[0:03] Good evening everyone.

[0:04] I will now call this meeting of

[0:05] the Dairy School Board to order.

[0:06] Please stand and join me. In the Pledge of Allegiance,

[0:11] I pledge Allegiance, speech flag,

[0:14] the United States of America,

[0:16] and to Republic religious stands, one nation under God,

[0:20] indivisible, liberty and justice.

[0:28] Thank you. We will start with the roll call.

[0:30] If everyone could introduce

[0:31] themselves, starting from my right.

[0:32] Dr. Carrie Sandon, assistant superintendent,

[0:35] Jane Sard, business administrator.

[0:38] I'm Michael Flynn, superintendent Brenda Willis.

[0:40] School Board. Michael Thiel, school board Chair.

[0:43] Jen Thoro, school Board, vice Chair.

[0:45] Jamie Crew. School Board. Karen Rand, school Board.

[0:49] All right. Thank you everybody.

[0:50] Our first order of business will be the consent

[0:52] agenda for tonight.

[0:54] We have the public meeting minutes of August 25th, 2026,

[0:57] the non-public meeting minutes of August 25th, 2026,

[1:00] and the manifest in the amount of $4,797,499

[1:05] and 2 cents of which $3,578,509

[1:09] and 90 cents is general payroll

[1:11] and $1,218,989

[1:15] and 12 cents is general expense.

[1:18] Do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda?

[1:23] So Moved first by Jamie. Second. Second by Karen.

[1:26] All in favor? Aye. All opposed. Motion passes. Five zero.

[1:32] All right. We have one presentation.

[1:34] We have the principles of our six schools with us tonight,

[1:38] so I will turn it over to Mike to introduce everyone.

[1:42] Thanks. As we are well aware,

[1:45] last meeting we had was the first day of school

[1:46] and we held all of the good news

[1:49] and things that have welcoming back for our principles.

[1:52] As always, this is their favorite board report of the year.

[1:55] They get to talk about all the cool things

[1:56] that are gonna kick off the year, the work

[1:58] that's done this summer, and really

[2:01] answer any questions that we have.

[2:03] Alright, we're gonna go in reverse order.

[2:05] 'cause Lisa always, yes, Lisa always says, well, what else?

[2:09] So here we go. Thank you.

[2:21] I can.

[2:27] Hi everyone Again.

[2:31] Thank you once again for this opportunity

[2:33] to talk about Gilbert H Middle School.

[2:36] When you work in schools,

[2:37] there's something always special about the

[2:40] start of every new year.

[2:42] And preparing for that successful launch

[2:44] starts in the summer, and that's a lot of our summer work.

[2:47] So I'm gonna talk a little bit about summer Big thank you

[2:51] to our custodial and FA

[2:53] and facilities teams that work tirelessly

[2:56] to get our building ready and just,

[2:59] and as a additional project this summer,

[3:01] we also had new flooring

[3:03] and it's really freshened up a part, part of our building

[3:06] and we're very thankful for that.

[3:08] Alongside those physical upgrades,

[3:11] we've also worked the summer hiring new staff

[3:13] to get prepared in that way.

[3:16] And we're thrilled to welcome 16 new staff members

[3:19] to our community.

[3:20] We have nine classroom new classroom teachers,

[3:25] a new school nurse, and six new support staff.

[3:28] And watching our amazing returning staff welcome these new

[3:32] hires into our community, has been fantastic.

[3:36] While a quiet summer building allows us to prepare,

[3:39] nothing compares to the moment our doors open

[3:42] and a little over 607th

[3:44] and eighth graders come through the doors.

[3:47] The energy, the smiles, the sense

[3:49] of connection reminds us all exactly why we do this work.

[3:54] As we look ahead for this coming year, our staff recognizes

[3:57] that a strong academic foundation relies on a

[4:00] strong positive culture.

[4:03] Middle school is a critical time of transition

[4:06] and students thrive when they feel grounded,

[4:08] valued, and seen.

[4:10] With this in mind, our overarching focus

[4:12] for this school year comes down to three clear words,

[4:16] connect, support, and Celebrate Connect.

[4:20] We're focusing on building intentional relationships across

[4:23] grade levels and teams.

[4:25] We're rolling out updated Cares matrices.

[4:28] You might hear some of the other principles talk about that.

[4:30] Embedding core competencies like cooperation, empathy,

[4:34] and self control directly into our daily instruction.

[4:38] While continuously re reinforcing our core motto,

[4:41] which you've heard me say before, which is, work hard,

[4:44] make good choices, and be kind.

[4:49] As far as the support part, we're strengthening our system

[4:53] of care for every individual in the building.

[4:55] That means providing targeted academic

[4:58] and behavioral interventions

[4:59] for students who need extra help.

[5:02] Cultivating a STU student leadership

[5:05] and ensuring our new staff members have the mentoring

[5:08] and professional resources that they need.

[5:10] And as far as celebrating, we wanna make sure

[5:13] that we are actively recognizing the good

[5:16] that happens every single day in our building.

[5:18] We're establishing regular recognition routines

[5:21] for both students and staff, highlighting achievements,

[5:24] recognizing areas of growth,

[5:26] and bringing our school community together

[5:28] to celebrate success stories.

[5:31] When we intentionally connect with one another,

[5:33] support each other through challenges

[5:35] and celebrate our victories together,

[5:37] we create an environment

[5:39] where every student at Gilbert h Hood can be successful.

[5:42] Thank you for your continued support of our school,

[5:45] our staff, and our students.

[5:47] I look forward to a fantastic school year.

[5:50] Any questions for me?

[5:54] Questions for Mr. Hall? Thank you. Thank you, Lisa.

[5:58] Thank you.

[6:13] Good evening everybody. I think Lisa said it all,

[6:17] so, no, I'm just kidding.

[6:19] No, it's really, it's really great to be here again.

[6:21] It, it's been a really exciting start to the school year.

[6:24] There's nothing quite like the first day of school,

[6:26] like Lisa mentioned,

[6:27] we have 657 students as of today, I believe,

[6:33] and that's an increase from last year, about 30 students.

[6:36] So it really was great

[6:41] to start the year seeing all the fifth graders come in

[6:44] with the sixth graders who have been there last year

[6:46] and the support that they showed

[6:47] them when they entered the building.

[6:48] We also are basically fully staffed at this point,

[6:52] which is really excellent way to begin things.

[6:57] We just need almost two days of a para,

[7:00] I think at this point is really all we're looking for.

[7:02] And we're excited that we have ESSA new program

[7:06] that we're piloting at West Running Brook for our students

[7:08] with emotional disturbance.

[7:11] And that has gone really well

[7:12] and we're looking forward to working with

[7:13] that group over the course of the year.

[7:16] The building looks amazing.

[7:18] All of the work that happened over the summer,

[7:19] we can't thank this board, Jeremy and his team

[7:22] and our custodians enough

[7:24] for the new flooring that's in our building.

[7:26] The courtyard has been paved

[7:29] and that is a much safer, better environment for students,

[7:33] which is used very frequently in the winter for recess.

[7:38] And then as all students enter the building that way,

[7:41] that was a long time coming

[7:42] and we appreciate that very much.

[7:47] We shifted our schedule a little bit this year.

[7:49] We're happy to report that with the time change

[7:52] that we have, we were able

[7:53] to carve out more instructional time,

[7:55] which we had talked about over the course of last year.

[7:57] So we have an additional 15 minutes that we were able

[8:00] to spread out over the course of the day,

[8:03] which doesn't sound like a lot,

[8:04] but over the course of the year, 15 minutes a day is,

[8:06] is quite a bit of time.

[8:09] What that looks like for fifth grade is their core blocks

[8:12] are pushed together.

[8:14] So they will stay with their ELA social studies

[8:16] and writing teacher for a period of 96 minutes.

[8:20] They'll be with their science

[8:21] and mathematics teacher for a period of 96 minutes.

[8:24] And it gives that teacher flexibility to either work

[8:28] more heavily on maybe reading

[8:30] and less on the social studies piece,

[8:32] or if they're working on a social studies project,

[8:34] expand the time there without that transition time.

[8:39] Just saw it today where students in a fifth grade classroom

[8:42] are working on a science experiment,

[8:43] which takes a little bit longer.

[8:45] They were able to have that time

[8:46] and use the flexibility within that longer period to,

[8:50] to do what they needed to do.

[8:51] So we're really excited about the potential there.

[8:54] Also, it, the students are extremely excited about the

[8:57] potential of the athletics that they're able

[8:59] to join over at Kil Day should.

[9:01] So we are, we have several

[9:04] of our students playing on soccer field hockey cross country

[9:07] this year and that's been a really exciting addition for us.

[9:11] We want to thank Mitch Edwards for once again,

[9:14] helping us out, securing the funding

[9:18] to have some really great team building things

[9:20] at the beginning of the year.

[9:21] On September 1st, the Brown Center from UNH

[9:24] who were experts in team building worked

[9:26] with our sixth graders.

[9:27] And although it was kind of a rainy day,

[9:30] they were in the classrooms working on team building

[9:33] and that went really well in it.

[9:35] For the second straight year,

[9:36] we've sent our entire fifth grade on a field trip.

[9:39] It was not the first week of school this year,

[9:41] it was the second week, which actually worked out much

[9:43] better is, you know,

[9:45] teachers knew the students a little bit better,

[9:47] but they traveled to Camp Carpenter

[9:48] and just had an amazing day.

[9:51] You know, working together and building relationships

[9:53] with their peers and with the staff.

[9:57] We continue to be a partner school

[9:59] with Southern New Hampshire University.

[10:01] That relationship continues to expand.

[10:04] So we do have six interns this year at West Running Brook.

[10:08] We also, in the past three year

[10:12] or two years rather, first two years, we had

[10:15] a special education class

[10:16] that was taught in our school with undergrads.

[10:17] And then they went out across the building

[10:20] and gained some field experience.

[10:21] We are also gonna have a science class taught there this

[10:24] year where best in HU the professor will come to the school,

[10:28] instruct 14 or 15 students,

[10:30] and then they'll gain some field experience with hopes

[10:33] that they'll want to intern in Derry

[10:36] and then eventually join our team, which we've seen a lot

[10:40] of positive results in that regard.

[10:43] So we just want to thank you for the support.

[10:45] It's been a great, a great start to the year

[10:49] with the time change is one more thing that I wanted

[10:51] to mention is our bus ridership is up tremendously

[10:54] and I think that's, that's really good.

[10:56] Our, our drop off has gone down, our ridership is up

[10:59] and as we navigate the beginning of that, the beginning

[11:02] of the year with those things, we should be able

[11:04] to get students into the building on

[11:05] time in an efficient way.

[11:07] So thank you for the support.

[11:12] Thank you. Any questions?

[11:15] Questions? Not a question.

[11:17] Just a comment to say

[11:18] that we sat on the time change committee together over the

[11:22] course of several meetings last fall into the

[11:24] early winter maybe.

[11:25] And I'm really pleased to hear about the positive impacts

[11:29] that, that time change is having,

[11:30] particularly at West Running Brook.

[11:32] I know that I would often look to you

[11:34] and during that meeting, a lot of times it was about busing,

[11:36] which was definitely an issue.

[11:38] And a major component also though, was instructional time,

[11:40] particularly at West Running Brook.

[11:43] And you said it was what, 15 minutes

[11:45] Gain?

[11:46] Just about. So we are at, so it 15,

[11:50] about 15 minutes.

[11:51] So our core blocks for fifth grade

[11:56] are 96 minutes.

[11:57] Last year that would've only been 90,

[11:58] which doesn't sound like a big change,

[12:01] but six minutes is a hu is a massive change.

[12:04] And over the course of an entire year that that really

[12:08] makes a difference and it allowed us to be able to do it.

[12:12] It's complicated to schedule like that to get it.

[12:17] The middle school, the intermediate school schedule's really

[12:21] difficult to work

[12:22] through all the things if students need band

[12:23] or they're, you know, they have different service delivery.

[12:25] So to be able to have some additional flexibility was huge

[12:29] this summer and it just benefits all the students.

[12:31] Yeah, I'm, I'm really pleased to hear that.

[12:34] And I also, Mr. Flynn had told me a couple weeks back

[12:36] that you had said the first week of school

[12:38] that ridership was up, particularly in the morning,

[12:41] which I think maybe wasn't an impact we, we saw coming,

[12:44] but I think it's a very positive one too,

[12:46] so that's great to hear.

[12:48] Yeah, anecdotally, I mean, I would say 30 to 40%,

[12:51] but I don't, I don't have a number so I could,

[12:53] that could be totally made up.

[12:54] But I'm out there every morning and,

[12:57] and I noticed that we won't quote you.

[12:58] It feels like almost half fewer cars in the morning.

[13:03] It's really quick. So that's, that's excellent.

[13:06] Just to put it in perspective, 15 minutes a day

[13:09] ends up being about 46 hours extra during a year.

[13:13] Yeah. Which ends up being about seven extra days. Yeah.

[13:17] Mathematically instructional time.

[13:18] So every minute does count in our schedule.

[13:20] That was a very large sticking point for me.

[13:22] And I would often look to Bill during those meetings

[13:24] and kind of like say like, it was Bill's mantra, like,

[13:27] I just need 15 more minutes.

[13:28] We were gonna put that on his headstone. Yeah.

[13:30] And so I, I'm really pleased to hear that.

[13:33] And that number could totally be made up. So,

[13:35] And yeah, we gonna put him on that.

[13:37] Alright. Thank you everybody. Thank you.

[13:39] Thanks Bill.

[13:50] Hi everyone. Thanks for having us here tonight.

[13:52] We had a great opening of the school year at Grinnell,

[13:56] but to get there, I have to go back to the end of last year

[13:59] and I, I still am super excited at the hard work

[14:02] that our students in SAF did last year.

[14:05] And just looking at one piece of data, their

[14:09] NWEA map testing results in math.

[14:12] Everybody, every grade level was in high achievement,

[14:15] high growth, which is something for the students

[14:17] and staff to be proud of.

[14:19] I followed the end of the school year

[14:21] by joining the curriculum team at the NWEA

[14:24] Fusion National Conference.

[14:26] And we got to showcase our district

[14:29] and talk about some of the things that allowed that growth

[14:32] to be possible, which was exciting.

[14:34] And then over the summer, lots of things took place.

[14:37] We had some tile replaced, we had some carpets replaced.

[14:42] The contractors maintenance

[14:44] and custodial staff did a great job in our building.

[14:48] I wanna give a special shout out to the custodial staff

[14:52] for everything they did over the summer,

[14:53] including our summer custodians.

[14:56] And then our teachers spent the summer working on different

[14:59] task forces for curriculum and sharing

[15:02] and collaborating with each other, which is always a,

[15:04] a good thing to get the teachers

[15:07] voice heard in what's happening

[15:09] and what's going to be coming up in the school year.

[15:12] And then from a leadership

[15:13] standpoint, it was a great summer.

[15:15] The elementary principals

[15:17] and assistant principals in particular, along

[15:19] with the middle end intermediate at

[15:21] times did weekly huddles.

[15:23] So we got to collaborate and work together

[15:25] and that was the first time we've

[15:27] ever done something like that.

[15:28] And it was extremely positive

[15:30] and it allowed us time to share some best practices

[15:34] and think of different things

[15:37] for the upcoming school year in our building.

[15:40] Specifically at Grinnell, we hired six

[15:42] new staff over the summer.

[15:43] So we are also almost fully staffed.

[15:46] We still could use some paraprofessionals.

[15:49] So if anybody is looking

[15:50] to be an elementary paraprofessional, give us a call.

[15:54] And our kitchen staff

[15:57] and secretaries returned in August, like they always do

[15:59] with smiles on their faces, ready to greet students ready

[16:03] to offer help and support in any way we need it.

[16:06] And then we finished the summer

[16:08] with popsicles on the playground, an event we did with PTA

[16:12] for our kindergarten families.

[16:14] And it was great to see the kindergartners come

[16:17] and play on the playground, meet kids that they haven't met

[16:21] before, see kids that they've seen around town

[16:24] and families to connect.

[16:26] So that was nice. And it's always fun in the fall when you

[16:29] see the little kindergartners come in, you forget

[16:31] how little they are at the very beginning.

[16:33] And some of them are just four years old

[16:35] and those days are long when they first start,

[16:37] but they're doing a great job transitioning

[16:39] and we couldn't be any prouder of them.

[16:41] So we finished with our meet

[16:43] and greet where we had almost all of our families attend.

[16:46] It was extremely well attended

[16:48] and we started the school year ready to go

[16:51] and just excited for what the school year is going to bring.

[16:55] Great. Any questions?

[16:58] Questions? Alright, thanks. Thank you.

[17:16] Mary and I were trying to decide who was going next.

[17:19] Thank you. As I said, thank you for having us tonight.

[17:22] We, we really enjoy coming out

[17:24] and talking about our schools at South Range.

[17:28] We certainly had a busy summer.

[17:30] I know you've heard a lot about it

[17:31] and I'm gonna give you a little bit

[17:32] of a different perspective about our summer.

[17:35] Clearly construction was, was a big part of that.

[17:38] I had weekly meetings with the contractors

[17:40] and with the facilities department and Mrs. Joseph

[17:44] and I spent our summer,

[17:46] although I was there at the school,

[17:48] checking in a few times a week.

[17:50] We spent our summer with all of our, our colleagues.

[17:53] They were very welcoming.

[17:55] They allowed us to have interviews at their schools.

[17:57] They welcomed us to spend some time there.

[17:59] So that was really great to, to have

[18:01] that admin time together with,

[18:03] with the other building admins.

[18:07] We were, we were definitely grateful of all of

[18:09] that support that, that we received.

[18:11] So although the contractors told us all summer,

[18:14] Mike reassured me,

[18:15] everything's fine, Michelle, everything's fine.

[18:17] Jeremy told me it's gonna be great.

[18:19] The contractors kept saying that.

[18:20] It took a while for me to see that light at the end

[18:22] of the tunnel of, okay, we're gonna be ready to open

[18:25] and we're going to be ready to have that, that meet

[18:27] and greet on Monday the 24th for our students,

[18:30] as you've heard from, from everybody else,

[18:33] it was just incredible to watch the buses pull out,

[18:35] watch the contractors pull in,

[18:37] and then at the end of the summer, watch the contractors

[18:41] and the dumpsters and the porta-potties go out

[18:44] and the students come in, you know, shortly after that.

[18:48] So while obviously that was a major topic,

[18:52] the construction at South Range was

[18:54] a major topic of the summer.

[18:55] What I really wanna highlight tonight is the incredible

[18:58] sense of teamwork and community that was on display

[19:01] as we prepared for our students to return.

[19:04] So there was, again, a lot of conversation,

[19:06] is it going to be ready in time?

[19:08] And we yes, it will, it will be ready,

[19:10] we'll be ready for students.

[19:12] Typically, we, our students are, our teachers are able

[19:16] to come back a little bit early,

[19:17] obviously that was not able to happen.

[19:19] They came back and just watching the teamwork

[19:22] of them coming back, they came back a little overwhelmed.

[19:25] There were still contractors, feet hanging from the ceiling.

[19:27] There were still things going on

[19:29] as the teachers were entering the building.

[19:31] And they, they were very overwhelmed by that.

[19:33] But then watching them just turn to not

[19:37] what hasn't been done yet, but changed their attitude.

[19:40] To have that attitude of, well, what do we need to do?

[19:42] How do we need to get this ready

[19:44] and make sure that our school is ready for,

[19:46] for students to come back.

[19:48] Having the, the teamwork from the

[19:51] SAU leadership team coming over,

[19:54] almost the entire BARCA staff came over

[19:55] to support our, our teachers.

[19:57] And just, it was, and again, our lead, my team,

[20:02] my leadership team over here, everybody just came together

[20:04] to support us to say, what can we do?

[20:06] How can we help? How can we ensure

[20:08] that this is ready for students?

[20:10] And it was, it was truly great just to see

[20:12] that all come together, just to make sure with

[20:17] that shared goal of our students coming back to a building

[20:20] that is ready for them.

[20:22] So we had a line out the door on Monday morning at,

[20:27] I looked out the window at about 8 45

[20:29] and there was a line out the door

[20:31] and down the, down the sidewalk for our meet and greet.

[20:33] And just seeing those,

[20:35] those families come in the smiling faces

[20:37] and going, this is what, this is why we're here.

[20:39] This is what we, we do this for.

[20:41] Was, was really great to see.

[20:44] The excitement just made our building

[20:46] feel like itself again.

[20:47] Obviously all summer long, it,

[20:49] it didn't, it didn't feel that way.

[20:51] But seeing all of the exciting smiles

[20:53] and families come in really, really made it feel great.

[20:56] We have positive energy to start the school year.

[20:59] We are ready to go.

[21:00] It has been a fantastic start to the school year.

[21:05] Our teachers are building

[21:06] relationships with their new students.

[21:08] Our students came back in ready to do every routine

[21:11] that they had before they left our kindergartners,

[21:13] as Melissa mentioned, they come in and they're so little,

[21:17] but they came in and they knew exactly

[21:18] what to do on that first day.

[21:19] And it just, it's been,

[21:21] it's been a great start to the school year

[21:26] Questions, I've just gotta say, I went over

[21:30] to South Range about two and a half weeks

[21:32] before the beginning of school

[21:33] and stood in a classroom with Jeremy

[21:35] that had no ceiling and no windows.

[21:38] So, you know, it's pretty impressive

[21:40] what the construction crews were able to do to get

[21:42] that school ready in time and everybody throughout the

[21:44] district to get everything put back together again.

[21:47] Yeah, Wednesday, Wednesday afternoon,

[21:50] teachers came back on Thursday, Wednesday afternoon,

[21:52] our classrooms were still empty

[21:53] and everything was still in the cafeteria in the gym.

[21:56] And it was, it was just incredible

[21:58] to watch it all come together and just seeing step by step.

[22:03] I knew it would, couldn't see it.

[22:06] I knew it would, I couldn't see it quite there.

[22:10] I kept saying to the, the superintendents,

[22:12] the contract superintendents, I believe you.

[22:15] I hear you. I just can't envision how this is going to work.

[22:18] But it did.

[22:19] And, and again,

[22:21] everybody really pulled together to, to make that happen.

[22:23] So that sense of community was great.

[22:25] I think maybe you should have done like

[22:26] cookies for the custodians.

[22:29] Oh, they, yeah. We, we took, we fed. We fed. Yeah.

[22:32] We took care of it. We took care of it. Yeah.

[22:34] They, they were, they were well fed. Everybody.

[22:37] And they were custodians from all different schools

[22:39] that came over to help the facilities team, you know,

[22:42] over there, again, just members of family,

[22:45] members of our staff.

[22:46] Like it was just, it was, it was great.

[22:48] Everybody came together, but we did make sure

[22:50] that they were, that they were

[22:52] fed. Thank you. Thanks

[22:56] Michelle.

[22:57] Thank you very much.

[23:05] This is way go first.

[23:07] Now I know what it feels like for everything to be said.

[23:11] So at East Area, we didn't have as much work

[23:13] as other people, but the work that was done was amazing.

[23:16] The roof, that's something that you don't always,

[23:19] you can't always appreciate because you don't see it.

[23:22] But the work, it took quite a bit of time

[23:24] and people were just up and down getting things done.

[23:27] So that's outta the way. But more importantly,

[23:29] the rugs were taken up and tile put down

[23:33] and the wax put down and the custodians over the summer

[23:36] and the summer help were amazing.

[23:38] To the point where with the concrete walls, when you use

[23:41] that sticky, that sticky putty to hang things up,

[23:44] it gets in the pores of it.

[23:46] They literally had toothbrushes and things

[23:48] and toothpaste to take it out.

[23:49] They took such pride in it, painted the walls,

[23:52] and if there was a holiday, they went back

[23:54] and they even used little paintbrushes to do it.

[23:56] It literally looks like a new building when you go inside.

[23:58] They also had the time to set up the

[24:00] classrooms furniture wise.

[24:01] So the teachers and the teachers totally appreciated.

[24:03] That was one of the things they brought up was

[24:05] that I walked in my classroom,

[24:07] my everything was where it needed to be.

[24:09] I could just get down and get working and,

[24:11] and decorate what I needed to decorate.

[24:13] The meet and greet was amazing.

[24:15] Year three, now they're at East Area

[24:17] and the, you know, the teachers do all the real hard work

[24:20] and the staff, you know, has to pull everything together.

[24:23] And I get to be like the mother of the bride kissing

[24:25] and hugging people as they come in

[24:26] and as we walk through the halls,

[24:28] it's like such a proud moment

[24:29] and such a strong sense of community.

[24:32] And the work of cares is really showing up in the sense that

[24:35] morning meeting is flawless.

[24:37] Fourth grade bar, the whole fourth grade team in

[24:39] to do a morning meeting together.

[24:41] And Kelly and I got to join them

[24:42] and the routines are so established that

[24:46] building those relationships and ha doing those activities

[24:48] and learning more about each other came, came

[24:51] with absolute nee ease.

[24:53] You know, again, our PTA I'm looking forward

[24:56] to the things they have scheduled for us.

[24:58] They are so supportive.

[24:59] The volunteers that come in, like Jen who runs off papers

[25:02] and stuff, they, those are the things

[25:04] that people don't necessarily see.

[25:05] They come and have the fun or the teachers have the

[25:07] materials they need to get it done.

[25:09] The great work that's done all the time.

[25:11] So again, looking forward to a great year.

[25:13] The weekly huddles was probably my favorite year.

[25:16] This is, I'm going to year 41

[25:18] and dairy, but not as a principal.

[25:19] But my most favorite year as a summer as a principal,

[25:22] because we, it's not that we don't collaborate

[25:25] or talk in the summer because you call and stuff each other

[25:29] and we lean on each other,

[25:30] but being in the same room with each other,

[25:32] to have those conversations and think of things together

[25:35] and plan things out together was amazing.

[25:39] Like, so appreciate the work that we got to do side by side.

[25:45] I have a question. So now are all the classrooms at East

[25:48] Area tile floor?

[25:50] Like all the rug is gone.

[25:51] They are except the C Oh,

[25:54] I'm gonna have to think about the library.

[25:56] No, I the library

[25:57] sells carpet, right Picture, there's still carpet.

[25:59] So the classroom, yeah, but the three cubbies,

[26:01] the last three rooms that, that had the cubbies

[26:02] that were blocking the view

[26:03] for when kids were hanging up their things are going

[26:05] to get things or maybe not doing

[26:07] things they should do behind there.

[26:09] Now we can see it. We don't need the little mirrors,

[26:11] the backup mirrors that for teachers to look

[26:13] and just opening that up along with the tile floors,

[26:16] make the room seem brighter and bigger.

[26:19] So tho those look beautiful too. But those are all done.

[26:21] We're down to like minimal rugs in in

[26:23] that back suite in the small offices.

[26:25] There's rugs back there, but they

[26:26] but the classroom, it's the, the classroom,

[26:28] the classroom structure themselves are all yep,

[26:30] tile, easy to clean.

[26:31] Yeah. And, okay, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah.

[26:38] Alright. Thank you Mary. Thanks Mary.

[26:41] Last but not least,

[26:49] Well now I do get to know what it's like

[26:51] to have everything said, but there,

[26:53] there's some important things to, to say about Barker here.

[26:57] We had a, a busy summer, but

[27:00] before I get into that, I just want

[27:01] to thank the Barca custodians.

[27:03] You know, you guys are gonna notice a, a theme here,

[27:06] the Barca custodians.

[27:07] We have four guys that put their heart

[27:10] and soul into everything they do there

[27:11] to make that school shine.

[27:13] We are fortunate with the school that we have

[27:15] and we know that, and those guys do a lot of work

[27:18] to get the school ready so

[27:20] that it does shine the way that it does.

[27:22] But that being said, Jeremy's crew also

[27:25] did three new things for bark.

[27:27] And I don't want that to go on set either.

[27:28] The new sign out on 28 is, is a beautiful sign.

[27:33] We also had the bleachers that were in disarray.

[27:36] They needed to really be repaired and,

[27:38] and they repaired every single seat in our bleachers in the,

[27:41] in the gymnasium and then the tactile pads outside.

[27:45] We have a couple staff

[27:47] and a few students that are in wheelchairs.

[27:49] And those tactile pads are important

[27:50] for them coming into the building.

[27:52] We have three main spots where they enter the building

[27:55] and those tactile pads were replaced.

[27:58] And that's a big deal for them.

[28:00] So we just wanna acknowledge that, you know,

[28:02] that work was done at Barca and, and it was important work.

[28:06] Like I said, we were busy this summer at Barca

[28:10] and I just wanna make sure that, you know,

[28:12] people are acknowledged for that as well.

[28:14] We had four programs that were running this summer in ESY

[28:18] and we also had Title one that was done

[28:22] by our curriculum department.

[28:25] And that's a big undertaking.

[28:26] We had about 200 students at school.

[28:29] And so that requires a lot of preparation, a lot of staff,

[28:32] a lot, a lot of organization and student services.

[28:35] Did a great job doing that.

[28:37] It really was, was a pleasure to run at Barca.

[28:42] That being said, it was also talked about the administration

[28:45] being able to get together

[28:47] because we didn't have construction at Barca.

[28:49] We were able to use that, that space

[28:53] and the administration pulled together

[28:55] and took days to make sure

[28:57] that the ESY program ran smoothly.

[28:59] And that allotted us time to get together

[29:02] and do a lot of team building.

[29:04] We are, I would say close as a group anyway,

[29:08] but having that time together uninterrupted,

[29:11] where you can just sit like Mary kind of alluded to,

[29:14] where you're just bouncing ideas off of one another

[29:16] and, you know, talk about things

[29:18] that come up throughout the year really does help you

[29:21] grow as a professional.

[29:22] So it was nice to have everybody together

[29:24] and I think that that's, you know, a testament

[29:27] to these guys in their professionalism.

[29:28] So it was great to have that together.

[29:32] As far as the school year goes, we've had a great kickoff.

[29:35] Like everybody says the star times, you know,

[29:39] everybody has made a great shift for the star times

[29:41] and we, we can't go without talking about our PTA.

[29:45] Our PTA puts a lot of work into making sure

[29:48] that the students are welcomed.

[29:49] We have our first welcome back event on the 18th

[29:53] and everybody's already, already looking forward to that.

[29:56] So the school year is off and running

[29:58] and we're gonna be busy with, you know, night events,

[30:00] PTA events, things, just getting kids welcome back to school

[30:04] and excited about going to school.

[30:07] And then last

[30:08] but not least, I can't thank the teachers and staff enough.

[30:12] They really are the ones that put every, you know,

[30:14] put everything into the opening of the school.

[30:16] They make it what it is,

[30:18] and then the students, you know,

[30:20] doing the routines like the other,

[30:22] the other principals have talked about,

[30:23] that's really important for the kids.

[30:25] They know that they're taken care of.

[30:27] They know that they're loved in these schools

[30:29] and so that's why they're able to do so well.

[30:32] When you feel comfortable to even make a mistake

[30:36] and learn, that's really what going to school is all about.

[30:40] So we're excited for a great school year.

[30:42] We thank you guys for your support

[30:44] and look forward to seeing you in a couple months.

[30:49] Any questions for Dave? Alright. All right, thank you.

[30:52] Thanks guys. Thank you. Just quickly, I, you know,

[30:56] I want to thank the six of them.

[30:57] I mean, principal is the hardest job in any school district.

[31:00] I stand by that. I'll never think differently.

[31:04] Every day's different, every minute,

[31:06] hour could be different at certain times.

[31:09] Dealing with adult problems, right?

[31:12] Teacher problems, concerns, issues throughout the day,

[31:14] dealing with parent issues, concerns,

[31:16] problems throughout the day, dealing

[31:17] with student issues throughout the day.

[31:20] They are the lead manager of, of that facility,

[31:24] but they are people pleasers, right?

[31:26] So their job is to try

[31:27] and solve all those things in a single day.

[31:29] Some crazy stat bill I'm gonna make up right now.

[31:32] But they make 3000 decisions a day

[31:33] or something along those lines as principals.

[31:36] But you know, it's, I've been here now 14, 15 months

[31:41] and the dedication that that group puts in is,

[31:43] is unmatched to where I've been.

[31:45] So we wouldn't be able to sit up here

[31:47] and do our jobs if it wasn't for you,

[31:48] because of the front lines and,

[31:50] and you work really well with our teachers

[31:51] and our students and our families.

[31:52] So thank you for all that hard work. I really appreciate

[31:54] It.

[31:55] Yeah, and I'd just like to add to that, thank you guys

[31:57] for getting together and kudos to whoever put

[31:59] that together for you guys.

[32:01] That's, I mean, you guys carry the weight

[32:03] to dairy on your shoulders.

[32:04] You have the children, you have the future.

[32:07] And the fact that you guys take that so seriously,

[32:10] it's just, it's awesome.

[32:14] It's been a year now that we've had you guys coming

[32:16] with these updates in this format

[32:17] and I mean, I think it's been a fantastic update, you know,

[32:20] to our agenda to provide us

[32:22] and the community with a look into what's going on at your

[32:25] schools, all the great things that you're doing.

[32:27] And good luck with the rest

[32:29] of the fall and we'll see you soon.

[32:34] You guys can go,

[32:38] Hold on.

[32:39] 'cause I just wanna say thank you, thank you for helping

[32:42] get South Range back on their feet without question.

[32:44] That's goes above and beyond

[32:46] and it just does show the kind of team that you have.

[32:49] And it's amazing. I was able

[32:51] to tour the four elementary schools and see the difference.

[32:55] They haven't been to the middle school and the intermediate,

[32:57] but the difference in the floors,

[33:00] the difference in finally finishing those last

[33:02] cubbies moved at East Area.

[33:03] That was the best idea ever. It makes a big difference.

[33:07] Just the floors alone make it so much brighter

[33:10] and so much more welcoming.

[33:11] And I also wanna recognize this, the custodians

[33:15] and the maintenance people because it, it was a huge summer

[33:20] and it shows in the building.

[33:22] So thank you. But thank you to you guys as well.

[33:29] All right. Alright, see you later, Faru. Yeah.

[33:30] Thank you guys. It's a school night. Yeah.

[33:37] All right. Our next order of business will be delegations

[33:39] and individuals at this time.

[33:41] Residents of dairy, parents of currently enrolled dairy

[33:43] students and employees of the district may address the

[33:45] school board on matters that pertain only to school

[33:47] and district business for a period of time.

[33:48] Not to exceed three minutes per person.

[33:51] As a reminder, the board welcomes your input,

[33:53] however questions are not

[33:54] entertained during the comment period.

[33:56] If you would like to speak, please come up

[33:57] to the microphone at this time

[33:58] and state your name and address for the record.

[34:01] Brian, is that it?

[34:09] Oh my goodness, you don't have to you. It's okay.

[34:13] I can't help yourself.

[34:25] Well, good evening. Oops. Can you hear me?

[34:28] Yes, I knew you'd tell me if you couldn't.

[34:33] Someone started that. I don't know who.

[34:35] Well, you know, I worked around aircraft for 20 years, so

[34:39] my hearing is not the best, you know,

[34:42] and tonight I even sat in front, you know, so I didn't have

[34:46] to, wouldn't take five minutes getting up.

[34:49] But anyhow, my name is Richard Tripp

[34:52] and I live at 44 Windham Road.

[34:57] The, I wasn't here last

[35:00] meeting for some reason.

[35:02] I neglected to check the

[35:08] so, but as I usually do,

[35:13] I always check the school board page to see

[35:19] what the agenda is and what the attachments are and,

[35:24] and if the video has been posted.

[35:28] So everything was fine.

[35:31] And I found the school board go goals presentation

[35:36] on the school board site.

[35:40] So as I was watching the

[35:42] video this afternoon, I thought it was great.

[35:45] You guys are going through all the goals,

[35:48] you've got this great presentation

[35:51] and you never put it up on a big screen.

[35:56] So I was wondering, well

[35:58] it probably would've helped a lot in communicating.

[36:02] I think that was one of the goals on page 10,

[36:08] if you would've done that so people at home could see

[36:11] what you were talking about.

[36:13] But anyhow, so anyhow, the,

[36:19] I listened to the, that's the only part

[36:21] that I watched on the,

[36:26] The video was the, the goal section

[36:29] and the being is, I'm on the,

[36:32] oh, I did notice that.

[36:36] I remember when Mike showed up, he says,

[36:38] there's gonna be no more acronyms.

[36:44] And one of the principals

[36:48] tonight, he says he's, he's really glad

[36:51] that they had an opportunity to, to have the ESS.

[36:56] Oh, yeah, yeah. And I just wanted, he did

[36:58] Followed up with what it was called though.

[36:59] What he did follow up with what it was called.

[37:02] Well actually he said emotional support.

[37:05] I don't, I think I thought there was two S's in ESS,

[37:11] I don't recall.

[37:12] Oh, Emotional student support.

[37:14] Probably. It's effective School Solutions is the

[37:16] Effective School Solutions. It's Oh, okay. Thank

[37:18] You.

[37:19] It's emotional school solutions. Effective

[37:20] School Solutions.

[37:22] Oh, effective. Oh, alright.

[37:24] Well, like I said, is that a 50 cent fine or It's a dollar.

[37:33] Always a dollar. Oh,

[37:36] but Richard, the other thing was Richard, when they,

[37:39] when they said they needed a prayer

[37:41] Profession, Richard, your time is up.

[37:42] So if you would like to request additional time,

[37:45] I would like some extra time. Do

[37:47] I have a motion to extend Mr.

[37:48] Tripp's time? So moved first by Jamie.

[37:51] Second. Second by Karen. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[37:55] All opposed. Motion passes. Six zero.

[37:58] I'll try and be brief, but

[38:01] that was such a great presentation that give a lot of ideas.

[38:08] So anyhow, you know, yesterday was a primary

[38:12] and I, I survived the calling of the herd, you know, so

[38:18] maybe come November, I'll have one more term

[38:21] and the state house and I'm gonna quit

[38:24] after that. I, that's

[38:26] What they all say. Yeah,

[38:28] No, no, no, no.

[38:29] I am getting old, you know,

[38:32] and you know, when I graduated high school I wanted

[38:35] to be a teacher, but unfortunately my, I had to go to work

[38:39] for my uncle, uncle Sam.

[38:44] And so maybe I'll, I'll

[38:47] see if I can get hired as a paraprofessional.

[38:52] But, so anyhow, on page five of the goals,

[38:57] this is the finance where you're talking about the

[39:01] fiscal advisory committee.

[39:05] I think that we could have improved

[39:10] what happened last year a lot if

[39:15] what was gonna be discussed had been

[39:18] provided to the advisory committee members prior

[39:21] to the meeting, because you know, what was discussed

[39:27] at the last meeting was that, you know, if,

[39:29] if you're just wanting to volunteer

[39:31] and you don't know anything about budgets

[39:33] and whatever, it, it's hard to follow

[39:35] and hard to know which questions to ask.

[39:38] So, like I said, I would, when,

[39:41] when you're going over the fiscal advisory that

[39:46] what can be done to, you know, clarify the, the job

[39:51] and what they do.

[39:53] But if you could provide the material

[39:57] that's gonna be discussed that night prior to the meeting,

[40:00] I think you'll get a lot more questions.

[40:02] 'cause I remember that last year I was probably

[40:08] asked, ask 95% of the questions that were asked, you know,

[40:14] the, but it,

[40:19] the, i the concept of letting people,

[40:24] giving them some orientation on how to follow a a a budget

[40:30] package is a good idea too, you know?

[40:34] But, so anyhow, the,

[40:42] I had some other comments,

[40:44] but I, since I'm over time, I'll

[40:50] probably

[40:54] give you this one.

[40:55] I was, I remember when I was talking with Maryanne,

[40:59] I asked her what kind of kindergarten readiness assessment

[41:05] the schools do prior to accepting

[41:10] children in kindergarten.

[41:11] Because, you know, some kids are not really ready

[41:15] to go to kindergarten.

[41:17] You know, when, when the one principal said

[41:19] that they have four year olds going into kindergarten, I was

[41:24] somewhat taken aback because I, I have a hard time believing

[41:28] that four year olds are ready to be in kindergarten,

[41:32] you know, and if the kids are not ready

[41:37] to learn, it's gonna be a bad time for the rest

[41:40] of their life because they'll probably just be

[41:43] pushed in the first grade.

[41:45] But, and

[41:49] so anyhow, thank you very much.

[41:53] Thanks. It's been a pleasure talking to you.

[41:57] Thank you.

[42:16] Good evening everyone. Tom Cardin, two Cunningham Drive.

[42:19] I will try and keep it under three minutes or so.

[42:22] That was a, a great presentation by the principals.

[42:25] Incidentally, you know,

[42:26] especially they talked about all the, you know,

[42:29] constructions that have gone on at their school

[42:30] and pretty uplifting to, to see that.

[42:33] And I, I agree with Mike.

[42:34] I think they have the, the hardest job

[42:37] that when I was a teacher, I never wanted to be a principal.

[42:40] I love teaching, but, you know, they were very enthusiastic.

[42:43] That was great. So anyway, I wanted

[42:47] to talk about the town council meeting last week.

[42:50] Two of the, of our state representatives, Leon

[42:54] and Love, got up

[42:56] and spoke to the town council about HB 1331,

[43:00] which is gonna put the, wants to put the

[43:03] school district under a town department.

[43:07] And you know what they,

[43:09] what they basically told the town was to that, you know,

[43:12] either the, you know, town council puts it on the, on the,

[43:20] On the, excuse me, sorry.

[43:22] Either the town council puts it on the ballot in, in March

[43:26] or they were gonna get signatures

[43:28] and they were gonna put it on.

[43:31] And I thought that was kind

[43:33] of lousy the way they treated the, the town council on that.

[43:37] You know, they, they talked about people coming up to 'em

[43:40] and telling 'em that, you know,

[43:41] they're concerned about losing their homes

[43:43] and you know, one guy, you know, lived here 50 years

[43:47] and is concerned about losing his, his home.

[43:50] But what they, what they didn't say

[43:53] was they didn't talk about the process.

[43:55] They didn't talk about, you know, what's gonna happen

[43:58] with the SAU?

[43:59] Is that, is, is that gonna be dissolved?

[44:02] And, you know, does Superintendent Flynn call the

[44:05] Department of Education?

[44:07] Say, Hey, listen, we're a town, you know, we're,

[44:10] we're a town department, now we're dissolving, you know,

[44:13] what happens with with Pinkerton?

[44:15] Is Pinkerton gonna be subjected to the, to the tax cap?

[44:18] I, I don't think so. They seem to be a private school.

[44:21] So basically a third of the school budget is gonna be,

[44:25] you know, we will not come under that.

[44:28] And, you know, then, then again,

[44:30] they didn't talk about the process and the, and the timing.

[44:33] So, you know, those things all, all really concerned me.

[44:36] And, you know, I would think if,

[44:38] if they were gonna do something like this, I think the way

[44:40] that they should have, have gone would be

[44:43] to form a charter commission.

[44:44] I think having a, at least having a charter commission,

[44:47] we'd be having, oh, I think

[44:48] I'm gonna go over my three minutes.

[44:50] I think, I think at least having a charter commission

[44:54] is gonna give, you know, all the residents a chance

[44:57] to hear what's gonna happen.

[44:59] And, you know, they'll come to meetings

[45:01] and they'll have, they'll have input.

[45:03] And I think that would probably be the, the better way.

[45:06] And you know, I mean, basically what's happened is,

[45:09] you know, they've, they've laid a lot of their, a lot

[45:12] of work on, you know, on the, you know,

[45:14] school administration and, and town administration.

[45:17] So, can I have another minute?

[45:21] I have a motion to extend Tom's time by one minute.

[45:23] So moved. Second by Jen. Second by Jamie in favor. Aye. Aye.

[45:27] All opposed. Motion passes. Six zero. Go ahead.

[45:30] All right. So anyway, you know,

[45:31] it obviously it's gonna be a lot of work for, for you guys,

[45:35] and I just wanted to, to read this was,

[45:37] this was kind of interesting.

[45:39] This is the, this was from

[45:42] HB 49 B four dash three.

[45:44] You don't need to know that. But it talks about the amended

[45:47] analysis and it says, this bill enables the town council,

[45:50] dairy town council to incorporate the dairy school district

[45:53] as a department of the town through a charter amendment.

[45:57] And then the analysis on the bo then it goes down

[45:59] for another prayer, another sentence

[46:01] that says it is a template

[46:03] for neutering school district independence across the state.

[46:08] And I thought that was, I don't,

[46:11] I don't even have the word for it.

[46:13] So anyway, thank you for your time

[46:16] and you know, I I wish you a lot of luck,

[46:18] especially getting all this information

[46:20] out to everybody. Thanks.

[46:22] Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Tom.

[46:40] I too am as co-sponsor on HB

[46:45] 3 30 13 31.

[46:48] And I, I got up

[46:53] and spoke also, and I basically said

[46:58] what Tom hinted at, that the,

[47:03] the intent of this bill is to simply

[47:08] have the tom have a,

[47:14] the final say on the school budget there,

[47:18] there's nothing in the bill that says we're taking over the,

[47:21] the town is taking over the, the schools,

[47:24] the schools are gonna con continue to run, you know,

[47:28] the education program.

[47:32] And oh, by the way, Richard Trip 44 Winter Road, sorry,

[47:38] We got you the first time.

[47:39] What? We got you the first time.

[47:41] I know, but sometimes, anyhow,

[47:44] I don't wanna talk too much.

[47:45] But like I said, it's one of these things that, you know,

[47:49] the idea is, is simply to give the

[47:56] citizens dairy the option

[48:00] of deciding whether they feel

[48:04] the school budget could be better

[48:09] managed by the town

[48:12] rather than the schools.

[48:15] 'cause and that is, I I remember speaking with

[48:20] several of the Democrats

[48:24] and up at the State House

[48:25] and they said, well, this is a bad thing.

[48:27] And I go, this is democracy.

[48:30] This is giving the people of the town the opportunity

[48:35] to make a decision on how

[48:38] the schools are gonna be funded and managed.

[48:41] You know, and you guys talk about democracy all the time.

[48:45] I, I feel that democracy is a good idea.

[48:48] But Richard, quick question by, could you clarify,

[48:51] when you say being run by the town

[48:54] who would be running the school

[48:55] budget, then the town council,

[48:57] This town council would have the final say

[49:02] on the school budget.

[49:05] So instead of it being

[49:06] Jenna, sorry, this is not a discussion period,

[49:09] this is a time for Richard to make a statement. And

[49:11] Then we can, my apologies if you, I I've spent some time

[49:17] studying the, the way the Manchester school budget this.

[49:21] Richard, you're almost outta your three minutes. So I'm

[49:23] Gonna ask you, so I, you know, like I said, we're, we are

[49:27] studying this in, in addition

[49:28] because all this election is going

[49:32] to do is determine whether the,

[49:37] the people approve a charter commission as,

[49:40] as Tom said, thank you.

[49:46] All right. I think everyone has had their

[49:47] opportunity to speak tonight.

[49:49] So we will move on with the meeting.

[49:50] However, the public comment period will remain open

[49:52] until 7:33 PM if you wish to speak prior to that time,

[49:56] approach the microphone and I'll recognize you

[49:57] at the next break in the agenda.

[50:00] Still no student updates tonight,

[50:01] although I believe we will have a Pinkerton

[50:03] representative very soon.

[50:07] So we will move on to deliberations.

[50:09] We have two items to consider tonight.

[50:11] The first item is the RFQ for the sale

[50:13] of the SAU building at 18 South Main Street.

[50:16] The board received a proposed RFQ from the administration,

[50:18] and I believe Mike and Jane will have a presentation for us.

[50:21] Yeah, so this afternoon late to the packet

[50:25] where we are waiting for legal to, to have a final look over

[50:29] in your packet is a, it's an RFQ draft, right?

[50:33] So there's been this discussion since we started on

[50:36] what the best route was.

[50:37] And then at the last meeting I had discussed with the board

[50:41] that the recommendation from our legal

[50:42] firm was to do an RFQ.

[50:43] So an RFQ is a request for qualification

[50:48] and the board can determine what the qualifiers are

[50:51] for the people or the, the group, the person

[50:53] or whoever can be qualified to sell 18 South Main Street.

[50:58] So we, Jane and I did some comparisons of other districts.

[51:03] They sent us their RF Qs of people that recently put land up

[51:07] for sale or buildings up for sale.

[51:08] And we did a little bit more detail oriented.

[51:10] We thought it was, we thought it,

[51:12] we thought we needed a little bit more detail

[51:14] because we've heard through the committee work, Brenda,

[51:17] about what it should and shouldn't be used for.

[51:19] Should it stay, should it not stay? Who should we sell to?

[51:23] So this is really basically soliciting a firm

[51:25] or a person that has the qualifications

[51:27] for commercial realistic.

[51:28] So you would see that we were kind

[51:31] of having them do some hard work upfront, which is the goal,

[51:36] so that we know who we're gonna enter an agreement with.

[51:39] So what their background is, if they're qualified,

[51:43] maybe some history of purchases and sales.

[51:46] This is really up to the board.

[51:48] All we did was draft what we recommend

[51:53] and then you guys get to kick it around this evening and

[51:55] or na, each category, qualifications add, subtract.

[51:59] We put an anticipated timeline on there.

[52:01] I think that was important so that we can stick

[52:03] to a schedule and move forward and move along.

[52:06] But all that is up to you guys as the board as,

[52:08] as we've said through legal, you guys get

[52:10] to ultimately make the who we hire decision

[52:12] and then really who we purchase.

[52:15] Remember the one caveat is once we enter an agreement,

[52:17] there is the charter school requirement that we have

[52:21] to offer Final first ref refusal ref.

[52:23] Thank you. So that's in your packet

[52:26] for discussion for you guys tonight.

[52:29] I even drafted a recommended motion so

[52:32] that you guys had some path of guidance on that,

[52:37] but I look forward to any questions or concerns

[52:40] or objections, whatever it may be.

[52:44] Thank you Mike. So we have a proposed RFQ.

[52:47] I hope everyone has had the chance to take a look at it.

[52:49] We have a recommendation for how

[52:50] to move forward on the table.

[52:52] So I'd open it up to the board for questions, discussion.

[53:01] Anybody have any questions, comments?

[53:06] I'll just say thanks for getting this done.

[53:07] I appreciate it. I think it looks pretty comprehensive

[53:12] to me, not a realtor, but from what I've can see

[53:16] and having been through selling a piece

[53:19] of property from the school district pre prior,

[53:23] I think it looks pretty comp comprehensive

[53:27] and hopefully we will have a good,

[53:29] somebody good come out of this.

[53:31] Yeah, our goal, we saw some rep,

[53:33] some from other towns I think, and after Jane

[53:35] and I discussed, we, we wanted

[53:37] to make it a little bit more detail oriented so

[53:38] that people knew that they were doing,

[53:39] but more importantly, we were able to know

[53:41] what we were doing towards the community, right?

[53:44] There's no secrets here, right?

[53:46] We, we have it all mapped out, this will go live,

[53:49] everyone can digest it and then firms

[53:51] or individuals can really say,

[53:52] do I want to do that work or not?

[53:53] Right? So that you're not getting someone that

[53:55] that just says, we wanna purchase

[53:56] and we need someone, then it's gonna

[53:58] turn in some questions and answers.

[53:59] So I feel like we're gonna, we're doing a,

[54:03] a very fair process for anyone that really wants

[54:05] to enter into an agreement with us.

[54:09] Yeah, I thought you guys did a fantastic job on this.

[54:11] You know, we want to, you know, move forward with this,

[54:14] you know, the right way to get this taken care of

[54:16] as quickly as we possibly can.

[54:17] So I think this looks pretty good to me

[54:21] as written questions.

[54:25] Somebody gimme just one. Anyone gimme a question. No,

[54:29] No, I'm just, I like the way it's all spelled out.

[54:31] Great. You guys did a great job on that. Thank you. Alright,

[54:35] I'm just curious, I'm just curious where this goes out to,

[54:39] like you said it goes live on the website page

[54:42] and then where does it go out as far as like

[54:45] who views this where?

[54:47] Yeah, so How does it get advertised?

[54:51] That's a great question. So the, it goes onto our, and,

[54:53] and then we, we have our contacts that we reach out to,

[54:57] meaning it goes on to some of our listervs of people.

[55:03] We also have to understand that we,

[55:04] we can't solicit business.

[55:05] So that, that's part of the requirements of an RFQ

[55:08] or an RFP is that people normally are paying attention

[55:11] or if they've been interested.

[55:12] We've already received questions on this stuff.

[55:15] I know someone on the board

[55:17] that probably knows people that might be interested.

[55:19] So all that stuff goes live, we,

[55:21] but we don't solicit business

[55:23] and just wanna be very clear on that.

[55:26] I can tell you too, Jenna, people are already watching

[55:28] this, you know, everybody knows that it's empty.

[55:32] Yeah. So, so yeah. So, and people talk,

[55:35] Well we talked to Mike Fowler, the community,

[55:37] so he has those people.

[55:38] Yeah. So all the right people will know. Yep.

[55:40] And if you don't know then you aren't paying attention.

[55:43] Yeah. I mean if you're a resident in town,

[55:45] we voted to sell it.

[55:46] Yep. So yeah, everyone should be aware if you know,

[55:49] if you're a resident in dairy and a voter.

[55:54] All right, if we have no other questions

[55:55] or comments, I would accept a motion for the school board

[55:58] to approve the proposed request for qualifications process

[56:01] for commercial real estate brokerage services related

[56:03] to the former SAU property at 18 South Main Street

[56:07] and authorized the superintendent to finalize

[56:09] and issue the RFQ subject to legal review.

[56:12] So moved First by Brenda, second by Karen.

[56:15] All in favor? Aye. All opposed. Motion carries. Six zero.

[56:19] Awesome. We'll get that going.

[56:22] All right, looking forward to it.

[56:25] Second item tonight is gonna be the appointment

[56:27] of a school district treasurer.

[56:29] As you may recall, deputy treasurer Kathy Kennedy has been

[56:32] serving as interim treasurer since the

[56:33] resignation of Jason McLeod.

[56:35] Kathy had been on the fence,

[56:36] but she has decided to put in her application

[56:38] for the treasurer position.

[56:40] We've received no other application since the position

[56:42] became available, so we're happy

[56:44] to bring Kathy's nomination forward tonight.

[56:47] Section RSA 1 95, section five,

[56:50] paragraph two governs the position of treasurer

[56:52] for cooperative school districts.

[56:54] The law dictates that treasurers are to be appointed

[56:56] by the school board for a term not

[56:57] to exceed five years in an annual salary

[56:59] to be determined by the school board.

[57:01] Net salary has been budgeted at $2,000 a year

[57:05] on top of state law.

[57:06] This board has a policy BCC that further limits the term

[57:09] of the treasurer to three years.

[57:12] So like we did with the clerk position,

[57:13] we're moving towards setting the term for this position

[57:15] to align with the district's fiscal year

[57:17] beginning on July 1st.

[57:19] So for this appointment, we're asking for a term,

[57:21] they would begin immediately with the appointment running

[57:23] for the rest of this fiscal year

[57:24] and the next two full fiscal years ending on

[57:27] June 30th, 2029.

[57:30] So anybody have any questions about this?

[57:32] I just wanna thank her. She got into this kind

[57:36] of unwillingly to start and then Jane

[57:40] and David have been phenomenal at kind of coaching along

[57:43] and honestly, you know, she kind of offered it.

[57:46] So we're ecstatic to her to stay in the family,

[57:50] quote unquote, and she's really bought into it.

[57:52] So the good news is

[57:54] by the next meeting we believe we'll have a deputy

[57:56] treasurer for you as well.

[57:58] So we're hot right now, we're gonna keep it going.

[58:01] Yeah, I know when, when Jason first resigned,

[58:03] the answer seemed like it was a hard no from, from Kathy.

[58:06] So I'm glad she came around. Yep.

[58:10] So if there are no other questions, I would accept a motion

[58:12] to appoint Kathy Kennedy as the school district treasurer

[58:15] for a term to run through June 30th, 2029 at an annual

[58:18] salary of $2,000.

[58:20] So, moved First by Jenna.

[58:22] Second. Second by Jen. All in favor? Aye. Aye.

[58:27] All opposed? Motion carries six zero.

[58:31] So yeah, thank you again to Kathy for stepping up

[58:34] and like Mike noted,

[58:35] we do now have an opening for Deputy Treasurer.

[58:37] Hopefully we will have a nomination for

[58:39] that position pretty soon.

[58:44] All right. Our next order of business

[58:46] is administration report.

[58:47] So first up will be Jane

[58:48] with the business administrators update.

[58:52] Sorry, it's my

[58:54] Fault.

[58:55] That's okay.

[58:58] Didn't look like it was on. Okay.

[59:00] So we've been busy in finance working.

[59:04] We've had auditors in the district Tuesday, Wednesday.

[59:08] They will yesterday, today

[59:11] and the loss will be here tomorrow for the full day.

[59:14] We also have been working on, as I've mentioned

[59:17] before, the DOE 25, the full financial reflection

[59:21] of the prior school year.

[59:24] And also working on our MS 24,

[59:26] which is our report on revenues that we'll need to go

[59:30] to the Department of Revenue.

[59:32] And it's used for, it's also be used for tax rate setting.

[59:35] So we've also, you know, we had our committee meeting

[59:41] and we talked about presenting the update

[59:44] for the bond project and I'll bring it at the next meeting.

[59:47] We only had a few very small bills that were paid

[59:50] and they were paid right up until

[59:52] before I left for the meeting.

[59:53] So we just didn't have a, a chance to update the report.

[59:56] So we'll bring that to the next August,

[1:00:00] next September meeting.

[1:00:04] That's it unless anybody has any questions. Short

[1:00:06] And sweet questions for Jamie.

[1:00:07] That's sweet. Short and sweet. Alright. Mike, you're up.

[1:00:10] Yeah. So a couple things.

[1:00:12] First is our five six athletic busing.

[1:00:18] I've received a few emails from parents and,

[1:00:19] and Danielle's done a phenomenal job of,

[1:00:21] of feeling those questions as well.

[1:00:23] So we've had a challenge and I just, I wanna go on record.

[1:00:26] We've actually just had a challenge finding a driver, right?

[1:00:29] So those are some challenges that we're trying

[1:00:30] to run a shuttle in between boys and girls club.

[1:00:33] We were working with them, but that wasn't gonna time up.

[1:00:36] Good news is they ran a practice run today.

[1:00:40] They're gonna run another practice run tomorrow.

[1:00:41] And we believe that we'll be launching a five six shuttle

[1:00:44] for those student athletes that need to get in

[1:00:46] between starting next week.

[1:00:49] Tomorrow. They are picking up the boys soccer team

[1:00:52] and the girls cross country team.

[1:00:54] No, not girls, it's just cross country.

[1:00:57] So those are all starting to get into motion.

[1:00:59] We just wanna thank the, the bus company

[1:01:01] and the drivers that are essentially adding onto their

[1:01:04] routes for the end of the day there.

[1:01:05] But we think Clifton's done a great job working with that

[1:01:09] to busing in general.

[1:01:10] It's been a, it's been a challenging opening year

[1:01:14] and as a point of reference as I've been working with DEA

[1:01:17] and our own building and,

[1:01:18] and things like that, we have nothing

[1:01:21] to compare this year to, right.

[1:01:22] So all of these runs

[1:01:24] that our bus drivers are making are brand new,

[1:01:26] as Bill alluded to.

[1:01:28] Even though his number might be fake,

[1:01:30] all the rider ships up.

[1:01:31] So that's continued reevaluation of those routes,

[1:01:35] even though we're nearly 10 days in, we feel today.

[1:01:40] Do you have a timeline when it cleared today,

[1:01:42] by chance you had been keeping track?

[1:01:44] Yeah, I wasn't. Okay.

[1:01:45] So the, it's been getting better every day

[1:01:48] and we've been making alter alterations to those runs.

[1:01:51] Several parents, one spoke last meeting about an

[1:01:54] evaluation of stops.

[1:01:55] Those are all included on

[1:01:56] what we're trying to continue to do.

[1:01:58] And then we'll send out a communication

[1:01:59] to those individual families along with other ones

[1:02:02] that we may have had challeng, the morning seems to be down,

[1:02:05] we're still running into some afternoon

[1:02:08] unintended consequences.

[1:02:10] So traffic circle when we were out 20,

[1:02:13] 30 minutes earlier last time.

[1:02:15] So them returning.

[1:02:17] So just, I wanted the board to be aware, aware

[1:02:19] of we're still working through it,

[1:02:20] but it's been getting better each day.

[1:02:22] We feel pretty good about where we're going.

[1:02:25] We are full in budget season in our world.

[1:02:27] So, Jane, Jeremy, Carrie

[1:02:29] and I met for quite some time today, met

[1:02:31] with the principals last Thursday.

[1:02:33] They're doing the department budgets with the goals of

[1:02:36] what the board has discussed publicly, trying to find

[1:02:38] that target, I've said it on record,

[1:02:40] we need to show restraint this year.

[1:02:41] We need to show proper budgeting.

[1:02:44] I'm gonna continue to say that.

[1:02:45] So year over year, we don't wanna have spikes,

[1:02:47] we don't wanna have huge laws.

[1:02:49] We wanna just become a, a predictable budget each year

[1:02:52] so the, the community knows what's coming.

[1:02:54] Facilities, we talked about the capital improvement plan

[1:02:58] being released, that's gonna happen at the next meeting.

[1:03:00] So we have a lot of these projectors

[1:03:01] that are gonna be coming into place.

[1:03:03] So what Mr.

[1:03:04] Trip has said this year through the fiscal advisory,

[1:03:07] we really intend on communicating the purpose behind it,

[1:03:11] but having the documents prepared so that the,

[1:03:15] the advisory committee can digest those

[1:03:17] and come prepared so that it's not more

[1:03:19] of a learning session on the go.

[1:03:20] So we're doing a lot of that work ahead of time.

[1:03:23] And then facilities, it came up as well

[1:03:28] with the bond and the money and the interest earned.

[1:03:32] We've been working already with legal counsel on

[1:03:35] how do you hit those next things on the list.

[1:03:37] That was part of probably just Brenda

[1:03:40] and Michael on that initial bond that went out.

[1:03:43] The larger number, 50 something

[1:03:45] million, somewhere on those lines.

[1:03:47] Yeah. So we're getting those jobs lined up

[1:03:49] because the law allows you to, to check off boxes

[1:03:52] with saved money on what was discussed publicly.

[1:03:55] So we're gonna create that list that's gonna come

[1:03:56] to the board for full discussion

[1:03:58] that came out of facilities.

[1:04:01] And then tomorrow our assistant principals are the,

[1:04:07] the new bullying law that you guys adopted two weeks ago.

[1:04:10] The, our legal firm's coming tomorrow

[1:04:12] to do a full in-depth training on the new requirements

[1:04:15] and the new necessities to make sure that we are in align

[1:04:17] with it, along with updating our forms.

[1:04:20] So looking forward to that, which is,

[1:04:22] which is always exciting.

[1:04:24] Onto the two big topics

[1:04:25] that are sublist out there on the agenda.

[1:04:28] I'm gonna skip ahead 'cause I think the town council will be

[1:04:31] more of a discussion, but, oh, sorry, it's not on here.

[1:04:34] It's in my brain. So 1300, 1300

[1:04:38] is gonna be on,

[1:04:41] might be on the November election ballot, right?

[1:04:44] So 13 hundred's, the one that's proposing a tax cap

[1:04:46] for all districts statewide.

[1:04:49] We had a statewide legal training

[1:04:53] and it only made things worse.

[1:04:57] So right now there is an emergency, I'll call it a lawsuit,

[1:05:02] against the, the order specifically around the language

[1:05:05] of the, the, the ballot

[1:05:08] or the warrant article that's going on the ballot

[1:05:10] and how it's misleading to the voter.

[1:05:12] So that's gonna be a thing

[1:05:13] that's gonna happen in the courts.

[1:05:15] The other interesting part,

[1:05:16] 'cause it was a statewide training.

[1:05:17] We had representatives from New Hampshire

[1:05:19] Department of Education on the call.

[1:05:21] We had attorneys on the call,

[1:05:23] and there's discrepancies in the math that's presented.

[1:05:27] So the state saying that it's one number,

[1:05:29] which would only do a 1.039 increase in your budget

[1:05:33] as a tax cap, whereas the legal firms are interpreting it

[1:05:37] as a 4.39, a one plus inflation number.

[1:05:41] When we brought up the discussion

[1:05:43] and someone said, well, we should reach out to DRA,

[1:05:46] the response that we got from DRA, which is the Department

[1:05:49] of Revenue Administration, is that they are not allowed

[1:05:52] to provide any guidance at this time.

[1:05:54] So a lot of these districts are just, as I said,

[1:05:58] it hasn't gotten any easier.

[1:06:01] So for me to sit here and try

[1:06:03] and advise the board on any form

[1:06:04] or fashion, I wouldn't be giving any type of good opinion.

[1:06:08] The other part that came up is the default budget.

[1:06:10] So if the default budget is higher than the tax

[1:06:14] cap, what do you do then?

[1:06:16] And so there was no guidance

[1:06:18] because the default is if it could be a way

[1:06:21] that the budget fails, but if it fails,

[1:06:23] but it's above the tax cap,

[1:06:24] do you then slice the default budget,

[1:06:25] which is the minimum requirements plus one time,

[1:06:29] you know, expenders reduced.

[1:06:30] So that wasn't clearly articulated.

[1:06:33] And then the other one that's out there is

[1:06:35] that districts are preparing,

[1:06:37] because this isn't our ballot, right?

[1:06:39] This isn't the school district ballot in no means no

[1:06:41] in school district voting.

[1:06:43] So districts are preparing counter

[1:06:48] votes for their election in March

[1:06:51] to override the November election.

[1:06:54] All of these things are out here in play on

[1:06:58] what to do, how to do it.

[1:07:00] If I'm sitting here trying to give you just a quick, the,

[1:07:02] the biggest problem that we're having

[1:07:03] is what's the math gonna be?

[1:07:05] Right? There's a big difference between 1.039 and 4.39.

[1:07:10] Significant difference if,

[1:07:12] if you're telling a school district specifically ascending

[1:07:15] district, in which last year Pinkerton won up alone, 3%,

[1:07:18] three points, somewhere around there,

[1:07:20] that means we're still gonna have

[1:07:21] to find another 2% on ARC K to eight side.

[1:07:23] So the math is the challenge.

[1:07:26] I think the other stuff that we talked about's all up

[1:07:28] for interpretation, but we need some guidance from the

[1:07:31] state, from DRA

[1:07:35] because when you have attorneys saying one thing in

[1:07:37] New Hampshire Education Department saying another,

[1:07:40] that doesn't make our job any easier

[1:07:41] and it doesn't make us help the boards any easier,

[1:07:43] so, Hmm.

[1:07:46] That's the update on 1300 not great update meaning?

[1:07:51] Yeah, I mean it's incredibly

[1:07:53] frustrating when you look at the way this question is worded

[1:07:57] and you know, we're sitting here today, it's September 9th,

[1:08:00] you know, we've got less than two months

[1:08:01] until we could see a vote on this.

[1:08:03] And there's no consensus from the state on

[1:08:05] what the question means.

[1:08:08] So, you know, I mean, communication, communication.

[1:08:11] So, I mean, this is the question

[1:08:13] that the law mandates is gonna be on the ballot in November

[1:08:15] pending this lawsuit.

[1:08:16] Of course, it shall the town

[1:08:19] of Derry limit property tax growth

[1:08:21] for the Dairy Cooperative school district under RSA 32,

[1:08:24] section five I if adopted for a two year period,

[1:08:27] the property tax levy may not grow

[1:08:29] beyond the prior year's amount adjusted for inflation

[1:08:32] and new construction,

[1:08:34] SAU central office spending may not exceed 6%

[1:08:37] of total school district appropriations

[1:08:38] and bonded capital costs are excluded from both limits.

[1:08:42] These caps apply only to administrative operations

[1:08:45] of the SAU central office

[1:08:47] and do not affect classroom instruction,

[1:08:49] school-based services or other municipal expenditures.

[1:08:52] These limits may be overridden as provided in RSA 32.

[1:08:56] Section five I adoption requires a

[1:08:58] three-fifths majority vote.

[1:09:01] So yeah, and I don't even want to get into the detailed part

[1:09:04] where it says the SAU cost, which is 6% again,

[1:09:08] which I just wanna be clear, this is all fine.

[1:09:10] Like we're not, we're not worried about control costs.

[1:09:13] That's not where we're, we're, we're just trying to,

[1:09:15] we're trying to make sure we do it appropriately

[1:09:16] because it's my job.

[1:09:19] But the 6%, when we were getting, when we were in

[1:09:21] that training, it was amazing what interpreting

[1:09:25] what was in an SAU budget.

[1:09:26] Because there are some things that we don't have in our SAU,

[1:09:29] but now they're gonna force it into that line.

[1:09:31] And then there are some things that we budget

[1:09:33] for at the school side that maybe become part of the SAU,

[1:09:37] that interpretation was off.

[1:09:39] And then to draw an assumption that it wouldn't impact

[1:09:44] school or kids.

[1:09:46] That's a tough assumption too,

[1:09:47] because specifically I'll keep saying

[1:09:51] specifically ascending school,

[1:09:53] let's say pinkerton's insurance rate go up

[1:09:56] 10%, they gotta make up a difference.

[1:09:57] Let's say they just go up for fun, four point half percent

[1:10:00] that's still gonna make us on the K to eight side,

[1:10:02] have to make up that cost.

[1:10:03] And that cost isn't just sitting in an SAU line, right?

[1:10:06] There isn't enough cost to make that up in NSAU line

[1:10:09] that will then go into how you operate your school district.

[1:10:13] So I'll say there's a lot of interpret.

[1:10:16] I'm trying to be very nice,

[1:10:17] like the interpretation out

[1:10:18] there that we still have to work through.

[1:10:20] But I find it challenging for us in four meetings.

[1:10:24] I have to advise the board, the board has

[1:10:26] to make some decisions and conclusions.

[1:10:28] We have to communicate it to the public appropriately,

[1:10:31] get the right information so

[1:10:33] that people feel informed on a ballot that people are going

[1:10:37] to the box for, not for schools rather for

[1:10:42] senate seats and representatives.

[1:10:44] And then there's gonna be a school question on like,

[1:10:48] as you can see as I'm working through this out loud, it,

[1:10:50] it becomes more challenging for you guys as a group.

[1:10:53] I have, I have three questions after he read that.

[1:10:56] My first question is, oh, maybe

[1:10:57] before one, was this applicable just to dairy

[1:11:00] or this was across statewide?

[1:11:01] Statewide. Every community will have it on

[1:11:03] The ballot.

[1:11:04] Second, you said that it's two years.

[1:11:06] So this would come back onto a ballot every two years to be

[1:11:11] Re voted on in the November elections? Yes. Okay.

[1:11:13] And then the last line you said was

[1:11:15] that this may be overridden.

[1:11:17] Is that what you were talking about?

[1:11:18] Is the possibility of it going on to a march ballot

[1:11:21] for the town to then override the state's?

[1:11:24] Yes. It's part of the interpretations.

[1:11:27] I have to keep saying interpretation. Okay.

[1:11:28] Just like with the tax cap statutes

[1:11:30] that you already have on the ballot.

[1:11:32] Yeah. If you're operating under a tax cap,

[1:11:34] the tax cap can be overridden with a super majority vote.

[1:11:38] Yeah. Okay. So it's the same concept.

[1:11:41] And then we have a third challenge

[1:11:42] as we people have spoke to tonight.

[1:11:45] So let's say, let's say that this goes to ballot,

[1:11:50] it's voted on and approved by the November election.

[1:11:54] Then we have our 1331 on, which is another, as Mr.

[1:11:57] Tripp said. It's just, it's the start of the process.

[1:11:59] It's not just a hammer. But then which one is like,

[1:12:03] those are kind of competing as well on certain things.

[1:12:05] So we have our work cut out for us as, as,

[1:12:09] as both of them have mentioned.

[1:12:10] And we have our first statewide superintendents meeting on

[1:12:14] Friday, which we'll be getting an update as an entire state.

[1:12:17] And the new Department of education will be there.

[1:12:19] So I anticipate that being a large discussion point

[1:12:21] for how we handle these things.

[1:12:24] So, so I have a question.

[1:12:25] If, if they can't provide any guidance at this time

[1:12:30] for this, when are they going to, I mean,

[1:12:34] Well, I guess is as good as ours.

[1:12:36] I mean, I know, I know you're,

[1:12:37] I know you're asking a good question

[1:12:38] that I don't have that answer. It's just,

[1:12:40] Yeah.

[1:12:41] Well I think Friday will be a good point.

[1:12:42] 'cause again, all a hundred of us will be in a room together

[1:12:45] and and Caitlin will be there.

[1:12:46] The, the commissioner. So we

[1:12:48] Is that hoping is, that's not a live or a zoom in

[1:12:51] Anything. No, that's, that's our,

[1:12:52] That's our own conversation.

[1:12:53] So when will we hear the fallout from that?

[1:12:55] I'll give you an update after that.

[1:12:56] I can, I can email you if

[1:12:57] anything relevant comes out of it for sure.

[1:12:59] Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

[1:13:01] I mean, from our perspective, you know, we need to

[1:13:04] put some sort of messaging together

[1:13:05] that's gonna tell our constituents

[1:13:07] how this question is going to impact their schools.

[1:13:10] And we can't do that if we don't know

[1:13:14] what the impact of the question's gonna be.

[1:13:15] Not. Yeah. One of the questions in our training was,

[1:13:17] can a board, 'cause it's not our ballot

[1:13:20] and it's actually not the town's ballot.

[1:13:22] We gotta keep that in mind.

[1:13:23] This is, this is this attorney

[1:13:25] general, it's the state's ballot.

[1:13:27] But can each board put on voting in favor or not?

[1:13:30] Like what's recommended under the article

[1:13:31] that no one knew that answer either.

[1:13:33] I mean, the guess is probably no,

[1:13:35] since it's not our ballot in any way form or fashion.

[1:13:39] So this doesn't help any of you,

[1:13:42] but I just, I just wanted, I wanted to tell you where we sit

[1:13:45] and we're attending everything we can.

[1:13:47] Did you guys take anything, anything else?

[1:13:49] More than I feel free? No. Okay.

[1:13:51] I'm sure they didn't wanna step in that either.

[1:13:53] But it, it's, I mean, just to look at this question,

[1:13:55] you know, you step into the ballot box on election day

[1:13:58] and you know, you have to make a decision on this.

[1:14:00] I mean, just for me, looking at this, there are

[1:14:03] so many unanswered questions.

[1:14:04] You know, there's so many things going on here.

[1:14:06] You know, you've got the, the only thing that's clear

[1:14:09] to me is that bonded capital costs would be excluded

[1:14:12] from the, the tax cap.

[1:14:14] Yep. That's about the only thing in this entire question

[1:14:16] that makes any sense.

[1:14:18] Which would actually help us. Right? Yeah.

[1:14:21] That's a, that'd be a benefit quote unquote for us.

[1:14:23] Beyond that, you've got two caps.

[1:14:25] You've got one limiting the local property tax levy

[1:14:27] to the prior year's amount adjusted for inflation

[1:14:30] and new construction, whatever.

[1:14:32] Yep. That math. It's math. Yep.

[1:14:35] And, and then you have one limiting the SAU central office

[1:14:39] spending to 6% of the total budget.

[1:14:41] And then you have this last sentence that says,

[1:14:42] these caps only apply

[1:14:44] to administration administrative

[1:14:45] operations of the SAU office.

[1:14:48] So it's not clear to me reading this

[1:14:51] what it is that we're capping.

[1:14:53] Are we capping the overall property tax levies?

[1:14:56] So the entire net assessment,

[1:14:58] are we somehow separating out the central office

[1:15:00] operations and only capping that?

[1:15:03] And, you know, what are we even consider

[1:15:05] to be central office operations?

[1:15:07] That was, that's, that's the confusion.

[1:15:10] That's the confusion and the list that we received. Right?

[1:15:14] So transportation

[1:15:16] of the students is normally an SAU cost, right?

[1:15:20] So that's our obligation to get K to eight students to

[1:15:24] and from school within one mile of their house.

[1:15:26] Right? But then they were saying how IT director

[1:15:33] was in, but then the IT staff were out.

[1:15:38] My god. But the curriculum director

[1:15:43] could partly be in, but partly out.

[1:15:48] But all special ed people were in like Laura,

[1:15:53] but then the assistants were out.

[1:15:56] So trying to differentiate all that, again,

[1:15:59] I keep saying like there's an equation in a

[1:16:01] math issue that we have here.

[1:16:02] 'cause we just want to play by the rules,

[1:16:04] but we don't, I don't think we have a very clear

[1:16:06] line of what the rules are.

[1:16:08] But if DRA doesn't know how,

[1:16:10] is anybody else supposed to know?

[1:16:11] I Did you take a screenshot of that? I did. I did. Yeah.

[1:16:14] I mean, just, we all were like, that can't be real.

[1:16:18] But we, we did,

[1:16:19] because I'm like, they,

[1:16:20] they literally said they cannot

[1:16:21] advise us in any form or fashion.

[1:16:23] Who, who is it that gets to determine this breakdown?

[1:16:27] I think that's what's gonna happen in the courts.

[1:16:29] Like, I, I, I don't know

[1:16:33] Because at the end I understand, you know, making a, a,

[1:16:36] a bill, but like if there's no higher up of who gets

[1:16:41] to do a breakdown,

[1:16:43] then it sounds like it comes down to each.

[1:16:45] I, I, I really, I'm, I'm well, I'm obviously just

[1:16:48] as lost as you guys are.

[1:16:50] Sure.

[1:16:51] So normally when, when bills come out

[1:16:53] or new laws come in place, there's, you know, you get,

[1:16:57] you get advice from the Department

[1:16:59] of Education on how to proceed.

[1:17:00] You get N-H-S-B-A, whether it's maybe a policy,

[1:17:05] this one is this one.

[1:17:07] It feels like there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen and,

[1:17:10] and no one knows who the head chef is to answer

[1:17:13] what the ingredients are.

[1:17:14] So it's been challenging. Okay.

[1:17:17] I'll tell you what's also kinda scary about this, right?

[1:17:19] So let's say our net assessment is limited to the rate

[1:17:22] of inflation, you know,

[1:17:24] and that's one of our revenue sources,

[1:17:27] our other revenue sources.

[1:17:28] We're lucky if they even keep up with the rate of inflation.

[1:17:31] I mean, Danielle, you can correct me if I'm wrong,

[1:17:33] but like our state adequacy has actually gone down a year

[1:17:37] over year, the past few years.

[1:17:39] So like, I feel like you're getting hit from both sides.

[1:17:42] You're gonna be where we usually have our

[1:17:46] state adequacy aid that has been going down year over year,

[1:17:49] the past couple of years.

[1:17:51] Obviously it's not, not keeping up with the rate inflation,

[1:17:53] it's literally negative.

[1:17:55] And then we've been having to make up with that for

[1:17:58] that loss with increased taxation.

[1:18:01] So if we're on the one side now, we're now limited

[1:18:05] to this tax cap at the rate of inflation.

[1:18:08] I mean, that could become a huge problem. Yeah.

[1:18:12] What's the, what's the one, what's the one revenue

[1:18:16] that we continue to lose? It's called something funny.

[1:18:18] Medicaid? No, The remember it's

[1:18:21] called like the unharmed.

[1:18:23] Oh, the hold Harmless. Harmless.

[1:18:24] Well that's because, yeah, they changed

[1:18:26] the formula a few years ago.

[1:18:28] Less on that too. And the hold harmless is

[1:18:31] to help districts like us who are hit the hardest

[1:18:34] by these changes to the formula to phase into these changes.

[1:18:37] And yeah. And that is a big part of why ar

[1:18:40] state adequacy has been going down.

[1:18:43] Yeah. And I, I have to just emphasize like,

[1:18:47] being ascending district is very,

[1:18:49] very different than someone that own, like if I'm in hopton,

[1:18:52] I'm staring at this totally different.

[1:18:53] 'cause I have all of my control costs, everything is mine.

[1:18:57] Being ascending district, we, we lose a significant, a third

[1:19:02] of our budget is really uncontrolled.

[1:19:05] I mean, I've only been working with Pinton for a year

[1:19:07] and I think they did a great job of,

[1:19:09] of being respectful of what's going on.

[1:19:10] But that, that changes year to year two.

[1:19:13] So we have to be cognizant that a third

[1:19:16] of our budget is uncontrollable

[1:19:18] and that we K eight have to make up

[1:19:21] that difference every year.

[1:19:23] And so if the, if the number is 1.039,

[1:19:28] I think that's a really big different discussion.

[1:19:30] But if the number's 4.39, that's, that's all.

[1:19:32] Again, that's achievable to me. That's all.

[1:19:34] That's what we're trying here. That's what our goals are.

[1:19:36] That's all restraint. But, and

[1:19:37] Pancreatin is not affected by this, correct?

[1:19:39] No, they, because they're semi-private

[1:19:41] Only they're goodwill.

[1:19:43] You know, I mean, you would hope that they would see if all

[1:19:45] of their sending towns are impacted by this,

[1:19:47] that they would, you know, try to help us out.

[1:19:50] But they don't have to. Well, we're, if we're going down

[1:19:52] that lane, like we're also a different boat.

[1:19:55] We send the most kids, we don't, we're not,

[1:19:57] we can't really go shopping.

[1:19:59] But if you're, you know, if you're one of the smaller towns

[1:20:02] that only sends 25 a hundred, you,

[1:20:04] you could then go shopping and be like, all right,

[1:20:06] we can't keep up with pinkerton's inflation.

[1:20:08] We gotta go somewhere else and make a deal. Which

[1:20:11] Then hits us again.

[1:20:12] Yeah. Again, sure. 'cause it'll raise the price of our kids.

[1:20:14] 'cause there'll be less kids. Yeah.

[1:20:16] So we're, we're, I just, we're in a different boat than

[1:20:20] all a hundred percent controlled.

[1:20:21] Okay. Sorry, I just bring up that topic.

[1:20:29] So to transition, I'll go to fiscal advisor quickly.

[1:20:32] 'cause if you wanna talk about town council,

[1:20:34] those dates are in there.

[1:20:36] Kathleen May or may not have sent 'em out yet.

[1:20:38] I think she wanted you guys to look at 'em first

[1:20:39] before we send 'em out to committee members.

[1:20:41] We did it a little bit different this year from

[1:20:43] the feedback from everyone.

[1:20:44] We booked solid dates throughout the season

[1:20:49] and more importantly,

[1:20:50] I wanna talk about the targeted approach that we chose.

[1:20:53] So that Tuesday is really,

[1:20:57] I'll call it a level set slash training.

[1:20:59] We'll get documents in people's hands, discuss the review,

[1:21:03] discuss you know, what really shifts a budget, what can be,

[1:21:08] you know, my phrases are needle movers.

[1:21:10] I think Mr. Tripp said it several times

[1:21:11] in his questions last year.

[1:21:13] But then you get into the first presentation on

[1:21:16] October 20th, then you have a board meeting in between.

[1:21:20] We get to come back and kick it around as a,

[1:21:22] a fiscal advisory group.

[1:21:23] But more importantly, that date is

[1:21:25] after the election, right, Michael?

[1:21:27] So November 5th, is that after? That is after, right?

[1:21:31] I think the date, yeah, I think the,

[1:21:32] yeah, the election is Tuesday.

[1:21:34] Yeah. So we chose that Thursday so that we can regroup

[1:21:38] on the impact of what 1300 may

[1:21:40] or may not have had as a fiscal advisory group.

[1:21:43] Then we go back, of course my

[1:21:48] folder just closed, so I'm gonna go old school

[1:21:51] and go paper come back for that December 3rd.

[1:21:55] So that's after the Pinkerton numbers.

[1:21:56] They normally come out around Thanksgiving.

[1:21:59] And then last year, the, the fiscal advisory,

[1:22:01] we did not have a second December meeting,

[1:22:03] but some feedback was people felt kind of pressed in

[1:22:07] that first December meeting.

[1:22:08] So we put it on the books in case we want to come back

[1:22:11] depending on what's going on.

[1:22:12] So all of those meetings will be at

[1:22:15] the new professional learning center, at the new SAU so

[1:22:18] that our community can start to see

[1:22:20] what we have going on there. Some questions,

[1:22:23] The training, is that just for everybody

[1:22:26] that's on the fiscal

[1:22:27] Advisory committee?

[1:22:28] It'll be for the board and the fiscal advisory committee.

[1:22:29] Okay. Yep. It's open to the public.

[1:22:31] But yeah, it's, it'll be a training

[1:22:32] session directed for the members. Yeah.

[1:22:34] Will they be recording it? Dairy cam? Yeah. Okay, good.

[1:22:37] Because I won't be here, so. Sure.

[1:22:40] Yep. Any questions on that?

[1:22:46] Alright, last, this is more about discussion.

[1:22:49] Michael, do you want to take the lead on this?

[1:22:50] The joint one? Yeah.

[1:22:52] So we, in two weeks

[1:22:54] before our next meeting at five 30, we're having a workshop

[1:22:59] with the town council.

[1:23:01] So we wanted to take this opportunity during Mike's update

[1:23:05] to hear from the rest of the board on

[1:23:08] possible agenda topics, things

[1:23:09] that you think we should be discussing with the town.

[1:23:13] I mean, I think, you know, it's pretty clear

[1:23:17] what the number one topic is gonna be.

[1:23:19] You know, Mr. Carden brought it up earlier.

[1:23:22] You know, we're gonna be wanting

[1:23:23] to talk about this possible vote on a charter amendment

[1:23:25] to consolidate the schools as a town department.

[1:23:28] You know, I think that's gonna dominate the discussion.

[1:23:30] We need to talk this out with our counterparts on the

[1:23:32] council, make sure we all understand.

[1:23:34] If this were to come to pass, what is it gonna look like?

[1:23:37] I mean, I think that's one of the, the points was that

[1:23:40] it hasn't really been discussed.

[1:23:42] If this were to happen, what would it look like?

[1:23:44] You know, what would your role be as a superintendent?

[1:23:48] What would the school board's role be? You know?

[1:23:50] 'cause I mean, when you look at cities that are organized

[1:23:54] with the school department, you know,

[1:23:56] there is still a school board.

[1:23:58] They, you know, they,

[1:24:00] and it's the, the city council, in this case,

[1:24:03] it would be the town council that sets the

[1:24:05] overall budget number.

[1:24:06] But it's the school board and the superintendent

[1:24:07] that decides how that money is spent now, I mean,

[1:24:12] I don't understand why we're going through the trouble

[1:24:14] of consolidating the school district into a school

[1:24:17] department just to have a tax cap when we could just have

[1:24:19] a vote on a tax cap.

[1:24:21] But, you know, here we are. Yeah.

[1:24:24] Mike Fowler and I met for about,

[1:24:26] I wanna say about an hour the other day,

[1:24:28] and kind of started to work through scenarios.

[1:24:31] I guess that's the easiest way.

[1:24:32] And we were kind of already ahead of it.

[1:24:33] Mike had brought the idea up in May in regards to like,

[1:24:36] the consolidation of benefits,

[1:24:38] if HealthTrust would even do it for us.

[1:24:40] We're running those scenarios.

[1:24:41] But, you know, I don't, I'm not gonna go on record on, on,

[1:24:45] on some of our concerns.

[1:24:46] I think that discussion needs to happen amongst both boards.

[1:24:50] But trying to discuss the consolidation of hr, I mean,

[1:24:54] we have 608 employees.

[1:24:55] That's the town can't handle that processing, that payroll,

[1:24:59] those payments, you know, that's just one area.

[1:25:03] So it, it'll be an interest discussion amongst the,

[1:25:06] you know, elected officials of the town and the community.

[1:25:08] You know, Mike and I are just, we are,

[1:25:11] we are your employee, right?

[1:25:12] So Mike and the town council and me and the board.

[1:25:14] So how you guys work things out

[1:25:16] or scenarios that you want run, you know, we've, we've kind

[1:25:20] of talked it out, but it, it's, I think Tom, you know, Mr.

[1:25:24] Carne did a great job. It's like,

[1:25:26] what are the results of this?

[1:25:27] Right? It's, it's kind of, it's there's, there's,

[1:25:32] it's not as simple as we just go under the town council

[1:25:35] and then everything consolidates,

[1:25:39] or there's a reduction in cost necessarily.

[1:25:43] Right? It's two totally different worlds

[1:25:47] of municipalities.

[1:25:49] So I'm looking forward to that discussion.

[1:25:54] Yeah, I mean, I think we need to, you know,

[1:25:56] talk this all out with our counterparts on the council,

[1:25:58] you know, make sure we all understand, you know, how

[1:26:01] that we approach this with our constituents.

[1:26:04] You know, we all have a, a unique view into what the outcome

[1:26:08] of something like this is gonna be.

[1:26:10] And, you know, we have a duty to our constituents

[1:26:12] to keep them informed

[1:26:13] and, you know, tell them our opinion of doing these jobs

[1:26:17] and understanding what these jobs are, what the impact

[1:26:20] of this is gonna be.

[1:26:23] Yeah. Would would the, yeah,

[1:26:28] I mean, I, I can go down something like,

[1:26:30] we talked about mowing, we talked about snow removal,

[1:26:32] we talked about management of properties.

[1:26:34] What about break-ins at ours? Can you speak up please?

[1:26:36] Sorry. So there's, there's multiple layers

[1:26:41] of property management alone.

[1:26:45] Does the town have that capacity?

[1:26:46] Do then, then do we, yeah.

[1:26:51] It sounds like you guys discussed efficiencies across the

[1:26:53] town and schools in terms of management of Sure.

[1:26:55] Parking lots and buildings

[1:26:57] and all those types of things. Just,

[1:26:59] Just facilities, right.

[1:27:00] Not even getting into the depths of payroll, right.

[1:27:04] Benefits New Hampshire retirements

[1:27:08] for the, for the different classes.

[1:27:10] There's, there's a whole lot of

[1:27:14] educational management that we do

[1:27:16] as an administrative unit out of the SAU

[1:27:19] and then there's municipality management.

[1:27:22] It's significantly different.

[1:27:23] So it's not just a cross train, right?

[1:27:25] You don't just drop in how we, how we do payroll

[1:27:28] and how their hourly rates are computed.

[1:27:31] So it would take a significant amount of time and effort.

[1:27:33] Yeah. Sorry Brenda. That's

[1:27:35] All right.

[1:27:36] All of those are important,

[1:27:37] but at the end of that decision are children.

[1:27:40] Yeah. That need to be educated and be taken care of properly

[1:27:44] and the schools need to be taken care of properly.

[1:27:46] The end of a plow, the end of a mowing, mow

[1:27:50] a mower.

[1:27:52] There's still children involved.

[1:27:54] And I don't think the town council,

[1:27:57] and this is not a slam to them,

[1:27:59] I don't think they understand

[1:28:00] what it's like to run a school district.

[1:28:02] What is in the school district, how education is managed

[1:28:07] and how classrooms are managed, how schools are managed,

[1:28:10] and how a child's actually educated.

[1:28:13] And I think it's unfair to them to expect them to have to do

[1:28:16] that because somebody wants

[1:28:17] to take over the school district, my, just my opinion.

[1:28:21] But at the end of it all, you better remember

[1:28:23] that there's kids at the end.

[1:28:27] I think to your point, Brenda, it does beg the question,

[1:28:29] what problem does the town of Derry have have

[1:28:32] that this state level legislation seeks to solve?

[1:28:38] And that's really where I take issue with it. I mean, Mr.

[1:28:41] Tripp mentioned this evening at public comment that,

[1:28:44] you know, this is democracy, it's a democratic process.

[1:28:46] Well, as a reminder, there is a democratic process

[1:28:48] that takes place called a charter

[1:28:50] commission within the town of dairy.

[1:28:51] And if the dairy residents decide that that's a way

[1:28:54] of looking closely at how the town

[1:28:56] and schools have a relationship, there's a process in place

[1:29:00] for that to take place already to study the implications,

[1:29:04] to study the efficiencies that Mr. Flynn just mentioned.

[1:29:07] And so that process exists right now.

[1:29:12] And so I, I do think, I look forward

[1:29:15] to the collaboration a couple weeks

[1:29:16] with our town counselors.

[1:29:18] I think that there's a lot of good conversation to be had.

[1:29:21] And, you know, I, I will just state

[1:29:24] that I have very real concerns.

[1:29:29] I think one of the things that I have seen floating

[1:29:33] around online, which is the, the takeaway is the

[1:29:37] idea of there are too many administrators.

[1:29:41] That seemed to be a, a main theme

[1:29:45] when I was reading about these, these bills.

[1:29:48] And I, I know that you don't follow social media, mike, so,

[1:29:52] but this, you get a, a, a pulse,

[1:29:56] a finger on the pulse of what's going on out there.

[1:29:59] And it wasn't just dairy, it was outside of dairy.

[1:30:02] And that was like, well, you know,

[1:30:03] there's just too many administrators,

[1:30:05] too many administrators.

[1:30:06] And it's that, that, that one idea

[1:30:09] and a concept in a bill.

[1:30:11] So I think the thought is, well, if there's just too many,

[1:30:14] it's administrators and too many business costs,

[1:30:16] we're just gonna cut that.

[1:30:17] And instead of there being, you know, like, well,

[1:30:19] why don't we just have one principal

[1:30:21] and not a vice principal, and why don't we just, and,

[1:30:23] and just do these little tiny, it's like death

[1:30:26] by a thousand paper cuts, where they think that

[1:30:28] by taking out these big ticket numbers,

[1:30:31] that it won't affect the kids.

[1:30:33] And it's just office costs.

[1:30:35] But as Brenda just said, at the end of it, at the end

[1:30:39] of everything is children.

[1:30:41] So I don't think that they understand that trickle

[1:30:44] down that's gonna happen.

[1:30:47] And what we are ultimately going to have to deal with by

[1:30:51] the idea of like, we'll just cut SAU costs,

[1:30:53] but everything funnels just in a tiny way into SAU costs.

[1:30:57] Sure. There isn't, there's a big picture

[1:31:00] and there isn't enough tiny details

[1:31:04] to make this float right now. Yeah.

[1:31:08] And minimum standards tells us when we have to have a,

[1:31:12] an assistant principal, how many students you have to, like,

[1:31:16] there's rules that have to be followed.

[1:31:19] I know they can be changed, but right now, there are rules

[1:31:21] that say this ma and I don't know them in my head,

[1:31:23] but this many students, you have

[1:31:25] to have an assistant principal, this many students, you have

[1:31:27] to have this many nurses.

[1:31:29] And it talk about democracy. We vote on the school budget.

[1:31:33] The citizens of the town vote on the school budget.

[1:31:35] The citizens of the town can come

[1:31:37] to deliberative session and change the budget.

[1:31:39] If that's their choice, they have a vote.

[1:31:42] I don't know why that isn't part of democracy.

[1:31:47] I mean, that is an excellent point.

[1:31:48] I mean, if anything, you know,

[1:31:50] the town meeting system in New Hampshire,

[1:31:51] the deliberative session, I mean,

[1:31:53] it is the ultimate expression of democracy, right?

[1:31:56] It's the opportunity for everybody in this town

[1:32:00] to come together and determine

[1:32:03] what the school budget is gonna be like.

[1:32:05] You know, us as a school board, you know, we take the blame

[1:32:08] for the budget a lot, but all we do is propose a budget.

[1:32:11] You know, anybody in town can come to

[1:32:13] that deliberative session and propose a

[1:32:16] change to that budget.

[1:32:17] And if 50% of the, you know, 150 people

[1:32:20] that show up in the room that night, you know, say that,

[1:32:24] that they want that cut, then it is done.

[1:32:28] You know, I mean, that's democracy, you know,

[1:32:32] and the discussion that Jenna alluded to, and,

[1:32:35] and Brenda brought up the, the, you know,

[1:32:36] the New Hampshire ED three oh sixes, right.

[1:32:38] And minimum standards. And just, I quickly pulled it up

[1:32:41] for the, the administration ratio.

[1:32:44] So in Bill's building, he said his enrollment was what,

[1:32:47] 6 37?

[1:32:48] I forget what he said, all that. Okay.

[1:32:51] So that requires one principal and one assistant principal.

[1:32:54] And guess what, we have one

[1:32:55] principal and one assistant principal.

[1:32:57] So at the elementary level, if it's one per 500,

[1:32:59] you could reduce an assistant principal.

[1:33:01] But then you talk about the points

[1:33:03] of emphasis, which is your services.

[1:33:05] So when a bullying report comes in,

[1:33:07] when a parent thing comes in,

[1:33:09] how's the delegation of duties happening?

[1:33:11] And what's your return quickly to your customer,

[1:33:15] which is your student or your family member.

[1:33:17] So, I mean, that's what the school board does.

[1:33:19] They analyze those costs

[1:33:20] and you guys make determination on what you think is best.

[1:33:22] So it, it's all worthwhile discussion.

[1:33:25] I think that's democracy as well too.

[1:33:27] Like point, counterpoint, you know, and, and,

[1:33:29] and information as generous, you know,

[1:33:30] seeking the right information rather than assuming,

[1:33:35] you know, being informed takes work.

[1:33:36] It takes time and it takes effort.

[1:33:38] And, and, and it's, it's asking the right people, the,

[1:33:41] the appropriate questions.

[1:33:42] So I look forward to all this as we get into the fall.

[1:33:45] I think it's definitely a, a, a, you know, a kind

[1:33:48] of a crossroads for a lot of us in our, in our profession.

[1:33:52] Because I think, going back to the core issue

[1:33:54] of the November one, to say that it's not gonna impact kids

[1:33:56] that, I mean that's, I don't even know how,

[1:34:01] I don't know how you can even think that it wouldn't, that

[1:34:04] that's, that's very challenging for me in my seat to say

[1:34:06] that a a three

[1:34:08] and a half percent cut isn't gonna impact kids.

[1:34:12] So Yeah. I mean, 80% of the budget is personnel. Yeah.

[1:34:16] And pinker intuition. Yeah.

[1:34:18] So, you know, if we have to make a, you know, as massive

[1:34:22] reductions as this might be, you know, we don't really know

[1:34:25] what the impact of this is gonna be.

[1:34:26] You can't tell me that that's not gonna affect kids. Right.

[1:34:30] One thing I would like to say, and I don't know,

[1:34:31] when we were, we were just talking about the town workshop

[1:34:34] and, and ideas to come up, right. To circle back. So we

[1:34:37] Started that. So yeah. Any,

[1:34:38] Anyway, talking about the town workshop, I think one

[1:34:42] of the ways is to see

[1:34:43] how we can collaborate and work together.

[1:34:46] And I mean, we already have a, like if, for example,

[1:34:50] the deliberative session, we have a minimal turnout.

[1:34:53] I am a hundred people, maybe max one 50 come to that.

[1:34:58] And that's only from word of mouth

[1:35:00] through the Dairy Cooperative School District

[1:35:02] and letting our parents know what's happening.

[1:35:05] If we are really concerned and we want,

[1:35:08] and a lot of things that come up in this town are people

[1:35:11] that don't have kids in the school system,

[1:35:13] but they still pay into the school system

[1:35:15] and they are concerned,

[1:35:17] but they don't know about these things.

[1:35:19] So to be able to collaborate with the town as far

[1:35:22] as getting out communication to other taxpayers,

[1:35:26] to having those talking sessions with other taxpayers,

[1:35:29] it might already be happy.

[1:35:31] I don't know. But that's something that I think

[1:35:34] that we should maybe partner with them a little bit more.

[1:35:36] Because if we're super concerned about having everything

[1:35:40] super transparent and hearing back from everybody,

[1:35:42] then we've gotta get the word out to everybody.

[1:35:45] I mean, we put things up on the town signs, right?

[1:35:48] So by the fire station and on things like that.

[1:35:50] But what else more can we do

[1:35:54] Collaborative?

[1:35:55] We tried, we tried, last year we, I went,

[1:35:57] I brought flyers out to the fairways.

[1:35:59] I pla we went, we brought them to Marion Garish.

[1:36:02] We tried really hard, we had an ad in the dairy news.

[1:36:06] We tried really hard to get the word about word out

[1:36:08] about deliberative last year.

[1:36:10] And still there was very minimal turnout. Yeah.

[1:36:14] But yeah, I mean obviously as much as we can do

[1:36:17] to get the info out there, we need to do it.

[1:36:20] But I don't know, we should definitely keep trying. And

[1:36:23] I mean, I think a lot of it is

[1:36:24] that people do don't even know

[1:36:25] what a deliberative session is. Yeah. But

[1:36:28] That's why we had, we did videos.

[1:36:30] I know those online.

[1:36:31] Like we really, we can lead the Horse to water

[1:36:34] And communications committee.

[1:36:35] We really focus really hard.

[1:36:37] Yeah. I mean we've gone through this with

[1:36:38] so many things like, you know, outside of, you know,

[1:36:40] going door to door to everyone in town's house.

[1:36:43] Right. You know, it's kind of hard to, you know,

[1:36:46] to get this information out.

[1:36:47] And correct me if I'm wrong, Jane, but I think at some point

[1:36:50] before we had worked with the town to send things out to,

[1:36:54] you know, they have mailing lists

[1:36:55] that they collect information.

[1:36:57] I remember us doing that when we were, you know,

[1:37:00] promoting the facilities bond.

[1:37:02] Does that ring a bell for you?

[1:37:06] I, I don't remember specifically,

[1:37:08] but I believe we did work

[1:37:09] with them on getting the mailing list from them. Yeah.

[1:37:13] Yeah. I mean, I'm sure we Can because we don't have

[1:37:14] one, so, but they did. Yep.

[1:37:16] Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure we can do that again with, you know,

[1:37:18] getting people to come out to the deliberative session

[1:37:21] and I'm, I'm sure that they do it themselves,

[1:37:23] you know, for the town election.

[1:37:24] You know, it happens on the same day. Right.

[1:37:31] All right. Any other agenda topics anybody would like

[1:37:34] to consider for, for this meeting coming up?

[1:37:40] I think that's such a big ticket item.

[1:37:42] I don't know what else we could talk about.

[1:37:44] We have hour's to talk to them.

[1:37:46] It's gonna, that take all that,

[1:37:48] It's gonna dominate the discussion. I'd like hear

[1:37:49] Where each council member stands on that too.

[1:37:52] So they sent over some recommendations

[1:37:53] for the draft agenda just so

[1:37:56] that we're all on the same page.

[1:37:57] So what we cover discussion on the November vote

[1:37:59] and the tax cap of 1331 town budgeting and, and,

[1:38:03] and the tax rate of the town.

[1:38:05] Because that's all changing if you're,

[1:38:07] as we've been communicating 2027 warrant

[1:38:12] and future purchases.

[1:38:13] So I wanted to communicate to the town

[1:38:15] that the CIP p's coming in live

[1:38:17] and we're gonna have a projection out

[1:38:18] to 2033 on our big purchases, which is important.

[1:38:23] Capital projects, future legislation,

[1:38:25] state funding, things along those lines.

[1:38:27] So kind

[1:38:29] of everything we talked about will probably all encompass in

[1:38:31] that start starting to point of the discussion.

[1:38:33] 'cause it all kind of fends off of that. Yeah.

[1:38:36] One thing I was thinking about is, you know,

[1:38:38] possibly talking about how we can work with the town

[1:38:40] to coordinate traffic flow around the schools.

[1:38:42] During the school year,

[1:38:48] we had, we had a four hour meeting on Thursday

[1:38:51] with principals and I'll be reaching out

[1:38:53] to the dairy police department pretty soon.

[1:38:57] East Dairy School. The, the pickup line is, yeah,

[1:39:02] it's, it's, it's new to me.

[1:39:04] Not having appropriate properties to support

[1:39:07] both flows is new to me.

[1:39:10] So we're gonna be talking about it.

[1:39:11] I mean there are so many pinch

[1:39:13] points, you know, around the schools.

[1:39:14] You think about like even a school like Barca, you know,

[1:39:16] 500 students there.

[1:39:18] There's one road in one road out

[1:39:20] and it ends at a stop sign at the bypass.

[1:39:22] Yep. So like, you know, if you've ever tried to leave Barca

[1:39:26] after drop off or

[1:39:27] after pickup, I mean that lines up, you know,

[1:39:31] our biggest challenge now is, and that's just one school.

[1:39:33] Yeah. Every school has their, their challenges.

[1:39:35] Going back to my, my busing update

[1:39:37] where our buses are getting stuck in the car pickup lines.

[1:39:42] So our ridership is up now.

[1:39:44] Our buses are delayed parent pickup.

[1:39:47] 'cause we've gotta wait for all the things to clear.

[1:39:49] So now our buses end up running behind.

[1:39:52] We need to, we need to find a way to get our buses ahead

[1:39:54] of all of them or around them safely.

[1:39:59] So we started drafting ideas

[1:40:01] and I have to get in touch with them.

[1:40:04] I know Melissa had reached out earlier about Grinnell

[1:40:07] and trying to get the buses

[1:40:09] to come up from the backside just to get them in.

[1:40:11] Like there's, yeah, we're trying to be very, well,

[1:40:12] I mean, I've talked about this before.

[1:40:14] You know, my son went to Grinnell

[1:40:15] and the first two years that he went there,

[1:40:18] the cars came in from Mount Pleasant

[1:40:20] and the buses came up from when, from the other way.

[1:40:25] That's a one. It's a town road, Grinnell Road

[1:40:27] and it's a one way street.

[1:40:28] Right. So we were told we couldn't do that anymore.

[1:40:31] And now the buses

[1:40:33] and the cars co-mingle in one line going,

[1:40:35] you know, down from Mount Pleasant.

[1:40:37] Yeah. We got some work to do.

[1:40:38] So yeah, I mean that was always the thing at Grinnell is

[1:40:41] that the buses would wait at the corner of Grinnell Road

[1:40:44] and like, you know, if you wanna get outta there quick,

[1:40:46] you gotta get there before the buses

[1:40:47] and go in the get in the line.

[1:40:49] Well, I think that's why, I mean,

[1:40:51] half the time I remember seeing parents, you know,

[1:40:53] getting into the parking lot at two

[1:40:56] school didn't get out till three

[1:40:57] and they would just sit there in their cars

[1:41:00] with the cars running for an hour just

[1:41:02] because they wanted to be there before the rest of the rush.

[1:41:05] I used to drop my son off every morning at Grinnell

[1:41:07] for chorus once a week.

[1:41:09] So, you know, 30 minutes

[1:41:12] before school starts, I would get there to drop him off,

[1:41:16] you know, about 40 minutes before school starts for chorus

[1:41:18] and there would already be six cars waiting

[1:41:21] for the regular drop off.

[1:41:24] We gotta, we have to be

[1:41:25] considerate of all the parties involved.

[1:41:26] But, you know, but it, it's definitely the,

[1:41:31] the ratio as Bill said, has gone down.

[1:41:34] But now, 'cause we have more students on the bus,

[1:41:37] the routes are longer.

[1:41:38] We gotta get 'em moving sooner.

[1:41:40] So it, again, it's one

[1:41:42] of these unintended consequences of the time shift.

[1:41:44] So we're working on it.

[1:41:49] All right.

[1:41:49] Anything else from anybody? Sounds like a packed agenda.

[1:41:55] Yeah. All right, Mike, is that all you've got?

[1:41:59] That's it from, that's it. So sorry about that.

[1:42:02] So we can move on here.

[1:42:05] Move on to committee and liaison reports.

[1:42:08] First up will be Karen

[1:42:09] with an update from the finance committee.

[1:42:12] Thank you Jane, for that update on the finance committee.

[1:42:17] I do wanna let everyone know though,

[1:42:20] we still have retained funds

[1:42:23] well under the 400,000 that, that we took for the capital

[1:42:28] for the SAU when we, when we switched it

[1:42:32] and we got 4,000 for that.

[1:42:33] We still have tons of funds left on that.

[1:42:35] And one of the reasons, so he has something on the positive

[1:42:38] for the school board is

[1:42:39] because SNHU donated a ton of furniture for us.

[1:42:43] So that was awesome.

[1:42:45] And the other thing I wanted to say was,

[1:42:48] we did vote last meeting

[1:42:50] to give $533,811 back to the taxpayers.

[1:42:55] We also had another 1.5 million budgeted as a placeholder.

[1:43:00] So in reality we gave the taxpayers back over $2 million.

[1:43:05] So that, that's a good deal. So happy to report on that.

[1:43:09] And that's it.

[1:43:12] All right. Thank you Karen. Any questions?

[1:43:17] All right. We also had a facilities committee meeting.

[1:43:20] David is the chair of that committee

[1:43:22] and he's not here tonight, so I can take this one.

[1:43:25] We discussed a few things now

[1:43:27] with this summer's work wrapped up at SRS.

[1:43:30] They're beginning planning for phase two next summer.

[1:43:33] I think Mike can correct me if I'm wrong,

[1:43:35] but I believe they said they completed about 40%

[1:43:38] of the roof work this summer.

[1:43:40] Yes. About 60% to do next summer. Yep.

[1:43:43] But the expectation is, is now that we've done that 40%,

[1:43:46] they have an idea of where the potential pitfalls lie from

[1:43:49] that initial roof work.

[1:43:50] And they'll be able to tackle the remaining 60% next

[1:43:53] summer at a faster clip.

[1:43:55] And a positive note there too, even

[1:43:57] with all the unexpected complications we've run into at SRS,

[1:44:00] all those projects are still under budget.

[1:44:01] They are additional planning for next summer's.

[1:44:05] Other projects, mark job's been working

[1:44:07] with LaValley Resinger to plan

[1:44:09] for district wide door replacements.

[1:44:11] They're gonna be reviewing doors

[1:44:13] and identifying candidates for replacement.

[1:44:15] We've also got a window replacement

[1:44:17] for the fifties section at Hood Untapped for next summer.

[1:44:20] And the expectation is Mark will have bids

[1:44:22] for those projects to bring

[1:44:23] to us in the late fall or early winter.

[1:44:28] And Mike already kind of hit on this earlier in his update,

[1:44:32] but since we are looking at coming in under budget on a

[1:44:34] number of these projects, we have that interest income

[1:44:37] that's been reallocated toward the bond projects.

[1:44:39] Mark and Jeremy are working together to develop that list

[1:44:42] of additional projects that we'd be able to complete

[1:44:44] with those additional proceeds.

[1:44:49] Mike and Jeremy also have the capital improvement plan.

[1:44:51] They work to develop with UMass

[1:44:52] Lowell students this past spring.

[1:44:53] They're working to update that to account

[1:44:55] for all the projects that have been completed.

[1:44:57] And they'll be bringing that forward to the board

[1:44:59] for adoption in the near future.

[1:45:02] And one final note, just on top

[1:45:04] of all these big ticket improvement projects throughout the

[1:45:07] district, with the beginning of schools staff

[1:45:09] and students back in the buildings, Jeremy

[1:45:11] and his team have been working through over 300 maintenance

[1:45:13] tickets submitted by staff.

[1:45:15] So, you know, again, we've gotta give it up to Jeremy

[1:45:18] and his staff for not only shepherding all these major

[1:45:20] projects along throughout the summer,

[1:45:22] but all this work that they're doing every day

[1:45:24] to make sure our staff

[1:45:25] and students have safe inviting and functional spaces.

[1:45:33] Moving on to our next agenda item.

[1:45:36] We've got member updates in any other business.

[1:45:38] I've got a couple of things.

[1:45:41] We've, we're going to be doing a facilities tour

[1:45:44] as a public meeting Thursday, September 17th at 4:00 PM

[1:45:48] That's gonna be for the board.

[1:45:49] And as a public meeting, any interested members

[1:45:51] of the community could also come out with us

[1:45:53] to take a tour of the facilities.

[1:45:55] You can see all this work that

[1:45:56] we've been talking about firsthand.

[1:45:58] I believe the plan is to begin the tour at 4:00 PM at SRS.

[1:46:03] Correct. And then the group will move on

[1:46:05] to the other schools from there.

[1:46:07] So if you're interested in seeing

[1:46:08] where your tax dollars are going, come on out.

[1:46:11] What's the date? It said it is Thursday,

[1:46:15] September 17th at 4:00 PM So the

[1:46:19] second item is for the board.

[1:46:21] The New Hampshire School Board Association's Delegate

[1:46:23] Assembly is coming up Saturday, October 17th.

[1:46:26] You've all been receiving emails from the

[1:46:28] association about this.

[1:46:30] At our next meeting on September 22nd, we will vote

[1:46:32] to nominate a voting delegate and alternate to the assembly

[1:46:35] and on our position on the resolutions

[1:46:37] and bylaw changes that are gonna be considered.

[1:46:39] So please go over those emails you've been getting

[1:46:42] and if you're interested in serving

[1:46:44] as a delegate, let us know.

[1:46:47] Did anyone else on the board have any other

[1:46:49] updates they wanted to bring forward?

[1:46:54] All right. Not hearing any.

[1:46:57] So we'll move on to our upcoming meeting schedule.

[1:46:59] As we discussed, we'll be meeting with the Town Council

[1:47:01] for a collaborative workshop discussion at 5:30 PM on

[1:47:04] Tuesday, September 22nd.

[1:47:06] That'll be followed by our regular meeting at 6:30 PM

[1:47:09] And then our next scheduled meeting would be Tuesday,

[1:47:11] October 13th at 6:30 PM All meetings

[1:47:14] here at the municipal center.

[1:47:17] That wraps up our public agenda.

[1:47:19] The board will be meeting in non-public session tonight.

[1:47:21] So I would accept the motion to enter non-public session

[1:47:23] under RSA 91 a.

[1:47:25] Section three, paragraph two, subparagraph A.

[1:47:28] So moved first by Jamie second. Second by Karen.

[1:47:33] This statute requires we take a roll call. Vote. Brenda.

[1:47:37] Jen. Yes. Jenna? Yes. Jamie? Yes. Karen? Yes. Chair votes?

[1:47:41] Yes. Motion carries. Six zero.

[1:47:44] The board will now move into non-public session.

[1:47:45] Goodnight everybody.

School Board Meeting - Meeting of 09/09/26

Agenda

Transcript