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Keene Board of Education Deliberative Session for Saturday, February 5 2022

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Keene Board of Education Deliberative Session for Saturday, February 5, 2022 – 8:15AM Keene High School Auditorium 43 Arch Street, Keene, NH Transcription available upon request.

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so Tim yeah why don't why don't you I'll call the meeting to order and then I'll have appointed you to do that okay hello everybody would like to call the meeting to order my name is Kathleen O'Donnell I'm the district moderator and before we started Timber who's the business manager will be addressing safety hi everyone this is just a customary announcement and it's it's important when you need it so if there is an emergency and alarm please make your way orderly to the exits there's an 1 2 3 and 1/2 and the door you came in and then take a right and headed straight out of the building hopefully we won't need that but thanks everyone for coming give it back to you okay thanks Tim I welcome you all for the first session of the King School District sessions thanks to Alex Trombley of AMT productions for videoing this meeting today and for all the string Floyds and school board members who prepared for this event please do silence your cell phones at this time school district for sessions represent direct democracy in every registered voter dependence at this meeting may vote on the articles of the warrants the moderator will use the following general rules of procedure for the meeting the moderator will take the articles in the order that they appear in the warrant unless the moderator announced his being sent to take them out of order the moderator will not accept negative emotions which are emotions that require no vote such as I move that we adopt the budget every time of voter wishes to address a warrant article the voters shall approach the microphone and their two microphones here and when recognized State their full name and address before speaking the speaker will address their questions or comments to the moderator the moderator who respond to the question voters who experienced difficulty moving to the microphone will be provided a portable microphone all speakers must be courteous and must speak only to the issues all speakers message rest is statements and questions to the moderator and walk towards other elected officials or other attendees of the session personal attacks or inappropriate language will not be allowed non-voters shall we be permitted to speak if they are non-resident Town officials Consultants experts and attending to provide information about an article the moderator respectfully request that the initial presentation of an article be limited to 10 minutes and it all speakers in the debate are limited to three minutes of owner is entitled to speak a second or third time on the in question provided all voters who wish to speak and spoken if a paper ballot is requested five registered voters who a present may make a request in writing prior to a Voice vote that the vote may be made by secret ballot if that's the if they would communicate that to one of the attendees who is helping here motions to call the question limit debate require a two-thirds vote to pass to call the question voter speaking must be done at the microphone if past the bait on a motion ends in about is taken however all the voters were standing in line at the microphone or holding a microphone and or have made the moderator where their desire to speak will be allowed to speak motions to is there an article may be made immediately after the vote on an article and they may be made only by a voter who voted with the prevailing side of the article to be reconsidered and after after reading after Eddie Warren article has been adopted to be put onto the ballot in March they could be a motion to prevent reconsideration of the article so with that said we will start and first person to speak will be Chris Roberts who will be speaking to Article 1 good morning thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all show me little technical difficulty was a little technical difficulty move article one the main budget out of article show the district race inappropriate is an operating budget not to include appropriation by special one articles and other appropriation voting separately the amount set forth on the budget posted with the war or as amended by the voter the Teresa for the purpose set forth during totaling 71055903 dollars show this article be defeated the operation budget Shelby 70 million $312,702 which is the same as last year with certain adjustments required by previous action of the district will by law or by the government or the government body May hold one special meeting in Carthage with our essay for Tikal and 13 x and XVI to take up the issue of the revised operation budget only note this is population does not include Appropriations and Article 2 and 3 S Beyond King school board and the the king District would really hard on his budget I know you hear the same thing that we worked hard on the budget every year but we actually do because we want to get draw a fine. between the quality of Education the best quality education that we can provide us students and while taking in fact the the amount of money that Community can afford to achieve that that is always hard work for the school board and the district leadership the King School Board hired recommends bad devotees of teen support this project anybody who would like to speak to the warrant article please approach the microphone amendments no question just move nobody wants to speak to the warrant article am I allowed to do that if you can speak you can speak to something that involves the warrant article okay my name is Marie Duggan 330 Hurricane Road in Keene I am concerned. teachers are quitting and I wonder if we shouldn't give them a raise and I can see that there wouldn't be too much raised in that and I'm sure you guys have discussed this before and I do want to follow your advice but I wonder if you could speak to that issue thank you thank you pretty we have collected Bodrum agreements with the team teachers union and I'll be coming up with the new contract negotiations on next year it's extremely important that on both sides follow all collective bargaining agreements so I didn't really feel like that answered my question so everybody know the teachers are quitting and one that you know it might not because of pay but certainly no Teachers Pay is kind of low and I'm so I'm not asking what the union thinks I'm just asking if you all had a discussion when you decided that this was the appropriate you know I understand you're trying to balance the concerns of the taxpayers as well as the staff but I just wondered what your feelings were about that and why a small it's basically the same as last year so you must have decided that a raise may not be that important I don't know but I would just like to know your thoughts what your thought process was the voters approved that they could you tell me the amount that's going to be an increase in salary as a result of the improved contract I think we had some concert I could probably take me about two minutes to look that up but I do want to point out as part of that question is that there are raises within this and I'll look up what the exact percent are for example salary and benefits make up the significant increase in this budget and heart is so if you look in your pocket you have the same hand out and you'll the increases throughout the cost centers for example if you look at Wheelock you'll see it's up 5.5% in that there is no change in Staffing model that's all salary and benefit increases and then you'll see reductions in general special education that's that's a reduction in out of District placement so although the budget doesn't look up a lot the increases are in there and I'll look up the exact percentage I just you threw a couple files to find it from last year so there are salary and benefit increases in here in accordance with the contract and I think Chris was talking about negotiated agreement and it made it sound like sidestepping York question but it really wasn't because all whether their increases bonuses all that has to be negotiated as part of a package you can't just offer it so there's not a digital money beyond what the contract calls for but there are significant raises with best budget that helps I'm a Christian Tim said are the the technically correct answers I think to get at the heart of what you're asking not to go into too much detail about how we build the budget but we did have two four or five hours sessions on Saturdays in January when we had all of the administrators in in the board spent that time questioning the Ghost Riders on the contents of the budget the justification for what was happening and a good chunk of that time was spent discussing what Marie just asked us we asked every building administrator as well as several of the central office administrators if enough has been built into this budget to address not just the staff morale but the overall morale in the district to address the social issues that were facing across all of our schools and you'll see if you if you dig into the budget that we have added some counselor position at the high school some more bodies in various locations across the district now I think what Chris and Tim was saying is correct it's hard to just randomly throw money we are appreciative that this year is going to be a contract negotiation year and a lot of these issues will come up at the table and and will need some serious consideration there as well but we really asked to make sure that there is support in this budget for exactly what Maria talking about now we recognize the challenges in the building so we know it's hard this year we know teaching is always hard we know it's a lot harder this year than it ever has been in the past and we did want to make sure that that was covered and Jacqueline just passed me a note to remind me that we did all so add that the final one of those sessions we added money to the professional development line specifically to Target the staff needs and wellness in morale and making sure that that was going to be addressed in this coming year thank you anybody else would like to speak a j Khan 135 darling Road in Keene and I'm not going to be able to be here throughout this probably what I'm about to say is that it's a wrap up kind of thing but I want to say to the school board to our teacher administrators in this District of hearty thank you for what you're doing for our kids in this community and in the surrounding towns this is not an deer and following a couple of other not too easy years because of all the chaos that we've been experiencing both with a pandemic and then with changing laws is that there are you have to face in adopt within your school's I'm just very grateful that there is a dedicated school board that we've got dedicated administrators and teachers in this said District I totally agree with anything that we can do to continue to support teachers to retain them because we all know the struggles that you're facing with substitutes and vacancies and the extra load that the existing teachers have to pick up trash when there are vacancies and substitutes as a part of the regular teaching staff so just to offer a thank you and a great appreciation for all that you're doing thank you thank you any other anyone else would like to address Mister Roberts question that the original speaker asked yes the benefits salary and benefits went up on 50 1% and the average raise this year was 2.5% may I see every time you speak if you could just do you say your name again please Marie Duggan 330 Hurricane Road in New Hampshire so the 2.5% salary increase so I teach economics and the rate of inflation this year was 6% so that's actually a three and a half percent pay cut that is if your salary goes up by 2.5% but the cost of living goes up by 6 or 7% then it's actually pay cut and you know I'm not trying to stack with all here I'm just concerned because some of my daughters favorite teachers are quitting and you know why I just don't want that to happen and I don't think it's just about salary but I I think that these teachers probably need a real 5% increase and if inflation is 7% that probably means they need a 12% increase because they don't seem to I think that the standard of living they're offered from being a teacher is something they can you know they're deciding they should just switch to other jobs and you know I'm a text or two I don't love paying taxes but I moved to Keene because of the quality of schools and anyway I don't think I understand we have to vote today yes or no but I thought we should just discuss that for a minute and I also you know what the end of the day I think I'm going to do what the school board recommends because I know you've put a lot of Intuit thank you thank you Ricky Martinez Bohannon 74 deal Drive I do the back up with Marie was saying that I understand that the bargaining agreements going to get coming up and I understand what the issues are but I too and very concerned about the fact that especially right now at the house cool just in the last two weeks we lost three teachers and we had too many openings before that and we eat we don't have student email who have IEPs they don't have tutors our teachers are stretched to the max many of my friends are teachers in this building and many are discussing leaving educational together and I know that's happening every time I post something people are like that's happening everywhere please but this is about our kids and this is about future and it really saddens me because I love this building I love this town I am a proud alumni hi but I tell you right now I can't wait till my kid gets out of here as far as other things that you can attest I have suggested many times to all of you there are supports that you can adjust right now we have nurse that is a vacancy at in this building and the nurse that is filling his hired at other buildings is here our nurses have a lot on their plates with covid-19 in Memphis isshin to help them with the admin qualities of covid many things that you could do with that are outside of the box that admin might not necessarily agree with but our teachers our staff our support staff and on Earth need help thank you I'd like to suggest that this is purpose of today is to is to discuss the actual warrant articles if people want to make amendments given the given the restrictions by that are in effect because of collective bargaining agreements so if anybody would like to speak further to article one please come forward now given that nobody is coming forward to speak I think that it's appropriate to about to move the article all in favor of accepting article one as is stated in the paperwork has been presented by mr. Roberts please say I so it moves on to the March warrants knowing about your Article 2 like to move to restrict reconsideration of Article 1 unsupportive respecting reconsideration of Article 1 okay so the Reconstruction of Article 1 is now over and it's restricted so going on to article to now move article to the appropriation to the maintenance Reserve fund so the district race inappropriate the sum up to $450,000 to be added to the school building maintenance fund for the purpose of repair and maintain the school buildings within the district as established by the voters at the 2010 annual meeting this some Wilco from the June 30th 2020 unexpended fund balance of 2021 2022 Appropriations available for transfer on July 1st 2022 and will not be real taxation in 2020 to 2023 note the school board recommends the yes vote on this question the majority vote required s the what would you like to do is a lot like what the city does if we have a large surpluses take part of that Surplus and put it in the school building maintenance fun especially especially if something unexpectedly happened a couple years ago for example the boys boiler in the Heights went out and cost has in excess of $700,000 to the repair and that money came out of the maintenance Reserve fund otherwise that could have caused some problems and we may have had to cut from the regular operation budget we would like to be able to always have that capital reserve if something happens thank you anybody would anybody like to address Article 2 does emotion go ahead please thank you thanks Kathy I'm good morning Jill Murphy 287 Roxbury street thank you to everybody board and administration and teachers just have a quick question is there any reason some of these funds and I understand we have building issues to deal with but some of these funds could be used as a retention bonus for teachers strawberry juice we are restricted by the used to these funds that the with the taxpayers approved in 2010 it pacifically stating what these funds were to be used if we can't use them for maintenance tend to get returned back to the taxpayers are they staying the fun okay thank you thank you Marie Duggan 330 Hurricane Road so my daughter brings home some stories from Keene high that there are buckets Hall's to collect rainwater and there was a day last year where the electricity went out and the principal had this really smart idea which was that all the students should turn on their cell phones and they thought that the flashlight in the cell phone which was kind of exciting and work and there is this issue with covid that we should improve the airflow in the classroom and then there was also a time when the school was closed because there was some electrical problem which had to do with the flood in the basement so I'm kind of surprised that we have this find and I wonder is a good moment to ask you what the plans are 14 high or am I not supposed to do that okay thank you is Robert's the some of the issues that you just talked about with one of the reasons we have the the maintenance fund and use some of those issues Keene high is is an old building the last upgrade was in the year 2000 with out getting into a lot of deep stuff William part of it with been quite a bit of money on upgrading and repairing things pretty close with over six million dollars working on a school building should take care of a number of these projects that are already been approved food in the budget we're also going to use some of that Surplus we have this year to take care of a number of maintenance issues we felt that it was better use of that right now. structural inflation going 10 to 15% but a lot of the issues that you were talking about at the high school and some of the other schools can do Lee and Tim are on top of that all the time and when you got the number just a b c it's all right I mean those are I have a kid at the high school too so I know the issues are like when they get home those are all really good issues and we were not we did not have to go into the school board in facilities committee did not have to go into this fun to fix the repairs you specifically mentioned we did have a flood in the basement that cause an electrical outage that was pretty significant we were able to secure from the finance committee and School Board the facilities committee $50,000 to replace all the switching and gearing down there and with upgrading the Energy Efficiency of that equipment so that's going forward this year in this year's budget the roof leaks were significant we have vandalism where someone punched numerous holes in our roof with some kind of I don't know what it was something long and sharp and it would took a long time to find all those holes some of them are under walk and that was the significant problem so we would have a leak put out the drip send up and try to chase where that leak came from and find another hole I mean I'm talking dozens of holes so that was that miss you so it was it took a long time to find all those holes so that was you know and we do have significant challenges money and board support have not been the issue this I've been doing this 21 years and this board is is focused on safe facilities is is anyone your issue on HVAC we have spent we will have spent 1.75 million on Keno will hbac this year to ensure safe filtered air throughout the building and we've and ain't that include controls and heating if you've been in the parking lot picking up your kids you probably seen our contractors here till about 9 night and that's been going on since September so we have resources and energy going towards that it is very difficult to get contractors to get materials that's all a problem but I've never seen a push from a school board to address those issues that you mentioned as strongly as they have all year and I just want to bring that out we we will be spending something like 3.5 million in projects to address things like covid HVAC and Roofing just this year and it continues next year so I'm really trying to get on top of it. I just wanted to to point Tim and Chris are throwing around some really big numbers they're not all of that is coming out of this budget in front of you or from last year's budget a significant force in came from the grants over the last two years and then for the here and a half going forward from the federal government to cover the pandemic relief I particularly Tim and Julie at the facilities were able to get a lot of the AC repairs and upgrades covered in that manner and actually that well with the labor shortage aside really moved the district a long way forward in the in the long-term plan for a in the buildings and proving the air quality here we also got insurance money for the flood that Marie mentioned that Tim mentioned some of this has come from other Revenue sources as well with Ryan and support Tim's Department Kansas Department in any way that we can within reason but they have been very proactive about finding other sources as well thank you and anybody else like to speak to Warrant Article 2 there be no one else would like to have vote on moving article to onto the March ballot as written all in support so that goes on ballot in March article 3 like to move to restrict reconsideration of Article 2 s all supportive movies restrict the article Arthur 2 is now rented from being reconsidered article 3 Move article 3 appropriation to special education Reserve fund shall the district Grace and appropriate the sum up to 150,000. to be added to the special education trust fund for the purpose of addressing unanticipated freshly cost as may arise in the course of the fiscal year is established by the voters of the 2015 annual meeting this some will come from the June 30th 2022 unexpended fund balance of 2021 2022 Appropriations available for transfer on July 1st 22 and will not be raised by taxation in 2020 to 2023 note the school board recommends a yes vote upon this question second this one we've been doing the school district has been doing the really good over the past couple years and reducing our special education course the goal is to keep as many years are students in reggae session as possible and of course based on needs of each child that is not a practical and not in the benefit of the overall quality of life and education for the trial if people know any out-of-district placements can be quiet it's tenses expensive and we have no idea if someone is going to require our district replacement placement so what we do is we tried to increase this fun so in case anything happens we can we can move quickly and take care of the needs of the child and the the special education funding right now $206,715 and if people look at last year this is a reduction from last year because the special ed department has been doing which Mendes job with the young children I mean now okay where is reduction from they plan to with the goal to get to a million dollars thank you Missy Martinez will hand and 74 Dale Drive I can see when I go 3 do these fun if there is money left over will be happen first before any other fun balance transfers or after VR I know that I'm at the end of the year you're like we had money left over and we were able to do this this mess I was wondering if beat the money goes into the accounts before that happens or dealt this is what what you take a microphone Missy that's a good question so miss these questions essentially at the end of the year let's say we had $500,000 and we need it for the board spend it and then it doesn't go in here and yes they could but that will not happen because we are planning on if you look at our Revenue page in your hand out we're planning on it about a 4.6 million dollar Surplus to return to redo taxes right so if they're going to be funded the board's not going to spend close to best amount what was he first has this wood bees are funded after you close the books there's no spending if there's leftover it would fund article to First in our country and then go back to redo taxes and he has anyone else want to comment so I have a question about article 3 there be none will vote to move article 3 the March ballot all in support so I supposed article 3 will be on the March ballot Article 4 article 34 move to close reconsideration article 3 all in favor of restricting reconsideration of article 3 say I are the four move article for the author author eyes District to purchase Hawaiian shell the district or authorized the Board of Education raise and appropriate 3 and 4 the same oh yeah look at that article for sale the district authorized Board of Education to Lisa purchase land or land and building for school purposes as such land to land and building may be adjacent to any school building within the district and for Jason to streets with motorcycles building within the district to take that handout just just state your name address please to 42 Beaver Street thank you I noticed the warrant is incorrect in the duplicates article 3 and does not have Article 4 in there therefore there is an argument to be made this is not been properly warned for being addressed at this meeting I would ask District Council or Council how we should handle this thank you Adam caserta a district council thanks Ted that the language in the article was inaccurate I'm just thumbing through the statute here just determine whether there was a notice requirement prior to this there is a requirement that we post a warrant ahead of time and I and I'm only looking at the one that's in my hand I'm wondering what was posted exactly I got to got to talk offline to these guys is there any objection here to that from anybody video how to take down mr. parents notice under we really don't need this article into to make sure we don't have any confusion or legal problems I ready I would request that we dropped this move to strike it I would move to strike this one s I thought you was going to strike article for from a from the as a proposed warrant so I guess I know. play the most and I'll speak to it because we've the three of us were just sitting here all saying the same thing anyway what articles for normally does is if a property adjacent to school district property comes up it allows Administration to go forward to negotiate and sign a purchase agreement because obviously the real estate market moves faster than a school board moves that has not in the 12 years that I've been coming to these and paying attention of these is not been utilized by the district we we don't really have any desire to purchase it this time we don't have any interest in any lands even if some came up so I think I would suspect that the board all of this is not a board meeting this is a this is your meeting I would I would think that the whole board would be in agreement that this is not needed and probably saves us some potential legal trouble down the road I would urge you to vote in favor of moving deleting this Ward article not acting on it because I think it can cause huge legal problems in the event that the board doesn't want to purchase land they can always call it a special emergency meeting I believe I was on the board long enough for Wii did actually use it but that was a long time before you sir but there are workarounds and I would just implore the district officials to make sure this doesn't happen again because improper notice Ward article can cause real problems thank you thank you just as a clarifying question the original motion was to adopt the article then there was a subsequent motion to strike it if we go back to the original motion and we do not vote in favor of that that has the same same thing back to perfect as the second motion so therefore Back In Motion may not be necessary do you care if which way it goes yeah yeah yeah I think you can you can withdraw the first motion as well withdraw the first or the second he makes no difference. have two hundred Waters the first motion I will make the motion to withdraw the first motion that was that was my second so I'll agree to the motion to withdraw approving Article 4 unsupportive historian article for the eye roast okay okay and then I appreciate it tourney parents comments about future considerations of warrants being written in a motion to duration cuz I said no there's no is always it's an awful lot of work it's not very well accompany why did they take a lot of grief from everyone in the community no matter what they do and they deserve our appreciation and with that I move to adjourn post thank you thank you everyone in the in the in the March election is on March 8th from 7:30 till 7 p.m. at the rec center

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Keene Board of Education Deliberative Session for Saturday, February 5 2022

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