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Keene Board of Education Special Emergency Meeting for February 9, 2021

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Keene Board of Education Special Emergency Meeting Date, Time: Tuesday, February 9, 2021 – 6:00PM Meeting Location: The Keene Board of Education members attended the meeting remotely. Transcription available upon request.

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and I will hand it over to you Mr Downing thank you rob a good evening everyone and welcome to the Keene Board of Education meeting for February 9th 2020 we will open with the Pledge of Allegiance please everyone except me should mute otherwise we get some really bad lag on us pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you apologize for my overhead light blurring right into the I didn't give myself enough anyway Welcome to our meeting for tonight first on the agenda is public input which I believe we can take over the zoom format we were able to do it the last time but to be fair I didn't check with you first Robert you be able to handle that if folks want to give input absolutely let us know that have a comment through the chat or you can raise your virtual hand and we will I will let the chair know and he will call on you all right not seeing any do you see any hands up or chats Rob all right we'll move forward next up is the consent agenda so can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please to approve the consent agenda Becca and that was moved by Jacqueline seconded by Inga many items that people want removed from the consent agenda or concerns with the minutes that they want to bring it to our attention George there were a couple of grammatical things that I didn't get the chance to reach out to Sheena but if it's something like that Chris Roberts you might be able to speak they're just like small typos and stuff is that okay just to send to her I forgot to do it in the last couple days and Saturday's meeting you're muted Chris they called scribblers errors they don't require any action they can easily be taken care of did Jennifer or do we send them at this point to Shana and drop form okay other comments can we have a roll call vote mr. Downing Miss Hanson Miss headings yes mr. Houston yes Miss Lancaster yes Mister Roberts mr. right Carrie's 70 who are we missing I know Peter and Scott and Scott and Peter definitely said he was going to be joining us I'm at some point this evening so keep an eye out for them as well and have to get out of this View is written I do have the full report in the drive if both want to check that out and I will just give them a bullet point review at this time really I will first of all I want to thank everybody involved the hard work that was involved in bringing the budget process through to this past weekend this Saturday 3 days ago was our deliberative session for a session which we get old in person if they ever at the high school it was unusual in my experience in that even though there were members of the public present there were no questions asked and no motions made the entire deliberative session to just shy of half an hour I have never seen in my own experience partly that's due to cover it and then you're not as many people probably came out as would have otherwise but I do feel it's important to get on the record the reason that we held it in person Eva during covid-19 permitted by the governor to make it a virtual deliberative session rather than in-person deliberative session and you know not to get into the technical working too much but the effect would have been to disenfranchise the public nobody would have been able to make motions to change the budget nobody would have been able to vote on those motions to change the budget except for board members and we did not feel as a group that that was any aptible bypass even given the circumstances that covid-19 score us so we felt it was important to still go ahead and hold back in person again thank you everybody for the hard work involved not an easy budgeting season impressive work from the illustrators and from the finance committee to bring essentially a level-funded budget forward to the board and to the public and especially thanks to the CFO Tim Roar guides this process every year his work is is really kind of amazing the way that he's able to bring things together and bring different viewpoints together and you know really keep the students needs in Focus while balancing the revenue and expense challenges that we've been facing and also to John Huston and Ron Wright both in their first year both and interim positions on the board and both put on the finance committee there ability to come right on to finance their black backgrounds allowing them to Dive Right In and then make valuable suggestions and and really key in on what were the important decisions to be made and and help Chris Roberts on the finance committee that greatly appreciated to take new members in who can actually contribute at that level that quickly thank you again. Everybody involved I should mention ballot voting second session takes place on Tuesday March 9th polls will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. the entire city votes at Keene rec center all 5 if you want an absentee ballot you can request one by contacting Shana pelkey at the SAU offices the offices are at 193 Maple Ave if you want to go in person you can also email her at s pelkey at SAU 29. Org or call the central office 357 900 to keep in mind absentee ballots if you're asking for them by mail you need to have time for them to be mailed out from central office and then for you fill them out and mail them back in and they do have to be received the evening before voting Monday March 8th I would also voting for six seats out of our nine on the board this year 11 candidates running that's the most since I think 2014 so a lot of candidates to look into and figure out who to vote for just returned to hybrid instructional model last week that when relatively smoothly and that's a huge credit to our teachers are principles and especially to our parents and students thank you everybody for the work involved in in changing formats and for helping each other through this I think that's everything important that I hadn't report there's some other stuff in there that might be of interest to people especially involving legislative accidents in cooperation with the city but well I said give us thank you to marry George he's been providing some leadership both in Regional advocacy to the state level 4 funding both rasul schools and communities for relief from expenses curd and loss of Revenue and courage from covid-19 really been leading that drive and I'm seeing an increase level of cooperation among the city the County Schools that's really appreciate it as well all right that's what I've got I can't find the screen with all of you want it but I'm going to pass this off to Rob for the superintendent's report thank you George and I appreciate that in your drive you have the play submission for the superintendent report which we're getting back into this is the second month that we've returned to that written document so that you if you have questions about anything in that and that I report we do make that available on the on the website as well so if anyone ever has any questions regarding that report before the meeting during the meeting or even after the meeting please don't hesitate to let me know happy to try and answer any questions that you may have regard to that typically you get one update per week the last few weeks you had multiple ones so hopefully this week we'll stick with just the one in and you can wait till next Monday to get another update last week we did update a lot of the guidance in our in our comprehensive plan so that it was as well and true lined with the guidance that have come from our state health officials they've been updating their guidance more frequently and making making some changes and that they do what we are doing is we are reviewing that and making sure we fully understand that and then making that available for all of our stakeholders also do the chairs Applause to our our folks in our schools are teachers are administrators to my team here at central office as well for making a smooth transition back from remote the hybrid once again you know without the work of as many people that have been putting the work in it may not have gone as smoothly as it did then that's as it could have. I want to recognize those efforts and thank them I also want to recognize some of the unique pieces you might not necessarily see because it's it's not always put out there in the more Global Perspective but there have been some really wonderful thoughtful presentations that have gone out to our students and our families from different buildings and shared with different families and student groups it in our different schools and I would be yes I don't know if we have been able to get it up on our Facebook pages yet but it's definitely up on my Twitter account there was a wonderful live performance from a group of caring Educators at Franklin school performing the song Lean On me for their students in and what you don't get to see is when they are enrolled that in their building when they were back in the building on the hybrid days the music teacher in the building had taking the time to teach the students the the words to that song from the beginning of the year so when they played that through a virtual meeting during the school day and they left the doors open I was informed by the principal just what are completely moving experience it was to hear the hallways in the building Echo with the wonderful lyrics that come with that song and the Beautiful music that the staff and put together so some of the things you don't get to see but I do want to make mention of it because it shows just how much are Educators really care and the lengths that they're willing to go do to make sure that others know that they carry particular our students and I want to just a sore I like that there was another video that was done over at the high school where some of the administrators put together a video using the Blackbird mascot costume and if you haven't seen it you know I will do what I can to get that out there more publicly because it's just fun you know when when kids were coming back into the building it was a good way to say hey don't forget where your mom don't forget do your screener and they did that with with their mascot costume and put together a very fun inappropriate message to families in the students in and there are pockets of that happening throughout all of our buildings and those those are the two that come to mind right away and I just wanted to share that weed that if there are any questions I'm happy to answer nut Blackbird video is actually up on the school district Facebook page so if you go on there and then throw back a couple days you can find that all right I think we're good reports of standing committees facilities hello Peter we are give us give us permission to record just let us know your name where you're zooming from who else is in the room with you and whether or not you can send to recording this is Peter I am in Oregon at my office the door is closed I am alone in this room I consent to recording thank you Peter good to see you where we facility Smith Lancaster it was part of what we just voted on on for the consent agenda but we just took a look at the latest time changes with the Cheshire TV Linden and Sturm of lip balm turn from their board so we've decided and we just voted and agreed on I'm waiting a little bit and letting things kind of died down there before we re appoint anyone to the board she represents the SAU so that will be put off till probably later this summer we got some really really great news from Tim that we received an additional two and a half million dollars in federal covid money which was a lot more than I think we originally anticipated so we will now most probably definitely hopefully be able to cover the entire Willock project which was a little bit of attention last time around but it came and worked out so we're already I did mention even allow us to get some other big Improvement projects like one time projects maybe including the JD ventilation that we spoke about on several occasions I'mma put that into you no scope for us that hopefully we'll be able to get that done in the next year or two funniest joke. 2.5 we have until 2023 to use it which is great so there's this little time to get through planning and all the teachers we would need to do a big project like that can updated. updated us on his report for the buildings and grounds and that should also be in your pocket if anyone had time to look at it the 300 rooms at KHS or now back in operation full-time we the next phase there text ventilation phase will be taking place over February break when kids are not in the building guidance will be temporarily relocated at the high school during the work past the high school do you have new track primitive NC how could you say we've done some security camera viewing stations at the Middle School Franklin assignments and Gigi we had an incident with the freeze up at Fuller and but that has subsequently been remedy to punch later burst but we've taken care of that and it did during that project exposed to asbestos we had to meet men that's already happened and how to get rid of a little bit of furniture but now everything's back operating there and Wheelock season 1 the designs are almost complete and they're going out to bed actually I think yesterday now and what else for it Bob very quickly that we have 400 Chromebooks that went out last weekend to high school students to support our one-to-one program are allowed and she will be back in March to update Us in more detail about all the technology updates in the district and talk about our BYOD policy and procedure and a new software that we were talking about getting going District questions all right I like it. Thanks Rebecca and is not directly going to go the wheel art project but it does give us a little bit more flexibility and in because there are allowable and and activities that are not allowable so we can't just take that money and say we're going to renovate a school that I just want to be clear about that hopefully cover like the 1.12 we've already spent in ventilation cost this year throughout the district so that will free that money that we had allocated do it it's a way to reimburse other activity that were related to covid-19 yeah it's a good clarification in a few and people are really interested if you go back and review the committee meetings of facilities in finance and I'm sure that the same topical come up this coming month as well Tim went into a fair amount of detail covering what the money's can be used for various meetings and what they can't be used for his office is on top of it and he encountered are working hard to figure out the best uses for that is it as a boarding as a community were appreciative the government was able to come through with some more assistance for the difficulties that cover all right thanks Rebecca educate is me for another month and a half so we had we had one meeting over the next two months because we were able to hold our our December meeting needed to separate work meeting at that time too we did hear from By Request doctor Maddie came in with an update on homeless numbers he gave us a similar update to the full board as well basically we were expecting an increase in homeless numbers this year due to pinned up to the pandemic and because of the eviction protections that were in place we're not released not at this time and fortunately does appear to have been extended a little bit longer so hopefully we'll still see every Deuce number this year and he also spoke about meeting student needs during the pandemic that's worth looking at the minutes from our meeting if you want to go into it in more detail but a lot of credit goes to the folks in the buildings directly tasked with helping our students who has various needs academic otherwise and their efforts to reach out certainly some of them are in our buildings and have been in our building's even during remote and he did acknowledge the hardest part for the whole thing is serving the needs of the students that are fully remote if they're not in person it's hard for our buildings to meet those needs and that's been the biggest challenge that they're still trying to figure out the best way to overcome as we move forward we spent some time talking about the high school policy happening at potentially happening at the middle school that's actually in the policy committee right now but we were talking about what we as a as a committee are actually looking for in that discussion and whether the policy being reviewed is actually the right Avenue for that that's still an ongoing discussion at still very much a theoretical one it does continuing probably wants policy committee is done reviewing the relevant policies and send it back to the education committee what will need to do is bringing some representatives from the Middle School in the high school and have this discussion Amor at that level rather than trying to have the board make a top-down decision we also had prison by Brian Kemp well testing numbers during the pandemic and I won't go into all of the boring details on that but what was promising about that is I think we've all been acknowledging that the hybrid form at the remote format is not as good as if we had our students in the building I think everybody's comfortable saying that certainly there's a few students that this is ideal and who are thriving under these conditions but students are most teachers I think would be academically better if everybody was in the building but the testing results don't show that huge drop off the cliff that I think everybody was fearing cohorts actually made some gains academically there were not significant academic drops based on the Eames What Now understand that standardized testing only catches so much however DMV look up ground that it looks like we're going to have to make up when all of this is done is not as drastic as we were fearing and that is both a credit to our teachers and to our students and their families as well as bit of good news I wants everything else that we've been dealing with so that's what I've got for a report any questions on the education committee I think I missed the people now next up finance committee mr. Roberts yes between Saturday between the facilities in between the superintendent covered pretty much what will be and what can be use with the two and a half. Million dollars and yet depending on there are different requirements for the money and we'll make sure that all the requirements are met wanted and then the Defiance can you I mean buildings and grounds will make recommendations to the finance committee and spending that money in to make sure we spend it legally but the the goal of the finance committee is to ensure these the money is spent correctly and I'm one time object in Prague not too cold and quotes to plan any money for operational funding we want to make sure that we're never in the same tax predicament we were in this year and so one of the things that we would be looking at that with the finance committee if the money is available is taking care of the dam project and there's a number of different options but that's that falls under the facilities meeting that's a liability that we would like to take off the the plate and we just had one motion move that the the Board of Education accepted transfer transfer report what is information second thank you ain't got any questions on the transfer report seeing none Jennifer can I have a roll call please dr. Downing yes Miss Hansen yes Miss headings Mister Houston yes Miss Lancaster Mister Roberts mr. Starkey mr. right the motion carries eight zero George yes you want me to just take the finance for me Scott's Nadia unique Personnel I'm in Personnel yep go ahead and pay the Personnel committee had basically Walton purposes and non-hearing or not I'm eating less Thursday as we spent a great deal of time with the lawyer and going over number issues that will be handled or dress tonight in non-public so basically there was very little action taken into the Personnel committee thank you Chris Hansen to look at the issue of middle middle school credit or acknowledgement of we want to look further to identify if there any existing policies so we're going to work on that we also Saginaw we also looked at the board vacancy procedure based on the fact that we just filled a couple days and sees that something we do feel like there is a little bit of confusion that were going to work on editing and that will come back in the meantime we do have a few policies here for second read you may know last month we had three j i c a l with your device usage of 1 students those were pulled back now that we're going one to one of the technology team wanted to review those policies in light of the data want one so you don't even here tonight but we are looking at possibly eha a computer security email and internet communications and again this is part of new legislation that came through a couple years ago relating to data security requirements so I would like to move the Board of Education approve policy eha a computer security email and internet communications with a 3-0 recommendation from the policy committee are there any Xbox One X already on this was eh eh eh if I remember correctly both I'll both of these computer data ones actually came through it with input from relevant folks in in Tim's office and in rocks. I bought Millions office these are private data security reviews so they they went to the came back to us are there questions on eh eh eh for Ingo the policy committee all right seeing none can I have a roll call vote please Miss Hanson yes Miss Hennings yes Mister Houston Jeff Smith Lancaster Mister Roberts Rocky vs mr. right Aries 880 and then the next policy we have our second read is ehab data governance and security again this is part of same batch of data security upgrades he's also came through facilities and our our Technology Group has reviewed it and I move that the key Board of Education approved policy ehab data governance and security with a 3-0 the policy committee second questions for anger or policy committee on ehab RockAuto please Jennifer yeah Mr Houston yes Miss Lancaster Mister Roberts Mr starkie mr. right carries 80 before you go to the next one just a big thank you to Bob Milligan and his guys as well as tackling these policies bringing them back in a in a digestible form for us to look at that. Absolutely and next Ball Z GBA be mandatory code of conduct reporting this came out of eye I believe it's a laugh which was a new Powerpuff it had to be updated again do the legislative changes I've had to do with mandatory reporting are related to child abuse and neglect this policy hide and it was referring so we we update that was some input from the nhspa and I moved that the key Board of Education approved policy gbad mandatory code of conduct reporting with a 3-0 recommendation from the policy committee II ingat you're saying GBA be written Z Beav just want to make sure we're getting the right one into the minute questions for Inga George before you call for the roll call out and Scott has joined us so I would like to be able to do the same protocols that we do at the start of the meeting just so we'll get him up to speed sore Scott if you wouldn't mind just stating your name where you're zooming from and whether or not you object to recording before we call this question swing my refrigerator cord thank you thank you and thank God I didn't see exactly when you came in we are in the policy committee report right now and we're voting on gbea be reporting 32j Jennifer roll, please Mister Mister Houston Miss Lancaster mr. Roberts mr. Starkey mr. right there is nine zero in the lab show me how per second read is policy bedc telecommuting for board members on this is something that's come up in the past in years past they believe in the school board decided not to implement and I think as a result especially if covid-19. We've add some free people joining we realized wanted it really is not that difficult to do and just to clarify for everyone that the way this works is you still need a quorum if we weren't number to do situation you would still need it for board members alive but if one more member was traveling for work or out of the state they could still come in and take part in the discussion in voting and I removed at the key Board of Education approved policy b e g c detail Community for board members with the freezer recommendation from the policy committee questions or comments on this one before we vote for the first sentence public attending the meeting and all members must be able to simultaneously hear or see communication between the member participating remotely and those participating in person should do or be an Ang or Latinos who lunch SuperPawn that up Rob it is not to be and because it could be just via telephone go back we don't want to say that they could just see what that hearing correct like we want the public to hear either way I don't know if we need to reword that we stole the language directly from the nhspa with has been very consistent with other districts that have adopt this is wild so I think Rob think I think what they're talking about I mean some folks may choose to take it chat as public input you don't have to hear it so I think that's what you're talking about right back Rebecca no matter what we decide but this policy allows you to do that OK Google is it working just to be you have to be on video but using we're okay with yes I think that needs to be happening so to live there in putting discussion needs to be taking place as the meeting is taking place versus yeah I see I see what you're saying it does kind of it would allow an obnoxious board to say hey great you can see ever what's going on who cares if you can hear but that would just leave the fireworks anyway I don't think any of them just let that ride without complaining and the NCIS the intent as Tim said is to open up some options for ways you know you can do this with video without audio using chat you can do this with teleconferencing you can do this with a standard Zoom the intendant's to open up the the various options the words of comfort still down to the chair of that particular meeting to decide what format things would take for that meeting remote participant from texting individual board members with their input having that translated need to not the way it was written that input directly at campi second hand delivered I just I guess I get concerned with if it's through I guess it would have to be through chat with being able to see someone just to make sure that that isn't that I mean it again I would never come up but just make sure it is actually the board members stop chatting like we would have to go to see them then not just see a chat Without Really video with chatting or audio without the video I guess we'll be fine as well right so I think it's just really meant to prevent private message is from being relayed second hand now I'm over doing it by that does bring up a question should it be simultaneously here and see the communication cuz if someone calls in there watching take place with someone videos and they can see the board member talking Amanda I guess there is a case or maybe if you had a screen as a person was typing but yeah that would be continuously QRC at the zoo geniously here and see us is not on the here see but simultaneously communicated communication between the and those people remotely and those that are in person that's the simultaneous leaves on the second part of that and it's saying you have to hear or see cuz it allows for people to call in on the phone you don't have video you can't see some on the phone so it just sounds confusing cuz it's sites simultaneously than followed by here see but if you take out what they mean is you have to simultaneously be able to communicate between members of remote and members in Peru same time and if that made any sense all right I'm inclined go ahead and and have us vote on this and people are uncomfortable with that phrase then you feel free to vote against this if this does not pass for this reason will send it back to policy I need to rework this phrase that makes sense Inga alright so let's are there other questions about this or is this this one phrase but the sticking point for people alright then let's go ahead and do a roll call vote policy mr. Downing Miss Hansen mr. Houston yes Miss Lancaster know mr. Roberts know mr. right that carries 722 and then play my math skills all right I'll let you add one more Mission this is GCB a classic Nations payment of Speech Pathology pathologist in school psychologist the reason they took him out for deletion nasty brought this to us from HR is this group previously was not a bargaining unit so they did not take negotiations of this policy laid out how their salaries were reviewed they are now a bargaining unit they are now taking part in negotiation so they have a collective bargaining agreement so this policy is no longer relevant or followed so we'd like to delete it move to delete policy gcba classifications payment of speech pathologist in school psychologist with a 3-0 recommendation from the policy committee questions on the other what the policy is to say or the reasons for deletion all right let's go ahead with the roll call vote then please Miss headings yes Mister Houston yes Miss Lancaster yes mr. Roberts mr. Starkey mr. right yes where is 904 I bet a habit of skipping somebody recently alright School liaison high school I'm filling in on that until elections in March I have a confession told dr. Gallagher about until I heard from Rob this morning asking what I wanted to do about the snow tonight I had it firmly established in my head that this meeting was next week so I did not schedule a dr. Gallagher fortunately I McKeen height parent as well so I do have access to most of what's going on I did shoot her an email explaining what I was doing to talk about tonight and asking for any additions so a really abbreviated key and high school liaison reports big thank you to the parents the students and the staff for the smooth transition back to Highbridge I'm not sure people understand quite what is involved with changing the the learning methods that were using going from remote to high or vice versa that's actually pretty big lift for the especially the teachers in the students so kudos to everybody for coming back to this this semester and they timed it to exactly what's the semester change and kudos to everybody for making that go as smoothly as possible a reminder for families just came up during facilities as well that the high school is going to a one-to-one Chromebook model if you are student does not have access to a Chromebook the high school is providing them I'm not sure what the schedule is at this point to reach out to your house office and find out how to obtain a Chromebook if you've not already done so and students bringing a fully charged Chromebook to school every day that they go in for even four days do they have in-person instruction and there's some potential plans for using those that sounds pretty exciting, but I don't want to get ahead of the high school planning so I'll leave that for for them to bring to you in a little while congratulations to our athletic teams for a successful start to Winter competition once we brought schools back in hybrid form at the winter sports teams at the high school as well as the Middle School were able to start playing games in full competition rather than just practicing scrimmaging against themselves and congratulations has been some winds are ready to spend some exciting games already it's good to see those student-athletes back in action should be watching for spring sports information as well mostly the high school is waiting on information from the nhiaa at this point there's also many Club organizations outside of sports the high school is really put in some time to make sure that more and more of those are being offered again in in in a prayer to keep socialisation up to keep something resembling normal Heights Little experience operating thank you to the advisors to those various clubs and organizations for working around ways to make these things work during hybrid and remote learning students to check the King High School Beacon for more information on that as well students are working on sign up for their classes for the 20 21 22 year there was a recent extension on the one on that but that's going to a close so students and parents should be reaching out to advisors to to get that finished up and she's in corsets for next year that's what I've got for the high school report next up is the career vanillin yes I had a chance to speak with the director Smith Gulfport and we had a nice conversation earlier in the week with that they have a the regional advisory committee next meeting tomorrow morning so they'll be more information come next next month that's going on but thinking down the road and Factory we have an election in March and it will be a number of new board members may not have a full grass for the variance grasp of what the CTE Center or what CTE is education in the Cheshire career center I would that would be a really good topic to have a presentation on that for the educational component of not just bored but also the Greater Community as I've said in the past I think the people view of what sometimes the stigma weighs over from having such a huge future for our region these students and what's being offered is just amazing and it's part of our Workforce Development opportunities and I think it would be good if we can look to have that on April agenda this presentation if the superintendent thinks that that would be appropriate set time for percolator point because everybody understanding about and Technical education and the value of a place with a community would be great that's my report for tonight thanks. I think Sam would be appreciative of that opportunity to so I'll work with Robin figure out what the career center thinks is is the best way to get that information out to the board I think you're right at the end orientation for new remembers us good idea all right Middle School Jacqueline Evans Schmidt's believe it or not I do not have anything to report I apologize I just did not get a chance to connect with the DEA for the meaning we'll have loads more next month just stay checked glasses they're going to 121 Chromebooks if you don't have one yet go get one talk to your guidance counselor about it bring it to school fully charged in your in-person learning days and lots and lots and lots of clubs and organizations is starting up at the middle school I know firsthand because I'm pretty sure my son sign up for all of them alright Jonathan Daniels mr. Roberts I have nothing tonight she keeps paper closer to me Franklin Peter you have anything for us all right go I have some communication from Eric and then Mister Malay also as a multimedia presentation so was able to get an email from Eric staff were very excited I think Eric also on this call so judge your way Erica how I'm presenting your school they're very clean to get the kids back in person last week I'm doing a great job getting back into see-through routines engaging with their learning and he also commended the families as well and that communication with families has been fantastic they plan a successful real opening day virtual assembly that included a national kindness week initiative as well as a School Bites song and they're looking forward to the weeks ahead and with that I will turn it over to the superintendent for a multimedia presentation just because put the teas are out there you know we'll share what they did for their students so that you have it at least a small taste of and I will leave that rest of that for your viewing pleasure will get that upon our soul media some of my favorite people on that screen thanks Peter Fuller call Marty and Joe first and foremost Katherine just thrilled to have the students back in the school at very excited about that and it's going well they did their couple things go from last month and this month I but through a grant they were able to get an outdoor Pavilion it's going to have electricity they're very excited to have that come in she's also looking at with some of the money that was not spent due to covid on some of the staff enrichment looking adding some more things like text Lisa Gardner said they can do some on-site field trip and some playground activities for older kids that are in the works at the fire department came recently to bring coats for the kids which created a lot of excitement and as god mentioned in facilities they didn't have an issue because of the new Air Exchange doutico did where they had some freezing of their pipes so they did the Kendall Lee and his crew to come in and fix all the flooding insulate the pipes bring a new flooring and so she wanted to give a big shout out to him for all that he does and that is all I have thank you and go Simon Smith Lancaster sorry I am mid hair do with his daddy mr. Kate is said he was very pleased to Welcome to the 217 by persons into the building as we're all the teachers at Simons and mr. Siegal the music teacher was able to through a program called little kids rock modern bands they were able to purchase V electric guitars one piece electric guitar and a drum set in the state of Maine more than matched on portions of the cran allowing them to get an additional two electric guitars and drum set and Stratego would welcome any additional contributions of electric guitars and if anyone has one lying around it's no longer used to have enough instruments to enable the whole class to play at the same time also recently added a book called the songs that we sing which is a compilation of 51 frequently sung songs by the students and illustrate play Simon students themselves and it's in the process of publication and I think every Simon student wind up getting on and I'm sure there will be more available for distribution or purchaser however they go about doing it but that's very exciting for us to see going all the shoes Simon's thanks Rebecca and Wheelock John that's an issue on my under yours are you getting him or is that on his end that mean I got anything from you John I just turned your video off to see if that helps I wasn't trying to do anything more than that can you try try again with your camera off anyone anyone that's better we lost you thank you so you wasn't able to connect with I know I'm just a moment I'll get that back up again if necessary I think we'll have you brought how you got chat set up as chat go directly to you so what's up John can chat directly to you and you can relate to us as needed yeah just a suggestion you switch your audio through your cell phone that's what I do and it's much more stable and then you're not sharing the same that's actually what I was doing. you so come back to you all if next for me and I'm going to I'm going to jump in on Inga because I actually attended the delegate assembly she was unable to go and I was able to to juggle and get in there at the last minute so I was our representative there there were no big surprises the votes on all the proposed resolutions went in the way that this aboard wanted this one is Keen to vote that's the way that everybody else voted as well it was hardly you know there's a lot of diversas voices across the sky and I do recommend obviously this was a weird year but it's a worthwhile thing to attend to see first of all have a large meeting like this is run when I came away with some notes separately from an hsba just about how to run our meetings obviously they have to be a little tighter on how they do things because it's a large room but the only semi-conscious reversal thing that came Fez to I guess one was you'll recall last year there was a resume to Advocate a return to local decision on whether guns are allowed in schools which we had been in favor of last year it was the first and it did pass last use delegate assembly the first time that any kind of gun control motion had passed into a resolution that the nhspa and I think it was specifically because it did not say to ban the guns it said to work with local law enforcement to decide what is most it for your own community and people were more able to get behind that so there was a proposal to eliminate that from the continuing resolution so that was some Lively debate on that but it did eventually the motion failed in the Evolution remains nhspa will continue to advocate for local decision-making regarding firearms in schools and the other interesting one was a proposal to for the nhspa to send Lashley for all districts as a continuing resolution to push to move teachers into Group 1 be similar to the motion that this district and they said that you had sent already and that ultimately ended up rather than it can Ewing resolution a directive to the nhspa to send a letter to the governor saying that the New Hampshire school board would like to see that happen in the reasoning for that is that hopefully it will not matter another year so it's not appropriate for that to be a continuing resolution of advocacy and that has already been done the nhspa has added their voice to the chorus asking for teachers to be moved ahead on the vaccination schedule weather continues to say nothing but thank you for the opportunity I have not done one in the in a number of years so it was and did you have anything else going out with hope are you happy I just wondered what we're bevers know you'll keep an eye out we block emails from nhspa and right now there's a lot going on in the legislation so they are giving updates and they're also I'm sharing opportunities if there are our bills are pending legislation that you would like to have him put on or provide feedback on how to do that so I would super do that to keep an eye on those and take part if it's something you feel that feel strongly about or against to to speak out the check voice that we had those two Charter School bills come through recently in in we have not talked about it as a board so I did not go and speak as a board member I did register my personal opinion on both of the education savings account bills and I was registered to speak last Tuesday but I was 600 people that they did not get you last Tuesday I don't think I'm going to be able to attend to this coming Thursday on the next round so I'm just going to send written testimony again but I'll second wedding instead an excellent resource that they will let you know what education bills are coming up and how you can register your own opinion they'll give you background and research on the bills without telling you specifically how you personally should feel about the more Advocate about them so it's a great regardless of your personal opinions to get yourself out there in and registered with our elected representative and Senator Jake on actually has a number of bills coming through the Senate soon use our support all in terms of improving the state funding methods and in some relief from the covid-19 cold-eeze all right SAU is text but Peter correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think anything's happened since the last meeting and we do have our next meeting is coming up and that'll be after our own next March meeting so not a lot happening on the SAU front these days there is now one of the Southwest Regional representatives to the New Hampshire school boards Association she was appointed at that delegate assembly as well congratulations. I'm sure it's not spending her. do you mean watching our meeting Communications committee are there any updates on that I'm suspecting that between budgeting and legislation and what is today's probably not going to be on either that or the special education committee that that an accurate guess on my part I got so maybe not specifically from the committee but you might have noticed through the social media channels we have been been putting out more reminders with regard to first session and will continue to do that as we get closer to the March 9th voting day so not necessarily directly a result of the communication midi but there certainly has been a concentrated effort on getting those Communications out there and another site to extend our thank you so I know she has to put back together she actually called me a couple times to to coordinate what it is that we were looking for in Communications updated us that we know she's been continuing with doing I'm the prettiest that we decided on and getting pretty deep on like inclusion and diversity and I think he is planning on coming to ex my team and we'll continue this discussion there earthquakes closing in on the end here alright old business covid-19 update Rob do you have anything to add other than what was in the superintendent's report add other than the last the update at toward the end of last week what you all received anyways and I will note it's been encouraging to see the numbers in the local area finally start coming down after the holiday yeah I will state I will state that out in Cheshire county this morning was the only County that was below 300 in terms of the per hundred thousand transmission rate coas County caught us today in there below 300 but they're not quite as low as we are we're still the lowest county in the state at this point in time which might not let seem like much because it is above that that 100 per hundred thousand threshold that tips us from yellow to red but it's very encouraging because the last time Cheshire county was the lowest County for transmission was on November 2nd so it kind of gives you an idea of how often and how frequently and how closely monitor this data and the information it's really not at will or will usually that in the trends are important it's good to see and I'll just encourage people to continue you know our best bet lacking the state resources and state guidance is just to continue at the local level to do everything we can keep wearing the masks maintaining the social distance keep up with the the personal hygiene Community I think has been very supportive of each other and that will be our best bet to keep our schools hybrid and and maybe even find some more opportunities for a student at end of fill out your screen you're honestly and if you have a symptom don't go to the building just please don't do it I'll add that today it was the first time in the last 40 days that are total amount of Active cases has been below 40 so call home very positive the Wastewater in the report I got last week on Wednesday the Wastewater levels of covadonga are have been subsiding which is reflective of what's happening with the actual positivity rates in the Active cases as well so you know all the good indicators heading in the right direction but clearly we're not out of the woods in North should we think that we are alright thanks Rob next on the agenda I suppose in the in the same optimistic vein is the 2021-2022 Keene School District calendar up for approval so before we open discussion can I have a motion to approve the 2021-2022 calendar as presented so II did it is in your dry rubs I think trying to bring it up on the screen as well and Rob if you wouldn't mind just giving a real quick snapshot of how how you and the schools put this calendar together and highlight what's important on here for us was a little disrupted from what we've been moving forward within the years passed in years past what we have done is we've started with a three-day week would students afford a week would students and then a 5-day we would students after we come out of the summer breaks that is expressed desire from our classroom teachers and helping with a transition from summer break getting back into the flow of regular schooling starting with a 345 day start to the what year was desirable this year we were disrupted without that process as a result of the pandemic and initially when the calendar committee got together we looked at two options we looked at an option which is the one that ended up making it to the board for approval where we start before Labor Day with that 345 days lead up and the other option that we looked at was starting after Labor Day the concern with starting after Labor Day would put us really further down to the end of June and folks weren't really enthusiastic about that it's hard enough for me I have to do that would make up days from from snow arms and whatnot and folks are just like not very enthusiastic about that I guess is what I would say so after after our first meeting the members of the calendar committee brought both sets back to their buildings had Russians amongst their staffs and then came back in the consensus was to move forward with a with a calendar that is here for your consideration are there questions or what's on the calendar for Rob how do you have not had any questions come in from the. We shared this with the board in the last month just so you're aware semi-public for at least a month now I know I've seen it being circulated out in the community as well even though it's in draft format so let's not keep any state secrets on Earth I'm used to this being controversial but I'm thinking the one person who used to make it controversial is not on the board anymore so I would know for questions on this then I guess we will do a roll call vote a yes vote is to the calendar as proposed in front of us mr. an's vanillin mr. Downing Miss Hansen yes Miss Hennings yes Mister Houston Miss Lancaster Roberts Starkey Lincare 690 thank you everybody and Rob you guys can go ahead and start working with that in publishing and whatnot thank you all right new business we have two items on here board retreat and reorganization meeting and I think I've actually kind of like to handle them at the same time because they both involve scheduling and they kind of both want to be scheduled at the same time so for those of you unfamiliar the reorganization meeting is actually written into our manual it's to be following the March elections the primary purpose is to elect board officers for the coming year and to have our first discussion on what committee chairs may be in that sort of thing it's function differently I think all six years that I've been on the board my first year on it was actually intended to be a very long meeting scheduled for two hours of the attorney at the time John Wrigley they're going over I think that they added a seminar on public right to know into that particular reorganization meeting and it's gone from that extreme all the way down to a five minute meeting wire to like the facilities meeting in which we elected board officer said thanks for coming and move the lawn I think as has been mentioned we are electing six seats on the board this year if you look closely at it it does not really mean that we're going to have six new members there is going to be some continuity but we do have a very young board in terms of institutional experience you know obviously Chris is over a decade and I have been finishing up my 60 year but after that everybody else on the board is in their first term at this time and we will have some first-timers on following so I would like to propose that we move the reorganization meeting back to not a two-hour meeting that was excessive but perhaps schedule an hour meeting and rather than just electing board officers we also spend some time going over board responsibilities what we had to dedicate an entire Retreat to last year I think if we put this information board responsibilities how committees function have work functions welding functions if we get that into the reorganization meeting perhaps we can avoid both extending our regular and committee meetings while we hashed out these issues and avoid dedicating another Retreat to it into that note that March is another one of those months with 5 Tuesdays and I'm wondering if we could perhaps schedule the reorganization meeting for the final Tuesday in March who should be I think it's the 30th you are correct sir ask a quick question George affect me in any way but it seems like in previous years we we had to do at least some time and meeting pretty quickly to electric chair so that you could or the chair who happened to be you at the time could put the Committees together for the rest of the month is that any concern of waiting for the end etymology of thinking of store robbed correct me if I'm wrong but if the board chair remains on through the elections do they remain chair until the next reorganization meeting Rob desert this is the way to get around that question because the election could not be certified until 10 days after the vote because people have a right to ask for a recount and so and we've done that in the past so if you want to spread it out you got to what's the weeks going by that room but the and that would take us through all of our committees to yep and we've done in the past we've done the reorg meeting prior do the like the day of the April full board meeting you know we've actually done it prior to this meeting in the April meeting so we've got a whole month in between what we can do separately from modeling the reorg as we can look at it next month and I'll come prepared I hadn't really come prepared with who's who's going to be gone and what committee says going to affect but obviously I'll still be here at the March meeting so I can if necessary appoint temporary members to committees make sure that the Committees are full over those two weeks the I would have to look into it let's see what it says because it could be a possibility that into we have our reorganization meeting Rob exactly fear no it's right there in Section 3 Rob going up on our screen okay East officer shall hold office until the next annual meeting for the organization of the board or until a successor is chosen in the event of a vacancy it still be filled by the board next regular meeting following notification to vacancy so okay thanks Rob yep we're good that answers directly and Justin and then the other part is that you are under no time constraint after election you know you can you can have that meeting anytime after it doesn't say within a week or two weeks but it's in her best interest to get it done quickly though yeah I think I think what you've laid out makes a lot of when's George and Eliza committees to continue with their business without disrupting everything it'll allow us at the central office to put something together in terms of an orientation for the newly elected numbers before we get to March 30th as well. Let's plan on that and then the board retreat again for the newer members is a is still a meeting it's not an on meeting unless we'd locate it to legal advice which we have done at least once in the past but it's a usually end on Tuesday meeting so that we completely avoid our committee meetings in full board meeting usually a couple hours long and the idea is to meet in a more informal setting to work through either a specific issue or several specific issues in the past we've used it to establish board goals we use it to we used one to work out just exactly how the board was going to move forward with start time changes its had all sorts of uses in the past so Robin we were talking about that and I forget I've talked about this individually with several if you recently as well traditionally we've had two of these a year and we're wondering if it's more appropriate to have them more frequently I think Rob suggested quarterly but then I'm thinking we don't actually meet much in the summer anyway so perhaps three times a year would be more appropriate but regardless we do normally have one between now and the end the year it would probably be appropriate to wait until after the elections on March 9th so that the new board members can weigh in as well but I want this on here so people can start thing about what format they're looking for we've had these we brought in facilitators to run them before we've had them run by the board chair with that the Run by the superintendent was all sorts of ways that would work these but if both could start thinking about what format there as well as what we need to talk about at that meeting Edwin will start soliciting those opinions either in writing bird in person at the next full board meeting alright any thoughts on either the Border treated the reorganization meeting at this time and if not we'll go ahead and move forward it's a great idea to wait until the new group of selected and I also love the idea of all I've never been into one having it more than than twice I think it'd be a huge value to the group all right. Well I think I know what she's going to say but yeah I know you would maybe I don't why don't you go ahead I was just going to say yes agreed to multiple I thought you were Spanish fit but having the gentleman from nhspa maybe not for an entire evening session as we did last time but just he did a good job at really touching upon you have legal ramifications what we do don't do stay don't say but I feel like you would also be great for us to have a little bit more collaboration Isabel and then what you are probably thinking I was going to suggest George that's what we discussed on Saturday just getting really housekeeping stuff right you know how we communicate with the public bylaws Robert's Rules any other new business George I'm feeling guilty that I didn't give Keene High School the love that I gave to the Franklin High School so can you just help me for a couple seconds just so the boy who hasn't seen this I just sorry thank you for indulging me I was feeling guilty that I didn't share the love with them as I did for Franklin and I think it's important that if you hadn't had the opportunity to see some of the outstanding things are buildings in our schools have been doing to connect with students even they're not necessarily connected. I think it's important that you are aware of it so thank you yeah I played that off of the email from the high school and then my 12 year old walk around the house singing it for the rest of the day so high school before we I know we have non-public tonight we must because there's an on public folder and I drive before I ask for a motion we need to recognize Peter Starkey as this may be his last meeting with us we did just to prove telecommunication so he could call in for the March meeting technology-dependent which is why I want to mention that tonight theater most of you know Peter this is his second go-round on the board we were very excited to bring him back he was very excited to come back but we're also very happy for the opportunity that he's got out in Oregon right now no beer if this does turn out to be your last full board meeting thank you for everything that you've done your connections to the education Community family and friends have been invaluable you've done some really important work with us Warrior 1 and 1/3 2 terms thanks George and hopefully we'll figure out how to get you tella called into the March meeting all right maybe we'll just get another snow storm all right. Can I have a motion to go into non public in accordance with RSA 91a staff-student both both I think have a second second Jacqueline Miss Hanson Miss headings yes mr. Houston Ms Lancaster mr. Roberts mr. Starkey Maybe the last time Mr Right no just for fun all right and you all have a end we are recording once again we're returning to the public portion of the Board of Education Board of Education meeting for February 9th 2021 Chris Roberts do a motion for us trying to figure out how to quit without saying it could you just put a Time on it I mean we're not going to take that long to figure out if we want to make a joint statement move that we embargo the minute concerning an agreement between the Mets and King Board of Education to provide bridgeside the opportunity to come up with joint statement second roll call vote please mr. Anderson Allen mr. Miss Hanson Miss headings yes Mister Houston yes please Lancaster mr. Roberts yes mr. Starkey how to write cherries 900 any further business before the board seeing none tonight's meeting is adjourned thank you everybody got 2 hours and 10

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