In-person board present: Brandon Adams, Dan Newton, and Aimee Menard

Board present via Zoom: Adam Jones

Administration present: Mark MacLean, Randy Wormald, Dennis Dobe, Dennis Audet, Kathleen Boucher, Hilary Denoncourt, and Beth Page

Public present: Lisa Burbach, Kayla Chandler, Vanessa Welch

Board Chairperson’s Report: Mrs. Menard thanked the team at AE/MS for their hard work over the summer.

Principal’s Report

Dennis Dobe spoke of the expanded summer program during the month of July. The number of students within this program were much greater than in years past, with both special and general education students in attendance. 

AE/MS is adopting a new curriculum for math, Illustrative Math, which the staff is currently training on. Teams of teachers have also been engaging in professional development in RTI (Response to Intervention). 

Dennis spoke of enrollment and how that has an impact on class sizes, noting that class assignments are currently well under state guidelines. 

Dennis spoke of new positions for the fall, including a STEM teacher and a Library teacher.

Dennis Audet spoke about the skid steer which is in the process of being acquired. There have been a few delays that have impacted larger summer maintenance projects, but he feels that the team will be caught up by opening day.

Old Business

Two people have come forward to present themselves as candidates to the Andover School Board.

Lisa Burbach introduced herself as the first candidate, with a history in education and social work. Lisa currently works in the field of education (she’s in her 11th year as a school
administrator), and she has participated herself in public education through her bachelor’s
degree. 

As an administrator, she has a high appreciation for decision making roles, particularly in the context of last year. Lisa also comes with experience working with and negotiating with unions. Lisa is a resident of Andover. Lisa’s predominant goals are to be of service and bring her perspective to the board.

Kayla Chandler introduced herself as the second candidate, with a local history and a daughter entering first grade. Her career has predominantly been in retail and banking, though she is a certified corrections officer in the state of New Hampshire. 

Kayla wants to become more involved in the school community. She currently works as a branch manager at a local bank and is interested in fundraising.

Brandon nominated Lisa Burbach to the Board. Dan Newton seconded the motion. All were in favor and the nomination was accepted.

Aimee began the discussion of the Stay Open Framework. Mark discussed that the framework includes health and safety, equitable access, and educational quality as target points. Mitigating factors were also reviewed, to include home screenings, optional face masks (the community has reached out to the Superintendent in strong support of parent choice for face masks), physical distancing guidelines, daily sanitization protocols, and air sanitization plans. 

It was pointed out that Federal law mandates that students wear masks on buses. Mark discussed how the risk is evaluated and communicated within the MVSD community using DHHS data. 

Aimee made a motion to approve the reopening framework. Brandon seconded the motion. The school board discussed the framework as presented. Brandon suggested requiring masks when numbers in our community increase to cautionary levels per DHHS. The board discussed this. 

Adam advocated for changing the verbage from “parent choice” to “not mandated,” with the expectation that the board may have an emergency meeting to mandate masks when community numbers increase. Mark offered to create a metric for Andover targeting COVID rates for towns adjacent to Andover, specifically Salisbury, Franklin, Wilmot, Danbury, Webster, Hill, New London.

Adam motioned to approve the Stay Open Framework using the local metric of surrounding towns over a 14-day average, and removing the language regarding parent choice. Brandon seconded the motion. All were in favor, motion passed.

New Business

JLCA policy changes were presented and reviewed regarding required student physicals. Brandon moved to approve the policy changes as written. Dan seconded the motion. All in agreement; motion approved.

The board reviewed Mr. Silverstein’s resignation.

Oil bid results reviewed. Huckleberry was the lowest bid. Adam motioned to select Huckleberry’s bid. Brandon seconded. All in agreement; motion approved.

Superintendent’s Report

Mark spoke of positive changes in staffing, staff allocation, and programming/academic support at AE/MS. We are looking forward to the new school year.

Assistant Superintendent’s Report

Thank you to the community for all that they are doing.