 It was called the order at 17. Do we have any adjustments to the agenda? To approve the minutes of Tuesday, January 17th. To approve the minutes of Thursday, February 9th. To approve the minutes of Tuesday, December 20th. To approve the minutes of Tuesday, December 20th. I know that I'd like to amend the minutes of the special meeting. Chains and now... Right. No, I know we didn't approve them, but I thought we'd amend the minutes. Oh, you might have. I thought we would amend the minutes, but I wanted to... Why don't we approve? Do you want to make a motion to approve the minutes that are? So I'll make a motion to approve the meeting minutes of January 17th, February 9th, and December 20th as written. We have a second. All second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. And then I think we had talked about briefly, I don't know, I think it was two meetings ago about the meeting minutes of the 2019 special meeting. So I think, so the way it's written right now under the actions and possible actions was 5.1 was, you know, that Chris Jarvis said most motion to the public findings is that the conflict of interest complaint is not supported by evidence provided and therefore the complaint be dismissed. And that's very accurate. The other piece of that that was talked about at length with three of the four select board voting members that night was that even though we did not believe that any conflict of interest warranted in this case, but we did. All three members had talked about that the personal conduct of the board member was not appropriate. One board member had made the comments that the comments were inappropriate, import taste and bad judgment. Another one was that they couldn't support the way in which our board member expressed themselves in the public and that the comments were highly offensive. I think we have to get details on it. I just think we need to put something in the meeting minutes just to how we came to, you know, like tonight we're going to talk about, you know, the conduct policy draft again. So there was some discussion that was had around this on how we got here. So I don't know how we put it in there. I think it could be just as simple as saying that, you know, that even though we have interest in this case, and if you say a quorum or but there was three of the four members at night that had common language of that the personal conduct by the board member was unacceptable or something like that. Okay. I mean, do you have language you want to? Well, I guess I don't know the exact language because I mean, I went back was that the work and media, you know, thing. I mean, everybody said something different, but they're all kind of cool in the same. I think we I would just I would say at the end of so five one the first sentence there with with myself making the motion up through. Therefore, the complaint would be dismissed. I think we should just add, you know, that majority of the board believe that the personal conduct of the board member was on becoming or something like that. Okay. Because then we did talk about the next one possible further discussion and policy and things like that. Board members request the future discussion on the board conduct and code of ethics policies from board. Are there board members have comments on this? Well, I guess I'm okay with being headed in. Yeah. Okay. I think just makes the bridge from the discussion to the board conduct and code of ethics discussion. You know, after you're looking at it. Yeah. Yeah. So it makes a bridge from. From here to here. I mean, I just add after dismiss the complaint board members. Agreed. Conduct was well, it's the appropriate way. I was just using that the personal conduct of the board member. Was on becoming. I guess. Yeah. I would ask to amend that to unprofessional. I don't believe unbecoming is necessarily a adjective that you can put in minutes. That's fine. So board agreed. Conduct was unprofessional. Or but not a conflict of interest. I think we just leave it. Okay. Yeah. Board agreed conduct. We already said that it wasn't a conflict of interest. This is after. Dismissed. After dismissed. Okay. Complaint dismissed. Board agreed. Okay. So why don't you make a motion. Adding that sentence to me. Five one minutes. Okay. Okay. So just make a motion that we approve the meeting minutes of the 29th with the amendment. After. Complaint may. Complaint be dismissed that. That the board agreed that the. Conduct. Was unprofessional. Of the board. I'll do product of the board. All right. We have a second. All second. Any discussion. On paper. Say aye. Aye. All right. The. Minutes are accepted. Do we have any public comments at this time? I'd like to say that that was a I have no vote on that one. Okay. In a minute. One extension. But I guess not a technicality is. I don't know if she would. Would she be voting for that because it was. To. Meeting minutes that are about your ex-wife's complaint to the board. So if we want to go into this for hours, we can, I think it's well time that this should be over. Do you want to be recused or abstention? Abstention. All right. Okay. I was partly responsible for clearing these minutes. As the clerk. I want to vote no. Oh, you're going to vote no. Okay. Correct. Got it. Three. Okay. Sorry about the confusion. All right. Public comments. Introduce yourself. That's Sullivan. We'll be running for school board. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think that's the statement saying that I think. Each change in language is overly punitive. And possibly not just. The removal of the conflict of interest. Once that was out of the way, I think that all it needed. And I think that this issue is way too convoluted between the parties that are participating. To have any more discussion about it. And I want to just object to that happening. Any other public comment? Okay, any board? And that's general public comment? Yeah. Not about the issue. Right. That you just did. General public. Security. Yeah. Board comments, any board comments? I think one thing that kind of going through my BCA type duties here at the last meeting, getting ready for the election, one thing that was brought up in length last night at our BCA meeting and back there was, again, some of the, some of the way that the school voting is structured right now. And so, for instance, I think we really need to look in further sessions this coming year of taking in the, the chart, the new articles of origination and really look at built-in see if they're all working for us. And the example I'll use is the state isn't too keen on co-mangling of ballots. What that means is the way it's written into the articles of origination right now is that bevel votes in bevel, royalty votes in royalty, but then ballots from each town are brought to the SU to then be counted together. So the state doesn't like that they call co-mangling of ballots when the ballots have to be driven from one location to another to be counted. So, and there's, we talked about a little bit there at the last meeting. There's these nuances and that were put in that maybe we ought to take a look at like, you know, those bevel just vote for bevel, those royalty just vote for royalty, because right now you have royalty votes for bevel, bevel votes for royalty. You know, so there's a lot of pieces that maybe there's an opportunity for us to look at. And there's definitely some pieces of it that are tough on the BCA members to do their job. Yeah, I can see how that would be difficult to do the co-mangling. I think the idea that was when there are issues that are either contentious or could be contentious, you know, when you see like, well, it didn't pass in this town, but it did pass in that town and then it winds up causing more conflicts. Yeah. But if there was a way of just counting separately, the kind of reporting just a single number, I think that would be fine. Yeah. Yeah, I just wonder now that we've had several years now, maybe it's an opportunity for us over the next 10 months or so to kind of, like we've talked about looking at our policies, but also looking at our Particles of Origination and seeing what's working or what may need some adjustments. Or what we have to put on the morning for next year. Yeah, we can look at that. Because you wouldn't be able to make any adjustments until it was warned and voted on. Yeah. Okay. Is there any other core comment? Okay. Then we'll move on to, so there's the summer 2023 EIH back heating, lighting and controller panel or controls projects. Hey everyone, I'm Eric Lafayette. Skip this one. Skip this one. You guys have seen enough of that slide. I've shown it like five times already. So the numbers actually came out closer to what, what we had originally anticipated. The numbers were up a little bit, but overall, you know, I think we're capturing all the original scope that we wanted to do in the project and what we wanted to accomplish with the job. So still looking at, you know, we're going to be removing the underground fuel oil tank out here. Installing three underground LP tanks that would be located essentially kind of in between your existing generator and your barn out back on the right hand side. Adding a, this has pellet boiler, but it's actually a chip boiler. So it's a wood chip boiler, which gains you guys a little bit. They cost more money up front, but they, they're cheaper fuel as you guys move forward. So the pellets are really nice at the other schools. They're smaller schools. It's less of an investment, a smaller footprint, but due to the size of these schools, 50,000 square feet, you're right on that border. So it made more sense to go with a wood chip, which you actually see a little bit more savings on the fuel savings aspect of it because wood chips are cheaper per term than it would be per pellet, just because you know pellets have that additional refining process that takes actually greater. Still converting steam to hydronic. So essentially everything that's in between your guys main middle school entrance and this new little addition of the library section is all existing steam, as well as all the horseshoe around your guys kind of existing gymnasium. All that part is still running off your existing steam built system. All that would get removed. All the piping would get demoed. All new radiation in the classroom. So it's going to look pretty similar to what you guys have now. It's just going to be a basic kind of off-white light commercial radiation that would go underneath all the windows. We'd be adding coils to your guys energy recovery units or your ventilation units. Upgrading all the lights. So these lights that you guys see right now, which are currently mounted below the ceiling grid, would become recessed lighting. So they go up above the grid. Probably cutting down on the total number of fixtures in these spaces that are a little bit overlapped. So still doing the LED lighting upgrade throughout the whole school. Asbestos abatement is really just dedicated to what is your guys breaching off of your existing steam boiler. So you guys have about 20 feet of this insulation that goes on the jacket of the breaching, which is the exhaust of your boilers. That will need to get removed with a new pellet system. And then some of your guys' existing steam piping around the gym and some other areas has some fittings that came up positive as well. So our goal, this is not an asbestos abatement project. There's a handful of asbestos that I have to abate in order for us to complete our work. So that's really what that money is in there for. And the DDC control system is really just an extension off of your guys' existing control system. So you guys actually have a pretty robust control system, specifically in the elementary school wing and even in these spaces in here. What's not, has any real control is your guys' center classrooms that we're going to be re-piping and putting all new hydronic in. So I'm just noticing today when I came in here some things that you kind of want to address. There's no ventilation going on right now. So having the ability to go easily into like a DDC system and spaces that get used off hours, libraries, gymnasiums, having a button in there so you can add ventilation when you guys are utilizing the space. And for instance, I just noticed all of your ventilation is going wild in all of your classrooms right now going down through here. So if you walk through the classrooms, you can see like the flags kind of waving in the air. And it's, you know, 7.30 at night. Kids haven't been here for four hours. So part of the DDC control and getting this place really dialed in is updating all the schedules and just making sure that we have equipment running when it should be and not have equipment running when it's not supposed to be. Savings. We're looking at 63,000 on the fuel switch. So that's based on $4 gallon oil that we're seeing about right now. You guys consume just under 30,000 gallons a year at this campus. And then there's some savings, maintenance savings as well. So you're about 55,000 in true energy savings. And then the remaining is the deferred maintenance that you guys are going to have to be putting into your age system at this point. LED lighting is similar. I think about, I want to say 18 to 17, 70 or 18,000 of that is true energy savings. The remaining is some maintenance stuff that you won't have to deal with anymore. And then that control system is optimizing the schedules and cutting back. So that's a mixture of both energy fuel savings and electrical savings that we're going to be able to get by optimizing your guys' DDC system. Grants. We have the state of Vermont wood heat grant for 250,000. That's going to help pay for the biomass system. We're getting rebates from efficiency Vermont of 30,000 to be converting to biomass. And then they're giving it 46,279 towards the LED light. So that's the Bethel campus. Next slide. Well, it's easy. It's just a lighting upgrade. But it's the same thing. I mean, spaces that already have LED lighting that have been upgraded. There's not many. There might be a couple of rooms. Those would essentially remain. Any space like this that has lights that is hung below the ceiling grid would go to recess unless there's not space up above the ceiling. Then we would go with essentially like a more modern looking style of this. Closets, areas that don't get high usage would just be bold replacements to all of your classrooms, administrative spaces, libraries, gymnasiums. Any space that's occupied on a regular basis would receive new LED light. Everyone will have motion occupancy sensors built into them. They're going to be able to be programmed on your iPhone or Bluetooth connected device. There's apps associated with it so that we can make adjustments to the brightness in the spaces. They'll all have inner switches. They'll be a nice upgrade. Same thing, pretty significant savings here from a kilowatt hour standpoint. And then a nice efficiency Vermont rebate as well at $50,905. One thing that's going to come up is when we do this lighting upgrade at Royalton, it's going to drop you guys below your current PPA, your current power purchase agreement that you guys have with the solar company right now. I did confirm with them that those solar credits can get transferred over here to this bevel campus. So I think it's just something that we're going to have to look at as it goes along. But they can transfer credits up to four times a year. So if you guys, and then those credits that you guys bank are good for upwards of a year. So some of the things that we're talking about at the Royalton campus down the road is adding additional ventilation to your guys' library and cafeteria and possibly doing that with heat pump technology, which would probably add cooling, which would be an additional electrical load that you guys aren't utilizing right now. So I think it's just something that we're going to have to sit there and watch and see where the power bills come in at to some extent. And then we'll have to work with Greenback Capital, which currently owns that solar and they handle the credits. And then we'll have to make some adjustments just transferring some of those credits over here. So next slide. Total contract price is what you guys would be contracting with EEI of 2,181,500. This is the state of Vermont wood heat grant that I've shown in the Bethel campus. The efficiency Vermont wood heat. These are two different ones. So this is a grant. This is efficiency Vermont rebate. So grant rebate. And then this is the lighting rebate. This is what the school district, the SU, has contributed of their ESER funds, 310,000. So that puts the unified district's responsibility of 1,494,316. We're looking at a 15-year lease at just a little 5%, but I'm running my numbers at roughly 5%. 1,225,000, which leaves this district having to put their own capital funds in of 269,000 through 16. But it does get you guys that cost-neutral operating budget. So you're looking at annual savings of $116,000 a year with lease payments of $117,000. So there's a $500 difference between the two. So that's the project. And at this point, we do have it fully designed. We're moving right along with the permanent process because I kind of had to move forward with that because there's some Act 250 amendments that we needed here in order to get the silo installed into that. Those are all costs that we're just doing at risk that we've done so far, hoping that you guys eventually approve this project and we can move forward with it. So at this time, everything looks good here. I mean, from a schedule standpoint, it'd be one of those things where the goal would be by the end of this summer, we'd be out of all the classrooms, all your radiation would be up, all the piping would be back into the mechanical room. And then really, you know, the boiler should be up and running by at least the propane boilers. The goal would be, those things would be up and running by probably mid-September. And then your pellet boiler would be coming on probably by mid-October beginning of November. New water heaters are part of this proposal as well. I don't know if I made that clear, but you guys do have some oil-fired water heaters that have to get rid of because we're getting rid of your oil system. So there, we're looking at doing a combination of heat pump water heater. So in the summertime, you guys would utilize a heat pump water heater. And then in the wintertime, we would do, you know, a large tank water heater similar to an indirect one with that would be tied into your pellet boiler. So you're going to get into the best of both worlds. The heat pump works really good in the summer when you're taking that excess heat out of the air. It doesn't work as good in the wintertime and then you get the cheap water heating from the pellet system in the water. And those would all be tied into your DDC control system as well. That's it. I did give Parker a couple motions. I don't know if anybody has any questions about the project and where we're at. So when we met last, I think it was in December when we did a walkthrough and you had mentioned it. We talked about the new radiation pieces in the classroom because we were putting the system in. Would we tie it in with the old pieces or would we put new ones? Sounds like you have all new in this. All new. And do you know, because we also talked about that time that we wanted a price for all new but what would possibly be the savings if we kept the old stuff, not to say we wanted it but we had talked about, then we run that we would have like an added option if we wanted to keep the old stuff, how much it would be. Yeah, we did discuss it a little bit. I'm just curious of what the... I dropped the ball on that one. What the added is, you know... If I was to guess, are there about seven? Are there maybe 12, 14 total classrooms? Does that sound right? Yeah. Probably talking about $35,000 roughly. $35,000 to $40,000. If you were to eliminate that radiant and reduce the existing that's there. I think at that time we... Well, when I say we... Rod me and myself and... I can't remember who else was there that day but if it was within reason it made sense to do it. If it was going to be this astronomical cost then we'd have to look into doing that as a... I don't recommend... Part B project but... Yeah, I don't recommend it. Not for that cost. No, and the... So what you guys have now is you guys have these perimeter vaults that run around at least not this portion of the school but the other steam portion. So all the pipes come up from down underneath. So it takes some pretty major modifications to that existing. I mean you would save some equipment cost but it certainly wouldn't look that good and I do think that what we're proposing is certainly the best. Based on what you guys are doing from an infrastructure improvement standpoint it does make a lot of sense to replace this at the same time. So with the vaults I'm not removing all the existing steam piping in those vaults. Essentially what we're going to do is we're going to get rid of everything that we can get access to and get our hands on but I'm not sending people a couple hundred feet down these vaults that you can barely crawl through to demo stuff out so that stuff's going to get abandoned. So in these floors and these classrooms down here we'll cut the pipes flush to the tile and then we'll just epoxy the holes with a color to match the existing tile. And then what you see like this is all new radiation and then what you'll see coming out of like the boiler room there's another little classroom that existing unit ventilator would stay and right after that classroom you guys have a storage area that I think they use we're adding a unit heater to that space so that will now become heated which I think right now they run like an electric heater in there for the most part. We're adding new cabinet unit heaters which are kind of like your ground mounted units that you see at doors as you walk into the space so you guys have three perimeter doors part of your gyms all those we get cabinet unit heaters and then a couple of your other little storage spaces would get unit heaters which are pretty much the same as cabinet ones except for the hanging ones that you guys currently have in the spaces. Your nurse's office that's in the front here would be getting a new radiant ceiling panel because I think there's some cool some issues with people being cool in that space and then obviously new radiation for the bathrooms as well trying to clean that up so we're not, I don't have a ton of money in the budget for like painting and cleaning up a lot of stuff outside of it so this is really a heating project and you know we're going to run the pipes as we talked about kind of up in that little ceiling space that we have in between the existing drop and the top of the windows and then we're going to run exposed down the corner of each classroom. First and last question. Thank you for that presentation. So the stuff you abandoned in the floor in the original part of the building is that we won't have a need to be in the floor in that crawl space again will we? Because I'm thinking there are hatches that I've always been concerned about. Yeah so you guys there so what happened was it must be when they built this addition here off the end they did run some hot water piping back into that steam system okay which is why like you can't they must have worked their way out of that tunnel I think is what they did they started over here and worked their way back into the boiler room because there's no way that like you could get in there once all four of those pipes are in there it's you can't pass through that space anymore so you guys will still have to maintain them you can't just like fill them in and rock those grates but there's really no need of that there's no valves there's no actuators so there's nothing that you really have to access in this space So could be sealed sort of? You could seal it to a greater extent I mean I don't unless you had some kind of catastrophic error like you know these piping systems last 50 to 100 years and that is probably going to be that hydronic so I don't see it being issued for a long time What do you do with the wood die? The residue? Oh that comes from burning it We put them in big bins at the end of the day and I get it I think at some of the other schools people use them for like and mulch and composting and stuff I can talk to my, that's a good question Yeah you can get these both of them in a mile I mean yeah on a daily basis someone's going to especially in the middle of the winter not every day but I think every few days in the middle of the winter someone's going to be going in emptying an ash bucket and then we provide a container inside the mechanical room that's sealed that it goes into but that's a good question that I actually haven't I don't know what the other schools are doing We compost it and share it That's what I think most people do is they compost it There's not that much with them Yeah there's not much left at the end of the day A couple you know through the end of the year you might have three 55 gallon drones filled up with ash at the end of the day These things are pretty darn efficient When you're pulling these things out every few days it's a two gallon little bucket that you're just dropping So I mean the wood ash works wonderful on icy surfaces too I don't know if you want to be out there sprinkling but it doesn't work well Yeah so like I said this is based off a dry pellet system which definitely burns a little bit cleaner You know we have some steps that we have to take through these next few months sending up some different air monitoring devices We've set up some indoor air quality monitoring devices already which is part of the efficiency for ventilation grants but there's also some additional ones that they want to see for monitoring the air quality from the legit plan that will be setting up as well There'll be a lot of cast iron that's waste Does that figure into your scrapping that or somebody scrapping it Somebody can scrap it if they want it I'll put it in a dumpster for somebody they can come grab it Usually we work with all my metals recycling and stuff We always have a cardboard, a metal and a trash receptacle and we do sort everything out but it's all steel in this place there's not a whole lot of value in the painted steel Would you hire any high school kids or if you had a couple I would be willing to take a high school kid for the summer if I'm one or two we could always use an extra set of hands for a daughter Yes Usually what we do is this job would have a main project manager on it that's going to be here probably one or two days a week We would have a site supervisor that we have somebody slotted for I'm looking at probably giving a college intern as well involved in the project The goal is to have two full-time people here on site through the project We're going to bounce between this facility Stockbridge and Rochester because we're doing similar projects between all three It is a different subcontractor base for the most part between the three schools This one is going to be Heavy Alliance Mechanical who's been doing a lot of work in the school district already They compete in pricing but they had good numbers on the project They came highly recommended from doing work here and we've done work with them in the past They're very capable contractor Okay Thanks You want to put up those motions if you could There's just two different motions One, the first one being that you guys would authorize the district to enter into performance contracts That's $500 more than what I've said but essentially that would be the contract amount of $2,181,500 per term And then the second motion is that you guys are essentially authorizing the district to enter into a lease for the $1,225,000 So we need both these motions? Both the motions, yep Let's go this week and next week These motions for now We do them right now? Because No, you don't want to do that No, this would be us not the voters You want to make a motion? Yeah, I'll make a motion at the White River Unified District Authorize the superintendent enter into a performance contract with energy efficient investments to our contract amount not to exceed $2,181,500 I'll second that You ready to discussion on the motion? All in favor say aye Aye Any opposed? Motion passes And I'll make a motion that the White River Valley Unified District Authorize superintendent to enter in a lease agreement with the municipal leasing consultants out of Grand Isle Vermont for an amount up to $1,225,000 at rate higher or no higher than 5% for up to 15 years Oh, this lease will contain escape clause I'll second Any discussion? All in favor say aye Aye Any opposed? Motion passes The escape clause allows you guys to potentially cancel this in the future Cool guys, thanks everybody Appreciate it Good luck with the rest of your meeting Okay I'll move on to the celebration of learning We don't have any this time We can celebrate it We can celebrate it Okay Okay, so all right Okay And Jamie So you have my report in hand I gave a pretty long report on the proposed legislation that's currently being considered in both the House and Senate Ed committees last night I'll start with S-56 and H-208 That is in regards to child care and pre-K programming across the state The big changes there are that four-year-olds would be classified as pre-K and they would have the oversight of the agency of education and be required to attend elementary schools five days a week for full days which we already do The other big change though in this proposal is that three-year-olds would not fall under pre-K and would follow under child care licensing and they would be overseen by the department of children Schools would not receive any credit if they were to take in three-year-olds unless a three-year-old would service for intensive interventions and supports in IEP so they had a triple E then they could attend our public pre-K and we would receive a 1.0 for average daily membership Some board members have asked me how does this expand programming Well, I think the thought process is and we as a supervisory union in the member districts within it offer significantly more pre-K programming in member districts meaning that not all schools right now are providing public pre-K they're just providing vouchers for students to access either other public pre-Ks or private pre-K centers so the idea that four-year-olds would all that schools would be required to provide public pre-K five days a week for four-year-olds full days that's part of where that's coming from we're already doing that the other thought process then is that it would open up room for three-year-olds to attend other private centers I don't know if that's necessarily true you know I think that there's been a lot of testimony on that subject and certainly as we know within our SU there's not a lot of private centers available so certainly from there the House and Senate are taking a lot of testimony on this right now I said last night I'm not certain that this is going to move out of committee and if it does I think there's going to be significant change this these bills were written based on a report that the legislature had received about the need to expand child care and the educational community and early childhood community was not consulted about the bill prior to it being introduced and so that's S-56 and Shan I think you have a question yes just briefly does this require all four-year-olds in your district to go to your pre-care okay I just wanted to because parent choice is still so important with parents so let me it doesn't force students to attend so you cannot take a voucher and go attend somewhere else okay yeah I was just like for example someone who works until six they can still keep their kid in the private day absolutely yeah yeah school aged children are not required to attend school until they turn six S-6 any other questions about S-56 S-66 um this is a different this bill is different to speak about with our White River Unified District because you don't have school choice and the rest of the member districts do um and so S-66 is something that I hope that you're all following closely and what it is is in response to Carson V. Makin in the Supreme Court ruling that said that a state agency cannot provide public dollars for independent private schools and disallow public dollars due to the basis of a independent school being religiously affiliated you can't draw a line and say as they say we provide public dollars to independent schools but we will not allow families to then also take public dollars and go to a religiously affiliated school that's what Carson V. Makin said so so my pillar is trying to um in response to that this bill was created to say essentially that school choice districts would send their tuition dollars to public schools or the four historical academies in the state that at one time served as public schools for those towns that's where they drew the line so there's there's testimony on this right now the other big thing that is worth following is that it does require because currently in statute districts can designate up to three schools and so it uses that language to require school choice towns to designate up to three that would be designated by the school board well I said last night I do believe there's I believe this bill is going to be acted on I think that it could be changed and redrafted but I believe that there is a desire in my pillar to have a response to Carson V. Makin um I've been hearing that since the Supreme Court ruling and it was actually they tried to get a bill out of committee even last year to deal with it so I do think there's momentum on this one it's one that I plan to follow closely it's one um that I am getting updates on a regular basis from executive director Sue Kizlowski from the VSBA and also the VSA Jeff Francis I met with them on Monday about this bill because certainly within RSU um the big change for many of our families would be the fact that public funds could not then follow as currently drafted to the Sharon Academy and the Sharon Academy of course about 85% of their students are WRVSU students so that is S66 as currently constructed is there are there any questions on S66 alright and then I'll come out and for some other things later in the agenda but I just wanted to I put it in my report report but remind the board that on Monday night for the annual meeting we have three all at the same time essentially um and so Tara is going to be in Sharon I'm going to be in first branch and Anda will be with you and the principals um on Monday evening that's good alright does anybody have any questions for Jamie thanks Jamie sure uh thank you for welcoming us there's four of us as you know um it's academic data reporting right well actually you have our principal report which is non-academic data we'll get to that after some of the highlights from our report that I would want to mention is that our elementary schools of both campuses have been honored and recognized by the state for our work with PDAS because that was nice to get a letter from Secretary French on that um I would also uh the um most recently had a nice community builder where our students uh wrote cards to students who are hospitalized who are working on kindness and uh different kindness cards and this was just something different class to do so that was a nice experience for them uh our most recent in-service we did a lot of work around writing and uh we had done a whole school write all together uh on the same topic but uh always paid through middle school uh and so we analyzed those rank topics and worked out proficiency so that was an exciting thing for us to do we got to look at the writing and talk about how to do writing better and then I'd say finally for elementary we continued our outreach and Nancy we know all about it since we were there but uh really thankful to Kathy Fector who's brought this lens of uh working with food shelf and also uh she saw the middle school was collecting plastic and she's like I'll have to collect plastic and then we were able to donate the plastic bench back to the food shelf so that felt nice and then make Valentine Day uh cookies with food shelf soon thereafter so we're excited about all that you have Valentine's Day cookie update no but plastic update we're working on a second bench already in fact I filled my car up today which then I transferred into my garage without my husband knowing so yeah so yeah plastic keep it coming you guys might want to do it in Wellington too it doesn't take long it takes us about two months to get 500 pounds of plastic wow yeah these are beautiful vents beautiful vents I think the kids felt really good about that just like one quick comment about that if my parents actually won one of them and they're sitting on my porch right now and they are beautiful um they ended up auctioning off one from the Heartland Lions Club at their Valentine's Day dance and made like three or four hundred dollars so yeah um maybe one of our groups that needs money like the Yellowstone group or the National Honor Society like I know we bring in all our pellet bags and don't make them there so um but there's there's a lot of of um desire for those benches in the community not just for some of the community spaces but for people's homes too so I think we've been you know using them I think the middle school has been having them here I'm gonna like have to do what she's doing with elementary but what are we what are we doing last night oh there's on the way out there's been there's a big bit in the elementary lobby if you walk in and you just even if you can't fit in the bit just bring it back into the private bit film it can't unfortunately it's not um containers but anything that's film plastic so pellet bags saran wrap, brand bags 12 ton of pellets we have many bags oh they're heavy they're heavy you can put it in Jeff's office take it in your house thank you yeah go for it so from the from the middle school we've been capitalized at the mid part of the year somewhat around the 100 day but maybe a little bit before that to again kind of tag with what Andrew was saying to really revisit and refocus what we mean when we talk about kindness responsibility safety and respectfulness and we really tried to reboot setting clarity around what the expectations are for kids and and having that consistency throughout the school and I think it's made this difference there are still some areas that we need to focus on but really trying to acknowledge and recognize the kids that are always doing what we expect they're just great citizens and so acknowledging and celebrating them is something that we've started to do a lot more of and so I think that's been really positive with kids and it's also made a huge impact on decreasing some behaviors that we might not have wanted happening just because that clarity was helpful so that would I would call that a reboot again Andrew mentioned the last professional time was focused around writing and again just I looked quickly at some of the data we had some folks who are part of the district team facilitating with the teachers looking at the fall assessment that kids did at the middle school and I mean overall I thought that there's three areas that they were being scored upon there was organization and purpose evidence and elaboration and conventions and my quick estimate of numbers was approximately 50% of the 6th and 7th grade students and 40% of the grade 8th students scored proficient or distinguished so those numbers we want them higher but they were certainly showing some positive positivity and conventions the grammar usage and mechanics was an overall area of strength for 7th and 8th graders so again some of the other areas but we did see some improvements in writing so that was positive and then just for the last thing we have an upcoming event in a couple of weeks and I was just typing my announcements throughout this week but again to connect with our overall who we are as a community and really trying to focus on addressing how we treat each other we have a speaker coming Mr. John Haligan he's been all over the country he's from Vermont I'm not sure if he's still from Vermont but he will be doing a parent evening presentation and then a student assembly the next day around the prevention of bullying, cyberbullying and teen suicide and we're tagging that with an event on March 14th at the university so he'll be here first hopefully folks will be able to come stay for the dinner and then maybe join some of those activities as well so that's from the middle school do you have something sorry I just wanted to know if Parker saw the comment that Jamie's locked out and he can't get back in can you help him I was like my question does Tara have for me great presentation Pam how do you get locked out there he is so so at the high school we talked a little bit about some of the successes earlier so I just wanted to say two that we didn't mention two students just recently graduated from our school one was a student that graduated early wants to join the Marines so he did some extra work to get there obviously to graduate early so that was kind of a proud moment at school and then the next one was walked last year in June but didn't receive a diploma and she worked hard on the flexible pathways to receive her degree and that was kind of exciting moment so it was kind of first time as principal getting my picture taken with graduates was kind of special next was just some of the data that I wanted to share was two things about seniors 98% of our seniors are on track to graduate we might have to push a few to the finish line but we're all excited to do that and another neat percentage is 46% of our seniors that's pretty good can you just bust over to the academic data plan I do wait a minute I got it done I also haven't been able to say anything I know I want to step out of it a little bit but just to thank the administrators and most especially Pam for helping support the middle school when I needed to be away today is my first day back and it seems to be going well I'll let you know tomorrow but I wanted to take that time to thank both Jeff and Andrew and most especially Pam and the board and superintendent for your support of my needing to take care of personal business thank you now back to the report we're doing the academic report where do we begin that did you kick us off on that I would be happy to you all know this data as well as I do so I'll give a 10 second intro that we're reporting in kindergarten through eighth grade on our winter benchmark assessment which we use track my progress you saw similar data in the fall for first through eighth grade so this is the first time with our kindergarteners we're using the track my progress to show us what they know in math and English language arts and then for high school I think Jeff has given most of the highlights there and we are looking at some additional options for high school level assessments for next year track my progress was not an option this year they may become an option by next year as well as interim assessments through our new state summative so we'll have some options there to look for high school but for today we'll be looking at kindergarten through eighth grade and math and ELA and there's some really great things to celebrate and some indications of things that we are continuing to work on so I can hand it over to whoever wants to talk it through from here I met with the principals earlier today I think Andrea you're ready to kick off I'm ready everyone else stop talking I can do it yeah I would say I don't need to go through it graph by graph I think people can look at the graphs themselves my takeaway for elementary is that I'm pleased and I think our staff is pleased that we do see some improvement with our math scores just like I reported in the fall we have a lot of professional development that our teachers have engaged in we also have a lot of teachers who are on their own saying I want to take more and finding other classes to take I know that through that also we had teachers come back and say we want to do a math night now we did a math night here at Bethel Elementary teachers from Royals that came over and kind of like watched how how it rolled out and I think that built our capacity so that maybe every other year we'll offer on each campus and families were able to come play games and take them home and figure out how to like just use a deck of cards and like play some fun games and kind of build our skills through that so that was one really wonderful thing that's come out of that but feeling good about those math scores and also Bonnie Bourne as our SDMath coach and we just continue to work with her and I think having a stronger focus next year and we do not sell many things but just the math and continue to use our materials that we have that are all aligned and aligned with others that help us to create today for our math students in general thank you and I think Pam and I will try to do this together as I said I just came back today but reading the data and also the narrative here there's a lot of good news for the middle school and I don't want to overstate it because that's the sort of thing that could bite you next time but we've already seen increase and most especially I believe in the 8th 7th and 8th grade where or the 8th grade is one quarter of that moved out of well below expectations and now our meeting expectations so that's a great increase for us it's an important one we have when I been out and Pam can speak to this we adjusted the schedule and if you wouldn't mind addressing that a little bit yeah sure one of one of the things that happened I shared a little bit with the board prior to this was we adjusted the schedule mid-year and so our core content classes but specifically math and literacy I'll speak to here are all 60 minutes in length they meet four days a week at 60 minutes and then Friday is because we have these half day professional development they're a little shorter but they do meet every single day and so that is not what the schedule looked like before so we're really proud of that the schedule is working really well for adults and for kids that consistency from day to day I believe has made a huge improvement and I think we're seeing some of the some of the focus here and I'm always a believer you know percentage points are a piece but when we can look at lines and graphs and see growth that's what we want it may not be as far a leap as we all would like to be but we are moving in the right direction so I was really pleased to look at the track my progress data from and compare it from fall to spring but that structural change I think for the schedule it is really making an impact on the day to day I think the same holds true for the literacy also yeah so we're going to keep our eye on that and watch that it's also the second time we take and track my progress just this test that's offered to us so that might be part of kids understanding it a little better too and teachers as well so yeah so I would say for the literacy we're happy to hold it stable we're moving into a different approach to teaching literacy which is much more based on foundational skills and explicit teaching of letters and all those things so we're definitely needing to use more training up in that I think teachers have to grow a little bit but there's a lot of questions on that being offered this year again like I had mentioned in the math things of literacy but I'm hoping next year folks will have just math and literacy will be able to help grow yeah I think we covered it didn't we? Any questions right now and of course always contact us at the school if you have questions thank you thanks it is great to see progress we'll take it hopefully we'll see you in the spring and then go forward kindergarten math scores will be great I know we'll pass that alright cool okay Tara hi everyone you have my report which outlines what's happening in the business office during the month of February and then I also provided the fiscal year 23 budget projections as of 1231 2022 which is the close of quarter two and based on the salaries budget versus contracts that have been issued it looks like we're going to have about 181 thousand dollars in savings there and then health insurance budgeted versus what enrolled we have just over 19 thousand dollars in savings there so those are the two areas that we focus on quarter two and so the potential area of savings is a combined total because we also have the teachers retirement we have more new teachers come in so we are over budget there by that 17 thousand three 73 and that's the amount you have to pay every year for a new teacher as long as they're employed in your district so we have a potential savings of 183 thousand 361 dollars on the expenditure side and on the revenue side we did tuition reconciliation in December and so based on that we have some additional tuition students who joined us so we've got about 62 thousand dollars in projected additional revenue and tuition if they all continue and we don't have any students withdraw in the second semester and in preschool we also had one additional student enroll versus what we budgeted for so you'll see that 3656 additional revenue there and then we haven't done anything yet for the adult learning which that's hit or miss if we get it each year so with the projected revenue surplus in the projected expenditure surplus we're looking at a projected surplus right now of 226 thousand 17 dollars and I have not updated the bottom section that will be updated once we get all the final audits any questions? Thanks Darren I see full board updates so do you want to do it Rodney? No you can go ahead so the full board did take action last night to we had put our transportation services contract out for bid we had received one bid the board rejected that bid last night and empowered me to pursue any other opportunities to come up back to the full board this coming month hopefully with some additional bids and also costing out what would transportation cost in the event that the board decided to pursue transportation services on their own and so you'll see that in the notes so I did want to just mention that and and leave it at that most of that conversation happened in the executive session and the the other full board updates was we had reviewed our progress data across the ESU I encourage you to take a look at that to see that there is growth happening specifically in mathematics across the ESU and just wanted to emphasize the fact that we are making a transition from our approach of Fountas and Penel which is more whole language based approach to literacy instruction to a much more focused approach in regards to foundational skill literacy and so there's been a lot of new materials purchased over the last year in training for teachers so that we can strengthen our approach to phonics and phonemic awareness at the primary grades and you know I'm happy to send out to the board there's been a ton of research that's come out over the last 15 months in regards to the importance of teaching phonics and phonological awareness and it is something I had mentioned when you first hired me as a superintendent and it's taken a little time we have been making that shift now away from the use of Fountas and Penel materials alright thanks alright policy committee first reading of the board member civility policy and reading number one special education policy people had a chance to look these over does anybody have any comments? I think the one in the civility part of yeah we were back at the full board last night with a desire to for the policy committee to look at how can we be more specific about defining board business so I think approach that we may use is to try to define board business to make it clear that you may be conducting board business not necessarily at a meeting if you're taking up board business for example I think a good example is like the walkthrough you just talked about at the school that would be board business that's official board business or if you're discussing something that has to do with the school district you are in fact representing the board so anyways board members wanted that that better defined so that's something that the policy committee I'll try working on that and present a new draft to the policy committee at the March meeting that there's other feedback on this too I think Rodney and I both greatly appreciate it what's that? I know you skipped that one for a second then do you know Jamie with drafting or with this first draft has this committee looked at the template that's available through BPA that they have for code of conduct? A bunch of our boards have already adopted the BSBA code of conduct but that doesn't provide sensor so I think that there was a desire for I had heard from the boards to have some type of what happens if a board member doesn't abide by the policy now the committee has not thought about the idea of meshing the two could be an opportunity to do that the only reason why I ask is if you look at the BPAs one that I have a copy of it does help with laying out board members conduct in certain areas you know what we would say meeting versus non-meeting areas and it's not just strictly due to behavior as well there's other things that come in there about following applicable laws policies and procedures and confidentiality and you know there's a lot of other pieces that goes into that code of conduct rather than just behavior and then they do have a I guess the biggest comment I had was I'd like to see a more clear roadmap on how to deal with the behavior when it happens and it seems like right now it's really open you know there is a sample process in the BPA where it kind of tells for instance that this is a BPA template that you know the first time that the board chair would issue a document a written notice of alleged misconduct to the board member you know to explain what you did and then the board member would have the opportunity to dispute that and then after three document instances then it lays out a more specific roadmap which one would be board level discussion of misconduct including a possible vote to censor that person to communication of misconduct to the community represented by the board member so that would be we'll call it more of an apology letter that they would have to conduct to the community and then three on more egregious type thing would be that the board would ask for a formal request that the person resigns from the board's position so I this is under the BPA Chris yeah I'm pretty sure it's BPA I can say the copy I got it from the executive director there but it just lays out I think that the challenge that I have is a board either board now or board 30 years from now is you know so it doesn't have to be subjective to the board it's more of a you know your behavior was here and this is you know according to our policy this is exactly what the step is I think the censor could be do you censor the person or do you not censor the person and then it becomes you know does the board want to censor the person and how many people vote yes versus no policy saying if you do this this will be regardless of what the board says the first step will be you'll get a letter of written reprimand from the board chair or you know something we fall back on I think but I'll send you the copy it's a two page document you got that from Jay no I got it maybe it wasn't I got it from I'll send the email I got it from it was executive director lady that's Sue yeah Sue yeah okay yeah that'd be great yeah so the other policy the special education policy we've been talking about and if you have the time to read special services director Miss Rhodes board reports she's been trying to provide updates monthly to the board about how special education laws have changed with the enactment of the new special education law that took effect July one part of this was a requirement for the SU to adopt a special education policy and so this policy is boilerplate in regards to what the agency expects us to have on the books and so there's one change that was made after consultation with legal it's the sentence that says along with relevant regulations applicable laws and that was added in the event that for some reason the special education procedures and practices manual that the state adopts was in conflict with federal regulations that it's clear on our policy that we would not just go by that manual but that we would of course always use other relevant regulations as well as local laws meeting federal in regards to our work around special education so this is a policy that I'm hopeful that we could get first readings this month and start taking action as a full board in March because that will be their second reading so that we can get this in place here really over the next 45 days I would just say have a comment instead of a period before the along oh yes thank you other than that alright any other comments on the two policies alright then I don't think we have any task force updates today do we so we'll move on to policy adoption I act to adopt the flag policy okay any motion on this you want to have a motion before a discussion or sure I make a motion that we approve the flag policy we have a second all second okay any discussion I I know we I think the good faith was that we had looked at this back in April or May I think it was May or May is when this journey started and this potentially was going to go to the SU to have a policy to come back that could be then administered by the districts and I'm reading the policy and I'm kind of like well they made a policy to say that the districts make the policy however they're going to tell us what that we may or may or shouldn't put in it why even adopted it at this point we're going to adopt the SU policy because they're going to tell us that we have to then adopt our own policy that here's some pieces that we can put it up to you at that point why don't we not adopt this policy we put together our own committee in house and put forward our own policy on it I mean is there anything objection just but you would I just have to speak up you'd be in violation of policy you have a district policy that policy comes out of the SU that would be why so they would be breaking that policy to do that I think the goal is that we don't want to have a bunch of different rules that the SU office has to navigate through if there's something we don't we object to with this then we should get it that's changed SU-wide and then we can our individual policy the way we want it to but then Jamie kind of knows what the common guidelines are for the five policies and then each you know I'm just speaking to you as a SU board and district board you have a policy called the development of policies I know and I'm saying that's why we have it and so you know this one it does say that we individual districts adopt individual different things it's not exactly its own policy but like really what you would adopt if you read this policy would be whether or not you permit flags to be flown on flag poles or in other designated locations that is why it's written this way is that there wasn't consensus among districts of whether or not flag poles could be a designating location for a student group to sponsor a flag I don't know I don't read it that way so I guess the challenge for me is that the SU has laid out a policy the opening paragraph says that this policy is to be adopted by the SU but then it's up to each individual district to adopt its own flag bone policies right but consistent with the procedure set for right here I think I think the portion of it and I said this back in November that I don't like about it is is the decision to put whatever it is any symbol that one wants to create it becomes a subjective matter to the board and to whoever the superintendent so even though you may have some templates that something might fall within it's still someone could present a symbol or flag that meets the criteria that then either the superintendent decides they don't like it or goes to the board and the board says they don't like it and I think the case that we have here is there has been a Supreme Court case about fairness of the policies of it's open to one it's open to all with a reason I think what it does it puts a lot of liability on us and a lot of subjectivity in those decisions now and in the future of any type of proposal that we put forward I think that's the piece of it that I had brought up back in November the potential of teaching our children in school a little democracy and put it before the school children to bow down rather than five adults that may be stuck in their ways on whatever it is of the day so I can't give behind it as long as it's objective on who's going to say yes or no to these things because this is going to change over the years depending on who then power of the government at the school and the parents go ahead Chen I'd like to clarify that the lawyer did look at the Supreme Court decision and said that does not apply here Boston was doing something very different than what you're doing here I'd like to clarify that I said the Supreme Court decision as well is other subjective decisions does anybody else have comments or discussion on the motion when I was reading it I was confused in that when a student group or whatever wants to fly a flag do they go through their school district or does the request go to the superintendent so it comes to me and then if it meets the criteria laid out I bring it to you doesn't go to the SU Board it goes to you and if I felt like the criteria wasn't met they can appeal that decision to the Board if I was to deny a request they have an ability to appeal it to you I would say if you don't want to fly flags you can always approve this policy and we just say as a district we don't want to fly flags so there's nothing that says that we have to fly flags if we adopt this policy or approve flags or whatever there's a part of me that thinks it's good to have a district-wide policy but then I'm also thinking that our superintendent already has to do a ton of work as it is and now he or she would have to start approving flag requests shouldn't that be done if it eventually comes back to the district the school district itself why don't we just go through the school district and the school district should follow the policy of the whole organization I would think it's just because Jamie is ultimately the top of the pole I realize he's top of the food chain but I'm assuming he has better things to do than approve flag requests I would actually be approving him I'd just be making certain there was criteria on your agenda like how I plan your agenda now with Andrew and there's nothing that says that you can't delegate most of it to somebody else anyway and just so the board knows I mean this has been adopted by the SU and all the other member districts of the SU it would be the final one that would be the question on this we have had multiple readings of this so I think we're kind of late in the time period here to be bringing modifications so is there any more discussion or are we ready to have a vote one last question so if we adopt this policy the SU policy the current policy the way it's written has language in there it's a set procedure so when as a board would we then sit down to talk about if we're going to actually follow the policy I think we put on a future agenda item of deciding what our designated like place would be or you know posting area or if you're just not going to have really it's you choosing your location and so why don't we we'll put that on for either next month or the month after and what the purposes are and we can have a discussion on and from what I saw in here it did in lieu too that you could pick a flagpole or designate an area of the school or it doesn't have to necessarily be outside right so so what I'll take this up as a separate item of the symbols or flags that are currently in classrooms are those in breach of the current policy Andrew go ahead I think I think I might understand what you're saying like if somebody had say some sort of flag in their classroom it probably likely would be part of what they're teaching whether it's in actually I would like to answer this my answer would be yes Chris it once this policy is adopted and you designate a location yes it would be in violation of the policy so then those teachers or whatever would have to formally well the students yeah student groups putting up posters or no I'm just curious because if you go posters are different right then if someone was flying a flat putting a flag if you designate a location for banners or flags that is where they would be it wouldn't be just you put them up in different classrooms go ahead channel I ask for a distinction because the flag policy specifically does not apply to flags of any nationality so like in the language room I know we're flying some flags of different countries is that still allowed are we going to make them all take those down I was I think it's nine o'clock I don't have the policy in front of me but I would tell you right now when people have asked me to fly flags that weren't related to a country my answer has been no that we are currently pursuing a flag policy just so the board is clear that is what I've said when I've been asked we just had flags and banners but if somebody wants to put up a banner for the homecoming dance that doesn't necessarily count right symbolic flags well shall we vote at this point or does anybody have any further comments all in favor say aye aye vote aye as well any opposed I'm just going to sustain from abstentions the flag policy is about to move on to final planning and preparation for the annual school district meeting so it'll be in the Royalton is there specific things we want to talk about for planning and preparation one thing that did come up there was somebody commenting on facebook about accommodating people who might not want to attend due to health reasons does anybody have any ideas of how we can try and accommodate like I was thinking maybe we had like a social distancing section where we put chairs a little spread out so that if people want to try and come and be spread out and like not being where the chairs are a little more crowded might be a way of commenting plans to host in the large gym this year is that correct Jeff it is there should be 20 so somebody can pick a chair and move it yeah I was thinking if we just had a designated social distance don't go sit next to these people put them all on I don't know what the seating will be but if you want some separate seats on the side you could do that I think based on current typical attendance to you're talking 200 people maybe and you know usually at the athletics I mean you can fit 500 people in there and you're not sitting on each other's lap correct I gotta think that if you're a third of that you have enough that you could space out 5 or 6 feet or yeah I'm just thinking if we had a section for people who are particularly concerned about it then it might make them more likely to willing to attend so the one thing I have um is are any comments on the like I assume we'll do something similar to what we did tonight the one thing I had I thought your celebrations and presentations were great the one thing I would say is just to explain some of the terminology like and the goals we're talking about tiered systems of sport like we've heard it many times but I know lots of people don't know what that means but other than that I thought it was good I just wanted to make certain we're still good with a moderator and everything like yeah I need to make sure I think um I need to reach out to Allison to do it as she has in the past and I knew she had I just thought we should check in with her just to make certain I need to do that I haven't done that yet um we have checked in with the board clerk I believe and is the treasurer willing to do it again does anybody check in with Tara Pam is set to be treasurer and clerk again so someone just has to appoint her or nominate her I mean okay alright is there anything else for that okay okay alright and uh is there any public comment at this time go ahead let's tell them again potential candidate for school board um on the as a potential candidate in the next couple weeks uh listening to the civility policy as I got to the back just to make sure the impetus isn't to censor anybody inappropriately it says you know conduct business if it is engaging in conduct or speech that is disrespectful offensive as this uh that needs to be very much laid out better so that this can't be used as a tool just to be the popular what is disrespectful or what is offensive it has to be pretty clearly laid out because if you're going to censure somebody you have to actually define beforehand what's in that category so it needs to be very clear what you can cannot say in your capacity as a potential citizen and as a board member and when so this is a little bit uh a vague and the possibility of censure can't be something that can be just just be done because people don't like what is being said or people don't like you exercising rights in another part of your life so um I would just encourage uh both the board and they ask you to define that further thank you any other public comment all right um do you have any new hires or reservations okay no but we are we are starting to get job postings up so in regards to like the just positions that we know if we have a retirement or something that we might be expecting so know that I'm hopeful that we're getting ahead of the curve and we'll have some new hires hopefully for you here in the next month okay great um we have any other future agenda items we requested that we visit the articles of agreement to look at how we have the district structured um so our next meeting date but we have our annual meeting on the 7th or 6th at 7 o'clock and the we're at the next regular meeting will be Tuesday, March 21st at 630 at the Royalton campus and we'll turn the motion to adjourn quick clarification we're still waiting on the what Jamie learned from looking at the articles of agreement for merging the elementary schools and the thoughts around that so that was something we were looking at the articles for and we had uh postponed that till next month just making sure it doesn't get lost it's Monday the 6th yes it says 6pm okay 6pm sorry I don't know if it's accurate enough in the presentation I missed it 6pm on the 6th 6 on the 6th okay alright now