 Hello there, welcome to ongoing coverage of Town Meeting Day 2023 on Town Meeting Television. My name's Bobby Lucier and I'll be your host for the program tonight, which will be looking at a seat on the South Burlington School Board. This program is one in a series of forums that Town Meeting TV hosts in advance of Town Meeting Day, which is coming up on Tuesday, March 7th. In our forum series, Town Meeting TV invites candidates, municipal officials, and community members to unpack the races and ballots that you'll see up and down your ballot this year. Before we get started, just a reminder that you can call in at any time tonight. If you're tuning in live, we welcome your questions at 802-862-3966. You can give us a call and we'll put your question right on the air. And also you can watch Town Meeting TV and this program on Comcast Channel 1087 as well as Burlington Telecom Channel 17 and 217 and on youtube.com slash townmeetingtv. So with that, we can jump into a conversation today with Laura Williams who has joined us. Thank you so much Laura for joining. Yeah, thank you for having me. Awesome. And Laura, you're running uncontested for a seat for the remaining two years of a three year term on the South Burlington School Board. Exactly. Great. So thank you for joining us and we'll start with just an opening statement. You can tell us a little bit about why you're running and what will be different for South Burlington if you're elected and has a little add on just how you're creating public participation in school activities and politics right now. Well let's see. As you say, I was appointed in August so I definitely want to continue my service. I am a strong proponent of democracy and I try to show up for it every day and there's a lot of great work going on in the South Burlington School District and a well educated populace is key to democracy thriving so that's one of the, you know, and I want to serve and participate. In terms of, what was the second part of the community? It was about public participation, just how do you rate public participation in South Burlington right now in school activities and politics? So I think I mentioned to you before the show, I give South Burlington an A plus because when the vacancy became available in July for this position that I'm serving in the school board, seven of us showed up and I think that's incredible. That shows high participation. And then, you know, I had two children in the school district graduate, one in 2019 and one in 2017 and so I went to a lot of events and so did everybody else. So I would say participation is high, people really do care and they know the issues, yeah. So that I think it's really great. Great, thanks Laura. So let's move on to the budget. So this question is just, do you support this year's school budget, $62.5 million? It's an increase of 7% from last year's budget and can you explain your understanding of the budget and the impact on schools and voters? I do support the budget, 100%. And I encourage anybody and everybody to, you can go on this YouTube channel and watch Tim Jarvis who started the school district in November and Violet Nichols are superintendent. They, I've heard the presentation about eight times. It's really, really well done and I can't go into all the numbers. But my takeaway is that it's a really fiscally responsible and thoughtful budget, 7% increase in taxes is completely appropriate and yeah, it's, you know, we definitely, we need a lot of work done in the district. So I would encourage people to watch that presentation, just really well done and I support it 100%, yeah. Is there any particular impact of this year's budget that you're looking at closely or that you anticipate, you're anticipating for this year? Well, there's a bond item and then there's infrastructure in general. So there's a bond item for modular classes. We have very serious overcrowding in two of the elementary schools, which is, it's having, it's having an impact on instruction, you know, everybody's, you know, social and emotional well-being. So that bond is on the ballot at $6 million for four modular classrooms, which will really ease the overcrowding and they should last, the projected life of those is about six to 10 years. And then, you know, infrastructure of the, all five schools are suffering severely from deferred maintenance. You know, there's roofs that need to be redone, you know, we've got leaking in some of the elementary schools, you've got the little kiddie pools there, you know. So there's a lot of work. So this budget will address a lot of those issues. Not all of them. We do need a long-range fiscal plan, but it will address some of the most emergent concerns. Right. So, yes. And much needed. Yeah, that touches on a question about capital improvements and bonding that I think you hit on there, so we might not have to ask that one again. Because CCTV is a community access center and also has the houses, the Vermont language justice project where really big proponents of language access in Vermont. So this next question is about language access. So what important initiatives are underway and what more needs to be done to meet the needs of students and families who are proficient in languages other than English? This is a great question and, you know, that is something that I haven't delved into. I am a Spanish teacher at Essex High School. The language is near and dear to my heart. And I know that there are several languages represented in the high school, which I think is incredible and so great for our community. I love it personally. And I know that we have English ELL teachers and I think the language is changing to multi-language teachers. And I think we need more multi-language teachers. I mean, again, I am woefully ignorant on this. But I do know that families who speak different languages need interpreters. They need access to all the information that we all have in English that I can say for sure. And knowing the district as I do in Superintendent Violet Nichols, I'm sure that she is on there. This is a question I'm going to be asking her, yeah. So as a newbie, I thought, oh, you know, what are we doing? I know there are ELL teachers who care and do a lot of work. I know that there are interpreters, but I do think that there are more initiatives in the work. Yeah. In the work. So. Thanks so much, Lou. Yeah. So this next question is about teacher well-being and retention. As a teacher yourself, I'm sure you'll have some good thoughts about this. So what do you understand as the current level of morale among South Burlington teachers? Is South Burlington doing enough to retain good teaching and support staff? Yeah. This is also a really great question. So as a school board member, you know, we're really policy governance and we're not even supposed to go into the school. So I don't know. At the same time, I am a teacher and I talk to teachers in my own district and around the country. The job is really hard right now. It's really hard. It's always been hard and now it's really hard. And I think it's love that keeps us there. Love of children, love of the craft. And you know, I think a lot of what needs to happen is I think community support. I do think that the district as a whole is trying its level best. I think community, you know, we have a lot of highly qualified teachers in South Burlington and I do believe that the community needs to trust them to implement this instruction that they have created, you know, in an age appropriate manner and to trust them to deal with discipline issues. I mean, things happen. And I also think, you know, the job has gotten harder and I do think compensation needs to be increased. I think support staff for sure. Yeah, we need to pay people what they're worth because what were the effects of the pandemic are still with us and children are really having a hard time and so are adults. I don't, you know, that's the thing I think a lot of adults don't want to admit that, oh, you know, I really have a good here in Vermont. You know, I shouldn't complain. The thing is I don't think people are complaining. I think it's just being real like this. This was really hard. So I'm still suffering the effects. The kids are suffering the effects. So and I do think it's almost think of it as hazardous duty pay. Yeah. So I think that that would that would go go a long way. And I know that, you know, this budget addresses some of those concerns. And I'm hoping that there will be a long range plan to increase compensation. I think that I think that would go a long way. Right. Yeah. This next question is about racial justice. So what is your current understanding of the work around racial justice in South Parlington schools and in our schools in Vermont? And how would you support leadership efforts and initiatives to meet the challenges of creating an equitable and thriving environment for all students? Yeah. This is another really great question. I know at South Parlington hired a director of equity who's done a lot of work on racial justice. She's done training with different staff, you know, parts of the all the educators in the community and then the school board. And there is, you know, she's she's pulled some data. We have data for, you know, on math, reading and suspension. Those were the three, some of the, I think maybe it's just math and reading. And, you know, for BIPOC community, Hispanic and one other, I think, Native Alaskan and Hawaii and Hawaiian. And, you know, we, we do have work to do because, you know, when you have equity in the school, it means everyone's needs are being met academically, socially, emotionally, career, college ready. I don't, I don't think we're there yet. And I would also like to see more data on, you know, gender, non-binary, children on IEPs, individual education plans, children on 504s, education support teams, ESCs, all these kids. So historically marginalized children like to see all these categories, data on what we're doing well and where, what challenges we have. And, you know, in the future, we'd like, you know, we have historically privileged groups and historically marginalized groups. I don't want those groups to exist anymore. You know, that will be equity. We need to, you know, meet everyone's needs. And I would definitely support the superintendent in her search for district-wide social-emotional learning coach. So, all of our children's needs are met. And our staff and educators, super important, yeah. So now we'll take a look, we'll turn to what's happening in Montpelier around schools and school funding. So what is your take on the efforts in Montpelier and the statehouse right now to address school funding? So part of that, you know, I think Vermont and if I understand correctly, we're the only New England state that doesn't have any construction funding, which is one of the reasons I think our schools are all really suffering. I mean, South Carolina has five schools and they are, they are really, really suffering. So I would, I would like to see, you know, the community lobby, the legislature, we need school construction funds. And I know that there is a education surplus and I would like to see the legislature and the governor invest that wisely in our school districts that we're, we really, we really need it. Because it is, I think it is a size, I don't have the amount on the top of my head, but there's a sizable amount of money that could be, you know, make a wise investment, you know, that would reach them, you know, the highest number of children. That's what I would like to see happen. Right. So in a similar vein, looking at educational reforms and initiatives across the state, what educational reforms are most important to you and to your constituents over the next five to 10 years? I do think, I do think equity in education is probably the most important, you know, we, if we can support everyone's development, you know, academic, social, emotional, career and college ready. You know, it's, these inequities have happened over decades, centuries. It's going to take a long time to make it right. But that's what I see as the most, the most important goal that we could be, we could be working on because, you know, we need to invest in human capital. This is what's going to make us better. And that's, that's what I see as the most important. Yeah. For all of our children. Yeah. And maybe a follow up to that. What do you see as the biggest challenge facing schools, and particularly around that equity issue? And how will you use your seat on the school board to address these issues? Yeah. Or is your vision for South Burlington's education future? You know, part of equity is supporting our teachers and who are, you know, teaching accurate evidence based history, education. You know, it's hard to hear about slavery and its brutality. Yeah. We have really highly trained teachers who know how to guide children through those difficult conversations and we need to trust them, trust them to do that. And so, you know, as a school board member, that's part of what, you know, that's support the superintendent and supporting all of our, all of our teachers. I think that, that, that is, I think that is really important. And particularly our, our children of color, you know, they want to see their history represented. It's our history, really, right? It's our, you know, I always struggle with women's history and black history. Isn't that our history? So that's what, that's definitely what, what I would, what I would support. Yeah. And we need a lot of social, emotional learning support around that as well. Because these are difficult conversations to have. I do believe we, we have such highly qualified teachers who can guide children through this. And they need to know when they leave us, they need to know our history. They need to know why racial inequities exist and why we have to actively work to dismantle them. So, yeah, I would definitely be, I mean, we are, it's policy, like I can't go into the schools by support the superintendent and her support of all of our, our teachers and staff, all educators, every adult in that building who's really working really hard. Right? Yeah. Thank you, Laura. So that's all the questions that we have. So I think we'll move into just some closing comments if you have anything else to share with, with voters before town meeting day. Yeah, well, I hope everybody goes out to vote. That's really the most, most critical, critical thing. You know, there's, I know people don't want their taxes raised, but you know, I'm a taxpayer. I had children in the district and now I don't. I just, I believe that, that the infrastructure of our buildings matter. You know, we, we have a, you know, we're city council has got these great climate initiatives. And I would love to partner with them because there's all these like great new buildings, you know, popping up. There's a great town center and our schools are just kind of crumbling. And, you know, I would love to the school board partner with them and their vision for like greener, you know, more climate based initiatives and better and greener schools. That's what I would really like to see. And, you know, I do think it matters. It matters to the people who work in those buildings. It says that the community cares about us. I mean, right now you walk in and, you know, there's this complicated dance of the overcrowded elementary schools where you can't let, you have to let classes out at different times and these kids can't go, but these kids can. So they're not out in the hallways at the same time. So trying to implement instruction while trying to be mindful of this physical plant that's falling apart and then the kiddies pulls because the roof is leaking or in the high school where the, the cafeteria is just too small. And when my kids graduated in 2017, 2019, that, that cafeteria was too small then. So it's, I think it, I think it sends a message that, oh, I mean, I think our community is hesitant to support us because they, we're dealing with this all day long. And I do think the community cares. I really, my heart of hearts think they just don't know. So I think it's really important that, that they, that they do know. And the investment in infrastructure does matter for the health of the community. And, you know, it sends a message to our kids, like we're investing in human capital. We want, you know, the more we invest, the better our community will, will be and more welcoming. I think that's, that's really huge, you know, at this point. Thank you so much for joining us, Laura. Yeah, thank you very much. Of course, yeah. And thank you for tuning in to Town Meeting TV and our ongoing coverage of Town Meeting Day 2023. You can find this forum and many more on our website at ch17.tv. And of course, don't forget to vote on March 7th, Town Meeting Day. Can you remind me, Laura, if ballots are being sent in the mail to South Berlin residents or if you have to request them? You have to request them, yeah. So you have to request a ballot in South Burlington if that's where you're voting. And thank you so much for watching and sharing Town Meeting TV. If you're not already, please subscribe to our Town Meeting TV YouTube channel. Thanks so much. So long.