 Keep her listening to me. They really want it. Is there any public comment? Okay. I have to approve the minutes of Monday, October 26th. Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve the minutes. Second. Was that Bob and Sarah? Any? McKayla. Oh, thanks, Mika. All right. Any discussion on those? Hearing none, so moved. Reports to the board. Jamie. Good evening, everyone. So you have my report in hand. I'll just add that there'll be more information going out from me to the communities and you'll get a copy of it tomorrow, both in written form and via video to communicate how appreciative, certainly I am of everyone's efforts to ensure that we have been able to stay in person up through to the Thanksgiving break. I think that's a huge accomplishment and celebration. And so I'll be doing that, but also just talking a bit on a personal note about the sacrifices I think that we need to make over the holiday around ensuring that we're able to stay in person and following the governor's recommendations around social gatherings and so that letter will hit that as well. And just try to help, you know, keep morale up as we move toward the next break at the end of December, which does, as you remember, permit for travel if folks need travel over the holiday to be with loved ones. So that will go out tomorrow, you know, of course, we're in the thick of the budget season right now across the SU. So we're engaging in that. I was really pleased with the direct instruction PD that we had. All principals engaged in that and some interventionists that are implementing it across the SU. As we look to further define what our reading interventions are, and so Amy Toth has been working in conjunction with other interventionist administrators to have a defined menu of interventions and literacy that defines the function for things like level literacy, intervention, Orton, Gillingham, Wilton reading and direct instruction. And so that when teams sit down and look to analyze student data that we can be prescribed, you know, really practitioners when we decide what intervention we're going to use for each student. Because, you know, when you're looking at what a student struggling with certain approaches work more on things like comprehension, as compared to maybe decoding and encoding and vice versa. So I'm really pleased that we'll be rolling that out in December to our educators to get further feedback. And you'll get a copy of that in your board packet. Of course, I talked about the pilot of the WRVSU report card through the VLA. I know an Amy and Charlie's report that we provided some samples of that. We're going to launch with that, get feedback from DLA teachers and families. And then we will roll that out in December to our elementary teachers across the SU. And we'll continue to take that. We're not looking to formally adopt anything until the end of the school year for next fall. But it made sense to launch that through VLA. Since we had students across all of our schools within the SU. And we have different elementary report cards in most buildings across the SU. And so I just want to highlight those areas. I also sent you an email correspondence on Friday with some documents in it. And we will be going tonight over my proposal in regards to how I'd like us to handle curriculum instruction. And assessment, but more so how we look to better solidify our administrative structure across the SU. So I'll provide a brief presentation and answer any questions we have about that this evening as well. And I'll entertain any other questions folks have. Jamie, I want to ask a question. You, it looks to me like you're doing a lot of discussing data assessment evaluation. And I wonder if the teachers are keeping up with you. Well, I think there's definitely some cognitive dissonance occurring across the SU. And, you know, the elementary math teacher in me says that that's good because I think sometimes we have to create dissonance to then move forward and have it take hold. And so, you know, I think that we're talking a lot about laying the vocab and concepts down right now before we actually launch. And so what I look at what we're doing right now is creating schema for this change, Bob. But in the Bob wet, you'll actually start to see changes. We're seeing it in certain places around instruction and assessment. But I think that we're going to really see our interventions take hold, how we utilize data and how we use it to inform instruction and then report out more so next. Okay, right now, I think we're just trying to lay all the groundwork. And certain buildings are farther along than others. And so I think of how we differentiate that certain buildings certainly are moving farther along in certain areas right now. I think that's all right. But in general, what we're ensuring is that at least we all have a common language. I understand what you're doing and I understand is for the future. I wonder if the teachers understand that are they getting overwhelmed and stressed out or. Well, I think there's definitely stress. I would like to think that the key to being an effective administrator is optimum stress. Yeah, I mean, I think you're constantly having to take the pulse on that. So is there stress across the organization? Yes. Hopefully was in the it's within the optimum stress area. And, you know, I think when you're looking to try to drive the system forward, there's times that you go over that and then you got to back off. I think that's part of just the art of leadership. And, you know, I certainly look for union leadership to give me that feedback. I meet with them every two weeks. And those are always really delightful meetings. And, you know, I meet with my administrators every two weeks as a group. But the principles all meet every Thursday together as part of a distributed leadership function. And I check in with that group as well as I meet with all your building principles either weekly or biweekly. And I'm looking for them to be the eyes and ears across the buildings, too, around, you know, how folks are feeling about pacing. But yeah, is there stress? Absolutely. I think certain things are probably stressed more than others. I wonder, I wonder. I know in my own past experience that as an administrator, if you push really hard sometimes, you're hurt instruction. So I'm guessing that you're looking at that and evaluating it. Absolutely. Because I think this is a tough year with the COVID stuff. And what you're doing, I think, is good. And it's piling on to the teachers, I think. I don't want it to get in the way of instruction, I guess. And I think we're behind on instruction as it is. And I think everything I'm talking about is instruction. Yeah. When we talk about proficiencies, how do we utilize that to change instructional practices? Yeah, I know what you're doing. I just wonder if the... Anyway, hopefully you're talking to the teachers and getting a feel for how they're handling it. I think it's a lot. It's a lot on them this year, just trying to change the way they instruct kids. And then on top of that, having... I understand that this whole plan is for the... It's going to probably, you're gearing it all up for next year. But I think... I just wonder if they're handling that. So as long as you're asking and talking with them, you know... Bob, are you suggesting that he's slow down? I'm sorry. Well, I think he's been asking me... Are you suggesting that he's a little slower? Because of COVID, because of distance learning, because of all these variations we're dealing with right now? We should step back a little and not push forward so fast. I know what he's trying to... I know what... I understand what he's trying to do. And I want him to do it. I just... I don't want us to lose a year of instruction. And I know we've already lost some. I just don't want to lose a lot of instruction. But I trust him to make that decision. All right. Any other questions for Jamie? All right. Thank you, Jamie. Business manager's report. Good evening, everybody. I sent you my report. The only update I wanted to share is, in addition to the One Planet program, our 21C program, the auditors are also going to be doing a single audit on our Title I, our Idea B, and our food service. So those will also be included in that update for the fiscal year 21... Just to go 20, sorry, audit update. And other than that, just a reminder, if you haven't got your W4N, please do so. So we can pay you your board stipends before the end of the year. Can I entertain any questions? Tara, I have a question. I want to have a financial report on the SU for the full board. And I want that report to show revenues and expenses. And I'd like to see it every month. In 2019, I don't know what's 2020 looks like. But we had a $560,000 deficit. I wonder if the board knew about that ahead of time. And if you give us a report every month, we can keep up with that. And the other thing is, do you have any idea what our end of the year balance looked like in 2020? I've received any additional updates, Bob, on the SU since we sent out the original information back in August from the auditing process. I know, but you have one. I mean, you have an idea. I mean, you put the books together, so you have an idea. I can happily find the information and send it to you. I don't have it right here off the top of my head. Do we end up in a deficit or do we end up okay? We were projecting a deficit in the SU. You had a deficit? Yeah, we had projected that back in August as well, that we were going to be in a deficit in the SU based on the supervisory union office and on SPED, both. That was part of that presentation that we provided previously. And how are we doing this year? Sarah, did you hear Bob's question? As of the expenditure report that I have currently, we still have a substantial amount of funds available to us for the remainder of the year. We're only, we've only billed for revenue for the first six months on our assessments and we've only billed for grant reimbursement through the end of October, November. Grant reimbursement is on my agenda to complete this week before the Thanksgiving holiday and then special education. We just submitted our first quarter SEAR report to the agency of education. It was accepted today. Now I just need to send the original hard copy to them and then we'll get additional revenue in from that outside of the initial payment that they've already paid us. So that's where we stand as of this moment. Jamie and I continue to watch the expenses throughout the supervisory union central office and Don and I and also Jamie continue to monitor the expenses on the special education side of the budget to make sure we're on target. I don't know if Jamie or Don want to add any additional information in on that or not. So Bob, the plan moving forward and we're going to, we're going to provide a draft of this with the Rudd finance committee just so folks know is that you'll have a one page projection around what we've been able to encumber. And so what where we currently stand month to month around expenses versus revenues and we will project that for the fiscal year. So you'll have that you'll have that for it. We're going to do that for every district and for the supervisory unit. So you'll see that. Yeah, right now Bob, the reports are still 23 pages long for expenses and then about eight pages long five pages on sorry for the revenue. So they're not one combined report that we generate right now. It's two reports that we generate out of our system. So we're trying to find that one pager that you all have asked for. We're going to have that in December. And I can send you if you'd like, I'm happy I can send you the 23 page report tonight to all of you if you would like that so that you can go through it. And then the five page revenue report if you would like that information. Just let me know and I'll happily send it on. I'll wait for December. Okay. All right, can we give up any other questions? Yeah, go ahead. Ethan here. Tara, are you comfortable giving us a ballpark of the estimate on the deficit or too soon for an accurate. I can tell you what it was back in August. I have not recalculated any numbers since then. Okay. Thank you. Ethan, we believed at that time those were pretty strong numbers. The auditors that's on your agenda will give you an update on that, but they have all the books and information now. We expect it off in a couple of weeks. Jamie, have you, I know I asked you this before, but you have the auditor's report for 2019. 1819? Yeah, you know, they came out in the summer. Yeah, I don't have the hard copies. That's what I want. Yeah. Yes, Bob, after you asked me about that last week, I sent a follow up to the auditors asking them to please send us the hard copies and they apologize. They completely forgot with all the transition to send us the hard copies so they should be coming any time now. Okay. Electronic copies available. And if you would like me to print that out rather than waiting for the hard copy, I'll happily do that for you and have it available for you to pick up here at the office. No, I'd rather see the hard copy. I'm, you know, I'd like the rest of the board to get the hard copy too. I think I don't know how you are, but I can look at it on a piece of paper and it makes sense to me. I'd rather not look at it just on the computer screen. Why don't we leave it where if board members want a hard copy, if you email Christy will make certain we have enough copies for folks. That sounds fair. Are any other questions of Tara? All right. Thank you, Tara. We are on to technology director. Hey, raise ahead of me. Hello. You have my report and I would welcome any questions. Any questions of Ray? Ray, I guess you explained it very well. I have one. I just want to know, Ray, are you okay with computers now? I see you receive the Chromebooks. Are you, you have enough computers for the kids in the district? Bob, I'll be honest, I don't have an exact number there, but we're obviously in much better shape now that 185 have come in in the last three weeks. And we are, do we have hotspots so all of the kids are able to connect online? Right. So currently, those are available to students who are in virtual learning or hybrid who do not have internet at home and we're preparing those for students who'll need a hotspot for virtual learning week. How many students aren't responding to virtual learning that are supposed to be? That's not an answer I would have, Bob. I understand there are a few. I guess I'll jump in and say that I think that we've seen students who are struggled in in-person instruction also struggling in virtual learning. And I think, you know, if you look across the state, at least my colleagues talk about the same challenge. I think if you had students that struggled to engage in in-person instruction, if you had virtual learning on top of that, that it becomes even another obstacle sometimes for students to access, stay up to speed with. And so we've had some students that have chosen to come back to in-person instruction due to the fact that it was recognized that that was a struggle for them. And I don't want to be the superintendent, but I think that's the whole point of trying to be at school as much of as much as possible for as much of the year as possible. I think I don't have the exact numbers. Yeah, I understand that. And I think you're doing a good job at that. But we have kids out there in virtual learning that maybe aren't putting their selves out there and doing the work, I guess. So maybe we have a few kids that aren't getting educated. Yeah, Bob, I could reach out to principals to get those answers, but they're not ones that I have immediately available. But what I want to know from you, Ray, is do all of them have access to virtual learning? All the kids that need it. Yes, many VLX students and the hybrid students. The kids that don't have, for instance. So Virtual Learning Week is a good example of that. Right at the building level, they have surveyed parents to find out who needs a device and who needs help with internet that week. And so we're not aware of anyone who's currently choosing to virtual learning and or where we have a model of a hybrid at Rudd Middle and High School, who do not have connectivity or device. Right. And so we're working to ensure that we meet the needs of the rest of our students who are currently in person when we do go to move virtual the confirmed week of January 4th. And Jamie, we're tracking if kids just aren't checking in, correct? Like you can't say your virtual learning, not be virtual learning. It's we're tracking that as if they were sitting at their desks. So is that what your question is about? We're trying to pull families in. And again, I think, you know, students have always struggled at different levels to engage in in person. And we have students right now that are struggling to engage in person. I think that the level, you know, you add the virtual learning on top of it. And sometimes that increases, that creates another barrier of which I'm very concerned about. And I think in general, we have been and that's why we're trying to work very hard to stay in person. And so then there's conversations being had with families and teachers about the choice to be go to virtual learning if it wasn't due to the fact that there was an underlying health issue for the student or an immediate family member. Was that the appropriate choice or not? And those conversations are happening. And some families have chosen to have their students come back. Jamie, are the principles? Yes. OK. All right. This is Stacy, I just have a follow up. Sorry, Ray, this is actually for Jamie. But I wanted to make sure the staffing situation was under control if families are choosing to come back to in person. Do we have the staffing in place to support that? Yes. Terrific. Thank you, Ray. Your report was very good. All right. Any more questions for Ray? All right. Director of Student Support Services. Good evening. Folks have my report. Hello, Jeremy. Hello. Yeah, you have my report. I have outlined or pointed out a few things that we're trying to be inform you folks about how we operate and do business. One is the extended school year services as in one is the time schedules and how we calculate what's eligible for special ed costs. And also pointed out that one correction in my report, I said Lori Blue is working hard on her child count due December 1st. It's really December 15th. So that was an error in my part. And also providing training next month in the area of the adverse effect, which is the gate to of of the evaluation plan and report for eligibility. There was a couple of questions through email regarding ESY in the process. And it is as I understand the question, is ESY process you outline here COVID related or is it business as usual? And what I've outlined is business as usual. So we have to take into account data that how kids regress and how quickly they can recoup that information. Normally, ESY service services are very few are very few kids are eligible for it. Most of them are very involved kiddos or most needy kids. The second question was on the adverse effect piece. And was it related to and Megan, Megan had this question. So Megan, please correct me if I misinterpret this. Is it COVID related and it's not COVID related. It's we work on adverse effect. There's there's disabilities outlined in the Vermont special ed rules and regs that we look at COVID is not one of them. So this is Meg clarifying the question a little. My sense is that some students may be struggling and finding themselves at a below grade level. So with both the extended year services and the adverse effects. My question was just adverse effects seems to sort of rely on a disability. But this year dealing with a different kind of student needing assistance to fill the gaps. I guess I'm just wondering how does this plan sort of dovetail with that issue that we may be facing this year? Well, again, if we went totally virtual remote, we have to offer fake and if if families and children you know, choose not to engage in that. As one of the questions earlier was, we've offered the fake. So if you know, we don't we don't go back and say there is a I'm losing my words here tonight. Growth, they're losing growth. So they are entitled to an ESY services. That's not what that's not what ESY is intended to do. ESY is intended to maintain a skill, not go beyond maintaining or new learning. And I think it may and I think you might be because I put extended school year service and adverse effect in there. They're two different two separate trainings or issues. One is just really putting out the information of how we determine ESY services. And I'm just trying to give some information to the board and to educate you folks of how we we go about it. And I'm not sure to date how we did it down here prior. But we really want to look at data and we really want to see if kids are regressing and how far they they gain or how quickly they gain that that knowledge back. Before we just produce them or produce a program for them in the summer. I want to be very prescriptive on that. And then the adverse effect is really that how do you determine disability and gate to what I found in reviewing many documents, the evaluation and planning documents is I don't feel that folks have truly grasped the the fine technical terms of finding adverse effect and really really digging deep into how kids think in the because you have to meet three out of six criteria. And they got to be very prescriptive of how they do that. And you have to be below the 15 percentile of your peers or what that age level is or grade level is prescribed to be. Does that make sense, Megan? And I'll just add, Meg. So if a student didn't qualify for extended school year services via an IEP and or they didn't qualify for an IEP, that's where this MTSS all comes into play, right? So we offer tutoring, which looks a lot like intervention through one plan and we offer it after school. And we also offer it over the summer over five weeks through trained interventionists. So if a student, if a team sat down and said, this student would benefit due to regression concerns for LLI, then we would offer it through what's currently called tutoring through one plan. It just wouldn't be offered through ESY services via an IEP. I think that helps clarify. And this is sorry, Mika from Stratford. I am wondering, I mean, we all hope that ESY is available in sort of normal circumstances again this coming summer. But if it isn't, we're running into a second summer without full services. At what point at what point do you know, are we at risk of just really having students harmed and, you know, being left holding the bag for something? Is there is their contingency plan? I'm just thinking of, you know, I think a lot last year, a lot of ESY was either not held or held virtually, which, you know, tends to not really serve the that student population well, since it's really the most involved students. Yeah, I haven't pulled together a team yet to discuss that, but you make a good point. If it is virtual, we really need to take that safety precautions as well for summer programming as we do during the school year programming. So and you're right, our most needy do suffer if we go virtual. And I, you know, again, I don't have the answers tonight, but again, we can do a little think tank and try to really smooth out as much as we can prior to the summer, if if we do go virtual during the summer. Yeah, I guess, you know, I'm wondering in terms of our role, you know, whether there needs to be some sort of, you know, plea for additional funding to have smaller smaller groups to make, you know, where it's truly necessary to make in-person instruction possible, but in a safe way, you know, trying to anticipate as much of that as possible, so that if if we need more resources, that more resources, you know, can be found or we can support them. Mika, I would fully expect that we'll provide services in person for students that would qualify for ESY and less, you know, the pandemic increase to a level where that was impossible. But we would definitely provide, prioritize intensive interventions and supports for students who are serviced via IEP in the event that we were to go virtual or remote for an extended period of time, we would still look to try to provide those in person. That that's certainly how I'm approaching it. And I think part of what the issue was last summer, there was a very late decision around whether we were going to hold one plan. And so when those ESY meetings were occurring, I think the assumption was we were not. And there was a change in philosophy, really, when I came on board as the superintendent, that we were going to try to do everything in our power to push forward to try to be in person in a safe and effective way. You remember the decision to go in person for our summer program didn't occur until very late in June, of which ESY had already been decided. Tutoring did actually occur in our buildings throughout the summer months. All right. Anything else for Don? Don, I have a question. Go ahead. How are you? You talk about the time studies here. How are you doing? Plugging through them, I've made a lot of suggestions and feedback to numerous folks, professionals and paraprofessionals. It's tedious work, but it's late night work. But we're going through. People are receptive. It's kind of an it's like I told the superintendent today, it's it's very it's very direct. It would be like if the state came in and audited us and picked out the the errors. So I mean, they are people said this is the first time they ever got a lot of feedback like this on most. Yeah. So hopefully in February, when we get on, we're going to have our next round. We'll have a better better showing. Does the board understand time studies? Shantel, you want to know? OK. Don, would you just take a minute and explain time studies again? Yeah. So the this agency of education requires us to do two time. Schedules or time studies. We have done time schedules this year. And what that is, is I've talked to folks and said it's your contracted hours you need to document. The what you would typically do in a week. So, for instance, if on Monday, you typically see Johnny for math for 30 minutes for for the from 11 to 11 30, and he's out sick that day, you still put in 11 to 11 30 math with Johnny. So it's a schedule, it's not a time sample. What the state would come in and do is look and say if Johnny had 30 minutes of math three times a week and you're providing him 30 minutes of math four times a week, they would deduct that half hour over because it's not prescribed in the IEP and deduct salaries and benefits throughout the year. So we wouldn't get that reimbursement of whatever that percentage of that salary of of the teacher or para educator throughout the year. So it's very important and as I work with folks throughout the district, I just tell them you need to be very cognizant of what is prescribed in the IEP and what you're asking Paris to do and what you're doing yourself. So it really is even that if it's 15 minutes over one day a week, they'll you the state would deduct that 15 minutes one day a week for those salaries and benefits throughout the year. Don, how about if Paris are given assignments to cover playground? Well, that's again, that's a regular ed duty unless they're assigned a child to oversee which part is part of his or her IEP. So again, principles do utilize special ed pairs in regular ed functions. And that's in every district and it probably throughout the state of Vermont. What we do is what my assistant Tracy does is goes through and deducts that percentage. And that's a bill back to the schools. And in the past, has that been budgeted? Oh, you don't know. No, as I understand it, some of it wasn't budget budgeted, but and I'm not I'm not real definite on that. But that's what I'm hearing on the district, Bob, and we're taking those numbers in account over the last two years when we're voting in your local budgets now they're being budgeted this year. Yes, some of them. Yes, Bob, some of the districts did build in their budgets for regular ed billbacks. Sometimes those tutors to the regular education kits. And is the principles budget for that? Well, that's part of our budget discussions, especially through MTSS is figuring out, Bob, what what is the actual needs? Do we have the right people? And then we're working with Don to ensure that we're also utilizing the 51 percent because you can support a student in regular ed via intervention. If you had students who are service via their IEP for small group instruction, right, if you have a 51 percent. So that's all the training that Don's trying to do with special educators, but also principles to ensure that we understand how that works and ensure that, you know, the schedule supports that. Yeah, I'd like to just let you know that I've asked all the principles to sign off on those time studies so they have their eyes on them as well. OK, so. All right. Anything else for Don? Go ahead, Ethan. Are you? I mean, I didn't hear you. Oh, I'm a good question. You want to text you, you might want to shut off your screen. Sometimes that helps. But I mean. No, not good connection yet. Ethan, can you post a question in the chat? All right, Ethan, we'll come back to you or you can post the question in the chat and we'll grab it. Any other questions for Don before we move on to curriculum instruction assessment? OK, curriculum instruction and assessment is up. So I can jump in for Amy and trial. I think their cry their wires got crossed. I thought they were asking if they need to be at local districts. I think they thought I meant this meeting. So that's on me. They'll be here moving forward. And so you have their report in hand. You know, they're a good little tag team. We're meeting weekly to ensure that we're not having any gaps as we look to decide how to best replace Mary Ellen next year. And so probably an Amy have both stepped in in between the three of us. We're trying to ensure that there's no balls dropped. And I'm feeling pretty good about the work that we're getting done. If you look, we're still moving forward with our literacy work. As well as doing professional development and MTSS in math. And we've got a bunch of social, emotional PD that's going to be coming out during the in service days in December for faculty across the SU that building principles and base leadership teams can choose to engage in. And then we also have the two pilot report card examples that were part of the report as well. That we're looking to implement here after the first trimester. We'll gain feedback. And this is at the elementary level. And then we will roll that feedback out to the greater elementary teachers across the SU and then look to tweak it for trimester two. And the goal would be by the end of trimester three, we'll have a document that everyone feels good about at the elementary grade next year. Any questions? All right. Question. Right. River Valley SU audit. Auditors were here last week. I had a pleasure to meet with them. Tara, do you want to just give an update on where they're at and our approach across the SU and the districts? I know I've been told that I would have a draft of the WRVSU audit by the second week of December, unless Tara, you've heard differently. That's that timeline. I'm still operating off of and Tara, you can provide any other details. That is still the same that I'm hearing, Jamie. They're starting with the supervisory union this year rather than doing the supervisory union last because it has an impact on all the other districts' individual audits. And then after the supervisory union, they're starting with the RUD audit and then going down from there to try to get the two largest entities done first with, I explained earlier that they're doing the single audits, which were they're required to do every year because we receive over $750,000 in federal funds. So that's what triggers needing to have a single audit completed on our grants. So I went over that. Otherwise, we're just as they ask for any additional information. We're dropping what we're doing to provide it to them so that they can move forward as quickly and swiftly as possible. When do we expect the first draft of the audit? Second week of December, I was told last week by them, they said they have everything they need from us, and they thought they'd have it to us by the second week. All right. Next is White River Valley S.U. budget second draft. Ray, do you want to project for us? So this is the S.U. budget line by line. You all get a copy of this that I'm going to ask Ray to email out to all of you so you have it. It does not have the function codes rolled up. What you saw last last time had the function codes rolled up. This would be more of a line by line style budget that you're going to start getting in your local districts starting in December as well. To summarize for you, this budget supports all the restructuring in the central office that we had talked about a few months ago. It does still support a position within the curriculum office. And as I go to talk to you about my proposal tonight, then I'm looking for you to support. We were able to take monies that were currently split over within the curriculum office prior. You had a grant coordinator, you had a literacy coach, and you also had Charlie Watson's position that did family engagement and instructional coaching, more so in proficiency-based learning. And so what we were able to do is eliminate, based on your guys' approval back in September, those three positions and then Mary Ellen left. And so that position still held there in a salary figure for that position. And so, at the end of the day, and we have not put any other grant monies toward that position, there could be some additional revenues coming toward the position that Mary Ellen needed due to the fact that we're not using any grant funds to fund a grant coordinator next year. And that will be part of that person's role and responsibility to offset some salary line there, but we didn't do that for this budget draft. So it supports the rest of the business office. It supports the fiscal office. It supports the software needed in the fiscal office. Tara, my sense is that that's an occurring cost of around 30,000. That's correct, Jamie, between the two payments that we have to make for our lease of the initial software that was put in place back in 2017, plus our annual contract for the maintenance and upkeep of the Infinite Vision software that includes those two payments that from what I can see have not been budgeted for in the past. So you'll see that increase in the fiscal services software line. So we're working really hard in your local districts and at the SU to literally go in every line and ensure that we have things budgeted appropriately and coded appropriately. And so the rub district recently saw money moving from different function codes, and that was to get folks coded appropriately. And so what we want to make certain as we move forward that we know what's in each budget line and ensure that we're budgeting appropriately for what we need. And so this also budgets HRA accounts at 100%. And so at times, different districts in the SU goes not to budget it 100%. And I don't want to be gambling on costs that we could incur around insurance. And so we're budgeting 100% of that. And so right now, the budget down in the central office, separate of Special Ed, the assessment at the central office would be down $4,231 which is about 0.25%. And that's before, like I said, whether or not we choose to use some additional grant funds to offset the curriculum position, which very well could be a real possibility. I just want to have another meeting to look at our consolidated federal grant and ensure that it meets all the needs of the local districts before we do that. I want to make certain that we meet the needs locally around intervention as in what we're doing in your buildings before we go to use any funds here at the SU level around curriculum instruction. And so we're down about $4,000 in change, but what we also did is freed up a great deal of resources to use locally. And some of you are seeing your local districts have been down. And part of how you're down is, based on the restructuring we did here locally, we're using those federal grants to then subsidize interventions in your local budgets. And so if you've been wondering how are we getting the local districts down, part of that is, is that we're not using all the federal grant money to position here at the SU level, okay? So within that area of the budget, like I said, we're down 4,000 and it could be a bit more, but I don't want to say that it's going to be more until I can really wrestle into the federal grant again for another job. Jamie, I have a question about how the, I mean, it was the wrong word, but basically excess grant resources are being allocated. Is it according to need per district? Yes, we have to title and rank. So for example, unless it's, you know, for example, in Stratford, you guys didn't qualify for title one due to your free and reduced lunch count. And so we're prioritizing Medicaid funds to pay for your nurse for equities sake, right? As we're looking at as budget in the SU, since you're not receiving any of the federal grant. And so what the main priority is though, is that we'll continue to support literacy, but we're trying to beef up math intervention. So that's a huge strategy as we move forward is to ensure that we have targeted math intervention available within all of our schools. Right now we have many districts that if a student is struggling in math, we're not able to provide them math intervention right now. Unless they qualify for an IED and that is not what we want within our MTSS. So that's how those monies are being prioritized. And for some folks, that's they now may be teaching either universally or they may be teaching in literacy, but we're gonna train them up in math and they'll provide both. And then so they're part of their FT, that's math, that's a new strategy so we can use the federal grant. Jamie, did you move somewhere in a conversation? You moved Ray completely to the central office? Oh, yes. So the other thing this supports is, thank you for bringing that up Bob, I mentioned last month, we move all tech personnel to the central office. But there's a significant increase in that line, but it also provides us an additional tech What do you call them Ray? Tech specialists? What do they call them? Technology support specialists. Technology support specialists. So Ray will have one more additional FTE to better make sure we're meeting the needs across the SU and that will all be at the SU level. And for certain districts, you'll see that offset in your local districts. So we're not gonna get you hopefully, yeah. So we're not gonna get billed for his part of his salary. Well, you'll be billed back on your assessment, but you won't be budgeting in the local district. Yeah, right. So that is actually an exciting piece. The other thing this budget supports is for us to continue to work in conjunction possibly with CVSU, central office supervisory union, in regards to maintenance and facility oversight. And so right now you've heard me talk about Lyle Smith, who's been doing walkthroughs and supporting lead custodians and principals in the area of maintenance and development. And I saw Shantel Shakerhead, she actually met Lyle and Lyle started to come to local district meetings. He's overseeing larger projects like the RUD HVAC system. He's been working on that. He met with the facilities committee for RUD. And so this budget supports some monies, certainly not for a full-time position, but so that we can contract some services for him. Okay. Anything else on that? WR? Which would save us money in the long-term, right? The idea is that he's gonna help us create more strategic plans and that we're not being reactive with our maintenance, that we're more proactive. And he's supposed to also help us have three to five-year plans in regards to how we need to beef up a reserve accounts to just ensure that we're doing preventative maintenance, moving forward. Nice. All right. WRVSU structure for 2122. I'm not done. I'm sorry. I wanna go over the special ed component. Sorry, Kathy. I know you're trying to move. That's okay. That's okay. And just, you know, you'll get another draft of this in December. Ray, can you project the special ed one? And again, we'll email this out to you. Don and Tara and I were still in the back and forth battle room around this at the 11th hour. Bob, if you're asking our people under stress, you gotta see us in budget meetings. And so the special ed budget, we've been analyzing each function code in the area again. Don can talk to you about what this does in programming if you have more specific questions, but to give you a general sense, this budget supports the idea of us having intensive social, emotional and academic programming grades three through 12 through an alternative program at the high school, which currently right now we lack. And so right now when students have struggled at the high school level and all your districts, they are all placed in out of district placements via their IEP teams. The goal would be to get those students back. And so therefore that would decrease tuition. We project if we don't move forward with this type of model at grades nine through 12. Don, the projection and tuition was probably an increase of over 400,000. Yeah, bring it up over a million dollars. So it's crucial that we move forward with this alternative programming at the high school. We have plans in place to do so. We're gonna utilize regular ed teachers currently at Red High School, the service, the universal instruction, as well as transition the staff that we have at the K through two. Formally known restorative classroom, I think they're calling it the Wildcat Institute at the moment. That's what the kids wanted to be called. So I think that that's what they're calling themselves. Is that correct Don? That is correct. So the K through two group would be pushed back with supports at their homeschools and the staffing that currently support K through two will go support our students in grades nine through 12. And so those of you who currently don't have students going to Rudd, sometimes IEP teams are making choices based on where they are being placed just due to the fact that we don't have the ability to service them here within RSU. And so we have a lot of students currently right now being serviced outside and out of district placements at the high school level, that we would look to say, no, we can provide those supports only here at WRVSU. And then the IEP team can make the decision that the appropriate placement would be at our alternative programming, not placed in another SU where you have tuition, but also in addition to that, you have excess costs. Am I getting this right Don? That's correct. And so that's part of what that idea was in regards to grades nine through 12. Part of why we're analyzing these time studies so closely is that we're ensuring that we have appropriate staffing levels. Some of you know, we move staff throughout the year and part of that was just based on equity and ensuring that we had the right staffing levels in the right districts, in the right building. We continue to do so. It's a collaborative approach across the SU. Principles have been very collaborative. Special educators have done a really nice job of being flexible. It's why the agency moves special ed to the SU level to begin with is so that we can make these decisions based on need across the SU. And so, you know, I think that we'll have a much stronger sense come February, exactly where we need folks assigned and folks with other assignments in the spring for next year. But we do feel like this meets staffing levels. So there are some reductions in certain areas and part of that is based on the fact that we know some folks may be deciding to transition out of WRVSU and we budget accordingly to not replace those positions if needed. We don't wanna get into any more specifics otherwise around certain positions because we haven't had a chance to talk to everyone yet that it may or may not affect. And I wanna be able to have an opportunity for that with the building principle prior to us talking about that. But in December, you know exactly which positions we're proposing in regards to special ed that we may choose not to replace and or eliminate. But do know we're not looking at decreased support. In regards to if there's positions being eliminated, it has nothing to do with us decreasing supports. What we wanna do is make certain actually we have a system where all students receive intervention a minimum of four days a week, 30 minutes a day by a highly trained interventionist. And so that's our goal. Know that that's where we're trying to get. Are we there yet? No, that's where we're trying to get to. The other thing about trying to keep our students here is that it also, the trajectory in regards to special ed transportation, we were expecting about $110,000 increase there and we're forecasting that we won't need that money due to the fact that we're gonna be able to keep our students here within the SU. And so, you know, what you get to is you've got a budget that's up 70,613, which is a 0.96% but without the changes we're looking to make programmatically we'd be looking at a budget increase just so you have a sense of over 600,000. So these changes that we're suggesting are critical and special ed budgets that go up by six to 700,000 a year. I think you all know that's not sustainable. We can't do it. And, you know, the trajectory that we were on in regards to special ed, you know, back in 1819 you had a budget of $7,11,123,80. And last year we had a budget of $8,040,137. We were up over a million dollars within two years. And that's not just us. That's what was being seen across the state. That's why when I talk about MTSS, it's so critical that we create this comprehensive system because we definitely can't afford as an organization to continue to see half a million dollar increases year after year in special ed. There's gotta be other ways to do it. The research talks through and through about this comprehensive system supports high quality universal instruction. And so, Bob, I do know I'm pushing on folks and I'm trying to wait that but we have to make these changes because the alternative is not sustainable. And, you know, just like when we came in we said that the finances were critical with close to a million dollar deficit this type of trajectory is critical because when you guys talk about spending increases in the SU and we look at what you control locally versus what you don't, a half a million dollars as you all been looking at your local districts that's a lot of money. And so, you know, that's why we're working so hard to look at how can we best support students early intervention, train teachers up and make certain we keep our students here within the WRVSU. And so that's why we're making those decisions and recommending them around programming because right now we have nothing at the secondary level. So anytime a student's struggling we can't meet their needs within the building or one of the districts that they've students chose to go to then in an out of district placement is decided by the IEP team. We don't have anything to offer here that's less restrictive and therefore they're always placed somewhere else and those tuitions continue to increase significantly. And so that's why, you know we're looking to pursue it that way in regards to programming. John, do you have anything else to add? No, I think you've covered it all. Again, just to highlight the time schedules where that's why I'm spending a lot of time on those to really analyze them to see, you know what folks are doing in buildings and in what services are duplicated or throughout the buildings. So just to analyze that the staffing to give us a better project of our perspective of what our needs are moving forward so. Don, I have an IEP is a contract but it's between the parent and the school. I'm gonna be able to get our parents on board with what you're trying to do. Well, you know, I've only had a conversation if you're talking about moving kids out of alternative schools and bring them back to our schools. My past history was that when I formed a couple programs in Barry, I had to go to court, I had to go to due process. So there's some legal fees that were involved. We prevailed in every one. I think there's four or five that we had to go. But we prevailed and those programs are still vibrant in Barry. Now there's some kids that, you know that their needs are such that we will not be able to meet them in our buildings. But I believe the majority of the kids who are out outplaced, we can bring home. It's gonna be hard though. I mean, you have a child who hasn't seen success for a while and now is having success in an alternative school, parents don't want to upset that apple cart. So it's difficult and I get it. I mean, I understand parents, you know, see that, you know and they want the kid, the best for the kid. I think that too, that it's on us to build trust, right? And I found that when families trust us in the program we provide, it's much easier to think about that. If they don't trust us in the program we've provided and or what they're hearing from, then I think it's much harder. And so I think that that's why we're working so hard to try to strengthen our relationships with families and build stronger trust and show that we're responsive to family need. And just make certain that if folks understand that if we're not meeting their children's needs that we want to hear about it and we want to improve upon it. And even the goal is to have this up and running next year. We're budgeting for next year with this. Staffing of that alternative school is very important. Yeah, I agree. And if it's not done right, you're going to face those parents. Yeah, I think the current staffing that we do have in those alternative are pretty good staff. We have Michelle Pringle who's overseeing the programs. I think she's really coming into it. She's asking a lot of questions, all the right questions. And she's taking the lead. Okay, anything else on this topic before we move on? So just so you know to summarize, I mean, I think that you're going to see the SU budget stay right about where it is. We may be able to get it down a little more due to revenue that we use within the federal grant. Special Ed, we continue to work on. And like you see, it's up 70,000. I can't tell you exactly whether it'll be up or down next month, but that will be part of what we're focusing on for the next draft. Okay. Thank you, Jamie. Structure for 21-22 specific to curriculum instruction and assessment. Great, Ray, are you with me, sir? So Ray, I was hoping to start with the data we collected first, is that all right? Thank you. We didn't rehearse this well enough today. You're all running around. So I sent this document to the board on Friday. I just wanted to go over the survey data that we collected. And so Ray helped me, and we worked on a survey to try to just gather some data to help inform next steps around where we're going, that curriculum instruction and assessment area. And so the first question was whether or not we thought the traditional position was meeting the needs of the SU. And you can see 45.2% said yes. 56.2% said no. I will tell you that it also provided a feedback of why you said yes and why you said no. And it really just generally summarized the folks that said no are really after how do we continue to leverage distributed leadership, empower teaching teams to make decisions around curriculum, and flatten leadership in regards to vertical teaming and things of that nature. And when you brought me on board, I talked a lot about the importance of empowerment, distributed leadership, ensuring that we have folks feeling really good about the directions we're moving and that teachers have voice and choice in those decisions. So example being, if we say across the SU that we need to have some type of universal social emotional learning curriculum and approach, I do not think it behooves us across the SU and eight schools to say we're all gonna be PBIS or we're all gonna be responsive classroom or we're all gonna do conscious discipline. Now I mentioned all those because we have those different approaches in our buildings across the SU. Some SUs choose to go about it that way. We're all gonna do PBIS, research-based, that's what we're gonna do. Well, everything I just said was research-based. I think teachers have to have voice and choice and work with their building principles and families to see what best meets that school's needs. So at the SU level, what I'm looking for us to say is we have to have a common approach within a building. And yes, we need to implement systematically across the building. That doesn't mean we all have to do the same, okay? And so when I got the feedback on that, there was still a sentiment and that there's been times that at the SU level in the past that we've said we're all gonna do it this way and we identify what this way was from a curriculum or instructional standpoint. And there's some folks that have appreciated that and there's some folks that have it. And so that's some of the information that was gathered based on those two, that question and the responses of yes or no. It wasn't necessarily that folks didn't think that there needed to be a level of coordination. I think what they wanted to make certain is, is that we were increasing teacher voice. If we go down next, you hear me talk about MTSS a lot and you heard me talk about it in the budget area and we've been doing some professional development and audits at the building level around MTSS that teachers have been engaging in. But I was just curious to see what our teachers and staff's thoughts were around whether or not they thought MTSS was being implemented with fidelity. If you can see, we only have one that thinks it's being fully implemented with fidelity. And this went to all buildings across the SQ. But what I was more concerned with is that we had 40 folks that are really not feeling like we are. We have more feeling like we're not implementing than that we are. And I have some quantitative and qualitative data that indicates that as well. But I thought that was a powerful data point for us to have because this came from folks who are at the ground looking to him. Finally, I was just really curious to our faculty even understand what MTSS is. And if you look again, it's better. Over 50% feel like they have an understanding of it. And even 12% feel like they have a strong knowledge of it. But if you look, we still have 36 folks that complete the survey that are not feeling really secure about their understanding of MTSS. And, you know, five core components and 10 prints. And so with that, I use some of this data to help inform the proposal that I'm gonna make for you. And it's part of why MTSS is in the person's position and title. And MTSS is not going away. And I think that some of you are aware that the agency has delayed it, but that the legislature did take up the idea of changing special ed funding to more of a block grant that's used to support any and all students who need intervention supports. And that it didn't directly tie back to IEPs for funding and that there would be more flexibility at how we use those funds. That was all driven by a study done through UVM that really analyzed principles around MTSS. And it was called the DMG report. And if folks are interested in reading through that, I'm happy to share it out with you. If you just let me know, it's a really interesting read and it would give you some more kind of a sound sense around what MTSS is and the foundation of it and how the research speaks to it if you implement and you implement some real key principles around it that it can result in better outcomes for students in decreased cost. So with that said, I then looked at an org structure. Will you put the org structure up for me, Ray? I did make, yep, the DMG report. And so, I've been working with you folks really since April but officially since July. And I've heard some of you give me feedback in regards to the organization in general and I've listened and I've thought and I've talked to principals and I've talked to teachers. And I'm also, I weigh the fact that just whether or not I'm meeting the needs both for US boards but also as from my principals and from my teachers. And any day at best, I certainly drop the ball. And I try really hard not to, but there's times I do. And so what I was also looking to do is as we were thinking about restructuring curriculum and with an emphasis on MTSS, I was looking at an org chart that empowered the chief academic officer of MTSS to share in some oversight both with building principals but also at the SU level around feedback, supervision evaluation. I also have to say as a building principal previously that I do think there's a difference in title around superintendent and or principal versus curriculum coordinator. And what do I mean by that? Well, I think there's times that curriculum coordinators get stuck because there's not really any supervision role provided to them, right? And so as you're trying to foster change and coach folks on change, there are opportunities for folks to say, I'm gonna shut the door. And that sounds great that we might be heading that way as an organization, but this sounds like a suggestion. I don't know if there's any teeth that I'm actually being directed to do something. I'm looking for us to empower this position that they have the ability if someone was struggling to implement what we've decided as an organization that there could be an opportunity to direct and provide feedback through the evaluation process. I also think I'm looking at us getting candidates who are experienced administrators that can also help really foster our principles. We have a great group of principals, but at any day very well may need guidance or support. And so I'm looking at having someone that can help with the coaching process of them. And listen, I'm looking at two to hire someone who has a skillset in instruction and assessment that doesn't mirror mine. I'm looking to strengthen our system. And so I think I have some areas of expertise and I would be looking for us to bring someone in who has a different area of expertise to really make certain that we again are providing the resources needed for buildings to really grow and foster continuous improvement in growth. And I'm very clear that one person can't be all to folks, so I definitely don't think that I am. So this position is budgeted. I'm not looking for us to have to spend a great deal more on this position just so you know. What I'm looking for us to do is empower this position. And so Ray, if you wanna go to the next part of the presentation. And I really struggled back and forth with the title and I asked for some feedback from administrators and folks and confinats. And I really thought it was at first MTSS was not gonna be in the title at all. But the more I dug into what MTSS is and isn't, the more I realized that's really what this position is about. It's about high quality universal instruction. It's about ensuring that we have a collaborative and systematic approach. And so therefore I leaned back toward having it be part of the title. And I was looking for us to increase the role and responsibility through the idea of a CAO, the Peef Academic Officer, instead of a director of curriculum instruction assessment. So if you can see, I think that we should be given preference to those licenses from our superintendent schools. Because with that becomes a backup to me. And through that licensure provides some additional oversights that this person could have. I also think in the midst of COVID, frankly, it allowed me as I was quarantining and sick, realized that we gotta beef up our bench as we move forward. And it's really important that we have someone that they could step in in the event that I'm not able to fulfill my role in duties. And if you can see, it talks a lot about collaboration with me of overseeing and implementing a comprehensive MTSS. There's gonna be a focus on academic and social-emotional learning, while also ensuring the monitoring of effectiveness through the continuous improvement plan process. In addition, this person will oversee all of our state and federal grants and ensure that our strategic plans and continuous improvement plans align to the work of the grant. They'll have a role in budgeting, and because they need to have a seat at that table. It's critical that when we're budgeting, as you asked Mika and I appreciate it, what is the grant gonna support? It's gonna be math intervention. Well, this person has to be making certain that the strategies are written appropriately and that good business office that we're budgeting appropriately. So those folks that we have identified as interventionists that they're in the grant, we're receiving the funds and that we're not running into a situation where the same dollar may be accounted for in multiple places. They're gonna assist principals in monitoring instruction. I see this person out in buildings daily. I don't want this to be a position that's in central office. I really look at this position being out in buildings, supporting principals, supporting teachers, supporting teams on implementation, and not sitting at a desk here in central office. And I think as we look to strengthen our system, the idea would be is that everyone in central office is out in buildings more and doing this work and not here in our offices working here. And so, I think it's important for you to realize that. I don't see just cause this is a central office position, I have no desire to have this position be here. Certainly, if you guys provide permission to move forward with this, that it will be clear once they can and they get to my level of interview that I would expect, just like we say in special ed around case management, I'm looking for this person to be out in buildings four days a week and in central office one day a week. That's my expectation. And I think in order for us to get our teams up and running and implementing well and helping principals learn how to be facilitators around data teams, to help teachers make prescribed intervention plans, that's the only way you do it is if you're out there modeling and helping with that implementation. So before I entertain questions my thought process around this would be is that provided your guys is support that we would get this position posted sooner rather than later. And that we would look to pull together a committee. I'll ask principal leadership and a member of central office to help with the facilitation of this work. There'll be stakeholders across parents, students, community, board, faculty and staff that are part of this committee. And we would look to start the interview process when we return from the holiday break. It would be my goal if we get this right to have a finalist to you for your January meeting. I think it's important that we jump early. It's part of why I didn't wanna replace the position to begin with. The candidate pool is gonna be the richest it's gonna be now. This is when principals, administrators, central office folks start to think about is the fit ideal. I can speak to that cause this is when I started thinking about that last year was it time for me to move on from my prior post and I wanna make certain that we get a real quality applicant. I also think this position can be really desirable. It's not an assistant superintendent but it does provide an opportunity to really grow those leadership skills. Within it. And I think it speaks to us being progressive as an organization in regards to prioritizing through it. And I think that some folks who may be desired to be superintendents in the future who haven't had the opportunity to really cut their teeth in that level of responsibility may be real. This could be a real desirable position. So I think that what we're gonna see is we may have folks applying who are in principal roles director curriculum director roles and who knows maybe even superintendents who decide, you know what? There's too many headaches on we'd rather get back to just focusing on more so systems and instruction and not have the other half said superintendents where so I'm confident that we're gonna get a really strong candidate. When I see number 13 what's that? Responsibilities I want to see number 13. What's that? Can you put up on the screen? Oh, sorry, you're asking, you're talking to Ray. Sorry, we have seven meetings running shortly. What do you need? My apologies. Number 13 of responsibilities. Responsibilities, here you go. Any at all duties? Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that was in there. Oh, thanks Bob, absolutely. That's always the last thing in every job description. Can I ask a question? This is quick question. This is make from Strafford. I have just a couple of things. One, I like that you're, so when I looked at this I was a little concerned that it was too centralized and top heavy but the way you've described it, it sounds like what you are trying to do is empower principals, building leaders as instructional leaders. So that's kind of the way that you're thinking. That's great context. Another one of my concerns was, so two things. One, have you been in contact with the building administrators to make sure that that's, in fact, the way that they will feel supported by this or the support that they want or need? So I've had individual conversations with them throughout the whole fall around what supports could the SU provide. And I have a strong sense that, yeah, they're looking for really a teammate but also someone who can really provide them support and guidance. I think they would all say that, you know, Jamie works hard to meet their needs but I think there's times I just can't get to them when they need me. So I think that that's another area that they're looking for support. You know, an example, the other day I had three personnel things going on at once and there's only one of me to manage three personnel things. And so, you know, I got to all of them by the end of the day and asked them to be patient but I think there's times that, you know, they'd appreciate if they had someone that could step in and to serve in that role to support them in the moment. Can I ask one more, Kathy? Jamie. Yeah, I think we- Hold on, Meg. We're all gonna come back to the meeting. So can you hold your question when we come back? We'll continue this conversation. Yeah, I think we should bring it up to our local- It doesn't make sense just because of the program. Yeah, that works. And then rejoin, rejoin this. Okay, thank you. All right guys, so we're not adjourning, we're just breaking out into a different room for now. And then we'll come back to this meeting and finish our full board meeting. That work for everyone? Board chairs, you're set. What do you need to do or vice chairs? I'm concerned. So one of the, I don't have the agenda up, but this is Sarah, the agenda up in front of me, but one is to talk about the career change assistance program and we haven't talked about it here yet. So should I know something that I don't? No, I mean, the SU can choose to do it or not for SU employees, but that doesn't stop a local district. So that's the thing with budgeting money for that, right? Correct. Okay. Yeah, so it could have happened at the SU and not at the local districts or it can happen at the local district. The SU has employees separate from district employees. And you're asking us to vote as to whether or not, okay, 17.1, is that what that is? Yeah, okay, thank you. All of article 17 handles that. Yep. Sorry. I just wasn't, you put me on the right place. All right, see you in a little while. Amy, it appears I believe that all boards ratified I believe that Daisy's board, she didn't get a quorum. We have one board not ratified. All right, well, we can take that up next week. I think there was a question if the full board can ratify pending ratification by G-HUD or if we're kind of dead in the water. No, no, we can, the full board can ratify pending great, you know, certification. Okay, super. So we'll just add that to the agenda for G-HUD meeting next week. I'm sorry, I couldn't get everybody. That's a tough hour. Everybody's, everybody has young kids going to bed at 7.30. So getting three of them was as much as I could do. Except my kid who's got three hours left in her. Great. You want me to pick up where I was? Yes, please. And so, Meg, I think you were asking about the thought process around the leadership style of this position. The goal would be really to be boots on the ground supporting principals. I come back to, I think we're a service organization at the ESU, that's our role and responsibility. And so I would be looking for this position to be out serving teachers, staff, students and building principals and assisting with our systems, making certain that, you know, we have MTSS implemented with Fidelity, supporting strategic planning around that, but then also assisting me with making certain on best serving our communities. All of you, our teachers, our staff and, you know, therefore hence why on that work chart this position is, you know, heightened compared to where the traditional director of curriculum and instruction was within the work chart. Great, that totally answers my question, Jamie. And I actually asked my other question to the board earlier and it was, I was worried about the requirements of wanting it to be a superintendent certified person and whether we would just end up with a revolving door but Lisa was able to offer a little context for that that it really is like you say the boots on the ground thing. So it's going to draw a different kind of candidate. I think it'll draw a different candidate. Great, thank you. Any other discussion about this position, guys? Well, it sounds to me like it's more of a coach, I mean, it's more of a coach than superintendent type position. So I agree it would draw a very different skill set and different type of person. I would like to say I'd support the position, Jamie. It seems like you've put a lot of thought into what you need to fill out your team. And it makes sense to me. I'm really excited by the idea of having someone in the central office who's actually in the field more and can speak more about what's going on out in our buildings. I think that's a really great opportunity for us and a missing piece that could be really complimentary as Jamie mentioned. Well, to your point, Jamie, you can't be everywhere at once. So I think, however, we can equip you to be better and support you and this looks great. Any other discussion? Jamie, this is me again, sorry, I'll make it quick. The other thing I had emailed you ahead of time about the change in the grants person, which you referred to in kind of answer my question in your budget discussion, but I hear a lot from you about literacy and math and I just wanna make sure we don't take our eye off the ball with enrichment. And I think the grants manager, I know of at least one program that supported the grants to provide music for the early ed kids. So stuff like that, I just wanna make sure that's still kind of on our radar. Absolutely, and like that's in the upcoming grant, the work that we do in pre-k. And so I think sometimes I think I'm hitting that when I say we have to invest in early intervention, but I can try to be more clear about that. But yeah, no, we're gonna still invest in our early learners and certainly the music programming is still part of that. And beyond, right, like elementary, just thinking about that enrichment stuff, arts. Well, the federal grant can support a lot of those programs beyond pre-k, right? And so when I talk about the federal grant, you won't hear me talk about that. Title one, it's specific to K through 12 needs to be on literacy and math. That's why you hear me talk about it so much with the federal grant. Got it. And then like title two could be used to provide supports around like alternative programming to ensure dropout prevention doesn't have, that we're doing dropout prevention, but there's certain strategies you can implore in each title, title one, two, three and four. The most flexibility is within title four. Any other discussion on this position? Do we wanna vote on it now, Jamie, or wait till actually? That'd be great. Yeah, no, if someone wants to move and support the recommendation, that would be awesome. I move to support the recommendation of the superintendent for the structure for 21-22 specific to curriculum instruction assessment. Is that what you want me to say? Yeah, that's fine. The chief academic officer, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's what he called the position. Okay, I'll second. All right, do I have a second? I'll second. I'll second. All right, any discussion? Any discussion, guys? Let's vote. All right, so let's vote. I'll just, I'll go down the list of board members if you could say, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. That's my. All right. All right. All right. I would need me to call out names for you. Kathy, or? Kathy, if you could call the roll, I think that'd be the Yeah, I think. Yeah, do you wanna call out the names, right? Just because there's a lot of people on here. Andrew Jones. Aye. Chantel Brackett. Aye. Ethan Bowen. Aye. Jackie Guerin. Aye. Justine Cavacas. Aye. Kathy Galuzzo. Aye. Lisa Floyd. Aye. Megan Payne. Aye. Megan Teach-Out. Aye. Mika Tucker. Aye. Michael Gray. Aye. Bob Gray. Aye. Rodney Rainville. Sam Ponder. Sam Ponder. Aye. Sarah Root. Aye. Jovon Neal. Aye. Stacy Peters. Aye. It's okay. Aye. Thank you all very much. Any nays? It's like we got everybody. Yeah. All right, so moved, guys. Thank you very much. We'll get it posted and I'll email you out an updated timeline around hiring and things and all those logistics within the next week. All right, thank you. Jamie, we're on to career assistance program. So many of you took this up at the district level. We need to take this up at the SU level as well. Whether or not we're going to be offering that for our SU level employees. So thanks, special educators, SLPs, things of that nature. We have not budgeted for it up to this point, just so folks are aware. And so I just ask that you take that into account. Budgets are tight right now. And I just ask that you can consider that as you look to decide whether or not you want to offer this across the SU at the SU level. I would love to offer it if money grew on trees, but it doesn't. And we're coming at operating out of a deficit and I would have a hard time supporting it. Strafford voted not to fund it for the same reasons. And I think that I wouldn't support it on the SU level. Yeah, given the, I think I feel like we just need greater predictability than this affords. And we voted not to offer it at the White River Unified District at this point in time. And I think at the supervisory level, we shouldn't offer it as well. It's just a hard thing. It's just a hard thing. I mean, I understand the spirit of this and under normal circumstances, I do support it. But it's just a really hard time financially to offer it. This is Kathy and F, but also decided not to support it for the same reasons. So I wouldn't support it on the full board. So I'd like to make a motion. So not support it as a full board. Can we make the motion and the affirmative, make the motion to support it and then to not support it, you would vote no. So that it's affirmative as opposed to negative and the motion would be my suggestion. All right. So, Lisa, do you want to do your restate that? Sure. I make a motion. So we don't have a second yet. Right. So, yeah, I can resend my motion and we can move forward. Right, but then there's also a question of whether Lisa wants to actually make that motion because that's a different thing that she's suggesting. I don't know. Thank you, Molly. You're welcome. Okay, sorry, you do it. Let's get this ball. I make the motion to approve the career change assistant program as stated in the, is there an SU contract? Yeah, it's part of the master agreement. They're part of the bargain. So I make a motion to support the career change assistant program as stated in the contract for the SU employees. I second. All right, Ray, do you want to do a roll call again? Is there any discussion, Kathy? You didn't provide for... Oh, any discussion, please. Sorry about that, Jamie. Yes, any discussion? All right, guys. So remember on this, if you support it, this is if you'd support it, if you do not support it, you would vote no. Andrew Jones? No. Chantel Brackett? No. Ethan Bowen? No. Jackie Guerin? No. Justine Cavacas? No. Kathy Galuzzo? No. Lisa Floyd? No. Megan Payne? No. Mika Tucker? No. Michael Gray? No. Bob Gray? No. Rodney Rainville? No. Sam Potter? No. Sarah Root? No. Javon Neal? No. Stacy Peters? No. Sukay? No. All right. So we have decided not to support the career program. All right. Thank you, everyone. Policies. So we have one, two, three, four, five policies to approve tonight. Is there any discussion on the policies before we move? Just so folks know, just to remind us, these policies have been in your packets for quite some time now. We of course have to warn them in the papers. Rudd adopted these five at their last meeting. They would go in front of the SU tonight. And then they'll continue to go through your local district boards throughout the month of December. Kathy, would you mind if we do that? All of them in one motion? Yes. I make a motion to adopt policies. A 24 board superintendent relationship. B 22 complaints about personal instruction. Instructional materials. B 34 records retention. D one. Proficiency based graduation requirements. And F 30 budgeting. All right. Do I have any discussion on the policies we're putting forward? All right. Hearing no discussion. Ray, do you mind? Doing a roll call. Okay. Let's start at the bottom. Sue Kay. Yes. Hi. Japon Neal. Hi. Sir. Hi. Sam Potter. Hi. Rodney Rainville. Hi. Bob Gray. Mike Gray. Micah Tucker. Hi. Megan pain. I don't know. I'm sorry. Mika Tucker. Aye. Megan Payne. Aye. Lisa Floyd. Aye. Kathy Galuzzo. Aye. Justine Kovakis. Aye. Jackie Garen. Aye. Ethan Bowen. Aye. Chantel Brackett. Aye. Andrew Jones. Aye. Bob Gray. I think that's everybody. I think that's everybody. All right, thank you, everyone, for approving the policies. Um, Jamie. Yes. Do we need an executive session or can we just move since we all just discussed this in all of our meetings? If you guys want to make a motion for executive session for negotiations, to discuss an SU board, it's absolutely within your right, or you can discuss in public session if there's any discussion and then take a motion to act to ratify. That's up, you guys, as a board. So, does anybody on here feel they need an executive session? Do I, do I have a second? For what? You said you made a motion. Oh, I know, but I didn't think I got, I didn't, I would make a motion to, um, approve the master agreement for the 2020-21 year and, and 21-22 year. Seconded. Ethan. Don't you have to say if the other board ratifies it or you're not going to put that in the motion? Pending the ratification by the, tell me the, tell me the district again. Pending the ratification from the, the, Jihad, I got it. Jihad. Jihad. Jihad, yeah. Pending their ratification. Second. And Ethan, you second that? Yes. Thanks, Stacy. Okay, thank you. All right. So any discussion? Hearing none. One more time, Ray. Andrew Jones. Yes, aye. Chantel Brackett. Aye. Ethan Bowen. Aye. Jackie Guerin. Justine Cavacas. Aye. Kathy Galuzzo. Aye. Lisa Floyd. Aye. Megan Payne. Aye. Megan Teach out. Aye. Jackie Guerin says aye in the chat. Mika Tucker. Aye. Mike Gray. Aye. Bob Gray. Rodney Ranville. Up. Aye. Bob. Aye. Sam Potter. Aye. Sarah Root. Aye. Yvonne Neal. Aye. Desi Peters. Aye. Sue Kaye. Aye. Thank you all very much. All right. So it is so moved. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. So, I think we, maybe we completed all of our action items. Is there any other topics tonight, guys? Just to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving. Healthy and happy for me. Agreed. I would also like to thank you guys for all your work and happy Thanksgiving. And if there's nobody discussion, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Some moved. Seconded.