| 0:03:39 | Makerspace; school opening | Senator Hassan visited the new makerspace. Students return "Tuesday, September 5th"; full-day kindergarten begins "on September 11th, 2017" (0:05:12). | |
| 0:06:51 | Background checks | "Effective September 16th, 2017, House Bill 556 will go into effect and that going to provide school superintendents and only school superintendents, by the way, with much more details about the background of our candidates." He says the effort "started in Claremont three years ago" with residents testifying in Concord (0:08:23). | OBS |
| 0:09:04 | Announcements; curriculum days | LeClair: the Back to School Festival on August 26 at Barnes Park, "38 different, vendors and booths"; new teachers start August 22, all teachers August 30. Asked about last year's five summer curriculum days, "We've done many more than five days." (0:16:37); later, 68 educators and 205 days this summer (2:13:45). | |
| 0:20:06 | Citizens' comments: Michelle Pierce | Speaking from her own family's experience, she asks residents to email questions on how families and the community deal with incarceration, addiction recovery and single-parent and grandparent caregiving: "I've been on the board for almost two years, and I've received very few of, if any, from any citizens from Claremont." The superintendent offers principals to speak on the district's work (0:23:43); Rapp suggests a future agenda item (0:24:14). | |
| 0:27:19 | Food service rollout and confidentiality | Parents received an introductory email; online free and reduced-price applications open August 25. "Our plan is to have one person in the SA, one person having access to that information." (0:28:56). "So they're not going to be a different colored ticket, a different line. All children will be the same and there'll be no stigma." (0:34:16). | POS |
| 0:30:05 | A low-cost internet offer | Pierce describes a Comcast offer at $9.99 a month for families on free or reduced-price lunch. Rapp: "I'd hate to just, just be advertising or helping one business." (0:31:45); LeClair says the technology director will look at other providers. | |
| 0:32:50 | Why every eligible family should apply | Adrian: "We actually lose funding when families who qualified don't fill out the information." LeClair: "our title one funding, other grant funding, our E-Rate funding, our adequacy aid, all of those are tied to our free and reduced lunch rates"; elementary rates are "in the 70% and higher" and the high school "in the 40%" (0:35:05). | |
| 0:36:17 | Middle-school kitchen | O'Neill: a changed serving line, "a new three bay sink", a stove being installed; "about 90% of the, the the district employees have been hired by Abby" (0:36:58). | |
| 0:38:35 | Finance presentation: the questions | O'Neill lists the questions "asked last time": cost breakdown, effect on taxpayers, "Why is claim on higher" [Claremont], comparisons, the feasibility of an outside efficiency review, and the status of the Claremont decision. | POS |
| 0:39:28 | Revenue shares | "The state average local taxation is 58.8%. Now Claremont's only at 42.4, which is actually 16.4% lower than the state average." Tuition, food and other local revenue 4.7%; equitable aid "12.2% more"; federal grants "2.9% higher than the average" (0:40:32). | |
| 0:41:31 | Spending by function | Regular instruction "the state average is 40.9%. We only spent 33.9% here in Claremont"; special programs 5.1% above; general administration and business "8.8% higher"; school administration "1% higher" (0:42:48). He corrects two slide lines aloud. Adrian calls administration "a hot button issue" (0:49:09); O'Neill: "that's about a $300,000 impact" (0:49:57). | |
| 0:43:48 | Nine-year shift to local taxpayers | "the local property taxes have increased 3.2% as far as a percentage of the total cost", while "other state aid is down 3.9%" and federal grants are down. | |
| 0:45:27 | Equalized valuation per pupil | For 1738 students the figure is "398,009 20" [$398,920], "42.5% of the average" of 939001 [$939,001]: "the Claremont tax rate would have to be two and a half times higher to raise the same amount of money". | |
| 0:46:48 | Teacher pay and class size | "Teacher. Average salary 1617. We're at 77.3% of the average": $44,467 against $57,522. Student-teacher ratio 10.7 against 11.8 statewide (0:47:24). | |
| 0:50:55 | Reading the shares | LeClair: fewer counselors and social workers shift work to building administrators. Rapp on Lebanon: "their budgets $10 million higher" with more administrators (0:52:10). The superintendent: the administration share reflects student services coordinators added at the elementary schools (0:52:39). Irish asks for nine-year cost trends as well as revenue (0:53:35). | |
| 0:54:31 | Cost per pupil | State average figures; attendance 92.82% against 94.8% statewide (0:56:10); debt service interest "571 per student" against 248 (0:56:36). Adjusted, "you adjusted cost per student is 15,488, 86" and "you're still 586 over the state average", but of 162 districts, 117 have a higher average cost and 45 lower: "We're in the bottom one third or one quarter of the whole thing." (0:57:19). | |
| 0:57:47 | Adequacy against cost | Irish: "The state gives us 3500 is educate your kids. It costs us 17. And we're not we're not luxury by any stretch." (0:58:38). Adrian asks whether anyone has challenged the adequacy figure (0:59:08). | |
| 0:59:41 | "The system is the problem"; social media and the quorum | Pierce, after an education summit: "The system is the problem, not the administrators, not the community, and not the schools." On online criticism: "We as a board cannot go on their 2 or 3 at a time and communicate back our thoughts or feelings, because we will be in a, I believe a quorum, however, so we can't address them there." (1:01:00). | POS |
| 1:03:00 | Board role in student services; sharing the slides | Zullo: "I'm new to this part of the school board" and asks when the board joins those conversations. The superintendent: "nothing should be off the table" and the slides will be on the website: "Every the minutes, the agendas, all this information you're looking at on our website." (1:04:43). | MED |
| 1:04:53 | Community engagement | LeClair urges members to join the community engagement work supported by the Nellie Mae Foundation (transcribed "the May Foundation") and cites a statistic that about "70% of your, voters in your community have no connection with your school" (1:06:37). Next meeting September 21. | |
| 1:10:06 | Elementary handbooks | A one-page summary of changes accompanies the revised handbook. The meal program is left out because the Abbey Group is running its own rollout. The telephone section was removed; secretaries help younger students with calls (1:12:07). | |
| 1:13:12 | Stevens High School handbook | Received "Friday night" as a Google document. Barry plans to "blow this up next year". Rapp praises dress-code language that no longer separates male and female students; Barry credits assistant principal Wendy Day (1:17:01). Printed copies with a sign-off sheet will go home (1:18:56). | OBS |
| 1:19:50 | Owls and Alt: history and staffing | Owls began as a grant-funded ombudsman program and was absorbed into the district "about 4 or 5 years ago"; Alt is in its third year. The Owls math teacher, who "has a doctorate in math", is reassigned to full-time math for the first semester after "three rounds of hiring" found no applicants (1:24:03). About 15 Owls students; one three-hour session, 9 to 12 (1:25:19). | |
| 1:27:00 | "What the law says" | Barry: alternative education must have procedures "consistent with RSA 193, which is basically our graduation requirements. We haven't been able to do that with 100% fidelity." Work study becomes credit-bearing extended learning (1:28:27). On the Alt program's special-education share: "by law, we have to have a 60%" (1:31:27). | OBS |
| 1:36:37 | A handbook hard to follow | Adrian: "It's very hard for me to kind of clarify when it's pertaining specifically to owls, when it's pertaining to the alt or both" and "It makes it very hard for me to approve it as is" (1:37:57). Barry: if approved "we are going to go back and look at the the esthetics of it". The programs remain upstairs in the tech center (1:38:46). | OBS |
| 1:39:55 | One PE teacher | Barry: when one PE teacher left, the position funded the social studies and special education teacher for Owls and Alt; "I'm I'm confident that we'll we'll be fine with the single p position" (1:40:32) and she will propose the same next year. "This this year. Will will be the proof in the pudding." (1:41:32). | |
| 1:46:56 | Athletic and coaches' handbooks | A chain of command for complaints is added; eligibility rules unchanged; "this really should be all yellow because we had no coaching handbook" (1:49:54). Zullo, "as a parent", found it helpful (1:52:11). | |
| 1:55:10 | Strategic action plan | LeClair: "the primary purpose of tonight is to ensure that the the Claremont School Board approves the strategic action plan, which is currently in draft form." Built with consultant Mark Dolan (as transcribed), recommended by the New Hampshire School Boards Association (1:59:20); slogan "Our community is committed to success for all, one student at a time" (2:09:35); three focus areas (2:06:02). Low salaries mean "we train really great teachers and then they go get higher paying jobs in other places" (2:16:07). | |
| 2:28:56 | Quantify "fiscal responsibility" | Irish: "I think it's a great start. It's ambitious as all get out." He asks that the plan define fiscal responsibility, since "do whatever it takes" will alarm taxpayers (2:29:20). The superintendent: "the Claremont taxpayer cannot absorb additional increases" (2:30:49); a facilities and schedule team will "finish our work in December of 2017" to shape the fiscal year 2019 budget (2:31:26). | |
| 2:35:51 | The technical center | Irish: "we lost the high school by one vote because the board didn't do a good job marketing" (2:36:13); the tech center "is dormant" and should be "a separate entity"; "I want to see us cut the cord with Newport and create the Claremont Tech Center" (2:39:22). LeClair: the tech center and early learning "didn't explicitly make it in the final cut" (2:38:46). | |
| 2:48:01 | "Revolutionize" | Barry: "I don't want the word revolutionized lost because that's the key word." Zullo asks who the superintendent's "key players" are; he answers that the teams "have already started to form, but they're not complete." (2:54:26). | |
| 2:54:59 | Plan approved; standing agenda item | Irish: "my goal after this will be from every meeting forward, the strategic plan update be on our agenda." Voice vote. Pierce offers to lend three books from the summit (2:55:54). | |