 calling to order the Rochester Stockpards Unified District Board of School Directors special meeting, Monday, March 8th, 2021, 6.30 p.m., by Google Meet. They are called to order at 6.31, adjustments to the agenda. I believe there are some. Jamie, do you have, oh no, I thought you said we had to set it. I'm having a manual meeting in budget vote. Yeah, no, we can, we just need the date and then we'll get that warning drafted up. And the informational meeting will be part of that article or that, when we do that. That will be a separate, yeah, warning that we'll get drafted up once we know the date and time you guys want. But tonight, I just need this warning for that. We have no exceptions or anything like that. No, I think we're good. All right, just some agenda. We do have a public comment in there. Excellent, no notes to approve. Well, let's get right to it. Discussion items, 3.1, results of the dissolution of the Articles of Agreement results from 3-2, 2021. And I'll start this off just by saying which I'm sure you're gonna echo me. We are still Rochester Stockbridge Unified District. That has not been dissolved yet, officially. Even though Stockbridge has made this vote, there is still a process which we will learn about in this part, we will learn about that process and what, where we are in that process and how far we have to go. So just, I've been hearing some people saying, you know, well, now we're all alone and it's like, not yet. Our side still exists and there is this process to go through. So, Jamie, do you want to sort of talk about what Donna Savage told you? Yeah, sure. So I, can Ray put that up by any chance? I've sent it to everyone. Oh, okay. The email. I don't know if Ray has that email or not. Your principal's due and the board does and Tara does. Ray, do you have that email? Looks like he's looking for it. But I can start to walk you through it. So I emailed Donna Russo Savage who of course had a lot to do with Act 46 in his council for the state of Vermont and just wanted to review what I understood the information to be in regards to after a disillusion vote was voted in the affirmative by a town. So, first thing I asked was just to confirm that a reconsideration vote could occur within a 30 day window and that, the answer to that is correct. That a reconsideration petition can occur. And so, and it's my understanding that that may be underway. I asked if, if said petition occurs, the town of Rochester would wait until the next vote is certified and she said that that is correct. So once the 30 day period for reconsideration closes, let's say now and petition didn't occur, then the secretary of state's office would then notify the town of Rochester select board that they would need to warn and hold a vote of the disillusion of the Rochester Stockbridge unified district. And so if a petition occurs, then of course the secretary of state's office isn't going to notify the town of Rochester until that next vote happens. And then at that point after the results of that, there would be a notification to the select board. And here's some of the information in this email right here. I wanted to clarify that if the said petition occurs, is there a timeline for the town of Rochester? And this is one of those kind of issues I think with the law in general and statute that it does not establish a timeline for the vote to occur after the secretary of state's office notifies the town of Rochester and raise highlighting that right there. No. And so that would be up to the town of Rochester select board to take up and warn that vote. Number three, I wanted to know what happens if the vote in Rochester goes down to decouple from Stockbridge. Which means we do not agree with breaking up the district. Yeah, this is where I think we're gonna need to get some additional guidance around municipal elections law. It appears that per seven statue 17 VSA 2661 that it may require a year prior to a new vote being held in Stockbridge if that was to occur. But she also noted that the Stockbridge voters could then ask their representative and senators to introduce legislation by which the Vermont legislature could dissolve the unified district and reconstitute the two single town school districts. So that's an option as well. If that was to happen that the two towns don't agree to decouple the merger. And then finally, I kind of was looking for a timeline for us in regards to when this would all take effect. I think the most likely date would be July 1st of 2022. And that's what I suggested in my correspondence with her. She's indicating that of course it could be after if this timeline gets drawn out. But I think right now, I'm working under the premise that our SUD will continue to remain intact for the 21-22 school year. And based on the timeline that if the voters in both towns decide to decouple that the state board would approve the operation of standalone district Stockbridge in Rochester for July 1st, 2022. And the only way that would get delayed is of course if there is a petition for reconsideration and what the timeline around that happens to be. I could see that the process just being delayed more. And that's what she speaks to here in her response. I hope that's factual. And again, I double checked all of that with legal counsel on a roof of Savage. And so I hope that that's helpful for the board in regards to their discussion tonight. Jimmy, I do believe there's one step that might be missing in that is if there is this approval point where the AOA, the agency of education, AOE has to approve either. It's actually the state board of education. Yes, thank you. Okay. So, okay. So that's, and that happens either way, whether if Stockbridge's vote stands to leave our side and Rochester votes also to break up the union, the board of education has to, I just want to go over this again, make sure they have to still approve that. It's, that is really a rubber stamp at this point. Act 46 is not off, is off the books. And so my understanding by Donna Russo Savage is that they would approve it. Okay. What would take time is agreements around debt if there's any in regards to Rochester Stockbridge as a district right now. And the need to just lay out a timeline for electing new school boards. The new school boards then would be charged for the future district budgets. So let's say this all took place, Ethan, the state board approved it and we're in next November, then each town would need to warn, elect new school district members for the standalone districts. And then those districts, those board members would get right to work ASAP on us building a budget for let's say 2223 school year. Now, if the vote stands in Stockbridge to decouple but Rochester votes against it. And I just wanna, you know, I know this might be right in front of us in these, what we're posting, but I just wanna say, so then I believe the board of education, state board, they don't have any approval over that. How does that get resolved? No, so that's what I said earlier. So if Stockbridge votes to decouple and Rochester votes to remain in the merger, that's where we need to get further clarity. She said around municipal law and elections, but it's her understanding via statue per 17, VSA and Ray just went past it, I think. Now I remember you talking about that. That it could require a year's wait before Stockbridge could then wanna vote again. But she said that we need to look into that more. Okay. Okay. Do we have questions? I imagine there's gonna be some public questions when we get to public comment, but let's go through the board and see what we have. Amy, why don't we start with you? Do you have any questions or comments on this? You know, it is very overwhelming trying to move forward here. I guess I don't really have a comment at this time. Yeah. Okay. Justine. Yes. My only comment is I'm really happy to see how many people are attending this meeting. I think it's really important that the public is hearing it right from the meeting and not from in other ways. And I hope to see even more people at further meetings working on this. And so we can have everyone's voice be heard. I've spent a lot of time since I started on the board working on the articles of agreement, trying to hopeful to work out the kinks and in such a way that the decoupling would not be voted in, but here we are. And I'm happy to see so many people out there. And I would like other people to join as we move forward. Thank you. Let's go to Megan. Hi there. Yeah, I'm definitely overwhelmed by the results. I guess I'm not surprised, but it's still a lot to take in given how much effort I feel like has been put in. I am very thankful for people attending the meeting tonight. But to specific questions about uncoupling, I don't have them right now. I'm just hopeful that we can maybe work through this and find some common ground to move forward. I'm here to listen. Carl. I wanted to note that if I recall correctly, when we were discussing decoupling and that whole the five year clause that got put into the articles agreement back with Steve Dale way back in the day, that when we asked him to describe, you know, what that process would look like, he did imply that if the town that did not originally vote to decouple decided to remain in the union that the question could not be brought up for a year. So that's what I remember Steve implying. Of course, Steve, you know, take it for what that is. But I do recall that in support of what's going on. He did say also that we could either side could get the legislatures to move districts around or a short circuit the vote process. In general, I echo the sentiments that Amy and Justine have expressed. I really am disappointed that this is the way that things seem to be going. But I agree with you, Ethan, that we are a unified district. I think, you know, again, we're not gonna, Jamie's gonna have to offer contracts to our teachers for next year before we even get to the reconsideration vote. So we'll definitely have teachers under contract. So really I would concur that the earliest the dissolution could go forward would be starting July 1, 2022 for the 22, 23 school year. You know, so I think that it's important that we remember that, you know, for our kids, that's what? A year and a half of the six or seven years we have them, that's a good portion of their elementary education. And I think it's important that we work together because those kids aren't gonna get that, you know, get a do over year or whatever. I think it's important that we, you know, we work together and we get the best education for the kids in whichever configuration we're in till we're in a different configuration. And I'm glad to, you know, I was really pleased to hear you just to say that from the jump. Thank you. Jenny. I really don't have anything to add. I think those are all, you know, kind of sum up exactly what I was thinking and kind of agreeing with a number of people that are here. It looks like there's 34 people in attendance and that's the highest that I remember writing that down into my notes that I can recall. So I think that that's great. I definitely encourage people to, I know they're long, but listen to the videos. People that aren't here, I definitely know that there's people, including parents that don't really know what's going on. So I definitely encourage people to ask questions. I know Lindy and Bonnie and Jamie have said this before, but, you know, if anyone has questions, their doors are certainly open. So I don't, but I don't really have any questions on what Jamie went through. Well, my only comment would be to add is that we have been working very hard. There have been some significant issues between the two. I don't, you know, I can't know why people voted the way they did, but in my heart, I feel like it might have been kind of a battleship heading in one direction toward disillusion. And here we were doing all these important things, I think, changing the way members were voted, working very hard to get rid of the high school building, really talking substantially about unifying the two campuses, the idea of one principle. All these things were very positive steps and it's just, and they were late. You know, they were late and couldn't affect the vote in time or just that the word of them couldn't change the momentum of the vote. I hope there is a reconsideration vote personally. I would love to know. Maybe if it's just a confirmation, if it comes back, well, then okay. Then we know for sure, but it's, you know, it's, it was disappointing. I think we've done so much to work, to bring these two schools together and to really align the two campuses together and to align them and to have a, we have a really good plan going forward, I feel like. And I'm not sure that the other alternative has as clear a plan. And I just would, I would hope that people who go voting for disillusion would ask about that. What is the clear plan, including principles and everybody for, for educating your children in Stockbridge? Cause we have a very good plan, our set going forward. And I really believe in it. And it's come out of a lot of consensus and a lot of hard work with a lot of different voices from both communities. Good. Jamie, do you have anything else to say or principles? Well, I'll just add to about this specific topic or just the fact that the articles of agreement both passed overwhelmingly in both towns, the amendments. Yeah. So I wanted to thank the committee that did all that work because clearly it met the needs and the desires of the constituents of our set. So I thought that that was positive. Oh, thank you. Lindy or Bonnie, do you have anything to add this moment? You know, I just would encourage folks if there's a reconsideration vote going forward to really take the time to look to listen to the select board presentation that myself, Jamie and Bonnie and even participated in as well as other board members. And I just want to put this plug in. I'm in the business of kids. Jamie says it very frequently. Bonnie says it really frequently. I firmly believe in what we're doing at our set is the best option for kiddos and the best success for kiddos. I'm not sure separate is not adult decisions with kid consequences. And it's something I said when I first interviewed for this position, I stand by it. I want to make sure our choices have kids successes. And I just encourage people if you don't understand what the consequences could be or you don't understand what the successes can be of being a unified district to please reach out and ask questions. And I would just piggyback Ethan on what Lindy said. If there are any questions, I think this is an extremely important topic. And I think facts are just crucial. I think it is just super important that everyone really understand the implications. I've learned that new phrase from Lindy. We need to be very, very careful that we're not necessarily making a decision an adult decision that youngsters have the consequences of. Carl. Lindy actually triggered a question for me. She implied when she said watch the video from before will there be another explanatory meeting or discussion meeting for reconciliation vote? Is that required? I mean, I assume we could have a special meeting just to do a presentation but as a select board going to be holding if we did have a reconsideration vote would there be another informational meeting tied to that? Is that cherry? I don't know if the select board intends to do that Carl. It doesn't mean our subcom do an informational meeting if we'd like and I think we should. But my sense of working with the select board if that question was called again that they would hold one. I can't imagine that they wouldn't based on our experience Ethan. I don't know how you feel, but I definitely. Oh yeah, I would certainly show up any way we could. And it would be by Australian ballot again is my sense. So I think that they probably would be required to anyways, Carl, even if it's a reconsideration petition. That's what I thought, but I just wasn't sure. Amy. Yeah, that also triggered another logistics question for me. If there is a reconsideration petition, how what is the timeframe that the Stockbridge select board needs to get and then reconsideration vote out to the public? I mean, I would have to look that up in statute to see. Because I noticed I don't have that time off the top of my head. Okay. Well, you know, that Rochester, there's not a specific timeframe for their vote. And so I just was wondering if it was the same for a reconsideration vote or if that did have a. I'm assuming it does, but I need a double check. Okay. Thank you. I think when, when Royalton and Bethel did it, the vote had the reconsideration vote, they had 30 days to get the petition in, then the vote had to happen within 30 days of that or 60 days of that. And it needs like a 30 day warning. I don't think you can have a vote. You have to for an Australian ballot, you have to warn it for 30 days, I believe. Yeah. Well, that's fine. Well, obviously all, all, you know, speculation at this point until we know that there is actually a ballot out, a ballot for reconsideration that has been approved and accepted. So at this point, we are still, you know, facing a waiting period. I think 30 days would be something like April 2nd. That would be the end of the period where, within which a reconsideration could happen, a ballot or a petition could be accepted. Once that has passed, and if no, if no vote or no petition is submitted, then we will meet again. And, or actually we won't, the select board, Rochester select board will meet. And that'll be the next step. So, you know, we're going to keep going. We got a, we got a budget to get passed. We have a bulletin to create, dates to set, things like that. So, okay, I'm going to leave it at that. Thank you. Let's move on. And I'm, as I say, obviously when we get to public comment, we'll be looking forward to hearing what you all have to say. That's not word, there it is. All right, three, two. Our said annual mailer and budget information. So, did you all get, this is what I had, Jenny, as the last version that this was the, this was right before we went to the printer. So, I believe it's complete. I, I mean, looking through it, I know the color coordination, color coding, which, you know, we talked a lot about last time about, well actually, let's figure it. How do we want to, how do I want to do this today? How do we want to, what are we just going to need to decide who the point people are going to be and what you need from the SU office, what you want from the principles. And Tara, I don't know if they got, if the printers get back to you in regards to, we did ask for some quotes around color versus not. She did get back to me without, she didn't get me any numbers. She just explained how they determine what the cost would be. And we would need to give her the format proof first. And then she could let us know because it depends on how the pages lay out. So, once we had the document together, then we could get a quote on what it would cost to do all color, black and white, or if we only wanted to do certain pages of the print in color. And that was B with Spaulding who we used last time. Yes, great, I like it. We're going local. Jenny. And Tara, I was wondering if you remember how much it cost last year for the color version? Yes, there was sort of us. The whole thing total, everything was $4,000. And we got half of that paid by some nice people. So the school ended up with the buy, but I understood that it was basically, that was kind of the difference between color and non. I personally looking at it again tonight, I feel like we could probably do a pretty good job with this with black and white. That we color-corded the headings and things like that, which is a really nice touch, but I don't know that we really need color all through. Our charts, we had some nice pie charts that obviously aren't gonna read as clearly. And the tax rate. So what is possible maybe is we could move some stuff around so that we had maybe a center color page that had all our pie charts and maybe tax charts. And then our outside cover, just to give it a pop, but that would certainly save us some money, but it's gonna take some organization. You know, I don't know, Jenny, are you up for a swan song here? Well, I think if we did the same template as we did last year, I think that the process would go a lot quicker than kind of put it together from scratch last year. I agree that we could do black and white and maybe have a color version online, since we have everything set up in color, we could do that. Good idea. I think it would be considerably cheaper if we just did black and white. We could do a one-page color like you mentioned. I'm not sure how much, if that would be harder to do that, than just do black and white and people could look at the color version if they wanted to. I think that's an excellent idea to basically put the full version online, because it does look pretty good when you look at it online, at least from my version, clear color-wise and pie charts and things like that. One issue too is that we got Edgeworks creative in Randolph. Did some of this, they basically helped in transferring Excel budget sheets to Word, which just allowed a clearer and easier presentation. So how much that would cost or whether we can just plug into what we have here, I don't know. That would be a question for Cindy, Cindy, Ryan. Jenny, you got? If we have, it seemed last year, and I think a lot of it had to do with, since we were doing a lot of it from scratch, but if we have pages far enough ahead of time where we have the charts ready, I can help do pieces, bringing in charts, not pasting the information, but pasting graphics that look decent into PDFs. But I guess before I offer off that, I'd wanna make sure that we have a good amount of time and that we have this stuff ready with enough time to be able to do that at the end. It seemed like we were really rushed up the end, but I think a lot of that was that we were starting from scratch and did a lot of upfront work with getting things set up, which I don't think we'll need this time. Well, I could certainly look back and see what Edgeworks did charge. I don't think it was very much. I think it was in 100 bucks or 200 bucks to do the transfer of the Excel to Word. I think it looks great. I think it looks much clearer, easier to understand. It also makes it much easier to annotate very quickly. And I think I would love to have enough time this time for our principals to go through and mark up some more things that we missed or didn't get a chance to annotate last year. I think what would be a good thing tonight was for us to go away with a timeline, work backwards, when do we need this? I assume, I'm just gonna go up. I think it was like two weeks that they took to print it once we got it to them and then to the printer. And then it's 10 days. They need to have it 10 days before the vote, right? So if you go 10 days before, then figure you send it out a week before that or maybe not a full week before. Somebody got a calendar in front of them and can sort of, Lindy? I just want to add a little bit more of a buffer time because feedback for mailing, because feedback I've heard from Stockbridge community folks is if you have a PO box or it has to leave Stockbridge to get mailed back is it typically comes much closer to the vote than it does within then 10 day window. So do we feel like a week, a week ahead of the 10 is probably, because it's gotta be there 10 days before the vote, correct? So we put another week before that. As I said, does anybody have a calendar? I have one, let's give me the day that you're looking at. So our votes on May 2nd, is that right? May 4th, we had a Tuesday, May 4th. Okay, one week before that is April 27th. I'm very writing this down, what Jenny is. So what are we looking for? 10 days before that or? So 10 days before May 4th. Okay, that would be Friday, April 23rd. April 23rd, Friday. Okay, so that's when they need to be in the hands. So let's go a week before that, they need to be mailed. The 16th Friday, April 16th mailed. So then a printer probably needs them. I think it might have only been 10 days, but let's go back to 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 days would be Friday the 2nd. Friday the 2nd, it sounds similar to last year actually. 2nd, that's two printers. Okay, I think that's... I think that that's safe, I wouldn't wanna go... Conservative enough, yeah, and then we can always push it. Of course, Friday to printers is not as useful as Monday. They may, we might actually get an extra weekend because they weren't probably gonna be able to do a whole lot with it on Friday. Right. But so why don't we just... Well, let's say Friday, that's good, and then if we have another weekend to look at it. So that's great. So we need to have it done by Friday, those two of the printers, Friday the 2nd of April. Yeah, go ahead, Amy. I think I have a couple of comments on the contents of it. And I think that the areas that we talked about, educational decision making, I think it's very important to include again. It just kind of said with the different levels, the federal level, the state level. I do think that we could save money by doing black and white, but I really... I mean, like this chart that shows what, where our budget really went to, the percentage of it, I think was very nice to see. And I think that spending the money to do that page in color, I don't think would really... I think it would be worth it. Well, I mean, what about this idea of sort of... I mean, it's a little awkward, but if we crammed all our color into one fold over page, poor sides in the middle, then they put it together. I think that's the thing is if you keep it and you just sort of use it as an appendix, or it's on the outside, and it's just an appendix in the back and you send people back for all your charts. It's not as nice to have it right where the graph is. But that's... I think it'd be worth the conversation with the printer to find out if that's really going to make a big difference with the amount. I also wanted to comment on the quantity that we got last year. We will be able to get less this year because there were a number that were returned to the post office. And also, we are going to save money this year because we will not have to pay for our postal permit because we paid for it in June of last year and it's valid for a year. So that'll save money. We also have a credit for the actual post for the bulk mailing as well. So we may not even have to... Or it is, there'll be a very small amount that we'll have to pay for the bulk mailing. Okay, correct. We will need to get the... If you want me to, I can talk to the town of Stockbridge again to get the labels that will be necessary for the voters who are not... They do not receive their mail at the Stockbridge post office or through a rural route. There are some voters who receive their mail in like Woodstock and such. So... So going forward, obviously, we need... I don't know, as chairman, can I exempt myself from running this process like I did last year? I'd really like to. I mean, I'd love to be part of it, but I would love to not be in charge of it. I think that's why standing some of it off to the SU will be very helpful. But somebody's got to make that decision of what we're handing off to them. Okay. Exactly. I mean, I think putting the budgets, getting the budgets, I would say one of the biggest jobs is getting these budgets put into word form. It's something that took a lot of tweaking. It's not just a simple transfer that we thought. And this is, if they could arrange for that for us, that would be a great thing. Jenny? Yeah. I don't think that we need to get the budget in word form. I think if we have, if we start a budget at the top of page 35 or whatever, and we get something from Tara, and we can just do PDFs of the budget sheets, and then we can just paste those into the word that we change to a PDF. Well, but this is the, I mean, this is the big difference of how the thing, and if this didn't make a difference, and that's fine with me, but everything, all different budgets are in the same format. That's one of the real looks of this, is that we get, we change, because when we pasted them, there were all kinds of different bars and graphs and things like that. And it just never, I never saw a version when I looked at some of the old ones, it didn't look fuzzy and messy. But if we can get an Excel from Tara, I mean, I do this all the time in reports, it shouldn't be an issue. All right, well, if you wanna take that on, that would be great. As I say, it's the key, for me, it was one of the key elements of our budget was how clean and easy to read it was as opposed to, and as I say, it's really easy to annotate, annotate, yeah, in Word. So if you can prove to me anyway, that you can do that same process with Excel or in a PDF, I'm fine, but that's why I went with that last year is because I felt it was the best way to get it done. Yeah, I can work with Tara and if something comes up, some sort of red flag, I can reach out to you, but I think it should be fine. As long as like I said, it starts, the only thing I can think of would be, I would recommend on those pages that we don't have the same header. I think that's where you would get into an issue. I guess I could create the same header in Excel but so that it looked the same, but maybe we just have a page number and something, some sort of footer in Excel. Then that would work. Okay, I mean, what I'm worried about just hearing that is just that we, as part of what you said, we were sort of, is that we had to, this is why I called in EdgeWorks, is that we had sort of tried pasting them in and to try and transfer them in. I remember not being very successful last year, what we tried. Maybe I wasn't using you at that point and this was just what I was trying to do. But I would hate to get two weeks out or two weeks down the road now and then suddenly realize, hey, we gotta get this done and then it's a rush job. To me, I think the easiest would be to get the Excel from Terra, what we need, and then make the PDFs in Excel. It would be easiest if we don't have exactly the same header and footer as the rest of it, but I don't think people will really care. And then just import that PDF into the other PDF. Okay, well, if you wanna give this a go, why don't you, why don't you show, what do you think you could show this to us or me or all of us? Yeah, probably all of us. Well, I think I have to get the final spreadsheet from Terra. I don't know exactly when, I'm thinking realistically, conservatively, this probably not get to it this weekend, but assuming that I have an Excel file. Jenny, we can talk offline and figure out exactly how you want me to send it over to you and which ones you want in Excel because we also have all the SU stuff that needs to go into, but you and I can definitely work through that together and get it to you. Yeah, I mean, it seems like we'll be using the same information from last year, just updating it. And Jenny, I'd be happy to help with whatever I could do to help gather or whatever. So we can be a team. Sounds good. Okay, all right. So we'll, that's getting our hard data in there. Will that also be the pie charts? I'd have to look and see what we did last time, but I think so. Okay. Well, as I said, this is the last version we had. So, you've got that now. And I sent it to everybody. I sent it to Tara and the principal, so everybody's got it. So you know, we probably should come up with a checklist of things we need. I know we did that last year. Principles, reports, all the different. Hey, Jamie, could you do me a favor? Could you have our new special ed? I forget, Ron, is it? Yeah. Could you have him look at our special ed introduction and see if he makes any annotations on that? Yep. And he's done a report for other districts. So I'm really happy to do that. Thank you. I have a question. Yeah. Is there a way going into the future that we can, you know, I'm just kind of thinking down the road to help save money and save trees for those who don't want a full copy? Is there a way to ahead of time send out maybe a postcard that says to people if you want a full copy sent to you of the annual report, you know, return this postcard and we'll make sure to send a full report to you. And it's also available online. I'm just trying to think of ways in the future and how we can save some printing, save some of the printing costs and save some trees. Yeah. No, I think so. Sorry, Carl, you've had your hand up for a bit. I was actually, Amy is on the exact same page I'm on. Some way to, I know we talked about this briefly last year, either, you know, maybe sending the bare minimum that the law requires us to mail that has just the numbers information and putting more of the meat and the detail around, you know, the part of education law, you know, the municipal versus the state versus the federal, those sorts of documents, putting that in a more robust, you know, online version and sending out, here's the, you know, here's the basic facts. If you want more, go here or like Amy said, reach out to us and we'll send you a full doc. I'm not sure that we can get that in place for this year but it did, you know, I agree with Amy, trees and money are good things to keep around. I hear you. My only thing is I know that annual reports are a big part of Spaulding's work right now. And, you know, especially with things being thin, I'd love to keep a local business going if we can, you know, there's always a balance, always a balance. And I just think, you know, this is, you're right, this is for, I think we've got a plan. We're going forward. Jenny, sort of leading Amy supporting that with Tara's help getting these PDFs. I'd like to see what that looks like and if we can get a similar look through the PDFs, then that's easier than that's great for me. I'll sort of keep overlooking it and I would say. Yeah, actually, Tara, you could do me a favor with looking through some of our introductions and just see if some of our things about what codes we used and all that is still accurate if anything's changed. Just if you could read all the introductions and just see, or if there's anything you think, hey, that would be good to explain as well. That would be very useful. Thank you. All right, do we feel like, oh, Jenny, yep, go ahead. Can you send me, I don't, I have the PDF you sent. Can you send me the word file too? Yep, I can do that right now. Yeah, I love it, it was .0605 version F. I remember you and I going back like last minute and was like, A, C, D, E, F, huh, get it all done. Okay, that just went out. Good, anything else on this? Justine, nope, Megan. Thank you. No, thank you. Good, Amy and Carl, we've heard from you and Jenny. Okay, I think we're good. Let's let us move on to three, three warning of annual meeting and 2022 budget vote. Robert, if we can wait till public comment, that's the, unless you have a, often we let somebody who has an expert advice come in. But if you don't mind waiting, we're gonna be a public comment very soon. So if you don't mind waiting till then, we'll get to your comment. Thank you. So, Jamie, we have a warning? Yeah, I shared the warning with the board this evening and it's updated based on the results of the articles of agreement warnings. So really, we just need folks to review that and approve that warning. It's pretty straightforward. Now you adopted the budget a while back and Ethan, Carl has his hand up. Yes, Carl. We do need to, you know, I think the warning has to be formally approved tonight since we're not gonna really have another meeting before we have to publish it and post it. So we should make sure that the warning has under whatever the article is about electing seats, that it has a line to fill the seat that I'll be resigning effect of the annual meeting for the two remaining years. Okay. And I suppose we've talked about this, but I should, so this would be the formal announcement that I'll be resigning come May 4th. Ray, can you grab a warning JLK edits? Not that one. What part am I looking for? I thought I had it by side. No. The one I, Carl emailed me about this and I sent one that had some edits and under article eight, it has Stockbridge voters to elect Stockbridge candidate one director for term ending in 2023. The subject line says JLK edits, I can send it again. I just don't know, I haven't. Do we need, and let me look at this again, I'm just wondering if there is, do we need anything about the article that changed? We changed that on this warning. It talks about the voters in each town electing. Yeah, yeah, I didn't see the different town names. Thank you. Ray, you want me to just send it? I sent it to him. No, I've got it. I thought I had it already prepared, but I must have done the same one twice. It was going to take me just a second. Okay. So just some things that we've got a note tonight. We're going to just identify the polling places. And so we got to fill those in and then the board needs to decide what they want the polls to be open. Isn't that for our town officers or town clerks to tell us? Well, no, I mean, we work in conjunction with them, but since they're not having an election, it's just your voice. Okay. It's really for you guys to work and decide. I don't know what the towns just did. I can't remember. Probably maybe state consistent. 10 a.m. to 7, wasn't it? Yes. I think blue was 10 a.m. to 7. And I think I would warn the same locations that you had before. Yes, we're going to be at the high school. High school in Rochester and what in, in Stockbridge Town Clerk or the school? The town offices. Town office. Okay. Can we type that in? At the Rochester High School, Rochester Mott, probably the time we vote at the Stockbridge Town Offices, Stockbridge. Same information at the bottom. We can clean up the formatting for you. And we want to do 10 to 7 again. I mean, I guess we don't want to do early morning voting. Is that just too much to do 7 to 7? We can, like I said, we can do whatever you decide. That's why I didn't. I don't know. Has anybody heard anything about a problem of starting at 10 and going to 7? Any of my buddy on our board? Anybody have a problem at 10 to 7? Good. We'll keep it 10 to 7. And absentee ballots will be requested from the town clerk. We're not going to mail those or anything. We'll just do upon request, just like you did the last vote. And again, this came right from Dina's office. Okay. I just added the one area under Article 8. I based that off of the language we use through Dina's office when Justine, when we did the warning for her position. So it was term ending in 2022 for her. So we use one director for term ending in 2023. Forgive me. I forget who's up for election in Rochester. I can't believe you can't remember that. Amy. Amy, okay. And you are running again, right? Amy, we've talked about this. And we'll just need, once you guys adopt this warning tonight, we'll get additional information. I had put it out a while back, but I'll repost it around candidate consent forms. What does it mean to be on the board? And I was going to reach out to the two town clerks and see if they would allow me to post that information to their websites. So I think we're good to go. If folks want to. Entertain a motion to accept the Rochester Stockbridge Unified School District annual meeting warning as written. Somebody worn that please. I move that we accept the Stockbridge Rochester Stockbridge Unified District, 21-22 a warning and budget vote as presented. May I have a second? Second. Justine is seconded. Any discussion? Being none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Jenny, I didn't hear you in there. Yeah, thank you. Okay, I always have it. We have a warning. Good work. So one more thing just to tack onto that. We, within 10 days, need to hold an informational meeting. And so I'm looking So in 10 days before? May 4th. Yep, within 10 days. We need to hold an informational meeting. So we just went over that earlier. And so what we got to decide is whether or not you want to hold it, you know, on a weekend or an evening. Some districts have done two votes, just so you know. We've done one with, sorry, two meetings. We've done one outside of the 10 days and then one within the 10 days because some folks were voting absentee ballot. So the district board decided to hold an informational meeting. Like actually, I think we did 20 days out, but you know, if we decide we'd be ready by, you know, 15 days out, we could hold one then and then hold one within the 10. That's totally up to you. I'm just looking for some dates and times so we can get that information together. 10 days out is the 23rd. Is that correct? That's the same? That's correct. Yeah, okay. So what do you think, Amy? Well, I was thinking like the Monday or Tuesday, the 26th or 27th, we want it to do an evening. I think that seems reasonable. Monday night, sounds good to me. Group of 26, six or 630? We've always been 630 actually. I sort of like gives you time to have your evening cocktail. I'm sorry. It's really terrible, Jeremy. April 26th, 630 informational meeting. We will get to get on that. And then we're gonna do one. We're meeting that. What's that? Is that our full meeting night? It's an executive board. All right. How about the 27th? I was gonna say Tuesday at the 27th would work. All right, that's good. Is that the only one we're gonna do? Well, you can do two if you'd like. What do you think? I think, I'm just thinking dates. Hold on a sec. If there is a reconsider, well, I don't know. Right, well, people, I don't know. I think personally, I think the more information we get out there, the better. I really do. We could do a Saturday on top of it, Ethan, or we could do that Monday night before. That's up to you guys. What do we think about a Saturday? Saturday midday? Is anybody really gonna go on April? Everyone's gonna wanna be outside, I think. I think evening's better myself for getting people. I think, yeah, how about the week before? I would recommend. Well, you have to remember now, you're pushing the pamphlet to be in their hands earlier. I was gonna suggest the night before. So you could do. Oh, got you. Yes, thank you. Yes, Jamie. You could do Monday the third. Yep, I think that sounds great. I don't know, I mean, just cause I think it sounds great, doesn't mean anything. How do you feel, Justine, what do you think about that? I think Monday the third seems very logical. People are gonna be ready and looking to vote for the next day, and it'll be right there. Information and then get, I think it's a good idea. Great, Megan, is that right? Yeah, I think that's a good idea to do it closer to the vote. Good, so we're gonna do both. That's what we're talking about, doing both as an informational meeting. Good, Jenny. I'm good to sound. Good, Carl. Yeah, that works for me. I think having, I mean, it gives us the opportunity as well if someone says anything that requires follow-up on the 27th, we can, you know, punt a response till the third rather than trying to either equivocate or make something up, you know what I mean? Ha, ha, yes, good point, excellent. Amy, you're good for that? Yeah, two meetings is good, yeah. Okay, did I miss anybody? I don't think so, except me. Yes, I think it's a great idea, good. Let's do that. All right, any motion for that, Jamie? Or no, we just, we'll just do it, all right. Yeah, what I will do is, yeah, we'll do it, but I'll write it all up and we'll get it worn and get it out. Good. If we're warning this, don't we need a motion then? If you're gonna. Yeah, because it is a meeting, you're right. Yeah, go ahead and motion and warn those two dates I move we have informational meetings on both, now I've lost my calendar. April 27th. Both the 27th of April and the 3rd of May, both at 6.30 p.m. online via Google Meets. Second. Second, Amy, yeah. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye, aye. I got it. All right, thank you, Carl. These are the kind of things you just know, I really appreciate it. All right, I think you guys are on the public. All right, let me get my list out here, so I'm sure I don't miss anybody. Two, two, two. So public comment, I'll go down our people who are on our video, hold on. Oh yeah, here we go. I'm gonna get my right pass and take you right. We'll go on down and I'll do all the video names and then I'll go by phone numbers. This is comments. If possible, we'll see if we can answer you. Obviously, there's a lot of concern, but we'll work our way through. Good. So I'm gonna start with Beth, Robert Franks has his hand raised. He's the top of the list, so we'll go with you, Robert. Do you have a comment for the board when you are from Rochester, I correct? Is he on? I think he just put himself off. Then we'll wait for him to come back and we'll go to Beth Dolly. Do you have a comment for the board? No, I'm good, I'm just listening. Great, thank you very much Beth. All right, moving down to Kerry McDonald. Do you have a comment for the board? Can you hear me? Yes, Kim, still quiet. Okay. Yeah, I guess I'm just trying to, I mean, I don't know if we will ever know this, but I'm trying to figure out what the driving force is behind the decouple vote in Stockbridge and if the board or anyone out there could provide more information about that. I'm not sure if it's that Stockbridge residents feel that the board hasn't followed through on the goals and concerns of the community or if the residents feel like going alone is really gonna allow them to do what they want with their school in a way that they can't do, can't achieve with Rochester or if there's a lack of information and the residents just don't really understand what the repercussions of decoupling would be or I guess, is there just a large contingency of people who want school choice ultimately? So I don't know if anyone has thoughts on that I guess my feeling is if it's school choice, then I think that it's never gonna be a happy marriage. So that makes it pretty tough. I do have, you know, concerns, big concerns about Rochester trying to maintain a local school. Did I mention I'm a Rochester resident and I have concerns about Rochester maintaining a local school, you know, but without a partner. And while I don't wanna hold Stockbridge hostage, I also feel like decoupling is kind of like a step closer to losing our local elementary schools. I mean, the budget implications are really bleak. What I've seen so far of our 2021 budget is that, you know, we're already at a bare bones budget. We're cutting back FTEs. We're cutting programs that are really meaningful to kids like winter wellness and things like that that have always been part of who we are. So, you know, the budget is already bare bones. I just worry about what our budget would look like if we didn't have a partner in this. I was gonna say too that I am aware that Ripton has reached out to us. And I wonder if partnering with Ripton would, sorry, kids in the background, would impact our SUD budget in a way that would make it more appealing to Stockbridge. I mean, I don't know that that would be something that we would be doing for immediate, you know, immediate budget creation, but I do think that kind of regardless of the reconsideration vote, we should be in conversation with Ripton because it might make a merger more appealing with Stockbridge really. I think that's it. Just a lot of comments. Thank you. Thank you, Kerry. I will say just one bit of information that I've just in the most superficial quick way reached out to a friend who's connected to the Ripton school. And they, while they have had a vote and have, you know, been separated from their SU, they have a process to go through as well to be an independent district in order to be able to hire them on things like that. So while, you know, I have reached out as I've reached out to some of the other potential possibilities we're faced with this, there's a process. They're at the beginning of a process too. A little, probably a little bit farther along, but it's out there. Good. Charity. Oh, I want to say Charity. If you don't mind, Robert Franks is back on. Robert, would you try and put your comments out again? I'm sorry, we lost you before. You did, Ethan. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Thank you. Well, thank everyone for being here tonight. I've been involved intimately with the supervisory union and the school districts of our this district since Mr. Puljasek. And I don't even want to remember the last guy's name, but I will tell you, Mr. Jamie is doing a great job. So I would like everyone present tonight to think about the education of a child, the property taxes, 82% of property taxes in our valley go to the supervisory union. You really need to think about that because young couples that are raising children are not going to choose Rochester or any of these school districts to educate their children. And I would think that Patty Harvey might understand the value of moving into Vermont and having the respect and the confidence of raising children in our school district is going to not cause them to purchase land. So with regards to the last 20 minutes of conversation, it's obvious that the school boards and the what's called the school boards, you're not a marketing company, you're not a communication company and you need help. And we went on for 20 minutes about Excel files, spreadsheets and all this stuff. Can everyone concentrate on the education of a child rather than this minutia? So with regards to the Rochester and the Stockbridge disengagement, there's a major corvass, fundamental corvass. It's like a relationship in a marriage or let's call it that. There's a waste paper basket, there's a trash can and then there's a dumpster. There's a reason why Stockbridge voted no with regards to what is being put forth. There's a reason. So what I'm recommending to everyone here tonight present is that I think that the towns of Rochester and Stockbridge need a mediator to understand what Stockbridge is not happy with and what Rochester wants. It's a very serious thing because it's been eight years of me being involved in school board meetings, watching the disaster that is taking place. And it's very sad to me to know that all this conversation and planning and laws and everything else has to do with the education of a child. And it makes me very sad to be on this tonight to communicate my concerns. So I'm recommending to Jamie, to Ethan, to Amy, to James, whoever to just revisit a relationship with Stockbridge to say what was in the waste basket? What was in the trash can? What was in the dumpster? Because we're going down this path that I think is totally unnecessary. And I truly believe that if there was a mediator to reconcile the transparency between the two towns, we could have a relationship. I was at the school board meeting when Stockbridge came to Rochester. They were gracious, they were invigorating, they were wonderful. So there's a problem in the connection between, let's call it the marriage between these two towns, which is very saddening because I don't think all the work we're doing, Jamie and everyone else has to go down this path of sorting through the dumpster. Let's just mediated, have a meeting, in-person meeting, social distance and say, okay, what is the problem? But the most important thing is educating a child. And I'm not seeing education of a child with everything that we're dealing with tonight. I'm seeing Excel spreadsheets, copy, black and white. No, children don't need that. They just need to be educated. So I hope that maybe the school board can look at what Ripton did this past week and recluse themselves. I drive through that town every week. There were signs on everyone's lawns, let us be free, let us educate our children, let us, they won. And I understand that the supervisory union, thanks to Jamie, well, I shouldn't say thanks to Jamie, there's a good chance that the white river and supervisory union might adopt the Ripton model that I think everyone should take into their hearts. Because I brought this up into a select board meeting in Bethel last week. There's a gigantic elephant in the room. 82% of property taxes in Vermont in our voting district is for the school. Is it a school or is it just a, what is it? So 82%- Robert, I do know we have a lot of other people to get to. So I would ask you if you could, just sum up if you would. I appreciate your points. I don't want to shut you down, but I just, we do have a lot of other people to get to as well. So what to finish up? So 82% of property taxes goes to the school. 58%, 50 to almost 50% of that 82% goes to the school. That is why the town of Bethel is now re-assessing tax base because by the end of the day, they have no money for their salt, they have no money for their sand, and they have to pay the check on June 15th. So it's a wake up call for everyone to understand that people cannot afford, afford the machine. So Ethan, you're asking me to finish in a quick minute because there's other people in line, but I've been through this. It's been eight years of watching what happened. I personally presented what was presented in on the Rochester town park with regards to information I shared from the select or the school boards to the Herald, and they dismissed it. And it's very sad for me to understand and realize that I was right. And I'm not, I don't live on this earth or on this in this state to be right, but they dismissed the information and the information of Ethan, maybe you can help me. It was Pajasic, and then it was, who was that guy's name? I don't remember, I'm afraid. I don't have a memory for that. Well, he was from New Hampshire. He was the head- Mr. Labs. Mr. Labs. He was from New Hampshire. He could care less about the tax rate in Vermont and the school system. He put his office, he put his office on Waterman Street, leased by Lockhees because it was- Robert, you're getting off the track here. Okay, I think you made some good points and I think you should leave over that. I don't think we need to go into the pluses or minuses of the past superintendents. What's your final statement here? That we need to gather and work together? I truly believe that if Rochester could initiate a mediated meeting with the town of Stockbridge to go through the trash and understand why Stockbridge voted no. It surprised the town of Rochester. Rochester was celebrating because they thought they already wanted, but at the end of the day, the vote was no. We don't wanna be involved with Rochester. So that's the big question. Okay, good. No, I- Are you all done? I'm sorry, I thought you were done. You assumed that. Well, I just, I thought you were finishing up. I'm sorry. Again, I'll just say we have a lot of other people to hear from tonight. So we do limit to five minutes total and you've had a good say. Well, I would like you to, Ethan, highlight the points that you thought were what I think should be brought to the select board. I think your idea of a mediation is a very wise one. And I think we'll take into consideration. Well, again, it's like a marriage. And I think that there could be a really good composition of communication delivered to Stockbridge to say, okay, this is what Stockbridge doesn't want. This is what Rochester wants. And figure out what's in the dumpster. Gotcha. Good. Thank you, Ethan. Thank you, Robert. All right, moving on next to Charity. Charity Colton. Good evening, everyone. Just a couple of things. Amy and Carl have both mentioned the idea in different manners of finding a way to not send a mailer to those people that would possibly prefer a digital copy only. I personally think that's a great idea, but I'm wondering if Carl had mentioned there's some legality around that. Rather than saying send one to us, if send me one because I want one, is there an option for people who are, let me rephrase that, is there a legal option for us to put it out there digitally in a way that if you only want a digital copy, please let our town clerks know and or whoever sends this out and get it that way. Would that cover all the bases, but still keep it legal? I don't know the answer to that, but I like their idea of, I mean, I know I personally would rather just have a digital copy and not have the extra stuff. I will keep a digital copy more handy in my computer than a booklet that I have to keep for my kids to draw on. The other thing I wanted to say is, Carrie mentioned reaching out, is there a way to get an idea of what people's views are. I've been really straightforward and honest and transparent about my opinions with all of this. I was part of the AOA committee. I also was in favor of dissolving Carrie did mention a point that it is not my only reason for my decision, but it is a huge factor is that I don't think any of us are unaware that registrations are continuing to dwindle. And for me personally and where I live, a huge factor is the idea of if our school closes, I do want school choice. It is not my only reason for my opinion, but it is a very big part of it. I live in an area where I have chosen to go in the direction of Rutland for a lot of stuff. And I've invested in being able to do that with my children once they get to the next stage of education. So for me, that's part of my, how I base my opinion, but there were 121 people total that opted to dissolve and without reaching out to all of them. And since that's not really known, you can't really know that, I think that's very hard to figure out. And in the past, there have been surveys that have been sent out to try to gauge that information, but I think they have been pre-biased not intentionally, but maybe what's in someone's mind is just wasn't on it as an option to check mark. I think without having an open forum and say, hey, we want to have a open conversation about why people that want to dissolve are coming up with that decision. I don't know how else you would get that and not make people feel uncomfortable about offering up why they're choosing that option. I've been open about mine since a while now. I don't think anyone's unfamiliar with it. So that's why I'm not afraid to say it on here, but I don't think you're gonna find a lot of people of the 121 that are gonna be as open as I am. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Down to Debbie Matthews, Rochester. Hi, Ethan, we're just here to listen. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Debbie. Hallie Mandel, do you have a comment for the board? Not really. I'm not in favor of decoupling and I gather that the board isn't really either. I can kind of tell by your faces and emotions. So thank you guys for looking into this and moving forward in whatever way we choose to move forward. No questions. Thank you. Janet Whitaker, do you have a comment for the board? No, I'm all set. Thank you. Thank you. Jess Arsenault, do you have a comment for the board? No, just listening. Thank you. Thank you. Joanne Mills, do you have a comment for the board? Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Thank you. Okay. You're still there? Oh, shoot. Can you hear me? No, I can hear you. Yep. Okay. I have mixed feelings about this issue as you know. And tonight I've had some conversations with people about a re-vote and I saw on Rochester forum, the comment from someone that said that it was based on gossip or maybe gossip wasn't the word, but that seems a little rough. Surrounding, let's see, rumor mill or Facebook information. And the thing is, on that same Facebook site, everyone hates it, but we were so lucky to have Jenny post the same information that was on the Stockbridge town website. The information was put in the book, the nice book that everyone got for town meeting. I'm not quite sure why when a vote goes one way, people didn't get information. But when a vote goes another way, everyone's educated. So I just would like to put that out there that the information was put out to as many people as possible. And I think there was information possibly even in the newspaper. So before the last information meeting, and I see confused looks on people's faces on here, before the last information meeting, people were saying democracy, democracy is a great thing. Right? Do you remember hearing that or saying that? Who was it that said that I think it might have been Carl? Democracy is a great thing. That was when you asked for board input in the very beginning of the meeting. So I just want you to remember that democracy is a great thing. And elected officials should act upon what the constituents have voted in. And that's my opinion. Thank you. Thank you, Joanne. Joe, I hope I'm pronouncing this right. Pimentel, is that correct? That is correct. I'm just here paying attention. So thank you all for everything you're doing. Have a good night. Thank you, Joe. Okay, Karen Rubin, do you have a comment for the board? I do not, Ethan. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Lori, do you have a comment for the board? I'll take that as a no from Lori. Leslie Rogers, do you have a comment for the board? Yes, hello. Can you hear me? Yes, and sorry, are you, I'm not familiar. Are you Rochester Stockbridge? Stockbridge. Great, thank you. Okay. My children are out of Stockbridge now. They're in Woodstock. And one is out of, in college now. But I do have the means to speak to a lot of parents of students in Stockbridge and some of the teachers as well. And everybody keeps saying how wonderful the transition has been, but every parent that I've spoken to has said that they don't feel that they had any, that the transition using both schools has worked. They don't feel like Stockbridge is getting what they were promised. The teachers have said they tried to work with the other, with Rochester and it hasn't worked. This is the reason why I voted to uncouple, as well as tax implications in the future, especially if you're thinking about adding more and more towns, that means that we're gonna be paying more and more taxes if we keep adding more towns. So when people ask why we wanna separate, quite frankly, things have not come to fruition that were promised. And that's why I voted to uncouple. I think that answers a couple of questions that people had. Thank you. Thank you, Leslie. Mikhail Richardson, do you have a comment for the board? Hi everyone, no comment, thank you. Thank you. Pat Harvey, do you have a, for Rochester, do you have a comment for the board? No, I just barely came into this meeting from the Select Board meeting. So I don't have any comment. I didn't hear anything yet. Great, okay, thank you. Rob Gardner, do you have a comment for the board? No, I don't, but I thank you guys for your service and I'm sorry about the vote. Got you. Tim Pratt, do you have a comment for the board? No, I don't, thanks. Thank you, Tim. Now into phone numbers, 802-star-star-3-8, star-6 to un-mute if you have a comment for the board. Hey Ethan, it's Keith over at Stockbridge. Hi Keith, how are you? Yeah, I'm good, I'm good. Question for you. There was quite a bit of a conversation about the reconsideration vote. Would I be incorrect in assuming that any reconsideration vote would take place after Rochester has their vote? No, according to what Jamie presented us, it actually is, it's the first thing to happen, if it happens, if a petition is gathered and presented to the Stockbridge Select Board, that would be the next thing to happen. But it has to happen within the 30 days window from when the vote took place, March 2nd to April 2nd, that petition has to happen. So that is the next thing. If April 2nd comes and there's no petition, then the next process is Rochester voting. Okay, so in other words, the voters of Stockbridge have to be second guessed before their initial vote is accepted, am I correct? No, I wouldn't say that. I mean, we're working on the idea that we're going ahead as a unified district for this time, it's just that the district hasn't been dissolved yet. The vote has happened, that vote has happened. Correct. Still has to vote and to finish that process. But I wouldn't know. I mean, and maybe it sounds like it, and I could see how it might sound like we're taking it as a done deal that there's gonna be a reconsideration vote and that certainly is not true. Well, it certainly sounds as though the board is really pushing on that effort to push that forward, which I really think is unfair. The second point that I'd like to make, I've made that statement, so you know how I feel. The second question or that I have is I'd like to poll the board who supposedly represents the Stockbridge community as to whether or not they're gonna take into consideration in addition to the quality of education afforded to the children, if they're gonna take into consideration the position of the Stockbridge community. And I'd like to hear from the three board members that represent Stockbridge as to whether or not they're going to take the position that look, our residents have spoken, they have voted to dissolve the district and whether or not they're going to back that position and follow through with that. Fair question. Do our Stockbridge board members wanna respond to that? Sure, I'll start. First of all, reconsideration votes are, it's part of Vermont statute. It's, I believe, and Justine would probably know a little bit more than me, because she's the legal person, but it's more of an artifact of town meeting to allow the decision that gets made to be reconsidered by the community. So technically, the voters of Stockbridge have not yet spoken, they'll have spoken when either, was it 5% of the electorate sign a reconsideration petition and that gets accepted and that vote gets held. And that, you cannot reconsider or reconsideration votes. What's not an endless process. But once that has either been submitted and resolved or as Ethan points out, the window closes, then you can technically say that the voters of Stockbridge have legitimately spoken. I personally, I opposed the decoupling of vote. I think that, as I said at the meeting, I think that our town is better for being part of a school. I think that they can't close the Stockbridge school without the support of the Stockbridge voters. That's in the articles of agreement. So I'm not as worried about losing, that Rochester's going to take our school away. I'm more concerned that the legislature will do something around teacher ratios or something like that, that will force our hand. But personally, I happen to believe that our town is better for having a school in it. All right, but Carl. Keith, hold your comment, please. Let's get through the rest of the board. No, but I want to address something that Carl had said and that is a little disturbing. I understand Carl's personal view, which he's entitled to, but as a board member, he has to represent the Stockbridge community, not his personal view. Okay, fair enough. Justine, do you have a comment for Keith? Yes, I do. I'm not surprised about the vote results. The one reason that I want to say that I do support a reconsideration is that I did have several conversations with parents just prior to the vote. And there was a lot of confusion and they hadn't attended the informational meeting, which is what it is, but the several conversations I had were kind of insecure and confused and unsure how to vote. So I know certain positions of folks who have attended meetings regularly, but I feel like there's a lot of voices that have not been heard or maybe folks haven't tuned in as much as they maybe wish they had before they were about to vote for this. So in hearing the voices of Stockbridge, I do believe that a reconsideration would make a clearer indicator as to what the views of the voters want based on the conversations I had right before the vote. Okay, Justine, but you haven't answered my question to the Stockbridge electees. What's your intention? Will you back what the constituents of Stockbridge have voted for? I can't see any reason why I wouldn't. I just am unsure that the vote that has happened is based on everyone's true knowledge of the situation based on my conversation. So yes, my intention to support the Stockbridge voters and that is my intention, but I support the reconsideration that I've explained that already. Okay, so if there is a reconsideration vote and the vote still goes in favor of dissolution, you will look to dissolve the district. Am I clear in that or am I mistaken? Good question. That is a good question. I have taken a position where I have spoken for voters. That's how I feel. That's why I wanted to join the school board because I wanted to help voices be heard. And if I can feel like I'm accurately representing the voices, then yes. Okay, so you will decide to vote in favor of dissolution if that is how Stockbridge, even after a reconsideration vote, decides to go. I just want to be clear and I want everybody on the record. So I want to know that my representatives from Stockbridge are representing Stockbridge. Yes. Okay, thank you. Jenny, do you care to comment on Keith's? Yeah, I think in terms, I agree with Justine in terms of some confusion. I spoke with one Stockbridge Central School. Well, I guess not literally spoke, but had a discussion with one Stockbridge parent today that honestly, she really had no clue of what is going on and I'm not going to point any fingers at anyone, but this is a person that's very active in the school, the PTO and she didn't have a clue of what was going on. So I think there's definitely confusion out there in terms of unmerging and how we would vote. I mean, I've already put out there that I'm not running for another term. So I'm kind of a short timer here up in May, but in terms of representing Stockbridge, it wasn't a slam dunk of merged versus unmerged. I think it was 45% to 55% approximately. So when we say we're representing Stockbridge, there's not, I guess I can't answer that question. There's not just one opinion out there. It's not 90% of Stockbridge that's saying to earn to unmerge. So it's kind of a complicated question I think because there's not just one opinion out there and each of us on the board, we all have different opinions. And I think this board, I think that we've had some great discussions and we've had disagreements. And I think that that's good. I think Ethan said it before that, that's how we get stuff done is just working through it. And that probably doesn't answer your question, but I think that's the best that I can answer it at this time. Well, I guess my question is very simple. It's just I wanna know that at the end of the day, whether it be 51% to 49% or 90% to 10%, I wanna make sure that the representatives who represent me as a resident of Stockbridge will respect my vote and my fellow residents and back that up. That's all I'm asking. It doesn't matter whether it's 90, 10 or 51, 49. It you have to represent the constituents. So I'm just asking and polling. I wanna make sure that that's what your intentions are. It's a very simple question. It's either yes, I'm going to vote the way the constituents of Stockbridge want me to vote or no, I'm gonna listen to my own opinion and vote the way I want. That's all I wanna know. Jenny, you have a further comment? No, I think that's, I had a comment, but I forget what it was, so I'm all set. Okay. Thank you, Keith. Thanks, Ethan. All right, we're down to phone number 802-star-star-4-3. Star-6 to unmute if you have a comment for the board. Please identify yourself. Okay, not hearing anything. I'll move on to 802-star-star-5-0. Star-6 to unmute and identify yourself, please if you have a comment for the board. Okay, 802-star-star-9-1. Please identify yourself and unmute if you would like to have a comment for the board. Hi, Ethan, it's Caitlin McKinsey. How are you tonight? Eileen, thank you, good. So I'm a Stockbridge resident. I'm pretty sure I just have some comments. I'm very baffled as to why people come on these meetings and say they don't understand why Stockbridge wants to unmerge. And Charity's right. Yeah, there are some reasons that are individual. She goes to Rutland for us, where we live over on 107. Bessel and Barnard are closer to us than Rochester is. It's also a much safer road for us to travel. That's also which way we go for work. But there are a lot of commonalities and a lot of people don't haven't dug in to really read the documentation and listen to hours upon hours of meetings and listen to all the bickering and arguing and standing up to people. And it really, a lot of it comes down to is the act that was just passed. We weren't able to actually pick our representation for our three spots on the board. Our K-6 isn't protected. Yes, our school needs the approval of the town to be shut down, but that doesn't mean the board doesn't hold the power to shift grades. They could make it just a preschoolist if they wanted. And because the board of ed only protected and made sure that it was K-6 through the first year. And with the board that was put, they're the panel that was put together with Charity and Tim and Ethan and Justine, they were trying to get our school board to be able to involve the public in that decision-making. So we could actually choose to keep our school K-6 set, but board members refused to work with that at all. And now that board is no longer in existence because the school board didn't wanna move forward on majority of their recommendations for my understanding. So this agreement that was made, it's supposed to be a marriage. It's got two parties in it, but we have one party that's displayed to the other. And it's the fiscally conservative town is the slave to the other school because they can outvote us, they have more people. And we have just about zero decision-making power. And it seems that the people who stand out are ridiculed, are called mean. The people who throw this information out, it's absolutely ridiculous how people talk about them. There's threats that have happened, there's arguments that happen, that bring in people's character, and it's not about that at all. And it's just when facts are put out there. And unless they're in support of the merger, people are being berated and pushed down even by the school board. I know the school board has nicknames for people. It's come out, it's been talked about through the grapevine. And that's why a lot of people won't come out publicly because of that. There are people who refuse to come out publicly because they're afraid it'll affect their business. Like this is a community that we live in. We are in this agreement and it's not an agreement. There were promises that were unfulfilled. We have borderline zero decision-making power. And then we have all these Rochester residents come on and are just baffled by why we wanna get out of this merger. As if any of our conversations, our debates, and it doesn't matter how many facts we dig up, doesn't matter how much we present information, doesn't matter how much we source, people are still surprised at why so many people wanna get out of this merger. And I agree with an earlier comment or is that whenever something comes up like this, like a vote or polls, it's never taken for what it is. The last polling you did, Megan brought up that, oh, well, we didn't have a lot of participants. Oh, well, you know, this vote, we can have another vote to contest it. When are we gonna accept a decision that is made by Stockbridge against the merger as an actual decision? Every decision that we have tried to make is questioned. It's either turned over or it's disregarded, but we're still asked why we want to get out of the merger. So the reasons are immense, why Stockbridge should get out of the merger. It's a horrible agreement. It was shoved together in just a matter of weeks and Stockbridge has no control over anything. The divorce clause isn't even a real divorce clause. Stockbridge still needs Rochester's approval to get out regardless. So I would really encourage those people who claim that they were just so confused over the vote and they were just had no idea about it. The information is there, it's out there. I know I found it, I dug. Do you know how many articles I've read? How many hours I've listened to stuff? It's there, it is there and the vote was held. People got out and talked about it. If people don't know what's going on, I'm not sure how they can be helped or informed unless you take them by the hand and give them every single piece of information. It's time to be adults. There was a vote, there was a result. When is it ever gonna be good enough? That Stockbridge is unhappy. When is it ever gonna be a good enough reason? That's all I have to say. Thank you, Caitlin. Star, sorry, nine and four. Star, six to unmute. Sheba, oh, sorry. We have some comment, Jenny and Megan first actually and Jenny. No, my name was brought up and not exact. I'm good actually, thank you. Okay, good. Jenny, do you have a comment? Yeah, I guess I have a few things going through my mind. Kayla, I'm not sure who you're referring to in terms of bored, belittling people or not wanting people to agree with us. Like I respectfully disagree with that statement. I think that, I don't know, I think that we are listening and I think that we are being respectful so I'm not sure where that's coming from. I know I personally have been berated on social media for being on the board and it's not easy in terms of the AOA committee and that the board's not doing anything about those things. I would like to point out that there's a couple items on that list that simply they're not legal. There's things on there that we can't legally do. If there's some way around that, then that would be great. We've gotten legal input on a couple of them and I've sent Ethan sent around to the board getting input on those items and I sent it back to him as quickly as I could. And I, lastly, I'd like to point out, I know people talk about how Rochester can always outvote Stockbridge but there's been two votes in the last year including it this past town meeting day. Stockbridge had more voters on this town meeting day. I forget the actual numbers but significantly more Stockbridge voters than Rochester voters. So yes, Rochester can outvote Stockbridge but that doesn't mean that all the voters are coming out. That's not what the data says. Stockbridge's town meeting day had significantly more voters than Rochester. Sorry, and thank you, Jenny. Megan, did you have another comment? Oh, okay, I'd like to get through, I'll write you down but I'd like to get through the rest of the callers if I could before we go back. So Caitlin, I believe you were starting on 9-1, 8-02, start starting 9-4. If you have a comment for the board, start 6-2 on mute. Okay, I'm not seeing any action on 9-4. 8-02, start, start 9-5. Start 6-2 on mute and please identify yourself if you have a comment for the board. Yeah, this is Brenda and Harvey Downs, we're just listening, thank you. Okay, thank you, Brenda. All right, Carrie, you had another comment? Yeah, can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Yeah, I just wanted to say real quickly that I think we have to keep in mind, I know it often goes to discussions. Okay, Carrie, you're getting quite far in. I think we have to go towards finger pointing and got just to do this and backwards to that and I think we have to keep in mind that all of this is fallout on Act 46. And none of us have any decisions around passing of that legislation and you're all doing our best. And I think especially our board members are really doing the best job that they can do through a very complicated process. And I think it's totally fair for Stockbridge to have their opinions and Rochester to have their opinions. But I would just encourage us to remember that this was never an ideal situation from the get go. And I've been really pleased with how well our board has come together and how hard they've worked on really big issues. I mean, I know we're still working through the high school building issue, but if all things considered, we've made a lot of progress really quickly. So I just wanted to say that, that I feel like we're all just doing our best here. Megan, did you have another comment you wanted? I do want to say something because I'm just gonna, I'm not sitting here on this board as a proponent of Act 46. Kerry said it exactly. We were all trying to clean up legislation that was very difficult. They haven't been easy choices. And I really was very optimistic. And I know that people think that the board, just push aside the articles of agreement committee and what we wanted to get, what you guys were working on. I can't have that be the fact, because that's not the fact. We are agendas have been so past and they deserve to be discussed, not in a discussion item, in a line of seven discussion items we're gonna work on. We need to take time. I think there's still room to improve our articles of agreement. And I hope that we will get that opportunity to work together, because I worry greatly for both of our schools. When I moved here 16 years ago, there was still the Granville School, there was still the Hancock School, Rochester still had a high school and a middle school. And here we are two of the five Quintown communities with two elementary schools up. If you're not worried about the viability and just working together and being able to share the cost and the ability to cooperate, we are missing out on giving our kids education locally in this town and this valley. And I just hope that we can continue these conversations. I think there is more work to do. And I know that people don't think the divorce clause means anything, but we discussed the five year period actually during the study committee because we knew three years and we talked about it, would be too short. And here we are and we have not even finished our third year of this merger. So I would just like to hope that we would give it more time because the outcomes are very long term for a short time. So I just, I thank everybody that contributes to the schools and I thank our administration and I thank the board for still going at this for so many years of hardship. All right, I think we're done with public comment on this point. We have- Hey, Ethan, am I allowed to respond? Yeah, sure, absolutely. I just wanna say as a parent of a toddler living in a school district whose future is very unsure, I can tell you a hundred percent, I'm thinking about my daughter and I'm thinking about her education, which is why I'm participating, which is why I'm pushing for this school. So that my daughter isn't gonna have to ride the school bus on that road to Rochester every morning and be on there for half hour or so. I'm doing this to make sure she gets a good education. I'm doing this as a taxpayer who pays majority of our taxes to a school where we don't have very much option. Yes, you wanna point out that Stockbridge had more voter participation in the past votes. That's because people aren't super happy with how it's gone. That's why there's that much participation. And I'm also thinking of this as people who have a business in the area. I'm thinking about this as somebody who's wondering if it's a better idea to move to a different school district than to deal with this arguing all the time. So yes, I do think about that. I do think about the education, the arguments of, oh, talk about all the merger, but you don't talk about the education part. As a community, it's our job to look out for our school. And if our school tanks and goes down, it's our decision as parents where to go next. Being forced to condense into one building, not having a choice of where our grades are moved, that's not acceptable. Not acceptable as a parent, not acceptable as a taxpayer. Caitlin, can I respond to that? One point is that we have affirmed, and I know in public session as a board, that we would not do that ever, consolidate a class without public comment and public involvement. Is that in writing in an agreement somewhere? No, that was not something we put in agreement. You're right. That was one thing we didn't write down, but we have stated it publicly and it's certainly as chairman, I would never make allow that decision or support that decision by the board. So that's what happened with the merger. There were promises like that made to Stockbridge that didn't come to fruition. So things like that need to be in writing before they're actually accepted as real and truthful. No offense, Ethan, you have done a fabulous job. You have been straight with us quite frankly. You're from Rochester and you're one of the first people to stand up for Stockbridge. Who does to you? But due to the history of this agreement, it needs to be in writing. It needs to be an actual legal finding agreement before me and I'm sure several others will accept it as that's how it's going to be because that's what we've been told over several items, several things that no, that's not actually how it is. Even though we were told it was going to be like that. Mm-hmm. Gotcha. Thank you. Thank you. Janet Whitaker, I saw you raised your hand. Yes, Janet Whitaker, I'm a Stockbridge resident. So I'm speaking on behalf of the Stockbridge and I do feel like a lot of people from Stockbridge tonight have spoken against staying together as a merged school. And it does seem like the louder you speak, the more people listen. So I couldn't keep my hand down. I felt like Keith Spillacky was badgering the board and I think that's super unfortunate. The board has to do what the voters choose no matter the percentages. So that's very disturbing. I understand and respect people's personal choices for wanting school choice, but you keep saying that we have no say. You go to school choice. I'm not sure that you're going to have a whole lot of say either because you're not going to have, you're not going to have this kind of forum to talk on. I go to school every day. I work there. Maybe I'm biased, but I agree with the comment that it's only three years into the merger. I see a lot of really positive things happening with these kids. Even if it is divided and there's kids in Rochester of the upper grades or kids in the lower grades or vice versa and they have to ride bus, it's still closer than having to get them transported to another school. And there's advantages to having larger classes all the way through. I just really, I hope that we do get to have a re-vote and I do hope I'm sure that people are gonna become more educated because there has been confusion. And one other quick point is this year has been a very unusual year for voting. I think there was with the pandemic and the way that the meeting, the town meeting when last Tuesday, it was harder to understand maybe how to vote. And that's not, you know, that people shouldn't be involved, but people are busy. So I just wanna say as a Stockbridge resident, I hope we don't unmerge not at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Janet. All right, I'd say we're done with public comment. Thank you all very much for your comments on this. Very important issue. I will, having no other business, entertain, we have our next meetings, our regular meeting, I believe, correct? And thank you, Leslie, for your comment. Thanks to school board for all our time. Let's entertain a motion to adjourn. A move we adjourn. Second. Seconded by Amy. All in favor. Sync by me. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.