 Okay, good. So then we have, we have a quorum and it's 630. So I'd like to call the meeting to order at 630. Is there any adjustments to the agenda? All right, no adjustments to the agenda. While we can assign times, I would look to Jamie made to be to help me with this. Yeah, the reports of the board, maybe 15. For each report or just for. I'm thinking all. Okay. Great celebration of learning. I think it's like 10 minutes. Maybe a little longer to video. And then was there just. Okay, so let's do 15. Then if there's any discussion afterwards. Okay, the policies. Okay. All right, the budget. 20. You think. Okay. The board goals, short term, long term. Do we have. I haven't seen those from Wednesday. Was there, was there anything to bring forth tonight for that? Yes, Amy. I was planning on reporting on our, our meeting just orally. We don't have anything to share as far as a doc, but. So how much time do you think you need for that? Five minutes. Unless there's any discussion around it, but probably five minutes. Okay. And the board guiding principles and protocols. What do you think? That's good. Okay. 15. Do we have any new hires or resignations? No, we do not know. Okay. And then we. Okay. Did somebody want to volunteer to kind of keep track of time? The timekeeper. I can, if you want, Amy. You usually do it. I know, I'd. Robert's got his phone out. So. All right. Great. I feel like, yeah, it should flow tonight. Yeah. I hope so. Okay. So we do not have the minutes of Tuesday, November 22nd to approve. So we're going to table that one. We do have. Tuesday, November 2nd. I do have a change to. The name, the spelling of. One of the people in attendance, which was Nancy Woolley. Not Nancy Willie. Thank you. If you could take note of that. Her last name is spelled W O O L L E Y. Okay. All right. I'll get that to Christie tomorrow. Can we go ahead and approve it with. That that change tonight or does it need to be changed? And then we do approve it. You can, you can move to do it with that. That amendment. Okay. All in favor. Hi. Great. And then we have the minutes of Thursday, September 16th. That we can approve. Motion to approve September 16th minutes. I move to approve September 16th minutes. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Okay. All right. I just wanted to bring up briefly the subject of. Getting copies of the. Of the plans of high school. Oh, to add in the agenda. Okay. It's only a couple of minutes. Do an underboard comment. Sure. Can we do. Okay. We're on to public comment. Do we have. Any public attending? I do not believe so. Okay. Moving on to board comment. I guess I just. I've been trying to. Get. Electronic copies of the. Plans to the high school. They were discovered. The. The paper plans. Discovered in the. High school. I suspect that the ones that were scanned were not the. High school. Plans. Okay. Moving on to board comment. I guess I just. I've been trying to. Get. Electronic copies of the. High school. Plans. That's the ones for this building. So. The ones that Tara has on a thumb drive that are electronic. Include all the plans of all three buildings. I don't know how. Detailed plans you're looking for right now. Okay. I'm trying to react to responses from. To requests from. Some people working on the feasibility study. And so. But in terms of like actual plans that are maybe more detailed than the Black River report. Right. Tara has a thumb drive, right? Tara. At the office still from that that has specific. Lyle has it. Lyle has it. Okay. So. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I have been in touch. So I guess I haven't done a response yet. But if there's any. I saw from Black River was that they were going to try and share the thumb drive through a web portal with Lyle. That could then be shared with you. Was my understanding. So I can follow up with Lyle again and find out where he is with that. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I don't know if I can. I don't know if I can. Do I have permission to. Get them scanned. Thank you. The Black River one should be the most recent. Yeah, I have that. Came. Yeah. Part of the Black River study. We actually paid them extra to create detailed plans of all of our. Our facilities so that we had that. That's correct. That's correct. Yes. And I know that. Jenny was. I don't know if it's a specific program that you need to open the electronic plans. So. I think, I think the discussion between Black River and with Tara, like she was talking about is really the best way to go forward here. Okay. And Robert, the one plan set of plans that Polly emailed, is that not what you were looking for for the high school? The only plan I got was the PDF, which is the basic layout of the high school. Okay. So you want something more than that is what you're looking for. That's what I understand from the people who are doing the study. People who are asking you. All right. Okay. Is there any additional board comment? Okay. Okay. Moving on to reports to the board. Superintendent's report. So good evening. It's hard to believe it's already December. Things are flying by. I'll just report. It wasn't on here, but I'll add it. Negotiations. Whether our teaching staff started. Yesterday evening and was a really positive first meeting between the committee and the board. So that's good news. We also. Implemented test to stay at, at this point tomorrow, we'll have implemented our fourth school. Over the last five days, it's gone exceptionally well. We actually had two cohorts of students test out. They started last week sharing piloted for us. And it was so, so thus far as resulting in. We've had about 60 students who would have been quarantine, right? Over the last two weeks that it had been able to remain in school. So that's been really positive. And I would say now we've kind of got a pretty good workflow going. In regards to it. And so just a reminder, those are for unvaccinated students. That are asymptomatic. No symptoms. The other thing I wanted to give the board a heads up on Robert had reported us to a website issue from one of your old domains. We saw Ray's been working on getting that taken care of. And Robert, I sent you an email. Following up on that just this afternoon. And so we're in alignment. We're trying to work on the. The prior two owners that have hosted that website. No longer are able to help us with it. And so we're now in contact with the new current. owners to see if we can get it navigated and we're also in alignment for the next if this site gets put up for sale again or next in alignment to be able to purchase it back which doesn't cost much but it would allow us to to take care of the content so anyways there's an old site out there that we're trying to make certain is down speaking of that though I have seen the website that will be ready to launch or launching new sites across the SU and the ARSUD site I don't want to take Lindy's thunder away and we will it it'll go in your next board report and be released to families between now and your next board meeting it looks awesome and I'm really excited about it and so you'll be the first launch in the SU with a new rebranding site so that's my daughter actually today when I picked her up from school said you know the Rochester's website is really old it has a lot of old pictures of it just today she was telling me so so yeah and so there'll be a new Rochester Stockbridge Unified District site that will have access to information across both schools it looks really good it's current it also what I like about it is the template we're going with will allow us to give perspective hires and families all the information they would need plus current families like timely information around calendars events things of that nature get to know the teaching staff what their assignments are but it's the it's going to be the type of site where we'll be able to keep it current and won't go obsolete and so I'm feeling good about that and we leverage ESSER funds to bring on the coordinator of communications part time to work under Ray to assist us with these types of projects and I gotta say it's it's been one of them one of the better investments that we've done I don't know if you've noticed our hero coverage is up significantly we'll have all over Facebook pages now are coordinated and we have a new fresh content happening weekly on all of them and then by the end of the year we'll have rolled out new sites everywhere so including the SU which is current but when you navigate it it's very slow and it's clunky I think it's wonderful and timely because this is how everybody is investigating the schools the communities that this is how people are getting their information now so I think it's it's good good timing and the only other thing I'll add is I've talked to Kate her name is Kate McLean in Lindy about the concept we're going to try to do pretty significant push here in the upcoming months around recruitment and we've talked about both Fitzfield and Granville and cock and we've been doing quite a bit of work at that the middle school level at Rudd thus far this this fall and Wendy will be partnering with their principal Owen Bradley to support some efforts there so we're sharing in the knowledge we're gaining around recruitment and marketing and so her other piece to that is to assist us with marketing as well so know that that's underway too and you know in general I would say there's really good momentum to our work in mathematics I was over in Bethel this is my written report for an upcoming board but yours already went out but on Friday the 10th there was a we had a training for math interventionist and special educators and pure professionals across the ESU that was hosted by Bonnie Bourne and Fay Severe actually helped lead it which was great when we had teachers leaders doing the instruction I think it really built sustainability to the effort and I would just say that the it was a really great vibe there around our math energy and math work across the ESU which was exciting so I'll take any questions folks have other than those those updates the question is to comment very impressive it seems like you're running an all 12 cylinders whatever you want sports car analogy we've got here but we're talking about student achievement growth in the classroom we're also talking about how we communicate with the public so they know what's going on with a public school system and we just assume you know the public will support public education well they need to know the multiple things that are going on and what you're doing if our outreach and marketing as well as parents that have to decide gee shall we come to this SU next year we need to grow if we're going to have the resources to get things done so on both those fronts your front center your team is doing what we'll think so I want to come in you for that thanks Phil all right moving on to the principals report so you guys have my report we've seen kind of highlights is the finished parent teacher conferences which has been great to have folks like back in the building again that was very exciting I think for a lot of parents that was the first time in over there almost two years probably they've been back in the building so that was great we are in the process of launching winter wellness which will start in January months switching always something that folks are excited we're gonna partner with pico this year because their program is a little more geared to what we're looking for based on feedback and if folks aren't comfortable with that we're also doing stuff on campus with cross-country skiing ice skating and snowshoeing for both groups so to access some local things as well as downhill skiing and snowboarding some other highlights Jimmy totally stole my thunder about the new website but it is pretty exciting and Kate's been great to work with and it's exciting to have everything for both campuses and also as a whole entity all together instead of two separate places and it is very easy to keep up to date we also have launched a new Facebook that is a Rochester school Rochester Stock Bridge schools Facebook page and our school counselor Sam Demon has taken over a lot of that and works with Kate and so currently both the Stock Bridge and Rochester Facebook pages are still operational but she uses that Rochester Stock Bridge page I think that's the right term page to share on to the old pages to kind of attract families and we won't shut down the other ones without proper notice but the goal is to all be under one entity again as well and so folks in both communities can see what's going on in both and both campuses not just one versus the other I will say in terms of COVID we have hosted our first PCR drive-up clinic which means that kids that were quarantined were able to come and test out on day seven and that went really well and was actually exciting to kind of feel like there was a little control on the situation as well as we've held our first vaccination clinic which is exciting as well and then lastly we're in the process of planning a middle school high school like fair for families to come check out for grades four through six we're really going to advertise to come and look at the different opportunities out there for school choice and that'll probably be January February right now great just in yeah I just wanted to put a question out there about the our side Facebook page and whether we should get rid of that now that there's two school combined or like the community one that was started a while back is that the one you're talking about just yeah I guess it's the community one I'm the admin for it now that I'm on the school board you know that was there maybe a board Facebook page specific justine is that yeah yep so I guess I sort of kind of overlaps I think right but for the yeah maybe why don't we add that for a future agenda items because we should discuss that I think okay great for any other questions for Monday and then I would be remiss if I didn't invite everyone to come to our winter solstice celebration that Amy Braun is putting together and I'm going to get these specials if I don't look it up December 20th right after school in Stockbridge and December 21st in Rochester it's to celebrate the solstice and you'll also kind of get to experience be prepared to be outside in the woods and you'll get to experience the tea and the mindfulness that she was kind of talking about the last time she came to present I think it's right around 330 is what she's aiming for Bill but we've invited families wonderful if there's no further questions for Lindy is Bill got his hand raised I can't quite see yes I do he's off the screen Jamie at the last SU board meeting the SU board voted unanimously to adopt a multi-year student performance goal goals that basically spell out how we want our students in the key areas of math and and reading and writing to meet state goals and I think it's enormously significant so I was just going to ask Jamie to say a few words about that because we're part of that process every school needs to to lean forward and I have every confidence that we're going to do it and exceed those goals right here in Rochester at Stockbridge but I do think it's worthwhile to have Jamie speak to it in the habit of the meds yes so actually we're working on a release to the faculty prior to the holiday break on those adopted goals and what that means and make sure and then we're linking it to the work that they're already doing it's the work that's underway in math and literacy it's not another right and so we're looking to communicate that out it'll get also go as a release out to the community and we're working on an interface to around how to progress monitor those on the website bill so that when you click on it for example the achievement goal in literacy for the state we are using the state benchmark system both on our our star 360 and track my progress data as well as on the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium and so we've got goals tied to both our local norm assessment and the statewide assessment in both math and literacy and the goal is to at the very least meet the scale scores at the state level and or exceed depending on whether it's literacy or math by 2025 which is very exciting and we've also set progress monitoring goals on an annual basis in both areas that we can meet in every grade level across the sq so it's not it's not based on percentages as much as it's based on scale scores and each grade level and so what we will do is is you'll be able to click on on the website what is the goal in reading grade four in literacy you really click on that it'll show you the chart of what the goal would be and then it'll show you whether or not we met it or exceed or exceeded it and where that scale score is so that the community we're accountable to the community there's a there's a progress monitoring piece that will be part of it we also what I was really excited about too is we set goals around the students who are needing who are at at a real critical level in regards to intensive intervention and trying to decrease the number of students who need intensive intervention in math and literacy to decrease that percentage and so we have goals in that regard as well and so it's I think it's fairly comprehensive I think it really measures whether or not our MTSS system is working you have that that goal around creating a multi-tiered system of supports which supports all kids to reach their greatest potential so I feel like these are indicators under that now we're looking in the in the SU board we hear after the first of the year we want to get some benchmark data around goal number three which talks about us reaching out to our community around community partners and student voice and we think the quantitative data that we'll use around that is attendance data so we're going to have some proposed indicators for the board around attendance data as well because we believe that that's a real indicator whether or not we're meeting student needs and really truly engaging them so stay tuned with that and then what we will be doing is looking at our achievement data annually at each local district level to see where are we on point based on what the SU overall goals have been for each district so I think it's it's really a big step forward in regards to high expectations and accountability but hopefully also letting folks know all the investment that's going into our school system what is working toward and so again do know that we've got the the core academic indicators now but we're also looking at identifying some other quantitative indicators as well and so stay tuned thanks bill wonderful all right the business managers report good evening you have my report which outlines the December due dates for both the business office and the school food authority and then we have later on on your agenda the FY 21 first draft of the full budget expenditures any questions on any of the due dates that are on here any other questions that's all I got okay thank you Tara thank you everyone for those reports all right we move on to the celebration of learning so you're about to watch the video good parker all this up and go so Amy Braun put this together prior to Thanksgiving it's got student artwork it's all students across campuses reciting a poem and this particular group is a group that was indigenous to our local area that she really focused on and went and found their address and greetings to the natural world and it's also about thanks and gratitude so she put this together to kind of share out right before Thanksgiving with folks but just a little follow-up for you guys to watch means many things to many different people in this country in the last two weeks kids at Stockbridge and Rochester schools have been discussing the Thanksgiving address to the natural world by the native people and now the hot and oh saunee Thanksgiving address greetings to the natural world today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue we have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things so now we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as people we are all thankful to our mother the earth for she gives us all that we need for life she supports our feet as we walk about upon her it gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time to our mother we send greetings and thanks we give thanks to all the waters of the world for quenching our thirst and providing us with strength water is life we know it's power in many forms waterfalls and rain mists and streams rivers and oceans with one mind we send greetings and thanks to the spirit of the water we turn our minds to all the fish life in the water they were instructed to cleanse and purify the water they also give themselves to us as food we are grateful that we can still find pure water so now we turn to the fish and send our greetings and thanks now now we turn toward the vast fields of plant life as far as the eye can see the plants grow working many wonders they sustain many life forms with our minds gathered together we give thanks and look forward to seeing plant life for many generations to come with one mind we turn to honor and thank all the food plants we harvest from the garden since the beginning of time the grains vegetables beans and berries have helped the people survive many other living things draw strength from them to we gather all the plant foods together as one and send them a greeting of thanks now we turn to all the medicine herbs of the world from the beginning they were instructed to take away sickness they are always waiting and ready to heal us we are happy there are still among us those special few who remember how to use these plants for healing with one mind we send greetings and thanks to the medicines and to the keepers of the medicines we gather our minds together to send greetings and thanks to all the animal life in the world they have many things to teach us as people we are honored by them when they give up their lives so we may use their bodies for food for our people we see them near our homes and in the deep forests we are glad they are still here and we hope that it will always be so now we turn our thoughts to the trees the earth has many families of trees who have their own instructions and uses some provide us with shelter and shade others with fruit and beauty and other useful things many people of the world use a tree as a symbol of peace and strength with one mind we greet and thank the tree life we put our minds together as one and thank all the birds who move and fly about over our heads the creator gave them beautiful songs each day they remind us to enjoy and appreciate life the eagle was chosen to be their leader to all the birds from the smallest to the largest we send our joyful greetings and thanks we are all thankful to the powers we know as the four winds we hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe they help us to bring the change of seasons from the four directions they come bringing us messages and giving us strength with one mind we send our greetings and thanks to the four winds now we turn to the west where our grandfathers the thunder beings live with lightning and thundering voices they bring with them the water that renews life we are thankful that they keep evil things underground we bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to our grandfathers the thunderers we now send greetings and thanks to our eldest brother the sun each day without fail he travels the sky from the east to west bringing the light of a new day he is the source of all the fires of life with one mind we send greetings and thanks to our brother the son now our minds are one we put our minds together to give thanks to our oldest grandmother the moon who lights the night time sky she is the leader of women all over the world and she governs the movement of the ocean tides by her changing face we measure time and so it is the moon who watches over the arrival of children here on earth with one mind we send greetings and thanks to our grandmother the moon we give thanks to the stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry we see them in the night helping the moon to light the darkness and bring due to the gardens and growing things when we travel at night they guide us home with our minds gathered together as one we send greetings and thanks to the stars we gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened teachers who have come to help throughout the ages when we forget how to live in harmony they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people with one mind we send greetings and thanks to these caring teachers now now we turn our thoughts to the creator or great spirit and send greetings and thanks for all gifts of creation everything we need to live a good life is here on this mother earth for all the love that is still around us we gather our minds together as one and send our choices words of greetings and thanks to the creator we have now arrived at the place where we end our words of all the things we have named it was not our intention to leave anything out if something was forgotten we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way thank you does anybody have any comments or we move on I had already seen it on Facebook so I'd already kind of thought it through and reacted then but I really appreciate it being brought to the school board meeting I think it's important and just like as any other presentation we've seen so far the more more we get to see I think I feel better about what we're doing so thank you for bringing it agreed great okay well we are going to move on to the anti-racism policy I don't know if Jamie wants on this or who's on the policy committee it's even so I can I can jump on and so both of these policies have been adopted at the full board we're actually down to your board and sharing and F blood left to review and or approve or disapprove of that the two policies before you tonight we spend working on the anti-racism policy since last October it's been through really essentially six different drafts the last one we called the fifth amended and the bid quotations and procurement policy that is to be in alignment with the changes that happened out of the legislature when there was the influx of federal funds to allow us to move more swiftly to utilize those funds for different types of purchases and so that's what changed there I expect that that that legislation will remain in effect though so I don't I don't think we're gonna have to amend that policy again and that was what we were advised by to do is align that with the legislation they came out by basketball so really you guys what we're looking to is to hopefully move these two policies and adopt them and then what I have said is that at the full board I'll give an update in January and we're at regards to implementation to policy C 30 all right I would entertain a motion for C 30 the anti-racism policy any discussion I just want to say I think I said before I'm trying to repeat myself that I come in our issue our policy committee and the leadership they've shown and the diligence just stuck over my understanding over two years as Jamie says six drafts they've had a number of public public meetings it took a heck of a lot of input and changes to make this thing something that's that's really gonna help all of us no matter what our needs is and where we live so I want to commend and whole heartedly support this policy great so there's a motion and a second we had discussion all in favor of adopting the anti-racism policy C 30 they I excellent and I entertain a motion for the F 27 bids quotations and curate procurement policy I'd like to move that the F 27 policy be adopted a second any discussion no discussion all in favor say aye also say aye yes I on both on both I sorry okay so we've adopted both of those great moving on to discussion items draft three of the budget do you guys have draft number three and this is the first time you've kind of seen our expenditures in its entirety you'll notice that what we're proposing so far is got a 1.66% increase for 71 $130.45 an increase and what this kind of includes is everything you've seen in parts and pieces in terms of staffing up to this point as well as kind of support of stipends for mentor teachers for new teachers we do provide those mentors for two years of a stipend some other highlights that may seem a little off outdoor education and pathways is budgeted into the regular add or general elementary there's no no coding right Tara at the state level for that particular entity and you'll also see so that's under 1100 in regular ed instruction another thing that you'll see in 1100 and regular ed instruction is the person who is our librarian in Stockbridge she also teach some general elementary instruction in literacy as well as does some intervention so her salary has actually been moved from the librarian piece to the general elementary piece which would point out let me get to the right section here I think I would know this right now of under library services it's why you see quite the quite the drop in salary in that function code 2220 it's why you see quite the drop it's not because we're eliminating library what was that function code again for the library 2220 2220 and the person who is the librarian so it's a personnel situation she wears multiple hats for us so most of her salary or all of her salary is now budgeted under 1100 okay so all the other hats it's not that we're getting rid of library okay so this this 2220 101 teacher salary that supports a point librarian position in Rochester that's a point to FTE correct thank you yeah and then some other noticeable differences that I'll draw your attention to is under tech services so that is section technology support 2490 you'll see that that has changed from 45 thousand 2490 okay sorry last page yep there's one again to the page while you're talking go see that there's quite a difference in some of that is truly a couple of things we shifted stuff to our tech assessment from the SU as well as we really over the past two years put quite a bit into making sure that our devices and technology pieces are up to date so we don't foresee not on what any needs for major purchases in terms of devices which is where most of that money had come from so that's why you see quite the drop right there we drop where the equipment is dropped from 11,300 dollars that's actually moved up to supplies because the new universal chart of accounts from the agency of education required us to actually code them as supplies moving forward so that's making that adjustment as well okay and then the other big section that you probably see some change to do under office of the principal and 2410 item of it code for excuse me 531 telephone services that supports our actual expenditure and that's why there's an increase and why is there such an increase well it's because we're now E911 compliant in both buildings and that comes with our lines and ports and things of that nature so that is why there's been quite a jump there as well as in same in 2410 office of the principal under 105 supervisor salary that's a leadership statement for someone who helps when I'm in the opposite building as well as she will also be the person who's helping keep all the social media and website items up to date so it includes your statement those are the big changes but folks have other questions or Tara if I missed anything but that's what I have a few things I'd like to point out so the all the object codes 593 which are your SU assessment codes those are all subject to change once the supervisor union central office and the supervisor union special education budgets are approved so there will be adjustments to the 593 object codes but you're scattered throughout the budget under their primary function code okay I have some specific clarifying questions but maybe I don't know if I should open up to everybody else first anybody have any specific questions for Tara Robert I know this is a difficult question to answer but we're seeing very large projected increases in the cost of living how are we have you been able to make some estimates in the future I mean we're looking at the federal projections so we as far as the salary and benefits go yes you're seeing our projections in there and I believe Tara is using as far as fuel oil and things what we're actually currently being billed at so right now and projecting on top of it and the same with tuitions we budget in and increase there as well and the other thing we're budgeting intuitions which does impact you is that the Sharon Academy is trying to get it so in legislation in or through the agency of education to demonstrate school quality standards and if so that would allow them to announce their tuition the proposed announced tuition would be 18,500 which is a pretty significant jump it's almost $100 or a little over $1900 and so we are budgeting at that 18-5 amount in the event that that occurs and then we budget 2% on top of prior years tuition everywhere else based on trends Tara did I get that all right you did I think that's I think that's smart to put that projected tuition in there for Sharon because in the benefit with your budget and the fact that we go later in the year announced tuition rates are due January 15th so we'll actually be able to revise your budget based on the actual announced tuition rates for FY 23 excellent well speaking of tuition could you go through the object codes 561 562 563 and just kind of explain why there's what they are absolutely for all tuition but object code 561 is for public schools for 7 through 12 students right Tara nope it's for all public schools so you also have in there built in case you have a student who would go to a private or sorry a public pre-k outside of yours there's also one line code for that but otherwise yes that's all public schools they get coded as an object code 561 object code 562 is any non-vermatt school and 563 are private schools 568 is the vocational tech center tuition that the agency of education pays on your behalf so as you recall in your prior budgets that shows up as both a revenue and an expense so it's cost neutral on your budget and that's their contribution that they make by statute to the vocational schools on your behalf object code 569 is any other tuition and right now that's primarily the actual vocational transfer the vocational tuition that you pay based on your six semester average to each of the vocational schools that your students attend or have attended in the past six semesters great on is the decrease in tuition because of we're graduating a that many students and we're not replacing them coming coming up through the seventh grade is is that what the large change is. Yes this is based on current enrollment that you have and then if we need to make any additional adjustments once lindy's had an opportunity and her staff has had an opportunity to work with your students to find out where they're anticipating going for seventh through twelfth grade. Okay thank you. There's currently 76 students accounted for in this tuition. It looks like too we've got more students choosing to go to potentially private. Yes. So when you have students going to a private school remember we don't pay more than the state average tuition. Okay. Great. I have a question about line 593 it indicates SU assessment for special ed instruction is does that number primarily include just the salary for instruction or are there other components that is the entire special education budget. Okay. That is all staff tuition transportation contracted services entire special education budget and then you pay an assessment of that budget based on your average membership. Okay. Thank you. The line she was asking about is that the 593 under the one one zero zero. Function code under one two one two oh. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Special education. Yeah. Okay. Well the individual function codes have a 234 and others don't and I was just wondering why that's the retire meet retirement beavers. Because beavers is only for your municipal employees that are under the municipal entire retirement system which are non professional teaching non professional staff. Yeah. Okay. Doesn't apply to everybody. Right. So is is so potentially P.E. and music are non professional staff. But no P.E. and music are teachers. They're on a teacher contract. They're part of the Vermont State teachers retirement system. So for the P.E. we're not funding it though. You wouldn't fund it. Your P.E. teacher is not part of beavers. Oh. Okay. So it's specific to right. The Vermont municipal employees retirement system and the vistas is the Vermont State teachers retirement system. The vistas OPEB which is object code 232. That is the health assessment that we pay in for new licensed teachers and you pay that from the time they enter the system until they leave your district. So that's why you'll see under some of those codes. There's that vistas OPEB. Yeah. Okay. I understand. Thank you. You're welcome. For 1400 the athletics and co coordinate. What is it's what is that for? It's per the master agreement. You have to have money in there available for co curricular offerings. It could be a robotics club. It could be anything and it's okay. Money for the for clubs. Okay. Thank you. To 2190 other special services. Again, I'm just wondering what that was. That's for your 504 students. Okay. Great. And they often require specific transportation that's personalized. That's what that transportation is. The 519. That's as much as I can answer that without it becoming identified. Okay. Okay. And in the I just we touched on the technology the 2490 on and I do understand the equipment was moved into 650 supplies and technology. It is still $42,000. I just didn't know if there was any what the specific plan purchases for that were or if it was if there was any so that includes all of your software subscriptions. Okay. There's also part of that. It's for supplies and then any equipment purchases that were anticipated. Lindy where there's specifics that what I have from Ray doesn't give me specific equipment purchases. No, it's just yeah, just replacement of parts. So the it's a majority of it is truly subscription. Yeah, there's our software subscriptions are substantial. The the other thing is we are in a five year cycle now. And so we plan to replace devices every five years. And so rate budgets accordingly now in every district across the SU to ensure we can do that. Wonderful. So that's that's part of his his budget as well. Technology is definitely moving fast ahead. So we definitely want to keep up with that to be able to provide. Great. Well, thank you that that definitely answers all my questions that I had. And I, you know, as we look at this budget and we are here, all the wonderful things that our district is doing and is able to do and is moving forward with with our kids, I think it's if this is the this is what the administration feels that they need to be able to do what we have been doing. I definitely support that because I'm very impressed with the direction that we are going. So does anybody else have any more questions or comments on the budget? Okay. Bill's got his hand up. Oh, okay. He's partially off camera to me. So okay. Same question I had before, but I think it's important to reinforce it. The answer and that is under 1112 music, which first looks like we're cutting it to half and we're not. So could you tell me the answer again? And I think it's important because those of us who believe in the arts, it starts with music in the arts. And so this looks like we're cutting it to the bone. And I recall that you had an explanation which were you're reorganizing it so that the actual music arts element of this was not being cut. So would you clarify that for me? Absolutely. Based on your new hire. Right, it was based on a new hire. We also had shifted the structure of that position. So it last year, at the time that this budget was approved, that position not only included music instruction, but it also included a person who was endorsed to teach outdoor education as well. So the person was going to do outdoor education and music. We now are structured differently. So some of our outdoor ads, so some of this music position money has been moved into that general elementary 1100. And this really supports what we have, which is one full day of music instruction for all classes in each building, as well as instrumental lessons. And course, that's shared a third day a week. And that supports based on the needs and interests of our student population. In the right of the budget, please make that. Yeah, something. Another one at the end of it again, on debt service, that's 5020 last page. We've got another principal payment of 65,000. Tara, could you tell us how close we are of completing that long term debt service and what's it for? Sorry, I lost my screen there. That is for your bonds. Oh, and the last payment, I actually have it written in here. So I know when it is, it's got to get to September and December of 2022. So it's just the last year of that. The last payment will be June of 2023. Okay, so we're we're getting very close to the end of that. Okay, I think high school. Last budget cycle for the end. Yeah, thank you. And my last questions address both to Jamie and Lindy. Is the budget that you're proposing here adequate and sufficient to reach the goals, the academic goals, the the need to keep talented staff here and attract talented staff to take care of our physical plan to take care of the supplies and materials to keep things moving. Is this something that you're comfortable with relative to our goals and obligations as a public school system? Yeah, I am very comfortable with it. I feel like it really supports our goals. Quite, quite a few goals, right? Not just mathematics and literacy. I think the outdoor education piece is in here, which is important. We've added world languages. And I know that that's something everyone has loved and it's been really enjoyable to see in our schools. So I think it's there supports it. I have asked just for some staff feedback on this to make sure there's not something I'm missing. There's not something that they're saying that they need that we haven't budgeted for. And I haven't heard anything overwhelming yet, but they haven't till Friday. So just because sometimes they see something I don't or they need something that's come up as we've started to implement, you know, new materials and things like that within our program. Yeah, I can then you ask staff for that feedback. And that's that's like, Jamie, what's what I mean, we're, we're awaiting the EI audits, right? And so I think one of the things the board has to keep in mind here in the near term and long term is that I do believe we have some significant upgrades to do in both our buildings. And so I think as we're budgeting for the now instructionally, yes, I feel good about the staff that when he has, I would say that I do think we need to as we're talking about paying off the spawn payment and things know that we're going to have some investments in our two schools again here. And so I do believe that we'll find some efficiencies, which will help pay for some of that work. But I do need to I do think that we need to prepare that we're going to need to be budgeting for that in the future as well. So I'm keeping that in mind too. I'm a big believer. Have you done any reading pinks work in regards to the brain, the books called the brain by pink. It talks a lot about the aesthetics of the place of work, including schools. And, you know, I think that there is a lot of delay maintenance in our buildings here in our sub but across the SU really. And so I'm really looking for us to ensure that when our teachers are coming to work, we're setting really high expectations professionally in regards to the workplace they're coming to. And the same goes for our students and our communities. And so that is an area that I'm going to be talking to the boards more about here as we look to future budgets that we really got to look to do some pretty significant investment in that area. Thank you. And that's important to know because we're not our horizon is not just six months, 12 months. It's multiple years and strong vibrant organization. So those that can plan ahead and prepare for the future. My last question has to do with the state per student cap. How does this budget fit within the proposed budget fit within your understanding of where that cap may be for the next fiscal year? We have not worked on the revenue side of the budgets at this point in time. So I won't know that until we do the revenue side. But I can tell you that the cap or the ex the threshold for FY 23 is nineteen thousand nine hundred and seventy seven dollars. Give that again. Nineteen thousand nine hundred and seventy seven dollars. And so Bill, we're still waiting on our equalized pupils too. Yeah. And that might be better with a huge indicator with this. So the the excess spending threshold did jump up pretty significantly. So I think we're going to be well under it based on the expenditure side as we look. And I don't know exact numbers, but we do have more students from tuition sending towns in our buildings this year than we have than we did last year. So our tuition should jump up or our revenue should jump up slightly. I can't speak hard numbers, but just knowing who's in the building. You know, we have more students from Granville and Gawk and and sending towns in our preschool as well. So that all helps us. The yield is good, even conservatively. The conservative outlook of the yield, the F bond had a ninety million dollar surplus. The by all indications, both Vermont school, the Business Managers Association, the AOE and Vermont Supes, they gave us two proposed yields. We'll use the conservative number for our yield, although by your budget, often we know, which is a plus again, we know what the legislature actually set. But for other budgets, we use the conservative one. My sense is there's already proposals on the table to use some of that surplus actually to hope we put some dollars into our buildings, which would be huge. I'm a huge advocate of that. They talked about tech centers. I hope it's for all public schools. And I'm a big proponent of making certain we're investing in our rural elementary schools. So I'll certainly be on the front line speaking to that and advocating for that. The CLA is something we got to watch really closely to them because real estate did go up. And so even though the yields looking really good for us, the excess spending, I'm curious to see what the CLA is going to come in at. And of course, we know that has a place of big factor in taxes as well. So thank you. Well, the CLA, isn't there a dilemma? There is. As someone whose sister works for that department, there's a delay. She just started, but she shared that with me the other day. She was over here trying to help these two communities. So we're we're certainly not it's certainly not going to affect this cycle. But yeah, the next thing right. Yeah, it's just all those things that we got to keep in mind. And then the one other thing also that will impact your tax rate is the last you now lose that merger incentive. That's over. That was two cents in the current fiscal year. It'll be zero for 23. Did you, Jamie, did you say that the Vermont Education Fund actually has surplus at 90 million? So they were forever. They were saying that where there was a hole in the ed fund and that they were in a major deficit. How it can swing to a surplus of 90 million is. Wow. Well, there's such a huge influx of federal dollars, which probably they use that. And so that that's what we're seeing. Now, we're also seeing inflation, as Robert said. So you know, it's all you know, the fiscal landscape is I think we just have to really stay in tune. Well, good work, guys. Thank you. Is there any other comments or questions about the budget? OK, great. Thank you very much. All right, moving on. Justine, the bowl for goals, short term, long term, you want to report out to us son? Yes, thank you. So we met last week and we quickly came to the conclusion that we in order to determine what goals we were going to establish, we had to understand the difference between these words we were throwing around vision, mission and goals. And through our discussion, we determine that the vision is basically what we feel is the overarching theme. And underneath vision is the word mission, which can be divided up into several different subtopics. And within those subtopics, we then can establish our goals. We haven't completed this journey yet, but in using the topics we talked about at our retreat, we work to synthesize some of those into these pockets of vision, mission and goals. So the overarching theme that we were able to put together from our our topics at the retreat, we decided at the end of our meeting to share rigorous creative education as our vision, kind of overarching our mission, which consisted of the themes that kept coming up at our retreat, which involved integrating the arts more, more often into the into the school experience, the outdoor learning piece, how we can integrate that into the the curriculum. So integration was our first under mission. And our second was the culture of learning. This is the topic we went over at the retreat and kind of left there a little bit. But the the premise was to cultivate an environment where the words I don't know are okay to foster a comfortable space for uncomfortable learning, to create a culture of learning that that allows kids to feel they can ask questions. That was number two under mission. And number three under mission came up in our retreat and beyond transparency that keeps coming up in lots of conversations. But we added to that communication and connecting with the community and with parents. So our discussion was boiled down to these topics. And from that, we really only came up with a potential goal of attempting to charge the the school to provide a way to communicate curriculum to the parents, whether it be a display, a binder, some sort of is an example of a goal, what a goal would be is to that every classroom would have a way to communicate the ongoing curriculum of the year to parents on a daily basis. There are a few different topics that we didn't touch on. Academic achievement was a topic that we talked about for goals at the retreat, funding and budget and also buildings and maintenance. So those still need to be kind of formulated under this mission tier. And I wanted to report to you and and see if the board had any comment and if they would give us our blessing to move forward, their blessing to move forward with this process as we have begun. Does anybody have a comment for Justine? Sounds like you have a working process. And it's going to take work. And so we don't expect instant, instant results. That's perhaps a good sign. Yeah, the thing that we wanted to be careful about was to kind of go through all of this process discussion, synthesis, philosophizing, and then show up with this what we would consider finished product to a board and have it be completely overwhelming and potentially not at all what the rest of the board would want. So this is kind of like the bare bones version of where we're going with this. I think it sounds good and keep up the good work. Great. Thank you. Okay. Board guiding principles and protocols. I think we all have a copy of that either in our packet or it was emailed to us. Is there any discussion on this? I thought it looked very good. I think that there's been a lot of thought put into it. I open it up for any other comments or questions or discussion. If I get this out, I love this document. I really think it's good. I think it's it's really speaks to the way that you're trying to conduct yourselves. I can feel that way as a superintendent and appreciate it. And I'm really excited about you folks considering sharing this concept with the full board. And see if there's interest there and pursuing a document like this and much like we do policy than possibly rolling that out to the other district boards. When we talk about interdependence, I think that that could be really powerful. And so I would just say that I really think you hit the mark on a lot of this. So. Great. I think tonight we're hoping to adopt this as a as a board principles and protocol on. So I open it up for a motion to to adopt this or to accept this. I'd like to move that the board adopt the board governance principles and operating protocols. There's a numerator in this document. Data draft for December 7 twenty twenty one. Wonderful. Any further discussion? All right. I have no discussion. All in favor. Aye. Aye. All right. So moved. Thank you. Great work. There being no new hires or resonations, we move on to public comment. Then I'm looking at my list and I don't believe I see that there is any public. OK. Future agenda items. Somebody. So I had down the board kind of run Facebook page. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly the budget. I think the board goals short term and long term will continue. Yeah. To be a discussion as we move forward, of course, all your reports, there'll be a celebration of learning. Anything else? I have a question. Something that came to mind when we were voting on the the guiding principles is is there could we have a discussion on how we would work to implement them and maybe make sure we're doing them? I feel like it's easy to get this chunk, you know, chunk of language. That we have, but I don't know if we can it can be kind of more active adoption process in any way. Does that make sense? I think that that would seem you're basically set out what the goals and the visions are, but then we have to see how what the next steps are. And that's that's appropriate. I'm talking about the the rules. Like the guiding principles that we just voted in. Could we have a follow up where we could maybe kind of bring back and discuss implementing some of that or discuss any ways to go forward in because I think that it's easy to have this, but it's not easy to know whether we're doing it. Yeah, I think, Justine, it's like when you as a different team set norms, you should be revisiting those. Yes, like this is kind of your guiding norms and work as a board. So I'm happy to build in a discussion around like reflection of those or something. Yeah, yeah, that sounds like what I'm getting at. I totally agree with that. We haven't really gone down one by one and kind of to be all agree understanding what the words really mean. And what if this? What is that? And I think, Justine, you're right on the goal. This is kind of we're working as a team together. And part of that is understanding our ground rules and expectations. And we haven't really gone into a heavy discussion with that, but I think it's very, very, very worthwhile. And so I I think that's worthwhile. Whether we do that monthly, little bits at a time where we have a retreat or something, I totally think you're right on on that. And then I think at the end of the year. And this is a totally original idea that the board, one of the things we do is exposing out of the school year or whatever it is or the summer, we kind of do a self assessment. Individual board members, how did we do with our governments, principles and our protocols? Then we follow these things. One of the things in here is no surprises that if we have an idea or something that's bothering us, we work through the chair and we don't just throw a tomato or a bomb at a public session. Well, how did we practice that? That sometimes takes some discipline. So I think a way that Justin, we can kind of self assess ourselves at the end of the year is how do we do? Yeah, I like that idea, Bill, a lot. And what kind of struck me when Jamie was saying maybe offering this to the the rest of the boards that I think if we really understood it and hash it out in a in a manner like this, it might be really helpful for others as we're kind of piloting this on. Absolutely. Great. Any other future agenda items? I think it sounds good. Sounds like a manageable meeting for next next month. OK. So our next meeting day is Tuesday, January 4th, twenty twenty two. Yeah, amazing. Six thirty at the Stockbridge campus and also on Google Meets. All right, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. OK. All in favor. Aye. Aye. Aye.