 Somebody with pink shirt on is coming down the library hall all the way so that you know Then how to kind of direct what you're going to do and make your decisions as opposed to just like that kind of sit and wait And hopefully everything will be alright, so it kind of allows you to be aware like okay Somebody's in the library or whatever. We're going to head out this way, so it stands for alert lockdown in one choice So it's not saying lockdown is not a choice anymore, but it's One of the choices if that's what that teacher group of people make a decision to do So inform is that getting over the loudspeaker and kind of informing everybody what's going on or across the hallway and then See for counter, so that would be if you are in a room It's hard to be you know, it's emotional, but it's the reality of things So if you are in a room how to take care if there is an active shooter and the research You know around that how it gives you the tools to kind of Be able to deal with that and that's the part where I get really and then evacuated is really one of the most easiest way to Take care of things and they found that in those situations those are the kids that survived It didn't follow that lockdown rule they ran so And how to run and where to go there's like media places and So for me I feel like as a teacher it was really empowering We have a key through eighth school and it's you know, you're starting out the little guys so It's not it's done in an emotionally sound way. You know, it's really emotional anyway So, yeah, if you want to share the written information We'd be happy to look at it It seems to me I had not heard of this so that's useful. It seems to me that this is a Sort of administrative question of what protocol we're going to use how we're going to train students and staff but if it is in fact a board matter as I mentioned before it's going to be left to the Unified Board and George Scott are members of that What I can gather from it is not Super expensive to implement as an online training and Just the low level of it is that beginning of the year teacher training where you're just doing certain hours That gives you kind of just information and then there is that component of having somebody come in that's trained in it Which I feel like was even more helpful and kind of like having those discussions with you you know other staff and I think so anyway Thank you very much to your friend important topics so what so I think it'd be important for me to come to the next Yeah, but could you have what's coming up? I Starts with chair. Yeah, I'm I'm sort of um continuing to absorb I'm interested in this I don't know if we'll be able to I there will be a a lot of working through priorities um over the next few weeks and seeing There we are so What I can do is just Take this and present it at our next regular meeting which would be the 26th of june of the of the merge board and Make my fellow board members aware of it And then we can you know have it as an as an open issue to um to discuss with the administration during that time And with the new superintendent as well because it's the new superintendent who would have to you know, basically implement this One of the piece of information I saw on there was that if there were it was an event and you haven't had all the best practices in place to um reliable so Like kind of and it's is saying that lockdown is kind of not best practice anymore. It's a piece of the possible piece of the solution, I guess so That was something I didn't know until I looked at this stuff. So Okay. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yeah Okay All right, uh, next up is approval of minutes. So page three is the minutes from Okay, is there a motion here for minutes? Sure Any comments good All those in favor say aye. Aye Any opposed Thank you very much Okay, that brings us to 3.1 student renewal energy renewable energy presentation Jen Kurtz has requested some time. So welcome. Thank you. My name is Jen Kurtz and as an independent study I've decided to get us back on renewable energy after we Exited a renewable dam contract a couple years ago So I did some research and I found that Buying renewable energy credits from an external source is the best option for our school And I reached out to Greenland and solar. Here's Vector and he can tell you more about what they do and Tell you how it works. Thank you. Here it is. How you doing? I mean some copies for you that I didn't know how much As uh, I don't want to take too much of your time because I know you're probably running late, but um Basically we have entered into deals with schools all around the state of Vermont There's a reference list. I think on the last page I'll get you on So basically we We permit solar fields off-site from From schools and municipalities and anywhere in gmp, which I believe all of your schools are in Dreamount power district and it's big space big virtual So we can put a field anywhere in the Dreamount power vicinity and put the credits on your bill And is everybody familiar with net metering in the room? Do I need to go deep into that or some So net metering is basically we produce credits and renewable energy credits on the fields that we uh Develop and those renewable energy credits now get retired to the utility to meet their Um requirements and the actual credits that we produce get put on a bill and the school pays that bill and keeps percentage of it so in this case we did look at your bills and you have the ability for 500 kw And with a 10 savings is typical. We still have to do a little more digging But i'm just gonna broad overview to save quite a bit of money over a 20 year period with uh three five year extensions um Jen and I have been going back and forth to to see what the best case scenario for the school and we believe that You know no money, you know no risk and you get to save money on your bills for 20 years is a pretty good deal We have facilities all over we have about 15 megawatts in Different stages of development right now in dream out power and brahman electric co-op utility areas So there are opportunities to get placed on them the agreement that we would enter is called the net metering agreement And it is basically a service PPA if you want to call it what we call the net meter agreement was a Authored by the montly cities and towns um, so it's a document we've Transacted on all over with all different schools and school districts. We just Have the entire school district Essex Supervisory union signed up for all of their schools with us Um a couple months of I think four months ago three months ago now so there's a lot of your your uh Little schools that are already working with us and I can give you references and people that i'm sure you talk to and do business with That are aware of us and or are saving a lot of money and I I can go much further But it's a it's not a whole conversation. I just want to introduce myself and All the hard work jet is done to this point to get to get to Understanding how it works because it's a not an easy one the way the state set up the net meter credit system Is a kind of a a heady concept because we're not selling power We're producing credits and involving third parties to help pay for the systems So if there's any questions, I can stop there. Um, I can go on and on I know you guys just came out and you're going through a merger too. I see so that's a pretty heady You're sort of in the same boat as our previous guest. You're you're explaining to a board that's About to dissolve. Yeah, right But there are a couple members that are on the new board and and you know, it's Yeah, they take a lot of time and ultimately the better the better deal is if we can enter the whole new district and see if there's any You know, because the the rules for that meeting just got changed with the merge districts now You can go up to a megawatt So there's there's definitely more opportunity because of the merger as far as you know What's available? But I guess the biggest thing for us is to try and Jen's working with The billing to get all the bills for the for the district so that we can crunch through on teaching them how to How to look at all of that? It's a great math problem, but it's a it's a very It's a tricky one. So ultimately we would we'd love to work with the the new district or However, it's called. I don't know. How are you guys going to label it? The the name I think the name is generally not much liked At the moment, so it's going to be six board meetings to come up with a name. Probably. Yeah So I have a question. Yeah Do you have any sense of where the solar panels would actually be located? Yeah, so all of our fields right now are in gravel pits brownfields Some rooftop some parking lot canopies We pretty much have done it all so far so Ultimately it depends on when the school would sign the net meter agreement It would be paired with whatever The development cycle is of the project that we're actually putting on at this point It's so early in the process. If you guys said I could have a document sign in the month I could tell you which field today we would put you on You know if it did go that fast that'd be great. We could put you on one immediately But I don't know what your time constraints and how your decision-making process goes So we don't really know either It's a municipality's flow kind of process. No, I understand so I just one question where we had explored the possibility of having a canopy system Over our parking lot. Yeah, now is that that's something we do. Yes. Yes So you guys work with those kinds of projects as well. Oh, yes. Yeah, definitely and we have the financing We're an in-state company from Vermont. I went to mount man's field school. I got my daughter's school in Cambridge elementary is is net metering off of the Cambridge town and dump So we've done a lot of projects to help schools out and you'll see the list of references So Jed look look at the canopy I did like we don't have enough room in our campus to fully support the power usage We were told that we could do a 500 500 kw I can look at it the the biggest issue with the canopy systems is the cost per watt And the right it's a it's a more expensive system because it's gotta be And unfortunately for schools, they can't take advantage of the tax credit So there's no ownership model as far as the school. I mean, I mean they can but it's it's it's tough The canopies are tough still, you know, just just cost per watt as far as making projects work But we're I'll look at all if that's where you want to lean towards I could definitely we had done some preliminary work on that A little over a year ago. I'll look at it model it for sure That's another math probably Jed It sounds like typically these projects are off-site But I think there is some probably educational value to having them on site and if you can you know protect yourself from the elements Yeah, certainly and there's definitely some uh, you know, there's some benefit to having it on site The liability for for cars and kids financing insurance on kids parking under structures Is really entertaining, but that's that's uh, we'll look at it So tell me about just the green green lantern solar itself. Where are you guys based? So based out of Waterbury, Vermont We're uh, probably at this point Close to 10 to 15 people And then a bunch of subcontractors. So we're we're all we're all locals. We just did uh, I myself permitted a Uh 30 acre with my brother A 30 acre solar site for green mountain power with a tesla battery So it's one of their microgrid projects that we just are completing right now So we've we've done everything from from, you know, a 75 kw to, you know, the 4.7 megawatt with the batteries So we're we've done quite a bit of work We we brought the albury nuclear missile base I think my brother and I were the first people to develop that into solar Took a one megawatt and lindenville Through the brella program first solar project to go through a brella program. So we've done quite a bit of Heavy lifting and we're doing a lot of landfills too, so it's a it's always a challenge permanent challenges, which we we take on on point We strive to make, you know, negative sites are harder to work with but better for people. So To not argue against it's you know, it just makes sense. So it's it's um Yeah And um places that would never use the land. I mean the they would just they're not either allowed to in a lot of town dumps So it's even remain there forever. So why not put solar on top? Okay? Well, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, jeff. Yeah More con as far as contact people and your new board scott. Uh, yeah of the Right there as well george. Okay. So cool. So an engine has your contact. Yeah. Yeah, okay Oh, thank you. Cool. Um, that's pretty much it. Yeah. Um, thank you Thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah Okay, let's move on 3.2 proficiency. I agree. Nice. Yeah, take care of efficiency based graduation requirements college information Yes Stephen, I remember you announced this last time I just told you I would bring you some info So, um, so what I brought to you this is a draft and I think I've shared but I'm not 100 sure This is a draft of the school profile that we're using for Colleges next year. There's still changes to be made to this So I keep saying the word draft so that you will hear me enough times to understand that this is a draft All right, and um, and so this is being set out. We also have a, um In in the past I have often offered a cover letter for some of our kids who've done some other programs that needed their transcripts evaluated And uh, and what we added or what we will have for our kids next year is kind of a blanket Letter of recommendation that they can submit with their colleges that just explains that The proficiency system became mandatory in vermont in 2013 for the class of 2020 Kind of some general pieces of what it is And also just some notes to any admissions counselor that says that And we'll refine this language a little bit more but that That there is some early scores tend to be lower than later scores And that's the product of the proficiency system as you get better at things your scores go up And um, and so, um We're going to do that as well as Uh putting in contact information directly So if you have more questions about this as you're considering our students now on top of all of this, um There are over 70 colleges and universities throughout new england who have already signed on to say that proficiency based transcripts Will not dissipate these kids in any way. This includes big schools like MIT and and some of the ivies in new england And so uh, so we've already also vetted that form with some of our college recruiters as they came for college fair So they gave us some feedback on it as well because things that would help them as they looked at it But they Said the same things which is we evaluate a lot of transcripts with a lot of differences on them And uh, and if you show that your kids are learning and you show that they're taking Those that are The more competitive the schools that you apply to the more competitive your transcript needs to be so it needs to have Those higher level AP classes and things like that And it also you need to have good SAT scores or ACT scores and you have good recommendations There's no single one thing that gets you into college anymore. There's a there's a wealth of stuff But we've also talked to our school counselors and next year they're going to uh, be making a lot more phone calls to recruiters to Try to you know as kids start saying here's the college I want to go to is just making people aware of what's coming their way So that if they have questions we get to them before they look at the transcripts and look and talk to the kids And so so we're going to make uh, we're that that's the beginning that will uh form as the beginning of the process But it's just the tip of the iceberg for getting kids in the schools next year So I just kind of wanted you guys to know that we weren't waiting People already reached out to colleges and we've actually made some calls across the country because we had a couple of kids that said I'm thinking about like california schools or things like that And california is not a place that's been thinking about proficiency. And so Their response was almost to a person. It's the same We see a lot of transcripts with a whole lot of different systems and we evaluate them all as they come Your school profile will help us understand that It's pretty standard response. It's good to hear to be correct. Yeah. Yeah Well, I want you guys to know so when you get questions from, you know, community members like we're not waiting to see what happens We're actively pursuing I've gotten from a number of different sources the um The observation that in the first semester of the senior year when Students are applying to college very often Their programs are heavily loaded So that they feel as though they're squeezed in the in the application process as opposed to you know In in in some schools they they kind of make space for They incorporate in in some respects the college application process into the curriculum So that for example essay writing and other other forms of of Getting the application going are a more You know dovetail more easily with with the rest of the school requirements That's true here. It's so so in the um in the english classes the writing classes They start some of those college essays Do some of that work and we also incorporate it into our callbacks and so the kids are brought into callback With their school counselors to go through some of the process as well So we try to incorporate some of the process in as well We're also working on that personalized learning plan document the checklist that came with the the junior There's a junior guide that you get I can't I'm sorry. I can't apply for the english though Well, I know for the college process. There's that uh like a college planning guide. I'm sorry. I can't I don't remember. I don't remember either, but we have like a call back your school counselor schedules you to come for a call back and you go and they go through like a very basic checklist of if you if College is the next step that you want to take the steps that you should be taking right? We're expanding that idea of that checklist because kids that I spoke to were like this was helpful you know like refrigerator helpful kind of stuff for some kids and um, we thought why aren't we doing this for Multiple pathways in general so early on if a kid in their freshman year says hey, I'm thinking about the tech center That we actually have oh well Here's a good checklist of things that you need to think about now That that will help you then just like in your junior year Here's the checklist of things you need to think about towards college We're like, okay, maybe we need to be developing these more robustly for each of the years because That gives both ta's teachers and kids a chance to talk about what do you need to be doing? Gives parents a refrigerator ready checklist if that's what they so desire And it just you know just adds a little more Communication for that any of those processes. So if you say that hey, I'm interested in the pilot program What does what should you do early on if I'm interested in early college? What should I be doing in my freshman and sophomore years? And and making those much more visible Okay, any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Let's move on to 3.3. We've got a letter on page seven from the Teachers of the How do you pronounce that Eremus? Eremus forth I don't know people that just to look at it. We just wanted to receive the email. Yes a while ago Yeah, I don't remember exactly So People have thoughts about it And we might respond Thoughtful letter Couldn't hear that perspective I get what you're saying I mean, there's a lot of agreement right in terms of what we're trying to accomplish it's Not like we take the Budgeting decisions lightly But we hadn't you know said a A goal to preserve the licensed classroom teachers So based on the population the returns in the fall It's there is the possibility that You know this need arises with the student and Fill it Yeah, so I mean we know that this changes that kids move in, you know in the summer and in the fall and So, I mean it's not like it's the summer one thing first. So so george is right We already know of an additional need for next year and we have to recall one of the people that we already said So so there is some recall already associated with with the student needs that come in I think in general what is kind of being lamented is that we've had some pair of professionals who were not assigned to a Particular student, but we're just what you call a floater And that's not necessarily our best use Personnel when we do have multiple needs From our kids who are here class sizes are in the 20 to 22 student range And so, you know, if we have students that are in there who Who do need additional help? Bill's been working on this almost constantly in the last Yeah Yeah, so the scenario you described where we have a para educator assigned to a general ed Environment yes, they're there To support special ed students, but they would be remiss if they weren't helping all students And the question when he comes is that Uh a fair thing to tack on solely onto a special ed budget And I think that's something that's grown and something has become more prevalent And that's for you guys to decide whether or not that's that's a fair expense To attribute solely to a special ed budget when they're helping out in the general ed environment So I ask you guys to think about that particular question And then George you say, yeah, I fully anticipate there's going to be a new family that moves in Over the summer. It's a long time between now and the end of august and Our needs will definitely change. They've changed every summer I've been What is the district management council? So the DMG group was hired first by the state but also some districts to to look at their practices and Particularly around special education and and both spending and funding One of their they came up with several recommendations, and I'm sorry. I can't say those aren't the top of my head, but one of the one of the recommendations within it is that Your students are taught by a highly qualified or or you know highly trained individual and some of our Paras are not in that category They are more for for emotional or Academic support, but they're not necessarily someone's trained to be a teacher And so I and I don't want that to come across as they're not highly qualified people in some areas So we do have we do have some paraprofessionals who Who work with students with high need Both physically and and emotionally and those people are trained for that particular role They're not necessarily trained in all the educational roles that that student needs And so So the DMG group recommends and and I think I don't mean to step in on you One of the things that the DMG group showed was that Vermont has over Quite some time now increased the numbers of paraprofessionals who are delivering educational Um Teaching to students more so than almost any other state in the union. I think we rank. Yeah, pretty much the highest Yeah, and Why is that? Um, I My own perspective. I think there was an expediency to it I think that when you looked at an individual student's need that it made some sense at one point in time To provide them with an adult support that was there constantly Yeah, oh, yeah, the funding model is definitely Right, and um, and I mean we we've adopted the idea that we would rather have a certified teacher delivering the education to the students As not, you know But our paraprofessionals are a great help to us for some of our students. Um, who have the highest needs But we would prefer to have classroom teachers when all possible so here's what I'm thinking that Be respectful to respond Think thank the teachers acknowledge where we have agreement explain our priority in the last round of budgeting and then Say that we'll ask the new unified board to consider the appropriate level of paraprofessional support Oh, yeah, that makes sense. Thank you dad I would expect nothing less Well, yeah, and I think I mean my my view of it too is given the the transitional nature of everything right now with respect to governance and other schools are going to be run over time that Making additional staffing or significant changes to staffing is probably not wise Well, there's also some things I would point out the advantage of the unified union school district in this scenario Is in the past when a student has moved from an elementary school u 32 with That support and when it's when it's really needed that one-to-one that position Would be removed from the elementary budget and added to our budget to show an increase for us and a decrease for them When that person followed the student between the two and so some of our budget increases Occurred because a student left an elementary school and came to us with the same needs And that made no sense that our budget would have to increase when the town has really already been paying for it You know, so so that that once we have The unified budget that person just stays on the budget. We don't increase it or decrease it Right, you don't see it school to school swing, which is an advantage and it's also an advantage when We have students who enter and exit the district We have an employee that can move between schools from a student who leaves to a student comes No matter which school they're at and those are things that we were not able to do very Okay, he's not easily or not at all and so, you know, there are some advantages To to the system. And so that's definitely one of them for us Okay, let's keep moving 3.4 naming of the u 32 track So I first heard about this topic about 3 years ago and now that we have an impending new track Okay, notice the construction. So there's changing already up on the dirt line We told them they could have it 5 minutes after everybody got here in graduation There is a thought to name our new track Maybe the best person to have introduced this topic would be I'd be happy to So I think I'm the person bringing it forward because as well. I'm still a school board member I can appreciate how boards operate And my thought was what a board Instead of hundreds of people and bringing in baskets of Letters and and petitions and all that stuff To hear more of a single request or request from a single voice And I had talked to Kari and Maybe Scott and I talked to a few board members about why now instead of later And my thinking and bringing it before this board while it still existed Was that perhaps there would be a better historical perspective And as we get a new board with new members and and there are members on that board that have No School board experience and their parents of very young children Who are only at the elementary level and they not have a historical knowledge of And we're talking about mark chaplain had historical knowledge of his Contradictions good just of mark So he's been a long-serving member of the educational and the athletic Part of u32 Would be up to the board if they were considering what different aspects but from an athletic aspect Um Very highly respected not just within the school not just within the state, but Yeah, certainly at the new England level as well And I think probably a lot nationally from the athletes that have gone out And the timing of a new track If there are a lot of community members and students And staff that feel this is a worthy recognition Of a long-serving very successful Track coach at u32 So that's what my request is I just want people to understand. I'm not trying to suggest there's millions of people behind here Is They're interested that this received due Consideration of what many people feel is a An individual worthy of this type of recognition Dad did you come here to speak to this? I came here for this issue. So thank you. Do you want to say something? No, I just I just find it Astounding that there is a coach at this school who has been doing what he is doing for 45 years. I mean where Where does this happen anymore that It feels like that's an older model, you know So I My son Nathan graduated last year. He went through track and cross country all four year all since middle school I have a freshman Jillian whose track in cross country and Mark's just been an amazing force He's quieter. It seems these days but His dedication and loyalty and I mean at the sports bank, which he was speaking about the statistics going back 45 years on kids and the top Kids like he has this top 10 list based on stats and he just was rattling on about it. I just was You've done that Anyway, I fully support the track being named in honor of Mark Jacqueline He is still with us and we are lucky So what do people think? I I love the idea the the one we talked about this on friday card my my one I possible addendum is um Kathy you can't think of of mark without thinking of a catholic topic and If it would be worth sort of hyphenating the name both because of kathy's own contributions which For For the growth side, I think are significant. I would defer to to you. I think kathy's step back more lately But uh If we're talking history She was also very much a force and and a reason why the girls track cross-country and nordic programs are Are so strong And I I think it would be Nice if if something like that bore the you know bore the names of both the man and the woman Of of distinction I just threw it out there I'd second that I when when my son was on track kathy was Although she didn't coach him directly. She was integral to his uh success in the team as well It was a very good idea And just Sam was an american track twice american. So this is one of those examples of what we were talking about Steven you know national renown for After it's coming out of you So I'm not Voted in person representing anyone but as as an individual I don't think sharing recognition diminishes recognition So personally I don't you know, if it was if there were 35 names on it And it diminishes but to to share recognition with a couple of Of people that I think If you asked around Within our su or around the state you would hear many good things And I I can't think of a reason why anyone Would would object To either one of those names being associated with a you know, a significant contribution I would it doesn't bother me if the board wanted to Expand on the recognition I think to another individual Yeah, last year you were um, I know steven made his dramatic entrance At graduation last year Were you there for our um for Kathy's speech in which we were still It was Flat out the best graduation speech. I have ever heard anywhere in any domain University anywhere It was a teacher market happy Well, it featured more Two people that are here talking about it. There would be no reaction If it was recognizing Both of those Well, I mean when you say the teacher who's been here since the doors have opened has been involved heavily in the track cross-country programs You could put either one of those two names in front. That's right. Yeah, they've been integral for this And if I could offer thought I would think that Either of them if if there was a choice offered mark would say no it should be named for Kathy I don't So Deserving of those respects as they are I just have to remind the board that there is no structure here at u32 that's ever been named after a person Other than the Shapiro building, but that was actually built by the Shapiro family and their donation and to all of that I'm not against it. I think it's just something that you should consider as a board is this is this Um precedent is this something that um, you know that Future boards would be looking at as as some way of saying, okay, this is how we should recognize people What are the requirements for being recognized? I know these are all Silly stupid questions, but no Well, there are no two people that are more deserving in this building Than those two. I just I just want us to be clear like why and how and kind of what that process And they're also alive It's not a memorial, right? Say everybody's memorial track I was sort of going to speak in that direction. I'm just going to say A piece of me is a little tentative about making such a decision here tonight Such as one group of people there's a piece of me that feels like we could see some, you know Can see some blowback from the larger communities like hey, come on. We didn't know people take part in anything Um, that that said it's warned And that said given this community's pension for not naming things we could easily just end up with the track If we don't do anything I mean I'll point out we are called youth 32 because the community just never They are literally yeah, I'm not me I guess I don't see any I don't I don't see any precedent for anybody really complaining if we put If we were to take it it sounds like the new boards will be focused on Me for the district some other thing. Yeah. Yeah, the track. Yeah. Yeah This board decided the name of the track As a current member on both boards And having kids in the elementary school having absolutely no attachment After you know what I have heard I have no problem with it. I don't think that it's a precedent setting issue or You know we're gonna have plaques all over on everything. I doubt it But I wouldn't support it Yeah, no, I think I think if it's going to be made I think it should be made for two people Topping chaplain track or something like that. We're chaplain topping or chaplain topping. They can we can choose alphabet or Pipe or something I'll actually put my money on mark So it sounds like we're any The discussion portion does anyone want to make a motion? May I move that we name the restored track After mark chaplain and cafe topping as the chaplain topping track Chaplain hyphen topping Would that work or chaplain topping so that I'll figure out the proper or proper punctuation For that situation. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I'll second Everybody clear on what that motion was Any discussion, okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? That passes. Thank you very much I was of two minds on bringing this forward. I know there's a lot of work and important things coming on but again I thought it would be appropriate to bring forward because it it gives a school board a chance to spend some time talking about and being involved with things that I I think as school board members part of the reason why we become involved for absolutely positive building type work and it's not always you know with our nose to the grindstone and trying to solve all So I appreciate you taking time and thank you very much. Thank you for bringing it. Yeah, nice. Thanks. Okay, so we're at 818, let's keep moving 4.1 reports to the board of central Vermont career center. Nothing to report. No, of course. Good. Well done. 4.2, yeah, do you have a student report? Do you have a student report? Okay, so it's fabulous. And so everything tends to pile up in the spring. Everything, everything's happening and all of it is happening. So not necessarily in order but since May 1st found a lot. So most recently we had graduation which was really great. Jim Willis was the guest speaker and he was great. And the seniors went on a pop field trip kind of thing. The dance 32 performance Spring Day, the eighth graders got back pretty recently from DC and all the spring sports wrapped up rather quickly. The tennis girls Yeah, girls tennis made it the farthest and they made it all the way to the championships for the first time in girls tennis history. We all also made it in history by making it to the semis for the first time. Track boys were also runners up but nobody else made it that far. We also had a move up day on Tuesday and we all went to our coffins for next week. Next year. Next year, that's what I got. That's so fabulous. Then starting Wednesday those are summited such projects as proficiency. All states was in early May AP exams were also happening in May and we had prom in May Decision day was recently and diversity day was on in May too. Wow. Actually I jumped back to the I was trying to say but the career center they had their award ceremony last Tuesday and so we had a few of our students recognize the award ceremony. That's okay. That's not something the board member goes to but Lisa LeBlanc and I attended along with the families of our kids. We have the second highest number of kids in the career center after Spalding and so it was a good evening as well. We also had awards here and so it was great. Any questions? Thank you very much. Thank you for a great year and do we know that Lucy's not here because Lucy graduated. Lucy's off to Smith College. Yes, she is. Do we know the new board is going to have a student there? That's what I was about to ask. Have we made arrangements to have student rep on the board? I'm bringing kind of the practice that we've had in the past for U32 to the board for them to consider and so I'll give that to you guys on my report on whatever night it is. No Wednesday. As you know it's been a valuable addition. It's been fantastic. Okay, 4.3 administration. Do you have anything to call us? She covered it. She put some stuff. It's been tiring. But it's good. We're winding down. So this is the number that just kind of gives an indication of what this year is like. Our last official day with teachers is actually next Wednesday. But we have two days of curriculum camp and some training that's after that. Six weeks after that our new teachers will be arriving for their restorative practice and new teacher orientation. So this summer is six weeks long for U32. Really? Does that sound like too much? No, no. So I think just to kind of give an almost year round with a year like this. And so I'll be on vacation for three of those six weeks. Sorry I won't be on the phone. It's really nice. Any questions? Finance, there was a report in that the other packet questions about that talking about unbalanced in just a little bit. So why don't we move on to action agenda. We have retirements. I believe there are two. Jui Abbiati and Colin Dunn. Yes. Is there a motion to accept those? We accept those two retirements. Thanks. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor please say aye. Aye. Okay so that is accrued. And then new hires. Actually there's a resignation that was not in your packet as well. So we have one of our P and health teachers, Molly Butts accepted a position in Peru New York which puts her back in her alma mater and you can read her letter for the rest of that. She was just hired last week. Was it just last week? Last week was all on the week. We probably have a copy of this. I don't need one. Is there a motion to accept this resignation? Second. George, any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Alright so then new hires of page 13. We have Charlotte Paton. Yes. What makes you qualify to be French or Spanish? So a uniquely qualified individual. We went out with the hopes because Colleen Dunn's retirement, she taught both French and Spanish. So we posted for both. We ended up with several qualified candidates which was a welcome surprise for us. Charlotte has been teaching at Harwood part time, but she is also a background is she taught French in Spain and Spanish in France in her early career. So different times in those two locations. Her native language is actually French with Spanish being her families, her grandparents language and then she's of course learned English. I'm in awe of people who speak so many languages so well. But she will be a welcome addition to the school. Sounds great. And the faculty love her. They're very excited to help her. Would you like to make a motion? I will make a motion to approve the hiring of Charlotte Paton. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed? That passes. So now we're at 5.3 approved for resolution for transfer of property. So we had some discussion in a previous meeting about that. Does anyone want to speak to how they think we should handle this? I will refuse to do this. It's denominated ratifying and confirming which are legal terms of art meaning that the action is already happened. These are contracts. Contract law you cannot obligate someone to form a contract if they don't so will it. So the state wishes to take the property from the district. It can go ahead and try to do that. But under no circumstances should we be signing the document under duress? A contract under duress especially and it's clear to me that the state knows that as well. They denominated this ratification. So I will vote no. I'll vote no too. I will sort of shadow Alan's comments of earlier that I just don't think I don't think given the situation that it's appropriate for the state to demand that we as representatives of our localities that may not be happy with the situation vote to turn this property over to the state. We have Dixon, the little hearing state, the legislature at Dillon Road. We operate under the Dillon system and that gives them the authority to grant power power to us as a body. They can take the property if they want to. I don't think we as representatives of our localities need to vote on this. That would be my take on it. So I didn't hear in the previous meeting any compelling reason to do it though. I didn't hear any negative implication of not doing it. So can you think of one? I think floor raised the issue of whether there would be liability associated with this and I don't see the liability associated with this. There was also some implication that the AOE would take some action if we don't sign this and perfectly happy to play a game of chicken in the AOE. Sorry. No, no, no. This is absurd. Basically, if we punt it just goes to the new board. I would say I don't mean to jump in but the new board does not have the authority over this right. That's true. Do you have any insight into it? None whatsoever. That was my whole insight right there. The new board doesn't have control of the property until someone gives them that control. So why would we want to give it away? You know the thing is I do believe it's angels dancing on the head of the pen because there's a 1914 case from North Troy where the issue rose specifically whether property that was school property was the property of the town or whether it remained a property of the school. And the court's reasoning was that it did remain school property not town property. It would support the notion that the state can take, for instance, Romney School from the town of Middlesex. So my suspicion is they can go ahead and do it. They're just I'm sorry to be editorializing here but in the same way that they didn't have the gumption to do what they claimed they wanted to do but tried to sugarcoat it. They may get a sound info there was a choice involved but in fact they were just wanting to force merger. I think it's time for legislators to throw out if they want to merge schools and take responsibility and not put it on us. I'm hearing a lot of support for taking this action. Can I ask a curious question not in my role but so it's 164 acres here that belongs to the school right and it already belongs to all the town. Exactly. That was the next thing I was going to speak to. So as the U32 board we're already a union and this property the five towns already have this property for our body in particular it's another thing for Calis and Doe but for us I don't think it's that big an issue. As long as we can I don't know I could say that the question that for Rose about insurance I'm sure that there's some devil in detail there but I don't know that we would be without insurance and it doesn't seem possible if we're paying our premium. As long as you're paying you're probably going to get it. But you will let us know. I will look at it. There's also a piece of me that suspects that should anything need to be we just get reconvened as the body that is currently elected to be in charge of the property. Alright, any other comments on this? Does the school board have subpoena power that we could subpoena like this? I would say that it's on your action agenda item so you should take action on it but you I'm just offering that you probably should hold the vote or because it's an action item that would be improper to I mean you can't vote in the negative you say it in the affirmative and you can and they're willing to say it in the affirmative? I will raise the question should we should we what was it worth it? approve the resolution for transfer should we approve the resolution for the transfer of property to then what is it to them to the your new WCSUU D so that's not a motion but you're well that's I guess you're calling the question with that motion sort of built into it I guess not to be negative I mean why don't I make the motion and then if there's not a second nothing happens so I'll make the motion that we approve resolution for the transfer of property to them is there a second? okay so that does not pass let's move on we dealt with the naming of the track 5.5 regarding transfer of fund balance so earlier tonight we heard of recommendations from Lori that we could transfer fund balance in the excess of 2% of budget as of June 30 of 2R capital fund and the implication of not doing that would be one staying in our fund balance so but your fund balance disappears as the fund balance of June 32 as of June 30 and of July 1 it would be money that the unified union school district can spend as they submit if you make a motion to put it into the capital fund it has to stay in the capital fund and it would be segregated each of the schools will have restricted funds that are built for capital that we are going to try it from what I understand those we're going to continue that process of putting money into capital like we have at some of the elementary schools I think most of the elementary schools now at this point I just don't know 100% everybody understand the issue? so we want to do this I have a question again it may matter at the elementary school level dodie's capturing their own using to move their fund balance into the capital fund making sure that that fund balance stays with their building and in their school again we're already a unified our budgets are already shared we're already a unified so really for us the only question is do we want to restrict this money for capital purposes rather than operation correct and I might argue that that's really up to the new board to decide that I might agree too that's a good thinking I will say that I had conversations quite some time ago with Bill Kimball about the fact that U32's fund balance is really the fund balance of five towns and that the whole unified union school district probably does not need a fund balance in excess of what we have we haven't touched our fund balance in the five years that I have been here but it's our contingency fund in case something major happens that contingency fund of U32 could cover the school district as a whole and allow elementary schools to put their money into their capital funds and preserve it for that I think that part of the case that as I understand it that's here is that there was some chip in from the elementary schools but not a significant amount like it was you know they weren't having to put too much money into the unified union fund overall but I think it's up to you guys as a whole do you want to preserve that money for our capital fund at U32 or do you want to allow the new unified union school district to determine how those funds are allocated and that's your choice George or Scott do you have an opinion on this? Not really I think we're going to be pretty tight-fisted in terms of being generous how can you be tight-fisted Scott you're taking over new board whether you want a bigger hunk of money or a smaller hunk of money it's not that hard does it help you in some way to restrict that to capitals do you have any actual flexibility? I think if we have flexibility we'll probably wind up using it for capital spending anyway it's probably six to one half dozen I guess my last question would be is Lori going to be mad at us if we do this wrong no I will break the news too and it's not bad news I think we don't have to be that generous but it is the tax money from the five towns already it's the one place where we can actually be a little magnanimous around what's happening as the whole because it's already the tax payers money good that's up to you guys so we need to move it's on the action in general so in a non-negative way I moved it positively we leave the fund balance as it is second that well we're going to leave it as it is that's a positive action yeah I'll second that so there is a motion to leave the fund balance as it is any discussion all the payers aye aye any opposed that passes does it matter if it delineates between capital fund and what is the other we're going to leave the operating fund balance they're technically not moving anything to the capital fund okay then we have one more I don't know if I have the language on this do you have something I think this is it authorization yes yes I got a big packet of stuff so this is a standard action that we take around this time of year which basically arises the school and the treasurer to meet obligations while we're not in accession right we've done this every year at this time that said I would move that we approve the blanket authorization for check orders second I'm not working that route does that sound like the right language whatever is written on there which says blanket authorization so that was moved and seconded any discussion all those in favor say aye aye is there some verbage somewhere on that there's an entire in the packet in front of car I'm not sure that I don't think it's in the packet let's go around for a second okay thanks for orders in front of George there was a food service that said morale booster that one ice cream so we get ice cream sandwiches cookies for teachers yeah on a couple of our Wednesdays nice is there a company page on that there's one so I will make a motion that we approve the board orders for the first half of May in the amount of $93,668.02 as well as the second half of May in the amount of $223,976.33 second any discussion questions all those in favor say aye aye any opposed or abstentions without passes yes thank you next steps for the U32 board so we just learned that we may be called back if there's a problem with whatever that issue was I'm trying to put a fund out Mark and Kathy can't agree I should be first I should be first other than that we expect that the only outstanding business that there is actually by the courts would be to come back and review the audit which is closer to December and that's really all we know at this point correct everyone should be on long call December medium I'm still planning on moving in August so I will hang in there until early August I suppose didn't think that one through did you haven't thought of anything through with the how does that work will it be replaced I don't know there's no more to replace remember the way it would work is the elementary board would have appointed somebody so we'll just have to operate under a quorum based on the people who are still a part of the board so it will be important that everybody shows up at least four of you which we did pretty well so since this is a semi-historic time I thought we reserved a little bit of time for board to move on it's been great it's been a pleasure working with y'all I thought Matthew said it really well I mean the opportunity to search for community in this way seems to me sort of well I'll put it this way I've gotten way more out of it than I can give in two minutes so I'm very appreciative of everyone here everyone who's not here and once again I have to say it's not over till it's over that's right so would you mind from administration I mean we want to express our sincere thanks some of you have been here since the day I was hired and so you have been an extremely supportive board of what we've done here at U32 and I hadn't thought about that until I was writing up my last administrative report and I realized this is it maybe not but I just thank you guys throughout the years you've been so supportive of the students and the faculty and administration at U32 it's been a pleasure to serve you guys and I want to follow that with a request which is something that I've recognized with the new board is that we no longer have U32 representation and so we have representation and there's both an elementary school and U32 associated with that and I think that there's a certain amount of helping people see that U32 isn't that the elementary schools aren't the only schools because I know that that's a big part of the discussion but we've been jointly run for many many years and I don't want us to lose that feeling and that piece I think we've got to go with it yeah I mean and that's just kind of my request with that don't forget about us a lot of the issues are around the towns not around the school right now and so I just don't want U32 suddenly lost its representation of a board that normally fights for U32 as did all of the other elementary schools but the organization of the structure kind of diminishes that but I think that half the students yeah we are still half the budget half the students the elephant in the room really anybody else want to make a comment thank you all yeah yeah I'm enjoying serving with all of you certainly I've been here quite a while and it's been great and I've enjoyed a lot so I'll see what happens the new course but so thank you all Steven thank you I know I think you're doing a wonderful job I think the staff the teachers we've got a great team here it's a good school, it's a great school and if we've done more by you it's because you've made it easy you've made it possible you've been pledging don't be strangers then there's this guy too sorry we're going to cut the capital all the students oh okay so you guys don't leave before all right 9.0 for communication I was going to suggest that we each write our own towns whatever we want to say but perhaps it would be best to wait until after the budget next week so I don't have to confuse anyone yeah the possibilities for confusion are pretty high I will be gone so I won't be here to write anything to my town okay thank you sure well so Bia would you rather be out I guess if as long as you guys all check the box at the town next door you can see your post then that does the trick let's go okay sound like a good plan all right any other business then we are adjourned by consensus at 8.45 thank you Lisa thank you guys thank you all yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you yeah