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Keene Board of Education Meeting for March 12, 2024

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Keene Board of Education Meeting for March 12, 2024 LGIA, 43 Arch Street, Keene, NH at 6:30PM Transcription available upon request.

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yourself a good evening and welcome to the March 12th 2024 meeting of the Keen Board of please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Richard said one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you I will open as always with public input a reminder that public input excuse me it'll be open for 30 minutes and public input is limited to three minutes per speaker will ask it doesn't look like this will become relevant but will asked people not to speak a second time unless everybody who wishes to speak has already spoken once but I don't think we have enough people to take up the whole bathroom or so if anybody wishes to submit public input and come up to the microphone please state your name and address for the public record just going up to the table so we can catch you for the live stream good evening, just the microphone is that good good evening and a taxpayer who believes that we should invest in future Generations a huge part of that investment includes education and creating a stronger Community I applaud all individuals in the region and in our schools who prioritize equality human rights and opportunities for all in this case for all of our children for more than a year friends and members of the community have approached me regarding issues at Keene High School I realized that we only had partial information and did not fully understand the extent of those issues observed from a distance hoping that problems were gradually being addressed then news of hateful Behavior but something is not right reason Leary surfaced prompting conversations by more community members once again some of that information could be hearsay without evidence but some of it in fact up by reliable sources I've been informed about students bravely defending their peers who were being harassed instances of graffiti bullying I've heard teachers are being supported that they're not being heard or communicated to by the administration I've heard that some individuals don't feel safe that the principal and the school district is not listening or working together to resolve the problems it disturbs me to say this but the constant message I hear is that new leadership is needed are public schools are a huge part of community community how to create an environment where we learn live and work together we must find ways to teach and set examples of respect for all members to show understanding and celebrate our differences as I watch a is emerging not just a New Hampshire but Nationwide I continue to recognize the impact any level of hatred and incidents has on communities demanding critical thinking all of us it's time we unite to work together and to utilize the amazing resources and individuals that live in our region I'm advocating for Change and would like to hear what steps leadership be taking two for that to happen a positive learning environment enhance his education thank you all for listening thank you good evening y'all hear me or I could even so usually I'm pretty comfortable at just speaking my thoughts to people who I'm sitting in front of I'm a trainer and an educator but I realized tonight that I've been so upset about what's happening in my community that it was better for me to have my notes so I'm going to read and try and also look at you as I'm doing that I'm sorry my name is Mary Gannon and thank you may need to talk to Mary Gannon I'm an educational Equity consulted an educator I have lived in Winchester for 24 years my daughter Ella bogdanov graduated from Keene High School in 2022 I recognize there are multiple now what is circulating about what has happened regarding the contract termination between Winchester and Keane I'm not going to waste our time tonight repeating many of the important points about what I perceive even many of us do as the disrespectful and just tastes full communication regarding the contract termination with Winchester School Board the Keene Sentinel editorial board did a brilliant job of that in their editorial in March 9th pointing to several of the absurdity including the negative impact on our kids parents and Guardians thank you to the Keene Sentinel editorial board I'm here tonight to ask you Keen School Board to do a better job of how you communicate with our community and then steps of this process it's the least that you could do considering that we pay you over half a million dollars to have our students our community is asking you to do a very thoughtful and intentional process of transitioning our eighth graders to Keene high school next year I asked you to recognize that stigma does exist and to acknowledge that you play a role in perpetuating the stigma about our town and our students for you how long before I move to Winchester there have been rumors and I called him lies and misinformation about how Winchester students bring down test scores and impact the high school standing a King High School in the state I want to make note that not only is the valedictorian of this year's graduating class from Winchester but in the last several years we have had salutatorians and other students in the top 5% of graduates of the graduating class of Keene High School from our town my daughter being one of them some of you may not know this but the king's school district is part of the Monadnock diversity equity and inclusion and belonging and coalitions education subgroup this work is focused on building and understand heading to create a culture of belonging we invite you all to join us in finding approaches to create a welcoming School Community for all of our students to address stigma and exclusion of any child the data and research on belonging lead directly to academic success and outcomes I'm sure some of you know that the tide of Winchester Will Rise Above This we don't know what the next step is and we don't know where our students are headed but we will do the right thing for our family I will make sure that they are involved in the conversation in a respectful way our children should not be paying the price for adults playing political games or otherwise either wittingly or unwittingly our children are not pawns to be shuffled around are Winchester students from the rich diversity of experiences skills and contributions and we want them to attend a high school where they will be appreciated thank you my name is Jody Valero I live at 242 Concord Road here in Keene and I must came taxpayer I'm also a member of Keene High School class of 1991 parent 3 Keene High V in high Middle School freshman and I happen to be a King High School teacher and I'm here I'm speaking on behalf of the Department that I am part of and in particular I'm speaking on behalf of the American studies course so sorry miss being in front of students and not all these okay so in light of the information that students were told by their counselors early last week that American Studies classes would no longer be offered and in light of the information that was shared with staff this past Thursday by dr. Gallagher the American studies teachers with the support of many of our colleagues would like to bring some concerns like to the board Administration and to the public and just to clarify on what American studies is a social studies course that most students take their junior year it is a classic kids are into credits in one in social studies and when an English and it's hot year round so it's a team taught interdisciplinary course and so some of the concerns it is kind of had like a list here with a little bit of love recent bomb in one starting with a process in which we were informed that this course would not be running the process itself demonstrated a lack of collaboration transparency and a failure to communicate we as a department heard from students earlier in the week that the course wasn't running a scheduling priority document was shared with the staff after our meeting on Thursday so there was a kid's hurt for some reason we going to hurt a little bit about a little bit we heard a little bit of extra it's why that happened but it was a document and scheduling priorities the scheduling priorities as we look through it contained a number of inconsistencies for example such as core courses get filled before electives then electives need to be staff before team teaching staff which leads to a whole set that section 2 as we do our priorities to add more team-teaching if we can cover priorities any proposed adjustments for additional team taught sections are welcome after the other priorities are completed this means we can possibly bring back American studies comping honors in terms of processes today a deviation from past practices timing on the program of studies and teacher recommendations were finalized back in November in January respectively students who are already scheduled in American studies were called down and taken out of those classes by their counselors it was through these student complaints about this process teachers even found out this was happening I'm families parents and students should be in for five major curricular changes before the scheduling process I'm not informing parents and students and then cutting the courses isn't as I attended to deviation from past practice shared governance we have an iot which is the group that should be helping to make all curricular decisions they were never told or counseled on this a shared governance model was presented to the board during budget hearings this year and it cited iot and DLC at our shared governance happens this decision is evidence that church governance is not happening in this situation impact on students we had enough students not close to done Independence signed up to fill one foundations to comprehensive into honors sections are currently being told that we might be able to run one section of each leaving over 50 Juniors without the classic shows in to get the required English and social studies credits in grade 11 and in terms of impact on school and Community which I probably should have started out with first but I'm just feeding our statement this program has been a successful option for students and a Mainstay of the Keen hiker come for over 30 years during our last man accreditation process American studies was one of the only class is it was singled out as examples of the direction we should be taking our class options for students this team's using aspect was allotted as an example of best teaching practices anecdotal evidence suggests and historical PowerSchool search can show that American cities is far more successful in helping stew turn the grid 11 in US history credits and it's separate English and services this is not a knock on his programs but rather evidence of the effectiveness of the co-teaching model the full year program in the impressive coherent constantly evolving curriculum I'm going to skip the next part cuz I'm at a time but the value of this program cannot be overstated and regardless of the rationale of this decision the fact that is potentially being ended in this manner that is strictly administrative level without teacher input our discussion is inexcusable the scope changes large will take time team teaching is not worship team teaching is where we should be moving toward and not away from Team TJ is not inherently opposed to smell a class sizes new Creative Solutions which take input from all stakeholders cover ways of solving this problem that none of us are even aware of yet and my personal note two of my three kids took American studies they are rocking it in college now because of the skills they learned in the relationships that they were able to build in a year one class with two different teachers in particular their riding skills thank you sorry I went over I appreciate that good evening my name is Bill hope and Pearl Street I think most people here on the board wouldn't already know me would already know my Spiel in terms of me expressing to you that I went to Wheelock School in Franklin school for a while and I would King Junior High School as Junior High School on with the King High School and here I was the football team and parliamentarian the student council in Saginaw Myron all those things and I know all the words to the School fight song that kind of my perspective at the graduation graduation 1986 I started here as a tutor in 1988 and this year I'll get presented my 30-year recognition my time here and I taught social studies in special ed department head and advisor to four different class councils over the years don't kind of fundraisers you probably heard me knocking on your door to raise that money to get those things for those kids. but I was on the one that started unified program here I was a two-time World game coach Special Olympics need inspection with the coach and among other things I pointed they've been here a long time I see how things have come and gone and I can come and say that I'm appointed or this or that and give you a list of what I would rather do it was I would rather invite all you school board members to come to my classroom come in and sit down if you want to know about competencies if you want to know where your staff development dollars are going if you want to know any of those things in the past 30 years I would happen this year I would happened couple years ago during covid-19 you were in Special Ed is a paraprofessional what were the arguments and I keep great data on everything in those people who know me know that I show up with buckets full of past emails missing meetings meetings in affidavit in those things but that's not what I really want you to do is just see and look at how we didn't Academy fund proposal and want you to see that I'm coming the day that the veterans coming back American studies we still go out and we have local connections and we talked to those guys that went to school here and then our community that went and served and we want our students to know that story will Auntie record those and have them to have that I want to come see all the wonderful things that we do everyday there with the students rattling coming to say I'm complaining in Minnesota about this not the other thing I want you come to Keene high school you can see for yourself what it's like if they're issued due to weather are we going to see something good I can show you what we do and I feel that every day as far as like me and Lady initiation has come in any day every single day when you wanted to be pop in anytime sweetie should we bring it every day we will have 180 days with the kids that's it and they're gone I went to a small problems now if you want to know what it's like an almost positive things I'm happy to walk you through and show you and talk about the field trip for taking things like that an app that can really nice though I would have to say that if you get a chance documents she's amazing young individual who I've known for several years and she's a great example of when we picked advantage of opportunities here teen high school and the good and the bad and the Downs with the students like her and it's the students here that they come here every day optimistic and had to go out and take advantage of every opportunity and go be great people in our community and Beyond if you want to thank her anyone else tonight Republican puts actually still open for another 15 minutes if anyone else comes in or if anyone here changes their mind and wants to speak couple of those things will me and rest in the she'll report because a lot of times what you guys are talking about is what we're talking about Jody and Bill this isn't something that's going to be for the board we're not able to respond without getting full. talk about what's going on I think Rob's not here to check Brian could we get an update on the schedule and American studies at education at the education committee next week if we're planning on speaking at the education training next week if that Rebecca if anyone decides that you want to speak to wave at me and will recognize you Worley consent agenda set alarm 20 prove the consent agenda second to anybody want to remove any items from the consent agenda tonight and a clerical errors all right all those in favor any opposed that carries 70 it is time for the Port of the chair which I didn't print out so I also will be reading it off of my laptop and trying to look at people at the point of where I think was 800 7010 that's 80 for the vote we're only missing one person tonight are a first thank you to everyone who did get out to vote today I hope most of you supported proposed budget and then negotiated contracts of course but regardless of how people voted individually thank you for participating thank you for supporting the schools in the way that you see best fit when you go out to vote time tonight does Mark the end of at least one current board members term we won't know official results for probably another half hour and I'll probably another 40 minutes or so and Scott and I may be done we won't know for a while but we definitely know that Ron Wright who did not run for a second term so his terminal end tonight I do want to thank Ron for his work on the board for the last three years his diligence and learning about the board rules Willard rolls no I'm his knowledge of facilities in larger budget management and above all his dedication to the students and teachers of the Keene schools he also graduated from the key in schools made him a vital part of the work that we do in particular his work Jacqueline on the most recent Kea negotiations and Rebecca with Bill Gillard on the other side that resulted in the smoothest contract negotiations in quite a few years with the Kea and helped ease some of the tensions of the disc just had for a long time and again couldn't be with us tonight due to work obligations but on behalf of the board we do want to thank him for the time that he spent here as I said Scott and I one of us may be done both of them know we can't both be. can we I'm supposed to be able to do math one of us might be done but has a strong write-in campaign is true you know so if either of us has done that farewell will be the responsibility of the April chair there are in other news there are two significant Regional agreements do for review and renewal this year the regional CTE agreement between Keene Fall Mountain in Monadnock that's the one that covers the career center is already being reviewed by the three districts has been a number of changes to the state laws governing how Career Centers operate one of which is that that agreement that used to be every 5 years now has to be renewed every three years so under Richard towns guidance we've already started working to address the changes in law as well as reviewing the rest of the agreements so far it's been pretty collaborative they're advising departments their principals there My Career Center folks have been involved as well as ours and hopefully we'll be able to finish that soon lost my place which I knew was going to happen but the career center Tremont then the work that we do with Fall Mountain Monadnock has been vital to this community to the broader community and we'll have more on the career center update from Richard town later tonight we are also soon to begin working on reviewing and renewing the area a agreement that's between Keene and eight of the contributing towns including all of the towns in sau29 that agreement only has to be reviewed every 20 years so we haven't done it in a while but the process similar with representatives from each district will be convening a group to review the agreement and make changes as needed to address the concerns from some of the sending towns as well as from our own and improve the overall cooperating between the districts and board members you will seen an email we need to appoint our Representatives later tonight we're actually supposed to inform the SAU by Friday he's going to be doing that and finally in December King received a request from the Winchester board to meet to discuss the existing tuition agreement between the two districts specifically they wanted to discuss removing the current requirement that they send all their students to Keen as they haven't already negotiating with another District to take some of their students the keyboard generally doesn't spend any time looking at our existing agreements until they're due for Renewal but as this was a formal request we did have to take up the topic in the non-public this represented the second time Winchester has made this specific requests as well as several other requests over the last eight years to revisit the contract it's become apparent that the current agreement is no longer meeting the needs of the Winchester district and that Keen is on go to alter the agreement in the way that they want while still retaining our ability to prepare the proper Staffing and budgets at the high school as a result the game board voted last month to direct the superintendent to initiate the process to terminate the that termination is outlined in the agreement itself it provides for a minimum of three years notice which is important because that's the time that would be required for any current students attending Keene from Winchester to graduate with their class the significant question now is what happens next so per the agreement the termination notice is a minimum of three and as I said those students can graduate with us unless the Winchester board request that we negotiate something at a different for those students The Next Step will be for the Winchester board and their Community to decide what they want for their students during the phase out. As well as what they want for their students in the long-term the lawyers from the key in and Winchester districts are already meeting to discuss their options Keene is willing to work with Winchester the phase-out process if that is their desire including what happens with their current 8th grade class which as I understand it they are still hoping to enroll those students in Keene so they will need to make a request as to they would like to have happen to those students we have been kind of expecting that and are ready to work with them on that and as well if Winchester decides that they do want a new arrangement with Keen we're open to discussing what that would look like as well so a lot going on in the district in the last month but I think that covered most of it that we knew about before coming in here tonight Pepsi do not have a student representative report tonight mr. Malay is not here yet Brian do you want to give her report you want to wait for Rob to come and we'll move ahead I mean I think it's always reports in the drive I think this month's probably even was lengthier than past months with several notes again about legislation but I would prefer George to half if there's something specific Rob dancer route to report on for him to do that when he arrives which should be shortly from recent texts other I don't know if anybody else has questions for him but yeah we're happy to okay can we did meet with great schools yesterday okay good let me know okay alright standing committees building and ancillary Services Mr phileo meeting basically is a pretty quick actually not a lot of new to report the repairs and upgrades to our schools going well and we did get up did it again on our little buses that we got and we get a little more tight to that we're going very well that we've done over the years so I'm not a lot to report but when I can report is all is well and some of the at least two sports teams have been starting to access to Vance I know there's a lot of reservations so I don't mean reservations for using them I mean they've been reserved to be taken out so that's that's a pretty positive Ella we got those all right education committee and is Lancaster ill during this last month's meeting on a lot of what was we had like a mini meeting also because entire committee really wasn't available during break week so what kind of do a bigger report next month to want one thing to share that was like a highlight on that I'm sorry that I had to miss the Franklin got to come and Starcrest got to share a lot of the great stuff that's happening over there so it's nice to always have the schools, and we got to hear from the principles are the teachers are the students is my favorite part of that committee so that we can get to hear from we do have a couple of going to let Scott handles said just the request for that field trips that we have in the folder I hear them if that's okay with you he's Board of Education moves on behalf of the education committee to approve the KHS field trip to Ecuador this is a new Drive all of these field trip proposals actually had some pretty complete applications at the step process is starting to come together and have specific questions on the Ecuador field trip and all those in favor any opposed carries 80 the key Board of Education moves on behalf of the education committee to approved field K Chase Field Trip to Concord Massachusetts all right questions on that one it's one of the music department trips all right now this is my oh yeah it is because my son's going on that when I should know that one yeah he claims you're the chaperone all right all those in favor any opposed 801 more keen Board of Education moves on behalf of the education committee to approve KHS field trip to East Burke Vermont all right I remember this one this one's for the solar eclipse as I understand it yeah and they were hoping to find somewhere in New Hampshire but they couldn't find somewhere New Hampshire that they could park the buses so they found somewhere in Vermont that I ski resort I think that's going to let them go in and some of our science classes go and watch the boats already which is pretty cool all right all those in favor and you posed carries 80 suppose this is the appropriate point to mention we did hold an emergency meeting last Thursday I'm with five board members present six or five board members present and that was solely for the purpose of approving a music department field trip to Rockport Massachusetts I wish book did pass 5 nothing in those minutes will show up in the next meeting that was a clerical error the music department submitted a whole bunch of field trips and they accidentally left one off the list so they came quick and we read to the emergency session because the other alternative was to have students and parents drive and we had that happen to the music trip last year and rightfully so got some complaints from those families we really should be sending these guys out on crown for significant drives to what should be a school field trip so that was the purpose for doing that right now is it for Education write science committee Mister Roberts the finance committee met last Tuesday I think we were done in less than 20 minutes but the the next finance committee and the new facilities committee is going to be a Whopper extended one and so a lot of stuff would be coming out as you can get ready to close out the books for this year and Ken comes up with a bunch of project and other things that need to be done and before I make the motion when we talkin about the bus and I'll still out on the finance side is mrs. Gallagher dr. Gallagher has a bus trip going on she's reserved the bus and it only has three people but because we have the van and as soon as she takes to become buy a training and she will be able to drive that van and again showing us how we're going to save money with that and so how to make motion to clean Board of Education move to approve the budget transfer report dated February 2024 is informational second all those in favor any opposed carries 800 we should also I'm a see if I can find them in my drive time from a is not correct striking my memory bank so in our Drive folks we have a donation of $700 from William parshall in support of Simon's 5th grade Nature's Classroom trip so finance committee accepted that and we are it's in our drive this evening and we Express gratitude to mr. partial for that donation and we good another donation that from that the move on it was already done. On the consent agenda a gift of $962.50 from the Keene Elm City free Club to support Simon schools Nature's Classroom trip again that was accepted with grave great appreciation thank you got that covered Personnel today in the strength of an Alan yes we met this evening in the public segments we had dition to approving the minutes of the Personnel committee and non-public minutes we talked about I had a review overview of how job postings are going with the time frame of the Year some building administrators have selected to have those positions taken down and that's the focus goes on to the 2024 or 2025 Academic Year currently just a quick summary there five administrative posts open KHS as mentioned before does not have openings for teachers at this point is sing towards next year to Elementary special ed positions open and Simons three that are clinical oriented and then there's multiple paraprofessional Steps step my options open thank you thanks God let's finish committees Robert going to come back to you for the superintendent's report policy committee game board of education moves on behalf of the policy committee to approve policy aacn nursing mother accommodations required by law it's actually something that has come up I came up last year at one of our elementary schools we needed to make sure that all schools are supplying a space for a nursing mother accommodations the law actually just requires space for expressing milk we expanded the interpretation potentially to include actually nursing I know there's the odds of a teacher having their infant in the school are low but we wanted to make sure that that was covered and it also includes what's the law did not require but we felt was appropriate that hourly employees are are still paid well that is happening so that's what this one's about questions all those in favor opposed where is 80b half of the policy Committee of the Board of Education moves to approve policy ehab data governance and Security in this one was just straight-up change District by law involving how we handle the data in our schools it was primarily it and legal that did this one and then just brought it back to us pretty unchanged from the state are essay questions tell her we didn't have this one this is when we had to create fruit maintaining legal compliance all those in favor any opposed carries 80 move zombie highway this is backwards isn't he the policy committee move no alright all right moves on behalf of the policy committee to approve policy i j instruct resources again changes in state law pretty significant involving who does and does not get to suggest and approve instructional resources this is one of the ones where the intent of the rsa's to make it a little restrictive on school districts to be able to teach the way that they feel is appropriate to teach so involved some words but this will be in compliance with state law and mostly puts it in the hands of our Administration rather than outside influences questions all those in favor propose carries a 70 alright one more for approval game board of education moves on behalf of the policy committee to approve policy ild educate no questionnaire surveys and research questionnaire survey yeah it is and I know this one's been a challenge particularly the high school unfortunately the state is expanding the list of things that basically families have to opt into in order for us to use them and it has started to impact some tools and resources that teachers at the high school and middle school have been using for years as well as some resources students have brought in under their own Initiative for their own research projects basically what the state law says is they have a whole long list of topics that if your questionnaire covers these two fix them families have to opt-in rather than the opt-out that we have been used to using in the past so unfortunately that's what this is it again reflects pretty closely the state law and we hope to keep working and tweaking it as much as we can to continue to allow the tools that people would like to use or at least figure out a way to streamline the process of being able to have families off in so we can go back to Simply teaching but that's what this policy is questions all those in favor opposed carries 80 sorry the numbers keep changing a couple policies first read ihcd Leb that's two different policy letters but one policy advanced coursework advanced placement courses and concurrent enrollment and i m v c alternative credit options these are somewhat related policies on the high school is in the process of digging through all of her I policies which have to do with credits awarding credits for outside show me yellow the credits that are applicable to graduation credits that are not applicable to graduation and these are the two that are ready for review there's some changes in their based on Law and some changes in there from the high school that are in headed to start bringing all of these policies into alignment with each other and with what we actually do in our school so this is the first round of those. Through them and have questions send them to anyone on the policy committee and we will work through them there and that's all I have for policy for what are you guys are maybe just on like a night unless you guys are going to have like Cindy and a high school team at you guys guarding on through it together and we'll figure out where they should go out that's a good point but we'll figure that out and we'll let you know if you have to take them first or second I know you write that note down or I'll forget to do that okay alright Rob we are going to retreat to the superintendent's report Brian gave the standard disclaimer that it's all in your written report so if we have questions on it we should oh yeah public input close probably about 3 minutes ago thanks Jeremy there's a lot there's a lot in the report as there is every month in some of the new stuff that you have in there is the winter testing results compared to the fall testing results what you're looking for when you look at those test results you're looking for the green line to get bigger right that's what we're looking for from how to Winter you want the green Regent increase you want the red region to decrease and so those results were put in there for English language arts for our for elementary schools in Keen as well as for math Alex and so you know your see the growth that it happened from fall to winter that's what we expect as they go through the school year as they are enrolling the curriculum as they are teaching her students you want to see more student tonight green area that means are at low risk or there at proficiency for that assessment so that's good stuff that we're seeing in there the strategic planning continues to move forward we had an incredible work session last week getting this room as we are starting to move from the initial portrait of a graduate in value statement that hasn't been finalized yet but we have reviewed all of the input from the first draft and are making the final we got say it's probably better than 95% very favorable responses from the community and from the folks who responded to those surveys on what they how they felt about the portrait of a graduate f*** it as well as the value statements super super favorable in fact I think less than 4% said that these don't resonate at all so I think that there's a real strong Community buy-in for the work that we've done so far and now working on the next phases which includes the strategies and action planning so stay tuned they'll be a lot more coming out for your input for your consideration in that regard put some things that are happening mostly in this school because I get feedback from folks in the school with the visual arts you saw the displays that have been going up today and probably will be going up further tomorrow as they get go to the senior art show some really incredible pieces out there if you haven't had the opportunity to pause and just take a look and appreciate the incredible work that our students are able to do I would encourage you you know when you leave just take a couple extra minutes and just so you know some of that stuff is really unbelievable we had some art delivered to central office today from Fuller and like the staff at central office couldn't contain themselves when the teacher was there putting it up in there like she was really happy just to see how much people appreciate the work that their students are doing so I would encourage you to take a few moments to look at the work that the students in this school have put on play for your consideration a different look at Athletics I know that the athletic director does a lot of reporting on number of students into number of a sportin we talked about their successes on the fields and whatnot but I thought it was kind of need to take a look at their successes in the classroom collectively as well when so you've got their gpas in an aggregate form by team for the fall Sports in for winter sports the reason we don't have the spring Sports is because at the turn of the semester they hadn't even begun so we don't know who's involved with those Sports at this point in time but if there are any other questions I mean unless you want me to go through the full route which I'm happy to do if there are any questions with any of the material that's in the report happy to answer it now or if you want to ask me at another time happy to do that as well even if you want to ask me before the meeting by all means feel free just pop in your time machine ask him before the meeting I was going to I was going to ask you to do this and you did so anyone else all right do the whole thing later alright School Liaisons Keene high school rock paper scissors why were you going can you do a full review with do you have anything you want to talk about I don't have anything additional is some great notes in the drive from the superintendent and last month the updates were pretty expensive on what was going on but the principal might have something that's okay I didn't follow up with you at the beginning of them we have a shared document I put it in late today I just want to acknowledge that the Alumni Association is starting their 25th Annual Nami fission process for the outstanding Educators so they met with the faculty on Thursday they sent nomination forms to advisory on Monday there was a nice video with some of our current teachers who were past recipients can you about the process 25 years they've been supporting Educators at the high school that's just a really nice thing of represent that to the outstanding educator to salmagundi so parents will be getting an email reminding them out there they did go back to paper nomination they didn't find the Google format beneficial to them that's what I added to your document late sorry about that it's a growing document they asked it'll get more now, I'm going to throw one into technically will have the April board meeting before this but in this algia is currently scheduled for the end of the second week in April I think that's still may be a tentative date but I think that's what plays are set and I could pull it up everything set up for the wall bring up Nostalgia because it's like two days after our next meeting and I know a lot of people watch for that and it's early this year so I want people to know that it's happening earlier they're not going to be looking for it yet so that's April 11 12 and 13 so I know a lot of people enjoy play The Nostalgia show so that's coming up as well appreciate that all right career center mr. right but mr. right as previously mentioned is not with us but I do have some notes from mr. town the director of the career center enrollment for 2425 through the course Palatka okay I've stood outside in the wind for about 8 hours today so I'm still recovering through the course selection process we're seeing record demand for Career and Technical programs there are over 100 students from attending schools seeking our programs next year and most of the programs will require us to implement a lottery system which we do have in place for the seating currently there are about 200 more requests than we have available seats which is both a good and a Bad Thing obviously we don't want to be blocking students but it's great that there is that much popularity for the programs it's something that a lot of us I've been pushing for a while it shows that we're actually starting to make some Headway and we're starting to gain some relevancy in the programs that we're offering health science students Cheshire Medical Center we recently completed an affiliate agreement with the Cheshire Medical Center which allows students to take part in job shadows and various departments students in the Allied Health section of Health Science are doing two jobs Shadows per week in different Departments of the hospital you may have seen some of this shown on Facebook feed as well so that's pretty exciting new programs coming up we are currently seeking part-time teachers to staff out our new Pathways in electrical trades and in criminal justice through the courts. process for seeing strong demand for both of the programs in the region and I know this isn't in the report but I noticed your town was asked about this recently if we can't find instructors for that obviously won't be able to offer the classes so if anyone knows anyone in did the the school district will be happy and helping qualified people get the credentials that they need to teach those classes career exploration Day is coming up on April 3rd which is the school sat testing day and they did this last year as well as a career exploration day in the career center for students in Grade 9 students will get to select four of the career center programs to visit during the day-long event that include concludes a career exploration presentation with the CCC teachers who are planning a variety of activities Mister male and I visited it last year we were here for something else that I can't remember what it was but I'm sure it wasn't your this one is poking their heads in at the at the exploration Day stuff so that's pretty fun for the ninth graders it's part of the reason that there's so much demand for the program's now OSHA training students in construction Horticulture and Manufacturing are taking part in OSHA training this month students will receive their OSHA 10 certification upon successful completion of the program which is an industry the credential and it will help students in these careers I'm seek jobs upon graduation hats new either this year or last year but that was implemented but it's an extra credential on top of the rest of the work that they do that directly applies to some of the jobs that these kids are looking for from the career center Keene Middle school on the settings hello lots of good stuff as always happening at the middle school on an academic Point New Hampshire SAS writing test has been going on this week 8th grader 8th graders and 7th graders are done 6th graders or tomorrow makeup testing is next Thursday and Thursday and Friday of next week last week the 6th grade clusters had a career day this is Success also on a facility standpoint drinking water testing was done for lead levels and please report back of the 20 samples that were taken from the building none reported back at or above you know the threshold for being at risk so that is good news there are three progress reports were emailed out around the sea of this month your books are now on sale in years past your books have sold out so pre-order early don't wait don't have fomo Spring Fling dance is March 21st from 6 to 8 p.m. and this week for those of you who love as do I School House Rocks that is the show this Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. so please come out and support our our young people that are going to be up on and that was it for middle school thank you was unable to connect with the principal week so I don't have a report for school mr. phileo due to illness and we reschedule for next week Simon School Miss Lancaster I'm not sure if all the elementary schools do this but Simon's finished there they do is school read every year so they pick a book and all the kiddos in this go get it this year was James and the Giant Peach we finish that at home and Simon put together really cute it was a fundraiser for the fifth grade they did like a big showing of the movie has a school which was also the fundraiser for the fifth grade trip which rent went really well just need to see to have kids coming home with different grades and being able to talk about that the shared experiences so that was something really need that they just finished up I wanted to give a shout out cuz we don't talk about it very often but just to all of our clubs that we have at the elementary level we have a lot obviously here at the high school on at the middle school but what time is it play they have a newspaper Club if a workout Club God blesses Tiani for that band was so great to have this experience is my son takes advantage of a couple of that men yes those are really going strong and we're just super appreciative of the teachers who stay to run those after school I'm for Oliver Elementary Schools the 4th grade I guess it's the water science fair I don't know if that's the correct terminology with that some kicking taking off soon we just got the paperwork home in the back back the other day so if you have a fourth grader at home it's a great thing at the family level to be able to get into my son's current ideas to drive around all of New Hampshire and test water all over freaked out a little bit but that's that's our current plan that's a great thing to get into for the spring with your families and last thing is just book fair Simon's coming up pretty soon and there's a fifth grade do a living wax museum so there's are going to go inside I think it's on the 18th it starts 18th to the 21st I just had it open yeah and so 6 to 7:30 living wax museum at Simon's on that Wednesday night that week so that's really exciting as well and Jonathan Daniels that's the last Community Education the settings for j.d. preschool did not get a chance to connect with your man Mulligan for Community Ed lots of good things happening there are ESL program continues you see new students and right now they're at capacity and our beginning class and brand new students are being referred to the online State program and they also have it and established waitlist you've heard me in previous board meetings for port on the status of our first cohort of Ellen a students please report that all six of those students passed their licensing test so we're now not me personally but King community at is working with them and our partner New Hampshire Jack to place them and jobs and if all goes well we hope to start the second cohort this month with Maplewood nursing home in Westmoreland spring semester of the diploma program is in full swing and as they project the students with their completion of credit we could potentially have 25 graduate's the share in our diploma program so that is very exciting so we wish those students best of luck and stay focused in the final push the king Community Ed website is still under construction with redesigning as we all know here in the board the J D building has been going through construction and Renovations with that it was time for teen community ed for their space that they're taking up to move temporarily to another part of the building so they settling into that and next month the Bureau of adult education will be doing a site visit and that is it for Kane Community yet so lots of really good things happening there thank you alright nhsp a master ormerod to everyone's attention the like to know what you know has three parts and I think that the protocol Elliott's take they can't hear you thank you three particularly interesting on rights to know since we have so many things going on and so many laws are changing that there is a right to know that you can register and keep the keep the are you office keep the School Board office on machinae in the loop with those but April 2nd coming up in a couple works is part 1 there's a legislative over her part 2 on the crossover day so this is really important when the barbells better in the house go to the Senate I believe and this is a good one that I'm going I plan on attending as I become more wanting to become more active and anyone else who wants to become more active in I can see you understand how the process works and at what point we want to put some some action to support better school funding the right adequacy that we haven't been getting a lot of that even still the divisive Concepts in many of the many of the things that we feel really really strong right here is that we want we want to impose so that's a very very good one to go there is also right to know on the April 16th there's a lot coming up on in April that I think you're a very good there's any new chairs or someone wanting to become a chair April 30th there's a really good seminar for the nhsp a that could be quite good so they seem to be really improving and having more more register so looks like their model is moron training at delegate assembly is still in October from what I can tell still tell and so we we get caught on this because they call in July for resolution so I would say that that's not too soon that we should be thinking about resolutions in April and May and June because it may end in June or times when we really should I be putting these things together since the Dead find husband in in July when we often are not that active George I know you're very active in this area to is anything else we need to mention make sure that you mentioned the resolutions I know Duane Wooldridge mentioned it several times in his candidacy that this might be the year to start advocating for fair funding again since the just lost yet another court case so that's a possibility but yeah we frequently arrived in June and realize that we have two days to come up with brake and approve a resolution so yeah I think we've start bringing those at the April meeting so if anyone has ideas feel free to bring them forth at that time you've helped him to reach out to Raleigh or I we both attended the delegates session and have some idea of what the resolution baby look like and I said my train of thought has trained off sau29 the next SAU meeting is March 27th at 5:30 p.m. and that will be at the SAU offices this the purpose of this one will be an update on the strategic planning committee similar to what you just heard except it will be another three weeks into the process and kicking off the superintendent evaluation process I'm the only one required to attend as our representative you are also members of the SAU board and welcome to attend the one to tie get if you're only kind of looking for one extra meeting instead of lots of extra meetings will be the May SAU board meeting that will be the one where we elect the SAU board chair and vice-chair for the coming year and actually that trains right into you'll see the SAU meeting schedule has a link in your agenda if you want to look at when all of these meetings are also coming up as an AR with a meeting but that's not until May either so I didn't bother look the date because we'll all Forget before we get to May and that brings us to The Fabulous are a review board committee as I emailed you either but I think I like midnight so I apologize for that but that's when my brain was fun for me yeah that's right it was like just before midnight we need to appoint three members to the area a review board committee the lift is not as bad as we thought it was when we first looked at this we thought that every Committee Member had to attend every committee or they cannot legally be held which I don't I can't imagine the scheduling nightmare you're looking at 21 board members from the various districts and you're trying to feed and to lawyers and you're trying to find a time that and Rob that they can all meet at the same time but that's actually not true once we formed the committee at it's just like any other committee we just have to have a quorum and in an atom caceda has to be so that'll be a little easier and we think probably three meetings might be enough to get it done or not anticipating anything really challenging in terms of revising the contract we have a couple asks on our side I think that the town's might have a couple asks on their  but it's really a tweaking of the existing agreement we've been feeling people out at various meetings and it doesn't really sound like anybody has major complaints with how things are going so Jacqueline said she's interested Broly Chris all right so we've got plenty of people did you also see Rebecca all right so now I have to narrow it down so I will contact each of you over the next day and and check on what your availability is in that type of thing and then I will give a list cuz we don't have to actually vote on this one I just have to say these are the people doing it so I'll do that and will get that over to them by 4 alright that guy still this right so I'll see Jacqueline Jennifer Rebecca Rebecca tentatively Raleigh and Chris all said that they would be all right and I will check in with you guys either after the meeting tonight. Availability or later this week thank you all right new business scheduling the reorganization meeting at 5 p.m. before at committee right but that's the one I got a name I'm saying I don't think that we have confirmation yet so let me open Shana's email alright our hope is to hold what have I done to my inbox hope is to hold the board reorganization meeting on Tuesday the 19th at 5 yes all right and that purpose of that meeting is more than just reorganization because we're noxious that way but it will be to elect a chair for the coming year a vice chair for the coming year we don't really do a secretary anymore it right but we need an SAU representative and an NHS be a representative and Robert you still hoping to have yes committee assignments and still hoping to have nominations alright we're hoping to have a contract nominations ready for that meeting and most of you have been through that but the administration recommends call employment nominations for the coming year teachers are professionals support staff Administration am I missing anyone I don't think so. Did I go through this process to only certified only certified positions okay then I'm not missing anyone and those nominations are given to the board for approval and we are allowed to pull names out and challenge them individually obviously this happened to nonpublic don't believe anyone on the board this year is in position to have to recuse on the past we've had children WIC yeah, clicks but I believe we're clear this year slow things down a little bit to anyway that's the purpose of that meeting and Shana said how can that possibly be that far down confirms for a 5 meeting on the 19th George Jack when Jennifer and Randy Scott is in so Chris Rebecca Raleigh alright that's enough for Quorum so we will we will schedule that for 5 on the 19th Rob and then education committee will happen as soon as we're done hopefully know a little later than 6 it depends on how long. an hour with enough time it doesn't happen hours not enough time I think we have to assume an hour I would have loved to have held it even earlier but that's really questioning things are already holding Oh Yeah from policy committee policy is meeting at 4 in the afternoon on the 26th yay and that is to accommodate the fact that the 26th is also the New Hampshire I'm going to get the title delegate assembly meeting in legislative meeting in delegates to the State offices the city usually prevents something the county usually present something the school district usually shows up to show that we're still part of the community but we do get to see all of the delegates and talk with them and I know that I've been more open this year to seeking input from school board members and the school Community as to what they can do in Concord to make a difference which we appreciate a lot they actually got several bills killed that would have been pretty detrimental to us not everything they wanted to but it's an uphill battle this year and they've been doing some good work so at least half of our policy committee wanted to go to that and superintendent is thinking you probably should go to that so that left us unable to meet unless we held it early so we are I believe everyone here is invited to that meeting you're welcome to go to the delegate assembly or not we will be represented so it's if it's something that excites you then you should go at the library that was almost hit you have no call it up again sure but I think we should do that but I would say is that all other warrant articles have an official at this point in time but all the Warren articles have passed so that's what I would say I love it I do have to buy things for new business in that I did not deliver during my suit from tenant report you would have all received a notification for board member orientation we got out of the practice during during the covid years until we're getting back into the practice this year it is not only for newly elected it's for anyone who would like to attend and would like a refresher so if you are interested please confirm your attendance with Kathy Dieter so that we know what to expect because we are going to try and provide some type of like free breakfast type stuff and then the other one that you just reminded me when we were talking about the Legislative Assembly that's coming up we have already targeted a date in July July 17th so I'll send this out to all board members I think we already have as well or if we haven't will make sure we get it out in the next day or two to have a regional luncheon with our lawmakers where are House of Representative folks are Senators that impact our communities throughout the SAU so that we can talk about educational priorities and so that's targeted for July 17th so two things to keep on your radar in there you're not required to but I think it'll be good value both of those will be good value or any other new business for the board seeing none can I have a motion to go into non-public session in accordance with our essay 91a 34 I haven't looked staff student there any negotiations on this one I don't think so Jefferson out all right Jennifer can I have a broke off please yes yes yes Miss Lancaster yes mr. o Murad yes mr. Downing all right so we will reconvene we behind us I hope you alright in will Optimus optimistically say 5 minutes thank you to the folks who came to speak tonight that was much appreciated thank you to everybody in the city who went out to vote tonight thank you to AMT productions for live streaming us and for supporting us on the knowing one publican disclose that I was forget to do and to all of our board members and administrators for sitting through yet another night of nonsense

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