Epping School Board Meeting 09/3/2026

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

Recording

All right, good evening and thank you for joining us for the September 3rd Happy School Board meeting at the 3rd Indian Center.
If you all have all been surprised, join for the pledged meetings.
I pledge to the flag of the United States of America.
To the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, individual, with liberty, and justice for all.
Thank you, you've seen it.
As we can't have seen anyone here for public comment, we'll move on to public comment,
and we'll jump right down and get into our reports to start it off, and we'll start with the principal's reports.
Who would like to go first tonight?
Oh, pick, pick, pick, pick.
Hello, thank you.
Obviously, I just heard folks talking about it.
It was a busy week, opening a school.
It was amazing.
Obviously, like everything, you know, there's sort of little kinks to work out and said, oh, wow, let's make a note of this for this year.
Nothing major, just things, you know, just kinks, right?
The kids were amazing, the senior class.
We start the day after morning meeting for the last four or five years, actually, been doing an all-school assembly, which the kids and teachers,
some kids and teachers get pretty jazzed up about, and the teachers really like to send that unifying message.
You review some of the major things in the, that are changes in the.
the handbook and, you know, you celebrate your seniors, you welcome your sixth graders.
The seniors this year were electric in terms of their, you know, setting the tone, and that was really
neat. Our unifying sort of thought this year is pretty simple. It talks with the phrase is be where
your feet are. And it goes back to sort of some mindfulness stuff. And we're reminding kids and teachers
and staff and ourselves to say, all right, where am I in this moment? And let's, you know, let's be.
let's focus on the task at hand and the things the things that we have in front of us and just
sort of being present. And so we even started with, you know, what, six or six or six or six,
man, four hundred and fifty people total or so. And we practice just 30 seconds instead
of a minute being where your feet are and we'll build up to 60, but it was, it was there. It was,
it was pretty amazing. And so we just sort of talked about what that meant. That goes through
celebrating, you know, years of service from staff starting with 30.
you're more all the way down and then welcome me your new staff when the kids were amazing.
It was, it was really, it was really kind of a neat thing. And so we're able to use that practice now.
If you can imagine, you know, there's those times in a classroom. If you're a teacher,
if you're a kid, come in and just to stop and say, everybody, I want everyone to sort of look down
of your feet right now. And for the next 30 seconds to a minute, think about where your feet are.
And it's a great strategy to open a class to bring kids back in. You can use it in field trips
or you can use it at home if you want. But it's been a good reminder for me and it's pretty easy.
So last year was leave the wood pile higher than you found it. Finally remove the wood, which is good
because it's getting cold and I'm going to need that at home. So now as you walk in the door,
there's a really old pair of size 14 smelly shoes next to the sciences be where your feet are, which I can
no longer wear. And nobody should really. So we welcome people to, you know, we'll change up the shoes that are
once in a while, but it's a good reminder when the kids walk in the door. Hey,
and that's where we're going to move it rather quickly because they smell. Yeah, we get them right
to class because I'll leave my old shoes in the hallway. So it was good. But it's been a great,
a great focus strategy. I mentioned that next week, I've met with Nolan today and, and Lucy just
quickly, they're ready for September 10th. In years past, we used to meet week. 17th. I'm sorry,
the 17th. Yeah. Please tell me. We're not meeting there. We're not meeting the three. We're not meeting
three weeks in a row, no. I think I was hoping this meeting would have been the 10th, but the 17th. We have some work to do on our
Oh, don't change it. We just loaded it. So that was, they're excited and, and I think that's another place for that student voice piece has really taken off as you've seen that, you know, grow over time. We used to meet every week and talk about now they can sort of check in. I usually meet the first time, so the new people aren't nervous, but they do it. And they've included. And they've included.
But, you know, there stops at the elementary school, so it's district-wide and incorporating everything.
So they're ready for that. So as a reminder, Lucy's a senior this year.
Nolan's a junior. Then, you know, come May, we'll replace Lucy in that role, and she'll move off to things.
Really kind of somber but prideful kind of night there, Monday night.
We were able to host for the O'Connell family. Kevin O'Connell.
class of 2022 died unexpectedly a couple of Saturdays ago in an accident and in coordination
with Bruets, which has some, you know, parking and space constraints downtown. We're able to host
a celebration of life, which, you know, it was, I was, I think, looking at the guest book,
we estimated there's probably throughout the night, around 700 people or so throughout at each time. You know,
there was a time we were looking because folks wanted to, they had things to share, and there
was nice exhibits of Kevin's life and artifacts and things like that, and the receiving line.
But every time we were ready to sort of move to the remembrance pieces, we'd look outside.
And the line was consistently from the front of the O'Day, Jim, right to the parking lot.
and that was consistent, almost until about 7.30 at night to the point where Bruitz brought
secondary sound out. And so they put their mic with a speaker so people outside could hear.
It was a somber event, but it was in some ways beautiful to see the community support.
And the family couldn't thank the district enough for the work of getting things together.
And, you know, they certainly recognize that started school the next morning,
presented its challenges. But I do feel strongly that's what communities do when we rally.
And really, it was a nice.
come together in a really sad and unfortunate. So I, you know, the family expresses that
support and turnout and obviously our thoughts are with them in our community during this time.
So freshman orientation was August 27th. Again, I think it's important to just the freshman team,
and I'll mention them by name, Caroline Hannah, Sarah Kylie, Ms. Becca Belishtry,
who's one of our newer special educators.
Aaron Dobe, Rob Armstrong, David Paul, and Kerry.
I mentioned them by name because they plan all of the soup to nuts.
They sacrifice some of the time to get ready for class to make sure the freshmen are ready to have an orientation to what high school looks like.
I know I think Chris is probably going to remind us all of this, too, but our district-wide open house will be Tuesday, September 15th.
The high school portion will be six to seven.
Typically here it's five to six, but we're not pushing people out there.
the door, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, it, it's, it's, it, it's, it's been a lot of
feedback works really well, and I remember the days when I had a student in each building,
um, it seems to really, another nice community night. So, so, so that's on its way and, um,
you know, athletics, uh, athletics are underway, uh, boys and girls soccer tonight.
Julie, Julian, I didn't see the end of the boys game.
Five, two, Epping, we love that. That puts us at two and O. I know the girls, uh, had a great
battle. I think they, they ended up losing two nothing. Uh, volleyball's
night, right? They're actively played. As, as we speak. And football opens up in Lebanon tomorrow night.
The cross-country kids were, uh, were practicing for their meet, and they ran around today. And
bass fishing, our first inaugural bass fishing team is underway. And so, um, that's, that's been pretty exciting,
too. And, and, uh, so we're proud for that. And I know, uh, for those who saw, uh, the state is
changing how they are, uh, pushing out their schedules. And so, um, our athletics page has,
been refreshed. There'll be some more work to do there. But right now, we've started to migrate
over to the new platform. And early returns are that it's, uh, it's going pretty well. So,
and then as you see, some college visits upcoming, upcoming events and, uh, school picture day.
I know it's a big thing for folks. It's also the same day as open house, September 15th. And then
homecoming, because of the way the schedule is this wears, uh, this year is also the week, uh,
beginning the 14th. And, um, uh, uh, it's a, uh, uh, it's a, uh, uh, uh, it's.
ending on the 19th. So that's obviously the end there that Saturday is our,
our big day, right? We've been boy soccer, girls soccer, football, uh,
volleyball the night before the bonfire and then, and then the dance. So, uh,
we're, we're not wasting any time. The first full week of school is going to be lots of costumes,
outfits, celebrations and, uh, and, and all of that on top of, on top of learning.
And, uh, you've got your list of college visits, um, down below here. Uh, and just to remind folks,
these are college visits, but we also have a number of, uh, vocational trade schools
coming in beyond that and the Career Expo, uh, that will occur in October over at Portsman
Hospital. So it's a good balance of college career, uh, trades. And, um, as always, you know,
the Armed Services are, are in and out throughout the year. And so, um, we, we, we try really
valiantly to make sure there's something for everybody. And I think we've done a,
our school counseling teams have a really nice job with that. So,
but further ado, I pass it off to my counterpart to my left, unless anyone has questions.
I only have one, and I don't get the chance to go through the high school portion of the
of the newsletter that goes out all the time. When some, some of the vocational schools and the trades
come in, is there like a highlight of that in the newsletter prior to them showing up, or is that
something that gets handled via morning announcements that, hey, these guys are coming in a certain
number of weeks or anything like that, similar with what's here for the college. So go. I do,
I typically add those events as they're happening in the same sort of section here. This one just
was this first month is just colleges and universities. Some of the things ramp up, but that'll be in this
section. Okay. And then usually some of those things we highlight last year, the Career Expo at Portsman
Hospital was really amazing. And I had the chance to drive.
So it was one of the chaperones, and it was nice to see.
We ended up on Channel 9, they interviewed a couple of our kids who were going in careers in health.
And for some, it was nursing or medicine. For some, it's the support work in the hospitals.
Kids who are interested in facilities, HVAC. There are opportunities in hospitals beyond treating patients, social work and some of those things.
So they did a really nice job of making sure there were things available for all interest levels.
And so it wasn't all kids on the med or not.
pre-med track it was it was kids who were interested in careers in general that are
associated with a hospital but not necessarily working with patients there was
nutrition was one of them there was and they put some really great hands-on pieces
so great thank you yeah anything else from mr. Rosani oh Robin you had a chance to
the celebration of life as somber as it can be a family was good representation
It's a difficult right, but it was also a wonderful night.
And, you know, when you're dealing with former students his past,
to even to have it in the school is even, it gives it a greater meaning, I think,
because, you know, you're talking about this was a young man who was a three-sport athlete for our school.
And it just, to me, it like it brings them home in a way to where they had some of the best memories of their life with their friends.
friends and their sports and their school and all that.
It's hard to listen to some of the stories as I've been through it myself in there.
But I'm just so thankful that we have a place where when something tragic like this happens,
and especially if it's a student that has been one of ours, that if the parent desires to have,
especially when you know that, I mean, we know it was pretty big to have a place that they can go to
when everybody felt comfortable in being.
And that's what the parents, when I talked to them,
they just was so thankful to have a place that he knew that he was comfortable.
That's the nice part about it as well.
I think that my son went, I was bringing my daughter back to college,
and she was very sad that she couldn't go.
She had been in a couple of classes with him.
And, but the fact that you have it here,
I think there was so many students who went.
And I talked to a couple of them, including John Play a little bit,
and it was, it's comfortable for them to go there.
It's harder for them to go to, say, but there was so many of them there who just wanted to be there for the family and for each other.
So that's nice.
And I think I also, it's important, you know, yes, there's all of the things, right, with getting school ready and those things, but perspective is important.
And so if, you know, you're spending a little more time, you know, getting things ready and cleaning, never that shouldn't folks think that's an inconvenience.
That's what we should do.
And for the suffering that others go through a little bit of inconvenience and being a little tired is you're happy to do it.
And Maria, I want to shout out.
And I remember I talked to Maria and Josh both.
And I said, hey, this is something that's been requested.
I said, we'll do all we can to make sure it's not adding to and all of them to a person.
And they said, we'll do anything for the community and the family.
Don't you worry.
Don't hesitate to ask.
And they said, and they want to make sure everything was perfect.
And right up until the last piece there is,
Dickie and I were at the end kind of cleaning up.
And everybody, nobody questioned, nobody doubted, nobody said, it was, it was, it was, no, we're going to do this.
And I did not put the pieces in here, but the family has started a GoFundMe page in Kevin's memory.
And last I knew they were at $26,000.
I want to come up with.
For a scholarship.
Yeah.
For a scholarship in his name.
And right now, loosely, they're thinking, you know, students who are upstairs,
standing citizens, a good character, leadership, who are of an interest in sports,
but they're very interested in those exploring a career in vocational fields.
So it's not all buttoned down right now, and we want to give them time to collect their thoughts,
but that's where they're headed, and they were happy to have me share that.
Yes, I think it's important to, like, I know when we went through it and dismissed,
the last thing you had to worry about is how everything that's going to be handled at the school.
Like, it's not even the thought that I had to worry about.
It's not a thought that this feeling had to worry about.
It just knew that we trust you enough to take care of it.
It was all taking care of the right way.
And I just have to share this because it kind of struck me with all of the different speeches
that his friends gave throughout the evening was the one thing that it just resonated
over and over and over again.
and it's such a great lesson for kids in general.
I don't care what age you're at is that he was a friend who was a friend who was
present.
But when he was with his friends, he was present.
When he was with his family, he was present.
So there was a lot of time honoring those relationships and that fun time, silly time,
but they kept on saying that over and over again that he was such a great person to know
because he was present.
Like he was your friend, he was your friend.
You didn't have to worry about to hear from him.
He would check in with you.
He would do this.
He would do that.
So I think that was just, it's something that struck me as like,
that we need more of that, you know, being present because, I mean, he had some amazing friends
and they all said the same exact thing.
You know, he met a legacy of kindness behind him, no matter how young or how old you all that matters.
A great reflection of Kevin and Kelly and Lily, his sister.
Really, really super nice people and nice people.
And we're going to stay in touch with the family and we're going to help them with any way they need.
Now without further it.
Well, I did have a question.
Oh, I'm sorry, Courtney, go ahead.
I'm so sorry.
Okay.
Can you hear me walking in here, do we have a plan for Spanish with the?
That's not something that I think, I'm not necessarily comfortable in this setting.
Yes, but until the details are worked out, I think it would probably create more alarm than good to brainstorm out.
But there's, there's, uh, but there's,
some layers, still need to be worked out.
We, our intention was to interview today and we have still not found a certified Spanish teacher.
So that's forcing us to look at other options.
Anything else for Mr. Missouri was in me?
Thank you. Mr. Sousa.
Thank you. So the E.S. share is in there and
fixed to it. I'll review some of the.
highlights, but probably not every aspect of it, but if you have any questions.
We had a great start to the year, I think, starting with the SAU hosting, the Welcome Back
Breakfast. We had a few new staff, mostly, and I have a list of some new faces down there,
and I was able to touch base with them, and we haven't had a chance to really chat a touch face either,
but they were thrilled. I did talk to one young lady today, too, who said that in all the
districts she's worked at, she's an RVT, and she's worked in some, a challenging place.
and some great school systems, but this was by far the most welcome she's felt in her career.
So it was a great welcome back.
And Moss and his guys do a wonderful job as well, just getting the place setting up and the gifts.
And I think it really, you really made a positive impact staff.
And I think it always does, but, you know, you forget, then you come back and you have that.
And it's like, okay, I'm back, and we have a family, and we got.
this. It was nice.
I did include our, if you had a chance to watch the video or not, I don't know.
I did. Yeah. And so that was a lot of fun. And all the staff, we kind of quickly did this little team
building thing and they had fun doing it. Somebody, somebody did a lot of work putting it together.
You put that whole thing together? Yep. That's awesome.
Thank you. That's awesome. It was amazing. Thank you. Yeah, it was, it was a labor of love for me, because I really, I had just gotten back from dropping my daughter off and driving from Boston traffic for two and a half hours, and it's not fun. So being able to unwind at home and do this. Yeah.
It was actually, it's for. But hours, I would imagine.
It is, but I'm a, I'm a nerd and having family all over the country, I learned how to be a geeky dad making home videos. Yeah. So I love that. That's cool. But thank you.
And I think you'll be seeing something shortly from our counterbook as well.
Are you, are you, are you assembling the montage too once in a lot?
He is providing the appropriate amount of technical support, which is a lot.
Here are all the clips.
And I appreciate it. Yes. We all have our strengths.
So Tuesday was the day we came back here and I put a little picture in there because our
cafeteria was still being worked on. So we set up tables in the, uh, and, in the, uh, and,
the foyer here. And it was like a king's court. You know, so we have, and I wish I had a better way
to get the picture or do a panoramic of some sort, but it is a long table. And we all sat there.
And it was actually really, really nice. Like, I would almost do that again. And that's what we had.
It was only, you know, there was no speech or meeting. It wasn't much of that. I did give about
a 15-minute kind of motivation. Let's kick off the year with the theme by reading Teddy Roosevelt's
the man in the arena, which really worked well with the message that Bill had put out there.
and kind of the themes in our goals and stuff too. And so it was it was a lot of fun.
And the teachers, you know, we had breakfast sponsored by our PTO.
Just a nice way to start the day before we had it off. It was pretty busy. Those days are
really packed for teachers to get back in. Of course, all the anxiety and stuff comes with starting an
new. Yeah, we can have a drone in the lobby next thing.
Yeah, we've been talking about getting the drone out again and getting some sky pictures and
something. So be surprised what's coming down the line. So just a couple of things. So just a couple of things
are going on here. Our summer learning challenge around curriculum, put some curriculum notes in here.
So if we want to wear, and if you click on that little symbol, with a picture rather, you'll see,
that we had challenged people to do some work over the summer. And we've got about 30 bags back
of work. So a lot of kindergarten kids and some of the other young young ones here students really
took it to heart. And now Sarah's busy getting prizes together and little rewards for them for doing it.
And it was really a fun project to start doing. We want to do more and more of that. We would
handed out some summer workbooks for kids. So they actually had some things to do. And we know that some
parents, the feedback was, yeah, we didn't do it all, but it was nice every now and then to reach
out and grab that and work with their kids on basic math and reading and things like that.
Our RTEI included the data or just an update on some of the things that we're doing. We're again kicking
off this year, getting to know our kids. And for the first three weeks are really just about
routines and relationships. But in the behind the scenes,
our intervention team, our Cantrell, and, you know, Deanna DeVizio are really helping to lead
that charge now to say, okay, how are we going to be looking at students, how are we going to be
personalizing our learning, how we're going to be organizing a lot of that.
Tremend tremendous amount of work on the back end. So that way the teachers get there and it's like,
okay, what am I going to do? And here you go. One of the things that's a bigger lift this year
is we're switching over from Amesweb to Acadians, which is just an online software system to help
assess students.
their snapshot assessments, but we used to progress monitor. And that helps us decide how
students are doing and maybe wondering what type of help they should get. Acadians. Ames Webb
redid their national norms, and they lowered them. So they really lowered the standard, and we found
it wasn't really measuring what we wanted to measure. It wasn't a good indicator of the needs
that students had. So we went with Acadian, which is another brand, very similar. And we had some
people who were familiar with it. It's a nationally norms assessment. It's probably one of the better ones
out there for everybody even better because it has some more versatile aspects to it around
math that came to it didn't have we're still doing some training on that September 8th is our next
in surface day and Mary Ann Nice is one of local trainers who we've been working with for now the last
few years he's going to come in and help do some training with that too and then we'll kick off our data team
meetings and really go out in earnest it's nice we have a lot that's something one of the nice
this one of the nice things we did this year with our building leadership team we had an old day
retreat at Burleigh Farms and we started out by really let's look at our goals and let's look at what are we doing
what have we done the last years that we're really proud of that we think we've you know we've made it
impact and it was very organic it was not something that administration led other than just that one
question and we asked him to really talk some sticky notes you know read it down and share and it was
fun to put them together and we talked about them briefly there but then it was for me what
became the illuminating aspect of it was when i sat back at home and really cross-reference them all
and compiled them and i included the notes of what we've accomplished together at epping elementary
and this will go in my first i haven't given this of the staff yet either um when you look through
it all it's not just we're better readers we're better writers or uh you know we're we're we're we're
better thinkers it's a bigger message that really talks about the collaboration we had where
stronger relationships stronger collaboration stronger systems uh and you know stronger outcomes for
kids it was about a cultural shift like every single piece of that that was in there you know it was
about not just what we do but how we do it and that's what we want teachers to be thinking about
not what am i teaching how am i teaching it how am i assessing it why am i teaching it and why am i teaching it and why
am i assessing it you know it's easier to do how and that tends to be where everyone goes to
or or the what rather you know what's your curriculum that that's where i got to teach
what's more important is the how and the why and when you look at that list it's really
a lot of it was about how and why are we doing things so that that was a lot of fun just to be
able to the team really focus on that and share that with their teammates
i did list of new faces in there we're pretty excited about that they are fantastic
they've got a couple really awesome rvts working with our kids as well as our new power professionals
i will get a big shout out to our new lunchroom monitors kim bechelle and rachel marasca they
are killing it in the cafeteria uh dan combati who is our new assistant principal is just fantastic
with kids you've got to see them with kids it's really wonderful and he's got the cafeteria just
humming um but he came in to see me and he's like yeah those two are awesome with the kids and uh
you know they're getting on their knees and they're helping kids but they're also like no you know
the rules let's go with you know and being able to communicate they're just they're just natural's at it so
um we really did a nice job in in our new hires this year it's been great one of the hardest jobs
which run there it is and they have kindergarten too so they're open to those lunch games
works yeah let's a little high sodium too very high sodium yeah i did a little quick look a quick look at the
first week yeah september one grades one to five and then uh september two our our pre-k kindergarten started i met
with pre-k a little bit yesterday and asked how things were going they very smooth daniel went down there
today and and checked in with them we're going to try and get a little more of a face down there as much as we
can um and kindergarten which you know we are rather large groups of kids of
in there we've got plenty of help which is really nice and that's very appreciated but uh there are so
much energy and you kind of forget how not i'm not going to say this correctly just how unschooled
they are not used to being in a school and having routines and uh so it is it's like popcorn in those
classes for a while so they can get the routines and those relationships out but they're fun there's so much
enjoyment and the parents are great we had a nice first stop first day
we had on the first kindergarten day i think we had about six or seven of epig's finest out front
helping us with the kids here and i had one parent go is you do this all the time
so i was like absolutely and i don't know but this particular kindergarten class has i believe
you know about five or so kids who are from families of law enforcement in the town so they were all
invested in that and they came out the first day too a bunch of them so that's a nice tradition that we have
that they come out and help out and get to greet the kids it's been great we have such a
great police department um i will yep remind you that picture day is september 9th for us
so as soon as we get back so hopefully everyone over the weekend are getting those clothes lined up and
duff it off and just in time for the kids to put them on and get them all wrinkled as they come back into school
and be a line of the door great clips great clips yep absolutely and our open house hours are
530 to 630 on the 15th and that we do that deliberately so there is there is
a half hour overlap for both buildings for those families like chris mentioned when you have one one one
and the other um we've done that for a couple years now and that's been very positively received we also
have going on as our book fair which will be happening that week but open house is a huge time for the
parents to come here and kids and it just gets mobbed but uh we're going to move it to the cafeteria this
year too we did it that way i think two years ago or so and it's just much nicer than it's just so packed in here
a little more room uh drama club inside we have our clubs that are starting out i just highlighted
the drama club but we have a few clubs that are starting drama club is a new club this year
gwen fam is and and and and and her group there's a few other folks with her that are running that and that's
kicking off we're also getting our lego club going and uh you know dance club and a few other activities
that are starting for kids too so that's exciting uh we even looked at we have a couple of teachers
who are interested in perhaps starting a volleyball club for kids as well which would be great to
be a feeder system in and i know we've when i moved here the volleyball team was one of the top
teams in the area in the state too so i mean i know that's one of the most successful programs i have
and the school would be nice to be able to tag people would be lovely yeah that would be great
um and i've got some great shout-ups to talk about i think uh first one i had pictures
it's always nice to welcome a new well new member to our family even though it's not our family but
jack peterson or henry jack peterson sorry uh and he was born and he was born and he was born and he was
if you can't see if you have that little picture they have an older daughter too and she's cute as a budd and
apparently is getting along wonderfully with her little brother and helping out a lot
we did last week we took a walk around the building you got a chance to see what the
facilities team was doing and how well prepared they were so i don't want to shout out the
facilities team in particular too it's it's not just the work they did over the summer
but as soon as teachers come back and we joked about a little bit our dlt but that that ticket list that goes in
goes from hey you know look at we ticked it off right we got we got we got five left and the teachers
come back and now there's 45 ticket in there uh as i'm looking for helping things and our staff
just did a great job i mean the facility team john and lynn in particular here at the building
um and you saw those guys at the end of the video clip what a great group of people like they were
and they didn't even it was a natural ending like that was so perfect um they just he can play
that guitar room though oh man mike was a washout
it's just a it's just a great group and they deserve a lot of credit for the work they do
uh and a lot of grace uh for the work that they have are still doing because it's things are that's one
of those jobs that are never done no matter what there's always somebody knocked on the door to ask
something including me um along those same lines maria and the tech team
uh really that was extremely very smooth despite having a little glitch at the end uh right before we
started with uh some
just a fishing yeah um which took maria you know totally had to do a left term and at the same time
she's doing that we met on friday maria myself and christmas zoning just kind of get the state of the union
what we're doing how we doing and not missing a bee on anything in the buildings as well as taking
care of that so including the fact that we had 20 staff and we're just so who didn't have access
or how we're going to communicate with them she was already brainstorming ideas around that so her
alex richard the whole tech team joey they just really have uh helped us get off the ground
without a hitch i want to shout i was in there early this morning and we have our two luncheoners
did a great job but our first first duty was leslie johnson she's a this is her second year i think it's a
teacher here and this is her first time doing cafeteria duty which again is the the hardest
job in the school and she crushed it so leslie if you're hearing this i really was just great having you
everyone was like who's that our new staff and i'm like well that's ms johnson she's a
one of our teachers and they're like wow she's great and so it's nice when other people who are
doing the same job recognize that i mentioned daniel combat he's been getting to know kids which is
nice so one of the neat things has done is he reached out to the teachers and said hey does any student
you think i might want to form a relationship early on in a positive way let me know so he's just
been going in a classroom and not just kids you might think who are going to be coming to the office
for other reasons later they're just kids who might need um
you know a hand up every now and then or a relationship with kids and just wanted to make those
connections early so he's been setting aside time to meet with them he did the same thing for staff
over the summer which was a really nice way to get to know folks at a different level considering his new
role um the emhs admin staff this summer we've had a lot of time to communicate and work together collaboratively
we did again today just you know initiated by them with the evalty plan and uh there's just been a lot of
conversation back and forth and knowing that particularly my role has changed i mean my entire
job description has shifted being much more you know co-principle and you know which was a little more
relaxing at times and second i can only say well man you'll do that and uh so having these folks to
lean on while you know we've entered daniel along and trying to things has been great this summer
and daniel's wonderful but having a team now
thank you very much this summer was really impactful for me likewise you know and again to start
our year out i mentioned gwen and karen i don't think i could ever say enough about the work that our office
staff does registering new students from prek and k is a full-time job
takes weeks to get a little done you're tracking down material tracking down stuff and
hard to believe but sometimes you know parents have a hard time finding those first certificates
and some of those things um so you know it's it's a it's a it's a laborer love
as much as their job but they really make sure that every parent coming in the door
much as they can gets off on the right foot and has their questions answered so they're they're
wonderful we have a new kitchen staff you're all aware of and e-e-es so again daniel and myself and
gwen all get trained to work and not something that's new with mandi and we're always kind of been
there as much as possible in the past making a little bit more of an effort now as we had new staff
coming in so it's been in all hands on deck at the kitchen mossa has been in there every day today was
ice cream day i went up getting pulled out of there for a little bit and um it was great we
looked in i went back and looked in and there were people who didn't even have lunch duty who were
in there just to be available to help out with the kindergarten kids and everything else so
you know that's the nice thing about this school it really doesn't buy that all hands on deck
at cultural shift you know one of the and uh anyway it was really nice um i want to recognize
josh martin and christine beta too they did a lot of work organizing so many things with some
bumps in the roads that were not always smooth here whether that was you know delays in
paving and the big whatever whether the big machines coming in and not having them all the way to our
gym floor and the third time was the charm to get the company to come in and do it and and whatnot so
it was just a lot of moving parts for facilities you can imagine just district wide and they
did a nice job paying attention to e-ES and really making sure we were right right from the get-go with
christina and the creating a new office for sarah
trail too i mean that was that started really quickly and we had to move fast so thank you very much for
that you guys did a great job i there's some other important links down there i did include some
pictures that our title one program over the sarn just shoot and just some great places
that did some websites the earmarkets if you have some question on information our pTO put some highlights
in there for some of the things they do worth looking at they are looking for more members
just a shout out to pTO everything they do really does benefit our kids and whether it goes
through the teachers or it's they pay for the fifth grade bus they have for some more other buses
for transportation for field trips and whatnot they're just everything they do is all about how can we
help e-es students and there are always for more members you do not have to sign up to do everything
you don't have to go to every meeting you just love the monster match for Halloween you want to come
and just do that you can just do that like a five dollar fee to become part of it and you can
pick and choose in whatever el uh aspect you want to be part of but it's it's it's really important
and it's great um i mentioned i talked to a several new of the new staff recently i was
having a conversation with one lady today and she was she was she was telling me she has a 45-minute
commute to come here and she had about the same commute for her last position
it's a reason why it's a last position and she said they just weighed on her she would have that
long drive in the winter time it was not always easy and she got to work and it was a challenging
place not the kids but just the culture of the atmosphere she says i come here and everybody's happy
people smile at you they greet you they say hi the kids do that she said we don't even know some of
the kids and and and they do that and she just wanted me to know that what a nice loving and happy
place it is for her to come in that she takes her ride and she is happy to be here and it just it just had a
major effect on her home life being able to go and work here and do that so um it's not it's nice to hear that
and i want you guys to know that that's really you know we could have test scores and we we have you asked
once before you know you got to show us the results and we've showed you the results of those pieces and we have
some of those data and points but it's harder to show the positivity that people feel when they're
in the building it's harder to show that you can leave your laptop sitting
out on a table in the hallway and no one's going to steal it you know where you can you know kids
aren't ripping down posters or screaming or swearing up and down hallways in elementary schools and
you'd be surprised at places that have those challenges and so uh you know we don't and that's that's
wonderful and that's true testament to the teachers who uh you know instill those relationship pieces
and our skills sets and ideas with the kids and then model them so it was nice to hear that so i
wanted to share it with you guys because it really it goes up to you you you and you and you and
and to our community for making that happen here and that's all i am right now
thank you any questions for us i just want to say i like that i like how you're using
the concept of how and why because how you teach determines how the student learns
determines how they're going to get the results of you want it is all about the how yeah because
you can know it inside out but if you don't know how to relay it so that somebody can grasp it
it's useless right i'm glad you're doing the how and the why because it makes it makes
that that whole philosophy is is core to who i am as an individual as a leader i always say you start
with your why and then you know the what is the last thing you do yeah why you know what doesn't
tell you a lot it's something you do but it doesn't tell you a lot how that
well thank you i had just a quick question jumping back to early on any presentation tonight
and you said it's a bit different from amos web is there enough of a similarity that you
could still draw some parallels from the all the data that we already had and be able to correlate
that with what we're moving into so if we don't got drop things in between yes absolutely there is
and um and so some of that's going to be worked on September 8th uh with our the trainer who's coming in
who also was a trainer for amsweb too okay so she's going to be able to be going over how that looks
um yes it's it's the program is different has
some advantages that we didn't have before but it really does measure the same the same things
it's just the the biggest benefit for this one is that are the the national norms that they
use are more in line with what they used to be so we're we're we're they don't they may not correlate
completely but they're easy to compare okay that makes any it does and i appreciate that you're
trying to say with something that's maintaining a higher standard of performance or expectation
of performance thank you yeah it was really
we were looking at students who are on our watch list or who are maybe getting some extra help
and then when we retest them with the new norms and then students are three or four and shouldn't
even get any extra help and that that's it wasn't right you know the teachers know more than
than you felt that and it was just too bad they did that but i think they did probably a business
you know now they can more people don't be using it i guess because they like those norms
better you know you know if that software is going to be used at the middle school
to yes the original sort of work and chris alluded to it earlier that our collaboration together
and the work with the curriculum coordinators the first piece working even with our math
program was making sure we had sort of a k-8 approach to it and we anticipate like with benchmark
assess we're now starting to see some of those upward trends but yes in a short answer that
that is that is our goal that is our plan yeah we'll be able to highlight more of those
connections too i think we vertical teaming is one of the things we're really focusing on this
year we're still starting it out one of the things i know is that you don't rush into anything right
this is education's like a turning a ship slow deliberate process you want to avoid all the icebergs
um but we we we started a couple years ago last year in earnest and then this year again with that
vertical teaming and that connection um you know one campus one mindset approach so there'll be more
we come up and talk more about our goals and where we are at where you'll see some that information
probably some data on in math in particular so i just want to say that it's been really cool over
the years to watch like different generations of and some families that i'm close to grow up
and just have baby cousins to graduate and move on and then my next to start to kindergarten here
and watching their progression and the revving schools has been really cool and watching on the dynamics
have shifted and where we've grown and um where we're kind of circled back to correct what we needed to but it's
it's been really cool to see and really cool to watch on both sides thank you and
chris and i talk about that you know being the fact that we both live in town and i've been here for
about the same amount of time you know we're just over 20 years or so 22 whatever or something like
that and uh you know having kids go through the system you know our kids are not that far apart
it's uh it's been great for us to be part of it we've been involved in the community in a variety
of other ways over the years and coach basketball together and just about when our kids were in e-e-e-e-y-a-a
so to see the town shift and change in the school system and we've always had a lot of support
from the community which is great and one of the things i think of the interviews and whatever
people ask you know what's one of the hallmarks of our school system i said my kids
always felt that they were respected and loved by their teachers regardless of any of the
issues that we're having regardless of learning or whatever you know you want to talk about the
academic piece they always felt loved and cared for it and even if i
as a parent was upset at something they had no idea and their teacher was great and the teacher
always made sure they felt that way so i like that that has continued i like the uh the mindset too there
and obviously the leadership here and and you know with bill um and i think it's chris's words and it's
sort of adopted them you know there's always there's oftentimes a push in districts to say the first thing
folks will say is we've got to raise test scores we've got to raise test scores and and obviously any city
principles we're like well duh right um but test scores don't raise climate culture climate culture
raises test scores and allowing us the grace to solidify those things built on that premise the kids
are cared for we have work to do uh and you've got some pretty competitive people both with each other
but also against numbers in the state and everything else um but having the ability to make sure
that the conditions are right to make sure that the academic outputs are where they need to be that was the
right way to do it and so i think it's i appreciate the the the the patient's grace and support to be
able to do it the right way to get to the right result and your nephew actually i popped in during
kindergarten because he's always like all right it's kindergarten so i don't know if i'll be here in 2041 but
um ran right up to me gave me the biggest hug and i was like oh i see this guy i know i know i know i
know i was a big squeeze and i'm not a hugger i came out i said
he'll always make sure you know when they come in to sign up the kindergartners
so he's like hey come come say hello and he's always at the transition stuff so they're never far from us
no that's the nice part but again one campus i saw uh and i'm going to bed not named i keep
called him naked a lot and i couldn't believe how big he was uh the high school teachers
the peter is mostly but all the middle school teachers as well we'll walk kids around just get some
some fresh air get some exercise and so we'll be sitting here and you'll see a bunch of the kids walk by
and they'll knock on the window and wave and things like that and you know it just and again we were
talking about we had a high school student the senior this year is going to come and work in our second
grade classroom so we're doing more and more of that too and i love it it's just great her email to me
was uh i did it i did it i made a meeting myself and i went and by the way he's tj's dad
i know it's nice good system and and a lot of that i mean it changed a lot in the
last six years how long you've been this is the start of my seventh you know your 70 year yeah
i mean not that there hasn't been great things going on prior to that um but this only was a
market change um with your leadership and stuff so you know putting the right people in the right
position continues to grow
have stability that's what that's what i didn't have to do you know that was a jen that was a jen jacobi
said that all the time yeah so it wasn't the right people in the right place because i came from i have a
little bit of unique experience at the school district and i did i lived here for 36 years now and but i
didn't go to school here because the school systems were in a different place our school system is in a
different place and to watch that growth and to have now another generation of um of my family members
coming through the school and watching
have the it's just been a really cool experience and i'm very proud that my daughter my cousins and
now my nephew is gets to go through this district as well that's awesome yeah we're in a very
different place and so positive i mean i i'm on a new hansher task force for screen time and i go up
and say look you're not you know people they'll make positive comment they'll say oh yeah i heard
you guys are doing this or doing this uh it's neat it's it's be here
that's okay else have anything for mr susso i have one thing it's kind of unrelated to your school
reports which they were great thank you um but since you're both here and i don't know if you're
planning to state all the way till board comments i was just hoping you could speak about um
their signs that that indicate no skateboarding no rollerblading and i don't want to call you out but i
do think that it's timely because it's a start of school and so if you could just speak both of you
kind of about what the expectations are and in terms of like allowing kids to ride their bikes to
school sure absolutely that just i think for the public to get some clarification on what the
expectations are so um as far as skateboarding and scooters that was always something we and we had old
signs up there i don't i'm not sure what happened to originally or why i think it was just because
the construction that was done but we paved we had to yeah yeah um but the rise of the bicycle
piece of being on it really shifted this summer um there were a couple of close
calls and where we had so our district and here especially from my office my fish bowl
we get to really see what's going on in the parking lot in here and we have a lot of community members
who will bring their kids here to put for the playground in their summertime and you'll see them walking
across the you know and uh we had a significant handful of kids riding their e-bikes which are not
i mean you know i have a motorcycle these things are not bicycles they're doing
30 40 miles an hour whether they have pills or not and these kids are doing wheelies i was happy
to see them wear helmets most of the time which is nice they're doing wheelies they're trying to do
burnouts they're uh you know and over the summertime i did talk to a couple of them just because i
think it was unsafe riding through the front gardens and things because they would come to that little path
and they almost hit one of our young kids who was what mom was walking her to the playground so that was
kind of the big red flag for me and i'm thinking all right we'd be
letting them do this this this summer a little bit just there did no cars in the parking lot once school
came back and i talked to greg heward and chris over the summer about you guys seeing you know
greg was in town while some or not here um and it's the same thing they've been trying to it if you've
have seen on facebook all the towns have posted a lot of things but that really i think was the impetus
to say okay we we definitely have to get a message out to the community around safety and
things and so uh we met well greg and i met i'm trying to remember i'm trying to remember
when now um just before we came back when we talked about getting together with
daniel tyler andrea and chris and saying can we put our heads together kind of a
district-wide approach to how we're going to handle these safety um but that's where
bicycles i think probably adds to that sign it's just this huge shift we i just recently
emailed the parents i think i pull it up uh the 31st i think another welcome back
and i ended up in the spelling it and i felt it was kind of a bar but i'm doing it from my phone
you dropped me my daughter off so it was hard but uh and it said we welcome kids to why did
we want them to have healthy and safe habits so it's in there we welcome that we want that to happen
but we want them to do it appropriately so what we've done is and we worked with facilities and uh we
they're relining the uh prospect street they widened the walkway where the kids will
walk up to where it hits the sidewalk over here so it goes in front of the tech building that's the
walk path they come off prospect there's a crosswalk and then it's the side of the building through the
high school till they hit the sidewalk here with the yellow um whatever herb that's we're going to put
the bike rack over there so that way they can ride their bikes parked there and then just walk in
because having the bike racks where they are now which is right behind me the kids are riding
your bikes through the parking lot and they're competing with buses and
it's scares it's just really scary I could sort of pick it up from there
and I think I alluded to it in my message last night Julie the we did the same thing with the
we realized that moving the bike racks could migrate the bikes to a place where kids
weren't in and out of traffic the arrival of dismissal times were were really
scared we had some close calls last year as well and so even that sort of
to old i remember when i learned how to ride a bike my dad was pretty adamant and it's still a law you don't
ride on sidewalks and that was really one of the biggest pieces um so there's obviously the student safety
thing it's always our number one there's also a liability to the to the district that's involved in that
that and i think signage though it doesn't necessarily prevent great decision uh doesn't promote
decision making it does put us in a place where we've stated the expectation so not just during the
day when schools in session but patrons who use the the the facilities
after we have an obligation to say hey these are our rules please be careful we've posted it
um you know having a no diving sign on a swimming pool doesn't make people not dive but it states that
expectation we've tried to do the same thing but i think to each point we've come back to we encourage kids
to ride bikes we just want them to do it safely we want kids out moving and going do i wish there was more
pedal bikes and they were getting exercise and getting some of that energy out but that's not for me to
decide we do want kids outside riding bikes we just want to know where to be safe
And so, frankly, when they're not riding it safe and we're not here, you know, because
I will be here later or something, you see them late in the summer, there was a bunch of kids riding
their bikes. I walked out there to talk to them. I had to do this twice. On the second time I walked out
to them, there was one kid in a helmet, you know, and just started giving us lip. And he was not an
epic student, because the Epping student stopped. And they're, you know, I was a student.
And we talked and it was great. And I'm like, okay, here's where you go. Here's where you can go.
Here's because the EIA all summer long is using the fields for soccer. So cars are still coming in
and out of here. And that one kid, he was actually, I mentioned it to Greg. Yeah, I don't know who
this guy is. Greg saw him. He gave Greg Liff in a hard time. We did finally figure out where he came
from and the police were involved in trying to go talk to his parents about it. But it's a problem.
we've had damage already to our gate as well due to an e-bite run in.
Yeah, that's all that this morning too. I've talked to Greg already. So again, to put
simply, we encourage bikes. We encourage them. We want people to come, but they need to follow the rules
and keep safe. They can't be zigzagging in and out of traffic in and out of buses and so forth.
And that's what we had been seeing. And unfortunately, that requires us to teach those expectations.
And that's what we're setting.
up and teaching the students what those expectations are around how to navigate them safely.
And I'm glad you said that, Bill, too, because Robin's words are echoing in my head a little bit, too.
And I feel the same way on this personally. We find this realm where we're reteaching and teaching
norms and expectations in the school setting that really are the responsibility of families and
parents. And so we hope to partner with those. It's the same thing as a phone, right? You buy the phone,
you put it in the kids' hands, the expectation is you got to let them know what the rules of decorum are.
And it's really the same with bicycles. And it's, it sometimes is disappointing when you say,
hey, you're riding across the soccer field during a soccer game. You know, it's like,
that that's just decorum, right? And so some people approach that, that with shock and awe. But so it's
renorming and, you know, like, on the athletic fields. We're, we're.
try to be pretty nice about it and say, hey, hey, guys, while you're inside this area,
first of all, you're never riding on the playing surfaces. But when you're inside this area,
get off and walk it. Park it right over here. And so some of it's reteaching. To the point,
Robin, and I agree with, we wish some of the reteaching happened in the right places. But when it's not,
where we have an obligation to keep everybody safe and protect our investments.
And frankly, we just had a tragic situation here. And that's, I want to see, you know, in my career,
I've seen too many of that. And I bring it up, and I agree with most of everything you've said,
and as a parent, and I don't love e-bikes, although my child has an e-bike, you know, I get it.
And it is a parent-parental choice, and, you know, they do stupid things and all that.
I think what's confusing, and I think we need to revisit is the signs, because the
sign specifically say, no skateboarding, I took a picture, no bicycle riding, no rollerblading,
and no scooter riding. So what you're saying, I agree with, be safe, be respectful, don't ride
on the game, all that, I agree with that. This gives the impression that kids are, to me as a parent,
speaking as a parent, if I saw that sign, I would think my kids couldn't ride their bike to school
or that they shouldn't be riding on property. But what you're saying is different.
You tell them where.
Right. So that's why we were communicating. I agree it. It all comes down to communication.
So because another parent reached out to me whose child rides their bike to school and was,
and was like, what do you mean? I'm like, I don't even know. I didn't even see the sign.
We still have bike racks and we still have it. Right. So, so. And I've already started again,
we've already said some of that information out. Yes. And I want to send to our parents because
unfortunately, I like having the signs up there simply because that other student who did not listen to me or the police.
Right. Now that you have the sign, it's a little bit easier to say, hey, no, you know, you can't be out here and stuff.
But that's where, but that's where it's confusing because we're saying, we are 100% saying that kids can ride their bikes to school.
That kids can put their bikes. They can ride their bikes to school, from school, and they can ride on property afterwards, respectfully.
We expect. Within the bow.
Safely, respectfully within, you know. So you ride up to one, I don't know if there are signs on EES property, too.
it's very contradictory. So we can't reference if a kid is misbehaving, let's say that kid from
another town or someone else, we can't say, well, didn't you see the sign? Because that sign is actually
not accurate. So we can't say to a kid from another town, you're not following the rules because
we're saying publicly that's not a, that's actually not the rule. That's not the intention of the sign.
Do you see, do you see where I'm going? I'm not disagreeing. I'm not disagreeing. And I absolutely worry
about my child every day. I validated that last night in our conversation. Absolutely.
So that's where I really think we, and messaging is fine too. Our parents are get out, get it,
but that's the parents. We might have a homeschool kid. They may not get that message. So what
do our signs, what should our signs say? I don't think we're going to solve that tonight,
but what should our signs say for the community. This is our community. Our community uses
the playground. Our community uses, you know, our fields and things they come.
If they're not getting the parent squares and they're not watching the school board meetings
and all they do is pull up and see no bicycle riding, then they reach out and say, what do you mean
my kid can't ride the school? And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I haven't
have any confusion around whether they can write to school or not, those kind of pieces and things.
Okay. But I will say that I see exactly what you're saying. And I wrestle with those pieces because
I'm the one saying, hey, these buildings should be used all the time.
want to be community buildings. At the same time, the only way they can be a community building
is if we don't lose them in lawsuits and in timeframes and damage and, and there's a reason
why our playgrounds have hours and signs on them. Don't play here after this time or it's closed.
Right. We know people still use them. I'm sure they do. Right. But it protects us liability.
Right. To put the sign up. Because now when we'll leave here and there's a soccer game after school,
and one of these kids comes buzzing across the parking line, gets hit by a cup.
car. Well, we didn't condone that. But you just did. No, we did. You did because you sit. And again,
I don't want to make it. You have a sign. Well, that's to me. That's healthy with the line. Again, I'm not, I'm not
disagreeing with pretty much everything you're saying, but our signs, we are publicly saying kids can ride their
bikes to school and they can ride their, so. And of course. And home from school. And they can ride their
bikes on property. So school ends, right? I think that's where this is. I appreciate. I appreciate.
what you're saying. So I'm just, I'm just saying, I think, I would imagine that you may hear from other parents. I don't know. You're not, you're hearing from me as a school board member. But, and when I read it, I reached out to Chris, Bill, and it got forwarded. Because I said, just help me understand what's the intention. I'm not. And just so we can be clear. So I'm asking. I think your questions actually help when we kind of touch base this morning, how that messaging should, should sound.
And, you know, in a sort of in a nutshell, if you look at where the signs are placed, for instance, and Josh did a great job with that, they are placed at the middle high school. They're basically around the walkway to the O'Day. And unfortunately, even during that memorial service, the decorum was out the window. And I had to go out and say, there's a solemn event happening here.
Get out of here with the bike. I said it way more nicely than that.
But where Josh placed those signs, it's very clearly a,
These are our high traffic areas all the time.
I am of a dear. We disagree on this in some ways. I agree with you and the clarity of the message.
We want to have kids help us with that. And in that message, the Epping police have already put their infographics, so it's going to be a concerted effort.
But I really wanted kids to help with kid-friendly language. Explain that for two reasons.
One, their messaging is going to hit its mark, but two, they're going to internally be able to influence the other kids.
hey, this is what we should be doing, and this is what we shouldn't be doing, where those signs are placed,
kids shouldn't ride there at all. That's parking lots, that's parking spaces. That's the biggest
liability piece. And the one piece, I guess, I guess is a little off script. Sometimes those signs
are a deterrent for off hours. And to Chris's point, we set the expectation that no bike riding should
happen here in this parking lot. If, God forbid, somebody gets hurt or worse, we've at least stated
the expectation and protected our asset, the liability of the buildings. But I do agree that
some thought needs to go into clarifying where and how that's really clear to families. I agreed
with it last night and I gave you now. And one of the things we, and I agree with that too.
Yeah. I'm not, we talked about maybe like Josh and I were chatting about trying to get some
stencils with bicycle signs too. So this is the bike path. Yeah. Things like that. So we're
Yeah. No, no bicycle riding here.
Here, right? But you ride here. And, you know, bike zones, don't bike.
Maybe that's, maybe, I mean, not, sorry Courtney Mora, but like, maybe in her health class,
like, she does a one day, like, bike safety. Like, you're not, I mean, you're not supposed to ride on the
sidewalk. But Greg did that last year. You ride on, that you ride with traffic. Oh, my God.
No, this is my kids. You ride with traffic. You don't ride against traffic. Yeah, stuff like that.
Yeah. So last year, last year at the middle high school, they did that. Um, they did that. Um,
they did that. And actually, is it Ian?
G cycles. They're partnering with us, too. So those pieces are in play. Yeah.
As soon as we can get a full week of school under our belts, I think things fall into
line. And I will think this is kind of a new thing. And we just like, it was, it was like, oh,
we need to do something. So we did something quickly on it, and we're going to continue to try
to hone it out and change it. So, like, all that feedback is great. Yeah. I think we're all on the same
page what we want. We just got to figure out how to communicate.
I mean, it's constantly. Every, every town. I mean, the thing is, it's not going to change. It's not going
away. I mean, it's not. And it is scary. It's very scary. And they go really fast. And kids do
get hurt. And we know that as parents. And it's just terrible. But. And we'll continue to review that
message and the signage. And it was new, obviously, the first week. And we'll continue to educate our
students. And the police have been, I just wanted to bring it up. We have the conversation here, too.
Yeah. So thank you. That's all.
very much. Any other questions. Any other questions? Or Chris or Chris or Chris?
Right.
Just take quick pause. I know we had somebody come and join us far away through the meeting.
I just want to offer to you. Do you have any public comments that you'd like to share?
Anything you like to speak to? Or do you're just here to attend and partaking the meeting as a guest?
I would like to say something that is related to something that has to come up yet.
Okay. In that case, we will certainly wait. And when that time comes, some, you know, and you can come up and speak.
Thank you very much. All right. That's a very moment. So at that, we'll move on.
on to the superintendent's report. Several things. First off, before Chris leaves, I would like to thank
him. Chris Suza. You know, one of our goals is always a community engagement. And sometimes
that community engagement, we always look at it as very positive community engagement. But Chris
recognized the need in our community for Kevin O'Connell's memorial service. And we had the
facility to help facilitate that. And Chris was well aware of the impact.
it had on our own facilities teams and tech team, who also need, as already thanked, deserve
a lot of credit. But he's very humble about it. But clearly that was offered and taken care of because
we're part of the community. And I just want to say thank you for that, making sure that that was
taken care of. And that was the right thing to do. Regardless of timing. The other things I need to talk
about is, first off, we have a lot of meeting invites. You should have, different ones
are coming out, getting organized for the year, different committees, and people are shaking
head. So you might have been bombarded by Sam with seven or eight emails, but that's just
us trying to get organized with the different committees that we've talked about, and now
they're getting organized and started up again. So be on the lookout for those. And if you have
any questions about those dates or expectations, please reach out and let us know. I've been
in contact with Brian Stack around the joint meeting, which is our next meeting,
with Fremont. And again, I think that's another indicator, as I'll come back to the theme that we have,
here's a community that had the choice of multiple different districts to have available to
their students. And they chose us in Pinkerton. And so that's an ongoing relationship as we continue
to build that relationship. We would like to start that meeting at 530 and hopefully 530 to 6.
is that topic will be done. If it goes a little longer, it goes a little longer. But then we will have
our regularly, our own meetings six or so afterwards on the 17th. So I just want to remind you that
that is our first joint meeting with the Fremont School Board. The agenda will be coming out
shortly. And then I'm going to talk about something very positive and then connect it to some updates
from our legislative body that is definitely going to impact us during the budget season.
As I see shaking heads, it's not just for you. It's also for our audience to understand. And you'll
see why I'm kind of prefacing this. First off, the World's News report came out, and New Hampshire is
fourth in the nation again. And we have been consistently fourth in the nation when it comes to
NAEP testing. And we are fourth in the nation for pre-K-12 education.
And I want that to sink in because we are behind New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts who rank the top in spending for their states.
And I just want to remind the board and the public, where does New Hampshire rank in overall state spending on public education? Anyone?
We're at the bottom. We're at the bottom. Very bottom. Very bottom.
Seventy. 50th out of 50 states.
And the reason I preface that is that timing couldn't have been better because what I need to talk to you about tonight is our legislative body has passed HB.B. 564. 564 is a budget constraint.
So again, we're last in the nation when it comes to overall spending from our state government. And yet we still are fourth in the nation when it comes to. I don't know what speaks more about
efficiency than what we're doing with what little dollars we have.
Yet, there seems to be a feeling. And you know, I'm getting a little, you guys know me well enough.
I don't get all that political all the time. But when I do, I do. And this is one of those moments.
HB.B.564, I have to let you know about. It is the SAU budget will be a separate warrant article.
And there's a lot that's going into that. I was at the superintendent's meeting today. I was at the superintendent's meeting today.
and we all talked and five or six different lawyers gave five or six different opinions.
One lawyer even gave two different opinions against himself. And so we're not in agreement around
what that law says. So that law is very nebulous in what should be included, what shouldn't be
included. NASBO, the business administrators association is having a meeting next week or so,
and they have invited Gordon Graham to help clarify this muddy understanding. So do I have a
answers for you today? No. But the reason I'm really talking about it publicly is so the
community kind of understands because there's a competing bill, HB-B-1300-1-300 that will go in November.
That is putting on budget caps across the state if it passes by a three-fifths majority,
which is 60%. Whether that passes or not is obviously up to the voters in November.
The problem is this. When we develop our budget, we are going to meet the needs. As we do, we follow the rules. We're going to meet the needs of 564 as guided. That's already passed. You need to understand that that's already passed. We will have a separate SAU warrant article. We will get guidance from Gordon Graham and the NASBO and all those people will have those further conversations. And you know us, we will have the appropriate, here's the warrant article as directed. That will be out there.
HB-B-1300 also has an SAU budget.
The formulas are different.
And so it will automatically create a lot of confusion.
And I don't, again, I use these words, whether that was intentional or unintentional.
I do not know.
We will follow the rules to draft what's in place now, HB-564, because we have to.
Separate warrant article will be there.
If HB-1300 passes, not only will the SAU budget be separate and have to be recalculated in November, mid-budget cycle.
It will be a different number. And we will have to explain to our public, Bill, why is the SAU budget that you've been telling us about this number, and this SAU budget is this number?
Well, it's because curriculum coordinators may be in, they may not be it.
Because this building student services may be in, may not be.
in. And it all depends on the formulas. And again, no one is in agreement, including the lawyers and the legislators, by the way, are not in agreement on what that should look like. So I just want to forewarn our public that if that passes, not only will we have a budget cap, that budget cap is a moving target as well, by the way. It's based off of consumer price index plus 1%. And they don't even know what month they're going to take it from or average.
Those are still questions that are unanswered, which also, if passed in November, would impact our budget cycle that we're already halfway through.
So, as you know, I'm not allowed to electioneer.
I am not here to say what way I feel it should go or not go, but I am here to tell you everything I've told you right now is factual.
That would require us if it passed to redo our budget completely in November.
redo the SAU budget with a different number than what's already in legislation and totally confuse our public, and I just want to be, everyone be aware that that is going on.
And then let me go back to, we are the most efficient state when it comes to what we're doing with our money.
I get that there's tax problems in New Hampshire, and I get that it's property taxes and stuff, but what the legislative body is trying to do is not really fix the
problem. And we will deal with it. We'll tackle this, and we'll tackle it the best we can. But I just wanted to let you know that that is coming. I put a lot of documents, both in the public folder. The full bills are both there. Enjoy. Read them. And you can understand what I'm talking about, but I did want to take a moment to just explain to you that I anticipate some public confusion, a lot of inconsistencies with our budget process this year. I am hopeful.
that our community recognizes what that impact would be, if they so choose to vote a budget cap on HB-1300, it would impact our school.
There's no doubt about it.
For example, here's the simplest example that most superintendents were using.
We have teachers, CBAs, on separate warrant articles.
Let's say we didn't, but let's say we had a brand new CBA last year that was passed and the voters approved an increase.
in the teacher salary, whatever that is. Let's say for us, our rough numbers are that's an increase of $300,000 the first year. Well, that $300,000 plus other costs of increase in health care costs, which we don't have control over. Another $300,000 because we've seen our health care increase by 15, 20% in a year. That is not uncommon. Just those two numbers may put us over the cap that the tax
cap that's put in place.
Now, I don't want to scare anyone, but if that tax cap passes, I have the authority, as along with
the board, to make those numbers work.
It will impact students.
I do not understand how anyone is saying that this would not impact students.
It is not accurate.
If our previous numbers are already passed, which voters have, and then we are obligated to meet those numbers,
there we have to find a way to meet those numbers which would impact the budget.
It is that simple that a tax cap would impact our budget going forward.
And we have to honor the contracts.
We have to honor the contract.
We have to have a whole different situation with not honoring the contracts.
Also, the SAU budget that now has to be on the one article, what if that doesn't pass?
So I will tell you, we've had conversations about that.
It would goes to default.
It doesn't eliminate our thing.
No, it would not.
We don't have default, though.
I mean, I guess we do.
You would be great one.
Sure, got you.
So again, that is a great question, and I have an answer for you because it's not doing the purpose
that I think some of our legislative body thinks.
Because I have a multi-year contract, others have multi-year contracts.
It's the same as the CBA.
Right.
Let's say we're $10,000 short because we went to the default SAU budget and it failed, and it failed.
we would still come up with that $10,000 from the general fund
because you have to meet your obligations.
So our legislative body has created another layer of stuff
with practical to no impact, no practical impact,
other than we then would start budgeting in our general fund
for any shortfalls if the SAUs, say you budget falls,
because that's what we would start budgeting.
We would do.
Do we know when the vote's going to take place to this?
That is November.
That is the November ballot.
And it's not a possibility that it will get pushed back.
No, the legislation says it actually has to appear on your ballot twice.
It has to, this year, and if it fails, it still has to go on two years from now.
So our community will.
Yeah, disappointingly, these are both things that were brought up at the local level within the past couple of years.
Two years.
And Epic has.
Oh, so this is the one that we.
you saw a couple years ago that all the majority it's a it's a it's a it's the newest
rent one court needs to the newest rendition because it failed miserably in most
communities before they've they've re they renovated it and put it back out they made
it a mandate this time but the but the majority of people what I remember
ring said me happen to the fact most towns correct not vote for the Senate
that's correct our taxpayer our taxpayers actually got a little creative with their
solution
So I just
I don't understand, well, when you have voters that are communicating
in large numbers, that something is not wanted,
but that it's being forced to store.
You're going to be it a different mindset of people
that typically when those votes are happening,
they're during the budget season, right?
So the last time this appeared on a warrant,
it was during the budget season.
It is now during time of elections, general elections.
That's nothing to do with the school.
It has nothing to do with anything.
It's a total different group of people that come out to vote in your general elections versus your school.
So now people that are coming out to vote are in a different mindset when they're coming out to vote.
It's unfortunate.
It's aggravating that the resounding local control option,
was that no, people didn't want those.
And the state is take it up for us and change our minds for us, but it actually.
Well, if it's a state, just, they're like, as far as I'm concerned, the state,
is trying to push public education out of the state of New Hampshire.
They don't want to pay for it.
They're making it more difficult.
All the legislation that's coming out.
It's working against students.
It's not working for students.
Well, that's definitely their point, but then you have two principals sitting right here
who have clearly done the work and put in the effort to make do with what we have.
And the ability it has to.
to undo all of that progress, infuriating and frustrating.
HB.1,300 right now, has a legal suit against it that just opened up last week.
So it is.
There may be an injunction.
It may still appear on the ballot, but it is being challenged.
It's being challenged because it's not actually within a constitution.
Well, they should ignore it.
It's supposed to be funded.
And according to your point and ties into bills, too, you know, in the meat of it, right, in the building level, right?
those decisions are dictated by, you know, budgetary caps, whatever it may be.
Bill alluded to, you have these agreements that, you know, are binding to Robin's point,
contracts, et cetera.
So when, like, when Bill says, you find other places to pull, to meet those needs,
to cover those checks that have been written, that means people.
And people are a direct impact kids in classrooms.
And that's something we can't afford.
Or should we be looking at it.
Yeah.
So that's the scary part.
I think some of the best courses we actually get on this is continue to let people know about that via our meetings here.
And maybe if we can have someone come down from the New Hampshire School Board's Association
that would be to a presentation about this or maybe the school, the fair funding group.
So the fair funding group does have, they are starting to have some sort of weight in this.
And we can invite them again.
The biggest thing is,
Like I did tonight, I want us to be talking about it.
That's how we get communication out there.
You could choose, and we don't have to decide tonight, but the board could have a public hearing on it,
weigh in, and so forth.
Information night?
Correct.
Right before the November vote, there's different things, and we can brainstorm around that.
But I just wanted to let you know where the state is standing and some of the obligations that we have to meet now is going to change that process.
I'm going to pencil you in for our parent-invise.
we'll be there yeah what's the date I'd love to go I just I don't have it in
front of me right now okay well appreciate the update on it'll be one of that they're
put together even if the videos put together uh they're we're working on
on the school board just getting outside as voters are going in tv and yeah but i'm just
saying like through the school because a lot of when it comes to the voting for the school
this a lot of your parents are going to come out there and stuff
and EPTV and whatever but you're saying on the presidents at their general elections
they're on you too put it on everything i might also throw out that if we do have either the
the school fair funding group or the school board association come in to do some sort of
presentations about this i think we should extend that invite to the budget committee
to have them come down so that they can hear everything that's going on with this
is obviously that's going to have some impacts to their role and obviously the interaction that's from our
the committee and the board have throughout the process this year i mean the last time we had one here and
i attended it nobody showed up for no that's true bill i'm just wondering i don't show up budget
committee didn't show up select me you can show up nobody showed up for i don't love to brainstorm you know
until we get against to bed but we do have an opportunity coming up with a district wide open house is
there a way to pull together at least some infomer infographics some tables some things we'll have a captive
audience for two hours that yes and i just want to be very clear our roles our roles
can be different than others roles so just be very clear that we are not
electionary we are just providing facts you guys and put out the information
you can't put out the information for people we can't put an opinion it's not election
you can get out the information all you want but you cannot give your opinion i guess what i
would say is can we how can we help make all the information available so let's work on that we'll
we'll um as we have a lot of things lined up as i
i said nasbo has a meeting uh with with their attorney coming up and and and the other associations
are working together it's very similar to other things that have happened where superintendents
association is we're sharing resources and working very closely together and and uh
you know the principal association they talked about putting together some information so we'll keep uh
as we get clarity we will continue to make sure our community is aware of that okay maybe uh to
uh to try and aid in the trying to eliminate any concerns about electionary may would put
to put a section our link on the school board page itself on the website say like here's a little portal
here's all the information we've been the other groups that are looking into this and and
and their assessments are opinions of what's going on so people can go and read and be informed
as a school board you guys can create uh you have your individual opinions which you always have
which you i've always been able to do yeah the town of ething did put out recently like a one
page or a completely separate issue but a one page or like they were trying the town wants to move one
way with something they just they put both options and very simple fact-based bullet on what this means
and what this means what this will do well and what this will like it was it was very well down and it was
very clean and it's on the town's facebook page so we'll look at all the resources we want you to go out we
we both this way right yeah so thank you so thank you
you for your time i just wanted to make sure that that was raised thank you very much for sharing
that it's not the most exciting news uh certainly more frustrating than anything else but
it's a lot to take it all right uh let's see moving on uh policy uh so the first one is i kf
and i took the feedback that uh through our our conversation last time and um it's quite lengthy now
but it is a first draft and i and i have no expectations that it will pass tonight
but i do hope that this starts the conversation and getting it a little closer to what uh the board's
will was on this one um i'll just quickly go through it and uh eligibility to participate in
graduation or related graduation events is a privilege and may be rescinded based on significant
academic concerns significant behavioral misconduct or serious or repeated violations of school district policies
or expectations i thought that that took into account i know it may still be a little vague
as we we talked a little bit but it does talk about significant and repeated and repeated and
repeated things not just for any privileged thing do we have that authority then we talk about behaviors
that may result in loss of graduation privileges uh disrupts the school community
threatens the safety of security of students and staff results in suspensions other
and other significant disciplinary actions you can see that i took out just absenteenth
which was one of the feedback around that that was not one of the considerations we wanted to have in there
um and then the the the third paragraph there the building principal may recommend that a student's
graduation privileges be rescinded the recommendation shall be forwarded to the superintendent who shall
review the circumstances and there that third paragraph took into account your feedback around
the process itself and clarifying what that process was and then the last paragraph of
the proposed changes is when appropriate a student whose graduation privileges have
been rescinded may have those privileges reinstated by demonstrating meaningful improvement
in academic standing behavior or compliance with school district expectations again we wanted
that restitution piece to still be available if the student were able to to do that um i hope that i
encompassed uh the feedback from the conversations that we had last time um in in in in that language
i like paragraphs one that's really quick just no go ahead i don't have anything i i'm i'm i'm i'm
like paragraphs one through three a lot i mostly like paragraph four i do my feelings toward paragraph
four is the same feelings i had towards the paragraph of the whole during last meeting i don't like what
does i think was this in the same position we fixed the wording for those first three parts but then it's
like what does that mean like what it it it makes that part vague now so like we it's
80% there i need more from you cord now i'm getting there um so
graduation privileges have been rescinded they may earn them back someone's going to go
by demonstrating meaningful and proof yes but i i think and chris can always speak to it
there has to be some level of vagueness of course and because every circumstance will be different and
we say okay uh correct ben made eye contact with me you know i'm famous okay ben mess up messes up whatever
is he messes up with what he has to do to earn that back might be specific to his circumstances
that would be arranged uh and clarified and communicated i'm not apologize you for doing a wheelie
something yeah i think if you pinpoint exactly your pigeonhole room i'm not no my point is not i'm not
trying to pinpoint or get any less there has to be vagueness obviously yes it's i just feel like it does still
leave room for a parent to be like why can't my kid did this but he didn't get detention
last week what do you mean like why can't he graduate now but those those that would happen through those
conversations if you were a parent and we said look mr furbush mr mizoni what can we do to earn this
back and say okay let's talk about that let's set up a conversation around and it would be clear
of what that that requirement would be before it would be considered that would be communicated
directly with that child and that family i like paragraph four i like all the changes i do too
from that standpoint everything that was taken it's considering i'm leaving right now you well it's very
clear you you you answered all of our questions and requests and i think it's much more um it's just it's
just much much more specific about what what is going to happen what are some of the what are some of the
things that would allow a student to forfeit that privilege the process is clear it is much more
clear so do you mind just rereading the piece i i i i didn't catch it's in the drive if you want to
pull it up just the superintendent it's the principal and superintendent there was a so so you make a
recommendation it's the third pair no wait which paragraph it it is pair bill oh yeah the building principal
may recommend that a student's graduation privileges be rescinded the recommendation shall be forwarded to
the superintendent who shall review the circuit
and make the final determination regarding the student's eligibility to participate in graduation or related events and obviously I have faith in your decision making this isn't about that I wonder if the language should be more reflective of how discipline is handled in all other cases
to keep that sort of line of demarcation so it could be forward once the decision is made it would the appeal process would go to the superintendent like
all other because otherwise the language that's there now makes you the decision maker
which means there would be no appeal process other than the board and you are not at time we we
specifically asked and again it has really nothing to do with you because you may not be in this role
at some point and this policy still lives on that that um that and bill might not be here either that
that that the ultimate decision because this is such a large decision to make that you're it's not you're
not going to call up a parent and say I'd just like to let you know your child has now lost that
that perhaps it's a meeting with you and bill but ultimately you're making the recommendation
you two have a relationship he's hopefully going to trust you but it comes back to him he is making
the final I know I understand and agree to that and we're sort of saying the same thing but to keep
the sort of practice policy and law right in terms of is there
your point about could be totally different people could be different board has it
well I don't think what you should have at all no but the appeal process right
I know we didn't talk about I'm going to jump right in it's pros and cons right
do we want to give an appeal process because if you do you do like frozen cons
appeal process could be if a family appeals you
the student appeals it's debatable depending on who you ask
You actually can't appeal three months or actually getting a diploma.
No, this has nothing to do with them earning their diploma.
This is actually participation in the event.
Well, the appeal process also, there's graduation is set on a certain day.
If three days before a student makes a bad decision and the privileges are revoked,
there is no appeal.
Well, there's, I mean, there's actually, how can you appeal the day before?
That dictates that if there's a behavioral consequences outlined,
in policy and in board-approved handbooks, they're not available anyway.
Right.
So the appeal, for lack of a better term, the process would be attempts to redress a decision
made by the building principle at the time.
That's the only reason I suggested.
Have the decisions.
True, but I think it gives us both because by it being silent and not telling us what the appeal
process is, or if there's appeal process, every case, the board then would make a decision,
right?
the parent decides to appeal, it's silent.
It doesn't say they can or they can't.
Then the board makes the decision whether they hear the case or not.
So by it being silent, I think it actually still serves the purpose.
I was sort of trying to get the superintendent piece down.
It looks like we need a fourth read on this one.
I'm so sure, but I mean, I'm fine with the way it is.
Believe it or not.
My opinion on how we got, I think we either have more we're on it or we could vote to take this tonight.
We still have other policies that are coming down on the bike that are not potentially having
influence on this like JICD, J.CDA, J.CDA, there's a clever of them.
And I think as we work through some of those other policies that do have that
spell out an appeal process and some of the other behaviors that feed into those policies and the responses to
those actions.
If we get, once we got through those, it seems like we have better to find something that
fits this criteria, we could revise this policy again.
And it can still be part of the violations that we had around these other policies as well.
But we can start to come back and revise this again as we thought we needed to once we've got
some of that of the work done.
Having heard that, Ben, and I think you're accurate, I guess then I would like the board
if they're comfortable to approve it now with the understanding that, if
significant changes happen to those other policies, we'll bring this back.
But by approving it now, we know it's in place as is, and at least it's in place.
I get it.
Graduation is a long ways away, but at least it can stay there in place.
And then if we need to bring it back, we bring it back.
If you would like going to speak on, if you would like going to join us, I'm sorry to have me to come away from the audience,
but if I'm like home to pick you up all if you don't come on, I'm afraid.
But if you wouldn't mind just sharing your name in your address.
And we'd love to hear your comment.
My name is Jenny Anderson.
I live on Victoria Drive.
Last time I was here was the night before graduation.
And I was here to support some of the seniors who came to speak about their ceremony the next day.
And when I was, I was, I had us have a troll board.
I told the district I work in going through all the documents.
We are glad that you're paying attention.
I go through and say, I'll be like, oh, I didn't have it looked it happened for a while ago.
I was like, I can't believe he was coming up.
Texted my daughter.
So I was pleased to see this.
I love the four paragraphs.
I think they cover what the students shared.
I think it also incorporates the communication.
that was coming from the schools regarding any of the trips, any of the activities.
Just it has same same.
I love same same.
So my hope tonight was to be able to sit here and witness it being passed so that I could then let these fabulous students know that on the night before they graduated, they were able to change the world.
And as freshmen blazing their way through their first year in school, that is an amazing
accomplishment for students who haven't even turned 19 yet.
Someone will be 19 in a couple weeks.
So I just wanted to thank you for taking in consideration everything that they said, everything
with a couple of adults that came up to, parents that came up to say something.
And it also helps these students learn that they may not have been able to fix it for them,
but they have fixed it for the future and being able to.
And then everyone, I said that night, I'm very incredibly proud of those seniors for what they did
and for spending their last night for graduation here with us.
It's I'm incredibly proud of them.
And they did a really great job.
It's powerful in their voice matters.
Even though they're still young, even though they're so young, their voice manners,
and it's very powerful.
So pass it on.
Thank you very much for coming in.
No, thank you so much.
No one's going to be more relieved than me when it's fast.
So you know other public here to make comments on this policy.
I will open up.
Can I get a motion to approve?
Palsy, I.K.
Oh, everyone wants it.
I will feel that to man.
I'll move by math.
I'll second that.
Second by Julie.
All those in favor, say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed?
None?
That passes 5.0.
Thank you, guys, very much.
Thank you for making this.
Their voices do matter, and I know sometimes that they're sitting there and we're looking at them,
and there's other things in play, and it really makes it.
Thank you.
The next policy, JJ, J.J, they're
There's no changes, as you remember.
This had to do with an RSA change, that in essence, we have to take EFA students up to 50%
and we are not able to charge them any tuition.
Another wonderful thing by our state.
Resident.
Correct.
If a new market EFA student wish to take some of our courses, that is an area that we could charge, yes.
So, hearing that there were no other changes.
Can I get a motion to approve JJJ this evening?
Sub-boots.
Second.
Second by all those of the favorites.
Say aye.
Any pose?
That passes, 5-0.
All right.
I see no personnel.
Do you have anything for us on the financial side of things, Christine?
No.
I do not.
I think Bill covered most of it tonight, and we can have a very interesting budget season.
There's probably going to be about three.
About three or four different budgets you're going to see.
So as I navigate what goes into each budget, I will do my best to make sure you have the best information.
But it's not clear.
It's clear as much.
Us, BAs, and every, everyone has a different thought, a different opinion.
Legal counsel, the HADASBO, B.A.'s, superintendents.
We'll come back and he'll meet with me after he's meeting with his supers.
And I'm like, that is not what we're understanding.
And we even go back and forth with what is going out there.
So it's going to be interesting.
So I appreciate your patience as we navigate through this.
But as I learn, I hope to educate you all as I have the information.
This has been the most interesting six months.
It's going to be.
Hey, you chose a good time to join.
You know, we just more.
Two and a half more years, Courtney.
I know.
The same is you learn by fire, right?
Always run by five.
We'll move on to Manifest.
Looks like we can take all these in one shot tonight, which is nice.
Thank you, gentlemen.
Enjoy the long weekend.
Bye, guys.
Thank you guys.
Take care.
Have a good weekend.
So we have payroll deposited on August 28, 2026,
in the amount of $291,4,4.30 cents.
Payroll deposit on August.
28, 2026 in the amount of $88,307.
$0.26.
Payroll deposited on August 28, 2020,
and the amount of $722.63.
And payroll deposited on August 28, 2026,
the amount of $2,050 and $5.
Can I get a motion to approve?
So moved.
Move by 40.
Second.
Second by men.
All those in favor say, aye.
Aye.
May opposed?
Hearing none, that passes, five, zero.
And we will move on to board comments.
Julie, let's start with you.
So the only, so I just want to bring up to the board in terms of our meeting schedules
and thinking about our meetings, which I think we're all very committed to.
We are all here all the time whenever we can.
However, this meeting, while it was fascinating, and it truly was,
but in looking at in our folder last night, there's no skeletal topics.
There are no.
meeting minutes. There were no reports. Those came in a little late. There's no personnel.
We did rearrange our meetings in August, but I did send Ben and Bill an email because I think
we need to be thoughtful about our time and we need to respect all of our time. And this is probably
a meeting that we, while the conversation was fantastic, it also could have happened next week
or some of it could have happened last week. It's also the first week of school.
school. So we have people here who have been busting their butt. We have parents who are
exhausted trying to keep up. So my comment to the board, and I think I would look for input,
is that when we have occasionally really nothing on the agenda, are people supportive of, if we know
on a Monday, and we should know by a Monday, that there's nobody speaking, there's no minutes,
there's no reports, that maybe we should keep.
cancel a meeting and say, we're going to let the community know. There's no school board
because we don't have, we are here to be, it's timely. So personnel is timely. We have to be here
to approve personnel. If we have a topic that we're talking about like a project or lighting or
paving, yes, we need to get those people in. And we are walking into budget season. We are going to
see each other so much. It's got, it's ridiculous. But you all, we all have personal lives. We all have
jobs. We don't want to work until 8 o'clock at night. I don't know about you. I bet Bill
Bill hasn't been home. I haven't been home. So I guess we just respectfully, like, if we don't need to
meet, and if there's things that could have, every single thing we talked about tonight, we could have moved
for two weeks from now. And so again, respectfully, and I'm not trying to get out of a meeting.
I like the conversation, but this meeting did not need to happen. So I'm bringing that up.
Out of respect for our principals who want to go home too.
Like, what are your thoughts on that? Because this may come up again.
I think, you know, we were kind of messy with the walkthrough.
Maybe we should have pushed the walkthrough. Maybe the walkthrough should have been tonight
because everything's pretty much done. Why do we have to do a walkthrough before school starts?
Let's let everything roll out. Because then I would have said, yeah, we should meet.
We should meet at 515, do a walkthrough, have a meeting, light agenda, whatever.
but it's like we had to approve personnel on the 20th. We did a walkthrough on the 27th. We didn't have any scheduled topics on the 27th. We're back again a week later with no scheduled topics. We had a six-hour retreat on the 13th. I mean, I like you people, but literally, this is not my full-time job. Let's respect each other. And our community, put it out there, meeting cancel. So that's my soapbox for tonight. If you have a common opinion, one
way or the other, feel free, but that's kind of where I live. I'm happy to be here and the conversation was good. It would
have been good in two weeks too. That's my board council. I'm going to elaborate even a little bit more.
Okay, Robin. I hope you're on my side on this way. I'm going to actually, I'm going to address the whole year.
Yeah. Okay. I would like to see no meetings in July at all.
Not the July, no meetings. I want to have one meeting in August, the first week.
and that not a meeting in the second week of August.
September, I would like to have not a first, nothing.
Not the first week of school.
The second, September through December, the second, well, September 2nd, nothing, right?
But then September through December, our first meeting of the month, well, would be,
whatever, should be principals and student reps.
The second meeting should be budget discussions only, because that's all, that, that,
So that stops us from having to then book another budget night, right?
We have to have another meeting on a budget just for budget night.
Our second meetings from September to December are going to be budget only, budget issues only.
We're not going to bring personnel. We're not going to bring anything.
That's going to be the first meetings when our principals are there, and the student reps are all there.
That's what I have, because I agree.
There was no reason for us.
I mean, it was informative, yes.
But the first week of school, the principals are new enough to do report the first week.
I mean, it's like, way to live.
school's in for a whole week or a week or a half and then do it, but I definitely think nothing in
July. Yeah. Because we have to enjoy summer, too. Yeah. I mean, the school board is,
I think we have the most meetings out of any board in the town. And it's, then we have to always
add on meetings. And then you were on other subcommittees, negotiations and this and that and that. So
it's not just what people see here. It's other meetings that we're on and that we have to schedule.
So I think we can, I think we can consolidate our meeting times.
a bit better. I think it's about efficiency. Yes. It's a, we're a bunch of smart people. Let's
meet when we need to meet. Yeah. And let's talk about the stuff we need to talk about. And let's get
it done if it's three hours. I'm not saying I don't want to meet, but like we don't have to, we're not,
we are not bound by, we moved our meetings. We are not bound by the first and third. We need to
communicate to our community, everybody in our community, when they are, set our dates. That's why I had,
we talked about it like, let's make sure there's no conflicts. But like, let's really look at, like,
let's look at the rest of this year and say, like, does this, do we need to have all these meetings?
Or, sorry, but like, can you plan the rest of the year out for scheduled topics? You're going to have, you know, this. I know things pop up, but like, you usually like curriculum to come in. And you're like, you know, there's certain things.
Certain ones we know of. But, but let's just, again, I'm on my soapbox, but it's just like, let's just be efficient, you know. And then when you have to miss, you have to miss it. But, but, you know, I don't want to meet for the sake of meeting. That makes no.
sense. It's wasting everybody's time. It's a good soapbox because we're willing to add meetings. At the
flip side, you should be willing to take meetings away. Right. Right. So as meetings pop up and we have to do it,
I don't know how well you can prepare, you know, I think every meeting has to have a personnel section, right? Because
those pop in regularly and those may have to be addressed more promptly than anything else. But I do think before that takes
place, the one part I was going to bring up and I'll tack it on here is I know we talked about the last meeting, but getting the
information in the drive faster.
And I know it's the first week of school and I feel horrible for asking that's a great reason why you probably shouldn't have this meeting the first week. But getting stuff late in the day is tough to review everything timely. But that I do think we should be open to removing meetings as frequently as adding them. Because we're going to be up. We know that. That's a given. So we can start with more of a skeleton aspect of it and then add what makes sense.
Yeah, we can keep our second meeting.
you know, it's just about budget.
Maybe we won't have to add as many as we have.
Because then you're also, when you're the budget rep, too.
Yeah.
There's a ton of meetings that are added on.
Only every week.
Yeah, every week.
Yeah.
Being on the budget committee is, as a school board rep, is insane.
And I'm not volunteering for that.
So I, thank you, Matt, because that's, I mean, for every meeting you're not here, you're there.
And I know Ben did it for many years.
Robin did it for many years.
So I am not stepping into that.
My alternate.
That is true.
That is true.
Don't get hurt or anything.
Move or anything like that.
I'm busy October through December.
I didn't have a skiing accident on October 3rd.
So it doesn't have to be a policy or anything like that because then you just, again, you're pitching your whole stuff in.
We know what we have for agendas, right?
We know what we can do.
The FDA and all that.
We know when we need to have a meeting and we don't need to have a meeting.
So it can be posted.
There's no meeting.
It can be parents square.
There's no.
meeting tonight or however, you know, it can be done.
It's not like we have an audience anyway.
Right.
Right.
Ballot point.
I wish we did.
I had four people came.
Do you have a thought, Courtney, on that soapbox, on my soapbox.
Oh, I always support both soap boxes.
Okay.
I also felt that.
I wasn't going to say anything about the drive because the whole first biggest will say.
Same.
I was in there today.
Understandable.
I was trying to try and I was like, I, we didn't even have me.
So the meeting minutes are, Dagny has apologized that she, that she, that she, they,
they're still not there because they're just not.
Because it was last week.
They're not, they're not, they're not, they're not, those aren't great.
And then the principles we, we know, and, and then I, my information was, I got it today,
most of it, by the way, because I was at Exeter with that, and I thought it was timely.
And, and yes, I know we've had that comment before, but that information really was gathered mostly
today from that four hours at Exeter High School with 20 other superintendents.
Well, I looked in and I was like, there's literally nothing in this drive.
Ben, do you have a thought on it?
I do.
Calling you out.
And my opinion differs to an extent.
I think there is something to be said for having some of the consistency.
I mean, even tonight, I think, had we tried to cancel this last minute, would we ever
heard from Ms. Anderson? Maybe, maybe not. I think she had a plan to be here. She knew
this was a scheduled meeting night. She came and she had something to say. And of all things
that we've tried to foster here is to have people come and make all the comments and participate in
person. I know we don't ever seem to have an audience here. We know people watch online. We know people
watch after the facts out. So to say that we don't have an audience, I think, is a bit of a misnomer.
We just don't have people come to join us here.
We don't have a present.
Right.
Which is a little bit of a challenge, but some people do watch us live via YouTube.
People used to watch us live when we were live on ETV.
So to say that we don't have an audience, I don't think is exactly fair.
I wholeheartedly acknowledge that from March through now has been an ungodly year for us in terms of meetings and things that fall outside of the scope of the public.
So while the public and who are watching us,
some are watching us right now.
They've seen us shown up for our meetings in April, May, June, or one in July, and through August.
But they have not seen all the other meetings that have taken place in those months.
And we've had at least two or three meetings almost every month since March this year.
So it has been an uncharacteristically busy year for us.
And I stress that a little bit that it's uncharacteristically.
busy. We typically don't ever have years like this. There are commitments that each of us make
that sometimes add to that, negotiations, budget committee, safety committee, things like that
that caused us to have to spend some additional time outside that are not non-public meetings or
things of that nature. And that's part of the beast that is being on the school board. And I think
there are some aspects of that that some other boards have to deal with, but I don't, to Robbins'
point I do I do wholeheartedly agree. I think we are probably the hardest working board
in the town for the number of hours and time that we spend trying to make things run smoothly
here. So I find myself really kind of on the fence with this about how important it is to keep
having these meetings. I think perhaps a better way to look at it because, again, I think it feels
like some of this is a little bit of a knee jerk just to how busy we've been lately.
And that's fair. That's a reasonable response to how busy it's been. But we've had quite a few years where it has been like this.
So I would say, let's try and ride through this. I know the budget season is going to be complicated this year.
These laws are obviously just going to make our lives more challenging. But I think the suggestion to try and afterwards go back and take a look at, all right, where could we make some changes to our schedule?
what really does make some more sense given we're probably getting closer to what the new normal is for our budget seasons.
We've got a little bit better of an idea of what the rest of the year is going to look like.
Everybody's gotten some more experience with some of the other committees and the commitments that happen with that.
Like next year is going to be teachers' contract coming up.
So planning around some things like that.
Do I think we could probably take a couple of meetings up?
Yes, I think we can. And I don't have the schedule of all of our meetings.
in front of me. I couldn't find it today after I got done with work. I think we have one
or two other meetings that we're not having because they happen to fall on holidays or something
else that's going on. We may not this year, but I think... I don't think we do. I don't think there's
any... I think we can give the month of July off to ourselves. That's the potential. Or maybe we
go to one meeting in June and one meeting in July. Don't let anything burn down in July because
we're not here. No, the only thing I would ask, and I know this is a longer
conversation and I think Ben would like to review the bigger schedule, but clearly the voice
is heard and I think there's some consensus. The only thing that we would need in July, though,
and this is very common in other districts, you would have to give me hiring authority because
I would not, I could not keep teachers or other people on the hook for no contract for a month.
They'd be like, sorry, we're going elsewhere. So that, and that is a very common practice that has been
given to superintendents. But that's the only thing I, for example.
see. And then I think one strength of the sport is we communicate. And I think that you
feel that way, too. And if it were burning down, you'd know.
I guess one, too. I still publicly support the box. Also very valid points. I guess not to be in any
direction, but like last week wasn't not normally scheduled meeting. And we did still have a Boy Scout show
up and so like they the general public is looking at our media central on the website and is
paying attention to our communications whichever i don't know which side that leads towards but the
public is paying attention yeah so we had a guest tonight or i guess we have a tax bear today
we had a member of the public last week so they they do yeah yeah i think just to clarify i mean i think
and honestly and honestly and bill talks about what a great board we are and everything and honestly like we're
clearly all very committed like our attendance
is great. I will go to any meeting that I'm able to and do, I will, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm, I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not even
reading anything. So that's where it was like, now, mind you, I probably, if I'd read it Monday, well, it's not
usually in their Monday, but that was, it's the, it's, it's in, this is specifically in, right, response
not the commitment that we've all put in since March and many, many years beforehand.
It's when you, and you know, I look to you and obviously to you, by Monday, like, hey, Ben,
like, there's just not a lot on here. That's where I think, and I reach out to the board to say,
like, there's really, there's really nothing timely that requires us to meet. I think, I'm asking
for flexibility. That's what I'm asking for, is we, let's not be so rigid. We have to, we have
meet on the first and third. Well, we don't always meet on the first and third because the third
might be Thanksgiving. So let's just look at, if we get to a place where we're like, let's
respect our time and our life and our children and our events and things like that. And let's just
say, we can put this off for two weeks. So, I don't know, I'm just, I'm just, you know, again,
you know, you guys have heard me for years now, but no, I think you're just, I'm just asking for
flexibility and open-mindedness. I think our community asks,
that of the school district. We ask that, let's just, let's just, I'm with you, Robin. Like,
how can we get this done? Let's, it doesn't have to be, just because this is how we always did it,
we have to do it that way. So, I'm done. Christine, for a fabulous. I'm done. I'll just keep going.
You know, me soapbox, Julie. I just, more perspective, obviously, from sitting in these seats,
that September to January, we are priced. We are sitting here all the time. I'm not. I'm
these conversations every year. How can we get better eyes on the budget? How can we have better
discussions? How can we do this? The answer is pretty clear. You have one meeting about school
and what that all, and then your next meeting is maybe we're just talking about budget. Maybe we're
dig diving, and that's it. Like that, it's all just budget stuff because you're first meeting. So I'm not saying
eliminating a meeting. Yeah. No, exactly. As much as sometimes we'd like to, right? But maybe, like,
re-coordinate how that looks because every year we're sitting here and we're like pressed up against
January and everyone's like, I still have a question about this, or I still haven't gotten an answer on this,
or I don't know this. Maybe from September till January, one meeting, school, school, because
it's important. But the next one is just budget, budget, and you can ask those questions. And if you have a
question, maybe the big question that's coming forward, it's about that.
athletics, that meeting, we know, and we invite athletics to meet with you guys. Because
it's like, oh, well, they meet with the budget committee, but how do we ask those questions?
Right. That might be the answer is that the second meeting is always that you can now ask it through
the budget. It's like, pool board and budget. And then after January, now you're getting into your
normal business. How do those meetings look?
But I just, I always feel the pressure of, like, I want to answer your questions, but then I got an hour.
Because it's like from six to seven or five to six in the budget.
And after that, we've got to get, we've got to get up to school board.
And now we're talking about policy.
We're talking about this.
I'm like, much more I needed to drive into.
And I haven't had a chance to talk about this.
And I feel like it's like, I'm going another month or whatever before I'm back in front of you guys going.
I'm like, by the way, your question you asked.
three weeks ago.
I just, I'm just saying that perhaps that's something we look at is during the budget season.
One is school.
One is like that.
Now that I've had a minute to process, I feel like so, as much as I originally, I was like, yes, I agree with the soapbox.
I fear that had we, say we skipped this meeting, or hit this meeting, how much longer is next meeting going to be?
And then we're going to run into that.
They're always long.
But we didn't even have, it's 8 o'clock and we didn't have scheduled topics.
Would it have been if we had add presentations and policy?
Yeah. And these to that next meeting.
It doesn't give us any time back really.
I'd rather have two shorter meetings than one really, really known.
I think to that, to that, I can, I can step up and try and do a little bit better job of managing the topics and the agenda items.
And I'm sure Bill will work on board with you.
We'll try and.
Donnie, don't make things up.
No.
Things up.
Oh, jeez, jeez, Julie's going to be bad.
We have enough to schedule topics.
Hold on.
What can we do?
We can never make enough of a person for me.
We've got more than enough in a year.
But I think between the two of us, we can do a little bit of a job of trying to manage what comes in.
But Courtney is not wrong.
Even with things progressing relatively normally, we have our nights that run long.
And they have our nights that run long.
have been plenty of comments of like, this is ridiculous. We're here until 9, 9, 30.
And okay, we could start tabling conversations at 9, but that just starts the process of rolling it into
the next meeting. So then getting rid of meetings or continuing to have long meetings is going
to build on that. So there's got to be some flexibility, which is part of why I say, but let's try
and get through the rest of at least the front half of the year or, well, the front half of the school
year anyway, and then go back and take a look and see, like, all right, how do things,
how do things run and try and take a look at it more holistically and be like, all right,
what does not make sense on? All right, could we take a day here?
Could we, or do we need to keep days because there's just too much going on?
I'm, you know, I don't want to wait until next year to do that.
No, no, no. I'm saying, but I think doing the evaluation on it, probably it does need to wait until
January.
After we finish the budget season and get through a seat.
what all this ends up looking like, because some of it is what's going to be ongoing.
Some of this isn't going backwards right now, unless they change things in Congress.
So I think that gives us a chance to live it and be able to better evaluate where that sets us up
for the rest of the year and come up with a better plan for our schedule.
Yeah, but I do think we need to listen to what Christine is saying, too, is the bet that she,
if she needs more time to talk about budget, especially during that sense,
second meeting or something, then that's what we should concentrate on is budget during that
second meeting.
It's going to be a lot easier for any year moving forward.
It's going to be a lot easier for your newly elected four members to fully grasp this
process of budget and ask questions and really, like, dig into it if we do separate out that
budget meeting versus school meeting.
And I like that a lot.
And I also think we could not necessarily continue with separating per se, but we used to do
workshops. We also used to start later, so we have more time for the, for the workshops.
I'm not going to propose that we start later, but maybe we start with a workshop at 530 or 515,
something like that that that gives us 45 minutes ahead. It's still open. People could come,
but then we could still open the meeting at six, continue on with that conversation if we still
have some topics that need to be addressed, and then dive into the rest of the schedule. So that you're
still going to get the time. We won't just cut off all bunch of conversations, right?
at six, if we need to finish getting through a few things, we might as well get it done and
get those questions answered so that the time in between can be productive.
I don't think that's chatty-cathies can do that in 45 minutes, to be perfectly honest.
No, wrong enough, which is why I'd say that I think it would have to bleed into the start of the meeting,
but it's either that or we save the budget conversations for the end of the meeting, and we could be
chatty-cathies all night long, but I don't think anybody wants to go back to the days of one
school board meetings used to go until 11 or midnight.
Well, I'm going to say you have to take the fool out of this equation.
Who knows if the chair this year is going to be the same as the culture two years of, like you know, two years, four years, six years. Who knows?
But I think, too, we work well in time constraints. So, like, we had 45 minutes for a walkthrough.
Guess what? We did it. If we say, we're going to start and end, I mean, this meeting, honestly, probably could have ended. I mean, probably could have ended. I mean, probably my fault.
but this meeting probably could have ended 45 minutes ago. If we said we're ending at 7.30,
well, we would have all, like, including me, and be like, all right, I'm going to shut up and let someone
else talk. So I think sometimes, like, we just, we do keep going on. Then we stand in the parking lot.
And, you know, it's like, it's, so I think that short meetings turn long. Long meetings are long.
I mean, we always have long meetings, because I don't know, we just can't stop talking about this stuff.
So all I'm saying is, is let's be flexible, let's be open-minded. Let's make our decisions as a board. We're a board of five. Nobody's vote means any more than anybody else's. So if you don't have any scheduled topics and you don't have any scheduled topics and we have an agenda like this, let's make a decision as a board and say, like, all right, let's take that. Not because I don't like to meet, but because we can wait.
I almost think that this can be solved just by saying, like, simply, the first one in September, we don't do.
It's the first week of school. It's like taking, like, regular, scheduled ones out.
I don't love the idea of skipping them in hindsight now. I don't. I just, I think we can pair the number down so then we can add if we have to, like, in general. But, like, this week, probably didn't make sense.
No, no. I think everyone's in great. This would have been a great week for a walk in July. Yes.
In hindsight, I agree with.
So I spoke with a teacher today who also said, and this was interesting, she said, I didn't know you guys, I said something about the walkthrough, and she said, I didn't know as a teacher that you guys were walking through. We didn't know.
And she's like, my classroom was a mess.
And I was like, well, we don't actually, like, really walk through the classrooms because we get it.
Like, we know that teachers put a lot of time and effort.
And they hadn't had their day yet.
They hadn't had their day. However, to quote you, however, wouldn't it be cool to acknowledge, like, oh my God, look at that.
That classroom is so cool.
Like, that's so cool.
Of all the, I agree with everything that everyone said.
And I think there is definitely going to be a new perspective on looking at the meetings and stuff.
But the biggest one is, again, tradition, history, doesn't matter why.
It was always before the start of school.
But why not?
Let's wait till it's done.
When the rooms are ready and the bulletin boards are done.
And we can peek in.
And then tell your teachers, like, oh, the board is walking through tonight.
Yes.
And if they're there, great.
And if they're not, we can peek in and be like, oh,
let's go look. Oh, this room is really awesome.
This is the brand new teacher.
Or like, and give them the, you know, only the little people see their rooms and a few parents, you know,
and I would love to see that.
And then we can, and if we do it, if we do it separately, like the first week of school,
well, the principals don't have to be here.
We can spend an hour, take a little more time and be like, well, wow, look at this, you know, the floor,
the this, so anyway.
I'm just talking.
Stop talking. I keep saying it.
Stop talking.
comes. Oh, they already is.
Yeah.
Fine.
Right.
Bill, Christine, any other comments from you guys for the evening?
No, I'm just very pleased with the opening of schools, and thanks to the efforts of everyone involved.
Motion to adjourn.
I just think, I, again, I appreciate that we're all comfortable to have these conversations
that not always wasn't, but they're always productive.
And so, again, thank you all for being able to have this conversation and be thoughtful about it.
So, no, I don't have anything else other than to let people know.
Our next scheduled meeting is a plan to be on September 17th here in the Elementary School Media Center at 5.30 p.m.
Early start, it's going to be a joint board meeting with Fremont to begin with,
and then we will transition into our own meeting after that, and I guess Fremont is going to transition into their own family.
And we have no other business this evening, so if I can get a motion to adjourn.
Well, motion to adjourn.
We have board comment people.
I was the first board comments.
Okay. All right. I was the first board comments.
Okay. All right. I just didn't want to like take over for everybody.
And I may you right. All right.
So moved.
Yeah. So moved.