| 0:00:46 | Roll call | Clerk: “Jason Benoit, Rob Lovett, junior. Michael. Patron.” / “Heather Whitney, Carolyn Toll, and Frank Sprague.” No answers are captured, and Zullo's name is not heard. | |
| 0:01:15 | Citizens' comments moved up | Sprague: “I'd like to move g citizens comments up to a head of F”, “because we have a lengthy superintendents report said anyone is here to speak. I'd like to have them come up sooner.” Asked if that is just for tonight (0:02:20): “I'd like to do that permanently.” | POS |
| 0:03:18 | September 18 minutes corrected | Zullo: she had asked to discuss “school safety and protocols, and that's not mentioned in here anywhere.” Sprague: add that “Rebecca Zullo would like to see school safety discussed at some point in the future.” Petrin (0:04:14): “Motion. We approve the September 18th, 2019 minutes, as amended.” | MED |
| 0:05:06 | Value Up video | Craig Scott: “My name is Craig Scott.” “I learned that my sister, Rachel Joy Scott, was the first person he killed.” Student report (0:07:02): assemblies, a leadership training, staff training and a community evening; a new student club meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays, with “high five hallways”. | |
| 0:13:57 | Petrin on the evening event | “I went into” it “A skeptic, fearing that it could be a little more of a political commentary”, “And it wasn't, and it wasn't at all.” He hopes to see the auditorium full next time. | |
| 0:20:59 | Superintendent: schools and budget | About 70 people attended the evening event. The compromise budget “is very positive news”; “almost everything that was promised in the first round we're going to have”, but “it's only for the biennial.” | |
| 0:22:32 | Business office | “Richard Seaman is with us tonight, our new assistant superintendent of finance and operations.” “We also hired the accountant position and grants manager. And Sharon Muzak will be joining us in November.” At 0:23:01: “the timelines for the 17 audits should be completed by the end of October, and then the 1850 completed by the end of December” [the FY2018 audits, by context]. | MED |
| 0:23:49 | State aid under the compromise | “the difference between the current laws and the compromise budget is about $5.5 million. Coming to Claremont”; “it's 20% more than that was already on the books.” At 0:24:42: the prior law addressed “the stabilization, the annual reduction, 4%. Now, this one does not”; statewide “almost 140 million more than was promised before.” First budget meeting “on the 20th”. | |
| 0:26:00 | PD days and strategic initiatives | PD built around curriculum vertical alignment and trauma-informed instruction. Three initiatives (0:27:16): community involvement and safety (police and fire “have already committed”); teaching and learning, including grading and “expansion of alternative programing”; social-emotional learning. Committees list (0:31:18); sign-up via the website, contact “Melissa Small” (0:34:34). | POS |
| 0:35:27 | Seaman's title | Whitney asks about the title change. Tempesta: “It's a return to the former title.” Zullo (0:36:47): the title “implies that we have three assistant superintendents, which I think, just makes me nervous”; she asks whether certification is needed. Tempesta: “You don't you don't. So in terms it's it's a it's a title. So we have two assistant superintendent.” “we have fewer bodies though.” | |
| 0:37:40 | Harassment training timing | Zullo: the “one hour mandated training for harassment and bullying” is in March; “why it's not at the beginning of the year.” Answer (CSV: Donna Magoon, attribution uncertain), 0:38:08: “Moving forward, we're going to look at doing it more at the beginning of the year.” It will remain mandatory every year for all staff. | |
| 0:39:16 | Program of studies: AP weighting | Mr. Morris: students who skip the AP exam have kept weighted credit; now “you have to sit for the exam to get the AP weighted credit”, otherwise “4.0 credit versus 5.0”. Exam cost (0:41:56): financial aid exists; “I don't quote me, but it's about $3”; “we have money in the budget”. | |
| 0:40:44 | Alternative program removed; history merged | “elimination of anything related to the alt program, because we don't really have an alternative learning program at this time.” At 0:41:09: “The state has required us to merge New Hampshire history with US history”, from “a close reading of the law. Our essay 3064 point or 306.46”; “So we called Doe. We got clarification on that.” | OBS |
| 0:42:24 | Running Start | Whitney: Running Start “can save you a lot on the tail end.” Mr. Morris: instructors need a master's degree but the college is “very flexible”. Tempesta (0:48:04): “about 40 or 50 kids right now participating in that composition class”. The program of studies will be “a living document” (0:49:19). | |
| 0:44:13 | AP capacity | Zullo: AP classes fill, so students are sent to online courses; she asks that capacity be discussed. Tempesta: it is part of the curriculum-sequencing and scheduling committee work. | |
| 0:51:01 | German exchange | Gary: “We signed the agreement in 2001. We had our first exchange in 2003, and we've had eight so far.” Home stays both ways, so students pay mainly “the plane ticket and spending money” (0:53:40). Whitney: “I'd like to make a motion to approve.” Chair: “GAAP exchange.” Zullo: “I'll second that.” Vote at 0:56:06. | |
| 0:56:18 | State budget: framing | Sprague: three aspects, the regular budget money, building aid (“huge implications for our capital improvement committee”), and the Medicaid cuts, which are “sort of a of a wet blanket on this whole thing.” | |
| 0:57:52 | Rep. Merchant on Medicaid | “it's national in scope.” CMS requires services “are authorized by a health care provider, which is like a physician, a nurse practitioner, a PA”; the state had allowed others to authorize, and “according to CMS, at the national level, that's not sufficient”. Allied-health professionals (1:00:13): “they can't authorize their own service.” | |
| 1:00:29 | Board on the referral rule | Zullo: “we're not going to get reimbursed for any services that have started since. When? June. July 1st.” Nester (1:02:57): billable services are set by the special-education team, “it's pretty rare that a doctor will order us”. Sprague (1:04:46): “Is there not an opportunity here to push everything out of the school and into the medical community?”; Petrin: “You're not going to get the same level of service.” | |
| 1:08:17 | Rep. Merchant on regular aid | “The stabilization grants are fully funded now”; the lost first quarter is caught up over the next three. Additional free-and-reduced-lunch aid; “disparity aid, which is really kind of a nice of saying capital aid”, with restrictions unknown. At 1:11:23: “a $500,000 funding for a commission” to find “a long term solution to funding public education”. | |
| 1:12:55 | Medicaid contingency | Nester: “potentially hiring”, “our own advanced practice registered nurse in district. Maybe on a part time basis that could potentially solve the Medicaid issue altogether.” Tempesta (1:16:11): tuition-in students could fund such positions; any proposal would come with costing “to the board for approval.” | |
| 1:14:31 | Catastrophic special-education aid | Sprague asks about “special ed aid, which used to be formally known as caddy” [catastrophic aid]. Nester: “we're still getting 62% of what the state promises”; “three and a half times the tuition rate”; “it's around 56,000”; “it goes down every year.” | OBS |
| 1:19:07 | $500 Chamber of Commerce gift | Tempesta: “a check from the Chamber of Commerce for $500 donated towards the purchase of binders for the middle school.” Accepted at 1:19:38. | |
| 1:20:07 | Policy committee | Zullo: the committee has spent “a lot of time” on the bullying policy. | |
| 1:21:09 | Alternative programming | Sprague: “someone had said that the class started at 130 or something and wound up graduating 80 something. So I'm wondering what happened to those other 50 kids”. He wrote the grant for the former ombudsman program (1:23:18); students he interviewed had “school phobia”; without an option “We're going to lose 30 or 40 kids a year.” | OBS |
| 1:24:24 | Retreat | “The the retreat is going to be the 20th. And that starts at 10:00.” Room at the tech center reserved. At 1:24:57: “As far as warning the meeting goes”, “It's a regular board meeting open to the public, with citizens comments. But we'll simply have the single agenda item of a budget retreat.” | POS |
| 1:25:23 | Safeguards report | Whitney: an update from Seaman on “processes or safeguards that could have been in the system that would have protected the district from the losses that it” “Did and almost suffered just so the community can hear”. Tempesta (1:26:24): “We'll be getting some audit letter. We've already had a lot of recommendation from the from the auditors”. | MED |
| 1:26:50 | Adjournment | Whitney: “Like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting.” Petrin: “A second that.” | |