Exeter Region Cooperative District Agreement

Proposed articles of agreement among the school districts of Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Kensington, Newfields and Stratham for Grades 6 through 12 Cooperative School District.

ARTICLE 1: The school districts of Brentwood, East Kingston, Exeter, Kensington, Newfields, and Stratham shall convert the Exeter AREA Authorized Regional Enrollment Area to a Cooperative School District and create a Cooperative School District pursuant to these articles of agreement. The name of the Cooperative School District will be determined by the newly elected Cooperative School Board.

ARTICLE 2: The Cooperative School District shall be responsible for Grades 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.

ARTICLE 3: The Cooperative School Board shall consist of nine (9) members, with each position on the Board having a residency requirement as set forth below. The initial term of each Board position shall be as set forth below. After the initial term, each position shall have a three (3) year term. If during his or her term a Board member changes his or her place of residency to a municipality other than that prescribed for his or her position, the position shall thereupon be considered vacant, the vacancy to be filled as provided by law for school board vacancies. All Board members shall be elected by the voters “at large.” All the initial Cooperative School Board members shall be elected at the Cooperative School District organizational meeting. After the initial term, voting for Cooperative School Board members, who shall continue to be elected at large, shall be by the voters of each town at the elections held for town officers. The initial terms of Board members elected at the organizational meeting shall be as follows:

Board Position Number; Required Residency; Initial Term Ending

The members of the Cooperative School Board shall assume office at the close of the organizational meeting and thereafter at the close of the annual meeting.

All members of the Cooperative School Board shall be elected by the use of the non-partisan ballot system under RSA 671.

ARTICLE 4: The Exeter School District shall sell and the Cooperative School District shall purchase the current Exeter AREA High School and the Exeter AREA Junior High School including 67.2 acres, the buildings thereon, and all furnishings and equipment, as provided under the provisions of RSA 195:9, for a price of TWELVE MILLION EIGHT HUNDRED SIXTY THOUSAND ($12,860,000.00) DOLLARS, to be paid as follows: assumption of the debt owed to State Street Bank & Trust Company, as Trustee, as of the date of operating responsibility; and the balance in ten (10) equal annual installments beginning on September 1, 1997.

ARTICLE 5: These articles and the continued existence of the Cooperative School District are dependent upon the Cooperative School District, at a meeting to be held on or before March 31, 1997, voting: to renovate and construct an addition or additions to the existing Exeter AREA High School and / or Exeter AREA Junior High School or construct new school buildings so that the gross floor area of the Cooperative School District buildings is not less than 400,000 square feet; and to issue bonds necessary to finance that construction. If those votes are not passed by the Cooperative School District on or before March 31, 1997, this plan to convert to and create a Cooperative School District shall terminate and the Cooperative School District shall dissolve and the member districts shall revert to the Exeter AREA Authorized Regional Enrollment Area.

ARTICLE 6: Each district’s percentage of the capital and operating expenses of the Cooperative School District, payable in each fiscal year, shall be the average of: (x) the district’s percentage of the average daily membership during the second preceding year; and (y) the district’s percentage of total enrollment as of October 1 of the preceding year, both of which as determined by the State Department of Education. For example, an individual district’s percentage for the 1999-2000 fiscal year shall be computed as follows:

(The district’s percentage of average daily membership during the 1997-1998 school year + The district’s percentage of total enrollment as of October 1, 1998) / 2

ARTICLE 7: A schedule of monthly payments based on the method of apportionment of operating and capital expenses shall be established and revised as necessary by the Cooperative School Board of the Cooperative School District.

ARTICLE 8: After the date of operating responsibility, the state aid to which each district would be entitled for Grades 6 through 12 if it were not part of the Cooperative School District shall be paid to the Cooperative School District and credited to such district’s share of the total operating budget.

The state building aid which may be available to the Cooperative School District shall be applied to reduce the capital expenditure prior to the apportionment of costs under the provisions of Article 6. In addition, the Exeter School District shall pay to the Cooperative School District the remaining state building aid payment(s) relating to the Exeter AREA High School science lab project.

ARTICLE 9: The Cooperative School District shall provide pupil transportation for all students of the Cooperative School District as required by law (RSA 189:6-9-a), and otherwise as determined by the Cooperative School Board.

ARTICLE 10: These articles of agreement may be amended by the Cooperative School District, consistent with the provisions of RSA 195:18 III(i), except that no amendment shall be effective, unless the question of adopting such amendment is submitted at a Cooperative School District meeting to the voters of the Cooperative School District after reasonable opportunity for debate in open meeting, and unless a majority of the voters of the Cooperative School District who are present and voting shall vote in favor of adopting such amendment. Furthermore, no amendment of these articles shall be considered except at an annual or special meeting of the Cooperative School District and unless the text of such amendment is included in an appropriate article in the warrant for such a meeting.

The Cooperative School Board shall hold a public hearing concerning the adoption of an amendment to these articles of agreement at least ten (10) days before such hearing and the text of the proposed amendment to be published in a newspaper having a general circulation in the district at least fourteen (14) days before such hearing.

ARTICLE 11: For the 1997-1998 school year exclusively, the Cooperative School District will offer employment, on such terms as the Cooperative School Board shall determine, only to teachers teaching in Grades 6 through 12 of the pre-existing districts as of the date of operating responsibility, except that, (1) the Cooperative School District will not employ more teachers than the number of teaching positions established in the Cooperative School District and (2) the Cooperative School District will not employ more teachers from pre-existing school districts than the number necessary to teach a comparable number of students attending from that pre-existing district and (3) if the Cooperative School Board determines that the Cooperative School District requires more teachers than those teaching in Grades 6 through 12 of the pre-existing districts, the Cooperative School Board may employ additional teachers, and (4) if no certified teacher teaching in Grades 6 through 12 of the pre-existing districts accepts a particular position at the Cooperative School District on the terms offered by the Cooperative School Board, the Cooperative School Board may offer that position to teacher(s) who were not employed in the pre-existing districts.

ARTICLE 12: The date of operating responsibility of the Cooperative School District will be July 1, 1997. On the date of operating responsibility, tuition payments under the Exeter AREA Authorized Regional Enrollment Agreement shall terminate, subject to any debits and credits to be computed for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1996, and June 30, 1997.

The following is the text of the Cooperative School District Agreement as approved on February 3, 1996. These articles of agreement will be voted on by each town. COOPERATIVE SCHOOL DISTRICT:

The following is the text of the Cooperative School District Agreement as approved on February 3, 1996. These articles of agreement will be voted on by each town.

COOPERATIVE SCHOOL DISTRICT: