 if the board decides to go to executive session at the start of the meeting Ray could send an invite to the board in administration so that you don't have to have all these folks leave. Yes I was actually going to bring that up because the first thing we need to do is have adjustments to the agenda and we do indeed Jamie need to have an executive session to discuss a real estate option. Details of which are not appropriate to be disclosed to the public at this time and I would like us actually to begin with that item to make sure that we get that considered so that is my first adjustment to the agenda is to add an executive session to the real estate option. Good point. I'm sorry I thought I called the meeting to order at 6.34 with a quorum of five. So the meeting has been called to order. We're then moving into adjustments to the agenda and I can you just can you just inform because there's some phone lines that are open right now. Can you remind them of star six is it star six six or whatever to it is it is star six for those of you that are attending this meeting on the phone please mute yourself by hitting star six to close your microphone. There will be a public comment after the there will be a public comment portion of the agenda after the action and discussion items in the agenda. We will at that time go through and hear at least one public comment germane to the items discussed on the agenda from every Stockbridge and Rochester voter that is on this call but until then please star six to mute your mic thank you. That's star six to unmute your mic. Am I muted hello hello. You are not sir. It's star six to unmute star six to mute as well. Yes yes it's a it's a it's a toggle. All right thank you. No worries. Okay so are there other adjustments to the agenda administration Jamie. So then then yeah I'm sorry Ethan go ahead. No I said no sir sorry. All right. Okay so then if you're just talking you are muted. Sorry. Yes sorry. Yeah just I put it on email. I'd love of two or three minutes on the on the idea of a questionnaire. Okay we can add that as item 4.5 under discussion items. Thank you. Okay so then Ray if you can send us an invitation for an alternative meeting so that we can all we can all go and do that and then return to this one. Carl. We need our business executive session. Yes Tara. If you want me included in the executive session Ray will need to add me on the email as well. And the question the other question I have is whether Pat Harvey could be called as a consultant in that executive session as a member of the Rochester Select Board. That's at your will but she is here on the call and available if we so choose. Okay I think let's start having a conversation just amongst the board and and administration and Tara of course and then we can reach out to we can reach out to Patty if the board feels we need to bring her in. Hey Ray any chance you can put some music on for the people waiting. No I'm sorry I don't have that ready. Maybe in the future we can have like a Red Sox game. Okay so I would before we all leave I would entertain a motion that the board go into executive session to discuss a real estate option including our administration as well as our business manager. So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Any discussion? Hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Okay the board go to your email find the other meeting and join that. Do we need to leave this meeting first? I would leave it first just to make sure that somehow a mic doesn't get opened. Right sorry to leave this meeting. How will people know if they're joining late that there's even a meeting going on? I think Ray will be keeping this meeting open just without us. So please keep commenting if you hear someone come on okay Ray? We'll do. Thank you. Yep. Okay let's see I see Jenny and Amy I'm back Megan's Big M I think we're still waiting for Ethan. He's asking one more question of the superintendent so we'll give him a moment to rejoin before we official up. There's Jamie Ethan are you back because there's Ethan. Okay the board has come out of executive session at 6 56 p.m. In direct response to the conversations had at the board meeting of July 7th the board is authorizing Ethan Bowen to contact the Rochester Select Board to set up a full board meeting between the full board of the Rochester Select Board and the full board of the RSUD school district board in executive session to discuss a real estate option. There's no further comment from the executive session. So that moves us back to our agenda. We're now into a general board comment. Does anyone have any general board comment? Megan, Ethan, Jenny, Amy. Okay hearing no board comment we're going to move into discussion items. We have a discussion item 4.1 of 2021 budget. So I can jump in quick and I met with Bonnie and Lindy based on your guys' indication about re-looking at the budget. We did our best to think about what it would look like in regards to efficiency savings without utilizing the high school and what it would result in. Bonnie or Lindy whichever one you want to take. I don't know which one it would usually jump in. They'll talk to you about what we discussed and what we're proposing and then the tax sheet was shared with the board and if Tara is on the call she can walk you through that if you have any questions. That'd be great. I can't walk through it, Jamie. I'm walking. All right well I can walk through it. Bonnie or Lindy? So when we met yesterday we heard the feedback given and direction to head was that we needed to look at what efficiencies and savings there could be by not utilizing the high school building for educational purposes. In a short turnaround what we discussed is that the savings we are going to see are in the fuel area so we are able to reduce that based on current expenditure reports from the last fiscal year by $13,000 as well as we do not foresee as many fixes that may need to be made because of that so we reduced that line item by $6,300. We did not feel comfortable cutting electricity because it's not necessarily a usage thing so we weren't sure how that turnover was going to be based on electricity not being used but we just didn't feel like we had the data to make those decisions. So the total cuts that you were able to you were able to conservatively and comfortably predict were somewhere in the neighborhood of $19,000, $20,000 which is about a penny off the bank rate. It was $19,300 which reduced the tax rate additional cent. It also reduced your per pupil spending to 46 cents under the threshold. The yield is updated to 10,998 based on a bill that was passed recently in June called H959 which was signed by the governor on June 30th which further reduces the tax rate and so it's updated the non-residential tax rate which is now 1628 and on your tax sheet all these changes would result in fiscal tax rate, homestead tax rate of 15155 in Rochester in a fiscal year 21 homestead tax rate of 1638 in Stockbridge which would result in changes in taxes from fiscal year 20 to 21 of 0.0156 or 1.04 percent in Rochester or and in Stockbridge 0.0056 so as 0.34 percent change. So it was actually even though it just sent due to the scent and the updated yield there are some significant changes and thank you Ray he just put it up there for you what I was just talking to you and all about. Okay so that means yeah our tax it went up a penny and a half in Rochester and a half penny homestead tax rate change in Stockbridge so that is we were flat with our first budget offering on expenditures and now we are despite losing the despite the loss of the two-set merger reduction we're really pretty much flat with our tax rate as well that is that is really really very good and thank you for making a really quick turnaround to give us to give us some numbers when we were pretty we were pretty happy with you guys when you were telling us that you were giving us we're gonna give us better a budget ideas in September hopefully we'll keep getting more clarity around around our spending in in our new post-COVID-19 normal. So just a comment from the board please. Yeah I just wanted to just point out just exactly what we're saying that the new rate is in Rochester one cent compared to the current or the current tax rate so from and then in Stockbridge it's only it's a half a cent increase from the current tax rate not not what we were trying not the previous budget but I'm talking actual taxes that you're paying right now. Correct that's correct and that was down to the vote prior you just so folks remember the board Rochester was four cents up the vote that was defeated and Stockbridge was three cents up so that's significant. Excellent is there any other is there any other board comment or questions they might have for Tara, Jamie, Bonnie or or Lindy around the 2021 budget? Do you anticipate any costs that will be needed due to reorienting for COVID-19 I understand that those expenses would probably be covered by I believe it was the CARES Act but is there anything like that that we should be aware of and kind of factor in? Yeah we so we discussed that at length we are planning on CARE Act money to help offset those additional costs that we anticipate will incur in addition we couldn't we didn't we didn't want to dive in any deeper in the event that some of those costs are not covered so I feel fairly confident that this budget would support any costs that might not be covered due to COVID but in addition to we're going to rely on CARES Act money. Great you also have two principles I think outside the box so I'm hopeful that we're not going to take on a bunch of additional costs. Excellent. We're going to look to just so you know too this this came up at the SU meeting we're going to look to purchase SUY which we're hoping reduces the cost of PPE and things of that nature. Great. Okay um discussion item 4.2 is the the the 2021 revised warning which I think I saw. Dina had sent you a copy before if we highlighted Carl a while back. Can I chime in for a quick second Carl? Sure. Just a quick clarification question are you going to take any action on the revised budget? I think we're going to do I think we're probably going to think about that in the context of the warning as well. Okay and what we want to what what we want to do about that I think that given that we you know we we had had the first budget defeated if we're not prepared if we're not prepared to to to to warn out this budget I'm not sure that we we should be accepting it you know what I mean if we're not prepared to warn it out we may want to send it back and say look at this or look at that or you know whatever it would be but I I think we would probably once we've once we've looked at and discussed a revised warning that would be when we would both accept the revised budget and the revised warning. Does that make sense to the rest of the world? Can I ask um so I'm sorry is this is this the decision of whether we put forward the same budget or we put forward this new budget and that depends on the voting process which one we do is that correct from what I gathered from the last meeting? No no because this was an Australian ballot we don't have to re-warn a floor meeting 10 days we have to re-warn an Australian ballot which means that the warning period is shorter. Okay but I'm just saying when do we make the choice of what we're putting up for a re-vote or a re-vote or a new vote? We well the the re-vote is kind of beyond the board's control the re-vote happens or a reconsideration vote happens when five percent of the district electorate puts forth a motion to reconsider any any uh uh accepted or defeated option beyond a personnel decision you can't vote out you can't reconsider a select. I remember that from last time right so what we're doing we're we're going to the path we the the we're taking is the path is the simplest path for the board which is the board just decides to re-warn uh an election that can be or re-warn a budget that can be the same budget or a different budget and it needs to be it needs to be at least 10 days out from the date of the warning with an informational meeting five days in there or some uh and and so you always you always correct me when I try to say these dates so I'm going to wait till you take a drink of water and then ask you to confirm them. It is 10 days that you have to warn this but um I believe your informational meeting is still five to seven day window from the actual vote. Right okay so five to seven. So and and you're answering Tara's question by saying we didn't take any action on the budget when we just heard about it because now that we're talking about the warning we're going to make the decision about which budget we're warning. Right right and we're what the board feels comfortable with and what we think our best path forward is. We can also say we want to think about this and and come back a week from now. Well I do know that Jamie said you know don't be in a rush. Right right right but that's that that's why I mean I gotta run out of money. It's on our agenda I just wanted to and and and certainly saying you know what let's think about those numbers and think about the plan. I don't know when we could have that select board meeting. We might want to see if we could have at least that conversation before we really decide on on a warning or not. I don't know that's up to us and that's the part of giving the meeting about real estate issues. Correct correct okay well I just sent you that draft that Dina gave us if that's helpful for you if you want. Great thank you so we may decide not to do anything in this moment. That's why it's under discussion you guys. Thank you I just I always like to be really clear about exactly what we're talking about. Correct so the the special warning that the Dina has prepared is really basic it just has one article which is where we warn either you know the old dollar amount of vote the modified dollar amount vote from a Terran administration or some third amount that we want to choose. It's so it's it's really pretty basic we have the document we can modify it and and and bang it outside if we need to. It's using the same the same voting locations that we used before so I'm not sure if we've formally clarified that but I know that we would be piggybacking on the locations that the town has the towns have already picked for the for the primary because the reason to do it on primary day is to save the expense and the exposure of having a yet another special election. So it's really a pretty basic warning what do we feel comfortable with uh board opinions Amy? As far as when to hold our our Australian ballot our vote is that your yeah I think it makes sense that if we plan we should try to piggyback the primary for exactly those reasons you said it just reduces people's exposure from having to be out in the public situation in multiple times and and also people are coming out to vote they'd be doing it all at one time. Right it saves it saves money too we don't have to have the the town office open and clean for another ballot. Right. Ethan? Carl? Yeah. Is it possible for me to speak at this point? No Beth. Okay. I'm sorry. I have a salient point. Were you going to make a comment in your role as a as a as a civil board of authority person or as a town person? It was a town person you need to know of both. I'll I'll save it till the end but it may affect how you do this. Okay um board dude do we have to hear from her now or do you want to wait till public public comment? Well so Carl my question was going to be I have not reached back out to Lori to see where the August 11th vote for the town of Stockbridge is because normally their votes and maybe this is what Beth was referencing normally voting happens at the meeting house so I do not know the answer to that question um if that's where the meeting polling place was supposed to be for August 11th. Okay um it would be we would want to be at the same polling um if you guys need me. Lori can you confirm where the uh where the uh August 11th elections are being held? The August 11th elections being held at the town office. And Rochester at the high school again? To your public health expert. Yes Carl Beth. Okay thank you Lori um so we would be then morning we would be then morning at the Stockbridge town offices and the Rochester high school. Question? Question again um so why why do we need uh to vote a budget? Why would we need to do it? What does it achieve? I mean I I can think for myself a reason that it gives um our principals confidence that they know that their budget is solid and it's not something out there but I am just I think it's a valid question why are we why are we going forward when we could just we could wait for a while as Jamie reminded us. Yeah yeah I mean that's the same question we had in May when we decided to schedule a vote for June 30th versus waiting you know waiting and trying to get an audited uh get our audited uh numbers together and and and all the things we were talking about then um anything I would add Ethan because I feel like the question kind of for me I feel like there's clarity around the budget and if the board felt strongly about this was a budget that they could support and get behind I'm with Carl that if voters are coming out due to democracy would make sense to piggyback on that primary if possible um I just think that's worth you guys considering and there's time to pull this off I mean we got the we got the but you guys you know you may just you may decide that you don't like the prior budget or the current proposal. Ethan are there potential proposed changes that you're thinking about in terms of your reasoning for waiting or what would be your reason for waiting? No I just it's always me asking sort of the you know made the dumb obvious question but um it was raised as a possibility at the last meeting that there was no rush. I think all these are very good reasons what Amy and Carl have said about piggybacking getting it done giving our our principles the security so I'm just asking the you know the hypothetical question but I think it's a very good idea and I think we should go ahead and vote on August 11th. Hey Ethan this is Megan speaking um I'd like to say I do think we should move forward with the the revised budget because it does give our voters you know a chance to see that you know savings have been made with what we're intending to do with the high school building this year it might be a helpful to just move ahead and try to piggyback on the election in August. Thank you. Thank you Megan. Um as Jenny Wayland. I would agree I'm not quite sure um unless there were any changes that we know that we would be making I'm not sure why we would want to wait and agree for all the other reasons. Okay um you know I think do we need a motion should we move it? Um sure so I think what we would first need to do is we would need to I would entertain a motion that we approve the revised budget in an amount of where can I have so many windows open. Um Carl make sure you do the budget amount and the per people spending amount in the notes. Right right well the first thing we have to do is we have to approve the the revised budget so we have an approved budget to put into a warning and then when we do the warning is where we have to say the the per people spending amount correct? You want it in your minutes too. All right I have the budget expenditure of four million three hundred and seventy one thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars with a pure per pupil spending of eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty five dollars and fifty four cents. Which is x point x x percent higher do we know that piece? It is uh one point oh four percent higher in Rochester and point thirty four percent higher in Stockbridge but I don't believe that those are right that's there's a different number. Yeah there's a different number that you have to get it from I don't have that no it's not on that sheet. Not on the tax note? No um no that wouldn't be on that sheet Carl. Okay so we can't so does that mean without without knowing that number we can't warn this budget today? No you don't you don't need to approve the percentage of increase increase you only need to approve the the actual budget number and the per pupil spending you don't need to know the percentage. Beautiful. Is that motion? Yep it's so moved I think we made the motion correct? Okay is there a second? Yes I second it. A motion has been made and seconded to approve a budget in the amount of four million three hundred and seventy one thousand nine hundred fifty dollars which results in a per pupil spending cost of uh eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty five dollars and fifty four cents uh any further discussion? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Megan? Aye. The motion is passed unanimously out five to zero no abstentions um we would then now need to move to the warning um and so for this I would love uh uh uh uh Lori to jump back in the election hours are ten to seven it is Stockbridge Town Offices and Rochester High School is that is is that all correct? Well I don't know what the Rochester is is doing um the town the town office the polling place will be open from seven a.m. to seven p.m. So it is seven a.m. to seven p.m. we're not doing the 10 a.m. correct correct okay so then we will pick you back on those hours and Bonnie said it's it's the high school so we'll we'll do that as well. Thank you so much Lori. Yep you're welcome. Thank you for being on the call. Carl does the election of a new school board member does that need to happen at that meeting or is that independent that is that independent we'll talk about that in uh in the next item but that is that is a board appointment that is not an election um if someone if I mean in the past if someone has resigned you know we had someone resign uh in January before an election we we we were able to get them onto the into the booklet onto the warning um or get the position onto the warning to have it at the regular annual meeting um and so the board went for that six weeks without having a person there but it is not you know the the bylaws it's it's an appointed position so we'll we'll we'll discuss how that how that's handled in a minute so I would entertain a motion to approve a warning uh for the special meeting or for the special election of the Rochester Stockbridge Unified School District uh reading the legal voters of the Rochester Stockbridge Unified School District comprised of the voters of the town of Rochester and Stockbridge in accordance with section three and four of act 92 220 adjourned session are hereby notified and warned to meet on August 11th 2020 at Rochester High School Auditorium in Rochester and Stockbridge Town Offices in Stockbridge beginning beginning at seven o'clock a.m. when the polls will open and ending at seven o'clock p.m. when the polls will close to vote by Australian ballot to transact the following business shall the voters of the school district afford the uh approve the school board to expend the three million seventy can you read that number again Jenny I'm sorry I have the warning open I can't have the other document the budget number yes uh four million that the one with four million right three hundred and seventy one five forty four nine nine fifty four million three hundred and seventy one thousand nine hundred and fifty with a per pupil spending cost of eighteen thousand seven hundred and fifty five dollars and fifty four cents excellent thank you which is the uh which is the educate which uh which if approval approve the education spending in that amount the legal voters are further notified that voter qualification registration absentee voting registered the sub meeting shall be provided as in chapter seven oh six you have title sixteen and chapters forty three fifty one and fifty five of title seventeen Vermont statues annotated and act 92 2019 20 adjourned session dated uh dated at July 14th from uh delayed dated at Stockbridge Vermont this 14th day of July 2020 uh I would entertain a motion so moved I would entertain a second second uh a warning is on the table to approve a budget and a vote uh as listed previously for August 11th in the amount uh in the amount uh previously noted all those in favor signify by saying aye aye all right even aye aye the the motion carries unanimously five to zero thank you everybody we have an election scheduled thank you guys uh now we move to 4.3 the uh the the Stockbridge vacant board position and I'm going to pull up the note from our attorney about that so I make sure that I say everything properly um so uh our bylaws allow what a resignation happens that um the board will appoint the board will appoint a uh a replacement representative to serve out that that person's term um Janie's term is the 2021 one I think Janie's uh expires next year because I think we just reelected Jenny for three years last year that is in fact I am up next year oh so then uh this is then Janie is up in uh 2022 um the uh appointment has to be has to be a Stockbridge person because our bylaws say that three represents three representatives are residents of Stockbridge three representatives are residents of uh of uh Rochester so we have to appoint a Stockbridge resident uh in the past um we've either you know we've either had um particular candidates that have uh you know expressed interest we've uh when when a person has has left the board they've uh they've recruited their replacement um and the board has interviewed that person and brought them in or what the board has also done is the board has put forth a uh a link on the school website or in this case it'd be on the board website that provides a relative primer you know a primer information on the roles and responsibilities of being a school board member um we put that out there we uh tell the public to reach out to us uh for a certain window window of time we've had informational interviews and then those inter in informational interviews were discussed in executive session at a regular board meeting so if we followed that president what we'd be doing is we'd be we'd be putting out we'd be sending Ray um a collection of what we think are some relative uh some relevant um links and information uh on the vsba website uh around what it's what it's what it's like to what it's about to be a board member um and we would uh solicit people to write to us we would set up uh uh conversations with them and then we would have a meeting about that does that poll does that procedure work for people or do people have different ideas that works for me that's fine yeah it's fine for me yeah i know that the the procedure when janey came on board it sounds like this is consistent when when janey initially came on in as well when i first came on yeah and you know i think uh you know i i think it's you know it's more i think of just an informational discussion than it is a a job interview or at least if you recall your conversation it was much more let us tell you what you're getting into versus the versus some sort of litmus test litmus test or something like that so okay i will i will put that together um and if anyone has any references uh bonnie in particular as someone who spent a long time on the board you know if there's if there's some links that you think are really really good let let me know and we'll we'll get that hopefully posted in the next next day or so okay available available um just i did share with a couple people who are interested the essential duties uh page from the vermont school board association already that's already out there to a couple people who ask yeah yeah and that's i mean and even that's exactly what we've done in the past we we said you know there's an opening we meet these days here's our you know here's some some information contact the board if you if you'd like to to to be considered uh then because we had a chat and then we talked about it do we have a timeline is this our next regularly scheduled board meeting being the august i'd like us to do it then so we would make we would go into executive session by august and make a decision on that at that meeting right right assuming that assuming that you know we we've had reasonable interest and then the procedure unfolds as we expect um yeah i think we i think we need to get it done carl there is a really good document called the essential work of school boards that is online so we could just reference that and if anybody wanted to look at that they could certainly do that yeah yeah i think last i think when we did it before there were like two or three links that we put on the web page but i'll i'll i'll look at that okay i agree it's you know that that is a really good that it is a really good uh a starter you know if here's what you're getting into kind of kind of thing um okay does anyone else have anything to say about the vacant board position okay let's move on to uh the uh rochester uh high school building i can just add that i've put viewers out and i'm working on uh both in the tech department but also i had a contact from my prior supervisory union around references that who we could look to get to gather information on how to best shudder that building in a uh fiscally responsible way but also to preserve it appropriately so i just wanted to update you on that great uh thank you so much does anyone else have any questions uh for jamie around that okay uh we've already taken our action items on call let me just sorry go ahead because it came up at the select board meeting i i i had a conversation with the white revalid dicken dorthy robson of the white revalid players about our personal what we were planning and uh they were they were fine with it they they were like we don't own this space we support you in what you're doing just to people are concerned about the players um they are been informed directly and know the know that we're we're changing things up a bit okay great thank you even uh and now actually it's 4.5 which was your item you wanted to discuss questionnaires yeah it's uh uh i don't know we've given a lot of lip service to this um and maybe we wait until after the election but i really think we should start collecting questions that we want to put out to our public um to our our two towns um there's some very clear direction that i think we're we're heading in some ways but i think in other ways and i just i i would i would love to start collecting what we think are the good questions that should be addressed by our communities um i know we were going to have a specialist help us and all these kind of things but uh i think we can just do it and and and get it done i think people have been referencing in some of the social media they've been referencing questionnaires that went out during the merger time and i think it's time to update maybe some of those questions and um i know we have a few of our own um and we can figure out a way to do it but i just think it's money very well spent to get a tenor of where we are and where people are um about our schools uh to certainly point take it anyone have any comments on that i think it's a great idea i know it's a cumbersome work but i think it's a good way to hear all voices and not just the you know ones that are maybe posting on facebook and or ones that are attending meetings but we can really hear from from all all voices of parents and all community members that's a great idea i agree i know there were surveys by both towns prior to the merge they didn't have the same questions on them um and either the town but i think i agree that i think it would be good and um i'm willing to help put something together um you know we could do something virtual a google form as well if that's more convenient for people yeah i i think that i think a google form is a is a is a great idea i think we would want to collect a registered voter's name with that just to you know just to make sure that we're we're trying to get a serious uh a serious collection of data i think though how do we i i i want to know or what i would be interested in knowing is what are the questions that our constituents want answered you know i i wonder sometimes you know as we come up with the questions we see the things that we're thinking about and you know as has been evidenced from some of our meetings that sometimes the things that we're thinking about are not things that our towns people are thinking about so is there a way that we can maybe solicit some some input from our our constituents you know maybe maybe have people send questions to jenny or or something or things they wanted to ask about and she could maybe try to condense that down into i mean is there do you think there's value in that or is that just making the process i think it's innovative and well thought out yeah i think that's a great idea carl yeah i think that sounds good i'm fine to take take input and narrow it down okay so i'm happy to talk with you about this because it's sort of my idea if you'd be the lead person on this i would appreciate but i'm happy to support you i will support you too jenny sounds good uh thank you we can we can think about the best way to i mean maybe just you know maybe putting something out on on you know not just on the social media page is saying hey you know we're soliciting questions from this window to that window and give them a time frame to get us some information and give you an opportunity to to shape that um because yeah i think that you know we we we're long overdue for for getting some some community feedback um carl if i just could say one thing to jenny jenny there's a there's a tool that the superintendent over here uses to both answer questions and solicit what questions should be asked i don't know the name of it but i will find that out for you and i'll let you know what it is yeah i i vaguely recall you mentioning that in the okay oh so it's it's it's kind of like an interactive forum feedback kind of yeah something like that it's pretty it's pretty good actually but i will let jenny decide if it's something she wants to use but i'll just make sure that she gets it oh that would be great because yeah i think that's i think that's uh you know not having to reinvent the wheel and not having to have jenny you know cover her wall with posted notes and strings connecting and involving a serial killer case would be great all right um okay anything else uh around questionnaires i would just encourage you to make it um accessible i think a lot of people access social media and the internet but not everybody in both communities does as we've learned through our lovely distance learning experience so just be sure there's some sort of plan i hate saying this without a suggestion of how people can whether you want them to call the school and leave a message with what their question is and we relay it to you jenny um but just make sure people know that they they don't feel comfortable using email don't have access to it there's a way for them to get their question and their voice heard okay that would be great when you guys were up for the possibly even possibly even a drop box right i mean i can drop box that you could write jenny you and i know about ways to do that but i think it's just we need to make it known that we want to reach everybody and not just those who have access to certain forms of technology i think the herald and um front page forum would be a good idea too okay yeah no that's that that's a really a really good good good point lindy and if you could if you could help collect those calls i mean is that how how did you guys manage that in the day you know how did you close that that contact loop in the distance learning issues you were having for us it was a small we had the list so we knew um who to make sure to reach out to in different ways we scheduled pickup times we uh they happened to be getting lunch so we were able to exchange information with lunch delivery all those things i'm not sure that necessarily works for a community member who may not have kids in the school but we can definitely put information out there and i think like megan said we might have to put it in the newspaper and maybe post at some town offices or some public places i i know be open to ideas of where to post it but okay what sort of timeline do you think we should be looking at for submitting questions i'd like it'd be great if we could try to be collecting the information that's sort of like a back to school survey so if we could be collecting the questions between now and say mid august and be able to to then condense them down into something you know coherent and cohesive um for a you know labor dayish sort of roll out you know the the whole because that's when people are thinking about back to school what's going on right i don't know here's another thought i know there's certain distances and requirements that we have to keep but we could also have those surveys available uh the day of the primary the day of the election and just hand out a survey and ask folks if they would if they would uh take it home fill it out and return it to us i mean that's another way of getting the survey into people's hands unless they actually fill it out right then we can't guarantee they'll return it but we can get it into more people's hands do you think that's a doable i mean today's the 14th so we'd have to be you know turning that around you know by the end of the month well you know i mean this would be i'm assuming something this that we can just we don't need to get printed we can do xerox that'll be it'd be a short turnaround but just a thought yeah it'd be great by the end of july if we did that yeah does that feel doable to you jenny i don't know when you're you know when you guys are going camping or what you guys are doing this summer or yeah i think that that's um i think that's doable okay think about think about it and reach out to us like tomorrow or or thursday if it's not i don't want to put you on the spot of here by the way we're now telling you organize a major survey for our two towns in two weeks so i won't think about it but it should be okay i mean we don't want it too complicated that we have too many questions and people aren't going to respond but i think that that's doable we're gonna i think i think we're gonna know pretty well um uh what the key questions are i think they're going to be pretty obvious to us and i just ask that you run it by us too just so we have a awareness of what you're asking oh yeah we'll send it around i'll send um and just so i realize i apologize carl i meant to ask this during the discussion of the budget are you looking for a one pager to go out and a mailer yes postcard for g-hud that i've shared with stacy and that we're moving forward with it you want me to organize something and share it yeah that'd be great we we definitely we definitely need to have some sort of some sort of basic uh a basic mailer that at least conveys um you know i think it would probably need to show the new warning it would probably need to show the page the the new tax page and maybe a paragraph a paragraph or two you know of of explanatory text of you know why we're doing it when we're voting so on and so forth ethan you worked on the last one is that true you're muted ethan uh i worked on the design more than i did on getting it out amy's the real male for it yeah i'm just looking for who wants to work with me on it just so i got another set of eyes yeah dude can we do 11 by 17 copying there so we can print print something and fold it that's the cheapest way is definitely to have a what if it's one sheet and fold it with on the sheet having the um address on one section of it you know i don't know if we could fit all the information on one page then you don't need not paying for envelopes and um yeah i'll i'll like i don't mind being part of part of it and try to figure out what would be the best for us getting this information out and what you know what we need to get out for information yeah yeah so if you could have you work with jamie on that that'd be great okay excellent all right so does that answer your question jamie are we good now beautiful thank you sir um okay we are now going to go into public comment um uh the way this is going to work is the way we've done this before which is we will go down the the list of phone numbers by phone number um we will give each each number an opportunity to unmute um you need to identify yourself and whether you're a rock rock bridge a stock bridge or a rock tester voter and then make your comment it needs to be around the revised budget the warning the board position uh uh the the brief discussion of the building um you know it needs to be germane to the to the agenda that we discussed tonight comments by bylaw are limited to one comment per uh for member of the public and they are limited to five minutes if we do have time however we will uh we will go back around and try to to to solicit additional uh comments from people that depends on on how long the process takes carl yes if you have to leave at eight how do you want to proceed I was actually I was actually going to say if you want to if you want to take over calling on people for me so that is not speaking mid-speaker that would be great okay there we got here 30 okay and you so Ethan go ahead you have the floor um you want me to you want to start now and do it okay yeah I figured it'd be consistent rather than rather than changing the color I've got um I'm gonna go down my list which starts with Beth Dolly if you'd like to make a comment um yes this is Beth Dolly I'm in Stockbridge um I think I'm good thank you Ethan you're muted again uh Ethan Phelps if you'd like to make a comment please I have no comment tonight thank you thank you moving down Janet Whitaker Janet Whitaker do you have a comment to make tonight okay now hearing some I'm gonna move on Karen Rubin do you have a comment to make tonight no I do not thank you Karen moving down uh uh as number with area code 443 ending in star 15 do you have a comment to make tonight star six I see yeah star six to unmute thank you Jamie for the reminder if you have a comment that's area code 443 ending in 15 that's 38 okay I'm gonna move on area code 774 ending in 59 if you have a comment please star six to unmute and please if everyone else could stay muted until I recognize you this is Irene Sintas if you could just clarify for me the board position will be appointed but people can express an interest in it is that is that what I understand yes yes I think we're open I believe we're open to anyone who has a Stockbridge resident who is interested express that interest to us and we will consider them okay all right thank you you're welcome I believe I'm 802 ending in 06 please star six to make a comment and 774 59 if you could please mute please again star six after your comment 802 ending in 11 star six to make your comment please hi this is lory scott I just just a quick update for it for you all on the board the state is embarking on a huge absentee ballot campaign for both the primary and the general election so as we are going to have the school election on the same day as the primary just need to be mindful of there could be a lot of absentee ballot requests so we'll need to have as much information on the ballot or whatever as soon as possible lory I don't know if anybody asked you this before I didn't see it in the information do you have an idea of how many absentee ballots you've already put out just out of curiosity about about 10 of all the registered voters so far and that's in the first week okay thank you okay thank you thank you uh thank you hey hey Ethan this is megan speaking just really quickly um just for don't forget that deb matthews is no longer an employee so thank you very much sorry forgive me yeah no no no gosh deb absolutely forgive me um it's so used to seeing your name there do you have a comment to make tonight um no actually bill and I are on this call together and um I appreciate being able to be a community member and listen and participate thank you welcome to your new role congratulations all right this is what I'm going to need I think I did 19 uh 38 is that lory 802 ending in 38 was that you lory hi it's keith in stock rate oh Keith's got you thank you yeah could you go ahead with your comment please sure first I'm going to be very interested in throwing my ring my hat in the ring for to be part of the board but I do have a couple of questions or clarification I noticed when it comes to the high school building the board has made it very clear that the high school will not be used for educational purposes however I've heard you know some comments about using it for theater groups uh for voting purposes and I was curious now that this building is part of the Rochester Stockbridge Union why is it being utilized for Rochester purposes and I guess the follow-up question is to that is who's paying for the heating the electrical uh the insurance when it comes to casualty and liability for the building while it's being used for purposes other than educational purposes Bonnie could you address that or do you think that's sorry go ahead Bonnie no I was just going to say right off the top of my head a couple of quick things um the board we had agreed the board had agreed to use it for voting because it allowed a safe way to vote in person um I don't know of any theater groups that are using it or planning on using it Keith I don't have any anything like that on the building use calendar the only thing I know of that's going to be in there is voting and in the parking lot we're having the food drop-offs other than that I know of no use community use of any sort in high school okay so the board the board's willing to commit that the building will not be utilized for any purpose not just educational purposes but for any purpose is that correct then let me jump in here for a second Ethan we have broadly the school the school district has has a public use building policies for both buildings so for example there where the building has been rented out for a Suzuki Institute and for a summer week it's been used for community community suppers and hunter breakfasts in Stockbridge it's been used for the Stockbridge church as a parent has occasionally used it to have to have you know non-religious meals but use it as a gathering place for the kitchen similar building uses have been had in Rochester there's a fee that goes with that and that includes covering a cost of cleaning and you know it's you know whether it's the Boy Scouts or an election or whatever there's always there always has been a community policy in place for buildings on both campuses okay so then if the Rochester community or a town board elects to purchase the building for a dollar that means that if the school district wanted to utilize it for educational purposes the same courtesy would be afforded to them at no cost am i correct i can't really speak to an agreement that hasn't been decided but i would imagine there'd be some sort of reciprocal use agreement it's you know it's we did it did now be a public building that we'd be using just like um we make arrangements to use uh pierce hall this the swimming pool at uh vtc or the pierce hall when they do the starting our night concert yeah but we need to have agreements in place so we know what we're getting into Keith can i just can i just remind you that we've just started a process and that we are still in the same situation we have been except for this new commitment of no educational use for the school year but other than that we still have a building and it's still there and had we've already made agreements about it being used for the election which we aren't going to back out on right now so but it will fairness it's been three years now and there are still questions that are being raised and we need answers i hear you not promises not quite not committees you need to have answers to these questions and we are working on that maybe you can work on it for three years show me some results where are you give me details give me a you know a written statement of where you are uh we're about to meet uh with the Rochester select board okay and uh is anybody and it was raised earlier when you guys were in um executive committee is there anybody from Stockbridge select board that's going to be sitting in on this meeting so they can hear what's going on or is this just a Rochester select board you have two two elected representatives on the Stockbridge board on this board i believe i believe that we discuss that when the meeting would be with the select board that would be a joint meeting between the select board and the board but the full school board and Stockbridge or just the select board of Rochester and the school board says i don't see why the Stockbridge select board would be in part of this agreement or meeting what would be in that meeting because they represent us as a community so do your two elected school board members yes but i think i i question you know that is your opinion and you are welcome to it i i hear you thank you welcome to it yes okay i i really think you need to move this forward and you're putting forth another budget basically the same budget with the hopes of what it was voted down overwhelmingly by Stockbridge and you're putting forth the same budget you're reducing it by twenty thousand dollars which is less than one half of one percent of over four million dollars in a very small community good is that are you done with your comment i i guess i am because it apparently pulls on deaf ears no we hear you we hear your comment we believe we're taking action right now and we believe it's substantive act substantive action um if you don't agree we hear that i don't agree and i think the community also does not agree very good well thank you for your comment uh we're down to i believe 80244 star six if you would like to comment very good moving on 802 uh ending in six seven do you have a comment star six to comment please what phone number i'm using i have 13 lines here at work so i'm i'm guessing it i'm just going to jump in if you don't mind no that's fine i'm also six seven at the end so can you change the number sorry that's okay oh let's do six seven first and then we'll get you join if that's okay i don't know which one is the you calling all right let's let's let's go with six seven please minus six seven two can you say the whole number please yes 802 um and then it's it's out there it's just started to us except for the last two digits um then the final two digits are six seven okay mine that's mine and same so there's two six seven okay go ahead with the other lady please i'll be next all right um my question my i have a comment about the questionnaire the the questionnaire that we had before talked about questions for the town of Stockbridge like uh first choice what would you prefer um and the answer was uh keep school in Stockbridge second was school choice and um that was important for i believe a lot of the community people to have a voice in that but if the questions are the same for both towns and and i guess they have to be um well we know what the communities of each town are looking for um i would think maybe we jenny and maybe this is a suggestion that we should keep some well i think we can have one questionnaire at the beginning that asks what what town people are from um we can summarize to some degree by town but i think that when it gets to the details of summarizing we don't want to get ourselves into too many you know how many in this specific demographic answered this way to a specific question but i think if we have one question where we simply ask what town they're from if there's certain questions that we wanted to find a subgroup of that we could do that and also with the questionnaire i think there was a lot of um a lot of people that were not given the questionnaire the last time i think it should maybe be connected with the vote so that we know that one person has one vote and that they are actual voters in town so is there a way we can piggyback the questionnaire with the vote well that depends jenny whether you feel like you're able to get this out well i think that would depend on the timing of when you know when the ballots go out um i'd have to kind of know when the ballots would go out before um being able to know if that's something that could be done in time for that i see it's like a month away right yeah for the vote would be august 11th and i'm not sure when absentee ballots would start to go out but we would have to look at that timeline well maybe at least have them available at the voting places maybe they wouldn't be available for people that do um um the other type of voting maybe it would just be people that go to the voting um right and bonnie had mentioned that and i think that um you know how to take a look at the timeline but i think that we could probably have it at at the august 11th you know have the survey there for people if they wanted to fill it out there and then put it in a box or or send it in after right but that whole send it in after photo copies get made and i just think it should be very careful you know how these are done that's my that is my um comment and if there's a second round i have a different question so i'll wait good thank you john um i confess i'm a little lost to where we are in the numbers because they keep moving up i'm sorry uh sorry six seven now let's go up back up to yola it's yola la becha from rochester um the other six seven um okay so please um i apologize in advance if uh whatever i'm saying um i will say has been covered already i i had to go to a library board meeting so i just joined in uh so this is my this is my question um i've been going to all the um at the time of the merger i mean i've been going to all the meetings but i do not remember and so please um um i will um forgive me if i if that um that was already discussed at the time of the merger the original merger between starboard and rochester has the decision to uh decision for the high school building not to be utilized was made was it made at that time was it and was the motion made was it documented that uh that high school building will not be utilized for educational reason no i don't believe so okay so this okay so if it wasn't that's what i thought i just wanted clarification uh there go ahead yeah so if it wasn't so this is new then and it's because you know we all believe it's because of the taxes and the cost of maintenance of the high school building however if this town of rochester agrees to buy it uh is it possible for the town of rochester to or for the school board to have a stipulation and ask the town of rochester to lease um that south side or north side i'm like south side um to the school so we can keep on using our wonderful auditorium and the art room music room and i this is i'm being biased a little bit in that part but you know the after school program uh i wrote an email to to the school board saying how and again but our after school program i believe is wonderful we have a tremendous support from the administration and school board and and the community and uh like i said we are one of the sides the only side that had no violations if we move to the um elementary school building which is already cramped is going to be with um more cell art and music and and and all of the other activities that took place uh so far in the uh high school building it's not going to be possible it's not it's not going to be the same i mean it's i know it's not going to be the same and people are saying stock which has the same it's a multi-purpose zone but it's been going on for years we have to start and now especially after caught with with the pandemic how are we going to keep this one room clean and disinfected for lunches and then the castellates will have to wait for the after school program to end at six o'clock and then come back and clean everything we clean but the floors will they'll have to wait for the floors and everything it's just such a such a such awful i mean not an awful such an overwhelming project and uh yes so um so um my question is um okay about the uh select board and also like if the uh select board the Rochester town buys it the Stockbridge select board okay so it's not going to be the maintenance and and stuff like that it's not going to be in the school's budget correct the maintenance of uh uh yola i have to tell you i can't really discuss any of the details okay i understand no i understand because like the gentleman who said that this Stockbridge um you know it's i don't believe that um you know the Rochester that it'll be owned allegedly i mean hopefully like uh it might be owned by the town of Rochester so that i from the way i understand it the taxes all the maintenance and stuff would be paid by the town not by the school board by the school so that would be a totally different budget and the town of Stockbridge would not have you know any uh burden let's say you know for that so that's that's that's that's all i'm sorry i can't really comment as i said i can't really comment on yeah no i understand but my main question was in my comment i do hear your comment and we do hear your comment yeah and and this decision had not been made was not made at the time of the merger so this is so like yeah and i think this is the important point no it's not the decision wasn't needed to merger but there's been several several discussions that throughout the last year plus at all of our public meetings okay well i made my comment okay thank you i there there is a there is disagreement about the interpretation of our articles of agreement okay and i think that's that that is part of um part of the issue here that it is some people can say definitively on both sides because of some vagaries in the articles of agreement um why would not ever agree yeah i can't i can't really talk about that agreement any farther right now good thank you i respect like you know just to close it i respect but his opinions you know and i i will go with whatever is best for all okay thank you thank you i think i'm at star three eight eight of two hey yeah i'm sorry you might want to ask people to mute themselves after they've done public comment yes that's a good idea if you could please mute yourself after you've done your public comment so we don't get interference with the next caller eight or two uh three eight have you spoken already you're welcome to comment star six done yet yeah hi it's keith i have okay sorry got you thank you uh star seven four uh star six to unmute if you have a comment and can i'm i'm sorry it's hard to keep track of these numbers because they keep moving around all the time hey even maybe hello sorry this is this is kary mcdonnell you had called my number um a while back but i was not not able to respond at that time okay go for it now kary that's fine well i think the um questionnaire is a great idea um i do think that the way you craft it is important and thinking about how to ask what's the word maybe probing questions i mean i think if you i think we're at a point where we need to have really candid and probably tough conversations um as a community and and as a board um and i know you know questions that were asked in the past to stock bridge or rochester you know if you ask a question like do you want would you rather have um maintain your own building have school choice combined with rochester if you ask a flat question like that you're going to get a pretty flat answer um and so i i'm just thinking that if we can um ask those questions in a in a way by giving some amount of information i mean i think that it would be really important before you answer that question to know for example what would it cost if we put all 130 kids in one building what would our tax rate look like then i mean i know those are really hard questions and hard conversations to have and i think all of us are avoiding them but i don't i don't think we can afford to do that i think looking at different configurations um you know possibly having like a k2 in stock bridge a a 356 a 3456 in rochester i mean i don't know a lot about the budget but i can tell you if we had a single classroom teacher for every grade we would automatically save the cost of one teacher um and that's without any combining whatsoever um and you would be in a classroom in rochester which could be utilized for art and music these are hard conversations to have but i think we need to be having them um and i hope that whoever crafts the questionnaire can somehow um develop questions that allow people to answer them in a way that really reveals the information we're trying to seek if that makes sense thank you thank you for your comment star six seven eight or two star six seven do you have a comment to mix we go i'm sorry i'm yep i'm messing up again yep uh six eight no you've already done those ones i think you're down to nine one now nine one thank you it's uh and then maybe we should ask if anybody didn't get a chance nine nine one eight or two nine one star six to unmute hi even this is katelyn mckinsey from stock bridge katelyn so i have four questions do you want me to ask one at a time and let you answer on each or just give you all four at one um i would say prioritize give us your top okay two um and if we do a second round um we'll get to this next two that sound fair okay so uh it sounds like now there's only two representatives on the board genie's gone so we're going to go a two to three ratio of stock bridge to rochester representatives many community members don't feel that the stock bridge members that are on the board have outwardly represented us in a i've spoken to several people about this um so when you guys go meet we're not going to have an extra board when you go meet to discuss the high school building we're not going to have a third person there to represent us um and is that true it's just going to be an empty spot until next month it all all depends yes it all depends on when that meeting gets scheduled and so i as being i've been directed i'll have to talk to the select board and and and decide i think um yeah that's that's about all i can tell you about that because it's an executive session but yes you're right if it happens before our next meeting in august uh we will be down a board member but it's the time in august um and of course that won't be an approval meeting that will be you know that that's something down the line of ways so i would say that major action would happen after you had um your full strength of three three members okay so theoretically if it's before we have that third member would you would the board school board be willing to meet or reach out to our select board to see if one of them would like to go just to at least observe and represent and be a voice a third voice for stock bridge i'm i'm not sure jimmy could you jimmy could you i know i i i would consult with legal counsel in my sense is that that would not be advised okay okay so um my second question um i'll that i'll use for now and all that's the other to the other routes um if you're going to have these questionnaires some stock bridge and broadchester if the outcomes are different than each other if both towns want completely different things how are you as a board going to reconcile that well i imagine i don't know i i imagine we're going to get all kinds of different information from all kinds of different people um and we'll have to um come together and i would hope we were present the results of that um and present whether they were a stock bridge because all the questions would be answered and i think having an ask asking the question of whether it's a stock bridge or broadchester voter at the top we would have some idea of where this is coming from um i hope to be very transparent with the questions and answers um and not and not you know be secretive oh this is this is the tendency here the tendency there um uh i i that brings up the question of how do you get the information out of how people are answering if they're answering in like you know paragraphs and and sentences like that um you know whether right for what i'm saying it's for example these surveys that went out before the merger to prioritize what people wanted clearly many broadchester people are for all the children merging to broadchester and the stock bridge people are very very for keeping our school or having school choice so how are we going to reconcile those two drastically different well i think i think we will choose questions that will get to the heart of whether that is still the case um i don't remember that being the case but if you've looked at the questionnaires and you probably know um um but i that's a question i would very much like to know and we'll take that information in hey i don't think omega go ahead yeah i'm sorry i was i i helped with the broadchester survey last time and those surveys were done prior to the study committee forming so those are there was never a question on anyone's survey about combining with broadchester in one building i just want to put that out there that that's that's never been approached in a in a forum okay i i don't know what was asked in broadchester i just know what people have told me that we're on priorities for stock bridge i am gathering that information because there seems to be a lot of broadchester residents as well as a lot of stock bridge residents that grew up in broadchester that are very for merging the schools and that's what a lot of people from broadchester and currently live in broadchester felt that they were voting for for the merger is so eventually we would all merge into one school which is the exact opposite of what doctors voted for those members here's go ahead jenny i remember correctly megan the broadchester survey which you said was prior to potentially um merging with stock bridge the broadchester survey included information about potentially merging with um that's a royal tenant it also included um getting input about potentially merging with randolph yeah we had it was a very wide scope and i just and if katelin's referring to people she's seen on social media they're talking about what they voted on because i'm seeing it those are stock bridge residents i i also think that the point here is that we this is the reason for the questionnaire going out now is that i think we need an absolute fresh take on these questions so that we're not dealing with guessing or wondering what these questions were like or when they came out we're the board now we want you know we we know the questions we're curious on the questions we want to hear the answers i'm very open to all the answers that come into me i'm also very aware of the realities so i'm i'm i'm eager for it and i hope you know you and other people who do really commit to being on board meetings and stuff like that will help to get a broad range of people responding because i think that word of mouth is going to help get this questionnaire um responded to um better than better than almost anything else okay and i just for the end of this round of comments i just want to say to make in that those who are posting from stock bridge have a tie went to the high school in blanchester so there is an emotional tie so they aren't objective from a stock bridge point of view agree but they are stock bridge residents some that grew up in blanchester good thank you can can we move on please star 97 yep that's right what i was gonna do i was gonna do that i mean just try to help you out no thank you i appreciate star 97 you have a comment can you hear me now yes uh could you identify yourself please so this is charity colton um so uh and some stock bridge correct uh well to clarify megan's comment i currently live in stock bridge i'm a stock bridge taxpayer but i grew up and have lineage in rochester so just to clarify that um so he had mentioned earlier that there was a question sorry katelyn katelyn could you please mute oh scary thank you uh can tear you can hear you please can you hear me yes thank you please go ahead so keep had mentioned earlier that there was a question asked about the real estate option and i'm asking you to divulge any of that information i would like to clarify the question that i asked my question is at what point in time or if it is going to happen at what point in time would that option be presented to the taxpayers so that they are aware of what the option is how it would impact the budget moving forward and the functionality of the new look for lack of a better way to say it because my concern is that in the past as you yourself mentioned ethan there is some dispute over understanding of how things will happen moving forward decisions have been made both have been cast but there was not a clear path moving forward with proper documentation and i agree with everyone that part of that was because at forty six got rolled out and forced upon a lot of schools and towns so for this particular situation how and when will the taxpayers on both sides get to see what that option is and how it will make make things look moving forward and impact us or is it just going to be a board decision and we get no choice or no absolutely not um uh uh uh i i think we just need to take these questions under advisement right now okay thank you thank you thank you and i'm fine without answer as long as it is posed to the full board and the legal representation of this real estate option whether it moves forward or not so that it's represented that this is a valid question out there that people want to know very much i've heard you know i've been taking notes thank you guys this is jayme can only the superintendent i'm taking notes and we're certainly consult with legal already from the last one i have is nine nine nine nine yes that's the last one i have star nine nine do you have a comment or is that i thought that was joanne i have a comment with kim robertson from stackbridge oh sorry yes kim sorry thank you come on please have your comment thank you that's right thank you um uh i just want you know this whole thing about you appointing a board member i'm hoping that um instead of a voting i'm hoping that you guys take into consideration that there are people who are um who don't see eye to eye with all the board members in stackbridge and that we would like someone from who has maybe different opinions to be on the board to voice all the opinions of the stackbridge people and i think by you appointing one versus voting for one which is legal i would hope that you would take the stackbridge residents into consideration and have someone who may be with the different opinion as yourself someone who has voiced the opposite so that we do have a um representation on the board that's all i have to say thank you all right thank you for your comment um i believe we've gone through all the way is there anyone who did not get to comment in this round please um uh and star seven four if you would mute yourself please is that kim is that you star six so not hearing anyone who has not spoken um i would take a quick round of second go if anybody has a second question hi this is keeping stackbridge again okay i have a question can you tell me what the school board's definition is of a um consolidated district well they're all different um you know that i think jamie could speak to that um i don't i'm i'm dealing with the district we have between two schools two campuses one school that's been that's been our definition um from early on two two campuses one school well i'm just trying to figure out you know when everybody voted on you know consolidating the districts which is i get it um what that really means to everybody i mean we still now have two schools that have two co-principals that have teachers that still teach the same grades at both schools multiple buildings um so i'm just trying to figure out what consolidation meant when you guys put it forward to a vote for the constituents in this community and the rochester community both communities to vote on i'm just i'm confused i just don't have a um a real feel for what consolidation meant megan would you like to speak to this at all just because you were part of that process but if not we can just hear the comment and move on i can't i mean the consolidation in act 46 had a lot of different implications um i think that's all i'm really gonna say but that's just hiding behind act 46 i wanted to know on an individual basis from the people who are on the board right now this is this i gave him it's too much so i did i did i did give you my answer which was um two two campuses one school and that is what we really wanted to stay was but it is it's it's saying that the that the focus should be around educating students equally in both places um that we have two administrators that we're working that's that was the model we came up with um that was our consolidation model now whether it's been successful or whether it's going to be successful going forward those are open questions uh a merger is not made in one vote no i understand that a merger is an ongoing process that um that that could change and evolve over time and that's what we're learning and that's what we're working through and that's where the hard questions are useful um because we're figuring out what a merger is but i'm just trying to follow up and and i want to see that the children are educated to the best of our ability and i want to make sure the funds that we are utilizing are applied properly and i'm not so sure having multiple campuses multiple principals multiple teachers i think you can do better for our students i agree with you it's all about the children it definitely is there's no doubt that the kids come first and the board has to find out are they doing the best for the children totally agree that's all i have to say good thank you kate this is kary mcdonnell i have one more comment that kind of goes along with that um i guess my thought is is that i think we're going to get through this building issue um hopefully the town will be our savior here and we'll be able to figure out the building issue i guess what i'm concerned about is what the next issue will be um i think that we do have very divided communities um i think you as a board have you have worked well together and i really applaud you and you're um yep hello am i cutting in and out i believe you are i think you're cutting in and out i'm cutting in and out no kary i believe you're flying kary this is kary this is fun yeah go ahead keep talking i've been cutting in and out okay okay all right sorry um yeah i just think that um we need to think about how our communities can come together in more authentic ways um and and i see you as a board working really well together but i see that our communities are still very divided and um and i don't know if that um can ever be resolved if we're essentially operating two separate schools on two separate campuses and i want to be clear here i have no interest whatsoever to see a school like stockbridge a school that clearly is very well loved by the community close like that's not my agenda i just am wondering what um how we are going to what's the next phase for this um for this marriage as Ethan put it um i i think that we are gonna be stumbling over every challenge along the way if we continue to be um the separate communities that we are so just want to put that out there thank you kary thank you any further comments um hi even add yourself please um i have two numbers going up 997 and 91 uh 97 would you have an extra comment yes this is charity colton um sort of to add to what kary said um you know kary has done very well things eloquently out on social media asking really difficult questions and i might not be on the same opinion side as her but it's been kept civil um one of the things about all of this is that as i mentioned in my earlier comment we all got thrust into this very quickly very abruptly without the state doing what i consider due diligence to do a lot of the forethought in this and i think a piece of the puzzle that's not being looked at is that at some point all the different sides and this goes at the su level for new jamie as well um it goes at the board level and at the community level at some point in time there's going to have to be double duty part of the duty is going to be looking at how do we start moving forward proactively and unfortunately because of the way this has all been thrust upon everyone it's going to still happen while we're working reactively to all of this and i don't think that there's going to be a good smooth motion forward until you find the balance of where those two are going to meet and how do those two duties find their meeting place and start doing the two things together it's not going to be easy it's going to be difficult there's going to be people on the side and it's why there's such animosity and frustration going on with all of this so i don't know how to best do that because i'm not on the board i don't have time to be on the board so i try to sit in on this end as much as i can but as kary mentioned those hard questions have to be asked and i apologize jenny i'm going to throw you under the bus jenny did take part in doing the stockbridge survey when it happened and it was during the 706 study phase of things with rochester and she did a phenomenal job at trying to phrase things in a way so that it could be answered but still have an opinion that's separate for the various options and i think that's what you're going to have to do is ask those really hard questions and allow for answers that are not going to be popular and until you get all of that together figure out what your proactive move is to work with your reactive position we're going to be stuck in this situation forever and it's just going to keep lingering that's all i have to say i would like to respond in one way and that is i think we're incredibly fortunate that uh we have really good administrators who managed to keep the daily life of school going on despite how we all may disagree or have to be working out our issues and i think that's the way it should be let us be the adults working this out person to person in these meetings um and let the school do be out of that realm and and do the best it can that's certainly my goal um but you're absolutely right we need to ask some very tough questions good any for anyone else to make a final comment before we close out hi i think this is Caitlyn with chemistry so my two questions were that i have left are is the board considering having or meeting more often um to try to move this process along or are you keeping just the one-to-month and the occasional special meeting um well if you've been looking at how many often special meetings we've been having over these last several months you see we're we're ending up it's not being scheduled necessarily but we're ending up have needing more meetings it's certainly been recommended before by other board members i think it's something that we need to look at if if that's the amount of work we feel we have to get done um so it's certainly not stable and um my second question was and this kind of helps carry this question or charities questions excuse me um is the building committee ever going to be called back so that we can get those financial answers so they can crunch those hard numbers are is the board going to call the building meeting again or is that just kind of a dead horse it's not going to happen again i would i personally i'm this is my personal opinion i would like to see some finality out of that i'm not on that board um it is um so i i would i can't answer i can't answer you that i would certainly like to see some finality and some final report from that board thank you any further comments i just would like to this is juanna i'd just like to clarify that article six six b says that no elementary school shall be closed without a unanimous vote of the unified board of school directors in an affirmative town in which it is located so i think that that says a lot to Stockbridge it might give us a little feeling of protection um and i would like to tell Keith that he can find all of this information on the white river valley supervisory union uh site and the articles of agreement are there in case anybody is interested in joining the board and then they can um uh look that all up before they do that's all i wanted to say thank you great thank you joanne this is Keith i'm more than happy to look those up and i still would love to join the board because i think you need to have a um different opinion on how we should proceed so i will certainly look those up and i'm most interested in uh continuing this conversation very good thank you there being no further comments um public discussion will be closed i would entertain a motion to adjourn is that so moved so moved seconded seconded thank you megan all in favor signify by saying i because i'm a former time moderator hi very good thank you this meeting has been closed and our next scheduled meeting public meeting will be our august i believe it's august fourth is that correct amy i believe that's correct correct thank you jamie and thank you all for being part of the board to be on the meeting tonight good night thank you all