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Keene Board of Education Meeting for January 16, 2024

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Keene Board of Education Meeting for January 16, 2024 Keene High School LGIA, Keene, NH at 6:30 PM Transcription available upon request.

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good evening and welcome to the Keene Board of Education regular meeting for Tuesday January 16th 2020 for the actual meeting we do have some business to get through but the primary purpose tonight will be the public hearing starting in about half an hour to present our budget to the public in the city of Keene can we open with the Pledge of Allegiance please I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all thank you we do have time for public input if any would like to give some now as well when the budget is presented public hearing any members of the public are allowed to come up and ask questions to make commentary at that time is there anyone who wishes to speak at this time all right can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda second anybody have documents they want removed from the consent agenda Pueblo's errors all right all those in favor any opposed carries 70 we will I don't think it's going to take us 25 minutes to prepare for the public hearing I think we're pretty close ready to go Chris if you're comfortable with that you'll present the budget during the public hearing we're articles you can hand off to me if you want I don't know that will trade back and forth like we've done in the past will just get through it as quick as we can all right and then technically the next item is recessed for public hearing but we're not going to do that until 7 moving on with the regular meeting report of the board chair and there's not a whole lot to report on top of the budget work that we've been doing that's pretty much occupied all of our board time for the last month or so between that shuffling coram's on the Committees and and weather delays and such has been pretty much the focus I do want to report due to an extreme increase in work as for mr. right he is stepping down as chair of the facilities committee and Randy filio has agreed to take that spot for the next one to three months which point will have Pat elections and will redistribute committees and chairs as needed as well Raleigh ormerod is taking Ron spots on the finance committee just because Ron's travel schedule has left him pretty scattershot as to when he kind of can't you're one of the consistent voice specifically for finance coming through this budget. This has nothing to do with Ron's contribution to the board he's been a very valuable member he just got handed a ton of responsibility at work that much yes I'm out of the state on Tuesday nights moving on reported the student representative do the whether the student representative was able to join us this evening entirely understandable and so we'll move on to the report the superintendent mr. Malay so I won't go through the entire report you have it in your Drive is available for folks who want to take a look at it if there's ever any questions regarding that be happy to answer them before during after in any of the meetings big the biggest news for us over at the central office was the resignation of Nancy Deutsch as she relocated a lot further south and we're in the process of recruiting hiring for that position of Ben White is going to lead that committee and he is assembling a committee to work through the applicants we do have a pool of applicants already in there and so I'm sure he will be connecting with the people a committee to get that process moving sooner rather than later be on that we continue to work on the strategic planning the two different committees that are working on the separate pieces the portrait of a graduate and they call it we believe statements or the value statement other meeting at different times kind of alternating back and forth between them they continue to get closer and closer to that first draft that will be available for people to weigh in and share their inside the components that went into it all came from stakeholder input from the survey that went out in September the community forums in October and all of the data in the input that was collected during those two months is what led to the buckets that were created as a reflection of what our communities are looking for with regard to our schools and our education so stay tuned that'll be coming out soon hopefully before the end of this month but I hate to over-promise and under-deliver on that so as soon as it is as it is ready folks will have access and be able to see it aboard did get a glimpse of that to survey out and thank you to those who responded to that survey on the three different formatting styles that you preferred for the portrait of a graduate so thank you for weighing in on that that help the committee come to a decision on that I believe they landed on the second option based on the feedback that came in was rather overwhelming in support of that second option so that'll be out as soon as we're able to piece it all together you know we just got back from the holiday break we had our first meeting and we're continuing to charge forward with that so if there are any questions regarding any of the material or items in the report please let me know either now or later that's fine questions or comments for Rob all right one item I did forget as every year we do have three board seats up for re-election this year and clear right now weather the three candidates that are up for re-election will be running I know some of them are but the filing. For anyone interested in running for the board for the next three years is begins on January 24th we think it's open until February second we are unable to confirm because control office employee was checking on me was unable to come in today because of the weather so if you are interested in filing maybe don't wait until what I just said the last minute was and maybe look towards that first week of getting on J 24th always interested in in the new voices and new ways of looking at things so if you're interested you can talk to anyone currently on the board when it actually entails sweetly happy to talk to you what's required to be up here alright standing committees this is somewhat truncated for a number of reasons but if you do have a committee report and it was important stuff that happened in your committee do are you in facilities there is no report they do not meet in the month of January because there's a lot of overlap between facilities and especially their administrative Liaisons and the folks working on the budget and finance committee obviously he's been in here for many hours the last two Saturdays so facilities did not meet this month education also did hunt meet but we do have several field trip request to look at I don't know do you know at least so do we want the emotion first right now for the Puerto Rico have education moves to improve the key chest field trip request to Puerto Rico second layered haircuts thank you all right you'll see that information is in your drive was just playing some things out to me about that you want a comfortable with moving forward on the permission request you know the cover page the form that they fill out it says the cost per student is $2,799 but in the supporting documentation from it's the travel trip fender on the last page it says 3239 pain Travelers in for free at the rate of $3,020 so there's different dollar figures here and then my second concern is because of the price point is over $1,500 there was nothing that I found at least in our drive for tonight's meeting to indicate what the fundraising opportunities were going to be so that's what caught my eye on on this one all right normally those would have been caught in the education committee and obviously didn't have a chance to look at that so I think what I'd like to do with the Puerto Rico since this is February of 2025 or more than a year ahead at this point I would like to table that and send it back to education and Cindy will send you the exact issues with you can have the the Spanish teachers correct that and bring it to the education next next month wait education happens after the full board next month Reddit it's possible we'll just have you we might just have them bring it right back to the full board next month I'll let you know that too I have had others in the past slightly different from what's in the brochure said admit it may be correct still I just might be different because I really so she did something but we do need the clarification we have a Havoc hs2 Boston so Board of Education moves to approve the cage as field trip request to Boston and this is the Museum of Fine Arts for Spanish this coming March 2nd. all right didn't even have concerns on that one when I took a look at it in the drive that one looks okay to me Decadron the same day there's no, all right all those in favor of approving the field trip to Boston are you opposed Carrie 70 Spanish club trip to the Museum of Fine Arts I mention that only because our next one is another Boston trip but I did I break you this is glasses for the Board of Education was to approved acacius NCCC field trip Rebecca I'm sorry I'm heading out really hard this is for culinary arts through Career Center this one is our city. February 5th Fin restaurant and bar show the one-day trip yeah good job, no concerns just personal opinion I found it interesting that this is our culinary group they're going to sounds like a really great experience but I noticed that they were also there was a note that the student should bring money to go to McDonald's and I would just say I would encourage you know finding another venue I need an experienced what is a really great food scene of Boston but also no judgement I get it when you got to turn the bus around and get back home any other comments or concerns all those in or of approving The Culinary field trip and imposed during 70 finance committee will primarily happen afterwards but we do have funds transfer report we're going to do that next meeting we weren't able to get it all done and she'll pay the time so we'll just mix them together make sense Personnel did not meet they were scheduled to meet tonight and canceled due to the weather may be sensing a theme here all right we will have some staff request for non-public later tonight though okay thanks Rob policy committee hey ready for this we did not meet this month. However is because our meeting fell during the holiday break so we weren't able to collect enough people to actually hold a meeting we're going to finish all of the board business prior to 7 we have no old business other than the items that Rob mentioned in his report I mentioned in my report, I do have one item for new business we have proposed School District calendar for 24 25 which is in your drive can I have a motion motion to approve the Keene School District school year calendar for 924 2025 as presented sorry I tried to open it and I got the agenda instead I got it I've got it too Rob is there anything important that you wanted to mention on this one changes not anything really significant getting back to that last week of February for the February break we were in the third week this year we didn't catch that collectively and so we're getting back to that same alignment with the other New Hampshire School District Credit to been in the calendar committee for the work that they put into that into get it to a point where it's ready for consideration and approval they don't just put it together on a piece of paper and say here you go there's a lot of dialogue there's actually feedback that comes back in that is shared and the committee kicks that around and sorts it all out before they finalize the calendar until they've done a tremendous job they built in the three snow days as we approved last year moving forward with regard to inclement weather days so that's been built in there and I think band unless you have anything else to add pretty much said I found a microphone I think you pretty much set at the the only other thing we moved that was fairly significant was Shifting the school day to start one day earlier yeah you want to explain that a little bit because it is that had to do with the December 23rd date looking at the calendar we were ending up with having the holiday break in number to be having students come on a day that I'm really wouldn't really be beneficial so we we surveyed all stakeholders to see if they would prefer to keep it that way or start the school year day earlier or end of school end one day later and from that we had about 65% of stakeholder say they would like to start the school school you earlier so we shifted to have a workshop day the beginning of the year that was probably one of them the other significant shifts in in addition to the February break but the lie that was it thanks man as of you on social media will notice the teachers and parents were generally appreciative of having actual start date today and some of them specifically saying that they appreciated the snow day rather than that I learned from home day and it is accurate that we haven't had a traditional snow day in this District since before covid so it has been a while all right any other questions or comments on the calendar going to be year where you've got the list of the dates in that chart at the very bottom and I think that's really helpful for years you really had to rely on your interpretation of the key code right and sometimes it worked well other times you know posted always connect the dots so I think having that listing of the dates and what specifically it is is really helpful so it's for the common sense thing but I'm glad we've got that in place to thank you haven't seen no other concerns all those in favor of approving the calendar any opposed Carrie 70 any other new business for the board all right that actually completes our regular agenda other than on public which obviously we're not going to be able to squeeze in in 10 minutes yep thanks Rob Rob has confirmed that the filing. For am interested in running for the board will be January 24th until February 2nd so that's a Wednesday until the following Friday so again anybody interested feel free to contact current members will tell you what's involved and know what you need to do to register you can contact Shana pelkey is it still Shana central office and she will guide you through the filing process if you so wish to do that all right do you have any other or any public input at this time we will open the public Hearing in about 10 minutes all right if everyone's waiting for the public hearing I guess we can't legally start it until 7 so a couple minutes break is 7 more or less depending on which timepiece I look at so we will open the public hearing for the Keene Board of Education to present the proposed the 20 425 budget and brief commentary on the budget process before I hand it over to Chris and Tim this process starts for our finance department really as soon as we get back to school they helped open the schools and then they immediately. into budgets our goal for budgeting in this school district is to have a needs-based budget meaning you know the state passes all sorts of laws that we have to meet the school board various policies over the years and obviously the Educators principals have goals that they have for their students the process is supposed to work starting at the building level the cost center level for example candoos department they look at what need to accomplish the next year and then they look at what people especially and other resources they will need to get there and they develop their budgets based on that that then goes through our to assistant superintendents written in detail at the building level mentally that makes its way to the finance department and they put together the proposed budget that they bring to the finance committee finance committee spent almost 8 hours thing to that presentation a couple weeks ago last weekend's there was another two hours or so explaining and answering questions that they had posed following by about an hour of the finance committee adding and subtracting from the budget followed by another hour of the school board adding and subtracting to the budget and that brings that brings you what you see on that paperwork that's being handed out at the door of the proposed budget that is at this point what the school board is proposing for next year's budget the purpose of tonight's meeting is for us to present it to the public to answer questions that may be posed by the public and to hear, Harry from folks after which we will reset the public hearing go back into our regular school board meeting and make any further changes that we feel we need to make to the budget so that's where we are right now I'm going to let our finance chair and our CFO present the actual budget and the Jack and I are going to get out of the way so you can see the screen behind us amateur male he's going to get out of the way to come on I want to thank everybody that tier 10 minutes ago we only had one person in the audience and I thought I'd be talkin to the wall and the screen so I appreciate everybody coming out here on a crappy night so I know the roads are pretty bad and I see that a lot of people out here I just not part of the cult team are the people part of the community and as a chair said that we went over this on Saturday the final pot and finance committee and then the board went over it info is charged with the Holiday Inn the weather and everything will be my bill is going to be a few errands in here but it will fix the be fixed up for the regular eating 10 minutes people do a  of a job but they can only do so much in a short. Of time and if I see some of the areas are is that I see in I will correct them on the spot and Tim will know in case anybody in the board is going through there's an error in Warren 8 that will be fixed before we get into the budget September of this year is when the the financial Watershed stops there was 190 billion dollars put out for schools around the country New Hampshire good this year and can get this year 20% at least 20% of that was to come Batwoman gloss over the Cobra time the second part of it was to improve air quality because it was determined that are in the sky who's not only increase the risk of Cobra transmission but they're also increase the risk of just normal transmission and Ezra notice is an awful lot of sick this year in very few of them are covid so that was a priority that was in their funding and we will address those two issues right up front and the third part like I said last week the state of Alabama built for prisons with education covid-19 state of Texas spend a hundred million dollars to go in and update upgraded Museum so a lot of states around the country spent money where it wasn't really had to do with education of the states like the what you probably been heard that they created a lot of programs that required additional people to go forward and now because the money stopping they now looking at having to cut with those programs and again I will we will talk about this in how the King School District in the teens school board with forward-looking while trying to come wish all those items but without overburden the taxpayers or come up with a good program and say the money is done so we're just going to cut the program no matter how beneficial it was so that's a little background that goes into the budget so welcome to the King School District public hearing 20 24 25 budget in Warren the on this budget they will be a total of eight one articles they would know publicly submitted one article the deliberate session will be Saturday February 3rd 2024 in New Orleans thorium where all people of 18 registered voters will be able to partake in the discussion if I remember correctly if you're not a regular voting you can sign up that day is it Kim I don't I'm not sure about that Chris will find out in pass it on but you can come irregardless thank you this second session we vote at the polls Tuesday March 12th 2024 and now be all Wards at the king Haitian Center in in case we have inclement weather the the chairman of the school board will open up the hearing and Will Reeve so into a Time certain to make sure we make the deliberate session before in order to have the second session you respond turbo investment it's the same says for students in schools but the responsible investment is for the student school and the people of King beat we got to respect the ability of the taxpayers to be able to afford a quality education which we really appreciate because as far as the state of New Hampshire and all that's required is an adequate education and we realize it adequate education doesn't get us students prepared for the future the King School District cost per pupil deviation from the state average levels you can see on that chart where we were in 2013 2014 and part of that was one of the reasons in the 2010 when we went out to you to get a bond past to upgrade a Four elementary schools the voters said no so we get told the voters that when we call the Jonathan Daniels we do reduction in staff and everything we would have about a 1.7 million dollar savings and we guarantee them that we would put that 1.7 million dollars in upgrading to Fisk bodies of all are elementary schools we done that and now we're on to Jonathan Daniels upgrade and so again we have not gone and say we're going to just reduce no matter what we are you're maintaining it we maintain the quality of Education in to understand that cost per pupil deviation is that in a lot places just because you have a reduction in students doesn't mean you can't necessarily reduce the cost we have made teacher cuts and stab cuts when they were prudent but we say if you're at the high school and you lose 50 people in 50 people were spread among the classes you just can't reduce to teachers and so we have structural problems facility that maintain a certain cost for student so we can we come we combined the structure will cost and the teaching course in keeping the opportunity when is many classes open to the student if possible and we what we wanted to make sure we went wasting money just for the sake of spending money Kingsport student yes the king cost per student is as you can see it's going up and down and sometimes that's where the new initiatives that some work out some don't work and we've had pilot programs at the pilot program doesn't work out we don't continue it and so again it's going up and down and but you can see the difference in 2014 and 2015 and even down to 2016 we were ahead of the the state average we're below the state average and this comes I'm really important because you can look at the town of Bedford Bedford is about the same size as king but Bedford has three times a taxable property that King has and so two basically if we were to hypothetically match on Bedford dollar-for-dollar that means we would almost have to raise $3 maybe $1 that they raised in them taxes so again that you can see how we've been doing it then we're going up but the gap between what we used to be and where we are now compared to being over and then under is increasing drastically that's the combination of the administration be on school principals and the finance director keeping them kind of in line all working together to make sure keep the course where it supposed to be the Knicks hey Johnny. The present percent deviation from cost per student and so around 2013 2014 we're almost 9% above the cost per pupil State average truck button so we're 2013 2014 we were about 9% above the state average right now we're about 10% below the state average in the percent deviation from the cost per student State average the when we go to page 7 no technology doesn't always work the time in 2014 2015 we had 3486 on students a projected enrollment is 300 3044 next year the what people Don't Panic it's starting to rust but it's almost becoming impossible for families with children to move into Keens age you can get a two-bedroom apartment it's going to cost you 14 15 $3 a month it's way over the usual 30% that you don't want to have to pay for and so again we don't have families movie in the true king because the city of King in the surrounding areas we're trying to take care address the housing shortage and it's going to be a tough call and without the housing if we can't fix the housing shortage in the city clean the enrollment will continue to drop and not only will Roma continue to drop the students when the students dropped we don't have we can't produce as many for productive workers for local industry and the local industry will have to go someplace else to find their employees but they the local industry is working with the career center to produce smoke more students qualified estate in the community but there's a housing shortage in that has to be addressed because it's affecting a lot of Industry schools in the city of Keene okay we go to AKO number one the main budget article I have to read this off I'm not 12 in South anybody's intelligence at first session you have to right now per session. Thank you beyond basic need a purpose set forth has a total of 75 million 680 6255 should this article be defeated the operation budget will be 74 million seven hundred and $70,068 what day is it so people are going to be looking at and saying hey if we broke the budget down sorry about that can save 900 $900,000 in Texas but what happens is we have for people that are in Grant funded programs two of those people are reading intervention is so the grand is running out so those people are important they we need them to recover on covid-19 and because they we need a man cold when was we have decided that we want them to be in the budget I think there's two other ones into Ventures and Technology specialist and a at-risk coordinator at the high school both those positions those are new positions about $500,000 if the budget gets voted down those new we don't have the $500,000 that $500,000 can't go forward but we're also eliminating the fourth positions and that they're a little bit more $500,000 so again if the budget is defeated those four people go when the grant funds and we can spend money to go forward so that's about the million dollars swing and saw if you vote it down we lose for critical people that approved really valuable they been grant-funded and again because they valuable we want continue I'm going forward and we think it's a worthwhile investment to continue those four people we have listened to what the they say citizens of King who came over the past two years and talked about us what we want what they expect to be in the high school all they wanted to be a safe place and wanted to Be an Effective learning position in so this is going to help but we also have other children that they're at risk we have children that kind of fall right in the middle they don't qualify for any like an IEP or 504 it's kind of like the it may be a lousy analogy but I'm going to try is that a $50 or under is a free and loses free lunch $75 is a reduced lunch $76 cuz you have to pay for everything and so we would be looking at the children that could be in the 76 to 100 and what we want to do is make sure with this in the richest is that the kids don't drop off the kids don't get in trouble but we can help them go on and have a successful time at the high school in Charlotte it's one of those you have it's all for you pay $80,000 and we saved three or four children it's amazing pay it forward Chris can I ask you to pause there for a second the point he was making about the for grant-funded positions that's that ends up being one of the major drivers in this budget will get to the other is two other major. we'll get to those later in the presentation but I want to make sure there wasn't any questions and what he was saying about how that came out of grant-funded positions which effectively when the grants run out if we choose not to continue and we lose those positions the respective build buildings made very strong Arguments for why we should keep those positions and that's why we moved them over into the regular operating budget this year but that is in terms of calculating the default budget it is a double hit for us the roughly 500,000 coming off of the grant positions counseling - and in calculating the default and then adding that same 500 back into the regular budget counts as a positive so even though it's a net change in cost to the district it shows as almost a million-dollar difference between last year budget in this year's budget so I want to make sure that that really gets across that does end up being one of the more expensive things in the budget this year and we do as a board support the administration and saying is really important positions thank you George actually the net change addition to the budget would be $36,000 and some from the Staffing changes free yes that first Staffing changes I don't want someone quote mean say the budget Brazilian exchange of 36,000 understanding default budget RS a 40-13 for budget is used in the subdivision means that the amount of the same Appropriations as contained in the operation project authorized from the previous series reduced and increased as the case may be by they received contracts and other obligations previously occurred a mandated by law and reduction by one time expenditure is contained in the operation to budget so it's 2020 2324 West Debt Service says + contract + obligation by War and minus any one time one time expenses speak to this life and the next slide simply the default budget is this year's budget with these exact adding and subtracting factors to so our debt service is a little cheaper this year but to take that out $745 the negotiated labor contracts so these are salary and benefits that aren't changes that were obligated to do races of people we already have 969000 transfer station contract that's an obligation we have to pay $37,000 more SAU cost $105,000 there are no Expendable trust fund deposit non-employee special ed cost those are costs that were bound to provide they're actually going down due to less out-of-district tuition cost to run $46,000 included we have no one time building expenses and the total adjustment would be $866,000 above this year's budget and so if the budget was voted down our budget would be 74000 $770 770000 $68 $916,000 below the boards recommended budget at this point they haven't officially vote on the budget will do that after they hear from you that's where we are right now thank you Tim on page 11 where we stand now the 20 23 2024 operation budget is 73903832 dollars the 2023 2024 school board's budget 75686000 255 a net increase of 2.4 or a total of 1782423 + the finance committee proposed increase was around 9% the finance committee took effect they looked at the one who's going to have the tax rate in we decided to remove some items because one of the things that couple of things that we did over the past two years the the people teen that voted in some really good contract for teachers and other employees and while those contracts May Loom Lodge but when you look at the the Social Security increase is rounded off with 69 in the three you're talkin about 18% Social Security creases over the last three years with a compounding fat factor of about 21 per cent teachers in August which members did not get nowhere near that amount but number of them that the people of King granted them a one-time really first-year big Ray's to help retain and then he'll also helped recover some of the losses they suffered over the last three years due to high inflation this one over here this goes back years to our old school board member on Tom Penza and update up to the second adjustments on this works really good when it's great you still a person's idea and keep it so any time changes made any place it automatically comes out reflecting tax impact on $100,000 house my fellow board member over here doesn't like the $100,000 house because I can't find $100,000 house in Phoenix and mostly it should should be on a $2,000 house but this is kind of the standard we use and it's kind of easy for a lot of people just go one to one across okay on page 13 stayed adequate a taxi Aid that's based on the formula is right now they that has nothing to do with the court case is going on and you can't beat jecht anything while you be foolish if you reject anything coming out of the Court the legislative body until it actually shows up Uncle local age $6,900 New Hampshire building a down 30 1492 happens there we get a certain percentage for when we have buildings like for example the middle school when we bonded the middle school but the state of New Hampshire does not pay any into and so each year when me on the bond is paid on the member of the amount of interest is being reduced again one of those why we did not like it when the public vote down the bond in 2010 we have found a way to make it work and save the the public over and mean dollars in interest cost Trent expenditure to transfer all Expendable trust fund the Expendable trust fund if you look really back it was down to like three million. but what happens is you have to have Expendable trust fund to take in all the different money from Grants and everything or whatever and so you can account for it what used to happen is for some schools dating people really good track on what was coming in for its bendable and they were spending it too now it's all in the budget so and that's why when you get to the end and when you see the amount to be raised by taxes not one single penny in the Expendable trust fund was raised by taxes the unreserved fund balance a surplus - 1055078 cents tuition that is always a tough one to for ject but the administration and the different schools have been working really close with the sending towns and stuff to keep that while in line we always please do that conservative because we don't know if kids are going to move out in the cost of the year and we don't get caught short and so that would be + $510,000 run on property tax revenue increase of $779,195 the number on page 14 the Elementary Preschool I'll percentages go up or down in the drivers of that one of the things that happens you really have to be real careful when you look at some of the percentages and when we used to do the line budget we we see for example some people we go wild this went up 50% but that went from 1000 to $1,500 and we may have something that was 2 million dollars when up $20,000 in it was minuscule so don't look just as a percentages look at the notes which was driving those Corso in one case of producing adding one feature of one staff member to an elementary school can really have a big difference in their percentages the King Middle School status quo most of the interest of the contracts and so no Edition no cuts of people over all but the four point 6 is the contracts and health benefits in the state retirement fund the state retirement when used to provide heck of a lot more money and he is back the governor decided we'll find a way to on balance the budget and he did away with the state's portion of the retirement fund in having them school districts and what communities pick up the difference at the high school the 6% that the addition will detect integration specialist and at the risk coordinator to the general form career center new classes with two new part-time faculty so the middle school high school and career center 26000683 9:41 for a total increase of 5.7 with the majority of that was increases coming from contracts the other course centers maintenance continuing Elementary reservation no changes and staff the sau29 the we saw the increase we have no control over that that money comes down to us the only time we can get involved in that is when the essay you was doing that budget all the different School members are allowed to go in and put the air import on that did General District funds decrease in the cost of a early retirement what we had done we used to have at least 10 people a year we had by country they were used to get up to 10 Barrel Lira timings and that was to go to save the district money and over research we found out the district wasn't saving morning and then over the last couple of contracts we made changes and early retirement grandfathering a certain amount of people and now we are not going to do it to me money but we're not losing money technology due to increasing now I'm equipment and software request we have a number of software programs that we purchased over the Culvert remote learning some of them are coming up for Renewal we renewing some not renewing all and got a few other changes the plus we have got Chromebooks for them some students are really good at taking care of them others is not necessarily so special ed the the news so Ed director here are first meeting and the administration had been working really good really well at trying to keep our students in place in an environment where they are only Lauren they also learn social skills and everything that was one of the great things about the Jonathan Daniel Prix school where the kids get to model other kids in some that working out pretty good so it isn't like when I first got on the board anytime someone the problem with child did send them out the special ed and a special ed budget was up over 9 million dollars English language second one when is as we all know no we'd be all you have to do is turn on the news and everything all around the country schools addressing increase in English Second Language we also have a number of refugees that all states accept and and and they become pot community and the other thing is that the city of Keene is becoming more ethically diverse and and some of the languages that you the people at special now all the English Second Language has that are all done at each Elementary School in the high school and middle school basically all the elementary student belong to air Express Franklin who did great job and family use be the principal at Franklin school and she used to have to dress up a user would I used to have to dress up all the way kids to represent other all the other countries of the world now the way Tina's change Franklin has changed they have a lot of children ethically and culturally from around world that they can dress up and they can be proud of their country of origin and saw Debt Service virtually and even payment so that's a total of 28 million to do you need a $5,000 or a little less than 1% drop song back just Article 1 the others will go much the dollar property change is $127,954 the school property tax increase 444.68% and so the increase would be 1.15 or increase of $114 for a hundred and $500,000 house or $229 for a 200,000 Fallout Chris if I may we said there were going to be errors really sweet I finished this time today I haven't been like an hour before you got here. Dollar property tax change 120 thousand is more like 2.5 million and so that has to be changed your other assumptions and what it cost for a thousand or correct but your budget increase is 1.7 + 1.7 million and your shortfall of your revenues are about 800,000 your property tax increases the combination of those two and I just want you to have that note will fix it stop for first session but it's about 2.5 million the impact on taxes a buck 15 on the tax rate is correct and your total School tax rate is corrected 1742 just want to keep that in mind yeah I'm going to look right out there will be 127 when I get ready for 1.7 million that's a bigger type of than weak ones I got on Saturday before you go to questions can I put a couple of the administrators on the spot I'd like I think these are going to go to Ben and Kate but you guys can pass them off if I'm wrong on page 14 and I think the first one is for band can you explain the transfer in the ark teachers are Educators from Simons to Wheelock and what the programming changes are that led to that as far as you got rich enough yet you're going to unplug yes getting there have a good night and a good thing to bring up because it on paper yeah it would be hard to understand so we for some time now there's been a plan to shift the lower Arc program over to the Wheelock school and a lot of this was built into the renovations that happened recently we lock in that we recently finished in the goal was to have a early intervention K2 program that wheel lock where the upper level of that program being a Simon School two key benefits to this program was to be able to provide a specific Early Intervention Program so that students would benefit from the existing success of the Wheelock win program which is been highly successful due to the leadership in the staff and also to allow another transition point so that students may be able to actually transition back to their home school after having some really in intensive intervention support the early level prior to being just locked into going to the next grade level which is in the traditional art program and if a student needs to continue in the program because they are not able to re-enter back into their home school then be able to transition to the upper Ark with the continued benefit of having a continuity of programming I'll because some of those staff members will be talking over those two programs specifically the School Justin counselor and so in the budget you'll see that the assignments cost center is moving one Arc special education teacher into Arc paraprofessionals cuz those positions are transferring the wheel lock the wheel lock cost center is receiving those which adds to their 10.2% increase and then obviously some of their increases do to regular contractual salaries and benefits in a condensed form that was a plan that was in the making and it was really contingent on construction thanks man and then what am I asked about I know you work with a bunch of people so Rob Ben and Jen may need to weigh in as well as I'd like you to talk about the process you went through determining suggested caseloads and what you guys did bringing that do the board and presenting it to us as John we've reviewed our staffing and Service delivery model take thank you I see the flare from the office so as we've done every year we've reviewed our staffing and Service delivery model to make sure that we are appropriately providing the that were required by law we are required to provide a free and public education and we want to make sure that the students are receiving those services in the least restrictive setting which is what been talked about was Mary driver for the movement of the art program so we started off the process this year by looking at comparable school districts so we reached out to similar-sized school district Service delivery models and we also looked at historical data what has been or Trends over the past 89 years throughout the district and what we came to find out was that in 2020 3 and 2024 last year I believe that we came forth with a recommended range of 18 to 24 based on the information that we gathered this year similar-sized District really at a slightly lower range they approached Service delivery in case management a little differently so we approached the ad committee to finance committee and the board and asked for a recommendation to draw five students student services Staffing as we move forward and based on this data the board recommended a target range of 15 to 22 which was lower than that 18 to 24 rains that we put forth last year thanks and I'm done Chris B before I finish this one asked any questions on Article 1 be up one of the questions that one of the statements I stated that I would have dressed over the past three years we got it an awful lot covid money between Essa Grant at the SM wanesta to was their third one is a 3 + 3 years ago when the first one came out we had the hearing and we heard the people and we told the people that the voters and the people that came out that we would for reading interventionist and math intervention services in to do our best to make up for hearing wash those positions with posted can you when would happen if those positions were posted yeah so it was real the math intervention is that we were looking to build into the SR funding we already employed reading is reading specialist that all of our school so it was the math intervention is that we were looking to add through the extra funding we went through a an extensive process to create a job description we posted the job description we had some applicants to who were interested we went through some processes to see if they were going to be a good fit for the district ultimately the folks that we are hoping to bring in took positions elsewhere and we were unable to fill the positions so we still believe they're needed positions but yeah we don't have the ability to tie it into that Grant fun and the other thing when the superintendent talked about losing individuals to of the school district's the school board was proactive gave the superintendent the authority to issue contracts to the people because we didn't want to lose quality people where the superintendent we have to say while I have to wait until where's the next board meeting and then get a vote on that so again it was proactive we try to hire people and we couldn't find quality individuals or if we found Quality Inn they went someplace out and so we had a number of things like that but we decided that we weren't going to spend money for the sake of spending money and I'm like some of the other ones Esther gave his ability to supplant some of the stuff that was in our budget it gave us the ability like with the hve stuff like at to buy stuff that we were going to buy in the future Tim and Ken did a great job working and getting that done which was really hard to expect you will supply shortages and labor shortages but they did get it done but you would notice over the the last three years we had given substantial money back to the Unity because there's a board we just weren't going to spend money like we because it was free money and saw if we couldn't find Value in it and so you tell me the last couple years of some of the amount of money returned returned in Surplus well that's one of our issues issues I mean this current year the budget is based what about 4.9 almost five million dollars and surplus return mainly fueled by vacancies and then this upcoming year you'll notice that slide that had Revenue were down about a million dollars we think we're going to be about 3.9 million dollars to return for next year's budget based on this year's budget and so it's been real remarkably high and unusual and we expect that to be coming down that's mainly because of vacancies we had 65 time we put this budget together I had 65 vacant positions that create Surplus that we turn back taxpayers a benefit Factor but we would like to have those positions providing service but as everybody knows it's a tough job market in Cheshire County no I'm glad you added that because the filling vacancy issue is not unique to the King School District you know I just want to be really clear about that it's not for lack of effort to recruit on the HR team is going out they are very being very proactive they're getting on radio they're getting out on social media that using LinkedIn they're using a number of different methods to recruit but it's still a tough recruiting environment not just for education but for all Industries I mean you talked to folks around town and they're struggling to fill positions just as much as we are in the school's you see it at the city level you see it in the Private Industry you know that's that's where we are right now so that's the conclusion of Article 1 open for questions questions comments yes can you come up to the front please question category thank you, you're welcome Joan Murphy 287 Roxbury Street Keene the first thing I want to do is share some gratitude thanks to all who work in the Keene school district and the Keene Board of Education your work is at the heart of nurturing are used and contributing Kings community in the last budget cycle with the support of the kbe the district made strides strides raising teacher salaries and making us more competitive in attracting and retaining teachers creating responsible budget is yeoman's work fix conditions such as New Hampshire's underfunding of public education can't be modified at this moment so we have to move forward in a fiscally responsible way a well-educated community is non-negotiable for many reasons to of those reasons are protecting the Vitality of our team and our property values I have two concerns about the negative impact on education that may result from economic decisions in this budget the first concern is Staffing in our district in the second cancer is the continually declining cost per pupil metric Rob just referenced the difficulty in Staffing and that's two across certainly across the board but I always pads teen and how it's stepped forward to do with its best by the community a review of the budget shows that staff is inequity in equitably distributed among the four Elementary School well each has its own needs this discrepancy requires explanation the budget includes a reduction of Staff do to the elimination of one special education teacher each of the four elementary schools these Educators teach case manage consult and evaluate each of these tasks could be considered a job unto itself in the past I'm at the valuations were completed by an employee whose sole job was to administer these evaluations the absence of these key professional along with a shortage of psychologists in speech and language but I would just have a significant negative impact the remaining staff ability to support children's educational goals are severely hampered a reduction in staff also creates working conditions that can me to the departure of highly trained professionals a fact that we've already mentioned is the district faces challenges hiring professionals and other support staff a quick weave you've of the recruiting site Frontline youth by the school district shows job openings for a minimum of 13 professional positions. Ministrator position multiple classroom assistants in Paris special job openings looking at education numerically through a staff to student ratio to store it's the reality and complexity of educating children Chilton Furniture in schedule in Stafford there to meet these needs when we shrink the number of Staff available available to students who are building a barrier to learning second concern is the continual reduction in our car pupil expenditure over time as mentioned we are currently below the state average in class for people that the figures have already been presented to us so I don't know if we need repeat that but we are approximately at $18,000 at the for the cost per pupil and the state is at 20,000 while this may be considered financially responsible about it reduces our resources and diminishes our school's ability to perform and have students succeed well I don't believe the New Hampshire state test achievement data gives a fully accurate picture of our students before performance become concerned when there are a large number of students who are not proficient in academic areas over the last few years the department of Ed in 2020 reports that our students or in the state's lowest quartile for Proficiency in math and science 31% were proficient in math and 28% were proficient in science their proficiency percentages for the previous two years were equally low compared this to 2018 when our scores were in the states Middleport tile 40 / 46% proficient in math and 40% in science what supports are available for the 70% who don't reach proficiency some may argue the educational impact of the pandemic is shown my opinion is true but for me it's still best the question what additional supports are available support comes from adequate Staffing I want to thank you all for listening to my concerns in closing but. Stanford any level is in my opinion ill-advised it is not in the best interest of our students being at or below the state average doesn't mean we can provide quality education at a reduced cost I believe the school district serves a higher purpose than can be expressed in a cost per pupil tax calculation thank you fun only two things you don't have to set your good job thank you thank you Jeff in the first half of the, sir or something the board will need to consider when we leave here to go but we're not going leave the public meeting in our public hearing I'll get there and return to the regular board meeting to discuss the budget cost per pupil is not a target number for this. some of you were here when I first ran for the board and you know how much I really dislike any attempt to aim at an average or below-average especially we don't aspire to be an average District the main two reasons that we are no longer significantly above the state average one is the elimination of one of our elementary schools about 9 years go now 8 years ago which was not an easy process for this District I was not in favor of it that the time are Elementary enrollment has shown that I was probably wrong is we pretty comfortably in the four schools that we have now even with a little extra room I'd love to see us go the other way and be able to open one back up but that is what brought us down close to the state average in the last two years you'll see that our costs have gone up the state average has gone up considerably faster than us and we did spend some time digging into that at one of the two Saturdays. and I don't remember which one I apologize that was a lot of hours but one of the primary differences is the responsibility of Tim Roar and Ken Dooley in using some of the answer funds to address them really significantly need it infrastructures changes around this District things that we needed to do anyway that moved to the top of the priority list regarding especially ventilation and our buildings I'm generally making the buildings environmentally safer and better and better climate control etcetera things that we wanted to do and cannot because we didn't have the money they were able to Target some of the money there other districts were not as diligent or responsible with the SR funding and they are paying for a lot of those changes now in addition they did a lot of one-time expenses and Chris dig into that a lot tonight but it's a pass to remember we try not to use grant money on one-time expenses because what happens is we end up I know the other way around we try not to use it on operating expenses because then it shows up like those four positions in future budgets and drives our budget higher so the reason we dropped noticeably this year is the state moved upwards faster than we did that's really the reason that we try and use a needs basis student based budgeting approach Rob reports the state average versus our average cost per pupil every year because people ask us about it that is not in my time been a target number has not been a goal what we try and do is provide what our students need and what our Educators need to be successful in the state fall where they do what do we happen to look pretty good right now we have not I've been here nine years now some years we look pretty bad and that's just the way it falls and there's a lot of it's beyond our control has to do with what other District to do absolutely we don't Target for that the cuz I know it's going to be probably brought up today and I know it's probably going to be brought up in February cancer address the special ed teachers yes George can I yes go ahead we've we've a lot of slides run cost per pupil there was a time our board was was wanting to show that but I want to explain two things if I'm a and I'll be brief cuz I know you guys have been here a long time but if you look at your enrollment number this is that that's where we where the left this is where we are now no Cuts in this budget were made because of dollar value or cost per pupil they're all made paid beat maker based on need if you look at our numbers and where we are we only reduced where we had a plethora of adults and fewer kids that's the only place that were using this budget and you have to make those chain we've lost 500 students in a very short amount of time over the district and our numbers of case managers was the same for I don't know 18 years 20 years it served us well it dropped almost in half because we had to client enrollment in that caught those cuts are only made to do that and then about cost per pupil pretty pretty basic we have this cost per pupil but what's in this number is the average for the steak and it's not a weighted average so in other words the districts of Nelson with 45 kids in their District that count towards cost per pupil are compared to Keene so the larger District should always have better economies of scale and in fact our superintendent put that data together if you take the 15 districts that are cancer large District enrollment of 2500 or more which we fit into guess what we're smack in the middle there's seven that pay more than us produced per student and 7th at Payless but we're right in there in fact we spend more people than Bedford Chris so just say that we aren't spending the appropriate amount if you look at like schools K through 12 large school districts that can have economies of scale another word they can't do suffering with three students in a class like they would have in Marlow for example and they're not waited in the in the calculation then we are right right in the middle smack where we need to be at the district so I just want to point those two things out how's it going there I wasn't going to say anything tonight. This this question on it and I don't mean to beat it to death Edmodo 23-acre Brook Road and came and Tim Harvey Stone Summit Thunder its economies of scale is very important and you have to remember in the state out of 176 school districts 14 of them have no schools and about 80% of the remaining have only one school backed up just eight districts in the SIU Keene is the only one that has more than one school so is Tim says it's it's it's economies of scales that makes a difference but I'd like to point out one other thing and this happened to you after year and explain it this year if you look at the budget increase and then you look at the tax rate increase somebody's going to ask why is the tax rate increase double the percentage as the budget increase and the reason is because of the revenue decrease that was pointed out early but you have to understand how the numbers work this is all about Matt so your revenues decreased almost as much as your budget has increased consequently that doubles the increase to the tax rate and that's important and I do want to say is because it's related to this discussion the decrease in revenue is almost entirely caused by the decrease in enrollment and that that's that's an important thing is Chris pointed out we lose the revenue based on cost per pupil it cost per pupil is not a good measure but that's what is used we lose Revenue we don't necessarily play Lose cost Because unless you can close the classroom you really essentially have no decrease in your operating costs so that's important that's why the tax increase is so high and it's pretty high this year so you can have a tough sell with the folders so you might want to think about that anyway thank you thank you and I'll remember to bring that up in February and even thought the tax crease is Phil High 5 years ago we were at $38 per thousand and we down there 32 part of it was a lot of money we sent back from SC yes ma'am Susie krautman 258 Court Street Keene I just have I think this comes under maintenance questions and suggestions about the essay responsibility for financing the repair of Wilson pond dam and number one what is the benefit to the public to keep the  number to what is the benefit to the school district to keep the and also how and why did the school district inherent inherit this Friday responsibility there is a growing Trend Across the Nation to remove dams and return rivers and streams back to their natural state because of the benefits of the echo system stop nutrients from continuing Downstream they were the water which is detrimental to fish and build up sediment overtime and eventually fill in and what is the cost to remove the dam and return the screen back to its natural state I don't know from resources I have weed I did not know the height of the  but we think it might be eight feet tall and if the dam was less than 6 ft tall is 9559 ft it would become non jurisdiction additional not controlled by the state and not a non Hazard hazardous from The Damp year old and what is the cost to make the that not jurisdiction if people want to keep this it should be made non-jurisdictional because there is no benefit to having the pain it is a cesspool and a mosquito breeding area people don't swim in it and maybe a handful use it to kayak if it was made non-jurisdictional it would be shallower and during the Reconstruction it could be judged and maintained current job which is very little and you could also construct a fish wear instead of a Rock pool so that fish could get up and questions and suggestions into some and then I'll pass them over me Tim me if you don't mind it's been property the school district for a very very long time and my understanding is it had to do with a land swap that also included Alumni field we haven't really researched it too much because why we have it and why we've had it 50 years become somewhat irrelevant at this point it is ours roughly 56 years ago we spent two years on this once the state declared it a hazard the board at the time offered it to the city I believe there was some good pro quo discussions about It ultimately the city declined to take it board at that time said alright then we don't see any and this is one of your questions any benefit to the school district for maintaining this  we don't use it for anything it's not really on our property it's just adjacent to our property there is benefit to the community for it being there it's probably a healthy debate well yeah there's some historical elements is probably a healthy debate to be had as to whether it's more beneficial in its current state or if it would be more beneficial allowed to go back to Natural State but the board at the time said all right let's do that at a minimum let's drop it so that we don't have it so it's not a hazardous condition any more and less research what it would cost to remove it there is a group of property owners who own property around that  who ultimately said that they would sue if we reduce the level or removed the dam legal counsel told us pretty unequivocally that we would lose that we would still be on hook for the repairs and we would be on the hook for all of the legal bills so at that time with no other recourse we agreed to do the repair the Damned but we basically can't the city has no need you to take it from us it would our point is that they could maintain at the same as they do the other dams in the city they are in the business of maintaining that type of thing we're not we're not built for it obviously nobody that our staff can do it we have to contract out anything that we do with the  but you have no leverage to make the city take it from us and we have no leverage really to do anything other than keep it as we are right now but what about none you know if it measured if it goes below that was our first suggestion and that was the first time that we were told we would be sued do you want to add to that I think I got most of it George was it's been a long time since we've been dealing with this but it's not exact it is more complicated of a property ownership then then then George is letting on there it is tied in with the alumni from the Alumni Association and we are bound to maintain all the property that goes with that including even around the backside of that pond so that makes it complicated because we can't make decision ourselves we have to work with the Alumni Association and lowering taking out a  is just as difficult as putting one in these days we already have this plan this board not these exact board members but this this group voted to they didn't want the they were do just as you said we are lowering the  a little bit it's already under contract to be done and until that project to be happening this spring and summer so that's going to be repaired going to be replaced it was as you say no hazard 4 years the state changed its require and while we're in a mess so but we are going to fix it it's going to be there and I think the board did spend lots of time with their attorney they're not going to win this one and it's more complicated than the board doesn't really own it they own the responsibility of maintaining it the Alumni Association known to all that property and they have no requirement to take care of it we do and so if you do I will get it done and they I'm not too worried about it for 20 years and people that like the history will like it people that don't want it there won't that that that's just where we are to be blunt thank you listen Linda someone offers you something for free read all the fine print hello my name is Mari 509 Starlight Drive in Keene I come to you tonight as a long-standing resident of this community and mother of four children that have attended the king schools to proud and to currently attending our schools I'm also here as an employee of the district and my role as an elementary school counselor both rules give me good insight into the day-to-day of our Educators and the needs of our children I'd first like to thank the Keen board and the School District administration for your time and work on the proposed budget I know it is not an easy process and that you work very hard to balance the needs of our schools with a fiscal responsibility taxpayers I was here one year ago during our last budget cycle to urge the board to reconsider the proposed cuts of our special education teachers at the elementary level many people in our community came out and spoke very thoughtful an opposition to those cuts for very valid reasons I have to be honest that it is disheartening to be here one year later having to defend the same points a year later nothing has changed in terms of the needs of students to suggest that now is the time to proposed cuts to staff that serve our neediest children in fact one could argue that the needs are greater I share this with the utmost sincerity and genuine concern PrideStaff students in school Community we need more resources not less we continue to operate among staff and shortages that impact the work we all do as a team every day I know that our board and administration have this hair have had discussions around attracting and retaining Stratton Educators we spoken about that tonight they have also looked at the impact of burnout among Educators staff Cuts particularly among those who service our neediest students will not help you retain good in fact you are losing good people as a school counselor I see the wear and tear every day on our staff you have incredible professionals working for you who are deeply committed to educating the children of this they need more support it is that simple here is how Staffing shortages have had an impact on our neediest children and their role special education case managers play this is one example that we know came up for us that the start of the school year there were again a vacancy vacancies vacancies of school psychologists is one example given that vacancy the district understandably so had to move to a different model for our school psychologist the school year and at the elementary level we are budgeted to have to school psychologist what ended up happening is that we only had one and so that one psychologist is now shared among all four elementary schools and the only way that that person can do that job is if they would also have a reduction in what they the services they normally provide so they simply now provide all about locations for all of our for all of our elementary schools which is an another example of a loss for our schools and our special education teams not only to have one less full-time Scott school psychologist but off find terms of the other services that that that's cool if I college is typically have provided to our elementary schools like counseling for students and consultation are collaborative programs routinely don't have enough staff we have speech and language apologist and other special education staff shortages these vacancies and shortages have a ripple effect on the teams and our buildings often are special education case managers are having to take on more as well as other staff I sure all of this to highlight that case load numbers do not tell the full story anyone who spends time in our buildings and it was that great things happen every single day it is challenging but incredibly rewarding work I would really encourage you to come visit our schools and spend time with us to fully understand the word that are special education staff do every day it is much more than can be conveyed in a number it would also allow you to have all the information you would need to make an informed decision it is clear that every in this room everyone in this room cares deeply about providing quality education for the students of our community I can't say this with any more clarity we need more support not less I ordered you to reconsider the proposed cuts to support the education to our special education staff and I have to say and all due respect we don't have a plethora of adults we don't have a plethora of adults around we need more support thank you so much dim on finance we talked about this and we move money can you explain how how we been hiring people Contract Services the psychology might be a speech pathologist and stuff I mean I want nothing more than to have our two full-time psychologist serving our for elementary schools obviously I mean we haven't been able to hire we actually we're short a couple we just hired one additional info but we've been able to hire so we have hired a contractor to do the therapy section it's not ideal but when you have trouble hiring in this and across the country that's what we're doing but has nothing to do with the budget cut we budgeted for two full-time for next year as well and hopes that we find that and I hope we do but you know our are speech and sychar paid well you'll see a contract on this in a few who aren't we you know I have a speech person to my own family there paid while we try to attract folks but we have a shortage and sometimes weren't able to hire which is the case this year but we'll be doing all everything we can to hire for next year and it does happen sometimes but that's why I have contracted service and try to have an employee so we agree two things that Tim didn't mention a lot of times our contract Services cost more than if we had a full-time person second in a couple of cases we keep getting in trouble with the IRS and have to pay a fine because the IRS says you're hiring someone 40 hours a week to provide the contract services that is against the law that person is really a full-time employee and you're responsible for that is a full-time employee and then you have to Payette applying to the IRS insult again we would much rather have all these individuals full time in the school that we know skills that dependable not have to go day-by-day in a contract Service pay more and pay the IRS extra hi I'm Heidi Kenner 42 Sawyer Road and Keene I have two hats on I am a special education teacher and a time in and I'm also a parent of a special education student at Simon's so I can see the both pictures and I do have a question for administration about floats 15 to 22 great number 5 minutes I think the average between all three of us is 1617 fantastic Administration got about the needs of each on caseloads one student could take 50% of my time but one other student I might even put 30 minutes a day but another student I might see them for an hour and a half so when we are looking at caseloads we cannot just look like look at numbers that once units equal to another student because as we all know it doesn't happen I will encourage I mean the station to look at each case load the needs of each individual students on that case load and then decide if it's worth to make a cut in that area these numbers are from October 1st but I don't close special vacation on October 1st from the beginning of the school year to now I've gained three students on my caseload that's a boot that we also have to consider instead of saying 15 to 22. perfect case number keep perfect case load it really is it's a class in size but as we know one or two students can that classroom in either direction and we have to look at individual students and the needs of each one of them before we can make these cuts Nikki crank 159 Park Ave we had a question and a couple things I'm wondering my question is the the study that was done for comprable districts was is that published somewhere is that is that a report them published short was delivered at an education committee meeting and just dig and I was in the rabbit hole of trying to go through minutes and a tedious process but is that information that is easily accessible to the public to look at study that was done and find that information in October and November November the the other Quest I had was related to the service delivery model in those districts that were comfortable where those similar or different I felt like I heard maybe two conflicting things that they had a similar model or maybe they approached it differently and how that may impact this proposed cut in how we deliver services in our current elementary schools weather where we're trying to be more inclusion based and you know decreasing the number of Staff we have at Simon's that would mean a special education teacher working with nine classroom teachers potentially versus six right now so that's a lot more communication and if we're to and have them being fully included puts a lot more pressure and coordinating or potentially even in placement and thinking about the balancing of classrooms where you know you want children to be able to collaborate together at all ability levels to be most beneficial and having to kind of look at numbers and change the enrollment the way we structure our placement could be proposed so where it was the service delivery model also like similar or different it was it I have to say it's challenging to quantify can do just based off of Heidi's comment as well that's something we're looking at is how do you quantify individual student need an end what does that look like the beginning of the school year to the end of school year so we did primarily look at Learning Centers we did not dig into any self-contained what we call a collaborative program in the Kent school district and those schools have a symbol philosophy of promoting inclusion knowing that the best Service delivery model is that from the classroom teacher with support alongside the students Pierce and in looking at enrollment where we able to look at enrollment at the elementary level specifically and then specifically in the number of students that ride benefind and there been a decrease in overall in The District in that area so I can comment on these number of students with disabilities in the Keene School District over the past nine years it's really plateaued I think they open the nine-year difference we've only really of 15 fewer students who are eligible for special education and related services and just I guess my comment to that would be similar to Heidi's, and in that but these numbers from October off and don't reflect then first were dealing with by the end of the year equally you know to know that we do have students that are discharged from special education but we tend to see more of a larger increases not so if the numbers have I told it just makes me wonder if we're really looking at a plethora of Educators in our district to student ratio with a decline of students I think we're looking at this particular you know but item or thinking about decreasing special education teachers we should really also be looking at that data to say has do we have a plethora in that area compared to over the years when we're saying we have a decrease in students is that also consistent with a decrease in special education students overtime and I do appreciate all the work that's done and looking at these decisions and being fiscally responsible I have seen the benefit myself I shared this last year with the board that I have a small very proud Keen teacher as well so very proud to be part of this community in the staff I also have three students one of them that was identified in with a specific disability and reading and speech and language and he's a successful straight A student at Keene high school now and I wholeheartedly believe that that is due to the early intervention services he received an he wasn't just a number on a caseload ratio he was really thought of how many hours he needed in order to close that Gap and it's the the hard work and dedication of our special education teachers that really did that so I think I think it's important to to note that as well for work that our teachers do is significant I think about how that might correlate or translate into the high school were talking about students that we're trying to get through those students we really want an interventionist to be part of that to get them through we know that if they don't learn these skills early on in education that it's going to have Ripple effects for them down the line that these early intervention services are necessary and important thank you thank you Nikki I just want to clarify my data in terms of the number of students with disabilities that includes students in all place settings within the King School District over the past nine years that includes students in the Learning Center students can a self-contained program or students in a more restrictive setting so we would have to dig in a little bit deeper as to the number of Learning Center students in whether or not we. Trends with our declining enrollment thank you to buy agree what you said about the importance of early intervention the the two teachers over there were Jonathan Daniel and one from we like they had two of my grandsons at 33 years old they started on special ed they both graduated not on Special Ed I feel the biggest reward is that when you guys do a good job take them is divided get them from the earliest possible and bring them up into regular ed student and that is important and second I would just use kind of Define hgf privilege you know I was going to call on your ad since you work what do you know what the website is for the people if they want to get some of the information for the questions they're asking data is and then there are yes I'm just going to repeat that for the folks on the livestream. I can do it if you want just tell me if I can cancel the State education site is ww.w. While the state site is www.nh.gov there's a connection on there for the Department of Education and then on that page there is a link for data and reports and for individuals school report cards and those will give you pretty much all of the information that we've been referencing in here education teachers that work comprable do you know if the roles and responsibilities were similar than any of those schools have their own academic evaluators in those buildings or were they all like our special ed teachers who do kind of the full job I don't know the percentage of those schools that were comfortable in terms of their academic evaluator roles and responsibilities but it was pretty mix on the New Hampshire demographics that and is that pretty diverse in those within those D1 schools so I would say it was a mixed bag I just think that else I think people alluded to this I think Joe mentioned it in her speaking but that was a position when I start in this District also when my son was going through the special education system that there was a separate academic evaluator that takes hours of time to evaluate a child for to see if they are in need of special education services of working one-on-one with a child of writing academic report and this District used to have that as a completely separate a completely separate jaw and it has been incorporated into the job of the special education teacher as well as all as well as teaching and as well as case management and meeting and collaborating with teams and planning you know inclusive classroom services so I think it just makes me wonder if we're really if we really have all of the right information to make such a big decision thank you my fault lines are the drive just one sorry okay thank you so just to clarify some points I was making when I gave the examples of you know how we're the kind of model were using this year and had to use because of Staffing shortage around school psychologist and the loss of I have a speech pathologist and so forth and that and I completely it's very valid what the school district is expressing in terms of not being able to fill those roles but that's that's not up really I don't think that's not my point any kind of debate around that my point and sharing that is to say that those kinds of decisions that we have to make have a real impact in the ripple effect on how we're meeting the needs of our neediest children and it often falls back on other staff members like are case managers and other people that are part of the Special Education team like the school counselors other people in our building that provide behavioral and an academic support to our students so if you are now also talking about reducing case managers in the n r buildings on special education case managers that's another layer of what I feel is like a rotting away at our teams when we actually have vacancies that we have been able to feel that impact our special education and how we're providing services for students thank you any more questions on number one Article 1 okay going to move to Article 2 it's the it's the contract between the custodians and the board of Haitian it's a four-year contract and as I stated earlier about the contracts that we voted on last year and the year before we gave a big increase. front and when you see the 2020 to 2020 for 2025 increase of 13.1% that is a little deceiving because we gave major increases into the trades background can do it he doesn't have a plumber in some of those of the tree and so every time something goes wrong he has to go out to get a good working relationship but he has to go out and pay a private individual and we didn't want Timothy I don't have right but did we get the plumbers in the trades we wanted to get them to at least $30 an hour not in your one we didn't know we had to back off of that but you can see this summer it's also at the front of the room those colored pieces of paper are bigger versions of what you see on his part 1 but basically what Chris is alluding to is that was 13.1% total compensation increase but our Master Plumber as you can imagine makes a lot of money in the private sector and a certified hbac tech that includes gas certification we were we were way off so those went up about five to six bucks in your one an hour and we're still below the state average by 25% but we're getting there and we're a lot better off but we were the higher those positions for about $23 an hour and it to start and they're making you know to start $35 an hour minimum so that was hurting us so a lot of the money went there and we try to bring custodians up as well but but that's where that's where that contracts major cases are and read about it it's $256,000 in year 1 new taxes are 11 and a half cents on the tax rate and if you look down through here Chris I give we give the which I always thinks important every contract we shall what the real cost is over 4 years it's going to cost 1.7 million dollars to make this you know if you looked at k a much bigger group that have been closer to 10 million on there for years that we put up last time but we're not relevant we aren't even in the ballpark for those positions and and that takes care of it and the slide their shows you what the impact is it's about it's about 1.5 11.5 11.5 10:11 for $11.49 which is about yes let me know the 49 cents at $0.12 roundabout any questions on numb Article 2 hey you're going to hear the same thing as three contracts in this and they're very very different groups of employees but you're going to hear the same theme song the staff shortages that you've been hearing about the challenges with hiring the hot challenges with retention all because you know you know this from your own lives if you're not in education I'm coming out of covid-19 me was weird still is weird and realistically any of these contracts that were negotiated before that shut down I have not kept pace and when we're needing to make up that Gap and that's what you're seeing we're hoping that you know we we worked hard with the bargaining groups from the respective unions and we went into renegotiation saying our goal in this yeah there was some language changes from both sides are always are but primarily the board wanted to hear from these bargain and groups what is going to help with hiring what is going to help with returns what's going to make people want to be here and stay here you know when money is not the only thing there's other you know benefits is a big part of it comfort in your working environment is part of it and that's where the language changes come in but we were hopefully behind in most of these contracts and then you know these these numbers reflect that they're not I don't think exorbitant I think that they're needed to get us back you know and none of these groups are we going to be the top paying people in the state you know this little corner of the state is never going to be there there's a lot of District we just can't compete with but we need to be at a place where people look at us and say I can viably work in these schools and and and it have a family and have him to have a life so that's what that's been a theme across all three of these contracts and we really hope the community is is willing to just down with us and support the fact that work with us article numbers read basically if the voters vote down article to wood with the district be authorized to hold the meeting one time meeting for money items only that is a pretty standard that's what we we feel it's important how to cook a 3lb district if article number 2 is defeated authorized the Board of Education that's the one number for negotiation see this is for the king clinical service providers psychiatrist and stuff that's a small group that's not twenty-something yep 20 something people and we're making some major upfront costs to 14 again we want to hire people instead of contractile people questions on article number 4 article number five is the same thing if Aqua number for is defeated one special meeting for money items only Arco number 6 is the King Board of Education in King educated Office Professional group again the small group upfront cost again as George says we trying to get to a happy medium but we are not making it but with we're doing our best to get there any questions on article 6 again Auto dinner you're you want to take them it and then I yeah seven is the the same thing if if the public does not approve the negotiated contract it allows us to open up negotiations and cost I do only if we come to an agreement we can bring that back to the voters at a special meeting article 8 IS 250 but so fun on number eight Tim seiple 182 preparation store maintenance fund this is an unexpected trust fund established by the voters quite a while ago now. here's what the purpose is we put a little bit of our Surplus money in there or the theory as we put a little bit of our Surplus in there every year and then if something happens unexpected over the course of the year we can hold a public hearing and suggest using this fund to pay for the example everyone loves to bring up his bill boilers about that once this budget passes we don't have access to any more money this is the money we have so it's something kind of Alpha Kappa do we have to pay for it we don't have a fun like this it's got to come out of our operating budget which says you can imagine is pretty catastrophic to the school last year we would use it once most years we put 50 to 100 thousand in a couple years we've had a strong Surplus with Whitmore a couple years we've had either a limited Surplus or a strong budget hit and we put nothing this year the board is proposing to put 250,000 in this only comes if there is a surplus in our budget if there is no Surplus no money gets put into this fun there is a surplus this gets funded first off the Surplus up to the amount that we proposed this year's 250 generally our surpluses run dim Target what about 2 million 3.9 for next week so you know usually the amount that we propose ends up falling within what's available from surpluses and this I forget Tim what is the target theoretically for this based on the industry so the targets on here it's 2.5 million you'll see your policy there and I have it highlighted and that's that's an industry standard for the type of building we run it's it's basically a percentage of our operating budget and that's what is recommended that you have available obviously we're not there yet we're not going to try to get there in one big jump big currently has George about 1.2 million dollars in it so it doesn't view who watch this every year and know that we have another one of these funds targeted at special education cost overruns that one also has roughly a million and if that is not on this year's budget and was not on last year's and the reason is that's primarily there if we have unexpected out-of-district places in cost of an out-of-district placement for one of our students can run very high very quickly depending on where they get placed and what Transportation costs are for that placement this fund would be more needed in ball School District where one extra placement could end up being roughly 10% of their budget our student services department works hard to try and predict what are placements are going be your to hear that process has gotten much better over the last five or six years and as well you're starting to see the benefits of our inclusionary goals and the number of placements of gone down to the point where the administration believes that we can absorb and unexpected placement or two primarily because we don't get a lot of unexpected placements with a budget for some leeway so they're not recommending most years that we add to the discretionary fund that's why you haven't seen it in a couple years that's it so the the board is going to vote and yes on all the Articles especially the contract articles does anybody have any final questions well again I want to thank everybody for coming out here and I thank everybody for expressing their opinions and their views on this budget and that's important that the board understands what people think about it and and on February 3rd that it would be opened up you change this to the third on the back it says I hope as many people as possible can come to the auditorium on February 3rd in Whatcom for the input into the budget I think everybody we will close the public hearing we will wreak in the regular meeting in about 6 or 7 Minutes 9 Ron reliable all right we are going to reconvene on recess I forget the proper term it's too late at night we're coming back to the full board meeting at this time is left but we actually had quite a bit of public for the public hearing presenting the budget I appreciate the work of the administration and the finance committee bringing that forward and always we appreciate the input from the public at all times because otherwise we wouldn't be up here all right the only regular board business left is to discuss the budget and weren't articles so I think we will just take them from the top again and Tim and which ones do you need votes on all of them or do you need votes on 357 the all right so one to approve represented motion to approve the Keene School District article 14 2425 as presented all right this would be it but he wants to make motions to change it this would be your opportunity it would be a move to amend Article 1 and we can still do them kind of in a line item format in this meeting you can say I want to add in order to do this or subtract in order to do this Rebecca after just like hearing to move the present you know for the comments from people who came from the public and from the school's tonight and I asked you to talk a whole lot louder I can't hear you you know we had a lot of conversation this year and I think we're all more comfortable than last year with the reduction of the positions in the elementary schools but just as me kind of just wanted to make sure were cautious and we're not doing anything that's going to come back and get us later I wonder if it's possible to leave one of the positions just to budget for it not necessarily higher for it but just to have it in case we get closer to the end of the year and we find cuz I know we are closed getting getting close to that 22 and for some of the Productions for next year I don't want to find us in a position that we you know that we're coming at the lot in the eleventh hour trying to get a new positions back if it's possible to just have the money aside whether we use it for you know we go back to having an evaluator who he helps the team or if we needed if there's a school who does hit that threshold that we've kind of established that we don't want to go over the other we just have what you set ourselves up for Success Tyga I'm such a staff thought that I personally think it'd be maybe wise to just kind of earmark that money and have it in the budget I think I know the answer this one we can't just do a slush fund right it has to actually be something that's being funded we could do a contingency but it makes it very hard to rip somebody if it's in the budget yes you could technically do it as as Rebecca suggest I would like to say one thing about that after you're done there at will my other question was is there a dollar value for one position yeah cuz there's not actually emotion right now it's 98,000 98000 something singer major changes here sorry I should ask you to be prepared for that 98,000 109 for one position only reason I point this out as the cost center Badgers special ed mr. White had this same conversation that was one of the requests that you bring up but we pointed out to them was like with anything in our budget if we come back and we need text your teacher just like we needed an extra pair just like we needed if the numbers are pushing us to do that we're going to transfer the money we're not going to stop at service and there's not really reason to budget for an extra 98 thousand dollars because if they need it we're going to do that the one time we didn't do this we were cutting a teacher at one of our elementary schools because they had really low numbers just a just a couple years ago how we got an extra teacher at Fuller by the way we budgeted for the contingency the numbers didn't come in they hired the contingency anywhere anyway which is how we got to one-to-many up. By the way how are numbers got off from the path was this exact scenario so I just want to point that out cuz I think that's irrelevant there's not a time that they haven't come to us a principal and said I can't make do without we needed an e l l teacher in the middle of your last what do we do we hired an e l l teacher we don't have to have contingencies to take care of our students we've never had the words always supported doing it so that's my only argue against it are you mad against it is that we're going to do if the numbers come in and we have 25 per teacher we're going to find a way to hire more teachers so haven't heard Tim do you still want to make that motion only other thought would be just again hearing from some of the comments tonight the fact that not too long we used to have a know someone to do those like initial intake send evaluations a lot of paperwork on cuz I'm a fan of the special ed teachers being able to have as much like FaceTime and working time with our students as possible so if something like that adding opposition pact Taconic compensate for this would be wise and that's just something that I personally would be in favor of but if that's not where the board is at you know it again if that's what you guys want on your end then that's fine as well but I just wanted to kind voice that that's something that I would support if you you know what the department thought they needed it I don't hang I don't want to go down too far on this road if there's not actually emotion but then you can answer what you just ask if you can get a microphone without disconnecting us I was simply going to just Echo what Tim share to mean that this was something that double this is something that was shared in the process and we made a commitment that we've never not hired for student need for students need in such a large budget and multi millions of dollars it's a very small drop to do a transfer so we've done in the past and we've actually done this example in fast as well and it's resulted in that cost center needing to reduce that position so that's ultimately why we took this stance of if we need the position we go outside of that range then we'll will hire for that position to support student needs but that's simply it I suppose go ahead I'm just talking from a financial point one of the individuals came up and said the budget was going to be a tough sell because of the increase Jim says we're projecting a 3.9 million dollar Surplus if we adding things on it makes the the amount to be raised by taxes much higher and makes a default budget in the regular budget why they're putting at the risk of it's going down in the last time the the budget Was Defeated was on 2006-2007 when there was a big gap between the regular budget and the default budget yeah go ahead I will be really really brief I promise she ate all of the feedback and all of the input Rebecca your it has been heard I think you were just sharing your concerns to make sure that there is awareness not just around the table but for those who might still be viewing and you know we will take all of that to heart we're not going to let anybody sink yet not our plan that's not our mission she didn't make a motion she was really just sharing her thoughts and in putting that out there as a member of the board so thank you for your input preciate it do you want to make the most of them and are you and let it ride are you guys go out to throw it against me as long as it's a medication special education department if they would process before those were separate from the district it wasn't it and it was this bored during the budget process that did that so can I I mean they're there clearly is a lot of concern about cutting four positions it and and what they said about you know yes we want to hire a speech and we want to hire more psych but we're not and therefore the special Edwina we're not able to there for the special ed meeting more is being put on their plate there now taking the speech only kids you know as well as juggling things that they didn't have to Intuit in the past you know it it just is concerning and it is clearly worrying people who you know stakeholders so I want to respond to that briefly in that only one no two people who spoke we're not employees of one school so I think that it might be an exaggeration to say that a lot of stakeholders are worried about the elimination of the four positions it was really only one position that was being talked about take that for what you will the other point is addresses the staff shortages and I'm not sure it makes things any better necessarily but none of these positions represent refs no one is losing a job the unfortunate reality is we haven't been able to staff these positions either it's not just the psych speech in the clinical service providers that were black ink it is actually these positions themselves so I fully agree Joan Murphy and Mari felt when they say that the staff shortages are problematic and they add to everybody's workload that's absolutely true but it is also these positions specifically that we have been able to fill and these are not for the most part positions that just got renegotiated these are the ones from the Kea last year so if we're not even correcting necessarily the enticement to take these does my ability to speak is really slipping as we move past 9 there's broader problems in our hiring that the Administration has been working hard to address but some of the way that this was framed is not accurate some of the way that this was framed is accurate and regardless of where this discussion goes I know that Kate and Ben we're listening carefully and cables actually responding to some things I know that they already have some ideas for where to move forward and and to dig even deeper into what we're talking about now yeah I want to caution the board about being very careful about adding anything else to this budget you know as we've seen work hard and long and overdue increased compensation t-shirts now yeah we most of the you know most of the people here are preaching to the choir and George saying most of them out here you know our employees so they were showing it from one side tomorrow 4 Hour budget tonight will be hitting the media and the positive and what you heard from a few people saying a  thing that's going to change tomorrow drastically we are going to hear vocally opposition to his budget in the increase in with that if we add more to it you're going to add to that vocal negativity and that that you started working with teachers increases that we work so hard for you leave in the whole budget so while I agree I could look at things that we should probably add in a little bit to but with that like I said tomorrow the negativity is going to hit in the blowbacks going to hit in I don't want to risk I think that everybody's worked for and all these contracts over what is really you know based on a multimillion-dollar contract middle school edition but I think I'll be enough to tip too many people into the negative Chris Mansion I can remember back in from the more volatile a budget that fell through and right now we don't have the negativity from the community everybody's kind of behind it somehow grudgingly because they're seeing the taxes go up they're still behind us in the story behind the teacher compensation I really feel any additions here tonight we're going to risk all of that no matter how well-intended the addition is going to be so I really caution and I will vote no against discipline priest because they already think that we could be in a little bit of trouble here starting tomorrow thank you man is actually very well stated it really brings into Focus the challenge that work I have this year there's a billion-dollar Gap just about between our proposed budget and the default budget and that is not going to be usually when I say usually I mean recently they've been pretty close numbers there's been several years were the Walt has actually been higher than the proposed budget and invoice you hear it on those you know people that would like us to not been but anyway the drivers in our budget right now roughly 900,000 in the increases are the salaries that we were proved over the last two years there's a huge driver in our budget as you know is shown in the presentation we've lost about 700,000 and revenue does Grant positions that gets light Dover are not insignificant although they've been in some of the the best defensive positions that I've heard in a while team supporting those four positions I think the administration recognizes that that's not a easy sell to say we're going to take these grant-funded positions and add them to our budget because we talked about that whenever we approve a grant-funded position in the first place that at some point we're going to have to let it go or own it and really the only other major driver is the drop-in Surplus as the SR grants dry up that's not an easy sell but it's an easy sell in terms of we're not bloating this budget we're not padding this budget everything in here is either driven by external forces or it's something that the voters of teen told us they want to see and actually approved in the terms of the the bargaining agreements from the last 2 years so I'm rather free with Randy I could certainly find some places to put some more stuff in here as well without question and this probably isn't the year at least in my opinion to be adding beyond what the administration asked for we walk ready taking some stuff away from us so I'm I'm relatively comfortable where we're at and let somebody would like to make a passionate defensive of adding or subtracting more I would just challenged you know safe for you know we always have a lot in our talking every month and as you just feel that you know I think we just need to keep in touch when it comes in the beginning of the year child things are testing and then it's cold outside talk about this not that he would challenge you guys to make like a matrix so that maybe instead of doing it just like a slow. We're really looking at like the amount of hours and energy they're going into individual students and maybe like for you to Matrix that's like a little more kind of Student Center. mom said that we're just making sure that work you know everything's like fair and Equitable across-the-board if that makes sense but again that's like an I'd give anything that I hear a thing what my recommendation would be from our department but I think it will the opportunity to be able to unpack all the roles and responsibilities that are being asked of a special education teacher and a related service provider you heard tonight that they are feeling more is being put on their plate I'd like to know more about what that look liking it is it defined by their role and responsibilities and how we can get back to perhaps working I'm even more efficiently than we have been I'd like more information before I answer the question thank you thanks any other commentary on Article 1 and a motion to amend Article 1 all right, all those in favor all right article one carries to the contract with somebody microphone 10 microphone I don't think I really need to four and six because voted on those already in minutes and I don't think you could change it so if you wanted to save time I don't think I need to four and six while I was thinking that we can take two three four five 6x and 7 as a block somebody say so moved and it is the three real Goshi ation clauses any commentary on that Tim I have something refresh my memory what is a Sanborn article mean I know I'm supposed to know this is the case where you have to Saint Bernards the article which means you have to warn boaters a future cost because you're bored a future board can't change it so the you have to if its multi-year you have to tell them which is why I like the athletic an co-curricular thing you're going to have to consider it year cuz we're not putting the right doesn't mean you can't do it every year but you can't next year you can't say well we already voted on this so the board can consider it we only can do that if we samurais it and then you can do a multi-year deal Warren voters of its cost over the each year the salary drivers in this year's contract from last year's gift. Thank you anyway else all those in favor any opposed carries 708 ocean know we caught the typos with the dollar amount so I can't say I was presented so do I then from the parliament just as amended motion to approve article 8 or unexpended fund balance transfer to building maintenance fun with an amendment of a sum of up to $250,000 we talked about this at the the last meeting the public didn't have any input on it does anybody feel the dollar value needs to change at this point all right all those in favor any opposed Carrie 70 I think we're done can I can I mix in one another typo I don't know unless it was discovered already slide 37 Tim article 8 it says 2 with a bun is there as there's no, so there's no placement there as to what that dollar amount is in the left left hand column for Budget change under article 8 Play Bounce by 37 by 37 article Expendable trust fund transfers, broccoli 10 Jacqueline Drive trading notes on slides we'd like to see for February 3rd so we'll share those with you offline all right any other public business before the board I need a motion to go into non-public in a the RS a 91 A3 for staff and student Personnel please yes heading yes yes yes yes yes there are public portion of this meeting is closed thank you a t m Productions AMC for bright directions I lost my card I use debit card obviously public input is now closed I forgot to do that when we came back I'll try it again thank you Auntie productions for live streaming especially this meeting we super appreciate it thank you everyone who came out and commented tonight that was also very much appreciated and to The Sentinel reporter for sitting through our long and boring meeting but we got to go back there right I'm so bored will convene back there for a non-public in about 5 minutes

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