 So, and I count a quorum, so let's come to order, as Lori Vibo would say, happy new year, first day of a, thank you Lori, first day of a brand new fiscal year, first day also of a brand new superintendent, and we welcome you Brian, and I know we have agenda item 3.1 reserve to put you in the spotlight, but I just wanted to thank you so much for doing this, and also to applaud your willingness to jump in at the deep end, and on your very first day, and also to try to use time as a lever and a force multiplier for once, instead of something we're trying to race against, that I think really helps. This, as I believe you are all aware, is a special board meeting to discuss the reopening of schools. We're not doing the kind of normal board business that you would expect, which would include board orders and minutes, consent agenda, all of that sort of thing. The intention is to focus it very tightly on certain issues that are already quite plain, and possible actions for the board to take in order to ease what is already shaping up to be an exceptionally difficult summer, preparing for the reopening of schools in the environment of COVID-19. If closing them and then arranging learning was hard, I think this will involve perhaps an even greater degree of complexity. So again, thank you Brian, and welcome to all of you who are joining us. Very happy that you're here. As a special meeting, and because it is very important that we hear from the public, I would like again to underscore that we're, this time we are focused on the reopening of schools, and I know that there are plenty of public comments just related to that aspect of what we're going to do. Other issues, what I would invite board members and members of the public to do is to save those for item six, which is future agenda items, that when we return to our regularly scheduled board meetings on the 15th of July, we'll resume our 360 degree tour of the horizon. But for agenda item six, I know already that Marilyn, I'll be giving you the floor, and Lindy, I'm not sure if you might have something as well, and anyone else of course who might have something. So 2.2 public comments related to the reopening of schools in August. And part of the reason why I'd like to front load the public comments is because it's very difficult in Zoom to see what's going on during the debates. So members of the public, should have a comment regarding the reopening of school. I invite you, please just to speak up. Because Rick came calling from Calis. Rick, hi. I mean, I actually think that the reopening of schools is probably important that we do do with very cautious effort. I think we should be using all PPE, including mass students and staff, and possibly doing much like the state will probably be doing, but you know, having alternating days with kids where they're there, so you can actually have social distancing. And I know some of the initial, you know, research is showing that kids aren't, that's susceptible to this, but you know, this virus has been around for six months. And we, you know, the risk of bringing that back into the communities at large and into families, and you know, if that there's potential to really, you know, feed an explosion because of this concentration in the schools. So I mean, I think we do this with caution, and we do it with very careful separation. You know, that would, that would be my opinion. The other thing I want to comment on is the COVID coordinator position. Why are we even thinking of spending $90,000 on a position like this? AOE should be already, and they are, I know, because I'm part of the Emergency Operations Center for the state. They're represented there. They're working with the Department of Health on this. That direction should really be coming from that level. And at the, you know, the superintendent and the, you know, our senior staff there should be handling this, that, you know, it's more of an execution at this end. And right now, I mean, we are hundreds of millions of dollars in arrears in the state because of drop revenue. That would be an incredible waste of revenue right now, especially when you look at the condition of our spend, you know, we, the special ad and all, we need that money elsewhere and we need those positions. You know, I think that it's ludicrous that we're even thinking of adding a coordinator to that. I think it's just a redundant position. They have no deal with party. So, you know, they're not going to be able to really advise or coordinate above. I mean, they won't be able to advise on policy. That's coming from above. So anyway, I'd be real interested in hearing what other people say about that. Very good. Thank you, Rick. And we're taking notes. At this point, we're not going to respond, but we'll use what you've said to inform our discussion when we get to that item under the agenda. That's fine. I bring it up now because I didn't know if I was going to be able to comment on it at that point. Yeah, that's exactly what I'm hoping all members of the public will do because as I say, I would never have known that you had something to say because you're on the phone. So it's difficult to, it's not like being in person and having the public participate in debates as they're unfolding. Thank you, Rick. Any other members of the public who have something to say about reopening schools? Yes, hi, Scott on the board. This is David Lawrence from Middlesex Romney. And I'm sure you're all very much aware of this, but I'm just making sure that it goes into the record, too, as far as a consideration, which I will emphasize again, I have no doubt you are already taking into consideration. But as one of the families that is very confident that even if you have in-person schooling, we will almost certainly not be sending our children back. I don't envy you're trying to figure this out, but I, you know, one of the things you're going to have to take into consideration is that there is a, I don't know what the numbers are, but I'm sure it's a nontrivial subset of families that will not be willing to send their children back into classrooms no matter what precautions are being taken. So I do not envy your challenge. And good luck. Thank you very much, David. And again, on the point taken, appreciate that. Other members of the public who would like to weigh in on this, one or another aspect of reopening schools in August. I know that there has been some email traffic on this that I've been copied on. And if the people, I don't see the people who sent it here. So if I may just sort of very quickly take off what I have seen, you will recall that Rick just referred to alternating days in order to, I guess, de-densify the school. One member of the public has written, don't alternate days for pre-K to six. Also said masks, yes, but not for kids, for adults. Another member of the public actually responding to this said, no, masks for all, including kids, was wondering just as Dave, David Lawrence was talking about whether about homeschooling being more prominent, more prevalent, asking about the calendar, the school calendar, and whether it makes sense to make any changes to that to allow for deep cleaning or other kinds of interventions. Also, the same person mentioned wondering whether the so-called flipped classroom technique would be useful, potentially. And Scott, what's the flipped classroom technique? Can I ask somebody who's more, one of the administrators, perhaps, or Gillian, I see you smiling at my discomfort, but would you care to explain? Scott, I'm laughing near you, not at you. The flipped classroom concept is the idea that, I mean, it can be done in any number of ways, but very frequently it's a teacher delivering instruction oftentimes over a video that then the students are practicing outside of the classroom. Somebody else can jump in if I'm garbling it, but it's somewhat, it's actually somewhat similar to what we did during remote learning. I can chime in just because I was on the email chain and that is exactly what the member of the public mentioned, but then, so the majority of reviewing a lesson, if parents had questions about the lesson, that would be done outside, but then coming, if we are doing a back-in-school model, then you'd have the hands-on in the classroom. I did let the person know that, at least at Rumney, that was a model that had been implemented over remote learning. That was all I think of the conversation. Great. Thank you very much, Marilyn and Kylian. Chris, is your curiosity satisfied? Chris? It was David that it asked, and yes. Oh, I'm sorry, David. I apologize. Oh, the ears. Very good. Okay. Just two more small points. One reference to a hope that perhaps online small groups might be considered, and another, actually another person supporting what Rick was talking about. Rick's position against a new COVID-19 coordinator. So, does anybody else, has anybody else picked up anything in the email or anything to add to this? If not, I think we'll close public comments then and go to student reports if we have a student here to report. Mia has already graduated and moved on. Towns, I don't believe I see him here. So, that would allow us then to go to 3.0 and in particular, 3.1, new superintendent introduction. And so, limelight, Brian, welcome and wish you very successful, rewarding, fulfilling, and long live tenure here with us. Well, thank you very much, Scott. It is my pleasure to be here today. And what a great way to start my first day as superintendent in Washington Central and to have a board meeting tonight. So, I'm very thankful that everyone could come here on short notice to really start talking about the reopening of school. There's a lot of, there's action packed, a lot of the action we're asking the board to do tonight. There are some, I heard some members of the public. I'm going to try to address that in my superintendent's report tonight as well. And again, this is just a beginning of a conversation, but I think it's something that we definitely do need to get into. But before I get into all that, again, it's my pleasure to be here. I see some folks are in their house, some people are outside. So, and that's a good idea, Flora. I'm going to have to think about doing that next time, sitting outside on the porch, especially in the beautiful Vermont weather that we've been having the last few days, minus the rainstorm, right? Minus yesterday and today. So, anyway, are we ready? I did prepare a little PowerPoint, just some talking points about me. You see some pictures of me. Not in a suit, which is very formal, I know. But I definitely wanted to make sure if we set the tone for our students, if any students are watching, you try to dress apart for your job. And so, I just wanted to let, are we ready, Keith, to put up the PowerPoint? Yes, I am. Give me one second. And Keith, when I give you the little go-ahead like this, you can just keep the next thing going, all right? Just let me know when you're ready. Are we ready, Keith? Yes, I think we're all ready to go. Okay, great. So, everyone, I just want to let you know, I normally would have been able to talk more in person. I feel like I'm very personable. I can be very personable. It's sometimes difficult under the Zoom meeting. So, it is a little formal, but I'm trying to make it less formal in my narrative of introducing myself. So, I am new to Vermont. My family and I, we've been here for a few months getting acclimated to Vermont. We love it here. We've had better weather the last couple of days. We didn't have so much great weather, but before that, we definitely did. My wife and my infant daughter, 17-month-old, we're definitely settling in to Vermont, and we really are enjoying our experience thus far. I'm excited. I'm pumped. I'm energetic, probably because I had more than two cups of coffee today, but I also feel like I'm honest, maybe to a fault sometimes. Caring, I'm definitely focused, and I'm very happy to have been selected. You're super intended. Great. So, a little bit about me. Who am I? So, there's a picture of me a long time ago on the mountains in near Lake Tahoe, but I do like to get out on an adventure. I don't hold the first line against me. I did grow up in New Jersey, the great state of New Jersey, and now I'm in the great and amazing state of Vermont. I do have two parents and one younger sister. I grew up in a house where I was very overprotective of my sister. I will admit that. And she had the last laugh because she ended up marrying my friend from college. So, she had the laugh last and they do have two beautiful children who are my nephew and niece. I did attend several schools growing up. I had a difficult time in middle school as a child because I was a little bit of a behavior problem. My behavior is much better now, so I just want to let the board know that. And the next thing is I did go to an all-boy school, which helped whip me into shape a little bit. It was an all-boy school in Bergen Catholic, known as Bergen Catholic. Can you bring the next one down, Keith? Thanks. And I was a track. I ran track. I was very fast. I played football on their nationally ranked football program and I got good grades. I moved on from high school and I went to University of Delaware and graduated there with a bachelor's in history, social studies education, and then I continued my education at Rutgers for my master's in history. Then I also went to University of Connecticut, a little background there. I did graduate from other significant programs in the state of Connecticut and some national programs, almost the urban school leadership program. I was part of a lead co-kineticate principal cohort for principal leadership. I graduated from the Relay National Principles Academy and I also had been to China setting up Chinese exchange programs, set up eight Chinese exchange programs, totaling over 60 educators, went back and forth to China, and this is of course pre-COVID a long time ago, but we were able to send over 150 students as well to China and we did some educational sharing and some projects with our friends in China. My journey to the Washington Central School District began when I was, it began in the Stanford Public Schools in Connecticut. I served as a high school social studies teacher for a number of years. I was also worked as the program director for newcomers students. Newcomers is students who came from another country and these children did not speak English and folks needed some help in how to determine English language instruction and placement into school systems to make sure that children had an access to the curriculum. I also was an assistant principal at Schofield Magnet Middle School in Stanford and we were one of the, we held, at the time, we were one of the more successful schools in the district according to student achievement and also doing some innovative things with technology. All right, next slide. I was 12 years in Stanford. I also went to becoming principal in Wyndon Middle School. This was a school that had significant challenges in student achievement, economic resources. We worked with the commissioner of education there and we also had a special master appointed over our district and we were considered a time collaborative school because we extended the school day and also we were a PBIS model school as well. All right, next slide. We did a lot of things in that school. It's about three years in Wyndon. I'm very proud of the work that we did there. We did a, next slide. We'll just go through that real quick. We did us, we turned our schools into small learning communities. We extended the school day. We improved student attendance, teacher attendance. We got a perfect score and the PBIS sat walkthrough and we had 100% teacher retention rate in year three where we were happy to say that after going through all these changes, the teachers wanted to stay and really try to build upon the success that we had done. Here's some academic achievement. I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to data, full disclosure. I do like looking at the data. This I thought was a major accomplishment. It's still obviously had a lot more work to do and a lot where to go, but the trend was moving up over the three years. We went from not having a lot of resources and not having a lot of structures in place to changing our complete structure and basically providing an opportunity for teachers and students and administrators across the district to really come together around student achievement. Next slide. I also spent six years, the last six years as a principal in American History High School in the newer public schools. We were able to, during that time, we made up the American History High School was a Silver School according to US News and World Report, which is considered one of the top schools in the United States. I was very happy that we were able to keep the school open during a time where there was charter schools moving into the district and we had really tried to make sure we kept the academic achievement of our students up. We had the highest growth in the district for the park, which is similar to the SBAC. There's some nuances and differences, but that was the test they used in New Jersey. In Torrington Middle School, my most recent position, we expanded the inclusion model for special education students. We reduced suspensions in school-based arrests and were able to prevent a state takeover as there was some concern there. Next. Here are my core beliefs. I always look at these core beliefs and I always consider revising them and changing them and adding to them, but right now I believe that every student is at a turning point in his or her life when they're in our school and it's really up to all of us to work together to make sure that each child's turning point in school is one that sets them on the path for college and career readiness. I believe it is the responsibility of the school to create conditions for each and every child to prepare for future outside of high school. Every adult in the child's life can make a difference. I believe in empowering educators. I believe in really working together with adults who work with children, all the adults that work with children to really make sure that they're involved and their voices are heard and that they're honored in the work that they do each and every day. I believe that the teacher is the most important person in the life of a child when the child is in school. I really truly believe that. I know parents are very important. We have your children for about a third of the day and you have them for two thirds of the day. However, when they're in school and then they're building the teacher, I believe is the most important person. Collaboration and cooperation is essential to creating some coherence around how we do business. I know that our district is newly merged and there's lots of, I think there's a lot of work ahead in order to build that coherence around making sure the right hand and the left hand know what we're doing as we're moving forward to improve our schools and school district. I also believe that most people enter the profession of education because they like kids and that they hold themselves internally accountable to the work more than external accountability. I'm all about holding people accountable. However, I think most people hold themselves accountable doing the work themselves and I feel that when we really want to make changes and improve our schools, it's really about how do we connect the initiatives that we're doing to help people hold themselves internally accountable. What you can expect from me, highly visible, listen before I act, open door policy, become a better superintendent each and every day, offer my support, communicate, gather information first, align missions, goals, second, and then let's do it together. And just to conclude, it is an honor to be your superintendent. I was very humbled to be selected in such an amazing school district and I look forward to getting to learn about our district. I do have a plan in place to really get to know the district and really take pause and try to understand what people's expectations are for the district so we can definitely pave a path forward for our district together. And that is my introduction, Scott. Thank you very much, Brian. Now, I think it's great to have some sense of view as a person, as an executive, so that we can know ourselves in our own working relationship, get as much done as we can for the good of the students and all of the people who support us. So anyway, thank you again. Now, we get to go back to you for the business at hand. Okay, great. Well, and I want to say that I'm actually very impressed with myself that I I'm still not talking about the PowerPoint. I'm talking on the PowerPoint because I am a talker and I like to talk. So I'm working on that as my own personal growth, but I will let you know that I do appreciate you, Scott, and thanks for facilitating this. And I am ready to talk about my superintendent report, which is I did issue a memo to the board of education and it was a few pages. And I'm not going to read directly from the report, but I do want to talk about the highlights of the report and where we're currently at. I had a spent a lot of time last week with the leadership team who I believe has put our district in a situation where we are ahead of the curve with a lot of things. There's a lot of good work that has happened in the month of June, in particular with the plans of looking at reopening school. There is a lot of questions. I'm not going to the ground seems to be constantly moving below our feet as the AOE and Department of Health and the CDC and you name the different governmental agencies continue to offer guidance and issue new guidance, I would say on a daily basis. And so the purpose really was to get the board of education and our community to start thinking about our school reopening. The number one thing we can do for our children right now, and this was mentioned to me and I have to agree with it, is what kind of intervention, the biggest intervention for our children we can do right now is reopening school and bringing them back into school. Of course, however, though, we need to make sure it's done safely. We need to make sure that children are safe, the adults who work with children are safe, that the spread and the risk of spread of this horrible, horrible disease is minimized to a point where it is safe to come to school. There are a lot of, there's a lot of work about this. So the most recent guidance came from the Vermont Department of Health and Vermont Agency of Education in a document entitled A Strong and Healthy Start, Safety and Health Guidance for Reopening Schools. I believe we did have, there was a lot of meetings with superintendents, the commissioner, the Department of Health last week. I was involved in that meeting and I do know that they answered many, many questions. It was a very helpful meeting. However, I do know that there are additional questions that were asked and I do understand, it is my understanding that there'll be additional guidance to happen sometime around mid-July. Now, of course, just guidance happening every day, but I believe that there'll be another major guidance document coming out in mid-July is what I was led to believe at this time. So some of the highlights is that the districts have been asked to consider opening in three, to focus their planning efforts on three areas. Number one, prepare for in-person classroom instruction so students may return to their classrooms. Number two, build capacity to carry on high-quality remote learning where necessary. Consider, number three, consider developing plan and develop plans for a hybrid learning model where students have access to both in-person classroom instruction and high-quality remote learning. That's kind of like something, I know while Scott, one of your folks mentioned, you know, a flipped classroom, you know, it's kind of, there's different variations of a flipped or blended learning classroom where you have, it's like a hybrid between in-person and staying at home and doing remote learning. I know that there are some families that have decided that they're not going to send their kids to school. I believe that one of the gentlemen in the audience had mentioned that and he said he's not interested in sending in-person schooling because of the, and I understand there will be some parents that are doing that. That's why we have to explore the remote learning possibility as well. So it's like we're trying to build our capacity to return to school in the fall remotely in person and maybe a combination of the two. And so that's really what the, that's really what a lot of our conversations with the leadership team last week was all about. And I have to say that they are much further along. There have been five task forces that were created in June and they've met several times in June. They're asking questions, they're asking all the right questions. I have to tell you, you know, I'm a person of the philosophy that it's better to get a lot of people in the room to talk about something and make, make, come up with ideas and then start asking when, how are we going to start making decisions? They have been doing great. There are five task forces here. I'll name them real briefly. The logistics task force, the health and facilities task force, the policy finance and communication task force, the social emotional learning task force, and the curriculum instruction and assessment task force. And together these groups are really meeting once to two times a week, putting together minutes, asking questions, asking challenging questions, things that folks may not have thought of before. And what's happening is we take these ideas and I'm talking about long lists of questions related to health, related to safety, related to buying items that we may not have thought of before. And then trying to find out the best answers. So we are a good steward of the, of the taxpayers money because we don't want to spend money on every little thing when we don't need to, but we also want to make sure we're doing it in a way where it's going to, we're going to get the biggest bang for a dollar and making sure that folks feel safe and are safe when they come back to school. The Vermont Department of Health did recommend a COVID-19 coordinator. The COVID-19 coordinator will be establishing reviewing and implementing health and safety protocols to design to ensure all staff, students and families have a healthy and safe reopening of schools this fall. They have recommended that it's a nurse, it could be a healthcare professional, but it's recommended that it's a nurse because the nurse and our registered nurse has that background and can dedicate their full time in service to looking at all these issues, especially as these task force come up with these laundry list of items, some of which are challenging because it does require medical background in a lot of these cases to think about these different conversations. You really want to have someone who's coming to work every day focused on this piece, just focusing on this all day long. I've been focusing on this all day, the last several days before I got here on COVID-19 and talking to folks about it, and it seems to be the only thing we do end up talking about. However, to have a medical person who is dedicated just to this piece is what the recommendation has come from the Department of Health and the AOE. The ultimate thing, the Washington Central Unified Union District School District communities, all five communities, really should expect school to look and feel very different than when we had school in the pre-COVID-19. It's just some changes when talking about these things. Facial coverings will be required for all staff and students and all others when school is in session. Social distancing is to occur in every school when and if possible and where practical. Physical barriers and identified work areas and reception areas will need to be installed. No outside visitors and volunteers, this is going to be tough, especially I know for some of our parents, our little ones at the elementary school in particular. Full disclosure, I had a hard time saying goodbye to my daughter yesterday when I dropped her off at daycare. Of course, she just turned around and looked at me and went, bye. So I was a little shocked to say, hey, Zady, you're going to miss daddy? She just said, bye. So good for her, I said, but it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough because it's a change. Parent and caregiver visits will need to be minimized and required only in the school office when their parents do visit and they'll have to be scheduled. Field trips will only be approved if they can maintain all health guidance and the guidance from the agency of commerce and community development as it relates to public outdoor spaces and pools. Schools will have to implement specific cleaning and disinfecting protocols each day. All students will be assigned seats in their classrooms and on the school bus. So it'll be assigned seating. And that's a very important part of the reopening. And most students, if not all students, should be expected to receive and eat meals in their classroom. And that's really just some of the changes that are coming out that looks like this is what school is going to look like if and when we reopen. There's a lot more to do. I'm going to promise to update the board as more information comes available. There may be some opportunities that we'll have to purchase items throughout the summer. And I wanted to let the board know that cleaning supplies, online learning platforms, plexiglass barriers, other types of equipment that are deemed necessary, safe, and for healthy and effective school operations. So there may be some items we have to bring up to bid. Again, this is where we're currently at. The floor is constantly moving below my feet. But it is the upcoming year does present some historic difficulties to schooling. But I know that by working together, we'll be able to make sure that we do have a real safe and effective openings reopening the school when that time does come. Thank you very much, Brian. Board members, do you have questions for Brian regarding this report? Or any of the highlights that he's just mentioned? Marilyn. Thank you, Brian. I don't have a question, but Rick, I don't know if you're still on the phone. But I did want to speak to the coordinator part as a nurse and why I do hear you and completely understand your perspective of why I wish that we could use what the AOE and what the Board of Health in Vermont gives us as guidelines, but really to have someone be able to be available in the district in real time and respond immediately to our district's specific questions or concerns when it comes up would be important. And I'll just give you an example, Rick, prior to when this started, but we were all still in school. I asked, do the nurses have PPE, which is personal protective gear, which now everyone knows what that means. But back then no one did. Where are the meds for the kids that are coming into the nurse's office? Because if you have a child come into the nurse's office, that's symptomatic and they're spreading that virus. Now all your children's meds that need their insulin, their inhalers, all of that's contaminated. So these were the initial conversations and it wasn't, it hadn't been a thought. Of course, it is now and it's a different, it's different and everyone's more aware, but to be able to have that medical coordinator, I think would be the in the best interest of the district. Could you maybe get creative of that and not necessarily have to create another position, perhaps, but that's from a healthcare professional's perspective, why I feel like it would be important to support that for the amount of time that we have to deal with COVID in the next one to two years. Thank you, Marilyn. Board members, other questions or clarifications? Flora? I have, thank you, Brian, and welcome. I have a quick question. In one of the last memos that talks about central office, I guess in general, as we're looking at doing any construction work or any COVID barriers, that to make sure that we take into consideration the long-term effect of that and the design process on that and just because so that we don't end up doing things just temporarily by custodians right now, which have the best intentions, but that we put a little thought into it at the long term because there's ways to do it. That would be more meaningful for kids, especially considering one of the recommendations on enclosing the entry area, which just because I'm familiar with that project and I worked on that last year just looking at it with more detail with the sign in mind, that's just my two, my two cents. And then as far as what Marilyn was just talking about, I agree with her and when we had our, I understand where Rick is coming from too, but I also, when we were looking at the efficiency report, that was one of the things that we had an efficient report. It was making one of the nurses at our schools, the leading nurse for our district. That's something that we've been wanting to do for a while and efficiency that we haven't achieved. So maybe depending on the population of our schools, we can increase somebody to that position. Instead of hiring new, that can be depending on the numbers, we can have a school nurse that is a leader within that and achieve that efficiency too. Thank you for that. Steven. I have thoughts on all these things as well, but I'd prefer to hold them until we get to the discussion action portion of the meeting to go over it. Very good. No questions in the meantime, Steven? No? Okay. Other questions or Jaya? Yes? The reason I keep turning my video off is because I have really bad internet and I'm trying to increase my broadband and it was a struggle for my kids to do remote learning, but I'm just wondering what the plan is to help kids who have bad internet, if there is some portion of the school week or part of the year or something that is remote learning? Yeah. That's a great question, and I would have to say that just to reiterate the long-term effect, going back to just going down in order here, I know Flo talked about long-term planning. I think that's definitely something we have to think about when anytime you spend any money, what is the long-term effects on any of these projects? And I have to say with what is the plans for kids that have bad internet, I know that's something that we're definitely looking into. I have, I'm still getting through my 825 emails, so there may be something more in there about internet broadband, but I do know that that has been a conversation across the state, and I can definitely look into more information and get back to you on that. Thanks Brian, and thank you Jaya. I have one more question, sorry Scott. I'm a little concerned about children who may be hard of hearing with the masks. I know that some people have a hard time hearing because of them, and I don't know if there's any thought about that or discussion around how to deal with that, how to address that. I see Vindi has her hand up. Couldn't find my mouse on mute. I actually contacted the AOE about that, and suggested the ClearMask. It's a company that makes what's called ClearMask, and they're sold only in bulk because it's not just for the hard of hearing, but for elementary. If you're doing a read aloud, and you can't see any of the expression, you can't comprehend, and the whole idea of teaching reading comprehension is reading body language as well, and students who are on the spectrum body language is so important. So I sent it off just kind of on a whim, and the friend that I sent it to, it's been going up the chain of command, and what I have gotten in response is also because of hearing impaired. You can only buy them in groups of 10,000, so I suggested the AOE buy them for every educator in the state, and use their COVID money that way to distribute. I have no idea if it will keep going up, but as somebody who teaches early childhood and reading, you have to be able to see my mouth, the lips, all of that moving, and so there has to be a way, and these ClearMask look very comfortable, and they work. They're approved and everything. So I just thought I'd let you know. And thank you, Lindy, for sharing that. I also know that, and I may be wrong on the actual name of the department, I'm learning about lots of different departments in Montpelier, but one of the departments is looking into emergency preparedness, looking at ordering items in bulk. So that might be something that they're going to be looking into. I'm hoping that the guidance from the middle of July will give us more of an information about that. I also know that some folks are using face shields. I see someone just pop that up. I have seen some of the principles where the face shield. I like it because I get to know automatically what people are thinking. Are they smirking? Are they smiling? Are they going? So I definitely like the idea. And of course, this is something that, again, not being the medical professional, but finding out from medical professionals what can work and what won't work in schools or for children. Just a quick thought that I'm sure you guys are thinking of. Yes, the face shields are great. It's hot that they're hot, but better than nothing. I'm just wondering about as you can think about allocating spots and transitioning some of our areas, common areas that kids cannot be using, where or if the task force are talking about having rooms that the kids can take a bit of a break and a breather from the masks, because that will be important. So just, I'm sure it's out there, but I wanted to. Thanks for that, Gillian. Just to dovetail on what Brian said, we are looking into the face shields because Lindy's right in terms of the early literacy, that's a huge concern. And we've been piloting different versions and assessing them for comfort and heat. The other thing is that we're also really in terms of planning and how we're looking at really just recognizing kids are going to need breaks, not just from the masks, but also just from the kind of the weird way that school is going to be happening. It's going to be really different. So a lot of the emphasis of the first several weeks of school is going to be figuring out how to do this new version of school. But we're also all, and I'm on the facility thing, but we're also looking at how can we have sort of movement break spaces, how can we have sort of decompression break spaces, all those kinds of things. So using our unused spaces creatively. But keep those, I mean, keep those questions coming because, and there's a lot to think about, and I'm sure we're missing stuff. Thank you Gillian. Yeah, Jonas. Obviously this would be a very part time solution, but are we thinking about outdoor classrooms in any way? Okay. That was a thumbs up from Gillian for whoever was unable to see it. So board members, anything more for the questions on the superintendent report? If not, we can move on to a kind of interlude, but related on the board retreat, which at the moment, I think we, at our last meeting, we sort of set for August 8th. But Floor, do you want to take the lead on this? Sure. I just wanted to, since we had the opportunity to be together, and this was the first time we were with Brian, just go back to what I had shared with you from Brian and just make sure there was some question about doing it on person or via Zoom. So I thought we could talk about that too. But mainly the retreat, make sure that everybody was on the same page that August 8th was the retreat for half a day breakfast and lunch. It's an all day thing, right, Brian? And we would give an option for not being in person, but because it's not a board meeting, I know that that question was raised in an email, and I didn't want to reply to everybody that is more of a retreat, just get a sense how people, in their order for planning, how people felt about doing it in person, which for a retreat I think is important, but that's just my personal opinion. Yeah, I think what we may have to do is actually address some of the same issues that we're addressing for the reopening of school, since I understand that some board members may actually be trying to, also to protect older relatives with whom they're, they're sort of in the same pod and need to be aware and accommodating that. And there may be other reasons as well. So whatever we do, I agree, I think in person is always preferable to, you know, even to this, but I think we have to have, we have to be able to do it all, have it arranged in that way. So what about the dates? Brian, you were not able to be, well, you were just, you were not even here on the job when we had our last meeting. Is August 8th a possibility for you? It's definitely a possibility for me. I'm here for the board. If that works for the board, it's going to work for me. If I have something, and if that date doesn't work for some people on the board, let's find a different day, because I really think it's really important that everyone participates, every single board member. I also prefer to have it in person, however, I'm not going to risk anyone's, you know, health or anything else. Obviously, we're going to find, follow all the guidance and guidelines. If you have to sit there, it'd be socially distant with masks gone, or if we have to, some folks can't do it because they are caring for loved ones at home, and they just don't want to do that. I don't blame them, but the big thing is making sure that I think all the board members can make it. I think that's a really big thing. That was really a big thing. Again, meeting in person is preferable, but obviously, we live in interesting times. No kidding, yes. My recollection is that Cary Auguste was a problem, yeah. So we maybe, rather than try to work out calendar stuff during the meeting, maybe we can open it up again and just see, just find out, do what do they call those polls that they do? Doodle poll. Doodle. Thank you. Thank you. Showing my age. So, and figure out a possible alternative. Does that sound good, everybody? Okay. Who will send out that doodle poll? Is it, will I be? Irresponsible for everything. No, but I think Michelle would do it. Yeah, Michelle will do it, Brian. No worries. Thanks, Laurie. Thank you very much, Laurie, to the rest of you. Should I be picking, when I asked Michelle, when I asked Michelle to put this together, I would prefer to do it on a Saturday or a Sunday, but I don't want to presume, you know, but I definitely think it has to be a full day. And I prefer a weekend date just because I think it just sends a good message that we're really, you know, this is not another board meeting. This is a retreat. We're really going to sit down and talk and try to come up with, and work together, come up with a plan to work together. We had talked that it was important that it happened in August and we had put two dates out, the eighth and the 15th, and the 15th more people had conflict. So maybe extended, we don't want to get it too close to when you guys are super getting ready to be in school too. So I think we would have to adapt to the leadership team and you. There's not that many on Saturdays, but... Well, I would say just so, Florence, thank you for bringing up. So I would say, if we have to push it into September or even October, just to pick a weekend day, I would also say that this retreat really should be for the superintendent only and the board of education members. My leadership team I'll be working with closely, but I think that the retreat really should be between me and the board. Totally, just that you were not busy with them getting into school. That was what I thought. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. With your calendars and stuff and just right before you guys are in the thick of it, we interrupting your work. That's, yeah. Well, I appreciate that. And trust me, Florence, we're going to think of it right now. So I know it's day one, but we're all very busy. I know that. And then the other thing was, have we talked before? Did you mention anything about a facilitator with everyone? I know we... Okay. So I don't know what was mentioned or not. You know, I have a facilitator in mind that could be very helpful. Full disclosure to all the rest of the board. It is someone who I have worked with and worked with and he is currently serving as a mentor to me. So it could be helpful to have that person. What I've learned about a lot of folks in Vermont is that the Vermonters do not hold any punches. They speak their mind and say what's on their mind. And I think that the person I was thinking of is going to be pretty very honest with it. He's not going to hold back. He'll be very honest with me, with board of education members. And really, I think to have a facilitator like that, who is going to be just really talk and walk and who has walked the walk before. It's a former superintendent. He's nationally known. He's been involved in lots of different types of states, working in different states. As a superintendent has lots of different success. And I think it could be someone who would work well with us. His name is Nick Fisher. We talked about to not take a lot of time because I know we schedule a short meeting today with a lot of packed action. So Scott asked at the last meeting, just to refresh in our memory, if there were volunteers to help with the retreat and Scott, I myself volunteer. So we would bring a proposal to wherever that date is. It would accommodate, you know, what your wishes are to for, for that, for that retreat. So we could have a small working group and then share with the board the options. But I think we all felt that it was, it was okay to have facilitator. So we could have a show of hands for that. And then go from there. Yeah. Sounds good. So you're, you're thinking a show of hands right now. Show of hands for those in favor of a facilitator. Okay. I'm seeing mostly hands. So anybody downright object among the board members? What's the cost? Good question. We can find that out and then, and then make the decision at that point. Have the decision hinge on that being a factor? I'm considering. But we can go forward at least with the possibility. Would that be okay with you, student? Great. Okay. Terrific. So if we may move on then to finance the, what I might do just so as to have it flow more logically is if there's no objection among board members to kind of interlace 4.0 and 5.0 and actually start off with a motion for the action. In other words, a motion for 5.1. And then the discussion would be the discussion that's labeled 4.1 would take place as a discussion of the motion. Is there any objection among board members to do it that way? Okay. Very good. In that case, I would entertain a motion. We authorize the hiring of a COVID-19 coordinator who would be a nurse to serve for the next school year. Thank you, Chris. Second? I'll second. Maryland seconds. Thank you very much. Okay. Now, discussion of that motion and 4.1 also has additional school nurse. We'll do that under 5.2. So we're talking about the COVID-19 coordinator now. We've heard from members of the public. We've heard from members of the board regarding the necessity and the desirability of this position. Care to expand? Development, Mindy? I had concerns about the cost as well. And when we're also increasing Calis and Dodie to full time, which I think is a complete necessity, that they need a full-time nurse on site in a school with what's going on. But I like the idea of a leader within the district being somehow those, the time of that job being reallocated in a way that they are attending to this task force or whatever is necessary for this. But I think we could do it. And I'm not saying without increasing Calis and Dodie, but as is without hiring a new coordinator. So if I understand correctly, increase Calis and Dodie and then out of that additional capacity, designate someone we already have or will already have on staff as COVID coordinator. Did I understand that correctly? Yes. Okay. Thank you. And Maria. Hi there. Let me introduce myself. My name is Maria Malegos. I'm actually the school nurse for both Calis and Dodie. And I am super excited to see that this motion is being brought forth to expand those positions. I've been very concerned about those schools having part-time nurses for next year. So thank you. I would like to speak a little bit to the notion of putting one of our nurses into this COVID coordinator position as somebody sort of on the ground, if I may. The reality of the situation is I have worked for the district for two years now on a part-time basis. The Romney nurse is new this year. The middle school nurse at U32 has been there for two years and she is training a new high school nurse this year. The nurse for East Montpelier has gone to halftime and is training a new halftime nurse as well at East Montpelier. The nurse at Berlin has three children under the age of five and if school closes will not be able to continue to work. We'll need to be at home with her children. So while realistically I see the need to try to curb the financial insanity that seems to be occurring this year, but realistically I don't think this is a year to pull punches on what we need. I really would encourage you to have somebody to take this on full-time. The nurses basically are reinventing the wheel of our jobs all summer long before school starts. It's going to look nothing like we've done. Our responsibilities are going to include what has been a full-time job in the past and all the way up to here. They're asking us to track attendants, track illnesses, work with vaccinations with parents who haven't wanted to take their kids to the doctor this year, really reassuring the entire world that we're keeping everybody safe and expecting us to be able to add responsibilities to that I feel is unrealistic given what our staffing looks like at the moment. So my encouragement is that while I recognize that it might be difficult financially in such an unprecedented time, I would really encourage you to take a much bigger picture look at what that person could do for us in the district. Thank you, Maria. Very, very useful. Laurie and then Dorothy. I just wanted to clarify how the $90,000 was identified. It is a nurse. It falls on our teacher salary scale, so it's someone in the middle of that grid, but I've anticipated that there could be a person that takes the family plan health insurance. So the $90,000 may be a high estimate. I also wanted to let you know that the nurses have sent a letter to our office identifying that they're really concerned about substitutes this coming year and the need to possibly have a float, I guess is the best way to describe it. In lieu of a sob, it may be this nurse could serve as a float to help out in time of need at particular locations. So we are looking at hiring nursing subs and trying to fill our human resource pool so that we're ready for this. There is a nursing shortage and I just wanted to put that play out there on behalf of the district. Thank you. Thanks, Laurie. Dorothy. I was surprised to hear Maria's countdown of how every school is served by nurses. It interested me that the East Montpelier nurse is only half time, so at least that's what Maria said. Sorry, she has another half-time nurse. There's going to be a full-time coverage at East Montpelier, but she's training basically her replacement. I don't mean to speak for Elizabeth. She's also in this meeting, so she wishes to speak. I would encourage that, but she's going to be working half-time and there is another nurse working half-time. I don't know how appropriate it would be to ask a new nurse to take on the COVID coordinator position as well. It strikes me as being unrealistic. I will say very prematurely that I have spoken to a friend of mine who is a district parent who has school nursing experience, who has her doctorate as a nurse practitioner, who would be very keen to walk out of CVMC and take a COVID coordinator position within the district. There are interested parties for this type of position. Okay. I misunderstood when you said, when you were talking about the East Montpelier position, I understood for her to be working half-time and at the same time training another nurse. Now, it seems to me what really happening is she'll be working half-time and training another nurse who will be working the other half of the time. That's right. That is different than what I anticipated. Possibly if we need a floater, which I think is a really, really good idea, that whoever we get, if we decided to do this, that would be part of their duties would be a floater. I honestly don't see how this is going to be a very busy position and very responsible position, but I'm not entirely sure it would be a full-time position. I think that's an excellent point. I'm talking. We have to allow for that, but there's something to consider. Thank you. Maria. I apologize. I did not mean to interrupt. I just wanted to say, I think that's an excellent point. I know that other nurse leader positions do have about 75% administrative work and 25% direct patient care. If there are nurses that are not at work, then they can step in and do the job at those schools. That's all I wanted to say. I do apologize for interrupting. Thank you. Stephen, look. So I'll bring, I guess not unusual for me, perhaps a different spin on this. I serve on the Norwich reopening task force. And when we approached this concern, it's not identical for colleges as it is for public schools. We felt like the nurses we had available had enough expertise to understand the legislation and the learning. And what we didn't need was another nurse. What we needed was someone that was familiar with VOSHA and OSHA and facilities who could take the medical recommendations and with an origin understanding of facilities, put those recommendations into practice. We also elected not to go with a full-time position. We hired a consultant for the first three or four months. So just as not to say that a COVID coordinator isn't valuable, it might not have to be a full-year one-time FTE. And does it necessarily have to be a nurse? And I'm opening the discussion that perhaps we have plenty of nurses working in our schools that can interpret and provide recommendations. And then someone with knowledge of how to implement those recommendations with a facilities background is also a valuable consideration. Interesting. Marilyn. I know that in the budget we had approved a facilities manager position, did we? Yeah, we have. Have we hired into that? Yes. Yes. So I feel like you on top of that would need a medical professional. From what I just heard from Maria and Maria correct me if I heard you wrong is that a lot of the staff are fairly new to the district and thinking about not only the need for someone in facilities, but need for an understanding of quality and infection control and for infection preventative measures. I think having an expert in the healthcare field coming in from a facility and maybe thinking outside of the scope of nursing, because I think you're right, we have school nurses that can do the school nursing part. We need someone that is a little bit more trained in infection control. And that may be the part that the expertise would be coming into play. I would see that going hand in hand with our facilities manager and working together collaboratively to head up a task force. I think with the staffing again, while I would consider what Flora had mentioned earlier of using our staff, now that I'm here, Maria, I'm not sure that we have someone that would be qualified to do that. It is, and I hear you what you're saying about full time. And certainly I'm in a hospital. I'm not in a school, but if we get a surge, it's full time plus full time. I worked like I wasn't home. So there will certainly be, unfortunately, I think, enough for another nurse to do for at least the next year. Thanks, Marlon. Brian. Yes, and I understand the desire to be a good, careful steward of our taxpayers' money. And I do understand that. Is the balancing taxpayers' money with the safety of our children? And I think that talking with the leadership team last week, there was concern that they might even need more nurses than what we, even if we had this right now, because there is a lot of fear about we want to make sure schools have the appropriate medical staff to come to when we send our children to the school. So I think it's, I know it's a critical point and I hear different folks saying different things about we have to be careful with the money. I completely understand that. But I also know that with the safety of the children and the safety of the adults in particular as well. I strongly recommend that we do think about the COVID-19 coordinator being a full-time position. The other reason is if you're trying to find someone in the medical field, it's very, sometimes it's very difficult to find someone on a part-time basis when there is such a severe shortage in the industry right now. You can look at any, most of the hospitals in Vermont, they have 80 to 100 openings. I mean, there's a lot of openings in these places. So even if we both still have to find the right person for this job, even if it's posted. So it's not just, we're not just going to fill it, it's just because it's approved. We're going to make sure we find the right person. Thanks, Ryan. Chris. Brian, what was the discussion about needing more nursing care? Because I'm thinking if that's the real consideration and concern, we should be talking about it now rather than later after the schools have started. Hi, Chris. So basically, I think talking to the leadership team last week, there was concern that there were some schools that did not have some school nurses. Part-time, a lot of others had full-time. There was a conversation that some of the full-time ones are newer working in schools. And so the idea was having a full-time COVID coordinator who could kind of be like the utility person on a, you know, I think about the utility person on a baseball team, right, where they have a certain role and that's what they do. But when school reopens and there's someone who's sick and we try to get nurse subs, but we can't find any nurse subs or we have an inter-crisis, we have a go-to person. And that was the idea about having the full-time COVID-19 coordinator be a nurse. So that was the other piece was if the COVID-19 person is a nurse, we can actually deploy them to the schools, if and when necessary. I mean, God forbid there was an outbreak at one of the schools and they have to do contact tracing and we have to start looking at the protocols and we look at re-examining the protocols. Well, I know Marilyn just talked about it saying, you know, if and when that does happen, you're never going to have enough nurses to begin with, but having that extra person who is the coordinator who has been just focusing on that and that only will be, I think, a major support to our principals and to our nurses that are already out there in the field. Thanks, Brian. Sorry, Chris, one moment. If I might just pause for just a second, just so that I don't lose the thread, just incorporating what Steven and Marilyn have talked about in this COVID-19 coordinator, although a nurse, would part of the what we're looking for would be someone preferably with OSHA experience or knowledge and infection control background. So it would not just be another generic school nurse type. Part of the job description would be tailored for these particular needs. Is that how I understand the way that it's shaping up? That was certainly the discussion, but if we want that to happen, we should reformulate the motion so that it addresses that specifically. But we also may be limited in terms of what's out there. And so in terms of who's available, you've been applying for the job. So you're right, that's the goal of having someone who's schooled in OSHA and also infectious disease, but that might be a who knows if someone like that would apply. Yeah, I think the motion is probably okay as it is. And just the advice of the board in this regard would be sufficient. But I'm curious to hear from board members who haven't yet had a chance to speak, who might wish to speak. Kari, for example. I'll just repeat my comment that I just put in the chat that I'm persuaded. I think the staff has thought this through and having a full-time nurse for one year, given these circumstances, is we'll be sorry if we didn't and we look back and thought we should. Thank you. Jonas? I thought I'd made a comment, but I think this is absolutely essential. If society at large is going to get back to anything resembling normal, it really does have to start with opening schools so that a huge portion of the workforce can go back to work. This sounds like an appropriate position. And let's not forget the most, you know, the most optimistic estimates for a vaccine are early in 2021. And there's going to have to be some significant messaging around that. So let's keep in mind that we want that person to be able to, you know, conduct some public health messaging. Thank you. Nice to see us. Diane? I mean, I would agree with what everyone's saying, that it's certainly, it connects. The staffing isn't really where my wonders are and my worries are about expenditures. And so, because we know this one's temporary and addressing the immediate need of most in terms of knowledge base and experience and ability to direct and guide what needs to happen for our kids. Thank you. George? I also think that this position could move forward education in families as well as to the school year. I think that's one of my main points is how we're going to educate families and encourage them to report potential exposure and to avoid potential exposure. Well, thank you. Thank you George. I think you're also demonstrating Jaya's point about broadband and the difficulty of trying to work without a good broadband system. Jaya? Whatever George said, I agree with. It was very intelligent. Yes. Yeah, I'm fine. I think it will help give some parents some ease of mind and so it's probably a good thing to have in place. Great. Thank you very much. And Linda, you asked in the chat box if the salary was directly on the teacher contract grid. Lori, is that something? That was the calculation that I used because the basic responsibilities of this position are similar to our nurses who are part of the teachers union. Very good. Okay. So have all the board members had a chance to weigh in on this floor? Have you? I did at the beginning and I just added something on the chat just as a brainstorm after listening to Steve and everybody. It strikes me that we could, you know, we don't need to wordsmith what goes out to find this COVID-19 but a community health coordinator might be what we need because most of the time they have been nurses before or interested and they're more community-based so they would be able to have a better understanding of how to communicate with communities, communicate with, so create more of a wellness plan for all of our communities so we would be more of that lab of communities that we've been wanting to create. So that is their experiences in healthcare coordination and, you know, I'm not an expert on it but they do help in the non-profit in other countries they do help and here they are important too. Nice fly. And Chris, last words before we go to, oh and Marilyn, Chris and Marilyn and I'm going to end up first, very sugarous of you. Marilyn? The one thing I've brought up a couple times in our policy committee so and this would be perfect is I'm really concerned about the state truancy model and as it requires students to be excused from a pediatrician to have an excused absence but I can't imagine the pediatricians are going to be seeing every child it's going to be difficult so I just want to mention that Brian and staff that are here right now that that is is really important I feel like that this role takes on how to help families overcome that truancy issue. I've I'm glad that I've had the for I've brought up in policy but just want to make sure I bring it back here. Just thanks and Chris your patience is if the goal is to have this person be a floater as well I think they would need to be a licensed nurse with a current license just to have that understood right okay um so uh Steven look thank you I'll hold my comments on everything except one point is this a teacher position or a staff position um go ahead lie yes um our teachers agreement covers the nurses so they follow all of the teaching um positions that they have to get licensure through the agency of ed as well okay but I'm asking specifically is this contract an administrator contract or a teacher contract a teacher contract that's what we've been calculating it as is and we don't and we don't we're sorry um other Steven and then Chris um I mean I favor this concept in a covid coordinator um and I want to be timely with it um but I want the person where we hire to be able to to do the work that needs to be done and in the position to me sounds it's to establish review and implement health and safety protocols which doesn't sound like a teacher position it sounds like an administrator position um so it was my anticipation that it was going to be administrative position I can understand we might uh establish the salary and benefits to mirror what a school nurse would get but to to me it's an administrative position Brian yes uh and it's it's I wouldn't say it's an administrator position basically because if you hire a school nurse who's going to work with public health department and and obviously we're going to definitely look at you know if someone has OSHA and you know I wouldn't put that in the posting because I wouldn't want to scare anyone away but you know we can definitely consider that if they're that person does exist but but the big thing is uh school nurse if they school nurse really isn't an administrator if they don't have an administrator license so uh so I would I think uh because you can't evaluate staff and do other things like that so I mean this person would just be coordinating uh like almost kind of like a teacher on assignment in a central office in some ways where they're working on a specialized project which would be the coordination of the COVID-19 and whatever that it's going to help us understand as the ground moves below us they're going to help us make sense of that more uh than uh an administrator who doesn't have a medical background thank you Brian um Chris you're still you're still so from a contractual standpoint can this person be both an administrator and perform nursing services because if one of the if one of the goals is have this person is essentially backup nurse um I think we have to be aware of that and they should be informed of that but are we can that person straddle being an administrator and then also if needed do nursing work in the schools uh Chris I think it's going to be very difficult to find someone who has both credentials as an RN and uh and a administrator in a school in a school district uh and my recommendation would be to go with a uh someone who uh is uh able to work as a nurse and has certain backgrounds maybe they work in leadership positions in in the in the medical profession but it may be uh difficult to find someone who has an administrative background for education which usually requires a specialized degree okay um Diane requiring that sorry Chris um Diane had her hand up okay to me um what's we're not asking this person to have the autonomy and the authority to make these decisions what we're asking this person is to be the expert in this field and to be advising do have the autonomy and the authority um and so I don't I don't think we need to worry about whether or not that credential is there for an administrator we just need to know that they have the direct line of communication and ability and we have to trust that those who are the administrators are going to act on that expertise and authority that's what the position strikes me as thanks Diane um are we ready to move to a vote on this have we uh I'm seeing some nodding heads um all right so the motion Chris one more I just for clarity's sake we're hiring um someone who would be under a teacher's contract as opposed to an administrator is that right is that what we're proceeding I mean I'm fine with that I just for clarity that's what we're going to do that's what the motion is yes and that's what all the heads are nodding for yes Scott I just I have one clarifying question this is just for a year so we would reevaluate the situation and rehire accordingly correct the motion is for a year as uh is made by Chris and seconded by Marilyn um actually Lisa I may I impose on you please to read the um the motion again just so that it's fresh in everybody's minds sure it just says Chris moved to authorize the hiring of a COVID-19 coordinator who would be a nurse to serve for the next school year great and Marilyn seconded that motion so okay we've we've heard a lot of um questions and comments and uh and some opposition also from the public so at this point all in favor of the motion please click your yes button or your thumbs up button um opposed click no or thumbs down and I see one no vote um and all the rest yeses okay very good um thank you everyone now so the motion carries in other words so um if we go to 5.2 uh and then uh entertain a motion of 5.2 approve additional school nurse anyone care to take that one on um so I'm moved child was that you no Marilyn Marilyn oh okay thank you Marilyn um second oh second Dorothy seconds okay very good um how about discussion of this one are there any questions or have they been elucidated during the course of previous talk Chris so are these um one-year hires or these permanent hires meaning are these expected to now be full-time nurses at Dodie and Calis so we're voting on yeah so uh let me let me just uh get in there and uh try to answer this up so right now uh I mean I know we are thinking about this as uh COVID-19 uh you know in the pandemic and trying to get our kids back into school so it's a great question uh I would think that you know we always we would offer an introductory contract and uh you know a lot is going to happen between now and a year from today uh you know as we get towards the end of the next year of the upcoming school year we can reevaluate and look at that I would be uh cautious to uh the only you know the only thing I'd be nervous or concerned about is if we just say it's a one-year thing for a nurse you know we're probably asking someone to leave a hospital position or somewhere else and if we just say it's a one-year and get and that's it I don't know if we'll fill it I mean that's I'm very concerned about filling these positions uh I think it's gonna be a very challenging time and I think that uh with the other 55 school 54 school districts in Vermont I don't know I can't remember it's 54 or 55 uh how many of them are gonna try to be hiring a COVID-19 coordinator in the next several weeks and which is why I'm very happy that we were able to hold this meeting today um so yeah so if there are nurses out there that are looking to get into schools uh I don't know if I want I want to say it's just a one-year job but I think that you know it's always based on performance uh there's always attrition in the field in the field uh so I don't want to just say that uh it's a one-year I don't want to a pigeonhole ourselves or put us in the rabbit hole of saying it's a one-year job when we may need that person to fill in for someone else who may retire or leave or uh whatever happens between now and then Vindesh well technically anytime you're hired it's just year to year because the budget has to pass and then the budget has to be together so you may not be advertising it as one year but whenever you take a job you know that it could get cut or changed so I don't think we have to make that decision now that comes down to when we're budgeting for next year determining this need was there and we need to keep it in the budget or not excellent good point jenice um would these you know if there's a point where the acute need for you know a full fte nurse in a school if there's a time when that goes away could these nurses also assist with something like health education which I'm not sure is a significant part of the curriculum in a number of schools Maria I'd love to hear from you sure so um several schools have um what's known as health teachers right like PE teachers that have a health certification um many schools don't dody does not um Cal has just lost their health educator um for myself i'm pursuing a masters in nursing education which covers the ability to get a teaching endorsement as well as a school endorsement um and and creating a health curriculum is actually something that we've been talking about on the school nurse level because we don't really have one at the moment at the elementary level um so absolutely especially in the smaller schools while both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC and I mean everybody and their mothers say full-time school nurses are the way to go um justifying that in a school of 80 kids is daunting in a regular year and I certainly do understand that um I think there is a myriad of ways that you can use school nurses in terms of education um and I think it sounds like a dumb thing to say it sounds a wee bit melodramatic but I think it's on the right side of history to start moving towards more health care liaisons in schools especially in these rural communities where kids have less access to health care than in um an urban situation and Dorothy um am I on or not okay um yeah I'm I'm thinking that might be a good idea because once they're certified teachers they also could possibly work as substitutes in a pinch um and so they could do that as well thank you um Stephen look I think these positions are a good example of the potential benefits of the merger um where in the past it it would have been it would be good to have a full-time nurse in a school regardless of the size of the school because the need of the nurse is when someone needs a nurse um I understand this you guys know me I'm huge on data and statistics but I think this is an opportunity where the costs can be shared across the entire district and Chris to kind of talk to what you it may have alluded to I'm not concerned about these potentially becoming full-time positions going forward I think this is a shared expense that can be easily distributed amongst you know our entire budget um and and better serve some of the communities that have you know a need that they can't meet in the old model because they just didn't have the money so um I would be I'm very comfortable voting to move them to one FTE and um fully expecting that we um at the end of the year have a discussion about continuing numbers for next year okay thank you Stephen um any further uh Laurie please to clarify that whenever we um have a position that is approved off cycle and it's not in the budget that we always issue a one-year contract to those individuals that doesn't automatically roll and we always have that conversation um in the fall when we begin the budget process for the future year and I think you remember those conversations we had this year when we added a teacher um at um callus we had the conversation twice with the board so we will be issuing one-year contracts that's just the standard protocol for an off-cycle approval unless you tell us differently right and and I don't hear us telling you differently at this point um so uh ready for a vote then okay I'm saying nodding heads again um all in favor of Maryland's motion seconded by Dorothy to approve the additional uh 1.0 FTE school nurse um please click yes or if opposed click no or alternatively thumbs up or thumbs down and once again I'm I'm seeing well actually not once again for the first time I'm seeing all the green and thumbs up um so thank you very much everyone the motion carries now um that takes care of 4.1 and 5.1 and 5.2 now we're at 4.2 authorized central office safety renovations for COVID-19 um refer to page six of the board packet so um would I don't know if you'd like to say anything about this Brian oh yeah maybe we should make um sorry I'm so sorry maybe we should make a motion first to um a motion to approve and then uh and then discussion so moved okay uh the um just to clarify um are you on page seven floor of the of the packet yes I mean I'm on page seven which is the one that I had questions about but I'm great okay we're gonna head and move the do you mind reading the whole thing just so that the um our viewing public can uh can hear it yeah authorized central office safety renovations for COVID-19 um and there's also there's also a recommended language for the motion on um on page seven I don't know if you have access to that where you are yeah authorized the business authorized the business administration on central office facility committee to complete the short term renovations noted on one two three above a long no examining long term solutions for space shortage for central office okay um floor makes that motion Lisa you've got that right great okay um is there a second a second just one second thank you very much thanks Jonas uh so uh now Brian yes uh this was something that was uh mentioned to me uh by the former superintendent and I'm going to turn this over to uh Lori to talk more about it because Lori has uh been involved in this project thank you very much let's go for the right so what I would like to start with is to just um let people know that our office was designed by black river uh design and it was actually constructed in 2009 um when that occurred our front area was considered uh two different ways one of which was to have separate offices and have doors like the rest of the building and the second was to have an open area and so at the time um we had suggested that we have an open concept um but it was with an open concept that would not require much renovation should it need to be ever closed in so in the past few weeks Debra and I have met with our clerk of the works and so who's on the central office facility committee that is our clerk of the works bill Ford um the black river design architectural firm uh Brian's on now it was Debra myself um and Matt Kittridge who represents our central office staff and what they've done is taken a quick cursory look at our office and determined that it is true it would not cost a lot of money to refurbish the front area to be offices like the rest of the building for the safety of the staff and um the second component was out back we have people now in open areas that um with the COVID would require some partitions we're looking at pricing right now and we'd have more information for the July 15th meeting for the finance committee and the board but we just had wanted your authorization to continue on this manner because we're really nervous about reopening our office with all the social distancing requirements knowing that we have four staff currently in very high-risk areas that was all I had I don't think I missed anything but I just wanted to see if there's any questions thanks Lori um so at this point there would be a second action that you would be looking for um at a at a future board meeting to I guess appropriate the funds for the actual work is that correct right now we would be you know basically this motion tonight would authorize us to continue with the architectural firm to get pricing go out to bed and actually get the ball rolling so that the finance committee could then hear the recommendations and the board would then approve it I don't think we would have all that information on the 15th of July because the process takes a little longer than that but we would definitely need to get this work done this summer in order for us to open safely in August like all of the rest of our buildings great understood thank you Brian Lori just where where would the funding be coming from for this what are some funding sources so at this time we believe these types of COVID-19 costs would be eligible for reimbursement out of next year's funds but we are waiting how much money we would be appropriated we do not have that answer and will not have it until the legislature reconvenes I think in August so it still remains to be seen whether we would need to somehow earmark funds from our budget the capital fund the fund balance if we don't get sufficient funds thanks thank you um thank you very much Jaya I'm wondering what our options are for remote work um and if some of the folks in central office could continue to work remotely and stagger their days just to save costs wait that's the question come up I just want to follow protocol go right ahead Lori okay so we have been working remotely but um for instance this week we had the need to have eight out of 12 staff members in the office on a given day because of the deadlines and the time constraints we're concerned that as school reopens we're going to need to be in the office more we need to be there to support staff and to support questions from the community and also to support our buildings so while we're still trying to do the remote it's becoming more and more apparent that we're going to be back on site at probably full steam just like the schools are when they reopen okay um so I want to say on the first part in terms of the renovations I'm strongly in support of to the extent that we have to have staff in the building that we need to provide the partitions and the safety features that they need and I I think we should have a comprehensive approach to that as well that we're looking at all our buildings and all of our employees administrators teachers and staff and I'd like to be able to say that we've bought that through um when the summer's over but um and I also want to express that I'm I'm far more skeptical about the additions to the building um you know obviously we can take our time with that but I would want to see why that would be a good investment what would be the return on that investment and how it fits into a longer term plan in terms of the number of administrators we're going to have in the future and remote working and all of that so thank you excellent point thank you kai street and look and then floor so to echo what kari said I have absolutely no problem with renovations one and two um number three um I mean I'm not I don't understand the need I'm sure there's a need I don't understand the specificity of it um and I'm just trying to couch very carefully what I say but um our air circulation and air conditioning needs adequate in all our schools and classrooms so now this is the end of what we're trying to do or um I mean if we're from my perspective if we're going to spend money to improve health and safety I'd like to make sure the students are taken care of um with whatever finite funds we have and again I say things bluntly and I don't come across the right way um I'm not opposed um but to me this isn't as high a priority as classrooms and if the classroom air circulation is all fine and adequate then I think it's appropriate we move to this Ryan do you mind waiting until the floor has a chance to thank you I'm sorry I just didn't talk to that um when I had my little summary um what has happened is one of the front offices that would be closing in currently houses the air conditioning unit which then means that it has to be relocated so that's what number three means um that we do currently have an air conditioner in an area that would then become closed in so it's not in the right spot so it would need to be moved in a common area in the hallway there and the back area they found that the air circulation would work fine with those traditions so there was no need to do any adjustment there I apologize I didn't bring that up for my question that that adequately answered it Scott so I don't have any objections to any of the three okay thank you very much Stephen floor I'm okay with letting Brian go go first I I have concerns with the motion as is drafted but I let Brian speak and then I'll speak my mind sure okay Brian yeah and I and I think Stephen uh did bring up a very good point and uh I'm glad he did about talking about air quality and air that's always I mean in every district ever worked in air quality is always a conversation and just the way schools have been built you know you have you have hundreds of children in a building and you're always trying to find ways to make sure the HVAC systems go through and cover uh make sure that it's circulating the correct way uh that is actually something that I I know that uh one of our task force the facilities task force has been looking into and the chair did reach out to me today and I'm looking forward to having more conversations with that chair and Bill Ford in the near and immediate future possibly even as early as tomorrow in regards to that Stephen so uh I definitely think that is something we definitely want to look into and uh there may be some more information coming down the pike from from me to this board about that since that part take for a topic thanks Brian so I'm I'm okay with number one it's something that was planned before and number a number a number two if it's being done with the long term and now that Laurie you know sort of clarify who was on on that team I feel completely uh relieved I don't I agree with what Carrie and Stephen were saying I don't think that this is the time to be because we've been wanting to look at all of our facilities as a whole as a finance committee and part of the idea of hiring Bill Ford was to look at our schools as a full system and that everything that we've been doing is is long term and possibly affects as many kids as possible health wise so I don't I don't see how we are going to have to do some like temporary things and other schools and we invest more in central office I'm not saying that that is not important but I think there's ways to do it right now without having to get into a the possible long term because we really have to look at all of our facilities a long term and look at all of our like the efficiency study that we've been looking at how we are going to be operating us a district to to make that commitment of money at this time when we know that our funds are going to be needed in so many in so many directions so if and authorize I would say that the motion is that authorized business administrator central office I think what we're what we're looking at is authorized to continue the process and then you're coming back to us with prices and and and and and a bid we're not out I don't feel comfortable authorizing the work being done right now just because we don't know what the cost you know we're just we're authorizing the process to continue how I feel comfortable yeah and that's that's I think how loria was explaining it too earlier should we discuss now we should amend the language because it says authorize to complete the short-term renovations and so the language would not indicate just complete the process to complete the project so I would offer a friendly amendment to the motion that we authorize to complete the process of exploring short-term renovations and floor you made the motion do you accept that friendly amendment I accept the friendly amendment so can you repeat it Chris just for yes and author so authorize the business administrator and central office facility committee to complete the process of exploring the short-term renovations noted in one two and three of a period we want to continue on with long-term examination of shortage space shortage issues or no because that's not like that that was you want to you want to cut that one off okay so as I recall floor you were the you made the motion and Chris you you were the second or were you the second job seconded yes you're seconded it yeah um so if the two of you are okay with that friendly amendment floor so one one last question Laurie just for for process wouldn't wouldn't brian be you are on the on the facility committee wouldn't brian be ultimately the person responsible for for the district and the renovations and you're part of the you're already part of the facility committee so it should be up to brian not the business administrator not to take anything away from you but it should ultimately the bill is going to come up to him so I think it should be brian not I agree Deborah wrote it I didn't that's just authorizes superintendent as we get started he's our superintendent so let's thank you yeah Deborah wrote it with no one foot already out the door I think okay um so uh are we are we good on that Lisa uh oh sorry Linda uh lindy pardon me um I was a little concerned because when the building was built it already provided personal offices you know one person with a door and the front in order to be welcoming even if right now we're not welcoming people should not be closed in walled in but plexiglass of some sort because they're already well over six feet apart if you're out in the common area with your masks on and um plexiglass partitions in the open area meet the standards that are being required uh and we're going to have you know schools with children in areas much more compact and I just feel that the cost and the work should be minimal since that office is already not a free flow open kind of office people have their own space they have doors they have windows and fresh air is one of the things they say is much better than circulated air um so I would be pretty um conservative and looking at what others places have done with plexiglass in order to not have droplets flying all over people so I just want you to know that that conservative from me that office building was already built very privately where people have their individual offices thanks lindy um before we proceed lisa I just wanted to make sure that um that you were clear on the motion as it has been amended in friendly fashion okay so the amended motion reads floor move to authorize the superintendent wait to authorize the superintendent to authorize completing the process that doesn't make sense authorize the superintendent to to or to um the process pursue the it's not complete the process it's sort of to continue the process continue the process thank you to continue the process of exploring short term renovations noted in numbers one two and three as delineated in the july 1st memo from the superintendent oh nice yeah um and then period correct yes nothing about long term whatever right is that the understanding floor and chris okay um uh any any Diane uh yeah I mean I I appreciate the amendment because that was the biggest concern of granting approval of something that we don't know um financially what what the recommendation would be um and I guess as you know as a community member when that building was built it was really touted to us all as cutting edge green sustainable and I know that there's been a lot there have been several situations of modified modifying it but I think we just we have to be clear that whatever modifications while it is connected to COVID I think we need to be responsible and responsive to our community that voted that building in originally um and explaining what those renovations have been and why those renovations have occurred good point thank you Diane um other other um questions discussion on this motion or are we ready to vote nothing nodding um except for kari oh good good all right um in that case all in favor of the motion to authorize the superintendent to continue exploring short term renovations noted in one two and three above period um please vote if you vote yes click the green button and no the red button uh or thumbs up as the case may be and I'm seeing all the green and thumbs up so the motion carries thank you very much everyone um that brings us to 4.3 finance committee meetings um floor did you want to um sir the question was it was it is that helpful for the administrators to have especially we're going to be looking at things like that to have a finance committee we don't we did not have a finance committee meeting schedule until our next and our next meeting which is just sooner because we were not having this meeting jaffy team so just the question was do you need the support of the finance committee in order to move to do anything that was does uh floor does brian know who's on the finance committee I am not I'm I'm not sure it's simply not and this is a test of ours too so and I guess my question is the finance committee is an informational committee that takes information back to the board they do not have any uh information to act they don't actually make decisions right they that committee actually gets the information it takes it back correct bring yeah brings recommendations to the board yeah okay isn't there some limited authority though on a case by case basis if the board authorizes the finance committee to so that was so that that is really the question is is there a need for the board as you move as we move ahead and and I guess the people that are on the finance committee could you know raise their hand in there so that brian gets an idea of who's in that okay thank you thank you very much uh yeah so and that's and I think that's a great I'm sorry chris where were you trying to ask any questions no no okay sorry brian continue please oh and I think that's a and that's a question for the board uh because uh you know one of the things is you know I will tell you that uh you know one of the big projects uh next week is to sit down with my leadership team and my central office administration and start looking through the laundry list of asks and ideas that are coming out of these five task forces there is a lot of information that that's coming out and it is I can fill a book with with the information that's coming out on that with those five task forces and some of those things are going to require money right like uh and decisions and so I think that uh do we need some of that's going to cost money some of that will be possibly less than the threshold where I need to ask the board for for permission but more likely letting the board know that hey here's money that we need to spend and we probably need to do something things quick more quickly than others because I'm anticipating that uh the rest of Vermont and the rest of the country is going to start buying a lot of these types of things as well all at the same time as everyone's trying to reopen their schools and so uh you know I'm not trying to rush I'm not trying to uh uh you know push us into a corner we have to start making decisions and or buy it but we if we are serious about reopening school uh in the fall then we are going to start having to buy certain things to make sure that the adults and children are safe and so I guess the big essential question for the board is uh if I if we need to spend several thousand dollars on on items uh how does the board wish to be informed how does the board wish to uh make that decision if it's something that is higher than my than the uh $15,000 threshold for certain items good thank you um so uh if the finance committee our finance committee members planning on going anywhere out of zoom range in the next few weeks in case we need to be called in um sort of in the spot no okay so we'll just be standing by in case of need um and then the board the next regular board meeting is the 15th anyway so um the finance committee if we met before that um which were scheduled to meet uh anyway right floor on the 15th so then we can we can make recommendations and whatever us Stephen understanding all of this um so this is directed probably mostly in Brian um I appreciate the the speed and the and the agility that we need to to work with I'm not trying to um constrain that um but also um as as much as possible I would expect as comprehensive of request as possible um but I don't want to be put in the position of on July 15th say we need x dollars to do this as an s and then a week later we need x dollars to do this as an s and in two weeks later oh this is something that now is the top priority and it's like well if I'd known that two weeks ago it would have informed my earlier decisions so I hate to be putting pressure on you on the but that's an ad as for me as a board member as much as practical if the executive and the leadership team can be as comprehensive as they can in their request that helps me as a board member decide where the priorities are and where the money should most importantly be spent hey man well said Stephen thank you um Brian please and uh and Stephen I well I can just tell you that uh the way I operate I operate is I try to be as comprehensive as possible with the information that I have give that I have in my hand at that time uh and I will say that uh I'm hoping that I'll have as much information as possible at the July 15th meeting I'm not sure what the AOE and my team and I and my central central office team and my leadership team will be meeting regularly about these items uh the rest of this week next week and beyond I will say though that if the AOE comes out or the CVC comes up with these other ideas that we haven't thought of and you know it does require additional types of items that we haven't thought of yet uh I will definitely have to uh come back to the board but please know that I'm definitely trying to work to be as comprehensive as possible because I know that uh as a board member your job is extremely difficult to begin with and when folks are coming in just piecemealing things together that's not the way we really want to do business Stephen and now to the finance committee perhaps if if there is a meeting in between now and our July meeting um I really personally as a board member want to be able to extend maximum flexibility to our administrators when it comes to personal protective type you know if if the Vermont Department of Health says these kind of masks are needed and these kind of shields that kind of thing I want to extend the maximum ability to let the superintendent executive committee move on items like that it's not anything we need to vote on tonight but executive for the finance committee if there can be some kind of a recommendation around personal protective equipment I think that's an area where at least for me as a board member I would be very comfortable um extending very lenient permissions to purchase because that mean to me that's a kind of a non-debatable kind of a thing we're we're going to get the protection we're required to get so maybe the finance committee could chew on how to come up with some kind of recommendation around that slot thank you Stephen thank you I know Flora heard you yeah I agree I agree with you Stephen and I would like to propose that the finance committee meets but we can do this separate from this meeting but meets before the 15 because it's hard to digest everything right before the meeting it would be better if we had two meetings one before the 15 and one on the 15 so to make sure that our recommendations are clear great thank you Flora Lindy I think just like everything else that's unprecedented or weird or odd the fact that we haven't normally met in summers just has to be forgotten because in this case in order to make sure schools start if they need you know if the administration needs our approval or our it makes sense to call special meetings as needed I'm not saying like every night or something I just want Brian to know that support is there even though it hasn't been the practice for us to meet during the summers because things run smooth but right now people right are so concerned about how the year is going to start as families if kids aren't in school and I'm working or blah blah blah how is this all going to work or if kids are only in school Monday Wednesday Friday so in order to help facilitate some of that I just wanted to say I think it makes sense we can't go anywhere anyway and by zoom we could do it if we could go somewhere yeah that's great Lindy I think I don't know that anybody on the board will say anything against what you just said on the contrary I think I'm very well spoken um so anyway if we're ready to move on um we're done then with four point four point oh and five point oh six point oh future agenda items I wonder Marilyn may I give you the floor yeah um so I just wanted to let you all know that I'm resigning my position tonight um my family and I are moving to Massachusetts um it's a really hard decision to take them and move them to an epicenter um but they need to be able to access the education and and they're not able to do that here um I hope I really hope that you understand and listen to me now as a as a parent um that you need to look at our data that we've been looking at in the cip and what's been brought forth as concerning data look at the article that I sent you today and look at the problem with our special education um my daughter was accepted into a language based program and she's not getting any services here so um please continue to have the conversation Kari um I I really hold a lot of faith in you and the the education quality committee I'm so happy that you're here you said in our last meeting which was the only one that I could come to um maybe we should take a step back from looking at our literacy please don't Kari um and I don't often boost up the agency of education but Dan French is a wealth of information and please pay attention to that okay um thank you so much I I definitely want to make sure you all know that I was on the board before their diagnosis and I stayed on the board because someone needed to have the voice of the children that don't get to access the education that most of the kids here do um it's always been my intent to have all of our children's interest that's why I'm on the seac that's why I lobbied congress congress you know january for remarch all those days I quit my job to to really work on the literacy here so please take this seriously and know that I'm not the only parent I'm just lucky enough to have the resources to be able to make the move that I need for them but I love you guys you're doing such a great job as a board I'm so happy with all the additions um and I wish you all the best of luck and Brian I'm so upset that I'm not going to be working with you because I'm so excited you're from jersey um but I really appreciate that you're here and I'm so looking forward to what you can bring to the board so welcome and and thank you for your time thanks very much we missed you tremendously and and if I can sort of give you at least some uh small reassurance that at least in my case my experience of working with you over this past year has impressed indelibly on my brain and and heart um you know the the passion and the intensity with which and the and the righteousness with which you've been pursuing this so um just because you're leaving doesn't mean that we'll um we'll drop this um I hope that we'll be able together to to follow through and um and really help everyone who needs it but thank you Marilyn I know this was so hard for you to do with everything else going on and you've done brilliantly and again we'll miss you tremendously thank you so much you guys too um so uh that has one rather major future agenda item is um finding someone to fill some pretty gigantic shoes you'd be shocked to hear them I'm on top of that um so I'm hoping there'll be some people heading your way thank you thank you so much um are there uh other future agenda items I hope nothing quite so um worth shaking Lindy well I forwarded to the rest of the board the email from Alex Robacus about the solar opportunity for the credits toward I believe it's Berlin and Eastmont failure are the only two schools that are Washington Electric co-op schools and it is a very easy um system it's very well known he's putting in a big solar array in Williamstown and has to portion those credits and he approached us and I sent it out with all the information in it and I think it would um be very smart for us to take action on this at the July 15 meeting he can be there I believe to speak to it if we need him to um it's it's a few thousand dollars a year for the schools who get the credits and that's all it is we just get and otherwise he'll go somewhere else um but he lives in the district and he would well I don't know that I just said that I don't know that's true but he wants us to take advantage of these credits and I think we should he had emailed us earlier in the year it kind of got lost and then Tony Klein called we had a very long chat as is usual with Tony Klein and then um Alex reached out with the specific in the email which I did forward to everybody so I would like that on our next um agenda thank you Lindy um is this uh Steven did you want to comment on Lindy's or did you have another one yeah no I think it's fine it's on a future agenda item but I talked to this at the last um energy situation um I strongly believe the board should not be negotiating these kind of contracts so this needs to go to whatever administrator is responsible for and we would ask that a motion um an action motion be brought to our next mode the next board meeting I don't want to sit through another session where we're negotiating with some provider on what the contract is and all that I'm not saying it's not a great idea it's just procedural so I guess Brian and Lindy if wherever that information needs to go for some administrator to evaluate it and make a recommendation we recommend that you accept this contract or you don't accept this contract then it can go on the next board meeting we get it in our packet we read about it yeah uh as Lindy said this is a great idea it's recommended by whoever uh yeah I approve it um thank you Steven you um you stole what little thunder I had to offer um the my question would be whether it could be um whether the uh Lori and the central office whoever would be involved in this would have the time to staff this for the finance committee um before it came to the board so that um that would be sort of my that does that does that fit with your understanding of how this that's how we did Robbie's thing wasn't it Flora? Yeah that's how we do Robbie's thing and then one one comment about this Lindy is that Alex did reach out to Scott early on and Scott copied us and I think we got lost is really that we've been looking at having a coordinator because there were a lot of different solar providers that were looking to doing his is a little different the way that he's explaining it now is completely different to what at the first conversation we had with him but in having um Bill Ford be part of this conversation and he felt that we didn't have the bandwidth right now it's sort of similar to what Scott is saying and so so we just need to be careful of how we task our administrators and I know that it is uh savings but it just you know make sure what our priorities are at at the moment. Um Dorothy? I'd like to be involved in whatever people meet about this I have some extensive information uh regarding it and I think I would be of benefit. Thank you Dorothy um I've taken note thanks um are we good with this show are there other um future agenda items that uh specifically if possible for July 15 Chris? Um so I would propose that we start our search for our next um business manager as soon as possible so that if possible there can be an extended overlap with Lori Bebo who knows where all the bodies are buried and she can unearth them for our new admin our new business manager. Yes sorry for bursting with laughter on a microphone um uh that's a great idea Chris. That is a serious request. I know it's a serious request yeah yeah um this is an extremely important one I completely agree um so uh are there other are there others we have um filling the middle sex an open position sadly open position middle sex we have the um energy uh solar energy uh yes and then um an overlap the succession in the business administrator position and Jonas sorry I'd just like to let us not to forget that we are also down a member in Worcester and we're down a member in Worcester thank you again for reminding me yeah this we need to we need to fix um other future agenda items or are we ready to um to say good night to each other uh sorry Brian uh yes I mean I think the other another agenda do you want to talk about the board retreat at the next uh oh yeah most definitely yes thank you excuse me Scott yes um where is that coming from this is Corinne oh I've been here all along um I just wanted to clarify I'm not I'm not positive from what I'm hearing is that we'll be at the July 15 meeting where there will be some more clarity as far as what parents can expect the fall to look like I know that I know that for some people it's going to make a difference as far as whether they're going to feel comfortable sending their kids in and I'm just wondering how much lead time they're really going to have to to grapple with what they can really expect understand thank you Corinne Brian would you like to field did I see Casey raising your hand um Casey sure thank you for the opportunity I know that the second meeting of the month is when the full administrative team is planning to join the meeting so um we also give our report at the second meeting so we have all of our five task courses are working once or twice weekly so we would be happy to give a more thorough and detailed update at the of our current thinking uh two weeks from now okay thank you Casey Diane one of the things to keep in mind is I believe um and this might be why Corinne's asking is I think August 1st is the deadline for families who want to put in a plan for homeschooling and so that I hadn't realized that until she said that how that connects with whether what we inform our families as to what the planning is and the thinking so just just to put that date out there as people are making those conversations thank you Corinne um I think Brian might actually have something to add to that yeah could I okay well I was just gonna say to me I wasn't just thinking about if people might choose to homeschool but I'm still not clear from what I'm hearing if you know I don't know whether you're looking at having all kids back at school on what we used to consider a normal schedule or if they'll be a hybrid model or what they could potentially be but I can't tell from what I'm hearing is it's really an option for a parent to keep their kid at home and not be homeschooling you know to do some type of online learning directly connected with the school as opposed to needing to move off to do either homeschooling or to another school or whatever their comfort level is right thanks Corinne Brian um has an answer I think well I don't know how to have the answer completely but I can I can tell you that uh one of the purposes today Corinne was to just let the board of that in the community know that our leadership team uh and our district team everyone is really looking at this and taking this very seriously about what the safest way is to reopen school uh there I kind of want to get away from the word the term homeschooling because that was kind of a pre-COVID-19 um term I would really move right we're out to talk about remote learning uh and and I think that's why we're also looking to develop our capacity in that area of remote learning because I know there's a gentleman in the beginning of the night who talked about um you know he doesn't want to send his kids to school because in the middle of the pandemic and you know one of the options and so one of the options that we're looking at right now is uh how many families or do not plan like sending their kids to school and how many uh how how many how many teachers do we have to assign to doing remote learning because uh I think remote learning is uh gonna have to be something as part of one of our reopening plans Brian then we're not quite understanding each other because to me there's a vast difference between remote learning and homeschooling I did homeschool some of my kids and so homeschooling to me has a different meaning than remote learning yes yes I understand that I just wanted to uh clarify that there are some people that are using it synonymously not saying that you are uh that but that the uh the idea is we really want to make sure we offer a remote learning opportunity for students so it's not necessarily a homeschooling so so we have uh I'm just making numbers up here because I don't have the numbers in front of me and I don't know what the answer what the numbers are currently but let's say if there are 30 families that don't want to uh send their kids to the school uh next year well if we can identify those and that's something that our leadership team is talking about how to go about and identifying those families who don't feel comfortable sending their kids back uh at the uh in the start at the start of the year uh well well uh make and we we should have some sort of remote learning opportunity for them that will be offered by our district okay thank you thanks for and and thank you Brian I think what this shows is that the present agenda item will also be a future agenda item so and so just quickly ask the gentleman from the beginning of the call who indicated that I want to hit it yes when I first heard this talk of homeschooling and kind of indicating hey you're going to be on your own file your paperwork with the DOE and do your own thing uh that was not appealing to me I always imagined that whatever was going to happen we'd still be a part of the regular Romney system and we don't want it to be different than that we want remote learning not homeschooling okay um David I don't know if you can see Brian raising his I turned from oh good good okay um so uh if there's no objection it's 832 we've uh overshot which I'm sure comes as a shock to everyone but um Marilyn uh very very best um thank you and Brian once again welcome may this be the start of a beautiful friendship and um everybody everybody else please have a great fourth of july weekend yes and see you next time thank you thank you for your support today thank you okay thanks very much and we adjourn at 832