 I really want to enjoy that. All right, it is 631. So I will call the meeting to order for the Rochester Stockbridge Unified District Board of School Directors Monday, May 10th. And I am calling the meeting to order because this is our annual reorganization meeting. And I'd like to adjust the agenda to begin with to have item. Just a moment, Amy. Yeah, there you go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Keep going. Please. Item. Two a, I guess, or 2.1 to be elected chairperson. And then we'll go from there. Can I have a. So moved. Second. Second. All those in the favor say aye. All the board members. Great. Good. I am a. Did I just get elected? I think I did. Nope. That was just the adjustment to the agenda. Oh, do we want to do other adjustments now or not? I think we could do it afterwards. Okay. Good. So I would take nominations for the chairperson of the Rochester Stockbridge Unified District Board. I'd like to nominate Ethan Bowen. Okay. Any other nominations? Somebody out there. Somebody out there must want to do this. If not, I will take a roll call vote. Amy. Aye. Patrick. Aye. Bill. Aye. Megan. Aye. Okay. I'm just going to go back to the meeting just so you know, we were in the midst of a roll call vote to elect Ethan Bowen. Chair. Justin. Aye. And Ethan. Right. I'll upset myself. How about that? All right. Ethan, it's all yours. Thank you. I thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'd like to thank the Academy. I feel a real sense of honor and duty. No, let's get going. So we've called to order and we have moved that elected chairperson. Now that I'm running the meeting, I would like to add adjustments to the agenda. Just so Bill and Pat know. We'll go through. We're pretty used to now the things we need to vote on, but sometimes we get a little shaky on them in some places. So when we make changes like this, we need to approve them by a voice voice vote and they need to be moved and seconded. And I believe, and you'll notice that it says the first two items, we elect elect vice chairperson, elect clerk, and then the rest can be just appointments. We don't have to vote on them. It can be just by a, by a claim or agreement. So just, you're clear on that. So just get, you'll get the sense of the Roberts rules. And thanks to Robert Frank's careful listening of what's going on. Both Jamie and I are upping our game on our knowledge of Roberts rules as we go forward. Good. So we will to change the agenda. I would like to add an executive session. Let me look at the thing, which would be. I always feel like the executive session should be last, but we've got it right now at number eight. I guess should we do it? Let's do this second one after put it on 11, 11 point. 11.2 something or should we make that a 12? Yeah, I think we can just make that 12 Ethan make that 12 will be our executive. Oh, we need somebody taking notes. I'm taking them at the moment. At the moment. Okay. Thank you. So let's make that our new, our new 13 will be executive session. Then we'll get to public comment. I don't expect it to be a long executive session, but we'll do a public comment. And we'll be 14 and we'll move the numbers as it is. The other thing we want to do is generate, add in a section about generator. Shall we put that at 10.4. 10.4. Thank you. 10.4 is excellent. And can I get a motion to. Just a second, Ethan, we had one more addition. Oh yeah, what's that? I was hoping that. We could take after board comment. And actually make six be a celebration of learning. And then the real would be seven and I'll move everything else back. Okay. So that's three changes. And I would have a entertain a motion to accept the changes to the agenda as stated. Make a motion to accept the agenda as stated. Justine seconded. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Good. I just have it. Changes are in Jamie is. Writing them in good. So, uh, time keeper. Uh, Amy, you want to. Keep that job from before though. I should. Yeah. That's right. You've been 20. 20. Yeah. Yeah. I'll just go back to the next one and see if I. Consent agenda. Hopefully we can do those as a slate. Let's give that five. Um, board comment. Does anybody have board comment at this point? Okay. No. Okay. Well, let's, let's give it five. Just cause I think it. I've got a few words to say. Um, Let's give that. What do we need for that, Lindy? I would say 10. 10 minutes. Very good. Um, reorganization. Give that 20 minutes. Does that sound reasonable? Yeah. Okay. Um, Then reports to the board. What do you think? Half an hour to be realistic. I think that's probably even more than we need. 20. Yeah. That's pretty quick. I think it might not be more than five minutes. Five, 10 minutes. Let's give it 10 just to make sure. Um, I don't, yeah, return to public session. That'll be instantaneous. Discussion items, sales, Rochester high school building. Uh, give that 15. Cause I think we need to talk about what you're finding inside too. Preparation of stock bridge informational meeting and reconsideration vote. Let's give that 20. Uh, VSBA code of ethics. What do you think on that, Jamie? I think it's a conversation now. And you don't even ask them to necessarily adopt. I just want to talk about it. So five. Five. Okay. That's reasonable. Um, Then, uh, Generator of stock bridge will give that five. Uh, new hires resignations. We do have, I believe, yes. Wendy. Yes. Yes. So we have several. Five, 10, 10. How about 10. 10 minutes for that. Public comment will be whatever time it is. Um, and then. Oh wait, sorry. I missed the, uh, the second executive session. Should we, well, it's too late to move it now. I just being really nice to do the public comment and then do the executive session. I don't think it. I mean, what do you think five or 10. What for the executive session? I think so. Yes. Yes. I think so. So I think, okay. Five or 10. Then public comment will be as long as they have future agenda items. Next meeting date and adjourn will be. Quick succession, I believe. Good. Okay. Let's get back to the top. And let's thank you, Amy, for taking that on. Uh, consent agenda. 4.1. Approve the minutes of Tuesday, March 2nd. 2021 regular. 4.2 approved the minutes. Um, I guess. Um, and just a reminder. And because I'm my colleague. Where for Pat and. Bill, where are these? Where do you find these? Christy sends these out to the board once they're received. That's right. No taker. And then they're posted. Good. Um, I. I do not have April 27th. Yeah. Unless you guys. No, she just. Jenny emailed me. And so I'm going to send it to the board. And she was hoping to go, she was going to work on it today, but she said it was quite likely she would not have it by tonight. Um, so I think we can approve. 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4 as a slate. Um, the minutes from Tuesday, March 2nd, Tuesday, March. Monday, March 8th, Friday, March 26th. Tuesday, April 6th. All of these as a slate, I would entertain a motion to. What's the word proper word? I make a motion to approve the minutes. Uh, stated by Ethan. March 2nd, March 8th, March 26th, and March. People. Thank you. Second. Second from Justine. Thank you. Um, any decisions? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. March 8th, March 26th, and March. People set. Thank you. Second. Second from Justine. Thank you. Um, any discussion because probably it was supposed to do that just to be thing. That being none. Um, All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Very good. Uh, let's move on to board comment. Um, but first, I just like to say. I just want to say that I'm very happy to be here. I just want to say thank you to Bill and Pat. Um, uh, I met with Bill today. I had a little chat with Pat right at the beginning, and they both spoken with Jamie. Uh, we're very happy to have you on the board. Um, and, uh, um, If there's one bit of advice, I would give you both. Uh, do not be afraid to ask questions. Of some terminology, anything. Do not feel like that is what. Somebody said they'll throw some acronym out and we don't know what it is. So please ask questions. Um, that's what we're here for. We're here to illuminate this process as well as go through it to our, our public. So, um, much, uh, much appreciate it. Welcome. Uh, Point of order. Ask us how, how, how things are going. If we are getting too fast about things and you say, whoa, whoa, Whoa, what, what is this about? What are we doing here? Um, you know, obviously how this agenda is created. Um, that's a process right now that goes between Jamie and me and a couple of the other staff. But, um, people can be, and, and, and as I say, we're about to, uh, a point, a bunch of, uh, boards, executive, uh, board committees that, uh, to be on, please ask detailed questions about what these are. I hope everybody on the board will sign up. Because this is board work to be on. I, I have several of these committees already, but it's important that we all, um, take this on as part of our work. Good. And I think that's the end of my board comment. Does anyone else. Just Dean Amy has board comment. Excellent. Go ahead. Hey, uh, welcome everybody. The electric and, uh, Oh, it's wonderful to have you as part of this team. Um, I would like if everybody put in everybody on the board, send me their, um, name, address, uh, phone numbers, contact information. I will put together, um, the list of that for the board members so that we can. Contact people, you know, need. Thank you. And, and your email to send. Yeah, send it to the, to a, a wilt view. I L D T. At. W R B. S U. Or. Or. Good. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Justine any board comment. No, thank you. Bill any board comment. Yeah, I just wanted to say that I'm very honored. To be joining this team, um, been following you for a while. I don't think there's anything more important than our combined efforts to make. Public education, the best that can be for every single student. And I really. Get energized by the team that I'm joining. And I think that's your special. I think the schools are special. And I think we can even, even take it further. And if I can make one little difference, I'd like to try. Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Pat, do you have a comment? Very similar to bill. I'm just excited to join the team and, um, just want to be of use. And, uh, I had the honor of going to Stockbridge as a child. And now my children are going there. And so I just, I want to give back and make sure that. Stockbridge stays intact and that we maintain the community sense that we have. Great. Thank you. Megan, do you have a board comment? I just want to say welcome to everyone and, uh, I'm excited for this board. I think it's going to do some really good work. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh, just cut. Uh, Megan. Yeah. I'm just going to take me a while to get used to certain names not being part of it anymore. So bear with me. Good. That was all of us. Uh, very good. Let's do the reorganization. So we have done. Celebration. Oh gosh. Sorry. Thank you. And I'm sorry, what was the time on that? 10, 10 minutes. Thank you very much. So I'm going to turn this over to Miss. And let her introduce, we have two students here with us from Rochester tonight to present, but I'm going to let Miss. Every explain a little bit more about what they've been up to and what they're getting ready to present to you. So welcome. Yeah. And Miss. I'll turn it over to you. There's Kelly and Sophia. Hi girls. And welcome. The purpose of the project that we just finished, we were studying the human body. And students actually did independent research. So the whole purpose of this project was first to learn how to do research, how to take notes, how to construct a research paper with a bibliography and to present their findings to an audience. So. What I do is I start off with giving them a guideline for each part of what I'm expecting. And each one of these pieces of their research becomes a note card. So this helps them organize how to do their research. And then though each one of those note cards will also become a paragraph in their writing. So I score them on their conventions and their visual picture that they create. I score them on their presentation. And the students also score themselves. So then on the backside of this, their note cards. And we talk about that they should not be using full sentences on their note cards. They should just have phrases, three to four words with the key concept there. And then they have a rubric that they score themselves on as well. And so after they begin their project and they begin their note cards. When they have written their paper, they then get this rubric. And so they have to score themselves to see how did I do with my research paper? Was I good with making all my corrections in my conventions? How did I do with my visual? And then at the end of each of those elements that they score, they would then see if their numbers add up to these particular groups, it's either with distinction, proficient, partially proficient or below proficiency. And the kids are really fabulous about this and just get so absorbed in what they're learning. And then it's really nice to have them share with their classmates and have their classmates ask them questions about their topic. So one of the pieces too that we talk about is how to speak loudly enough, how to make eye contact with your audience and not to rush through your reading because your audience doesn't know this information and they're hearing it for the first time. So it's really important that they take their time and read loudly and slowly. And we'll take it from here. So, Kali, would you like to start? Okay. By Kali Lenny. And this is my picture of the heart. Wait, hold up. So this is my picture of the heart. Can everybody see it? Yes. Heart is a very important muscle. It is located under your rib cage to protect your heart. Your heart is the size of your fist. The purpose of the heart is to pump blood through your whole body. The right side of the heart receives blood from the lungs. The left side of the heart receives blood from the lungs and sends it out to the body. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to your body. Blood also carries away the waste. Your heart can have many possible diseases like heart attack, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, and stroke. Heart attacks can occur when a blood clot or blockage cuts blood flow to a part of the heart. Arteriosclerosis means the arteries become thickened to the heart. Arteriosclerosis means the arteries become thickened and are no longer as flexible. Atherosclerosis is when there is a buildup of cholesterol, fat, or plaque that makes the arteries narrower so less blood can flow through. A stroke can occur when part of your brain doesn't get enough blood due to a clot or burst blood vessel. Did you know that in an average lifetime the heart will beat 2.5 billion times? Did you know that in an average lifetime the heart will beat 2.5 billion times? Did you know our heart will pump 1 million barrels of blood during a lifetime? Did you know a kid's heart is the size of their fist, but an adult's heart is the size of two fists? Our bodies cannot survive without a heart. A heart, wait, hold up, let me say that again. Our bodies cannot survive without a heart because it pumps blood with fresh oxygen to all our body parts. The heart works amazingly hard every day, every minute of every day without us having to think about it. So keep your heart healthy by eating right and exercising daily. Great job, Kelly. Good job. Good job, Kelly. Any questions? No? Okay. What was, what for you was the most surprising information you learned about the heart? A kid's heart is the size of their fist, but an adult's heart is the size of two fists. That was amazing to me. Great, thank you. Welcome. Is there a reason for that? Why an adult heart is twice the size? I'm pretty sure there's more blood when you're an adult. When you're an adult. So I think that's a bigger muscle, bigger heart to pump the blood. Okay. Kelly, what did you enjoy most about doing your project? And like what can cause like certain things to happen to it? Thanks. Kelly, do you have any questions that you weren't able to answer that you still want to know about? Yes, I do. That's good. You learned a lot. Can I, Kelly, can I tell you one thing? Yes. I actually saw my heart once. What? I put a scope up through me. They thought I was having heart attacks and they had a screen right by my head. And I saw it. I thought it was going to be this lumpy thing. Just sort of going like a frog. And it's not, it's like dancing seaweed. It's so beautiful. It's like this sort of flowing and flowing. And it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen. So it's funny because I'd always thought it was just this lumpy muscle, but not at all. That's very cool. Great. Good. Thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you. Okay. And next up we have Sophia. And she's going to be telling us about the kidneys. Okay. The kidneys, the kidneys not colored in if you could see it. And then the ones that are colored in. Okay. So. The purpose of our kidneys is to keep our systems clean and get rid of our waste. It also keeps a balance of waters and water and minerals in the body. The main job of kidneys is to cleanse the body of toxins and transform the waste into urine. Each kidney weighs about 160 grams. The two kidneys together filter 200 liters of food for 24 hours. There is a daily recommendation to drink six to seven glasses of water to help your kidneys stay functioning well. Also, you need water so you don't get dehydrated. Water helps remove waste from blood in the form of urine. It also helps keep the blood vessels open so that blood can travel freely into our kidneys. When you become dehydrated, then it's more difficult for the delivery system to work. There are many possible diseases that can affect the kidneys. Kidney cancer is one of them. Kidney cancer begins when some kidney cells develop changes, mutations in their DNA. Among other things, one of the signs of a kidney disease is when you are more tired than usual, have less energy, or having trouble concentrating. There are some diseases that can make your kidneys not function well. Type I or type II diabetes and high blood pressure also affect your kidneys. When something is wrong with your kidneys, a person may experience a reduced amount of urine and your legs or ankles often get swollen, and one may have a shortness of breath. Did you know that your kidneys actually make hormones? An interesting fact is that kidneys are one of your most important organs in your body. Did you know that your kidney is the size of a cell phone and weighs four to six pounds? Water is the best thing to drink for the kidneys because it gives your kidneys the fluids they need to function well. The health of our kidneys affects other organs and systems too. That's why you need to drink lots of water. In conclusion, if you want to keep all your organs performing well, take good care of your kidneys and remember to drink enough water each day to have enough energy and the ability to concentrate and keep yourself healthy. Thank you. I'll drink water to that. Good job, Sophia. Thank you. Sophia, I want to commend you too that you really slowed down. That was really nice to present to these adults so they could hear every word you said. Well done. Very good job. Very nice. Thank you so much. You're welcome. And I just want to say thank you for allowing us to come and present. It's a great opportunity for the students. I love this. I love this so much, especially now because we can't be in the school as much with COVID. So this is just, it fills our hearts and thank your class for all the work and your students. Thank you, Fay. Well, and I'm just so happy that all the fourth and fifth graders, they couldn't wait to take the stage to present whereas my sixth graders want nothing to do with it. Oh well. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. This is wonderful. Okay. Moving on. Okay. Moving on. Boy, that a great way to start a meeting. We should. Hey, and Lindy. Yeah. That's anybody that can be doing anything. They can be saying hi to us. I just. It fills us with. She had to draw straws for tonight. So there's some folks that are already excited for next month, but we'll try and do a rotation, but he had to draw straws and fourth and fifth grade for who is going to present tonight. It's good for all of us and also all the people who are on the meeting. It's just really good. So thank you. I went on to agree. We really see what's happening in our schools and it just brings a huge smile to my face. So thank you. I agree. Absolutely. I do want to let the board know you're in some stiff competition when softball and baseball are literally going on at night. So you might have to compete for space. Okay. Okay. Well, if we have to move the meeting to a base ballpark, that would be, that would be fine for me. Very good. Moving on. Item six. We're at 6.2 as we've done 6.1 to elect a vice chairperson. I will open the floor to nominations. Okay. I am willing to run again for vice chair if the board, if anybody wants to nominate me, I was going to nominate you. I nominate Amy Wilt for vice chair. Second by bill. Excellent. Thank you. Any further nominations? There being none. Nominations be closed. We have, we will do a roll call. So for Amy Wilt as vice chair. Justine. Hi. Megan. Hi, Pat. Hi, Bill. Hi, Ethan. Hi. The eyes have it. Amy, congratulations. Thank you. The vice chairperson of the ARSAD board. Very good. Oh, I just lost my screen to elect a clerk. Yeah. Now, this is an interesting position. In that it is the person, basically it's, it's more important that we thought it's the person who receives all. Community votes. It's one of its most important jobs. Jamie, you want to talk about this? Yeah, so that we can have a clerk of the board that does that roll separate from the board clerk. So, so the clerk of the board. And the, and electing a clerk who certifies your minutes has been the same. All right. So you vote on a clerk of the board that certifies the vote tallies. And ensures that that those annual warnings get posted in appropriate places. It can fall back to a town clerk to do that who can be separate from the person who actually does your minutes. It can fall back to the person who actually does your minutes. And ensures that the minutes get done within five days. And ensures that the minutes get posted. So those can be separate. I, I have approached both your town clerks. To see if they were interested in doing the first part of that position that I talked about. At this point, they were not, but I'm worried. I don't know if I was clear with them, but that didn't mean that they had to take minutes at your meetings. You see what I'm saying? I don't know. I don't know. I think this is really about certifying election election results for the district. And that's pretty much what we need. They may change their mind. I don't know. Tara, did you have a chance to reach out to them this afternoon? Probably not after we spoke. I have not had an opportunity at Jamie. I will do that tomorrow. Well, what we definitely need tonight is a board member. To be the clerk. I don't know if you saw that I put out. A little bit of information. About all the roles and responsibilities. It's in your packet. And for this position, particular position, it's the insured meeting minutes are kept. Ensures that draft meeting minutes are available to the public within five days. And ensures minutes and agendas are posted appropriately. To the designated posting places. And that's right off the VSBA website. Just so you know. Is that the packet just for the new board members? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I'm going into everyone's board packet. Where did we get this board packet? I don't remember that. Christy sent it out with your agenda with all these documents attached. Forgive me. I did not see that. I got it this afternoon with the link, but. It's in the board documents. It was a May 6th. The May 6th email from. The email from the board. That has the. As well as report, superintendent's report. My apologies. My apologies. I read every other report and I missed this one. So thank you. And so it's up here now. It's just, it was meant to just kind of help guide as you do your reward. Well, let's. Who's good at this? Who would like to step up to this position. Jenny was a master, but as bill talked about today. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that these notes were. Extremely detailed. And that I think it's, it'd be interesting to find out. Bill felt that that, that wasn't necessarily. What's called for that. It didn't have to be quite as detailed. Specific because we also have a video. Back up our recordings of these meetings. Now. Once we go. Back to in person again. That may change a little bit for right now. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. Amy, what's your. I just. Wanted to point out that. Somebody is willing to be the clerk. That does not necessarily mean that they have to take minutes. We have. Wanted to seek out some out somebody else. A community member. Who'd be willing to take the notes. The clerk's responsibility is just to ensure that those. The. The clerk's responsibility is just to ensure that. The proper place in the. Allocated timeframe. So a few other things. So. Shia away from it, thinking that you have to take minutes at the meetings. Nope. That's the recording secretary. Exactly. And some, and for Jenny, she did all three of those roles for you. But they can be separate. So we need a clerk. I nominate bill. Okay. Do we have a second for that nomination? I'll second. Second. Justine. If elected, are you willing to serve bill? Um, that's not in the, my top of my list of. My skill set that I. Hoping to contribute. Through this board. Um, So. So I don't know. I want to help the board and I want to facilitate communications with. Our community. And, uh, so people know what's going on. So I think it's, it's important of that function. Um, I'm just, I'm wondering whether we could, um, Put that aside, go through the whole. Rest of the nominations and then possibly zero back and see if we have anybody left standing. Um, So to speak. Anybody else who wants to do this. Just, you know, as chairman, I have already signed up for. Um, all the SU level meetings. Um, uh, so, you know, I've, I've got my plate full, not to mention super superintendent review committee. And a few things like that. So Patrick. Yes. Yeah. Did you have something to say or you raised your hand? Oh, no, no, I had an itch there, but, um, I think as far as the role, it might be difficult for me in the aspect that, uh, I don't personally have internet capabilities at my residence. So. To me, for me to get these deadlines done, it would be a little bit tricky on top of work in two little ones. Um, but. Um, I can certainly try. I think that's, I mean, I think that's the bottom line is, is, is try it. It's, let's, I think, you know, we can, if it really, really doesn't work for somebody, we can reorganize this again. But I think it's stepping up and, and trying it and saying. Let me give it my best. And, um, and, and this with Amy's proviso. That I think, um, we can, uh, we could find someone to take, or maybe better yet a group of people. To take minutes who could rotate, um, you know, once a month come to our meetings. Um, so that you really are the, the, the, you're the, you're the making sure it happens person. Not the actual. As far as taking the, the notes and then putting them, uh, On the computer and then allocating where they, where they go. Yes. And being responsible for them in that time, in that timeframe. Jamie, did you want to follow up on this? I'm just going to let you know, I am posted. I'm going to need to post after tomorrow night for a recording secretary for another district. So I can run an ad. So I just need you to know that that doesn't mean that whoever's the clerk has to take the minutes necessarily, right? Like Amy said, it's more about reviewing them. For accuracy and then getting them to my administrative assistant for posting in a timely manner. Which is in five days. So yes, Pat. Uh, sure. Okay. Thank you. Oh, Justine. I just wanted to say that I'd be willing to help, take the notes and unless we find other people help rotate in with that, I just, um, I'm taking the bar exam again. So the next two months, I feel like I couldn't do that clerk position, but I can certainly take notes and help Pat. You know, get going. That sounds good. Okay. So that's, um, I need a, I would entertain a motion to nominate. Pat Hudson as clerk. Make a motion to nominate Pat Hudson as clerk. Second. He said that very quickly. Uh, All, uh, any further nominations. There being none. I'll do a roll call vote. Justine. Hi. Uh, Bill. Yes. Amy. Megan. Hi. Ethan. Hi. Okay, Pat, you have it. Let us know how it goes. Good. So now six, the rest are appointments. Uh, three members to the RVSU full board. So just so you know, uh, basically every month toward the end of the month. Um, the board meets in two different sessions, alternating. The executive board is, is just the board chairs. Um, though there are alternates for each of those positions in case a board chair can't make it. The full board is, I think it's three. Members from each. Uh, each board. So, um, that way there's always a good representation on the board of, of for our district so that we actually have some good say. So the first one we have to appoint is three members of the RVSU full board. I am automatically one of those appointees. So who are the other two is what we want to do. Amy. You'll be it. And bill. Okay. Amy and bill we appoint. And as I say, Jamie was, I remember we don't have to vote on that. That's just, they say that and it gets recorded. Okay. Okay. Good. Um, just Dean, do you want to take over for Jamie to a notes tonight or Jamie, are you okay finishing out tonight? Well, I'm taking shorthand and then I'm going to rewatch the video. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. 6.5, a point one member to the WSVSU executive board. That is me. So that takes care of that one. Um, 6, 6, a point one alternate to the RVSU executive board. Okay. Okay. I'm just. Doesn't matter. Okay. Just curious if there was precedent on that. Jamie and the other districts. Good. Bill, you want it? Well, I was thinking, uh, Amy, uh, you're the, our vice chair. I can do it if you don't want to. Bottom line. What's that? I would volunteer to be the alternate. Okay. Good. I mean, the thing is you're not going to go very often. It's only when I'm not available. Because I, I will go to all these boards because I, you know, it's, it's important work. Good. Okay. So just Dean has been appointed. One alternate. At the alternate to the executive board. So point at recording secretary. Now do we want, can we pass over this until we get some submissions back? All right. We'll pass over six, seven, six, eight. A point one member for assigning AP and payroll. Amy. I have been doing it and would like to continue doing it. It's something that actually brings some joy to me. That's great. If we can bring joy to our lives through this process, that is the way to do it. A point one alternate for sign AP and payroll. How about bill? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. As I say, you probably look at how much he enjoys it. You probably never be called upon. All right. Actually, here's the one I was thinking, Bill, you might really be getting into a six 10. Point two members to the negotiation board. Jamie, is it necessarily the board chair? Who sits on this chair? Not necessarily. Nope. I would. Actually, I would say. Two of our board chairs currently do and then, or sorry, three. And then I have two districts where they're not currently sitting on that. I would, I would prefer not to do this just because it is, I have a young one at home that I'm. House parent for and some of these negotiation. I can be. You want to give it some time. Commitment for folks. Yeah. So we're in the, we're just getting ready to launch negotiations. Sorry. Negotiations for teacher contracts. And support staff. Right. We're just ready to launch and support staff. And you could plan. On being busy. We have been right along. On Thursday nights. And you could expect, I think you should expect a minimum of Thursday night meetings moving forward for the remainder of the school year starting. Alternate. It's alternate Thursday. So isn't it? It has been, but there could be potential for additional ones. So I just want to be in front with folks about that. Yeah. No, this is, we did not talk about this one. It came up last time. Well, of course, Carl. Carl really enjoyed this. So it was something he stepped up. Stepped up for. As I say, I would prefer not to do it. That would be my preference. It is very important. Work. It's one of the biggest expenses. Of the SU is salaries. So it's how, how that works and how that changes is important work. Bill, are you interested in this? Sure. I'll. If the board agrees, I'll take that on as one. Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. As I say, the AP payroll, probably you're not going to have to do much. This is a, this is going to be. There's going to be some work. I'm familiar with. Negotiations. Yes. Do we have a second member who would stand up for this? In some boards of point two and only one member goes and they use it as an alternate. You don't have to have two. I think it's good to always have every board at least represented out of meeting. So if you want to have an alternative bill, knowing that the second person may not go, that's fine as well. Some boards do do that. Who can be an alternate. I know all of us got young ease. It's the thing about having kids in the school. Patrick just raised his hand, Ethan. I saw him. I can't see him. Patrick. You'll be an alternate. Excellent. Excellent. Great. Thank you. Yeah. All right. Moving on. Point one member to the policy committee. Jamie, can you just tell me how often do they meet? I know this was another. Once a month. We currently have been meeting on Thursday nights. Now we'll have conflicts with negotiations. I think we will go back to meeting. Just before the full board meeting. That worked out better. And frankly, we, we are so booked with meetings again. I think we got to go back to that. Then if that's the way you're doing it, then I will stand for the policy committee. I'll let the policy committee know. If I'm already going to be there. Yeah. If I'm already going to be there before. That makes a big difference for me. Now we're all going to fight for this. Next position. The truant officer. Yeah. I don't think it's a board member. Are we supposed to appoint the local. Policeman or something. You can. Some districts do the principles to principles. Yeah. I think that's what we've done. Wow. Well, that's who is really the one handling it for you. There's a large pace. I think I believe it's per head. Right. Something like that. No. Uh, Uh, Uh, Uh, Lindy is it is currently correct, but would you like to take this on? I think legally I have to. So yeah. Yeah. Part of my job. Thank you very much. Excellent. Thank you, Lindy. Much appreciated. Designate. Newspaper and radio stations for official news. Harold, I believe it's been our traditional paper. Um, we had some discussion. I believe that I don't know if it was last year or two years ago about the appropriateness of. Um, Uh, Uh, any Facebook postings, but I think we've made it pretty clear that we don't want to do that. So, uh, the radio station. I don't remember what that is. WD EV. EV. Okay. Let's, if that's, if that's fine for everybody. I think that's good. Oh, by the way, I don't know if you know, Bill and Pat, the little hand symbol down at the bottom of your index. If you push that, it puts a little white hand up in the icon. It's tough with me because just the way my thing is, I don't know if I can get Patrick in here so I can see him. Nope. It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't change it. It's just too bad. I can't see all the board at one time, which is hard. Um, okay. Anyway, uh, right. We're going to keep that. Harold and WD EV. Okay. Uh, set date, time and location of regular school board meetings. Um, that has been the first Tuesday of each month. I would say we keep that. Unless somebody has an objection. Agree. Good. Anybody. Good. Um, and designate posting places. I think we have outside. The notes Tuesday at 6 30. Oh yeah. Sorry. Uh, 6 30. Yep. We like six 30 though. The rest of the board likes six for some reason. I like six 30 personally. Because a little more leeway for getting dinner on the table. For the young one. Um, good. Designated posting places. Uh, both town offices, both schools. And. Post offices, I believe. Yes. Both post offices. So that's the six places total. Three in each town. Any corrections to that? Good. And I think we're. We're good with that. Thank you all very much. I appreciate it. Um, just to know as far as committees and such. We're pretty light. As a board on committees. Uh, considering other boards have finance committees. Um, we've talked before in this board about having an outdoor ed committee. Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, um, You know, Um, I have made this statement before that it is the work of a board to be engaging in committee work as well. And if that is a conflict that you do need to think about, you know, You're ability to be on the board. It is part of being on the job is taking on these responsibilities. move on to, this is actually eight now, right? Reports of the board. By the way, Bill, you've got the presentation. Pat, you got them. Did you get a chance to read them? It's very useful. I also read all of them except the last one. Okay, great. Thank you. So we tend to just sort of gloss over and if there's anything they wanna talk about, highlight and then we get right to questions just to save time. We're famous for our three and a half hour meetings. We even did a four hour once. I would love to try and keep it under that as we stabilize a little bit. So let's start with Superintendent please, 8.1. Good evening, folks. You have my report in hand since the writing of the report. Not much has changed. I did have an opportunity today to interview a finalist that I know Lindy and Bonnie will introduce to you for a hire tonight. That was a pleasurable interview this afternoon. I've had a really nice chat with Bill. Patrick and I spoke via phone and very briefly this evening, about five minutes prior to the meeting. I would say that schools wind up, they don't wind down. And so I would say that this office is as busy as it's been all year. So just be patient with us as we get the information you need because we are in the thick of hiring. And I do, I've committed to interview every finalist within the organization. I think it's important that I do that. Just if anything it's mostly around talking about mission, vision, belief systems, things of that nature. So I do interview at PERA and support staff up through teachers and then of course administrators. And we're also in the process of securing a new special services director for the supervised reunion. Don McMahon who's done really good work for us has decided that retirement sounds pretty good. And we're gonna miss Don a great deal. He was here prior at the Orange Windsor supervised reunion years ago and then came back. He had retired and I got him out of retirement. I thought I was gonna get him for three years. I got him for one, but he's done good work and we're gonna greatly miss him. I think he's set us up though to continue to move forward. And so we're feeling good about that. On to Adams, our new chief academic officer. Like I said, she's getting up to speed for folks. She's really second in command within the organization. And I meet with her weekly now at least. She's been coming to all of our admin team since she joined us. Sorry, is she in state now? She was in the process of moving. I don't know if she's actually here yet or not for certain, Ethan. But I know they bought a house. So that made me feel good. I was a little worried with the real estate market that she might be me rent in my basement or something but I was not gonna let her not come. So we're excited about that. We're excited of course about the success of the budget. And I'll take any questions folks have. Any questions? Justine, do you have any questions for our superintendent? No, thank you. Bill, do you have any questions for our superintendent? No, I don't, thank you. Amy, do you have any questions for the superintendent? No. Megan, do you have any questions for our superintendent? No, thank you. Pat, do you have any questions for our superintendent? Pat, you there? Sorry, no, thank you. Okay, good, got you. Jamie, just wanted to get a who's on the hiring committee for the new special services. And when will you? Tracy Thompson and Onda are facilitating that. And I actually don't know who the committee is. What I have said is there has to have students, community members, support staff, teachers. They send two finalists to me. I had mentioned, I had mentioned to Bill that this might be of interest to him. So I just don't know if they've got a committee. I know if someone's interested from the community, just send me an email and I can forward it onto the committee. I know that they haven't screened candidates yet. So I made that decision. Have they selected their board members? I can't speak to that necessarily. They just met for the first time this morning as like an initial committee, Ethan. I don't know that it's full, but they just had their first huddle up meeting today. Okay. And just so the board knows, Shelly Vanderwey, our SUD special educator is going to be on that committee. Good. Great. Okay. Thank you so- Anyone that thinks I micromanage, which I don't, but you can see that's how hands off I try to be with this initial round. I try to let the two facilitators guide that work and then for the two finalists for my interview. Good. Very good. The only other thing I'll say is let us know after you've done this, because I think this is the first year you've met all new hires, is that correct? Did you do that last year? I have since I started, yes. Oh, you did? Okay. And you feel it's just gonna ask you straight out. You feel it's a good use of your time? Absolutely. Okay. Good. Thank you. All right. Let's moving on without further questions. Principles Report 7.2. Yep. So you guys did get our report from Christy when she emailed out last week. We've had a pretty busy spring, but it seems like we were just not any major updates, which is always good. We're still finishing up some makeup testing with our state assessments or that F-BAC, as you probably heard them mentioned. And we're waiting for some of those results to come in unofficially, so we will start to get those slowly. Surely we have begun interviewing and posting for our teaching positions that are open within both campuses. And we did an April vacation bingo board again, which was very successful. And the kids seemed to really enjoy it and are now contributing to what should be items to work on. They have their own ideas. I think the hardest one still so far is to go a whole day without any screen time. They've all voted and decided. And I think that's in the third grade that that seems to be a common one. Yes. I noticed that there were some kids very close to completing the whole thing, except for that square. Well, I tried, but I needed an hour was an answer I got the other day from the kiddo. We've also been advertising openings for preschools for next year, as well as kindergarten registration. And I've been working with Ms. Lauren and we have a great plan that, even with our numbers, the way they are coming in and to meet our licensing like for our space in Rochester, we're gonna be able to offer a full day program for all four year olds next year in Rochester, which is great to get them closer to the similar schedule as some of the older kids. And then three year olds, we will divide into two groups to make sure they get their 10 hours. And then very excitingly, the budget pass. Yeah, we're excited about that. It's always a good thing. And both preschool programs have earned some grant funding through COVID relief specific to childcare. And so each month they get this monthly allocation from now through December that they're able to spend a range between each. So that's been great. I just wanted to ask about the outdoor spaces and how they're being utilized on both campuses. Yep, in Stockbridge, both spaces are being used very, very frequently. To the point one day, we have to say you should probably come in because we had some cold kiddos. But the kids really like it, which is great. And then in Rochester, one is being used pretty much daily the whole day. And then another one, we're starting to work on a rotation to get folks into the front of the building. Because some people are really set up in their tents. So we're trying to push them towards the outdoor structure. The tents were so good even. I know, well, I could take them down. I could rip them apart, you know, whatever you want. We're suffering from something called tent affinity. Yeah, ownership. I think they took some ownership of those places. They did. Yeah, so that's good. I think the next piece is just working on what sort of materials or like dust pipe spaces that kids can like write on and use out there that are gonna survive the weather. We use like desks, extra desks and tables in the fall. And the problem with that is the moisture and pressed wood or whatever that stuff is in between starts to warp with the moisture. So teachers and cars are starting to play around with what surfaces are best that we're gonna need out there. Well, certainly keep the community, there's a lot of community availability for building things, adding in. I've even thought about, you know, what are the potentials for sides? I know Greg was concerned about balloon effect if you put too much sides on there. But if we've got those sides on the tents, I think, you know, that would affect some of the blow-in. But by the way, have you looked at these things? Yeah. Oh, I can't hear you. It's muted. Sorry, sorry. Yeah, no, I have. They're great, really. It's a great use of space. I mean, what about an option of for sides just something as simple as using blinds that could be lifted at night and lowered during the day? Oh, I like that. It's possible. I mean, you know, you do get some splash, some water, rain in, stuff like that. So I just, whatever kind. But yeah, it's some stuff to think about and just to keep innovating. One of the things we talked about, Ethan, in the beginning when we knew the trusses were coming was to live in them for a while to really see what teachers and youngsters did need, what would work, as opposed to try and outfit them before we spent much time. No, I think that's right. They're there and they're gonna stay. I mean, I'm noticing some wear and tear on these tents already. They're really not high quality. I think we can keep the frames going for a while. I think the vinyl surfaces are gonna start wearing out as some of the stitching's already starting to go. So it's just, they're just not made for what we've used them for, but we've managed to stretch them. I think that's gonna be something to think about. Yeah, they certainly helped us when we needed them at the time we needed them. Absolutely, absolutely. Good. And I will say, there was a piece on WCAX about these trusses. Oh yeah? Which is great, PR. And we've had several schools come to visit to check them out and see if it's something they're interested in. So pretty cool to see that happen. Well, I know it certainly has helped their business. They said, cause I'm actually getting one up here at my house tractor storage. And they said it, yeah, they're getting soon cause they're getting busy. Good, I had, oh yes. So the question, I just wanted to know how you were going about making this decision. There's been some discussion about winter wellness next year, whether it would be at Middlebury or it would be at the campuses. And I think it had something to do with age. And I just wondered what's the process for this decision and is this something too soon to even think about we should be worrying about this in the fall? Well, it's a little bit too soon. I will say the other thing that's really unique to our side, which is great is that all our staff help contribute in staff this. And so since we're still in the hiring process, I have to, especially cause I'm not a downhill skier myself. I enjoy supporting it, but it's a little outside my wheelhouse. Sometimes I can get kids into boots and things. That's really good for me. So I wanna make sure that it's like a conversation as a combined staff about how to best do it. There's been some great successes about it. I think something also to understand is Riker has lost some key staff members that made cross country skiing really successful for a while. So it hasn't been as, I don't wanna say successful cause I think kids have a great time, but it hasn't been as like productive in the time they're up there. So a lot of times spent in the boot room getting kids out there and things like that. So trying to also think about some of our community resources that we have for some of the younger grades while also exploring like if Noble or Riker is still the right fit for us. There's a lot of other, you know, PICO has some great programming as well. So what's the best option? So we're still really early in those phases. I will also say, you know, obviously we don't know where COVID will be, but we have to make sure if we have lodged access wherever we go cause those guys get cold quickly on some days cause we then don't know everybody up and send them, which is great, but for some kiddos they need to be able to go in and get warm. I know that just so you know that there, I'm sure you heard there was an email exchange that went around among community members about when we thought it wasn't going to be paid for and there was a lot of good support. But one of the things that came out of that was Kerry McDonald encouraged everybody to forward on their comments about the program to you and to the principals just so you got the sense of, cause there was pluses and minuses that parents had observed as well. And just so you have that feedback from the parents who were involved. And just to clarify, there is grant funding that usually offsets kind of the class anyway in previous years, so just cause it's not like specifically in a line item this year doesn't mean that it's eliminated from something that we'll do next year. Just means we have the grant funds to support it. I don't know that we were super clear about that all the time. No, it got, that message got through the email chain. So that was, and was very good for everybody here. Good. Thank you. Justine, do you have any questions for our principals? I do not. Thank you. Bill, do you have any questions for our principals? No, I don't. Very comprehensive. Thank you. Amy, do you have any questions for our principals? I do not. We are 15 minutes into our 20 minute allotted time for. For what? A board reports. Okay, thank you. Pat, do you have any comments for our principals? I do not. Thank you. Megan, do you have any comments for our principals? Nope, just thank you. Good. Thank you. Business manager, please. Tara, thank you. Thanks for the pressure, Amy. I'll try to be fast. Yes. I don't have questions for you too, so. So you have my report going over just the dates that are due in the month of May. We have started our FY21 fiscal year pre-audit. The auditors will be in our office starting on Wednesday this week and will be there through Friday. School of Food Authority, we are working through the processes and working with our auditors and the agency of education to centralize our food service program. Back on April 20th, the USDA extended that all children will continue to eat for free throughout next school year and we'll be switching to the seamless summer option for that program. And then I provided you with the updated revenue and expenditure summary. Only a few changes I made this month on the expenditure side of things. I updated the COVID expenses from 38,507 to 12,461. And the reason for that change is we have received all of the accounting codes that we needed to use from the agency of education. So we are moving expenditures and revenue from the general fund into the special revenue funds that we have to do in order to track all of those funds. So you'll continue to see shifts going throughout the COVID expenses from now through the end of the fiscal year. And then I updated the book savings from 16,463 to 21,178. And then I updated the general supply savings from 17,702 to 29,087. On the revenue side of things, we've updated the interest income from 12,686 to 14,854 for the most recent bank reconciliation. You've received some additional miscellaneous revenue. So that was increased from $318 to 642. And we received our grant awards from the Green Mountain Forest grant and yours I had to adjust from the 7,242 budgeted to the 6,753 that we actually got in the grant award. Updated donations from $810 to the 1310. And again, updated the COVID reimbursement just to match the expenditure size so they wash each other out in your projections. So these changes result in an increase in the expenditure surplus from 67,527 to 110,443. And it increased the revenue deficit from 75,093 to 98,637, which results in an overall projected surplus of $11,807, which is an increase from the projected deficit I gave you in March of 7,566. There you go, Amy, go for it. Can you explain the savings we have found on the books line item that was budgeted for 31,966 bringing the reading program on the fourth and fifth graders and also to invest in the classroom libraries. So shows that we have a balance of about $10,000. So what have we been able to really do with this? I'm gonna pass your question and aim you to your principles. Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, so what happened there is there was some grant funding at the beginning of July that we weren't aware that we were gonna get, that we were able to use to purchase some of those funds. So, or some of those book collections, excuse me, not funds. And that's why you're seeing it. We originally budgeted to make sure that we can, we can purchase all the materials we needed for every grade level and then grants offset some of that. So that's why there's such a difference. Wonderful, thank you, that's great. Can you explain? I know you've explained it once before to me the, on the revenue side, the interest income and why we have so earning so much interest. The interest that you earn on your bank accounts are based on the balances that you're carrying from month to month. So as you continue to have surpluses in your general fund, you grant, you earn more interest each month at the close, just like in your personal bank account, if you have an interest checking account and you earn checking based on the balance that you have. So that's why that number fluctuates depending on what your balance is. So that is in direct relation to our general fund balance, the fact that we have so much in there that gives us more money. Yeah, thank you. You're welcome. For the question for the business manager. And by the way, you know, she does that very efficiently. Tara does this very efficiently, these charts, but it took me several times. So don't be afraid to ask some questions. Whatever Amy says about our time, it's very important that you understand this is a new, this isn't, how long we've been doing this Tara now is it six months? I just started that this past fall. Yeah, this past fall of actually showing you the active balance numbers. I think all of us agree that it's been very, very useful to actually see where things are. It makes getting it to the budget later, but please do ask questions if something goes by you very fast. I realize Amy, as our sort of designated budget person, you, numbers person with Carl and Jenny. And I'm happy to meet with anybody who would like to go over it. I have no problems doing that. So Patrick and Bill, if you have any interest in wanting to meet with me to go over any of this, please feel free to reach out and I'm happy to do that with you. Thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome to watch our... Good. Questions, other questions? Justine, any questions for our business manager? No, thank you. Megan, any question for our business manager? Megan, are you there still? No, thank you. Good, thank you. Bill or Bill? I'm all set. Thank you, Ethan. And Pat, you're good. Good, thank you. Okay, good. Thank you very much, Tara. 7.4 WRVSU Policy Committee. Jamie, I believe this is your... Yeah, it was in my report. Just an update, the third draft of the anti-racism policy is in with the attorney. I expect to have that draft back by the end of this week and I will get it out to the policy committee and we'll be reviewing it again this month. The question for the policy committee then will be are we prepared to then move it forward to the board in June or not, or wait till August? I don't have a sense of where they're gonna wanna be. Oh. And so, what's that, Ethan? Just, I remember we need to tell them about July. Oh, right. Yeah. And that's that policy we have been working on since really October. It was a commitment that the administration made to work on this and so we've taken our time with it. We're on our third draft and then we will be looking at in June to set what are our priorities moving forward to launch back into an August around policy as we move forward. So that's the policy committee update. Any questions? Could you send the most recent to... I know I've seen within the last couple of months but I think Pat and Bill would probably love to see. Absolutely. Yeah, if you could send that on. Just... I'm gonna send the third draft to everyone hopefully by the end of this week anyways. Okay, great. Good, thank you. And just what I said, can you just tell them what the executive board decided about July? Yeah, so the executive board of the SU had decided as long as there was no emergency business like budget votes that were not passed and or just an emergency that we would not be holding meetings in July this month, this year and that is to try to allow for folks to get away. And this was at the SU level I believe not at the district level. No, this was supposed to be for everybody. Oh, okay. I did not actually get that. Okay. This was a commitment that we would not have board meetings in the month of July. If we did, I'd have still six and my office wouldn't be able to get away. Gotcha. And so yeah, not just that one. This was about not holding regular business in the month of July. And just a reminder that one of Jamie's goals that we, when we did his review, the fourth goal was that he take care of himself and as well as his SU people. And I think this is, I believe this is very important. Obviously, if crisis comes along, that changes everything but I felt when I voted on it that it was in keeping with the goals that we put forward for him and I think a very sensible proposal for the way we run our thing. Let's keep our fingers crossed. Are there any questions about that from any of our board? Good. I should have left a little bit longer before I said good, just so I'm not shutting you down. All right, good. And then Jamie, I believe 7.5 is yours as well. WRVSU Energy Committee. Yeah, I'm really excited about this. I talked about it in my report. Every district in the SU has decided to launch into a performance contract audit. And so we do, you did provide permission a few months ago. Can you just tell Bill and Pat, just about that? Yeah, I was gonna do that. The request for qualifications, we had a presentation from EEI Services out of Middlebury, Vermont. What they will do is go in every building throughout the SU and this is free of charge to do this energy audit. And then what they do is they'll provide us with a plan of how we could address capital improvement needs by utilizing the performance of efficiencies within our heating systems like example, new roof with insulation, things of that nature, they guarantee the savings. And so this WRVSU Energy Committee is also taking and analyzing our last two years worth of heating fuel and electric used in every one of our buildings and going to map it out for us so that we'll have that data to look and to see what buildings currently right now might be functioning based on square footage, more efficiently compared to others so that we'll have that data to compare to the projected savings that someone like EEI might provide us. And so I just didn't want folks to feel like that went off the radar and hasn't. We are meeting with the agency of Education, Tara and I are Thursday with one of their leads in the fiscal office just to ensure that we have all of our ducks lined up to best utilize ESSER funds to also help offset the cost of these significant capital improvements across the SU. Rochester Elementary is not alone in regards to some delayed maintenance. And so we know that we need to address it. And we're also looking at are there other things that we can do in all of our buildings even if they're not as much of a critical need but they can also help with performance contracting and paying that off. So we are gonna do an audit in every single building. Great, good. And so if anyone's interested that committee meets on the second Thursday of the month at six, Ray and I are on it. We have a few different board chairs on it and board members. We also have a community members across the SU on it and we have a Jeff Martin who is part of the... Two rivers. Yes, Bill, thank you. Two rivers who looks in is the head of energy efficiency work in each of the towns that make up the two rivers. And Bill probably could reel off what all those towns are. I know within our supervisory union Strafford and Sharon are part of that. And so that's how we were able to get his services. So he's been a huge resource for us as well. Great. Questions about the energy committee. Patrick, you're muted. Sorry, thank you. No, I would maybe show some interest in helping out with that myself. Great, so Patrick, we'll make certain you get on that email list for the agenda and the agenda will be coming out tomorrow. So first thing that. Have they got, have Bill and Pat got the WRVSU emails or set up for them? Yes, good. Okay, thank you. So obviously any conduct. And we should probably talk a little, well, we'll say that from the time we should talk a little bit about email and public meeting law and stuff like that. So... That's part of what we started talking about today, Triggy. Great, just so you understand, you know what we can talk about, what we can't, how we can meet and things like that. Good. All right, Bill, do you have a question about energy policy? Energy policy. Good. Amy, question? Thank you. Good, Justine, question? No, thank you. I like hearing about this though. I think it's really interesting. Okay, thank you. Megan, question? I'm all set. Thanks. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you for our reports. We will now entertain a motion to go into our first executive session for a real estate matter inviting in our principals and our superintendent. Would somebody take that motion, please? I move we move into executive session inviting our principals and our superintendent. For a real estate. For a real estate transaction. Yes. Can we second that, please? I second it. Bill seconded. Good. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Good. I believe Ray will. Yeah, 10.1 is sale of Rochester High School Building. Jamie, do you want to summarize the planning report? Yeah, so to summarize the, in regards to a report. Am I good? Can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. In regards to an update of the process is that the planning commission did approve the subdivision of the high school building. There was a little change to the access easements need to be 30 feet wide instead of 20 foot, which we had proposed. So we're taking action on that. The only remaining steps for us is to revive that plot slightly to comply with that request. And also I want, we wanted to let folks know that we did provide the town of Rochester the opportunity to apply for a planning grant through the agency of commerce and community developments Vermont Community Development Program. I believe, we believe the town is still waiting to see whether or not that grant was awarded. So the good news is the local subdivision and state water wastewater permit has been completed. And then currently the other update is, is that we have approached four different real estate agents about taking on to convey the high school building for possible commercial real estate. And at this time, we have not been successful to find a real estate agent that was willing to take on the sale of that high school building. That doesn't mean we haven't, we're that we're gonna stop. But Ethan has contacted two different real estate agents and I have as well real estate agents that have been recommended to us to that may be interested in looking to convey the high school in regards to commercial real estate. Did I miss anything? No, the only thing we'll just say is that there's gonna be a, there will be some slight alteration to the preschool playground for at and the Rochester campus moving it slightly east. So I have the same amount of square footage but just so that it stays within the realm of these new easements. The big, big difference was 20 feet as a 30 feet as opposed to 20 feet. So as far as the easements go. But we will keep beating the bushes to see if we can find another agent to help us but otherwise, so we're not at the end of that avenue yet. Good, I think that covers that topic. So next 10.2, preparation of town of Stockbridge informational meeting on reconsideration vote. And if you wouldn't mind, I would love to just run to the bathroom real quick. And Amy, would you like to just take over in my absence for a moment? Sure. Thank you. I assume that Jamie has something to present or talk to us about it. I wanted to get your guys' thoughts. So I think it's important that we put a presentation together was my thoughts. We're gonna use the same Zoom. It'll be a panel process. I confirmed that with Lori last week. As of late last week, Lori had not received new questions. I will check with her again and we'll make certain we address any questions we receive in a new informational meeting. I know a lot of folks have already started a vote via absentee ballot and started to get those in. And so, I think some folks are probably already feeling informed in regards to how they may vote, but we'll have another opportunity to inform. The voters, my thought was, is that our last budget presentations, I think they were well received. And so what I wanted to see from the board is, does it make sense for Lindy to talk about educational programming in regards to continuing as a merged district? What the positives of that would be versus what would the impacts be on programming if we were not to be a merged district based on her perception as the principal? And then we would also then go in and talk about some financial ramifications. I know Bill's put together some pretty significant documents that I think would be worth sharing about tax rate over the last several years, both with income sensitivity and non-income sensitivity tax implications on the constituents of Stockbridge. He also has put together a sheet that talks about the payment of the bonds and how tuition revenue can offset some of those expenses. And so I was hoping that maybe Bill and Tara could present on that. And so I just wanted to see if you guys thought that that hit everything. I thought we need to make certain we address the questions we have, both program-wise and budget-wise, but that it would be well served to have a presentation put together much like we did for the budget vote that addresses both ends of that. I think that sounds good. I was gonna add I'm new to all of this, but I also think we should address the high school and bring people up to date on activity because we've got a number of people that are trying to figure this thing out for the benefit of our community. And so I think that needs to be addressed, I can't say in what order, but I certainly think that's a pressing issue for a number of people. And I think we should give them the best information we have. I think that's a very good idea, Bill. Justine, did you have a comment about this process? Yes, I agree with Bill actually. I wasn't gonna say anything about that, but I think the high school, the work that's going on in the high school is definitely worth bundling in this meeting because it is important as far as going forward. I wanted to ask Bill how far ahead his projections were and what that looked like if he could explain the nature of the projections or how many years or ahead, or did you go ahead in that? There's a two-part answer. One is the having to do with debt service for the two remaining general obligation bonds that are due the last three payments, one of which is in this current budget going forward and then there's, I believe, two more years. And so that has significance going forward and that's an issue about how much it is and should it be shared or not. The other thing going forward, and I don't have good numbers on it, but I've got pretty good numbers and that is on tuition. I don't think people are aware at all. I certainly wasn't until I started diving into this, but if we talk about debt service as a significant cost, we need to look at tuition revenue as a significant revenue other than state payments and support and grants, you've got tuitions and those numbers are very large. And to the extent that this partnership can continue to strengthen our two schools, the likelihood of that tuition income is gonna increase. And I think people need to be aware of how much and in relationship to the bonded debt service and understand that relationship. So those things too go forward. For the last 12 or 15 years in Stockbridge, I've looked at the tax impact of our school costs based on whether you're paying it by income sensitivity or by the value of your property. And I did that basically to answer the question, how much am I paying and how does that relate to prior years? And is it going out of control? Where is it going? How is it impacting me actually, those facts? And I think it's important to share that information this Thursday as well. Because again, I don't think people are really aware of what's been going on in this case the last 10 years. And I think it's significant for those people that haven't voted yet on the vote to either separate or keep together. So both of those things I think are worthwhile on Thursday. If I could speak a few minutes on that. Good. Comments? I have a question for Bill. Bill. You mentioned how you've had years of looking at these numbers and saying that the cost of tuition has gone up, but so has taxes overall. Now the taxes going up and increasing over say the past 10 years, is that due to education or is it all around tax increases? And is the percentage of education staying around the same or is that increasing drastically as well? Okay, let me clarify, but looking at the school tax. Okay. Not at the municipal taxes. Okay. It's about municipal is about 20% school is about 80%. And I did not look at income tax at all. So it's basically the school tax. And what's significant is that the boards at least in Stockbridge and I believe in Rochester over the last 10 years have maintained not only a level cost of your pain by income sensitivity, but the actual cost of your pain by income sensitivity in the last two years, it's the lowest it's ever been in the last 10 years. Now listen to me. The lowest it's been in the last 10 years if you pay by income sensitivity. That's despite increases in healthcare. That's despite increases in school salaries for a wonderful faculty. That's in spite of paying for the debt service. And so I think that is remarkable. And I think it's not saying people walk on water, but what's more significant to me is the last two years not only do we have the lowest tax impact for income sensitivity taxpayers, but for the first time educational programming instead of being cut, it's being advanced. It's being expanded. Educational outcomes are starting to turn in a positive direction. And when we can do both of those things together, I think that speaks to the need to really think about the risk of breaking us when we're on a wonderful path right now. And I'd like to be able to speak about that a little bit. Good, just Dan. I just wanted to ask if the board would be able to see any documentation of what you might present on this prior to the meeting so we can kind of wrap our brain around it a little bit. Oh, absolutely, Justine. I'm going to PowerPoint scar it and then we'll get in. Okay, it's really interesting, but it's very extensive and it's kind of like a few days before. So I want to see it, but feel like I'm prepared or... I think also, Bill, I suggested if you can and there's people who can help with this. Jenny Austin being one, a bar graph would be really is really the visual because the numbers in that chart, sometimes for my non-number brain, sometimes they just, I don't see it, but a bar graph just is as clear as a bell when you start saying what people are doing for you. And as I said, Jenny Austin is very good at those graphs. She did a very good job for us in the bulletin and I imagine she'd be willing to help. But yeah, I think your point is clear, Justine. You know, we need to have a good succinct way and clear way to communicate this and we all need to be on board so we know what's being shared. So I think, Jamie, Bill and Jamie, can you work on that together as far as getting that clear? Yeah, it'll be Bill, Lindy, Bonnie, Tara and I, it will get it put together and then we'll get you a draft. Great, thank you very much. Thank you and thank you for all that work. Yeah, it's great stuff. No, I mean, first day on the board and you're taking off, man, that's great. Wonderful, I love it, great. When is the Stockbridge informational meeting? It's Thursday night at seven. Sorry, was that seven? Yeah, seven. And there's, that's the only one, correct? Yeah. So get the word out. Get the word out as best we can. There's another issue, Lindy brought this up to me today and I think it's really important to communicate that it's a counterintuitive vote. You're basically saying, no, do not unmerge as opposed to yes, do unmerge. So I think we need to be very clear that even though you're saying no, you're meaning yes to the merge and yes means no to the merge. So I just think we need to really beat that up. It was like making the point that a lot of people, I talked to a couple of people and I never talked to anybody that a lot of people didn't understand why we needed a budget for next year because they thought, well, we're gonna unmerge. So they don't need a budget. And it's like, no, we actually still are gonna be running the schools next year, whatever this vote is, whatever the final result is. So I think this is a really important thing to talk up, to put out there. Make sure people really voting for the right thing that they want. If they really want the merger to go away, then that is a yes vote to end the merge and a no vote is to keep the merger. So hopefully they'll see that in the language, but I think that should be part of the presentation, Jimmy. Good, Amy. Just to piggyback on if we could maybe get a copy of the actual ballot and present it on the screen and we can point people to really understand which means which. I also think this is kind of a very important aspect because for me personally, I didn't have the right information for myself for the first time around. And so I mean, I'll say right here, I voted against the merger the first time and now I believe that I have the right information that I've gathered since then, which has maybe come to the conclusion that I am for the merger. And I think that's the best situation for our town and for our students and communities. So I do think that this is something that really needs to be addressed as far as getting the right information out to everybody so they do understand what this merger does mean. You know, I don't know that, I don't think we can overstate the ability of just talking to people. Yes. Oh, there's not a lot of time between this Monday night, Thursday, the vote is next week, but I think just, hey, you got any questions? Because I learned a lot, it was actually my brother who never gets off the farm so he doesn't really, he's a great example of sort of what he's heard. And I was sort of like, oh, that's what you think. Okay, good. We've got our work cut out for us. So I think, you know, when you can, if you really believe in this, and the board, obviously before you and Bill, Bill, you and Pat were here, the board has unequivocally come out several different times saying we are for this merger, we believe this is the way to go forward. So I don't think it's against our position to state that, you know, to say that and say, hey, come to the informational meeting. This is where you're gonna get clear numbers, clear information. So that's my bully pulpit. Anything else to say on this? Oh, well, let's finish up this first. Anything else, Jamie, for this? No, good. Justine, anything further? No, thank you. Good, Amy, anything further? No, I don't want that, thank you. Anything further? I do have something, sorry. Oh, wait. Bill, are you available tomorrow? I'll give you a call in the morning and we'll see if we can connect. Yes. Okay. Megan, sorry, did you have something? I'm okay, thank you. Good, all right. And I think we heard from Pat, we heard from Bill and Carl and Jenny are not here anymore, so good, we will move on. So we are now on to 10-3, VSBA code of ethics. Oh, I'm sorry. So it's really best practice for boards to review this and then move and adopt the VSBA code of ethics. I'm not asking for you to have to do that tonight. I more so wanted to just talk to you about it, encourage you to review it, be prepared to ask questions about it next month, and then I would hope that you would act on it. And then also what we do then is I send it out to you and everyone signs it. If you wanted to add something, we could. Again, this is just the model. So again, I don't know if we necessarily need to take action on it tonight, but I wanted to discuss it and just let folks know, I think it's really important to digest it so that we can take action on it next month. Okay, good. So yeah, do that, take a look at this, put it out in a separate document so you can take a look and we'll get back to this again. I think personally, I think probably we should all print this out and have it somewhere near the computer where we hold our meetings. That's what I like to do with important things that I should be looking at regularly as I'm going to do with the jobs of the chairperson. Good, any further action on this at this time? No, okay. Then I think we'll go on to 10-4. Thank you, Jamie, for bringing this up. I appreciate it. And also thank you for the board packet, and really your emphasis on board education and clarity is really great. And I think we're bringing these two new members in a little easier than I came in. I didn't have a clue, I didn't have a clue what we were doing. Okay, good. 10-4, oh no, it's actually 11-4, isn't it? Right, because we bumped the numbers up. 11-4 is a generator for Stockbridge. And this is something I've sort of had to keep pushing because it keeps sort of dropping off the rails a little bit. And just some background information for Pat and Bill. This came up and it was going to be through a grant, probably at least a year ago, maybe I think before Jamie's time, that it was going to be a grant and they were going to get it and then there was a possible used one. And it just in the midst of everything got put aside. And I brought it up probably two or three months ago asking for some more input. And again, it sort of got sidelined. And I just wanted to make an agenda item. We are going to get a new estimate. And I think it needs to be a board priority, that's my opinion, that this happen and that we find the money for this, you know, whether it's, we raised almost $18,000 for these three structures in quite little time between Stockbridge and Rochester. And I just saying, whether it's that way or whether it's we budget it, whatever, I just, I think it should happen. It's just one of these sticklers that's been out there that there's just no reason for it to be there. Jamie, go ahead. So my thought was, is that my next month, that tonight, I think I would have liked you to move and charge us to come back next month with the exact quote. I would bring a while with a recommendation and that you're also charging us to figure out the funding. We'll get that in the minutes and then we'll come back with recommendations on all those fronts. Is that okay? That's it. Yeah, I'd like to move that. Okay. I may or may not be able to help with this as well. I have experience through my business doing some generator installs personally with my crew. So I may be able to look at the building and take a look myself and see if it's something we could do. And as far as, you know, if we can find the money to allocate towards the generator itself, I may even be able to donate our time to do the install. Is that, do you think that's just, I love what you're saying, Pat. I just want to make sure it's ethical. As long as the time's donated, it would be fine. Yes. We wouldn't purchase the generator from Pat. No, no, no. As long as we can get the generator, then we can possibly donate our time to do it. I'd have to look at it with my electrician and see if it's something we can do. Cool. I can, I can print you off a copy of what was previously recommended. That'd be great. If that helps give you, and then I'll have it at pick up tomorrow for you. And I can have John, who works for me, look at it and we can see if it's something that we can do. So. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be great. Okay. All right. Good. So I'll entertain a motion to charge the superintendent and administration to come up with a quote and funding source for a generator for the Stockbridge school. I move it. Do we have a second? Second. Second by Amy. This is a big enough one. I'll do a roll call. Amy. Hi. Bill. Hi. Pat. Hi. Justine. Hi. Megan. Hi. You guys have it. Thank you administration. Let's, let's move on this. Much appreciated. Good. So we're at 12. We, we've, we're looking at VSB code of ethics. So I think we're there. We're at, whether it's now the 13, which is new hires and resignations. I believe we had a second session prior to that. Oh, we have them. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I thought it was after that before public comment, but that's okay. Wherever it is, we'll do it. So we're in executive session right now. That's where we're headed to. For personnel. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to enter executive session for personnel matter, inviting our superintendent and administration. Take a motion to go into executive session for personnel matter, inviting our administration and Jamie. Second. Second by Justine. All in favor signify by saying, aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Hi there. I just wanted to announce that I am going to be resigning effectively from the board at the end of this meeting tonight. And I wish you guys the best of luck. And I look forward to continuing on in other ways to help help move our schools forward. Thank you. Megan, thank you so much for your time and your commitment to this, this school board, we will miss you. And we accept your resignation with regret. I don't believe I need to move that, right? That is just, that happens, correct. Good. All right. Moving. That always feels weird to move on after something that big, just like the next thing. So you know my heart's with you, Megan. I won't be too far. I know. You're just talking about, I can almost throw a rock at you. Number 13, new hires and resignations. Yes. So starting with a new hire, we, I would like to recommend the board extended offer for a new hire for upper elementary school positions in Rochester Elementary School to Sean Lennaham. I'm gonna make a motion. You made that motion, Amy. Yes, I make a motion to approve the hiring of, for elementary teacher Sean Lennaham. Can we have a second please? Second. Second by Justine. I'll do a roll call. Justine. Aye. Aye, Bill. Aye. Pat. How are you there? Oh, did it again. Aye. Aye. Justine, right, if I ask you. Aye. Amy. Aye. Amy, thank you. Amy, Ethan, aye, and Megan. I abstain. Thank you. Very good, the ayes have it. We have a new hire. I do have several resignations as well. On the Stockbridge campus, Caitlin Messier will be resigning as paraeducator of school nurse on both Rochester and Stockbridge campuses will be resigning Jane Glick as well. Yep. Our interventionist and our Rochester campus, Joni Wiesbaw will be resigning to accept a new position and our two, three teacher on our Stockbridge campus, Stacy Kirsten will be resigning as well to accept a new position. Wow. Okay. Okay. I will entertain a motion to accept these resignations. There's many of those I know. That's hard to hear. To accept these resignations from our administration. I move to accept the resignations from our administration as listed by Lindy. Do we have a second? Second. Pat, Pat second in. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Now the ayes have it. We regret. Good people. And we are now at what we'll call our 14 public comment. I think most of our people are here on watching us. Yep, we have no calls. So I'll just go down our list. And please identify what town you're from and limit your comments to under five minutes. And I'll start with, yes, I'll start with Charity. Colton, do you have a comment for the board? Good evening, Charity Colton from Stockbridge. Ethan, earlier in the meeting, you made a comment about mentioning something about the buildings, what you were finding, but I don't think you ever explained that or clarified that. Can you just explain what you meant? Oh, finding. I think that had to do with, you're right, we didn't actually get to this. This had to do if you read the principal's report that there's been some inventory of what's in the high school. I believe that's what I was referring to and what they were finding there. They're finding a lot of materials that can be used in the elementary program, both Stockbridge and Rochester, a thousand pencils or something like that kind of thing. But there's also been some looking through, and Bonnie, maybe you can help me on this. Somebody else was doing some inventory. Is that correct? So, but company even came in and looked to see if any of our old textbooks or library books, the board authorized them to come in. And unfortunately they are too outdated for purchasing. They don't have any schools currently willing to use them. But in the process, we've started going through any student records, making sure we're following proper procedures with that in terms of whether they can be discarded or need to be kept in a locked filing cabinet and moved over to the elementary school. The contents of the mezzanine are all directly booked to uniforms, to it's a large list. But there was probably the big find was the amount of school supplies that's over in that building that'll be able to be moved over and used for future years. Right now, there's still a lot. That's what I was referring to, charity. Do you have a further comment? Nope, thank you. Good, thank you. Janet Whitaker, do you have a comment for the board? No, I'm all set, thank you. Thank you, Janet. Karen Rubin, do you have a comment for the board? I do not, have a good night. Thank you. Lauren Votney, do you have a comment for the board? No, I'm all set, thank you. Thank you. Michaela Richardson, do you have a comment for the board? No, no, thank you. Thank you. Rob Gardner, do you have a comment for the board? Nope, thanks for all the work. Thank you. Pratt do you have a comment for the board? I do have a couple questions. Why are the four realtors not interested in the school? And the second question is if you put a price tag on the building is that taking the one dollar away from the town of Rochester to buy it? Because really the town of Rochester has only been involved since sometime in February. They were unofficially at point brought into the conversation but they were never asked to get involved until February and then they had 10 days or whatever to respond to the letter from the RSUD which had been kicked in the camp for two and a half years. So those are my two questions. Sorry what was your first one? Say it again. Why aren't four real estate people interested? The two I talked to one one was sort of like yeah yeah yeah and then it was I didn't actually give him that much information. I think he did some work on his own and then I had to follow up with both of them and they basically came back with very polite that this is not a position that they want to take. They did not give reasons. One was actually sounded like an interesting proposition. So I really couldn't speculate but it was pretty clear that it was a no from them. They just they weren't interested. I can follow up and maybe get some more information for them. I don't know. Jamie if you heard more specifics from. Well out of the four one has is not returned my call or emails. I called twice and email once about it Tim and then the other one was supposed to get back to me. I followed up late last week and they still hadn't. He had indicated though that their company was busy right now and that it didn't mean a definite no. It just meant right now it wasn't a top priority form is what I took from the conversation. And I think that that might be part of what we're running to in general possibly but I think it is worth you know just saying can you give us specifically why this listing doesn't interest you? Well Matt so that's interesting because real estate in Vermont is hot right now and this is going to be repurposed for some kind of low income housing affiliated. I would think this would be the time that they would jump on because you know it's a 33,000 square foot building and as far as I know you guys haven't put a price tag on it yet. So that brings me to my second question. When you guys put a price tag on it does that take it out of the Rochester hands for a buck? No. Am I understanding and Jamie correct me on this because I believe we talked about this with David that because it's in the merger documents that offer stands for the dollar all the way up. It's like a right of first refusal so anywhere up until the time we actually would close on a deal that still has the option for them to buy it for a dollar the town of Rochester. Is that your understanding true Jamie? Yeah they still have the right to buy it for a dollar I think once we they did not meet in regards to accepting the offer we now have the right to sell it for more it doesn't mean we have to accept the dollar Tim but they still if they're going to purchase it they have the opportunity to buy it for the buck not what we listed that. Are you sure about that because this is a very important deal? I mean that is what our attorney told us. That is what our attorney told us yeah because we asked this specifically. The select board did not refuse it yet because it hasn't even been brought to a vote in Rochester which you know the select board has due diligence to bring that to a vote and I mean why would the select board put themselves out there and say the three of them by themselves yes we're going to do this when there's certainly people that are or some are for it some are against it and they don't really know exactly how what that is until they do a vote to the town. I agree. So let's hold off on putting a price on that building. Well I don't think as I say that won't affect that won't affect their ability to get it for a dollar but as you're saying right now we're we're we're not even getting any you know we're not even getting any interest so you know that's that's that's that's where we're at so I don't think we have to worry about that process of putting a dollar number on it yet. And on top of that anything that goes forward with that high school building to meet this meet what the town would have to buy it for a buck for that money really shouldn't come out of Stockbridge's pocket because this has been going on in Rochester for years I mean and that's another thing the select board ought to be involved in is how to define that payment. Well that's it's set out in the I mean I'm sure that'll be negotiations between the town should it come to that between the town and the and the school board. Charity I saw you put your hand back up again. Yes can you just clarify you and Jamie were both kind of talking at the same time about Tim's question and you stated that Rochester would still have the right to buy it for a dollar right up until the time you close. Do you mean close or enter a contract with an outside buyer? I guess I probably didn't have timelines. Yeah yeah you know I understand. I wouldn't I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to venture an actually specific answer to that without consulting with David because I don't believe it says specifically in the merger agreements when that but it is a clear right of first refusal so I don't know and so thank you for correcting me on that I don't think I should speak that specifically without referring to our attorney. Would you agree with that Jamie? Yeah yeah so thank you for catching that charity but yeah but it has been described as a right of first refusal so whatever you know precedence that takes it exists and still exists as we also pursue real estate real estate agents to handle the property. Good thank you for your comments the public much appreciated. Let me get my computer going. Future agenda items. Amy has your hand up. Up Jamie thank you go for it Amy. Yep I'd like Amy to just explain how the board is going forward with filling the position. Are you yelling at me because you're I was excited thank you I missed that and so the process that we'll do to fill the the seat now that Megan will be vacating is that we will get an ad up in the Herald we'll also push it out via the school on our Facebook page that we have a vacancy and what we'll do is collect candidates letters of interest up until the Friday prior to your next meeting in June and then that evening the board will have an opportunity to interview the candidates that are interested in serving that in filling that Rochester vacant seat that's for the remainder of this this current year that person will have to run during your annual meeting in May by statute just so you know you're only filling it for the the remaining year. I know we're just starting because it's June next month but so they will serve until next May and then what the board would do is go into executive session for personnel and then come out and make their appointment. Good thank you Jamie thank you Amy for remembering that detail much appreciated so we're at future agenda items are do we have any from the board Pat? What's that? Future agenda items anything we should talk about anything you want to see on there? No no okay good Justine Amy that's right it's just now Bill. No I'm fine thank you. Good Megan all right well Megan Puff good to see you our next meeting will be uh is June 1st June 1st June 1st our side it's 6 30 p.m. virtually still we haven't talked about that but we'll get there I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Make a motion to adjourn. Great thank you Megan thank you Pat thank you Bill thank you for joining very good thank you all for your work um so all of you are signified by saying aye. Aye. Aye. You guys have a good night everybody. Bye.