 It's our reorganization meeting, so congratulations to everyone who is down on the floor. So we actually don't have brand new faces, which is nice. So the first order of business is I will take nominations for chair. Nominate the floor, yes. Second. Thank you, Jonas. Are there any other nominations? Any discussion? For the state of the discussion, I think the floor has led us very well, and I'm extremely happy to nominate her and look forward to voting for her for chair. Okay, hearing none, all those in favor? Hi. Hi. Hi. Is that it? Thank you. Any opposed? Congratulations. Thank you. I would completely concur with Jonas's description. I will turn it over to you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. It's an honor, a pleasure, and I'm delighted to be able to do this for an honor year. This a lot of work, so I can do all of that, but I love this district, and I think we have a fabulous board. And we have a few budgets, so I'm excited for this new face, and all the opportunities that we have ahead of us right now. So, very excited. Thank you for the staff and the administrators that are here with us tonight. And we're pulling, not us, not them today, so we're up. Wow, that's pretty impressive. And Lisa, thank you for your support always. Okay, so now we have to, I'll take nominations for Vice-Chair. Nominate party grabby. Any other nominations? All those in favor? Any discussion? Any discussion? Sorry. Sorry, sorry. I was going to jump in this time. I think he's done a great job in his role, and the two that worked well together. Yeah, I'm keeping party checkers for getting time to work. We appreciate it. All those in favor, please signify by saying hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Any opposed? Any abstain? Hearing none. Thank you. Now I will take nominations for Clark. I nominate Jones. Do you want to do it? It doesn't take any time. Being Clark is not a thing. We don't have to say anything nice. So Lindy and Ursula, any discussion? Thank you for taking all of our nominations. We appreciate it. We appreciate you. Plus we also do other things. We appreciate you, and we love you, Jones. Remember, is that? Okay. All those in favor, please signify by saying hi. Hi. Hi. Got it. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. Okay. So with that, moving on into our committees, first we'll have the steering committee. So we already have a member from Worcester, a member from Calis, and a member from East Montpelier. So we will need a member from Berlin, and a member from Middlesex for the steering committee. So I would nominate Ursula for the member from Middlesex. Okay. Ursula. And I think we could combine. I'll nominate Diane. Ursula and Diane. Second both. Second both by Jones. So who nominated Ursula? Chris and I said Ursula nominated Diane. And Jonah second both. Okay, we're trying to confuse you. Discussion? I think everyone's taking that out on one take. Because the steering committee takes extra time, too. I'm like raising that, and I think it helps us, you know, keep the favor representation, and also have more diversity of thought for our agenda finding. So I appreciate that work. Very helpful to me. So all those in favor, please give me a fight by saying hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Eric and your folks. We are staying during non-demotion carries. So we're moving on into the policy committee. So I would be looking for three members, so point three members to the policy committee. For the three current members, and they want to continue serving. You're going to do it? Yeah. And I'm going to start with Jonathan and Natasha. I nominate Chris, Jonathan and Natasha. Second. Chris, Jonathan, and Natasha. And Joe. And Chris, Jonathan, and Natasha. Okay, that's okay. Seconded, sorry. All those in favor, please give them a fight by saying hi. Hi. Hi. But. Any of both. Hearing none, the motion carries. Thank you for submitting to an important work. Now to the negotiation. We currently have four members of that community. Yeah, and that's okay. We need a minimum. It says three because that's the minimum that we need, but we can have as many as long as people are willing to serve. I nominate Joshua, Diane, and Kristen. And you're saying? Oh, and I nominate Jonas. No. I don't know. Don't take any more. Sorry, can you get that? Did someone second it? Who seconded it? I'll second it. Okay maybe, he's seconded it. Cole, those in favor, please signify by signifying. Aye. Aye. Aye. It's not there, it's not there. Thank you. So let me say that in the negotiations, Jonas has been doing a masterful job of facilitating. And I think we've truly done a good report with both groups. It's really been a really wonderful experience, I think, this time going around. We're not at a contract yet, but maybe you still have to go there. But I think it's been a good working relationship and it's a significant part of that. Thank you, Chris. As does Norm with the food. As does Norm with the food, because it's always a surprise. Oh, Norm, yes, yes. I would follow up on that by saying that I've been on Diane quite a bit, so I appreciate that. And I think the entire board appreciates all of what you guys are doing, because it's a lot of work. So thank you, Joshua, for jumping in and for holding into that work. I'm afraid to call her. And your respondent. Yes, so thanks again for answering Diane. Those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed, or should carries. Okay, the most exciting committee, Education Quality Committee, which, can I say, that Ursula is willing to lead with the support of Carrie. We talked about this, and so, you know, we need a few more members, and I know that we always have, like, half the board on this committee. So just raise your hand if you're willing to be in this committee and we'll nominate one. I nominate Ursula, Michalin, Diane, Natasha, Lindy, Carrie, and Daniel. Thank you very much. We got that. Sorry. So I have that, the generous nominated Ursula, Michalin, Diane, Natasha, Lindy, Carrie, and Daniel and Flor. Yes. And are you designating Ursula as chair? They can make it do it, but we just wanted to clarify that too. Yeah. They can make it a little more organized. Yeah, who's second? Natasha. Oh, wait, I can't. No, wait. I don't think that's OK. Can I second? No, of course. That's the first thing you do, guys. Hey, that's the first thing you do, guys. Any discussion? So it's thanking you, Kari. This is a lot of work. Kari and Jan, too. Thank you, Ursula. Really. And Ursula, thank you for volunteering to do this. I promise a mentorship, so I'm going to hold you today. It's the most exciting work as far as. Thank you. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Can you pose? Bring on the motion. Carries. At least exciting, but very exciting. Finance committee. So I'm wondering, Daniel and Kari and Eric, who's on the phone, are you guys still willing to serve in that committee? And I know you would be in an hour. You would take your hiatus right now and then come back. After budget. After budget, yeah. So I will be there. Oh, wait, sorry, yes. You, too. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Joshua, you want to nominate this committee? Or you want to be on that? Oh, I'm joining. You join? OK. So I'm looking for somebody that actually want to nominate this committee. Sure. So it was Joshua Ursula and Daniel and Kari and Eric. And Eric Moore and Eric. I think we can make it more second than I can. What was the committee? The Finance Committee, which is the biggest that has been so far so well. So sorry, Natasha nominated Josh, Ursula, Daniel, Kari, Moore, and Eric. Yes. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. OK. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion is adjourned. OK. So they appoint a board representative to Central Vermont Carrier Center. As you guys know, we don't have a wrap anymore. We have an actual board member on that board. As in the board member on that board. I'm going to continue, but if there's somebody else that is really set and commit the time, that is OK, too. It's that they meet on Mondays, 6 to 8. You will meet the finance committee, too. And so they nominate Floor. I'm just going to give you a second. So we're nominating you as the district director rather than a representative? So it says, yeah, school board member, director. Yeah, you're right. The director is the right term. So we have six directors. It's really a really good thing because not a big fan of this. If I'm happy to serve one more year, I will love for somebody to potentially feel this role next year. So if you want to think about it or come to some meetings, it will be great. I love both the Carrier Center and Jody. It's a great organization. Steven helps Megan as part of that, too. It's really important for all our kids. So all those in favor, could signify by saying hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Can you pose? Hearing none, the motion carries. OK. Now we have you guys have your agenda in front of you, too. So I don't think I have to go through what the grant means, but we're looking to nominate our grant officers for the district. So should I read them aloud, or is somebody prepared to make this motion? I can read them aloud because we're doing it as a slate. As a slate, yes. I nominate the following as truant officers for the school district. For Berlin, Aaron Boydham, Kallus, Kat Fair, Worcester, Gillian Fouqua, Middlesex, Caroline May, East Welfillier, Alicia Leifert. Who did you nominate for U-32? I mean, J.B. Hoverty. Thank you. And for U-32, J.B. Hoverty. I was going to post it. I'll let him know he was nominating us. What do you guys want to be in here? OK. Do you have a second? Second. OK. You guys decide who's going to have it. Michael, I know where to join us. Definitely. OK. OK. OK. OK. Any discussion? We need discussion on this board, some of them. Any discussion? Thank you, everybody. So all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. So now we get into all the phone. OK. So we need to establish our meeting schedule. So hopefully everybody is OK with staying with the first and third Wednesday of the month, the first Wednesday being where we do either professional development for board, community engagement, or strategic planning as we get more and more engaged in that process. Do we have kind of a nomination, or do we just, unless somebody dissents, does that have to be a motion? I think it just has to do with everybody more. Doesn't, as many of you heard, you do a motion to keep it. I do have a question, though, about if we're splitting the first one between community engagement and strategic planning. I don't think that's enough time for strategic planning. So I don't know. So that's what that reads as. So I don't know if that's what you mean it as. So I was just saying that the first Wednesday could be anything, basically. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a board meeting. So we could be just doing community engagement, which, at this point, we're probably going to do all our community engagement through the strategic planning, maybe? Yeah, and I would also add that I think that when the Strategic Planning Steering Committee convenes to develop a plan, the four of us associated with board meetings are one method of engagement in the community, but won't be the only ones. And so I don't think that there's an intention to limit it to those. I think it's just, conceptually, it is the structure of the first meeting being more public-facing presentation engagement and the second meeting being more business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keeping that first Wednesday flexible, so if we do need to use a first strategic planning or any discussion we could. Or go more exactly to that, that would be great. So could I have a motion? Or so let's say. I move that we use our current meeting scheduled the first and third Wednesday of each month, the first meeting to be forum or board development or strategic planning. Second. Pre-second. All those in favor, be signified by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. OK. And then this one, we don't necessarily need a motion, but we could also do a motion that we agree that we're going to use Robert rules as we've been in the past. Small boards in NWR are a pretty big board. So we would keep operating in the things that we name on the Robert rules. Everybody OK with that? Yeah. We don't need a motion just to have them clear that. We have the small board rules, right? Or we use the combination because we are a little bigger than all, but yeah. We want to adopt our board norms, which are part of your packet, that we, again, we adjourn back in 2022. But they're out of the top on page three. And we will look at them again at our retreat. So we want to continue to operate under the norms that we established back in 2020. We're using, again, 2022 right now. So I would be looking for a option to adopt the rules. Yeah. I move to adopt the board norms that were adopted in 2021. Second. Just say it. Yeah, adopt our board norms. So second, move by Ursula, second by Chris. Any more discussion? All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. OK. Update. Thank you. And then if I community practices, a communication practices, so that was just for information. We got into it, but I'm assuming you guys are OK with that. That's the way that we've been operating right now. Yes. Mm-hmm. OK. Here's schedule our annual work session. Holly, as we treat, do you want to talk about it a little bit? We have two proposals. Yep. I also just, I'm realizing, we can just get to this when we jumped to board orientation and operations. That might just be where the agenda was organized. Which I think is fine. That should be good. Going? That should be good. If the student's OK with that, or did you guys add on to my side? I just felt like we knew. OK. It's really organized instead of breaking it up. And I should have asked you guys first, but that was OK. So we were having a conversation about figuring out a way to structure a retreat so that we have the leadership team should be part of it, particularly for the reflection on the year, state of the schools, and thinking more thoughtfully about how we want to engage with them as part of these meetings for the rest of the coming year. So that could look like a full day retreat where they join us for a portion of it. And then, or it could look like two separate shorter retreats where they join the first one and the second one is really more focused on affirming board goals, getting down a grain size, board work plan, things like that. And I think we had talked possibly about we have a June board meeting slated in the schedule for June 21, which we should make sure that that works for us because it's after school, that's out. The thought would be that we could use that time, extend it a little bit, perhaps have them together, and have the leadership team join that one. And then the typically scheduled August one would be just the board. The other possibility would be to look for a full day in August. And there is also time to do that. So those were the thoughts. Yeah, that was the idea. So June 21, even if it's not June 21, use that last board meeting to partner with them and then still have a board retreat where we could get more in-depth into our goals, the 7th or the 8th of August. We've been typically doing it the second week of August. But we also that could change. I know that it doesn't work for everybody. I think it would be nice if it was just the thought, if we decided this year that whatever we always do at the second week of August, because then we can all plan our families and stuff around it. I mean, we now need a retreat. It's nice to start the year with a retreat. And it's nice for us to be able to have July off, although we're not going to have totally July off because we might be doing some strategic planning. But don't get too excited. But it would be nice to continue. And I know not everybody was able to join the last board retreat. But. So I have kind of. Yes, discussion. June 21 is the summer solstice. And we had a meeting on the winter solstice. So my family celebrates the summer solstice. So I probably wouldn't be able to make something on the 21st. And similarly, the second week in August is a week. Pretty much are always away. So which is fine. But my proposal would be to do it closer to the beginning of school. But I know that gets hard for the administrators, because I think you guys probably start sooner than the students. But now students start Wednesday. If we were splitting it in two in the first half that they were part of was tagged to the end of the school year, then that would matter less. If it was closer to them. Do you think it would make what would be more beneficial, like meeting just after the school is completed and sort of have that immediately fresh? Or reflect and think about plans for the upcoming after it has been a break? I don't know. It's funny, this conversation, the leadership team has this very conversation as it relates to our retreat and when we're in the right frame of mind. And we also, similarly, although it's the same group of people at both retreats, which is different, we tag our end of year one closer to the end of the year. Use that for reflection, looking back. What did we accomplish? We set these goals. How did we do? Then we let some time span. That's kind of the processing time. And then the one that's closer to the school year, for us is future planning. So this is kind of the same. It's the same thing. And I mean, that structure seems to work, I think. For us, we can't have it too late into August because the ship has sailed for planning by then. But that's a little bit different than the board. So we could have that one later in other students. And then we could look at, we could send that to Paul. Everybody will respond to it. And it's for June. I'm trying to just go into the calendar right now and see. We were scheduled for that June 21st. The only other, we could do it on June 7th. Do that retreat with, I don't know if that's too early because we wouldn't necessarily have to have a community engagement that, so it's usually not our work. So we could do dinner and go towards the end of the meeting. And maybe our business meeting is short and just have that one meeting in June. And we can get a little closer on the work plan and see if we need an extra, or yes. Well, I'm looking a little bit, particularly, if it were the 14th, that would be very difficult because that's two days before graduation. Is the seventh, I'm putting these folks here on the spot, is the seventh feasible for leadership? Steven, that's the only principal here. And Central Office folks. June 7th feasible, right there. June 7th. Yeah. That's a little old. That's a little old. That's a little old. That's a little old. That's a little old. Sorry, I didn't preview that. Yeah. We were talking about the 21st, actually. Yeah. Which was feasible. Are we talking about just the evening part? Yeah, just the evening part. Oh. Yeah. Just like you don't have anything else to talk about. It's not a busy time. It's not a busy time. Yeah. There's nothing going on. Nothing going on. Yeah. I mean, there is the tricky part with that week. Elementary principals, elementary, all of the buildings have whatever the various end of year celebrations are. And some of them are scheduled now, and some of them are not. So I can't guarantee that they don't have in their heads that week, year marked for the various things. But that would be the challenge. I would say that's not likely to be a night for most of those events as a Wednesday night with the following week available as well. But we would need to get this on the calendar to make sure. Fast. Okay. That's helpful. And we don't need that motion right into this. We just wanted to bring it up so that people could put it on the radar and we can send a safer date, at least. I've probably saved it in your calendar. Oh, that's true. We have it. Yeah, yeah. I think that's a better night for the board meeting than the 21st. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. I would suggest that we keep the 21st on the books because we may need to approve CVAs. Okay. Instead of being a retreat, it would be a business meeting. Yes. Okay. I wanted to add that I liked the idea of, like, coming up with a time frame that we can all agree on. Pick a week in August that we're going to do the retreat every year so there's nothing around it. Yeah, we can talk about that at the retreat, too, but it would be great. Well, I think if we wait until June to plan something in August, I look that second week is the only week that I have without any kind of work or school or anything. The second week of August. Okay. So why don't we pencil in the second week of August and then we'd figure it out. Sorry. We'll figure it out. I'll be in Acadia. I was saying the same. Oh, you were saying that. I thought you were saying that was the only week. I was saying that's the only week that I have, like, for family and no mother would come in touch. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I totally read. I was in the same boat when I was in my calendar that next week, even though things start, they're more spotty. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I totally misunderstood what you were saying. I'm so sorry. So the week of the 14th is why you're something. That would be better to me. Third. And because it does not involve the leadership team, this far in advance, that's fine. So in theory, for August, we would have locked the point. The second week is the 7th. Never mind. I'm only in the week of the 14th. Sorry. Sorry. I think now is the second week. Are we playing floor, like, the second and the 16th would have already been booked as board meetings, and so we could just use, say, the 16th as a one. I was like, we were just going to start the year. I don't know, like, the fourth matters for us. Yeah. Is there a way that we can just send around and take a poll? There you go. I mean, yeah. Definitely. I'm trying to adjust. Okay. And we'll send several. It doesn't necessarily have to be on a Wednesday. And it would have to be at least a half a day. Okay. Okay. June 7th. And they're unlocking it and everybody's down there. Yes. Yeah. So then the next one, we do want to have a motion for, and that would be where we post our agendas. So at each elementary school, in our website, and at each town park, is what we've been doing. Right? I move that you post meeting agendas in each school on the district website and in each town office. Okay. Thank you. A second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Go ahead. That's under the line. Any opposed? Hearing none, I have it. I should carry it. The posting our minutes, also a motion because that's part of the opening law. So could I have a motion? I'll make a motion that we post our minutes at the WCVUSD website. Second. Thank you. So Lindy and Chris, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Thank you. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries. We need to designate a newspaper record. I move that we designate the Times-Argers as our newspaper record. Thank you, Ursula. A second. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. So we need to designate a voting member for the health insurance. You can read the whole thing for the book. We need to send this name by April 1st in the past we have designated Ursula. What? This is the one. So anybody that is going to go to the conference you know I'm happy to do it but I'm already on the BSVA so it might be a great opportunity for somebody else to go to the conference. Yeah, so it happens this second day but we might not have to read by this year but we still need to send it. We still need to send a representative. Does anybody really to nominate Ursula? I will nominate Ursula. Our voting delegate for state by health insurance. Thank you, Lindy. And you second at Diana's. Thank you. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Very none. The motion carries. The rest I have is here. I don't want to get into the weeds of this one. It's just the code of ethics. If you are willing and want to sign it and give it back to us, that's great. If you have any concerns that's what I do. I'm going to pass it both ways. Actually, it should be quite to me. Just give it to me at the end of the meeting. Any... Any other questions? Yeah. Any discussion? I'm happy to have discussion if you guys want to say anything about it. Sorry. Is there a reason why there's not a title on the page? I don't know. It might have been a copy-paste issue. Maybe it should be... I don't know. Maybe it's just... I must have it. Maybe I've got it cut up for the header. But it's... Is there a reason that he did it in the packet? Yeah. You're just adopting the code of ethics. You can read through the document. It's not a title. I must have cut it up when I put the header. But it's... And then the last part is that there's some... for development information link to open meeting law. It's always good to have a refresher if you want to do that. And the toolkit from the essential work and there's going to be May 8th and May 15th the first year journey. You guys were not able to do it last year every first timers. It's always good as a refresher too and it's all... And then we're working on our board manual and we hope to unveil to you guys our retreat. Yeah. And that was... That was it. So then we can move into our four students that are just ready for... So any adjustments to the agenda? We're just going to remove that personnel. We don't have any personnel so we're going to have to remove that. I looked for it. I know. I'm going to take your action. And then I don't see any members of the public. Thank you again, the staff for being here. Thank you, Mark, for running our... Oh, we do have. So welcome members of the public. Any public comments? Can you guys hear me? They must. Can hear you? No comments. Thank you, David. Great. Okay. Thank you, David, for being here and all of the members of the public. So I just wanted that the Middlesex community had the pie breakfast again for the first time in like three years on Saturday and it was a stunning turn out and really enjoyable to see. I hadn't seen young kids in a really long time and it was really wonderful to see the community come out and engage and, you know, it involves a lot of hard work. I think it was the spearhead this year and volunteers come in they make the pies and then serve and clean up and it was just a really delightful event and I'm glad that it's kind of opening up. It's a rejuvenation in a way in springtime. Thank you for those comments. And I think a lot of our towns had the lunch, not the time meeting but the lunch and that was really well attended too. Okay. So since we don't have any public comments finally to the stars of our why we're here the floor is yours. All right. Well, I just wanted to say that I went to the pie breakfast and I helped serve and then come back to my elementary school in many years. Yeah. I miss the pie breakfast I'm a little sad. I love the pie breakfast. Okay. So our boys hockey won it was an insane game. Like, I've never had some M more exciting myself game. We were losing for the entire game we were tied at one point and then at the last two seconds Ty Ross Masler scored the tying goal tie-tied and then the second overtime we scored again and everyone was there and the four and the nine was there so it was really exciting. It was good. The team deserved it. They're really, really good. So it was a really good time and everyone was really happy with it. Everyone got home safe. Yeah. Everyone was really tired tonight. But it was good. It was a good night. Yeah, it definitely raised the school's spirit. You can have a ceiling and it reads the next day. Also through sports we had indoor traffic in this year. Boys got fourth in the state and girls got third temperature in division two. So to finish up our winter sports we always have a sports banquet at Monday night. It was really nice. The coaches went up and they gave speeches for their teams and Caitlin Fielder and Sarge Burns got the principal's award and they're really good athletes. That makes sense. It was good. Also it's the time of the year where college acceptances are coming in. So a lot of people are here in the back and it's really cool to see where people are going actually. And then finally this weekend we are doing Spring Fling so it is our school Harwood in Montpelier and everyone's going to I think a place in Montpelier, I don't think it's the school and apparently our school is leading in numbers to going which is great. So it will be a fun night and it's high school only so if the high schoolers tell them to go it will be fun Also a few last things SSJ, the Seeking Social Justice next week we are touring to Berlin Elementary to talk to them about LGBTQ education and awareness. We got teachers asking for us to go after presenting to the district like a month ago and we're also going to all the other elementary schools hopefully by the end of the year. We're also presenting at the Education Justice Coalition conference this year which is April 1st it's going to be about over 200 people there I think we're just presenting to a small group but that's also exciting and finally not finally but something after but we have the performance of Pippin coming up April 13th, 14th and 15th if any animals are going to see it's going to be super hard I'm stage managing this year it's been super fun so finally we the student body was introduced to the YES program and that's the year end study program that's happening in the year 32 so the last four days four days students are signing up right now a program that they're interested they can get some grades from it credits that if they need it or just finding a passion with something different so it should be good because normally the last four days of school it's hard to be in class so it should be fun and a lot of kids are excited for it teachers are presenting on things that they're interested in we have Oregoni, we're law-growing or African films etc so it should be cool that's wonderful I have just a definition of what is the school's length oh it's a dance sorry it's a dance it's a dance so it should be fun yeah it's a dance it's like the crystal ball it seems to me any more questions I'll see you on April 1st from presenting to you I did see that actually about school boards right well thank you for the student report that's super exciting the hockey game I don't know if you guys have noticed the star here all of the hockey seniors had a particular hair color that joined into getting his hair dyed pretty cool and I have never been I have never been I have never been to a hockey game I was totally naive Willow tried to warn me about what happens when they score team scores I survived the game and Steven rescued me from being completely slashed but really we were crushing against the glass we found you coming we didn't even spot for you I don't know if I could put the elbows so I could go under but it was super fun congratulations to the team it was amazing as a great group of kids one of our principals also, our son, Nolan was on the team too it was pretty exciting I heard from somebody outside the area that the sportsmanship was amazing at the end of the game the hugging and the congratulating and the people said they were very impressed the MMU was and it was really one of the best that I've seen just in terms of the fans and the behavior it was what we want in all of the games and it was so great to see it in that game and that's a lot for the hockey team it is we're not afraid to say something to each other it was really nice to see it's so loud I'm like a little more daft than I was some cold reports any highlights the two things that I'm highlighting are actually for us to talk about which is just sort of an update on the mascot review and talking about strategic planning so maybe I'll just hold those until we move down to that yeah that's good I'm happy to answer questions if there are other questions but those are the two things any questions so when does the status on have any response to the request that they put up the hearing so we have that as a separate we're going there that's okay we'll discuss that then any other questions about the cold report thank you that's really informative okay so moving right on the Central Vermont Career Center our budget passed to we're supposed to reorganize last Wednesday but all of the boards were last Monday but all of the boards are meeting at different times so we're not able to because we have 20 members so we're not able to reorganize until the 21st but it was we had over 7,000 votes it was really it was a big show four 18 towns and small towns it was really great and a great support and BSEA update is mainly what I put in your board development those are most of them part of which I want to need to take away it's never a bad time to take a class even if you had taken a class before and it works up for the first year of Germany is so informative and there's a link there to all of the webinars archives too as far as that that's the only thing I wanted to highlight moving on to board operations and for so the only thing that I didn't have in and then conversations but I don't know I also feel here so I don't know if you want to switch to that first yeah so if the if the board is okay we want to switch until 17 so we want to make good usage of time with us so we could jump in and do that be brief and then do the last two items that we had and then we have executive session for other things okay yeah and the consent they didn't have but we can do that before we go to executive session so welcome Phil thank you for joining us and there's some food there when we're done we can have some and there's some sodas and water right back there too if I get dry somebody in the talk maybe give me a water so this is my last scheduled session with the board here in the state of Vermont I just had a presentation with another board a lot of our emphasis and conversations this week are geared toward new board members and so congratulations to the recently re-elected board members I don't see any new faces but several of you just won unanimously we got the most votes I'm sure somebody counted that I'm sure it was me okay I'm not shy at all I wanted to take the opportunity just to talk about board processes and this is an area that's been sort of growing in my awareness concern as an opportunity when I was a board member there's a lot of things to be frustrated about and there's just no end of you want to solve the problems of the world you can't solve anything or I read something in the Wall Street Journal years ago the politician boasts I'm going to change the world and the garage mechanic sneers he can't even change a tire so it's all a matter of perspective what do we want to accomplish and one thing I really encourage all board members anywhere think about what do you want to accomplish we use the word so-and-so had an agenda it's a bad thing but if you're on a board and there's nothing you want to see improve your growth or progress what's the point think about what is it individually I would encourage you as you have retreats in the future set aside some time to talk through here's what I'd really like to see us accomplish and get to those kind of shared opportunities for doing good work together just a few minutes ago I texted an article to the floor that she can share or have Meg share with the whole board it's by the executive director of the Panasonic Foundation so a philanthropic group that years ago took on the endeavor of trying to help support school boards across the US and intriguingly chapter nine and improving school board effectiveness I didn't at the time feel like it was a very strong chapter but I actually have come to appreciate their work and you'll see in that article that she shares that there's probably some things to think about and they might even be a resource that you would consider for your school board and other endeavors that you're involved in so I'd encourage you to give that a little bit of thought we've in draft governance standards that Vermont is adopting this summer they're in the rule making process right now one of the three main pillars in those governance standards is board processes for governance processes again when I got out of school board I was frustrated like can't we do this can't we do that it's like a process you've got to have a process for getting a new policy and sometimes a third reading or just about anything else you want to talk about something you've got to have a process to get it on the agenda and then you've got to bring it on to the agenda is it for discussion is it for decision there's just a process for everything and I don't know about all of you but in my personal life and work I like to make decisions let's move forward let's have some progress so the process thing something initially as a board member I was really frustrated with but over time I realized how important it was to have processes in place and something that stood out to me just recently and I know this is in those draft governance standards but if somebody in the community whether it's a staff member or a community member says well you never know what to expect from this board that's not a compliment I mean there are people that sort of think a group should always be random and all over the place like Phil is but most people they kind of want things to be predictable and to get the community engaged they have to know where can I enter what can I contribute so I thought we'd take a few minutes to talk about your recent budget adoption process congratulations by the way 71% 60 oh jeez I thought it was at least 70 maybe you have some hidden votes that we haven't seen yet all of my neighbors voted yes that's certainly a risk in today's political climate everybody I know doesn't include everyone but just thinking about the process and you'd have to tell me like when you started last fall setting parameters how you used a committee as you reflect we're going to get there hopefully within 15 minutes when you reflect what went well what didn't go well maybe what did you learn what would you suggest to your current board and or another board 5 or 10 years from now or a neighboring district that didn't pass by 60 some percent said how do you do it right what advice might you give to them so help me out here because I don't know what I don't know but let's talk about the process a little bit what did happen somebody walked me through a timeline anybody especially the committee that was asked for that how does the process of setting a budget or proposing a budget how did that get started first of all thanks I want to say we started in September or October nope I want to say August or September talking about just our budget calendar and I'm going to get the month from possibly September we did a board training on how budgeting in Vermont works and how education and finance works we follow that and we share our calendar pretty much in every meeting every step of the way we've been sharing our calendar of what we do and so we had an initial community forum meeting for we wanted the community to come talk to us about what they wanted to add somebody might have to jump in and say what we shared with them because I thought we shared some of our just limiting factors potentially the data some numbers enrollment the areas of focus very general like numbers got their input so monthly we were having community input and then November was the first draft finance committee established draft groups right so right the finance committee that established parameters that we recommended to the board and then at the next meeting the board heard those and was able to or so are you on the finance committee okay so that's all but what I've got here and this is correct me if I'm wrong at the start of the school year you began to talk about a timeline and a calendar for the budget you had a training on the budget and then you started doing monthly community forums to get input from the community about what's most important to them right and concurrent with that I would say is the administration and the finance committee right finance committee set parameters the board talked about and approved those October late October first draft came from admin from the leadership team in November for us to discuss okay goes to finance committee then comes to the full board finance committee gets to look at it so process wise does the finance committee make a recommendation to the board is that how it comes we have yet so we look at it we digest it we have enough conversations and then we can make a recommendation to the board and they can take it or leave it I got right because it's not us telling them exactly what to do it's a discussion but we can guide them you've had more time with more information on the budget maybe than someone not on the finance committee right because we get to have that extra meeting this was a very unusual I mean we've never gone beyond a parameter I mean usually and usually our parameters are like 2-3% and this parameter was higher and then even then when we were looking at it the board really discussed it talked about it and by vote went over that parameter I think I was in the virtual meeting in December maybe conversation there was a lot of outreach to the community a lot of community input and even adding on meetings into January to solicit community input because of the the difficulties that we were having in terms of just coming to an agreement on what the budget should be and the importance of what the budget was what was being proposed so there was a significant amount of community turnout I think in this process which I thought was helpful so I'm curious when you say outreach did the board as a whole kind of have an outreach plan or did the individual board members reach out to their networks I saw stuff on front porch forum but other than that I hope you know I can't answer that I think it was more about front porch forum they may have individual efforts people using networks to come out to ask people to come participate in the meetings anything else if we were just like an observer what happened from August into August and March budget wise so the administration prepares a draft budget presents it to the finance community finance community says you know yes it brings it to the board and we make suggestions on the presentation as well because we're able to review the presentation that's going to come to the board and we can talk about things that we think might be more important to focus on or information that we want to see at the board meeting potentially that we think people might need to understand did the finance committee make any actual like recommended changes to the draft or just changes in how it's presented changes to how it's presented I mean they're not major I think leadership team does a really good job putting together their presentation and then we came off with after the first draft came we came with recommendations for like draft two like what we would like to see in draft two which was like what percentage of increase we would like to see while still maintaining these very specific pillars that we had set out which was student achievement, health and safety and you might adjust so just so I know and so I like trying to kind of anchor the relevance of all this your board does a lot of work by committee right there's there's a finance committee a quality committee that quality and then we have a negotiations committee that also have policy committee how do we bring to the board to bring to the board so in essence is to advance the work of the of the board so we so that we can do some of that work without making a decision for the board so then we bring it to the board in order to have a bigger discussion but the work of the committee is also significant right so does the recommendations of the committee are not like just we take time like the negotiations committee takes a lot of time they're not filling the finance committee, the quality committee so the board thinks it's serious right doesn't mean that we have to rubber stamp it but we should still still ask questions and this year that was a little bit different than in previous years Ursula well I was just going to jump in like a good example so really big bulk of work of like reviewing the policies are they still relevant do they meet our needs are they doing what they need to do do they need to be rewritten and do a bulk of that work and have really big conversations around that and they bring it to us but then we can still have conversations and ask questions that might send it back that's really excellent part of the process is the board has in terms of the policies just question things sometimes for the first time but just raising really significant points until there's a you know it's an ongoing changing process until the board satisfied with what the policy is then they go do all of your committees finance and all of them do they have a clear written charge this is what this committee does it might be it might be an area to work on I mean seriously if you're going to have any committee even if it's a standing committee or ad hoc whatever its purpose is it should be written somewhere this is what this committee does otherwise you get scope creeped where you started out here but all of a sudden you're solving the ferry tax problem from Canada it's interesting how those things can just grow into something off-base I haven't seen anything like that you know maybe if you get people on your board that aren't as rational as you you know it's one of those things might be a healthy process just have clear charge I think we've had a good as I've turned over as I've been major so each of these committees have had some legacy in there to help lead and people have stepped up to that so when let's say I went on the policy Chris could take you along what it is about these policies and I could question as a newbie on if it's already been approved why are we doing all this and we get that information and I think that's why we haven't because we've had that kind of continuation even as we merge our boards were not brand new so there's been continuity and new which is good I look at what the work is that we've done on the Equality Committee which is like every year we review our goal for the committee which isn't specifically a charge but we ask is it relevant is it what we need to do right now that's really helpful we create a new or update the goal as needed that sort of consistent reflection as we discussed the budgets was present you know I'm thinking about all those bulleted points of creativity and then how that intersects with the Venn Dye or the emerging circles of you said and how that all intersected with the different versions of the budget and then what we heard from the community so it seemed like there were a lot of different things to consider that may be during each things at least in my opinion that were reviewed as we discussed each like those bullets like how does this affect these bullets right just as a matter of process like if we're talking about like you know just like outside of this sort of policy that we were talking about it seemed to me that we voted on these things to consider or charge the leadership with that maybe it was missing every time we talked about like okay what is this budget and how does it fit into these points within these pillars I think we tried to get there at the last vote you know which was like oh like we should have been doing this the whole time like that sort of like I think on the flip side we have to trust the committee right and that the communities work with the leadership right to make sure that you know education quality right and performance are addressed right from the humanity and justice are addressed I agree how many people are on the finance committee four five four well five five five five and I think to what Joshua was just saying it's like we have both the community and also we have charged our leadership team with coming back to us so we you know we have to balance our informed decisions right and that was and that was hard I doubt this yeah that would be totally honest I haven't said you know something different to the board right like that that was to me felt unbalanced this year because we had a bigger show of of a particular community because it was not a diverse portion of our community but they they were a part of the meeting and we were kind of in some ways buying ourselves a year but we we had a lot of input from our staff in how to get into those parameters that we had asked them to look at and just you know just trying to add into what John said so we we were able to do more reflections about the last meeting and saying you know and any budget like we could have been into so we tried to debrief you are voting yes in this in this categories right this this equitable and we had a discussion a more organized in some ways discussion about how the budget fit into what we were trying to do but hearing what you both are saying makes me think that we might want to reflect in how we every time we have a budget discussion maybe bring up where there is the parameters or the pillars to make sure that we are responding to both the voice of the community the voice of the staff and an hour informed decision so I don't know checking like in your book you would always say don't make a temperature decision right make an informed decision right I hear you saying several different things but initially I think I heard you alluding to you know you've got the professional recommendations of staff and then you've got community based concerns preferences and how does the board balance that that's one issue well and not only how does it balance it but how do we elicit a broad spectrum input from the beginning because I have to a little bit disagree with some of what's been said I feel most of the community input was at the end when a lot of work had already gone into it and people were forced with some loss of some things they weren't happy about it was great to see them come out at that point but it was better to see them come out in June or whatever you know that first community forum we had I think we had two or three community members show up to talk about what their priorities were for the budget and similarly with some feedback I got from staff towards the end of the budget when there was a lot of the budget process when there was a lot of fear just people feeling like they there was a sense of a lack of transparency where really it was just that maybe missed opportunity to involve people earlier on in the discussion so I think our big task with this coming year will be how do we really get a lot of input from all groups in the beginning and it's a challenge for all of public education for boards, for the school system for individual schools, how do we engage involve the community in a proactive you know supportive way so I'm curious when community didn't come out at first but they came out at the end or toward the end I think I heard you use the word fear so emotional things draw people out cuts right, it was reactive it became personal it becomes the strong feelings it also becomes informative because they only knew what the budget would be and what the result potential impact would be later in the process so you know there's lack of information in terms of what these reduction what these increased because there were always increases but no matter how much how they would impact the community and the school so not having that it's kind of like you know talking more in strokes and we don't know what this means for going forward so at that point people did come out and they said oh this looks like it's going to be cuts for staffing and things like that so that is what caught community members attention because they didn't have that information it's not like that was known from the beginning and people just ignored it so the process in terms of divine what the budget is going to do in real time you know if we could get that early the community support or the community participation would be out earlier we'd have a fuller discussion about whether that's the way we want to go to me it's not about balancing as much as you're filling in the picture so you know there wasn't nobody was holding back any information it's one of these things that just takes a while to develop and then when there was input from different communities to me I wasn't necessarily swayed by the argument it just opened up another door to me of thinking about okay here's another piece of this puzzle so here are these different puzzle pieces and how am I putting them together because perceptions of everyone involved in the process was different and so I'm not in the thick of it I need all the different information so to me it's tricky because there's so much work that schools are doing and have to be doing that to be able to give this wide open time to figuring out a budget is next to impossible so it's really about again starting those conversations earlier having those real grounding parts but then also having the dialogue and the discussion of what does it mean it would be great like in one sense if you could threaten cuts in July and then everybody would jump out but it certainly wouldn't look like that so I appreciate your analogy that as the picture gets filled in then people are like oh I didn't realize it was my program or my thing personally I was going to say it's about us trying to find a very use of the word proactive way to get people to come and talk to us because we did start at the beginning with these budget parameters that we knew dropping enrollment the fact that inflation was very high that it cost to increase and that we were dealing with really tough times we said it at every single meeting several meetings were very unattended and people didn't come out until they heard inflammatory marks essentially that affected them personally and they come and they share their emotionally charged opinion the concern I have for all of public education in the U.S. right now is that Meg knows a lot more about this than I do the details the drying up of federal so we've got these compounded effects of the pandemic and other social unrest as a nation and then on top of that there was this huge infusion of cash that runs out someday that I think the current problem with congress is going to stop the press so then what will districts like yours with declining enrollment how will that compound the problem in the next year budget and the budget after that yeah I mean there are a couple of pieces that are that we haven't discussed one is that the administration could not meet our parameters right they came and flat out told us we can't do this and maintain quality standards unless we change the structure of the district that's when the conversation changed and that's when we ended up with dueling budgets right one that came as close to those parameters as we could with those changes that that they could do and the other was change essentially level service and that's where the conversation on the board got really interesting about what we do but I think that not necessarily a black swan but that is extremely rare I have not been on other boards but those of you who have administration or principal or superintendent ever come and said we can't meet your parameters we just can't do it and maintain quality that's something to say right we're going to ask for this we want it to be increased only this amount but keep in mind our academic achievement is like safe and healthy schools of the human being justice and so get as close as you possibly can Kari I didn't want to stop you so I just want to say I thought in a lot of ways it was a very well run process that I agreed with a lot to community and put both in terms of meeting time and number of meetings and the whole setup was really good and the administration did a really good job responding to what we asked one thing that I've always felt but I really felt at this time was the lack of a multi-year context you were kind of hinting at that in business we would always want to know what's the 2-3 year outlook both in terms of the plan and the budget so we know the decisions that we're making this year how they may affect us down the road both in terms of the quality and in terms of the budget and in fact my biggest concern with this budget is that we just set ourselves up for very difficult next year and years after that and I don't know how exactly to deal with that but the strategic planning is intended at least in part so that we have a sense that when it gets tough this is what we agreed to we're going to make tough decisions but we know what the context is in that sense and the other thing that we did this year that was a little novel was we set up a parameter in the spring and Megan mentioned we could do more of that in some ways the strategic plan may fulfill that but there's nothing stopping us from moving on these are the real parameters these are the things that we're going to expect next year and probably the year after that and that could help us when it gets difficult in December and January because that's inevitable we're facing reductions we're always going to get staff come out and we're always going to get the parents that perceive that they're most effective that's just going to happen and having that conversation or to have a shared understanding shared expectations I'm really curious the rest of our time together follow up with this line of thought what would improvement look like for this next budget cycle it'll be here before you know it it's like you finish one and you move right into the next one so in the guise of maybe lessons learned or just professional reflection as a board what might you do differently this next year or what are some things that you would like to consider and talk about as a team for just process improvement and we'll look and jump in I was waiting for it I saw you on edge you received it any thoughts on that what would improvement look like the feedback we were getting so in one of the reasons why statements were made repeatedly that we need to start the planning now we need to start those hard conversations now no one was denying that this next year is going to be even rougher but the sense was that we needed to with the challenges and it was a timing challenge that we could not flesh out completely what those changes would look like you can't always completely flesh it out but there were some questions that would be asked that couldn't be answered so we have said repeatedly our hope is the strategic plan and that conversation will come up later but it was to really begin in the spring and the summer to start those hard conversations of these are where we know if we've identified parameters to stick into that this is the reality of what we know about our numbers this is the reality of what it looks like here are the options that we realistically have and how do we move forward if we don't start that conversation to fall we're dead in the water again I feel what's your timeline for completing the strategic plan when do you anticipate we're just starting January so it wouldn't be complete but I think you might consider what about the early part of the process that could also inform budget decisions and we're committed to year round the finance committee is really gonna in theory at our next meeting jump right into talking about that is our board reflection of our finance committee reflection of what went well how do we move forward and starting to set the vision for the rest of the year but with the multi-year that Carrie was mentioning because we have to not just because we have to but because we know that that would be best practice so we're not having this conversations it's inevitable that because of our declining population or student population that we would be facing besides the shortage of staffing we would be facing staff decisions for the next two years at least for sure and with the ESSER funds being gone and we don't know how economy it's gonna be doing next year and we're about to agree on negotiations too so we have a lot of things up in the air to start with but if we get if we get smart about getting enough common understanding not just the board but common understanding with our communities their staff our leadership team and having a common understanding of what is the actual goal so that at the end of the day we are able to not make those decisions just at the last minute because we have more people showing at the last minute right because we know that we're gonna have people unhappy that just it's impossible especially in the context that we are right now right we're not gonna have endless amount of money we won't have any ESSER funds so we're gonna have to really tighten our belts and be able to to be physically responsible to our communities too right and sustainable several important things kind of threads just underscore not to belabor this as you go through the process of strategic planning that's gonna help thinking multi-year it became really apparent to me four or five years ago working with the board over time I wanted to see more career and technical education happening throughout their system and that recognition that we don't just wake up one day and decide you know we're gonna add CTE programs right there has to be classroom space there has to be teachers there has to be certifications you know all of the different hiring decisions and so forth maybe facilities decisions so I've come to think it's really critical for a board to be thinking ongoing multi-year like I know last time we were together we talked about superintendent evaluation a little bit you know by the time you're completing a superintendent evaluation you should already be started on what do the parameters look like for next year and how does this fit together and so certainly with the budget maybe some other decisions that you have upcoming thinking multi-year will help you have better outcomes there is a fiscal cliff coming for virtually every school district in the country certainly every single school district in Vermont and it concerns me as I move away that I'm not hearing school systems and the public engaged in the realities that we think things are tight we're tight but they're going to be much more difficult than less than too much and I just don't hear people talking I don't think that's this board I think this board is very clear-eyed about what it is we had disagreements about what we should spend this year but I think there's absolute consensus that the next 12 months are all about what does this district look like where does children go to school and where do the people who provide services to them work that's what the strategic planning process is going to be all about we are all about that and I think we've telegraphed that to the community as clearly as we can we're making the decision to support the higher budget this year and this year was just really a continuity of current service life that's right because for me the the furor that would have erupted had that happen would have led to an even more difficult environment for us to do that work now I was just going to say I think it's important that we communicate that but I think we need to keep communicating it and I think we need to be as specific as we possibly can I don't think now is the time to tiptoe around very hypothetical things I think we need to be as specific as we can and ideally use the positive emotional responses from our communities and our district the excitement and the creativity that could go into these decisions it's probably critical community and staff that the board stays mindful of morale on the planet if you've ever worked for an organization that was going through budget cuts and people were being laid off or let go I worked somewhere a few years back where that was a monthly occurrence that the physicians were being eliminated and they had and they were actually the organization was doing too little to glee in that case you realize every time somebody left there was this disturbance there was this uproar and it was partly your emotions attached to your coworkers partly your emotions wondering if you were next and partly the emotions of oh my god who's going to do all that person's work now it was really a a shared challenge that needs to be thoughtfully managed in advance as much as possible I think that's very true and I know Jonas you're very adamant you're like we're all on board for next year but I'm not sure that we can really say that until we get there judging by the actions the board had to the emotional response of the community and that sort of flip that can happen in those situations like we can say we're there we can say we're all together but I don't think we really know until no of course not I think that everybody here is willing to do some work and is willing to talk about closing schools consolidating schools consolidating programs reffing reducing the headcount of the sales those are all things that have to be on the table we've been explicit about that absolutely a different story but to engage in that work with clear eyes I don't see a single person here who's not ready to do that and I think we have to be careful as a person who pushed back and pushed for the level services I used my brain I used my thinking I used my experience I was informed by the emotional response I was not swayed by the emotional response had it been an emotional response that did not connect to some of the things that I was exploring and gathering information about then I would have been able to hear it and say I can understand where that is but it wouldn't have swayed me so I think we have to be careful to not attribute meaning to what other decisions are that other people are making let's give an opportunity especially for Natasha and Daniel to weigh in this is this idea what would process improvement look like for the budget for the next cycle any suggestions about how to do things differently or at least consider I think we came up with seven budget parameters and this was a criticism some day at the time I think they were a little soft they could be firmer on those I think to the sort of multi-year planning point I think we could frame those in terms of multi-year planning like a three-year budget average increase and holding ourselves to that so that extraordinary years like this year could be taken into account but down the road they have to be they have to be sort of accounted for the ones that I appreciate that anyone else anything Natasha's thoughts about budget process improvement for next year I think for me personally the budget process has been daunting I think this district does a really good job of trying to explain it but I've set up multiple occasions I get more information than I've ever wanted to know about budget which can be kind of overwhelming and I feel like sometimes the stuff that we get that we talk about to me is not the things that are important to what makes our district what it should be and so when I think about the end of the budget process for this year and listening to the community members who did come out to me they were speaking even though it was personal to me it was our district rate and so I felt like yes, if we're going to create a budget we need to create a budget around what we truly believe in as a district not word but not but for me I think using the strategic plan planning process and being able to communicate with our stakeholders really about what is it that we want this district what do we want our students to walk away from what do we want what do we want to create so that our educators want to stay a part of this district what do we want to create so people who into the district are making grow our student population I think that that really needs to be the forefront of the conversation and how can we reimagine what education can look like and I said this at one of our budget I feel like the one one of the exciting things for me that came out of the pandemic was it was our chance to reinvent public education and create a public school system that educators would be excited about that students would be excited about that parents would be excited about I think we as a country blew it I do I think we ruined our chance but our money is gone we were flushed with more money than we've had and when I say we I was in another school system that I was teaching in separate from this but I think that we we ruined our chance and so I think that we as a district are being given another chance to do that we don't have the money but we have a chance to say okay we really have to rethink what education looks like in our school system and I'm really excited about that and I really hope that our budget process focuses on that I'd like that to be at least that's what I would like to focus on I felt a fraction of that in this last process I think in real time for me I realized that like you can call anything a priority but then there's the protected priorities and I think we realized intuitively that and from feedback that we got as a board how important the counselors were to the schools at this higher level that this federal funding allowed and how important the safe spaces and resources that the libraries provided were to the schools and the communities and we we took action to protect those priorities 100% agree with Natasha and I'm hopeful that the if you have a strategic plan lets us be proactive about identifying a lot of those priorities and explicitly saying we're going to work to protect them the word I've thought a lot about the last year is intentional proactive, intentional how can the board be intentional about all that you I'm pretty sure my a lot of time is up but I do want to say thank you for allowing me to be with you again and thank you for your service on the local school board, your communities and all the work you do here I do think it's very important that you do it together you know it's easy when things get hard for you know a group of people to kind of get contentious with each other feelings are divided but the more you can kind of stay in there and lean in really hear people's heart and perspective the better decisions you'll make for the greater good it will be have a little something for you when it's moving inside attempt to come down but there's a hotter direction you're all welcome to come to my house tomorrow I live right by run this school we'll be loading the truck if we can get the truck unstuck I saw it in a serious range configuration you tried on the back of a truck with a trailer and the truck's empty with no weight so you moved in a snowstorm and managing to leave in a snowstorm now somehow you arranged for that thank you for thank you very much yes so I'm going to break to go ten ten minutes it started so that sorry it was loud it's not snowing outside just felt like a feel bigger go home yeah just like transformed you know so we're back at Bloor Corporation sorry we spend quite a bit of time in board development so I'm going to skip that one and move into stipend and I'm going to ask I'm going to stand here right with your dessert right now but I was wondering if you mind jumping into this one no I don't mind the question is do you receive their stipend payments once a year or two times per year if it's paid once per year it would be paid at the end of the term year so the last payroll in February or the end of the members term if the member gets off the board early this would prevent overpayment of stipends and going over the budget if a board member were to exit early so that's really the question once a year or twice a year the twice a year split this year was so that I could give you guys something in December historically it had been paid in December and I felt like that was a tradition that was like here's a little something you know at the holiday time so I wanted to keep some part of that this year that's why I give you part of it in December and then the last piece was in February so which method would prevent any potential overpayments more than that I think either one I mean I can make it so that when I pay it in December then I'm just paying up to that that portion so it's really 10 out of 12 months so either one is fine I guess I didn't understand if it's for a term and our term is election to election then the February makes sense for the payment which is great for me by the way because it's just one payroll that we do it I love it it's fine and then we would do it for anybody exiting early okay so the board has agreed February one payment February and if somebody leaves in August then they get something prorated I guess yep but that's yeah schedule for retreat we already talked about that in person or remote meeting just quickly yeah I think we had we had put it on here because we had a question about a meeting later this month being virtual and then realized it actually the date has to be rescheduled because we have a mandatory or one of our mandatory superintendent board chair trainings is May 17th so the thought is because May has an extra Wednesday it's not really extra it's five like this that we move it to the 24th part of the reason is that correct part of the reason is that the training is in person and it goes two hours past when we will be meeting so it's just really hard to so we meet the first and the fourth that one but that doesn't mean you didn't do it remote that was just correct okay but then the training didn't work out and yes we want to keep in mind for you guys that we could still have some potential remote meetings if needed but we would let you know with time in advance I'm assuming that the board is okay with that and we would continue to do the hybrid in order to today John FM is joining remote I'm not sure are we setting the norm that all meetings are in person but were the remote option, the hybrid option no what I'm saying is that we are open to remote meetings too but right now we've been having one in person, one remote are we continuing that or are we that's what good question I was perfect for you we started like our last year with both of them meeting in person but then we shifted what do you mean I think we had intended and we had a conversation at the retreat and then the first meeting in September I think people were really excited about that we could be in person and that's why we had this second meeting location be here we knew we needed a virtual option but I do think that we thought that we would be here in overtime I think it became clear that there are some of those meetings either for weather reasons or travel reasons and we flipped them to fully virtual because of that so I think in some ways the board thought that that all in on in person made sense and then discovered that some virtual does make sense and then I think we've updated I think you know this from January they have extended the ability to have a virtual meeting with no on-site location through 2024 so it is an option what's the downside of having them all in person with a remote option there's no there's no downside there's no downside in the winter because we added some meetings for budget and stuff so it's nice to be able to have the flexibility to like for example there were one when there were a couple of people that would be in a conference for example and it was nice to be able to accommodate that so that they could meet I agree the flexibility but yeah but we would have it in the work plan anyways I think there's also a point at which if there's hardly anyone in person it's actually a more it's a better experience if everyone's on the screen so there is but that's not an impossible task it sounds like you've got technology connected because I mean we're not messing with microphones and it seems that people online are here so I don't think we need to do it definitely one way that's my sense that definitely one way or another we are posting them pretty clearly if they're in person or remote and for now we have been in person and this is the one date that we're thinking to change right now so far but we have been one in person one remote we've done that at least twice I think we did it in February and we did it in December so I guess the question would be we have we had started to shift we had shifted to the schools well we had shifted to in person because we ended up requesting December 21st to go virtual because we knew it was so close to the holidays and other things that people might attend more so so we had been shifting to being in person so our next meeting for now is scheduled for April 5th and that would be here correct and if you want I can transition to the visioning strategic planning because the topic of that meeting is a more public overview from our great schools partnership consultant and ideally the steering committee who have been selected again to do kind of a broader overview question and answer session it's not meant to be an engagement session so it's not the only opportunity but it is a kickoff informational session can I just ask a quick question so the third the third Wednesday in April is April vacation it's May we moved it's not for us not here it's the last week okay perfect okay sorry it's only one for a lot of districts so we are in your invite it says in person and it's here so I think we can revisit our next meeting as we have a meeting and make sure that there's any conflict we have the flexibility to do that okay totally is that okay Diane? great so there was an update in the report so I won't rehash that the functional task for tonight is obviously to answer questions or get reactions to that in the overview and for the board to report to members to the and we're calling a steering committee and I hope that's not confusing it is a strategic plan steering committee but as we've talked about quite a bit this first phase is to actually design the engagement so that is part of why it's a little difficult to update you all on here's what it's going to look like because actually we're convening this group of people to decide what it's going to look like to pick up all of our work around community and having to think about how do we get all of these voices and it's a tight timeline as we just talked about in that budget debrief in order to have the information that we want because I did talk about January is when our contract ends with great schools the goal is to have pretty solid goals and action steps in the December January timeframe so so I just wanted to say that as well so the task really is to have 2.2 members to the committee the committee is about 12 to 14 members because we recognize that sometimes people fall off it's really important to have representation from all of our communities from all of our very stakeholder groups we've done obviously in the community newsletter just some blanket push out to both our faculty and staff and communities we also took some of the names that were brainstormed in our community discussion and did some more targeted reaching out and inviting people to apply so I'll pause happy to answer questions I will continue just going to add one thing so we will continue that and this is not the only committee that the board will have the ability to participate right this is just the planning committee so there's not like there will be other opportunities for board members to leave the work so after the plan is over does this committee disband in terms of its membership or does it continue on? good question the vision is that it would continue on through this process through January whether or not an outcome of the process is to I'm totally making this up but there are some districts that create community advisory councils are different right like that it could be that their strategy comes out of this session but formally the steering committee would sunset with the conclusion of the strategic plan can you just went through what the space allocation on the committee you said two board members and how the other either 12 or 10 slots going to be allocated across the many interest groups that we have correct so currently the thought is that we would have so I'll name the categories first because I think we're flexible on the number from categories in order to get the breadth student there will be probably two student reps Steven that's a good brainstorming to have a student who is on site and also a tech center student from the career center so two students teacher administrator ESP support staff obviously you mentioned the board and then community the rest would be filled with community members let me open up my list to make sure I have everyone on that list and then various other representatives from so all those stakeholders we would make sure that all five communities were represented that and you'll anyone who has clicked on the applications listed as an application these questions are optional but there are demographic questions for people to self-identify because we would like to represent a broad swath so we would also be looking at making sure we are touching on different members of our community let me make sure I didn't miss a category and I'm open for feedback that's part of why we're having this conversation in the application which I haven't clicked on but if you do not receive feedback from people in particular demographic nobody is there a plan for a outreach and that outreach is part of what we're doing I'm sure students, teachers, ESP community members in all five towns legislative or government and again people can play multiple roles but someone who has a connection to the legislature local business or industry leaders community organizations we have reached out to the friends of Washington Central so those are the those are the categories I left off is it safe to say because typically when you're doing strategic plan you're not this is high stakes I mean very realistically this is high stakes and we need it to be and we know that we're moving in that way typically it's not that high stakes I mean it's important and it really frames your work this is going to really potentially shift how we provide what you were saying Jonas so well but I'm not really necessarily saying that listed here you know what I mean it's funny one of the things that I wrote on my as a like in my notes around the budget planning this process is threading a needle frankly because this process is not to design a new structure for this district I think if we build it that way that would not feel good to our community because we would be already making an assumption about what has to happen this is about what do we want for our kids we can't though make it totally divorced from the conversation of what then should our structure be so I think that's why this is this is not a steering committee that's going to come up with various different models of structure this is a steering committee that's going to help us engage our community input on what we want for our kids including goals and then that is and this may be a retreat conversation about what is the best way to and what are the groups of people that are going to generate options alongside of this process but this steering committee isn't to do that which is part of why you don't see it there but I'm acknowledging that they're not disconnected in fact they can't be disconnected so it's tricky go ahead go ahead so it almost seems that they have to be connected now because we've been promising the community that we're going to have these hard conversations starting in the spring and summer if the process is going to end in January then we will not get any input we'll get input of what we want for our students but we won't get any input on how we deliver that in a concrete fashion versus the difficult budgets that we know are coming up which are dealing with difficult conversation of how are we structured and having the community come out just once for what do we want for our kids without combining that with how do we deliver that in a way that we can financially I think is a lost opportunity because how we deliver how we're able to deliver it can impact what we deliver I mean just it really is a and maybe this committee won't have that expertise in order to really tease that out from the community but I think we have to really kind of do the two things at the same time especially from a timing perspective because then we're two budget cycles away any type of structural change that we may be contemplating so I would say the one thing that is not missing but if this steering committee I see them as a working high level up here getting us to have a common understanding of what our communities want at the same time parallel the board is going to be working in what our schools are going to look like with the staff with the leadership team separate but in order to to me if we blend the options of schools we are not going to get what especially what you were talking about we're not going to get what we want that common understanding we're not going to get what our communities want it's our job with the collaboration of the leadership team to present those models to the community but we're going to learn how to communicate with the community with the staff especially with the community that we understand what those common priorities are and that we're working towards that and one last thing before I go then so I had this crazy idea I don't see this process and I'm looking at Harry that is this more organizational and then pulling you guys into specific work as we're doing the strategic plan because we haven't created it so then pulling out Natasha for this, Diane for this leading different things and having Kari and myself I don't see how not to be part of this committee as the chair if I'm going to be organizing and I was thinking that if Kari is going to step as a mentor into quality and that's one I want to bring that up that last year we could this is something that we did before a little bit but it's different this time around it's finally looking at our district together so we would just be doing kind of organizational part with this group and then leaning on the board when those specifics what the process is so that you can be more specific with your community so keeping those tools delivered because I feel like there's going to be a lot of work to engaging what that process but that doesn't mean that if you guys have a different idea of what that should be we should talk about it too because I don't mean to volunteer so Daniel and then Kari I think to Chris's point I agree with a lot of what you said it's think I'm thinking about it for myself it's my responsibility as a board member someone who's committed vocally to sort of this year round budgeting and starting thinking about hard decisions right away to be present and sort of auditing and keeping close track of what those strategic planning conversations sound like whether I'm on that steering committee or not I almost feel like we should all sort of we should have some mechanism to hear reports out on a regular basis and be sort of thinking about scenarios and budget implications of every conversation happening that said if we put that burden on this strategic planning I think that's an unfair burden to put on and I think that's our burden primarily is a great opportunity to have a representative sort of leading the strategic plan but in some cases I think that hopefully a proxy for community values and sort of community conversation I'm happy to participate in the committee because it's process oriented and I like that sort of thing I don't know what's the matter with me but I agree that the board is a key stakeholder group so the input that we give and the output that we hear back is going to be really important as we plan and I also agree with Chris that we don't want this just to be a wish list there needs to be some sense of at what cost or what the priorities or tradeoffs that community can accept are so a lot of it's how we frame the conversations and just in both of those points sorry I'm going to jump in but our consultant is very well aware of our realities and that is because it is important to hear what we want she also understands that we have to get us to a place and that includes the steering committee figuring out how to integrate those types of questions or information sharing into the community events so there's an awareness of what needs to come out of this process and I think the steering committee even can take this feedback as well to say well how would we design the input session what questions do we ask so that it is more thoughtfully connected so I just wanted to say they are aware of what we have to have at the end of this sorry Jonas what is the timeline for coming to a conclusion what the structure of the district is and how do we make that decision so this is my this is a little bit me off the cuff answering my question I think the conversation about structure is big enough I mean you mentioned two budget cycles it's big enough that it's going to take two budget cycles anyway right like in I might be getting ahead I don't know I mean that implies a big plastic but I mean if we think about the feedback that we got about cross district service delivery in small areas it was big so I don't think there is an official timeline I think we are going to run financially headlong into realities that make us make quick decisions we don't want to do that again right so it's kind of it's always been my impression in my thought that we that process would be running in parallel with the budget so that when we have a budget next year it reflects a different structure is that what we are looking toward or do you anticipate that we will not be in a position to make decisions about structure until the following year I think for first of all the board can make those decisions on the timeline that it believes it needs to make them I think that they can I mean there can be a simultaneous conversation of this board studying the various different structures and models that can be happening simultaneously with this strategic planning process and that's what I meant by we may need to talk about that at the retreat as something more specific I'm just trying to emphasize that it's not the steering committee of the strategic planning process who is going to do that in terms of development models they're going to be gathering input I do think that it can be simultaneous and then depending on what it is you're proposing what it is you decide to own and recommend will tell you what the timeline should be so I think that those things should happen simultaneously I think that we should be working to try and get an answer concurrent budget for next year I think that that process also needs to be driven by Subaya professional I don't think that this board can for all the great things that we are I don't think that we have the capacity to put together to restructure the district but I think that that has to happen immediately and putting that off another year is really concerning and separating trying to have some kind of firewall between strategic planning and the structure conversation I agree with Chris I think is going to we're going to run into trouble there because people are going to come to these things want to talk about not wanting to go to school class I trust the process I mean I think that that that was you know I think this is a good question for the Jeannie Phillips if they're aware of that what would their view of the parallel process because as they begin this work there may be then indicators or action items that specifically go to what's the structure to me it's more than two budget cycles we're in a crisis and we need to cut in the next two budget crisis but any sustainable change is a good five years and this strategic plan I would think would cover five years so it's it's absolutely we have to be working parallel but we have to also provide the opportunity that we're not being driven by the structure only but by what the what the hopes and the goals and the vision is and to that I would just mention that if somebody comes to the meeting and says I don't want you to close my school it's how do we reframe that right like what is best for kids it's best for kids to have three kids in school right now these are opportunities that the kids will have in kindergarten right or in preschool so it doesn't mean that we are not going to have people showing up because of that but how do we frame that conversation again into what is best for kids and the values I hear you I think we're just going to run I think we're going to run a disinfestration with people who want to talk about end results right instead of you know mind method and the other thing wait wait wait sorry Eric we're still on that sorry Eric so this might be a lot of what's already been said but I think it is I think with our last budget process it was strategic planning but the public really after we put the budget out and like put the controversial stuff on the table and I think part of the conversation at the beginning is these are possibilities get their reactions to possibilities with that because if we don't give them possibilities they have nothing really to react to until it's too late I think that's one of the things that happened last year so I think just having like a general idea I think we've actually done a reasonable job towards the end after the last budget session I was starting to talk about the future about possibilities if the public was paying attention you know to those are our real possibilities that's great because that's what you should have them talking and the committee is something I also would be interested in as well thank you Eric so yes I wanted to talk about some assumptions I've made or thoughts that I've had on this because I'm not sure that I have it clear but my understanding is that you've got this vision steering committee who's going to work to create how we talk to the community and Natasha talked about it earlier like figuring out what do we want education to look like and then how do we change how we're providing it so that we're meeting those needs that we want in our community and that's what we're going to be getting from this process but I assume we also have to lean a lot on administration and leadership team to go what are the resources we currently have what can we do with the resources we have and these are some ideas so the steering committee is not doing that work and the committees and the community discussions aren't building those alternatives but they're going to be coming up from leadership team and we have to talk about them if they're angry and don't like them it doesn't matter what we say or do there are many people that aren't happy to find it difficult to change but the more we can engage the community around any sort of restructuring the better if we can generate ideas from the community and provide lots of options and a lot of opportunity for feedback that is in my opinion the best way to approach it rather than you know something coming from the top down here are two ideas what do you think people are going to be asked the other things that are articles of agreement give the community a veto if a school is being closed but as long as we operate one grade as long as we operate one grade you know you can do that and talk about creating trust we're going to create this fake thing and just so to avoid the art schools are very important to communities as we all know people will be unhappy but I think having them engage that this is what we're really talking about here in terms of a structural change early on and getting that process going I think it will be equally dissatisfying in the long run but more accepted in the long run as well because schools mean a lot to the community just from the social networking and the importance of having a school in town and it's going to we have to I think move on parallel but in an organized parallel and not just wait for administration to say this is what we think should be done but having community involved in that and board members involved in that and if we need to set up a separate type of committee that would be dealing with the structural issues just in terms of options what the financial impact of that we'd anticipate there would be we should do that just again I think we've kind of committed to that during this last budget process that we're going to start working on that and specifically talked about structural change exploring that we should at least start moving there and getting community involved because I think we will at the end it will just be difficult can I I think it's important so I'm going to pick up a thread from what you said Ursula my bias is that if we don't have a conversation with our community about what we want for kids and we simultaneously try to just say here are a few different proposals for restructuring all we're really doing is moving shelves it's a shell game and I and that is not meant to say we're going to do this process and then fast forward through something at the end or hide it from the community and I don't think that we will find ourselves in a oh it's now going to take 10 years like I'm not I mean we are the people telling me that we don't have 10 years to figure this out and that is true I don't think that we can I think what we would find the feedback we heard when we talked about restructuring this year small small scale restructuring that was based on good faith analysis of our numbers but it was a good faith analysis of our numbers we got feedback that said that feels too rushed that feels random I don't know why you would do that so I don't know how you even do the things that we're saying to get us there without this grounding process which is why we've been talking about this kind of strategic planning and I think and I kind of like Diane the process and one of the reasons we picked this facilitator is so the process could do things to set us up to do both so I think that we can I think the steering committee can think about how would we enter this conversation into the forums that we have so that we're not bringing people out and then not getting this input I think there is a way to design it I don't know if the board just wants to say to hear the different options what we're missing is what did we ground those options in I want to say essentially that in another way but I think the purpose of this process is to coalesce the community coalesce around an effective path forward and I think the single most important ingredient in that is it's a credible process and so we have to be careful as the board that's sort of driving up on the sidelines but we have to remain open minded that we have to be perceived as open minded and we have to be open minded and curious so that people don't perceive that we've judged the outcome ahead of time because then why have the process and we're not going to get the buy-in in the end so as much as I want to move forward it's possible I wish we had done this a long time ago I think the most important thing is that we do it right Micaelyn and Daniel I'm going to just let I'm sorry, sorry actually Joshua you were up first I'm sorry I thought I was going to interrupt you whether I have this or not No, it's good everything was said questions were asked it would be redundant So I think I just I'm looking for some reassurance then around the time line because with this last budget cycle when I heard from the leadership team there is no way we can cut the budget anymore without restructuring I guess I translated that into okay so for next year we have to restructure so I'm all for taking the time if we have it so if I'm being reassured that we have the time then I'm all for taking the time I think what we're saying is that we're going to multitask right that without a heart without a narrative like what we're creating with this is the heart so that if we have that heart we can bring the brain to this which is going to be us working together and when those two come together we're going to have a product that our community is going to respect it's going to trust and it's going to support because otherwise we're not going to be able to have those sometimes in isolation you can say I don't want my school and I didn't mean to because in Janus when I said we can leave one way open but it might be because we understand that our schools are the center that school might be repurposed for something that's still community we don't know that what are their needs of our community so with this we're doing the work that we did not have the opportunity to do a unified right we have never had this conversation as a unified district we have a lot of commonalities because of the way we've been structured as you before but we have never had the opportunity to have this conversation with the community in the context that we're right now so that context of a population declining the asset funds and the economic it's still going to be surrounding this conversation so it will inform it and we're just going to have to work a little harder this year so I'm all for visioning this year I don't want at the very end us to be put up against a short time frame for restructuring because we've run out of time so if we have time let's dream we're approaching the community hopefully and as we've learned from the Wizard of Oz the heart the brain and the courage all work together to get there together not one at a time showing up to the end but helping each other out with each of their respective skills and so really I'm looking at it's a they do move together and especially when you're in the community in parallel but in the community I cannot overstate how I think this will be for some communities if their schools are being restructured out of existence potentially and I don't mean to be creating alarm but I think that's what we're kind of hearing about restructuring in some fashion like that and I think we should be working in parallel toward that just in terms of exploring options I think to you know the way John was just saying it was not approaching the community obliquely I think in this case what you were saying Megan did it's all in the design how how accessible the process is and I think like the phrase feedback loop seems really important to me what is the structured report back to this group and to the administration that satisfies the communities feeling that this process is relevant and it's driving at least a significant portion of restructuring planning so I'm curious what that looks like is it consensus based you know we have a forum two concepts rise to the top and they're a clear process for how those get sort of judged in terms of their feasibility in terms of their budget implications in terms of the timeline for roll out and I'm also curious about because this is the crux of the issue everything sort of any proposal has to be sort of scored budgetarily I'm curious about the central office's capacity sort of thinking like May to January to be thrown you know best like three scenarios what their implications were in terms of budget at worst like 15 curve balls at random times from different committees asking is this doable or how much money would this save and I guess some happy medium in between where there's equity and there's access to the process but it's also not stressing central office's ability to weigh these options seriously so I'm happy to share a couple thoughts so I think that related to that last piece actually related to several of these it is possible once the board is coalescing around some conceptual models or a conceptual model to get to that model over time that includes some budget savings year to year without jumping fully into every structure so part of the not getting kind of is because when I say it's a multi-year process it doesn't mean I mean to get to whatever the end design is here process and there's steps in between so one piece is just to understand that as the board is doing this work and getting informed it's a there are steps to take it's not one fell swoop whatever gets decided the second piece related or Vermont has if you read any sort of education news has several examples of districts who took the approach using this type of process to study structure and they did not find success in those processes because the whole process was people knew in advance were predetermined that we have to do X and it actually felt this ingenuous to community members because it felt predetermined so that's part of why I mean it's part of why I pitched to the board and part of why we went forward with this type of process and again I'm not saying that we do this and we don't talk about structure and then we pick up structure they are simultaneous I just don't think that it's been tricky in Vermont to just have this be about structure so and I think that we've got a committee I mean that's the purpose of designing it this way is that the people on the committee would represent all of these perspectives as they design the process and that's the thing we haven't designed the process yet because we're trying to figure out what the committee makeup is going to be to design the process that we are all talking that we want to see so clearly so we we're right at that very very beginning but I also wanted to talk, Jonas you said that you don't want to come to the community legally like we're hiding things I don't think that that's not hiding things but I went through I went through a visioning process once with non-profit organization that served a community that was very low on funds and lots of different groups around and the leader of the organization that I was working for said when we ask them what do they need what does the field need, what does the community need they're going to say money we need to find a way to tell them it's not really money that you want and I'm not saying that that's what we're going to do it's like obscure hide what our end goal is here what I'm saying is that I think that we need to be explicit like we are gathering input here on what you want the schools to be and that information is going to help us restructure the district I think we need to be straight up about that you people here you're not going to be telling us what to do we're not going to be running through options here but like this that is the end goal here I think that we need to be explicit so I guess I envisioned us being able to be very centered on these are the difficulties we are facing these are these parameters that we need to find a way to fit in with all of these difficulties but also Chris had mentioned something about all of our communities finding their school very central and we heard it from these community members like my town my school we might need to approach this within conversations and narratives that talk about community in a different way that isn't just your town and your school and that isolated tiny group it might be a different sense of community that we are going to find when we are done and it's not a bad thing it's a different thing I don't want to interrupt you at the end of the day, Megan, I trust you this is what we brought you here to do to have vision and to lead processes like this if this is the way to go then I'm behind you 100% just so we're clear I don't want to change anything I think that you and Floor and the committee will have a vision of what we're going to do here I'm totally okay with that communication is the key I appreciate that this is part of the conversation and I think you're there are ideas swirling already and I don't know if we can kick a can down the road for sure I appreciate that this is all really helpful I kind of agree being really specific as a steering committee about the parameters the context, all the things we've been talking about is part of how they'll design the process and the board also should talk about what is its parallel structure that it wants to develop is that an ad hoc committee is that a short term working group is not one of our formalized committees that we did today but it's something that comes out of the retreat so that there's a group of people and I'm not saying that's the way to do it but it's an option so the board can make sure that you're checking that box of moving fast enough and having that glee's ambition of learning is going to benefit us all having that Spanish conversation is that what it's coming about is there arts we want to have more math asking the right questions so that we can deliver to create the structure delivered towards what the community vision and so we'll I don't know that we have all the answers this is going to be what I call the design development this is where we are right now, we ask the big question then we gather some input we're developing a model and that model is going to be a continuous design process it's not linear so with that the pleasure of the board we're ready to move on I was just saying as a whole board I think we should trust the process I think we should listen to the community and envision with their help and this organization's help realize that the board is one stakeholder in this process and I don't think it is appropriate for us to create the conversation ahead of time and also I think it dovetails in what Philip was saying like if we task this committee with too much it turns into creep and then nothing productive can come out of it and it could feel just worthless in the end anyway so I'd like to move that we point floor and Kari as the board representatives to this committee I would nominate I think Eric I would nominate Eric so we can have three that's an interesting question I mean the makeup of the committee is meant to be broad I think the intention was to solidify two tonight and this is a little bit off the cuff but I'm thinking about this the same way as teachers for example so the intention so that the committee can be broad is we said two teachers a teacher from the primary level elementary level and a teacher from the high school teachers who have applied once we have filled the minimum number the intention is to then to go back through those applications and say well we're missing we're missing women from Worcester or we're missing you know honestly so there would be an opportunity to have an additional teacher that's how we've thought about teachers and offering that for the board to talk about I don't know if that's perhaps how you want to um I don't think there's an inherent problem with there being three board members I think that's also your decision if you were to tell me that you wanted the entire board to be the scary thing that would probably have feelings about that but three versus two I mean that's up to the board but I wanted to share that that's how we're thinking about or if there's more administrators that want to be first we fill the minimum number that would be our favor of keeping it minimal involvement so more toward the two and larger since we'll have a say in other ways such as scenes like padding I'm just I'm thinking because you said you know people kind of wear more than one hat so I'm wondering as opposed to us having people from the board now knowing that there are three individuals who are interested can we wait to see who else decides to be on this committee and we can look at the three board members to see which of our board members fill the bowls that are not already taken by the other stakeholders that's a great question does that make sense it does my question back to the board would be we don't have a point in time for you all to talk about that and make the final decision because the intention is that we would select the steering committee it would probably have its first meeting before the end of March and that committee would help do that report out on April and you just aren't all sitting in the same room so with the intention unless the intention is just for me to communicate here are the missing see what I'm saying are there other members of our board who are interested in serving beside the three that were mentioned already I'm trusting that there will be opportunities to have our voice at the table and that the communication will be and transparency will be going back and forth so because I think to me that's the intention I don't really understand it and I worry but it's my own worry it's not a worry in the process and the idea is that there would be opportunities for other board members to lead sessions right it's not just that this steering committee is creating the process we don't get to do all the work we don't get to be at every meeting right we can create a process that is transparent and we'll hopefully clarify the vision for our entire district as a whole but we don't get to do you know say hold on the cards there would be I don't know what that process is like yet I've been saying to lots of other stakeholder groups you are all like well the leadership team itself is a stakeholder group they are not all going to be on the committee they're going to be represented so and the same thing with teachers you know we talked to the labor management about having them be able to have a voice and just so I anyway it's a drum I've been beating it's not it's meant to be broad but they get all of the pieces so the question we have is two or three important members and if we go with two how do we do that selection just do a straight up vote or is there a sense two or three what if we had not made two with an alternative or you know like recognizing that the third would step in into an opening that might be there I think that's hard with an ongoing committee if they're not able to go to the committee on an ongoing basis I didn't mean an opening like when somebody can't make it one day I meant like Megan was talking about filling the minimum and then coming back in and based on the applications that we've gotten going we still need five more people so maybe we can take something from the board or we need something from the board we need somebody for me to find a billier or whatever that might be that was what I was talking about not like an alternative that tags in every other thing no it's fine we still then back to are we picking two tonight or are we picking three tonight and that's I mean it sounds like no one wants really to deal with that we would be heavy and it's mobiliar if we had both you and me on that so I will leave it up to the board I'll leave it up to the board and I think to respect the interest of the three that have expressed we should vote and I don't know if that means we do each individual or if people just hand in a ballot with the two people that they select it doesn't matter to me I'm just saying those are two procedures we vote to see if we want three or two yes is there a motion on the table I move that there be three board members on the steering wheel okay so Jonas moves and Chris seconds any more discussion both those in favor please signify by saying aye aye do you need a hand raise do you need a show of hands then you open your hand up one, two, three, four five, six, seven, eight so so I nominate R.A. and Erika second you got that yes any more discussion all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye let me oppose hearing none the motion carries I'm keeping you up late there today that's a long discussion so hopefully we can do this one this is the famous last words so I want to speak to another speaker Brian I can make this very quick because you've all read the report and you had a little bit of an update you kind of know where we are in the process the answer to your question Chris is I do not believe we've heard that yet from the two organizations we said we're doing a review we think it would be better before you had the hearing to read the review if they were going to come back to us and say no we want a hearing we would schedule a hearing but no we had not heard that from them so once they filed a complaint do we have an obligation to set a hearing within a certain period of time we looked at that there's no timeline in the policy there's a timeline from which the decision has to be registered after the hearing and we consulted with the Artinal Council and we copy Secretary French the week after when we hadn't heard from them just like by the way we want you to know that we have responded and we still haven't heard so it's in their court by all means we're continuing the process and we hope to have our report back to you in May and possibly April so just as an update we have got a small group of students they're enthusiastic about it the first there's two pieces essentially there's looking at where it came from and what's the imagery associated with it and then that's asking kids what they think about it now because they're both important they are working on that we meet again in a couple of weeks they'll generate that report back to you in written form I would like to invite them to the meeting and they can present what they found to you what we'll do at our next meeting is they're going to design how they want to get input students from their peers is it going to be a community outreach board? then that would be the board so this part is the review of this piece and then the board would have that discussion because the policy essentially says we support your review of your mascot I'm sure the students also could weigh in on how they might get that input and share that with you but that's the goal and so all else being equal we're going to do this anyway April May would be our time frame if we find out that they would like a hearing sooner I would say we probably try to do our report faster so they can still have the benefit of that report when you heard from our organizations quick question without you know compromising privacy or anything can you describe the group of students who are leading this review? yes so they range from middle school to high school they the group is generated from student council but several of them also sit on some of our other student groups and it's a mix of it's a pretty representative group actually of our student body demographically it's great it's kind of fun it's a fun project honestly I know it's really sensitive and I'm not making light of it it's an action but I'm really proud of our district of making it student driven it's really important and carrying it through yeah it's like turning it into an opportunity okay so Consented Jen that's the reason we're going to our specific sessions that I'm sure are not going to take enough time I'm looking for the minutes of February 1st February 15th February 24th okay any discussion all those in favor by saying aye I don't have questions no just thanks to Lisa thank you Jonathan okay any opposed the motion carries approve the board's orders that have a motion yes I just closed my computer but I had it here alright I make a motion to approve the board order for $216.23 through $315.23 in the total amount of $441,720 $8 cents second thank you any discussion favor by saying aye aye and then you guys don't need to send an email Jonathan you're remote but the board has signed and they have enough signatures okay okay thanks moving right along there's no personnel update in banking please it is unchanged from the last time we had this conversation yeah do you I don't know if you want to flip the order only because I think yeah yeah yeah I was actually going to ask for the information they received was enough what should we do well let's talk about it when we get into yeah okay so I'm going to go into executive session for the purpose of discussing negotiations starting to include negative Roy and second should we just turn everything up and call it good because that way we left executive sessions at the end and there won't be any actions around Mark can you put Jonathan in a breakout room by himself okay I can just call him and Mark you can go do you want to do that on the phone Jonathan okay if I call you yeah it's fine cell phone or home cell so I think Mark so I'll go ahead and hand this so while you guys are packing up you guys can go to the bathroom you're going to need to be expert please