggett second I have
a motion from Leslie and a second from
Ed all those in favor whether or not you
are doing it happily or sadly or with
gratitude or whatever your feelings
might be without feelings all those
other fields please say aye
aye any opposed say nay
all right
um and just for folks you know and who
have joined us
um we are the board will be undertaking
a process in the coming months
um to look at how we'll move forward
with our search process but that will
definitely involve
um channels and ways for the community
and the public to be involved in that
process
um and so folks can look forward to more
information coming from the board about
that but it will definitely be a process
that we
um you know Sydney has given us plenty
of time like she said in order for us to
have a really engaged and full search
process at this point and the board has
already
um discussed our desire to have public
participation and input in that process
so more information about that will be
to come definitely by our next school
board meeting so
all right our next agenda item is uh the
second reading and Adoption of policy
b-e-d-h right so last time you would ask
me to make sure that you didn't actually
have to sit here for 30 minutes and you
don't so I confirmed that it's really
about providing the opportunity for 30
minutes so uh the attorney for the
School Board Association said you could
actually just keep it to your first
public comment period at the beginning
and not have the second one but if you
would like to kind of go more to the
spirit of public input which I imagine
the Grantham board would you can just
keep that second public input in the
policy where you basically table the
first public input if anybody would like
to speak at the end you have that
opportunity for them but you don't have
to have 30 minutes there when people are
speaking you can go ahead and adjourn
and that's all what is in the
the policy that we were looking at yeah
yeah I think the language changes that
are good yes and hopeful
any other comments or questions about
policy bedh
okay so we need a motion for the second
reading and Adoption of b-e-d-h what's
one quick question yeah sorry nope
um under the statement policy number one
yes says there will be minimum 30
minutes status no never mind we're good
okay
didn't keep reading past the 30 minutes
thank you
all right so would you like to say so
yeah emotions emotions for the second
reading and Adoption of bedh
ello second all right so I have a motion
from Nancy in a second from Leslie all
those in favor please say aye
aye any opposed say nay all right next
on our agenda is looking at the
principal's report
thank you for continuing to give us
pictures
um
anything you would like to add or
highlight from your report so I just
would like to do an edit because I wrote
an October day to be determined with a
hawk Squad ball Fest and as I sit here
by Brenda who is a integral part of the
wellness committee it's actually a
wellness committee Fall Fest I believe
so I didn't give them the credit they
deserve
but other than that as written
I will say I'm hearing good things about
mtss versus an Insider students it's
really cool to hear them talk about it
out loud like exactly yeah it's really
cool I'm glad I'd love to hear a
replication yeah
very positive
do you know um and you may not know this
and that's okay if you don't have the
answers to this in
um the update from Chris she talked
about the care for kids program that she
attended and it says that
she said that turning points is offered
to co-teach the program with her is that
who will they be teaching that to is
that like is that do you know is that
like a family program is that for other
schools so my understanding and I may be
misspeaking so I apologize if I am
so the curriculum she teaches throughout
Grantham Village school right now is
she's taking bits and pieces of things
she likes from different programs and
put them together and this program this
is one program that encompasses
everything so it would be school-wide to
the kids oh awesome
[Music]
thank you
any other questions or comments
I liked having them the map of the
entire Lake that they went on and then
the picture of all of the Kinders
[Applause]
a lot of sense so I had never seen that
map before and every year since I've
been at grantha Village School we've had
the discussion how far is it and since
covid and they had their family
um weekends I guess at coniston this map
has come out so now we know it's 3.2
miles it's longer than that it's
interesting it looks it looks like the
lake in Eastman doesn't the shape yeah
same shape seeing you after that Brendan
made it it must have been long she
wishes she was with the Kinders
your day
there's actually a woman's hiking group
in Grantham that we're going to be doing
the same hike this Friday morning
vicariously have you ever done it I have
not
I've never seen Lake conestants it's
really pretty the trail is slippery
[Laughter]
it's okay with spikes you speak from the
um
and stay off the bridges go around the
bridge is that in your heels or no
all right any other comments for
Kristen's report
all right and our next agenda item is
the superintendent report anything you
would like to highlight or add yes I
usually don't but I have quite a few
things actually that all right so
um first thing I really want to very
excitedly share with the board that
Meredith Butler or ba who had some
certification to finish that we talked
about last year has already done it oh
great so we're just into early October
so she has completed all of her um her
certification requirements and her mini
courses through nasbo and everything we
had told her that we wanted them to be
finished by the end of the year and of
course they're done already which is
also
um basically the same way that Meredith
does all her work in the office too
because she's just been incredible so
congratulations to Meredith Butler we're
all really excited and she's on tonight
well done so we can all say
congratulations
uh I did want to point out that there's
you will continue to hear a lot and see
a lot about the ad 306 so what I would
love to give you is a draft and there
has not yet been an official draft
released so as soon as there is one I
will get one out to you and we will
share a listening session with Sunapee
to try and look at what those
requirements are but there's a link to
the reaching higher summary
one of the things I wanted to ask to see
if you have any questions or concerns or
if you're just going to give me the
green light is kind of a small
playground fundraising project which is
we were talking about the trees that are
going to line the playground and what I
would love to do is to have each grade
level pre-k through eight adopt
basically a different type of hearty
native New England tree and have those
in order align the perimeter of the
building and then each grade level gets
to adopt and learn about their tree
raise the funds for it and plant it and
care for it and learn from it for many
many years so as long as everybody's
okay with that you can sketchy
break the leaves
we do have to get some that are
um salt tolerant yeah that's a big thing
did you I did that anything that has a
projectile object anything no apple
trees fruit
um because they'll attract bees and
wasps yeah and also anything with thorns
like we did that one too okay I'm just a
joy killer everyone are we left with at
least eight options uh you are left I
told her it had to be more than eight
but I was vetoing any of the those are
my requirements that they had to if they
get on the list they are not thorny they
do not have projectiles and they will
not attract things that hurt okay and
and salt tolerant yes
kept talking to me about yeah
um we are still struggling with
custodians for anybody who's listening
for the board like really we really need
some help getting a custodial staff in
um we've been working with a cleaning
service but that's also not a an ideal
or stable solution to be honest because
the cleaning services are having trouble
getting their own Staffing so anything
that we can do to try and help get some
custodial help in here will be
appreciated
we did get our gmr this week which is
higher than usual for Grantham which is
what our Health Trust is telling us is
what they're seeing across the board but
our gmr this year is 9.1 percent
um we were told that everything is
higher than usual what they're seeing is
that a lot of people during the pandemic
just didn't go to the doctor and now a
lot of people are going to the doctor so
when you're looking at claims things are
starting to increase at the same time
they told us that we should feel really
happy about 9.1 because some of the
other districts are seeing me much much
higher increase
so that will have an impact on our our
budget obviously
and then the other thing speaking of
budget is um as you know I've had the
opportunity to to be a leader for three
local districts and I just want to throw
a thought out there before the budget
process so you can let it marinate in
your minds a little bit but um one area
that I've seen where I think that the
districts can share and provide a lot of
support to these single District
principals is the idea of a curriculum
coordinator and none of the three small
schools have one and we haven't talked a
lot about sharing with some of these
other small schools and I think that
might be a really nice place to start so
you will start to hear more about
proposals to bring in that kind of a
shared position with Plainfield and
Cornish is that feasible for one person
with three potatoes yeah so if you look
at a big District like if it wouldn't be
on it wouldn't be unusual for a big
district with like three elementary
schools to have an elementary curriculum
coordinator yeah
so I'm just putting that out there as as
food for thought
and that is it for me
thank you I've had some prickly scares
on my drives lately where I think it's a
porcupine yeah
did you see the picture
did the picture go home now
it really did look like
oh I've had a couple legit that I that
really resonated for me is what I'm
saying um
the actual ones are piles of dirt real
ones yeah no they're all over the place
did the pictures
[Music]
yeah yeah so that was great so that's
our youngest and our oldest current GPS
kid
with our handprints in the Pavilion oh I
never thought a slab of concrete could
bring tears to my eyes but that's very
scary oh yeah
yeah for many reasons
um any other questions for Sydney
um I wanted to just give it you may not
have seen it because I think it came out
late today but the School Board
Association did send out the results
from the delegate assembly
um and so they they passed or voted to
support four of the resolutions that Ben
brought forward so these are items that
will be uh that the School Board
Association will make advocacy towards
so if there are bills being proposed on
these issues this is the position that
the members of the School Board
Association have asked them to take on
it and I thought and if a couple of them
I think are things that folks might be
interested in knowing about one of them
is to allow committee subcommittees and
advisor committees to hold meetings that
don't have a quorum physically present
um so that they as long as the they they
don't have to have a quorum physically
present in a room together they could be
virtual they could do other you know
call all in that kind of stuff for
committee subcommittees and advisory
committees
have the state and federal government
seek and provide viable sustainable
permanent funding to provide School
breakfast and lunch at no cost to
students so looking at
um you know universals lunch programs
and then supporting Public School
approval standards that Encompass
holistic and comprehensive academic
subject areas including English language
arts and reading mathematics science
social studies to include civics
government economics geography history
and Holocaust and genocide education
Arts education to include music and
visual arts World languages health and
wellness education physical education
engineering and Technologies including
technology applications computer science
and digital literacy and personal
finance literacy
so thinking about those standards coming
forward
um you know that that's the position
that the membership has asked the school
board Association to take in any
advocacy or or testimony that they might
do during that process and then the last
one is the New Hampshire School Board
Association will advocate for
legislative action that ensures local
school boards comply with Federal
firearm laws and policies so those were
the four of the eight that moved forward
so
um and there's like a full rundown of
that meeting
um that was sent out by the School Board
Association
foreign
our next agenda item is the consent
agenda and
are we adding the trustee report to this
consent agenda since you sent it out yes
okay I already I sent you all a new
agenda as well and I'll write it on the
website too
yeah so the agenda let me pull that
because I have the other one okay
foreign okay
anything to discuss or pull or look at
in more detail from the consent agenda
okay so we need a motion to approve the
consent agenda
second I have a motion from Leslie in a
second from Ed all those in favor please
say aye aye aye any opposed say nay
all right
and do we have a non-public tonight yeah
we are going under two different rsas
are you ready Denise I'm ready RSA 91
a32e
and RSA 91a32i
right so um are we going to be doing any
votes or anything when we come back from
public uh you will be voting in
non-public okay yeah okay
um like we you don't have to do anything
okay so
um what we will do thank you to folks
that have joined us in person and
virtually
um we are going to
um move into our non-public session
because when we return from non-public
we're just going to be adjourning the
meeting we are going to close the
um Zoom link tonight and after we take
our vote to enter non-public
um we'll close the zoom link we won't
reopen it because we're not doing
anything interesting I promise we're
just going to adjourn the meeting and
our next meeting is November 1st so put
that on your calendar now to join us
then thank you to folks who joined us
and we need a motion from the board to
enter non-public under RSA
91a32e and
91a32i
I have a motion from Ed in a second from
Leslie and we need a roll call for this
so Denise hi Ed hi Leslie aye Nancy
aye Brittany I all right so we are going
to enter non-public
all right