| 0:02:11 | Student representative report | At the college application day "As a total 42 students sent out applications, 109 applications were submitted", against "only 20 students and only 43 applications" the year before. Also reported: the S Factor talent show, the December 7 winter concert, the regional career fair on November 28 (about 20 regional employers), the peer outreach program, the preschool sensory room and basketball results. | |
| 0:11:40 | Substitute coverage plan | The superintendent describes higher substitute pay tied to commitment levels, "while reducing the overall cost of teacher substitution rates", documented in four pages of the packet. | |
| 0:12:54 | Stevens failure rates, 2007 to 2017 | A ten-year analysis of Stevens High School failure ratings is in the packet; the superintendent notes "we're not exactly comparing apples to apples" because grading changed, and the A/B schedule of 2015-16 is compared with block scheduling. | |
| 0:13:48 | Middle school forum; head lice | About 80 staff and parents attended a Claremont Middle School forum the previous night. On head lice, the superintendent says district policy and protocols "are supported by the medical profession, New Hampshire Department of Education and have been vetted by the Valley Regional Hospital", and proposes a public forum with the school nurses because concerns continue (0:15:48). | OBS |
| 0:16:33 | Staff affected by the reduction list | The superintendent says staff whose positions appear in the reduction documents "were approached privately" before the meeting. | |
| 0:18:02 | Donated choir acoustical panels | A Claremont resident, a retired lieutenant colonel, has offered four acoustical panels for the Stevens choir: "The cost is $7,000." The district would need "an additional $1,200 to cover shipping and handling", which was not budgeted; the superintendent asks the board's approval to explore options (0:19:45). No vote is taken. | |
| 0:19:45 | Senate Bill 193 (education freedom savings accounts) | The superintendent summarizes a Reaching Higher New Hampshire analysis: the bill "allows eligible families to receive 95% of the state funding that would normally go to public education, about $3,600 per student"; eligibility includes households under "300% of the federal poverty line"; he warns of a drawdown of state funding for districts like Claremont and says "it is expected to pass next year". | OBS |
| 0:24:06 | Questions on SB 193 | Pierce asks whether tutoring money would come back to the district; the superintendent answers that the bill concerns private, parochial and home-schooled students. Sprague predicts the vote will "align along party lines" and urges the audience to be "putting pressure on our representatives". | OBS |
| 0:25:30 | Substitute pay questions | Asked when the enhanced rate starts, Nate (associate business administrator and human resources director) answers "the new rate starts immediately when they the commitment level", with monitoring through the year. | |
| 0:29:13 | ASAP software and substitute coordination | Zullo recalls the district paid "13,200 sub coordinators" before ASAP. O'Neill: "now we only pay one person a $3,000 stipend for a sub coordinator"; "Saving $7,500 on the coordinator. We paid $9,500 for the software." Nate: "there's about 3300 days per year that are teacher absent days"; paraprofessionals covering for teachers carried a premium of "about $60,000"; the goal is to move from 60% coverage toward 90 to 95% (0:37:43). | |
| 0:41:22 | Specialist substitutes | Herzog asks whether the rate structure allows hiring a physics or chemistry substitute; Nate says retired teachers have been engaged at negotiated rates (0:42:01). | |
| 0:42:30 | Teacher absence days | Pierce checks that 3,300 absence days fall within a school year of about 180 days; Nate explains the figure covers leave, professional development and "this other thing called extra help". The chair suggests making the subject an agenda item (0:44:16), and Pierce asks for the data to be presented. | |
| 0:45:00 | Citizens' comments: Stevens music director | Twelve band and twelve choir students were selected for the Valley Honors Music Festival and four for All-State. The director is not named on the recording. | |
| 0:47:40 | Citizens' comments: Harrell family (Bluff parents) | Amanda Plummer Harrell says a teacher took her daughter's drink on a field trip because it "was deemed too sugary", and that searching lunches was raised; the principal assured her "there will be no searching of the lunches". "I was told that the wellness policy allows them to make that judgment. That is not true." The superintendent offers to investigate and "to report back publicly to the school board". | OBS |
| 0:54:20 | Citizens' comments: Tom Rock, Ward 2 | "If it's 30 million and you just get by, 31 million is the better budget." He puts the board's proposed tax cut at about two dollars a week for an average home: "It's two bucks a week." | |
| 0:58:29 | Students invited to speak | Herzog asks that students speak first; the student representative says "I think I'm the only student here". | |
| 0:58:59 | Citizens' comments: Steve, Francis Street | He says his eight-year-old daughter was asked "to spray her classroom with a mixture of tea tree oil and water", and that the product's safety data sheet describes it as "a flammable substance. It's harmful if swallowed". He has raised it with the superintendent and asks "the school board to investigate this further beyond what the superintendent has done". He also urges support for the building trades program. | OBS |
| 1:02:33 | Citizens' comments: Ward 3 resident, Claremont Development Authority | Speaking as "the vice president of the Claremont Development Authority", he ties school quality to economic development and asks the board to "use a scalpel when you're looking at this and not a machete". | |
| 1:05:26 | Citizens' comments: Larissa Cahill, Ward 2 | A Stevens staff member and parent: "where is the line? How many cuts, how many years of cuts do we keep making until we're decimated?" | |
| 1:10:11 | Citizens' comments: Ron Perry | He warns about SB 193 ("what if 20% of your enrollment is gone overnight?"), declining enrollment and underused buildings, and suggests revisiting state building money: "But we turned down that $17 million". | OBS |
| 1:14:31 | Citizens' comments: David, Ward 2 | Surname transcribed Piketty. He supports the $1.2 million target and says "I found myself $2 million to cut out of this budget without impacting a single thing at any school", citing a "Secretary, that's $90,000" line and outsourcing information technology. | |
| 1:17:48 | Board member Pierce speaks in citizens' comments | "Michelle Pierce, Ward one." She thanks the audience and says she joined the board when "nobody had signed up the last day of closing". | |
| 1:20:35 | City Manager: shipping donation; city budget | McNutt says "my friend David Putnam and I will donate as well hundred dollars" toward the panels' shipping. The FY18 city budget was "$16.4 million", "a reduction of approximately $560,000"; schools are 58% of total spending against 62 and 65% in his previous towns, and "I have not seen anything that is extraordinarily out of line". | |
| 1:29:31 | Tax rate and valuation | Sprague cites an Eagle Times headline that the tax rate "is still highest in New Hampshire" and asks about a "death spiral". McNutt disagrees ("I actually think the trend is inverse."): he will move to a 24-month valuation cycle (1:34:31) and reports the MS-1 valuation rising from $694 million to $701 million (1:34:49). | |
| 1:40:29 | School share of the tax rate | Irish reads from the city's chart: the total rate was 32.59 in 2008 with $19.66 for schools, and "The school portion is now 2782. It's a 42% increase since 2008." | |
| 1:46:07 | City approach to FY19; schools and development | McNutt will again go line by line against actuals (1:46:07); last year's rate ended "being like a six cent cut overall". He says "I can't emphasize enough how important the schools are to economic development." and praises the Stevens renovation (1:55:33). | |
| 1:57:42 | Donation from Joe's Jewelers | LeClair says that at Joe's Jewelers' annual ladies' night "they raised $1,600 for the one for all space". Accepted on Pierce's motion; see the agenda table. | |
| 2:00:28 | Budget process and the November 15 draft | The superintendent says the November 15 budget "was the first draft" and "was not intended to represent a budget that addressed your directives". Meeting the directive of $1.2 million below FY18 "would equate to $2.6 million from the budget you saw on November 15th". The list shows proposed reductions, which he says are "not reductions we're recommending", then the administration's recommended adjustments. | OBS |
| 2:03:23 | Documents handed out | A comparison of administration and support staff with Kearsarge, Lebanon, Fall Mountain and Newport, and answers to the board's November 29 questions; "we're also going to pass them out to the residents here". | POSITIVE |
| 2:04:15 | Timing of the directive | Pierce asks when the directive was received; the superintendent: "you just don't press enter and produce a budget", and the budget "wasn't developed and finalized until the afternoon of November 15th". | |
| 2:07:17 | Line-by-line review chosen | Irish asks to go through the list "especially when we have this many people in the audience"; Pierce agrees. | POSITIVE |
| 2:07:55 | Reconciliation of the FY18 base | O'Neill adds back warrant-article contracts (paraprofessionals, maintenance and custodial, secretaries) and a district-wide technology equipment line "that I didn't put back into my model", giving "a reconciled, approved budget for 1718 of 31 for 77247" [$31,477,247 as transcribed]. Grant-funded employees not yet moved to grants are reclassified, a reduction of $172,865 (2:09:05). | OBS |
| 2:09:29 | Technology equipment and contracted support | Malloy says eliminating the equipment line would be "basically a stripping of all tech equipment". Contracted support worked out to "roughly paying these support services, $96 an hour"; he recommends a part-time in-house position at $25 an hour (2:14:11). Petrin asks why the district contracts at all. | |
| 2:18:51 | Curriculum work and textbooks | LeClair: the $59,000 staff-development line pays teachers for curriculum work on non-contract days; the recommendation keeps about half, "would accomplish approximately 225 curriculum days". On textbooks, the November figure of about $164,000 reflected materials bought ahead: "like we just rolled the numbers forward"; a $75,000 reduction still covers consumables (2:22:42). She says year-end fund balance is small against the $31 million budget: "I think it's less than 1%". | OBS |
| 2:28:47 | Board disputes the November 15 message | Herzog: "that was not the message that it was that night". The superintendent answers that the budget was printed "an hour and a half before the meeting". | |
| 2:29:24 | Buses, software, ceilings, roofs, energy specialist | O'Neill would lease two more buses: the oldest two cost $25,000 in repairs last year (2:29:45) and are fixed "good enough to pass inspection to be safe to transport students". Other items: a software allocation correction, deferring CMS ceilings ($40,000), small roofs (about $43,000 in total), and removing the vacant energy education specialist (2:33:42). | |
| 2:34:22 | SAT and assessment coordinator stipend | Sprague, who created the position as principal, says the coordinator "is actually paid by the College Board". Barry: the duties now include in-house state testing; without the stipend "the coordinating of that would now fall on our school counselors". | |
| 2:38:29 | Middle school social worker | Paulette Fitzgerald: the social worker supports homeless students and families, attendance home visits, and "students whose parents are incarcerated". LeClair: the System of Care grant cannot absorb an existing position, "I can't use grant money to supplant that". Irish: "I'm not questioning the need or the position. I'm questioning the funding." | |
| 2:49:07 | Grant administration; SAU and district budgets | LeClair explains that the grants coordinator is paid from grant indirect costs, so "they are a revenue generating position", and that the social worker is "one of the few that is back on the list of recommendations". Zullo asks for a public explanation of the SAU budget versus the district budget (2:52:46). | |
| 2:57:30 | Athletic trainer and crisis counselors | Barry: the athletic trainer contract with Valley Regional Hospital is "for $46,000"; a redesign could save about $19,000 (2:59:08). Two contracted crisis counselors (Mountain View) make one full-time position; without them students would go to West Central, which "is suffering staff shortages". | |
| 3:02:27 | Crisis counselors and school counselors | Barry: asking a guidance counselor to do crisis work "would be like asking a, podiatrist to do your cancer surgery". A Stevens school counselor, not named, says "My caseload is around 170 kids." Barry describes how the crisis protocol worked for a student over Thanksgiving weekend (3:09:05); the page omits the details. | |
| 3:10:09 | Why the crisis counselor is not on the put-back list | LeClair: with a student in crisis the school can still call police or an ambulance, while "that option doesn't necessarily exist in the same way" for the social worker's work. Barry: outside agencies are understaffed (3:11:40). Herzog: "one life that's worth $78,000". Chris (special education): cutting the counselor would mean "more kids having to go out of district". | |
| 3:15:52 | Athletic trainer among the untouchables | Irish, "picking out my untouchables in my head", names the athletic trainer among them; Herzog would put a caseworker ahead of an athletic trainer. | |
| 3:17:01 | Adult education director | The proposal would "reassign that responsibility to another administrator", for example the incoming technology center director. LeClair: the $55,000 is the district's share after grants (3:18:01). Amy (adult education): "there's no adulthood services in the entire rest of Sullivan County"; revenue was "About 15,000" last year. | |
| 3:27:18 | Middle school assistant athletic director; Stevens administrative assistant | The assistant athletic director role would shift to the athletic director (3:27:30). O'Neill notes all personnel figures are total compensation including benefits (3:28:35). | |
| 3:28:55 | Curriculum specialists | LeClair says the specialists are repurposed, not new, positions, and reports "a 6% increase in LA scores and a 3% increase in math scores overall" and "115% growth in math". She recommends keeping three (3:39:29). Irish: "For me the data speaks." | |
| 3:41:15 | School resource officer | The administration recommends reinstating the SRO. Pierce asks whether security technology could do more (3:41:39) and "Is Crystal going to jump in a car and drive over there to your lockdown?" Barry: technology "provides us with more evidence, and that's all it provides us with". Irish, an IT professional: "it's for forensics. It's not prevention." | |
| 3:54:16 | CopSync line | Malloy: the $8,000 CopSync line was cut, and "we've had no actuals and 100% false alarms with it". | |
| 3:56:35 | State school-security fund | Malloy has applied to a state fund covering "80% of any school improvements" identified in the district's emergency management plan. | |
| 3:57:43 | Security grant amounts | "683,000 from the state, 819,000 from feds and 195 local". Irish: "technology will not make them safer". | |
| 3:58:48 | Unfilled maintenance position | O'Neill recommends restoring the position, vacant "since July 1st"; without it overtime rises, and the accreditation review "it's all based on the staffing of the custodial and maintenance staff". | |
| 4:00:05 | Disnard elementary teacher | Melissa Lewis: one grade could go from three sections to two, covered "through attrition"; the first grade has 36 children in two rooms (4:03:00). LeClair: the position is added back for a likely need at Bluff (4:01:12). | |
| 4:03:41 | System of Care grant limits | LeClair: the grant funds a coordinator, a part-time assistant, a social worker "to focus on a caseload of 8 to 10 kids" and contracted services; it cannot pay a teacher. | |
| 4:04:59 | School psychologist | Chris (special education): losing one of three psychologists would mean pulling them off student assistance teams to protect "compliance, timelines, testing, writing reports". Part of the saving shifts to contracted services (4:06:43). The superintendent: "I have never experienced the intensity and frequency of little boys and girls behavioral issues". Irish puts one psychologist's package at $106,000 (4:11:40). | |
| 4:12:44 | Two special education teachers at Stevens | Ben (Stevens assistant principal and special education coordinator): "our obligation is to provide a free and appropriate public education by law to kids with disabilities". Stevens has seven case managers (4:14:44). Chris: state data show inclusion at the high school "significantly below where the rest of the state is". | OBS |
| 4:20:07 | Can the cut be absorbed? | Ben: "I think we can get by and continue to provide a free and appropriate public education. If we reduced by one." Chris: "It is absolutely going to have an impact on kids." and "Zero reduction would be would be my recommendation. We could live with one." He would move a position to the early elementary grades (4:21:21). | OBS |
| 4:24:49 | Three Stevens teaching positions | The superintendent sent a saturation study; the list shows three positions and the administration recommends two. Barry names English, foreign language, and a vacant social studies special education position (4:28:34). Superintendent: "we're taking away one of our three foreign language programs". | |
| 4:29:01 | World language enrollments | Sprague: the A/B schedule left "some artificially low enrollments". Charlie Gessner (world language; spelling unverified): under A/B "they couldn't take two levels of language in the same year". The student representative notes the three-year language expectation for New Hampshire Scholars (4:32:20). | |
| 4:33:09 | English position, reading intervention, AP | Barry: English has the lowest class sizes and the least impact (4:33:18). LeClair: special educators deliver the Read 180 and System 44 interventions, so cutting both hits the same students. Barry: English electives are nearly gone (4:36:11), and two AP English courses may not survive (4:37:47). Enrollment is transcribed "We were at 575 when I came on. We're at 346 now.", which conflicts with her statement that it "only swayed about 35 students" and with her figure of 546 earlier in the evening. | |
| 4:41:04 | School profile and accreditation | Barry: cutting AP offerings changes the school profile that colleges and rankings read, and the substantive change policy "requires us to report to when we reduce certain kinds of programing, student services, staffing", which may lead the accrediting body to revisit Stevens' accreditation (4:42:16). | |
| 4:42:49 | Paraprofessionals not tied to IEPs | Chris: a review of every paraprofessional found "we have four that I've identified that aren't specifically tied to" an IEP. | OBS |
| 4:43:54 | SRO line added back | O'Neill explains the $42,800 school resource officer add-back: "I just didn't I didn't put the budget in that line"; "it was never in the budget". LeClair: "Mike forgot to put it in this version." | OBS |
| 4:45:19 | Field preparation, police, referees, athletic transport | O'Neill would cut $10,000 from each of the field preparation and police and referee lines without affecting spending, and consolidates athletic transport wages into one line, a $47,000 increase (4:46:33). | |
| 4:46:47 | SAT writing portion; ESL curriculum | LeClair: the state pays for SAT math and reading; the optional writing portion costs "about $1,200"; the ESL curriculum line would drop to $300 from $800 (4:47:39). | |
| 4:48:32 | Presentation only | Pierce asks whether the board should deliberate; the chair: "Just a presentation." | |
| 4:48:43 | Next session; pending contracts; nonpublic | Irish wants another meeting the next week. LeClair reminds the board that "there's two, collective bargaining agreements still yet to be finalized and resolved". Irish: "we still have a nonpublic to go in". | OBS |
| 4:52:48 | Resignations; closing remark | Irish asks why a hospital employee's resignation comes to the board; the superintendent cites the partnership with Valley Regional Hospital (4:53:14). Sprague moves acceptance with regret. Zullo: "$200 a year could make a big difference for people". The recording ends here. | |