 Joining us, and you write the name down. Peter's our new dormant. Thanks, Peter. You don't mind closing it, let's see who's coming in. So we have, let's see here, Rebecca Ellis, who is the State Director for the Office of Senator Peter Welch, with us in person. Great to see you, former House member as well. And Catherine Becker-Manhese, OK, from Senator Bernie Sanders' office. And thanks for joining us, Catherine. I realized we emailed somebody, but for you to be able to pull this together, probably within the last 15 minutes is huge. So thank you for joining us. So we are here, and the reason we've asked the two of you, and we're also reaching out, and we'll work with the Congresswoman Balance team as well, is one of the things we're facing in this stage, and others can speak through it, perhaps more eloquently, and more deeply in the iPad, is really a school construction crisis. We have many buildings that need to, not only, I would say massive renovations, but need new buildings. New buildings to really fit a 21st century education, new buildings that have laboratories, the experience, the feel of them that you want to walk in and have incredible academic experience. And so on top of that, one of the things we have led the way in, it appears, is PCB testing and testing for other chemicals. And as we heard, as we know in Burlington and as other schools are testing, we are going to have to respond to that. And we thought that we wanted to make this aware to our federal delegation, given the huge amount of money this will take. And just for you to hear the concern, see if you have any initial response to the concern. I also want to give my committee members and colleagues an opportunity to say a few words about what they're seeing in their districts or what they may have heard from superintendents and others recently. But it's a big idea. And I would also say, I think it's, from my perspective, it's a bipartisan issue. It's going to hit all the states. And we would love for it possible to get some federal funding for this. So that's my piece. I don't know if anybody else wants to add to that what they're seeing or their own personal experience. Senator Gullick, you've been up in, you can say maybe a word about Burlington High School. Oh, what do I say? What angle do you want me to attack this from? Well, why don't you just, for the record, kind of just tell us all what happened in Burlington. OK, a little bit. And Rebecca's parents are my neighbors. So I'm sure she's well-schooled in this issue. So I'm trying not to go on too long, because I could speak for hours. But I think I explained to somebody that when you decide to make renovations to a school, because we wanted to make renovations to our high school, because we had leaky roofs. We had window casings that were literally falling out of the window, under the ground below. I've told you five buildings connected by sequel access walkways, which were really difficult for any students that had mobility issues, almost impossible. Not to mention an HVAC system that it's incredibly expensive to run. I mean, almost to the point of not being sustainable. It was so old. So we decided to make renovations. And I was part of this before I was on the school board. I was part of this group called VHS Re-envisioning. And we basically went out to the community and tried to get support to pass a bond, to do some renovations to the buildings. So we passed a $70 million bond. But the way it works is that once you decide to renovate, that's when you've passed your bond. You've done all the work. Now your building gets tested for contamination. And that's when it's kind of a weird system that happens after the fact. That's when our building got tested and that these high levels of PCBs were discovered. So at that point, it was literally the first day of school our kids showed up and they were told they had to leave. So, I mean, I can't exaggerate the crisis that we had because our kids went into basically lockdown. They were sent home the first day of school in September. And then the pandemic got tacked on. So they were home for, you know, close to a year. These are high school kids. The before COVID. Before, no, with COVID. With COVID, okay. But they were home about five months before COVID. And one thing that we've learned, which is an unfortunate and tragic truth is that some kids are actually way better off in school than they are at home. And it's really hard for, you know, we have high rates of poverty in Burlington and it was really hard for a lot of our kids to not have a place to go to. And our school board meetings were gut wrenching because parents would come on crying and kids would come on crying. And what am I gonna tell you? We didn't know what to do. Because we were told that we had this poisonous building that we should all leave. So anyway, luckily, we had an empty department story. You all know the story. And then we had three developers who came in and just literally in three months. I remember when I was given that timeframe in three months, we were gonna have this building ready. And I was like, no way. They did it almost to the day. Three months, they got in there and retrofitted it to the schools. Obviously not perfect by any means, but it was the least place for our kids to come. In the meantime, you know, we did lose a lot of kids. They never came back. We just lost them. To where? We don't know. They just, it was like truancy to the max. They just didn't know. We lost them. And that's what happens when a school gets closed down. So just from my experience, this is why this is something I'm really passionate about is I don't wanna see this happen in any other district in the state because the consequences are really pretty severe. So anyway, long story short, we then had to sort of regroup, start all over again, hired this company called DAR that has built schools all over New England to come and help us come up with a plan for a new building. We ended up with three and then we voted on the one that was the least expensive and hopefully the quickest to build and also sort of the most compact. We just didn't want a sprawling campus like we had before. So, and that was, we're hoping that that will open in 2025. Sorry, it's been pushed back a couple of months now. So it won't be ready for the beginning of the school year but hopefully a few months in. But we did have to pass, as you know, $165 million bond. So, it will obviously be a burden for the taxpayers in our city. I mean, there's just no denying it but at the same time, what choice did we have? We had no high school. We have a three and a half year lease on that building that we're in right now. We have to be out at the end of three and a half years. So we were, I mean, it was just, we had no choice. We had to pass this bond and it's gonna be really hard for a lot of folks that their property taxes are gonna go up and that's why I feel that at some point the state needs to help out. Not cover the whole cost by any means, but just help out. Take a little bit of the burden off the taxpayers and as we've already been talking about, you don't want that per pupil number to grow to the point where nobody wants to pay because they're, they just don't, they can't comprehend these per pupil numbers. So it becomes an equity issue too, as we all know. Anyway, thank you Rebecca. I know you know the whole story, but. No, thank you. Anybody else want to understand anything or? We just met with superintendents last week as a committee, we went to lunch in and they also expressed the seriousness. You know, we talk a lot about in this building climate change, our buildings, you know, some of them are just literally heats just going right up the buildings and the costs are huge and there's a lot of good potential when we think about this stuff. Yeah, please. There's so many others from over here in Thursday. It's like every school in the States in the same situation. And they don't know what, you know, what contamination they're gonna find when they start doing that too. So it's an infrastructure issue. Yeah. And the schools are the kind of the glue that keeps the local community and society together. So I guess all we'd love to know is when is the check on it? I don't know. And what a press to call. I'm happy to defer Katie, if you would like to go first. Rebecca, why don't you feel free to go first? I think it'll be easier for folks in the room to hear from you. And then I can just add in a couple pieces around the edges. Okay. Well, thank you for inviting Katie and me here at your federal delegation. And I'm sure that Representative Ballant would and her representative would like to talk with you as well. And it is important I think for all of us to be on the same page. And this is a crisis in Vermont. Senator Welch, when he was Representative Welch spoke with the House Education Committee in 2020. At that time, the U.S. House had passed what was called the Moving Forward Bill and had passed I believe was $130 billion for school construction. So Congressman Welch was very excited that that might become law and might help states with school construction funding. He's also toured many schools around Vermont to look at the conditions of the buildings and truly our schools are facing a crisis. So unfortunately, the $130 billion was not included in the final infrastructure bill that passed. So I can say confidently that Senator Welch will continue to look for funds, federal funds that said there's no certainty of course of what will pass in Congress in terms of funding for this issue. There are some existing programs that can be helpful to school districts. The USDA has a program, the Community Facilities Program which I believe is the program that helped the Winooski School District at least get a loan, a very low interest loan for school construction. I'm not sure if there was any grant funding in that but that's an existing program that can be helpful. I know that a number of schools are also applying for grants through the Renew America Schools Act which was included in the bipartisan infrastructure bill and that's for energy efficiency improvements that was gonna be spread out over a four or five year period and it's $500 million total and it's 80 million a year that they're rolling out. And there was also, I don't know how many schools took advantage of the ESSER funds that came through the COVID funding but that was another possibility for HVAC systems and I don't know how many schools applied to that. So- And just a reminder to other folks because it was COVID connected the HVAC. Right, exactly. Yeah, so those are sort of some of the existing programs and I'm sure our delegation can continue looking for grant programs that could be helpful to schools but I know that also you're looking at a major kind of systematic problem and issue of funding. So these are more case by case funding opportunities. So that's what I all I have to say but happy to take questions or turn it over to Katie. If you'd like to- If I could just ask- Yeah. So you'll take our concerns when you're hearing and bring them to Senator Welch just so he can hear directly the difference through you that this is we really see. And I know that as you said, he recognizes this. Yeah. We're looking, I mean, serious crisis. So we're looking for anybody, anybody else that you think we should down the road talk to have a conversation with. This is something that just can't, what I'm afraid he's gonna have is we're gonna all start coming in with our photos of our schools. You know, this is that bad out there and yeah, kids shouldn't have to have these kinds of experiences. I'm not sure if you're a Senator or what. Thank you. Yeah, so to piggyback, kids shouldn't have these experiences but let's face it, our school districts are some of our biggest employers, not our biggest employer in the state. And so we also have a lot of staff and teachers who are spending, you know, hundreds and hundreds of hours in these buildings every year. So it's even, it's bigger than just the impact on our children. And I also just wanna remind folks too that when we talk about childcare and the childcare crisis, you know, schools play a part in childcare. They allow for adults to go out in a world and work. So there's that piece of really critical piece of the puzzle. And also we had Dr. Mark Levine speak to us this morning, Commissioner Mark Levine. And a lot of what he talks about in terms of public health is very integral also in our school buildings. Like they're very much connected. He talked about everything, he didn't bring up PCBs but, you know, some of these buildings, their physical structure is dangerous, especially to folks with mobility issues. They, the air quality is horrible. The lighting is an issue. There's so many factors that are a part of public health and personal health. And, you know, he keeps coming back around to the importance of those early years and how critical they are to setting a foundation to the rest of your life. So all of these things are connected and school is part of that spiral of health, safety, someone and so forth. And I know that folks know that but I just think it's a good reminder because we do tend to be like, oh, kids, schools over here. But it really has to be seen as part of the bigger picture. Katie. Thank you and thanks everybody for having me join virtually. I sort of feel like I'm hovering over Rebecca's shoulder but really appreciate the option for a virtual join. So for those who I haven't met I'm Senator Sanders, State Director. My primary expertise is health policy. So certainly for my own self and as a parent recognize this as a public health issue as well as an education issue. As was just discussed, this is a tremendous issue for all of our Vermonters who work in schools. There is a certain impact here for all of you as you look at the responsibility the legislature has to address healthcare for retirees through the pension system and the healthcare benefits system. So there really is no decoupling this issue from health and from other responsibilities within the legislature. So really first and foremost commend you all for taking this on. I wish I was coming with my giant check from the federal government to just hand it over and let you all address all of the significant needs we know are happening not just in Burlington but across the state. From Senator Sanders perspective obviously former mayor of Burlington lives in Burlington has grandchildren in the public school system. We're very well aware of what's been going on. The delegation was very glad to pull together as many federal agency folks as we could from EPA on around the alphabet soup of the federal government to try to find some federal funds and opportunities for Burlington. We also knew as we were having those conversations that this would not be the last town experiencing this challenge. I appreciate Senator Campion you're mentioning that this is a bipartisan issue. That's certainly our hope in the Congress as well. Our kids, our teachers, our school administrators, folks who work within the schools. They live in every congressional district in the country. We have schools in every congressional district in the country. This is a tremendously important issue for all of us to address together. And again, it's gonna have impact for years to come. One thing I just wanna highlight for everyone's situational awareness Senator Sanders is set to become the chair of the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate, which is as you can hear by those different categories, a huge undertaking. He has been working diligently over the last congressional Senate recess to have a host of meetings with cabinet secretaries, folks across these agencies, as well as Vermonters with lived experience that can help him inform his role as chairman. Certainly one of the things that we are hearing and seeing over and over and over again is the cross-section between the healthcare space, the education space, the labor space, the pension space. They just all coalesce within each other so consistently. I think this is sort of a perfect example of that. But in his work, one of the things that we certainly understand is that the federal government has put requirements in place on our states, on our schools to do certain work to have safe schools for our students and for all those adults who work in the school system. And as a result, there should be an opportunity for the federal government to come in and be supportive when issues arrive from the very work that we're asking schools to do in terms of testing, we see this in lead. So none of this is sort of new, but we recognize how important it is. Rebecca spoke briefly to the availability of ESSER funds to be used for ventilation as connected to COVID. Obviously that was a COVID specific connection. There were ARPA dollars made available for that for addressing safety in schools. While that can't fix our problem today, to my mind, I see this as a good sign that there is awareness in the Congress that safety in schools around environmental safety is something that we need to be looking at and focusing on and providing federal funds to help attain. We obviously have a partisan split between the House and the Senate. We're gearing up towards a presidential election year. It is gonna be a challenging time to legislate. I don't wanna paint a rosy picture of a Congress that's ready to get to work, but certainly in your Vermont congressional delegation, we are ready to get to work. And I speak, I think, with some confidence on behalf of all three of them, that they're very willing and able to partner together to find solutions and at the very, very least, raise up the issues and the voices that you're talking about today. One of the things that can be most effective to us is to hear these Vermont experiences that then as chairman, Senator Sanders, can discuss with his fellow committee members. He finds stories one of the most compelling ways to find common ground with colleagues, particularly as we're negotiating legislation. So in the education space and his role as chairman of the health committee, this is certainly something we're gonna be thinking about as well as his roles on the environment and public works committees. So really appreciate you all shining a light on this important issue. And we are happy to provide as much of a resource as we can be, which just to end, I will say, while the resource we would love to bring to bear today is funding, part of what we can also do is help you with research. We have at our disposal the Congressional Research Service. You have constituents who we share. You are also our constituents. And so if there are particular provisions of federal law that you wanna understand better, our office and our delegation is here to help you with that. So we can ask the Congressional Research Service to get to work for us to help us better understand some of what might be currently available and appropriate uses of federal funds. So again, I apologize for not having the magic sauce here to solve this issue, but really appreciate the opportunity to come and speak to all of you today. Thank you, Noen. Thank you for taking the time, truly. I mean, it would be absolutely amazing if Senator Sanders kicked off his conversations as the chair, just talking about school construction throughout the country. I mean, and I do think it would resonate with everybody out there, particularly I think in rural states. And I think one of the, I'm just drafting down ideas, maybe there are ways for us to also, in terms of getting this message out, talk with our counterparts in Northern New England, New Hampshire and Maine in particular, that I think are both struggling with this issue and maybe try to speak with one voice to US Secretary of Education to our governors and our shared delegation in D.C. Again, just to sort of raise this up as the crisis it really is. Committee, questions, normal comments. Really appreciate the two of you coming in and reporting continuing to work on this and thanks for having me. Happy to. Great, yeah. Thank you for having both of us here and great to be on the same page. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you all. Take care, everyone. Digger is here and they're thinking about headlines. It's how they're gonna be. The feds deliver. I'm really feds, you know what I'm talking about. Back and forth. We're in the newsroom with both of them printed out. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks a million. Thanks, Katie. Appreciate it. You're welcome. Thank you all. Hey, we're gonna take a 500 break. Is that okay? We're gonna take a five minute stretch and then we'll come back to it. I think we'll move, we have hate on the agenda because I want us to dig into something that came out last week, proficiency versus standards. We have a treasurer coming in and then we have a school for a bunch of things. So, this is a takeoff. I mean, I might.