 So two for the annual reorganization meeting of the White River Unified District Board and We're gonna I think what I'm gonna adjust to the agenda is I'm gonna put 5.1 Elect a chair point in a person to number two and then we'll operate from there is There a motion to accept that adjustment to the agenda so moved Second what we just Okay Those in favor say aye Hi All right, I Will take nominations for chairperson of the White River Unified District Board Any nominations? I'll nominate Andrew Jones I'll second that Any additional nominations? Discussion Andrew, are you good with this? Yeah Good Thought you might have been I'll do a quick roll call vote Lisa I Shannon I Chris I And Andrew It's good with it. All right, Andrew. It's all yours So we are on actually now if there's any additional adjustments to the agenda And I think there's going to be so I wanted to let you navigate that though Okay, so Andrew what we were saying was is that we think we're gonna actually lose our quorum tonight And so it made sense to adjust all the business up that needed action And I think Lisa we have you for 30 minutes, right? So that would mean moving Items 9.5 9.6 10.1 in 10.2 up Maybe after the reorg Or actually after the consent agenda and then carrying on after that because the rest is all discussion Okay, that's not good everybody All right, we'll do that so 9.5 9.6 10.1 and 10.2 will move up to I Guess are we doing that? I guess after the consent agenda since that shouldn't take very long Okay, so I'll become item seven All right, so let's even get through the Reorg quickly so we get to that So we're on to 5.2 elect a chairperson Vice chair vice chair We have any nominations for vice chair I'll nominate Shannon moral Cornelius I'll suck at it Okay, any other nominations Okay, any discussion all in favor say aye Hi Any opposed? Attention, okay Um, okay, so clerk will elect a clerk Do we have any nominations for quick Do we need to select that right now, I think Lisa's been happy doing it, but I don't know All right, you want to make a motion to table it until she's here and then we can take it up when she gets here Is that okay? I think that's fine I agree. I don't want to take it away from her if she wants it, but if she doesn't want to do it anymore It is a lot of work. So Yeah, it is a lot of work. I would make a tip. I would make a motion to table that until she's Okay Okay, I'll suck in that. Yeah, we'll table that until She's here Okay I'm three members for the WRV SU full board We have volunteers for this I'll be one Need two others Lisa you're looking to step off. Yeah, I'll I'll be one as long as we do what we've always done and make everybody else an alternate So that if I can't make it I'll communicate Okay, great. All right, so me Lisa and I Can do that. Okay, and And then everybody else will be alternates That okay with everybody Sounds good. Is this something we need to make a motion for? Can we just Know you're appointing so you don't actually need to All right. So Andrew did you appoint? Andrew Lisa Floyd Shannon as three members to the White River Valley Supervisory Union full board with Lisa M And Chris has alternates. Yes. That's what you said. Okay And we'll appoint and I know Roy Elton member And then Andrew not to put words in your mouth, but in appointing three members to the White River I'm sorry and appointing one member and one alternate to the executive board Are you appointing two people? Well, we haven't done it yet. So that's okay. My guidance is you appoint someone Okay Well, I'll be the executive board member. I assume is the chair And Shannon as vice chair. Do you want to be the alternate? I'm happy to do that. Yes, okay Is that what you meant Tammy? Okay, there we go Okay a recording secretary Tammy are you okay being recording secretary going forward unless Lisa McCrory objects so Sure, she won't appoint Tammy Benoit as the recording secretary So signing APM payroll, that's what Rodney used to do. Do we have anybody who would like to step up to fill his shoes? I'm actually working full-time from home now. So I'm happy to do that unless Chris you look like you were going to jump in there So if you absolutely want to do it and we can also appoint both of you and you can do it depending on how it works Mary and a secondary Andrew, okay, we'll appoint Shannon as the primary and Chris is the secondary is that right? You know that or the other way around I mean I did this last week's And it's worked pretty smoothly because they they just email it to me and I can electronically sign it and just email it back Shannon will be second I don't want to don't want to shirk all the responsibilities Wait so we get to the technical center Can I ask a clarification question? Yeah To the executive board so Andrew and Shannon, is there an alternate? I'm the primary and Shannon's the secondary okay, and the alternate right. Oh Okay, got it. Thank you. All right. So we have a member and an alternate for signing APM payroll Negotiation board That's another one Lisa's done in the past so Do you think we can preliminarily appoint Lisa and then do we have a second person who's interested I've done that in the past and Enjoyed it. So I'm happy to do it again. Okay, so we'll appoint Lisa McCrory and Shannon moral can alias as members of the negotiation Or we have a meeting Thursday night and just so you know to kick off planning for support staffs Thursday at 6 and Okay, we're on to our TCC representative We have a volunteer for this I can do it I Didn't do it this last year. Although. I don't know I think Rodney and and Bob were I think covering it but then I know like When the loob old from our TCC started sending them to me again And I would just forward it on to Rodney and and to Bob. So But yeah, I can do it. I think yeah, if they're doing remote meetings, that's Okay, pretty easy for me to do Out Jamie, can you shoot me the invite for that meeting at some point? Thanks The truan officer. This has always been I'm Blanking it's always been the principles actually are the principles. Okay, so I'll appoint the three principles as truan officers We didn't appoint Loretta Stahlnecker the chief in Reilton last year And the end we work with them anyway, so it's okay, I'm okay if Reed and Andrew want to do it No, no, and you take it on Okay Newspaper radio station for official notices newspaper is the Herald Do we appoint Valley News as well? I probably should have looked up all this stuff. We have we have in the past appointed Valley Okay, so the Herald and Valley News are our Newspapers and The radio station, what are we doing the past? Could we pull up the minutes for that last meeting last year? I think we've done WC VR and then Yeah Okay, CBR and then what was the other one? WGV is the king. Yes. I don't know if we've appointed them though Vpr I thought we did because isn't this for like school cancellations and stuff like that Yeah, I think so Okay, we'll go with those two for Andrew, I'm sorry What was the first one again? newspaper the newspapers the Randolph Herald and Valley News and The radio stations were Lisa would you mind repeating that too? WC VR so the Randolph radio station and then vpr And prior notes, I'm seeing a reference to Vermont broadcasters So when we submit like snow days, we submit it to the greater Vermont broadcasters and who wants to pick that up picks it up from a general list Great. Okay. That makes good sense. Okay, okay, then let's do that. I Will not be listening WC VR or vpr. I'm do listing greater Vermont broadcasters. Great Great So the date time and location of regular school board meetings will be the third Tuesday of the month at 6 o'clock PM Location will be virtual until We get back to in-person meetings when they will alternate between the Royalton Library and the Bethel library school library Not town library Okay posting places And this is at the office of both schools and The post office in both towns. Is that right? Over time in the past Yeah, the schools the town offices and the post offices. I think okay tools schools Post offices and town offices are posting And is there any other that we have I think that might finance committee Okay finance committee I'm happy to continue to do that Do we have a second person who would like to be on the finance committee Bob had been but No longer with us Can we wait until we have a new member and see if they're interested? Sure, why don't we put this into future agenda item? And and then facilities I would suggest Lisa McCrory and I continue with that We've you know the committee we've met three times now. I think four times so I Think we've got some I guess we're meeting a week from today. Is our next scheduled meeting Okay And I got one more sorry Policy I I can stick with policy if everyone's okay with that That'd be great. I kind of like that kind of reading and stuff So I think that completes our reorganization at least until we do the clerk when Lisa rise So move to the consent agenda we have the minutes from Tuesday February 16th the regular and then Tuesday February 16th the special and the minutes of Monday March 1st special Right of a moment motion to approve those minutes I'll make a motion to approve those minutes No second All in favor I Hi be opposed Okay, the minutes those three meetings are approved Okay, so we'll move on to the action items The code of ethics is the first one formerly 9-5 now so I've added this to all the reorg agendas The Stratford board was very interested in formally adopting the model VSBA code of ethics I know it's something that I've talked to Kathy Galuzzo about in regards to the SU board looking at And so I'm just including it as an agenda item and in the pop in packets for folks to consider Of whether or not that's something that they would be interested in formally adopting as a district board One of the my goals as superintendent in regards to my evaluation is to increase formally board Training and Having a working by-end or around board training In procedure as we move forward for the upcoming school year And so certainly this is one of the things that will align to part of that process As we as we look at board development And so it's something that I want you to discuss and then consider whether or not you'd be willing to take action on it Okay Lisa Your hand is raised. Yeah We've looked at this in the past and I really like it and I am in favor of taking action on it I think It's really helpful to have all of that clearly articulated and just something that we can we can all agree on Did we sign this last year or I remember signing this at one of these years? I can't remember. I remember we may have just talked about it this last year, but But I remember signing it at least once in the past and and I'm yeah supportive of it as well Okay. Yeah, I agree happy to Have it be official That this is what we'd like to how we'd like to Proceed so on that vein do we make a motion to Adopt this code code of ethics and have prospective board members sign it I'll make a motion that we accept it or That we we all agree to it and we sign it That's a good look Okay, the motion is that we will all sign the yet the a code of ethics Okay, any discussion all in favor I opposed Motion passes, okay, so I Guess so Does everybody have it in digital form you want to print it out and we can send it to you without the draft I Think the one I sent you today doesn't have draft that I emailed the board Yeah, you just want to print that out and sign it or if you can digitally sign and just get it back to us And we'll keep it in a folder Okay So I Would assume what we just did applies just for this year Is this something that we want to kind of adopt as a policy that new board members? Yeah, it's something that I think we need to think about Andrew whether it just becomes policy That part of this is just part of how we do business. It's not yet So I thought before we move to the policy Maybe be a good thing to just take action in each board and have a conversation around it And then my hope was to move that into some type of policy statement Okay, good. All right So the next would be the presentation on the next steps to address Bethel heating I'm sorry, I meant 9.4 Andrew The audit that's the other action item. I'm sorry. I said 9.6 I may have misheard or misremembered Okay audit so I assume this is Tara who will be taking trains now You all received the copies of the audits that we've received to date We do have one change pending and that's just they didn't have the general fund Balance is matching on two of the pages So that's the only change that's coming So I didn't receive any specific questions from any of you so If you're ready to accept That would be great So you want us to accept it tonight prior to receiving whatever the final copy is the numbers didn't change Andrew It's still the three hundred ninety nine thousand 151 that it was it just doesn't show up on the both pages the same so whatever you're comfortable with Okay Maybe we can make a motion to accept the audit with the correction of the total on page Whatever it is Let me turn that page Ray what page was it do you remember? Page 18 will need to be updated to match page 16 I'll make a motion that we accept the 1920 audit the fiscal year 1920 audit Pending the correction of page 18 so that it matches page 16, and I probably can't say that again I'll suck at it Okay, we have moved on the tape. Is there any discussion? What were the years referenced in the words that Lisa said Tara? 1920 oh, okay, great. Thank you. I think it just be FY 20, right? Yeah, okay one you can do fiscal year 1920 or just FY 20 either one. Okay? Thank you. Okay. So is there any discussion on the audit? Okay? All in favor say aye Hi hi Any opposed? The audit is approved pending the corrections Thank you very much. I'm very glad to be almost done with audits to have a few months off before the next one starts Okay, so those were the two action items Was there anything else that you wanted to do before? We lose our quorum Jamie. No, I think that's it. I think we can get back back to Seven and then one to eight. All right. So is there any board comment at this time? I don't have the agenda up in front of me right now, but I'm assuming at some point Do we have an item to talk about building the other board seat? Yeah, I was gonna and I actually have news about that someone's reached out in regards to Have being interested in it so that I was gonna take up under the results of the of the annual budget meeting in boat Okay Any other board comment at this time? Okay? Let's know you could elect Lisa now Hey Lisa, okay, so we didn't we have reorganized gonna be the board chair and Let's see the other thing that applies to you is are you okay with being on the negotiations committee? I Yes, unless somebody else wants I know that Shannon's Shannon's going to be too We have two members appointed to the negotiations committee Shannon and you if that's yeah Okay, and we'd Table the clerk Elect and until you were here so that you could say whether you want to be the clerk or not I'm happy to continue But I've been doing it for what will this be four years. Oh, I mean No three if somebody else wants to take that job. I'm it doesn't bother me, but if you want me to continue I'm happy to do it Or anybody done clerk? Hearing none Okay, so do we have a nomination for clerk that I nominate Lisa McCrory for clerk I second Okay, any discussion all in favor say aye Hi McCrory is our clerk Okay, so Yeah, I think that was Basically everything They're going to be signing the ethics code that Jamie sent out So that should catch you and If you have any board comment, that's what we were just finishing up Board comment Lisa Yeah, I'm all set with that Move on to the superintendent's report Yeah, Lisa you're still on the facilities committee as well So You have my report in hand a few things to add on to the report just One we are engaging deeply now in data analysis Around our federal grant As far as need at the SU for best how to best leverage our consolidated federal grant But that is going to tie directly to how we use our recovery funds And so those are known as S or two and they're focused on student wellness and social emotional health student engagement intruency and academic regression And so from Rudd on the SU Y task force is going to be Mingy Beth Pike And also our high school math teacher, and this is embarrassing read that I'm blanking Lisa Berg look at that on it Lisa Berg And so we got about a 10 member team That's gonna have representatives from every district in all different areas To dig into that work. I'm also pleased to let you know that and sorry on the Adams is also joining us for that work as she starts to kick off some preliminary work at the SU level getting to know us Get getting to know us better before coming on officially July 1 and That's exciting work The S or 2 funds total over a million dollars that we can use to best support recovery efforts across the SU and then we do Expect additional funds in S or 3 Tara and I are meeting Tomorrow to finalize the budget process for S or 1 those are funds that can be utilized Throughout this winter, but then carry over to the spring and S or 2 takes effect on June 1st Then goes through two solid school years to the spring of 2023 And so what we're looking at is how do we best leverage those funds around PD? Additional social emotional support. So you've heard me talk about the idea of School-based clinicians and partnering with Claire Martin to help provide us with some therapeutic interventions within the school setting And so those are all the types of things that we're looking at and I'll expand on those concepts some more at the SU meeting next week The other thing that's been going on of course is the rollout of vaccination For our faculty and staff. We were originally hoping that we would have vaccine available Through some type of partnership with the health hub Or at least Gifford that has not been leveraged that way. And so faculty and staff have been Navigating a different drop-in clinics across the state I do know that Gifford got about 33 doses yesterday For faculty and staff I'm not certain how many of our folks took advantage of that particular site because it was also designated for Randolph and 33 does not go far when we have close to 400 staff across the SU and so I Do know that some of our smaller schools are almost completely vaccinated which is exciting and I know that folks have been continuing to access at Rudd the Finally, I wanted to just bring to your attention one of the things that I've been Hyper-focused on behind the scenes is a preventative maintenance plan and your facilities committee heard an idea that we had in regards to Bringing in a consultant and there he's gonna come in tonight. Mike Davy. He presented already at the first branch unified district Around how to best leverage Well, we know it our incoming federal money to refurbish around Buildings around HVAC systems, but also on efficiency And so what I'm going to be asking the board to consider tonight is allowing us to take action I'm putting out an RFP that would allow different Consulting agencies to come do audits on our system free of charge and Present us with a plan of how we may be able to leverage the efficiencies that we're able to secure through upgrading our systems To not have added tax burden on the overall expenditure budget and Mike does a much better job of Articulating how that works and he'll have a presentation for you tonight. We can ask questions about that The action tonight would not to be to engage in any partnership. It would just allow us to start to seek Folks out that might be interested in pursuing this work I'm very interested in us looking at Re-we the heating system in Bethel is gonna need attention here very soon We know that we're not going to leverage this work this summer But I I think we have to have a plan of attack for the following summer And I also know that fiscal times are tight and will remain tight And so looking at how could we finance this? without adding additional tax burden and they they've worked with several different school systems to do this type of work Without adding additional cost because the efficiencies guarantee that they guarantee the efficiencies and those efficiencies then Are what pays for the the short-term note to do the work? And so they'll explain that this evening And then I'll take any other questions folks have does anybody have anything for Jamie looks like not Thank You Jamie move on to the principles Good evening. Welcome new board member And we know you We Our report one of the first things we point out is how happy and we are of the support of the community as you are I'm sure and we continue to be safe in everything we do when it comes to cobit and and Read you want to talk about the musical that's coming up and then we'll go down through our goals Sure, we just got guidance In the last two weeks that we can start sing and dance So very excited to to ramp that up We're now looking for a vocal coach and Accompanyist But we picked the show the contract's been signed and hopefully Within the week we'll have kids auditioning and getting ready for the show Yeah, and we under go one we continue to Figure out how or try to figure out how to way to create teams that support kids Intervention pre-k through 12 I Just I think I think the thing I would want to highlight in that section is we just are wrapping up some Pretty big assessments of how yes is working. We've inventoried students families staff And you know, it still feels it feels kind of yucky asking some of the questions We have to ask about Involvement in school because it's hard to be involved in the school during a pandemic But I think we get some good information and I know that our teams are really Excited to take that information and work on our action plan moving forward to help improve some of those areas And we get some good feedback. So I think that's the highlight of that section that I'd like to point out And we are planning for our summer professional development looking at the summer best institute that how we can Further build our support systems and we do you want to mention the recovery plan that you had in there? That's just kind of a follow-up on what jamie mentioned in his report that the the state's looking for us to be working on that Clearly, there'll be the supervisor union task force piece but at each of our our sites will need to have site specific plans for for how to work with kids at at the different grade levels to help them recover from any Any deficits that arose because of the pandemic Okay learning loss learning loss and we um We interviewed for the flexible pathways coordinator position. You want to talk about that re uh, actually we we interviewed for the um For two special ed positions and they're doing background checks on them right now. One's a high school uh special ed case manager that will be heavily involved with students who will be in the alternative program next year and the other is Almost you can almost look as an assistant special ed coordinator for the supervisory union who will be overseeing the alternative programs Aka wildcat institute formerly known as the restorative classroom of our restorative program That will also be the umbrella for the high school alternative program So we've got two candidates that were quite qualified Lucky to have the candidates as qualified as they are and hopefully we'll uh We'll have them signed by the end of the week Next week we turn our attention to the flexible pathways coordinator again, the The initial look at Applications we have is is very strong We think we'll find someone good for that position But that'll we'll report on that next month Yeah, and those two candidates, uh Of course will be FU level staff So they'll come in front of the su board on monday evening And don can introduce those folks to folks Okay, do we have any questions for the principals? I have a question I have been hearing not just from my kids but from a number of of children and families a lot of grumbling about the The food and meal plan and and quality of lunches this year Like I said before I can't walk into the school and sit down with the kids like I used to but My concern is that There are kids more kids than ever that aren't getting a lot of of great nutrition at home And my kids are saying, you know, not only can we not go back for seconds anymore, which is understandable with covet But the portions are very small and they're they're always hungry and they're starving all day Any comments on that or things that are being done to try and change that and I will say The kids I know about are on the Bethel campus. So I don't know But it should be similar. Yeah, I think it's it's interesting. It's first. I'm hearing about it, you know, is at this level It's too bad. I would hope that people would reach out to us directly at school I do know that it there's a lot of requirements given the pandemic about How things can be delivered and pre-packaged and it isn't like being in the cafeteria where they can just call it for seconds you know, they deliver to the classrooms and Everything's pre-packaged. It's just you know in a container But you know, I think if people are feeling that way, they should just let us know we still are doing the fresh fruit and veggie every day and sending in and In the lunches and I think if we know anybody's hungry, we're always going to help I would we still do have bowls of apples in the cafeteria and and want to help feed kids. No one wants anyone to be hungry. So Just so I can clarify Andrew because I think folks might misinterpret this You're still making fresh food. You're just packaging it and delivering it. Yeah, it looks like it's coming in like a to-go box And it goes into Well in some places like into a warmer depending on what the food is and then gets delivered down the hallway Where the teachers pick it up in the hallway I would also reinforce the chain of command piece, but that it's also on the agenda tonight It's in a jamie to talk generally about food service and the SU level and Shannon just so you know, we We know that the um, if you will the presentation and quality may have dipped But we know once we're back with feet on the ground. It's going to go right back up It's a little complicated as you might imagine to feed, you know 600 people plus or minus each day with with the covid restrictions But we're doing a pretty good job. I'm pretty proud of what they've done Some of it I see and I'm like, uh, okay, that's different But we and if anybody's hungry the point Andrew made we want to know Well, I think you might have some middle schoolers coming to see you because I told them you're the person they need to come see so Yeah, let's go to their teacher and then to me, but I'll help them. I'll definitely help them And I would just follow up by saying that I I think I can't give Misha kudos enough as a brand new food service person and she does want feedback and she does She does shift with the feedback As much as we can. So I think she's open to it. Um, and maybe we should create a feedback loop for her But thank you I think it's a great way for us to engage student voice further too. So I think that's We're going to present our academic data at a different part in the agenda unless the chair tells us to do it now No, I think we can wait for the agenda item for that Thank you. That's our report right one thing I was curious about is um with the new trimester coming and Like what How many like does it seem like a lot of people are we don't have Any Most people shifting from virtual to not Just an update on how the virtual academy is going to be I think it was super garbled But I think I think the question was how many kids are coming back from virtual Sort of are we going to need to make any staffing adjustments or anything based on numbers? Okay No, and you know, I will formally announce That vla will be discontinued, of course at the end of the school year and that everyone will come back in person next fall We will keep it in place for the remainder of the year But the expectation from the aoe is that we will be back next fall And right now I'm working with Owen and read around how do we handle The fact that we're still only in four days a week at middle and high school because Again, the expectation as we move forward is that we're getting students back five days a week Um, and we know we have the capacity because we do it four days already So we're thinking about when does the right timing work for that? Um, so if there's nothing else for the principals will move on to the business manager You all have my report. So I'll take any questions that you have on any of the information I provided Otherwise, I'll have Ray project the revenue and expenditure summary and we can quickly go over the changes to that Ray, can you put the revenue? There we go. Beautiful. Thank you So the first page is the expenditures and the only update I've made there is the covid cost increase that to the 203 171 from the 172 290 So I'm going to scroll down a little bit ray So current surplus projection is 54 475 on the expenditure side of the budget And if you can move to the second page ray And then the only change that I've made on the Oh, sorry, I skipped one ray. Can you go back to the expenditure? I added in 8500 of savings on the equipment And as we get closer to the end of the fiscal year, I may be adding some additional items there too So on the revenue side, the only change was the increase in the covid reimbursement And so current projected surplus is 173 290 and I've updated The fy 20 per the audit for the current deficit Of that 399 151 that I discussed earlier with you And those are the only changes so far Any questions on that? We're shooting to try to get it over 200. That's the goal Okay, oh I don't think I've seen the regular expenditures and revenue reports recently I'm not sending them anymore unless you specifically request them Because we're doing this Could we still do them quarterly just to be good to See them to make sure that you know Yeah, if we want to look into it You know that they match what we're seeing here All right. Thanks. All right in principles What'd you say? Good belt tightening. Yeah Okay, so the policy committee I guess yeah, so I can I can discuss this since Lisa had to jump off So we are currently in draft two of an anti-racism policy It's been going in front of each district To gather feedback from boards And there's been some community groups that have been really actively engaged in this work And so they've been offering Excuse me feedback through their board I'm collecting all the feedback And then we are going to work on an additional draft next week With the su policy committee they're going to meet next thursday the 25th For draft three. I just interviewed with the herald this evening My I suspect we're going to be on a draft four before we're ready for adoption I'm excited that there's been more conversation around this in general I know that I can tell you the most The area that we've received the most feedback on has been around the definition of racism And so there's been some specific feedback around that and some good suggestions by the strafford board Around how we may be able to define that to better meet our needs around policy Um, and so if you don't have feedback to offer now Please feel free to mark this up and send it to me I'm collecting it in a google drive folder that will then be shared with the policy committee And used to inform the next draft And oh and you've been engaged in this work too I don't know if you have anything else to add specific to the policy I know we have a bunch of pd happening right now, which i'm really proud of that. I talked about with the herald um this evening Yeah, I would say I'm going to tell you this is my 21st year as a school principal and 31st as an educator And it's one of the most detailed and thoughtful policies and I've seen I'm really proud of the work that's being done We have faculty members throughout the su taking working in a professional learning group to address white supremacy and anti racism And that's ongoing in the evenings and after school And we are continue to look at how we're going to do this work And we're looking at our libraries and what's in our libraries and what's not At the white river valley middle school We are reading a book a group book throughout the middle school called ghost boys, which is about a A black boy who's killed by a police officer. Jamie you will have your um, you're going to have your book report do soon and If you want a copy of that, let us know it's a it's a young adult book And it's uh, it hasn't been released to the middle school students yet, so they don't know shannon But we're building a plan to roll that out So we're pretty excited about it and more and more and more to come if you know if you have any ideas Reach out to me, and I'm glad to move them forward I'll just read his copy before he takes it After he goes to sleep. Oh before he wakes up in the morning because he is your typical middle school student You'll be able to read it in the afternoon So yeah, if you have Specific feedback just get it to me And then we'll use it to inform our work as we move forward. Okay. Thanks guys All right, I guess we're on to the academic data reports Back to the principles attached to the principal report at the bottom our two links one for winter achievement data and that's academic achievement data report The other one is for the social emotional learning data and that will be the next report you get But you got an early copy So Andrew, weren't we going to go through this reading Andrew by grade level and you were going to go first Andrew, I think That's the truth. All right. So I was just I mean, I hope you already took a second to look at this. I think it's um You know, I don't want to sit in spew numbers at you. I will tell you that um, we have spent a couple different staff meetings analyzing the star 360 and Our other assessments that we're doing on reading and math Um, it's been it's different looking at data like this in teams. It's not like sitting in a room, but I think our biggest takeaways are we're really happy that there isn't some huge learning loss gaps And that our efforts are are are working. Um, and so I would say that we are trying to make an emphasis on reading That's why mrs. Bowen gives out a reading calendar and rewards kids for reading as much as possible Um, that's why I know we are trying to reward kids also the title one staff is sending home a newsletter Rewarding with books as well So we've been analyzing data with our staff. Um, and I've been meeting individually with teachers to look at their classrooms and kids just to see like Talk with the whole kid and how they're doing in class and anything that's but surprising to them or not surprising to them But I think my biggest takeaway is that we're doing great some great stuff in reading and uh, there have been improvements And we know we have work to do in math And we've started that work But it's going to take a little more time before you're going to see it in the numbers. Um, I think our greatest accomplishment was piloting um, two programs one on each campus in the elementary and um, we're right now I just had us the teachers do a survey about how those are going so we can figure out what next direction we're going to go in so, um, we These are these are our scores any questions so I guess, you know, there's those these abbreviations at the top. What's uh, what's bas and what's pnoa between the reading and the math sure, so Thank you for being a jargon buster so pnoa is stands for the primary number Observation assessment and it's a it's a math assessment Um, and the bas is the fountas and panel reading assessment And so why the bas and looking at the stars is really good is because a teacher really reads right with a kid And then it's really based on Just this this one on one and listening to comprehension So I think a teacher really can see how a kid does whereas the star 360 is sitting in front of the computer And click-click clicking. Um, and so you can't always tell if somebody just clicked through or if they're really giving it They're all So I just it's like a little feel for what they how they're a little bit different I would just add that the the star also focuses on decoding, uh, sorry encoding so spelling And it also focuses on much more on close reading for comprehension like it's it's more intense as students get older the more intensive the passages get Around a close read For comprehension as compared to how fluently do you read and comprehend? It's fantastic when I was picking up on your mistakes and things right So at the middle school level, can you roll up a little ray? I don't know if it's up or down but Rolling 6 8 reading Uh, it's I don't think we can write home about this But the beauty of this is in a pandemic there hasn't been a drop And minor gain, but I don't think one point is enough to To blow a horn over although I love blowing horns I can tell you that we one of the things we did is over the last summer is We're really trying to close gaps of reading of course and We're looking at close reading like jamie was talking about because the older you get you want more strategies with that The writing strategies that we're working on are brand new to us this school year We had some but these are a new set and it came out of the middle grades institute past summer And it's uh, it's agreed upon writing a paragraph that everybody in the middle school agrees is how we're going to do it So we've been introducing that all year in a pandemic and we hope to see great gains there In the math, there's nobody to have no horn to blow no blowing of horns Horns are to be put down. We need a lot of growth here And I think you know andra's point of like lined up some Some programs in the lower grades We need to also line up our programming and one of the things we've done which is really going to be helpful I think is we've created a vertical team for mathematics So grades five through twelve are meeting regularly to talk about mathematics And also literacy two different teams And andra's brought together some um, I think it's grades one through Four are doing some of that work similar work So we're gonna have and we haven't had this since I've been here a A vertical team all the way through which will be helpful The um One of the things we did see And we're gonna focus on this more and more We looked at who took whose scores either dropped dramatically Or who took a test and didn't really seem to give it a lot of effort or time We pulled those kids back in And we had people sit with them either one on one or three on one small group And those scores went up dramatically We'd like to start to create the culture where you don't just blow off any assessment If you're gonna give take an assessment Take it seriously And if you're not going to take it seriously, we're going to sit with you and help you figure out how to do that so A little bit painful I was in with a few there were two sets of tiers one from the teacher one from the kid different rooms But there's it's important. I think that we take these steps And and when the kid made those gains that kid that cried There was a big celebration not with us, but with them you could almost see their academic self-esteem swell so And we have a new boss that keeps telling us we need to know our data And inside now and that when we're presenting it we better be comfortable doing it So I hope I did a pretty good job here. I think but we can get better too And I need to know this stuff better and I can tell you the person that I've learned the most From this in is andra, and I think it's not just andra It's the elementary model and the mindset of how they look at data and that they're always collecting it So I'm paying attention Tag you're a read unless you have questions for me at this section or you can ask them all at the end I got a question or maybe It's just a general so I'm just going to throw it out there. It's just wondering Since there's a number of students that are doing this virtual learning exclusively How do you know how engaged they are with taking these proficiency exams I mean as you were saying just you know You find one that's kind of lacks and their final scores and then you sit with them and encourage them. It's a different story What about the ones that you're not seeing and engaging within a face-to-face way So we have been able to assess our remote learners Through the star that has been a way to to do that at With them and actually all all the assessments have been given to them is my understanding And I haven't heard. I mean there's always a little Lack of the control of like what the environment is, you know When we give it to them at school We know what it looks like and sounds like and feels like when they're taking in their home That's there's a we don't can't control for some of those factors But we do know we're also planning on The SPAC assessments coming up and that all of our virtual learners will have to be invited in school to take that assessment Which is coming up so I think we have some information about how they are and how they're engaged I don't know that I would judge engagement based on their participation on these assessments per se Well for this I would agree there, but also we can see how much time they took If we know them We know how they did last time And if we know them and we know our kids so well 600 or so kids We know if their family is in crisis and that their score may be way in the in the cellar And we're not going to over bother that family. But so that's the beauty of our smallness But also the timing is clearly so if we see you took that test in three minutes, you didn't take the test Um, I also know I observed a couple of these I bet you have So I know the younger kids the teachers like doing it As a presentation basically and entering the answers that the teachers directly involved with at least for the younger kids And it probably depends on the assessment Andrew One of the one of the things at the high school level we've seen with the virtual kids is This real spread we've got You know almost nobody in the middle We've got a little bit more than half the kids who are knocking knocking the test out of all park And then we've got a slightly smaller group about 45 percent Who also correlate with the students who are are less engaged in class and and aren't completing work And probably who really do have some reading and math difficulties For what that's worked out, you know because they're taking it home. It's not a reliable test Because who knows if they You know what they actually did as far as trying goes Or whether or not they I mean the odds are they They didn't do well because they cheated but they could have looked up answers on their phone To help them along the way or or whatnot So it's data, but it's really limited and it's not included in our percentages With the high school numbers here With the grades nine ten Again when we we look at these numbers over three different periods of time We're not looking at the same students last year taking the test this year The 10th graders you took it last year Have moved on to 11th grade and aren't part of this year's numbers And part of this year's numbers are last year's eighth graders So it's it It's a little bit problematic to say that these percent proficient numbers show growth Because they're different kids Uh, but again as elwin mentioned before we didn't see a decline We we saw an increase in the number of ninth and tenth graders Who are proficient in reading go from 48 percent to 59 percent when we administered the test in january What what's more relevant is that when we gave the test in the fall we had 57 percent proficient in 59 percent proficient in The winter and and there could be two factors tied to that one is We've done a little bit of work school-wide to promote reading instruction across all classes In teaching all students a particular reading strategy to help them be able to Identify the author's point of view which is one of the areas or is the area That the test has shown us that our students struggle the most with So part of the beauty of the data is it helps us to see what learning expectations Students aren't doing well and so that we can target Instruction across the board at improving that skill level across the student body So we're working on that with a literacy team and a little bit of professional development there But the other thing that we've we've really been been increasingly working with is direct reading intervention And we we have a program across the district called direct instruction. We're pulling small groups of kids uh To work one well in small groups with a trained direct instructor or direct instruction teacher For 45 50 minutes In a high school. We're only able to do that two times a week But we have four groups at different reading levels Working intensively to bring up their reading abilities reading skills. So that Increase from fall to winter could be reflective of some of those efforts And and hopefully, you know, a real test would be do we see that number go up again when we do the test in May that we should so moving into math our numbers proficient are not as strong and Uh, we we really I've identified this as one of our areas that that we need to do more with the intervention on What can we do to help these students? Uh, it does make sense that math is much more sequential going from You know eighth grade math pre algebra algebra to geometry Um, we're we're not a hundred percent comfortable that we We understand what the star 360 high school tests are assessing So we're we're doing a lot of homework and investigation Into the the composition of that test and what benchmarks it's using to assess students With and hopeful that as we unpack the data in the test itself that we'll find some areas for improvement Finally You know one of one of the other things that that we really need to work on is how to get a higher level of completion Across the student body So we're administering these in in English and math classes, which is is great But every day they're going to be a couple kids who are absent and if a student is sick on monday They may not be back in school by the end of the week when we do the retake And what we we don't have is resources in the building to chase after kids Who might be on a 10 day quarantine when the test is administered To be able to follow up with them three weeks later to to make up that test So we've identified that as an area of growth And just making the the data overall more part of something that kids care about You know by the time they're ninth and tenth grade they're like, oh, we've been doing this for eight years this again And so there are some students that Don't put very much into it And you know Owen's idea what they did this past winter of Assigning someone to to pull kids out and sit with them to make sure they're doing their best is something that I think could go a long way towards picking up our high school scores And that's the conclusions we've got from medical data Any questions Is is the start of 360 is it computer based at the high school level two? Yeah So for those kids that are sick or in quarantine, would they be able to do it remotely at home? Instead of waiting until they come back to campus uh In theory they could But we wouldn't consider their results reliable so The preference would be to catch up with them when they get back to school but If they've been sick for a week Or without a class when they're trying to get caught up is also problematic. So Really need to come up with a better system for for retakes Are there Don't test well with star 360 and and if so, what's the percentage and what do you do to? Do uh, I don't know represent them well The that I fear is there's a student that tests poorly and I was one of them They leave that feeling less than and less capable lower self-esteem Etc. So how do you manage that? I think what helps is that we do it so frequently I do think when we started some of these assessments there was a lot of test anxiety and You know a lot of big push it was just worrisome But now that we've done it so frequently I think we we also recognize it's a moment in time It's a piece of information. It's not the whole student. It's it's just a snapshot So I think what we really are trying to teach is that taking tests is something you have to do in life and so some of that's like about persevering through things like this and And then I think it's really about looking at growth and not necessarily like oh look at how great you are It's about hey, you know, you did this better this time or you're working on this and just more of a growth mindset than a Hey, you're there so I don't know if that helps answer your your question lisa, but I think we've gotten better at giving tests and the time that we've been doing it Or assessing really it's more about assessing the giving tests And I think the kids it's become more normal for them to know that we're just monitoring their progress Yeah, it kind of makes I mean I understand the more great testing now is being more Normal for it But uh, I just think you know students comparing You know, how did you do? What was your score to my score? And if they see personal games, that's that's great That's wonderful. But there's always the Comparison the competitiveness between students comes to play and just hoping that there's other ways that Convention and intelligence and creativity is being supported and encouraged and recognized so that this isn't the only You know, maybe this is for certain For the school, but that hopefully there's other ways for the students to be empowered if this isn't one I absolutely At least I'll just add and maybe only can jump it. I mean, it's part of why I think we have to have more authentic assessment And more demonstrations of learning with the greater community And so one of the action items That we're going to be looking to address That connects to the su goal number two around personalized learning pathways our legacy projects And so I'm looking to leverage some of our asser money to develop additional support In collaboration at each school So that we have some type of legacy project That occurs as a real celebration of student learning and achievement that allows them to engage in a and a Personal learning project, but then also showcase it. I also think that that will set us up better so when our students get into Secondary at the high school level that they're actually used to having folks say What is it that you are interested in learning and what is it that you want to do? I think if we just wait until they're in ninth grade to start asking those questions It's way too late. So Um, that's something that we're going to be looking to start really engaging as we move forward across the su I have this vision that we'll look back And see that this is really slices of small slices and that we create a culture in our school Where kids want to prove what they know Whether through a legacy project capstone project passion project or through an assessment like this There are some kids that thrive in these assessments also and we need to recognize them I know of some high schools where they had everybody take the sat or the psat And again, it's practice practice practice and then there's some families and kids that are like that's not my thing But we want to know that you know how because we don't want to send you out the world without those skills But we also I agree with jamie if you can show us what you know And we can help you polish it. We're going to be the school that people want to be at When what we when we approach assessment and evaluation as a celebration That's when we're going to be there and I know schools do this I know other schools around us have done it Randolph's done a great job with their senior project But I think jamie's talking about regular legacy like you're working on your project. It's not an event It's the way we do business Um, one quick comment on the start 360 stuff. I'm pretty sure it's an adaptive Adjust to the level But one thing with that is that the kids wind up seeing stuff that they You know don't know for sure because the adaptive point where they're getting things wrong and There are some kids who you know That get frustrating for so maybe making sure to communicate and emphasize that that doesn't happen You're not My other question just on the or comment on the presentation of the data. Is it possible to get? Something that looks like a report showing You know average growth per student or something like that, you know Right now we're seeing a snapshot of the overall thing But it'd be interesting to have to get it in some way that shows individual student progress from test to test Accredited, you know what I mean So that when we're jumping from eighth grade to ninth grade those are completely different students But we can look at those Scores from eighth grade to ninth grade to see like how those the students that we have that are the same progress in that time so Yeah, we can start sharing with you as we get more and more efficient at this Andrew Uh cohort growth right both by percentage and scale growth I think one of the things we that we're hopeful that we're getting better at in data teams is looking at The scale score growth An expected rate of growth around scale score The other thing was there was two links in that On that page on the your principal's report and the second one. I was we weren't able I wasn't able to access permissions wise Is that the social emotional data report Andrew? And we're going to go over that next month and we'll update the data. That's on the SQ data calendar for next month Andrew, just get excited and jump big on okay This is Lisa just one more thing that um I'm hoping I Would love to add to a future agenda for for a future board meeting is to learn a little bit more about a regeneration core which is uh a curriculum that's being utilized in at the Randolph high school and the Sharon academy and a couple other schools that um allows for flexible pathways and um proficiency based learning Etc. There's a website link and it's it's in its second year of um of actually being in place And somebody from that organization approached me last year to see if Our our if Rudd was interested in being involved or looking at the curriculum and how They could uh work with the group at regeneration core And it was right when kogan was happening. So it really wasn't a good time But I would love to see if we could add that to a future agenda and I could send you guys links You could look at for future discussions because it when we're talking about Racial equality and and BIPOC communities and and And you know all of the justice et cetera that all gets tied in with this curriculum along with agriculture, which is of course My take yeah, Lisa would be great if you could connect us with them I would love to and I'll should I um I'll connect it with you and the principles then and maybe I'll include the board members So everybody can look at the website It was very excited That sounds great. Lisa. Thanks great. Does anybody have anything else on the about the data? reports Okay, we'll move on to the next agenda item, which is the result of the 21 22 annual budget meeting So I'll just jump in here and say we had a real successful vote I thought and I think I've received a lot of positive feedback about the information we provided Was really helpful for folks and informative Um So just thank you all for your work and attention to that um And I'll let you know that uh, I've got an ad ready to go in the paper Next week calling on folks to apply um for the vacant seat in south boiledton And that I would look for the deadline to be the friday the submission of applicants Prior to our next regular meeting and then we could warn At the regular meeting an opportunity for the board To meet with candidates if there's multiple candidates, which would be terrific, right if there was And if not, I do know that piggy ainsworth is interested in Serving on the board And so those of you who don't know piggy she is a retired school teacher and also dairy farmer In south boiledton and had served on the select board in the past And has two grandchildren in our schools and so Peggy had spoken to me a few times prior to the election And then uh her and I spoke in the day and she does plan to submit a letter of interest And that would be just to fill the remainder of this You course this next year and then she could choose whether or not she wanted to run for that seat Or if other folks of course would have the opportunity to run too. You just fill it for the year Right that sounds good and um In addition to the ad being in the paper, I assume we'll post it on that facebook page So we can share it around yeah, we'll use the same verbiage. Yep All right, unless there's anything else move on to nine three the food service So you're the last district that I've discussed this with Uh in terawah i'm talking if you could start to look at those numbers around our projected savings That would be great. I'm buying you some time And so Good. All right. It's low machine And so uh, here's what I would say about food service. There's a few things that we have to consider one um quality across the su is not the same of you and so i'm interested in us learning from each other And uh, Sharon, I'm glad you brought this up. I think that you know, we've have some folks doing a really good job of Navigating COVID-19 and it doesn't look the same in every school Around our product and of course every school is a little different in size too, right? Um, but We have some trained chefs within the su now Um, and so we're looking to capitalize on their expertise capitalize on menu planning across the su Also bulk purchasing And not having redundancy right now in every district I have folks menu planning purchasing Doing mealtime It's just we're very redundant And so the idea is that we better streamline that So I think we can find some efficiencies there in savings We're looking at what's working in certain buildings in regards to menu planning So, you know, there's certain buildings that have some rocking breakfast items That we don't necessarily capitalize on across the su and Additionally We're just I don't think we're strategically purchasing And so there would be an emphasis on strategically purchasing as well This doesn't mean their fresh fruits and vegetables goes away doesn't mean we're still not going to really emphasize Farm to school and frankly, that's one of the things you all have in common overall is that you're really passionate about that So if anything, I would look at how do we increase it? What this really means is that we're actually going to tend to the state statute which says That food service is supposed to be one enterprise fund under the guise of the su Which will assist us a great deal in regards to navigating compliance but also increasing efficiencies the There's a savings across the su. It's under a hundred thousand what we project I think it's like 98 or so That we're projecting for an annual savings. So that's not huge. I'm not saying that this is going to be the end they'll be all but it's certainly better than no savings And the other thing we have to take into account. I believe the legislature is going to pass a bill that is going to There's going to be a lead up time And I'm certainly supportive of it and the fact that it's going to provide free meals To all vermont public school students What I'm currently advocating against is the fact that they're not going to provide funding to help support that and so I know that there's a big push right now from the vsa the vermont super superintendents association to say We're all in support of this But you've got to think about how you're going to assist with paying for Um, and so I think the more we can start to work in a more unified way To handle this the better Because That's going to be a significant change for us in regards to providing meals To everyone and I do believe that there's a great deal momentum for that to pass Tara, what was the projected savings for run? 39,732 dollars and 79 cents And that is based on what we're doing over the last two years And we based the projected savings on not the usda Um reimbursement for every meal. That's a savings based on us going back To the old model around the national food program and free and reduced lunch reimbursement, which is less than We currently receive and of course it's only for those who are free or reduced Um, so that's figuring in a savings based on us Going back to our old model We do know that the usda programs extended through september of next year Um, and i'm still hopeful that there could be more assistance provided um In order to continue a high quality meal programming and Tara, one of the things I got to dig into is whether or not there's an opportunity around student wellness And us able to capitalize additionally on some of our ester funds to assist our food service program Absolutely How would the savings depend on I mean, I would think that the savings would be in the expense side not the revenue side as far as like What our reimbursements are? so Yep, the projected savings is Essentially all around finding efficiencies in purchasing We we don't expect a great deal of savings in personnel at this point, andrew in personnel is really the driver of the cost for us Um, and so that's why we are not able to project anything more than what we're projecting I do hope that as we increase the quality of product that our participation goes up We have certain buildings right now where petition participation is much greater Um than other buildings and so i'm hopeful that Would you know, especially to around adults participating in the food service program? Uh, because that is a revenue stream. So I think the better quality product we have The more that adults may participate. Um, is there a participation rate that would Basically let us break even or anything like that No, I don't ever see us breaking even because the driver for us is personnel cost And when we say like we've always had the $53,000 in our budget To subsidize food service So when like i'm when we say breaking even is it like breaking even to that level so that we're not going further Into deficit or is it breaking even as and not having to subsidize food service at all Breaking even to me would be not to subsidize food service, right? No, we're gonna have to Have some type of subsidy provided by all the districts The idea though is that this would be a retroactive approach to budgeting around the new enterprise fund So we run it for the year We see how we do and then we build back That assessment for next year. So you'll know what to budget in every district for fiscal year 22 23 and that will be based off of how we projected 20 into sorry 21 22 So it'd be real numbers and so that we just clean the books every year And so that we're not we're not trying to play catch up And meanwhile the good news is if we are able to tap into some additional federal funds That would allow us To not be you know, it would allow us to get through this next year Or two because we know that s or three is going to run for quite some time So my hope is that we're able to tap into some of that I'm still awaiting some further guidance. I asked that question terra With jack francis uh last week and he didn't have an answer for me I just didn't know if he had heard because he's very involved right now In the legislature around the universal Uh lunch Yeah, my conversation with the food service child nutrition program director The other day was that they're still waiting for additional guidance on how any additional funding is going to come through for child nutrition program And a lot of that depends on what the usda agrees to do I would just add that our um our staff we've met on this several times. They're supportive of it Partly because it builds in a bench for them too. We have multiple Districts where if the cook goes out, there's like no one other than a sub And there's still the whole process of mealtime And ordering and so they're excited that they could better support each other as a unified system and um I also just had a meeting with the union today and they're in support of it. So I mean There's really there's not any pushback around us looking to bring this under the su umbrella under 19 a price fund The staff seem to be supportive Around it and I think it's important that this is this is not a conversation about contracted service This is about just centralizing food service with the billing for it be basically based on usage so You know or would it be assessed on you know kind of like the su budget as as far as percentages or something You know andrew one of the things I want us to take up at the su board after we reorgan June Is assessment in general because I think we need to just revisit that conversation across the su So I think that's food service special ed and your regular Supervisor union assessment So I don't have an answer for you because I think we need to talk about it Um, but I think we need to talk about it across all three areas And it but it could be either it could be either I mean it could be direct billback Um, I just I don't have an answer for how you guys are going to want to approach it as an issue sure I mean that would make the most sense to me, but um You know, I guess that is a discussion like we need to look kind of more directly into the finances in order to See You know if you're saying there there is a fairly big difference in uptake and stuff like that in different Um places, you know, then presumably the costs are fairly different as well And that's the case with all your assessments, right? Yep, I mean special ed's the same way Um, so I just again, I think it's it's a greater conversation You're not direct billbacked on special ed. I mean, that's that's the biggest cost you have right now And that's that's assessed out across the su so And I'm not suggesting we should direct bill back. I just again, I think I don't know if everyone understands how that works and I want to educate folks and have a conversation around it Okay. Yeah, I'd be curious because like Yeah, I don't know how that works and what Options we would have, you know, how much is in statute as far as How it's built and stuff like that On the special education anyway Okay, does anybody have any food service related questions further? So just so folks know this will be on the agenda And I'm going to look for the su board to consider action on it Um, it's been supported by all the other districts. So I think that we actually may be able to move on this one um And like I said, Andrew in regards to how we build back direct bill back absolutely could occur That just again, I can't speak for how other folks feel about it Um Would others like to give feedback for jamie? What are you guys thinking as far as Whether this is something we'd like to do or not I think we had talked about this a lot when we had willy at at our site. Um, and trying to Um leverage that expertise Across to use it across the su I think it makes sense to try to um Use the expertise we have in in the two sites to do the menu planning and things like that and And maybe take away some of their Every today every day bookkeeping things that could be done by somebody else, you know um That they should be Working to the full, you know scope of their their professional Um expertise Well said shan and I agree I just hope that you know I'm going to be part of a community garden in Bethel again this year and hope that we can Bring food to the Bethel campus on a regular basis to um get incorporated with meals or however it can be used So I hope that that um doesn't become a a challenge Yeah Great. Yeah, I wonder too if there are partnerships to be made um In the area with things things like your your local garden, but also I know there was a program a couple years ago where a bunch of kids made Bread they had king arthur flower come in and teach them how to make bread and they donated bread to the local food banks and Um, I think you know, maybe there's there are things that could be done in that those areas too um You know looking at Bringing people into the the school. So Yes if each if each campus isn't required to do all that bookkeeping and ordering and Some of those chat, you know things that probably aren't what they're in there for are Managed by somebody else. Maybe there'll be some more time for Some creative educational community based opportunities to go around food So that's in you know, I I hope that that is something that can come out of this as well. All right I think we're probably ready to move on to um, I guess this would be onto the Bethel being presentation So it's my pleasure To introduce you to lilesmith and this might be the first time you've seen lile facilities committee met lile The lile has been a real godsend for us in regards to Joining the su team this year to assist terra and I Around all things maintenance facilities and preventative maintenance plans. And so lile has been working diligently On helping us navigate some real trouble areas including the bevel heating system Um, and I gotta say I've been so pleased. I mean, we've been able to keep schools open Without having to shut down due to utilities. Um, and lile has been a big part of that and so We've got some some real need in that almost every building across the su But other buildings who are certainly in much more emergent You know in the more of a more intensive need if we were thinking about intervention to intervene Around our physical plant and bevel is one of those and so lile brought Mike gave me to terra and I to do a presentation Based on the work that he does with ei services. Is that correct mike? And some of the su's and districts he's worked with I Certainly look up to their leadership at the su office, but I've also been in their facilities And they've done great work And so tonight mike's here to just educate the board on how the process would work And then I would be looking for the board to discuss whether or not they at least want to start the process in regards to giving an rfe up So that we can start to get folks To see what interest may be in doing an audit Um, and for presenting us with a point of how we might go to move forward So lile and mike welcome Thanks So first off lunch is the favorite part of my day So I've shared our food service director at the wilson schools where I work who's now going through the same thing as you are So, uh, I gave you his number jamie. He's a great resource and he's he's going through exactly what you're going through right now but anybody so Uh, I'm not sure if you want to hear from me first or or mike about What we're thinking about the the boiler system Well, it's it's Going to lay out lay it out. Yeah. Yeah, so it's it it's problematic because it's a steam system The steam piping is failing. Uh, we've had to do some major patching and just to get through this the season And It's not as simple as just switching over the boilers from steam to hot water because You've got lots of devices that depend on steam throughout the building to provide heat So it's you got to do The conversion of the steam equipment in the building The coils and so on before you can switch the boilers over to hot water. So that was one strategy. We had thought well Change all the piping that's in bad in poor condition and make sure we've got enough piping going to and coming back to get the different piping arrangement So, um, we've also thought well Maybe we should get away from oil. That's another, you know, the thing that's on everybody's mind and go to some sort of renewable. So Oilers are something that we've been looking at. Of course to do all this at once is is very costly um The the thing about schools that have not Kept up with the latest technologies and efficiencies is that there's a lot of low hanging fruit as far as um, what savings can be had if you With efficiency upgrades So the whole performance contracting might will speak to this better than I can Um is to basically pay for a project and upgrade like this With the money that you would otherwise have spent on fuel that is just really inefficient So I think we've got as along with many schools in Vermont that I have personally inspected Have a lot of opportunity to do things more efficiently and get away from fossil fuels and Recoup the the savings and put them into our buildings rather than into some fuel dealer's pocket essentially And that's how I look at it. So I think this is a good Opportunity for us to to really do something better with our dollars. And I think I'll give it to you Mike Yeah, so i'm mike davie. Thanks. Thanks for setting that up Lyle. Um, I work for a company energy efficient investments We've worked with many Vermont school districts um Looking at their existing buildings and And thinking about how to make them more efficient and and how to have the energy savings help pay for those improvements I have a quick power point tonight and and ray. Well, will I be able to um move the power point? No, okay. So I guess we'll just go to the next slide. So our company has been around since 2007 Um, we are a local new england-based company. Um, next slide When we do a performance contract what we're really talking about is Is finding a way for the energy savings to help pay for the improvements in your building Um, and it's it's a turnkey approach. It starts with an energy audit We will use any other previous facility studied or energy audits that have been done But we'll complete complete a an updated one based on current pricing Look at what options there may be to improve the building and you know for for This this building I toured in Bethel looking at getting off of steam going to hot water going to Perhaps a wood heat would be all things we would look at And in giving you the payback on doing those things We do the construction and we guarantee the energy savings so that allows us when we go out to um To fund the project to have the the guaranteed energy savings really help fund the um The project and we we guarantee that funding for the life of the project. Next slide Some of the districts that we have done work in Addison Northwest with it which is virgins and the surrounding towns Bennington vermont Mill river, which is clarendon and the surrounding towns. We have done every project every building in the hanover norwich school district um The city of manchester new hampshire, which is the largest city in northern new england We've done work in all 22 schools in the city And then port smith and keen as well on next slide In 2020 a lot of districts in vermont called us to apply for efficiency vermont grants grants to help implement ventilation improvements for the pandemic And so we were able to do some projects and I know that there were some done in bevel as well And but addison springfield mill river norwich Two rivers and chitenden and burlington and one catholic school mount st. Joseph academy in reland um Some some projects that we've done in um vermont include a comprehensive project we did for the Addison northwest we did a seven point six million dollar project The energy savings paid 60 of the annual bond payment So it really lowered the tax impact of this project and included all new ventilation all new lighting Uh removal of the steam heat and going to hot water solar PV and new roofing the only downside to doing this project is we did this before all the federal money became available. So You know, that's the downside of being proactive The good side of waiting is there's a lot more federal money around now to do these types of projects next slide In mill river, which is again clarendon area Um They wanted us to only focus on projects that would completely pay for themselves So they wanted us to bring up a project to their taxpayers That over a 20 year period would be guaranteed to save More than any financing cost So we were able to do um a two million dollar project that included a wood chip plant at the high school led lighting Building controls and analytics what analytics is is we monitor the performance of the building monthly from an energy standpoint Oh, this graph came it looks funny in this in this uh In this presentation with the screen squished it those are millions of dollars. So there look came out a little funky, but In general Manchester school district This is this is a graphical way to look at it back in 2009 before they started Focusing on energy efficiency Manchester schools in new hampshire. We're spending 3.5 million An annual energy cost Once they focused on energy efficiency. We were able to Get their annual energy budget down below two million dollars. So that's 1.5 million dollars in savings With still heating cooling and lighting the same square footage as they were in 2009 So a lot why the vermont school districts have chosen us I think a lot we are local. We have vermont based project management vermont based engineer We use local controls In equipment so we don't manufacture anything. We use the local products And we manage every step of the project. So we we manage the entire thing from the audit To the construction to the completion This is this is a graphical way to talk about how it works So I mentioned numerous times that these projects pay for themselves or they can pay for themselves like in mill river This is just a graphical way to think about your budget. So this is the the budget from belmont high school in New hampshire and in general what I said to them is they were spending 120 thousand dollars per year to heat and light and run ventilation for their school if they didn't do a project they could just keep keep Status quo and for the next 10 years it would be pay about 120 000 plus or minus If they didn't energy efficiency project And in this case it was new lights a track controls We said we could finance that project For six years. So they keep their energy budget essentially the same for six years But the fuel the fuel goes down to like 95 000 And then there was a lease payment for 25 000 for six years And then in year seven they start making a profit on the investment or they start Being able to reduce their budget by that 25 000. So this is just conceptually how it works You kind of keep your fuel budgets the same But for for the period of the the energy payback You it's budget neutral and then years seven in this example seven through ten It's budget positive. So if you were to do a project like like lighting and controls and insulation Those things tend to have paybacks in this range of under 10 years If you'd want to dive deeper and do boilers and ventilation and window upgrades Those projects and and that's typically what Vermont schools do They they typically have a lot of needs and they they typically don't want to just do lights and controls They they want to blend everything. So it's more typical for our customers in Vermont to finance these over 20 year periods And to go more comprehensive they certainly don't have to but that's been the trend and it's been pretty successful In another example is like for gens. It was it didn't completely pay for itself But it was a project they absolutely had to do and they were able to tell the taxpayers that listen Uh, the energy savings will pay for 60 of the bond cost. So the budget hit was only the 40 percent Next slide I think I talked to but we'll skip this one. Oh, well one quick thing at the end of that is um, we don't charge So if you do so Vermont law requires you to do a proposal you even if you I do a really good job tonight. You can't just hire me. Um, you have to do an rfp. There are other companies that do this work um, and One of the things that separates us are we don't charge for the audit. So if you do the rfp You hire us. We do an audit You don't like it or the voters don't like it. You don't pay anything So you don't have to come up with money right now to pay for the audit We do we do that at our risk assuming we can find enough savings and Can create a compelling enough project that you'll vote for it and then the voters will vote for it Next slide This is the Addison northwest. I think I have an extra letter in there Addison northwest school district and they prior to us were working together. They were spending 470,000 a year in energy budget In the the year after we did the project which is 18 and 19 they went from 470,000 a year to 226,000 a year So that's a one-year savings of 255,000 Which was more than we guarantee it was more than we projected So they actually saved 65,000 more than the bottom than we were projecting but You know, it's basically a a neighboring ramon school district that cut their energy costs in half by going through this process in the very and it's also Um, a really cool project to tour I was really impressed with this board. They were very forward thinking they did almost everything We recommended and the results kind of proved that out So if you ever did want to tour virgins high school and look at some of this stuff We could set that up after the pandemic is over. I'm sure there's actually a website to there's a video Result I could send to jamie that he could distribute That you could click on it now with us 18 minutes and I'm guessing you don't want to Hang around for that Next slide But I will send it to jamie and you can forward it out in lieu of a tour And any so so that's the the concept I think while and jamie set it up If if this is attractive you do an rfp us and other maybe competitors may or may not submit We don't charge for the audit and then Well, we try and tell districts is when should you engage in this and in general If if your districts need ventilation the lighting Boiler improvements, it's worth thinking about it's especially worth thinking about if the buildings are going to be In your fleet for the next 10 years So in general everything we're looking at is going to have a 10 year or longer payback outside of lighting and controls So if there's uncertainty about the building futures And sometimes that happens in vermont, um, I'll tell you in virgins. There was a lot of uncertainty among, um One of the sending schools addison. I think they only had 18 or 20 students that one year And so so there was a lot of thought about whether we should look at those buildings or not so but If you're thinking that these buildings will be with you for um for Um, let's say more than 10 years Then it's it might be worth considering this process I guess any questions so just so the board knows I mean really all I need from you is for you to approve us to pursue the rfp And to collect bids First branch unified district provided us that permission This month and so we've got one more stop at rochester stock bridge And then if if the you know We're gonna we're gonna put it out for at least first branch anyways But my thought process was if we could bundle it in regards to just the bidding process That made sense so we could put out an rfp in regards to seeing who may be willing to work Um with our different districts okay, um, I guess one question I have would be um From one of the slides that had the five percent interest on the You know basically over the life of the the financing is that typical basically as far as like the difference between if you just Went and got a bond and funded it all locally versus doing it um Right, so red the financing is done either so Historically, so I got to update those slides because I forgot interest rates have plummeted Um In general, um, we we um We fund it the we fund it either through vermont bond bank or through municipal leasing corp out of grandisle vermont um vermont bond bank, um tends to um Right now, I think they are sub two percent And municipal leasing is like 2.3 2.4 percent. There's there's some benefits to leasing. Um The With leasing you um The boards actually have some authority to enter into leases for less than 10 years without In putting it in the budget without necessarily um Doing a specific warrant article typically the bonds are are almost always specific warrant articles that have to be voted on at a town meeting or with a special meeting And so you guys guarantee the Energy savings is there kind of a cost for That guarantee or is it it's basically built into our our model. It's so so we get paid Basically as the general contractors with a guarantee on the savings is how we make our money Okay, does mvls have any other questions or comments or discussion? All right, it seems certainly seems to me to be worth pursuing You know starting the process anyway Yeah Do we need a board vote on on this for jayme? Yeah, just if you could move for tara and i to pursue the request for Proposals uh that would let us move forward to the next step They get we have to put this plan in front of a efficiency remod to Prior to there's a step there that's just required by statute the way these this process works um, and so We would do that get the rfp out and then we would be coming back to you after um in regards to You know who who did show interest and I don't know who will who won't the example is Uh, a company like honeywell does this type of work too And liles had experience with someone like honeywell what liles has explained to me is Is they're very interested in selling their product? Um, and so at times I think they may gut the system more Then someone who doesn't actually have that type of product to sell And so um that that's just something that we'll have to weigh when bids come in And I don't know if they'll bid for us or not add out for us or not The other thing i'm very interested in is who our current providers are for a heating system And making certain we have folks that can service them regularly and get parts Where I know liles talked to me about a company like honeywell Um, they don't really have regional Uh The closest parts and service is like in new york state right liles like it's not Yeah, they're not always just close by unfortunately. Um, yeah, there's johnson controllers honeywell Uh, the seamen's a lot of places do this, but again, they're they're quite interested in selling you their their product Which is fine in many cases. Um, it doesn't always work well for vermont because we're vermont Um, I have a pretty good comfort level with this Um friend of mine who ran sau 70 went to work for mike after he retired and has nothing but good things to say about this company Um for good things about the schools that they've been in Um, so my comfort level is pretty high. I I I actually like the fact that efficiency vermont Um, uh is required to to look over any contract like this to make sure everything Is is looking good and makes sense for vermont schools. I think that was a smart move on the legislature's part um, so I think it's probably a good move for us to to look into this um, the other thing that is strange about these times is that um efficiency vermont has some money for ventilation and and we're um pushing them hard One of the vendors that we work with has actually said, you know You're you're talking about indoor air quality and you're only allowing us to do certain things with this money for indoor air quality Meanwhile, if we can't heat the air the quality of the air is not so good. So, uh, we're in that position where eventually The steam piping is going to fail to the point where we can't heat the air. So it's not going to make much difference Um, so he's pushing hard to get as many dollars as he can Um, so all of that is right now in our favor if we can be successful here. So Strange times I entertain a motion to uh I start the application process for our rfc process I make a motion to have Jamie and Tara start the rfp process How's that? Am I missing anything? That's good I guess for our beef process for Energy efficiency upgrades in our buildings, maybe I'll second Okay, any discussion all in favor say aye Hi. Hi. Hi Okay, any opposed I'm going to yeah, I'm going to abstain because I wasn't here for most of the discussion You're gonna love it. No, Lisa. We can bring up the speed. Yeah, I'm positive that I will I just don't feel like I can No, I think that was a wise choice. Okay All right, that's all you do. Thank you Thank you Thank you so much. Lyle You're welcome. Thank you okay, so, uh I guess we're done with that agenda item and I think we've done the action items. So we're on to new hires. Was there any new hires? Okay, then right on to public comment any public comment. I don't think we have any other For future agenda items question on public comment So the report to the board the principal's report had two reports at the tail end of it And andrew had asked about the second one and andra had advised more will be forthcoming on the first report I wasn't able to access it. So representing general public Do they outreach to White River valley su it to get access to look at that information No, tammy every other board What we do is we take that report it's pdf'd and it's part of the packet So I'm going to ask that the principal just send that to christie and we'll get it in the packet Okay, okay. I'm just learning here. So thank you I have a quick question. Um Before we adjourn about it's it's march. How are we doing on? On our Looking at bringing intuition students and recruitment in the age of kovid Lord almighty We uh, we set up two tours for perspective ninth graders today uh, hope to do that next week and uh, the high school anyways were planning some outreach with the tumbridge community where they're uh I think they're nine students right now who may be uncommitted So we are also looking at a longer range plan So because we have found ourselves behind the um The curve on this and we're going to get better at that There's also some kids in sharon and on the west coast of the su that I want to check it out too Some families and see what they're up to Oh, um, oh and any thoughts on um, we already have our sixth graders in Um in the middle school. I'm just wondering any thoughts on Bringing sixth graders over and saying hey, isn't this great, you know, look at what you could be doing. No just because from sharon and Places west We did do that when it wasn't pandemic right? Yeah, there's that right come on over. Yeah Yeah, uh, we will do similar things again. We also right now a bunch of sixth graders are making um, some marketing videos Some the sixth greater perspective of why you would want to come to this school Awesome. So those are coming and we'll use those next year and we'll upgrade them as well The other thing is too. We're looking at a better partner within the su on opportunities and so um, I know that uh, hidey is currently working with the running crews And I fully expected the first branch unified district middle schoolers will be joining in with our middle school spring sports Um, which I think is a good opportunity for us to partner. We're in the past First branches sometimes gone to randolph and or therford academy Um, and so we're looking to strengthen that partnership within the su walls. So Um, I've been in conversation with them a few times now around that Maybe theater and music too Just to think about Bringing those kids in you know, I got your back going on the theater and music Hey Or suits Yeah, I was a drum major in high school if anyone wanted to know I was a thespian I think you took my place jamie. Actually Tammy I did fix that link. So you should be able to get into it. I'm sorry thank you Um, just trying to make sure the general public has able is able to navigate without Issue, thanks. Yeah Okay, so, um, I guess future agenda items. We have the food service again on there Is there anything else I guess the next board member appointing it's going to be a future agenda item Um, yeah, and I've got the lisa the regeneration Core and I got down the finance committee Okay, sorry, anything else Okay, so our next meeting date is tuesday april 20th 6 p.m And I think we're done to entertain a motion to adjourn So moved Congratulations, andrew