 Buddy, welcome. I am going to call the meeting to order. This is your annual reorganization meeting and so until we've elected some officers, I will run this meeting till we have a new chair. So first, I want to just say thanks to all. I know that it was frantic to get make sure you all taken your books and gotten sworn in and in a short period of time and everybody did that. So thank you so much to our newly elected or re-elected board members. That's awesome. And our first order of business is item two, board reorganization. 2.1 should be better named election of officers. So we'll move to 2.1 election of officers. And I am seeking a nomination for our board chairperson. Jen, I nominate Flor Diaz Smith. Thank you, Jonas. Is there a second? Ursula, thank you. Are there other nominations? Flor has been nominated as board chairperson. Other nominations? Okay, I'm going to say that's sufficient wait time. Any discussion? I'll say that's enough wait time too. All those in favor of Flor Diaz Smith being elected board chairperson for this year 2022-23 board year, please signify by saying aye. Opposed? And abstentions. Great, Flor, you're our newly elected chairperson. Thank you and congrats and I'll turn the meeting over to you. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for the vote of confidence. Jonas. Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt your vote of confidence. So I noticed that the time on the packet says 5.30, but the calendar invite says 6. We only have eight board members here, so we have a quorum, but we are missing a number of people who I think may show up at 6. Thank you, Jonas. Yeah, that's true. The calendar had had us at 6 o'clock. I did try to make contact with most people. Carrie is driving back from Maine and said that he is going to try to be back on time, but that he would accept a nomination if there was a nomination for him. And then Natasha is not able to join us today because she has negotiations in which previously she had scheduled before knowing she's going to try to join us at 8 o'clock if she can or sooner. And Vera can't join us until 6 o'clock. She did know about 5.30, but she might not even be able to join us until 6.30. And Jonas and I saw him here. Oh yeah, there he is. Yeah. So Flor, how many are we missing then that are unaccounted for? So we're missing four. Yeah, we're missing three and we're missing four people because there's not a member from East Montpelier. We would need to advertise and then probably a point, but there's nobody ran or was a write-in for Stephen Luke. Yeah. Okay. So who am I missing? Jonas, can you help me? I see everybody else. So we're missing Kari and Natasha and there's the, and Vera. And Linda is here. She was, Linda is here. Okay. She should be in right now. I don't see her unless she's VT. I just, I think Linda is the VT instructor. I think that is. I can't get my name changed until I'm here. I'm signed in on the wrong account. Oh, okay. Sorry about that. Yeah. Oh, I see it. Sorry. I was not, I didn't have it right next to me, but I do now. Yeah. Got it. Thank you, Florin. Thank you for doing all that outreach. Okay. And so, so we can, we can get started again as I was saying, thank you for the honor of being your board chair again. I hope to serve you well through the next year. And I'm excited about the future of us together. And now I would take nominations for vice chair. Like I said, Kari is not able to join us, but he did say that if the, you guys want to nominate him, he would accept the nomination. I would nominate Kari Bradley as a vice chair. Could I have a second? Second. Okay. Second. Any discussion? All of those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, the motion carries. Now we need to nominate our clerk. Could I have a nomination for the clerk, for board, please? I'll nominate him. And I'll second. Linda's nomination. All right. Nominated by Linda, second by Chris Jonas. Jonas, I assume you accept the nomination. I do. Thank you. All those in favor of Jonas, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, thank you, Jonas. Thank you guys. So what, what we were going to do, there's a, there's a long list for us to do that we were hoping that we would do under board operations and I was going to move us in, into executive session to do a board trade for a student matter. We're just have a quick, because we have new board members. We are going to have a quick, I send you all an email, just a quick overview with Jen on student matters and then we'll move in and then we'll talk about the student matter tonight. So if I could have a motion to go into excessive accession for a student matter. So moved. Second, so seconded. Wait, wait, sorry. Who, Jonathan, you moved it and Chris seconded it or Daniel? Yes. I think I moved it. Dennis, Dennis, okay. Sorry, Dennis. That's okay. Dennis, and then, and we'll do all the welcomes once we are past this part. Okay. Dennis and Chris second. All of those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Give me a pose. Hearing none. Mark, could you move us into executive session and you have all the names. Thank you. Okay, so we are back. I'm going to wait for everybody to be back in. Yeah, I see most everybody. Some of them are taking a little longer. Okay. All right. So now that we've finished with our little board development training, thank you everybody for coming in. Could I have a motion to go in and executive session for a student matter and invite Jessica Wells and Jen, Dennis and Dennis to come in with us, please. Floor, I moved to go back into executive session this time to include Steven Dellinger, Paint Gen Miller, Ursino and Jessica Wells. Thank you. Can I have a second? Second by Ursula. Thank you. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, let's move into executive session. I'm sorry for the work, Mark. Sorry. I have a motion. I moved to accept the administration's recommendation in a student matter. Second. Okay. Moved by Jonah. Second by Chris. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries unanimously. Okay. So we're done with that part. I'm going to move back to our agenda. We're going to have our community forum. Usually our first Wednesday is the community forum, but I wanted to take a minute to have the new board members introduce themselves and then move into the community, the community forum. So I'm wondering if we could have the new board members introduce themselves, and then when we're in board operations, we will have the whole board introduce themselves. So welcome, Dennis. Welcome, Daniel. Hi. Thank you very much. I don't know what you're looking for and way of introduction. Just your town, your town. Yeah. You want to share with us. Brief. I'm a returning Central Vermonter. I lived here many years ago. I know some people here on the screen from my time in the past and came back to Middlesex about three years ago to be closer to family. And so very excited about being here. I have a background in education and I'm really excited about just being a supportive member of this community and being as helpful as I can to both the students and teachers and administrators, but the community as well and helping bridge that gap. So I'm really excited. I'm very thankful to be here. So thank you for having me. Thank you, Dennis. Daniel. Hi, everyone. I'm Daniel Keeney, representing Palace for the remaining one year anyway of a preexisting term. I do not have a background in education, but definitely share Dennis's gratitude to be part of this community. I do have a spouse working at U32, Adrian Wade Keeney in the art department. And have a little prior experience in administration of a school in the sense that I was on an independent school board in the Northeast Kingdom in Lindenville. So I have a little bit of somewhat relatable experience to draw on, but looking forward to learning a lot. And I hope my mistakes aren't too egregious or disruptive in the meantime. Thank you. Both of you. So now we're going to move into the community forum and then we'll continue to do our board operations. But Mark, I'm wondering if you wouldn't mind sharing our slides and just the first one and then we'll get started. Okay. So the purpose of our community engagement today is to share with you some of our students. Oops, Mark. Just leave it right there. It's okay. Student learning outcomes, I'm going to hand this over to Kari in a little bit. I just wanted to say that we have been having the practice of starting our meetings, our first meeting of the month with the community engagement. And today we are looking at artistic expression. I want to remind everybody that there are no wrong questions, that we should be kind to each other, that there was a lot of information in the packet. If you had a chance to look at the packet, if not, please enjoy this small presentation. But we are all here to learn together and to share with the community what we're doing. As you can see, this is why we exist to nurture and inspire in all our students the passion and creativity and the power to contribute to their local and global communities. And with that, I'm going to pass it to Kari so that he can tell us more about the Quality Committee who has been involved in this. We've been partnering with them for our community engagement. So next slide and Kari. Thanks, Floor. Hi, everybody. Kari Bradley from Calis here. And Floor shared the mission statement. This, it's supplemented by what you see on the slide here, which is we have defined the student learning outcomes, the things that we want our students to be proficient in by the time they graduate from U32. And you can see that it's divided into two categories, core knowledge and transferable skills and behaviors. And since this is our mission, it's the purpose of our district. We want to make sure as a board that we give this appropriate focus and support it with all the resources that we can. And so as part of that, the board created the Ed Quality Committee and we have been supporting for the past couple years a board goal to review each one of these student learning outcomes that you see on this slide. And we look at them from multiple aspects, curriculum, instruction, performance, we want to understand them better, both to educate ourselves, but also to know how are we doing and how can we support success. And so for the past year and a half or even a little more than that, we've been working our way through these learning outcomes. And after a bit of a break, we're back and focusing on the last two. And tonight is artistic expression. And maybe go to the next slide, please. And okay, so this is just basically what I just said with the additional point that we generally are looking at multiple sources of data. And because education is so complex, it's really helpful to look in different ways. So I'm sure we'll touch on this a bit tonight when we get into the performance data. And then the last point is that we will be doing the final student learning outcome global citizenship at some point later this spring. Next slide, please. And we are about to receive a presentation from Jen and others. And then we're going to have a conversation about what we've heard. And we have a protocol that we use. These four prompts here, what did you see? Questions do you have and so on. We're going to respond to each of those in order to have this conversation. So take a look at these and be thinking about these as we move through so you can have some responses in mind for later. And I think that is the introduction and I will turn it over to Jen. Thank you, Kari. Next slide, please, Mark. So we have been following sort of a standard protocol through these ed quality reviews of the student learning outcomes. And the first thing that I want to make sure that everybody knows is that we've articulated what our students need to know and be able to do across the board from pre-kindergarten through graduation. So this is a link to the standards and performance indicators for artistic expression. The four standards for artistic expression I've highlighted there for you. Another important point to make is that we have aligned all of our standards and performance indicators to national standards adopted by the state of Vermont. So I also have a link to the national core art standards. And then finally, I did that little screenshot there to show you that we've differentiated an artistic expression to articulate what our kids need to know and be able to do in dance, music, theater, and visual arts. And you're going to see some examples or at least links to some of those things throughout this presentation. The other point I'd make before asking you to advance, Mark, is that in almost all cases, not every case, but almost all, our standards stay the same from pre-kindergarten all the way to graduation. And what changes is our performance indicators. They are articulated in grade-level PI's, performance indicators, PI's, or grade-level clusters. Next slide. Mark, can you advance to the next slide? All right. I don't know if I can share over. Mark, right now. Come on. I got it, Jen. Okay. Thanks. I'm going to keep going. And then because the richest part is coming up here after I do one other quick piece. And that is when we do advance to that next slide, you're going to see just a link to the National Core Art Standards themselves. And I wanted to show them to you because you're going to see a lot of similarity between the way that we've articulated our standards and PI's. And there we go. Thank you. And the ways that they're articulated at the national level. So again, I have the live link there for anybody who is interested in exploring them in more depth. Next slide. So I have been putting together these presentations for the Ed Quality Committee for all of our student learning outcomes. And I have to say, this was a really, really fun one to put together. So a huge thanks to everybody who sent me examples of student work. But this is really an opportunity. It's like a virtual art gallery. So we're just going to mostly look a couple of things. Hopefully you're going to see different mediums of art and advancement of sort of progressively more advanced or sophisticated skills. I tried to organize this in a way where it's our youngest students and then some intermediate students and then our middle and high school students. And so I would say just take a minute and soak it in. It brings me tremendous joy to see students' artwork and to listen to them perform. And so there you go. Here's the first one. Mark, next slide please. I can see some of you and I see that you're smiling. Next slide. So again, I hope that you're seeing some of this, you know, similar strategies are going to get more and more sophisticated as our students develop their knowledge and skills of the individual arts. Next slide, please. Next slide. This one I wanted to show to you, too, that the color wheel over there is a communal piece of art. So most of what I've showcased thus far, if not all of it, has been artworks that have been made by individual students. And this also represents some of the projects that our teachers might have our students engage in as a grade or a grade level cluster. Next slide. This next series I love because it shows you sort of side by side some work in progress. So you can see that there was some drawing and some carving and then some printing. Next slide. So there's another example. Same project but taken in a different direction. Next slide. The other thing that I want to highlight, not only for our visual arts teachers but for our art teachers across the board, music, theater and dance, they were particularly hard hit during the pandemic, during a time of remote instruction and during all the restrictions. For example, teaching music when one is not supposed to be singing, those sorts of things. And those teachers were incredibly inspiring and creative as they were working out ways to engage students in the work. So this is just an example of a project for the spring of 2020 when everybody was learning at home when it was remote and just recreating either famous works of art or hand drawing or painting them. So just a little bit side by side. Again, I would encourage you and the public at large when you have some time or you want a little jolt of inspiration to click that link and see the entire thing. Next slide. And then I just wanted to show a few pictures of this. It's a tradition at U32 to have an arts bash night and if you've ever had the pleasure of attending, the halls are filled with amazing student artwork and the rooms are alive with music. It's a really vibrant and festive occasion and we've had to do it differently for the past two years. So these are examples that were put up earlier this winter at U32. Next slide. All right. We're going to shift gears to music. Next slide please. And the next couple slides are just some examples of what's been happening in music class most recently this year when our students are wearing their masks. So you can see how they're organized and some of the instrumental work that they're doing. Next slide. There you go. And next slide. One thing that I'd say has also been really a silver lining during the pandemic is that we've been broadcasting so many events including having some of our concerts either recorded or performed via Zoom. So I just wanted to give you some examples of the middle school and high school music program really vibrant and creative. So again, there are some links here that can take you to the programs themselves, the recordings of those concerts that we had most recently and I just wanted to give you some examples. So next slide. Again, here's some of what's happening during band, in the band concert. Next slide. And another example there. Next slide. Here's our orchestra. And the final slide. Yep. That's, there's some chorus for you. So again, it's been a challenge and our teachers have risen to the occasion and our students are still deeply engaged. They've risen to the occasion too. And the next slide please. This one has a lot of links to performances. So the theater has been able to, they did some virtual presentations and then they were together on the stage masked earlier this fall. Again, if you have not yet had an opportunity to enjoy some of our theater productions or dance performances, I would invite you to treat yourselves some time when you have a few minutes to carve out and those things will take you to the YouTube channel or to the performances themselves. Next slide. So as we mentioned earlier, when possible, we try to triangulate data. So for example, if we're looking at how our students might be doing in math or literacy, we'll look at the statewide data such as the smarter balanced assessment and local common data assessments like I ready math or the benchmark assessment system and literacy. And then we'll look at classroom assessments as well. I'm really trying to get a complete picture of our students performance in the in the arts and artistic expression. We have fewer sources of data to analyze. There's not a statewide assessment in any of these areas. And we don't really have across the board some local assessments. We were working in that direction of creating a common music assessment, for example, and pandemic has hit and that work has been a little bit on the back burner. So the data that I have to share with you comes from our report cards and our transcripts. And at the same time, it's true that our students, the performance is the assessment in many ways. And so there's a really public showcase of our students performance as well. Next slide. So we tried to collect for you just a snapshot of some of the data, some of this again, hit by the pandemic and what was or was not happening and and or the course of the curriculum and rolling out over the course of the year. So you can see in January of 2021, some more standards were addressed more than others. That's pretty natural. If you were to look at a report card across the board in January, sometimes there's not assessed yet or just still collecting some data along the way. So nothing there that is particularly alarming or of concern, just a snapshot of some of our art data in January 2021. And then next slide, please. You have it again. This was from the most recent collection of report card data. So there's art 2022 elementary. Next slide. We wanted to show you the music data. So with the elementaries, we pull out and report separately on art and on music. So again, the standards are the same. The performance indicators are different. And next slide. There's the same data for this current year. Next slide. Some report card data to show you. And we included grade nine just because the way that we've been reporting out on the transcript data doesn't include grade nine in progress. It's always it's just the end of grade nine. So again, depending on what students are taking and when in the year we're getting the data, different standards are addressed at different times. But that's a snapshot of that data. And that was last year, which was a particularly challenging year for us overall. Next slide. Here's similar data for this year. Next slide. And again, just for those of you who are looking at some of this data for the first time, it's important to know that we have articulated as required proficiency based graduation requirements for our students. And for us in Washington Central, we say that a student is proficient and ready to graduate from U 32 when they've achieved proficiency in all of our standards. So that means in artistic expression, students need to demonstrate proficiency in developing craft, performing, presenting and producing, connecting and responding. There are multiple pathways that a student might may choose in order to achieve proficiency in those standards. And primarily that is through art or through music or through theater. And there's some dance as well. So this data is at the end of the ninth grade year, where our students are relative to where we expect them to be in order to graduate and earn a U 32 diploma. So the next slide. You can see students are getting closer to becoming proficient. They're fewer that are demonstrating no evidence or beginning evidence. And we're just sort of moving over towards developing and proficient a little bit more. And then next slide. This is the assessment for our current grade 12 at the end of their 11th grade year. So 88% of our students by the end of 11th grade have achieved proficiency or they're advanced in the first two standards. And 68% or 65 at the end percent at the end of their 11th grade year are proficient in connecting and responding. That means that this informs the course choices that students make when they're scheduling for their senior year. So they can select courses that will help them to achieve proficiency in all of these standards. I was going to say one other thing about that. Oh, the thing I was going to say in general is that, you know, before the pandemic hit, I think we articulated our performance based graduation requirements. And we had a really good first version and we were poised to do an even better second version. And we've been a little derailed. And so we will get back on track here and continue to think about what are the changes in the ways that we operate that we might need to support our students currently right now, by and large, not exclusively, but by and large, if a student takes two courses in a sequence of art or in music and they meet those course expectations, they will achieve proficiency at the graduation level. That's sort of the impact on their schedule. Next slide. We always talk about the school board's role when we meet as an education quality committee. And so just again, some continued support for professional learning. I mean, our teachers in general, we always make that commitment. And that's part of what you all do when you support a budget that we are building. And so continued support for that come when you can, when your schedules allow you and attend some of our events. And then the other one is a consideration regarding instructional time. We talked about this a little bit board at the budget conversation that not only is money a resource, but time is a resource. And so we have so many things that we want our students to do, and we have a finite amount of time in which to do it. So we're going to continue to engage in those conversations, again, reflecting our community's values, trying to figure out how to allocate that precious resource of time. Next slide. And this is where I would invite you, Kari, if you'd like to take back over in terms of facilitating and seeing what observations folks made and where you want to go from there. Great. Yeah, why don't we open it up? And we'll just go work our way through these questions. Maybe we should stop the slideshow so we can see each other. And first question is what did you see? And I see Dennis's hands up. Dennis, please. Well, I saw some really fantastic artwork and I, you know, this is really interesting as a new member of the board. I've always heard legend of the great artistic programs and opportunities for students in schools that are here. And I just wanted to say how incredible they were and beautiful. And certainly we have some quality instructors and students that are rising up. So that was certainly something I saw. Thanks, Dennis. Anybody else have any observation? Yeah, I'll second what Dennis said about the great art. In the charts and in the data, there was a number of slides where there was no evidence for each of those categories. I think just to be clear, a lot of that is because of COVID because of the reduced opportunities that we've had. So I just love to hear about how we're going to, you know, move those no evidence bars as far over to the right as we can. Okay, any other, what did you see? So we'll move on to the next question, which, oh, Jonathan, please, Chris. Yeah, I just, I mean, I'm biased. My daughter went to Berlin Elementary, had a wonderful art teacher, went through the U32 arts program, and now is making her living in New York City as an artist. So I mean, I could talk a lot about the beauty of the arts in our district and it needs to continue. It's really, for me, it's a foundational thing, not just personally, but it's, it helps in becoming a well-rounded human being. Thank you, Jonathan. Chris, you're up. I was struck by the wide range of variety of opportunities, you know, from theater to drawing to music. And it just provides a lot of opportunity for many students to engage in many different disciplines or concentrate in a discipline. And, you know, I applaud the staff for really encouraging student participation and involvement. And, you know, our theater program is a jewel in the Central Vermont. And it's just, you know, it's amazing to see how students are talented and self-possessed and engaged and performing and, you know, generates our applause and amazement at the same time. Thanks. Thank you, Ursula. I enjoyed seeing all the artwork. I won't lie. I really do love seeing student artwork. One of the things that I was going to mention in the data that I noticed is, especially the high school one, when we talk about the graduation requirements and what the data showed is the, even with COVID and even with the hiccups of our kids in music, our kids in theater had to wear masks, couldn't perform in some cases, especially last year. You look at the number of kids who right now are 12th graders and that data was from last year that have made their proficiency. And I think that that's really great considering a lot of the hiccups and things that we had to work around. Thank you, Ursula. Okay, last call. Any other observations? So we'll move on to the next question, which is, what questions did this raise for you? We got one. Four. Thanks. Thank you. It was a great presentation. Thank you. I really enjoyed it. I think I want to bear this question with the question about time and what else that was that was asking. And to me is that cross-curricular connections? You know, how do we integrate math or literacy into art? So how do we move the needle into that just to try to bridge the time concern to, right? So how do, you know, how do we measure that or how do we create curriculum that could be across the curricular or create connections? I know that we do, but how do we measure that? That's the question I had. Thank you. Yeah, that's really good. I had a similar question about synergies and how artistic expression informs other things. Maggie, please. Two things. First, just a question. Knowing that digital music is a newer offering at 32, I have a student who's finding that really satisfying as a musical addition. And so the question being at the middle and high school level, does the department feel like they have adequate support to continue to innovate as technology and music is changing? Music in particular, but I think art in general. And the second goes to the question of access and equity as kids are approaching 32, as that's been an ongoing theme this year with the concern for staffing. And the question of, you know, should we be looking at shifting teachers to schools that don't have access for a period of time rather than waiting for those to be filled? Really good questions. I should have mentioned that we're not necessarily going to answer these questions tonight. Some of them are not really easily answerable. Some of them maybe are, and I see Jen's taking notes and perhaps if it's reasonable, she'll have some responses in the next packet or something like that. But anyway, Diane, you're up. What questions do you have? So it connects back to what Jen was saying about how where the work had been going prior to COVID in terms of really identifying some of that curriculum and standards and really the measurements of that. And so how do we get back there once, you know, how do we begin to capture some of that work again and that returning to normal again so that we can collect that data? All right. Thanks, Diane. Mikaela, you're up. So I think I have two kind of unrelated questions. One being it was really interesting to see those graphs and with numbers from the report cards, having only experienced report cards as a parent. I'm curious, in some discussions I've had with with various people, consistency in terms of making those assessments. I'm curious how much training goes in to, you know, with the teachers to how to make that consistent across grades and across schools. Because I see that, you know, it's definitely important to be able to measure these things. So that was one question I had. I don't know if that was clear. The other question in relation to how board members can be more supportive, I would I'll admit, I'm not great about seeking out specific opportunities. So if there was a way to keep us better posted, we get all the elementary school like digest, but I don't, we don't get the U30 or I don't at least get the U32 newsletter. I think it would be great to be more aware of what's going on at the school and important dates and that sort of thing. Thank you. Well, I'm confident in answering that we can get you on the newsletter list. That's a yes. And Dennis, you have a question? Well, I do. I just wanted to respond to a couple of things. One that Jen originally talked about was sort of getting back to the curricular piece and connection and being able to quantitatively identify student growth and progress in the arts. And I just wanted to, I don't know who said this or where it came from, but I think that I read somewhere a long time ago about when someone walks into a kindergarten classroom and asks how many kids are artists, they all raise their hand. And by the time you get to the 10th grade and you ask how many artists you get two or three that are kind of like I am. And I think that one of the things I'm just curious about, and I'm just throwing out there, you know, some to talk about maybe later, but is around assessing engagement in the arts as well as sort of demonstrating skill. And I think that art is something that is, I'm not sure who said it maybe earlier, but art is a foundation of a great society. And I think that the more kids are participating in it, regardless of their ability to be necessarily proficient is meaningful. And I just wonder if engagement could be one of those tools that would be quantifiable and would really demonstrate that a student is interested in participating to become an artist on whatever level that might look like. So this is my thought. Excellent, thank you. Daniel. Yeah, just piggybacking on what Dennis said, I agree with that. I'm impressed by sort of the ability and sort of the articulation of these objective measures and also at the same time really discouraged by what they don't capture. And just wondering about engagement and yeah, the opportunity for students who have, who struggle to express themselves in other disciplines, being able to express themselves in sort of an artistic medium, and just all the other ways that we're not able to capture in quantifiable and measurable ways the impact of art education. So what is that all that negative space to put it as an artist would around these quantifiable pieces? Thanks. Any last questions? So let's move on to what struck you as significant. Okay, I'll go. I'm sorry, Diane, you actually put your hand up. So I think it's significant that there is a commitment to art and creativity. We're trying to quantify it. Daniel, I totally hear you about that. You know, it strikes me that we have a school board of directors that's very interested in the arts and that over the last couple of years has tried to stand up for the arts and heard the community focus on the arts. I think all of our elementary schools have ukuleles now. For some of the newer board members, one of the last things we did right before COVID hit was talk about expanding the elementary string program. There was a good proposal in front of us. You know, the agenda has been packed for the last two years. But I'd love to see more of it. What strikes me is that, yeah, what Dan said, you know, I grew up around here. U32 was known as the artsy high school. It's nice to see that continuing. Thanks, Jonas. So you got Daniel and then Diane. Daniel, that was a well done. Yeah, that's what was significant to me was the emphasis that was the concern and emphasis that was put on the arts during COVID, both when we were remote and then also coming back, that that was really, it wasn't just take, we didn't take things lightly. We really thought about how do we make it a possible experience for all ages. And so that was that was significant to me that it wasn't when it was easy. It's always there in our thinking. Thanks, Diane. Chris, you're next. I think what is significant for us is the vigilance that we need to exhibit in safeguarding the arts and funding for the arts, even when there can be creep of the importance of other areas of our of our curriculum, but just understanding the trickle down and spreading effect that the arts have on students and our community. So just maintaining our vigilance on that. Thank you. Thank you. Lindy and then Maggie. I think significance for me is the new, well, they're not that new, but the system of grading, even though we don't call it that, because having a child who went through U32 and was very interested in exploring more of the arts but didn't want to mess up his GPA because you got a grade for your art. And there was concern of this grade when you were more of a math science person. And I think the proficiency might take some of that away. Because I always thought, you know, a lot of those courses when I was in community college and college or college courses where you take them are pass fail. And this particular child questioned how a teacher could grade creativity. And proficiency, it seems like, is a better way of looking at an artistic endeavor. And that's, you know, we still are making these charts of who's made proficiency because our schools have not caught up with, and I don't just mean our school, I mean, universities, everybody, with how we judge if a child is ready for whatever next step is. But it always bothered me that the schedule, quite often, if you were in the math science kind of track, it usually conflicted with the arts. Or it was hard. So when you could get a course to then worry about getting a grade. And I think the proficiency might be, I mean, it's a very nice route, or it seems to be, but we're still quantifying. Really, really interesting point. And it reminds me of that part of the mission that talks about nurturing lifelong learners. Maggie, what's the question is about what do we need to be? What's what strikes us as significant? Yes. So going back to the educators providing providing the arts education, you know, we have some very talented admitted staff. And it strikes me that we need to be really thoughtful about position changes and ensuring that people continue to feel like working for the district is is an option for them in terms of staffing changes. Thank you, Maggie. Any other points of significance? Jonathan? Yeah, just quickly. Thank you, Kari. What strikes me is we don't require more art and more music from elementary through high school, because that would be that would be it'd be wonderful. Okay, why don't we move on to the last question, which is what are the implications? I think we heard a little bit from Chris about funding and Maggie about staffing. What other implications does this bring up for you? I'll share one, which is, well, a couple of things. One is that there's an implication that because this is a source of strength for us, and I almost think of it in the business terms as a competitive advantage. And we want to nurture this because it is a draw to our district for people who are moving in or what have you. And then it also has the ability to inspire both students and the community at large. And I think, you know, I think Dennis said it really well in terms of great society. So that's an implication. Jonas, please. I think Maggie was first. Go ahead, Maggie. So again, going back to to ancient culture and more digital media based culture and floor spoke to this earlier as well, you know, how I know we have students developing basic websites at an early age. And then using that in coursework, like my son's global studies class, that was a recent requirement. And there's a lot of artistic requirements in terms of career options, as we're thinking about, you know, how education is changing in terms of preparing kids for career paths. And I think we can also emphasize that as a district. Let me think about preparing these learners for adult options for career paths. Thank you, Maggie. Jonas, you next. Yeah, I, you know, I love what Jonathan said about wanting to teach more. One of the things that I've learned over the last couple of years of being on the school board is how tightly choreographed the school day is and how little five minute increments can make a huge difference to instructors. When we were talking about the string program a couple of years ago, one of the caveats from the administration was we don't do this yet, you know, don't make a decision and drop the hammer and do this immediately. Let us look at our planning, let us look at our schedules and see what we can fit in. I wish we could do more art. I also wish we could do more math. And I think that we need to, we need to temper either extend the school day or the school year or temper our hopes and dreams for all that stuff, because there's just not enough minutes in the day. So true. Floor and then Ursula. Yeah, mine is really similar to what Jonas was saying. I think we, I think we have heard from our administrators and our principals that now best our student needs that there's a finite amount of time, right? So, so how do we, again, to mention how do we do that cross-curricular connection? And how do we continue to fund our values, right? We know that art is our values. So what do we take as a, as a board is in that that funding needs to represent our, our values too. But we also know what the needs of our students are. So it's just that, you know, we, we are going to have to continue to, to balance that. And in, and as a board, also as we move our meetings as a combination of in-person and remote, how do we integrate arts into showcasing the arts for our community to, and in our meetings, right? Like we are really lucky to have what we have, but like bringing more of that student voice into, into those decisions too, because we have also the flexible pathways, right? We have all of those more individualized learning opportunities too. So maybe within that, and I'm just throwing ideas, but that's outside of our scope, right? We need to continue to fund our vision and our mission and our values. Thank you, Floor. Ursula? Floor might have been reading my mind a little or I read hers. I think I was going to say that significant to us is how can we as a board support the administration and the leadership team to allow the students to do like maybe these multi-discipline projects for a classroom? And I'm sure they do some already and I'm not the board's place to direct curriculum, but I want to support the administration and can they look at those projects that a child does that has maybe some implication to their global studies class and an art class or a music class and have it count towards both. And then it helps a little bit with that time commodity that we have, but it's how do we support the administrative team to do that? Thank you, Ursula. Okay, so thank you everybody. I thought that was really great. A lot of engagement with it. We could probably go on for another hour, but I think we're at time. I want to thank Jen for putting this together and I'm really looking forward to the next one. And the Ed Quality Committee will be meeting and support you in this review and our sort of study of the student learning outcomes. So thanks and back to you, Flor. Thank you, Carrie, for leading us and thank you, Jen, also for that wonderful presentation. We're going to move in into our big session. We have been sitting for a little while. It's going to be, you know, a nonstop. So I'm going to suggest that we take three minutes, go to the bathroom, get whatever you need for sitting still for another at least another hour and a half. Jen? Yeah, I would just love I'm so grateful that our administrators have been here for this. It was important. It was a lovely for them to participate and hear your thoughts and feelings around this. I think that it's on the heels of an approved budget for next year. This is part of the budget process that we've talked about doing all year round, right? Like we've just mentioned that. So I'm thrilled that they were here and they have a ton to do. So I would love to excuse them for the evening with gratitude for their attendance thus far and wish them well. A few center office folks have to stay because of later business. But principals and others, feel free to go. Thank you. Thank you for being here, all of you. Okay, so it's 7.18. Let's come back at 7.22 for a minute. Okay. Okay. Welcome back, everybody. So first is that we're going to sort of start again, reception of guests. And any public comments? I don't see any members of the public right now. I just wanted to do a quick comment here. We are having a very budget class. We're welcoming new board members. It's beautiful and snowy this past couple of days and everybody had a time to relax or have administrators and some others have time to take a little well-deserved time off. I also wanted to say that we are, I think we're all incredibly inspired by the Ukrainian people right now and their bravery. And I don't know. I feel a lot of proud admiration for how they are handling things and that also influences our kids. I know they are all talking about it too. So you know, hoping that light will prevail over darkness and just wanted to start our meeting with that. It's hard to not feel interconnected with the rest of the world in our field. And now I wanted to move. I'm going to do a couple of agenda revisions. We're going to do the board operations and all of that. But I wanted to consider moving our finance committee part, just our handling part up so that Chris doesn't have to wait for too long. That's okay. But I also, so I'm going to do that, Chris, but I wanted to take advantage. I know that most of the administrators are ready left, but I wanted to take a minute for all of us to introduce ourselves properly. And since Chris is with us, it's a good time for them to get to know you, to Chris, especially because we have new board members. So I just going to go through the windows. Some of you have already introduced yourselves, but I'm going to go through the windows and I'm actually going to let the administrators start here introduce themselves first. That includes you, Chris. I'm going to let Jen and Jen, can you pass it on? Sure. So I am Jen Miller, our snow and most of you, if not I know. And I am, I've been the curriculum director here since July of 2012. I'm serving as your interim superintendent for this school year and will resume my responsibility as curriculum director on July 1st. And I will pass it to Chris O'Brien. Hey, good evening. My name's Chris O'Brien. I'm the director of facilities for the district. And I started in June, so I'm fairly new. Glad to meet everybody. Suzanne, and then pass it on to somebody, Suzanne. I'm Suzanne Ganna. I'm the business administrator for the district. I also started last June, so I'm pretty new to the district and I've really enjoyed working with this team here. Mark. Hello, I'm Mark Klein. I'm the director of technology and I started in July. So you hear a lot of that started this summer. So hello. Thank you, Mark. I'm going to let Lisa, who's usually on the cover there, but I'm going to let her introduce herself too. She's a nice and minute taker. Oh, hi. My name's Lisa Grace. I actually have kids that graduated from U32 and I've been taking board minutes for a long time for a lot of different boards and this is my favorite. So nice to meet you all. Thank you. Is that, I'm going to pass it to Jonas and then pass it on to Jonas. Hi, I'm Jonas, Ina Van Fleet, I'm a board member from Worcester. I'm beginning my second full third year term today. I've got two kids. I've got a son in fifth grade at Doty in Worcester and my second son is turning five tomorrow. We'll be in kindergarten next year and tomorrow he's getting a COVID shot for his birthday. So, bully for him. Oh, and I will pass it to Maggie. My name's Maggie Weiss. I live in East Cal. Fulfilled the remainder of Doris's seat and just ran and I'm joining the board for a three-year term. I have one student currently a freshman at U32 and in combination both my kids have been a parent in the district for about ten years now. Yeah, happy to be here. You want to pass it to Vera, introduce yourself and pass it on. Hi, my name is Vera Frazier and I'm a representative from Berlin. I have a daughter that graduated from U32 in 2020 and a daughter who currently is a freshman. I've been part of the board for I think we went on 14 years now on and off, served on multiple different committees and the last few months has been a little difficult for me to attend a lot of board meetings. I lost my dad in October so I've had to pick up a lot on the family farm. So, I'm looking forward to better times and being able to attend more meetings and I'm going to pass it on to Chris McVeigh. Hi, I'm Chris McVeigh. Yeah, I'm from Middlesex. I've served on the board for a while and I'm really happy to see new members coming on to the board and we now have a full Middlesex contingent with Dennis Hill having been elected this year and I'm going to pass it on to Dennis as our new board member from Middlesex. Thanks very much, Chris. A little solidarity in the Middlesex community here. That's good. So, I'm Dennis Hill. I am a 25-year veteran of Vermont Public Education serving as principal and assistant principal in a variety of schools across the state. I am really excited about being here as I mentioned before and I have three grandchildren that are all at East Montpelier Elementary School. I know that the white beard makes me look young but I have three grandchildren at East Montpelier and I'm super excited about being able to support them and all students and that's really what I've kind of committed my experience to and I would like to continue to do that here and I said it again. I'll say it or I'll say it before and I'll say it again. I'm really excited about being here and I want to thank you for having me and looking forward to working with everybody and I'm going to pass it on to Daniel. Hi, I'm Daniel Keeney from Calis. I've been in Calis for six years. I have a son brushing his teeth behind me who's five and in kindergarten Calis Elementary and a two-year-old daughter who's starting pre-K at Calis this spring fall and yeah professionally I am a farm business planner at the Center for an Agricultural Economy in Hardwick so working in the food system both with value-added food processors and farmers. I'll pass to Ursula. Hi, I'm Ursula Stanley. I am in middle sex. I just got reelected for a three-year term. I came in in August of last year to fill an empty position and I'm glad to be here. I have a ninth grader at U32 and I have a third grader at Romney. It's hard to keep track of where they are. I think that's all I'm going to add. I'm going to pass it to Micaelyn. I'm Micaelyn LeClaire. I live in Worcester. I started in August filling a vacancy and now just got reelected. I have deep roots in this district. My mother was a teacher at U32 and I graduated from Doty and U32 and now I have a kindergartener and a fifth grader at Doty. I myself taught for a few years and then decided teaching was too hard so I went to medical school and I'm a doctor out in Hardwick at the Hardwick Health Center. I'm a family doctor so that's me and I will pass it to Kari. I don't think Kari won me. Yeah so I'm Kari Bradley from Calis and I was on the U32 board for six years and change and this is the start of my third year on the Unified District Board and I have three children that went through the district and I myself am a proud alumni and I'm pretty excited about this year. I think this is going to be the best yet and I'm going to pass it to Lindy. I'm Lindy Johnson from Eastmont Pealier and I taught at Eastmont Pealier and then I also worked in the district as a literacy coordinator for a few years. I have two sons who went through the system and graduated from U32. I currently work in the Essex Westford District, couldn't think of the name there for a minute, and have been on the board since it first as an Eastmont Pealier board member and then the Unified Board and really enjoy supporting our schools through this venue. Diane. Hi I'm Diane Nichols Fleming. I'm a representative of Berlin. We've lived in Berlin for 32 years now and so we have two kids who went through the the system. My first board meeting was March of 2020 so I was able to be in person once and then after that we quickly shut down so but it's it's been okay we're still we're doing okay and the uh to me a testimony of U32 and and the work that our schools do both of my kids did well. My daughter had different interests and then took part in branching out and and discovered astronomy and science and she just she's doing grad work now at Brown and she was just published and was quoted in Forbes so it's just a real you know I have to have that mom brag moment so don't tell my son that I bragged about her but anyway you know we'll be okay. And Jonathan. I'm Jonathan Goddard by living Berlin and I'm a representative from Berlin. I have three well young adults now but three graduates of U32 in the district as well and I can safely say that I know that they really enjoyed their time at U32 and at Berlin Elementary and I think there's a lot that that is offered to to our kids and all of your students you know for younger parents out there right and so there's there's really a lot that that they can they can really take part in whether it's athletics or arts or many other things so it's it is an exciting time so thank you. Okay I think that's everybody so I'm Floria Smith I've been a board member for I don't know past 13 years then at East Montpelier and three and I just ran again for just three years. I have two kids one is 10th grader at U32 and his favorite class actually for a sports guy is Adrian's class so and she knows that and which was great because he was not usually that was so it was just timely with what we're doing right now and I have a 20-year-old just turned 20 today at Colorado Colorado College so I graduated from U32 and with that finally Chris we're going to move into you and Suzanne so that you can get a break and go have some dinner. Okay thank you Floria so I wanted to talk about our U32 air handling project so I'll read down through the document and we'll go from there. So Washington Central Unified Union School District solicited bids to eight vendors for U32 air handling unit project. We received one bid from Alliance Mechanical on February 18th for the U32 air handling unit bid. The following vendors did not provide a bid sheet metal specialist Chuck's Heating, Cooper Mechanical, Vermont Mechanical, New England Air Systems, Avonda Air Systems, and ARC Mechanical. The low base bid amount is $289,370 provided by Alliance Mechanical. This amount decreases by $69,130 for our for alternates for a combined total of $220,240. A project budget would include 10% contingency for change orders a total budget of $242,264. These are sufficient funds I'm sorry there are sufficient funds in the capital fund to cover the full estimated cost of the project. It is recommended for approval of the bid provided by Alliance Mechanical contingent upon approval of a waiver from the agency of education. So motion approved the bid award to Alliance Mechanical in the amount of $289,370 decreased by $69,130 for our alternates for a combined total of $220,240 plus 10% contingency for a grand total of $242,264. So Chris do you have any new information so they just to clarify to the board members the finance committee met and we went over the the bid with Chris and Bill and we had asked them to look into more information Chris Mike Bay had suggested that we include it the other elements so I don't know if you have any new information Chris or if this is what you're recommending. Yeah so the four the alternates the four alternates are air handler units 11, 12, 13 and 14 and they're all in the gym and those were new in the year 2000 so those are 22 years old all the other air handler units are from 1970 or early 70s so about 52 years old so what we were thinking was that we would wait until we did the ERU upgrades in I think year 2526 to reevaluate those four air handler units in the gyms it just just don't feel like it's it's needed at this point. Thank you Chris could I have a motion and then we can have more discussion. I'll move it that we approved the bid award to Alliance Mechanical in the amount of two hundred and eighty nine thousand three hundred and seventy dollars decreased by sixty nine thousand one hundred and thirty dollars for the alternatives for a combined total of two hundred and twenty thousand two hundred and forty dollars plus a ten percent contingency for a total amount of two hundred and forty two thousand two hundred sixty four dollars which would be paid out of fund balance. Thank you Chris. I'll pack on it. So move Chris second by Lindy any other discussion? Chris this is Dennis still real quick what is so there was an ALE wafer required can you just share that with me I wasn't quite sure what that's about? Yeah so when we have and I can let Suzanne speak to to this but it's required by low that we get at least three bids so when we don't get three bids we have to go back we have to get a waiver and it's best practice to get three in in this case we're even worse because we usually sometimes get two in this case we just got one but yeah it's usually not hard but Suzanne do you want to add anything to that? No thank you summarize that well the only other thing I would say about Chris's motion is that it's actually out of the capital fund not the fund balance oh and I'll make a friend I'll make a friend the amendment to my own motion to substitute capital fund for fund balance thank you Suzanne thank you any other Daniel I apologize I was just I was going to ask if there was any discussion with the contract or the the the only bid we got about that contractor about preventive maintenance and whether there are going to be any ongoing costs in terms of them revisiting campus and and doing that work or is that something that will fall on on your team Chris? Well for for U32 internally we do a lot of that work changing the filters changing out some bearings and belts and stuff like that as far as a PM process with alliance I mean right now we really just pull them in if we have like a major failure that we we can't handle some of the elementary schools we do have them do PMs for us but at U32 we have that resource at house for to a certain extent right Daniel sorry did that answer your question? Yeah I think so yeah I just that because I didn't want us to be in a position where we were on the hook for sort of proprietary preventive maintenance for going out you know a decade or more oh no no no no no not at all I mean that's that that's not the case thank you Chris and Chris yeah go ahead Chris was there any contact or response from Alliance Mechanical about potential contingency on the bid and them having the opportunity having the bandwidth to be able to do this extra work the alternatives if the bid that we're waiting on for the other projects at Rumney and other places comes in so that we could do both at the same time do we hear it back from Alliance Mechanical on that at all? Not not to my knowledge Chris no I don't know if Suzanne it's got her hand up yeah we did hear back from them and they're willing to hold the bid for 30 days including those alternatives so if we get that if we get that information back within the 30 days from their bid date then they would be willing to do the alternatives and so then the bid date was from was what we have here uh was it the February 18th yeah February 18th okay and just for the board's information we had a discussion at the finance committee about whether we you know my concern was that prices are going up and we have what I thought was a good bid and I think Bill Ford said it was a pretty good price for what we for the alternatives now whether or not we would just fund the whole thing now with the contingency that because there was a concern that these other bids that are not yet in might go over budget and so I think this taking out these alternatives now was to create room for these other projects to come back so that we would see where they were and I was proposing that we you know approve this bid with a contingency that if those other bids came back and we had the room to do all of the work that was actually bid that we move forward with that just to avoid any potential increases in the future because of you know things usually go up so that was that was the discussion we had and that's what I was concerned about okay so are we ready to vote in the motion as as it is okay okay all those in favor the motion as read by Chris and second by Lindy please say aye aye aye aye any opposed any abstain hearing none the motion carries so thank you Chris in Sussian and you have what you need to continue thanks folks thank you yeah so let's move on into board it says board orientation but it's a little bit of everything so if you guys have that little memo that I had sent you and your page number five either on your screen we're gonna try to go through that in in some kind of quick and systematic order so that we're not here for for for too long so I'm gonna we already did the board chair the vice chair and the clerk so I wanted to move into the the different committees starting with the steering committee and for the new board members to know in our practice I put it in the memo but it just in case our practice has been to include the the chair the vice chair and the clerk into the steering committee what the steering committee does is just really advice on the agenda and to have time to meet and give information so that we're prepared for the next board meeting and we're collaborative working on the on the agenda and the two other members are whoever are not represented within those towns so right right now we would have a Jonas from a Worcester a carry from callas and myself from East Montpelier so we would be looking for a Berlin a resident and a middle sex a resident so the Berlin resident has been Diane in the past and if you're still willing to do it Diane we will work with your schedule obviously we would be behind it we meet the first we moved it to the first Wednesday of the month in in the morning at 9 a.m. yeah and this particular time is going to be the second Wednesday just because we were not a bore yet but as we move on it's going to be the first Wednesday so I'm Diane we still be willing to serve for Berlin yes unless Vera or Jonathan would like to I'll just quit I there's um there's no way I able to at this point in time so if you would Diane I would really appreciate that okay and now for middle six and then I will look for a motion from both together for middle six we had had gel in in the past so I'm wondering if you know Ursula or Dennis no I would not be available at that time just I would I would urge Ursula to be or representative willing to all right so now could I have a motion for Diane and Ursula I will move to add Ursula from middle sex and Diane from Berlin to the steering committee what second second lindy right okay all those in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none the motion carries okay so steering committee and I'm just going to do a quick check in with Lisa Lisa you have that memo and you're you're good sorry yes yes thank you sorry yeah I just I want to move too quickly and then so then we have we we have the the the policy committee we're trying to get everybody kind of on a on a schedule the policy committee now is going to meet and I'm looking into Jen and Chris on Tuesday second Tuesday right we've been second Tuesdays about 4 30 to 6 30 okay so we would be looking for three members for the policy committee second Tuesday 4 30 to 6 30 and at the moment we in the past we've had Chris so are there any hands you can volunteer this is a very informal because we're trying to fill a lot of committees and you can be into committees if you want and Chris do you want to talk a little bit about the policy committee sure and you can talk after so the policy committee is composed of three board members and a number of administrators including our superintendent and it's actually an enjoyable committee we have good discussions hear a lot about how the schools really operate by having comments from the administrators on the policies that are being proposed or modified and it's it's enjoyable so I would you know I'm gonna hopefully continue to serve on it and would hope others join the policy committee Lindy has been a member for about a year I think and then great to work with Scott was with us but now he's he's retired collecting a pension from the from the district as he sits in his retirement so we have an opening but it's not limited to three either that you know we like to have three members but it's as many who want to participate or welcome yeah and that's about to join us to so Jonathan you had a question or you want to know not so much a question just that it takes to express my interest in the policy committee I previously served on the e32 policy committee for quite a while and I I'd certainly like to do that again okay this sounds great I'm going to take a minute to let Natasha welcome introduce herself everybody had a chance to introduce themselves before Natasha but welcome thank you for sorry that we couldn't adjust the meeting but thanks for being here no problem hi everyone I'm Natasha I'm serving on behalf of the town of Worcester I apologize for being late I just got finished with a four-hour mediation session so Natasha we are talking about the policy a committee right now we're we're on page a five and three of that of your packet and we're looking for interest in the in the policy committee I think we have Lindy and Jonathan and Chris interested right Lindy your hand is up is that why it's up yes I have been on it and I was on it before you know I was on and off but the Tuesday at 430 is really hard for me so it'd be better if there's someone else because I have a meeting and every Tuesday until four in Essex and then I like to get home for my zooms otherwise I'm in Essex till the 630 and then driving home so if someone else if there's others to step up I'll stay on the education quality and step up because I've been on that one as well I'm interested in the policy committee for if that's available yeah that'll be great and there is there's no limit I put numbers just because I wanted to have a minimum of people but and you can participate in several committees if you have the bandwidth to do that so we have done it oh Maggie just a question as we move through our distance meeting back into face-to-face how will these committees be handled because that is logistically important you know from a regular workday schedule standpoint yeah and we're gonna have that conversation afterwards but I feel like each committee should be able to meet elect or chair and decide what works best for for for that committee but I don't see a reason to move committee meetings in person particularly but I'm looking at others it's always you know it would be too it's different than the full board meeting to me because I know the capacity of everybody is it would be hard to go back to all times in everything so you know in negotiations I think it's different it could be a mix but I did you did the committees previously meet in person or were they yeah yeah committees everything yeah we didn't know about soon before we have always do everything in person before I you know things have changed definitely and we've learned that we can actually do some work remote too but in the past we were all going to central office or to this the high school or wherever the committee that we had a room where they met and yeah so I'm looking to to to others for for example the policy committee is since we're talking about policy right now Chris do you or Jen do you have something to yeah well I know historically the policy committee met at central office again for or second Tuesday I think it's important for people to be able to get back together but not you know at least to get to meet in person but also to preserve the the ability to meet remote too if that's what works best for everybody's schedule so as long as it's what we are trying to do is to have a consistent so we know that you know policy meets on Tuesday steering committee meets on Wednesday it like it's that people if you want to attend as a board member you know when it happens and it becomes a habit so we don't stop making it happen so Chris you had your hand up before I interrupt I do so if the various committees decide to to the extent they can we meet meet remotely we'll still have the support from mark for instance and sending up zoom and central office and sending up zoom and having the it open to the public because these are public meetings right absolutely absolutely we will follow yeah yeah yeah we'll make everything by law and melissa would be our support and we yeah yeah so you would have the agenda will post yeah all of the yeah great thank you can just because I know we're running I want to keep them momentum going so right now I believe we have Dennis a Chris and Jonathan Jonathan yeah could I have a motion for the policy committee I move that we point Chris why don't you let somebody else just because you are fine yeah yeah anybody I will move that the policy committee be composed of Chris McVeigh Jonathan Goddard and Dennis Hill thank you thank you Ursula is that right no sorry I'm sorry I was not looking at the monitor and I'm okay all right all those in favor please say I thank you all right so moving right along negotiations committee in I'm gonna let Jonas talk about this and I'm looking at the very last member that joined our our meetings right now yes I'm looking at that very last member as well so this negotiations is hard thankfully we had this year off so I'm looking to get like a 19 year deal next year or something like that it's a lot of meetings while we're negotiating which is usually from December through March or April no we went we went all the way into May or June last year didn't we it's two meetings a month there's coordinating meetings there's executive sessions to discuss negotiating strategy it it's it's a commitment but I've learned more from that process than from anything else I've done on the board Diane was awesome during the last round and Steven God bless him and previously George Gross is none of the board anymore I think Vera you were you were part of that or was it Lindy I can't forget it was like a lifetime ago I would love for anyone else who wanted to to take over the chair of that committee because it's even more of a commitment but I if no one wants to do that I I will do it um so I don't want to have you know made this sound really unappealing um but it is but it is a lot of work and it's a it's a it's a pretty big commitment so Diane I'd love to have you back Lindy I'd be willing to co-chair with you as well Jonas yeah would you yeah yeah that's fun if we could split that Diane I'd be so grateful yeah fantastic Natasha so I just a full disclosure um I would be more than happy to sit on that committee however I'm just questioning whether it's a conflict of interest because of my job so I don't want to put myself in a position that's going to compromise the process okay thank you Natasha you could just quit your job I mean if you want to pay me you mean the stipend doesn't work just kidding I mean I would love to but again I don't because a conflict of interest I just I don't want to create any kind of issue when you have to who would we who would we go speak to who would we talk to about whether that would be a conflict of interest I mean I think the SBA you know and certainly the NEA would I would if you if you're interested I mean let's try and track it down see if there's a real issue there I I hear you you know and I know you to be a deeply ethical person um but I would love to have your experience in your voice on in that work okay I mean if if um so I work for Vermont NEA so I do negotiations um yeah so just to clear that up everybody so um yeah so I mean I just again I part you know some of the conversations we have at my job have to do with you know negotiations around the state so that would um you know short of my me recusing myself from conversations at work to stay away from that I think it might be difficult for me to walk that line and again I just I want the process to be as authentic as possible thank you Natasha Lindy would you be yeah I think it would clearly be a conflict and an issue and I know in the past one of the other conflicts we've had is when one of us was a spouse of a teacher in the schools because it affects the negotiation of our spouse's salaries so those people also stayed off of negotiating committees because of that but I think if you're working with Vermont NEA that that yeah yeah it won't yeah it's not yeah I totally forgot about that that's that's what I figured that's why I wanted to yeah thank you for putting it up really appreciate it so so it looks like we have Jonas I'd be interested in serving on the negotiations okay so fantastic Jonas Diane and Chris can do we need a motion I move to add Jonas you know Van Fleet Chris McFay and Diane Nichols coming to the negotiations today second thank you Jonathan right got that right no with Daniel no I'm not looking oh Daniel sorry like I need to I'm like not writing quick enough I'll get used to okay all those in favor please say aye thank you Diane any opposed thank you Chris okay so you guys are all set and now let's say the finance committee in the past has had three members at least so Kari who has been part of our group I am in the finance committee too and Ursula has been attending some of our meetings too but it's open to all four members and anyone but I would like to have at least three constant members and Chris has participated before too but I um there's opportunity for new board members to participate on on this we do meet in the in the in the mornings we meet at eight o'clock about 8 30 8 30 and we had been meeting the Tuesday before but we're going to move it to the first Tuesday of of the month and we meet from 8 30 to 9 30 and I know that but we can also figure it out with the with people's commitment we try to not add another night meeting for our administrators too because Susanne and Jen also they sit in this in this meetings so I'm wondering if there's any other volunteers okay don't get too excited it's really exciting because this is where you get to fund all that we believe on so yeah the finance committee is the room where it happens is it yeah Natasha yeah I'd be interested okay so Natasha Kari would you still be willing to serve and I know that you stepped down for yeah I can continue to do my my seasonal attendance yeah yeah okay so would somebody be willing to do emotion oh Jen I just had a quick sorry um Florida did we decide first Tuesdays or second Tuesdays I'm feeling like I got confused there because we've moved it from third and I just I'm not right you're you're right the second Tuesday we had yeah second Tuesday yeah but you know if they needed to be first for some members the thing is that it's 8 30 to 9 30 uh Natasha do you have a reference or Kari and Jen too because you are the second is best or because we would have more information is what we had said right Susanne yeah yeah so second Tuesday either of those would work for me okay I have a motion and it would be Natasha Kari and myself I'll move that Natasha Kari and Floor are on the finance committee second thank you okay okay Diane I'm gonna give it to Ursula Chris sorry you see you both were competing for the same all those in favor please say aye aye and then in the communications committee is really more about community engagement we had created an informal community engagement committee and Maggie you were part of this with McKaylin and I'm wondering if you guys would be willing it doesn't I'm not looking for a schedule for you guys to meet or anything like that is more like you know what it is just support to spread the word and and you had been working on setting a goal so so it's still like a committee information I would call it so would you two be still be willing and I put three members but it can be anything yeah yeah yeah just FYI you skipped education quality oh just so you don't forget to go back to it no no no I yeah I think education quality a lot of people like to participate on that so I am putting I'm I'm gonna let education quality be at at the end because we never have a lack of participants is the best committee I just don't want you to skip it um but yes I would be willing uh depending on when it was meeting to still be on the communications or to start the communications committee with Maggie if she's willing still I'm and I think I'm in the same boat McKaylin working in healthcare I really don't have flexibility in the day as much as I do in the evening so that that's a possibility yeah and it's really just kind of providing input and so yeah that's it's okay you you guys will create your flexibility so could we appoint both of you okay I'm looking for a motion I move that we add McKaylin and Maggie to the communications committee thank you a second second thank you Natasha all those in favor please say aye all right all right and then in the transportation committee we have had two people in the past the transportation committee really doesn't mean we are the last bit that we had I believe it was for three years two or three years so I don't but it's good to have somebody already appointed in case there's any need so it's just two people there is no official meeting day yeah then what would meetings be comprised of Jen and Suzanne yeah yeah I can I can speak I didn't participate uh directly this year but it was mostly getting ready to go out to bed and then approve and make the recommendation for the bid I think this year it was a pretty short tight timeline some work over the course of I don't know six weeks ish talks and then we have the bid that you all accepted for want to say it was three years right so um Suzanne what would you add to that uh the bid is a three-year bid or award with an opportunity to extend for two so it may even go five so your commitment might not even be for five more years yeah uh at the very least is three um so that's what it is right now I will sign up for a no work committee okay anybody else Daniel no okay Jonas sure I'll be on it um I was just clarification question about all these committees I guess maybe it comes back to our communication practices which is on your list of things to cover but I'm curious about I'm reluctant to volunteer to commit to things yet I also want to sort of get a sense of the work of all of these committees and I'm curious sort of the level of communication we have about sort of yes the standing meetings yeah that's a good it's a good question Daniel and yeah the packets go to everybody is welcome to the entire board the everybody is welcome to either visit the meeting or and fully participate as a as a board member the only committee that is different is the negotiations committee and you understand why but everything else is is open to all of the board members and for I recall Scott telling me that you have big power in those committees as well even if you're not on the committee is that correct voting voting power yeah yeah yeah absolutely if you come to the finance committee you can be part of it yeah and a lot of I remember that the committees don't do the committees help the board do its work the committees don't make any decisions on behalf of the board the board makes a decision as a half we come back to the board with recommendations is just to make the work to actually get the work done is that one yeah so so yeah you fully participate and that's why I'm keeping negotiations differently because that is you know once you are in negotiations you've have had the training you have the relationships and that can't be back and forth we've moved the way of having alternates for negotiations because of that reason too so does that help Daniel okay so I'm saying we're signing you up for transportation with Jonas okay emotion please I move that we add Jonas and Daniel to the transportation committee okay and second I think Dennis got it okay all those in favor please say aye and now let's do the ad quality committee which I think at quality usually all the board members participate but all of those who want to participate in the ad quality please raise your hand what's the time commitment and day of the week Kariya let you speak quick so um for the rest of this school year I imagine it will be meeting monthly we had been meeting at five o'clock on the Wednesday the first Wednesday yeah first Wednesday yeah um so one hour a month um and um we we have a we had one more student learning outcome to prepare for and a couple other topics we're going to make a recommendation about monitoring student learning outcomes in in future years and then we have to decide where we go from here as a committee what what else the board needs help with so um yeah that's the rundown so I put three people there but it can be as many uh board members as they want and again this is a committee that a lot of the time all board members participate on this is Tim mcayland you want to yeah so put your it you know so that we have a sense of who wants to be on it right I I probably would like to participate but I'm not sure that I can commit to another meeting just given my schedule in the month so I would just be a drop-in when I can that makes sense yeah would you be willing to make a motion with the hands up Dennis uh sure I would like to make a motion to put Diane uh Nichols Fleming Kari Bradley Joseph up there uh Florida Smith Natasha Banning Lindsay Johnson Ursula Stanley um into the education quality um committee Maggie and mcayland yeah Maggie had that did you get all of that no can you repeat the name sorry I'll I'll be quick if you could throw your hands up again that'd be great everyone if you don't mind so I've got Maggie Weiss Lindsay Johnson Natasha Baining or banning banning banning uh Diane Nichols Fleming Kari Bradley Ursula Stanley mcayland are you in there as well yeah mcayland Leclerc and I believe that's it or sorry this zoom it's okay we got it a second I will second that thank you thank you all those in favor hi hi hi hi hi right we impose hearing none we have all our committees congratulations everybody uh so moving right along in border operations uh I don't know if you had a chance so we need to appoint our trend uh officers any questions from new board members of what that means I put the little definition there but so could I have a motion to appoint our trend officers we forgot in that notice to put you 32 as the school so yeah yeah yeah we had Stephen Bellinger but yeah sorry you 32 is actually uh Eric Bennett I checked with Stephen today okay our team is Bennett Bennett so be looking for a motion a move that we appoint um Aaron Boynton of uh Epperland Elementary Cat Fair at Calis Elementary uh Gillian Fuqua at Worcester at Dodie Elementary Caroline May at Rumney Elementary uh Alicia Leifert at East Montoya Elementary School and Eric Bennett at U32 Middle and High School as truant officers for the year 2022 to 2023 thank you Chris okay Jonah second any discussion all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi hi hi any oppose the motion carries okay so now we have to establish a regular a board meeting schedule and right now we are meeting the first Wednesday as community engagement and small board business that we sometimes need to accomplish I hear some echo but can you guys hear me okay or is there somebody that yeah so I'll be looking for a motion to I don't know what the echo is doing I think it's Maggie really can you mute yeah maybe gee chris excuse me okay oh yes thank you everybody so so I'm looking for a motion for a regular to do a regular meeting the first and third Wednesday of of the month first Wednesday being community engagement and third Wednesday being our official board meeting so move that we establish a regular board schedule first and third Wednesdays first being a community forum thank you second mckaylin right all right all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi go on pose hearing none the motion carries it we're gonna move into a there's a couple of things that I wanted to but we can talk it's been I don't want to get us out of our schedule for too long but we'll use a board a retreat to potentially talk about the board development sometimes do our development instead of community engagement on the first Wednesday but we can talk about that later I do want to have a quick conversation before we moving to norms well let's do the norms first and then now so did you had a chance to look at the norms I was hoping that you know we can accept the norms as they are right now and then use part of our retreat to look into the norms and see if we can add or or clarify anything that is give the opportunity to newborn members to have input on that too but if we could just accept the norms for now make a motion I move that we accept the norms as currently constituted subject revision as needed or proposed second and Ursula second great yep although in favor please say aye hi hi any oppose staying the motion carries and then the second part of this is having our first retreat if we not every we haven't had a retreat this year because we everybody got in a little bit later and in the midst of COVID we haven't we did not get a retreat in in august so I we if you guys could pull out your calendars we have connected with with Megan too and looking at august 13 in the past our retreat because it has to you know to make it worth it it's like a day retreat is a Saturday to not conflict with work and I know it conflicts with family but it's not very often if you could pencil in we we can change it if needed but we were hoping to hold the august the august 13 date to have a retreat thumbs up or yep all right I know I I will only be able to attend the afternoon that date because our vacations are already planned for the summer and are fixed okay any other board conflict and we don't need a motion for that I just wanted to give you that the head up and I will probably be away that weekend you'll probably be away that weekend okay so maybe I need to send okay I hope do we be away for a lot of weekends over the summer yeah I think you know summer weekend board retreats having been on other boards that have have used that practice is frustrating and if there is a possibility of not doing it on a weekend or doing it as a lengthy evening event on a week workday would be greatly preferable okay just putting it out there it's you know it's summer is very short yeah completely understandable we have in the past we what we do is as a board we have no meetings in the month of July and the board takes July off and on august the practice has been to try to have a meeting at the beginning of august just to get us started a board retreat so that when we start our third uh Wednesday of august we are all in the same page and have had a time to come together without making it just uh at night but that is good good feedback let me get back to you guys with the feedback that you just gave us and have a couple of proposals of how do we move with the retreat lindy well i just would offer another um in listening to what maggie was saying and i think this was maybe when it was still just east montpellier board and we were at your house but um it was a afternoon into evening and we had a dinner and um that in the weekday you know during a weekday and i was wondering if and it doesn't have to be august 10th i'm just looking at that week because you said the 13th which would be a wednesday because i get in the habit of saving my wednesdays throughout the week in case a board special meeting or something comes up if it was the 10th from three to eight or something like that might fit people's schedules better than a weekend even you know as a teacher i won't be back at work yet but saturdays are my time with my husband too so um i think i understand that afternoon in the evening might be easier to for some yeah let me let me look at different times with with megan too and because i know that the leadership team is also meeting with with with her and having their retreat so let me see what other options are are available and we'll do probably what we will end up doing is maybe do a doodle paul and and and see what works best for for for people but thank you for that for that input so let's designate let's move on into designate locations for posting meetings and agendas and and just a reminder that doesn't mean that that's the only places but we have to at least have three places where we where we post them and then it doesn't mean that if the communications community decides that there's so other places to post that that would be fine but we need to at least list three could i have a motion i will move that we designate locations for posting meeting agendas at each school on the wcuusd website and in each town hall is that what is intended yeah yeah yeah for town town clerk's office town hall yeah yeah could i have a second i can't for sure okay all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi any posts any abstain seeing none the motion carries and robert rules so we have to adopt robert rules we're a board that is a little bigger than 12 so we we follow full robert rules and we second motions so a that's part of what we're doing today so could i have a motion to accept that we'll be governed by robert rules so moved second denise and diane all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi and i added a little there's a little place there to register if you're interested the vsba is providing a webinar on here on robert rules you know so and it's a good refresher for both the returning board members and new board members gen i saw your hand sort of going up do you have a question no okay then i also attached the code of ethics by this by and i've heard from some of you that wanted to that had already signed it and wanted to send it i just was wanting to have a discussion i i'm looking at chris because i see your eyes are ready chris there but if there's any uh everybody okay except in the code of ethics and signing it chris ready okay so um this has come up before other foreign meetings and oppose the code of ethics in requiring any signing um you know i think we certainly should have a code of ethics and adopted as a board but compelling a signature i think it's beyond this board's power to do that i think it's also beyond the board's power to state that the to the extent that it it is construed as preventing a board member from speaking publicly about about a topic that goes contrary to what a position the board adopted i think that would be a violation of the first amendment and the vermont constitution's protection on free speech so i couldn't you know support this the statement that says refrain from engaging in activities that harm the district's ability to pursue its mission if that includes you know prohibiting speech because i think it's again i think that's beyond the board's power uh so those are my concerns okay thank you chris so it you know it's really up to each board member i would encourage you to accept that code of ethics i think that what i would say to what you just said chris is that it's it's really it's just about the motions that we take so it's it's just part of that democracy or what they do uh in other places we as a board we would make a decision where we might not all agree but as a board we would stand behind that decision as a board so we don't go behind and and pose for example on front porch forum that you are against that i don't know so we don't harm the decisions that we're trying to do as as a group sometimes we won't agree but we still support the work of the group right and so so that's what that is uh what that means there so well again i think that those that type of prohibition um in attempting to uh compel compliance with that is it just violates first amendment and free expression i mean the board can vote and takes votes and has positions but then to say that a member cannot speak against that the position that the board is taken i think that's just a plain violation i mean we see examples of that in our legislature all the time where uh you know bills will pass and members can still freely speak and say i didn't agree with it this is why and you know i think this is um it's somewhat censorous so um that's why i will not support it but i understand your position too that you know your board makes a decision and the board speaks the majority speaks for the board then whatever position that is thank you jenneth thank you i would agree with chris and and uh certainly we we should all be acting ethically there's no question and of course that's always a some extent a philosophical and a vague term what is ethics generally but i think we all have a pretty good feel and understanding for what ethical behavior is uh with respect to serving on a board um but i wouldn't be comfortable signing it either so thanks okay thank you any other comments yeah i think that this is vague enough that i i'm not concerned about a chilling effect on speech you know based on this you know um you know avoid making comments that may compromise the decision-making ability of the board administrators i don't think that encompasses you know disagreements policy personnel anything you know the first amendment is still what it is you can say really whatever you want these are norms right not rules um that's my my two cents thank you jonas chris so i would respond to that that the vagueness is the problem in that you know the board can say well or remember the board can call someone else out by saying you made this statement and it harmed the board uh harmed the board's ability to pursue its mission so the vagueness becomes the problem uh and you know it just you can it can be a chilling effect so that's that you know and we have a fair disagreement there jonas but that's my concern thank you thank you i guess to me i'm going through it as well and looking at it and just it's about i mean there are codes of ethics that we do use but it's when you well require isn't the right word when there's an expectation of a signature then my immediate thought is well what what is the purpose of that signature and what's the the consequence or the accountability because that's what i hear chris mentioning is it's the when there suddenly becomes a consequence or somebody applying what one of these statements is in a way that's potentially punitive or limiting and so i guess that's where my question just comes into it um that again if we have these norms and these expectations it's it's the signature part and i guess i just don't know who's asking for the signature and where the signature is expected because i haven't done one of these before yeah i'll just respond to that one quickly so we we haven't done it in the past because there was no there was there was no agreement as a board the the signature is is is really uh there's no nobody coming after after you the the signature is just how we hold each other accountable you don't need to sign it we could just accept it as a as a whole board but in the past because we haven't been able to accept it as a whole board you know signing it was another was another option but it's really we are all elected board members so there's we can't like unelect you right so so we can hold and and we do that i i think that we have demonstrated through this past year how we hold each other accountable and what we hold each other kind of is like how we hold each other up so these are just basic ethical guidelines from for for the board so it's it's not it's not meant to be punitive Ursula and then Daniel i wanted to ask chris a clarifying question just so that i'm understanding when you're talking about the not being able to speak out or how this is that the part underneath the within my scope of fiduciary fiduciary i'm going to pronounce it wrong roll the refrain from engaging in activities that harm the district's ability to pursue its mission yes that's the one that you're thinking would act it is i mean i mean that's specifically about financial look it's about our financial role you know it it's it's talking about a fiduciary role which is not necessary financial it's a trust you have a public trust and we do have a fiduciary duty um and you know the fiduciary aspect of our our positions goes throughout this document i mean it you know it's more specific in terms of you know not receiving anything of value for vote things like that but that also is a violation of your fiduciary duty of trust to the public so fiduciary is just not money it's it's an issue of trust and like fiduciaries are you know assigned to take care of others and make decisions for others and they do it with the utmost regard for that other person not their own interests so that the word fiduciary just doesn't mean money it's a broader concept than that thank you thanks for the question daniel i'm really glad we're having the discussion regardless of what our decision is i guess i'm inclined to sign it uh because i think i like the act of i mean there is vagary that maybe perfer wouldn't be there but i like the act of very intentionally sort of um you know stating our our intent to act in this fiduciary role and in this ethical role and i think it's sort of it it demands it demands us to sort of look back at this and bring our judgment to bear on something in a way that not signing it and and then just sort of making a choice in a moment and in a case without you know without considering that would i i appreciate the argument that maybe it's maybe it has a chilling effect maybe there is some overly vague language but yeah i appreciate it i think i'm going to sign it if that's if it's our choice to adopt thank you daniel hey maggie and then thenis does adoption require signature date i think there was a question that asked earlier about why this is being asked of us in particular and it maybe hasn't been fully answered yet why this act of signature is being you know requested and i i think that daniel just explained it better than i explained it before is just it it's it's really just how we hold each other accountable so we are being asked to sign and but then we can look back and and and really think about our our decisions but it's just to hold each other accountable but there's no punitive thing it's just like do we believe in this ethical thenis i think i would all do respect to every position in the conversation i think that you know we're sort of just chasing our tails here and that in fact the the ethics and the language therein is a guideline that we can all follow and we can all be aware and cognizant of it but i don't think that a signature is going to change how people particularly respond so i think that everyone you know i always assume good intentions i know that people are are certainly wouldn't be doing this work if they weren't well intended and i do think that you know chris does have a point about sort of the lack a sense of sense censorship that is important to be aware of but but certainly not within the board's control and so i think that the ethical concepts are important and appropriate but to have them as guidelines but not as a signature a signatory document um just doesn't make any sense because there's nothing that other than working together and sort of like all of us working together there's no punitive response there's no consequence for not following them there's they really don't hold any um weight other than we all are here for a purpose of supporting kids and communities and um and i'm tired and i'm talking like circles but so i just think that that it's important to have them but i think signing them sort of puts us in a place that we don't need to be because we're we're already there because we're doing what we're doing so again okay and i i don't want to spend the whole night in this either so kari thanks maybe i can have the last word i i totally agree with denis i think signing it is a symbolic act but basically we were testing to these these are the standards that i'm going to commit to in working with you and i think the thing i really want to say is that i actually wish these went further in and in what you know the one voice principle meaning that that we have no individual authority we only have authority as a group and whatever decisions this group makes i intend to abide by those decisions i'm not going to do anything to undermine even if i think it's absolutely the wrong decision it's going to be my decision too and that's the commitment i would like all of us to have um for each other and regardless of penalty thank you kari well said so i i think with that we could close that this this conversation i i think we all had had a chance i didn't hear from natasha but i think everybody had a chance to express how they feel and i think we are going to hold each other accountable and we act as one so i'm going to move into if that's okay with everybody i'm going to move into adopting i'm actually going to jump from communications all the way down to the designate the newspaper of record could i have a motion i move to designate the times argus as our newspaper of record thank you jonas the second second thank you ursula for those in favor please say i hi hi hi hi thank you the motion carries it the the next one we we do not need to appoint that i hope that you had a chance to read the memo we do not need to appoint because it went to arbitration and we don't need to appoint anybody for for this year for for ratified the ratification of negotiations so but we do need to uh appoint uh board representative to the central vermont a career center and i've been that person in the past and i would like to continue serving that just because we are going to be moving the work that we've been doing so i can't quite detach quite yet of that of that work him so i move that we appoint floored tia smith as our representative to the central vermont career center second thank you because sometimes all those in favor please say i hi hi hi all right okay and then i'll just go quickly in in board development when we go into our retreat we can talk a little bit more about board development right now i wanted to welcome again our new board members and try to create a partnership we have tried to do this before but i would like to make it more intentional this time everybody was going to be receiving a copy old and new board members we is usually just the packet goes to the new board members but we're just gonna get some extra the essential work of vermont school board so that everybody has the newest the newest edition of that and then i would like to pair maybe by town if possible to see if Jonas could adopt natasha as your mentoring so that you have somebody to you know ask questions to somebody that if that's okay with you join us i say or i know i mean i think that that relationship should go the other way but i'd be happy to so you guys could create a partnership and the same for you know denise i don't know chris or orcilla are willing to partner with the denise and it could be across towns too it doesn't have to be and that'd be great i'll utilize both of my middle sex colleagues okay yeah i'd also say yeah i'd also say mckaylin please join the coffee clutch yeah make it true yes yeah okay den and call us are we set for daniel in terms of a mentorship as well but yeah one second very yes sorry daniel yeah so the same for the same for callas you have a kari and maggie too yeah i'm certainly not shy i've definitely tapped maggie in terms of a resource and and i'm not shy about reaching out to kari either and i'm really really grateful for having some senior perspectives on the on our delegation thank you and and you know as and for you to know i'm available i've been trying to communicate with all of you new board members too and i'm always available if you have a question just feel free to email or text me and i'll make sure that you get the information that you need i added some toolkit and essential work hyperlinks in that hopefully those those those work there is a first year journey you are going to be receiving a welcoming packet from the roman scooper's associations too but there are lots of resources in there to to help you know with your first year journey now let's move we're gonna get back to our agenda in the biggest you know save the best for last we have to have the conversation about in person and remote uh meetings i'm hoping that it won't take too long since i told you 8 30 and it's 8 46 and lindy everybody's falling asleep and hungry so a lot of boards during the meeting okay a lot of boards have moved into in-person meetings already as you have heard the guidelines have have changed i think we need to have a conversation and i know that we're still waiting for kids to you know the younger kids to be vaccinated too it would be nice to get together again and also preserve some flexibility of the of remote meetings i personally for the board are still a little worry about hybrid meetings so i think either we do you know a proposal was that we could consider continue to have our first meeting of the mode the community engagement meeting remote and the third meeting of the month in person to to start but the conversation is up into all of you and i think instead of just letting one person talk i'm gonna just call so that everybody has a chance to to say and i'll start with you maggie i'm entirely flexible with whatever the will of board is um and when it comes to the community engagement forums i wonder about that being an in person with the option of participating by zoom because that feels more potentially inclusive to people who may not have internet access or may not feel feel comfortable with the technology so i would propose the opposite thank you maggie jonathan yeah i'm really pretty flexible about it too thank you netasha i'm just going by my screen where are the where are the in-person meetings held i use 32 but in the past we also had moved them around and to different schools so but let's say you 32 for the purpose of this meeting okay um i mean i'm flexible i'm still hesitant to do group meetings inside i know everything is changing with regulations but i mean if it's a big enough space where we can still do all the mitigation stuff i would be open to it thank you netasha lindy um i i think the public is kind of demanding it even though they don't come to our meetings but um i being a person who's not able to work remote and be in schools with the kids i hear why don't other people have to go to work and be with people and i think we need to if we're going to move in that direction we should set that bar i am fine with one meeting being remote and one being in person i think the convenience of remote has been amazing and we have had more people come to meetings than we do when we're in person i think um what maggie said about the public being the one that's in person had some merit to it i hadn't really thought about it but in you know my years at east want feel you're on the board and then on this board it was rare unless we were cutting a position or something like that that anyone came to the meetings so um i but i do feel we have to have at least one a month in person and walk the walk if that's the way the movement is for the world thank you lindy uh john Jonas um if we're going to have i i i would prefer to stay remote it is convenient this is hard enough as it is and it's a time you know it consumes enough time having these remote you know saves me a half an hour of driving on the way there and a half an hour of driving on the way back the last two meetings i attended in person during the winter of 2020 i suffered a flat tire and a blown radiator late at night at u 32 that was not fun i am glad that that's not happening now um in terms of walking the walk i think we need to make the decision that that works for us i do think that um i do think that with you know masks coming off and and and things it is safer to to be in person um i also just think that we've been extremely effective the last two years i i have grown accustomed i mean i'm not my experience is not normative i live my entire life on the skype and zoom and slack and google meets and microsoft teams um i find the remote meeting really effective and efficient um so i would prefer to stay remote just because i think it allows more people to come to meetings both board members and not board members um but if we're gonna go to you know if we're gonna do it then i think naggy has the right idea let's do the community forum in person you want to meet the public talk to the public let's do those in person and i would really really prefer uh to keep these long marathon school board meetings remote no then nobody has to drive home i just want to interject that i was proposing that there's still a remote option by you know zoom for those yes uh daniel yeah i think i'm ambivalent for all the reasons mentioned so i'm just gonna uh defer to others chris mcvay um i would prefer to get back in person with meetings but i'd also prefer in hope that we have maintained a remote option for um the public to participate because it has been a an astounding increase in public participation participation to the extent that their public is seeing our meetings and have that always be an option for the public to attend but that that we do a hybrid and at least start having our business meetings in public in in person thank you thank you uh worcilla i have a comfort level issue with meeting in person i think and it's just a personal um struggle with getting back out to those public meetings and being around people still right now i could see doing the hybrid and i like maggie and what jonah said where we do the community forum in person it's the shorter meeting the convenience of our zoom meetings for these long ones is nice thank you where's uh mcaylin um i think that i would vote for meeting in person um i think it'd be great if we could have um the option at least for the public to zoom in as well um but i i think especially now that you know kids have been in school in person teachers have been in school in person i'm someone who has a job that's in person i agree that you know keeping the board remote for our safety seems a little um hypocritical plus i'd really like to meet you all in person so but i do i i think it would be great um again just for to reach as many community members as possible to have the um hybrid option thank you diane yeah i i like the idea of the community forum and and also part of what we had had as part of our schedule was traveling to the different schools and so it would be nice to do the public forums and each of the different schools and really have it be uh an opportunity for us all to become that community so instead of each divided not divided but the different schools come together so i could see that really working as the in person one and then again yes it is nice that um you know we're tired but once we sign off we're done as opposed to being tired and then signing off and um driving and you know i have a long commute to work and so adding on that on the end of the day also uh is is a little bit challenging to think of not being home at the end of that thank you diane and denise thank you um i am really not interested in meeting in person with all due respect i think that um well with all due respect i mean covid is still raging the numbers are are artificially lowered by the way that the state has redone their testing you know i appreciate that kids are back in school um but i don't think that that with all due respect i'm not gonna be disrespect anybody that walking the walk means that i have to put myself a personal risk of death um and i know i'm being dramatic but to to you know support other people's needs and i i've been very covid cautious my circle is tight i work in a in a school as well so i'm also involved but i think that you know suddenly engaging myself with a bunch of people not even this group but the public forum for instance with people that i don't know what their vaccination status is i don't know what their cautious level caution level is makes me really uncomfortable so i would weigh heavily on the side of staying remote in so such time as um there's a much higher level of of safety for everyone involved and now that sounded a little dramatic but again i'm tired and cranky so we'll try to get you out of this meeting as soon as possible then so we don't lose you in the first meeting kari yeah i think we're gonna have to figure out the hybrid thing sooner or later there's just too many issues there's the safety issues there's top people's time ultimately it's an equity issue and i we're gonna it's eventually all groups are expected to do it i think so we might as well figure it out sooner than later personally i'm not so concerned about safety i will miss being able to sign off and not drive home but i'm i'm flexible whatever we do i suggest that we plan in a three or six month review and just discuss how's it going and then plan to adjust from there if we want to chris mackbay you're muted have you gone through everybody floor i believe have you already gone through everybody i believe so i think i've got everybody i mean there's some strong oh who i didn't weigh in oh veera sorry i just i was not seeing you and your phone sorry veera go ahead um i would prefer to do the hybrid model um and i agree with kari 100 whatever however we merge into this um doing a check in in three or six months and having a timeline set for eventually going into in person for all of our meetings thank you veera sorry about that hey chris does the hybrid model include that some board members could be in person and some could still be in zoom because i think that would be the way to go because it's going to you know address folks who have concerns about you know being exposed and and also allows those who want to go go in person to be in person and we still get our business done so i think the hybrid would be the way to go myself um you know and just let everyone you know decide how they what best fits their experience i didn't realize the hybrid was that's what the definition of the hybrid was that we're talking about that some could be remote and some could be in person yeah so i i guess for the for the hybrid we'll invest a little in technology we have talked about looking into the owl and and seeing if we can figure out the best way so because it has to work right right so that we make sure that people that are remote are fully participating because there's nothing worse than when you have a hybrid meeting and you can't have everybody participate it daniel do you have uh i was just going to um i really liked diane's suggestion of incorporating the community forums at different schools with the hybrid model i could see especially with uh sort of better technology that's the challenge of moving that around to schools i can just sort of um channel my inner it manager and sort of wonder about the logistics of that and how that's going to work um so i just want to raise that as an issue and if that poses a problem i don't know i'd like to resolve that problem because i really would like to see the schools and meet those communities yeah i think one one thing that we could do by listening to to everybody is allow the community engagement meeting to happen in person at each individual individual school use the technology that is available but not at least encourage most board members to be able to to come to the community engagement meetings and then for now continue to do the the third wednesday of the month remote and revisit this again in april i think we can so the third week in april revisited again and maybe we end up with at least a couple of meetings in person before we break in the months of july and then we would have a better idea of how how things are going Ursula and then and then lindy i wanted to ask maybe kari has input on this if we go to being in person for that first wednesday of the month how will that affect the education quality meeting that is typically the hour beforehand we will meet in person the question will have to be there in person i would think or hybrid yeah okay lindy well i think uh addressing it again and perhaps since jenn is still here oh i i guess um mark is still here too the equipment needs because i know when um my husband had to set up the town office for hybrid meetings the equipment that they purchased so that you're projecting as well as you have the right microphones um it it wasn't a huge deal but it has to be set up and it has to be somebody's has to be watching for hands to go up on the remote people but it could be done and i think it would be more equitable and inclusive yeah and jenn you can speak to that but they'll take care of that yeah yeah i was thinking about that i was remembering back in the day orcas here tonight i remember how early they would come to set up wherever we were right to put microphones i mean there's a certainly a lift technologically to figure out and i think logistically i think the most important thing having participated in meetings that have a remote component when they're in person is exactly that if we really want to be inclusive and thoughtful we need to pay attention to making sure that folks can fully access the meetings and that they're there's a sort of specialty in terms of approaching them in that way in order to feel like they're really worthwhile we'd have to figure it out i love the idea of always uh as you would do right now figuring out the feedback at the end and then how do we get better how do we get better um so that we can continue to to meet the community needs to meet your needs okay so i i think what i'm hearing is that Jonas yeah i just remote meetings aren't going away yeah i think that we need to adapt to to this it is it's convenient it's cheap it's safe yeah so i i think at least for now we're gonna agree that our march a meeting would be remote and we would plan on doing our best to have that first meeting on an April to be a community engagement in in person if possible but we'll update you as as as we go does that sound like a like a plan okay now let's move into approving the minutes of 216 before i lose all of you i move to approve the minutes of uh february 16th thank you Jonas can i have a second i'll second it thank you lindy any discussion okay all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi right okay oh my kaolin got logged out and she doesn't seem to be able to get back in okay okay right a personnel approve new teachers and we have a couple lindy the resignation yeah i only see one resignation um and mike oh i'm supposed to just make the motion then i can discuss it i make a motion to accept the resignation of hank van orman the u32 athletic director a second okay discussion um my question is is that now or at the end of the year that would be effective uh now i believe that the letter says march 14th but don't completely quote me on that because there's nothing attached usually we have a something that tells us yeah i think it's march 14th lindy but i assume no yeah any other questions i assume i'm not allowed to ask why i mean since the letter's not there i i think it's okay for me to share um that hank is uh getting seeking employment in the private sector and the other thing that i would say just overall is that i'm just so grateful for his service to this uh district for as long as he has served our district and especially navigating the world of athletics during covet has been incredibly challenging and um our students and our teams who have participated and enjoyed a tremendous amount of camaraderie and um and support and safety and i just think that we should hold hank up um and thank him for his service um thank you gen that was why i asked because it can feel like there's something wrong here if we don't have information so i'm glad that you said that because i didn't want to accept it wondering was there something that happened but thank you can you join us and then i don't recall i don't think we usually get letters of rec of resignation we've seen we've seen some other recent resignations where there was no documentation either but there's usually that paper that says effective now and sometimes there's a reason and there was nothing i think that's the hiring paper the hiring paper yeah yeah so it has the new person and it says who they're replacing and the reason why that person's leaving so i think it's that why that person's leaving fills up in yeah yeah but but yeah i would agree with what jen and others have said that we owe a lot to hank and he had been involved in other efforts in our schools too and really had put a lot of himself so we he's gonna be missed by by everybody yeah so with that uh all those in favor of accepting his resignation please say aye hi hi any oppose you oppose no i there's a lady i am muted sorry and i shouldn't have asked that question like that i'm like are you opposed yeah sorry but you know i i do thank you jen for the uh the kind words about hank i i you know it sounds like you made a tremendous difference in a very difficult time and wish him the very best in his private sector career and then jen could you update us in vacancies just quickly sure so um you just accepted hank's resignation so we're seeking an athletic director um i reviewed at the last meeting for those who were there vacancies nothing has changed right now so um we still have some para educator vacancies some bi positions that driver's ed position we had never found anybody we're gonna play out this year and then we're starting to advertise for positions that we know are open and now that um our talents have approved the budget we're gonna we have a bunch of meetings tomorrow to review our list of positions and start getting them posted for next year so um we're just gonna do our best to sort of close out right now um for the year and then look ahead and uh we anticipate like many people in the state that um there's going to be a um a rush on wanting to hire folks and um and we want to make sure that our deck's in a row so we can be uh timely and get really fabulous folks on board thank you jen with that i'm going to move into board reflections in the time and for new for new board members we take this time to reflect on the meeting and things that went well or things that you liked improved or just any reflection that that you have you don't have to have one either but if there's anything that do you want to say Dennis yeah i just want to apologize for my crankiness there towards the end of the meeting so i'm usually much friendlier so no need thank you everybody thank you for being here anybody else chris um again i want to comment on our discussion that we had uh with we had opposing few points but we're able to discuss them and explain them and uh do it candidly civilly politely and with great courtesy and kindness to each other so uh it is a board norm that is a wonderful one here and uh i applaud everyone for our honoring it and uh i look forward to this year thanks thank you chris then i just i appreciated your laying out all of the different things that we needed to consider during our orientation or you know the renewing or of our board roles in that so thank you floor that was helpful to have it all written out and laid out like that thank you thank you i wanted to welcome our new members again and just as a also fairly new board member just go and lurk at all of the policy meetings that you can and that's what i've been doing i come i don't always say anything but it helps you sometimes just get that in depth view and everybody's very welcoming and they'll ask question they'll answer questions when you have them thank you versola so with that i i don't see any members of the public except mr david lauren so if but i don't see any hands up david do you have something that you would like to share okay i don't want to put him in the spot either but maybe he's not there so with that i would be looking oh chris i have one floor and i want to thank you for recognizing the turmoil that the nation of ukraine is going through at this point and that i want to applaud them the the country and its citizens for their courage in the face of harrowing circumstances caused by the russian government not the russian people the russian government and i also want to recognize and applaud the collective response that many countries in the world have taken to you know unite against this illegal aggression and just you know hope that things will turn out well for the ukrainians and for our world because i think this this collective response to a very brutal and illegal aggression has been wonderful despite in a horrible situation but a very wonderful response and and i want to just and we should be talking about this because it is in our schools in our world it's a potentially a world all altering event thanks thank you chris so everybody ready to go to sleep or have dinner oh lindy sorry cousin chris bringing that up i had to keep us for one more moment um my niece and her family live in ukraine they live in kursan and my brother skyped with them and posted and the children wanted to tell a funny story kind of not really that funny but a russian tank the russians got out of it because they weren't sure if it ran out of gas but they were running out of gas a lot and the ukrainians have been told to provide gas but make sure you put sugar in your gas cans and this farmer hooked his tractor up to the tank and the farmers stole the tank they just started pulling the tank away and the russians were running behind to catch their tank and my niece's children were just thinking this was the most hilarious thing and that a brewery is instead of making beer making molotov cocktails um and they're in a shelter right now well they're in a root cellar um and but they wanted to make sure they told their grandpa who is my thought my brother the story of the tank being stolen by the farmers so the ukrainians are doing some amazing things lindy i i have seen that the ukrainian tax authorities have announced that you do not need to declare any tanks or armored vehicles that you acquire from the invading russians what is that an incentive well good evening everybody if we can have an urgent to adjourn i think kary just said he moves in second second hi everybody good night good night thank you thank you everybody thank you you're welcome