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Keene Board of Education Meeting for April 9, 2024

Added Apr 17, 2024 •

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Keene Board of Education Meeting for April 9, 2024 LGIA, 43 Arch Street, Keene, NH at 6:30PM Transcription available upon request.

Show Transcript

a good evening and welcome to the Keene Board of Education regular meeting for 2 April 9th please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance the Republic for which it stands under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we will open tonight's meeting with public input do we have your only fault you have any input or are you here to listen okay thank you both look into it will be open for half an hour or so roughly 705 well actually will probably close it when we open the public hearing somebody does come in the next half-hour they're welcome to contribute as well people watching online you're welcome to submit public input via email that can be emailed to Shane up healthy as  key at sa u29. Org at our central office can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda or comments Jacqueline the non-public minutes from the March racist meeting page to Rowleys last name was misspelled I'm used to it any other comments concern the consent agenda all those in favor you post carries 90 technically our next order is recessed for the public hearing but we can't do that until 7 because that's what time it is published for so we'll continue this time of the regular meeting when we get 27 will pause for the public hearing so next up is the report of the board chair which is me believe it or not this is our first meeting after the March elections I know if you're on the board you've been to at least two board meetings and several other meetings since then so it doesn't feel like it but this is our first meeting of our new board the board for 2324 we did mention last month that Ron Wright was not coming back because he didn't run Scott and spin Allen is also not going to be back with us this year so I just like to take this opportunity to thank him for all he was with us for the terms 6 years is driving Focus was the career center and helping to revitalize that program I think we're starting to see the dividends from that now so Scott if you are watching you're probably not because I'm sure you have better things to do now that you're Tuesdays are free but if you hear about this thank you very much for what you did for us for the last six years also congratulations to Wayne Wooldridge and Dillinger Mata who have joined us this year and this is their first regular meeting of the board so congratulations and welcome and I thank you very much to the community a city of Keene you passed all of the contracts that we had out this year which we greatly appreciate showing support for our Educators for our staff continuing to provide the Personnel that we need to support our students as well as passing our budget by a wide margin and we really appreciate the support from the community we do have some changes to committees I'm not going to read through them but they will show up on the website for anyone interested I think the board members all know those already what doesn't show up on the website we're going to appoint Jacqueline headings as our Larry and Chris Roberts will continue as parliamentarian this year and the big subcommittee is our area what are we calling this thing we view review review revisit okay so that our area contract that's the 20-year agreement with most of the schools that are most of the school districts in students here and those constitute one two three different 20-year contracts and those are all up for review and renewal this year our committee for that will be Jacqueline headings Jennifer Friedman and Raleigh ormerod and we have had some talks in our board meetings for the three of you over the last six months or so I think what we've settled on as far as Keen as concerned were pretty comfortable with the existing Arrangements except that we're hoping to put some stricter timelines on payments from other districts on the tuition payments as well as look into if the tuition can be structured in such a way that we can switch 2 hours if our schools Dee in that the best way to educate our students as a refresher since I don't know that most of you were when we last talked about this the high school actually brought forward a proposal for switching from instructional days to instructional ours because we have that choice under state law The Proposal that they believe was going to benefit student education rather than just going into place for the adults and we looked at that for about 1 month Tim Roar went off and looked at it and came back and said that under the existing area contracts the way that listen is assessed if we switched to an hourly model any snow day would cost the King School District roughly $100,000 so that pretty much ended that conversation right there so we're hoping that as we review the area contract this time we'll be able to find a tuition Arrangement that allows us to move to whatever we deem is best for the students so that it becomes a student-centered decision rather than this is strictly monetary to see and Tim is aware of this already Mr Hope just spoke to the board about this but I do want to remind you that you have all been invited to attend the studies Presentation tomorrow here at the high school featuring they're bringing in veterans to talk about the Vietnam War they did invite all board members administrators to come to that there's other things going on after that you can check your emails for for the full details I know we've got a number of people going to the actual assembly a smaller number going to the lunch down in the Cheshire room afterwards out of anyone's able to stay Beyond and finally reminder please keep track of what committee and regular meetings are supposed to be at and let us know if you can't be that one of them we really need to denying that especially at the committee level to make sure that we have a quorum at each meeting because there's not really much more painful especially for our administrators to show up and discover that we don't have a quorum and can't run our meeting yeah probably to go to you and me and Panda Shana or full board would come to your best bet is to notify me in Raleigh and Shayna for the committee level you should be notified your committee chair and the administrative liaison for that committee because that'll be all smelly it's after the committee chair to determine if they have a quorum and what to do if they don't do you notify me about a committee which do in Alaska is scenario but what happens if I just contacted committee chair anyway so you can save a step and go straight to them thanks really I was actually a good question that's all I have for the chairs report oh I lie I do I actually have a bullet point under the chairs report we have it's time to kick off the exceptional teachers award process for this year so I believe Central Santa Paula Chianti Hornback or putting together something to go out over Facebook and email to let people know that this is started this is an annual award that's presented by the board but the nominees are no the nominees Fiesta nominees come from the community and a one was some kind of connection to the school students parents other teachers staff board members can nominate if you so wish but it effectively doesn't come from you as a board member comes from you as a parent or Community member and then we will have after we have all of those nominations will have a committee to look at that usually a couple of board members and our two assistant superintendent this is what makes up that committee and determined some we give what 99 right now you're 10 and on the website and you can take a look at those board members if you're interested in doing that this year shoot me an email we will figure out who's interested in and sign a couple people to that I'll send an invite to that if I don't get emails really can someone nominate either one person or is it just nominate nominate as many as you want my kids took advantage of that when they were still in elementary school right now I'm done and leave the next up is going to be the report of the superintendent mr. Malay so I think the first order of business is to say congratulations I heard some pretty wonderful news from our to our student rap but if you want to share that I'll let you share that Thunder or just some really wonderful accomplishments on your Pursuit Beyond high school so congratulations to you on that front in case you haven't heard doctor lease Arco director here at the high school was named the New Hampshire choral director of the year he was recognized last week on Friday at a ceremony that was built into a conference over in Concord up was able to get over there with dr. liquor in Joe Conti the band director we were able to sneak in while doctor Lis was listening to the conversation he didn't see us behind them and they announced him and he went up and he saw down and he was looking at his colleagues who were there for the conference and then he looked at the back of the room and eat you was pleasantly surprised to see some support there for me as you receive that award so that was wonderful to see and he's a outstanding educator who does a tremendous amount of good things for our students and our programs here superintendent report is there so if you have specific questions as it relates to that I'm happy to answer it there are three specific updates that I do I give to the board of the first relating to the Strategic plan we are now in the draft form of the Strategic plan strategies in the action steps that will be presented in a public webinar on Ogden April 18th at 5 p.m. that information went out over the course of the weekend and a save-the-date through our mass email feature of our website so that folks are aware that will be taking place on April 18th we're going to record that session to so folks are unable to watch it you know will provide a recording and put it up they'll be a feedback Channel based on the draft that will be open for a very short window it'll only be open till April 22nd and then we've got to make any revisions as we prepare it for the May board meetings for boards to consider adoption so April 18th will be that opportunity you have had strong representation from the Keene School District on the steering committee at all throughout the entire process from students to parents to community the board members to the teachers to administrators there an incredible representation for the King School District on that many of the public forums were held here in Keene out of the nine I think five were held in key maybe 6:12 sorry couple work virtual so I can even though I was sitting in Keene it wasn't really held in Keene so I get that too so very excited to get to that point it at 1 it'll be nice for the next five years and then put all of our member districts from sau29 all seven member districts moving in the similar maybe not identical but at least a similar Direction so that as they students matriculate through the education system in there the high school they'll be coming in you know with the same ambition speaking the same language looking to for the same outcomes you know that's really what the whole purpose of this was in so I think we're right on the cusp of being all the percent that to each of the boards in May for their consideration there'll be an interim step between April 18th and the time it goes to boards the SAU advisory which comprises of the seven board chair our meeting on May 1st and although their meeting is intended for one specific purpose we're going to try to run the trailer on that that meeting to make sure that there is that final communication piece the board chairs as it goes to board for approval and adoption in May pause are in case there are any questions good burner. A couple weeks ago we we add a review of a couple different vendors who are providing communication Solutions including websites two-way communication for staff an app that will put out push notifications intranet looking to folks who were on that that review who might want to speak to some of the other features that I'm not thinking about basically it's taking what we have now improving what we have an upgrade we have moving forward so it started with a small task force to identify three different vendors and and truthfully I selected two of them because I knew of them in as that task force view the three that we were looking at the advance to that went out to a broader communication the two that were selected who did presentations one was completely separate from the other in terms of their present presentation what their abilities are what they can do what they offer what is ready to go now the other one was still an upgrade over where we are currently but not where the one that we have selected a vendor that we selected is called final site we signed a contract last week and will begin the process of changing over over the next couple of months so nothing's going to change the lake tomorrow it will take us time we've got to go in and clean up some stuff and then train people so that they'll be able to manage the sites for the different buildings throughout the SAU so they'll have a little bit more autonomy in a little bit more control to make sure what's up there is what they want and terms of photos and things like that it will absolutely be some non-negotiable things that need to be up there like calendars and addresses and contact information but it'll give them a little bit more freedom to kind of make it theirs so excited about that and I don't know maybe you've heard there's a proposed revision of our read 306 rules did 306 rules are the minimum standards for public approval Public School approval last spring we brought the folks in who were tasked with creating a proposal on what revisions need to be made we brought them in to deliver those proposed changes in person when they came the presentation wasn't very well received we gave them feedback you know that I sent in a written document to the chair of that task for first to the chair of the State Board into the commissioner of Education last June voicing the concerns from the folks who listen to the presentation voicing the concerns from the community members who weighed in I do believe that as a result of that when they went on additional listings listening sessions they were a lot more intentional and deliberate about getting feedback in and actually keeping note of that feedback because of the proposal from spring of 2023 to what they submitted to the Department of Education in January of 2024 reflected a lot of our concerns being changed that was good submitted from the Department to the state board was not what was turned into the department now I'm not going to say whether that was good or bad you've seen my testimony I have reservations I have concerns and I have suspicions but I don't want to influence anyone as to what you should think about it there are our concerns we're sections entire sections of the Ed 306 rules have been deleted submission that went to the State Board of Education so I decided I would submit written testimony I went out to our community I got some input I put together my written testimony I shared it with all of you you all have that all of our Para Avatar students are teachers everybody has the written testimony it wasn't a secret and it's not meant to be I put it on the website so it's not a secret it is a concern for me and I heard from Oaks 91% of our folks do not support what was turned into the State Board of Education and that was 339 people who responded that's a lot that's a lot of people and I'll be quite honest of the 9% who said they did support it I'm not sure that they understood what they were answering to and I say that because the email came from me and a lot of folks are really strong quarters and gives a lot of support to me and sometimes I think that when I'm asking them to answer yes or no I want it yes so you know I've talked to some of the folks who did answer no because we asked for data in terms of name and address and some of them are like that's not what I thought this was I don't support that I like well I had to report what I had to report and I get it so 91% is a lot but it's probably closer to 90 7 or 98% I did go down to Concord last week on Wednesday April 3rd to provide verbal testimony to get 3 minutes I took up to 26 seconds so I didn't go over my time and I made my position clear and known to the state boards to the commissioner and whoever who ever cared to listen there is a follow-up meeting on the second half of these rules this week on Thursday at 1 p.m. I don't know that I have anything new to say but I'd my will say that on the second half of the rules at their listening to testimony we've had a number of Educators not here but around the state as well who have been digging into those changes that were turned in throughout the entire month of March and they have very specific feedback and recommendations that will be sent it on Thursday over the weekend I sent an email out again to all of you to our parents to our students to our staff saying look the second half is coming up on Thursday if you have cancer whether you support or you don't support the changes you should weigh in you have until April 30th of this month to submit written testimony the email that went out over the weekend had contact emails where you should send that whether you support it or you don't know if you've got concerns you should weigh in when I testified last week I spoke to the board and I said this is the single mode important thing you will do during your time on the State Board of Education because it will impact not just 160,000 public school students that are enrolled today but it will also in future public education students as well as all of our families in all of our staff so it's hugely important that they get it right this is not a playground for any party affiliation agendas this is our kids their future and all of our futures that were talking about and so it's hugely important that they get it right so sorry I was trying to all the time slot up to get us 27 for a public hearing George asked me if I could extend my report a little bit but if you have any questions as it relates to my report I'm more than happy to answer that now or if you think of one later by all means feel free to reach out call me send me an email I'll answer that no problems I did no such thing but I don't have Jack to you spending that much time ahead 30 secs and in fact I'm going to add to it Rob was trying to be oolitic because he does represent seven School District 11 schools 10 schools represents a lot of people and answers to a lot of people I answer to Keane and Keane has been very clear about what they think about supporting public education if you have an opportunity to weigh in on these rules as currently constituted their MO play horrible they represent a complete undermining of the public education system in New Hampshire it is an attempt to get some things done that some lobbyists have been unable do through the legislature because there's been so much public opposition to it this is an attempt to bypass that some of these rules represent legislation they are actually written in opposition to current legislation which ever but I suppose that our laws are supposed to be written by our legislators not by the the board of education at the state level they are only supposed to interpret so even if you like what's being is a proposal you should be opposed to it just on those grounds there are all sorts of summaries you've seen some from Rob you as board members have access to the New Hampshire School Board Association summary of changes it's it's pretty drastic so I do encourage if you have the opportunity to at least submits a written testimony you do have the rest of this month to put together I have been told by state legislators that I'm just checking the I'm opposed favor of box doesn't do a whole lot but particularly for board members if you're coming or for our Educators if you're coming from a position of experience and are willing to give written testimony that's somewhat fact-based that does sometimes people's opinions so please check out the reviews of this and then weigh in if it's possible for you any more positive thought I was one of the people on the review of the two finalists for the websites and you guys have been here for a while know that I've been complaining about this almost as long as I've been on the board and I'm really really excited because the vendor that was chosen talked about a lot of the things that I've had concerns about one of the first things they talked about was so when you your website know what people looking for the common things that they want to see you should be no more than three or four Clicks in and if you tried to navigate our current website you know that that's not the case and then as a parent I'm excited that it's not going to involve downloading three different apps to track the stuff on your mobile device is going to be one app and there's a ton of other things that they're doing that it's really for you today thank you rob that was a lot any other comments or questions for mr. Malay all right it is 6:58 so what we're going to do is recess now and we will convene the public Hearing in 2 minutes good evening again I got relocated for this I'm going to open the public hearing of the Keene Board of Education purpose of tonight's public hearing is to hear a proposal for withdrawing some funds from the building and Facilities Expendable trust fund we're doing this because one of the proposals in the original budget this year was for renovations to the main hallway bathroom here at the high school with the goal of bringing it more in line with current practices should reduce vandalism in the area I'm going to get some of the details wrong so I'm not going to go into deeply but it's actually it's a pretty exciting project it's on the board fully supported but for budgetary reasons we did ultimately take it out of the initial budget proposal that the public past with the hope that some alternative funding could be found and we are still hopeful that at least some of this will be covered that way but ultimately if it's not we want to make sure the Administration has the resources needed to move forward for the project so we're here to discuss the pros and cons of making that if I will trust fund money available and as I said Tim Roar see if I can give a much better overview of the project that were talking about so I will hand it over to him thank you George and thank school board for being Innovative and the facilities committee to come up with these projects to allow change to happen at this high school and it's important we're trying to create a better restaurant at the high school so it's a restroom for positive change just a few of the problems that we're having I don't know if you been reading the news if you have kids in the high school but we have a situation where there is often vandalism in our bathrooms to the point where we went months with soap dispensers in the hallways we couldn't keep soap dispensers on the wall I just passed the PO to replace two cracked toilets supervise this isn't just Keen also if you have a student they may have talked to you what it's like in our bathroom I have one student who tries to avoid going to the bathroom and another stew he says ice not that bad but don't hang out there that shouldn't be what our kids are saying we want them free to go so for those reasons we started to look at a solution and there's a hole plethora of studies and evidence that shows this is a pop problem and I will cite some article from London about bathrooms that are specifically designed to stop anti-social and bullying Behavior in that facility that's what inspired this though it's not exactly the same so you'll see in this particular study 40% of girls at high school avoid visiting the toilet while they went to the high school if as adults we worked at a place we couldn't feel comfortable to go to the bathroom we wouldn't stay there long these kids have to go to school think about what we're dealing with here and and boys identified it as the place to do something wrong so we know we wanted to increase privacy meeting let students feel safe to use the restroom and but we wanted to increase Supervision in the common area of the back when you're not using it as a bathroom we want to decrease vandalism and we wanted the bathroom to no longer be a place to socialize or hide but rather a place to go and and that's our goal we think we can change the culture here with this change and it's not cheap and it's built to last and built for maintenance concerns as well so here's some more examples and we did not do everything they doing these and we like some of it but not others so you can see open areas you'll see this in all these examples and these are stall base so they're just basically stopped and you go in there single-use you want to go in there you're going to pull any privacy to do whatever you want by yourself but the next person that goes in there if it's destroyed they're going to finger you as the person who did it and we're going to have you going in there right so maybe we'll get some retribution things get destroyed and you'll see common themes and Keene High School's new design we took a bunch of research looked at different stop this bathroom design has a boys and girls it's not fueled by a genderless bathroom although there's no issue if someone identifies any which way because you're in the bathroom by yourself privately so that becomes a nun miss you without having to play that open common areas we wanted to easy to supervise they'll have cameras individual toilet rooms not stalls why do we want that we couldn't find the stall that would last stalls are made out of metal with cardboard centers they would be dented stalls are made out of formica put the marker on them we're done stalls are made out of plastic much like the chair this gentleman sitting in only thicker we can't even keep those in elementary schools cuz once they get scratched there's no resurfacing them stand them and they never look good or clean up again so we we got rid of that idea Vape sensors included in every toilet room so not one of the middle every single one stop for proof helpful the emails or text the people in the building that's going off right now at a time stamp person comes Cameron Houser urinal still available we don't have to pee all over our seats just because we're going to single-serve bathrooms so they're still here that's part of her think materials we have urethane stores that are super easy to clean and lasts for 30 years and we're talkin block wall just like the wall over there easy to paint people mark on it you just paint it up I think I hit all that to our design he looks like this is a top-down view you can see on the your right side is the Ladies Room the left side is the men's room still have your nose and there's no hard divider between them Hello wall where you wash your sink I think you can see that more in this few this one there might help you see that so the sink goes down the middle of traffic think you can see the other side from the sink is open it's not like you have to stare at somebody when you're watching her hands there's a privacy panel there but it's open there's I have a vendor from a white noise manufacturer who's going to put white noise in there or we might try music so that you can't really hear in the stall outside of this dog we want private safe secure how do we pay for this is a $784,000 bathroom design not cheap we had in their budget like George had mentioned we took it out thinking this is how we go about it we have 1.25 million roughly in our building maintenance Expendable trust fund usable for this we need 780 4000 I'm asked to mating that about half of it will take from this year Surplus so we'll only be withdrawing let's say four hundred thousand from that fund this fun I don't call withdrawing money from this Fund in my tenure in this job but I believe you did in the early 2000s for some boiler work was the last time money came out of this fund the boys are work right here in the school for very similar purposes so that's all I got questions or comments yeah quick thank you thank you Tim and I think the flexibility the bathrooms are important in many projects that I've been involved with there's more ladies than men bathroom if there is roughly the same cousin seems to be that that's produced at the equity it so if if there's a big line for for the girls in the women's bathrooms say it's okay to go and use the man that they're empty but the intention enforcing no rules on gender neither side would be labor labeling them gender our view is that people are more comfortable still going in a gender bathroom that they don't really want to share even in many workplaces however there's no reason to support that the rule that they have to support is only one person in the bathroom at a time if they support that and students and staff report any van was my problems as soon as they go in to a stall will know who the last person was in there and I think it's going to solve a lot of his problem of gender use at all okay Tim remind me please at committee last week you mentioned that there was either an outside firm or agency that really commended The District in in your office and and Ken Dooley on the design and the plan here and I say that for for two reasons one because I think that's important to note for the public hearing that this was well thought out so if you can touch on that and then to just to let you know recognize you know your office and and Ken's office with the hard work that you've done so can you with a firm to do this it really hasn't caught on in this area for this reason for these reasons their stuff similar nothing just like this in our area and we worked with the designer as you said and we sent that to an engineer mechanical engineer do the fixtures and all the mechanics of it and we got an email unsolicited directly to us saying how excited they were about the project and that they hope we collect data and we need to present at the next facility just conference which is our plan so that was nice to get and so our design crew super excited and are itching to have their name associated with this project that is great thank you Tim thank you further questions or comments alright man thank you Tim and that will include public hearing we will as a board we will be visiting this later on in our agenda to take any actions that the board chooses to to take as a result of this all right we will reconvene dealer meeting this time I will close public input and find my agenda and figure out where we are I report of standing committees building an ancillary Services mr. Philly thank you I'm pretty brief meeting updated building facilities improvements are going as scheduled with no major issues we did have one issue brought up by Bill Hopewell left a while ago he's requested that we change the name of the upstairs gymnasium named after former coach I'm going to tell her call the medical a gymnasium project at this point what sound simple is never simple. Because you want to rename it they want to do some raising they want to do some improvements so obviously that comes with more complicated what we've done is staff is looking at it and administration's looking at it will come back to the committee at our next meeting and we'll get an update and find where we go from there so personally and I having attended the school and I'm going to Kelo was a coach here very colorful character and I can't think of a better person to have a gymnasium named after but I'm sure this Ford at some point like it's a little more complicated than face value you know come back to committee at our next meeting and that's pretty much all we have and eventually if it moves forward will have another one of these public hearings fit into one of our regular meeting alright thank you Randy education committee Miss Lancaster tonight for facilities for the gymnasium I'm just looking at the I don't know I think we need to what is the motion gymnasium to be named David Militello and await the receipt of a full renovation proposal before taking further action it what the heck someone say so much sounds as though we don't really need it but because we brought her up and in committee we probably should tonight it's not binding because we can't rename something until we've had a public hearing but it certainly changes the character of the discussion if we know where the board sits on this so emotion is the easiest way to find the will of the board when I guess I will come on this second what Randy said Coachman had a really positive impact on the character of a lot of students for the entire time that he was here and in some ways that impact considered news now even though he's no longer with us because there are some of his Protege is still working and coaching here in this building a lot of a lot of you that he impacted you're still a major figures in the community so I agree both with the sentiment that it would be worthwhile as well as the commentary that was brought up at the facility's meeting that we shouldn't just slap his name on it we should make it mean something and look into how we can really make that gym a shining example of what we can do in this district and in that way we're really honoring coach Bennett colors memory I all those in favor and he opposed 0 thank you and now education committee has Lancaster so we had a good deal of people show up for public input which was a Stussy I always enjoy having people to join us at the meeting was a bunch of from the high school this last month to show just their support for the American studies program following what we heard last month's meeting to share their concerns about your sections being offered next school year to that a little more and just a moment but we do appreciate whatever teachers or community members to come to the meeting cuz that's how we are able to hear about their perspectives particular said where there's a little more time and leniency kind of in the that we do things so I do appreciate everyone who came and took her time to sit through the meeting and give us their feedback just their opinions of what was going on at their school we started with Miss Adams and Services report give us an update on administrators to Inna getting feedback on the target range for case management that we spoke about recently the committee still working on that we're monitoring more lesson situation looking forward to updates in the future after we made those changes you're right about the Medicaid reimbursement that we've been talking about hopefully we're going to be moving forward with a digital log system and that should like really streamline everything and hopefully just keep us I take that hours that are dedicated to it down but increased you know and just give us better numbers when it comes to the reimbursement dollars we have a field trip that we heard the committee now we are motion was passed for 20 to come here tonight this is for a North Campus trip to the ecotarium and probably going to stay around Wooster Earth you're really from there than it's worth what's that song we just heard you know where we got to take a look at the list which is also I think of the packet tonight just leave what's currently being proposed to Ghana's informational I think this is going to get reviewed by the high school admin team and then we'll go to finance then we moved on to dr. Keller joined us you know we were able to have a really fruitful discussion I think about the other one an error made in the way the teachers found out about the proposed changes to the courses for next year I see no we express our displeasure on the port side but you know what mistakes happen when she took accountability for that you know we went into a lot of depth of the reasoning for you know yet it's not a limitation of a course it's just kind of like how we it's the prioritization if you will and that unfortunately were offering no less courses on the American studies teachers would have liked to seen but it's what we have to do considering there's got a million moving parts to scheduling at the high school and where we are with a lot of openings and some of the teacher areas particularly in the career center certain decisions had to be made and I think that the board to support what had to be done or not we wish it wasn't happening waiting on a lot of submitting to everyone on the committee spoke to the fact that we love seeing teacher team like horses and I would like to even see more of that when were able to get to that from stopping standpoint we're just not at that place right now so I got it's not of course it's disappearing its you know unfortunately just being you know there are some changes being made so that we can accommodate everyone and you know what the last thing the board wants to see is high school students sitting in an auditorium because we don't have a class for them to be inside that's really what we're trying to make sure we don't see you again cuz you know we saw enough of that after covid and I broke my heart every time I hear about it so hopefully moving in the right direction there heard of Summer Creek elem update just you know I think we have kind of changed the system of how to Juris instead of just keeping them to like a one-week period of one more could be done just increasing flexibility for teachers be able to get together with her team's and a little more flexibility with what they can be working on over the summer and which I think is great and supportive of the teachers and hopefully encourage more people that pop in over the summer even though I'm sure everyone's trying to enjoy their vacation I just started to get Cricket on together for the next year and then Brian finished up with a CBT update about the he280 shift towards tbe4 the key to eat parents through a couple meetings that he he talked to just you know that there's a lot of questions but everyone seems so I'm bored I think it's probably easier shift from the elementary and because here already now there's a lot less stress and pressure in front of parents and students so I'm looking forward to you know that develop as well that's it this I'm trying to think I don't know on the agenda who forgot I have anyone special visiting us this coming month but everyone is welcome next week you want to pop in for a committee sorry for the lengthy update is that field trip on the consent agenda or do we have yes I can look it up at the key Board of Ed moves on behalf of the education committee to approve the Keene High field trip request to Worcester Mass ecotarium thanks and the packets in your board education committee passed this honestly if you look at the packet there's some confusion on the date that got clarified at the meeting it is going to be on the 17th any concerns comments all those in favor and your post carries now 0 thank you Rebecca finance committee Ms headings covered a lot at our meeting which seems like it was ages ago but it was just last week obviously one of the items we discussed preparation for the public hearing that we had tonight thank you again Tim for that great presentation really really appreciate that first and foremost one item that I do want to touch on weed already approved it in our consent agenda but I want to highlight again that the King Board of Ed accept with gratitude the gift in the amount of $1,500 from the Monadnock area she's meeting after school Coalition they donated the sea $800 for our after-school program which is called project keep and the goal of that money is to help provide supplies to increase exciting and educational opportunities and some of those funds were actually you yesterday for the solar eclipse and so some of the funds were used to get glasses for the students and the students in the project keep were also involved in a little sort of no science sort of instruction prior to that so again with with gratitude and thanks to the Monadnock after school Coalition next up we have our funds transfer report it's in your drive are there any questions before I make a motion k-king Board of Ed moves to approve the budget transfer report dated March 2024 is in 4 National any questions or concerns on transfer report all those in favor Lamppost carries 90 the next step is the academy funds you heard Rebecca speak about how it came first egg committee then it moves on to finance committee so dr. Gallagher was with us last week we went over all of the academy funds they on your drive there was a total of 9 proposals I'm just 22 recap particularly for those folks that are watching from home this is an annual sort of rite of passage if you will faculty and staff at high school at the opportunity to propose for something that they would like to see happen at the high school that goes outside of the budget it comes before the board first Ed then finance committee and our role on the board is to just determine if there's any concerns that we have in terms of long-term financial implications and to ensure that it aligned with the vision of the school at student-centered that it's not something that's as I mentioned going to impact our district later on so that the motion that I'm going to bring for shortly it's not that we are Gaynor name any one of the nine proposed you know Academy find options after tonight it then moves on to the academy fun with recommendations from the high school Georgia underneath if I Destiny points if you want to supplement on what I've just said no I think you're good. I usually have to do this every year so I just had to listening and to make sure I got all the points but I think you got it all all right so with that the came for the bed move some behalf of the finance committee to approve the academy fun proposals as percentage and just to clarify this is not the same as a cutting these when they come back to us as gifts the academy fun takes our recommendations and our concerns they take the recommendations and concerns presented by the high school administration and the recommendations and concerns from buildings and facilities and grounds folks decides which of these proposals to approve and then those come back to us as a gift usually in June or sometimes has that's who you talkin to get it till August do it when we want to see it until August but the whole hope is the academy fun would like to hear about anything that we might not approve so they can take that into consideration and that's basically what we're doing right here is this is the education phase recommendations questions new phones 90 okay next step in your drive is What's called the general assurances for fiscal year 2025 this is another item that comes before the board every Springtime this is just sort of a continued effort from the Department of Education to have the school board co-sign with the superintendent to ensure that Federal grant money was spent on what it was intended for so it's a very detailed 20-page document Roberts I don't know if you wanted to to add to any of that before or I can make the motion first footprint you're so I'd like to make a motion to authorize the board chair to co-sign the general Assurance on behalf of the King School District the race Federer so for Wayne and Dylan this is something that current commissioner kind of changed in terms of processes as we applied for in Access Federal grant money never before did we ask the board chairperson to sign off on these things and so it is a change that was made under the current leadership in Concord and so every year we do this by presenting it during a public meeting so that if it's reflect that we presented it and that you authorized the chair to sign on behalf of the district on behalf of the school board you did a great job summarizing it so stop there questions or concerns documents in your driveway anybody wants to review all those in favor and you posed carries 9015 place is Robin I have to sign this thing I think he is I think it's more than I had to sign when I bought my house ask you if you get a house in return for all of his signatures okay there's there's more if there is more yes I told you there's lots of things going on the next item that I have to make them turn on deals with some additional funding that we need for Wheelock Elementary with the HVAC and we're going to use some of our Surplus so I'd like to make a motion to move on behalf of the finance committee you $73,561 at the current Year's unexpended Surplus to fund the additional cost needed to cover Wheelock phase 3 design change this is just an expanded fund balance that's the result of additional interest we've learned from The District's investment account and Tim I don't know if there's anything you want to add to it or it just all right how many questions are there for Jacqueline or for Tim that's a yes vote is to authorize that expenditure all those in favor and you posed carries 90 thank you and then last but most importantly now that the public hearing is concluded I'd like to make a motion as a relates to the qinghai bathroom project or do we do that so since it's on there now it's done for now for finance committee we could do it now but first we have to have a vote to who changing the agenda so I did not catch it on the other Personnel committee Mister Roberts pretty pretty simple one of the things they're always brought up was what are we doing empty slots on the superintendent has directed the HR to continue with the normal process until basically until the end of April and then after end of April they plan on killing as many fights as possible with long-term Subs because it's pretty tough to be able to hire someone when you only have 45 weeks left in so that is the the plane going on there so like you saying is they haven't given up on hiring any people but was still trying to get the possible we're just not going to fill a space just to fill the space and the rest I think we have like six or seven for non-public all right thank you Chris policy committee is me we have nothing for second read this month's which is indicative of having to miss our meeting due to lack of Quorum two months ago we have three policies for first read for a reminder those are on here for you all to review and give feedback to either the policy committee or to mr. Malay who is our administrative liaison person up for first read this month's JL c.k. special physical health needs of students and JL CD at festering medistat medication to students we actually work through these pretty thoroughly 23 years ago our then student services director went to the nurses and they basically rewrote these policies from the ground up because they had those state laws have changed so significantly from the last time we looked at them and then because that's what we do here in New Hampshire they have since changed the state laws again no no Adams is been going with the some of the nurses to go over them and our legal counsel has been going over them as well and most of those changes are in what you have available now on policy committee will have them once in a couple weeks and then also G dbb fringe benefits that this is what functions as our contract with our school lunch employees we have to look at it annually it's rarely are there any major changes usually some slight adjustments to benefits into salary as required by the current economy so that will be coming up next month for approval for school employees for next year so I have to claim Mia culpa on this because when we were in the committee I did say there was no urgency on this and I did not take into consideration open enrollment would be engine met prior to our next meeting and so on this policy when we looked at it we didn't see anything that that jumped out as you know an alarm for us and I realize this is at the eleventh hour asking for consideration of suspending a rule to perhaps put this through so that we can proceed accordingly with an approve policy during open enrollment sound fair enough all right and I apologize George I should have reached out and contacted you earlier today or not just so moving Parts hearing Rob's request I would first need a motion to suspend rules regarding policy gdeb be to consider it this evening all right all those in favor of suspending a roll call or role call sorry Jen 2/3 glad you guys are in in the in agreement on that that was very quick yes yes yes yes yes yes yes does that immediately put that under consideration and we also need a motion do you make the motion out cuz that motion would have sold measles I'll guess I'll do this one as policy committee chair moved at the Keene Board of Education approved policy. CD BBC fringe benefits for Keene school lunch employees as presented Tim are there any major changes to this this year there's a couple not major changes but a impactful one mainly the changes are dental they're getting a more expensive dental plan that other people have but they will also be paying more for that they go to in the other guy 80-20 split for dent and then there is something that's new that I think is impactful sick leave for people that are considered part-time most of our food service workers how do they have to be here every day school on a 90 days they only work 4 or 5 hours a day compared to a full-time 8 hours a day and we are finding that not being able to have sick leave is a real problem for us and keeping people in Boyd even though we need them to be here every day so those are the two major changes George not impactful like health insurance or just benefits no salary included in in this three three days three days a year prorated so if they work for our days the 34-hour sick days a year follow-up question we do have other part-time workers in a more traditional part I'm employment like the X number of days rather than 3 hours every day or whatever you just said the health the lunchroom workers do we expect request to add the sick leave into those positions which I think would be more impactful than this particular contract I think there are some groups that are to experience that and do what do have that now so we already knew this won't be the ground breaker but I do see a move in expectations for part-time positions that require responsibility to show up every day or most days right I mean that it's happening we're part-time payroll person with the pressures their part for this discussion which this is this is not setting everybody's president this is just okay other questions for him alright a yes vote is to approve this policy which functions as our contract for this particular group of employees those in favor ghost carries 90 nice cats rub my apologies again for us it comes off of our agenda but only been in this position for a couple weeks I may not have had a chance to talk with your representatives yet we'll get through as many as we have Keene High School mr. Rod at the high school SD and I want to find out that for my next report hopefully we'll have some reports on many of the sports State and other championships I don't have the dates for those here but I did want to bring if you want attention that Nostalgia Daniel nostalgic concert is coming up this Friday and Saturday right here at the at the high school and naproxen there tonight if you noticed when when we came came by so this concert is it is very special cuz it also involves some of the trauma set behind the scenes movie because there's a lot of moving parts coming back and forth not just like a regular contact so it's quite interesting to see many different types of talent there this Wednesday at Keene High School there's going to be a scholarship day where there's going to be helping support forever when applying for scholarships which should be just about anyone that's going on afterwards as well to there are so many scholarships that are available if you if you look at the list and so it's at it's a shame if they don't get fed because no one no one has applied and there is a scholarship night too but I miss the date on that does anyone remember the scholarship night for presenting scholarship Awards better be in June you usually it's like the Wednesday or Thursday to when we get once we get there at 12 to so last weekend was really interesting with the third winter that we got this this year I mean it is and the the State concert band Orchestra and choir was scheduled for Thursday Friday and Saturday but it got shortened and was held in Concord to two days if you talk to the kids it was still living good experience for them they got some exposure to a I think I gospel and spiritual music gospel gospel group and many of them really enjoyed enjoyed that as well this is part of their educational experience and Keene High represented several people at at this concert at this at this concert as well so we're right up there with all the top schools in on the music program for the for the Allstate concert Orchestra and share and yam at least was there there just be me cuz he got chosen his music educator educator of the year so that was very very good one thing that they missed taking a war with it as well at at these Allstate in one of the awards is a student who has attended all four years we actually have a student that has been in stay all four years and that's Jacob Friedman on the trumpet so if you see him if you know his parents you can certainly Reach Out reach out to them as well to coming up actually May 16th 17th and 18th Thursday drama so we are having a spring drama at the Keene high school and I think it's is it 9 Ingram and 7 yes I was thinking of the school board oh and by the way sorry been mentioned as well to the solar eclipse that to two buses up to Vermont and the kids got back at about all books thrift shop in a very long slow trip down and I could tell cuz we didn't follow the buses my wife and I went to another one but I was looking at all the license plates in Massachusetts Georgia New Jersey and I knew they weren't turning off before me so we knew it was going to be a real one what quite the effect and it was spectacular and me and the kids have that as well to they would not have had opportunity to see this through. read that happens decades decades apart if it weren't for the if it weren't for the initiative of the the physics professors here now I think when you're thinking had to graduation all of the board members should be getting emails about getting your alumni regalia and to RSVP to attend I haven't gotten mine yet but I'm looking for that have you got it no one else came very early came my want to say last month or maybe even late February so I haven't seen it to Amanda Sawyer right I'm realizing to Wayne and Dylan would not have gotten the email because they weren't elected yet February twenty one I sent Amanda a note when she sent that out to reminder to send it to after elections for that reason but I don't know that she was able to do that and then I believe I did receive one about that I gotta get money just for sure thank you I wasn't doing anything at all in February thank you and May 21st at 7 p.m. we're having another spring instrumental concerts well to band and Orchestra at that particular one but the course is usually a week before week after George turn off the top of my head OK Google 4 because after right on top of Memorial Day May 24th is mr. Keen hi this is kind of a fun funny spoof and fundraiser for, I think it's kind of a throwback to their Ephesians in 7 is as far as the idea goes but it's become really fun for us poop talent show which means you can do any sort of talent that is not import a l as well too and if it's a fundraiser come and get folded Mr Keen hi and that is May 24th and I May 25th this problem at the high school no no it is if you have the date right the location is Hidden Hills okay thank you I think I don't know where they're having the LBGTQ problem I should check and graduation you is it sounded mentioned is 7th and it's as true as at High Noon it sits on my son's calendar at first before noon is that just when we show up or is that we are to the best of my knowledge we are so glad you went at 6 p.m. that Friday and endure still right Outdoors unless it rains it will be at the alumni baseball field unless it rains thank you and I can see why you might be confused because dr. Gallagher was telling us last year that every graduation that she had done had been at a different location because of the various covid protocols but the listen to location is the alumni baseball field so they're probably going to stay there weather weather permitting all right I think that's enough for now and believe it or not you missed one from this last weekend McIntyre senior here won the national state championship represent in Keene high school as well thank you that's good to know graduations to him all right thank you career center Miss Friedman they've been very busy there on April 3rd they had they hosted a career exploration day for the students in Grade 9 approximately sit like 60% of the ninth graders participated in the program and they could sign up to visit up to four programs of their choice and actually go in 7 to 2 to see the different programs and try and activity and learn about the program so important culture they were planting vegetables they they developed a logo in the business program and they built a model bridge I'm in the Drafting and design program so there was a lot of activity and a lot of excited ninth-graders getting to learn about the possibility is that the career center has offer them my kid brought home a rubber duck catapult launcher from that coming up on April 17th where is going to be the CTE at the regional CT advisory meeting so representatives from Fall Mountain Keene and Monadnock school districts will all be at the CCC for their bi-annual meeting to receive updates on the programs and initiatives and enrollments as well as to continue more work on developing the new Regional agreement because like the area agreement that one is up for Renewal as well so that will keep that will keep them busy for a while not only with the 9th graders visiting the CCE but the older students from ncce program CCC programs were visiting Keene State College for their annual event that's developed specifically for the students in that program and they got to take many classes with Keene State College faculty tour the campus and hear a panel discussion from current Keene State students who had graduated from a CTE program at their high school so everyone's looking One Step Beyond where they are I was just ask Ali fabulous there are many open positions apparently so they're looking for teachers and 24 auto mechanic construction trades criminal justice digital connections electrical trades family and consumer science nit networking and IT program I so we have a four of roles to fill for next year at the CCC enrollment is is up there are over 100 students from sending schools seeking ctep G next year most programs are going to require implementing a lottery in order to select students for the program I'll currently there are about 200 more requests then we have available seats let's see the health science students at Cheshire Medical are working on their shadowing program they are seeking part-time teachers for two new programs for 2425 year in electrical trades in criminal justice on this thing very strong demand for both of those programs in the region overall and the students in cancer auction Horticulture in manufacturing this month are taking part in OSHA training so they will receive OSHA 10 certifications upon successful completion of the two-day program and this is an history recognize Prudential so it will help them straight off the bat she can careers after graduation to have that content it's a lot going on there are lots of great programs and a lot of demand for these programs so hopefully we can find some instructors and continue to offer more and more Raleigh go ahead this ETA program Cuz We Take Manhattan Fall River kids is about 2 is a great example of a regional collaboration is there Faba governing document for that or is that yeah and how often is that come up for a renegotiation for you okay alright to be longer now it's every 4 years so where are we have to 31 or doing it right now yet okay you doing that with you got it Orchard Town Career Center Director has been leading us through that a pretty collaborative process so far with representatives from all three schools superintendents principles and guidance counselors and board members from all three schools has big meeting but we've been getting a lot done on that that's going to involve more changes I think than the area agreements partly because the state laws have changed pretty significantly in the last couple years regarding CTE but also because it's a more complex Arrangement because we're actually dealing with multiple as I use rather than just multiple School District all right thank you Jennifer Keene Middle School in his head fourth quarter began so they're in the home stretch now 3rd quarter report cards will be getting emailed home on the 15th yesterday in addition to the Eclipse which they adjusted the schedule the middle school yesterday since I was right around you know the end of the day and dismissal so students had the opportunity if they so chose to go and watch the eclipse with glasses proper where garson's were made also yesterday Keene High councillors visited the Middle School to meet with the 8th graders this is Again part of the transition with working on their schedule and all of the preparation is move to the high school for next year and speaking of her 8th graders and important change in date on the calendar because of last week's snow day achievement day for the eighth graders will now be June 18th please make note of that Camus Community has been informed but again never hurts to reiterate also right around the corner is the 8th grade trip to Washington d.c. they will be leaving King on the 18th reminder that there is a parent Guardian meeting 6:30 p.m. on the 16th that is a must attend and then in terms of thank you and other good things that have been happening since we he last had our full board meeting there was a chorus concert last month with all of the KMS grade levels so many thanks to all of the students in the course classes and to miss are also last month the dram Club I presented Schoolhouse Rocks which I personally attended I'm a of that generation and a super fan of Schoolhouse Rocks and they did a great job also many thanks to the 8th grade teachers for inter rating the CU for reality program working that into their curriculum that's the deceive for reality program is something that they do with the 8th graders where they learn how to make budgets live within their means given their career goals so that was folded into the 8th grade curriculum and that is it for the middle school thank you thank you Jacqueline Franklin Dillon. had a chance to meet with Eric right ahead and not yoga not aware as I said you only had a couple weeks so far and he is notoriously difficult to set up that first meeting with he ends up being easy to work with but he is super busy and and yet kind of doesn't prioritize offense is as it should be so I will facilitate that if you have trouble making it a coronavirus some he's come up to try again for this Friday so I don't have a locked up that I am was told that the that the eclipse project at the school went well they did not have to drive 7 hours to get back with you in a couple minutes to get back in the school hoping to get to again this Friday it seems to be every time we pick a date something comes up but we'll get it done School posted some photos of their elementary kids outside in the in the Solar glasses pretty cool Simon Smith Lancaster actually don't have that lengthy report to just tomorrow evening 6:45 play Susan's been super busy so that's alright thanks Rebecca Roberts get get a few things the Decatur God and cream registration is going along very well they have no problem of getting the two classes of at least fifteen each when it comes to the solar eclipse the kindergarten and their own parents were out in the school yard watching the console equip eclipse the second graders are getting their donate sneakers the fourth grade is that going to the State House the fifth graders just came back from Nature's Classroom and I think Patty is try to send all the kids away so she can relax in a new washer is done tomorrow from 6 to 8 they'll be an open house for all the parents and former school kids to see the the new Wheelock which has changed drastically over the last five or six years a lot. me to Tim and Kenswick down there and I'll pick on him because I told him I with except that of all that he spends millions and millions of dollars and he can't a couple of hundred bucks to get a death that is an older than me no but Tim is doing a really good job it's not his fault for the want of a preschool and Community Education Wayne if you had a chance to PS I met with the Joanne Mulligan and she's been for about 20 years so she's one of our long-standing administrators and if you need something that warms your heart right from your toes to go visit one of our preschool with three preschool classes about 110 students fortunately we've had a waiting list all year for typical students so popular that we're just we don't see any turnover but the students who are they are very fortunate and they I think the classrooms have been Purpose with a lot more than you know years ago and so I think the students are very fortunate I but it doesn't warm your heart to to go she is in the middle of a renovation and I'm sure you've heard what about that but it seems to be going well she had no complaints the Y program which is part under her purview as well it seems to be going well so Joanne while again I think we got it for another 20 years if we continue to other business Farmington that is like a maybe a nineteenth-century Swiss watch Factory there's so many parts and it's so many programs I can't can't believe it she stretch with e l l right now yes LOL yeah LOL there's a lot of getting a mammogram coming into the city who are struggling with English but are very eager to get engaged in the economy which seems ready for their engagement so that if we see if you know any LL ESL teacher we've definitely got places for them but she's managing the waiting list it isn't anything catastrophic but it seems to be something we should be aware of the other programs you like 110 to 120 25 in her prime program and about 110 in are in a regular program there are so many programs in addition to the plumber and electrician the new machinist Machinery manufacturing program she's trying to put together graduation coming up with a 25 students and Luca Paris is there the speaker I'm sure you are invited if you haven't been if you want to come so that program though is believe it started my head was spinning when I left I didn't bring a note anything to take notes with so I ran home and tried to put everything down but there is so much happening out told her I meet with her again next month and hopefully I'll have a little more detail of in arm regards to some of the programs are doing a lot of work there and I was really impressed have both of us both of those programs are very impressive and their respective directors do a really good job over there alright other business withdrawal from building expense funds okay Jacqueline go and again just to recap what was in Tim's public hearing that the motion I'm about to make is for an amount that we may not need to use that depends upon the Surplus right now the Surplus estimate is Tim is it still at 392000 or less that we may be able to grab from Surplus towards the bathroom it's 3.9 million return the taxes and I think we'll break that by about $400,000 so we'll only end up with rolling about half of that half of this don't make sense it does so again we're making the motion for the full amount because we don't know yet until we hit the end of the year so I said I'd like to make a motion for the keyboard had to approve the withdrawal of up to $783,980 to fund the Keene High bathroom renovation project all right you all saw the public hearing present listen for mr. Roar we did talk about it some then isn't even have further questions concerns you're all clear on what we're approving all right all those in favor any opposed 90 all right and HSPA in in when you can feel free to to lean on myself for her or Raleigh if you want to because you've only been doing this for two weeks as well but but I did get a chance to catch up with some of the what's going on in Concord watch the lights free stream last week which had the the Senate listening to an audit special ed program at the state department it was a scathing audit audit hadn't been done they hadn't had an audit since 1999 but it was in there was no other way to look at it other than just a skating ring much of what the program the administration and the reason I bring it up today is because phase two is an audit of the district's so the same kind of approach I think will will probably be will fare better but nevertheless it's something we want to keep on our radar and there are a number of bills and I wanted to take an hour and and talk to you about all of the bills but there's a couple of things that I think are of great importance one is the adequacy of a Republican representative from Hampton proposed 2770 326 from the 41 for adequacy and a lot of controversy around whether this is something we should accept because the funding mechanism is still kind of convoluted basically would add a number of towns into the Statewide property tax the swept that the estate white Edge property tax so this would be it certainly would lower or if this were passed out of the session I would lower the tax rate in Keene in November so it would it would apply immediately it's very unusual because this is not a budget year this is New Year where they talk about cultural cultural War stuff but this is something that may take place relatively quick the one piece of the whole thing that sort of diminishes my into he has a miss that the governor May well veto this and push it down the road so it might need 2/3 and I don't know but anyway that's the first positive conversation around Keene tax rate because of State funding which is what adequacy is why can't the Constitution meant to be so we'll see how that all goes there been some great editorials in the sentence I do Edmodo had an interesting letter to the editor I really was about to Voucher Program buddy you sort of morphed it into the real issue which is the adequacy lie that's been perpetuated for decades now so that that's of some interest real quickly the culture War peace in the New Hampshire Senate is alive and well there are two gender bills their number parent right bills there's a fee for the house bill 1523 which way demand the board put together a here's what you can teach years with the film's you could you can watch here's the speakers you can have and we have to publish it so I just don't think that this is obviously not realistic but never last is there a push and it seems to be a national agenda push I know it's probably not telling anyone to hear anything new so that's what's happening if you're there is just so much going on right now if you can keep abreast of it I think help us down the road alright the other thing we need to talk about with nhspca tonight is delegate assembly resolutions the delegate assembly is not until October but to get a resolution on their agenda it needs to be submitted by June 1st which means we would need to approve it as a board at our May meeting so if anyone has suggestions for Resolutions now we could start working on the writing the waiting for those if you don't and want to send something to myself or to Wayne or to Raleigh all three of us have experience with this at some level or another we also have an excellent resource right now and central office one of the administrative assistants is also as of two weeks she's now the past president of the NHS PA which is actually still an officer position for this coming year Holly Kennedy it is as I said that she'd be willing to help us with wording on resolutions so if anyone has thoughts you'd like to share tonight this would be the time Broly the things that Wayne brought up we're pretty important and I think it's worth us thank you the item said that Wayne brought up tonight about the culture are pretty important and then also the funding and in the sweat I think we're already supporting many of the Mini of the causation of a a funding but we're not I don't think we're doing an adequate job and I are standing reservations on the on the culture War issues so I'd be I proposed that when I get to weather and get some drafts and run it by George and the other resources that you've identified so that we can have something to vote on next month that's fine with me if it's okay I could contact bear Christine it to in and engage so that Riley and I have a little sounding board in case there's something that he feels he's the director of NHS PA and I'm sure you what would we from a good resolution relative to culture or it's just six changes the culture War crazy world is pretty hard to take into you're free to do that bro I was just reaching out the bear it's a great idea of same with Will Phillips over at at the NHS PA but we have somebody right in our office who has been working over the last couple years has as an office sure of any chess p a soap don't don't forget to reach out to Holly is all I'm going to suggest is that she is a really good resource it has been intimately involved with a lot of the resolutions over the last couple of years so she's good source Chris you're even since I went to school a long long time ago we still have the same amount of days same amount of hours in school and every time people come up with this culture thing here or did hear it takes away from quality education time and so while we all as grown-ups are fighting over what book how to read what to do this that we're sending our kids out list paired to read and write and to be College ready if they want to go I think this is what we are adults and whatever political Spectrum you're on we're looking at ourselves and we're not looking at the purpose of school when the kids come into the school supposed to be culturalized they're supposed to be educated and being cultural eyes that could change every election basically screws that kids over by robbing them of quality education patient always in I wish somehow we could get that kind of into a resolution tell the grown-ups to grow up and educate the kid that is not as far best as it sounds in as much as I could Envision it might take us two years to put this together and equality form honestly but I could Envision a resolution that talks about live the messy I can't wordsmyth at this fact but I think it would be within the NHS pas area two advocate for reducing the number of laws that instruct our Educators and exactly what they can and can't do to basically to advocate for more freedom for the Educators to go and teach our kids I could I could see something like that being a supported resolution looking for Less micro plus migravent yeah yesterday I saw a list of the 10 most banned books in public school and I go I guess I went to the wrong high school because I had to read all 10 of them Raleigh on Chris's point continuing resolution number six is one that came up with that about three years ago two years ago and just be a a firm's the qualification of school big fat staff to research and select appropriate digital and printed materials for school's literary ink curricular collection should offer students information that provides a balance of cultural values further litter Recollections should represent diverse points of view provide a global perspectives stimulate essential thinking skills and meet the interest abilities learning styles and information needs of the community now this is about printed I'm not sure it's just printed there's other materials they can have them available and this is important that we keep supporting Ness because I have social studies teachers for example that really like to have periodicals and say and other material for their kids to say hey if you want to know more about this stupid and they would send them home with materials that were bouncing educated so that's important what we may need to do is make sure that we communicate that we want to stop anything that takes away the power of the teachers to teach in their curriculum what they deserve what they desire, according to the direction that we've given them that's where we might be able to do some more if we focus on that particular aspect play could I do think there's a harm that's becoming more apparent every day there's two bills in the session that undermines the credentialing of teachers because they can't find teachers willing to put up with some of the bias the predisposition that parents and sometimes students coming to their classrooms so they can't find the teacher and it's a direct harm to our students because we're creating a environment of fear so wrong I love to work with you we can vet it something through Hawley and and make sure that it's a team approach I was rich next week sound look at that like to check the calendars discussion sau29 is that still with me as your representative as the board chair I was actually on here twice and actually three times all of the next three things or sau29 so let me let me move these around and order a little bit and talk first about the superintendent evaluation we are at least going to start our board-level evaluation tonight I'm hoping we're going finish it because otherwise I will have to call a special meeting which I really really don't want to do but the superintendent evaluation is one of the three responsibilities that are actually given to New Hampshire school boards by state law the other tube making policy and creating and administering the budget in our SAU the superintendent evaluation happens at the SAU level because obviously that's what he's the superintendent of I think I've mentioned before all of you that you're all de facto members of the SAU 29 board and it is The Advisory Board which is the chairs of the seven districts that make up the the actual evaluation team so how we do this to make sure that 33 for 3:33 members of the seven school districts have a say is each School District does a collaborative evaluation of the superintendent that's what new hours tonight and then those 7 collaborative evaluations and our board chairs meet to go over them together and come up with a unified evaluation of the super turn it takes into account input from all of the individual towns and there's a number of reasons that we do it this way this is actually a relatively new process is only the second year that we've got it in its current state and it has corrected some problems in the past notably new members really had difficulty giving any meaningful input when they were just asked to give input on their own but when you're able to do it as a group you're able to hear what board members around you have to say and then share what Impressions you do have from the limited time that you had working with the superintendent this year but also benefits the town's who don't necessarily meet most of the central office staff we in Canton to be fortunate because we meet almost everybody from central office at one or another of our committees on a pretty regular basis a number of them have to come to this full board and I don't have to Rob wants them here at this phone meeting so we'd know most of Lincoln can speak to them the town's off and don't have any way to speak to that at all on this is this is not to try and overcome some of that as well so this is the first step meeting schedule is on here the next actual SAU board meeting is May 15th but the next advisor meeting is May 1st and that's our deadline to get our board-level evaluation done so no April 24th yes thank you week before that do I say if we don't finish it tonight we're going to have to hold a special meeting at that May 15th meeting we will vote on the SAU board chair and vice-chair for the coming year I am currently the vice chair for another month pending whether or not I buy run again in the nominated again in and and the will of whoever comes to that meeting I go Cordell has been share for 7 she's been since you and I both came on right now so at least nine years and I know that she was the incumbent of the time so at least 10 years in fact that actually has given a real steady level of leadership I personally like having one of the Town chairs the chair of the SAU bored because Keene by nature of having the biggest schools having the high school and having nine members on our board when nobody else has that has an outdated influence on the SAU word otherwise I think it's helpful to have one of the Town shares as the SAU board chair so that's that's works I think well for a while but we'll see where that goes in a month or so all right that's all we have on our other old businesses area review board committee but we covered that a couple times previously I think that we're all set on that unless anybody had something to add to that one thing to housekeeping wise we were last year we had the storm so now it's tomorrow night off for snow and ice I do have one them under new business which probably should have gone much earlier tonight but may meeting schedule some of you'll remember the game Board of Education meeting this meeting in May needs to be bum out to the third Tuesday that will be May 21st and traditionally we also bump out Personnel Chris you going to do that again okay so Personnel will also be being on May 21st the reason is at that meeting there's a number of our ships that became board has to approve and the high school needs that extra week to get those ready for our approval and that means that education will be moved up to the second Tuesday next week next month which will be May 14th other new business before the board all right seeing none can I have a motion to go into non-public session in accordance with our essay 91a 34 staff Personnel student personnel and other tonight so move second please yes yes yes that concludes tonight's public session thank you board and administrator for sticking it out for a longer meeting that I expected thank you to anybody who's watching us on the live stream tonight thank you to AMT productions for carrying the livestream we will have a five-minute recess and non-public will convene in the room behind me

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Keene Board of Education Meeting for April 9, 2024

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