 Hi Scott. Good evening. Hi Diane. Oh, I was trying to figure out who was spent. I forgot is you Diane. Okay. Okay, let's call the meeting to order is exactly six o'clock. Welcome everybody. It's nice to see you everybody it's like it's really sunny today is just perfect I'm very excited about this meeting. Let's, let's try to stay on time today so let's move right ahead into the executive session and then we'll do our welcome. So I'm wondering if I could have a motion to go into executive session for the discussions and negotiations. Jonas moves a second. Second. Chris second. All those in favor, please say aye. All those opposed, they know, I don't see the eyes appear to have it so let's move into executive session with Brian and somebody else. Yeah, I would like to have Lori there and Carla there this time around. Okay, with Brian Lori and Carla please, Jim, and now you can do your magic. Sure. I'm working on it right now we should be up in just just a minute here. Thanks for your patience. I just want to do a confirmation of a few people on the board that I, I just want to make sure Jonathan Goddard is in that meeting correct. Correct. Okay, and we have Linda in the meeting. Okay, I think I'm just about to set here. If there's anybody I missed that I'll do a roll call that as soon as we're done I'm going to go ahead and open the room now for the session. Hi everybody welcome back to the main session sorry we took three extra minutes. Hey, I want to welcome all the public that is joining us today is exciting to see so many faces teachers and community members. Hi Sarah. So exciting. First, I want to start by, we have a lot to celebrate today. Steve Dellinger page has got the award of principle of the year. And another, isn't that great. Yeah. And we had that great article either Steven say hello to you. Thank you. We're so lucky so between all of us here in this meeting today we have the principle of the year Alicia to the elementary principle Steven and Kate Rob, teacher of the year so we are really we should be very proud of our staff in administrators and our communities. So just want to celebrate that and we had that great article in mind shift about the great job that our counselors are doing at school and the work that Lisa has been leading and all the counselors that you 32 so it's always good to start with a little celebration hopefully I didn't steal Brian's thunder on that one but that's what I had any agenda revisions for tonight. Thanks for that. Could I request a new agenda item 5.5 reinforcements for the finance committee. Sure. So, okay. I'm gonna, if you're okay I'm going to put it with five point. You put it with 5.1 is that what you said. I was thinking at the very end 5.5 but but entirely as you wish. Okay, I'm going to put it at the beginning sort of the order and I want to go out of 5.5 a 50th anniversary subcommittee. If that's okay with everybody. So let's get started. Welcome to our students can could we have our student report. I think. To your towns. Are you here tonight. I am here. Yes, yes, yes. Awesome. Um, to start things off. I'm seniors. colleges are really starting to hear back from the regular decision applications. I know recently schools like UVM released their admissions decisions. So people are being able to start planning what they're going to do next year. As some of you might know, Stage 32 is still going on and there is a video of Antigone up on YouTube now. So if any of you want that, I do have a link and I can send that to you. Yes, it's really cool. It's all on Zoom. It's cool. The High School basketball team won their first game in the playoffs against Middlebury, which is awesome. And their next game is against North Country on Monday. Yeah, that's very, very good for us. We also had a woman named Alex Chevron-Venie reach out to you 32 and she interviewed the high school counselors as well as myself and wrote an article about how our high school counselor system works and how we're the only school where the students get to pick the teachers. A nearing deadline for students is on March 18th tomorrow is the application deadline for the Governor's Institute of Vermont. A summer program that students can take advantage of to learn about a lot of different subjects that are really cool. Students are also able to take full advantage of branching out, CBL. And in our newsletters, there's some really cool pictures of a student who is making a guitar from scratch and Isabel Jimuza, who's a senior, is also working with the person who found Pilot, which is a full branching out program. It takes a lot of your classes to do some media art, which is very cool. Yes. And this week, there are two career labs where students can learn about two different careers. One on the 18th is software development and web design. And then there's another career career lab on the 22nd for the Vermont music and radio industry. Which is a very exciting opportunity. Yeah, thank you. That's our report. Any questions? Any questions from board members? Sounds like they're all set. Thank you on Towns. Brian, the floor is yours. Yeah. Well, thank you, Floor. And yes, you did still some of my thunder, but I still want to thank Stephen Dellinger-Pate on his major milestone accomplishment. It's not just his accomplishment, it's our district's accomplishment and our and and U32's accomplishment. Stephen has also informed me that, informed me of that when I did congratulate him personally earlier in the week. Just very happy that he'll be representing Vermont for the, as it moves on to the national secondary principle of the year. And I can't, I can't think of a better secondary principle to be distinguished this award. So congratulations, Stephen. The getting into the, we have an action packed agenda tonight. So I will make some of my reports are shortened tonight. The COVID-19 update, just a couple of things real quick vaccinations are underway. I, I got my vaccination. I'm very happy. I know our teachers are and staff are getting them as possibly as we speak. We are also starting to enter the recovery phase of the pandemic, which will be we will be starting starting to put together a recovery plan, which again will be a very collaborative process. So we're hoping to emulate and repeat what we were able to do during the reopening plan as we move towards recovery. How do we address learning loss? How do we measure learning loss that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, which is still happening. It's still going on right now. And also how much funding are we going to be able to get with the next round of ESSER funds? I've heard, I've heard that districts may be hearing official numbers shortly, but so we're waiting to hear what what that is and what we'll be able to do. So there'll be a lot of work that our leadership team will be focusing on with the recovery plan. We definitely want to get our input from a stakeholder, various stakeholders as well. And this will be another major milestone for our district as we move forward. I would also just turn it off to see if is Elizabeth here tonight? She is. So I think the vaccine rollout has been a wonderful really good timing. This time of the year people always get a little depleted, you know, and this year particularly it's been stressful. So a lot of our staff are going to be able to travel or see family over the April April break, which will make it a break, you know, which they haven't had in a long time. So I'm really happy that it was a little touch and go to begin with for the rollout, but it seems to be picking up and people are getting appointments and that's a good thing. And we also still today have had no transmission in the schools, which is a really remarkable feat and we're really happy about that. You know, we've had cases, but nothing, nothing that's anybody who's quarantined has never tested positive. So that's a really wonderful credit to what everybody is doing in the in the schools and in the classes and the kids are doing because it's not easy for them. So that's I think that's a music I wanted to mention that music is is opening up a bit or going to have chorus and being able to sing finally again, it's been a long time. So that's a that's a good positive thing that's happening to and then sports of course, but that's it's rolled out and people are playing and so kids are opening their lives are opening up a bit, you know, and we're keeping cautious watch, but so far it's it's gone pretty well. So that's so that it and this is any questions. Okay, thank you Elizabeth. I will just continue now with just one other thing with the superintendent update here is just to let the school board know that we also are is one of the busier times of the year and of course it's complicated with the pandemic, but we are in the time where we're looking at, you know, our jobs, openings, vacancies, potential transfers between schools. There are so it's a very busy time of year. And I think we may need to have a meeting a special meeting either March 29 or March 30 in order to comply with any contractual obligations that we may have. So I just wanted to let the school board know that we may need to have a quorum at least at the very least for either March 29 or March 30. And so if there's an issue with either one of those dates, you know, please let me know as we get closer and I'll have a Melissa reach out to everyone to try to do a poll see when we can get the most folks. Brian, do you know, do you know that that is going to be a certainty? I believe it I think it could be a certainty I have another meeting with my leadership team tomorrow and we're going over over some making sure we dot our eyes and cross our T's but I'm pretty sure we'll have some sort of meeting on the 29th or 30th. Okay, thanks. How long would you expect that to be? It would probably be very I think it would be a very short meeting, Jonas. It would be really more of just getting down to business. Okay, okay. So moving on, this is a big this has been a when I was first interviewed as the super first superintendent, I know that many of the board members learned about my passion for equity and equity in the schools. And I when I first started, I was even approached by some teachers from U32 to talk to me about the equity manifesto and the equity scholar and residence program that's existed at U32. There is a lot of work that school districts across Vermont and around country are working on trying to ensure that we have equity in our schools. There's still always work to be done. And this and I think tonight is a real great opportunity to look at what we have been working on here at the district in the district and what the possible what the possibilities are, as well as what the needs are tonight. So I just want to you know, we have an action packed agenda with equity as equity takes center stage tonight. And if we move through the packet, one thing that you'll see, and I'll, before I turn this over to Jen Miller Arsenault, is that we do have a equity, we are required every district in the state of Vermont is required to provide the public with a equity supports letter. When we first learned about the equity supports, a lot of truth be told a lot of districts in Vermont are learning. What does that mean? So if you'll see that there is a letter in the packet that went out, it is a requirement for from the state to state of Vermont, it's also linked to a federal requirement as well to make sure that folks understand that schools and districts require equity supports. And we are and I'll let Jen Miller talk more about that in her short presentation. So without further ado, we'll turn it over to Jen. All right. So hi, everybody, I am going to share my screen with you quickly and just walk you through some of these slides. Okay, presentation. Okay, so I'm just going to take a couple of minutes to talk with you from the Vermont Agency of Education perspective about the state plan, the definitions we'll talk about equity level one, which is what we have been identified for the requirements and then a little bit of the support and resources. Most of these slides I lifted directly from the Vermont Agency of Education. So these are the definitions that are most important for us to focus on. I'm not going to read them for you. I want you to take a minute if you haven't yet done so and see how the Vermont Agency of Education for the purposes of accountability is defining historically marginalized students and historically privileged students. In a minute, I'll show you the chart that shows what we have been identified for in each of our schools and the importance to focus on the equity gap. So that's the gap between a particular student group and the inverse of that group. So when we were identified for equity supports one, it means that we have a significant difference in student performance that should not come as a surprise to you. As we've been reviewing our data, we know that we have historically had differences in achievement on these tests, particularly the SBAC, in performance between various groups of students. In our cases, we often desegregate and see a significant gap between the performance of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch and students who don't and students who qualify for IEPs and students who don't. And when we have a gap and we're not making changes to narrow that gap, then we were identified for equity one. And as Brian said earlier, many, many, many schools in the state more than half. And actually, I wish I had that number for you off the top of my head. I don't, but the vast majority of schools and districts in the state were identified. So what we have been told right now is that we have this gap. Again, the accountability measure is a combination of lots of measures and weighted percentages. It entails the Smarter Balance Assessment, which assesses literacy and math. The Vermont Science Assessment has a small percentage. The Fitness Gram, PE Assessment has a small percentage. And at high school, it is the graduation rate. And then there are two post-secondary measures that are also factored in each for a small percent. And so we have been identified and we're going to need to address the reasons for identification. So our identification in our schools was based on the data from two years ago. So for Berlin and Calis, they were identified for equity supports one because of the difference in performance for students who qualify for free introduced lunch and students who don't. In East Montpelier, Romney and U32, they combine those groups together. So for all of the groups, which is free and reduced lunch, the way that they disaggregate for race and ethnicity, IEPs and English language learners all together compose the historically marginalized group. And there is a difference in performance between that group of students and the group of students that is identified as historically privileged. It's important to note that Doty was not identified in part because you have to have an n size of 25 or higher, and Doty does not have those numbers. So we need to make sure that we are creating a goal to address the reasons why we were identified in our continuous improvement plans. We need to be reviewing the data and we need to make sure that we are communicating with our school community. So Brian had that letter in the board packet. Each of the principals has sent home a letter in their most recent newsletters. We'll make sure that's posted on the websites as well. You have the letter in your packet for the public who didn't receive the letter. Here's a sample essentially just talking about the fact that we have been identified and it means that we will be addressing this with more scrutiny in our continuous improvement plans and that the agency of education is available for some technical assistance. So again, right now, as in equity one, we're doing what we need to do at this point in time. We have been disaggregating our data. When we take up continuous improvement plans, we need to make sure that we have the goals. I'm going to segue to that in just a little bit because this year with COVID, there's a low twist to that. And then ideally, we're going to get ourselves right out of equity one supports. We're going to ensure that our students are performing strongly across the board and that there is little to no difference in performance between those groups. If not, then we get identified for equity two and there's progressive support and assistance from the state. So I want to talk a bit about the recovery plan. You're going to notice I took this moment to put recovery in quotes. I really don't like the terminology of recovery. I think that that's deficit thinking. I think that we need to be thinking forward. We need to be redesigning or re-envisioning for all students. Clearly, our current system has not worked for everybody and it's time to take this up and make the system better for everybody. In the recovery plan, which we are going to be getting our heads around and working on the state recovery plan, we need to address, we need to do a data analysis and look at our student data. So for this year, for all of our schools, the recovery plan meets the requirements of the continuous improvement plan, at least for this spring. The exception is DOTI because as many of you know, DOTI was identified for comprehensive supports last year. DOTI will engage in continuous improvement planning. So there are just some nuances there. But we are looking at our data. You know, through the Ed Quality Committee and later tonight, we'll look at the literacy data. We're looking at it regularly. So we'll continue to analyze our data. We're awaiting the results of the curriculum management review. Those results can inform our work. You all know as a board, we're about to embark on a strategic planning process. My hope is that we're really looking at issues of equity, that we have a definition, a shared vision, and we're going to address it and make our schools actualize this vision that we have to make the schools a better place for all of our students. We're engaging in professional learning. And I know you're about to hear a little bit more about that in a minute. We'll continue to engage in professional learning. We need to maintain a commitment and stay the course. And I'll be eager to hear from others about any other next steps. So that's that segment of the presentation. I'm curious of their questions about the AOE piece. Go ahead. Jen, is there anything in between historically marginalized and historically privileged? No, the AOE definition, the groups are just the inverse of each other. No. So no, there's no it's set up in that sort of binary and inverse grouping. So there's just nothing like regular people? No, because if you're if you're not a member of one group, you're a member of the inverse group is how the state is defining that. Interesting. Thank you. Sure. Really? This might be coming later, but so I'm one, I'm really impressed and surprised that this was able to be given out and discussed tonight because it felt to me really like the AOE just came out with it. And one thing that I've been wondering about is how much discretion each district gets to have in what they do. So what am I asking? I guess I'm wondering are we taking time to evaluate the specific needs that we have given the definitions that the AOE has supplied? Are we doing something that we wouldn't have been doing before? Because of COVID and perhaps the historically marginalized students have been marginalized even more or need even more? Or is that really not what this is about? Like when I first heard about it, I really thought it was recovery because of what the disparities, let's just say from last spring and students doing the learning at home and widening that gap, more trauma being in the families. Like I thought it was about that. And I guess I want to be really clear that if there is time for us to slow down and assess and decide and evaluate where are we, I really want us to take that time. And so I guess my question is, is it helping us do something different? Or are we doing the right planning anyway? Is that clear? I guess I'm asking Jen, I think, or Brian. So one, I want to make sure my question is really clear because I didn't plan it out ahead of time. And then, yeah, like is this giving us like this inspiration to, I don't know, investigate and fix and does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, I will answer that. I guess there are two things. And we're sort of conflating the identification for equity supports and the recovery plan, right? There is a timeline for that recovery plan that is quick. I mean, we have to have a plan done by the 15th of May, ready to implement on the 1st of June. We are, so we'll prepare and we will meet that deadline. And we have a lot of, we have a lot of work to do to examine our practices, think about the systems, the structures, the policies, all of those things that are in place that are supporting our students or aren't supporting our students, right? So that degree of equity work, trauma informed, all of those things. We really need to do some scrutiny and some organization around, in my opinion. So it's both, it's sort of like a short term response, but a long term commitment for change as well, Caroline, in my estimation. Thank you, Jen. And I would just add, Caroline, I think you're asking the one of what I heard you ask was, how does this equity supports designation? Does it change anything that we're currently doing, right? And so one thing I will say is, you know, tonight's, we have a lot going on with equity after us tonight and after this presentation, but I will say that Washington Central has been doing a lot of things, I think, that have already been pushing the bar and moving things forward in equity. And I can just, you know, we're going to talk a little bit about the equity course. We have equity scholar and residents, which I have a recommendation to continue that program, which I'm hoping the board will consider for tonight. But the other thing is, the board has also did do the curriculum management review earlier this year. And one of the, you know, you heard Jen talk about, you know, looking at the structures and how, and learning about our district and how we can really look at equity. And one of the standards of that particular curriculum management review that the board chose and selected is equity. I mean, equity is one of the standards. So we will be getting possible some recommendations and some things to look at in regards to equity. So I think in many ways, and I will say just full disclosure, Jen and I did meet with the agency of education. And Jen is absolutely right that more than half of the majority of the schools in Vermont have been designated for equity supports. And even though they've, you know, folks have been notified of this, we were told that that was the first time the person from the state was actually talking to superintendent and director curriculum and instruction about equity supports, because we were really interested in knowing what does this actually mean, right? So we set up a meeting with this person, maybe this person's new to the state, I'm not sure, but either way, we were definitely really interested in finding out what it is, how our schools identified for equity supports, and what are the expectations of the state. And so I think the state is also learning how to do this work themselves. But ultimately, to answer your question, Caroline, I think that we've been designated for equity supports, but we've been doing a lot of things already. And I think that if the board will consider continuing with some of the recommendations tonight, and additionally, consider the curriculum management review and the feedback we get from their regards to equity, we'll have a bigger picture of what we can do and what may be possible with regards to promoting equity throughout our district. Did that answer your question? So Diane, and then John, as you're on deck, and I see you, Steven. So I just wanted to say that this is a systemic problem everywhere that we know of and didn't just happen overnight. And so I appreciate the quick part of the plan. But I also want to be sure, Jen, you said that, you know, well, hopefully turn this around quickly. The reality is we're not going to be able to do that. I think it's admirable what we put into place and that we remain dedicated to doing that and to moving forward. But I think we cut ourselves short if we don't admit the hard work and the fact that it will take longer. So what are the short bites we take? But like you said, it's a long term commitment. So I definitely appreciate that. But also, you know, I just want to be sure that while there are lots of different places, 50% that are, we need to be mindful of what we do and making sure we're doing it right and we're paying attention to it and to what the need is in our community. So just as a reminder for ourselves, it's a journey and we need to be sure that we're keeping at it and not expecting that quick fix. Jonas? Jen, really quick question. Equity one is the lowest or highest level? It's the lowest. Okay, thank you. It's the lowest, yeah. Steven? So I say this first that I hope the administrators understand the sincere respect I have for the work that they're doing. But to go back to some of Caroline's questions, I think I've made it clear I'm results oriented. I'm not interested in what programs we've done. I'm not interested in potential. I want to see results. And I think to kind of tie into what Diane has said, we have made no appreciable improvement in our equity gap in decades. Decades. So I'm very impressed with the direction the administration is taking and the seriousness that they're approaching the plan now, both short term and long term. And I'm going to press the board to take the same stance. Everything we consider, anything we consider needs to also be considered from an equity point of view. Every dollar we spend, we need to be thinking equity. So I'll just leave it at that. Thank you, Steven. Any other questions from board members for Jen or Brian? Yeah, this is Jonathan. I just had one concerning the curriculum. Does this equity one sort of designation? Does it require sort of a comprehensive review of the curriculum? And if so, does that, would it include or require an equity component in the curriculum that speaks directly to underrepresented groups over time? So it doesn't require a comprehensive look at curriculum. It requires a goal related to safe and healthy schools related to specifically why we've been designated for equity one. But we have the opportunity to do as much looking and examining as we want to do and feel compelled to do. But it's not required to sort of do that broad comprehensive look right now. Although I will say I'm very happy that the board did allow the curriculum management review and adopted that review because this will, I think, allow us to look more closely at some of the things that we may wish to address moving forward. Okay, if there are no other questions, I have a quick question, Jen. The recovery plan that you said we're submitting in May 15 is separate or a ties in with the equity. I agree that I totally love their recovery term. I feel like we know all teachers know when each school knows where their kids are, so we are planning to for student outcomes. So how are those two tied in? Maybe I missed Yeah, so how can I answer this? Typically, at least each year or at least every other year, we would be required to engage in continuous improvement planning in general for the state and submit them to the state. That is tied to some of the grants that we receive like the consolidated federal programs, the monies that we spend on students who need additional support or some professional learning for our schools or funding the equity course this year that we're going to talk about in a little bit. So there is that requirement this year because schools this spring are writing the recovery plans. They're trying to, the state is urging us to think about the recovery and CIP at the same time so that we don't have to write or update separately the continuous improvement plan because we're doing the recovery plan and the recovery plan has a requirement to do a comprehensive needs assessment sort of a look at the data that is similar although not exactly the same as what we engage in for continuous improvement planning. Okay, but that would be the basis where the kids are. Yeah. Brian, do you want to continue with the next? Yes, I mean I think this is also the this equity course, Jen had helped, I know it's been working with in the district office to really help this and I'll let Jen talk about it but there's a course that's been offered, our equity scholar in residence over at U32 has been teaching the course and I'll let Jen talk more about it. So I'll kick it off but our instructor is with us right now and I would welcome her to join us. So we are teaching Shelly from Melia is facilitating a class for us learning right alongside with us every single week. There are 12 of us enrolled in the class, the class is entitled to racial equity, intersectional justice and confronting bias at school. We are using federal funds title four which is a source of funds that can support safe and healthy schools ultimately to help all of our students feel safer and to thrive in our schools and to reduce incidents of bullying and harassment. So we together committed to read Bettina Love's book. Oh my god, we want to do more than survive about abolitionist teaching as a foundational text and we are doing some reading as an emergent curriculum as the interests are sparked in the class around all of these issues. It has been an absolute joy so far. We started in January, we're meeting via Zoom and we'll meet through the end of May. Shelly, what would you add to that about our class right now? Well, I wish more of you would talk about what we're doing. It is an emergent curriculum, the point being for us as educators to understand the depths of who we are and what we're teaching unbeknownst to ourselves. We have amazing conversations about the readings that we're doing and half of the class we dedicate to talking about actual practice, things that have come up in the week, questions we have. We review case studies of things that are happened at other school districts and really ask the questions that we would be probably embarrassed to ask in another forum but we can really dig deeply into the material and ask all those questions you're afraid to ask and work together to see how we would resolve a problem or what we can help one another see more clearly. It's a very rich experience and I have to read all weekend long to keep up with them. There are some members of the class here who might want to chime in if they would be so kind. And if we have time. Karen, Kelly, who else is here from the class? There are 12 of us all together. Kat, anyone want to pipe in? Sure, I'll say something. I just have really so appreciated the district-wide nature of the group. We have teachers from different levels. We have administrators from different schools. We have Shelly helping us through the whole thing. It's a really rich combination and so I'm just appreciating the structure that Jen helped set up and the long-term opportunity to, as Shelly was saying, to like engage with some really rich texts and also really examine our practices and have time to puzzle things out and put forward dilemmas. We had some things going on in a classroom that I brought to the group and really got some fantastic feedback and was able to go back with new ideas for how to approach things and I can't speak highly enough. I hope everyone in the district gets a chance to do this. I hope it becomes an ongoing tradition. It's a fabulous setup. Thank you. Thank you. And so ultimately I think that a lot of the work that Washington Central has been engaged in regarding equity, I'm going to be recommending again that that continue but I also think doing that in conjunction with looking at what is possible when we get the results of the curriculum management review, I think when you put those two things hand-in-hand, we could get a really good blueprint for how to move forward with equity as a part of the overall strategic plan. And so I think there's some really great opportunities. I know we have an action-packed agenda tonight and we do have some guests here that I did invite to present. So I see Shelly's here. Where's Erica and Lucinda? I'll turn it over to you to make you have to talk about the Equity Scholar Residence Program. And as you're getting ready to put the PowerPoint up, I just want to let the school board know that this program has been offered at U32 and sometimes goes is Shelly's on borrow, on loan to some of the other schools, but she's really focused on at U32. And part of the proposal that we're asking the board to consider for tonight to support is to use the Equity Scholar and Residence Program not at the school level, at U32, but also across the entire district starting for next year. So I'll turn that over to the group. I see some folks here. So Erica. Yes. Thank you, Brian. I'm Erica Zimmerman. I'm a resident of East Montpelier and a U32 parent. But I'm here as the new, newish executive director of Washington Central Friends of Education, which has been a long time nonprofit partner to the school districts. And I'm really excited to be here. Having been asked, Washington WCFE has been asked to be the incubator and the fiscal agent for the Equity Scholar and Residence Program in its next year. The board has received our proposal as well as this presentation. I'm going to go over it very quickly and mostly leave time for you to ask questions of Shelly Vermilia, who is our Equity Scholar and Residence at U32, and Lucinda Garthwaite, excuse me, who has developed this project, this model, as the director of the Institute for Libertory Innovation. And I'll just introduce Washington Central Friends of Education. You may know as an incubator for past new projects in Washington Central, including branching out and community connections. And we're very excited to take on that role again here. So slide, please. As Brian and Jen have discussed with you tonight, and as you've read, I'm sure a lot, school equity is a powerful predictor of school success. And in fact, social inequities are a disappointing and upsetting predictor for lack of school success. And it's really no different in Vermont than it is nationally. Slide, please. We know that we have students of color, students with disabilities, and other historically marginalized populations who are not succeeding as well as the historically privileged population. And we know that we need to engage with this challenge. There's no way it's going to get better unless we engage in it. Slide, please. We are really fortunate that U32 signed on as the partner in piloting a new model developed by ILI, the Institute for Libertory Innovation to help teachers develop competence educators, I should say teachers and administrators and staff develop competence and confidence in engaging in challenges of equity. It's a brand new model. It has been piloted in the past to this current school year and the year before at U32 with a few fingers into other schools. It has been piloted without expense to the district so far. And we're very proud to say that our district will always be known as its home. It is starting to garner statewide interest and interest beyond. And we are excited and compelled to offer it to the district as a whole. Slide, please. I should not be the one to say too much about the model. I want you to be able to ask questions of Shelley, Lucinda, and educators who have worked with Shelley. But I do want you to think about one concept. Imagine that we have a full-time independent scholar with expertise and equity, expertise that has been cultivated through scholarship and through experience, who is full-time five days a week with our educators, able to sit alongside them, have tough conversations, delve into research, help frame the actual questions, which sometimes are hard to even get your head around, to address these challenges of why are some students experiencing inequity in our schools? What does that look like? What can we do? What is out there that can help us? It's a relationship-based model. The equity scholar in residence develops relationships with our educators, knows our school culture, and is responsive to the questions that come up. Having a resource like this is innovative, it's unique, and we're excited to see how it would look to expand from one school, U32, into the district as a whole. Slide, please. We have begun to evaluate, I shouldn't say wait, the Institute for Libertory Innovation has begun to evaluate the efficacy of this model. There's a third-party evaluation that will be complete by the end of this May, but to date, there have been pilot surveys of educators which show resounding success. There's some evidence of sustained change beyond an individual educator's experience, and some perspectives that show that there is reduced resistance to engaging and learning in these challenges that have historically been hard for all of us to engage in. What no matter what our role is. Slide, please. So it's really teachers' voices, educators' voices that are most important to help you understand the model and its potential for the district as a whole. Hank Van Orman was supposed to be here tonight to speak to this, but unfortunately for us, but fortunately for U32, we have a basketball team in the playoffs right now, so he could not be here. He is serving his role as director of athletics, and he was very sorry to write in just before that he couldn't be here, and it looks like, is Mary Bove here? I'm not sure if she is here. I didn't see her before. Someone, no, so I think she must have had something come up as well. I believe there's a bunch of educators here and school administrators who have worked with Shelley who can, who might want to speak to the, to their experience in working with the Equity Scholar in Residence. Don't want to put you on the spot, but it's a friendly group. I can't see you all right now, but I'm wondering if anyone can monitor and look for any hands up. You can also join in at the end, if you want. See Jody raising her hand. Kat, do you want to go ahead? Oh, there's Jody. Yeah, I'm happy to start. I am new to this work. I feel like that very grateful that the folks in our group are open to, especially Shelley, who's just amazing, meets us all like we do with our students wherever we're at, and brings us into the fold and doesn't tell us what to think and inspires the vulnerability and the places to go with our learning so that we feel like we can really engage in this. I have had the opportunity in the past to pull Shelley aside and ask, you know, present her with a dilemma. And that comes up in my work. And just this week, I feel like I put myself out there with the group and said, you know, I've had this issue around student response to challenging behavior. And I started out talking about our elementary model for our discipline procedures and our handbook. And just talked about the challenges about we don't have a racial equity lens in our procedures in the way that we might with a trauma-informed approach or restorative practices. And I was looking for like just some support around how to gain more knowledge. And what I got was some folks telling me that, you know, I need to be thinking about even the vocabulary of discipline that that's such a, you know, a deficit model and punitive and it keeps those, you know, those barriers in place. And it didn't feel like I was attacked at all. It felt like I was being inspired to sort of like raise up and talk about being an activist. And I'm like, what? I don't know how to do that. They said I could. I'm doing it. This is great work to be engaged in. And Shelley is a gift to our district. We need to figure out how to keep her. Thank you, Kat. And you're Kat, just you're the principal of Calis. So somehow you've been able to work with Shelley across the outside of U32. Yes. Yeah. Great. Thanks. Anybody else? Jody, did you want to say something? Sure. I would say that I was lucky enough to work with Shelley when she first started with us. And actually when she proposed, she enlisted in a proposed this venture. And it's been wonderful to observe Shelley work with faculty and staff in professional development, but also individually. And of course, I know about the learning that's going on in this course. And the the questions that she gets to grapple with with our faculty and staff, and also with students in different clubs that she helps to purchase. She participates in those and she listens to the students and she hears what what they're struggling with and brings that back to our educators and to myself and other administrators. And it's just great to have her voice asking. I think I heard you say, Erica, some of the hard questions. And those questions aren't always easy for any of us to answer. But that's okay. It gives us an opportunity to really think about what's going on and to consider how we might do things differently to support our students. And it's been wonderful to work with Shelley. Thank you, Jody. Let me let's see. I think I can I'll go on to just tell you a little bit more about the model or sorry about our proposal. And then we'll go back to and open up to questions. So if we could go back to the PowerPoint, please. Thank you. So as many of you know, Washington Central Friends of Education is a nonprofit that can partner that is its mission includes partnering with the school district to help house and incubate and develop new projects that either need to be independent of the school district or have the potential for moving into the school district. But in its their early stages, it's more we're more nimble and to be able to offer fiscal management and oversight and liability protection, et cetera. And on our call tonight, you'll see a couple of our long time leaders, Deb Wolf, who's my predecessor, and Ginny Burley, who's the founding and founder and director of Community Connections for so many years. And they, along with a couple others on the call are our comprised majority of our current board. So they can help make sure that I guide this process in the successful way it has operated before. It's important for the equity scholar model that the scholar be independent. And by us serving as the fiscal agent, it will enable the scholar to remain in that relationship with the school district. The costs are close to $80,000, $79,000 for the 2021 school year, which would enable the equity scholar to be full time for the entire year. As we said, we would be exploring how to move the model from being one school based to being district wide, and how can the equity scholar serve and meet the needs of teachers from and leaders from all the schools, as well as helping the district leadership with equity policy and curriculum. As I said, we Washington Central Friends of Education would enter a MOU relationship with the school district. And we would take the lead on working towards the future of the equity scholar in the district. While at the same time, the ILI, the founder of the model, will be working to expand it to other sites into a long term future and to allow for continuous evaluation. As the model shifts, especially from being one school based to seeing how it can work district wide. That, those were the basics. I'm sure there are questions. Thank you for showing the PowerPoint. And I believe I want to just make sure we have still, we have Shelley, we have Lucinda Garthwaite, and we have members of our board. But more importantly, we have educators and administrators who have worked with the equity scholar and have a sense of how the model plays out and can be useful in addressing these really critical equity challenges. Would you permit me to make a motion to is that would that be in order at this point? Yeah, go ahead and do the motion. Yeah, then I'll move to authorize a contract for the equity scholar and residents with the Washington Central Friends of Education at a cost not to exceed $79,184 for the 2021-22 school year and to use the fund balance to pay for this. Thank you, Scott. A second? Second. Thank you. I missed that. Was that you, Jonas? Yeah. Chris. Yeah. Okay. Good. Discussions. And now we can go ahead and do more questions because I know I see Chris, you had your hand up. Thank you. Can you tell us what it means to be independent? It's independent of whom and how the independence would work within the structure of the school district. I'll speak to that from the structural side and then perhaps Lucinda or Shelley would want to speak to it from the model side. Structurally, the equity scholar would be an employee of Washington Central Friends of Education and WCFE would offer oversight both for the efficacy of this role and for making sure that the equity scholar works within the school's policies and practices and that the relationship you know works keeps going in a good direction. So we would have the we would be essentially backing up the district to making sure that it is going in the direction that we want it that the district wants it to go. Meanwhile, ILI will be examining and supporting the model as it's developing into its third year. But I think maybe Shelley or Lucinda or perhaps one of the school leaders could speak to the value of this role as being independent of the of the schools and of the district. Jody or Steven, do you want to jump in there? Do you want me to say something first? Steven? I was saying if you'd like to speak first that's great. What we've what we have begun to understand and again as Erica said hello everybody by the way as Erica said the full third party evaluation will be finished in May but we have already done some research and what we've realized is that Christopher the independence as in they're not a school employee lets them be putting nimble and that's really what defines the independence. They're not a school employee so one could say it's a contractual relationship a consulting relationship but they're not a consultant either so we don't like to say that so that what that means is that is they're free to leave their desk and go down the hall and deal with what's happening there's they're not stuck with the they're not limited by the strictures of being a school employee and and that was something we've heard from administrators has been a pretty important part of the model for them which is why if Steven or Jody wants to speak to it they can speak to it more on the ground but it is one of the pieces that we've asked our evaluator to really look at to to really affirm it but it is what is emerging as a critical part of the model. Did I answer your question Christopher well enough? You did and if you don't mind me yeah and if you don't mind me adding on to that the I think what's really important is that this role needs to be in a position where it's not beholden to administration for anything so that it can speak truth to power is really what it's about and that's what we are really excited about I mean I wouldn't ask for something like this normally in a school until you realize how powerful it can be to have your equity coordinator not having to be supervised by the people that they are actually helping deal with those equity issues and so I think that it's a great model for for this kind of role. Thank you Steven. Thank you Steven. Kari and Scott you're on deck. Yeah thanks I'm gonna I'm supportive of the proposal my curiosity is around the impact and I know it's early on and I know that we're gonna get more information after the report in May but I wonder if you can share some thoughts about how we will be thinking about success down the road and if you can put yourself in our shoes when we get to budgeting whether that's in the fall of 21 or a couple years down the road what are the kinds of things that we ought to be looking at to judge whether this program has been successful and we want to continue it. I can take that Kari thank you. We're a research institute so we started with a research question and and that research question was based on prior research which tells us that if we can move the needle on educators confidence and willingness to engage equity then we're going to move the needle on equitable school cultures and we're going to move the needle on school equity. There's plenty of research background although I'm not a person that's really good at tripping that off the top of my head but I can certainly provide you all with it if you like it. So we started by saying if we use this model and you've all seen the model I can answer questions about it will we move the needle on educators confidence and willingness to engage equity and that the work we did last year we got about a third it was pandemic time and it was a very busy staff still we got a third of the educators reporting back and as you saw 96% of the people that worked with the equity scholars said yeah I'm feeling like I can do this more than I used to feel like I could do it so so for starters we're always going to be looking at that are we seeing a measurable and Stephen to your question a measurable impact on educators willingness and confidence to address to both respond to respond to unproactively address equity right so we and the way we're measuring that in the evaluation is we're using this we're using a survey we did a pretest we're doing a potest and we have an external person coming in and she's interviewing 15 or 20 people Jody's helping her with that I hired her but I'm not on my I'm hands off so that's how we're going to find that out now going into the future what's begun to emerge and we'll find out more about this in our evaluation is what Erica talked about we may also find out we can measure sustained change and reduced resistance to working with equity both of those things also prior research tells us we'll drive an equitable school culture what that what we will not be able to measure as a direct to result is changes in school culture and changes of schools performance right because and students performance because this is not we aren't we aren't pushing that lever we're pushing the lever of of educators capacity to respond to and proactively address issues of equity this is an opportunity for me to say as I as I shared with Brian I as the director of the Ili I'm a little concerned about about moving into a district wide application with one person Shelley is saying I think I could do it let's try so we're saying let's give it a go and we're really really grateful that the district is is open to the possibility of being this ago our commitment for the Ili is to raise the funds to really evaluate that carefully and make sure it works it still drives that critical lever of increasing capacity did I answer your question Kerry yes thank you okay thank you Lucinda Scott and Diane you're on deck unmute Scott thank you I had the privilege to get to know Shelley and actually maybe I should say I was non-marginalized in getting to know Shelley and in another context and getting a sense of her as a person and of her skills and you know the the depth of her learning and understanding and I completely get what has been said about the the experience that our educators have had with her and I think it's extremely valuable um and I support it as well um with reference to Kerry's question and to Diane and and Stephen look um before him too um as a fan of digital humanities um I noticed that in this board packet the word equity occurs actually 86 times um inequity the word inequity a handful of times as well the words equality and inequality occur both zero times although equal twice um what concerns me is that all of all of this great effort um is being conducted in the context of massive and intensifying wealth and income inequality in our country and in in Vermont as well so there's there's a background to um to all of this that um I'm not saying that we're we're spinning into a gale force wind but um because I think there again there's real value that will come through and having um better educators um teachers administrators staff who are better able to manage the problems that arise out of this you know um extremely difficult and seemingly worsening context but um so I hope that we don't we don't try to you know expect too much and that we look for um you know improvements in the individuals that that Shelly will be working with and in their skills and their um and the results that you know maybe even on a kind of micro level they're able to achieve thank you Scott Diane so a couple questions um one is there a thought about a critical mass that is there a number that is kind of a goal to be sure to have touch points with in terms of of moving that needle and then the other and this might be too early in the process but certainly when you have one person hired for the whole district uh wondering how it is going to be an equitable share that doesn't dilute the process in in that way and so just figuring out how Shelly will divvy her her time so that it's a sustainable model that isn't really just hinged on her incredible skills so I'm gonna I'll say a couple things Diane and then I'm gonna turn it over to Shelly for a minute um I I you're you are you are speaking my mind in terms of the the question that's so much I'm not I'm not I am not convinced that it won't work I am a researcher so I'm asking if it will right um and uh we we don't know what the answer to the director to your question is no we do not know how many touch points it it takes to make this happen down the road we may have the resources to be able to measure that but we don't know and we right now don't have plans to measure that particular data point um but it's a really interesting thought so I appreciate it because maybe it's something we're going to pick up down the road when we get more funding um but so thank you for that that the second question is what we're going to what the ILI is going to do is is um we have some funders interested in helping us to continue to investigate the efficacy of the model and we're going to say all right we're we're doing it's almost like a third year of a pilot we're going to see what what happens when we do this and we'll come back to the board and say you know last year we got 96 percent this year we only got 70 so maybe we need to think about another resource and let me just say the the ILI is very busy working with some funders to um this summer will be once we get the results of the evaluation we'll be figuring out how to replicate this we're one of the first questions that Jody and Stephen and other people a lot of people have asked us can we replicate this if we don't have Shelly Vermilia doing it and we are beginning to find out yeah we're beginning to realize yeah we can it has to do with very careful hiring and training and mentoring um which Shelly will have a role in but let me just say I know Shelly has some thoughts about how she's going to approach this and so I want to turn it over to Shelly to say to let her answer your question about how she's going to approach this challenge well sort of like everything you you know you offer what's possible and see who comes um the reason I think it's possible to do the district is my experience this year with um Rumney and I don't know if any Rumney folks are here but we've been doing um regular professional development sessions and the conversation grows and more and more people understand what we're talking about as as we have consistent um monthly meetings and I think that is how to grow this person by person uh understanding that this is hard work and it's really great work when you're doing it especially when you're doing it with colleagues the energy just sort of bubbles when you have five people thinking about a problem and coming up with five different ideas so I don't have a prescription I have a willingness to have these conversations with as many people as possible but it has to it is kind of slow and it's kind of um and then it cascades so that's what I think we do and I'll work I would really like to work with Jen Miller Arsenault on the way to do this too because it's got curriculum impact so I think there are enough of us already doing this uh that if we work a little more tightly together um we'll really be able to to create some great communication and possibilities for our students thank you Shelly Virginia you have a genie do you have something to share you have your hand itself I do um as a as a member of friends of education I am really excited and committed to the work that's going on here and and fully support it um another hat that I wear is a member of Vermont after school which is the organization that has done so much work to provide services for kids and families in covid in just setting up all of the systems that allow kids to have places to go and systems that work and um they've gotten a ton of attention I'm actually planning to bring this concept to them because I think that equity is an issue that should be at the top of their wish list and um I don't know where that's going to go but that's a statewide organization and I think this is perfect to bring to them they've done a lot of work on social emotional learning on family support and equity is where they where I as a board member think they should be spending some of our energy so just wanted to let you know that thank you Steven look um I think we could have a brilliant informative wonderful discussion on this topic for hours I'd like to call the question and vote on the motion on the floor yeah so we'll call the question and I just wanted to make a quick comment I know that the question has been called but I just want to thank everybody that came this is super excited that we're gonna you know hopefully depending on how the motion goes we would be able to do this work across uh pre-k to to 12 this is just really uh the historic moment in our district so with that in mind a all the favor in the motion if you say yes or aye yes although supposed please say no hearing none the motion passly thank you everybody thank you honored to take up this work with uh with the district and we couldn't ask we have an all-star team of partners to to make this a reality thanks so much for having us thanks for the work you do thank you everybody thank you for being here thank you take care thank you let's let's move you have one more yes I have one more and I'll make it quick I just wanted this is actually a really exciting opportunity this is from the Vermont superintendents association it's the instructional leadership academy what it is is it's not offered every year it's going to be offered next year it was offered a few years ago I did contact some superintendents about it they sent one or two principles and themselves and maybe a central office person to participate a few years ago now they they said it was so good in how they developed their leadership teams and came up with how to really develop and design and continue and share leadership practices amongst each other when it comes to improving instruction in schools in their schools that they decided that they now all wanted to bring their entire leadership team and so what happened is I actually had to advocate for the with the VSA for them to open up a second cohort because they it opened on one day and it closed less than 24 hours later and I was like I had a chance to talk to my leadership team yet and when I did talk there was a lot there was a lot of interest on a leadership team so we are looking forward to participating in this program next year I can talk more about it another night I know we have a full action packed agenda but the idea here is it will start in the fall it will continue throughout the year we will it will involve principals and central office leaders and myself to visit each other schools to do walkthroughs and learn how to do this work in a collaborative type of way and we will also learn how to do this going to other school districts throughout the state of Vermont to look and learn about best practices that are happening while also learning about some instructional leadership frameworks okay thank you Brian that concludes rent on a report we're going to move into education quality I'm well I wonder if everybody wants to break while they put the presentation and then we power through the rest of the agenda with that did everybody needs a quick break yeah so we'll be back in yeah in in five minutes okay thank you everyone see you too okay welcome everybody I'll pass on the education quality discussion to Jen and Kari yeah so hi everybody um this month we're gonna continue our journey through the student learning outcomes and we're talking about literacy and like math last month this is a topic just fundamental to our mission and we don't have a lot of time tonight we hope everyone comes away with a better understanding of our literacy curriculum and instruction and some of the achievement data the committee got another excellent overview and the full set of slides is in the packet and Jen is going to share some of the highlights in just a moment and I just wanted to add that this month we as a committee use the jam board which is a shared web page to gather our questions and our discussion points so if you want to take a look at those you can review those just click on the jam board that's in the link it's in the packet so um want to take it away Jen sure so I'm going to share my screen again and talk you through just a few of our slides here oh let me advance from down here so again um I we've been trying to to come up with a reliable reliable and predictable kind of format for these presentations here are the literacy standards um you can see that we have standards related to reading writing speaking and listening and all of our standards are aligned with the common for state standards here's an example of just the learning progression and scales pre-k all the way through graduation so you know what we expect um for our youngest students as they're being emergent writers um really appreciating story as a and drawing as a way to tell a story all the way um through this snip actually isn't show all the grades but um that this is our informs our thinking there are a lot of slides and examples about some instruction this year I'm not going to go over all of them but I want you to just take note as you're looking at those links that um we've gotten creative this year we've had to and it's been fabulous so reading and writing and listening and speaking can happen indoors and they can happen outdoors and they can happen remotely or via um our electronic devices in the internet so there are some examples um if you haven't yet had an opportunity to really read some of these examples and actually in your packet I know the print is small I do encourage you to spend a few minutes um there's some really rich examples of our students work and their interests and some links again to get more in depth um Cari mentioned we this is an a student learning outcome area in which we have a lot of data and so slides nine through 18 in the slide show are all related to our student performance data you will notice that um in as in the past we do have um and like we talked about earlier differences in um in performance among various student groups there's one data slide that I want to highlight for you tonight and members of the ed quality committee or board members who joined us for this meeting earlier this month you'll notice that um our this slide had been incomplete we had just administered the winter administration of the bass in February our benchmark assessment system in grades uh this slide is one through six and we didn't have all of the data noted and so for tonight's meeting we do have all of the data and so what you're seeing is our data from two administrations last year so pre-pandemic um in in each of those grade levels we did not administer the bass in the spring last year pretty impossible to do remotely during a period of school dismissal and so far we've administered it in the fall and then in the winter and I want you to note um in particular the blue line and the yellow line this is a change in our practice so we have been super intentional I think from last spring and really clear about the fact that we did not want our students to be penalized because they were in a situation of a global pandemic of which they had no control and we wanted to meet our kids where they are and support them not only academically but socially and emotionally and so the curriculum instruction and assessment reopening task force spent a lot of time this summer um thinking about how to how to reopen school in a way that um that held all of those realities together and um and it impacted our local comprehensive assessment plan so I want you to know that we decided that um in the winter our expectation for right now is different than it would have been had we not missed six months of school so what we're expecting now um is is a slightly uh lower level of expectation than in typical times that's the blue line the yellow line is what we would have expected had we not been in a pandemic another important thing to note is that in the past we have not universally administered the benchmark assessment system in the spring we've only administered it um or sort of required administration if students hadn't met the winter benchmark this year we are um asking our teachers to administer the spring assessment universally so we really have a gauge over the course of the entire year um we really wanted to give our kids the space and our teachers the space and the time that they needed to continue growing so I just want to be clear about that and um and transparent the final thing I want to say before you all um talk and Kari takes over again is um is just a little bit of this analysis of data so as you can see um our literacy scores tend to be higher than our math scores we've talked about differences in performance um I want you to know also one factor could be the amount of time that we're devoting to instruction we devote at least 90 minutes to literacy in our elementary schools um if you look at that data more closely you'll see that there's some measures that are indicating a difference in performance pre-pandemic and during the pandemic we're really paying attention to that and as part of our plan for recovery and redesign we'll be thinking about that um we are wondering about our writing practices um we do have in the elementary schools a common some common rubrics and and assessments some prompts but we are wondering if it's time now to take a look at that practice we haven't examined it in a number of years and um and should we uh should we update our practices and finally um as you well know and as is happening in the legislature right now as well there's a lot of research and evidence of and conversation about um what has been called the science of reading and um to what extent might that um and should that inform our practices in our examination of our practices so um that in a really quick way is a nutshell and I'll pass it back to Kari. Thanks Jen so um again we don't have a ton of time but is there maybe one or two clarifying questions about the information you just got or something else that's in the packet or not in the packet um if not our question for you and again just to frame this up um you know there's a lot of reasons for us to be focusing on on this um over the course of the year but one that's um uh important is to inform our strategic planning right we're going through all of the student learning outcomes getting a degree of fluency so that we know what to prioritize and I think that's going to be one of the big challenges with with strategic planning is what what are we going to focus on and what are we not going to prioritize so um in that spirit here's here's our question for you um what information from this review do you want to carry forward into our strategic planning so that it that it's um part of the mix that gets considered when we start anybody got a thought about that diane please so so one of the things too I wanted to mention was that we as a committee have noted as well that we're not able to do the deep dive that would be needed so this is kind of a tricky question to answer because we haven't really been able to dig deep and so um it's our hope that maybe with the changing up of having committees have more time that we can really um instead of staying at the 30 000 foot level really dive in um which to me would then inform how does that fit in our strategic planning here enough thank you Stephen I would ask if the committee could look at as you examine the the performance in the various student learning outcomes uh which outcomes have the greatest equity gap got it thank you anybody at caroline really similar to stevens I would just um use the data to also see was there a grade level more affected by last spring than another um it may or may not be from that but looking at the bass scores it just seems like first grade fourth grade and fifth grade of more disparity of where they were last winter versus this winter and just using that maybe for decisions around um supports me too but definitely looking more than I just did and determining if that's accurate not taking it as a mandate got it floor you hear that something sorry I was not able to unmute myself quickly enough it just caring with that page 56 with the seventh grade literacy star that the segregated the poverty and the IEP was and was important it's really hard to see and we always wanted to like figure out how to see those dots better but that's something and I don't know we can desegregate it even even more sort of in line heard in the at the beginning of the of the presentation so like the two the two main I am what I'm going to call them so by race too not justice so so do do a deeper dive units to desegregate that data and and carry that through as we do the the continuous improvement plan can you hear me my internet says unstable yeah okay that's it yeah we got it thank you so I think that's probably close to time and thank you very much and just want to remind folks that the open invitation stands if you want to join us we have a couple more student learning outcomes on the calendar science is next and then health and phys ed and we will be meeting at 5pm I believe we're going to continue doing that 5pm at the first Wednesday of the month and hopefully we'll have a little bit more time as Diane says so thank you thank you Jen yeah thank you Kerry thank you Jen and you had three minutes to go so thank you let's move into the next finance committee so technology 4.41 the technology bid that was in page 68 I'm wondering it was not a part of our package but I wonder is Scott or Kerry has it in front of them and could make a motion to award I'm happy to read it unless you have it in front of you Scott go ahead thanks for I would move to award the storage and virtualization bid to Cambridge computer in the amount of $189,499 thank you Caroline a second and that was open for discussion are there any questions I'm happy to describe that quickly and Jim is here if we had any questions it is in the packet it's in the most recent packet floor so there is a description about it but yeah there's the whole description I just didn't see the motion it was on them I just wanted to thank Jim for all the detail in this it made it really easy to come tonight after having all of that I appreciate it thank you Caroline thank you Jim is Stephen Luke I would just ask I see this as another the fund balance is going to be used to pay for this I would ask that we keep a running tab on what we're approving from the fund balance particularly in light of the discussion that we had during executive session thank you Stephen any other questions and Laurie do you want to yes I just wanted to reiterate that technology has its own fund balance where we've tried to level budget for many years and save any unspent money for purchases like this so that we didn't have spikes in the budget so the technology department has its own tech reserve fund balance separate from the operating fund balance and as Jim alluded to that in the memo there's about 358 thousand in there thank you thank you Laurie thank you Jim so all those in favor approving the motion read by Scott please say aye any opposed hearing none the motion carries so let's move on thank you school board and thank you Jim for your leadership thank you everybody so then the next item is the capital timeline the review and then the facilities director update Brian Monterey you want to just quickly give an update on facilities director it was part of your package but yeah so what we we have I don't know if Carl is still here but uh we basically have been uh uh we we put we proposed things after cast a wide net uh we'll we'll be setting up the interview committee a hiring committee and uh we'll just follow the same the same structure that we've been using for other positions uh that we've been looking to fill this year and it's been posted it should be closing uh within the next two weeks and then uh we'll be able to uh ultimately start that hiring process thank you Brian and then as you could see in page 80 the the timeline is pretty compact and compressed for the capital projects so I'm going to ask again if we make the next motion do you have a right in front of you I have it on page 81 yes please I make a motion to authorize the WCUUSD finance committee to award bids on capital projects as necessary for the remainder of the 2020 2021 school year thank you Caroline could I have a second second we can have discussion any any just do a quick uh description that might uh all we're trying to do is stay ahead of like we did before it's really hard to have contractors this at this point through COVID so if we stayed ahead we'll be able to get the contractors on time and be able to also get any funds that go from efficiency Vermont so if you see the timeline we try to line them up the finance committee meets on Tuesdays so we have a reserved three days to be able to award the bids and continue the work and not lose a possible contractor so so any other any questions besides so let's move ahead and vote all those in favor approving the motion as read by Caroline please say hi hi hi any opposed please say no hearing none opposed the eyes have it the motion carries uh 4.44 we are going to table the electric um charger for for today we're pending a little bit more information that Jim is going to gather for for for us okay so moving right to 4.45 houseways and means testimony uh Lori do you want to say a few words about this you want me to describe it um go ahead so basically we touched on this a while back that I had requested um that Jana Ansell um explore um extending merger benefits to districts that had involuntarily merged um and what we found from doing that process at the state was that it really affected all districts and so what that meant was there were a couple benefits that even for example the burlington school district wouldn't be eligible for because of the way the statute had been written so at this time um we are expecting that this will pass in the houseways and means committee um they are adding it to a different bill so h 31 is kind of combined with another bill um but we should see the continuation of merger support grants for small schools grant the actual amount is still being recalculated it may be a little less than last year but the good news is is that this would be then a guaranteed amount every year going forward and we wouldn't be subject to having the amount recalculated and being found in eligible so that was good news about the small schools merger grant um the other part of the testimony was with regard to a whole harmless provision in the time of declining enrollment and so i was able to testify on that and um it sounds like that's also something that's going to be favorable and that the houseways and means committee expects to pass through this miscellaneous bill that they're working on um the state financial software update um there is testimony continuing and i actually testified this afternoon and i haven't sent you yet my testimony but i was asked to testify on behalf of the business managers in the state because it was a short notice and basically the business managers in the state are asking for pause in the e-finance software conversion additionally they are seeking um having the bill uh how do i say this the business managers are requesting the state reconsider making this software mandatory um the business managers join together and doing a survey and said that they feel that the software should be optional and so that's was the basis of my testimony today on behalf of vasbo and also on behalf of our district and i also had served on a committee who prepared the bid specifications so what you'll see when i send out my testimony is more information about why this vendor was not actually the lowest cost vendor and the fact of the matter is is that this software is not saving the state money so more information is getting collected as we speak um and at this time they are asking for at minimum of a six-month pause from the agency of education and the finance committee discussed this with me and asked that i try to get washington central and the last possible cohort group group to use the software using this extension so washington central would be um probably expected to go live by the end of december 2022 instead of july 1 2022 if the software is found to not meet the expectations and the needs the agency of education has said that they will revisit this um requirement for the software i guess in concert with the legislature so that's what i know about those two items thank you sorry includes the finance committee part of the meeting let's move right into policy christopher chris you have the floor thank you floor so we have up for first meeting a revision a significant revision to um policy number f 46 which is the flag raising policy the committee worked pretty hard on this revision um and consulted with bernie lamb back um an attorney who works for our district uh and what we asked bernie to do and kudos to brian because he brought this to our attention wondering whether or not we might be exposing ourselves to potential litigation but fernie made these recommendations with based on the the basic foundation of instead of having a flag policy that reflected student speech it actually became the board speech um and the reason for that was to prevent the flag pole from becoming a limited public forum um because if it would became a limited public forum then the board would have to um allow under the first amendment um other student speech that we may not be supportive of and so bernie basically helped us revise the the policies so that um we were emphasizing that um any flag that goes up on the board on the flag pole uh through the board's approval policy is board speech um and not student speech so it creates a layer of protection for us from a first amendment perspective um so this is a first reading um and in keeping in addition to amending the policy uh bernie went through and and recommended changes to the procedure for the flag raising um um our flag raising procedure as well so any comments or observations about um we will start with the policy first um about uh f46 and the changes that are being proposed to it with this first reading scott okay hearing oh we couldn't hear you sir if i may um thanks i think it's very good i i just have one observation i don't know if there's much that can be done about it but in the fourth bullet under criteria that that's sort of an interesting combination of adjectives vulgar religious commercial um somehow it just seems a little bit incongruous um but i don't know if uh if there's a better way to to put it is one of these things not like the other scott what do you have out like the you have a comment on which one should might not fit with the the group is all yeah um but you know it's really i don't think it's materially damaging so it's just cosmetic i guess you have a particular comment on one of the adjectives here or one of the descriptors just the the one of these things is not like the others yeah um like two where vulgar seems to be at a place okay never mind okay i'm not trying to you know censor you scott okay you have jonathan any other comments yeah jonathan jonathan jonathan i was just going to suggest offensive as a replacement for vulgar might soften it a little bit but i could go with that you know what i do is run by um bernie just to make sure we're not losing anything by going offensive as post vulgar whether there's a different uh connotation there any others so you know i i had that similar kind of like because we don't use vulgar very often so i think it catches you know it's kind of catchy but um i think that what then i looked it up to see exactly what it was because i was thinking the same thing jonathan offensive but then that's kind of so the two meanings of vulgar seem to fit so it's in poor taste or you know there might be something sexually explicit so i think vulgar catches it in terms of um a stronger meaning against that and so what it would capture and then also what it would capture i think having it next to religious is what might be so striking for some but i think it's again your categorizing areas of that might be put onto a flag that would capture things so well and ultimately it's our discretion right to determine what is offensive and or vulgar do you have jonathan i you know i i have lost um i had to put in my power cord which has impacted my ability to to hear somehow while chris is fixing his thing there um i think that the the main point of the conversation during the last meeting was making was about making sure that the uh that the policy was clear that display of flags sorry i can read the transcripts i can read the uh the transcription that's affected this change the policy does it and i will support it and without um without closely copy-editing uh the committee's work okay you hear us i kind of hear from oh there you are okay so what's the what's the um sense on um vulgar or offensive might be two things it might be too too broad a term people happy with you might want to take your video off and my help with this okay yeah and then if i think the board agrees that vulgar stay and i read the definition of vulgar and it covers it we're okay great you hear that yeah great now we can hear you so yeah it's still it's still hard for me here i'm sorry um so we'll we'll we'll keep it as it is and then next um board meeting will be for approval correct okay floor before we move it i did steven have a comment i was even no no i'm good okay great thank you okay so moving right along to board operations uh you're all set right chris that's all we had so steering committee so five point one we want to uh jill was not able to join us uh today and we wanted to confirm our steering committee which is our agenda planning uh committee uh when we set this committee we had said that we would have the the chair the vice chair and the clerk and make sure that we had a representation from our five different communities in it currently uh jill and caroline are both uh from middle sex so we are a jill is going to step down and caroline will come up from middle sex to keep the committee the same the same size if that is okay with everybody if that's the pleasure of the board to keep that same system and i've spoken to jill she was not able to join us today she's in transit but she'll be at our next meeting okay sounds good okay floor can you just repeat the folks again i just want to make sure i got it correct so we we have in the committee we have diane from berlin we have scott from callas we have jonas as our clerk and from wooster we have caroline may and myself great thank you and i just wanted i had requested that it be opened back up because the night that i became that berlin rep well i was the only one present from berlin on that at that meeting and so i just wanted to verify with jonathan that and vera's not here but if you know if either one had an interest in being the berlin person on that i'm more than happy to to step aside as well so i just wanted to be sure that was known thank you diane jonathan do you have a comment or i mean if diane's willing to do that that's fine with me okay thank you diane for serving yeah so the next item scott i'll pass it on to you to add to our finance committee thank you floor basically what i was hoping the board would agree to do and have someone willing to sacrifice their time and energy to step up to do is essentially to replicate the same pattern that we're doing with the agenda setting group in the finance committee at the moment the finance committee is chaired by floor with kari and myself from callas and chris from middle sex there's no representation from berlin or from wister um um so i think because so many really important issues get filtered through the finance committee and we just saw um moments ago that the board is now authorizing the finance committee to approve bids and um some of them of of the substantial amounts um and the finance committee is is the first stop for a lot of the work that will go on in different schools and quite possibly if we face difficult budget times it's the the first stop for some really hard conversations about possible cuts um floor and and kari i think made the excellent point that um when we talked about this briefly in the finance committee meeting was it yesterday yeah yesterday um yeah it feels like weeks ago um that we all represent everybody in our in our district and that i agree with 100 um that but that i think is the view from inside the board i i think we also have to take account of how people perceive things outside the board and if there should never be um hard questions facing the finance committee when uh affecting a town that does not have a go-to person on that on the finance committee i think it it could just create difficulties or political difficulties for us so that's my pitch um i'm hoping that um berlin and um wister both would uh the delegations from from those towns would be willing to um step forward and and join the committee formally um i would i'm i'm part of the committee now although lisa may have been reading my mind when she did the minutes for um for last meeting because i'm not actually listed on the roster of the finance committee in the minutes but i would continue to attend meetings but not as not as sort of the designated member of the finance committee but just as you know um in the way that uh kari has uh and floor and and to my knowledge other that chris and other committee chairs have welcomed interloper board members in um basically on an equal basis with their um with the standing members of that committee so anyway that's my pitch diane i see you have a question yeah so the the tricky part is there's a lot of work um that you know we're all on multiple committees and um you know so i do wonder if it's possible to just get and maybe this is happening and this shows how i'm not able to even read everything that comes across but um if it's possible to get the agenda ahead of time so that's similar to how ed quality people were very interested and were able to come at a certain point here or there if if even if we're not a voting member of that committee we could at least as a person from that town have a voice or ask questions or something i i just i mean i don't want to speak for john muth and rivira they might be able to join it but i just know i can't certainly take on another committee and it wouldn't be effective for that work either but i do respect and hear what you're saying scott because you're right there are some pretty big decisions being made and um it's important it's fine if it comes here to the board but if it's happening at the committee level then there are potentially some voices not being heard any we can we can definitely make that possible diane have the finance a packet go out to to everybody before our finance meeting and and welcome anybody that can join on a on a tuesday at eight thirty in the morning for an hour and a half it to to to our meetings so that's definitely a possibility a curry and and i agree that you know the most important part is that we have people that are willing to to serve a for my from my point of view i agree we need a you know a more more representation but i feel like we i feel a strong belief at least for myself that i don't represent just this month really right our responsibility is all our kids and that's what we're doing all across and i feel fine completely fine having joined us diane and and steven be the ones doing negotiations right i have complete trust and i think we have to deploy our forces accordingly so if we have any volunteers that would be that would be great i had spoken to veera before and she's not at a meeting today but i don't i don't know that she has the bandwidth but i can ask again is steven luke you have a question well i i think a way forward in this discussion would just be that our our desire is in our committees all our committees our preference is that we have five members and that there is one member from each town if in reality that can't be achieved then you know we we go with what we've got so in this case we have two people from callus um and when those so in the finance committee when this lack of representation continues we just continually make sure that we offer that like scott did tonight you know i'm willing to step down if someone wants to step forward and and that's just how we approach it i mean we've got reality and reality might be there isn't anyone else that wants to be on it that sounds great thank you steven does everybody feel comfortable with that and we'll we'll make an effort to reach out and make sure that you know everybody is especially if there's big decisions and just remember all the big decisions come to the board the bits that we're going to prove our the scope was shared with the board and our specific uh projects so so it wouldn't be any new project that we would be coming up and and accepting a bit for yeah okay any other questions regarding regarding that otherwise we moved to 5.2 to try to sort of keep us ending it before nine so for retreat so we i would like we would like to have a retreat on april i know that we had said one meeting a month but we were we are already moving our april meeting as you recall to the last week of april to allow our administrators to take vacation in the week that they have vacation so i'm i'm hoping that we could all agree to meet on april 7th first wednesday of the month to do a retreat with the four points that we talked about our last meeting we would have a somebody from the bsba and they have confirmed to the first part of the meeting for 45 minutes and then we would move with a facilitator for the next two hours hopefully we can keep two hours for a minute with the maximum of three hours and that would help us set our goals for next year to our calendar and talk about the strategic planning in a you know in an environment that we can really discuss back and forth if that is okay with you guys i would uh want to have a maybe a couple other people joined so that's not just brian myself and nick doing the route if there's somebody else that wants to join the subcommittee to to plan the retreat i'm i'm happy to have other other voices but those were basically the four points that we agreed at our last meeting scott i'll volunteer to join for if you need some help that'll be great thank you okay so that's all we have to report could i have like just a thumbs up if pro seventh i haven't asked to you know clear your first wednesdays yet from the counter so great i don't see you caroline but i'm assuming it's a thumb up i'm doing a thumbs up yes dorthy you are too okay thank you everybody if moving right along i'll pass this to steven and his committee if five point three public comments so chris and scott and i got together at the direction of the board from last meeting to discuss public comments and come up with some suggestions possibilities i'm not i don't think we're presenting this for action tonight it's more for consideration i don't think this is under a specific time constraint um i i would say the first thing that needs to be just considered in any of the options that we're going to present is the concept of comments versus dialogue so the concept of is the board passively listening or is the board involved in an active discourse with the community members no no preference one way or the other but we have to be mindful of how we want that dialogue to occur so you know comments versus dialogue could go either way in any of these possibilities we had one recommendation outside of board meetings again the the general thought was because of the change to one board meeting that a chance for more like a public comments forum on the first wednesday of the month and it wouldn't have to be monthly it might be bi monthly it might be every three months but the concept of a forum that would last for an hour or an hour and a half in thinking that first wednesday might be a place to do it so that was one consideration and it wouldn't have to be on a wednesday it wouldn't have to be an hour hour and a half but a forum a chunk of time at least an hour dedicated just to either hearing or exchanging with the community and the board and then there were three considerations that I would say are within a board meeting the first consideration was extending the board meeting by either 15 minutes or 30 minutes and have public comments at the very beginning so board meetings wouldn't start it at six they might start at 545 and that first 15 minutes is allocated strictly for public comments if there's only five minutes worth of public comments and we start a board meeting all over so that was one consideration second consideration is we could go back to the old model where we invited comments after every action item so everything that we voted on we allowed public comments after that decision and then the third option was that we could keep the current plan where we have public comments at the end of the meeting and then as as much as we tried to stretch ourselves that seemed to be the limit of our creative thinking I invite Scott or Chris if there's anything else to add Scott thank you Steven just I think a small correction and I would defer to Chris because he was the one who sort of developed this idea the one about public comments within the meeting I think it was not after the decision and not after the vote that is but before the vote was taken Chris is am I am I remembering that correctly? Hello yeah go ahead Chris yeah oh yeah I would do Scott it is correct because the concern is that if you're looking for public comments about what we're discussing at the time and then take them after the vote it doesn't have a real impact for the person who's making comments so I would say it would be before the vote just so that we're truly engaging the audience. Okay so the second option would be in that form if we decided to go that way. The second option would be to go back to the previous way of doing it and allow comments prior to a decision being prior to a vote being taken on an action item by the board and certainly the full board would be could tweak any of those in any particular direction they wanted to you know if they wanted to go pre-meeting it could be 10 minutes it could be 30 minutes they wanted to have a form it could be two hours or it could be 30 you know we weren't wedded to particular amounts of times or things like that it it seemed to be what the board would be worth considering it might be a worthwhile topic to add you know 15 minutes of discussion at a board retreat or something like that. I agree. Any questions? Carrie had his hand up and Caroline did too. Carrie do you want to go first? Yeah I mean Stephen mentioned the forum model I just wondered if you thought about that and I think I think for myself I kind of favor at least exploring that a separate hour in which we could maybe get creative about a topic that we want to hear from and maybe engage in the dialogue model a little bit more. Carrie I think our discussion around that topic was exactly along your thinking that what could be done in a forum is it could be themed around a particular item but we wouldn't limit discussion so if it was themed around I don't know the budget then you know the first certain amount of the forum would be specific to that question and then the rest would just be open it wouldn't necessarily just be a wide open forum it would be themed or could be themed. Okay Caroline. So I had watched some other board meetings and some of the things that they did was they had a specific time for public comment at the beginning like 15 minutes but then if there were topics and people had requested ahead of time they could make public comment after the board discussion on a particular topic but they would have to write in and give the the time so I don't know that felt a little like a hybrid of a couple of your ideas but what I really like about the public forum and using you know maybe that first Wednesday of the month for it is it has always been a little uncomfortable to me when we hear from the public especially when it's something a little more emotional or heartfelt or passionate and and we sit and we don't respond where as a community forum it would be that some type of dialogue so I guess my preference is the community forum but if we are looking for ways to have public comment at meetings I really like I really like giving the option that if people have requested ahead of time that they can make a quick statement. Yeah so thank you. Any other questions before I so I don't think these different options are mutually exclusive. Okay so what I was going to say is that we could take 15 minutes of our retreat to really think about what that would look the other option would be I really favor the being able to speak before the so using the first Wednesday and because that would be a real community engagement and that's sort of what everybody talks about it really being able to be more purposeful about what we're trying to get from the community and and set the stage for them to be felt truthfully heard. If we're looking to I think if we're looking to take action tonight on community comments how would we structure that. I think the one thing that we have to consider even if people ask for the time is that you know what we've been talking about and I'm getting my little gel on the shoulder here saying that it's you know is the meaning of board and community input is super important so either we do it at the beginning or we do it at at the end but not in between the meeting because it would make it too unruly and we are really getting I feel like in a rhythm this past few years this past year so I wouldn't want to break that so if with that spark any other questions or thumbs up to that or thumbs down to that so we do both we do community engagement on Wednesdays more personally especially as we're moving towards strategic planning we're going to have to engage the community more so it might help us get onto that rhythm and then we I know that there's two I'm looking at you guys because I know Lindy had talked before too about moving them to to the front and so people are okay moving and leaving in the back Jonas I know you want them on the front so how do you approach that conversation I'm I'm curious to hear from Chrissy too I want to make sure that everybody has a voice in in in this in in this important part of how to run our our our meetings and I don't want to put you in the spot either Chrissy but is that committee going back and and finalizing suggestions or is this like they met and they brought it to us for tonight so if if what I what I would offer to do is have either myself or our committee will will write up provide a written description of the options well before the retreat or well before a meeting so everyone can see them and think about them then come to the meeting with probably preferences we could have a discussion around those preferences and then make a decision I think it would be unfair to try to make a decision tonight it was just that's where our current thinking was I've heard I think it was Caroline that it talked about the hybrid so we could add that as a consideration it wasn't about limiting choices it was trying to get a bunch down we'll put this in writing well before a decision and move forward that way that's what I would recommend I don't know if there's others I'm seeing a lot of heads nodding so if you could put it together before our April 7th retreat that would be great and we discuss it freely thumbs up I see great thank you to the committee for putting it together so then we have staff appreciation we have these two items really is about potentially setting a subcommittee so the first one will be for staff appreciation last year Diane and myself took that on and I'm wondering if there's any volunteers for I nominate Chrissy because she's amazing at this type of thing Chrissy okay all right so we have Chrissy in did she give a thumbs up I just nominated her yeah okay I did she did that's great thank you Chrissy and I was joining Chrissy Diane can do that yeah I can do that yeah do you get that Lisa you have yeah okay was Diane was Diane on that too or was it Christina and Lindy but Christina Diane and Lindy okay more the better and then we have the 50th anniversary at U32 and we were wondering if there's bandwidth for a couple of people to take that on and really establish a wider committee I sent an email this morning I don't know if you saw the reply to Rosemary to try to figure out we you know our administrators at U32 are already doing some of the work but this is the last we don't in a very thin margin of time so if there would be a couple of people and it could be community members it could be just one member of our board being part of that committee if there's no bandwidth from our we're at all in different committee we explore just having a alumni and and you know having Kareem possibly in and Rosemary be the committee and coordinate that I'm just putting it out there I didn't have a full plan but what I share in my email is my minister not put this on Brian Steven Amy or anybody U32 they're already doing some yes Scott thanks for I'm just wondering if we might be I don't know drifting a little bit from our mission in getting involved in in sort of social organizing it seems as you were saying about alumni and community and I mean I don't know if I haven't heard of U32 having a parent teacher organization but it seems as though this is a sort of thing that would be most appropriate for them we can definitely do something broad like you know come up with a statement come up with you know some sort of gesture that is appropriate to the board but in terms of kind of organizing a an event that's that's not really doesn't seem to me that's that that's really within our our scope of work I guess any any other thoughts that sounds okay with me I I could at least volunteer to try to coordinate the alumni to get get the committee that is not us together and connect them with the with the U32 I see Lindy has her hand up to and and maybe some of our students in our community oh I see Anna too has her hand up to maybe that's something that would be Lindy and then Anna you're on deck it seems like what with graduated classes there is a group of alumna who put on their reunions who get them together and that seems like the avenue for some of this as board members sometimes we give diplomas to kids from our town or whatever and that might be a way to include some of the alumna is if we're able to be a person for graduation or something but I do think it should be a committee from something like that your email was very informative that the high school seems to have pretty well in hand activities and plans so that the graduates are recognized as the 50th so I think reaching out to the association that forms these reunions from U32 and asking how they'd like to be a part of it would be better than the board I agree with Scott on that part because there's going to be elementary schools who have years or whatever and it seems more appropriate for the graduating class to have some part in it sounds great Anna um so I know a bunch of you do know that our school's newspaper is doing a big thing to you know commemorate and celebrate 50 years either or two and I don't know if some like cheesy video like something like yes I think they could go on for a social newspaper because a lot of people do see that and do look at that so it could be a more public wide thing then you could put it there thank you Anna it was a little hard to hear you but I think I got most of what you were saying Steven I mean I agree with Scott and Lindy I think this type of work would be best served outside of the board structure because it would allow it to be nimble and it would allow it to be flexible and not bound by you know board meeting requirements and warnings and meet notes taken and posted within five days I just think it would we don't want to burden this group with all those responsibilities let them be flexible and nimble and if there's board members that want to get involved you know let the board members know what groups are doing things and they can volunteer and serve that's great I think that's plenty of guidance thank you everybody if there's any other question not other questions let's move to the consent agenda could I have a motion to approve the minutes I'll move to approve the minutes of March 1st and March 3rd second it thank you John thank you Diane all those in favor approve in the minutes I submitted oh wait Scott's waving his hand Scott Scott thanks for the story um there's one new correction um on the uh let me see um which page was it 95 yeah these board packets are way too short 95 um uh on finance committee my name should follow Chris McVeigh's please gotcha thank you sorry no need for apologies thank you Scott thank you Lizette so all those in favor approve in the minutes as amended please say yes or aye you mean hi hi hi hi hi you've gone robot talking they just got yeah you let them move their orders please the board order is that what you were saying yes please sorry I'm getting a little s yeah right here um I make a motion to approve the board order in the total amount of 174 386 dollars 71 cents thank you thank you Stephen any questions or discussion about the board orders seeing all heads nodding now all those in favor of approving the minute I'm really sorry I'm proving the board orders as read by Lindy please say aye hi hi okay any any oppose to the board orders any no votes I see none the eyes appear to have it so the board orders are approved and moving into personnel I'm sorry that my internet is unstable um okay oh could we could I have I'm gonna try the camera again because this is super weird to not can you hear me I just asked a couple of people to get off their devices could I have a motion for the new teacher nominations for 21 22 the school year I can do that floor um I make a motion to accept the new teacher nominations for Erica Smith as a U 32 speech and language pathologist and Gwen got here as the wcuusd speech language pathologist could I have a second please well second okay Jonah seconds any discussion or questions all those in favor of approving the new teachers for the year 21 22 please say aye hi hi hi any oppose please say no I don't hear anything the motion carries could I have a motion do we need a motion Brian to accept the retirement yes and I do know that uh I would also like to call on Jen Miller she has a uh she would like to say a few words go ahead Jen so um Ann Carter is going to have her second retirement Ann has contributed so much to this district over decades um primarily as a special educator at East Montpelier elementary school when she retired from that position um she joined us as a part time instructional coach I've had the pleasure and the privilege to work with Ann in that capacity for a few years she is going to retire fully from Washington Central she's written a letter to the board and leadership team and I would love to read it to you all so this is Ann with her coaching hat on too here wcuusd board members administration and leadership team after 40 years of being a Vermont educator 30 in the Washington Central District I've decided it is time for me to fully retire at the end of the 2020-2021 academic year this career has been incredibly rewarding and I appreciate all of the various experiences I have had throughout these years however it is time for me to become unscheduled so my husband and I can visit our adult children and our granddaughter in addition to heading off to parts of the world unknown to us it's time for us to foster our lifelong curiosity and explore other places and activities as all of you continue to serve the staff students and community within this district I urge you to listen more reserve judgment and stay curious longer sincerely Ann Carter she's going to be missed you know just really move to accept the retirement with I will move to accept the retirements of Ann Carter and Emily heckler it's a Emily's not retiring it's a resignation but sorry sorry sorry they're just the retirement then sorry I am mended away with appreciation sorry for the 30 years of service lindy you're seconding I sure I second sorry to interrupt so no that's fine all those in favor of approving Ann's retirement please say aye I have it and have a wonderful retirement it moving on to rest the nations could we have a motion please sure I'll make a motion to accept the resignation of Emily heckler the wcuusd speech language pathologist second and thank you carline any discussion or questions seeing none all those in favor of the resident of Emily heckler please say aye aye any opposed please say no hearing none the motion carries and we don't have any beliefs that's all I have Brian am I missing any no you're not you that's it okay and now finally public comments do we have any I don't see anybody moving right on until on to future agenda items at our agenda planning meeting we we discuss you know sort of either color coding this or or trying to you know look to Diane who had this idea to so that we can be more specific so maybe when we're working in our retreat in the you know part of setting our calendar we can figure out a better way to to make sure we stay on top of the future agenda items was her recommendation so we're we're working on it just know that are there any extra ones that we want to add to our growing future agenda items no floor if I could just so the color coding was like if you look at that list there's a number of things that will become part of the conversations at like the retreat or there might be some that are part that go together so that was what the thought of color coding so that at a glance you could see oh at the retreat we're actually going to tackle at least the initial work and some of it yes complete and we're going to try to tackle the retreat at least three of this item so yeah so that will remove some items and make room for new ones if board reflection Scott are you speaking to us or no no okay okay board reflection go ahead Lindy um I think we had rich discussion tonight as well as finished very close to nine o'clock um so I appreciate as much information as we got on the scholar the residents um and then still getting through this Laura now you're muted oh I felt the discussion with Shelly sorry that I let it go a little long but it was so important and meaningful and I think we all enjoyed it yeah so I rush you through the rest but thank you for keeping up and I while I do think it is good to be timely and I and I you know I I appreciate keeping as close as we can it was a rich discussion and so I think it would have cheapened it to shorten it um and that it's good to some to for that reason so um I appreciated your allowing that to happen great thank you so with that said do you want to have a motion to say goodbye to Steven he's still in I don't know here 20 or five we'll adjourn now could I have a motion and congratulations Steven again I'm super excited I make a motion we adjourn thank you Lindy a second I'll second it thank you Caroline are you all set Lisa thank you for keeping up with us okay good night everybody have a good night