2026 09 14 Board Meeting
Speakers are labeled SPEAKER_N. This transcript is machine-generated.
All right, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. I >> alian to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Are there any changes to the agenda? Seeing none, we'll open up for our first session of public comments. Is there anybody in the audience who would like to comment on things? We got live ones tonight, please. Kathy Kuslowski ring. I wonder if the timing may not be right for this, but I'm just looking for a little bit of clarification. I understand that we will be voting in November with regards to a budget cap. Did I understand in one of these discussions that at our deliberative session we could have an article to vote that down? I don't remember ever having that conversation. >> I'll I'll address that in my superintendent report. >> Okay. Okay. Good. >> The topic anyway. Yeah. >> And then John John McCarthy Jaffrey. And uh I noticed on the agenda is the approval of the uh budget development calendar. And I just wanted to ask are there any uh documents or you know any information that will be available before that November 2nd meeting and if so you know when when when might we expect something you know to work from? >> Thank you. >> Do you want me to respond? >> Yeah I would. >> Okay. So our um as as you you might be aware our Carrie Shields our CFO uh retired and as however she after a period of time is going to be coming back to work with the district on a part-time basis for the major operations of the the budget and the the financial um impact of the district um audits, things of that nature. Basically, making sure that we're in good um we're in compliance and that we're as transparent as we possibly can so that we continue to move forward in the way that we have been. Uh so when that happens, we'll when she comes back, which is at the end of the month, beginning of October, that's when we'll be starting our internal budget work. And so we'll get uh documents as soon as we possibly can. online. >> All right. Nobody online or Yes, we have somebody or we're >> we're be good with people. >> We like when people want to talk. All right. So, we're on to the superintendent's report then. Okay. So, the topics for this um are actually fairly broad and deep, but we'll try to speed up where we can, but also because the board um has a I would say different levels of history that we want to make sure that everyone has enough information before uh potentially making decisions as we've had some conversations about um fund retention and what to do with that and so forth. So, um, so we'll start off with the beginning of the school year, just a brief summary, uh, grant information and partnership updates, uh, the October 2026, just a brief conversation around that. uh the ledger article that we'll be uh putting out HP1300 that's what you what was asked of uh a little earlier in public comment and then fund retention and all of the topics that go along with that and then that actually then gets us into a conversation about budget. So, um, which we probably will not have a kind of intensely deep conversation about the budget tonight, but just it's a nice, it will be a nice segue for future conversations. >> So, first, um, we'll we'll discuss the first day of school numbers. Uh, I have those on a separate sheet and I'll put those up in just a second. But before that, August 24th and 25th and 26th, but but August 24th, 25th, two professional development days took place with our teachers and our um our parent educators. And so across the district, we had indicated last year that we were having a focus, a two-year focus on mathematics. That will certainly increase as or expand as we go on. But the first thing we wanted to do was make sure that there was um as much professional development in the areas of what people are teaching as as possible. So OGAP um is the training that the state department of education several years ago has brought to New Hampshire. Several people had some training in the district. We u made it a priority to get everyone in the elementary setting trained um in additive reasoning andor multiplicative reasoning as well as the middle school teachers were trained in multiplic multiplicative reasoning as well. Uh the next cycle of that next year would be that we'd focus on uh fractions um and ratios and proportions and so forth. So there will be a couple other um modules I guess you could say. So what happens on these two days is they had the first half of the training. The second half of the training is happening in October during those professional development days. And then trainers the uh individuals who come to help and and provide the professional development on uh best practices around teaching mathematics to young learners. they come back to do observations and and some coaching for us as well. So that all is being paid through title two funds. Um and that we've talked a little bit about that, but just wanted to let you know that that first half has taken place. Gives individuals a couple weeks, maybe a month, I guess you could say, uh a whole month. Yep. Because it's early October when the next training comes. So a whole month to implement the first parts of what they have learned and then to go after that simultaneously. Um the unified arts teachers started working together on curriculum development in the elementary levels. We have uh very uh vertically aligned curriculum from middle school and high school, but elementary um has yet to engage in that work. And so they started to do that work during that time frame and they'll continue that throughout the course of the year with other professional development days and a couple other um release days. Um, one of the goals within mathematics or another part of the mathematics work that we're doing is that uh in the elementary school, one of the or the subject area that we're going to um make certain by the end of the year is complete from the area from K to 12 is mathematics. And so, uh, we have six days that we're going to have to work to develop that. Um, and I say six, five or six with each grade level. So, um, David Dustin in his role, his expanded role, not just the principal of the middle high school, but also the MTSS uh, administrator of the district is working uh, to with all teachers to be able to help align all curriculum all the way through. Part of that and it's a significant element of OGAP training is making certain that people have um a strong understanding of what we call complex reasoning and how to uh bring about higher levels of thinking when teaching. So while we have while most you know most if not all of our students are uh doing very well with computation or solving uh equations or algorithms that is uh not what uh the level that we need them all to be at. Um and so uh being able to um synthesize multiple types of mathematics or or arithmetic topics um to solve problems is is very important. So it takes a lot of work to be able to get that to take place and that's what what's being worked on and that's what's being encapsulated in our curriculum documents as well. CPI training for PAR educators that's for um non-violent interventions to make sure that if kids are having some challenges we recognize what those are and intervene prior to a a problem occurring. um on the 8th during the day that we had elections the um the the uh here in this school and also wrench Memorial School uh several of the administrators and some teachers had some further CPI training uh as well. So um I still have to finish up two hours of my online training and then I'll have my uh certification for the next two years on that as well. the first day of school numbers. I'll just take a break from this and just to show you um whereas right here if you look at Jeffrey grade school K through five um we had a total present of 177 learners uh seven absence uh based upon who's uh signed up in in Alma. um that's our student management system and so 184 total and at RMS we had 259 with four absence for a total of 263. At the middle high school we were at 489 for the first day, 17 absence for a total of 56. um our pre preschool which started um on the 31st, so a little bit afterwards. Um but before Labor Day this year um and we had never had a full week actually with our four year threes and four-year-olds right away like that and I think they handled it very well. Um we had 63 uh but there were two absence >> on that first day. So 63 for a total of a little over a thousand which is roughly where we were last year. Actually I think we're about 15 students higher across the board than we were last year. Looks like Jeffrey grade school we might be lower um at that school itself. >> Those absence are a lot better than last year. Last year there was like 10% of the total population that was not in school the first day. >> On the first day it was that terrible were a lot. Yeah. So we did not have >> No, that's very good. >> Yep. >> I noticed that we don't have the uh the superintendent's report in here. So how do we get a copy of >> Well, it will be put in uh afterwards. I'm going to make turn it into a PDF. Um and I will add this to the slides. Um, it was easier to not put it in the slides this way because of how I got it. So, grants and partnerships. Um, last week I put in for another Millipur Sigma grant. Last year, we were awarded a $10,000 grant from our partners over here at Millipore uh for science education. We were able to utilize that for middle school and high school STEM. Uh this year, I wrote it for elementary STEM and uh with Project Lead the Way leanings and professional develop both for professional development in the elementary schools as well as for supplies to be able to um use during the school year. Um the we'll wait. I haven't received that yet, but it has been submitted and we'll find out. Some last year what they did was they had questions afterwards and then you know ask for more documentation or more clarification uh or maybe backup documentation that was necessary. Um the SAS grant we've talked a little bit about that's the one that we had the fiveyear a little over a million dollar grant that has to do with um our MTSSB multi-tered systems of support for behavioral um health. And so uh Antioch University New England is our official clinical mental health partner. So after going through a request for quotes, um they were the group that had the capacity to do the work that was outlined within the grant and also um they um are going to be doing a thorough evaluation of our MTSS or multi-tered systems support basically academic and behavioral um supports within the entire district. And so uh you'll you will likely see a report within several months of what that would look like. That would give us an opportunity to reflect on that and then make some goals around next steps. So that's also part of the grant. So they um put in their quotes for both of those aspects of the grant and uh they had the best capacity to do both both areas. So, uh, Kim Baker and myself, we are we've started to put together memorandum of agreements to, um, outline all of our workings together uh, for the course of this upcoming year and hopefully for years to come. But, uh, I believe we're trying to get together this coming Friday to take those MOAs and make sure that we're on the same page. I would imagine will take a few weeks for both organizations, our organization and theirs to sign off on it. We've used a a previous MOA that was approved here in the district um that we've used with Antioch. We used to very have a very strong partnership with them prior to COVID. Um and so this reinvigorates that which is which is neat. FPU partnership continues to grow. That's very strong. we're still their primary uh partner and so their learners are in the education um school of education over there all take classes either at Jaffrey grade school or at range memorial school right now they're at Jaffrey grade school this year at alters from year to year um and then also we have other pieces or or partnerships that have evolved from that primary partnership um And one of those is the inquiry scholars program that has been here for quite some time again during the COVID years went away for a period of time and then it's been building up over the last couple years with the elementary schools in both Jaffrey and in range and now it's at the secondary level this year. So they started at the middle school and will continue to um be held at Jaffrey grade school in RMS as well. um that there's a lot of research and uh thinking involved in that and presentation skills along with presentation skills uh being part of the writing nest also uh certainly there's uh creativity writing um podcasting and um and that's an afterchool program at both Jaffrey grade school and RMS. It will start at RMS I think this week and then RMS I mean start with JGS in the spring and then vice versa for the inquiry scholars. Uh just a note uh Jaffrey Ring Education Foundation which is a a small nonprofit in the region has been um supporting our schools for quite some time. Um shout out to them. they um are fundraising and putting a lot of their emphasis on our schools and specifically where they think they can have an impact which is with this in inquiry scholars program. And so, um, this provides opportunities a couple times a year for our kids, elementary and now middle school and and we've had some high school opportunities as well, but to go on campus, be in their cafeteria, present in front of uh, adults from around the community as well as um, in front of and with college students. And so, it's a great opportunity. families come and they all it's a very nice warm community event every time we do that for our culminating uh sorry culminating celebrations and then the top two bullets there are just some conversations that are ongoing right now I don't have a lot of detail as we're looking at some dual enrollment options in this in education uh for our kids as well as um expanding some college internships for their learners ers here. But those are early conversations. October 2026 education article. You know that a couple times a year we've been we've had the opportunity to write for the manuk ledger transcript. And so I've been asked to do that again for the beginning of October. And so here are just a few of the items that um we're likely to highlight. Um, if you have suggestions as to what you think that we ought to highlight, please, you know, provide that information to me. I have to have the article written and to them at by the end of September. Um, and so we have a couple weeks, which is which is a good amount of time. It shouldn't be a problem meeting the deadline. But we'll talk about what we talked about here with curriculum development, math professional development. This is our third year of implementation with English language arts and what we're doing to um, make sure that that is successful. Um we can talk about assessment results, innovative programming that's going on in various areas, um grants and partnerships, uh and uh finance and facilities. Certainly, um one really neat thing that comes a little bit later in this conversation is the area, uh idea of um prek, four-year-old prek. Um I think it'll be nice. Um I haven't had an opportunity to spend a lot of time at the Jaffrey grade school. um pre preK yet, but I am going to do a little more exploration with that as the teacher who's doing it this year is um has set up the outdoor classroom and regularly is out there with those four-year-olds both in the start of their day, at the end of the day, and throughout their day. You can go by drive by that area where the um Susan the dedic the dedicated um oh what do you call it the uh not bleachers but it's like a a place for theater. >> Amphitheater. Thank you. It's a place for theater, right? Amphitheater. >> Um >> not the car. >> Yeah. Not the Gaga car. So the amphitheater there. Um in that area you'll see a classroom setup and so that is being used on a regular basis and it's really great to see. Um and of course we know that um utilizing our outside resources um are important and engages our kids in a great way. So um we can likely schedule some time with the school board to go and visit some of the things that are going on in the schools. I think that would be great. HB1300 update. So this is the tax cap law that was passed in the last legislative session. requires that every New Hampshire city, town, municipality uh votes on a tax cap for school budgets and warrant articles. Um so again, the tax cap is about all of the financial um the money raised due to the entire warrant, not just the school budget. Now, um I was at a legal briefing on Friday. This conversation was at the Marramac County Superior Court. It was there not much action happened on that day, but we are told that it is there is going to be a decision made this Thursday as to whether or not um that court is going to say, "Yep, it's going on the ballots or whether it's going to be challenged uh further or basically saying it's not it's not okay." uh reason, you know, many would say that there's vague language, it's misleading, um is it an overreach? Those are questions that are out there about about that. For, you know, us, of course, if we were to have a tax cap, um and we can only look at a couple of the other towns in New Hampshire that have tax caps, um it would obviously pre present some significant challenges. So, um, especially as we are in a negotiation year, that changes, you know, that would change that as well. So, it impacts a lot of, uh, what we're trying to do to improve the district. Uh, certainly, um, what we've been trying to do over the last couple years, and we've had our financial struggles back and forth. Um, adding this is is another layer um, and a more complicated layer. So, um if it does go on the November ballot, there is um another way to uh I guess undo it in a sense. Uh and I and I I still have to the the attorneys are saying wait till Thursday. Um but they're wrapping their heads around it and I know that anything to overturn has to be done by a 60% of the voters. So whether it's uh a warrant article that gets passed has to be passed over 60% of it or whether it's um specifically for another warrant article to be out there to vote against like oh you voted for this in November so in March let's you know write another one saying we don't want it or something like that regard whether it's that way or whether it's the um just going and saying all right I'm voting for this this amount of money and we are voting and the voters are approving it by over 60% then that amount is approved in a sense over the tax cap. I don't know uh which one. I don't want to say. So after Thursday I'll get more information and we'll report on it at the next board meeting. Give you more clarification. Last time we met, the Jaffer School uh school board um authorized the retention of 83,320. And so that's the unassigned fund balance retention. Uh we are permitted to retain up to 5% of the net assessment. Uh I don't remember the number that Carrie gave us, but I think it was like 1.125 million. I think roughly around that. That's pretty close. This doesn't get us there. So, we're about maybe what 3% of the net net assessment is what we were able to retain. Um there was conversation about whether to give some back, keep some. Um there was conversation about if we do this, you know, get in the next year try to get it to the level that we would be at for um in case of emergencies or sort of conversations on emergencies. There were conversations about whether we could use them any of this, maybe not all of it this year to um help with some uh budget planning for the future. So um programming or purchases that could help support our budget in the future. So, uh, the first conversation we had was around, uh, transportation, vans. We've talked about that a fair amount. And so, there are two areas in the school district and in our budgets where transportation hits significantly. apart from just the normal transportation. Um normal transportation I'm defining that as uh the school buses in the morning and the afternoon drop bringing kids to school bringing them back home. Um or it also does not include uh special education transportation. So education that's going to out of district placements. So that's all separate from this. the two areas where we could most readily uh sol you know save some money this year and prepare for next year and so if we save some money this year we find out it's working oh we can budget differently next year automatically is in the area of CTE and the which is career and technical education and in the area of athletics uh we've done uh a brief kind of a not an indepth but a a pretty good um analysis of athletics and believing that we could save about $30,000 this year if we were to get a couple vans. Um of course it costs more than $30,000 to purchase the vans. So that's part of this conversation. Um we'll so we really need to in this part of this conversation look at the CTE the career and technical education. So, just for history purposes, for those who weren't here, I will not spend a lot of time on this. Um, we had an opportunity to get 75% of a CTE renovation here and add programming. Um, this is a copy of Governor A's proposed budget. When she came on, she named us and actually had more money in the budget than what we were asking for. Um, it did not pass. So all these schools in the past 20 years um at that time received this that 7525 funding. Uh our community chose not to go forward with that. Um also Conval's community chose not to go forward. Um they didn't even put it on the on the warrant and I think uh MSI decided to decline as well during that year. We went on a road show and discussed what this would mean. Now, there's a much longer presentation and because it meant a lot of different things, but one of the items that we were asked to talk about was cost. And we know that in um the way we have our agreements that um we are given the opportunity to have 75% of the population when CTE is housed at your own location. it could be our our learners and then 25% of the class would be filled by learners from other schools. And so basically we estimated some costs of what would be reoccurring costs and then reoccurring revenue streams and seeing that if we were to do this we would um be to the good over 100,000. and actually for the first couple years because usually new teachers when you're talking about career and technical education they're paid through a grant for a year or two and so um you'd have a little bit of a buffer for a couple years. Um you wouldn't have a buffer on a custodian or utilities or supplies but supplies are also grant funded largely. That's why the number is not very high here. So we um we missed that opportunity. This is what um it would have costs for the first three years would have continued going on but those would have been the tax rates. We were just we were asked to do some like a three-year tax impact for that and saw that. I think it's important to look at the numbers in 2026 27 um almost 900,000 you know almost 900,000 between the two towns you know um what would need to be raised and appropriated for the bond. That's assuming we didn't get any donations or anything of that nature, which we didn't get an opportunity to go for. So, we indicated that we could actually have a good revenue source. Fewer of our learners would be traveling all over the place. That saves costs and busing and so forth. We also indicated that if we did not have that sort of thing, if we were to lose this type of programming or not gain this type of programming that we would need to continue to send our kids in a variety of locations. Uh we've been to Hudson, to Milford, um Keen, Conval, MSI, anywhere if our students need it, um they want it by law, we we need to provide it and as long as it fits their schedule as well. And there are some other um there's other information about how to work it out with schedules, but that's uh that's not really part of this presentation. So, this is currently where we're at. Um we have 47 um CTE learners at various schools, Keen, Conval, and Msic. And um we were able to get courses this year that we otherwise wouldn't be able to get. We would have had culinary arts. We would have had a few of these other places. We would have held on to our um construction trades and so forth had we been able to move forward with that. But instead, right here um and there were 75 kids who had actually off wanted CT. So not all of them were able to get it. So about 30 did not. And this is for this first semester. A lot of these are year-long courses. So they'll be rep repeated for the second semester. Some are there's a few that are uh at Conval that are semester courses and so um other people may take other semester courses. So we're estimating maybe it'll be 45 47 for the um for that semester. We have quite a few out there. So, right now we budgeted um as has been really kind of what we've been spending uh we budgeted about a hundred a little over $100,000 for CTE um curriculum and instruction and we are um over that projected for the year by uh quite a bit. So um if it's not healthcare it's it's career and technical education. So, um, this year, this is the one. This is the item that we're going to have to figure out what we're going to do. So, um, we are anticipating that it's about a half a million. Um, I, you know, it's kind of a double-edged sword. You want all 75 to be able to get what they ask for, 30 more. This would be a very different number. So, um, that's just something to think about. Ruben, that's that's before transportation. >> Yes. Yes. This is tuition. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. And then there's transportation. In order to get our learners to these locations, there are several runs. And so you'll see we have about seven and a half runs. Um that green one is in the second semester. So it's possible one will drop off. Uh it depends because sometimes midstream someone, you know, chooses to, you know, not continue on with a course or whatever. It's possible. So from a transportation standpoint, you have two runs going to Msenic right now, three runs going to Keen, three and a half if you're this is we're looking at the year year long. Um it's about 50,000. I think last year was like 47,500 per run per year. it goes up a little bit this year, maybe a tad under 50. So, um the estimated transportation cost for this year alone, uh which of course we didn't budget for this is 425,000. So, when you put the two together, we're looking at and the reason why I wanted you to kind of engulf kind of bring in that number of 2026 27 of the new facility of 800 some odd thousand. This happened a little sooner than we thought it would, but it did happen. And um it's a good problem to have in a way that our kids are getting these these educational experiences. It's uh it is a budgetary problem. So $930,000 roughly um in uh where you know maybe 700,000 of that is non-budgeted. Um that's a that's a lot of money to have to find. Now you do get some um aid back. You can kind of take a look over here at the far right and see in the years of 21 22 23 24 25 and so forth that if your amount of money came back like if you had like $5,500 was a course for a semester or for um sorry um for the year$10,000 $11,000 um per per student we would we would you know, a certain amount. There's like this pot of money in this in the state that is distributed. It's a static pot of money. Um, and it gets distributed to based upon all the all the kids in the state who take CTE. So, it's split up and you can see it's been going down every single year in almost a linear fashion. And so, we expect that that will come back and you get so kind of like special ed aid, you get it the year afterward. Um although special ed you do get a lot more of it and um and the last couple years it's been right around where we've wanted or better than what we've budgeted. This is unlikely to uh you know give us what we're looking for. And but you can see that uh we used to get some local tuition right here for our construction trades uh when individuals came over and took courses our our way. At the same time, we have kids who were doing their construction trades here. So, we weren't spending for transportation or for um any of these courses. Um and then, uh we got some, you know, transportation, state aid, but it all here was the total tuition that we had to spend on those years, transportation, and the total expenses that we had. So last year we shared uh you know you know that um total expenses were a little under 300,000 a little under 200,000 year before 200,000 year before that. So it's it's been you know it it went up last year which is what we expected because we didn't have the programming. Um but that number with tuition and transportation. Um and you'll get you'll get some support here by this transportation. Um no local tuition and you'll get some state aid tuition at some point in time. Um but you're going to see that number uh get close to triple um that very likely for this this current school year. That does bring up just some other thoughts. And so, not just for this year and trying to help support the uh transportation of career and technical education to kind of reduce that risk, I guess you could say. But also, um, we've we've talked about, uh, going out to bid. Uh, you know, we have options with our current contract. Do we go out to bid? Do we go and does the board take and um and say we'd like to act on our two-year extension that is within our contract to be able to do and that could be that will be brought forward for conversation to the school board. But when we're looking at really trying to find dollars in these areas, um, you know, do we consider trying to figure out how to create some CTE programming? do we consider um knowing that it's not likely to be we'll never have that opportunity again to what we had and and so we'd have to do little bit by little bit and not all at once but also running our own transportation yes for CTE yes for some athletics but also down the road there are school districts that in New Hampshire and certainly around the country but in New Hampshire that do have their own fleet of buses and do run their buses through their school district. Now, there's a whole lot that goes into that, but there may be savings. And so, it um and just I chat GBT just to throw some numbers in there. And it would look like if you know, I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but it could be anywhere between, you know, $500 and a million dollars in savings annually if you ran it from internally. But that is um that's assuming that they have all their costs correct with buses and so forth and we have the right right numbers on those. Obviously that puts a huge uh load on the system and so you got to hire the right people to maintain all of that including bus drivers. Um so those are some thoughts. We also uh not really related to this but just in a kind of a pre-budget conversation is in we'll be going out to bid um in soon whether it be this year or the next year for food service and that's another thing do you look to see uh what you can do internally again a lot more work I've seen districts do it um and some have done it very well uh but you know you have to have the infrastructure to be able to do that and do um to do it in a way that's going to work for for everyone. And but that is when you do at least have the option to do it yourself, you are not um handcuffed by the corporations that um are out there uh who are going to bid for your programming. And since our bus company has been purchased twice and our food service has been purchased twice, you know, um or at least we've changed the food service a couple three times and it just got purchased out by another company. We're getting fewer and fewer of these companies that are going to be able to bid for our services in the coming years. Um this is just one quote uh that Heather was able to get for um a van. It's, you know, roughly around 65,000 u for a 15 passenger van. Uh we would still want to look and see if we can get some better pricing, but it checking with other districts, this seems to be the going rate. Um several other districts have been going toward the use of vans. I was just up in Plymouth. That's where we had our legal um training on Friday and Plymouth has several vans that they use I think for either CTE because they have some CTE ups there as well, but al also for their athletic programs. Um Amherst gave us some information. They have a small fleet. Um I think Milford uses some. Uh Laconia uses some. So, and I know that in the past anyway, I'm not sure, I haven't checked recently, in the past, Madan Knock had used vans as well for um different different types of transportation. So, if there was a desire to utilize funds for something like this, we would need drivers. We don't have people here who could just drop what they're doing and drive. Um, I think that that could be a backup if you know if you didn't if you had hired drivers and which we'd want to do some sort of part-time. You don't have to have the same type of licensing as if you have if you were to have a you know a 50 passenger bus. Um, but there's Primex has some specifications as of what type of training has has to happen for people to drive these vehicles. Um, if you estimate 25 an hour, I was incl I was saying I was thinking like 20 $21 an hour, $22 an hour plus maybe FICA and things of that nature. Um, 25 doing a little bit of math maybe would cost you about $45,000 to pay um a few people part-time um to maybe some people who are retired and want to just do something else for a few hours a day, not the entire day. Um if we can get some volunteers, we could try to get volunteers as well. We do have um volunteers that have signed up within the district, but that would be something we'd have to look, you know, more into. But if you were to do two vans, of course, we've also talked about still renting the Jeffrey um bus that's also a 15 passenger. That has cost us about 125 every time we do that. We already pay for gas and our budget. So that's, you know, no matter what type of transportation that's already there. Um, and uh, we would end up saving about maybe 20,000 because you'd be able to do maybe four CTE runs, you know, by the and get that going is if you could do it sooner than later and then of course have some money for um, savings in athletic transportation as well. Um, but you'd end up having more savings the following year once you have the vehicles and then you can add vehicles if you want to, but if you see that it's going well. So, doing so sort of a a pilot program. Um, I guess the one thing even though you'd save 20,000, if the conversation were to be able to to have a hearing and use money from the unexpended U funds from this last the retained funds that were retained last month that those funds don't hit our budget. So, in a sense, you're saving more within the budget. You're not you're not saving any more taxpayer dollars, but it would it would uh cause more cash flow to occur within the school budget because it wouldn't that 135 would not come from our budget. It would come from you know extra. So that's that's something to consider. And then the last thing um is that I well the last big thing is uh we had a lot of conversation about prek and what is the benefit and what to do going forward and um again if you do uh if you just ask what's the the return on investment for prek if you go in there to an AI any choose your AI um search engine basically and ask for what the return on investment ask them to get peer reviewed articles and so forth. Um, you know, this is what they'll give you if I I just want give me five peer-reviewed articles on the benefits of um early childhood learning. Of course, quality matters, but that's of course what we would want to have. Um, but they'll give you the the return on investment happens over the lifetime of the child. it can for every dollar spent um the research will say it can be I mean they said anywhere between four and $13 you know that's that's huge return New Hampshire did do this study um many years ago over a decade ago and found that it was really a for every dollar you would gain you know another dollar so you get kind of a 100% on your return Hampshire is different than some states how they do everything and so Um but this shows you the a little graph. was presented to the school board um as part of a larger presentation in 2017 um to show that during those years you can see 1 2 3 4 five um under the age and years that there's very important sensory pathways, language pathways, higher cognitive functioning that you want to be working on with your children to make sure that their neurons are firing at all levels. And that's helpful later on because one of the if you're again if you went and started to research this you'd find that one of the financial benefits may be it's tough to show because of what what I think is is clear it may mean it may lead to fewer referrals fewer special ed um identifications down the road. Uh it would seem that in the limited time that we've done this that we've had some examples of that that we've had fewer referrals um at younger ages. Uh we you got to have the program for many years to really collect your own data. But if but national data is national data. It's it says you're going to have uh you're going to spend less money with special ed down the road uh the more you focus on early intervention and early um quality education. Um there are obviously the the main wins are a lot more social and future financial success. And so here are a couple things that this was also part of that same presentation. Benefits are greatest for lowincome children. Um it's one of the reasons why we chose to um do the model that we did and have it not tuitionbased. Tuition is a barrier for low-income families. Whoops. Lack of transportation. That said, we also made the tough decision to not transport because that is, as we have looked at, extraordinarily expensive to transport. So, families needed to transport themselves unless, of course, their the learner does have an IEP and that's written in their IEP. Um, lottery approach doesn't identify the neediest children. That was uh we that's why we wanted universal And then pre-k testing is cost prohibitive and may not accurately identify greatest needs. Um but uh this was what the presentation was to do to fund four full days um and to do a pilot two sessions meaning two classes of that and then it was expanded um using esser funds for two years. the idea of using a grant to help um show the value of it within the school district. I think that most people would say they understand the value. They want they want that. Um of course it's an area that uh is also not required by law. So um uh the recommendation that I would have around prek is that um in knowing our financial state for this year in particular is that I do think we should keep as much of that money as possible. I do think that we also need I would I would like to see us potentially use those dollars down the road if those dollars are able to stay and remain to say we'd like to in our budget conversations. Maybe we are we keep our preschool, our prek and our budgets as is and be able to like a grant, use some of those funds and say we'll have a public hearing, use those funds to start building the prek the following year, get that in there and then try to get it back into that budget. Um it would not be subject to any sort of tax cap at that point in time because the money has already been taxed. Um, but it would give it would give us time to plan, give us time to hire properly, um, get us give us time to make sure that we're getting our classes completely full. Um, and also, um, in the meantime, give us a a buffer in case we need to do something later in the year because of budget shortfall. Um I do think the two areas of focus are are appropriate. um one can save money immediately but again it may that may in of itself be too much of a risk uh because we still have to hire we still have to hire drivers and things of that nature and find figure out that process a little bit easier to put together because we do have an SAU exempt and non-exempt um classification which we've been able to put together um positions fairly quickly that in that way that's what we'd have to use at least for the first year or So, that's a lot of information, like so much, but um it was as condensed as I I could make it. Um some of this information was shared at the education committee meeting. Um and then some questions were asked, so I tried to put a little more information in there. And um that's it. And I'm sure there are questions or maybe there's conversation. Um, >> before we open up for questions, would you like to take a break and get a drink? >> I would like to get a drink. >> Yes. >> I thought that might be something you need to do. See what happens when we don't meet for 3 weeks. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, congratulations on the beginning of the school year going so successfully and the attendance increase. Well done on all that. >> Um, well done to the administration and the teachers. Um, >> I I think they're I think it's gone really well. >> Yeah. >> Like like really well. >> Yeah. That too. >> Yep. It's very cool. Very very cool. Um, boy, there's a lot. >> Yeah, there's a there's a lot there. >> Um, the CTE program, we have to offer the CT, we have to offer the options. >> Um, do you foresee a time when we'd have to say, "No, I'm sorry. we can't go to the school anymore and offer these options. >> Well, we've had that conversation with the state department over the years because we've had learners who haven't been able to get I'll choose um let's say engineering, right? Conval is supposed to have it, some years they have it, some years they don't. And so when they haven't um we've had to um send learners to other places such as Milford or Hudson. And so um it's we are we are expected to um be able to as best as possible um provide CTE education for them for our learners. Okay. >> I mean 30 of them didn't get it. So, um >> because there are limited spaces as well. So, >> yeah. >> So, part of that was a a timing in their schedule. >> Yeah. So, we had um one school not give us their schedule for quite some time and so we needed to make decisions and so another school called us and offered us quite a few seats and we took them. We weren't going to not um make sure that we could guarantee education to our kids. Um and Masonic those numbers were are you know stable and they have two solid programs over there. So I have um comment and a question >> comment first of all is frequently we've we use the phrase unfunded mandate >> right >> this expansion of CTE and the ED 306 rulings is the perfect example of an unfunded mandate. We are required to send students out if they request it and it fits in the schedule and we can find the seat. Very difficult to budget obviously because we are $700,000 over budget >> estimate estimated. Yeah. So then my which leads to my question of how are we going to what are we going to do? Send the bill to this. >> Thanks Christine. >> I mean we work so hard to pay the school choice. Is that what it is? School. Yeah. School choice healthc care 800 >> last year. And I don't know if we have that wiggle room or I mean how do we how do we fill that? >> Yeah. So I mean it's not just about um like that that was the money was challenging with the healthc care matter last year but also the timing of it like everything was very scripted as to what time you could do things by. Um, so and then we had conversations during budget season about do we put that in the default budget, do we not? Do we, you know, there were a lot there's a lot of conversations. So none of these are in isolation from the budget. Um, and we were able to um through I mean we've had some situations where if you can't hire, you know, you've been able to have those dollars and then are able to pay that off. Um, if you've been following along, we've actually been hiring our PAR educators this year, which is a great thing. That's like wonderful. So, we're not fully staffed yet, but we're um at a staffed at a higher rate than we have been in years. And so, those dollars are less likely to be available for that sort of um trend data that we have had some trends, right? And so, that was one of them. We have we did have a few teachers that we were unable to uh hire. Um two in special education, one high school mathematics. Um you have to take care of some of that in different ways, but overall there's some funds there, but not that not those types of funds. No. Um finding ways to save in transportation uh is one avenue um to do that. Um it you know because we pay semester by semester it's a little bit better. You're not paying the whole thing at once, so cash flows a little bit. You know, we're always concerned about cash flow. And so, um, and then if our revenues come in well at the end of the year, like they did this past year, we end up okay. If the revenues don't come in, like special ed revenue is usually the one, right? If that comes in like it did maybe three years ago, um, we'd be in trouble. Yeah. they we had the lowest uh amount of special education percentage-wise I've seen in the last 15 years um under under a different commissioner and a different governor. But I think that um you know we're we're likely to keep okay this year is my understanding. But uh you never know. >> I have a couple of questions. First, if we don't have any CT pro uh things here, we we send out for all of them. >> That's correct. >> So, why does everybody else have them? We don't have anything here. >> Don't open that can of worms. >> Jes. >> Yeah. So the short answer is that we had a program uh we had a very successful construction trades program. Um we were trying to add originally we tried to add four programs. We were given we we were given um the promise of 75% of the construction to be funded by the state. of your tax dollars would have come back to the the >> Yeah, but that wasn't actually going to do most of these programs that you've got now. >> It's it's >> it's going to do maybe a third of them tops. >> So, we can't look at this cost and say that's how much we save because you weren't going to have them all there anyways. >> So, there Yes. So I think that the way you look at it is that many of those kids in our school um through that's why you do surveys and so forth would have stayed here for a career and technical education class. 75% of the seats would have been for our students and so it's highly likely that they would have and they were all year-long um like culinary was year-long, construction trades was year long. um those um those students would have come here. When they come here, then they then we don't spend tuition dollars. What's also happening is if they're here, you're not spending transportation. It is true that you still we we always had we always sent kids out to Gondal or to Mimic for automotive um occasionally to Keem for some things. Um but it but it would balance out what you do. Not to say that it would have been a wash like or that we would have been in the end making money, but we would have likely gained revenue from that here enough to offset some of the funds and then at least like you said half half of those funds would not be occurring. So it's um that's that's how I would that's how I would look at it. It's so we we missed that opportunity. The reason why our construction trades program um went away was was linked with that. Um we talked about it a little bit last time. don't want to get into it um because of uh some conversations really that had happened within uh deliberative session and as well as um the you know having a different opport the person having a different opportunity. They took a different opportunity closer to home. So um that program was then because we couldn't find someone for that. We said, "Menic, we'd hate to lose it, but Msenic has a site over there because I used to host the program and said, "Yeah, we'd like to give it a shot." And so, um, they were able to find someone to at least implement a portion of the program this year. So, that that's where we're at. >> So, from last year or let's say this year, how many you're saying? We have 47 students. >> Yeah, we have about double the students out, I think, >> from >> from previous. >> Is that what we have? 47 students right this year now that we're looking to do >> 47 students this semester um most of them >> and last year we were half of that >> yeah about >> what changed what what >> um we were able to find people who I mean a lot of people asked for it they wanted these this type of learning we knew that was trending that way uh it is pushed by the state of New Hampshire pretty heavily c CTE program you don't pay for it I've been on I've been on and state committees focused on how to uh the importance of CTE and how to get it um you know how to how to get into more kids' hands in a sense um but never to figure out how to find the revenue for it which is >> I also think that the um kind of push away from four-year colleges like New Hampshire is really saying trades are really the way to go right now. Uh there's much less more much less funding available for community colleges, state colleges, private colleges. So their their funding and their offerings are much much less just in the last two years dropped drastically across the board in New Hampshire. And that's and school loans are still in issue. So I mean the whole the whole rhetoric right now is get certified in something, get some sort of a trade going. So that also builds that a great deal of why there's a heavier interest right now. And if you can go to high school and come out with a certificate that you can start making some good money right away, you know, that's >> I mean, it could cost us a million this year and it could if it continues to grow like that, it could be double that next year. >> If there's no We don't have guessing. >> Yeah, there's no way of guessing. I think doubling would >> I could be I mean I suppose there were 70 to 75 if they all got their spots. There would have to be that many spots >> in in areas that people >> we don't have any room to add a CTE here that could bring us revenue in. >> So >> there was an idea. Yeah, >> there is an idea. Um and that'll be a presentation for another day. But but I did show the education committee members the space on the other side of the building that we were talking about for cosmetology. Now, cosmetology was the one we actually had taken off the planning uh because the group that was the community group that was working with the plan and developing like they were trying to like basically say uh this is let's let's tailor it. Let's let's kind of cut it down a little bit. And um and out of the all the programming that was uh we were going to go for two programs were cut. One was because the state department told us we had to. That was fire science. Um, and we do have, I think, a learner in fire science or two in fire science where we're at Keen. So, that's that's nice that they're able to get that because they haven't been able to. Then, um, cosmetology was the other one. There was conversation about that. Uh, it it was the most requested one for the region. That's how we know it would have some popularity. um it was a a very high interest. The reason for people at that time to say let's move away from that was the perception of u uh salary um obtaining obtaining a higher salary. So, they wanted to focus on the ones that they felt were more likely to um help a help an individual in their profession out of out of high school. Um I don't know as though current data suggests that that's totally the case. Um, I think what we would want to do is couple couple it with our with the business requirements uh so that we're focused on uh not just the cosmetology side of things, but also how to develop and run a business. And so you could use that space over there where there's already water, there's already plumbing and so forth in that area. um has and has a classroom adjacent to it. Uh has a setup that if we put some construction if we put some money into the construction and a door, an entryway, you know, and remodeling some of the internal aspects of the room. Uh we might not be able to get what we originally, you know, wanted to size-wise. It's about the size of what the original one was. Um, but the original grant had a lot of equipment and so forth. So, we'd have to figure we'd have to do the math again as to how to get it all. Um, >> so if we start budgeted out, >> if we start a CTE program, do we get assistance from >> Mhm. >> Yep. Typically, you can get assistance for a year or two with the teacher. >> Um, and when you start a new program that's not in the area, so we'd have to go through the state department of education with that. and and work with um our region floor team and um there there will be some work involved. Um and then equipment a lot of the time um there's Perkins funds. It's a federal grant that gets dispersed um but it is a sum of money that gets dispersed to you know in consideration of all of the programs that are in the region. So, I am unclear right now as to what our portion would be if we were to start a new one. >> It's a good idea to look into it. >> Yeah, I think it's I think there's a lot of interest there was a couple years ago, too. >> Yeah. >> More questions on the superintendent's report? Okay. Um, I think we have a the beginnings of a decision to make on the vans. Um, we would need to have a hearing to get the funds. We would need to get an accurate quote. Um, if we >> Yeah. And so does the board wish to uh move forward with using some of the unassigned fund balance funds to purchase two VMs to help offset some of this 900,000 potential. It it'll offset a little bit of it. >> Yeah. I mean, I I think it'd be probably definitely worth the research to make sure it's that it's going to put us ahead because there's other thoughts of where do we house them, where do we, you know, maintain them, how much are we really saving, where do we, you know, all those factors, but I'm not against the vans. Uh, but I think we should retain the majority of the money. If this program is going to cost us that much, we may need some funds for that. >> That's Yeah, I'm I think we should look at what what's the insurance, what's really going to cost, registration, the housing, where are we going to put them? >> Yeah. The staffing. >> Yeah, the staffing. >> Right. Staffing. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Out of curiosity, um, would we be adding the security cameras that exist in the big buses? >> Just kid thinking about that. >> All right. So, we'll take a motion. Uh, let's just make this formalized. We'll take a motion to ask the superintendent to pursue um I know we've kind of talked about this before. probably even made a motion um to pursue uh purchasing um and yeah or and the option of leasing. We can also look at that um two vans for both daytime and uh athletic use. So, somebody want to make that motion? I'll make that motion. >> Thank you, Ally. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Christine. All in favor say I. I >> I opposed abstain. Okay, that's a 700 Z. So, I know you'll clean up that we probably made a similar thing before, but let's make this more formal. >> We'll firm we'll firm it up. And so, do you want Let me ask you a clarifying question. Do you want me to schedule a public hearing and have it firmed up for the public hearing or do you want to have it for the next board meeting and then decide then after seeing that what you want to do? >> Next board meeting. >> Y >> I have one more question about the driver aspect. >> Yeah. If a retired teacher wanted to drive, would that uh interfere with their ability to collect retirement from the state? >> Not if >> depend on the hours. >> Not if it is underneath a certain number of hours. >> Depend on there. >> Yeah. So the schools that we've talked to so far, there's a few different ways they pay. Um, so we'd have to look at the avenue that's probably, you know, the best for us and how we do how we operate within a business office. Um, and I would think hourly would be the way to go. >> Um, then they indicated that yes, uh, many of them re indicated that they were able to fairly easily get retired. retired uh individuals. It wasn't just uh educators, >> right? >> So, and we do have one person who's already expressed interest does some work with us. >> Could you go back to the slide that shows those scary numbers? >> Yeah, just because I feel like exploring a tooth scary numbers. >> Yeah. So this is just for the CTE. Previously we saw numbers for the athletic program transportation which were also scary numbers. Um so as we >> much less scary. >> Yeah. Um so I know Dan you had said you know you wanted some real firm stuff but nearly all of this is speculative um for transportation. The tuition's not as speculative, but the um it's estimated, but that's pretty accurate. And that's only if we keep at those minimum learners. There's still seven, you know, there's a total of 70 plus that actually want them. Um, so >> and you'll get 50 to 70,000 maybe maybe maybe 30,000 30 I mean actually last year because that's so much probably 30 to 50,000 in revenue from last year's CTE that will come in to help offset some of this and that yeah I know I'm just I'm just saying that there's there's some there's some revenue coming in >> 900,000 yeah these are estimates it could be 800 it could be a little bit more it all depends on what happens So, we're we'll do the best we can with the numbers, but um >> as far as the transportation goes, that is speculative. >> Um it's just what's happened previously. Like it's it's educated guesses. >> Um but educated um so we will you these numbers for transportation are just CTE. We will save money likely save money if we do this for athletics too, which is where this whole conversation started. >> Yeah. Um it's just becoming more and more realistic that we actually don't really have much of a choice. Like this is this is the smartest move we could probably make. Um >> and it has implications for the tax cap. >> So >> Thursday we'll find out what the next move is >> for this year. >> Mhm. For this year. That's correct. Now, I I didn't quite get the um our enrollment. Is it up or down from last year's? >> Little up. >> Uh I I would say flat. >> Flat. Yeah, it's uh I think I'd have to look at I'd have to look at last year's on the first day. I'll have to look back, but I think we were a little bit higher than last year on the first day. But I think overall I think that's the number. I think that with the Sentinel may have reported us out of at a thousand one. I think it was it was either the Ledger or the Sentinel in one of its articles recently. I think it was the EFA article. Would have been the Sentinel. And so this would be a,5 or 16. your decrease is really well you would have had 30 extra prekers probably because we've been averaging between high 80s and 90s in prek and we're at 63 so that's a that's a cut and we had several people move out but we also had a lot of people kind of move in or come back from either home school or well some came back from home school some came for the first time from home school then others had come back from some charter schools that they were in and someone else. >> All right. Anything further on the superintendence report? >> Okay, let's move on to the consent agenda. Um, beginning of the school year, lots of lots of movement happening. Um, we have manifests, uh, payroll, uh, budget transfers, appointments, lots of appointments. Um, I will say I'm intrigued at the appointments. I'm used to seeing and probably we'll see in the coming up and um, this time of year is when we get all the coaches and there are some, but there's a lot of other staff which is really exciting that people are still eager to be here and wanting to work with the kids and and it's it's really exciting seeing the number of par professionals. we we need those like that's a legal obligation we have and to see them coming in is so exciting. >> Um so that's that's says a lot for our culture um that they really want to work with our kids and that's just lovely. >> And just the note on Jessie Bell transferring basically that's just a matter I mean she's been there. It just the paperwork just was done. You know she has already started in the first grade. There's no change. >> Okay. Good evening. >> Any um any discussion on the consent agenda? >> Okay, we'll take a motion to approve it as written. >> I move we accept the consent agend as presented. >> Thank you, Sandra. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Ally. Is that Ally or Judy? Allie. Correct. Okay. Any further discussion? >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. opposed. Abstain passes 700. We have the minutes from August 17th. Uh so I think we were just missing Ally, I believe. Okay. Um so we'll take a motion to approve those minutes. >> I will make a motion to approve the minutes of August 17, 2026. >> Thank you, Christine. Is there a second? >> Thank you, Jared. All in favor say I. >> I. Opposed abstain. >> Passes 601. Are there any discussion items? Okay. Action items. Uh there's a field trip approval that um I would just like to say a little thing on. I'm just going to see if it's on here. So the >> Boston Tea Party. >> Yeah. For the Boston Tea Party. Um I got uh a message from the director of the wrench historical society um who said who's who are funding this with something the range hang on I was looking to see is it listed here okay why am I not seeing it before okay so So the wrench historical society is funding this and um and it might be with another wrench group but um this was put forth this was uh the brainchild of Don Kenoyer a teacher there in ring um and uh the director of the historical society was just so incredibly impressed by this teacher just reaching out saying I want to do this with the kids can you help like we really we see the need for this we're we're building our career curriculum around it and uh is there a group in wrench that can help and this historical society was thrilled to be able to help but they were just so impressed with this teacher um just putting that forward and and this is look at that it's 80 learners that are going to get to go due to this due to the efforts of this teacher um so thank you Don for doing that for the kids and the historical society for stepping up and saying yeah we can do this um it's huge it's you know it's truly truly valuable and important So, >> is that returning time 4 a.m. supposed to be 4 pm? >> It should be 4 p.m. >> That's that's a good question because because in another district and overnight, right? So, three-hour tour a whole another >> level in the policies. >> Yeah. >> So, yep, it is PM. >> Yeah. And so, okay, it's for the seventh grade. So, it's not just for Ring, it's for Ring and Jaffrey kids. So, I think it was the Jaffrey Historical Society that also partnered with them if I'm not mistaken. >> Um, so, but really cool that Don did that. >> You mind if I um piggyback on your compliment? >> Yeah. Yeah. You've talked a lot, Ruben. >> I know. I know. But I want to just also recognize Don and the other two middle school social studies teachers. All three of them are also teaching a high school course. >> Oh, wow. >> This year, which is really cool. So they're expanding their um teaching to uh more kids but also just different levels. So uh each and every one of them. So um Dom and Erica and um this lost track, but that's funny. >> Yes. And he was James. >> James, thank you. James Norley. So sorry, James. Um but all three um had a good conversation with him the other week just talking about his his 11th grade class. So >> okay. All right. So we'll take a motion to approve the field trip. >> I'll make a motion we approve the field trip. >> I'll second that. >> Thank you guys. Uh any further discussion? >> Yep. I have a question. Mhm. >> So, um, the eighth graders are wondering >> if this 7th grade trip somehow takes the place of the eighth grade trip to Washington DC because there is nothing scheduled. I don't know that they do that anymore. >> They did it last year. >> Really? American Heritage. Okay. >> Yes. And in fact, initially on the calendar, it was the September 17th meeting was for the American Heritage Tour and now it's for the seventh grade. So getting a lot of questions on that from Kates, which is fun. All right. So, if there's no further questions on that, we don't have an answer. This is the answer. >> Put that out there. >> That's going to be that's going to be a note. >> Maybe Mr. Norby knows since he is um the eighth grade social studies teacher. Maybe he can direct the kids. >> All right. All right. All in favor of approving the uh Boston Tea Party Shipping Museum 7th grade field trip say I. >> I opposed. Abstain. Has a 700. Now on to the budget development calendar. Um the board has all had time to review this. Um have there are there any issues that the board has seen? I heard one comment from uh the public asking if there was any way the first deliberative session could be done on a Saturday instead of a week night where it runs pretty late. >> Yeah. So, we've had that conversation. It certainly we it could it does um we then compete with other school districts that have them on that Saturday. Um and I think a couple have them, right? >> And that means um not so much that that really matters that they have them except that they have our attorneys. We all share attorneys and so we usually are guaranteed to have the attorney that we that knows our district at our location when we have it at Wednesday. we've had it on Wednesdays. So, that's something that could be considered if you wanted to um weigh the weigh out those options with >> Can we look into it and hold off on this until next meeting or is this going to be >> They're not always set. That's a So, the other districts don't have to set theirs at the same time as we do. Um, and some some are put in place and then we could see if the attorney would be available for that Saturday. If he's not, then that just kind of answers that question. We just got to go with what we got. >> Yeah. If we asked if February 6 was was an option, >> right? If he says no, February 6 isn't an option. I'm I'm somewhere else. But maybe we'll claim him first. >> I do like the idea a lot of doing it on a Saturday. I do I do like that idea a lot. >> Yeah. We also have to make sure that we're looking at when the um towns have theirs because they usually have theirs on a Saturday as well and it's fairly close. At least Jaff is. >> Yeah. I know that um >> I don't think we've set our calendar yet for >> Yeah. for for the Mananak district. I know I go to their school deliberative and then I run over to the town deliberative. So yeah, to to Ringerstown deliberative. So yeah, it's it and we do have a strict time frame of when we can have the deliberative. Yeah. >> Deliberative. So >> So we can go so we can um I guess you could do a couple things. Is it going to approve it with the caveat that we're going to look into that or if there's other things? I don't know. But will that would that change any other dates? >> Well, as long as the one above the state SB2 deadline for first session session is in that window, right? So, we just need to be in that window. Um, the question is, do we which which side of the window do we want to be on? I'll take a look to see what we can do. Yeah, I mean, we could approve this through um, let's see. Let's see. Filing. Yeah, it has to be within that week >> of of uh, the 30th through the 6th. >> Yeah. I hate to I it's very sketchy planning this with snow um snow in the mix. So doing it earlier really makes good sense. >> Is am I reading that the deliberative session has to be in the line above it says uh the last day for the deliberative session would be February 6th. >> Yeah. So then if we >> it has to be in that one week. We have to >> then we wouldn't have a a snow date, >> right? >> So the icy three asterisks next to that one and you go down to the bottom. >> Yeah. >> Inclement weather date is the following day. So you have that Thursday if Wednesday doesn't work out well. >> That's part of that's also part of the reason why we have done it the way we've done it. Yep. >> Is the 30th a Saturday? >> Question calendar. >> Sandy does. >> Yes. >> Mhm. So maybe we can see if that's an early that's a very early date um for us, but we can be a look at it. I can make some calls. if that's something the board wants to look into. We certainly did. You know, >> I don't mind getting it over with. I'd be fine with the 30th. >> And last year the town had theirs on February 7th. So that would have be February 6th this year. >> Yes. I remember it was very close. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Why don't we do the 30th? All right, I'll try. I'll see what we can do. >> And then the inclement weather date would be what? >> Let's do Wednesday. >> Okay, let's keep it that Wednesday. People people know Wednesday. Like that's that that could be a throwing thing, too. Is that people remember that? Okay, that Wednesday night is when we go for the school. >> Yeah. >> Um so that that does make things complicated, too. Um, but I don't mind not getting out at 11:00 in the night. It makes it a lot easier for families to do it on a Saturday than on than on the evening. Makes it a lot easier. Okay. So, let's stick with the 30th. um as a potential and approve the budget calendar. Really the important things for us uh are the plan the times going to that and I really strongly can't ask enough for you guys to be in person for all of these meetings. Um these are heavy conversations that we have. Um they're they're extremely heavy. I you really need to be here to be active in this process. Um, so, uh, let's approve the calendar calendar. We'll take a motion. >> I will make a motion to approve the calendar as amended. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> A second. >> Second. >> Jared, you want to take us take that second just because you made the amendment? >> Sure. >> Okay. Jere any further discussion? Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Abstain. 700. Okay. And then we have a uh we requested a different format for our stipens. So we have lots of pages here to uh to learn about. Reuben, the floor is yours again. >> Okay. All right. So, um we are putting together I mean right here this is just uh Hold on. One second. School. Okay. So, this is an example or this is the snapshot of data. This is an example of what would it would um look like. Um I think what Leslie was putting forward was wanting the board to look at this and say is this the is this what you're looking for? Um and so in the past we've shared you know information about who it is the activity and you know more or less the um how much it was. And in the past what we've done is also when a stipen has been updated uh whether it be we usually if if it's been increased because for instance like um we have someone or you know who might it's an hourly stipen. It's not really a stipen. It's an hourly rate. So it's stipen based upon hourly rate and they need to have more hours in there. if we increased it by like a $100 or $1,000 or whatever like that, let's say that the entire amount of the stipen would be repeated. And so last year there was this conversation or if you in the summertime it was conversation around, wow, we have $900,000 in stipens. This is a lot, you know, can we have more conversation around that? Um and and know more about where things are at. I said, "Oh, a lot of those are duplicates." Because they we just, you know, share when things change that the the easy process was to just say, "All right, once it goes through our entire digital system, routing system, it goes and gets put on a spreadsheet and then sent to the board." That's not um the accuracy that the board wants. the board has now looked and said actually we we're really interested in not only like what the stipens are but is it um paid through the budget is it paid through a grant is it something that is required through um a CBA for instance uh CBA is a for those who are watching is a collective bargaining agreement and so um for instance I'll give you an example there is a $4,000 stipen for the lead nurse in the district. That's in the JREA contract. There are um there's $200 per evening music event for the music teachers if they have um evening events. So, every single one of those is that's within the contract. So, those are examples of what's in the contract. What would not be in the contract? It would be what we have done um during the um summertime and the year basically the two areas um of curriculum development sometimes in the summertime that runs that has typically run between 20 and $40,000 and then um that's not there is a there is another piece of the contract for $12,000 that is specifically in the contract but that's that's the stuff that's not in the contract. Then you have um PLC team leaders which tends to be the other one that of significance. Um and that's those are the team leaders who work with all the that help you know disagregate all the data and so forth. And we'll have a presentation at the next board meeting around our summitive data and then how PLC's work to inform instruction. um there'll be an example won't be a full-blown presentation on that. >> So if you scroll down >> if you scroll down >> I think this is what um I think this is what we were looking for. So and >> uh because of how so the labels at the top um really separate out. Okay, so here's a here's a um not a quarter um but here's four months of um each of these aspects. But then if you scroll down to an uh I think the next page, it separates out um where was it? Hang on. It separates out what you were just talking about with grants and keep going. >> Um Yep. So keep going down. Um right there. There. Go up a little bit. Yep. So here's separated out by the grants funded ones. >> Um and then the next page separates out the contracted ones. So this is ideal. I I think Lizy did a fantastic job with this. Yeah, that looks great. >> Oh, very very clear. >> But is there anything that you think you are missing from this? >> Separated out by school. >> It's separated out by school. >> It's page four. >> Um, number three. >> What's that? >> It is separated by school, >> right? Yeah, it is. >> Oh, I thought you said you were suggest Yeah. >> Yeah. No, I can't I I think that this is exceptional. And then here's the CBA separated by contracted status. >> Okay. >> So, um like for instance, five years ago, I think it was um all of the stipens or all the payment I guess you could say for coaching and club advisors were pulled out of the JREA CBA. So, they were contractual. Now there's a bit more flexibility within the um ability to be competitive. The reason why it was pulled out, it was a quite a process to do that, but the reason why it was pulled out was because uh for at that point it was like I don't know seven years I guess their salaries hadn't been hadn't really uh been added to. And so we were finding that we were quite off the mark from other schools. Um we did lose some coaches in that process. We're still you know on the lower end of things but not terribly low and we have stayed within a range of 157 or sorry 150,000 to 170,000 for all co-curriculars for the past 15 years. >> Cool. I see nothing more that I would ask for. Anybody have input? >> There's only one more thing. I think that if we do have a change, what we're going to do is report the net of that change, >> not the entire number. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, I'm using this. This looks fantastic. >> So, >> Leslie, do you have something to say? I just looked over and saw the chat. >> Yeah, she said no change for me, but if she if that would be fine. >> Is the board okay if Leslie chimes in? >> Yes. >> Okay, >> sure. >> Casey Leslie's not here. She's online. >> She's online. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Hi Leslie. >> Hello. How are you all tonight? Can you hear me? >> Yep, we got you now. >> Okay, great. Uh, yeah. So, um, just to clarify what Ruben said, we said we weren't going to do change reporting because the percentage was uh a small amount and a huge amount of work to include each uh each quarter. Um, at the end of the year, we'll true up. We'll do like uh a report with uh finance against what was actually paid and what we had reported to the school. Um this um this besides the fact that this will give you more clarity into seeing what's been done. You'll also uh I will prepare for you the spreadsheet of data um not just the reports. So, um, what you're seeing is a spreadsheet and then it's all broken out into cross tabs and I'll give you that whole package and if you want to slice and dice it however you'd like, uh, be my guest. I mean, that that's why uh, if you want to dig in and see more, you have we'll have all the information available to you instead of a static report. Um, the other thing I'd like to say is what we're doing is we're grouping. We have on that first sheet that Ruben was showing, which was the sideways spreadsheet. It's showing how we had all these complicated position titles. We still have those, but we're putting them into buckets. All right? So, it is easier for you to see on your reporting like that. Okay. All these people go into CPI training or they're all part see um what is going on. >> Okay. >> Right here. You see that? >> Yep. >> Yep. And so to correct something um that I said >> Leslie indicated that we're not going to do the change per quarter, but we'll true it up at the end um because of the amount of work it takes each quarter. So >> Okay. Right. >> This was a tremendous amount of work, Leslie. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> So, if this looks good, this will be, you know, we move forward with that. >> Leslie, are you still on? >> Yes, I am. >> Is it if if it's okay, I'd like to go back to something we just did. Um, you're the business administrator. Um, >> business analyst. >> Analyst. Thank you. >> Businesses. I don't want the administrator's job. Thank you. >> No. Business analyst. Um, do you have any issue or thoughts on changing the deliberative to January 30th? >> Um, first you better get a district clerk in soon. >> Yeah. >> Because I'm not doing that job uh coming up. Um I um all the notices, all of that type of work is going to have to jump up at least a week and with the holiday season, you know, posting and getting enough notices in could be a little difficult. Um, so, uh, if you've got a firm decision now, I I don't see an issue. Carrie has always dealt with the actual calendar, not me. >> Yep. All right. Well, thank you for this work that you've done. Really appreciate it. >> Okay. So, I hope to have something for you for the first quarter of the year. Um, I Your next meeting is still in September, right? So, it would be the first meeting in October and it would show the first quarter of the year. Okay. >> Excellent. Thank you. All right. So, uh, we will take a motion to approve this format for the stipened reports. >> I'll make the motion to approve that. >> Thank you, Ally. Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Thank you, Sandra. Any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Abstain. Passes 700. All right. >> Would you be amenable to me taking the screen for a bit? >> Do you mind if I go right ahead about something? All right. So, we have some policies to look at. Um, so I spent uh some time this last week. Um, you all know that I have issues with the fact that I can't access the policies actually in the building and many of us can't um because of the format of the wiki that it's located on. Um, it helped a great deal um in creating a um a Google folder that was not related to a specific person. So if that person actually left, which happened twice, we lost all the information um that had been acred. And so now there is a board utility folder that is uh a district folder um and so protected from that personnel issue. Um, and so in that folder, I created a um a spreadsheet of all of our policies and put links into all the PDFs so that um I could at least look at this and I shared it with the policy committee. Um, and in doing so, I had to look at all the policies and open them up and I found some errors that I needed to correct. Um so some of these are um the first one is uh BDC is the old policy um from uh 2024 and prior to the amounts that the school board would be paid as well as the treasurer and assistant treasurer. and that was um redundant and changed uh in BID to a different amount. And so um we approved in 2024 a $1,200 school board chair. So I know yes, I'm the chair, but this Charlie and I worked really hard on this policy. So we want to get this right. So B and BDC are completely the same and redundant and I'm asking the board to resend the BDC that was not um accurate uh to keep the BID policy. So that is the first one. Then um interestingly the policy GCB if you go to the wiki and open um this policy it actually opens to the previous policy. We literally don't have this document in our database whatsoever. So I found this document on the New Hampshire Schoolboard Association because I have no record of what the Jaffrey Wrench policy for GBC was supposed to be. This is a recommended policy and it simply says professional staff get access to contracts. Pretty basic, but we actually didn't have this. So, we need to put this back in now um as the accurate GCB. So, these are two corrections that I found um that I would like to get. Um it's first reading, but if anybody wanted to say yes, these are no-brainer connections, we can put it through right now. Um, then we could wave the second reading and simply approve them. I'll leave that to you guys. Any input? >> I'm fine with that. >> Me too. >> It's just a housekeeping thing. >> It's just housekeeping. >> Yeah, just do it. >> Do it. >> Great. All right. Uh, do it. Does that mean you're making the motion to do it? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I'll second. >> Second. >> Do it. >> All right. Um, any further discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. I. Opposed. abstain passes 700. So Wendy, that will mean that BDC is just completely off the books. Um, and you'll see the GCB when you click on it, you'll see, oh yeah, those are the it's just the previous policy before it. It's old. It was not on you. This was this was an old thing that happened. We haven't looked at the G policies in this area in ages. All right. Um this is uh tonight is the second reason reading for the KHB policy that we brought forward to you guys. Um and um this is Is this the accurate? This says 2024. I'm going to go back to Wendy again. Wendy, this says 2024. Is this the one that we edited? >> I believe so. >> Okay. So, I must have just copied it. Oh, yes, because I added Kappa. Yeah, this is me. Um, so I added some pieces in here. Um, so this is just for uh approving tonight. So this would move forward. And what this will do is open up some a little bit of freedom we hope for especially our athletics program to be able to take advantage of broader advertising. I believe that as we explore these options, this is going to come back around and we might have more edits to make or find some uh things that we want to put guard rails on. I don't see that right now, but uh we just want to make sure we're uh giving our um the people who want to like Donoyer who want to reach out and say, "Hey, help us fund things." We want to give them as many uh opportunities as we can and as well as keeping our kids from any sign of exploitive opportunities there. So, all good. Can we have a >> Can we do the same with this and pass just like we did last? >> That's what a second reading is. Yep. Yep. So, this one is just going to be for passing. >> The only comment that cuz I watched the last board meeting was the addition of putting logo in on that first line under definitions of advertisement and it doesn't look like that meeting in there. I don't know if that's >> Yeah. So, I hang or not. >> Yep. Control. So, let me look up why. What did we talk about? Um, so right now we have no logos or symbols unless they're associated with identifying the specific entity or enterprise. So you're saying we needed something different? >> No, it was just under the definition. So any payment of money or other economic benefits to a school or to the school district. And then it kind of names things. Um name, slogan, product, message, just logo is not in there. I don't know if it needs to be. >> I understand what you're saying. Somewhere else. >> Okay. Uh under advertisement. >> Yes. And under publicity and promotional material would you say >> so under A and C would you say there? >> I don't know. I don't know if it has to be under C. It's defined under A. >> Okay. So video placement. Okay. Name, slogan, logo or product message. Yeah, that's what my understanding was from the last meeting. >> Sorry about that. All right. So, Wendy, would you please add that in? >> Sorry. Now we get a third reading on it, everybody. >> Okay. So, that would go there. And um and you can email me, Wendy, if you're not sure. And I have it now. Thank you. And you're right here. I wasn't quite sure. Yeah. So, it was a communication thing. >> All right. So, we're going to approve as amended. Are we okay with that amendment adding the word logo there? Great. I make a motion we approve as amended. >> Great. Thank you, Jerry. >> Second it. >> Thank you, Dan. Any more discussion? >> Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? Abstain. Passes 700. Okay. And then um we actually needed Reuben for these. So these were interesting, the third reading ones. And uh these had um some administrative questions on them. But more importantly, they also had some faculty and admin that were actually working on similar things through professional development and they were coming back. So um especially the J the generative AI um the academic honestly there is a a work group working with that as well. So even though these are like not all of them are mandatory, all of them are changes. I think we want to actually pause these uh for a few weeks. Ignore the whole third reading. It'll come back a little edited. I think that the recommendation is that we we all we have very uh I don't know how to say it. Accurate is not the word. We have good policies for the EBCD, EHG, AG um with the academic honesty and integrity and IKL. So we have vibrant policies in place. We have faculty that wish to do more work in this before we bring back a comprehensive policy. So is the board okay with pausing these four for now? they will be coming back to us, but we'd like to give the people who are going to be really implementing these policies the time they need to work the language through. Is that cool? >> Perfect. >> Okay. It's not that we don't have them except for the ACD, but there Okay, good. So, then we're going to go down uh as Ruben said at the next agenda item. Uh we are going to be talking a lot about assessment. I don't know if you guys have um been watching the New Hampshire DOE uh notifications that uh many of the statewide assessments have become available. They're well worth looking at. Um especially to get um as we delve into assessments, I do want to recommend that you guys look at the DOE website to kind of get a real sense of the vocabulary used and the how the how the assessments are um aggregated. So doing the little homework before that session will only help us. So yeah, we can move forward with that. Um we I have no idea what Ruben wanted with the action plan, but we'll find out in the future. Okay. Um is there a second public comments time? We lost our audience. Policy always does that. >> Yeah, >> that's not fair. >> It's our job. Casey, do we have anybody online for public comments? >> We have a few people. I just sent a message. >> Yes. Oh, great. All right, you choose which ones. I'll put the public comments notification up here. Hello. Anybody here for public comments? No. Fine. Okay. All right. So then, all right. Board matters. I warned you about this, people. Um, we need a delegate to go to the annual delegate assembly. It's happening Saturday, October 17th. It lasts about four hours. I've gone the last two years. Um, and it's neat to see all the other school districts, um, and to hear their concerns, to hear, it's really, really nice to be with a group of like-minded people who are just struggling with exactly the same things. Um, this is truly an a-olitical body. this is you get every side of the aisle um you know speaking and sharing and it's and it's uh active and engaged and it's and it's pretty powerful. I really recommend it. Um so is anybody available to go on the 17th to conquer? >> I'll be away that weekend so I won't be around. >> You could do that all in doing that. >> Excellent. Okay. I'll share the information. Um, so will somebody please nominate Ally to be our delegate? >> I will nominate Ally to be Alli Pitello to be our delegate on October 17th. >> Excellent. Is there a second? >> Second. >> We're all secondly. >> Um, and uh, we get to have a backup. I always forget what it's called. Um uh uh in case Ally can't go um is there somebody who would wish to be a second? >> I I'll be a backup. >> Okay. >> I mean, usually I wouldn't notice know until closer to the date, but I'm I'll be put as a backup and wonderful. We'll go from there. >> Great. All right. So then, um I will put that information in that you guys are going and get you any emails and stuff. That's wonderful. Um any further discussion? So, we'll assume that the that the motion and the second will include Jared as a second as as a backup. Um, so all in favor say I. I. >> I. Opposed, abstain. 700 Z. Thank you guys so much. It it's it's a neat thing. Thank you. I'm I'm glad you said yes to that. All right. And then we are going to go into non-public session. So, we will need a motion to go into non-public and it'll be a roll call. >> I'll make motion to to public or non-public. >> Thank you, Alex. Second. >> Thank you, Dan. Um, and then we'll do a roll call. Jared, >> I >> Sandy. >> Hi, >> Christine. >> Hi, >> Ellie. >> Hi, >> Judy. >> Hi. Oops. >> Hi. >> I Okay, >> jump the gun. >> We're all We're all >> even though you weren't part of the previous session, you are a part of this. So you're you're fine to be part you can you won't be voting but you can definitely hear the conversation. >> All right. All right. Thank you everybody.