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Keene Board of Education Meeting for December 12, 2023

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Keene Board of Education Meeting for December 12, 2023 Keene High School LGIA, Keene, NH at 6:31 PM Transcription available upon request.

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leaving and welcome to the Keene School District Keene Board of Education meeting for Tuesday December 12th to order at 6:31 if you could please rise for the pledge of flag of the United States of America for which it stands one nation under God indivisible thank you we are open for public input at this time we will have public input for a roughly half an hour will usually close it around 7 little bit so that's we have any public input this evening can you come up to the table and state your name and address for the record please offense okay my name is Sandy swinburne and my address is 37 Park Street in Keene and so should I go ahead and put all right as you begin to prepare the budget that will be presented to the public in January partnering for public education and would like to offer our perspective on maintaining funding for needed staff positions we know it's difficult finding candidates for these positions eliminating funding for positions impact future years it gives the perception that these positions are needed which isn't the case clearly the district Remains understaffed Not only student education impacted by this occur it's more pressure on the teachers that are here to cover these gaps another gift difficulty that arises is reclaiming funding for eliminated positions in future budgets should positions remain vague as the year precedes These funds can be redistributed to other areas if need within the district well we are urging is that you find creative ways to recruit for and fill those positions advertising on professional association websites in their newsletters and professional journals that reach targeted audiences should be researched platforms is it reaching National audience or others indeed.com should be utilized enticement such as hiring and retention bonuses relocation and housing stipend should be seriously considered especially for Keene State college students whoever already established connections with the district and are being considered for teaching positions we understand these incentives require additional funds and may require approval from bargaining groups investment strategy would strengthen our community thank you for your attention we will keep public input open until 7:05 if anyone comes in late and wishes to speak wise we will continue with our agenda this evening and I have a motion to approve the consent show me any documents removed from the consent agenda seeing on all those in favor and you posed to carry 60 thank you support of the board chair I confess I've had a cold for the last week and only have been really on my feet for the last day so important item that we do need to mention as we move into this holiday season. We have received for the keyboard a request from the Winchester School Board to meet and potentially discuss altering the terms of their tuition agreement with Keen further details really be shared at this time we will be getting free from mr. Malay and non-public tonight with more details about what it is that they're requesting and we'll be sure to keep the public appraised of any further developments on that that's really we've mostly been business business as usual which has been a lot we have 3 contract negotiations that were trying to wrap up the next week and a half before we break for Christmas break so that's why play what we've all been doing a report of the superintendent thank you George and you've got the report in the drive of the report is also available for anybody on the website so that it's not secretive there ever any questions on any of the information I'm not going to go through the entire Report with you but I'll highlight a few things that I think are extremely important at least at this point in time but if you have any questions feel free to reach out either before during or after any meeting strategic planning continues forward the steering committee met last week and two separate groups to review all of the date of that came in from the surveys from public forums and to get us closer to having a first draft of the portrait of The Graduate as well as shared values statements or we believe statement essay what is term during our work session soon as that is ready it will be disseminated and put out for public review and public comment I expect that to go out after the new year or into the early part of the new year we should have close to a final first draft before the end of the year and it'll go out probably shortly after that area agreement publicly thank Tim for providing his institutional Knowledge from the last time the agreements were negotiated as are most of the people involved have not been a part of any of area negotiations and or reissuance has of those agreements when we first looked at it legal to take a look at it and said a look we've got to go through this very extensive process I send a timeline out to everyone do Tim's Persistence of saying I don't know that we have to go through that. Cess I was able to connect with a school district that had just gone through similar process two years ago and then we were able to connect our attorney with their attorney and another attorney and that process is not nearly as extensive as we initially thought so it will require that each the participating school districts have three board member Representatives will also require the Keene board to issue a desire to review and revise the existing agreements as necessary that will trigger the other districts to do that so huge change and not as lengthy a gas or as is I'm consuming as it as we originally thought but I still think that we've got a really solid process that's been shared with you so that you know what that is beyond that do want to commend dr. white and for his leadership with the Innovation Institute that took place last month you know that's our SAU wide professional development today and you know during that day they went from having 35 percenters one year ago to having 70 percentage this year in the presenters are mostly made up of our staff internally who are presenting best practices things that they're currently doing and sharing it amongst one another and establishing open communication collaboration lines so that the learning continues from within and then is not always depending on bringing in x Consultants to do that so want to commend him for that want to come in Brian Campbell as well for his continued push to make sure that the k28 competency-based education is being implemented and recorded So that we will get to that Finish Line will it be perfect we don't know maybe it will on the first crack but if it's not we're going to be seeking input and analyzing input so that we can make adjustments and make it better digestible and understandable for folk so those two guys working really hard on the entire cult teams working really hard of Kate sorry not trying to Kate's been working really hard going through her first budget process and analyzing data and putting forth recommendations that are not always popular but are are responsible and so just wanted to give that Commendation and then to lastly remind the board that there is a very modest but sincere appreciation planned on Friday from 4 to 5:30 if you're able to join us even if it's only for a portion of the your presence is greatly appreciated so questions for the superintendent probably I'll pick you up first. Do you want to know you've got the the folks I'm watching you want to promote the get caught reading over the holiday break sure this is an effort that's being initiated through our public information coordinator in collaboration with all of our library media specialist across the SAU it's basically you know during the holiday break get caught reading sending photos of folks reading whether it's a student whether it's a parent whether it's a staff member send that into Pic it's in the report the details on that so that we can celebrate everybody's commitment to literacy and find creative ways to pass some of that time as we are almost to the shortest Play the song of the year and slowly will start gaining daylight in a row in a little over a week and a half thanks Rob Rowley thank you rob through the chair thank you for a very detailed and really appropriate superintendent's report this this month I want to ask a little bit of a question about the breakdowns for the community forums and the really good with spots right you got of almost 1,000 fondant who know we have I noticed two numbers here that stuck out one was the 63% parents 628 parents and 21 school board members I be interested in seeing how well call the school board members what they were looking for is aligned with the parents and caregivers I would be really really want to see how far off or how close we are so when we started the strategic planning he said that it was the voice of the whole and not the individual parts and the steering committee did take a look at some disaggregated data but it wasn't as robust as you might be envisioning or thinking you would lie Sissy and that was intentional because of these are intended to be Community plans to know the voice of the students the voice of the parents of voice of the school board the voice of the staff the teachers and administrators in any one particular group but looking at it as a as a whole and not just the individual parts of the response rates were provided you know 21 board members out of 33 is not a bad response rate that that's pretty good and how you will say that our Consultants were really impressed with our response rates as they have been doing this for some time in a lot of different places not just a New Hampshire but around the region meaning the England and they were like yeah we've got really good response right here and you guys should be celebrating that I think we always want to have like 10,000 responses but the reality is you know we can put it out there and put it out there and get it in the media put it on our social media and and we have and we've done that and so they were pretty impressed with the effort and the response number and total that come in the volume but to your question we didn't analyze it by subgroup we looked at the data as a whole and then aggregate for him thank you I appreciate that I was interested in how in touch I am are we as the body are with what other people are saying that's why maybe there's another instrument for that but I just want to see how aligned are we were with what's really needs to happen out there so thank you and I think this process does that for said the lines us and that's the intent is to what and all of us thank you one more comment the report you did on the lawsuits it was very thorough and with the chairs permission I'd like to come back to that doing a d r e nhsp a report cuz I've been trying to get some I know read for men on how to interpret that so thank you very much got anything else for Rob alright standing committee's first step is building an ancillary Services mr. right is not with us as I understand that he was not with us for the meeting as well Chris are you covering yesterday not much was there can win over our safety one and it went pretty good this year only a few minor things that was being corrected we went over to JJ's be looking at the progress of the construction down there talkin about possibly able to hold meetings and everything down there they're doing a really good job over there we talked about we had asked some questions concerning possibly homeless people living near our areas and Canyon Tim gave us both the real update there they work with the police department to keep her in our area is safe is possible to they found some but they were together and so we wanted to make sure that the parents knew that when they were sending their children to school they will be sending their children to a safe place and so that was basically what we talked about and why can take the wheel lock school right now we finished up talking about the kitty guiding it will lock school and I was over well at school today they're planning on letting the kids get for me to rise before they go on vacation so it's not a complete shell shock to him when they show back up but they're more than happy and they expect everything to be working out but that was the biggest issue that was on the fritz please is what was going to happen that we locked in the kindergarten thank you for this right education committee is Lancaster is not with us tonight and it was a last-minute surprise so we were really prepared for can I cover so I guess that'll be me since I sat in on education this week it was about a two and a half hour meeting one of the longest education committee meetings we've had in a while. anything that's not otherwise on the agenda was an excellent presentation from the folks over at Hi-5 I'm talking about their cohort program in which they take a small group of Keene Educators each year and and work on training some team-building some leadership and the effect that has had on the district both on those individuals and on our broader schools as they come back into the district. underpinning of it was that this is primarily funded still through CNS Grant from CNS which is extremely generous has benefited the high five program has benefited the king district for many years and we were the assistant superintendents we're letting us know that we should probably expect a good faith amount in our budget this year supporting that high five program on the line still covered by the grants but CNS needs to know that we also appreciate the work that's being done so I watch for that that report is available or some of that report is available in your drives from last month's education committee report it's worth looking at and as always hi-five is super impressive every time they come in next up we also from education we had a sabbatical request from Kim Clark over at the middle school I'm not sure Rebecca was planning to present this to me I have no idea what the intent was to recommend through the education committee approval of the sabbatical request the detail are provided in the packet for folks to approve this sabbatical proposal for Kim Clark for the 2020 for 2025 school year seconded by most of the board and you're here mr. Did you want to speak to that tonight you're not okay yeah the details yet you're not expected to to know she did come to the education committee to represent her sabbatical proposal which is often has just given us to us as a written proposal so that was it was a welcome surprise on the details what's an RN your drive in this comes recommended unanimously from the education committee any questions it's not just me Riley was there too so hence the second all right seeing no questions all those in favor any opposed carry 60 I'm looking forward to see what you do with it Kim that was an excellent proposal just Kim I don't want it I don't want to seem like anything is being withheld from you open of course we've got to build this into the budget right and a lot also depends on the Bull of the budget in March so I don't I just don't you've got full support that's great and I'm so I just want to be very transparent with you okay Keene high school program of studies this is also the alterations to the 2023 2024 Keene High School course catalog as presented second and this also was unanimous from the education committee only had just crossed Richard Town presenting the changes opposed to the program of studies on the high school side they're not as extensive as we've seen in the past years as a couple renaming zandri organizations of classes and exciting stuff on the career center side for starting some new Pathways that hopefully will grow into full programs over there and then this is all on your drive if you have any questions Raleigh and I can fumble through it or we can bring up the experts really thank you I'd like to point dad Miss Mister Town talked about from a because of a question from the committee the I think it was the the electrical and the plumbing and Water Works lamps that he has it's not just how to connect those systems within the house and within the buildings but they also teach about how they connect to and where the water comes from and where the electricity comes from and the various sources in in the environment then I was not expecting that but I was very impressed to find out that he's giving them a very well-rounded education and context from yo where were these things are coming from that's why it's important so I was very impressed by that any other questions or comments and all those in favor of approval any opposed 0 Sunday I think that's the fastest that's ever gone through yes field trip is a field trip then we can skip to the field trip field trip committee to approve the Keene High School field trip for to the Clark Art Institute second and this again was unanimous from the committee and details ruin your drive this was for 4 that I have French class French Classes it was a question a little bit because the date was up in the air and that was because they hadn't figured out exactly when they could schedule it yet but at the end we decided everything else was in order and didn't really matter it was coming up this in the spring so it was going to okay any questions on it all those in favor that carry 60 Dango thanks Cindy student services Staffing move on behalf of the education committee to direct the administration to strive to achieve caseloads as presented second all right in this one this proposal came first to the Finance finance committee and then to education so a bunch of you've seen this at this point those of you who started finance will recall that we asked the administration to go back and put a specific recommendation into it has Kate Adams has done and that was what was reviewed at education the administration and specially Kate presented the backup for the data for why looking for this recommended amount you will recall if you sat through budget say it season a last year that the Administration has brought a proposal that reduced the students mrs. Staffing at the elementary schools and that made it through a large portion of the budget process before a number of people came and public game and asked us to put those piece numbers back in and we at the last minute over Road the administration put back in three student services and then in terms of equity added a fourth for the fourth elementary school that has let us to this year where we are actually overstaffed at the elementary school this presenting Equity issues in other directions so the administration did not want a repeat of last year they wanted to make sure that what they were working on as they develop the budgets at the schools is an accurate reflection of what the board is looking for and we replied with well what we want to know is that what you doing best practices for our students and that is ultimately the date that Miz Adams brought to us and so based on that the education committee recommends as Jacqueline just read the motion that the administration's drive to achieve those numbers and Staffing when they do their budget in this year so that's what we're discussing questions video of I agree wholeheartedly with what's happening disagree really we did it that allows away last year last year was totally on the motion I was the one who came up with the fourth one just because we couldn't get defied the first three but there was no reason to leave the 4th one out but when we run into the problem is we as the will of the board can say this is what humans preaching this is what we would like to do and we want you to go that way but world so nine individual board members in any board member can say and stop this process all over like we had last year but at the same time we can't come across as saying we're going to prevent any board member from doing that because it's the easiest yeah and I would agree with that Chris with all of it I think cover isn't quite the right word but the administration wants to know we're we're directing them to go to begin with and yeah ultimately we can overturn all of it you and I have both seen that happen many times so but you know we only do the best we can do alright other's perspective on that someone if they can't for preparing her for your birthday very informative presentation that answered a lot of our questions on where we're going I think will prevent the occurrence of what we saw last year that's because she brought in relevant case studies and other comfort comparables and demonstrated to us that the appropriate way to budget for a this is to do it according to what the individual students needs were at every single school so that's why we're recommending the the adoption of targets okay 444 Staffing we're not going to specify what those Staffing levels are but we're asking for targets as well too and we know that she's going to be very involved in the budget process and sell just want everyone to know how much thought went into this and that the needs of the students are the first and most important thing like I chairman said all right anyway and all those in favor any opposed carry 60 all right that was all in the education agenda we did Cover as well a presentation about the co-curricular stipends that co-curricular stipend committee which first went into action before covid finally concluded this round of reviews and they looked at both non-athletic co-curricular activities trying to bring some consistency to the stipends that we give to our coaches to our advisors both within the buildings and to make sure that they're equitable compared to what other districts are offering for those positions that's a pretty comprehensive proposal in your drive that also came to both finance and education the ultimate gist of it is that stipends are going to be tied to the I'm going to get this wrong Rob first year bachelor's Lane of the Kea contract yeah yeah it's me so that we don't have to revisit this every four years because the stipends will continue to increase as teacher salaries increase hopefully keeping competitive across disc some and certainly keeping them a couple of their own schools this was not something the board had to act upon it is something the education committee accepted as an informational report on his have been included in your driveway reason and will see the effect of this when the administration brings the budget for it cuz it will involve some further money is going into stipends to make up the gap between what we're paying now and what they're proposing that we should be paying to be Equitable across District all right hopefully I got everything from education committee finance committee. Hey Mister Roberts moved at the King Board of Education move to approve the transfer report dated November 2023 is information any questions all those in favor Terry 60 move on behalf of the we won't be having to finance committee to accept with gratitude the gift of $700 from the Christian author of fun to the Wheelock School any questions all those in favor any opposed carry 60 and one other thing on the with the finance committee it's kind of a cross between a finance committee and the facilities committee we had directed that Tim come up with what he did last year when he gave us a list of if we were going to spend money or take money out of the what's the capital reserve funds so we would have it Ferrari tires in being able to prevent that present that instead of just coming things off and delete last year for example used 1.25 million dollars and they covered a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be done that always falls out until what happens what we would like to do is be in the same situation this year so the clients can make a recommendation to the full board and be able to answer questions and Tim will have that prepared for the financial committed all right we don't need a motion that tonight right all right thank you Chris Personnel committee must I'm at this evening things in public building the number of folks that we had four vacancies which is pretty modest within the current Labour market doing some creative things done that most of it is in public this is public and one of those things all right thank you Scott this time will close public input to the evening people want to submit public input via email you're welcome to do so direct it to helke central office and her email is available on our website you can also direct it directly to me my email is also on the website oh I should probably mention Mr Moto's public input yes so I think you all got in the mail a letter from former board member at Myrtle if you did not Rob Malay has copies for everybody so he only had some of her addresses okay cuz I know some people got some all right and I did get one in the mail I read it and this is actually pretty useful from his former. He's got some pretty extensive experience Beyond just having served our board has he worked for the Department of Education New Hampshire Department of Education for a number of years and a lot of what he's included in here is kind of a summary of why the budget process is so hard here in Keene and basically everywhere in the state you know he covers the history of education funding in the state the shameful story of the legislation's handling of funding of Education in the state of the disparity in our property tax base between some of the other towns that are have schools of the same size as ours you know in theory A-Town the same size of ours would have the same property tax base we would be asking our public to provide the same amount of money we are fairly low on the property tax Ace compared to other communities are size and that means when we make a budget request it has an oversized impact on the local community this is true also for city government and for the County government in this region so we have to be extra careful about everything we do we need to make sure that when we ask for money that is being spent wisely and importantly and Mister Murda goes into some detail about that as well as some suggest things that we can look at going forward not necessarily related to budgeting but more towards the same path that all of us are on anyway to try and bring Keen schools further along the path of Excellence so definitely take a look at that letter if you have not all right policy oh yeah policy also was a pretty long meeting this month we have a bunch that are in here for a second read finally begin on behalf of the policy committee move that the King Board of Education approved policy acee procedural safeguards non discrimination on the basis of handicap and disability and primarily this we have this on our our books this is being changed because the wording of the laws surrounding non-discrimination exchanged particularly language become more inclusive and our policy is needed to reflect that this one's kind of worried when you take the time to read it and it's kind of in legalese and that's because it's been pulled primarily out of state law and just put into policy which is really the safest way to make sure we get all of it in there on this is Ben reviewed both by the New Hampshire School Board Association and buy our own legal counsel before it came to our policy committee any questions all those in favor and you're supposed to carry 60 move on behalf of the policy committee at the Keene Board of Education approved a policy jlc student health services and School nurses alright similarly our policy jlc and falling behind the latest rsa's this one also had to be reviewed by some of our MK to bring us one of you that's what I thought okay then why are we on 2nd Reed we shouldn't be all right so this one might have been inadvertently put here I bet it was on second read first read last month and then it should have still been on first read this month reading the minutes from November's policy recommendation was to replace the current King School District policy with the nhsda policy and then there's another note in here in a minute but for students taking medication at school this references another policy jail CD so we moved to recommend policy moved to recommend to the full board that we replaced the Keen School District jlc that's over on correct with the NHS be a version of jlc has a second read reset recommended to the full board and then there's an additional note that says policy jlc will be cleaned up in the full board will receive the new be replaced jlc for review next month where we are now in the packet until after policy has a chance to review it because we definitely do want to put this in without feedback from the from the nurses move on behalf of the policy committee that the key Board of Education that prove policy jaii CFA no wait this is more complicated this is my where we have to remove the procedure wait I need the motions well it's just the full yeah I got my nose all right I'm going to explain it before I make the Motions we have an existing policy J icfa about hazing it includes the procedure to a company policy jic f a witch because that all it was approved by the board that makes that a policy we are trying to as we move through our policies separate our policies and procedures additionally our hazing policy has basically been completely tempted by laws that were passed in the last two legislative sessions so the first thing we want to do is move on behalf of the policy committee that the Keene Board of Education separate the accompanying procedure from existing policy jic fa second thank you that makes sense all we're doing is separating the procedure so that against getting comes and administrative procedure rather than a board policy questions all those in favor precarious 60 all right second move on behalf of the king Pollo committee that the Keene Board of Education replace existing policy jic fa with the New Hampshire school board administration's policy in j i c f a all right this is what you seen your drive is j.i. CFA at has very minor changes from our legal counsel primarily making sure that identifies the correct Personnel rather than just the generic terms that the school board Disney questions all those in favor alright carry 60 can't believe I got through that one but that's it's here anyway for that all right so we have a number of policies for first read you've got some time to review them because policy committee does not meet in December because it's like two days after Christmas everybody's off on holiday break so the next policy meeting is not until January so we'll probably bring this to your attention again next month but under first read we have jjic athletic eligibility this is involved in changing the wording reflect the fact that we now use competency-based rating here in the high school some of the eligibility terms were based on the old grading systems a CNA nursing mothers accommodation we did not have this in place it is now required by policy and there's actually been some pretty solid work done on this one I needed to reflect the state law that we do provide accommodations for any of our staff for a nursing ehab data governance we made a couple of notations of what we wanted mentioned a full board and that is that at our policy meeting we decided that we were pay hourly staff during those nursing. And that we wanted to mention that at the full board data governance and security just another update required it has looked at this or are we waiting for I to look at it okay if still on first read i j instructional resources and was brought to us from the high school in Sydney bring a Spell on You with recommended changes to that and ild educational questionnaires surveys and research had some State Law changes to that one basically provide for protection for our students so we have to make sure our policies are aligned with that that took almost as long as the actual meeting check alright School Liaisons Keene High School mister mister or Murad you want me to go ahead and place my microphone Scott alright principal and administrators shared the following going on Coral concerts coming up on the 19th of December if you want to get your holiday wreaths plants greens or the culture program selling those Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 1 winter sports have begun reassessment dates of tentatively being been set at the end of the semester for January twenty-two and twenty-three of course snowdays can impact set Endeavors one day we'll get snow and then course selection processes is beginning starting to go home for those that are going to be soon the seniors and juniors next next year and up that process begins believe it or not for the first semester even ends which is good for schools that's what I have wanted to point out with regard to the to the height high school is we've gotten more people going to Allstate for the concert band as well too and that was mentioned in the superintendent's report and he also included the newsletter from the music department that outline fat so what's interesting about that is the community is telling us that they want more infant emphasis on the Arts as well too and it looks like got the capabilities of a building that so that's very very encouraging for us as well too and there's a lot of activities going on in all of the music programs as well too so I think that that's a really bright really bright spot happening at the yacht at the high school thank you sorry thank you for mentioning that inclusion in the report Raleigh it was done with permission I did actually reach out to the author of that monthly newsletter that they put out to see if I had there or their blessing to include it in the report and they were apps absolutely ecstatic about doing that and making sure there was a weariness not only with the keyboard but with the six other boards within the SAU because they all have eyes on that but even broader than that and they are the reports are available to the public so where is Sports are starting as well I'm getting live updates from my left for the basketball games boys are down buy a bit and at halftime just your career center mr. right is not here Raleigh mentioned some of the new programs that are coming up that was really all I was going to bring up on that front we do have words fail me so I hope it wasn't important long was Rob mentioned renegotiating the revisiting the area agreements we also have to reauthorize our Regional agreement for the career center and some of those meetings are coming up as well so normally when busted season ends things slow down a little ramp for the board for a little while but that probably is not going to happen this year yeah bro the director of the career center has been working on Pathways and pipelines for some of the needs in the community and we've got we've got an apprenticeship program with Keen community education that speaks to apprenticeship level for those folks who are ready to enter an apprenticeship but it doesn't really speak to those who might be interested in entering an apprenticeship and helping them develop the skills necessary to come full on apprentice and chill in collaboration with a Community Education the career center is working on a on Pathways to establish pre-apprenticeship programs in part that may be available for our high school-aged students only but also in the after-school hours or in the evening hours for also are high school students but also community members that may be identify as needing a little more oomph before their Apprentice ready so just want to mention that that they're looking at it they're hearing it from industry folks that there is this need and they're being responsive also trying to determine how that fits in the grand scheme of our school district in our organization in a lot of things come into the school district and I said can you just fix this you know as a school system in in sometime the answer is yes sometimes the answer is not sure and other times the answer is just flat-out I don't think we can then have the bandwidth for that but this is one where it came in as a input from industry folks and the directors directors of both the career center in community at have been working to iron out those details to make that available possibly as early as next month so thank you Keene Middle School in the settings I have got so many good times just a huge congratulations and recognition again for our New Hampshire teacher of the year finalist free to Buddha Cody I believe was it last week or two weeks ago that there was the banquet Rob I know you attended it was at the DoubleTree in Manchester and it was a wonderful event they recognized all of the semi-finalists the finalists which re2 was one of four and the teacher of the year as well as the Blue Ribbon School award recipients and paid honor to the exiting teacher of the year as well and so I mean it was a wonderful night wonderful event this year for the finalists they not only provided an award for the individual but for the school that they were again so I'm just glad to be there and receive that on behalf of King Middle School and present that to the middle school so that they can put it up in their trophy case is something that's a little bit different than what you see all right next up just a reminder for KMS families second quarter progress reports are going to be coming out tomorrow and 13th already is tomorrow and report cards are January 31st in the ongoing portion being proactive with helping families understand competency-based education and how that works than when you're looking up at your students record and how high school last week they had a I think it was about a one-hour presentation called competencies and cookies conversation got to always have the food component in there and just buy the way for for family household caregivers with a student in KMS there is a Weekly Newsletter that is email blasted out that is chock-full of this information if you're not getting that newsletter call the front off I'm at KMS and make sure that they've got your correct email what else there's more to come also if if you want something different to start your morning you know KMS has w c a little live video sort of news that starts their morning at 8:50 a.m. and it's run by Mr Pim along with a group of very talented students so if you want an alternative from you note that the radio or what time cable you can see the livestream if you go to Camas this website and link up so winter sports are underway boys and girls basketball boys wrestling is a chorus concert December 21st at 6:30 so if you need a little music Joseph music next week then I would encourage you to do that and attend that another big thing that I I want to promote is there has been a newly-formed what they're calling Cardinal caregivers group rather than doing the traditional PTA they're really trying to encourage that it branches out to all caregivers be at parents Guardians Aunts Uncles and as well it's also Administration and staff it's a newly-formed group and all caregivers in Camas Community are encouraged to get involved and they are looking for a cluster f as in Frank caregiver representative they've got Reps for all but cluster F right now and it's really just a means of sort of helping with communication getting that out so if you're interested in that they do have an email address it's Cardinal caregivers group@gmail.com so again please reach out to that that's really portent for building the community and and having activities and then last but not least additions for the high school or the high school auditions for the KMS musical are tomorrow the 13th and Thursday the 14th from 3:30 to 4:30 I have to personally say as a Gen X or I'm very excited that this spring show is Schoolhouse Rocks so yeah I will absolutely be buying a ticket I will not sing any of the songs this evening but again that's that auditions are tomorrow and the shows are in March that's it for KMS right stuff going on Franklin is is Friedman who is another surprise last minute however I do have a report from her hang on just a second cuz it's in my email this was submitted imbibe their principal Eric Kress we have our spirit week this week chosen by the students and the kids are loving it so far we do have our chorus concert this Wednesday night that would be tomorrow night at 6:30 on the new visors that they have obtained this year student attendance continues to be a struggle as they have a lot of sickness going around and students seem to be having symptoms much longer than usual which has been concerning for the school on a positive note we've seen decrease in the number of students marked absent unexcused so families are communicating with the schools and getting their kids to the schools when they can and we did have a great turnout for parent conferences last week and we had a successful rollout of your first trimester standards-based port card this was a huge undertaking for our teachers so they should be given a great deal of credit so thank you for sending that again and thank you for Franklin's staff and for their Community for coming I'm in the way that they have this year so I know a lot of these points were concerns for Eric coming into the year so that's good to hear Fuller School Mr filio I met a couple weeks ago with a principal and Morty meeting we are we covered a lot of ground a lot of it being the student population decrease at the school and how that it may affect Staffing so we we look that and in pretty good detail to see past Trends and current trending might be the future Trend as far as that cuz that's obviously a pretty important when it comes to the Staffing so we we didn't talk about that in detail and want to get together again. Next month after the holidays and in it engage in that conversation we also talked a lot about the upcoming infrastructure that's proposed as well as playground playground repairs and Equipment repairs and the cost of it and no moving around of funds because things are Spencer than we thought they were going to be so I'm accepted meeting and it's basically to be continued in January and I will be reporting back to the board end to Rob about their concerns and being a potential requested potential changes coming up down the road excellent thank you Randy Simons was Miss Lancaster she did not provide me anything for Simon and I am out of the loop on that school at this time so little Mister male so as you as you are aware as a board of from the let me see what out as we're all aware the Secretary of State 9 oz the presidential primary really late toward the end of last month and the date that was selected for New Hampshire is January 23rd on our proof school calendar January 24th is a workshop day so when she put it on the 24th or maybe I wish we had put the workshop on the 23rd I did ask our building leaders what their thoughts were on it we only have two buildings in in the 18 School District where voting takes place Keene Middle School and Simons Elementary School and the other schools alway did for example I asked him if it would be a big impact if we flip flop those two days the 23rd and 24th at the high school they said absolutely that would be a huge impact because we're doing our assessments and our makeup work in closing out semester one provided knock on wood we don't have any interruptions with our school days between now and then as you know part of that I'm getting to that 90-day mark Middle School I'll come back to you later Fuller said would not be a major impact and ask the second question is do you recommend flip-flopping the days and she said yeah just you know to be a team player I would recommend that if that's what I like. look for Franklin indicated it would be a significant impact they've got a professional development activity there's no voting that takes place in the flip flop those days would be a huge impact for them as they are unable to reschedule the the trainers that are coming in for their PD day we locked said would be a minimal impact and didn't have an opinion whether or not we should flip-flopping so under the to school that that voting does take place in the Middle School said that it would be a pretty big impact for them and they do not recommend flip-flopping the days even though students would be in the building they feel they have the ability to segregate the students from the voting population it is a newer building and they do have that infrastructure the Simon School said that it would be a minimal impact in the are recommending that made flip flops so with the board's permission I would like to explore what the impact would be by only flip-flopping one school in our district we have done this before for one day or two days periodically so it's not a new practice but I would like to see what that impact might be broader than just Simonds Elementary School and if it's okay with you issue that change if necessary that's a change to the calendar so would require a motion yes yes to I guess what I'm asking for is authorization to change the cat reminder for our schools that house voting in the city of Keene as needed can I ask a question does it have to be that generic it sounds like if I followed the the discussion correctly it's just time until ementary that's asking for the flip flop check as well Ford for your information SAU why there are only two other schools where voting takes place at small Borough School in Marlow school they did flip flop their January workshop with the primary day so now the student do not come in on primary day but will come in when that Workshop was originally scheduled so it'll be a lot of communication but I do want to be mindful of the concerns that have been brought to me into this board with voting the particular folks going into the elementary school so you're not sure at this time that that's the direction you're going to go so you're looking for additional feedback all right so four months you're looking for a motion that would allow you to make that decision for Simon School and as as you determine best yet but he also wanted, so that's why I didn't want specific so I'm going to take a crack at that of the whole day. set you know my definition do we actually have to have snow or can we basically you was one of those days for that type of an emergency purpose it would require us to make up that day so could we could say what we're closing down the whole school district that day but we'll have to make that day up to hit 100 80 do we and I know we've got a couple of variations on that wear it at home. you know you have your ear so ready at home day learn from home day I think it would be most impactful here at the high school where they're doing reassessments the kids need to be in here so that's the majority of our students that were talking about 2 but do you like the creative thinking cslb complicated no matter what yeah go ahead and forgive me rap if you mentioned this already but just for for history sake let you know if folks don't remember there have been years past with voting where Simon's has been closed that day has not had school and they've made the day up so this is sort of been a habits awkward but this this is not something new or unusual when it comes to Simonds Elementary School so just think that's worth noting it's a real concern at Simon's school because there's no good way to segregate the voting part of the building from the students on the voting takes place in their multi-purpose room which is also their cafeteria you really can't secure the doors to that Maria and even if you can the what they do is they give the kids lunches in their classrooms but they have to get into the cafeteria and get the food get it back out so that's just not a secure situation the end up kind of open off walking Pathways across the playground so that people can get from the parking lot area and from the neighboring communities into the building to vote have to Shepherd their kids across those roped-off walking areas you know as concerns around student safety and the excitability of political activists it has become an increasing concern to the Simons Community to keep their kids safe on those voting days that more or less spot on I mean historically speaking that has been the most difficult environment to segregate voters from mean I would not only during the actual King in the building but even if kids are out at recess is Highgrove gosh we now get a whole bunch of people are coming over for voting purposes Ditch Witch pop when I got to go back to that that you're also correct especially in a national election that volatility is high and that's not going to change this year I would think just on safety alone it'll be just easier to take a snow day still have back-to-back days off I'll have an extended weekend in okay we make it one day later on down the road but but I would say that's the easiest and safest and less actually less complicated way to go that way but it is more complicated for the high school because of the semester break is right at that time and that shifts their semester break and their reassessment and finalizing the end of that term for there's so if we if we aren't in on the 23rd at the high school where there is no voting and there is no threat there is no concern their semester doesn't end until Thursday instead of Tuesday we use that Workshop day at the high school to turn around our rosters from first semester to second semester and so if our semester doesn't end before that Workshop day then really out of out of sorts at the high school and you talking 1400 kids so that's that's way more complicated then I think we imagine and using a snow day doesn't meet the needs for that particular day in this building so the other buildings probably less of an impact but in the high school I think the most or the least disruptive is to address the two schools where there may be an issue and only those two schools we've done that before or could we just exempt the high school for that day and just have all the other schools to be out to make it a little more even across the board and I'm just throwing ideas out there and I don't have that sense from the other building leaders that they would want to do that either and I think they want to the school day I'm just letting you know whatever works yeah and we have done this for just Simon's before we've had an alternative schedule for just the high school before we've had alternative schedules for other schools summertime Renovations and it's it's a small interruption in the grand scheme of 180 days the Rob in light of Randy's questions cuz he did give you some options to consider at least I'm wondering if the motion should be to authorize the superintendent to review primary day and workshop days of the 20 3rd and 24th and make the most appropriate changes need it to the school calendar I would second that if that's a motion could we could we maybe simplify this a little maybe I'll terrorize bring tenant to amend the school calendar as needed in consideration of the presidential primary yeah that works I thought playmat the reason for that is it it rather than tying you to just one or two schools that lets you consider the full range and figure out what's best for all of our student that's what we've been looking for a appreciate that Twitter did we beat this one up nicely all right all those in favor any opposed carry 60 well that was a lot more on Simon's than I expected Wheelock Mister Roberts oh that's right you did Jonathan Daniels can Community yet I'm back with more exciting great stuff happening in our district don't let anybody tell you otherwise jady preschool chat with Jo Ann Mulligan we've currently got 103 current students 57 are typically developing children not identified 46 are IEPs so we're doing well with our percentages with supporting our students in our community she said at JoAnn said to date they've done 45 evaluations for special ed or early support some come from referrals from the child's pediatrician or from a preschool that they're currently attending and Joanne said that she suspects that Jay Dee will get another 35 to 40 evaluations coming there way before the end of the school year they had a their annual craft fair December 2nd she said it was a big success this is their their one annual fundraiser that they used to then have money for whatever they're seeing you know either for this school year or down the pike for for extra resources I know that right now they're planning to use those funds for the new toys another sort of Hands-On active these for the kids and then next week they're doing a nice event with the Jonathan Daniels preschoolers with the e l l students at community yard next door and as well some some of the kids from Cedar Crest and they're all getting together to sing some Christmas carols and have a kind of fun intergenerational inter shrimp looking for inter building event so that will be nice for that Jay Dee for community at there's two items that I had added to the drive today for your interest if you haven't looked at the drive since about midday they're in there first step if you missed we had some good press last week in the Sentinel with our new Ellen a program that's one of the items that's in the driveway now have six new students that have officially started their clinical training case for the Ellen a program this is brand new it's a really really big deal you have to be under a rock to not know that Healthcare right now is just so much in demand and so it's great that we've now got an opportunity here in our community and these students will be training at Cheshire Med and so please continue to promote this and spread the word on it we've currently got 63 students enrolled in our adult ADD 24 in our diploma program we recently had three completers in our diploma program so congratulations to them and their hard work and also in the driveway I attached the hiset brochure one bit of good news with hiset is that the company that owns the test has finally given testing centers i e King Community add the ability enter their own testing schedules on the hiset website so now we've got our dates with King Community Ed set through June and we Test 2 days every month and the testers do not need to be our own student so again did something please promote out into the community that we are now a testing site and and we're available so just shows again our ability to extend our reach in the area with with education and that is it for Kane Community yet mhsp a master ormerod thank you sir couple seminars I want to find out one day happened today which I had to had to miss was interpreting all the new laws and taking a look at all the new things we're going to have to look at the more interesting one is coming up around the January 15th through the 16th and it's this one is free but I guess if we do register for them we should drop a letter to walk to the SAU office just to know just in case but this one was particularly interesting to me because they're going to explore what the the laws it and implications and aspects of giving food giving more free food in schools and what that would have to happen Etc if you'll recall from last September and October weed there was some resolutions regarding whether that whether we wanted to support that I think that one was hotly debated and contested I think I remember being in the minority opinion although we may have swung it as well to two to support programs so that all kids could have free lunches so that's part of what's on the agenda at that particular one you were on the fence and didn't think it was a good idea it might be good to attend this one and find out and get more information about it as well too so I have to miss that date cuz of work commitments but I'm home that there's going to be a right up on it cuz I'm particularly interested in in the issue of solving the food insecurity among so many of our to school youth internship the topics the ones that I thought would be most interesting we're actually around the lawsuits around adequacy and the swept superintendent put a summary of those in his report is so I would I would like to ask Rob to talk a little bit about what he knows about this I'm going to be pressing vnhs PA to help us interpret this but I I really yeah what would appreciate the superintendent's addressing this these findings sure so on the same day before Thanksgiving Superior Court issued to or issued two orders as a result of two separate lawsuits the first one is the conval suit which spoke to the level of adequacy funding that provide by the state this is been a long drawn-out Court battle I guess we're number of schools have either signed up to be a part of the Lost dude or signed up to be a part of the we agree with you ever we signed up for the Wii U agree with you effort here and Keane and other districts in RS so you long stem short is a huge ruling that you can sit through I think it's like 50 odd pages long but long story short is the judge found in favor of the plaintiff which is conval and not the love adequacy funding is not reflective of what is required by state definition of an adequate education so the judge for the first time that I've ever seen or even bigger checked it issued a dollar although he had stated that the dollar figure he was issuing was more likely than not short of what would meet the adequate education requirements in terms of funding from the state level he did Issue it's somewhere in the $7,400 range I believe I can't remember off at 7 so so that's what Superior Court so I have not heard any movement on any appeal I suspect that there will likely be an appeal but if not then that is the order and then it will be incumbent Upon Our lawmakers. consider that level of funding the other one is the swept which is a Statewide education property tax that's what swept stands for this is the one Jennifer friedmann has been in all of us to pay attention to and to be listening to the sweat funding Tim and you can meet up throw your water bottle at me if I get this wrong is kind of The Equalizer if it's meant to be the equalizer for districts as they collect the Statewide education tax another the portion of your tax bill that goes to the State education as opposed to local education tax bill what has happened is that some what's the word entity that's not the right word municipalities some is a paleti's have been allowed to not pay their state-level education tax because they don't have school age kids and or school starbury oh you said no we're not paying this the Statewide education property tax and so that ruling has said no it needs to be distributed evenly or with some form of equity we're all so I think that's about the best I can summarize that Tim unless you've got recognized Chris okay I was back in the State House when this happened Governor's George Lynch when he ran for governor of the state he one of his promises was that he would eliminate call Dona towns in by eliminating all donut Town that's why they created the Statewide and so the Statewide is it just it down to a point that you don't have to spend single penny to anybody else that was great and that is really constitutional why you can't create a tax that is totally separate different level for everyone in yeah. Think that judge was right on with that one of the other problem was when we wanted the court issued the same ruling like the judge said about put education then it sent it I mean the Statehouse took it to any government took it to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said two critical things one word that the the judicial branch cannot order the physical Branch the legislative branch to raise any money second it says legislative branch was the one who decided what inadequate education was and so mrs. durelli who was the Speaker of the House might affect brought one of our teachers here who retired who is on the education committee and they said okay you have 1.3 million dollars make the adequate education match. 1.3 million dollars that's how all these small towns and cities have gotten really the shaft put to them because they never decided what an adequate education would be and then cause they said we're only spending 1.3 million dollars and fitted into that one and so the big thing over here is going to be Supreme Court is the Supreme Court going to be different and say constitutionally yes the state of New Hampshire is responsible for fun doing adequate education infecting is kin legislative branch be trusted not to act in their own self-interest in fail to develop what it adequate education is that is the big key we we screwed up kids over way back it's not a democratic issue is not a republican issue it's in the state house and what happens is when I first went to the State House 277 of the 400 people there were 65 and older and over 70 or 75 and older none of them have children or grandchildren School District so they don't want to fund education they they forgot that people before them from their education and that's the sad part about it is just a fail have leadership by both parties that's my 12 years up there that did we cover it I thought things over there also a turquoise rest of Cam if you want to continue that if not we're good you good doing the two of them they got it all right do you have anything else for don't write sau29 we did have the public hearing to approve the sau29 budget on November 29th which did pass we did have Jacqueline and Riley both came to that is that correct yes when I was there as a representative and that budget line shows up in our budget and cannot be changed at this point that was the meeting that that could have been change there's not a significant increase over last year and the changes primarily reflect some pay increases for various members of the SAU staff and central office staff and such pills are available in your Google drive if you're interested if the public wants to review that they can contact central office and they will get those documents to you our next meeting is not until March 27th so I will remind you that as that gets closer under old business the area update Rob already covered most of that in the superintendent's report Rob we need a motion for that right yeah I think you probably should do that as an act of the board to oh you got it look at this this just arrived in my inbox move that the King Board of Education request a review a review of all area plans and direct the superintendent to notify each participating District of the desire to review the existing plants including the need to extend their terms second well if it was what I was talking about earlier our current plans expire in about 2 years and it's just gets the process rolling to review them any other questions all those in favor Perris 60 the other thing we like to mention tonight before we clear out to nonpublic is we are coming up on budget season importantly for the board please remember that in January flip flop the education committee and the full board meeting so January 9th will be the education committee and January 16th the third Tuesday will be a board meeting and that will be the public hearing at which we present the budget to the public over in the auditorium and then come back here and make any of our final changes to that the Saturday budget meetings with are tactically finance committee meetings but we do well they're different so the first Saturday is a finance committee budget review that's January 6th that's in this room begins at 8 a.m. it is recommended that the rest of the board at 10 because that's when you get your explanation of what all of the cost centers are doing and what they're proposing January 13th at 8:30 a.m. again in this room that is when the administration answers any questions put to them by either the finance committee or other board members and there is a full board meeting immediately following that budget review meeting if you have a little flexibility in the schedule and can only make one of them that's the one to make but those are coming up January 6th and 13th those are open to the public as is obviously January 16th which is the public hearing at which we presume do I have oh yeah first session which is also a Saturday that happens on February 3rd that's the one where again in the auditorium at 9 a.m. we present the budget one more time and that's the meeting at which the voting public can come in and change some of the numbers in the budget if they so choose I kept all of them at once but wait when's the actual voting mark floating head to the polls March 12th all right and that's all any other new business before the board seeing none can I have a motion to go into non-public session in accordance with our essay 91a 34 staff and student personnel and negotiation mr. filio Mister o Murad yes sister Roberts that concludes the public portion of the meeting thanks you too AMT productions for broadcasting us this evening to anyone who tuned in on the LIE stream and to the administrators to  through with us we will reconvene behind us for non-public in about 5 minutes a robin

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