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Portsmouth School District board meeting, date not confirmed yet

2 h 00 min · 0 public speakers

This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 2 h 00 min.

  1. Who spoke · first speaks at
  9. Lisa RapaportChair
What happened

What happened at this meeting

Portsmouth school board hears special education update on out-of-district costs and programs 31:50

  • District staff presented a special education update covering referrals, out-of-district placements and in-district programs, followed by board questions. 17:40
  • A staff member said out-of-district enrollment was down 17% with projected tuition savings of $700,000. 32:12

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Item by item (12)
  1. Opening and roll call 0:00
    • Lisa Rapaport opened the October 27th, 2026 meeting and called for the roll call, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. 0:00
  2. Announcements and recognitions 1:00
    • A district staff member said a Veterans Day celebration at Dondero would be held on the 9th at 1:30 PM and that the Little Harbor Playground was open. 1:05
    • Lisa Rapaport recognized global leadership teachers at Portsmouth High for a student presentation on global food supplies. 7:27
  3. Consent agenda minutes 9:20
    • Lisa Rapaport called for a motion to approve the October 6, 2026 non-public and public meeting minutes, and the board took a roll call vote. 9:47
  4. Reporting of small student groups 13:39
    • A staff member said that in public documents, counts of fewer than 5 students would be replaced with a symbol and small groups would be shown as ranges. 14:07
  5. Special education identification and referrals 16:43
    • A staff member said the district had a total of 429 identified students. 17:40
    • Brian French asked whether referrals were trending higher or lower, and the staff member said the district remained around the 20% identified marker, the state average. 20:44
    • Lisa Rapaport asked about common areas of identification, and the staff member said specific learning disability was mostly in reading and other health impairment mostly in attention deficit and executive functioning. 29:54
  6. Out-of-district placements and in-district programs 31:50
    • A staff member said out-of-district enrollment was down 17%, projected tuition savings were $700,000 and transportation costs were estimated to decrease around $100,000. 32:12
    • A staff member described the ALPS program at Dondero for elementary students and the RISE program at the middle school, and said ALPS had 6 students and RISE had 9. 35:20
    • David Hudson asked what measures would show the reallocated funds were achieving expected results, and a staff member said the district would use tools such as the VB-MAPP and behavioral data. 47:45
  7. Transportation and future staffing needs 1:12:05
    • A staff member said the district was using 3 different bus companies to get the best rate. 1:13:05
    • The staff member listed possible future positions, including a 4th school psychologist, a special education reading specialist and a certified occupational therapy assistant. 1:13:05
    • Steven Adler asked whether the positions were in order of priority, and the staff member said they were not. 1:16:00
  8. Superintendent's report 1:29:13
    • A staff member said the district's projection had used a 12% increase, but the range now being given was between 5 and 35% with an average of 16. 1:29:21
    • A staff member said going from the 12% estimate up to 16.7 would come to about $620,000, and another staff member put the figure at $622,000. 1:29:21
    • One board member said the presentation answered the question of whether last year's hire in special education made a difference. 1:31:36
  9. Business administrator report 1:39:30
    • A staff member said financials through the end of September might look overspent because of a time lapse in releasing encumbered money. 1:39:36
    • Nancy Novelline Clayburgh asked how families with lunch account deficits are encouraged to replenish them, and Lisa Rapaport said a proposal on that would likely be on the next meeting's agenda. 1:40:44
  10. Policy ACA complaint definition amendment 1:42:05
    • One board member said policy ACA had a conflict in its definition of a complaint as verbal, written or a document. 1:42:56
    • Byron Matto moved to amend line 78 so a complaint means a document or verbal report filed by a complainant, and the board then took a roll call vote on the two policies with that amendment. 1:47:09
  11. Policy JF first reading 1:48:09
    • Lisa Rapaport said Policy JF was updated so enrollment data would arrive at a useful time for the Facilities Committee. 1:48:58
  12. Committee updates 1:50:41
    • Christiana Clews said the Policy Committee would meet November 10th to discuss the athletic contract and related policies. 1:51:18
    • Byron Matto said a renovation submission previously targeted for the end of 2027 appeared unlikely because an architect and project goals were not yet in place. 1:52:57
    • One board member said being a little bit disappointed that the deadline would be missed. 1:57:17

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

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Video: posted by the district as “10.27.2026 School Board”