[0:07] Okay, everyone, welcome to the Bedford School Board meeting of Monday, March 31st. Can we all rise for the

[0:29] School Board members, Carol Lamarish, Bill Foote,

[0:31] Minty Bader, Andrea Campbell, myself,

[0:33] Sujiannano, Superintendent Mike Bornear,

[0:36] Assistant Superintendent Tom Liberty,

[0:38] Mrs. Administrator Lisa Ambrosio,

[0:40] and Student School Board Member Jake Chef.

[0:43] Any changes to the agenda?

[0:45] No changes.

[0:45] Perfect.

[0:46] No one's different public comments,

[0:48] so we can jump right into the agenda.

[0:52] Okay, so we're gonna jump right into

[0:53] the Bedford High School principal nomination.

[0:56] But before I start, thank you very much

[0:57] to the school board for scheduling this evening's meeting, primarily to meet Dan Morris and also to nominate the K-6 staff.

[1:05] So, Dan, if you would mind joining us at the table, I just want to take a moment and extend my thanks to a number of people.

[1:13] But the process that we went through with respect to finding a principal for Bedford High School was thorough, it was comprehensive.

[1:21] We had a number of qualified candidates apply.

[1:24] So thank you to Sue and Andrea for serving on the committee.

[1:28] The professional staff were Sean Carnegie, Abby Courier,

[1:31] and Michaela Nudding, Melissa Starsfield, and Molly Topp.

[1:34] We also had Lila Dutton and Laura Hurley for support staff.

[1:38] Parents, Beth Purcell, Matt Lee, Amy Finnerty, and Jenny Kawhett.

[1:43] Thank you also to Phil Schappler, Tom, Jake Schaff,

[1:48] for all being part of the committee.

[1:50] So, just as an overview, the position was advertised for about three weeks.

[1:55] We finalized the timeline in late February community senate.

[1:59] The students gave feedback on March 5, the third through the sixth we received feedback

[2:04] from the school community and parents and teachers.

[2:08] That was read out to the board at a meeting.

[2:11] The selection committee reduced the number of candidates to interview to three of which

[2:17] Dan was one, and that was on the 12th.

[2:19] The 19th was a full day of interviews for three candidates.

[2:23] So I think the candidates day started around eight,

[2:26] ended around 230.

[2:28] And thank you to Tom O'Liberney, Chris O'Hara, Martha Pawn,

[2:31] and Cory Parker, who really made everything happen

[2:34] at the high school while I sort of helped facilitate things here.

[2:38] March 20th, the committee came together

[2:41] to make have a discussion.

[2:44] The committee narrowed it down to two candidates

[2:46] and decided to site visit was in order and so there were two site visits that were held

[2:52] and at the end of that site visit that committee of five came back with the unanimous recommendation

[2:57] and that recommendation was Dan Morris. And so tonight we have before us Dan Morris

[3:03] and I just want to introduce you to him but everyone on the hiring committee including our

[3:08] student school board member is very excited to bring him before you to be hired as the next

[3:13] high school principal at Bedford High School.

[3:20] You did well.

[3:23] Thank you.

[3:24] Thank you.

[3:26] So maybe just take a second and talk to the board about just a little bit about your,

[3:32] they have your resume but just sort of give a quick overview of the grade.

[3:35] Sure.

[3:37] You know, as you'll see in the resume I have spent my entire career in the member school district.

[3:44] I am really excited for this opportunity.

[3:49] I was very selective, and I really only wanted to

[3:54] apply to positions that I thought were the perfect situation,

[3:58] and I only applied to one, it was here.

[4:01] And the further along I got into the process,

[4:04] the more I realized that this was just a great opportunity.

[4:08] and a great, you know, high school community,

[4:13] and I'm very excited.

[4:15] Everyone I've met has been incredibly welcoming

[4:17] and supportive, and I'm really looking forward

[4:19] to being part of the team.

[4:21] Thank you.

[4:22] Then maybe Tom and Andrea, maybe the two of you

[4:26] could talk a little bit about your site visit.

[4:28] Yeah, sure.

[4:29] You wanna start?

[4:29] Yeah, I can start.

[4:33] Dan laid out a great visit for us.

[4:37] We get to meet with students, special educators, support staff, teachers, board members.

[4:44] We get a full office staff.

[4:47] I might be missing some people, I'm not sure.

[4:51] But I will tell you that we met.

[4:55] First group we met with was about an hour.

[4:58] And I just left there feeling and I use these words to Andrea.

[5:04] that was from their hearts. That was not a canned conversation from people. We asked very

[5:14] few questions, and they just kept building upon each other's answers. And there was just

[5:21] an aura and a vibe in there that is it's hard to quantify it and it's hard to describe,

[5:28] but there was something that was very unique and very genuine and authentic about that

[5:32] a visit and everything they said was very positive.

[5:38] Yeah, I would completely echo.

[5:40] I walked away just feeling like everybody talked

[5:45] about your connection with the students.

[5:48] And as a parent and as a teacher,

[5:51] and I know Jake was kind of feeling the same way,

[5:54] like three parents cried about what happened

[5:56] in difference you had made.

[5:58] And I was like, cheers in the eyes

[6:00] because we all have those, you know, things that our kids need and it really was, like Tom said,

[6:07] it was such a genuine situation, conversation with those, with those different people. But I think,

[6:15] like, I walked away from our visit with your school just feeling really positive. Like, it had

[6:19] such a positive vibe everywhere we went. Oh, and funny enough, I ran into your music teacher on

[6:25] Friday at an NEA thing and I was like hey I just met you and his band teacher had this awesome

[6:34] music class going that we got to step into which was really cool but yeah such a great

[6:40] such a great visit it just felt like really positive I think we all walked out just like big smiles

[6:47] on our face like that was pretty special what we saw so I'm really excited to have you join us

[6:52] Thank you.

[6:53] And Jake, can't forget about you.

[6:56] I mean, at going to almost the exact same thing, I really resonated with the students

[7:00] that about you.

[7:01] I mean, it was awesome.

[7:02] And there wasn't just the parents that were crying that really felt hard to heart with

[7:06] you, but the kids really looked up to you.

[7:08] Like they looked up to you, like not just a role model, not just a good friend, but like

[7:11] everything that you'd want in someone to be there for them.

[7:14] And so I really, really thought that that was powerful.

[7:17] Thank you.

[7:18] Yep.

[7:18] I guess the last thing I'll say, so the board knows this, is that I know this is about

[7:23] Dan, but Jake made a huge impression on the hiring committee, a huge impression.

[7:30] To the extent that didn't you even make a phone call on your own to an employee and report

[7:36] back to us?

[7:38] You just like to give a quick overview?

[7:39] I know, very impressive.

[7:42] It's awesome.

[7:42] I love, I think I love roughing so much. It's such a small community, but you learned

[7:47] and meet a whole lot of new people. And so with that, I got to connect with someone that

[7:51] used to work at Penbroke, and I had an amazing 40-minute phone call. They spoke nothing

[7:56] but highly about you. Every single thing that they could think of, there was stories that

[8:00] I came back to tell. They just said so many positive things. It was awesome. It was really

[8:05] cool to see and I was already like oh I kind of like this guy what's up.

[8:11] She just made it 10 times

[8:12] better so that was awesome. So it was really nice. I just want to add about the interview committee

[8:17] itself. I was just so happy and pleased with that process. Everybody I know Tom and I talked about

[8:24] this when we were at the site visit but everybody was so open-minded and unbiased about you know like

[8:32] hearing from the candidates, hearing the pros, hearing the cons, hearing each other's opinions.

[8:38] And especially like the teachers who have, I think, the biggest, you know, stake in the

[8:43] game.

[8:44] They were so just open-minded and asked great questions and great feedback, and I just,

[8:51] the process was really great.

[8:52] 17 people.

[8:53] I was like, oh my god, this is going to take us days, but I'm full, I did take us days.

[8:58] But it was really well done.

[9:00] I really enjoyed the committee itself.

[9:04] I thought was really good.

[9:05] I kind of left feeling like everyone brought value to it.

[9:08] Like you almost sitting out, everyone had a voice,

[9:09] everyone taught, and everyone had a really good voice.

[9:12] Yep.

[9:12] It was very good.

[9:13] So with that said, assuming the board votes,

[9:19] yes, which I hope you will, Dan will start July 1st.

[9:23] He's, Bob Jizokis has already reached out to him

[9:26] as have other members of the leadership team

[9:28] to sort of roll out the red carpet, what do you need?

[9:32] We will probably trade some days.

[9:34] He may come here during the school year from Pembroke

[9:37] and then in the summer,

[9:38] they need to go back and help out a little bit at his district.

[9:41] So all of that is sort of the wheels of motion

[9:45] are going so far.

[9:47] It's been good.

[9:48] Yeah, everyone's been very welcoming

[9:50] and Bob has been a great support.

[9:53] I'm going to talk to him on Thursday.

[9:55] Looking forward to it.

[9:58] any motion? Yes, please. Motion to hire BHS principal, Dr. Dan Morris.

[10:08] Okay. All in favor? Hi. Welcome aboard. We'll get you your contract this week.

[10:17] Okay, so thank you. I'm very important. We need to know how do you prefer to be

[10:22] addressed. Dr. Dan, principal Dan, director Morris, principal Morris, what's

[10:28] your what's your preference? Mr. Morris is good.

[10:31] My son already asked at dinner tonight he said so it's Dr. Morris. I said I

[10:36] think they called him Dr. Dan. Yeah, seniors, seniors, you have to earn it, right?

[10:43] Yeah, you have to be a senior. You're a senior. I mean we heard was it in the

[10:49] interview committee that we heard Mr. Jizokis is called Bobby J.

[10:54] Why is that not the case?

[10:58] It was, Bobby J, I'm like, what did you hear that?

[11:03] Yeah.

[11:04] Yeah.

[11:05] Thank you.

[11:07] Thank you.

[11:08] Congratulations.

[11:08] Take care.

[11:09] We'll see you.

[11:10] And I will text you when the press release goes out.

[11:13] Great.

[11:14] Thank you.

[11:16] Thank you.

[11:17] All righty, more nominations.

[11:22] Okay, so as you know, we've held off on the K through six nominations.

[11:27] We needed to get through the Kindergarten, full day Kindergarten recount.

[11:31] That of course passed and so as a result, we are in a place where we can nominate all four

[11:36] schools and I am happy to report that while there are four reductions at these levels in terms

[11:43] of staffing there will be no rifts required for this going into fiscal year 26.

[11:48] So

[11:52] do you want a motion just to approve all four schools?

[11:56] I think it's fine.

[11:57] So I will make that motion.

[11:59] Second.

[12:00] On favor?

[12:01] Aye.

[12:02] Aye.

[12:03] Okay.

[12:03] Mike, when do you anticipate posting for open positions for kindergarten?

[12:11] So it's a good question.

[12:13] Right now at Riddlebrook, we are looking at enrollments.

[12:20] So right now, Riddlebrook, there are enough students

[12:22] to warrant three full-time teachers.

[12:25] And so, of course, there's two there.

[12:27] And in order to prevent the rift, that third person,

[12:30] somehow, that position will be filled there.

[12:34] Peter Woodbury is still at two.

[12:37] and I think memorial is up to three and I haven't talked to Philly yet but I

[12:43] think right now it's all being internal but as the numbers as the numbers grow

[12:48] then we will start adding people but it's gonna get a little tricky because I

[12:52] don't want to add all the positions unless we have enrollments to warrant them so

[12:58] we're gonna have to pick a cutoff day as to when we're gonna stop but so for I'll

[13:03] I'll just give you an example.

[13:03] So our numbers are 20 plus or minus two.

[13:07] So in order for Rillbrook, for example,

[13:10] to get to a fourth position,

[13:12] they need 67 students.

[13:14] Mm-hm.

[13:15] 67 more?

[13:17] No, 67 total.

[13:18] Oh, okay.

[13:19] Yeah.

[13:20] And it has, like since last Wednesday,

[13:23] has enrollment picked up a lot?

[13:25] Or is it so?

[13:26] I'd have to check, not yet, not yet it hasn't.

[13:30] I think word is still getting out.

[13:32] And then I also had a conversation with New Morning School, because they offer a full-time program.

[13:38] Their enrollments are about where they have been, so I think they're anticipating fewer students

[13:43] and we're anticipating more, but I don't know where it's going to.

[13:45] Okay.

[13:46] So why don't you cut off date?

[13:47] We haven't set that yet.

[13:49] Yeah, I mean, August 1st, July 1st?

[13:51] No, I think.

[13:53] It's got to be the day you're supposed to go.

[13:53] It's got to be, like, guys, the reason why I'm hedging is because it's like how close are

[14:01] to read to that. So if I get to, if I get to August 1st and I'm one student away, that's

[14:07] a different story than if I'm 10 students away.

[14:09] I think as if we're offering, though, you have to be able to provide teachers for it.

[14:12] So you have to almost over staff to, well, the question will be, one of the questions will

[14:18] be, do we end up having a clap, do we add another section or do we have a class of 23?

[14:24] That's some of the harder decisions it depends on how that goes. I want to maximize the

[14:30] value that we're putting forward. So I don't want to over hire, but I don't want to under hire.

[14:35] So we're still working out those details. If somebody shows up, you have to find a home for them.

[14:38] So if you get to, of course, we will. 23. And then you need one more kid shows up here at the

[14:43] marginal 24th. And then, right, that's no different than it's always been because I know my kid was one

[14:48] of those 24th. You know, and with that, it's been so much of years past when you come before.

[14:52] Yeah, if you remember, my first year's superintendent, I had to ask for two part-time kindergarten

[14:57] garden teachers, get all gifts.

[15:02] So we're going to try to always kind of flaky. It could be big. It could be small. Yeah. Yeah.

[15:10] Okay.

[15:12] We're going for policy updates. Yeah. We're going to policy updates. So these are all just. Yeah. So none of these policies have changed since you read them before. So I'm not sure if you want me to go over each one. If you want to just adopt them as is.

[15:34] I think we can do them all, and then embedded in there is also the withdrawal of AC-E.

[15:47] So maybe we can just do that one separate just so it doesn't get crowded.

[15:50] we can do one motion to adopt all of the one two three four is a five or six on

[15:56] here and then a separate motion for the withdrawal of AC.

[16:02] Motion to adopt draft

[16:05] policy AC AC AC dash are AC. Okay all five policies all six.

[16:19] Okay.

[16:20] All in favor.

[16:21] All right.

[16:22] All right.

[16:23] And then I'll make a motion to withdraw policy AC-E.

[16:29] All right.

[16:30] All right.

[16:31] All right.

[16:33] That's

[16:38] perfect.

[16:38] Thank you.

[16:40] That would way better than I expected.

[16:42] Well, with new changes.

[16:44] There's no need to really.

[16:45] We've seen them all.

[16:46] We've talked about it in late, so if there's no changes, it's pretty easy.

[16:56] All right, so we've got a request for a parking.

[17:00] Yes, so the policy's not linked here, but it's within that fundraiser policy that if they want to use school district assets that it needs to be approved.

[17:10] Right, so historically the past several years, the PTG typically request two spots BFR, the past couple of years has requested a spot.

[17:19] And so they're asking for the same spot to be raffled off for next year.

[17:24] Is that Bedford Friends of Recreation just to make sure everybody knows what that is?

[17:33] We do this every year, right?

[17:35] We do.

[17:35] How it says it right there?

[17:36] There you go.

[17:37] There you go.

[17:38] Except the motion to approve the parking lot approval for B4.

[17:46] Second.

[17:46] B4.

[17:48] So was that a second?

[17:50] All in favor?

[17:51] Aye.

[17:52] Okay.

[17:53] Thank you.

[17:58] To exist in two minutes.

[18:05] Make a motion to accept the draft minutes of 3, 24.

[18:09] Sorry, I can't wait.

[18:10] All in favor?

[18:11] Aye.

[18:12] Aye.

[18:13] Thank you.

[18:18] And the material is included.

[18:19] It's just the final document from the last meeting.

[18:22] I just want to make sure that everybody had to take a quick piece of it just to make sure that

[18:26] It does look like what you remembered you committed yourself to.

[18:30] How about you?

[18:30] You weren't here.

[18:31] We committed you.

[18:34] I was like, wait a minute.

[18:35] How did mine go again?

[18:36] I don't remember saying I was going to be chair.

[18:40] It looked fine to me.

[18:44] It's also posted currently on our website, update on our website.

[18:54] All right.

[18:55] And then we have nothing in consent agenda that takes us.

[18:57] Let's go.

[18:58] It takes us a short subject and goodness.

[19:00] Let's try to compete with you, Andrea.

[19:02] Yeah, it's always that.

[19:03] Yeah, bars were sent when I wasn't here.

[19:05] I know.

[19:06] We're meeting indeed.

[19:06] I know.

[19:08] Short subjects.

[19:10] We had some exciting news from Bedford Destination Imagination.

[19:17] They sent 14 competitive teams to the affiliate tournament in Amherst this past Saturday, March

[19:23] 29th.

[19:24] They had approximately 100 students bring their creative solutions to the tournament this year and astonishing eight teams out of those 14 that competed earned first place in the state.

[19:36] So that earned them all an invitation to travel to Kansas City to compete in the global finals tournament, which is at the end of May.

[19:45] And then nearly every campus is represented in that count.

[19:48] Peter Woodbury, Riddlebrook, McKelvie, Lurgio, and BHS.

[19:55] Even more impressively, the other six competitive teams that didn't qualify earned either second

[20:00] or third place, and no Bedford teams scored lower than third place.

[20:05] So pretty remarkable.

[20:08] All three elementary campuses also sent rising stars teams.

[20:12] These five teams of Kinder to second graders are not competitive, but they work through their

[20:17] challenges for their entire season learning teamwork, creativity, problem-solving,

[20:23] costume design, and script writing. So pretty awesome stuff. And thank you to

[20:28] Kelly Shusoffsky for that update. Really awesome stuff from all of our schools

[20:34] and all of our students. So way to go. Great.

[20:40] I just wanted to comment kind of going

[20:45] off our top of our meeting with Dan is I just want to send a shout out to Mr.

[20:51] Jizokas and say thank you for his years of service. We've only been I've only

[20:55] been here for two years with him but he's made a big impact on Evan and he's

[21:00] found somebody to advise the armored combat club which is the most important

[21:04] thing in our house right now so but obviously we're excited for Dr. Dan but I

[21:11] know the community's really gonna miss Mr. Jizokas so it's gonna be a

[21:15] bittersweet for a little while I think definitely based on our interview

[21:18] committee you know lots of lots of good vibes there for him. Well he's been part

[21:23] of that school since the beginning. Yeah he started in 2006. I was the principal

[21:32] of Riverbrook and he was on the high school planning team. At the very end of

[21:38] the hallway on the first floor there were two rooms. He and George Edwards and two or

[21:43] with three other people were part of that planning team.

[21:46] They used to love walking down the hallways

[21:48] with little second graders right there.

[21:51] So, I also wanna say that I really appreciated,

[21:54] I don't wanna beat a dead horse,

[21:56] but that committee was outstanding.

[21:59] It was, there was nobody on there

[22:02] that just had a one track mine.

[22:04] Everyone was very open-minded.

[22:06] They did their homework.

[22:08] I have watched across the state some of these processes,

[22:11] and I would say that ours was very comprehensive.

[22:16] And so I really appreciated the time people put in,

[22:19] the thoughtfulness, and all the work that went into it.

[22:21] And I think we landed a really good spot.

[22:25] I just wanted to add to, I wasn't on the committee,

[22:28] but I had the pleasure of meeting all the candidates

[22:33] for the parent sessions.

[22:35] And, you know, only catching that little glimpse,

[22:39] I felt kind of unsatisfied, you know, as you guys needed more information.

[22:43] And so I just really appreciated all of your work, you know, that you were able to share,

[22:51] you know, with the rest of the team who wasn't able to be there.

[22:54] And just making us all feel really great about this choice.

[22:58] And, you know, and it's great, you know, it's awesome that, you know, we have all different perspectives here.

[23:04] and so it's just thank you for that and thank you for the diligence that you guys did.

[23:12] All right I just want to thank everybody that was involved in the kindergarten

[23:15] recount process. It was the first for me as far as an experience so it was really

[23:20] just interesting just there was a lot of moving parts it all came together so

[23:23] from the you know school board moderator to the new clerk to all the volunteers to

[23:28] the observers just to everybody that was present when that was when that happened

[23:33] and we had a couple of students there as well.

[23:35] It was just a really interesting process

[23:37] to kind of witness and be part of.

[23:39] So it was a cool experience, so it was good.

[23:42] So I just wanted to thank everybody

[23:43] that took their time to come out

[23:44] and help us with that.

[23:46] And I had a brief interchange with one of the people

[23:51] that requested the recount.

[23:54] And the comment was, while it wasn't the result,

[23:56] he was looking for, he really appreciated the process

[23:59] and it reaffirmed how reliable our elections are.

[24:09] So you probably heard, but it has some pretty good sports teams.

[24:13] Probably heard that here and there.

[24:16] But I want to build on what Kara said a little bit ago.

[24:21] I was going to mention DI, but you did a nice job with that over the weekend.

[24:25] Just some other things that have gone on.

[24:27] Model UN competed a few weekends ago, and we had many of our kids get recognized for their performances at that.

[24:37] Deca is in full swing, and if you get the chance to go to their award ceremony, I'm at the end of the year in Manchester.

[24:45] It's phenomenal, and again our kids do very, very well and get recognized as future business leaders.

[24:52] and also our theater company. This weekend they got named the best production and

[24:59] qualifier to the state drama festival. So we have great sports teams but we

[25:05] also have a lot of great other activities that our kids are involved in and

[25:09] succeed in and I just wanted to give a quick share of those tonight. And one more

[25:13] the Granite State Challenge team. How did they do? Do we know?

[25:23] I saw a lot of, I saw, yeah, I didn't see how they, yeah, I didn't even landed, yeah, I was afraid to watch and see if I could be in any, well I know I wouldn't be able to be our high schoolers on any trivia.

[25:39] And the storm is moving on to the New England District Championship.

[25:43] Awesome.

[25:45] Go on this weekend, this midfield.

[25:47] First robotics.

[25:48] Yeah.

[25:49] I said this.

[25:49] Yeah.

[25:52] First off, I highly doubt it, but if any kid is watching for Bedford High School in as a junior,

[25:58] school board positions me open next year, and I'm hosting a, I'm not hosting, but I'm going to help run a Q&A on Wednesday.

[26:05] That's the 720.

[26:06] So any questions comes from by and the junior is also a good look on your SATs.

[26:12] That's right.

[26:13] SAS and SATs this week.

[26:14] This week?

[26:15] Good week.

[26:16] Yes, junior parents.

[26:17] All five of you who are watching.

[26:19] All your children.

[26:22] Big shoes to fel, Jake.

[26:24] Yeah.

[26:25] Both literate.

[26:26] Literally.

[26:29] All right.

[26:31] No non-public.

[26:32] So we are done.

[26:34] What should we do, John?

[26:35] Yes, please, sir.

[26:36] All right. All in favor?

[26:38] Aye.

[26:38] All right. We are adjourned.

[26:40] Thank you all. Good night, bad for you.

School Board Meeting Monday March 31 2025

Transcript