| 0:03:00 | Public comment: superintendent search | Shawn McCarthy, Ward 1, calls the departed superintendent “a trunk slammer that he packed his picnic basket, and he came to our community a few hours each week” and asks the board, “instead of paying a big chunk of money” for a search, to limit applicants to people who “have worked in the school district for a whole year in the last, say, seven years”. He names “Pratt here, just got appointed” and Herzog as examples. | |
| 0:06:04 | Welcome to the interim superintendent | The chair welcomes “Mr. Pratt to his first school board meeting as interim superintendent”, describing him as an administrator “who has been a superintendent for eight years” who can lead “through this tumultuous time”. Pratt says it is “my second full day” (0:08:06). | |
| 0:06:40 | Middle-school teaching loads and schedule | Pratt revisits figures Superintendent Tempesta had presented: individual content teachers carry 94 to 114 students a year, averaging “a little past 100”; unified-arts numbers look higher because students rotate quarterly (“Music can technically see 295 students in a year”). He asks to put “the seventh period schedule on the back burner”. The chair: “We can give Mr. Pratt the executive authority to operate and make those schedule as he sees fit” (0:11:02); an unidentified voice asks whether it has budget implications (0:11:14). | |
| 0:11:38 | Why the coaches and social worker are presenting | The chair: “We're trying to add an additional social worker and an instructional coach”, so the board can hear “how they are able to improve academic achievement”. | |
| 0:12:22 | School social work (Courtney Porter) | Porter, the district's school social worker since 2013 and McKinney-Vento liaison, reports homeless-student counts “from 51 to 78 this year. We're at 50” (0:19:20), mostly doubled-up families; describes the building suicide-prevention liaison process created under “Senate Bill 282” (0:17:32) using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale; and says social work written into IEPs and 504 plans “can actually be a moneymaker for us as a district because we can build Medicaid” (0:25:26). Crawford and Hawkins thank her (0:30:06, 0:30:55). | |
| 0:32:26 | Instructional coaching (Rick Elliott) | Elliott, Stevens class of 1992, says “I'm named in the Claremont lawsuit against the funding of education” (0:32:56); after 26 years at Fall Mountain he coaches at Stevens: “We have 41 instructors at Stevens High School. I meet with 38 of them every week for at least 30 minutes” (0:34:59). He then runs a live questioning demonstration using Mary Henry, Lee Mulloy and Crawford as students. | |
| 0:44:35 | Curriculum cycle and benchmarks (Koski) | A curriculum renewal schedule that “we may or may not be able to keep”; fall reading and math benchmarks show strong early grades with a decline “as we go through those grades” (0:59:29). Asked why grade-two results differ by school, Koski says each school has about two classrooms, “pretty small numbers” (1:03:00). | |
| 0:50:06 | Curriculum director's initiatives | McLaughlin describes job-embedded coaching, Teach United, outside consultants in math practices and classroom management, accountable talk, ELA program implementation and a teacher newsletter. The chair links the second coach to covering the elementary schools (0:57:18). | |
| 1:04:38 | The Academy: program data (Lee Mulloy) | Twelve students (data on ten): course failure from “a 65% of fail and rate” to 3% (1:05:32); suspensions “last year there was 59 suspensions. And this year there has been three” (1:07:19); behavior log entries 137 last year, 18 this year (1:07:45). Two seniors are on track to graduate (1:09:02). | |
| 1:09:43 | The Academy: high-school view | Pratt, speaking “as being the principal at the high school”: “I've never seen so much progress in a program in such a short time” (1:11:03). | |
| 1:13:28 | Location options and recommendations (Nester) | River Valley Community College is open to a partnership; Riverview Charter School has no space; off-campus rentals from “$56,000 annually” (1:14:49) to single offices. Recommendations: maintain funding, keep The Academy at the tech center one more year, partner with the Visioning Committee, a proposal to the board by December (1:24:12). Exhibit A puts the deadline at Dec. 1, 2024 and says the tech-center option has “no impact on renovation funding” (quoted from Exhibit A). | OBS |
| 1:19:24 | Hidden costs of rentals; modular | Pratt, from Bellows Falls experience: rented buildings bring “astronomical hidden costs”, code, asbestos, lead paint and ADA work, plus security problems; a modular bought “if you use the the Esser funds” avoids future lease costs (1:21:10). Herzog: per “what Mr. Upton talk to us about, being outside the building would not be in conflict” (1:23:35). | OBS |
| 1:27:00 | Space for health science and pre-K | Herzog: room for the health-science program depends on pre-K leaving the building and on shrinking adult education's two upstairs classrooms (1:27:28). The chair confirms the budget moves pre-K into the elementary schools (1:28:14). | |
| 1:30:34 | Motion: ESSER-funded modular for The Academy | Crawford moves; the chair: “we still need to get everything approved through SR and things of that nature” (1:30:56) and “I'll second the motion” (1:31:29). Crawford: “The SR funds are only available until September 24th” (1:31:37); buying the unit lets the district keep it “in perpetuity” (1:32:08). | OBS |
| 1:32:34 | River Valley alternative | Gallagher (by the dialogue file's label): River Valley rents classrooms at a nonprofit rate and wants a low-cost partnership, so locating The Academy there may be “the best option on the table”. Mulloy on the program's earlier time at the college: students liked it, but proximity to services matters (1:34:58). | |
| 1:39:58 | Amendment: one-year fallback at the tech center | The voice the dialogue file labels Gallagher: “I'd like to amend.” “Candy's motion to put in the, the caveat that if the modular unit for the Academy cannot be made ready in time” for 2024-25, the program stays one more year at the tech center. An unidentified member: “Second that amended motion” (1:40:28). The minutes name Whitney Skillen as mover and Gallagher as seconder. | OBS |
| 1:41:05 | Renovation-funding risk | Herzog: attorney Upton “couldn't say either way” whether the program affects funding; “The state could say, no, you're not using this section in this section for CTE purposes”. “I'm just a letter of the law kind of guy. And the and the statement for the RSA specifically it should be exclusively for CTE” (1:42:32). | OBS |
| 1:45:01 | The memorandum that was refused | Herzog: the state (“Jeff Beard”, a name the corpus also spells Baird) told him to seek a one-year memorandum of understanding for an earlier life-skills program, “But Mr. Tempesta said, this is my building. We're not doing that. I'm not doing a memo.” (1:45:25). The board agrees an MOU will be drawn up (minutes: “Will draw up an MOU”). | OBS |
| 1:49:20 | Amended motion read back; votes | The clerk reads the amendment (1:49:20); voice vote on the amendment (1:49:57); clerk reads the full motion: “utilize the Esser funds to purchase a modular classroom for the academy, with the caveat that if the modular unit is not ready for the start of the 2425 school year” (1:50:28). “Motion passes unanimously” (1:50:53). No count was announced; six members were present. | |
| 1:51:20 | Finance subcommittee overview | The chair: “Our finance subcommittee meetings were videotaped and televised live” (1:51:47). Additions: one district-wide instructional coach, one district-wide elementary social worker (three were requested), and the health-science program (1:52:46). Crawford thanks “the CCTV and Josh Nelson”: “I think we had 5 or 6 meetings. 2 to 3 hours each” (1:53:14), and notes FY25 is “the first year, after three years, that we will not have Esser funding” (1:54:14). | POS |
| 1:58:58 | Default budget and increase | Henry: “our budget is 210,633 over default”; up “3.55% over last year's, or that is roughly 1.2 million”, but higher revenues mean “852,000 of that would be added on to the tax rate” (2:00:34). Exhibit E: FY24 appropriated $34,880,311.72, FY25 proposed $36,117,406.87, increase $1,237,095.15. | |
| 2:00:34 | The $420,000 held from fund balance | Henry: “In 23 we had 1.7 million in fund balance. Last year we had 736. Now, out of that 1.7, the board chose to hold 426,000. This year they've chosen to hold 420,000.” It was held because “we're still in the process of being audited” (2:01:30). She recommends releasing it to cut the tax impact: “even if we don't do it, it's going to go back to them in November because you can't hold it for more than that year” (2:07:29). Minutes: “will have to hold a public hearing”. | OBS OBS |
| 2:04:02 | Revaluation and the tax rate | Henry: residential values rose about 42% against 23% for commercial, shifting the tax burden; estimated increase of 69 cents per thousand, or about $35.21 per $100,000 if the $420,000 is used (2:09:32). Adequacy aid up about 3.8%; state sources up about $519,000 (2:10:31). | |
| 2:11:55 | Cost drivers and staffing changes | Teacher contract year two 573,000, administrators' year three 51,000, paraprofessionals' year three 109,000. Every paraprofessional “is here because there's an IEP” (2:12:29). Middle school goes from 25 to 24 teaching FTE through attrition (2:13:25). The ESL teacher moved to account 1260 (“The state requires it be in 1260”, 2:16:19); substitutes cut by 125,000 (2:16:47). | |
| 2:21:39 | ESSER cliff | Henry: salaries cannot be funded from ESSER “because they end in September of 24” (2:21:54). The chair: ESSER-funded staff “knew that they were coming out” (2:22:24). | OBS |
| 2:23:10 | FY25 budget motion and vote | Crawford moves $36,117,406.87. Asked when the $420,000 would show, Henry: “That'll be in your revenues? It won't be part of the budget” (2:23:47). Voice vote: “Budget passes. Budget is approved” (2:25:07). | |
| 2:25:34 | Extra session before the deliberative session | The chair proposes the finance committee and administrators meet “to kind of put our heads together” and assign the deliberative presentation (2:25:47). Gallagher will be away: “Or I can call in if that's all right” (2:27:37). The chair: “We could do that would be a work session. We wouldn't need to do it in this formal setting.” and “There be no votes taken or anything like that” (2:27:51). Settled on the 24th at 6:00 at the Dow. | MED |
| 2:29:14 | Election calendar | Filing period January 24 to February 2; “January 29th is the last day for us to post warrant and budget”; deliberative session February 3, 9 a.m., Stevens High School. | |