 Do we have any adjustments to the agenda? Is there any public comment at this time? Act to approve the minutes of Monday, April 26th. Do I have a motion? So moved to accept the minutes. And a second. I would second, but I wasn't present. I don't believe. All right, so they've been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Kathy, Kathy Dawn said that he can't second. Sorry. I wasn't there. I'll second. All right, thank you. Now is there any discussion? All right. Hearing none, so moved. The minutes are approved. Now we're on reports to the board. Jamie, you are up, please. Well, I just wanted to start by acknowledging and celebrating that we've all done tremendous work. Since July one, we've been able to get several budgets approved. I don't know how many it actually is at this point. Terri Mendoff, we had a bunch that we wanted to vote. He had our final one for 21-22 approved yesterday. I think you've all aged me in dog years. And regards to that. And we've been able to work through two successful communities took action to look at whether or not their mergers are the best things for their communities. And we were able to keep two mergers in place too. So that it's been a lot of important work. And so I just wanted to add that to my report and I'll take any questions folks have. Looks like that was easy peasy tonight, Jamie. Hey, I don't mind that. You guys sometimes have a lot of questions. This is Dawn, just a reminder, I guess since everybody's passed their budget they just have to reorganize and then we'll reorganize as a OSU. Yeah, WRBSU just marked your calendars. I was gonna let you know during next, at the end of the meeting in regards to the next meeting. That would need to be a full board in June because that will be the re-organized meeting. Okay, thank you. Okay. Curriculum Instruction Assessment. Good evening, everybody. I wanted to share a little bit from my report this time, as you can see on the end of the report is my exit analysis for our literacy work that was started a few years ago. And I just wanted to kind of give you a status check on that. So you have some idea as to what the work, the achievement within the work has been. So if you'll remember back, we did a collaborative survey which sort of set the direction for the initiative and what I'd like to do is just walk you through the report and then if there are specific questions, I'll entertain those. So just really quickly, there were just a few areas that we were really focusing on. One is developing a shared framework for universal instruction. And the second was to build up our instruction and instructional resources within that universal instruction. We were working towards larger chunks of time, of continuous time for reading instruction and we were looking to align our professional learning between the schools so that we could align our practices as well as have deeper levels of collaboration. So as we look at the report, what I'd like to do is just highlight some of the shifts in practice that we've seen. Some of these you've already had a kind of a preview of and so I'll kind of buzz through those. First of all, we have shared assessment practices at this point. That was not the case when we started this work back in 2018. In addition to that, we are using the assessment to direct instruction more. So the vast majority, 89% of teachers are using that information to really direct their instruction and do robust pop progress monitoring. The next area was looking at a shared universal framework and back in 2018, there really weren't shared instructional practices that most people would cite that they had no idea what was going on in other buildings. And this year when I surveyed teachers, 92% felt that our universal approach to literacy was improving literacy instruction and student achievement in their school. They also cited that we had strong buy-in from stakeholders, including principals, interventionists and teachers. And at the end of each of these sections, you can see kind of what suggestions I'm thinking of, but clearly that will be the team at White Reverse decision as to where they take their next steps. Finally, I would say we have kind of moved the needle sum in establishing kind of a reading workshop model for our literacy instruction block. We're still, as I see some variability in this data as far as how frequently that's happening for students, I think that more has to do with COVID as well as finding the balancing act between the phonics and words study many lessons and reading. But that would be something that I hope principals would be keeping an eye on. And then finally, I think we are better aligned in those time allocations. So most people now have a minimum of 90 to 120 minutes and that will be something to also make sure that I would encourage principals to make sure that they're allocating that amount of time so that they can address all areas of the framework. I shared with you last time about some of the gains that we saw in intervention in the alignment there as well as the increased amount of collaborative practices that we're seeing. One area that I know Jamie's looking to address is really continuing to build on our gains and how we're meeting around data and student progress. And so even though we've seen a 20% gain, we definitely wanna continue to move that up so that we're adjusting to the needs of students. And finally, I just wanna reaffirm that you guys have really fantastic teachers to work with that care deeply about their students. And I really appreciate the opportunity to do this work with you. Are there any questions? Just a quick question. Sure, Ethan. What's the question? Here it is. As we're increasing, obviously next year we're making a big push to increase math intervention as well. Are these numbers 90 to 120 for literacy? Is there gonna be a comparable time limit for math? And how did these shift as one comes in obviously trying to keep the gains from literacy? How do we, is there some target for math in that sense? Yeah, that's a great question. I think it is important to note the recommended time for just the raw instruction. And that's been something that we've also been working on in math. So even though this exit analysis really speaks to literacy, there are various components within that that really do require the 90 to 120 minutes, particularly when you have as many mixed grades as what we have across the SU. So yeah, I mean, I think, yes, it's not gonna be exactly equal because there's more aspects to the framework within literacy, but certainly you would wanna make sure that whatever recommended time is within your math framework is being allocated. So, and I do think that that's something principals are very mindful of. So I think you can rest assured there. Is... Sure. Terrifying. Is the 90 minutes to 120, is that prescribed by the Fontis-Empanel program, that number? I believe that's true, correct? Well, I mean, every day you're supposed to be really responding to learners. So while there's certain aspects, such as a reading mini lesson that I would hope would be happening five days a week, other elements don't have to happen every day because there may be continued practice going on or maybe they have already had their interactive read aloud. So that's why there's that range of time. And I think it also acknowledges that oftentimes, our time in our small buildings doesn't come in nice, neat little packages, you know? And so it allows some flex for that too, Ethan. Thank you. Sure. Thank you. Thank you. I had a question. Hi, in interpreting your bar graphs, I had a trouble. So the pie graphs I could understand, but if we could just go to the first bar graph and if you, Ray, if you could show it so we all could see it, and then Amy, if you could just kind of tell us what it says. Sorry, I'm looking. Sure. There it is. So this is a degree of agreement. So at three and four, people strongly agree or agree that LLI is happening consistently in addition to universal literacy instruction. LLI is our intervention. Right, so the stronger you feel about it, I agree about it, you're moving to the right. Is that correct? That is correct. And so how do I interpret four? I'm jumping enthusiasm over through hoops and hollers or is it- That's where very little would come in between a kid's universal, like basically what the interventionists are saying is every single time teachers are giving the universal instruction and then kids are getting their double dip, okay? Three would say there might be a few times where that's not happening, but for the most part, most kids are getting that double dip and they're not missing out on their universal instruction. Okay. Okay, and that goes true for all the four point scales. It's an agree to disagree with the statement. I'm sorry that wasn't clear. No, I'm a rookie here. So I appreciate the explanation. Thank you. Sure thing. Anyone else for Amy? Thank you, Amy. Business manager, Tara. Good evening, everyone. So you have my report. I just wanted to share a few of the highlights. Fiscal year 21 audit. We have completed the pre-audit and we will undergo the final audit the first week of September. I did put in my report this time for you all the overview of the FY22 budgets. I know in the past you've all asked where do we land in comparison to the other districts in the SU? So I wanted to share that with you and FBUD was highlighted just because when I wrote the report, the vote hadn't happened. So that was completed yesterday in that past. So this will show you what each of your individual budgets are, what your per pupil spending is and then what your equalized pupil is as well. And then on the revenue and expenditure summary, I did make a lot of changes in the most recent report. I updated the COVID expenses from 101,000 to 301,375,000 to 145,732. And again, once we get the codes from the AOE on how we need to move the ESSER expenses, those will come out of the general fund and go into the ESSER special reserve and special revenue expenditure funds that they give us. So it's there in the general fund for now. I've increased the contracted services savings from 38,580 dollars to 86,632. And then we've increased travel savings from 7,411 dollars to 9,238. The only change I made on the revenue side again was just updating the COVID so that washes it out. So these changes result in an increase in the expenditure surplus from 297,882 dollars to 303,404. And decreased the revenue deficit from 270,137 to 162,780, resulting in an overall projected surplus of 140,624 dollars, which is an increase of the April's projection of 90,754. Any questions on any of that information? Sounds off to me. Tara, Ethan here, just a quick clarification. I feel like I'm always confused by this. Have we received the ESSER funds, but they just haven't been allocated to the proper place? Okay. We have been approved for our ESSER grant, but I have to submit for reimbursement. It's not a prepaid grant. You have to actually spend the funds and then submit the documentation to the Agency of Education for Reimbursement, just like we do for our Consolidated Federal Program as far as ESSER is concerned. We did in fact receive all of our funding for the Coronavirus Relief Grant, which went through December 31st. And we've also received all of our funding for Efficiency Vermont, the first round. We've received all of our funding for the Coronavirus Relief Food Service Equipment. So all of that stuff has been submitted and received. And those are the expenses that came out of your individual revenue and expenditure projections that I provided to each of the individual boards and also what's been moved out of the SU up until the end of December. So the additional expenses that are in there are the ones that have accumulated since January. So now we'll work to get all of that reimbursement and in those reports to the Agency of Education for Reimbursement. Thank you so much. That is all the clarity I asked for. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Anybody else for Tara? All right. Thank you, Tara. Director of Special Services. So Don submitted a report. Don is under the weather. He's been not feeling well all week. So he called me and said, do I have to muster up the energy? I said, no, I think we'll be all right. So wish Don getting well. He doesn't miss work. So he's definitely not feeling well. So anyways, any questions folks may have about special ed, I can give you updates in regards to we're getting planning is occurring on a daily basis for the Wildcat Institute for the high school, just so you know, to launch that successfully for in the fall. And we're in the thick of hiring. And so we still have three special educator positions to fill in the special ed realm. And we're looking to fill five support staff for next year. And so those ads just got refreshed again. I shared with the strafford last night. In general, I'm most concerned about the lack of candidates in those areas. If you will just happen, you don't have anything else better to do and go on school spring, you'll see the amount of postings for interventionists right now and special educators is crazy. And so we're moving very fast where there are hiring practices. We are using committees, but I have said to principals when a candidate comes in and looks good, don't wait. Like we need to get them interviewed because we can't lose out. And so we're moving very quickly to try to get really solid candidates in front of our students. I gotta say the candidates that keep coming my way, I've been very impressed with across the SU. So I'm really confident I'm reminding myself it's only May and there's a lot of summer left, but I just wanted to give you that update in that regard. Summer services is all planned too, just so you know, extended school year services that's taken care of and so we're ready to go there, so. Any questions for Jamie on that report? Yes, I had one. What's your explanation on the shortage of viable candidates for these positions, Jamie? One, the state in general has, the secretary's been talking about this for about three years that he was concerned about a teacher shortage and the announcement in regards to the retirement at the legislature has gotten folks nervous. And so we had some folks retire due to that. We did and I think folks across the state have a bill and I think in general and special ed we've had a shortage for a while and so the Vermont Higher Ed Collaborative had put together a training program to try to get folks licensed in special ed because they recognized several years ago that we were gonna have a shortage in that area. It's a really difficult job and it's a really important job. And so on top of that bill, there's all this, we're flushed with this federal money to add interventionists to help serve our students much like we're trying to add some math interventionists for the first time. And so I also think there's some folks who were in the special ed realm who said, you know, if I could go do intervention and not have to case manage, that makes a lot of sense for me. And so I think there's some special educators also to say and they may just wanna serve as interventionist and not have to do the case management part. Megan. Hey, Jamie, could you give us like a quick rundown of how the summer special services works? Like, and especially how it's different this year as opposed to years past? Like are they, are these people, you're having a hire a whole new crew? Are they people from one planet? Are they people from the other schools? So great question, Mike. So one, we've beefed up our targeted intervention. So meaning we try to get more interventionist or teachers who are interested in providing summer intervention for students who don't qualify for an IEP or maybe are on an IEP, but they don't meet the requirements for extended school year because the team has to demonstrate regression's gonna occur over the summer and they have to use data to demonstrate that in order to qualify for extended school year services. And then that's shaking her hand head. So I think I'm somewhat correct. Nice to meet you as well. Yeah, thanks a lot. And so what we've done is, is we've said, all right, if the student doesn't qualify for extended school year services, then we'll still provide them summer intervention via our interventionist. And so what's the difference? Extended school year services at the end of the day gets some reimbursement via special ed. So you have to go through those gates in order to qualify and then we can use special ed monies to pay for that. And we get reimbursed 51%. What we're using is some of our special educators to do those extended school year services on top of bringing in other interventionists and educators across the SU to provide additional services too. So we've beefed that part up even some more than what we've had in the past, but it will all go through one planet. Got it, just a quick follow up. So another thing I was trying to figure out is the COVID impact. Like, is that just like what you would normally be doing no matter what or as part of this because of what we're seeing? It's what we're gonna do moving forward. I think summer intervention is really important. And summer intervention is to ensure that regression doesn't occur. What the COVID impact has allowed us to do is to get those students back from VLA and we've got some of them attending. So we try to prioritize those folks as well. Because we still have students who haven't been in our schools in over a year. And so Carrie done a great job coupled with the principals and teachers to really reach out to those students. I think it serves two things, a social, emotional, like let's get folks back to school and feeling safe. Because some of our students I think have been concerned about that. They haven't been here, so there's some anxiety there. And two, let's do some baseline assessment and start to see where those gaps may be to start addressing those. And so we're able to use recovery fund efforts to help supplement that intervention. All right, anyone else before we move on? All right, thanks, Jamie. Ray, director of technology. Okay, everybody, let's read my report together. Some of this I had actually written last month. So I would like to open by thanking Amy Toth for her partnership throughout the year working with curriculum and assessment. It's been a great partnership since she took over. So as the state assessments are wrapping up SBAC and BTSA, the science one, there are certain things that I'm doing that I've not done before related to participation. And I actually don't know our participation rates. Amy might have it on top of the tip of her tongue, but I have been helping the interventionists at the school level mark students who are not able to participate for medical reasons or because they're fully remote and are not able to come in to take the test. And secondly, as the SU is merged, a committee put out a survey about technology integration. We re-ran that right before April break. And I'm looking to do that yearly going forward, I think. The hope is that this will help inform our continuous improvement plans and recovery efforts so that we hear from the teachers about how they need to be supported. And finally, the Chromebooks we ordered that were supposed to come in July have already shown up. So we'll be ready for the fall. Anyone have any questions? Thank you, Ray. Of course. Policy committee. Lisa or Stacey, you wanna report out? Yeah, I'm happy to report out, Lisa. We had a meeting tonight where we looked at the third draft of our anti-racism policy. We approved it to go to local boards. So look for it to be on the agendas at all of your local board meetings. We're beginning to have more community members come to those policy committee meetings. And so I think it will be important to do our best to let our communities know that we're taking up this really important policy so that we get as much feedback as possible. If I'm missing anything, Ethan or Stacey, please be sure to chime in. I don't know if Glenn's here or other people who are there as well. But that's the work we've been doing and we're moving things back to our local boards. I think you covered it. Thanks, Lisa. Yeah, the only thing I'll add is just that there was a real feeling that we really need to make an emphasis to talk about it and get it out there. So just to reemphasize that, get it out there, tell people we're doing it so they really take a look. Sarah, you raise your hand. Yeah, I just wanted to say, I read over the policy today and I just think you've done an absolutely outstanding job and I applaud you. Thanks, that's largely Jamie and the team that we work with, but having been a part of this process from the start, Jamie has done a really great job of listening and incorporating feedback from a lot of various sources on an issue that's really important. So I think that it's really wonderful to see it synthesized in this way. Bill? Yeah, this is a process question. I'm a newbie on this board. So the policy committee did this work, came out with a, I agree, a very, very strong policy statement. Then did the executive committee approve it or how does it go from the policy committee to the district boards? So Bill, the process is we have to have a minimum of two readings, typically we do three. And so we've had one reading on all the local boards so far, just so folks remember. That was the second draft. We took that feedback and we've done a third draft. So Bill, this will go to all the local district boards, including the SU, it'll be warned. And then we'll have a reading and discussion at all those local district board meetings, including this meeting throughout June. And then my senses will do that again in August, based on the feedback back that we get in June. That's my sense of how this will go. Yeah. A follow up question, is it if a district board for whatever reason wants it uncomfortable, is that black ball, the process or if the supervisory union board doesn't like it, is there, or is it each district board's ability and freedom to say yes or nay on it? How does it work again? Do we all have to be unanimous on this or can we decide individually? So far as we've done, we've worked really hard that we work hard with our board so we all get there. We haven't had, I don't remember having one or at one point we had boards who have little addendums to their policy for their town, but usually we work through it until everyone gets there. Where we've put forward Bill, what, 60 now? We've put forward several policies at this point and have had some that existed in various forms differently for different districts and have tried to merge them so that there's one consistent set of policies for the SU and all of its associated districts and buildings. So I think that's the goal is to be consistent. I'm still a little confused here. We're looking for a consensus or we're looking for unanimous support? We're really looking more for a consensus Bill. So we take feedback, we discuss, we keep working at things until we reach a point where we feel like we can mostly agree with it. There have been policies that I think our local board can support and maybe not every word is exactly what we would love but we can get on board for the sake of the full SU. So we really try to reach consensus. And in general, and I think it's pretty amazing, it works. Yeah, we've been pretty successful at that. Thanks. All right. Energy committee. Hi there, guys. I gotta say, this has been, I wish Chris was here. Chris Jarvis has been working, sorry, Chris Riley, I apologize about that. I've done that three times today, right? Chris Riley has been working incredibly hard with the rest of the members of the energy committee to put together a really great report on energy consumption over the last two years for each of the buildings. Chris sent it to me and he said, Jamie, you can share it. I cannot take Chris's excitement and work away from him. He just couldn't be here tonight. So I said, Chris, I'd rather send it to everyone. So I will send this to you. And then I'm gonna have Chris on the June agenda, okay? Cause he can really speak to the work that that committee is doing and talk to you about the data set. So we've met twice. The work's been great. Don's been on the, Don's on that committee, representing the board, Chris, and Ray and Don helped me. Who else, I think that's it for the board at this point, right? And then we get some community members who are very engaged. Excuse me, we're working to get some students and Jeff Martin, who represents Sharon and Straford. The towns of Sharon and Straford in two, is it two rivers or twin rivers? Two rivers. Is there as well. So good work. I think it's gonna serve us well to have this committee too, to also continue to vet the audits that we're gonna do in regards to performance contracting. I think that committee will serve us well, taking another look at that. And so I'm pretty excited about it. Don, anything to add? Not at this point. I haven't seen the finished report yet, but I knew that there was still some data that was needed to be gathered and apparently has been gathered and compiled. So that's exciting. Any questions of those guys? All right guys, thank you. I look forward to seeing the rest of the report. Negotiations council. Sarah, do you wanna give it a whirl? Sure. We met, we've been meeting quite regularly as a team to get our ducks in a row, if you will. I think we've done a really good job of that. And we met with the first time with the association. Last Thursday, we'll meet again this Thursday with them. We came to what we assume will be a tentative agreement on ground rules. We just needed to do some more wordsmithing and they've been sent out to everybody. First thing on Thursday, we swapped proposals. So they have ours and we have theirs. We're gonna meet prior to the meeting to get some conversation and consensus with our team as to where we wanna go forward. And I think we're off to a good start. Any questions? Thank you, Sarah. Okay. Great, that ends reports. We are on to discussion items. 7.1 is ripped in request to join WRVSU. Jamie, do you wanna? Yeah, so we talked about this at some of your local district boards and we talked about it at the executive board last month. And so a community group in ripped in who led the charge for them to decouple from Addison Central had approached us about their desire to look into joining the WRVSU. And they talked less about their reasoning before that last meeting. And so the board asked at their gave permission for Terranite to meet with that group to run some numbers. And so I just wanted to share that information with you tonight in regards to financially what it might look like if they were to join you. I think originally part of the initial discussion around this is the fact that we had a really tentative marriage going on at Rochester Stockbridge. Ethan, I hope you don't mind me sharing this. But when ripped in came aboard, they have indicated they may have been willing to either join a RSUD or join a Rochester if RSUD was no longer gonna be in place. And so that is part of why this conversation originally started too, just so folks know. And so separate from RSUD, if ripped in was to just join, they are currently a configuration of a Pre-K-6. They're gonna be a K-5 next year. That's part of why they were looking to decouple. Is that as in central rule is pulling their Pre-K students and their sixth graders into another school within the district. And so if they were to join us based on the algorithm that we do for a SU assessment based on ADM, they would contribute 4.2% in the overall SU assessment and 4.3% in the special ed assessment. What's that equate to, right? You wanna know the dollars. So the dollars for 2122 would be special ed. They would contribute $113,033 and for the SU, which is a course curriculum, instruction, my office, fiscal, they would contribute $59,889, okay? So that would be the money gain. Now with special ed though, we would incur cost, right? Because they have special ed needs. And so we asked them about what their special ed needs are. Tara, I remember it being about a Para and a 0.5 FT somewhere in there. As far as a 0.5 FT for, so you're thinking somewhere right around that 113 is about what it would cost. And so I think what the board just needs to take on is whether or not there's the pros that weigh the cons here. I mean, it's another district. It expands the SU. It makes it geographically larger. And certainly it's another budget to prepare and all that good stuff. The other thing for you to know is they are, we ran their numbers for them. They would be over the excess spending threshold, which to me just creates another issue in regards to sustainability and just viability in regards to them passing budgets on a regular basis. So that's for them to decide. I just wanted you to have that information too. Don, go ahead. Thanks, Jamie, for the information. I hear K5, but wouldn't we be responsible for all their student body? And what's that numbers? What are those numbers? Those numbers that we gave you were based on their whole pre-K12. Okay, I didn't understand that. Okay, thank you. Sara, Aaron was on before me. So his hand came up before me. All right, I'll go ahead. I have some real concerns about this and they don't have really anything to do with money. They have to do with that. I think that we should have learned a lesson when we had our last superintendent and he applied for a job that was five towns and I believe on the first year that he became superintendent moved to nine towns. And now we're one of the biggest SUs in the state. And we have a new superintendent who I think is doing an outstanding job and I wanna give him all the support that he can have. And I think it's really the wrong time to increase this SU when we have, now we have a new special ed, special services director coming in. We have, you know, Jamie, this will be his second year. I just, you know, whether Ripton is right for us or not, it's, for me, it's just not the right time. I think that we need to let our administration get a couple of years into them and then maybe if it's time to open it up. But it just seemed, I'm totally against it. I just think it's wrong time to do it. Thank you, Sarah. Stacey, were you next? Oh, I, yes, but I didn't, I had something that was entirely tangential to Sarah's comment. So I don't wanna just let that lie because I think there's a big conversation that needs to happen. I just wanted to come back, Jamie, to the numbers. And I think from our last meeting, it looks like they have about 60-odd kids in their school. Is that, that's pre-K through 12? Tara, what were their equalized per pupil numbers? We have that. The agency of education's frozen field file gave me an ADM of 69.10. They projected an equalized pupil of 63.76. And the Vermont Educators Directory that we receive every year indicated that they had 50 students currently enrolled. So I used the 69.10 ADM in the 50 enrolled because they hadn't notified us of what their actual enrollment number was as of writing this up. So those are the numbers that I used to calculate the assessment percentages. Thanks for that. Sorry, Sarah, for completely derailing you. Okay, Ethan. Can I? Oh, who's? Looks like Aaron's back. Can you help us out? I'm back. I wanted to say a couple of things. One is that I think, given the way things are right now, that we could add a new district to the SU, we can't add more days to the month and that makes it hard for the SU staff to make all these meetings, which are already a significant number. But then I also wanted to ask Jamie, is it, I was under the impression that Ripton wanted to join as a distinct unit, but if it were to join as a member of some other district, does that change this calculation at all? Well, I mean, that ADM would add to a district that they joined and they haven't even approached the district formally yet. There's been some informal conversation around that. And Ethan can speak up to that. He may know more about that even than me. I just know that they ask questions about it. So that ADM would go increased into that district and that would raise that district's proportion as far as their assessment. So let's say they joined ARSUD, right? ARSUD's proportion of the overall SU budget would increase and other folks would decrease based on that. Ethan. A couple of things. Sarah, I really hear you. Oh, thank you. Thank you for lowering my hand. And there was one, well, my first thing is this, Jamie, do we actually have any say in this? I mean, can AOE just assign them to us? I got that feeling that that could actually happen. They would assign them somewhere because they can't be an independent district, correct? Can't be an independent district. The state board actually can draw the boundary lines. What I would say is this, unless we said, as you all said, as a board that you wanted them to come with open arms, I can't imagine them placing them with us. I think it's much more apt that they're gonna say to Addis and Central, you're no longer a district. You're gonna be a supervisor union again. It's tough. I mean, I really do hear Sarah's point and I feel very strongly too. I feel like we're, especially as we've just saved our merger recently, I really want some boring meetings for a while. I would just love that. Wonderful things where we just talk about education. And this does feel like, especially if they were to join us, that's a whole mix that's a lot to take on right now with what we've taken on in the last year or so. That said, they said something that really struck me when they presented to us last time. And that was that they saw us as the SU for the independent mind in some way, the independent districts, that that's sort of what we are. And it's funny because I'd never seen us that way, but suddenly I look at us and we are that. We sort of are that. A lot of independent little schools that other districts might have shoved together and here we're making it work. And I guess it's sort of the idea of, I don't know, I'm torn because I believe in that and I believe there's a place for that, but I also really want things to, it'd be as smooth sailing as they can be right now. Thanks. Bill? Yeah, I concur with pretty much what's been said and it sounds like they haven't officially requested to join us. My sense strategically is that we need to move from the threat of one community or another or a faction trying to divide us to be able to focus as Ethan says on the important things and to be able to deliver those educational outcomes to our constituents. And it's hard and especially hard when we're being stretched, we're being pushed, we're being torn. That's the first thing. The second thing is it seems to me that at some point it'd be worthwhile to kind of look at kind of the criteria of those things that would attract us and prove our supervisory union if we expanded. What sort of partnerships are we looking for that would help us? And it seems to me one is financial, but another one is just their whole buy-in with what we're trying to do educationally in our systems and how they run their schools and the synergy with our principals, things like that. And so I don't see anything reason to rush ahead. We've got plenty of work to do, exciting work to do. And ideally down the road we'll be doing so well that any number of people want to join us. And we would have that wonderful opportunity down the road, but it sounds like it's premature right now. Yeah, I think so too. I have mixed feelings about joining or not joining. I think they sound like a great school. I think that if they could bring some stuff to us, I think they would fit in well with us. But I also think that we can spend a little more time talking to our boards and melding it over. It's not something we have to decide tonight. And waiting here what goes on as they progress. Andrew? Just say that I'm pretty strongly on Sarah's side of things. I don't think that adding another entity to the SU would be helpful just scheduling wise and capacity wise for administration and whatnot. And I don't see that it's bringing a lot of advantages for us. We'd be doing a nice thing and kind of giving them a hand, but I don't know that it provides much for us per day. So I do think if they really were serious about wanting to join Stockbrook Rochester and Stockbrook Rochester thought that that would be a good thing, then wouldn't be adding an extra entity to our extra meetings and then that seems more reasonable. But yeah. Okay. Thank you, Andrew. Anybody else before we move on? Kevin, this is Meg. I just was gonna ask if Jamie could give us a sense. Like I'm hearing that it's not urgent. What is the timeline? Could we say to them like not right now or does this, you know, like how much time do we have if we did say now's not the time, but when? That's a great question, Meg. So they're going from the state board, they're going in again this month, but it wasn't about SU. It was actually about whether the state board was actually going to allow them to be helpful. State board kicked that can for a month, which was the first time we had seen that in the state. And so other times they had just rubber stamped the plan. So that was a new thing. And I haven't heard the results of that meeting. The SU wasn't gonna be decided till September. So the state board meeting in September is when they'll be assigned an SU. And so if we don't decide to take them on before September, like the ship is sailed and they'll find another place to be. They'll have to be in some place, yep. And the other thing is the board, you know, again, you can take action in August one way or the other, or you could just say we discussed it and it's not anything we're interested in. So those are all things that are on the table for you guys, just so you know. Again, I have no sense that the state board would say just cause Ripton wants to join WRVSU that they're gonna change our boundary based on that. I really think it's gonna require us saying to the state board, yes, we wanna have them join us. Okay. So I think that if we have, I don't hear anybody jumping to say, let's invite them. And I wonder if it might be time just to say, hey, sorry, we don't want, you know, it's not, we don't want you in a letter to whoever the letter would go to. And just take it out. I mean, why take it out to September if we could put an end to it right now? Well, I think we didn't warn it to vote on it tonight for one, take any action. So I think maybe we could do it in June at our June meeting. And that would give everybody an opportunity to go back and talk to their board to see if there's anything else that the rest of our boards have to say about it. Stacy? Yeah, just echoing what Sarah said. I mean, I feel like at this point in time, I'm leaning in the direction of Sarah and Andrew, yeah, it was Andrew. Sorry, I can never remember if it's Andrew or Aaron and it's not because I confused the two of you. I confused the names. But I would not, I'm not unconvincible, but I think I would need to have more data and more numbers, which puts the burden back on the central office staff who is already really busy as we know. So, you know, I would wanna know how much time do we think everybody would be dedicating to this once we had a bigger SU and what would some of the numbers actually look like with those revenues plugged into the budget and those expenditures plugged into the budget. And again, I feel really awkward asking you to do that work. So, if it were a left up to me right now, I would say like, yeah, let's go to no because everyone's already really busy. But I would also want to hear, I'm also curious and could be persuaded. So that's my cent and a half. Thank you. Meg? Thanks, I have another half cent too. I'm just wondering, Jimmy, forgive me if I missed this because I've missed a few of the full board meetings, but do you have an opinion? Like, would you like us to do this or not do this or? Okay, Meg, put me on the hotspot. So, Meg, here's my opinion. And Tara was at the meeting and I said this to them. I tried to be really frank. And I said, I was interested in engaging in this conversation when I was really concerned that I had member district towns who may be needing dance partners, right? And I think that that's what you all would want me to do for anyone of the member districts. The fact that I think we're on really much more solid footing than that desire has definitely lessened. You know, it's hard for me, Stacey, just to answer your question too, to equate time because it's really not about size. Like when we're going through a decoupling vote, it depends on the scenario. Like there's times that districts will get 85% of my office's time based on what you're doing within the moment and or personnel issue comes up. So I would say anytime that we have operating building with a district, community members, students, personnel, it's so hard for me to quantify what the time is because it, you know, it definitely changes based on just the situation of that district. So, you know, so, you know, Meg, what I would say to you is the time and investment in another district, specifically where they're at financially, I think is going to be more than what they're gonna contribute to the SU. I just don't enter a shake in our head too because this is not an easy district to take on. I think it's a wonderful school. I think they're a great community. I've thoroughly enjoyed my conversations with them. But at the end of the day, I come back to their sustainability for them. I don't know if it's there. Thank you for that. I think that that's a really transparent answer. Thanks. All right, so I'll grab you just a second on, but I'm thinking maybe we put this on and we just vote in June and make a decision. But Dump, what do you have? I have a question real quick. This is Patrick Hudson. Wait, to hold on just a sec. Don had anything in that word, Don, go ahead. Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I just wanted to just put out there as far as towns and things, I try to play a game of what if, what if they come together as one? Does that mean that there's a higher possibility that meetings and budgets won't get passed if there's three entities to make a decision rather than two? I mean, that's just something to keep in mind. Thank you, Don. And who was talking before? This is Patrick Hudson. I guess just my question for Jamie is if this is a matter that we need to discuss in our local boards, is there any way to have numbers associated with what we're looking at as far as if we take them on as far as the budgetary standard to be able to make the right decision in that aspect? If they were to join our side, Patrick. Yeah, yeah. I think that's very preliminary. I don't think that they necessarily want that. Okay, okay. I think that if they were forced, they may do it, but I don't, they're not coming, we want to join our side. They want to join WRBSU. That's why I ran the numbers I did. Okay, thank you. All right, guys, so let's move on to the next topic. Hey, Kathy, just one, I just think it's a point of order here. Just to introduce Patrick Hudson and Bill Edgerton as the two new Rochester Stockbridge Board members of Rochester Stockbridge Unified District. Just you have some idea of who's actually talking here. They are Board members, they've been sworn in. Just so you know who they are. Thank you. Thank you, Ethan. What do you mean? And welcome, guys. Thank you. All right, guys, so we'll possibly try to vote on that next meeting, Jamie, and make a final decision so that we can move on or go forward, whatever we're gonna do. Board training calendar. I know it's your favorite thing. First, I will say that a couple Board members get gold stars for going to all four of the Board chair superintendent trainings. You know who you are, congratulations. And so we talked about, and it's in my goals to do more formal board training and development. And so I've reached out to the VSBA. And so the thought process that I had was is that we would try to do some Board training and development at each one of our Board meetings in August, September, October. And I was gonna keep them to 45 minutes because I think that that's about the length that works well with VSBA is what I have seen. I think after that, at least they start to lose me. I don't know, I've heard from some of you they start to lose you. And so that was my initial thought process. Their trainer that they have got back to me and said that they're not available at our August meeting. So we could either change our August meeting or we could say we're gonna do September, October. They recommended November, I don't wanna do that. We're in thick of budget. So we could do September, October, get the SU budget put to bed and then bring them back. Or we could double up in September or we could have a special meeting. So those are all options. I just wanted you to know they're not available at our August meeting. And again, I threw out the 45 minute number originally because I feel like that is about the right amount. But I'm open to suggestions. I would suggest we change our August meeting. That would work for me. Ethan, you had a question or a comment? I really struggled to discuss those seminars work. It's just a tough time in the afternoon or was for me. So that's the reality. I also felt like 45 minutes, I really feel like if we got a really clean information and it felt like we'd covered it. And back when I was a teacher, I remember having all these really wonderful teachers sitting around watching sometimes an okay teacher, teach us and in service was just felt demeaning in some ways. So anyway, just I really trusted it. The other thing I would ask you is what are the topics that you think are important? And maybe we can talk about what the topics are and we can prioritize. So what I was gonna do is, what they suggest is once we figure out our format, that they would give us some options. And then I was gonna bring it back to you in June for discussion so that we could just solidify it was my thought process. If that works. I would love to have some input in what the training's about. Thank you. Don? Yeah, this has more long information about the trainings as well. I really chafe against sitting in trainings where they send out a handout of bullets and then you sit down and the instructor goes over that bullet by bullet. It just makes for a long meeting and it doesn't make for any productive time. So just for my two cents. Okay, so Jamie, you're gonna bring us back some topics and we can have some more discussion next month. Board training is important. Board training is a required requirement so we could get some of our requirements done. So, and I think it will be really helpful, a refresher for some of the older board members who have been doing this for a while and new information for new board members. We have a lot of new board members. We're on to, go ahead, Stacy. Sorry, Kathy, for the minutes, I just wanted to clarify. So Jamie, you're gonna be bringing that plan together at next month's meeting. Yeah, I'll bring the, I just don't know the dates though. How you guys want me to let them know. Do you wanna move your August meeting? Do you want me to tell them like three 45 minute sessions and see when they're available in August or do you want to say August is out and we do September, October, and then go from there? We could even just start with two. I say September, October. I think if we wanna maximize participation, I think we need to go past the summer months and people are gonna be in and out. Right, so I'm gonna look at two 45 minute training September, October, see what the thoughts are and I will bring it back to June. This is where everyone make. Yeah, and I'm gonna invite all members of all boards whether you're on the full board or not. I think we're gonna really try to encourage folks to come. Okay, Bill? Yeah, I was gonna agree with Ethan. It's not the number of sessions so much it's the success of these educational opportunities and to the extent that one measure of a successful get together session, workshop, whatever it is, is that people say, oh gee, can we go longer? So to me, it's do we have the topics that really we wanna cover and do we have the instructors from Vermont School Board Association that are up to the task? And so we have some time to figure that all out. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, real quick, Sarah. I think the thing that I have a problem with the VSBA trainings with is that they're not always relevant. They're relevant, the state is a big place and we're a smaller sub part of it. And so I would hope that if they're coming to us they would be relevant to our collective bargaining whatever it is that they're gonna talk about our policies or whatever that they're familiar with them and they make it for us. Good idea. All right guys, thank you for that. We'll hear more. So what I'm gonna do just so you guys know as we're talking is I'm gonna get a list of some things that they recommend. I'm gonna put them in a Google form, send it out so that you can rate what you'd like to prioritize and then we'll have that data to discuss at June. Does that sound okay? So that gives us a launch point. Yes, that sounds good. Okay. Jamie, are you ready to take off on the interview? Yeah, sorry. I was writing a note so I don't forget. That's my sister. And I didn't know I still forget sometimes, but the, so it's my pleasure to introduce to you our finalist for the WRVSU Director of Special Services. And so Anna Adams, as I had mentioned before and Tracy Thompson, the Prince William Stratford co-facilitated the search committee for a director of special services. And they had parents, they had support staff, they had admin assistant from central office, they had teachers of course and special educators on the committee, I believe as a 10 person committee. And they afforded a net to me as the finalist. And a net and I met, in addition to that, we had a forum yesterday that had some community members attend and teachers. And throughout the process, the feedback has been really positive about a net to candidacy. And to be transparent, a net did serve for me at Williamstown when I was a principal. And I got to know a net then and definitely encouraged a net to pursue her leadership. At that point, a net left Williamstown and then went on to serve under Don at Barry as his assistant director. And a net applied last year and was there a runner up to Don, just so folks know. And so a net, and she can talk to you more about this, did apply and you appointed her to be our intensive programming coordinator a few months ago. And then she saw this position open up and applied for this once again. And I was talking to committee members again today who were really excited, they were actually worried that a net may not accept the position. They were getting after me about whether or not she was still interested. So I bring to you a net roads and I wanted you to have your opportunity to ask questions of a net this evening. So a net, it's all yours if you wanna finish introducing yourself and then we can, Kathy, we can let the board ask their questions. Sure, well, hello everyone, a net roads and I'm excited to be here. Yes, I am still very interested in the position. And I just wanted you all to know that I, I bring 21 years of special education experience to the table, two of those years as an educational leader, both of those years for the Barry Unified Union School District. Also, I'm very familiar with the communities that are a part of this SU. I grew up in Bethel, Vermont. I went to school at Bethel Elementary and middle school. I graduated from Wickham High School. So I am coming back to the community that helped me grow up and become who I am today. So I'm just really super excited and actually very proud to be back here and be part of our communities here in the Upper Valley. So also I just want everyone to know that why I'm so excited besides, you know, growing up here and being very familiar and comfortable with the area is that, you know, I bring a similar philosophy, you know, to what's happening in the SU. I've been meeting regularly with administrators in the district when I was appointed as the intensive programming coordinator. So I've really learned a lot about what's happening in the district and I'm very excited to see the direction that the district is going in. It fits very well with my beliefs and my philosophy. So I'm just, I'm really excited to be here and it's a pleasure. All right, do we want to open up some questions and welcome Annette. Thank you. Annette, just a comment and a question. Just a question, what class of, what year, Beth Whitcomb? I was class of 96. 96? Wow. No, you may know my wife, that's why. I'm curious. Oh, some of the names are very familiar on the screen. And I've already been, my daughter is part of the school district and my husband works in the school district. So going to activities and sporting events, I've been seeing a lot of familiar faces and reacquaining with people that I haven't seen over a really long time. So it's been really exciting. Great. I guess just my main thing that you know, Jamie and that you know, Don, is very, very encouraging to me because I think, I feel like we've gone in a really good direction in the last year with special ed in terms of the accountability and the really understanding of what exactly we're doing. And so I'm very eager for that to continue so that you know that process and know Jamie is a big plus for me. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Michael, you had your hand up? Yes, yes I did, hello. Trying to, turn my camera back on so you know what you're talking to. Hi, so welcome. So I agree with what Ethan just said. I just wondering if you would, because I think since I've been on the board we've had a couple, two directors I guess now and I think different philosophies there. And you keep saying, and you're a little welcoming that we align with your philosophy because so do you mind just kind of speaking to that a little bit, what your philosophy around special education is? Sure, absolutely. So my philosophy is that we're here for all students that really a student doesn't need to have a certain plan to receive the intervention and supports that's necessary for them to succeed and make progress in school. I'm a big believer in the MTSS system. I was part of the groundwork with Jamie and a set of educators in Williamstown. So I've worked that process, I've done the work. I've seen the changes that it can bring. And so I'm a huge believer in that. Also, I'm a huge believer in being efficient in our work. You in the school district have a lot of great interventionists and resources that I've been learning about. And I think through our MTSS work, we can use those professionals to the max capacity that we can reach as many students as possible. So I'm really enjoying the alignment that's been happening with the administration, with all of the districts. And I think really it's all about just being there and getting all the students, the services and interventions that they need to succeed. And it shouldn't matter a plan or a timeline that we should be there to help them as soon as possible. Thank you. Anybody else? Yes, I had a question. Sure. Hi, this is Bill again. Yeah, one thing that impresses me about this organization is its teamwork, its leadership and its diligence in trying to measure to see how we're doing, doing together, doing for our students, those outcomes. And I'm curious how you would measure your success and over what term would it take to get to that result if you were gonna be our new special ed director. Is it one year, two years, three years? And what would you bring us at the end of the whatever time period you wanna give us that we could kind of look at as something to measure you with? Sure, I think I can go many different ways of my answer for you. One way that I talked a lot about with the interview committee and also in the community forum was just getting to know the professionals that are in our buildings and making them the masters of their craft, finding what their strengths are and then maybe what the areas are that we need to work on to boost their confidence, to be able to share at data team meetings and become part of the team. Because generally special educators are known as generalists. They know a little bit about a lot of things. And I think it's just really important that they become the masters of their craft so that they can really share and be part of the community which then will grow progress universally because you have more people at the table with very different expertise which then you'll see numbers grow that we were seeing earlier with reading intervention. Hopefully less students will need intervention. Hopefully less students will be referred for special education. Those are the kind of numbers that we can look at and how many students I say graduate from needing special education that could then go onto EST plans or join back in the universal level. So those are all areas that we could look at. It's really how a special education fitting into the overall system in the schools. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? Is that it for questions tonight, guys? Vannette? Well, it looks like everybody's asked their questions, Vannette. Okay. I really appreciate you coming. Yes, I appreciate it too. Thank you very much. All right. So, Kathy, we have an executive session for personnel now. Thank you, Vannette. I would move to enter executive session to discuss post it all at 726. Second. Are we inviting anybody? And we'll invite the superintendent. Jamie, do we need to invite anybody else? No. Okay. Great. Good night, everyone. Night, thank you, Sarah. Good night, Sarah. Thank you. Kathy, I made a solution to empower Jamie to offer a net roads, a contract within the parameters discussed. Do I have a second? Sorry, Sarah, can I specify the rules in the minutes? Please, yeah. Director of Special Services for WRVSU. Thank you, Sarah. I'd like to second that. This is Lisa. All right. So, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Any opposed? All right, so the ayes have it. Great. Great. Thank you very much. Great. Super member. Do you have any resignations or new hires we need to discuss, Jamie? I don't have any new hires. I should have a bunch for you in June, I hope. And so, what I do have is three resignations. So, Cheyenne Northwick has resigned her position on the South Royalton campus. She is moving to be closer to her family. She's relocated. She should be leaving us, she's a special educator. We're getting a lot of play back there. Kathy, Kathy, can you mute? I'm having trouble wearing a jacket. Thanks. So that was Cheyenne Northwick, special educator, South Royalton campus, relocating to be closer to her family. Abby Billado has been out on parental leave for the last year. She was a special educator in Chelsea and she has decided she wants to continue at home raising her family. So she will not be returning next school year to the Chelsea campus as a special educator. And this one, I met with this teacher today to thank her for her service. Stephanie Joyce is gonna be moving on from Chelsea after 28 years of service as a special educator. And so, I had a really delightful conversation with Stephanie today. Thanked her for her service, talked to her about ideas she had, how we could strengthen our system and best support our teachers as they come on. So I think that Kathy will look to have F Budd recognize Stephanie, just like we are other teachers that are moving on from F Budd, just so you know. So you and I can connect about that. But she's been there, I believe, throughout almost her whole tenure, so. Jamie, this is Don. I just wanted to clarify, these folks just chose not to return their contracts. Yeah. Okay, so are they officially resignations then if they're not on the contract? Well, their letter said that they're resigning and they're not returning their contracts. So yeah, you don't even have to accept or anything. I just wanna keep you guys on the loop. But yeah, it's not like they've left right now. Okay, thank you. All right, anything else on that front, Jamie, before we. That's it. I just think if we could, you know, just to make a motion that we wish on their best and we're gonna be sad to see all three of them go. I make a motion that we, I can't say their names, cause I didn't write them down, but we say goodbye to the three retirees from our special, or resignations retirees from our special ed services, wish them the best and thank them for their service. Seconded. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? All right, so moved. All right, thank you, Jamie. Is there any other business we would need to discuss tonight? I, this is Don, I just wondered, has the meeting, I think the negotiation team been sent out. I don't remember seeing them, that's all. The rules of talking, the meeting. The ground rules. Ground rules. Yeah. Monday morning, I got them. Okay. I'll go back. I'll forward it right now. Maybe the email group I used was incorrect or something, but I'll send it out right now. Thanks, Don. I just wanted to see him for tomorrow night, that's all. Yeah, no, absolutely. And if you have a chance, go through their proposal and get some thoughts on it. If you haven't, at least don't have the first time you looked at it be tomorrow night. I did see their proposal and I do have some feedback on that, thank you. Nice. Okay. Yeah, you guys also, I warned it for 5.30 because I thought we should have a work session before. That's great. If we could continue to do that, I would appreciate that. Good, good. All right, guys. Next meeting date is Monday, June 28th. That will be a full board meeting as it'll be our reorg. Everybody will have had a chance to meet by then, Jamie, to do their reorganization, okay? Just you. And just a general congratulations to everybody from passing your budgets. Well done. We were pretty thin, but we got it, Michael. Yeah. Kathy, remember, a win the wins a win. The old coach. The wins a win. It doesn't matter by how many. That's right, it doesn't matter. One point or 20. Good work. So the policy committee will meet then June 28th at 5.30, correct? Okay. All right, guys. Do you have a motion to adjourn? So moved. See you. Second. Thank you. Okay. Don, thanks for letting me know that.