Menu

Windham School District board meeting, Sep 16, 2026

1 h 03 min · 1 public speaker

Chronic absenteeism ▶ 6:30Enrollment ▶ 16:42Reading and test scores ▶ 10:54

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 1 h 03 min.

  1. Who spoke · first speaks at
What happened

What happened at this meeting

Windham school board approves $216,546.50 budget transfer and accepts frog statue gift 55:26

  • The superintendent reported that attendance for the first 10 days of school rose from 92% last year to 94% this year. 10:54
  • The board was told the district is left with a 0% budget increase this budget year and $3.7 million in one-time supplemental funding that the Board of Ed alone can decide how to use. 30:45
  • The board voted unanimously to reallocate $35,000 from the Windham Middle School library capital improvement project to the Windham Middle School track and field capital improvement project. 52:14
  • The board also accepted the gift of a frog statue to the Board of Education. 55:26

Until Nov 4, lines where a board member takes a side don't name the member. Why →

Item by item (15)
  1. Opening and minutes 0:03
    • Mia Mitoma noted that a figure in the packet had a comma instead of a decimal, which changed its value. 0:59
    • Mary Gallucci read the 8/19 figure as $4,258,272.19. ~2:53
  2. Public comment 3:10
    • A speaker at public comment thanked the board for its support over 5 years. 3:52
  3. Superintendent's report 5:40
    • The superintendent said the district is up 2 percentage points in attendance from last year for the first 10 days of school. 10:54
    • Paula Haney said the start of the year represents a lot of hard work across many people. 14:48
    • The superintendent said the board retreat would be held Saturday from 8:30 to 3 PM to review district data, the strategic plan and the fiscal outlook. 15:00
  4. Personnel committee report 16:07
    • Paula Haney reported 59 new staff since June and 27 vacancies at the time of the committee meeting. 16:42
    • Mary Gallucci asked whether anyone else had been brought on since the first day of school to fill openings. 20:25
    • A district staff member said a kindergarten classroom at Sweeney with only 4 students would be collapsed, with no staff eliminations. 21:36
  5. Policy committee report 22:52
    • Brendan O'Neill said the committee recommends repealing policy 5118 and the current 5000 series nonresident policy and replacing them with an updated policy. 23:14
    • Brendan O'Neill said the committee also reviewed new state requirements on employee notification of electronic monitoring that take effect October 1st. 23:56
  6. School planning and design report 24:32
    • One board member reported on building projects and asked the board to reallocate $35,000 from the middle school library media center project to goalposts for the track and turf field project. 24:46
  7. Finance and audit report 26:58
    • Mark Doyle said the carryover increased from $441,000 to $888,335.14 and the committee recommends a transfer of $216,546.50. 27:15
    • Mary Gallucci asked whether there would be 2 votes on transfers. 29:17
  8. Budget and supplemental funding discussion 30:02
    • The board was told it has the $3.7 million to use as needed for Board of Ed purposes. 34:29
    • Gary Fetzer asked whether there were restrictions on the money and whether any could be carried over, and a staff member said it likely could not be carried over. 37:53
    • One board member said the experience had been very unusual and garbled. 38:47
  9. Offer of frog statue gift 41:49
    • A member of the public offered the board a frog statue and said a trust provided $2,500 for its repair. 43:26
    • One board member said there were concerns about a precedent set last year and that they would hesitate to take the gift. 46:02
  10. Signature form and project reallocation 50:31
    • The board considered a change of authorized signatures form for the ED-099 agreement for Child Nutrition Programs. 51:22
    • The board considered reallocating $35,000 from the Windham Middle School library project to the track and field project. 52:21
    • Both motions passed unanimously. 51:41
  11. Acceptance of frog statue gift 52:37
    • A speaker said the statue was offered as a potential art project before being assigned to a school. 53:29
    • One board member said they appreciated the gift and liked the idea of it as an art project. 54:37
    • The motion to accept the gift carried. 55:26
  12. Grant submissions 55:47
    • The board took up motions to approve the Family Resource Center grant submission and the Alliance grant submission. 55:47
    • The board approved the Alliance grant submission unanimously by a show of hands. 56:20
  13. Nonresident admission policy replacement 56:29
    • One board member suggested making the policy and form consistent so each refers to a parent or guardian. 57:29
    • The change was accepted as a friendly amendment. 58:33
    • The motion passed unanimously. 59:34
  14. Budget transfer 59:34
    • The board took up a budget transfer of $216,546.50. ~1:00:33
    • The transfer was approved unanimously. 1:01:00
  15. Public comment and adjournment 1:01:00
    • A speaker at public comment suggested the town's boards hold a joint retreat to set priorities and goals. 1:01:13
    • The meeting adjourned at 8:02. 1:02:15

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

Other meetings

Other meetings of this board

Video: posted by the district as “Windham Board of Education Meeting - September 16, 2026”