| 0:00:05 | Call to order; why the room was chosen | Crawford opens the committee's "first, budget analysis meeting" and states the reason for the venue: "we're having it here at the tech center so it can be broadcast. For folks who might not be able to make it here in the building." Nothing in the Right-to-Know Law required the committee to broadcast at all. | MEDIUM POSITIVE |
| 0:00:39 | Last year's budget is unusable as a baseline | Crawford, on the record: "references to past budgets aren't going to work. Because their error is significant significant errors in the last year's budget. So to use that as a reference point is, is ridiculous. And that's because they were incorrect amounts entered in the approved budget." Then: over-spending against budget; unforeseen special-education costs; the SchoolCare assessment of "868,000" (the committee's October 5 minutes carry it as $868,014.78); health-care variances; and prior-year bills paid from this year's appropriation, so "to look at expenditures in this year's budget is… a little problematic because it's artificially high". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:05:32 | The three models, and no decisions today | Model 1: four schools as they stand (two K-5 elementaries, CMS 6-8, Stevens 9-12). Model 2: four schools re-aligned, Disnard K-2 and Maple 3-5 ("Disney" in the transcript). Model 3: three schools — per the committee's November 12 minutes, "K-2, Grades 3-6, SHS with grades 7-12". Crawford: "we're not making any decisions here, folks. We're just gathering data… the finance committee meetings isn't the place for that discussion. The public meeting, public school board meeting is where those issues will be addressed." | OBSERVATION |
| 0:07:04 | Calendar through the budget hearing | Friday December 12 (this committee), December 17 (budget update to the full board, "Heather and I will do that"), January 7 (board), January 21 (public hearing then adoption). Each date was met: the models were presented to the board on December 17 and the budget was adopted on January 21. | POSITIVE |
| 0:09:14 | NESDEC projection: 1,379 next year | Angell, reading the invoice: the enrolment projection comes bundled in the district's membership dues; the projection for next school year is 1,379 students. He warns of a discrepancy ahead: the budget models use the building principals' enrolment numbers, "because they felt that the numbers that Nasdaq was projecting was incorrect." | |
| 0:10:09 | 1,089 students in ten years | "Nasdaq [NESDEC] is estimating, k 12 to be 1089 students… you're really looking at a two school model." Five-year figure: 1,249 — "you could put 700 kids in the high school and 500 kids in… the existing middle school and go to a… two school model. Right. But the… problem is the middle school isn't set up for an elementary school." Angell judges the projections reliable: in his last district a ten-year projection was "off by 20 students". | |
| 0:10:48 | The four-school model as a staging post to two | Angell: keep four schools open next year so the middle school can be emptied — "you're going to move the middle school to the high school and then rehab the middle school into an elementary school." Whitney presses until it is explicit: the only fiscal or educational rationale for staying at four schools is that it is a step toward two. Crawford: "in order for the two school model, there has to be a interim year for a building to get rehabbed". | |
| 0:12:14 | "They asked if I'm going to be here to do it. And I said, I'm not." | Angell reports talking to individual board members about the two-school model and rehabbing the middle school: "they asked if I'm going to be here to do it. And I said, I'm not okay. It's just not going to happen." He resigned in July 2026. The two-school conversion cost was later put to the full board on December 17 at between $1 million and $4 million. | |
| 0:16:44 | What Angell says will move test scores | "There are three things that I've been trying to propose for the school board. One is intervention. One is, a robust evaluation model so that you can have targeted PD… The third thing is a good mentorship program." Grade alignment is what pays for the first: "with the two K-5 schools you can't get intervention teachers… When you align the grades you can get intervention teachers", six of them in the re-aligned four-school model (0:17:13). | |
| 0:17:58 | Whitney: the district proposed this same model in 2020 and the public refused it | "I was on the board when we tried to move forward with the very model that you're proposing… There was a lot of resistance to that very model, because of making it inconvenient for our parents to pick up… I want the world to know that we're like the world that wasn't listening then… we heard it then, and we're bringing it to the table now." Crawford: "we're in a different position now than we were six years ago. Our our scores have gone down, our population has gone down and our resources have gone down." | |
| 0:23:26 | "I'm struggling with data and trying to… recreate a lot of stuff" | Angell: "I've been working seven days a week on just the budget. Last night, I burned out when, I had to go and revisit health insurance." Crawford asks him to say plainly what that means, "because people don't understand that phrase" — and then narrates it for the public: about 500 employees, each with a different election, and the entries in the system are "often incorrect." | MEDIUM |
| 0:24:53 | Health-insurance census: 44 of about 270 records need rework | "it's about like 270 that are on the health insurance. And I found 44 where I need we need to revisit as a team." The plan he had hoped to use — download current premiums and multiply by the rate increase of "11.8%" — could not be run until the underlying elections are correct. | MEDIUM |
| 0:26:00 | First hard number: payroll up about $79,000 in the four-school model | "I had told the two committee members here that… I anticipated that, the budget was going to be flat or lower than the current year… And so just looking at just payroll, it's almost $79,000 increase over the current year." Crawford puts it against a payroll base of roughly $20 million: "a $79,000 variance on 20 million is marginal." The current-year budget was built on a five-school district; Bluff's positions are already out (0:27:03). | |
| 0:29:12 | Why the number is so tight | "if there were no changes to the educational model, the budget would not actually increase because all the bargaining groups move up one step… the reason why it's so tight… is because we've eliminated one school and we're realigning." Re-alignment converts surplus sections into intervention posts, and Crawford confirms the reductions happen "with attrition". | |
| 0:32:46 | The SAU 6 restructuring is not yet in the payroll number | "in my payroll projection that I just shared with you, it does not include adding back saw [SAU] employees… with the new model beginning July 1st, the superintendent, business administrator, you're going to have those positions for Claremont." Crawford notes Claremont currently carries about 90% of SAU costs because Unity is about 10%, so the change "might be a wash" — Angell has not yet done that analysis and warns the current-year SAU services estimate looks tightened. | |
| 0:36:52 | Vacant positions were budgeted with salary but not benefits | "it looks like what they did is they budgeted for people that were currently in their positions. So they didn't put in an estimate for vacant positions." Crawford recalls being told during last year's build that the two-person plan was being used for vacancies, and Whitney remembers a stated 15% healthcare increase. Angell: comparing to the current year gave "this big, huge, wild number"; roughly $600,000 was "freed up" in health insurance and "the numbers don't add up". | OBSERVATION |
| 0:42:31 | What a plan actually costs | Gross annual cost, employer and employee share combined, on the more expensive ("yellow") plan: family $45,036; two-person $33,360; single $16,680. The district pays 95% for its largest bargaining group; cash-in-lieu runs about $2,500. Crawford and Whitney direct him to budget vacancies at the two-person rate: "I think you have to do the two persons. I agree to be safe." | |
| 0:43:42 | Vacancies: 78 now, 63 in the modelled four-school year | Crawford: "There are 78 vacant positions this year compared to last year." Angell: "what's vacant in my census data is… for the for school model 63. Okay. That does not include the saw." A normal year would carry 20 to 30. Multiplying 63 vacancies by a two-person premium is what pushes the benefit line. | |
| 0:45:21 | What the three-school model would change | "you're going to be going down. Administrative, custodial. A nurse. Probably another librarian. But then… we might be able to go up from six intervention teachers in a… for school model to like 8 or 10 intervention teachers with a three school model." Crawford confirms the three-school model is the one that moves grades 7 and 8 to the high school. Whitney: the pros and cons are "a Friday discussion", but the feasibility "must be more than 50%". | |
| 0:48:25 | Which elementary school would close is a board vote | "when we talk about the three school model in which elementary school to choose, I'm choosing for the model. I'm modeling maple, but I think the cost will be, similar between the two… So it's going to be a school board vote." Kennedy: Maple has ten students more than Disnard. Whitney: Maple is physically larger; the tax map shows Disnard on a larger lot with room for parking or portables. | |
| 0:49:27 | A closed building still costs money | "with any close[d] school I'm putting in the operating budget money to heat the buildings until they['re] sold or they're leased, because we got to maintain it because it's an asset." Snow removal and fire-protection upkeep too. This is the line that returns on December 12 as the Bluff School question. | |
| 0:50:10 | The SAU office cannot answer the phone | Crawford, deliberately for the public: "The saw [SAU] office is working on extremely low staff… if people call the s a you or even go in, the staff isn't there to open the door or answer the phone… or to respond to emails or to update the web page. Those are all challenges that are due to significantly reduce[d] staff at the office." Kennedy: the office could stay lean if the backlog of tasks that "should have been done under other positions" were cleared. | MEDIUM |
| 0:51:14 | "a manual model with an automated system" | Angell's summary of the district's data: "we're operating a manual model with an automated system. And so, a lot of data gets recreated each and every year, like the state reporting of the FT[E]s is manually recreated each and every year. And they're not utilizing the system. Right. The system has the field for it, but the field isn't accurate or it's empty in most cases." Whitney: "the district was provided the resources. They just were not using them." Contracts illustrate the cost — four weeks of one person's work by hand against "a day's worth of work" in the system (0:52:50). | MEDIUM |
| 0:53:24 | Friday's deliverables, including the default budget | "I'll have the, the three school model and the four school model. I can probably get a default budget done for the four school model… But then if the… school board decides the three school model, I'll have to redo the default budget." Supplies follow the student; breaking supplies out by grade is a known problem. | OBSERVATION |
| 0:55:20 | Building capacity is not yet known | Whitney asks how capacity is determined and how accurate it is, because she does not want time spent modelling something the buildings cannot hold. Angell: "we have engaged a fire engineer… who just specializes in fire, life safety stuff. And what he's going to do is he's going to calculate what the capacity is." That study reached the board as the 22 December occupant-load memo for CMS and Maple Avenue, in the January 7 packet. | |
| 0:59:15 | A legal position on the default budget, stated by staff | "legally, we can… move positions around within the… organization. So… we're not eliminating a position as it relates to the default budget… There are some who think that if you make a move, say, from a para to a teacher, that that one's an elimination and one's a brand new position that doesn't exist under the law… the school program is just one big giant pool, and I'm moving within that. And then whatever… is left over, that's what's getting removed." No counsel was present and no written opinion is referenced. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:01:01 | Mentors were trained, then the mentees were cut | Kennedy: "this summer, we did some mentor training. It was excellent. Melissa Lewis and Paige Jarvis did some training… for veteran staff who were mentors. The unfortunate part is right now, the existing, new folks we rift [RIF'd]… So they're not being utilized". Crawford turns it toward existing staff: "existing staff need mentors." Angell floats partnering with a local college — Keene State or Plymouth State — to supply non-evaluative mentors (1:03:22), labelled "just brainstorming at this point." | |
| 1:04:11 | Athletics: the contract fixes most of it | Whitney asks for an evaluation of low-participation, high-cost programmes — "I know I'm a bad guy, but" — and is careful to ask only for the investigation. Angell: "a lot of the stipends are in the CBA agreement. With this budget money in there whether they're using it or not." Kennedy extends it to the arts: "there are stipends for chorus[,] bands[,] things like that too." Crawford's counter: the money need not be spent unless the programme is offered. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:07:35 | Transportation stays in-house — and goes out to bid | "I'm budgeting based upon us maintaining our own bus company… but we are looking at going out to bid for, for bussing services… like in January." On the split-elementary objection — parents driving to two schools — his answer is the bus, plus before- and after-school programming of the kind the district once contracted from the YMCA. | |
| 1:10:35 | The Superintendent's Advisory Council asks for a public forum | Kennedy: the council met Monday, was told models were coming, and asked for "a school forum, you know, open public more than just during the board meeting" — they floated December 18, the day after the board presentation, and she held off pending what the board is actually shown. Whitney asks her to gather local experience of 7-12 configurations, naming Newport; Kennedy offers to call Superintendent Ransdell. Whitney: "they don't care what happens in Arkansas that I read about. They want to know what happens" here. | OBSERVATION |
| 1:15:09 | Adjournment | "We adjourn at 1050." The committee reconvened two days later at 9:30 a.m. in the same room — see the December 12 page. | |