[0:00] All right.
[0:03] Calling to order regular meeting on Monday,
[0:07] September 14th at 7:00 pm.
[0:10] Can I please have a roll call? You may.
[0:14] Good evening everybody. Robin,
[0:16] Michelle Clancy here. Craig Flynn is present.
[0:19] Maggie Fogarty here.
[0:21] Micaela.
[0:23] Elizabeth Goldman here.
[0:25] Seana Berkley Hallberg here.
[0:27] Okay.
[0:29] Craig, would you please do this in the Pledge
[0:31] of Allegiance?
[0:37] I pledge allegiance
[0:38] to the flag of the United States of America.
[0:41] And to the Republic for which it stands.
[0:44] One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
[0:48] and justice for all.
[0:57] Can I please have a motion
[0:58] to approve tonight's agenda?
[1:03] Seana and Liz seconds.
[1:05] Any discussion?
[1:07] All those in favor?
[1:08] Motion passes 6 to 0.
[1:11] At this time, opening citizens forum.
[1:14] Citizens forum is the opportunity for community members, business owners,
[1:18] property owners, parents of students from sending schools to speak.
[1:22] Comments will be limited to five minutes.
[1:25] And please teach your name and address for the record.
[1:34] Seeing no one at this time
[1:36] suspending Citizens Forum,
[1:40] can I please have a motion
[1:41] to approve the minutes from our August meetings?
[1:45] So moved.
[1:45] Michelle and Maggie seconds.
[1:48] Any discussion? All those in favor?
[1:51] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[1:56] And then moving on to
[1:57] our Superintendent's Report.
[2:00] The only thing I wanted to flag for you is I did put in there for you
[2:04] the years of service and the names of our staff
[2:07] who have reached 20, 25, 25 plus years of service for the district.
[2:11] So, I just wanted to recognize them.
[2:14] There are a lot of collective years and a lot of collective wisdom there.
[2:18] The other thing I would flag, and it's on your consent agenda,
[2:21] but it's also in my report, there were some nominations.
[2:25] Not nominations. I'm sorry.
[2:26] Some, donations made.
[2:29] And I just wanted to flag that there's an annual golf tournament
[2:33] that's sponsored by Nootro, and that's a company owned by two former
[2:36] Dover High students.
[2:38] And it benefits our unified athletics program.
[2:41] And they raised over $4,000 to go directly to unified athletics.
[2:45] So we're really thankful to Teddy Lipinski and Judah Payeur
[2:49] who have made that possible.
[2:51] And they do that annually and they do a fantastic job.
[2:53] So you.
[2:54] Want to say the total amount that was fundraised.
[2:57] $4,267.34.
[3:00] That's awesome. Thank you. Yeah.
[3:03] Okay.
[3:04] Any questions for Dr. Boston on the superintendent's report?
[3:09] I'll just say I thought the years of service was really cool
[3:11] because 25 years ago, I was at that school, so to see,
[3:16] Eric Goodman,
[3:17] our athletic trainer, who's amazing is the name that stood out to me the most.
[3:21] So it was it was really good to see him still on there.
[3:26] I think he's a great guy.
[3:27] He helped me through several injuries when I played football here.
[3:30] But no, it was really cool to see that and look through some of those names
[3:33] and think back to, you know, the first time I met some of those people.
[3:37] I noticed the city council does it monthly and we hire everybody annually.
[3:42] So I'll just keep doing that annually so you all can see the names
[3:45] and recognize them. Great. Thank you.
[3:49] Okay.
[3:50] Moving on to the consent agenda.
[3:52] Can I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda
[3:56] with the amended nominations list that we received on our desks?
[4:00] So moved.
[4:01] Michelle and Seana. Second.
[4:04] Any discussion?
[4:06] Always really happy to see people replacing
[4:09] open positions, especially for para educators.
[4:12] Yeah.
[4:14] And I wanted to ask if board members can join the trip to Italy.
[4:18] Because it looks awesome.
[4:21] I think we all should chaperon. Yeah.
[4:24] I did want to note for you in the packet
[4:27] the, the permission slip at the very end
[4:33] has the date of February vacation on it.
[4:36] That changed from the time of their initial approval.
[4:39] So it's actually April vacation break.
[4:41] So Mr.
[4:42] Driscoll's letter in support is correct. Okay.
[4:44] Thank you.
[4:45] But in a year, date shifted a. Little bit.
[4:47] Any additional discussion?
[4:51] All those in favor?
[4:54] I can pass this 7 to 0.
[4:58] Do we have a new student?
[5:00] Do we?
[5:01] We get a new reappointed student each.
[5:03] We have Connor Sprague stuff. Okay. And he is not here.
[5:06] But he left me some notes if you'd like me to share.
[5:09] Awesome. Thank you.
[5:10] So he wanted you all to know that all four fall sports
[5:14] have started up and have been going hard since August 17th.
[5:19] Freshman orientation went very smoothly.
[5:22] Clubs like the National Honor
[5:24] Society will be starting up in the upcoming weeks.
[5:28] This year's homecoming theme is A Night in Rio.
[5:31] That is September 26th, and the homecoming
[5:34] football game will be against Keene High School this year.
[5:38] Students wanted to make homecoming a chance to give back.
[5:41] So the students, part of planning homecoming, decided
[5:45] to donate a dollar of every ticket sold and cuts off.
[5:49] So I can't see where it's being donated to.
[5:51] I apologize. I'll find that for you.
[5:54] Classes have been had a good start up
[5:57] the first couple of weeks, and, that's what he shared tonight.
[6:01] And he hopes to be back. But at soccer practice to me. Yes.
[6:05] Great.
[6:06] Thank you.
[6:07] Connor.
[6:09] Okay.
[6:10] And moving on to our financial report.
[6:13] It's new format.
[6:15] Yes. You see a new format that we have this month.
[6:19] I tried I, I presented the information in two different ways.
[6:23] The start, and then the revenue kind of comes out the same.
[6:26] But I wanted to put percentages on the right and kind of make it
[6:30] a little more understandable and readable.
[6:32] To the average person.
[6:35] So I didn't know if this was something you were looking for to continue.
[6:39] Do you like do you want a broken down a different way?
[6:41] Do you like this way to know.
[6:45] I will say I like the percentage used.
[6:49] At the end of each table.
[6:51] I think that gives a nice visual illustration of where we're at.
[6:56] I really also
[6:57] like the table that shows the budget broken out by each location.
[7:01] I don't think we've seen it presented that way before.
[7:06] And, you know, sometimes online rhetoric is we are
[7:09] we paid like half our budget is to administration and administrators.
[7:13] So I think it's really great to see that actually,
[7:17] the majority of our budget is allocated to the high school.
[7:21] But I really liked that format
[7:23] and seeing it broken out that way.
[7:27] Robin, just relative to that,
[7:30] the budget item that's called district wide, what does that cover.
[7:34] Which are you on the second.
[7:37] On the,
[7:39] where the the second, the second, second location.
[7:41] District wide is basically anything that's not, set to a school.
[7:46] That could be our IT department, that could be maintenance, that could be,
[7:51] any facilities.
[7:52] Facilities. Okay. Yep. Would be under there as well.
[7:55] So food service is also district wide.
[7:58] So thank you like that.
[8:00] But that's not attached to a school directly or a program directly.
[8:03] Right.
[8:07] Any other questions
[8:09] or feedback on the financial report? No.
[8:12] Very legible. Yes. It is really helpful.
[8:15] And just so you know, when you see 631 and 632 on the second one,
[8:19] the high school and storage buildings, those are all those are
[8:22] electric bills for animal sciences and our maintenance building.
[8:26] So it's not if you wondering why it's such a small number, that's really all it is.
[8:31] All the other parts are included in other areas of the budget.
[8:35] Makes sense.
[8:36] Thank you.
[8:40] Okay, moving on to policies,
[8:44] I please have a motion to.
[8:51] Table our policy changes at first reading.
[8:55] So moved. Michelle and Maggie.
[8:57] Seconds.
[8:57] Any discussion or comments on those,
[9:02] policy revisions?
[9:06] Looks like we are,
[9:07] clarifying
[9:11] and streamlining some of the policies quite a bit.
[9:14] You know, one of the first things that Brian noticed when he came here was
[9:18] how low our threshold was with bidding.
[9:20] So he's been working with Josh Wyatt, the city attorney,
[9:23] to bring our policy in alignment with the city's policy.
[9:27] And then the others are changes due to legislation.
[9:32] Thank you.
[9:33] Any additional discussion?
[9:35] Just that the policy committee did review.
[9:37] All of these as well to.
[9:39] Right? Right.
[9:40] All those in favor?
[9:43] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[9:45] Moving on to
[9:48] our first round of policy adoptions.
[9:50] These will be policy adoptions
[9:51] at first and second reading, for legislative changes.
[9:56] And I have a motion to approve those policies at first and second reading. Liz
[10:03] and and Micaela seconds.
[10:06] Any discussion on
[10:09] those policy changes?
[10:10] Those all looked to be legislative related.
[10:13] They are.
[10:13] And these are more timely.
[10:17] They deal with students and students under phase
[10:20] who might be wanting to take some classes here or bullying
[10:23] or searches, and we really want to have these approved and in place.
[10:26] Yeah.
[10:28] Can I ask a question about JFBC
[10:33] under a one?
[10:37] What if a participating students
[10:40] shall be permitted access to what?
[10:43] What does it mean specifically?
[10:44] Instruction up to 50%.
[10:46] Is that 50% of an average course load or.
[10:49] 50% of US school day.
[10:51] So they can take 50% of a course
[10:53] load and not and not be removed from the EFA roster.
[10:57] Okay. Wow. That's a lot.
[10:59] That's in the response.
[11:01] Direct response to new legislation that just passed.
[11:03] Okay. So last. Have no say in it.
[11:06] Yeah.
[11:07] Last school year it was if you were an EFA student
[11:10] because you had taken the EFA funds and no adequacy was blowing to the district.
[11:15] We charge parents fees.
[11:16] Your old policy for those classes.
[11:18] Now, we are not allowed to charge fees up to 50%.
[11:23] And this, for those who are keeping count, is an unfunded mandate.
[11:27] Yes, yes.
[11:28] What unfunded mandate by the state.
[11:30] And in some ways a defunded mandate because you're giving out the EFA dollars?
[11:33] Yeah, I would agree with that.
[11:38] Okay.
[11:38] So it's as irritating as I thought it was I just.
[11:41] It is.
[11:42] Yeah.
[11:42] Yeah.
[11:46] Any additional discussion.
[11:48] All those in favor.
[11:50] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[11:53] And then lastly motion
[11:55] to approve policies in their second reading.
[11:58] So moved Michelle and Seana
[12:01] seconds any additional discussion on those policies.
[12:05] We reviewed them at our last meeting.
[12:08] No. All those in favor?
[12:10] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[12:14] Okay.
[12:14] Moving on to all the business.
[12:18] Just revisiting our proposed, draft budget
[12:24] preparation, schedule for our upcoming budget season.
[12:30] Or do we need to vote on this? Tonight is finalized.
[12:32] Yes. I'd like to finalize. Yeah.
[12:34] Okay. Sorry.
[12:35] I'm still scrolling through the 500 page.
[12:38] I know.
[12:40] For tonight, 109.
[12:41] Thank you.
[12:45] So. Okay,
[12:46] so we reviewed the proposed budget schedule at our last meeting.
[12:49] I think we didn't have any significant changes.
[12:52] We were in agreement with the timeline that proposed
[12:56] recognizing that some of the city dates
[13:00] and deadlines will change as they finalize their schedule.
[13:03] So motion to approve the,
[13:08] the budget adoption
[13:09] schedule for fiscal year 2028.
[13:13] Seana and Liz seconds.
[13:15] Any additional discussion?
[13:17] Grateful that we're not doing public hearings over a school vacation this year.
[13:22] I know this is in response to a lot of feedback from the public, and.
[13:26] Those are tentative.
[13:27] But I have reiterated our request to the city manager's office
[13:31] as of last week as well.
[13:33] I appreciate that. Thank you.
[13:36] All those in favor?
[13:37] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[13:40] A and then diving into new business.
[13:45] First up is a research proposal
[13:47] for the peer recovery model.
[13:50] So we have Bob Faghan here.
[13:52] From Live Free Recovery.
[13:54] Bob runs a peer recovery program at Dover High School.
[13:58] He is also our licensed alcohol and drug counselor there.
[14:02] He does amazing work for the district and has for years,
[14:06] and I am pretty sure that the hours he builds us
[14:10] for isn't even close to the hours he's actually providing.
[14:13] Linda, I'm probably not supposed to actually say that out loud.
[14:16] That's Bob's wife with him.
[14:17] But Bob is going to come up and talk a little
[14:20] about what he's asking permission to do.
[14:22] His program has been recognized by the center for excellence
[14:25] as an innovative program,
[14:27] and they're looking to do some research to start to look at how they might
[14:30] replicate that. So.
[14:34] Great.
[14:35] Everybody, welcome.
[14:36] Thank you for having us tonight.
[14:39] I'm just here to help with the slides. Yes.
[14:41] My wingman.
[14:43] Right.
[14:44] So, yeah.
[14:44] Like Dr. Boston said, we've been doing,
[14:47] we've been doing services with the district for about 14,
[14:50] 15 years now back in the old building
[14:52] since post-pandemic we've been doing a peer group as well.
[14:56] We always kind of used with dovish, but it was used more as an afterthought.
[15:01] So now that they finished talking with me or they're done with the group,
[15:05] read about them to keep coming to kind of because
[15:08] in New Hampshire there's not a lot out there for people
[15:10] kind of need that higher level of care for adolescents.
[15:13] So that's how it evolved.
[15:14] During the pandemic, during the shutdown, my office was allowed to stay open
[15:19] and we would bring dovish students who were at high risk. So,
[15:24] the social worker at the school,
[15:26] they would recommend students we would have brought to our office
[15:29] and our peers would at the time would I noticed
[15:34] they would come wandering over to me and be like, can you check on Jen?
[15:37] She's having an issue.
[15:38] And it kind of started to click that.
[15:40] Maybe that we're missing something by not getting them more involved.
[15:44] And over the years, it's kind of evolved into what you're going to see here today.
[15:47] It has been accepted by the Center of Excellence as an integrated program,
[15:52] which means, they end the drug and alcohol services.
[15:56] Believe what we're doing here
[15:57] in Dover should be replicated across other schools in New Hampshire.
[16:01] And the data we're going to talk about tonight is all observational.
[16:04] But we'll explain that a little bit more when we get to the slide.
[16:07] And then any questions please jump in.
[16:10] And he is a very. Humble man.
[16:11] It's a big deal that they've been recognized.
[16:16] So kind of the whole premise
[16:18] his students notice we actually call this the awareness response gap.
[16:21] Students are going to notice things before it gets to us as staff or as adults.
[16:26] So think about where we were in school.
[16:29] We would always tell our friends things before we'd go to adult.
[16:32] Students don't want to go to adults
[16:33] because they're afraid they're going to get, their friend in trouble.
[16:37] They're afraid they're going to be ostracized by their friend group.
[16:40] So what this whole peer program does and what the training we're going
[16:43] to be given to students is, hopefully in what
[16:47] we've seen over the last couple of years is it's really kind of shrunk that gap.
[16:51] So we're getting information, a lot quicker now
[16:54] because the students are trusting
[16:56] us and staff to bring us information sooner than they would have.
[17:02] So basically we're going to train students.
[17:04] So we want to make it very clear they're not doing counseling.
[17:07] They're not doing therapy.
[17:09] They never act alone.
[17:11] I'm always the editor in the group.
[17:14] I am there when they're meeting with the students.
[17:16] So when we do an intake with the student, I try to have a peer there.
[17:20] If it's on a with that class.
[17:22] So the peer can kind of explain their role.
[17:24] But they are not counselors.
[17:27] They will run into kids in the hallway and they will hear things.
[17:30] And that's part of what actually works for this program.
[17:33] But they are trained, it is pounded into their heads constantly.
[17:38] What to do with that information?
[17:42] Really
[17:43] this we're not going to let the students handle this on their own.
[17:46] They're not going to be by themselves.
[17:47] They're always going to be supervised.
[17:52] So again, here's what it is.
[17:54] It's the student's going to notice.
[17:55] They're going to have a conversation with the other student.
[17:58] And then they're going to bring it to a trusted adult
[18:00] who is then going to the level of care that it needs to happen.
[18:03] The right kind of help is going to happen.
[18:05] Is it just a referral to the group?
[18:07] Do we need to bring it to the social worker
[18:09] because there might be suicidal ideation?
[18:11] So the students not dealing that on their own,
[18:15] they're making their fellow student more comfortable coming to us
[18:18] so we can help decide where the help belongs.
[18:21] For those of you
[18:22] who are familiar with the NAMI Connect suicide prevention program, this.
[18:26] This is very much like that warm hand off to the next right supporting person.
[18:31] Great, great.
[18:33] Again, this is repetitive, but adult supervision is always.
[18:38] And there's clear rules of escalation.
[18:42] What do you do if this happens?
[18:44] Who do you come to?
[18:45] And even this year
[18:46] we're going to try to train staff into what do you do when a student does this?
[18:51] So now there's no confusion where, maybe a student goes to their favorite teacher.
[18:57] And now but now the teachers got to have clear.
[19:00] And actually, the high school does an excellent job of this anyway.
[19:03] But, if there's a gray area, there's going to be no question whatsoever.
[19:08] So especially with the substance abuse issue, I addressed the staff today
[19:12] at the staff meeting.
[19:13] They all know now how to get Ahold of Bob if if a student is bringing
[19:17] substance abuse concerns.
[19:21] Five simple
[19:22] principles recognize, supervise, clarify.
[19:25] What's the timing? We don't want to wait some of these things.
[19:27] We really can't afford to wait on.
[19:29] Some of the things brought to me last year.
[19:32] We're considered critical in crisis, in the moment, without a peer,
[19:36] something that we are able to intervene on immediately.
[19:40] And direct the help in the right direction could have snowballed.
[19:44] Until now, it's an actual crisis.
[19:47] Crisis where staff is involved.
[19:49] They're looking for hospitalization, something like that.
[19:54] So this is all based on peer reviewed research,
[19:57] the research on peer influence.
[20:00] There's a lot of it out there.
[20:01] The big thing that this program will address,
[20:05] that was something I came across constantly in the research
[20:09] is what they call school connectedness and not do the kids have,
[20:14] are they playing on a team or do they have good school spirit?
[20:19] It's more about do they believe the adults
[20:21] in the building care about them and their welfare?
[20:25] And if they do, the research is very,
[20:28] very clear that that helps with mental health, substance abuse issues.
[20:33] That's where this program is going to come in.
[20:35] And when students see the older students, the peers trusting staff,
[20:40] that kind of gives staff instant credibility.
[20:43] Maybe we can go talk to Bob.
[20:45] Maybe we can go talk to principal if we have something going on.
[20:50] So where it stands, where you recognize as an innovative program,
[20:54] Keene State College has been,
[20:58] contracted by the Center of Excellence
[21:00] and your drug and alcohol service to kind of oversee.
[21:03] So, for lack of a better, the,
[21:07] analogy I use with the curriculum committee was
[21:10] if dove is doing a dissertation on this, Keene State College is the advisor.
[21:15] So everything that I put in front of them on this is what we want to check for.
[21:20] This is the satisfaction survey I'm going to use with staff.
[21:23] That's all gone through Keene State College and been approved.
[21:28] So it's really passive operational.
[21:31] Everything that we check for is up there.
[21:33] Referrals, how many referrals
[21:34] where those referrals come from, are they self referred itself referred to.
[21:38] They go to a counselor or did they get self referred
[21:41] because one of our peers or other students has said them?
[21:44] Last year we had 43 self referrals, 26
[21:48] I believe, or a direct result of a peer or someone in our peer group
[21:54] telling them that they should come see us.
[21:59] Escalations.
[22:00] Again, we've talked about where are we going to bring that?
[22:04] We're going to we're going to we're going to document that.
[22:06] So how many times did it come to me where I felt like
[22:10] they needed to go somewhere else?
[22:11] How many times did it come to another staff member
[22:14] where they thought they'd had to go somewhere else, help seeking behaviors?
[22:18] Basically just what it says.
[22:20] Are they reaching out to help?
[22:21] Last year we had, I think it was 87.
[22:23] Time for student contacted me off balance
[22:25] because they were having they were struggling.
[22:27] That's things we going to keep track of
[22:31] that has significantly increased since we started the peer group.
[22:34] So we're thinking that will happen again.
[22:36] And then the service engagement, whether a referral led to real support.
[22:41] We had 98 referrals last year, probably 20 of those kids.
[22:45] I never saw him after the first time.
[22:46] So that's a referral.
[22:48] Is that really engaging?
[22:50] No. Does it put our face in front of them?
[22:53] And maybe so when they're sophomores and juniors, they'll remember,
[22:56] let's go talk to that guy we met freshman year.
[22:59] Maybe, but that's not we're not going to count
[23:01] that as engagement for purposes of of the study.
[23:06] Then we keep track of basic intake demographics.
[23:09] Fidelity will be given to like, did this run the way it was supposed to?
[23:14] So, How we run the training with staff,
[23:19] there'll be a list where they're going to check off.
[23:21] Did Bob do this?
[23:22] Did Bob do that?
[23:23] Did Bob do that?
[23:24] And then the only thing that isn't observational would be a satisfaction
[23:28] survey.
[23:29] There'd be one given to any staff that takes on training
[23:32] to be one to any peer who does our training.
[23:36] And then we always would like to give that at the end of the year,
[23:39] people have participated in the group that would be voluntary
[23:43] and it would be anonymous, and there'd be no repercussions
[23:45] if they said, I don't want to do this.
[23:49] So this is,
[23:50] you know, basically we're growing the capacity.
[23:54] It's already what we're doing is every year we're not looking to hire
[23:58] a create more work for the councils that are already there.
[24:03] I know for me, running a group, things were brought to me
[24:08] multiple times last year that I was able to observe,
[24:11] that I got to before my student really kind of chaos.
[24:15] So it running that group 35 minutes a week during flex actually saves me time.
[24:21] And then we can move.
[24:23] Maybe all those students don't have to be weekly individual anymore.
[24:26] Maybe they can just come to the group
[24:28] and then I can see if they're kind of spiraling.
[24:31] I can bring them back in.
[24:32] And then with the peers they're going to observe in the hallway,
[24:34] they're going to see, hey, she's skipping class, he's in the bathroom too much,
[24:38] and then I'm going to rain that person back in.
[24:41] That's it.
[24:42] I do want to point out that,
[24:45] we are in front of the board for a couple of reasons, but this program
[24:48] has been running for a while in Dover, but we did bring it in front of Curriculum
[24:52] Advisory Council during the summer, and it is an approved intervention,
[24:56] for our system.
[24:58] That was an anonymous vote for approval.
[25:02] Any questions?
[25:04] Do you have a question?
[25:05] I was hearing you talk about the voluntary
[25:09] survey and wondering,
[25:12] for students who may be given
[25:14] the survey, would parental permission be required?
[25:18] Which kind of brought me to another question.
[25:21] Which is do and family members always or
[25:25] sometimes or never know that students are involved in this program.
[25:29] So sometimes.
[25:30] And the reason that is, is because you Hampshire law, anyone over 12 years old
[25:35] can seek substance abuse treatment without parental consent.
[25:39] So by law, if a student comes to me, I have to allow them to participate.
[25:43] My goal with every one of those students is to get the families involved.
[25:47] And it goes 1 or 2 ways, either the families, you know,
[25:51] I'm afraid I'm going to get in trouble.
[25:52] I love to hear that because I can work with that.
[25:55] We do have some students who their home life is horrific.
[25:58] We had one kid last year who was beaten so bad with a belt.
[26:03] He had welts all over.
[26:04] His parents did not know he was coming to me well until we reported
[26:08] to DC, but.
[26:09] So, yes, for that survey, it's not a clinical survey,
[26:13] so we usually don't ask for parental consent only because of
[26:18] if a student is there without a parent knowing.
[26:21] If a parent does know, I would certainly be willing to ask for consent.
[26:26] But that type of survey in New Hampshire does not require consent.
[26:30] What I normally do is I would put the survey on the table, say,
[26:33] you guys hold this out, did not put your name on it.
[26:35] I leave the room and then the surveys have put there.
[26:38] I have no idea who we answered who did it.
[26:42] So I think if we're doing it in the school during the school day.
[26:46] Yeah.
[26:46] So the other thing about Bob is that we work really closely together
[26:51] and have been for a couple of years, because some of the stuff he does is under
[26:54] title for. So we can talk about the survey.
[26:56] Yeah.
[26:56] I would want to make sure we follow the, the law on that.
[27:00] I appreciate what you're doing
[27:03] is, is that way on purpose right.
[27:05] Is to take down barriers for kids, which I think is great.
[27:08] We just want to make sure we follow on our end too,
[27:11] but also make sure you get good data for the work you're doing.
[27:14] So I think we can work with that and make sure we're following
[27:16] the the legal requirements.
[27:18] And because it really is a big deal to have your work recognized like this.
[27:25] Yeah.
[27:26] And as far as the survey that kids would take for the training,
[27:30] we're going to ask the parental consent for a student to do the peer training.
[27:34] And I will make that part of the consent
[27:37] survey afterwards. Okay.
[27:39] I appreciate it. Thank you.
[27:40] Does everyone do the peer training or just students who are interested?
[27:43] So even the way I have done it is I've students
[27:48] who keep coming, students who we're not looking for,
[27:52] we're not looking for goody goody, for lack of a better word.
[27:55] Are they honest?
[27:56] When they get caught,
[27:57] do they come to group and talk about it, or are they trying to blame their friends?
[28:02] When the dean catches them doing something, do they give the Dean attitude
[28:06] or do they accept it and own their stuff and take their punishment?
[28:11] And we've had students over the years who we had one senior last year,
[28:15] and I am not going to use her name, but she has given me consent to kind of
[28:19] tell her freshman sophomore year, Junius
[28:22] suspended every year for stuff senior year never got suspended.
[28:25] And her attitude went from blaming the deans to,
[28:29] giving them hugs.
[28:30] A graduation last year so that she became a peer
[28:34] because over her time,
[28:38] we recognize that behavior the way it is now.
[28:41] We have three seniors who have met that criteria.
[28:44] They will do the training I'm going to look to because we're trying to expand.
[28:48] I'm going to look to staff,
[28:49] teachers, administrators, councils to recommend students.
[28:53] They will get the training, but then this year they will be observed
[28:56] of how they handle their role in the group and in the school community
[29:01] to see if next year they qualify to become peer.
[29:05] I ask a question.
[29:06] How do you obviously a lot of there's a lot of precursors
[29:10] to substance use disorder, right? And a lot of trauma.
[29:13] A lot. Of.
[29:14] A lot of narrow divergence.
[29:16] So my question for you is with a peer model, how do you respect
[29:20] confidentiality, especially when relationships have been,
[29:24] fractured for a lot of people who use substances, they might have trust issues.
[29:28] And then you're having peers report on other peers.
[29:31] I'm just curious about how to protect the the people in your programs.
[29:36] So anyone I meet with individually,
[29:41] I don't offer the group to
[29:42] automatically, if I think there's any significant trauma.
[29:46] One of the things I want to see out of that respond immediately.
[29:49] You have two girls in the group
[29:52] now, unfortunately have
[29:55] horrific trauma histories
[29:57] before they come to the group and decide they want to come to the group.
[30:00] I explained to them what it's about.
[30:02] There are going to be peers.
[30:04] If they see concerns, they're going to bring them to me.
[30:06] And then before they come to the group, they sit down again with me and the peers.
[30:11] These are your peers, his, you know, his your confidentiality.
[30:15] However, if they see you struggling, they will come to me.
[30:18] They will discuss, what your issues
[30:22] are, what you've been through, what you talk about in group.
[30:25] I've never had a peer violate confidentiality.
[30:29] Last year, we did have a student in the group violate
[30:32] somebody's confidentiality in a meeting to try to get herself out of trouble.
[30:38] And she was discharged from the group immediately.
[30:40] She wasn't allowed back. So that's kind of how we have.
[30:43] But I'm very sensitive to that.
[30:45] Absolutely. Because unfortunately, it's
[30:50] it's so prevalent.
[30:51] It's it's pretty sad.
[30:54] Disgusting is the right word what some of these students have gone through. Oh.
[31:03] Do you have another question?
[31:05] It's fine.
[31:06] Are you sure? Yeah.
[31:06] I can reach out to you. I'm just.
[31:08] I do this work clinically, so I'm just.
[31:11] I'm just curious about stuff, but it's not anything for right now.
[31:14] I mean, I can't even get consent from the students sitting in a group if you want.
[31:17] Oh, amazing.
[31:18] Yeah.
[31:19] I just I my brain is just thinking about all of the, Yeah.
[31:23] Just interesting.
[31:24] No, there's, there's and it's
[31:27] this group is well beyond just straight substance abuse.
[31:30] And if you walked in,
[31:31] you wouldn't even hug, wouldn't even recognize it as a substance use group
[31:35] because the majority of the students that end up in that group
[31:39] to see the mental health, disciplinary, academic, there's something else
[31:44] that, needs to be addressed as well.
[31:49] Yeah.
[31:51] Okay. Thank you, thank you. Yeah.
[31:53] Thank you.
[31:56] So we need to know
[31:58] we need to vote about whether or not we can,
[32:02] kind of continue with this study
[32:05] because this is a research project which we very much support.
[32:10] So we need to make sure that that's approved by you all.
[32:13] Okay. Just last call for questions.
[32:16] Is there a duration for this study like a specific end date.
[32:19] Yeah.
[32:20] So I should have said this.
[32:21] So right now we're in greater program at the end of this year.
[32:24] We're
[32:26] we're considered we're kind of a
[32:29] I'm going to meet with Keene State next week
[32:31] where we're going to be designated a promising practice, which is phase two.
[32:34] I don't want to jinx it, but and then
[32:38] the hope would be, not this year, at the end of next year,
[32:43] if everything goes according to plan, we'd be designated a evidence based practice
[32:47] nationally by the Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services.
[32:51] That's amazing.
[32:53] So would your data collection be limited to this school year
[32:56] or would it go into next?
[32:57] So the hope would be next year.
[32:59] I can come back and say, hey, we want to continue this again.
[33:02] And if it goes well, then we'll be back next year.
[33:07] If it doesn't, then you'll know why you don't see it.
[33:11] I think it would be great to
[33:12] have you back for just a little follow up, maybe towards the end of.
[33:15] The year. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
[33:17] I mean, I can even present those stats if you would like, at the end of the year
[33:22] and kind of show.
[33:23] You where it. Yeah.
[33:24] Can you break out to like if you can.
[33:27] Maybe kids that are in special education if that's possible.
[33:32] So worried about the cell size on that.
[33:36] Could I give a just a number rather than.
[33:38] We have to see what the data looks like
[33:39] before we can promise because of the enzymes.
[33:43] Oh okay. Yeah. Yeah.
[33:46] We just wouldn't want to mistakenly identify a.
[33:48] Student. 100%.
[33:49] The co-occurrence though for individuals that have hidden disabilities
[33:52] for substance use disorders, disproportionate.
[33:55] So a lot of people. Use.
[33:57] A lot of people aren't identified.
[33:58] And so my brain is going, I wouldn't want to miss a trauma.
[34:01] Essentially important to understand, but so is neurodivergent in this population.
[34:07] I actually have a grandson and a stepson, a virgin.
[34:10] So that's something I make sure I try to stay right up on.
[34:12] That's kind of what I was.
[34:13] I would hate to miss any of that really crucial information that could be,
[34:17] vulnerabilities to be in this population.
[34:21] So yeah, and I will say numbers.
[34:23] But we had several last year. Yeah.
[34:25] That's what I would suspect.
[34:26] But yeah obviously respecting there as well.
[34:30] But yeah.
[34:32] And this is a prevention based program.
[34:37] Thank you thank you.
[34:38] Thank you thank you.
[34:40] You do.
[34:40] Did you do the I'm.
[34:42] Yeah I'll do a motion.
[34:45] Can I please have a motion to approve the
[34:48] or accept the peer recovery model research
[34:51] program Seana and Maggie.
[34:54] Second any additional discussion?
[34:56] Just thank you so much for the work that you're doing.
[35:00] It takes a very special person to work with kids in tough spots like that. So.
[35:04] Thank you.
[35:05] Yeah.
[35:06] All those in favor? Motion passes 7 to 0.
[35:09] You get to Art.
[35:10] Thank you, thank you.
[35:13] Okay, the next item is
[35:16] the coherence counts research proposal, and it it doesn't look like we have.
[35:21] Materials for that one. Do you want to speak. To that?
[35:23] Yes. Director Krans will speak. To that. Thank you.
[35:26] It's me again.
[35:27] Jen Krans, Co-Director of Curriculum, Instruction and
[35:29] Assessment.
[35:30] The reason why you didn't have
[35:33] the materials is because I actually met with them again.
[35:37] Because I wanted to make sure I had all of the answers to the questions.
[35:40] That's okay.
[35:41] I just wanted to make sure I wasn't skipping over anything.
[35:44] Yes. So this is a huge opportunity that came our way
[35:48] a couple of years ago, and then we didn't have enough teachers to participate.
[35:51] And then it came again in a different format.
[35:54] And so this is the American Institutes for Research, AIR.
[35:57] And they are conducting a study called Coherence Counts about supplemental
[36:03] material for
[36:04] our math curriculum at the middle level, which is Illustrative Mathematics.
[36:08] This could not come at a better time for us, as we're sort of saying,
[36:12] you know, we've gotten quite a bit out of the curriculum, but, you know,
[36:16] let's work on getting our numbers heading with more growth.
[36:20] So we're looking for opportunities to study what could help with that growth.
[36:25] So AIR, the American Institutes for Research,
[36:28] there, a nonprofit, a very large
[36:31] nonprofit that is seen as a neutral, data driven partner.
[36:34] They work with a lot of school districts on, a lot of different projects,
[36:39] a lot of assessment projects.
[36:40] But one of the biggest things that they do is to conduct studies,
[36:44] some RCT studies, but, all different kinds of studies
[36:49] to see the effectiveness of instructional practice particularly.
[36:53] So, to say that I was excited,
[36:58] is probably an understatement.
[37:00] You curriculum people. Yeah.
[37:03] I might have, really screamed in
[37:05] Director Bickford here.
[37:08] Okay.
[37:10] So, the challenges that would be addressed by this project,
[37:13] this project is happening across the country.
[37:17] But, in schools of different sizes,
[37:20] with the adoption of standards- based curriculum such as Illustrative
[37:25] mathematics, teachers are finding that they have a broad spectrum of students
[37:30] in their classrooms,
[37:31] and they can have trouble meeting all of the needs at tier one.
[37:35] A lot of you have heard this
[37:36] before from me, from teachers at the Curriculum Council.
[37:40] And so it's not always really easy to figure out how to support all earners
[37:44] in a mathematics classroom, to maintain the rigor,
[37:48] to make sure that tier one is being addressed,
[37:50] and also to meet students where they are and fill those gaps.
[37:54] Teachers report widespread report.
[37:58] And these are AIR slides.
[38:00] Just so you know, if they say AIR at the bottom,
[38:01] I didn't make them, they report needing additional practice problems.
[38:06] This is a huge thing that comes to me all the time as teachers saying
[38:11] there's just not enough practice in any curriculum these days.
[38:14] They report difficulties implementing digital math products
[38:18] effectively because they have this,
[38:22] standards aligned curriculum and they need coherence.
[38:26] So coherence in math curriculum is everything.
[38:28] It's the way that we build upon the progressions so that students are able
[38:32] to really get those skills in a timely manner.
[38:37] And so this project is meant to address that.
[38:40] So they have two they have two products
[38:45] that they're testing out alongside Illustrative Mathematics.
[38:49] Both of these products are,
[38:53] computer programing, their computer programs.
[38:57] One is called Snorkl.
[38:59] And the. Other yes.
[39:01] And the other is called MATHia.
[39:03] So this study is interesting because a lot of times when you do a study
[39:07] with an organization like AIR, they might say,
[39:10] well, we're going to do a random sampling and only some of your students
[39:13] will participate and some will do business as usual.
[39:16] And, we know that that's a good study model,
[39:19] but we don't love it because we're like, oh, we got to leave some kids out.
[39:23] This study is not like that.
[39:25] They're going to compare data from the previous year to this year
[39:28] so everyone can participate, which I was pretty pumped about that.
[39:32] So what they're studying is interesting.
[39:36] They're studying not only how effective
[39:40] the supplement is, but also do teachers like it?
[39:43] Do they use it?
[39:44] How does it work for them? How is it coherent?
[39:46] Do kids like it and does it help with the problem.
[39:50] So they have this study to do that
[39:56] math.
[39:56] So I went to the middle school and said, hey, does anyone want to do this?
[40:01] We only need one grade level with all three people to agree.
[40:05] And they immediately all said, we will all do it.
[40:06] We're excited, let's do it.
[40:08] So we have the whole six through eight team ready to go.
[40:11] They're pretty excited and therefore I am very excited.
[40:16] And they met and they looked at Snorkl and they looked at MATHia.
[40:19] And they feel that MATHia is the better choice for them.
[40:22] They know that it can fit into their instructional time
[40:25] and they feel like it will address their needs.
[40:27] So MATHia is the platform that they would be using.
[40:31] It does have an agreement for student data privacy
[40:34] with other states, I'm sorry, with other school districts in this state.
[40:38] So I'm confident that we'll have an agreement as well.
[40:41] And it's very strongly aligned to Illustrative Mathematics.
[40:44] So there's not going to be a lot of drifting.
[40:48] Sometimes when you're supplementing, you're really trying to pick and
[40:51] choose, and it can be really
[40:53] tricky speaking from experience there.
[40:57] So this project really
[41:00] is asking a lot of our teachers, the teachers will participate
[41:04] in an orientation session to learn how to use MATHia.
[41:07] They're going to use the digital products with their class.
[41:09] They're going to try to use it 30 to 40 minutes a week.
[41:13] Now, what if they don't?
[41:14] Well, that's part of the study.
[41:16] If they don't use it 30 to 40 minutes a week, that's one of the things
[41:19] AIR is looking at. Like what happened?
[41:21] Why didn't you do it?
[41:22] They're going to complete logs that are going to document
[41:25] the use of Illustrative Mathematics and the digital product, which would be MATHia.
[41:29] And the teachers will complete surveys
[41:31] at the beginning, middle and end of the year.
[41:33] They are welcome to join focus
[41:35] groups and share more of their experience through the focus group.
[41:40] And they're going to support the study team.
[41:42] And I will also support the study team in getting the data that they need, because
[41:46] part of this is making sure that we keep everything confidential and anonymous.
[41:52] The students will
[41:55] first of all, just to be right up front.
[41:58] Everything is FERPA compliant.
[42:00] This is the American Institute of Research.
[42:02] They have, very clear outlines that show that they are compliant.
[42:08] They will get parental consent,
[42:09] informed consent before doing anything with students.
[42:13] And, so in order to do
[42:16] the survey, students would have to consent if their parents would have to consent.
[42:20] And then they go a step further and the student needs to consent.
[42:24] So because this is a research study, they have like an internal review board,
[42:28] really monitoring to make sure that what they're doing is ethical.
[42:32] Is that just for the survey or to participate in the
[42:36] supplemental math lessons. As well?
[42:38] Really glad you. Asked that. It's just for the survey.
[42:40] Okay, great.
[42:40] It's not for the supplemental math lessons because that would be inequitable.
[42:44] So everyone will be able to use the product
[42:46] whether or not they consent to the survey.
[42:48] Great, great.
[42:49] Thank you for asking that.
[42:51] I wasn't going to. Say it.
[42:52] And then students will have an opportunity if they want to,
[42:56] to participate in focus groups, but not during the school day, probably.
[43:00] I'm going to say definitely not during the school day.
[43:02] Can you say more about what that would look like then?
[43:06] I think it's on zoom, and I think,
[43:09] that would really need even more parental consent, okay.
[43:13] Because at that point it's not anonymous.
[43:16] When we're having a conversation, you can see it's me.
[43:19] So that's a and we don't have to have students in the focus groups.
[43:23] That's an option.
[43:24] That's an option.
[43:25] One of the things about working with AIR is they're like,
[43:29] if anything in here isn't okay, we won't do it.
[43:34] It's not like you're signing a contract and like, you can't, you
[43:38] can, consent or not consent at any time.
[43:43] What we will give them is de-identified student data.
[43:47] That means it will be completely no names, no identifiers whatsoever.
[43:51] That data will come through us to them so that we make sure
[43:56] that it's completely de-identified.
[43:58] That is essential.
[44:01] And that will be the
[44:02] state math assessment scores,
[44:05] STAR scores and,
[44:07] demographic data, if applicable.
[44:10] If it has two small size, obviously we're not giving it to them for the 23,
[44:15] 24, 2425 and 2526 school year.
[44:19] Also, if applicable, scores on IM-aligned assessments in 2026-27.
[44:23] We do use those assessments.
[44:25] We will see if that is something
[44:26] that we're able to provide in an anonymous and confidential way.
[44:30] This is the big slide right here that you've got to pay close attention to,
[44:33] because this is really what we're agreeing to do.
[44:35] And I want to make sure that we all agree.
[44:41] All right.
[44:41] Here is the part that I was like, what?
[44:44] What's happening?
[44:45] The district will get a third $3,000.
[44:50] It's not a stipend.
[44:51] It's like a basically
[44:52] like a payment for our extra work that we're putting into that.
[44:56] And that will just go to the district.
[44:58] Like Christine will be able to decide it is for the completion of this project.
[45:04] So it's not just like found money, but, if people needed to be compensated
[45:09] or we needed to do something, that money is for that
[45:12] teachers get compensated for their time outside of school
[45:15] because they have to fill out these logs and they have to do some reflection.
[45:20] And so AIR is going to compensate them for that.
[45:24] When they complete their surveys, they're going to be compensated for it.
[45:28] And they also are compensated if they choose to participate in focus groups.
[45:32] There is an opportunity for students to be compensated.
[45:35] We have to talk about that.
[45:36] I don't know if we can do that or not,
[45:38] but that is something that happens in other places.
[45:41] I know it's weird.
[45:42] We never talk about compensation for studies, but this is one.
[45:45] It's such a big study that they are doing that they really need the data.
[45:49] Well, and I think it's good to if the teachers are
[45:52] I mean, our teachers already spend so much time,
[45:55] if you like, outside of the regular day doing work.
[45:57] So recognizing that this adds a little bit more
[46:01] and being compensated for that.
[46:03] So I will also tell you, because I feel like I need to say this,
[46:06] they did not know about this compensation before they excitedly agreed.
[46:09] So I'm very happy. That it can happen.
[46:13] It's the 975, just a flat fee upfront for all time.
[46:17] Or is it up to 975 depending on how much time they spend on it?
[46:20] No, that part is for
[46:21] like the logs completing the logs, each one is connected to an activity that.
[46:25] Okay.
[46:27] So that is really my presentation about this.
[46:30] There's a lot more to be said.
[46:32] But really what I need to know is if I can do. It,
[46:36] I think.
[46:37] And I know we're getting academic data in a little bit,
[46:40] I think it would be really interesting to see what our data looks like
[46:44] at the end of next year after adding some supplemental tools.
[46:49] And I also I
[46:53] recall a teacher last year
[46:56] making a comment to me about not loving the math curriculum.
[46:59] So I think it would be really interesting to see what the feedback is
[47:04] using these different methods, and then incorporate that
[47:08] in our decision about what makes sense to do going forward.
[47:11] You are really saving my life tonight, because the.
[47:14] Other thing.
[47:15] That I wanted to say is that a benefit to us as a district is that,
[47:20] the the researchers will meet with our teams and say,
[47:24] this is what we're noticing, this is what we're seeing going on,
[47:26] and then they'll give us that data as well.
[47:28] And I want that.
[47:31] Great the student data.
[47:33] Will that be by teacher or how will it be organized.
[47:37] It's completely de-identified.
[47:39] And then the students are assigned a research number which only I know.
[47:43] And then they'll be linked.
[47:45] So there will be a link.
[47:46] Everything will be destroyed.
[47:47] But basically like there's a research number associated with the student
[47:51] and it's not identifiable.
[47:53] It's only for this. Excellent.
[47:55] Thank you.
[47:55] I spent a lot of time clarifying that
[47:59] okay.
[47:59] So if we approve this tonight, what is your
[48:02] what is the timeline for implementation?
[48:05] If you approve this tonight then we're going to get started
[48:09] with an onboarding meeting right away and then implement as soon as we can.
[48:13] After that we want to get up and running as soon as we can if if you approve.
[48:16] It okay, okay.
[48:19] At the end of this tenure, which is it?
[48:22] Is it the academic year?
[48:24] That's a ten year.
[48:25] So at the end of it,
[48:28] what specifically will the district get?
[48:31] Is there a report? Yeah, there's a report.
[48:35] I am not very clear on exactly what
[48:39] data is in there, but they're comparing
[48:43] how students did in the previous years
[48:45] to how they did with this new,
[48:49] model.
[48:50] So we'll get all of that.
[48:52] And they're going to be meeting with the teachers, the,
[48:55] the teams and kind of sharing with them what they're seeing.
[48:58] We'll get a copy of what they do.
[49:02] Okay. Thank you.
[49:03] And typically you get to see,
[49:07] what was collected.
[49:09] Will we be able to to see.
[49:15] Down to
[49:16] maybe the time teachers were able to implement the intervention
[49:20] and the outcome of the students
[49:21] and compare based on the time students spent in the intervention.
[49:25] That is some of the data they're collecting.
[49:27] I don't know how they're going to organize that data,
[49:30] but that's some of the data they're collecting
[49:31] is how much time did you actually spend on this?
[49:34] And then, like we have.
[49:36] I would like to see the differences between implementation time and outcomes.
[49:40] And they're really
[49:40] what they're really doing is comparing
[49:42] they they're looking at both of these products.
[49:44] They're comparing them.
[49:45] And then they're seeing how do they impact coherence.
[49:48] Are they are they a coherent supplement.
[49:54] And that is their
[49:55] goal to provide the district with their curriculum based on their.
[49:59] No. AIR's goal is to publish studies that I read, not just.
[50:03] Me, but okay that. Educators read.
[50:06] So of the American Institutes for Research.
[50:08] They publish tons of studies.
[50:10] We're kind of super fans of there, so we're a little bit excited.
[50:13] They're really awesome. I used that work a lot. Okay.
[50:16] Yeah okay.
[50:17] Yeah they are they are a straight up research agency.
[50:20] So you know, it's not the intervention so much as does this intervention work.
[50:25] Can we contribute to the evidence
[50:27] based behind this intervention or are we saying it's not effective.
[50:30] So cool. Cool. Really cool.
[50:32] The type of research that you then bring to us years later to say,
[50:36] we would like you to fund the implementation of this new curriculum.
[50:39] And here's the research that backs it up like this is
[50:43] we get to go behind the curtain for that.
[50:45] And does it target all students,
[50:46] or is it typically the general education classroom or does it do they?
[50:50] Every student gets tier one service so every student will be part of it okay.
[50:55] Right.
[50:57] Even if their parent doesn't want to consent to some of the data collection,
[51:01] they can still participate in MATHia and they'll still get that instruction.
[51:08] Any additional discussion?
[51:10] Thank you. Okay.
[51:12] Can I please have a motion to approve
[51:16] the coherence counts research proposal?
[51:19] So move to Shell and Liz. Seconds.
[51:23] Any additional discussion?
[51:24] Thank you, Jen, for that presentation.
[51:25] That was great. All those in favor?
[51:29] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[51:33] And next up, we have a motion.
[51:36] An MoU for
[51:40] The Granite YMCA.
[51:42] Can I please have a motion to approve
[51:45] the MOU between the Dover School District and The Granite YMCA
[51:49] before and after school childcare for this current school year?
[51:53] I can make a motion.
[51:54] Seana and Micaela.
[51:57] Second, Any discussion?
[52:01] This is just.
[52:03] What's the program at Woodman Park?
[52:04] Because this just says Garrison and Horne Street. So this is Garrison, and,
[52:09] Woodman Park uses the SOCC.
[52:12] That's right.
[52:12] In the afternoon, and we have not had enough families signing on
[52:16] and subscribing to the Y to run a Y before care program.
[52:19] Okay, great.
[52:23] Any additional discussion?
[52:25] All those in favor?
[52:26] Motion passes seven zero.
[52:30] And then moving on.
[52:31] This one I'm excited about, the Dover para
[52:35] educators contract.
[52:40] We have.
[52:41] Ratified by the DPA at 407, the staff.
[52:43] Hot off the press.
[52:46] We had a successful, end to our negotiation a couple of weeks ago.
[52:50] So excited to,
[52:53] get this one done and offer them a three year contract.
[52:58] If you approve tonight, I'll be going to City council on Wednesday night with it.
[53:01] Great. Okay.
[53:03] Can you give top, top lines?
[53:07] Yeah.
[53:07] So we have a summary on our desk today.
[53:10] Do you want to you want to go over it or do you want me to.
[53:13] If you would like to. That's fine. I mean, you were on. The committee.
[53:15] I had the pleasure of being on the negotiation committee.
[53:18] I think the biggest thing in that we made changes to is the wage scale.
[53:23] It's a small increase for year one.
[53:27] The reason for that is, in addition to the wage scale,
[53:32] we added a new stipend for extensive, extensive needs,
[53:37] recognizing the very specialized work that some of our characters do.
[53:42] And some of our students require a lot of extra specialized care.
[53:46] So we added an extensive needs differentiated
[53:50] differential for parents who are working
[53:54] with students who meet the criteria to receive that additional stipend.
[53:58] And then in year two and year
[54:01] three of the agreement will see an additional 4% increase. To.
[54:06] Their salaries. Right.
[54:08] And then the last big change that we made
[54:11] was an increase to their longevity bonus
[54:15] for recognizing their service with the district.
[54:18] And then there were some other,
[54:21] just policy language tweaks,
[54:24] but these were the big financial pieces that we agreed to.
[54:28] Thank you.
[54:29] Thanks for.
[54:32] Did I miss anything?
[54:33] No, I don't think so.
[54:34] The only other thing I would highlight is there's a new base scale here.
[54:38] We had worked to equalize the differences
[54:42] between steps and classifications, particularly steps, though.
[54:46] What happens is when you give a 4% increase
[54:49] over every square of the contract, the higher squares
[54:53] get more of an increase in the lower squares,
[54:55] and after a few years it gets a little inequitable.
[54:59] So we made an adjustment there.
[55:02] Yeah.
[55:03] What are the differences between the classes? Yep.
[55:06] You don't have to go deep on that.
[55:07] I'm just curious because I wasn't involved.
[55:09] Just what you're doing.
[55:11] So, class two and three are really your special education pairs.
[55:15] The difference
[55:16] between class two and three is if they have their para two certification,
[55:19] your class fours are, maybe tutoring positions, things like that.
[55:25] That also might require some teaching certification.
[55:28] Okay. Thank you.
[55:32] Any additional questions?
[55:36] Okay.
[55:37] Can I please have a motion to approve the Dover Paraeducators' Association
[55:42] Collective Bargaining agreement for school years 2026 through 2029.
[55:47] I haven't up so fast
[55:50] on the negotiation team. Yeah.
[55:52] And the second.
[55:53] Yeah. Any additional discussion?
[55:56] Roll call. Vote, please.
[55:57] All right.
[55:58] Robin? Yes. Michelle Clancy. Yes.
[56:00] Craig Flynn. Yes.
[56:01] Maggie Fogarty.
[56:02] Yes. I got Micaela, I believe.
[56:04] Micaela. Yes.
[56:06] Elizabeth Goldman. Yes.
[56:07] And Seana Berkley Hallberg.
[56:08] Yes. Seven passes. Great.
[56:12] Okay.
[56:12] I couldn't tell if you had a question or if you were just enthusiastically
[56:15] putting the motion forward.
[56:18] Great.
[56:19] And so then this will go to the city council for my.
[56:24] Great, great.
[56:25] You're up Bret. Next.
[56:27] Go to prove it.
[56:30] Well, the good news of this is this is within our budget this year. Yes.
[56:34] Yeah.
[56:35] Okay.
[56:37] Moving on to the
[56:41] our annual review of our sports injury action plan.
[56:45] So this is by policy.
[56:48] We need to review it every year.
[56:49] Bring it back to you all.
[56:51] Our athletic director and athletic trainer reviewed it.
[56:54] They did not see any changes that needed to be made.
[56:57] What they wanted me to highlight for you is,
[57:01] they're hoping you approve this tonight.
[57:03] They also wanted to let you know that
[57:05] when the new field comes online, they will be bringing changes to you.
[57:09] Okay. So one of my questions.
[57:11] So. Yeah.
[57:12] Okay.
[57:15] Because I saw on the table the last update was March 26th.
[57:20] And so I wasn't sure if the items that were bolded were changes or not.
[57:23] So that makes sense.
[57:25] No, but they will be bringing as we bring that new field online.
[57:28] They will have updates. Great.
[57:31] Yeah.
[57:31] I think we've seen some community concern about field temperatures
[57:36] with the turf field.
[57:37] So, And that we would actually follow our existing temperature.
[57:42] Because we have something in place.
[57:44] So it doesn't matter if
[57:45] it's x number of degrees on grass or turf, we would not play on it.
[57:49] And I was going to highlight that for, for those in the community
[57:53] did have those concerns throughout this process.
[57:56] We've told them that we already have this policy in place.
[57:59] It is in here extensively.
[58:01] There's 5 or 6 pages breaking that down.
[58:04] And also in this I appreciate in this plan that we have all these external fields
[58:09] that we've been using as home field stuff, this process listed in here as well.
[58:11] So we then just pass that responsibility off to other schools.
[58:14] We took ownership of that and the fields that we've had to use
[58:17] and been fortunate enough to use during this process at our off site.
[58:20] So I really appreciate seeing that and there as well.
[58:23] I do think we're going to have a need for a policy about the,
[58:28] g max testing
[58:29] frequency and what our parameters are for that.
[58:32] I think we should probably have. That.
[58:35] Ready to go before we play, for any significant amount of time.
[58:40] Okay.
[58:42] That holds us to it.
[58:44] Right?
[58:45] So we don't end up like Nashua and having to close the field
[58:49] suddenly because we didn't take proper care.
[58:52] I have nothing, I think we would do that, but.
[58:54] Added a to do right now.
[58:57] Thank you.
[58:57] It would be amount of money we're investing into this field.
[59:00] I think we should follow whatever maintenance protocol agreed.
[59:05] That situation with the closed field, they
[59:07] they were supposed to repair or replace at a certain time.
[59:10] They chose not to.
[59:12] And it was years, years and years beyond lifespan and they lost it.
[59:16] So, I don't anticipate we'll put ourselves in that situation.
[59:20] Yes. Are there any
[59:21] data on on incidents, number of,
[59:24] of times that emergency medical care necessary?
[59:30] I don't have that tonight.
[59:33] I could get that from our athletic trainer.
[59:35] It's going to vary by sport and by season.
[59:38] But I can get that for you and bring it back to a later meeting.
[59:41] Or maybe even bring that back when we bring the policy update back
[59:45] for the new field.
[59:46] Okay. Thank you. Okay.
[59:48] Okay.
[59:49] Motion to approve the annual review
[59:52] of the sports injury action Plan.
[59:57] And Micaela seconds
[59:58] any additional discussion?
[1:00:02] All those in favor?
[1:00:03] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[1:00:05] It wasn't sure if that was a roll call.
[1:00:07] No. It's not okay.
[1:00:08] Moving on to our AI plan draft.
[1:00:13] So we have Director Rup and Director Mehalek.
[1:00:16] Or just director. I don't know how you've
[1:00:20] the lone wolf tonight, my friend.
[1:00:22] That's all right.
[1:00:24] To talk about our generative AI use plan.
[1:00:28] So, Thomas Rup, Director
[1:00:30] of technology for this school district.
[1:00:33] This is a plan that we're looking for approval from the school board
[1:00:38] to put in place for the 2627 school year.
[1:00:43] This was something that was developed and written by Director Mehalek and myself.
[1:00:48] It has been thoroughly vetted and approved
[1:00:51] by many different sections of the school district,
[1:00:55] including a task force that was developed
[1:00:58] including parents, teachers, counselors
[1:01:02] from all schools, and from the SAU as well.
[1:01:06] We also went in front of the Dover District leadership team
[1:01:11] to look at this and understand where we're going with our AI plan.
[1:01:17] First is the why, beyond the fact
[1:01:20] that our generative AI policy states that we need to have a plan in place
[1:01:26] in order to effectively support that policy.
[1:01:30] We felt that Dover needed an individualized,
[1:01:37] I don't want
[1:01:38] to say plan again, but an individualized path
[1:01:42] to success to utilizing, AI within our school district.
[1:01:47] This was heavily influenced by the framework that was created
[1:01:50] by the state of New Hampshire that was created mainly by
[1:01:55] influences from Pinkerton in Bedford, in those schools.
[1:01:59] We are starkly different than the way those schools are constructed.
[1:02:04] We don't have digital learning specialists or technology
[1:02:08] coaches to be able to help teachers, better understand
[1:02:12] this policy and this plan and how to effectively use AI.
[1:02:16] So we wanted to do this and make it something
[1:02:20] that is very uniquely ours, which is why we have
[1:02:23] students and educators at the center of this whole plan.
[1:02:26] Yes.
[1:02:28] Administrators are involved in this as well too.
[1:02:31] But really, it was about counselors and teachers and students
[1:02:35] and how they can effectively utilize AI
[1:02:39] to help broaden our students learning experiences.
[1:02:44] All these slides are in
[1:02:47] the plan, which is in your packet of materials,
[1:02:51] probably somewhere around page 200 or something
[1:02:54] with all the policies that you guys have to go through that.
[1:02:56] 163 yeah.
[1:02:58] And, what we have here is we've taken some of the bulleted points out of there.
[1:03:03] So there's some subsections within there that these are directly out.
[1:03:07] So you'll be able to reference back to this at any point in time.
[1:03:10] We're going to try to blitz through this as fast as possible.
[1:03:13] So that way we can get to everything.
[1:03:15] Except use obvious points of this.
[1:03:19] One of the things I want to point out is when it says acceptable use
[1:03:23] for district employees.
[1:03:24] It does.
[1:03:25] On that first, Bolen points a lesson planning and differentiated instruction.
[1:03:28] We do have some very specific guardrails about how we view that to go.
[1:03:32] We do not want teachers to specifically just say,
[1:03:35] create me a lesson plan for today.
[1:03:37] We want teachers to be able to utilize this to have their lesson plan
[1:03:42] and then send it in to AI
[1:03:43] to give them some talking points, or to help them draft the outline of how
[1:03:47] they want to be able to take that plan and deliver that students.
[1:03:50] So it's utilizes a tool.
[1:03:52] AI and technology is our tools.
[1:03:55] It's no different than a hammer.
[1:03:58] However, a hammer
[1:03:59] can be utilized to build a wall, but can also be utilized to destroy a wall.
[1:04:03] It's the same way with technology and with AI.
[1:04:05] That's why we want to ensure that we're utilizing this to build those walls,
[1:04:08] not tear them down.
[1:04:09] Students, very succinct on our points here.
[1:04:15] Brainstorm ideas, practice writing, and we're going to get into this
[1:04:19] a little bit more when we show you an example of where the high school plans
[1:04:22] to go with this and what their thoughts are on utilization of AI in the classroom,
[1:04:27] and we have all the way up to administrators
[1:04:30] how we would utilize this with our everyday lives.
[1:04:34] For instance, Brian may utilize this to help him much more quickly
[1:04:38] and efficiently.
[1:04:39] Look at the differentials between last year's budget and this year's budget
[1:04:43] when it comes to building the budget book,
[1:04:44] and be able to help identify those points fast.
[1:04:47] So that way he doesn't have to rebuild all the code in an Excel spreadsheet
[1:04:50] to, to, you know, something that AI can utilize can do very quickly for him
[1:04:57] with those accepted acceptable uses.
[1:04:59] There's obviously prohibited uses.
[1:05:01] These are very, very
[1:05:05] necessary, but they're also kind of common sense.
[1:05:09] We're not trying
[1:05:09] to reinvent the wheel for anything that we want to prohibit with AI.
[1:05:13] But we don't want to focus on the punitive side of it.
[1:05:18] We want to focus on building proper digital literacy
[1:05:21] and digital citizenship for the use of AI in our school district.
[1:05:25] So these are all, again available on that packet
[1:05:28] that you have.
[1:05:32] One of the really big points
[1:05:33] that we wanted to make about this is that AI helps us with equitable access.
[1:05:37] We want to ensure that what we approve
[1:05:40] for software and AI tools are available for every student.
[1:05:44] They can be utilized and have no language barriers, no learning barriers
[1:05:49] that anyone would be able to utilize this to be able to have success
[1:05:52] in the classroom.
[1:05:53] It's also going to become very important for our English
[1:05:57] as a second language learners.
[1:05:59] They are going to be able to utilize AI to help translate
[1:06:03] what is going on in the classroom very quickly and easily into their
[1:06:06] own language, to help them be able to much more quickly and easily
[1:06:12] be able to
[1:06:12] succeed in the classroom, just as every other student can hear.
[1:06:17] We've been looking into this a lot over the past couple of weeks.
[1:06:20] As we start looking at, you know, how we want to go forth,
[1:06:24] we're getting a much, much more diverse population here in Dover.
[1:06:28] So we want to ensure that we're utilizing the tools correctly.
[1:06:31] So that way everyone has the information they need.
[1:06:34] And feel free to stop me
[1:06:36] at any time, especially as we get into this part of things here.
[1:06:40] This is actually appendix C of that documentation.
[1:06:43] It's really towards the end of it, but we felt
[1:06:45] it was more important to address this a little bit earlier in this presentation.
[1:06:49] We really wanted to ensure that we have not only a reason for this plan,
[1:06:54] but an actual grade based section out area here
[1:07:00] so that we know what we believe is appropriate use
[1:07:03] in appropriate use, and where that we should develop
[1:07:07] those good habits in those learning skills throughout the school district.
[1:07:12] We're taking this with a very top down approach, meaning, because the high school
[1:07:17] will be utilizing this a lot more than most of your other grade levels.
[1:07:21] That's where our focus is on this years, to really ensure that we have that,
[1:07:26] to understand how students want to utilize it and understand
[1:07:29] how teachers want to utilize it.
[1:07:30] That way, we can build those students up as they go through their grade levels
[1:07:35] for effective use of AI.
[1:07:36] When they get into the, into the high school.
[1:07:39] You're going to see in one of the following slides
[1:07:41] that was developed by Dean Lapoint, the Dean of Instruction at the high school.
[1:07:44] How they want to have students utilize this in an effective way every day.
[1:07:50] And we feel this path right now
[1:07:53] is very solid in developing those skills for students.
[1:07:56] So that way they enter the high school.
[1:08:01] So, you know, pre-K to two.
[1:08:03] There's a lot of other conversations surrounding technology
[1:08:06] in these grade levels.
[1:08:07] So we really want to limit AI to a standpoint of really this teachers
[1:08:11] just mainly talking about it, that it's out there.
[1:08:14] We'll do some digital citizenship and some digital literacy based on it,
[1:08:18] but it's not going to be anything where students are hands on with with AI
[1:08:21] in any way, shape or form.
[1:08:23] We'll get into grades three and five and we'll use them beginning level
[1:08:27] AI tools, some things like that we have in Khan Academy or other areas
[1:08:32] where we can really drill this down into effective use for those younger levels.
[1:08:38] The point of that grade level is for that 3 to 5
[1:08:42] is to ensure that this is teacher led, okay.
[1:08:45] This is something where the teacher mainly will be up on the board
[1:08:48] and utilizing maybe, instruction to say, look,
[1:08:52] this is how you can differentiate your studies by utilizing this tool.
[1:08:56] But it may not be necessarily
[1:08:58] that we're going to put this tool in the students hands.
[1:09:01] That probably won't happen until we start getting into grades six through eight.
[1:09:05] That's the area where we're going to really start
[1:09:07] giving some good, solid digital citizenship and digital literacy.
[1:09:11] So that way they understand the dangers of utilizing AR AI.
[1:09:15] Today in the state of New Hampshire, actually, there was the very first
[1:09:19] deepfake case.
[1:09:20] A 22 year old was actually found not guilty of a deep fake
[1:09:26] of using AI on a police body cam footage that was released.
[1:09:30] And so, you know, we wanted to ensure
[1:09:33] that our students are not going involved into these types of things.
[1:09:37] So, you know, grade six eight is going to be a
[1:09:41] lot of real instruction about the appropriate use of it.
[1:09:45] And then grades nine through 12 will be more.
[1:09:48] Okay.
[1:09:49] You should know how to use it.
[1:09:51] We want you to use it effectively.
[1:09:53] But these are the guardrails of where we want to do it.
[1:09:55] And we're not forcing any teacher
[1:09:57] by any stretch of the imagination with this to utilize AI,
[1:09:59] or that they have to teach AI, or that they have to put it in the students hands.
[1:10:04] It's going to be up to the teacher
[1:10:05] and how comfortable they feel utilizing it,
[1:10:07] and how they're going to be able to teach it.
[1:10:09] Unless you're teaching Stem, then you're probably going to have to teach it
[1:10:14] at some point and become pretty affluent with it.
[1:10:17] This here is the actual language which is in the handbook,
[1:10:22] the student handbook at the high school, as well as
[1:10:26] some information that has been put into their syllabi.
[1:10:29] Each teacher this year was asked to put in language
[1:10:34] that defined how that they may or may not utilize AI
[1:10:38] in their classroom, that students may or may not be asked to use.
[1:10:42] Utilize it, and it will be accepted, based on a scale system
[1:10:47] of how much they feel that the students should be utilizing AI.
[1:10:51] This is in a little bit farther down in the documentation
[1:10:57] where we gave you all the whole plan where the high school is going with this.
[1:11:01] Once this plan is approved and how we want to put it in there correctly.
[1:11:06] Second bulletin is the one that I really want to point out with this.
[1:11:08] This is when AI is permitted.
[1:11:11] Students must use it transparently, verify its accuracy,
[1:11:15] protect private information,
[1:11:17] and ensure that the final submission reflects their own understanding.
[1:11:21] That was very imperative.
[1:11:22] As Dean Lapoint and I discussed this and how to actually
[1:11:26] deploy in high school this year was to ensure that no matter
[1:11:30] even if they were utilizing AI, it was still their own authentic,
[1:11:34] unique work and not just obviously plagiarized.
[1:11:38] Copy and paste out of there.
[1:11:40] You'll see when we get to the next slide.
[1:11:43] We have some sections here which we felt
[1:11:47] were very important, and this was all solely developed by Dean
[1:11:51] Lapoint.
[1:11:52] She was the impetus of doing all of this.
[1:11:55] One of the teachers actually showed this to their students in
[1:11:58] the student went up to Lapoint a little bit later today and said,
[1:12:01] this was you, this we could tell that this had the figure prints all over it.
[1:12:04] And she's. Yeah, absolutely.
[1:12:07] It was very important to her that she's modeling the behaviors
[1:12:10] for these students to say, I didn't have a I create this for me.
[1:12:15] It was something that I wrote because I feel deeply in the fact that
[1:12:19] now she did have some help by saying, like,
[1:12:22] you know, with some word changes and things like that.
[1:12:24] And that's reflected throughout this whole,
[1:12:27] scale system that they're going to be utilizing in Dover High School.
[1:12:31] So for instance, zero is AI free.
[1:12:34] This is something we utilize during finals time.
[1:12:37] Principal Driscoll has asked me last year on both finals during midterms
[1:12:41] and during the end of the year finals to turn off AI for students.
[1:12:44] So that way we could ensure that the work that they were doing during
[1:12:47] those finals was authentically their own
[1:12:49] and they weren't allowed to go to the sites.
[1:12:51] So we go into Aristotle K-12.
[1:12:54] We shut off all AI usage for students.
[1:12:56] They can't get to those websites, and they're able to just do this on their own.
[1:13:01] We feel this year that most teachers and students
[1:13:04] will fall into the category one and two section, which is AI assisted.
[1:13:08] I think that's where the staff is going to be very comfortable
[1:13:12] this year, to be able to ensure that they have the start of this AI plan.
[1:13:17] So they're going to use it to brainstorm and spark ideas
[1:13:20] and use it like a tutor to understand concepts.
[1:13:23] The idea is to develop this throughout this year, next year, and probably
[1:13:27] the third year to get to 0.5, where you can utilize AI throughout the process,
[1:13:32] but be able to detail every point of it that you used effectively.
[1:13:37] So that way you still understand that this is my own authentic work,
[1:13:40] but it was influenced by how I did research through AI
[1:13:43] that that's the the ultimate goal here.
[1:13:46] Again, we're not telling every teacher the high school that they have to do this.
[1:13:50] This is not you know, you can sit in section 1 or 2
[1:13:54] for your entire career, and that is perfectly acceptable
[1:13:57] because you want to have
[1:13:59] your students utilizing things in a way that makes sense to you.
[1:14:02] And when they give out an assignment, they'll have this check sheet.
[1:14:06] And they can say, you can go up to level
[1:14:07] two with this, which is I use it like a tutor,
[1:14:10] and you should not have anything in there that is undocumented from AI
[1:14:14] coming forward for this.
[1:14:15] It's a very, very in-depth plan that Dean Lapoint has come up with,
[1:14:19] and we're very appreciative of the hard work
[1:14:20] she put in to have this set up for the high school to use this year.
[1:14:26] As I said, I'm trying to blitz through this as fast as possible.
[1:14:29] Obviously with this comes from professional learning.
[1:14:32] We really wanted to get this into your hands today.
[1:14:34] So that way on the October 9th, PD day,
[1:14:38] I will be going out in front of the staff and trying to help them understand
[1:14:42] where this fits into each grade level and what what our expectations are again
[1:14:47] for this year.
[1:14:48] It's going to be a lot of the expectations is utilizing professional development
[1:14:52] to understand where you sit in the world of AI,
[1:14:55] not necessarily putting it in the hands of students.
[1:14:57] We were going to continue to build into that all the way
[1:15:01] throughout the next three years for sure.
[1:15:05] With this, obviously, I always have to talk about that.
[1:15:09] There is accountability that will be held.
[1:15:10] If you do fail to follow the guidelines to stay within these guardrails
[1:15:15] for students, obviously you could lose access to it
[1:15:17] as much as following our policies for plagiarism, if that's what happens.
[1:15:22] Every single one of these does state in there that you could be referred
[1:15:26] to authorities if law is violated, i.e.,
[1:15:29] if you decide to dig a deepfake of somebody,
[1:15:32] you can now be prosecuted in the state of New Hampshire
[1:15:34] for that, as we found out today with that first case,
[1:15:38] and all of us are going to be held accountable, even myself,
[1:15:41] if I do something wrong with AI, I fully expect Dr. Boston
[1:15:45] to come up to me and address me and say, why did you do this?
[1:15:48] And, you know, whatever consequences would come from it.
[1:15:52] First, I'll have to realize you used AI.
[1:15:55] I rarely use when it comes to that.
[1:15:57] I only do it really for data manipulation for the most part,
[1:16:00] sometimes for creating graphics.
[1:16:03] But, so this is this the endpoint
[1:16:07] we're going to go through this year and understand how this worked.
[1:16:10] And if there are any tweaks.
[1:16:12] And we plan on coming back to the school board next October
[1:16:16] with a review of how we felt the last year, when
[1:16:19] and where we need to make some changes to best identify
[1:16:22] how to continue to implement this plan for the next years to come.
[1:16:27] There's going to be some legislation that comes out from the state based on AI,
[1:16:31] based on screen time, based on all these other factors.
[1:16:34] That is going to change this over the next year.
[1:16:36] We fully anticipate that, and we're willing to make whatever changes
[1:16:40] we need to to understand the best way to have our students ready
[1:16:43] for college or wherever they go in life, where AI will be used.
[1:16:47] Again, the ultimate goal is to have them to that that five section
[1:16:51] where they can go out into the real world and say,
[1:16:53] I used AI, but it wasn't AI written, it was me.
[1:16:57] Authentically.
[1:16:57] AI helped me gather the research in a way that made sense.
[1:17:01] So that's it for this, I say, trying to get this done
[1:17:05] as quick as possible so we can get into the data review as well.
[1:17:08] So any questions? Yes.
[1:17:11] I just pulled that policy EHAG.
[1:17:15] I'm struggling to
[1:17:16] understand how these two documents interact with each other.
[1:17:20] The age is the policy that is our overwhelming.
[1:17:23] This is what we expect to see from our staff and our students.
[1:17:28] This is what we hold people accountable against.
[1:17:31] The plan is how do we implement this, how we get to the point where
[1:17:34] students are utilizing AI effectively within the parameters of that policy EHAG.
[1:17:40] Okay, so. Policy directed us to have a.
[1:17:42] Plan, right? Got it.
[1:17:43] Policy action plan. Yeah.
[1:17:45] Perfect. Got it. Thank you.
[1:17:48] I saw in the plan
[1:17:50] there's a list of approved AI.
[1:17:54] Yeah, we didn't want to go over that right now.
[1:17:56] Because we wanted to ensure that the.
[1:17:59] That was a list of possible approved AI.
[1:18:04] The ones we're currently looking at now,
[1:18:07] like there is AI embedded in HMH's CKLA.
[1:18:10] And a lot of the curriculum software
[1:18:11] we're utilizing, it already has an AI agent built into that.
[1:18:15] The new one we just approved to correct the research project is.
[1:18:19] Yeah.
[1:18:19] So those are the areas where we know that it's going to be there
[1:18:22] and those are going to be approved software anyways.
[1:18:24] It's really looking at some of the other generative
[1:18:26] AI products and how they would best fit our students.
[1:18:30] For instance, no offense to ChatGPT, but I'll never approve ChatGPT.
[1:18:34] Well, so.
[1:18:35] That's my student.
[1:18:36] Data privacy students will never be able
[1:18:38] to use it in my standpoint, because they're they will sell off data.
[1:18:41] Right.
[1:18:41] And so that's my question.
[1:18:43] As far as so the school issued devices,
[1:18:47] they cannot download other applications outside of.
[1:18:50] Okay.
[1:18:51] Within I use copilot minimally at work because I don't like it. But
[1:18:59] but for like Google Gemini.
[1:19:00] So I think my concern is do
[1:19:05] do our software monitoring tools also work on these AI tools.
[1:19:11] So like if a student is having an inappropriate conversation with the chat,
[1:19:16] that gaggle is going to catch stuff like that.
[1:19:19] Yes. Will it.
[1:19:20] Is working on keystrokes more than it is actual, like
[1:19:23] rereading the content for something like AI.
[1:19:26] Gaggle has to keep up with this.
[1:19:28] It's very difficult, right?
[1:19:31] AI is always two steps ahead of anything that's trying to review it
[1:19:34] to ensure that we're we're doing everything in a correct and safe way.
[1:19:38] However, any AI conversation with Gemini is owned by the Dover School District.
[1:19:43] Therefore, we have the right to be able to understand what is being inputted into.
[1:19:48] Gentlemen, I at any given time.
[1:19:49] It is a core service of Google, which is one of the reasons why
[1:19:52] that would be one that we would approve, because we could ensure
[1:19:56] that we were still keeping kids safe within the utilization of that.
[1:19:59] Okay.
[1:20:00] And as far as the
[1:20:03] so the data that they input, Dover owns that.
[1:20:07] But then can Google or Microsoft do anything with that data to improve their.
[1:20:12] Model, the agreements,
[1:20:13] if they sell any of that data off, if they do anything with that data
[1:20:16] other than utilize it internally for their own use, then we have the right
[1:20:22] to cut that contract and actually sue them for for inappropriate use of that.
[1:20:27] I appreciate this
[1:20:28] plan, and I appreciate the care that went into,
[1:20:32] recognizing what's age appropriate to learn for each level.
[1:20:36] And then the chart about the different levels of AI usage.
[1:20:42] I have some coworkers who would benefit
[1:20:44] from having something like that to assess their work against.
[1:20:47] But I really appreciate
[1:20:50] the level of detail that went into this to make sure that we are
[1:20:54] teaching our students how to use this technology responsibly.
[1:20:57] We fully understand as well to that the community probably would benefit
[1:21:02] from some instruction and some help about where these products are going
[1:21:06] in the different and essentially how to raise children in this digital age.
[1:21:10] I've sent some information over to Dr. Boston that we will be
[1:21:13] looking at very soon to hopefully, start giving some different ways
[1:21:19] to have parents understand the threats that are out there in this world.
[1:21:23] But we're we're not we're near ready to, to release any of that right now.
[1:21:28] But it is something we are investigating.
[1:21:30] I think it might be helpful.
[1:21:34] I don't know if there's a way to quantify,
[1:21:36] but just maybe getting some information at the end of the year about where
[1:21:41] everyone, like staff, is feeling a comfort level with AI usage,
[1:21:45] where most folks are using it and like what mode
[1:21:48] based on this chart, they're using it in most frequently.
[1:21:53] There's some scary headlines out there right now about AI in the world
[1:21:56] ending in ten years.
[1:21:57] So I just whatever we do, you've put great care into this plan so far.
[1:22:01] So I just want to continue down that path.
[1:22:03] We appreciate that Director Mehalek has put a lot of her hard work into this as well.
[1:22:08] We we intentionally, we're very
[1:22:15] specific with the people that we asked to be on our
[1:22:18] AI task force, people that were
[1:22:23] to try
[1:22:24] to say this is diplomatic as possible, but they were not necessarily
[1:22:28] heavy users of AI, nor do they plan to be heavy users of AI.
[1:22:33] And we wanted those voices on our task force as well to.
[1:22:36] And we felt that was to us actually succeeding with this plan
[1:22:41] and hopefully being able to do this in a careful and responsible way.
[1:22:47] One quick question.
[1:22:48] I'm looking on plan page ten,
[1:22:51] which for us is agenda page 172.
[1:22:56] Since this is am I understanding correctly,
[1:22:58] this is a brand new document.
[1:23:01] Yes. Yeah.
[1:23:02] So it just it references that a board
[1:23:05] like I think all the dates need to be shifted 12 months into the future.
[1:23:08] It references like a border port coming out October 1st of this year
[1:23:12] and fiscal year 2526. We shifted.
[1:23:15] That was our original intention for that to come out this year.
[1:23:20] At the beginning of the year.
[1:23:21] But we couldn't get this in front of you all until now.
[1:23:24] So it was a little difficult for us to be able to do that.
[1:23:27] So yeah, there should probably be a couple of small amendments to it
[1:23:31] with those dates.
[1:23:31] But as you see from the plan that we have here,
[1:23:35] our data is going to be coming out October 1st of next year.
[1:23:38] Yeah.
[1:23:38] Well, I saw the 2027 in in the slide presentation,
[1:23:42] which is what kind of made me wonder about that.
[1:23:46] That difference. Yeah.
[1:23:49] There's kind of
[1:23:49] a funky start to the school year too. So.
[1:23:56] Any other questions or discussion?
[1:24:00] Thank you Tom.
[1:24:01] Thank you.
[1:24:01] Thank you very much.
[1:24:03] Motion to accept the AI
[1:24:06] plan for the school year.
[1:24:09] Micaela.
[1:24:11] And the second.
[1:24:13] Any additional discussion?
[1:24:15] All those in favor?
[1:24:17] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[1:24:19] And then moving on to our academic data presentation.
[1:24:25] So this is, end of year data
[1:24:29] from last school year academic data.
[1:24:32] And I just want to preface this with there will be another presentation
[1:24:37] probably November, where we go over the statewide assessment data.
[1:24:41] The data you're going to see tonight, we've had the opportunity
[1:24:44] to share with our leadership team this summer.
[1:24:48] And then we had the opportunity to share with the full faculty
[1:24:51] on the first day back.
[1:24:53] So they have seen all of this as well.
[1:24:56] Can you advance one slide for me?
[1:24:59] Thank you. So.
[1:25:05] And I think this is small
[1:25:06] for you to see, and I don't believe it's in your packets.
[1:25:09] So I will circulate it for you.
[1:25:11] But what this shows is that is a three year progression.
[1:25:15] Oh, there you go.
[1:25:16] A three year progression.
[1:25:18] Way clearer than that screen.
[1:25:20] It is. Really looking. Over there.
[1:25:22] Get that focused in.
[1:25:25] So this shows by academic pillar where we've been over three years at this point.
[1:25:30] So you can see reading achievement 2024.
[1:25:33] We started at 54% proficiency.
[1:25:36] Our target is 80.
[1:25:37] We're up to 59 this year.
[1:25:39] Well being we started at 55%.
[1:25:43] We are now at 57.
[1:25:45] However, we were at 60% last year, so we dropped a little bit.
[1:25:50] That I believe a lot of it is based on our feedback score, which
[1:25:57] staff do a
[1:25:58] Panorama survey where we talk about culture and climate.
[1:26:01] And one of the things we noticed is that staff's perception of quality
[1:26:06] feedback is low.
[1:26:07] That was, I think, our lowest score on that scale.
[1:26:11] So we'll talk more about that in a bit.
[1:26:13] Continuous improvement in winter 2019, we had 9% capacity.
[1:26:19] We are now at actually more than 43% at this point.
[1:26:25] And our target goal was 56%.
[1:26:28] So we are on pace to meet that goal before the end of the strategic plan.
[1:26:32] We may need to adjust that goal a little bit further out.
[1:26:37] Math achievement.
[1:26:39] We started at 39%.
[1:26:41] We're now at 45% proficient.
[1:26:44] This is measured by,
[1:26:46] the NH SAS and the SAT.
[1:26:48] That number will change a little bit in November when we get updated numbers.
[1:26:52] Our target is 65%.
[1:26:54] Why is that lower than reading?
[1:26:56] Because we started at a lower level in mathematics.
[1:26:59] Equity and inclusion is pending.
[1:27:01] I need to quantify some of that and some of our activities last year.
[1:27:06] I will say we were not as aggressive
[1:27:09] with equity and inclusion last year as we have been in past years.
[1:27:13] It took a little bit of a backseat to academics.
[1:27:18] And then team approach.
[1:27:20] This is one we're really happy with.
[1:27:22] This is our guiding coalition, essential actions.
[1:27:25] We started at 20% in 2024, and we're now at 74% with a target goal of 90%.
[1:27:31] I would flag that team approach and also continuous
[1:27:35] improvement as precursors to everything else.
[1:27:39] As we see those numbers get more solid.
[1:27:41] We're going to see more improvement in other places
[1:27:44] because our structures and things have taken hold.
[1:27:46] So that's a high level overview.
[1:27:48] When we presented to staff this,
[1:27:54] past couple of weeks for the opening,
[1:27:55] it was really great to be able to present
[1:27:59] the places that we've been so successful over the past year.
[1:28:02] You know, with our some of our academic growth,
[1:28:05] certainly we had the education scorecard.
[1:28:08] That was a great boost for us as well.
[1:28:11] But that continuous improvement in team approach, where things that we were
[1:28:15] really proud of, high level overview, Director Bickford will go deeper,
[1:28:20] and I believe his CIA colleagues will also be supporting.
[1:28:24] A number of guest stars this evening.
[1:28:25] Excellent. Okay.
[1:28:27] So before we get into actually looking at
[1:28:32] we have K through a universal screening data for you this evening.
[1:28:36] So we do universal screening three times a year fall winter and spring.
[1:28:41] So use analogy. It's like,
[1:28:44] taking a temperature check, you know, if you're feeling
[1:28:47] well or you're feeling sick, you do a little quick temperature check.
[1:28:51] Just tells you if like if everything's okay or you need to do something about it.
[1:28:56] The reason why we do these things that are called universal screeners
[1:29:00] or standardized assessments is they help us.
[1:29:04] They give us a roadmap if we're on pace or not,
[1:29:06] related to how we might do on the NH SAS.
[1:29:10] So English language arts or mathematics.
[1:29:12] That's the end of the year.
[1:29:14] Some big Semenov.
[1:29:16] After a year of learning, how are students doing on state standards?
[1:29:21] So our universal screeners, what they're looking at is things like
[1:29:26] early literacy skills, reading achievement like your foundational reading.
[1:29:30] So word level reading, reading comprehension
[1:29:33] vocabulary general knowledge kind of things.
[1:29:36] Mathematics. Same thing.
[1:29:38] We're looking at early numeracy skills calculation skills problem solving.
[1:29:42] So typically when students take these universal screeners
[1:29:46] they are correlated with success on a state sort of like end of year
[1:29:51] subnet, like the NH SAS, like the ELA or mathematics.
[1:29:55] Research has shown us like in general,
[1:30:00] a score above the 40th percentile.
[1:30:02] You have a good likelihood.
[1:30:04] Doesn't mean always will.
[1:30:05] But you have a better chance than not scoring proficient
[1:30:09] or above proficient on on the statewide assessment in ELA or mathematics.
[1:30:15] So that's kind of our our cut score that we use for low risk in the district.
[1:30:20] Okay. So
[1:30:22] any questions about universal screeners why we do it.
[1:30:26] Fall. Winter is spring.
[1:30:29] Okay cool.
[1:30:32] We've shown you this slide in past presentations.
[1:30:36] But we just want to read that when we talk about students and growth.
[1:30:42] Sometimes when we look at fall to winter or winter to spring or fall to spring,
[1:30:48] sometimes the the percentage of proficiency kind of stays the same.
[1:30:52] And if you didn't know that the expectation
[1:30:55] expectations change throughout the year, you might say, oh,
[1:30:59] they were at 60% in the fall and they're 60% in the spring.
[1:31:03] Students didn't grow. Well, that's not actually true.
[1:31:05] So as expectations get increased around a year,
[1:31:09] we're going to use a third grader who we're measuring oral reading fluency.
[1:31:14] Just basically I put a passage in front of you.
[1:31:17] You got to read it as quickly as you can in one minute.
[1:31:19] So if we do that in the fall of third grade, the current norms.
[1:31:24] So like basically to get a score at the 40th percentile,
[1:31:28] you have to read 65 words per minute. Okay.
[1:31:31] And then in the winter time when we sort of give you a same passage
[1:31:36] of similar difficulty, you're now expected to read 91 words
[1:31:41] and then to get the 40th percentile in the springtime.
[1:31:43] Now you get to read 109.
[1:31:45] So you're growing over time, but you're you're standing
[1:31:50] when you compare yourselves to other kids is still at the 40th percentile.
[1:31:54] So you're just making expected growth at that point in time.
[1:31:58] Any questions about that?
[1:32:01] Okay.
[1:32:02] So I think we're going to go over some reading data first.
[1:32:06] Yep. All right.
[1:32:09] So we have.
[1:32:10] In front of.
[1:32:10] You here our district level.
[1:32:14] Reading proficiency K to eight.
[1:32:16] We have for elementary
[1:32:19] we use M-class as a universal.
[1:32:24] Screener for elementary students.
[1:32:25] So this kind of shows you the example of what,
[1:32:33] Oh, okay.
[1:32:36] Do you need it soon?
[1:32:37] Did you guys. Need it? It helps.
[1:32:38] I just emailed it to everybody too. So.
[1:32:40] Thank you. Okay.
[1:32:43] So you can you can see there are growth.
[1:32:46] Last year from fall, winter and spring,
[1:32:50] on the M class.
[1:32:53] And at the middle school, instead of,
[1:32:55] like, the elementary school, They used STAR Reading.
[1:33:01] Different for different.
[1:33:02] Level of students.
[1:33:04] And I just want to point out, you might look at
[1:33:09] this area with the green bars and the line, and you might be like, oh, okay.
[1:33:14] That's exactly what Travis was just talking about.
[1:33:17] That's showing that's expected growth that it might look like it's stable there.
[1:33:22] But remember, as the year goes on, that expectation is higher.
[1:33:26] So. When you see something that's sort of the same,
[1:33:29] they're growing as we're expecting them to grow.
[1:33:33] So that's a that's positive. It's good.
[1:33:38] Questions on those slides.
[1:33:41] So by extension if I'm looking at KK4 does that mean they're growing at a pace
[1:33:46] that's faster than we expected.
[1:33:50] The district side.
[1:33:52] Yes I would think from fall to spring if we.
[1:33:57] Were you see it going up.
[1:33:58] Yeah.
[1:33:58] In the fall where it was 61.6 and in the spring is 69.
[1:34:03] I, I see that as a more significant growth.
[1:34:06] That's faster than expected, more growth than expected.
[1:34:10] And remember this is our third year,
[1:34:13] our third year with our new curriculums.
[1:34:15] This is the year where I'm we're hoping and expecting to see growth like that.
[1:34:21] We have incredible teachers and very hard working students as well.
[1:34:25] And we're very fortunate to start seeing this growth a little early.
[1:34:29] You're saying the third year is. This year that.
[1:34:31] We have just begun. Now this year. Correct. Right.
[1:34:34] So we're looking at year two data.
[1:34:36] This is your two. Yeah. Fantastic.
[1:34:38] That's great.
[1:34:39] Just to clarify. To M-class doubles.
[1:34:41] Is really looking at word level reading fluency reading skills.
[1:34:45] STAR Reading. Is.
[1:34:47] Is more of the application side of things.
[1:34:49] We do implement STAR Reading.
[1:34:51] In at the elementary. Level. Second.
[1:34:54] Third. And fourth grade.
[1:34:56] So it's just that it's.
[1:34:58] Not a measure that we have for K.
[1:34:59] For because we use for that.
[1:35:02] So that's it's just. A different measure.
[1:35:07] This is a.
[1:35:08] Look at our subgroups within this.
[1:35:11] We're certainly curious about a lot of the findings here.
[1:35:15] We are very pleasantly pleased with the performance
[1:35:20] of some of our historically marginalized populations.
[1:35:24] And we have some curiosities about that
[1:35:27] that we aren't prepared to speculate around.
[1:35:29] But it's certainly catching our attention.
[1:35:31] We want to know more about that.
[1:35:34] Likewise, we want to know more about some of our students who are not
[1:35:38] in a subpopulation that's not performing where we would expect.
[1:35:42] So this just allows us a deeper dive into our student performance by subgroup
[1:35:47] so that we can start to, learn about the things that are working
[1:35:52] well for our students in some areas where we need to target.
[1:35:57] I'm having a hard time understanding what I'm looking at.
[1:36:00] So when it's a growth in a gap.
[1:36:04] So you're looking at their performance.
[1:36:07] The, the percentage of students who are in tier one in the fall versus
[1:36:12] did they stay that way into the where they in tier one in the spring.
[1:36:18] So that
[1:36:18] means if you're looking at, for example,
[1:36:21] female students, 62.8% were in tier one in the fall
[1:36:26] and in the spring, 72.9% ended in tier one.
[1:36:30] Okay. That means that some of our students.
[1:36:33] Who were needing tier two or tier three interventions didn't no longer need them.
[1:36:37] Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
[1:36:40] And that trend was.
[1:36:42] That. Is such.
[1:36:44] An increase that it's we see that as an accelerated growth.
[1:36:48] Yeah. Not just as a growth. Yeah.
[1:36:52] Thank you.
[1:36:53] Those are those are really high numbers.
[1:36:55] Very happy.
[1:36:59] Other questions there.
[1:37:07] Likewise
[1:37:07] you're looking at our district math performance.
[1:37:11] You'll notice that it's grades two through eight.
[1:37:13] We are going to address
[1:37:15] kindergarten and first grade and why they aren't represented here.
[1:37:19] At the end of this presentation, that's one of our takeaways.
[1:37:22] We will also address why we don't have the high school represented here,
[1:37:27] and what we plan to do about having some more timely data for them.
[1:37:32] As you can see,
[1:37:35] math, the
[1:37:38] data isn't quite showing quite the growth that we're seeing in reading.
[1:37:43] It is kind of expected.
[1:37:46] But what we really want to see is 80% of our students being served by tier one.
[1:37:51] So, right now that is not what we're seeing.
[1:37:55] The it's pretty stable.
[1:37:57] It's pretty expected.
[1:37:58] But the one that I did notice at the middle level
[1:38:01] that you might want to look at is the spring bar there, where
[1:38:04] only 4% of students were in need of a tier three service, according to STAR.
[1:38:09] And I think we said, but this is all STAR for math.
[1:38:14] We don't use doubles. We use the store.
[1:38:16] You said that.
[1:38:17] Okay.
[1:38:17] So, you can see that that number did decrease,
[1:38:22] which we we like to see that number going down.
[1:38:25] Right.
[1:38:30] Yeah.
[1:38:30] And then likewise. This is a similar.
[1:38:33] Subgroup report.
[1:38:35] For our math performance.
[1:38:37] Some differences here with what we were seeing in our reading,
[1:38:42] proficiency with our subgroup population.
[1:38:44] And, and again, we have some things
[1:38:47] that are certainly catching our attention that we need to dig into further.
[1:38:51] And we do have some thoughts around that and some action
[1:38:54] items around that that you'll hear about, in a few minutes.
[1:38:57] In fact, we have things in place this year that are happening right now.
[1:39:01] So we will tell you about those.
[1:39:04] But this is,
[1:39:08] not what we want to see
[1:39:09] when we have subgroups decreasing.
[1:39:15] Do you have any questions about that.
[1:39:19] Is the the unknown race
[1:39:21] which is a really remarkable achievement.
[1:39:25] Is that a small population or how is that.
[1:39:29] Well it's reportable so it's big enough that we can report on it.
[1:39:33] But it's also self-identified. Okay.
[1:39:35] So somebody when they register they say my race is unknown.
[1:39:40] Sometimes people pick that for all different reasons.
[1:39:43] Okay.
[1:39:46] Question.
[1:39:52] So we have
[1:39:54] two more early morning indicator slides to show you.
[1:39:57] So we want to give you also a
[1:40:00] year end look at our attendance risk monitoring.
[1:40:04] So this works different than the reading and math standardized data.
[1:40:09] So with a standardized data we can dipstick
[1:40:12] sort of fall winter and spring at three specific time points.
[1:40:16] But when we're monitoring attendance we do continuously throughout the year.
[1:40:20] So it's more of a rolling percentage kind of thing.
[1:40:23] So overall for the district,
[1:40:26] we hit the mark of what you want to focus on is the high risk
[1:40:31] because that is your chronically absent population.
[1:40:34] And so the federal definition for chronic absenteeism
[1:40:37] is a 10% or more of scheduled school days.
[1:40:41] So when we look at a student's attendance, they don't have to be here
[1:40:45] the entire year.
[1:40:46] They could be
[1:40:47] like only here for one semester, but we can get a chronically absent
[1:40:50] percentage based on the number of days they attended
[1:40:54] and the number of days that were scheduled that for that period of time.
[1:40:59] So we're
[1:41:00] right at the target where we want to be as far as chronic absenteeism.
[1:41:04] And you can see there are some
[1:41:05] variations between elementary and secondary buildings.
[1:41:10] I'm curious if you bump this against actual
[1:41:14] like their academic performance,
[1:41:16] because not all kids who are absent.
[1:41:20] Will be. Will struggle. For academic, right?
[1:41:23] So I'm just curious, like how much of the maybe in the yellow.
[1:41:27] Yeah yeah yeah yeah
[1:41:30] yeah. That would be interesting to look at.
[1:41:32] Yeah.
[1:41:32] We just knew we had a big agenda tonight, so we didn't want to load you up with
[1:41:37] too many geeky slides.
[1:41:39] Any questions?
[1:41:40] Any other questions related to the attendance?
[1:41:42] Why do we think attendance at the middle school is
[1:41:48] more high risk than the high school?
[1:41:51] Because being at 12, 13 and 14 year olds really hard.
[1:41:54] So it's really it's really hard to,
[1:41:58] Just say.
[1:42:00] Bring it down to like a sole factor.
[1:42:02] What could be contributing because it's
[1:42:04] there are internal things that we can control from our standpoint,
[1:42:08] from the school district as far as like instructional programing, how our students
[1:42:11] are connecting with our faculty, our staff or administrators.
[1:42:15] But there's also a lot of external factors that can come into play.
[1:42:19] Health, student health, access
[1:42:22] for student and family services in the community.
[1:42:25] Jobs for families
[1:42:28] shift their variations and things like that.
[1:42:31] So, it can give us a signal of, like, what's going on.
[1:42:35] But the root cause may have a several different explanations to it.
[1:42:40] Am I.
[1:42:41] Correct in remembering that this is historically what we see for attendance?
[1:42:45] Middle school is always.
[1:42:46] So coming out of Covid nationwide.
[1:42:49] We saw a temporary boost in
[1:42:52] sort of like chronic absenteeism
[1:42:55] decreased coming out of it was much higher coming out of the the pandemic,
[1:43:00] but it's kind of settled into a new norm.
[1:43:04] So it is higher than pre-pandemic levels.
[1:43:09] Interestingly enough, our attendance, our student
[1:43:12] attendance is better than national trends and better than statewide trends.
[1:43:17] It's not where we want to see it.
[1:43:19] But we are doing better than the state average.
[1:43:24] But this is something. That.
[1:43:26] Even on,
[1:43:30] My list
[1:43:31] that I gave to you this year, in terms of my evaluation, attendance
[1:43:34] is something that I really want to dig into.
[1:43:41] And the second
[1:43:42] indicator, early warning indicator, is behavior risk monitoring.
[1:43:45] So that is calculated by looking at behavior
[1:43:49] incidents or office discipline referrals.
[1:43:52] So if there's like a a student violates a school wide rule or expectation,
[1:43:58] that an office discipline referral could be filled out
[1:44:02] and that's submitted to review for administration.
[1:44:05] So there are like things that our teacher manage in the classroom
[1:44:08] and may not warrant a like an office discipline referral right up.
[1:44:12] So these are the ones that administration would take a look at.
[1:44:17] So again, I will have to say looking at the winter
[1:44:21] slide deck in comparison, we were healthier in the winter.
[1:44:25] And I'm just wondering if the if the spring semester in the
[1:44:29] the 60 days of March has anything to contribute to that.
[1:44:35] And then it's 300 and.
[1:44:36] 60 days. Of March. March.
[1:44:38] So we did see sort of more
[1:44:43] office discipline referrals come in.
[1:44:45] And this is spring only, or.
[1:44:47] This is the entire.
[1:44:48] Entire year.
[1:44:49] Yep. Okay. Yep.
[1:44:56] Any questions there?
[1:44:58] One of the things when I was talking to staff is,
[1:45:02] you know, okay, 13% are at high risk,
[1:45:05] but for that 13%,
[1:45:08] it feels like a lot more to staff.
[1:45:11] You know, when you have kids that have six or more.
[1:45:15] So I can say that the range of, one of the high risk
[1:45:20] can't remember which particular school, but that cut is six plus.
[1:45:25] And there was there were a couple of students that were above,
[1:45:29] the 75 mark.
[1:45:32] So you can see like that.
[1:45:33] Like, so if we have students with that many office disciplinary referrals,
[1:45:37] it has an impact on staffing as far as like the tiered levels of service.
[1:45:43] So like your behavior specialists,
[1:45:44] your administrators, your social workers, psychologists.
[1:45:49] It's like there's a need there.
[1:45:51] So that's when when Dr. Boston says like
[1:45:54] that, that number can feel more.
[1:45:57] That's that's why that intensification
[1:46:00] is probably felt amongst staff. To.
[1:46:03] That point. Is there?
[1:46:06] I don't know if they're ethical considerations
[1:46:09] to working the data this way, but would there be, a usefulness
[1:46:15] to running a metric that's like
[1:46:18] incidence per student, per campus? Yep.
[1:46:22] So there's a couple of different ways you can summarize this data.
[1:46:25] We're just summarizing it based on sort of our cut scores and risk.
[1:46:29] If you want to do year to year comparisons, that's
[1:46:32] when you use like a ratio number, like, a rate per
[1:46:36] 100 kind of thing because enrollment changes year to year.
[1:46:41] And so if you want to compare like let's say seniors,
[1:46:45] like how many like how many seniors, have,
[1:46:49] you know, sort of office discipline referrals year over year.
[1:46:53] But I think whatever your question is, you would need to use a rate per 100
[1:46:58] because the the enrollment of those grades are different.
[1:47:01] So like one one year might be we had 200 incidents
[1:47:05] and then another year might be 175.
[1:47:07] But because the enrollment was different,
[1:47:10] maybe the 175 is actually a higher rate per 100, right?
[1:47:15] Good question.
[1:47:19] Okay.
[1:47:21] No other questions.
[1:47:22] I'm going to move on.
[1:47:25] So at the beginning, Dr.
[1:47:27] Boston showed you a slide that had the six pillars.
[1:47:30] And one of the pillars is related to team approach
[1:47:34] and guiding coalition is one of the the teams in our system.
[1:47:39] So guiding coalition if you're paying attention
[1:47:43] to try to guide and coalition is responsible
[1:47:48] for a lot of the work that goes on here in our framework.
[1:47:52] So this is what we call tier one.
[1:47:54] And so anything in this like gold ultimately is the responsibility
[1:48:00] of the sort of like the guiding coalition and the leadership team in the building.
[1:48:05] So that can include support from the SA,
[1:48:08] that can include support from our educational specialists.
[1:48:12] But what we're looking at is over time, when we officially decided
[1:48:16] to implement our framework, the first year that we did a
[1:48:23] fidelity implementation rubric, we were only at 20% of
[1:48:26] the essential actions of that guiding coalition installed.
[1:48:30] So your central actions are these colored bars that are in green,
[1:48:34] yellow and red.
[1:48:35] And over the past three years, we've gone for 20%
[1:48:39] installed to 74% installed.
[1:48:42] The things that are green are kind of like the structures
[1:48:45] and the routines of our professional learning communities.
[1:48:49] So those are pretty solid in place.
[1:48:52] General rule of thumb is I want to see things above 80%,
[1:48:55] because that tells me things are installed enough
[1:48:58] to get the known outcomes from what we're expecting sort of thing.
[1:49:02] Okay.
[1:49:03] So if it's below that, then we we have a much harder time deciding if
[1:49:08] if it was like by chance, like we got the results or we didn't
[1:49:12] get the improvement that we want, the areas that are queued for.
[1:49:16] I would say like priority in the future are going to be sort of teaching
[1:49:20] essential schoolwide social and academic behaviors across K through 12.
[1:49:26] And then the other part is proactive prevention supports.
[1:49:30] So this is how I use my cursor.
[1:49:33] Again like these tears. This is tier two.
[1:49:37] This is tier three.
[1:49:38] How these tears are sort of like structured organized
[1:49:41] and how we deploy our resources within those tears.
[1:49:46] So that's that's the priority.
[1:49:48] I would say we're at a point
[1:49:49] where we can start focusing on the tier two and tier three essential actions,
[1:49:53] because there's enough of a base in tier one to start looking at that.
[1:50:00] Any questions there?
[1:50:04] Okay.
[1:50:05] And then on the right hand
[1:50:07] side of our triangle we have the collaborative teacher teams.
[1:50:11] So these could be your grade level in elementary school your grade
[1:50:15] level teams middle school are going to be your your teams of four
[1:50:21] department teams.
[1:50:22] And the high school also has content and department.
[1:50:26] Yep. Okay.
[1:50:28] So the dark Navy is our district overall.
[1:50:31] Again we're close to that 80% threshold.
[1:50:33] And then we have bars in green and yellow.
[1:50:37] And again tier one as far as like
[1:50:41] infrastructure and the collaborative collaborative structures
[1:50:45] those are in place.
[1:50:47] Now it's time to kind of like
[1:50:48] focus on more of the tier two aspects of of that framework.
[1:50:53] So this golden sort of outline sort of shows that,
[1:50:59] collaborative teacher
[1:51:00] teams, they take the lead on essential standards
[1:51:04] that we're focusing on early literacy, numeracy.
[1:51:08] We're also focused on the standards related to like ELA, mathematics.
[1:51:13] It could be science studies.
[1:51:15] Those teachers take the lead on the initial instruction instruction
[1:51:18] that all students get if they're entitled to a mandated learning plan or not.
[1:51:24] And then we have students that are going to need supplemental support.
[1:51:28] And so that supplemental support could be they need
[1:51:31] they're missing some prerequisite skills related to the essential standard.
[1:51:35] Or they might need Extension or Richmond.
[1:51:39] So that's part of the cycle that we need to work on.
[1:51:42] Next is more that sort of that supplemental part.
[1:51:48] The questions about the teacher
[1:51:49] team essential actions.
[1:51:52] Okay.
[1:51:54] So what are we doing about all this now.
[1:51:56] Okay. So
[1:51:58] because we track we use process related
[1:52:01] assessment to monitor what is installed and what's not installed.
[1:52:05] We also grab the academic data from universal screening and the NH SAS.
[1:52:11] That helps us make data informed decisions about projects
[1:52:14] that need to be sort of cued for priority for the district.
[1:52:18] So we have a variety of things that are
[1:52:21] currently happening in the district right now.
[1:52:24] I'll quickly go over them.
[1:52:26] So M-class math K1.
[1:52:29] You might have noticed that Director Krans pointed out we have a gap
[1:52:33] on the mast side where it only shows grades two through eight.
[1:52:36] So we're closing that gap by bringing in a K
[1:52:39] through one early numeracy screener.
[1:52:43] So that will be in place until the end of this strategic plan.
[1:52:47] At the high school, Principal Driscoll, myself.
[1:52:49] Director Krans.
[1:52:52] Director Mehalek, we
[1:52:54] worked together to talk about bringing star up to the high school,
[1:52:57] because what's challenging is getting timely, universal screening data
[1:53:03] to help inform the health of tier one at the high school level.
[1:53:06] We only have the the school day sat, so it really makes it hard to cover those
[1:53:12] ninth graders, those 10th graders, by the time they're taking that, it's it's
[1:53:15] too much of a gap.
[1:53:16] So this year we're going to bring STAR Reading and Math
[1:53:19] to the high school two times this year.
[1:53:23] So I believe November administration and then the high school
[1:53:26] also administer in the springtime with the other buildings.
[1:53:29] FastBridge progress monitoring.
[1:53:33] We are we're trying to find a solution just y k through 12
[1:53:38] to have a common progress monitoring system that's going to assess,
[1:53:43] sort of like skills related to reading and mathematics.
[1:53:47] The proxy monitoring is typically done with like a one minute quick probe.
[1:53:51] It's called a curriculum based measurement.
[1:53:53] And these need to be administered either weekly or by weekly kind of thing.
[1:53:57] So we are trying to find a user friendly system.
[1:54:01] The one that we have currently is it's gotten some I would say,
[1:54:07] there's been some challenges with the usability of the platform.
[1:54:11] So we're looking for a better solution, and we're starting with the high school
[1:54:15] this year because of priority projects.
[1:54:19] Is not going to allow us to do that with K through eight at this time.
[1:54:22] Do do do do.
[1:54:24] One thing that we are trying to solve going forward in the future is,
[1:54:30] when students transition from elementary
[1:54:32] to middle school to high school, we want to have an intervention history.
[1:54:36] So if I was a student in second grade that was meeting with a reading
[1:54:40] specialist, and I got an intervention, and then as a sixth grader,
[1:54:45] I'm struggling with some reading related kind of challenges.
[1:54:48] I should be able to, like, click into a student history
[1:54:50] and see that they had an intervention back in second grade kind of thing.
[1:54:54] So that's one of the things that we're trying to do is, from a system standpoint,
[1:54:59] provide a case history for student if they had an intervention or not.
[1:55:03] And one of the benefits of doing that is that we can have progress
[1:55:08] monitoring data tied to the intervention plan and see how they're doing.
[1:55:11] So that's another initiative that will be going on throughout the year.
[1:55:14] Two. To two.
[1:55:17] As far as instructional programs, Director Hemphill is brought in a English
[1:55:22] language development program called HMH English 3D.
[1:55:26] I believe that's a pilot that was approved by the Advisory Council.
[1:55:32] Within the past month,
[1:55:34] we're really excited about a new math intervention program.
[1:55:38] So you've kind of seen our math scores kind of their stable.
[1:55:41] So kids are making growth, but we need.
[1:55:43] We noticed that we had a gap in our intervention program for math.
[1:55:47] There's a ton of stuff out there for reading math.
[1:55:49] There's less things that are evidence based.
[1:55:52] So we we're very fortunate to find a evidence
[1:55:55] based intervention program called accumulative.
[1:55:58] It's by an organization called JUMP Math.
[1:56:01] And that's going to be available K through 12 for tier
[1:56:04] three in IP intervention services.
[1:56:08] Then
[1:56:11] I feel like Director Krans your math lab with the high school.
[1:56:14] This is your the. Yeah.
[1:56:16] I don't want to take a lot of time. Yeah.
[1:56:19] So this is
[1:56:21] a huge project that Dean Lapoint, Principal Driscoll,
[1:56:26] and Dean Lyndes at the high school have been working on.
[1:56:29] We have some co-teaching going on at the high school, meaning that there's
[1:56:33] a special educator and a general educator working together, team teaching.
[1:56:36] And this is the Math Lab, which has a general educator,
[1:56:40] math teacher, and a special educator teaching algebra one together on one day.
[1:56:45] And then on the alternate day, they are, supporting students in a lab
[1:56:50] that is providing tier two and three support.
[1:56:54] So this is and they're using a cumulative to help with that, as
[1:56:57] well as our tier one programing and some other resources that we have.
[1:57:01] So we are very excited.
[1:57:02] This has huge potential to really make a big difference for our students.
[1:57:09] Yes I can take the next to Yep.
[1:57:12] So also we're focusing on math instructional practices.
[1:57:15] Director Hemphill has brought instructional practices to the,
[1:57:21] elementary that are going to be rolled out two at a time per trimester.
[1:57:24] So they're going to be kind of focusing at two instructional practices,
[1:57:28] high leverage research based at the middle school.
[1:57:32] We took a different approach because the teachers only teach math.
[1:57:35] So they're going to be selecting,
[1:57:38] which of the high leverage practices
[1:57:41] they choose to focus on as their personal goal or their team goal.
[1:57:45] And then we are bringing supplemental math fluency.
[1:57:49] I can speak to grade five specifically.
[1:57:51] Dean Brickley and Principal Dube have worked really hard
[1:57:54] to put a section into the school day every day.
[1:57:57] Focus on
[1:57:58] math fluency for fifth graders, which we are very happy about.
[1:58:02] That is a big need.
[1:58:03] And you have it for elementary, too.
[1:58:05] I don't really know as much about that.
[1:58:08] For elementary math fact fluency,
[1:58:11] this this is one of the big predictors for future math success.
[1:58:15] It sets you up to do math word problems, skill application.
[1:58:20] So we have brought in curriculum advisory Council last year
[1:58:24] approved a program called Reflex and Frax, which is an independent student
[1:58:29] platform where it's got some game based math fact fluency.
[1:58:34] It has one of the highest effect sizes in the landscape in the field.
[1:58:38] As far as student in on mathematic fact fluency.
[1:58:43] So most of the to give you
[1:58:46] some context, most of the field has these programs at a
[1:58:49] like a point 2 to 0.3 effect size.
[1:58:54] The programs that we brought in were 0.7 to 0.8.
[1:58:57] So more than double the field standard as far as the fact size.
[1:59:01] So we're. Super. Excited about that.
[1:59:03] And then finally but last but not least, I should say,
[1:59:09] each of the five buildings has made a sort of end of year
[1:59:12] goal related to tier two, those social behavioral interventions.
[1:59:16] So that could be a variety of different things
[1:59:18] related to I'm a kiddo that might need some.
[1:59:22] I have some unfinished learning
[1:59:23] regarding social skills, and I need to learn some social skills.
[1:59:27] It could be organizational skills.
[1:59:29] It could be emotional regulation skills.
[1:59:32] These are typically interventions that last between 8 to 10 weeks.
[1:59:37] They are very skilled focus.
[1:59:39] This is not clinical mental health counseling because we're trying
[1:59:43] to teach positive behavior skills kind of thing.
[1:59:46] So they would be run by an intervention provider likely either a,
[1:59:51] a psychologist, a school counselor or a school social worker.
[1:59:54] And administrators have provided these interventions.
[1:59:58] They're typically with students in a group of 3 to 5 students
[2:00:02] and role playing, direct instruction and sort of progress monitoring is expected.
[2:00:07] Out of these.
[2:00:08] Are those teacher selected groups.
[2:00:10] Teachers can make a referral to our site intervention team,
[2:00:13] and the site intervention team will match the student to an intervention.
[2:00:17] We have some,
[2:00:19] kind of like with reading, you can do a diagnostic to match
[2:00:22] where the, the skill, the underlying skill need is.
[2:00:25] We have kind of the same thing with our, our behavior interventions.
[2:00:30] They'll tell you like what is the priority.
[2:00:32] And a team would have to decide okay.
[2:00:35] Like out of these eight topics what is the top priority for the student
[2:00:39] at this point in time.
[2:00:40] So they might need like multiple interventions.
[2:00:43] But we can't we can't give them all at the same time
[2:00:47] because they just wouldn't be in class kind of thing.
[2:00:49] So teams might have to prioritize the intervention cycle for a particular skill
[2:00:53] and then move on to the next skill once they've mastered the initial cycle.
[2:00:59] Thank you.
[2:01:01] While we were sitting here, I pulled up the presentation
[2:01:03] from last fall to look at the behavior incidents per 100 students.
[2:01:08] You are right. March is right up there.
[2:01:11] But I made a flag in it to,
[2:01:15] put the rest of the 2526 data in there.
[2:01:19] Bring it back to you next month so you can see that comparatively.
[2:01:23] And we can run that slide annually.
[2:01:25] So we can start to have some longitudinal data that you have in the same format.
[2:01:30] So you're comparing apples to apples.
[2:01:31] And this data all goes on our website under the accountability tab.
[2:01:38] We post the presentations there.
[2:01:40] Anybody can look at it.
[2:01:44] Just to be transparent
[2:01:45] about where we are and where we aren't.
[2:01:49] Can I ask a question on the first or second slide,
[2:01:52] then the the data that's pending for equity and inclusion.
[2:01:55] Did you say like what the what's a workable timeline for
[2:01:59] some data for 2026 in that category.
[2:02:03] Yeah. So I need to go back.
[2:02:05] So that is a less clean metric in that we have to take
[2:02:10] building reports of activities and then quantify it into a number.
[2:02:14] So I can aim for probably by November.
[2:02:19] I can have something for you. Great.
[2:02:21] I'm not expecting a lot of growth in that category this year, in part
[2:02:26] because it was a little less of a focus with the academic piece, but also
[2:02:31] because there are several areas that we've identified.
[2:02:35] We're not going to be able to move the needle
[2:02:37] without some help from our state and federal partners.
[2:02:41] When we talk about
[2:02:44] hiring and retention
[2:02:46] of a more diverse workforce,
[2:02:49] we have policies.
[2:02:51] We have plans.
[2:02:52] Mr. Boodey worked with a subgroup that worked on that to,
[2:02:56] make sure we had things in place to retain
[2:02:59] and attract a diverse workforce.
[2:03:02] But if people aren't moving to New Hampshire, we're not getting,
[2:03:07] you know, even the opportunity to hire a diverse workforce.
[2:03:11] So there were some things like that that we looked at and went, we're ready.
[2:03:15] But some of our, you know,
[2:03:19] what's happening in the state is not helping us.
[2:03:23] So there's a barrier there that's hard for us to address.
[2:03:27] But you're not saying
[2:03:29] that some of the state and federal aversion to equity
[2:03:34] and inclusion is affecting our goals here as well, or is that also.
[2:03:41] If I think
[2:03:43] it would be difficult to not have it impact that, yes.
[2:03:46] Things. Are.
[2:03:47] Being flagged, certain words are being flagged.
[2:03:50] I will say the work
[2:03:53] that is being done in Dover,
[2:03:56] if anybody is attracting
[2:03:58] people interested in that, it's us.
[2:04:02] You know, and we've had people say in interviews and things
[2:04:06] like that, or when I meet with them or when we do the new,
[2:04:09] new teacher induction, they talk about that, that's something
[2:04:12] attractive to them,
[2:04:13] that everyone is welcome here and everyone is recognized here. So,
[2:04:18] but yeah, it's a challenge if we can't get people to
[2:04:20] cross the state line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
[2:04:23] I don't have any hope to hire them.
[2:04:26] So yeah that's challenging.
[2:04:29] Thank you.
[2:04:32] I was trying to be as easy as possible. Yes.
[2:04:37] I need
[2:04:39] feedback.
[2:04:40] Thank you.
[2:04:41] See I a office as always.
[2:04:47] The last item for new business tonight is
[2:04:51] the New Hampshire School Boards Association policy proposals.
[2:04:55] Micaela, you had brought this agenda item forward.
[2:04:57] Can I interrupt for one minute? Yeah.
[2:05:01] I'm proposing that we're letting everyone go.
[2:05:04] That does not want to stay for the school board association stuff.
[2:05:08] Because we all have kids.
[2:05:09] But along meeting and you have to be at work early tomorrow.
[2:05:11] So though.
[2:05:13] It is riveting work.
[2:05:16] It's all. It's all state policy things.
[2:05:19] So please,
[2:05:21] you can't leave though.
[2:05:25] Thank you.
[2:05:26] Not that I don't want you to stay, but,
[2:05:31] So, Micaela, my understanding was
[2:05:33] you were looking for board feedback or, I guess, consensus.
[2:05:39] Or as far as the.
[2:05:42] Were you looking for feedback on all of the proposed
[2:05:45] changes at NHSBA and, and NHSBA is making as far as how
[2:05:51] meetings are structured, or are you just looking for feedback on the,
[2:05:55] resolutions?
[2:05:57] Yeah.
[2:05:58] So I mean, October 17th is the annual delegate meeting.
[2:06:01] This will be third or fourth year going.
[2:06:04] I cannot vote on behalf of the school board unless we have an on
[2:06:08] the record statement of the school board's opinion on these 15 proposals.
[2:06:12] So this this process is,
[2:06:16] a slightly augmented version of what we do every year,
[2:06:19] only because they are proposing kind of like throwing out the book
[2:06:25] and rewriting it this year when it comes to how they do the proposals.
[2:06:29] I'm going to propose that we start with
[2:06:32] just going through the 15, resolutions
[2:06:36] so I know how to vote based on how the board has voted.
[2:06:39] And I'd love to move through these, like quickly. Yeah.
[2:06:41] And I'm so I'm.
[2:06:42] Going to propose or suggest instead of going through them
[2:06:46] one by one because there are 15 of them.
[2:06:49] We all had the agenda materials to review ahead of time. So
[2:06:56] I think if
[2:06:57] there's any resolution that anyone wants to flag in particular
[2:07:01] about having concerns about or not agreeing with the
[2:07:07] NHSBA recommendation, as far as the resolution, I think maybe
[2:07:11] let's just address it that way instead of going through each one one by one.
[2:07:16] Does that work for everyone?
[2:07:19] I and I think I can say I read through them all.
[2:07:24] I agreed with the responses from NHSBA on all of them.
[2:07:29] I wanted to call out for number 14, which was in relation
[2:07:33] to the open enrollment.
[2:07:36] I think the response was no position.
[2:07:40] And so the only one I made on that one was just to clarify that we're going to
[2:07:45] it said to stick with the 2025 continuing resolution,
[2:07:49] which is that NHSBA opposes state mandated open enrollment.
[2:07:52] Which was ours to begin with.
[2:07:53] We were the one forward last year, so two years ago.
[2:07:56] But other than that, I agreed with the NHSBA response
[2:08:01] on all of the resolutions that were in the packet.
[2:08:05] Agreed.
[2:08:06] So the one that I do want to bring forward
[2:08:09] is our resolution, which is resolution number two.
[2:08:13] The reason why I would like the board's
[2:08:17] permission to move forward with
[2:08:20] disagreeing with the board's, not our board,
[2:08:24] and be a board position to not support,
[2:08:29] is because I think there's a fundamental difference
[2:08:32] in how they're reading it versus how it was intended to be written.
[2:08:36] I, I'm just going to read the notes I wrote because it's faster.
[2:08:41] I wrote, well, my handwritten notes.
[2:08:43] HB 1300, which is, you know, the, the bill
[2:08:47] that will put the ballot question, on our ballot this November.
[2:08:52] Does not enact a state mandated school tax cap.
[2:08:55] It just puts the question on the ballot.
[2:08:58] So those are two really important distinctions.
[2:09:03] So only partially relates here.
[2:09:05] The provisions of that bill will sunset anyway in fiscal year 2031.
[2:09:11] So they're temporary to begin with.
[2:09:14] The resolution that I had proposed and that we agreed on
[2:09:16] was simple on purpose because it,
[2:09:20] it talks about enacting a statewide school budget cap,
[2:09:23] not putting a ballot question on a ballot, which is which is different.
[2:09:29] And we have seen in the past that our some legislators, not all of them,
[2:09:33] have proposed legislation that enacts a statewide mandated budget cap.
[2:09:38] And that, to me, is a completely separate lane than what HB 1300 is currently doing
[2:09:44] right now, which is putting the question before communities.
[2:09:48] So I with with the board's approval, would still like to advance this forward
[2:09:53] because having something on the books that says we oppose legislation
[2:09:58] that enacts a statewide school budget cap is a different conversation
[2:10:03] then than what we're seeing currently happen.
[2:10:08] Potentially,
[2:10:09] potentially happen, depending on the lawsuit.
[2:10:12] On our ballot this November. Yeah.
[2:10:15] So that's the only one that that for me, like, rises up to a discussion standpoint.
[2:10:19] Other than that, Robin, I agree. I,
[2:10:22] I agree with everything that we,
[2:10:25] what was proposed by.
[2:10:26] I think that point makes sense.
[2:10:27] If you I would feel comfortable
[2:10:29] if you want to make that point at the meeting and see what happens
[2:10:33] as far as the resolution.
[2:10:34] Make that clarification about the statewide versus the local control.
[2:10:37] I'm seeing everybody's head nods.
[2:10:39] Does that feel like concurrence?
[2:10:41] I mean, they they say in a lot of them that they already have
[2:10:45] resolutions against things, whereas this one, they don't say that.
[2:10:47] They just say they advocated against it.
[2:10:49] So to your point, they
[2:10:52] just because this is there now
[2:10:53] doesn't mean it's the end of the road for this, that
[2:10:55] there's not going to be attempts beyond what they already have or in a couple
[2:10:59] of years, if this fails a couple times, that they don't have a new approach to it.
[2:11:02] So it wouldn't be the worst to still try and get something in there.
[2:11:06] Well, and it was such an egregious bill to begin with, and its original form that,
[2:11:10] you know, like it said, there they they vehemently or vigorously
[2:11:14] whatever the word was advocated against it,
[2:11:16] even though there wasn't a policy on the books.
[2:11:18] Okay. So
[2:11:21] like zooming right along.
[2:11:22] Does anybody have anything else where they would be different
[2:11:26] than what the board recommended for their
[2:11:31] action, their position?
[2:11:34] So speedy. Love it. Okay.
[2:11:35] The other thing we need to talk about, because I will have to also vote on this,
[2:11:38] is do we agree with the like pretty sweeping comprehensive
[2:11:42] change to how all of this happens starting next year?
[2:11:47] It was my reading of it, which is that instead of going through this process
[2:11:51] every single year and proposing new ones
[2:11:55] and retaining the ones, the long, long list of ones that already exist,
[2:12:00] that instead, every two years at the start of the legislative session,
[2:12:04] they wipe the slate clean or not wipe the slate clean,
[2:12:06] but they go back through and they they have to kind of re-up.
[2:12:09] You know, we have to vote again.
[2:12:10] Like, does this still apply? Is it still relevant?
[2:12:14] So that
[2:12:14] happens in the even years, which would be,
[2:12:18] intentionally right before the start of the new biennium.
[2:12:21] And then in the odd years, you do something similar to kind of
[2:12:24] what we have had before, more like learning.
[2:12:27] It's just a big change.
[2:12:28] We have to vote yes or no on it because it's a bylaws change.
[2:12:32] Thoughts?
[2:12:34] I think that makes sense.
[2:12:36] The change.
[2:12:37] Yeah.
[2:12:38] Looking at it by annually, is that the correct term by biennially by any.
[2:12:43] Yeah.
[2:12:43] Well because that would better align
[2:12:47] with the legislative session as it stands currently.
[2:12:50] Yeah.
[2:12:53] Any opposition to me voting.
[2:12:55] I'm not going to lie I skimmed the changes to the articles.
[2:13:00] I didn't read them all line by line.
[2:13:02] So I'm going to go by your recommendation on this one.
[2:13:05] Yeah.
[2:13:07] Is it a less
[2:13:07] deliberative process the change or.
[2:13:11] No. The.
[2:13:18] So what it says
[2:13:19] in the kind of little primer about it,
[2:13:24] and even years.
[2:13:25] NHSBA will host a Legislative Policy conference meeting where the association
[2:13:29] legislative priorities will be established by member school
[2:13:33] boards.
[2:13:38] These principles and policies will serve as to guide
[2:13:41] the association in its advocacy activities for the biennium.
[2:13:45] Legislative policy positions will be effective for two years
[2:13:50] and therefore two legislative sessions,
[2:13:52] but one budget biennium.
[2:13:55] At subsequent ones, members may re-adopted
[2:13:58] existing policies, introduce new ones, or remove existing ones.
[2:14:02] So it's it's like how Dover votes for its school board every two years.
[2:14:06] There's a potential for the whole slate to be changed.
[2:14:09] You know what?
[2:14:09] You what you keep you keep what you don't, you renew.
[2:14:15] The thing
[2:14:15] for me that was interesting is that it requires a two thirds vote,
[2:14:18] which is more than, what is current, which I believe is just a simple majority.
[2:14:25] And then in the odd years, they host an annual business meeting.
[2:14:27] That's interesting because it's going to incorporate more learning
[2:14:31] and collegial type stuff.
[2:14:35] Professional development training conferences
[2:14:37] with presentation, guest speaker opportunity for board members
[2:14:41] to interact with each other, which is really cool.
[2:14:45] That's that's the main difference right there.
[2:14:48] They're also shrinking their board from
[2:14:50] 17 to 1413.
[2:14:55] I forget the exact number.
[2:14:56] They're taking a couple people out of the board.
[2:15:00] Like 13.
[2:15:00] Those are the those are the cliff notes. Okay.
[2:15:03] Thank you. Yeah.
[2:15:05] So we are we're all good with voting. Yes.
[2:15:07] For proceeding with that.
[2:15:09] Can I please have a motion to authorize Micaela to vote? Yes.
[2:15:14] At the NHSBA meeting, as discussed.
[2:15:16] So moved. Second.
[2:15:18] Any additional discussion?
[2:15:20] All those in favor?
[2:15:22] Motion passes 7 to 0. Thank you.
[2:15:25] Thank you for anyone. Who would like to come with me.
[2:15:27] It's October 17th, and it's a pretty fun hey.
[2:15:29] Dover Band show day. That's a big day.
[2:15:35] Good point.
[2:15:36] Okay.
[2:15:37] Can I please have a motion on the bills?
[2:15:39] You might.
[2:15:40] I move to approve the submission of payment of bills in the amount
[2:15:44] of $13,680,169.60
[2:15:48] for the period of August 14th, 2026 through September 11th, 2026.
[2:15:54] Seconded. Michelle. Seconds. Any discussion?
[2:15:57] Roll call. Vote, please. Robin.
[2:15:59] Yes. Michelle. Clancy. Yes. Craig.
[2:16:02] Fogarty. Yes.
[2:16:03] Micaela. Demeter.
[2:16:04] Yes. Elizabeth goldman.
[2:16:06] Yes. Seana Berkley Hallberg. Yes.
[2:16:08] You passed seven. Nothing. You.
[2:16:10] And then moving on to committee report. Yes.
[2:16:14] The JBC.
[2:16:17] First and foremost, we got some feedback from someone
[2:16:19] in the community that they hadn't seen progress on the fields.
[2:16:22] And I'm up here every week or every month saying lots going on.
[2:16:25] What's going on?
[2:16:26] And I realize that,
[2:16:29] it's not always easy to see that I know what to look for
[2:16:31] or what should be happening when I go through there,
[2:16:33] and it's tough to see some of the changes sometimes.
[2:16:34] So one thing that will help everyone
[2:16:36] see what's going on in that field now is our old maintenance facility.
[2:16:39] Building is down.
[2:16:40] The new building is set
[2:16:41] up, operational facilities maintenance has moved into there.
[2:16:44] You get better visibility on the site, the football field itself,
[2:16:48] the playing surface, excluding the goalposts, is ready to go.
[2:16:53] On that field, lines are in turfs and in fills in.
[2:16:57] Everything's in there.
[2:16:59] And, scoreboard is on order.
[2:17:01] That's the other piece that's missing there.
[2:17:04] Bleachers up, lights up, all of that.
[2:17:06] The baseball field has been a lot of work or.
[2:17:08] Sorry, multi-purpose field has been a lot of work in the last month.
[2:17:12] If you've gone by recently, you'll see that the light poles are up.
[2:17:16] A really cool part of that, too.
[2:17:17] If you look in center
[2:17:18] field of that field, of what will be the baseball field portion of it.
[2:17:22] You'll notice there's one pole with lights on both sides.
[2:17:25] When we did this plan, we designed it so that we could use that single pole
[2:17:29] for both fields, which saves the purchase of a pole and some electrical.
[2:17:33] We didn't have the lights up there originally,
[2:17:35] but it was designed so that lights for both fields could go on that one pole.
[2:17:40] Which is is really cool.
[2:17:41] Also, around that field, you'll see fence posts have gone up around most of it.
[2:17:46] The backstop is about 30ft tall.
[2:17:47] The rest of it looks to be about eight feet roughly.
[2:17:51] That's going to be the perimeter of the field itself.
[2:17:54] So it gives you a sense of where that field is going to be positioned.
[2:17:58] You'll know this when you're looking at it
[2:18:00] between the field and the animal science building.
[2:18:03] A lot of empty space is going to be a nice green space.
[2:18:05] The original plan was a parking lot there,
[2:18:07] but we removed that in the late stages of the the project.
[2:18:10] So it's going to be some green space.
[2:18:13] Between there.
[2:18:14] The field itself is being leveled.
[2:18:16] There's some drainage that's going to get set up, and then they'll start working on
[2:18:22] the concrete anchor that goes around it, like they did at the football
[2:18:25] field as well, to prepare it for turf install there.
[2:18:29] The track install I wasn't able to see today if it started today.
[2:18:33] We were hoping to start this last week.
[2:18:35] Weather delayed it.
[2:18:36] We're at the point of putting the rubberized surface on the track.
[2:18:39] It's a four week process to put that down.
[2:18:43] It needs to sit for a period of time.
[2:18:46] It needs to be lined.
[2:18:48] I mentioned, I believe, last meeting.
[2:18:49] There's like three families in the country
[2:18:51] that do this one comes from Pennsylvania, so it's very specific.
[2:18:54] And you need weather to cooperate during that window.
[2:18:56] And the day we plan on starting, it was last Tuesday
[2:18:58] and there was some rain last week.
[2:19:01] Things like that.
[2:19:02] So it got pushed back.
[2:19:03] We're hoping that still, starts this week.
[2:19:07] There was talk of falsely starting yesterday. It rained.
[2:19:09] I drove by today.
[2:19:10] I did see some more vehicles
[2:19:11] in that area on the track, but I have I wasn't able to see.
[2:19:15] I tried to drive around before the meeting,
[2:19:16] but there was a bus unloading team in the backside of the school,
[2:19:19] so I couldn't get in close enough to see it.
[2:19:22] I just came straight to the meeting.
[2:19:25] So that's where we're at on all of that.
[2:19:27] In terms of budget, we're still projecting
[2:19:30] the coming under budget on everything that we have going in there,
[2:19:35] and when we will get on that field is still up in the air.
[2:19:40] As I said, the field itself is if it was as simple as going on the football field,
[2:19:45] throw the goalposts up that fields ready to play.
[2:19:48] A lot of other factors.
[2:19:50] The bleachers need to be inspected.
[2:19:51] Bathrooms are not operational yet.
[2:19:54] The concourse area in the entryway is still dirt.
[2:19:56] That's not concrete.
[2:19:57] And everything around it is an active construction zone.
[2:20:00] So there's.
[2:20:01] We need inspections to come through.
[2:20:03] We we're still.
[2:20:04] We signed a memorandum of understanding on the bathroom situation.
[2:20:09] You know, if you remember, I mentioned this project
[2:20:12] we were told needed something like 120 toilets based on the size,
[2:20:16] and they base that on how much can this facility hold?
[2:20:19] And they even include what if we had a major political figure
[2:20:22] speaking here and we had 4000 people on the field?
[2:20:24] So we had to put in pan of hardware in the gates for that.
[2:20:28] So we came to an understanding on the bathroom situation
[2:20:31] that we think is is manageable for the district.
[2:20:34] And allows for upscaling if we do have those larger scale events.
[2:20:38] But that still, I believe needs to be signed on the city side.
[2:20:42] We've agreed to it, but we haven't gotten confirmation they signed it yet.
[2:20:45] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
[2:20:48] Good sign.
[2:20:48] Okay.
[2:20:48] That's up to sign. Okay, so we have that.
[2:20:52] Like I said, we have inspections on the bleachers.
[2:20:54] Concessions isn't up and running.
[2:20:56] The biggest hurdle we're going to have is getting a temporary occupancy permit
[2:21:01] for that field to safely get people in and out.
[2:21:04] If we were to have a game there this fall where it's an active construction zone,
[2:21:08] and can we create an environment that separates those fans
[2:21:12] in that environment from what's still going on in the multi-purpose field?
[2:21:17] So we don't have any of the thing definitive yet.
[2:21:21] We're still keeping those two dates in October where there's potential home
[2:21:24] games. I want to say the 15th and 22nd.
[2:21:27] I think those two those are the two Fridays.
[2:21:30] If we can, we will.
[2:21:32] But we're not positive yet.
[2:21:34] And we want to make sure that it's safe and it's ready for public consumption
[2:21:38] when we bring people in there.
[2:21:39] So we hope we can still do something this fall
[2:21:43] in terms of the football season that's going on.
[2:21:45] But we don't want to risk anyone's safety or the
[2:21:49] the outlook of the project itself to to force something.
[2:21:53] We're also able to approve a pretty lengthy list of additional,
[2:21:57] equipment purchases, because of where we're at with the budget.
[2:22:01] So things that were what I advocated for was things were precipitated
[2:22:06] by the field project, not just it would be nice to have a new ex,
[2:22:12] pitching machines, for example.
[2:22:13] I pushed really hard to pull those out.
[2:22:16] You don't need those because of this project.
[2:22:18] And I don't think that, you know, we should be doing it under that budget.
[2:22:21] We don't want to capitalize those hurdles, things like that.
[2:22:25] But we did.
[2:22:25] We were able to do like all of the movable goals and the,
[2:22:31] removable bases and all that kind of stuff.
[2:22:34] The stuff that they really need, as well as the basic maintenance equipment
[2:22:38] for the field that will be used by our
[2:22:42] team, routinely, not by, you know, whatever
[2:22:45] quarterly maintenance is done, but just the day to day maintenance.
[2:22:49] And that was something we talked originally of outsourcing
[2:22:52] some of the maintenance because of the cost
[2:22:54] of some of these machines, but we were actually able to afford
[2:22:57] the machines to maintain these fields within this project
[2:23:01] so that our team can do that in a relatively minimal amount of time,
[2:23:03] and we don't have to pay to outsource that.
[2:23:05] And Michelle mentioned like new goals.
[2:23:06] The reason we need some of those is when you get into the surface,
[2:23:09] everything needs to be on wheels so that when you're moving it,
[2:23:11] you're not digging up the carpet and things like that. So,
[2:23:15] field hockey goals and soccer goals are going to have wheels on them.
[2:23:18] So they're very easy to to just tilt back and roll on off the.
[2:23:22] Surface on the field need to be removable for obvious reasons.
[2:23:26] If you're not playing baseball.
[2:23:27] So it's it's one of those things where again,
[2:23:30] I drive by, I know what to look for.
[2:23:31] I know what's been going on
[2:23:32] so I can see it from the road, like, oh, that's that's really great.
[2:23:36] But, there is a lot going on and we'll see the multi-purpose field coming up.
[2:23:40] And I will say, as we get to this point, if anyone wants to see up close,
[2:23:44] we could figure something out. We wouldn't do everyone at once.
[2:23:46] But like, I've been able to go on to that
[2:23:48] and we have a good relationship with them where we can go on site.
[2:23:51] We, you know,
[2:23:53] put some safety precautions in place because it is active construction zone.
[2:23:56] But, if anyone. Did go in the high school library.
[2:23:59] Yeah. You know, there's, there's. Ways if.
[2:24:01] If you, if, if anyone wanted to see up close
[2:24:04] or would come this far along, you've only seen it from the road.
[2:24:06] We can absolutely accommodate that
[2:24:07] because it's really exciting to see what we have going on down there.
[2:24:10] Fantastic.
[2:24:11] Thank you. Homestretch. Yep. Getting there.
[2:24:14] Any other committee report?
[2:24:17] School board.
[2:24:18] Matters of interest.
[2:24:20] I just I'm I wanted to say before
[2:24:22] all the administrators left, but hopefully they're listening at home now.
[2:24:26] Yeah.
[2:24:27] I just wanted to congratulate everyone on a very successful
[2:24:31] first couple of weeks of school.
[2:24:32] No major incidences that we heard about.
[2:24:34] So that's a good sign to me that, all our work in preparation paid off.
[2:24:39] So thank you.
[2:24:42] One quick thing to add, I'm not sure
[2:24:44] how many on the board are aware of this, but two citizens did file a lawsuit
[2:24:49] to block the language from HB 1300 from going on the ballots in November.
[2:24:54] There was a hearing on Friday.
[2:24:56] We don't know what the result is.
[2:24:58] But it's something to pay attention to
[2:25:01] because depending on whether they get the injunctive relief they're seeking,
[2:25:05] it may or may not be on our ballots in November.
[2:25:08] And it's, you know, and if it does end up being something
[2:25:11] that goes on the ballots in November, I think it will be important for the board
[2:25:14] to talk about, you know, how we engage with that conversation
[2:25:18] within the seven of us and then also potentially community wide to think about,
[2:25:23] you know, how to help our community members understand what that means.
[2:25:28] Well.
[2:25:28] Hopefully the Secretary of State
[2:25:30] actually provides a legitimate response to our letter with all of our questions
[2:25:34] about how this law applies to Dover and our existing tax cap.
[2:25:39] So, Secretary, if you're listening.
[2:25:41] We're anxiously awaiting your response.
[2:25:43] A couple of weeks over.
[2:25:44] You don't want to certify elections.
[2:25:46] That decision on the on the lawsuit should be Thursday.
[2:25:50] Thursday. Great.
[2:25:53] Thank you.
[2:25:54] I think the state had requested for a Tuesday.
[2:25:56] So that's it's good to know that there's something maybe imminent.
[2:26:01] Imminent?
[2:26:01] Yeah. I'll be watching.
[2:26:05] It's pretty development.
[2:26:07] Any other matters of interest at this time?
[2:26:10] Reopening citizens forum,
[2:26:14] seeing no one else for citizens forum, can I please have a motion to end?
[2:26:17] Citizens forum. And.
[2:26:19] Kayla Liz seconds any discussion?
[2:26:21] All those in favor?
[2:26:22] Motion passes 7 to 0.
[2:26:24] Motion to adjourn.
[2:26:25] Shall are.
[2:26:28] Michael, I lost the word. Gosh.
[2:26:30] All those in favor?
[2:26:32] Thank you everyone. Have a great.