 composed of people with iron stamina who are to plow right through. Let's come to order at 601. And before I turn proceedings over to Floridia Smith as our master of ceremonies, I just wanted to remind everybody who is here. First of all, thank you so much for joining us for this. For just the Zoom technicalities. If everybody could please mute if you're not talking. And if there's anybody who is joining by phone, there doesn't appear to be anybody joining by phone. So I can leave off that part. So anyway, Flor, should I turn it over to you? Sure, yeah. Thank you, Scott. So welcome to our community budget forum tonight, December 2nd. I would like to start first with the spirit of gratitude in because of the holidays. And I would like just to thank our amazing Washington Central Unified Union School District team. So administrators, teachers, staff, cooks, custodians, post drivers. Thank you for continuing to be the heart of our communities and thank you for all you're doing for our children during these challenging times. We know that it's not easy and your efforts do not go unnoticed. We all are very grateful. This pandemic has brought into focus public attention to children and education and the inequities in our society are known on every community member's mind, food insecurity, limited mental health, access, healthcare, homelessness, broadband, income inequality. So hopefully as a state and as a country, we are gonna prioritize community and common good. And that would be the basic focus for all of us, the well-being of all our children. So with that in mind, we are gonna get started with our budget presentation and I'll just make sure that Jim has the budget presentation and this is the first draft for our level service budget. And as a school board, we have the role of making decisions on behalf of our entire community that affect the education of each of our students. Engaging our communities in the conversation helps us make sure that the community voice is at the heart of our decision and it helps us to ensure that we're not only working towards equity in our schools, but also in our communities as a whole. For budget purposes today, there you are. So can you move into the pictures, the first picture, Jim? Yep, absolutely. Thank you. There you go, sort of. Okay, there we go. So equity is a school court for us, is a school culture that supports educators in practicing effective and responsive instruction that meets the needs of the whole child. For example, everybody is getting what they need in order to master our student outcomes. So as we move forward, third slide, Jim, if we could move forward. So our student learning outcomes that you see here in our screen and in case there's somebody on the phone, I can go over what they are quickly. So the student learning outcomes are statements that specify what students will know and will be able to do or be able to demonstrate when they have completed or participate in a program or an activity. So these outcomes are usually expressed as knowledge, skills, attitudes or values are in alignment with the Vermont educational quality standards. And then to the right. So those are literacy, math content, practices, global citizenship, scientific inquiry, content, knowledge, physical education and health artistic expression and financial literacy. To the right, you see the transferable skills. And as we were coming out of our quality committee and Jen was talking to us, there's something, there's our skills are at the heart of what we do. And they're basically, and right now they're being really the focus of our teachers and it's really important. So as a board, we have the responsibility to lead and make sure that we remove barriers and provide the resources needed so that we can set, so that we can provide this education to our kids. So as a board, if we move to the next slide, Jim, please. As a board, we have set, we had a retreat this summer and we set three goals. So those are improving student achievement, building a board governance and community engagement. These goals help us stay focused in student learning on collaboration and on monitoring the results. I do hope that the financial forces that are probably coming to us in the coming year won't decimate the education of our kids, but transform it. So with that in mind, there's some celebrations as we get started. So we were one of five districts in Vermont to reopen fully for live in person instruction from Pre-K to eight. We created more robust and community center remote learning offerings for all our students. Working, we have been working to align our instructional approaches for teaching math and literacy and provide all students with increased access to technology. Working to develop our own personal care assistance and behavior intervention is, our school board is committed to the strategic planning process for continuous improvement plan and the creation of assessments plan to track students' academic process. With that in mind, I'm gonna pass it on to Scott Thompson. Thank you very much, Flora. So this slide, as you can see, is a visual picture of what it's like to put a budget together. Now, the stressing and straining and groaning and grimacing are absolutely true to life. What's not so true to life is what looks like, you know, the budget as a monolith from Stonehenge. I think it would be, it would work better if we had a fire-breathing dragon that all those little guys were trying to wrangle. But we're a public school district, so we don't have a graphics team. So we have to make it into a rectangle and have you rely on your imaginations. What the words around it indicate, those are all the various dimensions that we have to work with. And those are only a few of them. There are, in fact, many more. So that this is, in some, a very complicated and difficult and necessary process to find an equilibrium here with all of the different computing pressures and needs. Thank you, next slide, please, Jim. Now, this slide makes the whole process look so efficient and machine-like. What we really need here are some of those little guys yelling at each other and making sausage in the background. The basic thing to remember here is that the draft budgets come from the people who work for us, from the superintendent, the business administrator, the leadership team, and basically everybody in the school district with whom they consult. And they pull all this stuff together and deliver to us on the board a draft budget. And then we do our thing with it. And as is happening even on this occasion, send it back with additional guidance and keep on going until we finally feel as though we have something that will stick, that will work for our schools, work for our people, and that's something that will especially stand up at the ballot box and get approved. Thank you, next, Jim. Right, this is the droopy demographic chart. On the left, student enrollment, as you can see, dipping from 1600 forward, looking six years into the past from the year after this. And then the chart of equalized pupils. The thing to bear in mind here is both are going down, but lucky for us, equalized pupils are going down less. Now, equalized pupils are a weighted number based on the student enrollment, but different ages of students and poverty, other factors are weighed differently. So we haven't declined as far in equalized pupils, which is a good thing because equalized pupils is part of the tax formula. And the more we decline with equalized pupils, the higher the value of the fraction that determines our tax rate. So we're hoping to keep that line as flat as we can. And at best increase it. And I think that does it for me. And I pass on to Kari at this point, I do believe. Thank you very much. Thanks, Scott. Good evening, everybody. Kari Bradley from Calis here. Thanks for being with us. So this slide shows some of the highlights from the context of the budget that we're putting together. Scott talked about the declining enrollment picture. What we're seeing is a steep drop this year. And what's not clear is, is that going to be temporary? Is it going to be a bounce back? Or is this part of a longer term trend? I also want to highlight that we do have an excellent administration faculty and staff. So the people that work for the school system, we feel very good about, of course, a dynamic student body and work very hard to provide a variety of different educational opportunities. So next slide, please. So I'm going to share some of the specifics about our budget, at least where it stands. Currently this bar chart compares the district's expense budget for the current year with our versions for next year. So far, we only have had two drafts. Draft one was a level service budget where we asked the administrators to project what would be the expense increase if we provide the same programs and same staffing levels as the current year. No changes at all. And then draft one A is the same as the level service budget but with an adjustment for repairs and building maintenance expenses. And I'll get back to that in a couple of minutes. But just know that we're planning on adding to this, to this table, to this graph and show other versions, other drafts. So the next time you see this, we'll have added more to it. And one other thing I want to ask you to keep in mind that our expense budget is really only one of the factors that will ultimately impact our next year's tax rate. There's also the student budget. We've talked about that a little bit. There's the common level of appraisal for each of the towns. And there's the state's contribution that's set by the legislature in the spring. So we could have a lengthy discussion about any of those factors. And we don't yet have all the information about those. Our operational expenses are the one factor that we have direct control over. And so that's one of the factors that will ultimately impact our next year's tax rate. And so that's going to be our focus tonight. All right. Next slide, please. Next slide is a couple pie charts that show the breakdown of our expenses by major categories for the current year. And then the next year's budget that coming through that looks a little child. Okay. There you go. So one of the clear takeaways here is that the personnel expense that is the wages and salaries and the benefits of our teachers, support staff, administrators, that really makes up the lion's share of our budget about 70% or more. Otherwise, we're really only seeing relatively minor changes between the anticipated relative proportions based on this year and our budget 1A at this point. Next slide, please. So now we're in. Sorry. Sorry, everybody. I have. I have poor Internet. I'm going to, I'm going to stop sharing my video and maybe that will help things. So I'm going to just start over. I might, you might have heard me say that. So this, this slide is, we're going to start looking at some of the items from next year, the budget draft that most significantly impact the bottom line. These are only the highlights. So the numbers here are not going to necessarily add up, but we want to just have you focus on the things that matter most at this stage. So draft 1A has a net impact on taxes of a 3.7% increase over the current year. And you can see in that first section that a large portion of that is accounted for by increases in salaries and benefits for employees. At this point, we're estimating some of the components of the compensation since those will need to be negotiated. And we do know that medical insurance will increase nearly 10% next year since that is something that's negotiated statewide now. And then further on, we're showing some savings due to staffing changes, including some early retirements, but those will largely be offset by increase in salaries and benefits due to federal requirements associated with the pandemic. Moving into the non-salary items, we're showing very little change from this section overall, but I do want to highlight that there is a significant increase for facilities maintenance in this section. Our current year's budget doesn't actually include the full allocation for building maintenance and maintenance and repair. And so we'll need to increase that in order to bring it up to a sustainable level. And then in the last section on the revenues, you'll see that we are projecting about a half percent reduction in the revenue that comes from tuition that we receive from students who are coming from other towns to attend our schools. For many years, we've benefited from students mainly coming from Washington, Orange and Roxbury, primarily attending U-32. They have historically contributed a significant amount of revenue into our system. We're seeing a decline in the number of those students, and we're going to need to closely monitor that trend as a significant factor, adding a lot of pressure to our budget overall. So that's really the summary at this point. Remember that we're looking at still a first draft of our expense budget. It's currently showing a tax impact of about 3.7 percent, and that's assuming a level service. No changes. We are expecting in the next drafts that we're going to be incorporating some changes in programming and staffing. And at this point, we want to start hearing from you. Get your first draft. And at this point, we want to start hearing from you. Get your perspective so that we are ready to shape those changes as we move through this process. Also remember that our expenses are just one of the several key factors that ultimately determine the tax rate. So next slide, please. And so to start out the conversation, we have some questions to help frame it up. And as we move into the discussion portion of the evening, we're going to have you start by considering these three questions. First of all, what clarifying questions do you have for us? What's not clear to you at this point? What's your reaction? What are your actions to this information? And then are we doing a good job of properly balancing the budget impacts on our students, our schools and our taxpayers? So those are our questions. And I'm going to turn it back over to floor to talk about how we proceed from here. Thanks, Gary. So as we move along with that, can you put back the questions up a gym just for a second to give a chance to everybody to take a picture with your phone of the questions? If you have a phone near you, take a picture of the questions so that the hope is to move into smaller rooms. To have a conversation and talk about those three questions and then come out of those smaller rooms in 20 minutes and debrief as a big, as a, as a big group. It seems like we have enough people in attendance. Is that correct? I can't quite see everybody with the, is that correct Jim? Sorry to put you in the start. No, then you're fine. You're fine. I was over you. Sorry about that. Yeah, it does look like we have enough people from, from the community here. And so what I'd like to do is divide it up. So we have a board member or two in each of the breakout rooms. I think we'll do based on 40 people total. We'll do five breakout rooms of eight people. Is my thought. And I'll try to put one or two board members into each of those rooms and then I'll ask that the board member helps from the board member helps write, you know, some of the feedback that we're receiving from, from, from the, from the constituents. Thank you, Jim. So when we're ready, what I'll do is I'll stop sharing. And then I can put us into groups. I have four. Do you feel like we're in a good spot? Yeah, we're, we're ready. We're right on schedule. We're one minute past schedule. Okay. Excellent. I'm going to go ahead and start that process right now. Just give me one minute to, to get organized here. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So I feel free to, to continue. Any sort of briefing while, while Jim works, if there's anything you want to get across. Yeah. No, I, if any other board member has something to share, you know, we all participated in the, in the drafting the budget or if Lori has something to share Brian will like to share something. Well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to everybody. Well, we go into the rooms. I think I've talked enough tonight. You're good. I just, I do think it's great that we're having a community participation tonight to talk about the budget and our future. And just to let us also know that the budget is what represents and should represent what the community values here in its schools. So, and I know, I don't want to, I think. The budget is what represents what the community values need to be. So, and Karie had great. You had great, a great presentation tonight. So well, thank you. And, and, yeah, this is. If I could ask one thing, if I could, can you do me a favor and switch hosting responsibilities over to me? I believe I'm in the co-host role. So it's a, it's not letting me assign the breakouts. That's okay. Our technology clutches. Yeah. Thank you, Jim. Absolutely. your patients. So the the idea is that this rooms will you know give you a chance to have smaller and be able to give more more input so just remind the board members that would be in those rooms to take notes and and then we'll debrief when we come when we come out of. Excellent and Brian just for your benefit there is if you go to the participants icon at the bottom of your screen and then right click on the WCCUSD thing and then you should be able to make a host. All right fantastic all right so now let me start working on my breakouts. Scott do you have a story to share with us? Let's see that here. No stories it's just I think part of the reason why we're doing the breakout rooms is exactly this that it's so difficult to have any kind of regular conversation on zoom when there are more than say five people or so. It just it has to be very programmatic very linear one at a time it's it reminds me of you know telegraphy in the old days where you know um but but at the same time I'm not complaining this is so much better than trying to um trying to do a conference call or trying to meet outdoors with six feet in between us uh and masked so okay we're almost set everybody we're very close here hey you're in the countdown um no no taken and he doesn't mean you personally Stephen well no no no it's it's fine and and you know the the debt is is in remains some unresolved work I think that's a fair way to say it and there's um I'm I I don't have any specifics to share but I think it is something that's been in all the board in like our retreat and in meetings where we're not overwhelmed with the minutiae of you know the agenda and things that we need to do um that comes up and what possibilities there are I have no problem with people expressing concern and dissatisfaction with that that's we're here to hear whatever you have to say and I don't take it personal so that's fine great that's great um I noticed we probably have about four minutes but I'd like to give an opportunity to my other colleague on the board towns um in case you have any questions for mac and and Cindy towns uh I don't I don't know if I have you know um good questions you know as someone who I don't pay taxes um I I barely understand how it works and how specifically how school you pay sales tax yes so I pay sales taxes um I do not pay I do not pay property taxes um I it is good to hear I guess that um that our decisions are having and um also the ways that they impact not just the students but also everyone living in our district and in all of our towns um and I I'm always glad to hear that perspective um because as a student that's not a perspective that I hear often um so I don't know if I have any I have any questions for you but I do appreciate uh you being here Stephen I wanted to say that I appreciate your your hearing us and dining our feelings but this this issue has been going on and we've already paid our taxes for this year and I feel like it's just kind of being left by the wayside and we're soldiering on and trying to pay our taxes and people are selling their houses in town and it's not really getting resolved and I don't really see anybody saying oh but we'll resolve it by such and such a date it just seems like it's drifting along well rudderless I guess yeah the only there's only one thing that I can that I can and say with any clarity and and Scott being here too in town is the three of our voices will will carry that concern to the larger group for future agenda items for getting it on discussion there'll be three of us carrying your voice forward to the larger group I mean that's really all I can I can tell you with any assurance in this particular gathering at this time I mean I'm not I'm less involved than I was years previously but from my understanding as of currently there there aren't any available resolutions that I'm aware of Scott may be aware of some that I'm not but that doesn't mean we don't continue to work to try to find some Scott thanks Stephen yeah um Stephen is a man of his word so um you can be sure that you know it will be carried not only on this occasion but into the future um he has the memory of an elephant this man um and I'm glad I can't see him on his screen um so he's I can't see him actually shooting um darts and oh thanks okay anyway um and there there may be some things that we can do that won't that won't that can't actually change the amount that that um callous taxpayers pay but that may at least be able to take account of those of kind of give credit to callous school for those excess payments by callous taxpayers so that in future uh future capital needs of callous elementary school are um sort of offset in some way by these internal credits that that's the only um I've racked my brains over this and that's really about the best I can I can come up with at this point given given the constraints that we that we have I know you have and I appreciate you folks working on it I know it's a foreign question and I feel like the state kind of thrust it down upon the towns to sort out and it's really not fair but I do know people who are selling their houses because the taxes are too high and they're moving away I know of at least a couple of instances of that in our neighborhood and I think you know the other option is just to you know let's break the elementary schools back out I mean you know what I want my elementary school back without the debt you know it's I think you know you know push comes to shove we should we shouldn't have to be paying these taxes and we should leave the union let's get out let's stop paying these extra taxes for debt we didn't vote for I hear you Mac um I at this point I think um it's just not like then right um by the way it's 49 we're going to be uh teleported back in the big room so um we're going to make sure that my were registered for for all of you for all of you being here if you can hear me um if you were able to hear through the instability of my internet connection um I want to thank towns for being on the board as a student rep that's good yeah I'm happy to do it thank you I guess you heard me yeah so we can leave the breakout room now we don't have to wait until it closes all right bye can look at the last couple of slides so if I could have a volunteer I really can't see everybody because we have the big w in the middle oh there we go I see everybody now do we have a volunteer that would like to share from their group or should I just call on people see I can't tell who was in each group so Scott do you want to go sure um and I would ask Steven look and towns to grow it to um to back me up in case I miss anything or get something wrong um we had um we had the Morse's Cindy and Mack and our group and um the main concerns are cost um an expression of appreciation and um and possibly at the way remote learning has been implemented and the way that the um the school has been able to keep operating um some concern about the assessment plan for tracking academic progress is it a duplication of end of the multi-tiered system of supports or is it somehow competing with it how is it working um an expression of concern about perhaps the heavy presence of administrators is there too much administrative overhead um people are uh are hurting in our towns some of them are taking pay cuts in order to keep their jobs um the pain should be shared by by all including um employees of the school district and then finally the um the problem of the debt the um the pooling of of pre-existing um long-term debt and the debt service that goes with it um that has led to a sharp rise in taxes and um and at least one of our towns did I miss anything towns or Steven I think that uh it was a very apt summary yeah thank you Scott so Kari um so I'm gonna ask Jonas to share because he did the describing but um there was one question that I was wanting to ask Laurie I'd love to have Kari sorry I think Kari was talking about the um the $400,000 $400,000 Kari are you back yeah I am sorry about that um Laurie or Brian would you mind explaining a little more about um the the the need for new money for building repairs and maintenance um in this year's budget and what why that wasn't allocated in last year's yeah I'll let Laurie uh talk about it uh I I understand it's my understanding that uh it was something that it was the request came in after last year's budget cycle but before this school year started is that correct Laurie what happened was at U32 particularly um we used a budget in a capital fund transfer money that is now being considered by the state as repairs and maintenance and not capital and so last year during the budget process we had the conversation but we didn't have ample time as a newly merged district to compile the needs of the school so since that time we've compiled the needs um we are still revisiting the list to see if it's more of a multi-year initiative instead of a single year impact on the budget and so when we do the next budget draft we're we're looking at that list more thoroughly and we're going to be making a revised recommendation um for the board okay thank you Laurie okay so Jonas do you want to share a couple of the points that were made in our group just one second someone's upset give me just 30 seconds floor maybe go on to another group so sweet no here he comes i'm back it can help you so we talked about how the uh 2021 enrollment projection got calculated um and you know all of the uh you know the legwork that went into putting that together including you know reaching out to homeschool families you know and seeing if anyone's going to come back we talked about uh the issue that we just discussed um uh this this the slice of special ed from last year's budget to this budget one a seemed to go down more than the other slices sort of as a as a relative share um and uh we want to call out uh kelly bushey for doing an amazing job of working with the um the the PCIs and the special ed folks to try and realize cost savings there um there was a question about how budgeting is done uh is there a budget for each school and are those sort of just mashed together or is there one budget for the whole district and it's it's a little bit of both but now you know since consolidation there is one budget for the district but the principals meet with lori meet with brian to look at you know each slice of the pie and how it fits into the larger picture um we briefly discussed the that the you know the projected 10 rise in medical insurance costs is frustrating it's a driver for all budgets for all organizations um um and in talking about the balance between education and budget uh and and taxpayers um um uh someone was struck by uh front porch forum posts about the aging population paired with declining enrollment and calling each question whether or not we're thinking about all taxpayers um we had a number of administrators in the group um you know so there was a comment that uh the piece of the budget that administrators you know sort of control or have a say in is is pretty small um when it comes to bigger initiatives that might take a larger slice of the pie but if you know the example was if you get a math interventionist that might have the biggest impact but also might be the first to get cut in the elementary schools we're looking at right sizing uh in terms of equity we looked at interventions last interventionists last year to make sure they were equally distributed this year we're looking at allied arts having some of those hard conversations um um you know you can't just get rid of a math teacher in the high school when the student goes down because you still need a math teacher um thinking about uh programming from pre-kade graduation uh you know what's the two or three or five year plan um you know there's us you know somewhat of a lack of alignment um and that has some budget implications but we're starting to think about that now um and um and working in the right direction and then that's a group five have I summarized that accurately sorry which group am I missing is the can somebody volunteer besides my group which I am I can call on uh Casey I know we had a group uh so maybe Casey took I think Casey took the notes from our group um we had a nice discussion we were um we had four administrators and a staff member and a community member so it was um a great discussion but um some things that we talked about how some questions around uh the expected increases decreases uh a little a bit of a discussion around how we were mostly looking at the level service budget and that um the next round uh well when we have more parameters from the board we may have to make some tough decisions and make recommendations to the board around what what we're thinking there also discussions around um in light of the pandemic how that will likely impact um the budget going forward uh considering the needs of students and uh the tightening of the financial financial strains and how we recognize that uh over the past year with the being forced to switch to remote learning in the spring had some implications on our students um and how we always want to focus on the needs of students and the concern about how the potential for cutting any resources would have negative implications but um we're all focused on what what our students need and and respecting our taxpayers and keeping things in mind and can I just add on to that uh and uh there was a a good dialogue about uh is this the best time to have a level service budget given that folks are hurting and the and then it was the other side of it the other side of that coin was our children have had missed a lot of learning from last due to the pandemic from last year and it just doesn't feel uh appropriate to do anything uh to to really cut uh our budget uh because we our kids need education more so than ever before as a result of this pandemic thank you Casey and Brian so I I think we had the last group Laurie you want to share yes so we had three board members uh two administrators then a grad student who was doing I think research on school budgeting um the three topics we had come up with were that the two year equalized pupils on the chart had not projected for FY 22 and that that will be updated for the next um board meeting uh the other piece was with regard to essential workers and whether or not our staff would qualify for some type of a care support um my answer was that most of our employees would be making more than the $25 an hour who work in our child care um that was one criteria the second was some of the funding was also not eligible for schools because we're an arm of the government so um we have more information about cares and COVID reimbursement that will come in January and then the last thing was with regard to the letter that came out today um from the tax commissioner and we are keeping an eye on that and we'll have a lot of information to share with the board with regard to that with the next budget draft sorry I think that was it I had just one more we talked a little bit that uh similar to what the other group was saying that if hearing out where our kids are and what their needs are going to be so it feels like this administrator has spent a lot of time restructuring what they have that was one comment that we had and then the other question was a what does it mean to lose a choice a student and Laurie share is about $21,000 a that per student right that is for a tuition student tuition choice means something else usually for for yeah for ninth grade up yeah yeah so that any other questions that came up well so our board share so Chris Chris was our reporter yeah um you know I was on mute I was anyway I was on mute um so we had a we had a three board members and two community members uh and had a good conversation one of the questions that we have for Laurie um is whether the nine percent ninth cent increase that the um is being proposed what impact that has on the 3.7 percent budget increase that we're looking at now and so Laura if you could just address that and then I'll go on to report after we hear your answer if you have the answer so I was planning to run multiple scenarios for the next budget meeting we've been making huge strides in the budget process and working toward coming up with a draft that is below the target that the board gave us um we're we're aware of the tax impacts and we're planning to meet on Tuesday as a group to address this and so I would like to defer my response completely until after that meeting if possible okay so you report out next board meeting yes okay it'll be part of the budget packet great thank you um so the um we had a good discussion and my sense of the focus was that we um wanted a budget that would meet the needs of um our students and our community members uh in that uh given the impact of the um COVID pandemic now uh that there was not much support for actually reducing um teaching staff or services to students who I think the sense was that students may already be behind uh and need extra support going forward uh and so um you know I think that that's where the the consensus was is that we'd be um looking favorably on maintaining the current levels and prioritizing um keeping intact the services that our students need and that the community needs to weather this pandemic storm and if anyone in the group thinks I've misstated or didn't emphasize emphasize something enough please speak out thank you okay thank you thank you everybody for participating in that round of questions we're gonna move Jim if you have the slide presentation available to the last two slides next one please and so the next steps are that you're aware if this was draft 1a as we talked about lever service a budget our administrators will put a list of what is not included in the level service budget and the board has provided feedback uh and set parameters in November uh on November 18th so now the school board is gonna meet again and look at draft 2 in December on December 16 and we would have a budget a draft if we will have to have a budget draft that is on January 6th and try to finalize our January the final budget by January 13 sorry but we are planning on more community feedback we had this one on December 2nd and then we'll have one in January 13 we are also after this slide there will be a slide with all the names of the board members which are familiar and are also in the website so please feel free to email any of us if you have any questions or any input that you think about it after leaving this meeting tonight and then we'll have some informational community meetings no no no more feedback because by that point we would have had to have a final budget February 17 and March 1st and then our first pandemic town meeting March 2nd and that sort of concludes our presentation for today I want to thank again Laurie and Brian and all of the leadership team for all their work this doesn't happen on its own and here's the list of all your board members and feel free to reach to us and that concludes our meeting for tonight for this part of the meeting tonight at least and I'll pass this on to Scott thank you so much Fuller and amen to those thanks to all who helped put it together and if I might just add our thanks to members of the public who have sacrificed perhaps the best part of your Wednesday evening to join us for this now you know us so please don't hesitate to stay in touch um floor just showed you the list uh we're at your disposal and are um are more than more than happy to field your questions and if we can't answer them then we'll we'll try to find out how and if they can't be answered we'll just wrestle with them um and see who comes out on top in the end so um before we uh before we continue I mean this is sort of the the end of a of a paragraph in the meeting why don't we take five if there's no objection um and come back for uh for the rest of it at 7 12 p.m sound good this is Steve can you hear me Scott uh yes I can just I has nothing to do with the the board or the community um the slide that listed school board members and maybe when we're listing school board members going forward we should list I completely agree Stephen um I I'm sorry for the oversight you're absolutely right no I know you're not you're not trying to make me feel bad I know that but it's um I think it's an excellent suggestion thank you um I uh yeah I see at least one thumbs up um Anna do you want to be listed I hope okay good all right um as everybody drifts back in Dorothy I didn't clearly hear what Stephen said I'm sorry oh um Stephen quite rightly pointed out that the um the list of board members are to include the student members yes fine yeah good all right so um reception of guests once again anybody who is um who has the fortitude to stay on from the budget community forum um you're most welcome to stay with us I've been very happy that you're here bringing us a new welcome um agenda revisions I do have one but I can save it if somebody else has one to propose first um any kari yeah I just want to remind us that we agreed that we were going to do a little reflection at the end of each meeting so that should really be a standing item and uh one other point while I have the floor is I would recommend putting the new board norms in the packet maybe on page two of the packet just to remind us of this good good point yeah great sounds great kai and with that you completely stole my thunder so so much from my agenda sorry Scott totally okay I'm always happy to have my thunderstorm um anybody else uh with an agenda revision okay um I might just make one note that in keeping with what kari mentioned a moment ago about the board norms and in particular the reflection that we should try to stay on time and follow the um the time posts along the way um you may notice that um although the meeting is scheduled to last until nine if we follow the time post precisely it will run until 9 24 so um we'll uh we'll just sort of try to be brisk practice mindful speaking in this case um so shall we move on then um if there are no other agenda revisions um student reports town's Anna thank you so much Scott so some updates from the student community and all of that is um during the week right around Thanksgiving we were all virtual because of they were COVID cases and on that week we also that was also the week of Thanksgiving um so you know uh we had the two virtual days Monday and Tuesday and then we watched into our Thanksgiving vacation Thanksgiving break um for the other three days of the week at the beginning of this week when the middle school students and the freshmen and sophomores went back there wasn't really much of a choice for the meal type and there wasn't really pre-ordering allowed because they were just coming back and as well as that there is no wait bus until further notice which can be kind of a bummer for some students to have to stay after the library has expanded some of its virtual services um including uh giving students access to a program uh with um uh greater access to virtual books and virtual um content let's see so as of right now and according to the state winter sports have to be paused until further notice so what is still going on though at stage 32 has a virtual performance they're going to be doing and they've been doing some rehearsal for that um we did we did just have our Thanksgiving vacation but the holiday vacation is coming up pretty quick pretty soon actually um only only a few weeks until uh that for juniors and seniors is we did the PSAT just in October and we're getting our test results Anna um I think we uh you froze on us um do you mind running that by us again please can you hear me now all right perfect I'm gonna keep my camera up and very sorry you can't see my face anymore but I hope my voice my voice works so in October we're on the 15th the juniors and seniors took the PSATs at ACTs um SATs all of that and we get our results back on the 8th so that is very exciting um is the tag team finished or um are you next time unless you guys have some questions yeah um board member questions for towns or Anna and or Anna if if I could just ask one um are you getting any sort of um sense of student reaction to the um to shutting down winter sports at least until the end of December I mean you know there are definitely students who worried and disappointed um by this news um unfortunately haven't had the opportunity to um because of my three virtual weeks in a row I haven't had the opportunity to interact with them in maybe the proximity that in-person school would allow but um from the people I have talked to there is definitely a sense of uh disappointment or socialized and I think having which I can predict that having winter sports was a really big social thing and being able to relieve stress and because the pandemic it's really hard to even get outside and move around as much I feel like it will um be a little bit harder for students in general yeah um yeah I'm sure thank you very much for that um if there are no other board member questions for towns and Anna we can move on to the superintendent's report and COVID update I guess up first Brian I think you're ready right thank you towns thank you Anna thank you Scott I want to say that your first Anna you took a little bit of my thunder as well I was going to talk about the U-32 winter sports update but I appreciate you talking about that uh and it's very unfortunate we're just waiting to hear back uh here additional information uh from the governor Scott's office uh and uh we'll hopefully have a return uh sometime in the near future we're hoping we will be remain hopeful but uh thanks for bringing it up so and uh I just want to uh say that I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving I know I enjoyed enjoyed spending it with my wife Ruth and my daughter Zady uh we were hoping to see some other folks but uh we did not uh we uh stayed in our in our in our house uh and enjoyed each other's company for for the uh short time that we had I was uh also happy that we didn't have too much talk too many calls from the Department of Health over the Thanksgiving break that was a relief it didn't mean that uh we weren't talking Elizabeth and I probably talked every day uh about something except on Thanksgiving we gave each other the break on that on that day uh but uh and we also uh where we're happy to have U-32 and Calis reopened again after having to take some measures to keep everyone safe and I just wanted to also thank the leadership team who met with me over the weekend uh prior to when this all happened we have definitely had a lot of conversations about what was happening in our district uh at the time following uh getting getting reports from the Department of Health getting reports uh back from our survey surveillance testing uh that we completed prior to Thanksgiving break we also just had surveillance testing round number two this past this uh today so uh I'm sure I'm surprised Elizabeth isn't uh slumped over in her chair sleeping right now uh it's been a uh a very um what's the word a very busy time in the the world of surveillance testing and uh making sure we keep everyone safe so I just want to thank uh you also want to thank the Calis principal uh Kat I want to thank Stephen and his administrative team at U-32 uh to be able to um drop a pivot on a moment's notice and that's what we've been able to do and uh and I just want to thank them for their leadership as well um and also uh I have to say I also have to say thanks to the Department of Health I think they have their hands full with what's going on here in Vermont but uh they were also very helpful um I think they were also extremely helpful today I don't know if Elizabeth wants to talk more about that part uh Elizabeth uh we we were fortunate with the Department of Health helping us out uh in particular uh with our schools yeah I really am impressed they you know I know that they're crazy busy and swamped but um we had an issue with trying to get Calis open and some of the implications of that fiasco on Friday when people got tested and all those test results got lost and it just fit in with our timeline that some people got tested didn't get their test results so yesterday they stepped up they encouraged every one of those people who needed to do it to get tested yesterday and they had our results by last night at like seven o'clock and um and it was and it allowed Calis really to open so we were really I was really pleased and plus I was pleased I would have to say to the people who were affected I said that to Kat that um Calis staff I mean they were so wanting to be in school today and for the rest of the week that they really they went out completely out of their way to make this happen and uh it really takes a lot of people to uh work together and I feel like we do work together really well there's a lot of people who are pulling their pulling more than their weight and I just throw in some love there for Elizabeth she's not going to toot her own horn but I will she is amazing um that I was just about crying by Tuesday afternoon thinking oh my god we're not going to be able to open on Wednesday and that girl made the magic happen we sent staff down to the parking lot in Barry to get tested and we had results before they said we would that is all to you Elizabeth so thank you not alone but thanks yes I tried and uh so thank you Kat thank you Elizabeth uh so the other thing is uh just to report back the uh some folks may be wondering about how did holiday travel what was going on in our schools where people are going to come to school there was all these questions that were happening are people going to come to school I have the uh three-day attendance report for Monday Tuesday and today combined and uh our current attendance as for those three days total is 94.12 percent uh so a large majority of our kids across the district are coming to school Berlin had 94.08 percent Calis had 95.83 percent Doty had 92.81 percent East Montpelier had 93.78 percent our remote learning school 96.8 percent Romney had 94.56 percent and U-32 middle and high school 93.76 percent so uh a majority of our students teachers families everyone our schools are open and they're they're they continue to remain open and again if we have to make decisions and tough decisions we'll be prepared to do so but we're I think our precautions and all the work that we've been working on throughout the year the entire system from our communities our students our teachers our ESP staff our leadership team board members I think it's working right now so so that is my COVID report just I don't know if you have any questions about the COVID report would you like me to continue yeah that's that's if we may just pause at this point and let board members ask questions if if you have any are there any questions from board members for Brian on his COVID update we're related to because I haven't been very um engaged and actually at school is COVID is being controlled then it's it's going down is what you're saying what I'm saying is that uh in our schools we're open our students are and our staff are currently safe we have not had any evidence of transmission in our schools and that's why we're open I I as of right now from my understanding if you look at the news I believe around the state of Vermont it is not down however we've been very fortunate here in our schools to remain open and I think that's a testament to our the precautions that everyone has been taking and what we've instituted since the beginning of this school year thank you for the clarification thanks here here and and it can sometimes feel like watching an entire school system cross a high wire um without a safety net but um but I guess there is a safety net um and it's been working it's been working remarkably well um and it is a credit to uh to all of you there's credit to all of you um other board member questions okay then um should we move on then Brian to project a student enrollment uh yeah just I before I even get there I just want to uh say that uh the other thing was not related to COVID but uh just uh remind everyone that callus will be going uh remote December 7th and this is for a non-COVID related item it's to get their ventilation uh to do complete the ventilation project which is scheduled to start on or around that time um I don't know if cat is anything else to uh share I know it's it's we were both like oh no we're going remote and we gotta go back in and we gotta go back through but uh I think we were happy to have everyone back into these last few days cat yeah um it was um awful to think about missing out this last week before go before our plan remote um but I'm so impressed with this staff that have been working diligently to get prepared for our remote period um that we pulled it off really well and our families were they rocked it they were so flexible um and it's hard it's really hard to depend on everything that schools do and to have it change on a dime and and then say and we're gonna go back to uh remote um but we got a lot of great work done with the contractors they were able to get in a couple of jobs in early because we didn't have students in the building and we got all of our devices deployed and gave families a chance to practice to make sure all that work that we put into um accessing a more robust remote instruction is working so I'll take it thank you cat and uh now I have the uh just to go over the uh the big uh piece that is the uh that's a big part I know we had our budget meeting today we talked about our declining student enrollment I did uh get an updated uh NASDAQ student projection report uh enrollment report projected student enrollment report for the current year I did not have that at the last board meeting it came in right after our board meeting so uh I did update it I did give you an updated letter in your board packet the the results definitely say that the projected enrollment is still declining over the time one thing is we also during that time we had our principals do a lot of work on their end to look at tuition students reaching out to families across the uh to identify our home school talk to our home school families are you coming back to school what's what's happening it seems that we were able to identify many families that do intend to have their children come back as long as you know everyone feels safe and this and uh I think some folks it's again it's a difficult conversation uh because some folks are some some families are still reluctant to come back but others are ready to come back so it's been um so we were able to project uh additional students coming into our school um they're and one of the things we also looked into was this uh NASDAQ uh data report report that we get every year uh they give us their projections well this current injection read uh current enrollment report had a discrepancy that we've learned uh on the historical side of their report and for the first time uh and for the first time in the since getting this report over the last several years I know that uh the the board's been getting or the superintendents get these reports uh every year for the last several years we found out that uh from 2005 to 2014 uh there was uh they did not include uh the they did not include the um the tuition and exchange students in those reports uh so ultimately uh we were looking at that I'm sorry not I'm sorry not 2005 to 2005 I'm sorry I'm reading this wrong 2010 2011 school year to the 2019 2020 school year the numbers were off on the historical projections because they did not the NASDAQ was not including tuition and exchange students so there was some numbers because we were looking at the numbers and we were wondering why they were very different than what we are census projections that we do every every year uh on october 1st and that's what we learned so I'm happy to say that uh this current school year aligns directly the NASDAQ report aligns directly with our enrollment projections uh because we are now including the tuition and exchange students who also are in our report so just a little thing so if someone was looking at those uh projection reports just wanted to make sure that uh we were on top of that and we definitely looked into it uh but ultimately I'm not going to go read through the whole reports in the board packet it basically does say the one big thing at the end of page 20 of your board packet uh is october the census reports and uh and this is important because we the budgets and the formulas is based on our two-year enrollment census uh october 1st 2019 census was 1574 students october 1st 2020 census was 1487 students uh this year october 1st I'm next I'm sorry I projected uh census for october 1st 2021 is 1455 students so while it's not a major decline in students from october 1st 2020 to october 1st 2021 there still is a decline unfortunately the two-year enrollment census is a decrease of 119 students over a two-year period and so uh the ultimate piece here is I know we had the budget meeting here tonight um I know Laurie talked about um additional information coming from the state office today regarding taxes but we also have the second draft budget we'll also consider this 119 student decline over the two-year period and I don't know if uh Laurie wants to add anything else if uh Laurie if you want to uh or did I uh cover that piece cover it all and I'm actually working on trying to project um next year's equalized pupils for the tax formula um we receive information on December 15th from the state but I've been working with Brad James to try to put together what would that formula be because the legislature did change the formula in this coming year budget cycle so um at the next meeting I look forward to having the opportunity to review all that information thank you thank you Laurie thanks Brian um I see that today Anne has her hand up so just a couple questions um one just a clarifying one about um how how are we helped or impacted by hold being held harmless for this um census rate um and so and and does that two-year average is it part of a projection or does it go for these two years I mean do we use actual or is it the projection and so so that's one question the the other is I know in several other um roles that I play we're really anticipating and beginning to see a COVID bump so there's like this mini baby boom that's occurring um and so it's just something to kind of uh keep in mind um too as we're you know one of the three years down the road we might end up with this incredible number that we have to house so it's my understanding that the formula um is unique this year it would historically have used last year's it's called average daily membership plus this year's average daily membership and divided it in half what's unique about this year is the legislature changed that to be last year's average daily membership for both years so what remains to be seen is what will happen next year because this year statewide people have expected a decline so if you think about it it's kind of like kicking the can down the road if you've had a decline in students and you don't use it in the formula this year what's going to happen next year so I can't answer next year yet I think the legislature will take that up as they go forward but for right now that's um trying to help schools in the state maintain their level of um equalized pupils by keeping that two-year average to be reflective of pre-COVID information and will that include is that where the 119 decline is coming into play it could come into play um going forward significantly because you probably won't feel the full impact of that in this next budget cycle but the one thereafter I'm just trying to make sure I understand what is the direct impact for for this time and then what is going down because absolutely you can't kick the right hand down the road too far but just trying to understand what we know is our immediate impact and what we anticipate okay I'll put together some slides for the next meeting if that's okay um thank you thank you lord yeah and sadly you won't be here next year to present this to us um any other board member uh questions for brian on the enrollment piece I see none um so oh wait a minute I see one Chris yeah so um brian is there a sense as to why the dramatic difference in the decline between october 1 of 2019 and october 1 of 2020 outside of the COVID I I do not I do not know uh why that's happened uh I think there has been a larger population trend declining throughout the entire state so I think that uh one may assume but of course you know what happens when you make assumptions uh so I don't want to assume anything but I would look I believe that looking at the state data that I've received it looks like throughout the state this has been happening throughout a population trend of students are going down a student enrollment across the state uh so I think we're part of a larger we're part of a uh the whole state of Vermont and I think it's been what's been happening here is also happening around all the districts I can tell you though that the birth rate across the country has been declining uh uh for example 2019 for example I can tell you was one of the lowest birth rates in the last 20 years and the only reason I know that is because my daughter was born then so that that's all I didn't like look that up for tonight's board meeting but I do I do know that so we can't blame you as always a contrarian it's a both a blessing and a curse dress um but you said so can I have another clock time so these numbers say it's the 1,574 and the 1,487 are those equalized students that are um protected by this formula or they real students for students it's called um it's called a census which is different than ADM okay so those are real students then yes yeah okay thank you anyone else for for brian if not um unless um unless my memory is failing me I think we're on to the finance committee portion and I'll recognize Flora hi everybody we're just going to report briefly we met on just yesterday at eight in the morning and the main topic for today I will just want to make a motion we had time to discuss but I'll make a motion scott and then we discuss is that how we want to do it yes so I'll make a motion to approve the curriculum the bid for the curriculum management solution inc cmsi uh for 36,250 dollars and then very good second first moved karey has seconded all right discussion um I can share some of what we yeah I can share some of what we discussed in the in the meeting or if you guys had a chance to to read the memo from uh from from brian and and lori but as you can see there were nine vendors and it was advertised into papers and um this this bid in particularly we are author we are recommending the full amount and it would depend on how much is done in person and how much is done remote but we wanted to give the the team that flexibility and lori and brian you can correct me if I'm wrong but we have a grant to pay for this so don't get too stressed about the money after the conversation that we had thought it still is money I understand but it's a really good thing and we had if you guys wanted to know numbers we have some numbers of the other three people the the other three companies that it submitted a bid this was the most comprehensive bid from from the three that we that that we received so I think if you guys have questions that would be best one less brian you want to share and I think you covered full of the basis for questions curious um what kind of grant like federal local what kind of grant is this money the re grant it's our eap it's a federal grant and lori if i'm not mistaken the um if we didn't use the money it would have to go back to the feds is that correct right we are coming getting we have to spend at this fiscal year you're right and it was unexpected money that we didn't have a plan for um when we found out about it last spring um other other board member questions on this or um concerns hi just out of curiosity um are there any other school districts in vermont who refuse this company i believe not recently not in recent memory this is the uh this company is one of the national national known uh curriculum review places around it i think they were one of the ones that actually started the process back in like the 1970s but so i think i if memory corrects me i did ask that question um and uh they i was informed that i think it was west asics maybe but this may have been 10 or 15 maybe 20 years ago it was a while ago thanks um christ did you have something no sorry no okay uh diane though yes so i i complete you know i i did read through this because i wanted to have a better sense of it again i i have very strong concerns about us doing an audit at this time i know that it's not um an observational thing on our teachers i absolutely and and that is very clear through looking through what the documents are what the processes that they're going to do i still have strong concerns about analyzing our system right now because our system is operating under a crisis and our our um you know and it's become where this is where our focus has to be is how do we get through today how do we get through um keeping our kids safe and our and teaching and then so then to try to stretch our brains into what we typically do uh is is challenging and so i i just you know i'm just putting it out there that that is one of my biggest worries i i'm not i'm also not trying to be um an isolationist exclusionist to say that well it's not a vermont company they don't know um i do have concerns that we get input from um a potential organization that doesn't understand vermont and i realize systems are systems they should work but it it worries me that um we have out some external information coming through that might not understand potentially the processes systems and features we've created that um makes sense for vermont and that are uh we are potentially not able to ask the questions in the way that we would so i i just feel that i need to be upfront about that and those are where my heavy duty concerns are for this so so i can uh diane i appreciate you saying that uh i i think hopefully what i could tell you about is after you know what you're but what i'm going to tell you is is uh this group uh their purpose is to make sure they work with the local uh school district right so they're their purpose is to make sure we maintain our local control they they respect the local procedures and processes if you turn to page uh 44 and 45 you know there's they're supposed to be working within our um of our board packet they're supposed to be working within our paradigm right of how we do our business so when you look at uh the standard documents that they're going to be looking at uh looking at salary schedules teacher evaluations planning documents list of committees improvement plans those those aren't anything that is not a lot of these things are public already right so bond sale documents going to all curriculum guides i i i don't think they're going to be uh basically uh telling uh telling us you know you have to do it a different way than the vermont way or the washington central way what they their purpose is to come in and say this is the washington central way this is the vermont way and how can we help you strengthen those those two with uh certain certain procedures and certain aspects that we may may not even be aware of so i don't think it's about uh replacing anything or telling us you know take your washington central way all the work and push it aside i don't believe that would be the intention and and uh when i when i know about this company is that they go in all across different places all across the state all all different states and they uh according to our reference checks that we did uh across different states different states uh talking to different folks they said that uh they work trying to they try to work with the local leadership and the boards about what you want for your district but also trying to give you an idea of what you may consider for your district moving forward well thank you scott so diane when i when i read the and i don't want to address it just to you but when i when i read all the things that they they were they were doing to me it felt like you know yes there's a concern that we have to center around covet but i owe the covet but i also feel like the kids don't have a year to lose and this gives us something to look forward to so like we're so immersed on on that work and we as a as a board between the quality committee finance committee and you know everybody and all of you we're really we have set all these goals for you know achievement so this kind of in my mind gives us something to look forward to that is not covet related so that's how i felt about it and sometimes it's nice to have somebody that diversity of thought from having somebody that has not been doing things in our state is so you know it's it's valuable to me i just wanted to share that thank you flora are there other board member christ mcflane um in terms of the process brian for having the other town and then the findings presented are the findings coming in the form of recommendations for certain changes they come in the findings come in uh after you do it they're going to issue a report uh to the board or to me and the board and the report will issue uh things that we've been working on think findings that we findings that they could say uh based on the five standards so if you look in um if you look throughout the bit they have the five standards governance and control uh the uh equity and consistency assessment feedback for activity and efficiency uh direction you know where are and do we have out objectives for our students with our curriculum and then they uh basically will give give us findings that are things that we may want to have additional conversations about so when you get a finding you know if they give us a list of 15 findings i'm just putting that maybe more maybe less then we sit back down and say which of these are relevant to what we're trying to do here at washington central uh what are something we can do right now i mean there's limited resources right so we have uh um you know we just talked about the budget right we love to do a million different things but we we have to do what we can right and so who who's the we when you talk about sitting down and having that conversation so so that would be that would be the next uh step in the process so this this would be the this would be kind of like the launch of a larger strategic planning process um and i know uh when we when we talked about uh you know developing a strategic plan for our district uh getting this information right looking at the entry plan information that's what we're working on uh getting uh putting this all together and then saying what do we want to do over the next three to five years and that becomes more of a uh school board leadership team uh community conversation thank you very much Dorothy i am okay i agree with a lot of what floor says um and i especially believe that is something we know we need to do and want to do and this year we have a way to fund it putting it off eliminates that way of funding it so i i really think it's crucial that we do that this year thank you Dorothy um are there other board members uh jaya i'm just curious i don't know brian if you've talked to some of the other superintendents from schools where they have gone through this process and what their um you know input is reaction if they found it was beneficial or suggestions they might have i see that long list of all the other schools that they've worked around the country yeah so i have uh reference checks in here in front of me and i can just read you what some of what some of the different districts did talk about so one district did say that uh they have used this uh they have used this company on a number of projects uh they have it's helped them uh design and align their el a curriculum and developing a curriculum or designing process to address higher order thinking skills uh that was one thing uh they've uh they're one one district said they're still working with them uh with this uh group around uh looking at student work uh developing policies and practices and procedures uh they reviewed policies practices and procedures that were in place for a many number of years and were able to make decisions regarding their current policies practices and procedures to either strengthen them or reinvigorate what they were already intended to do um their their curriculum is now better aligned with uh standards and they believe that they're more in depth than previous i mean there's a lot i could keep going but i got glowing references from uh from the three different districts thank you that was a great question uh Jonas uh i wonder um i wonder if we could hear from you you know the director of curriculum um about her thoughts about this about a curriculum review would that be out of line sure absolutely sure so i think that we have um well since at least 2010 embraced the opportunity sometimes with some nervousness but mostly embraced the opportunity to look at our practices and and and re-review the results in the spirit of continuous improvement and i think we've made some remarkable growth over the years as a result of having done that examination um Diane i'm i'm with you in terms of sort of feeling like i'm constantly there's a there's a tension especially this year with like what we're currently facing and sort of that longer term work and i think that um that the polarity there has to exist in tension and i think that um i know that this year is not typical and i also know that this work will really inform the work of our district for a long time i think we're at a really um pivotal moment um and i honestly quite frankly think that most of the um the heavy lifting is going to come to me and to others at central office right i i am really in i think it's incumbent upon us to roll this out in a way that informs the work and does not overwhelm anyone any teacher especially in the system um and so i you know that that's those are my thoughts right now i feel like um between sort of covid and consolidation and the timing of the last implementation report that that this will inform the next three to five years for us in a way that i am really hopeful it's going to serve our students well many thanks jen um uh Diane you know i just i want to make sure that it's not i'm not thinking that we don't need to reflect and be critical about our practices and change that i also do want to be mindful that what whatever plan we make coming from this is a long-term plan because it we're not going to be served if we burn out all of our central office people either and and the the care and the energy that's coming from central office and administration right now is running on empty and i just want to be sure that we as a board know that if we're signing on to this we're also signing on to providing that support in whatever we can way we can right and and diane i and i think that's a big part of you know central office burnout leadership team burnout uh the i i always ask the question since i've started as your superintendent is i always ask uh is our central office doing what we wanted to do right and i and you know i'm the i'm the new guy so i have i have some fresh eyes uh is it doing what we wanted to do are we getting the results we wanted to want to achieve for our students and i think this curriculum review will be a go a long way in telling us where we're at because there might i mean i have to say i've been here only for a uh less than six months and the people in central office are working around the clock and i think they were working around the clock before covid uh and so so i and i so i i just know that you know and i don't want to pick on jen but jen does five different other jobs on top of her director of curriculum job so and you know it's probably a good idea to look at our entire system and see what we can do to make folks like jen more effective and efficient in getting into uh that curriculum piece that we've been talking about and we had a good equality meeting today talking about transferable skills in the work and part of it might be how to how can we accelerate that work uh if certain folks are not don't have uh five different tasks to do in addition to do that work so thanks brine okay have we um have we heard enough have we learned enough to be able to um vote um knowledgeably on this issue yeah okay so all in favor of floors motion to approve the bid um as moved and cari seconded please check yes opposed okay chris uh christmas today yeah i i check yes yes okay great great wonderful um the motion passes unanimously thank you everyone and i think that allows us unless um unless there's something else going on that i have missed in proceed to the consent agenda the minutes of november 18 on page 52 would anyone like to move to approve so moved chris move i'll second second then chris moves lindy seconds thank you um are there any changes for lisa katie wonderful okay all in favor of approving the minutes of november 18 as moved by chris and seconded by lindy please click yes opposed click no and i'm seeing once again uh yeah so the motion carries unanimously minutes are um once again word orders and i have the very center of my screen where lindy squares out hello just have to get unmuted from one screen to the other screen um i make a motion to accept the uh board order in the three amounts of whoa the first one scared me um one million one hundred seventeen thousand four hundred thirty four dollars sixty six cents the second one is nineteen thousand three hundred twenty seven dollars twenty four cents the third one is fifty eight thousand eight hundred sixty nine dollars forty eight cents thank you very much lindy so lindy moves sorry can you say the first one again sorry thank you for one million one hundred seventeen thousand four hundred thirty four dollars sixty six cents seventeen or seventy seventeen okay thank you i knew i slurred that it's okay lindy it's fine um until we have a second second okay i'll diane um seconds thank you so are there any questions about the board order very good then all in favor of the board of approving the board orders is moved by seconded by diane please click yes opposed click no and again i'm i'm seeing all yeses so the board orders carry unanimously um just remind i know flor is usually the one who does this who sort of reminds us all to send the email you of our signature um but uh please to do that by tomorrow at the latest um and now uh we go to age 57 central office job descriptions um an item that um you may recall the history of why this is on the consent agenda um so do we have uh a motion to approve these job descriptions as listed on block i guess so move chris moves do we have a second second um Jonas seconds thank you very much um discussion no discussion okay um for my if i may speak as a board member uh i now understand and appreciate why um the board is actually voting on this uh after having had discussions with members of the public who um who feel that who feel that we have too many administrators perhaps so um anyway uh if there's no discretion shall we move to a vote all in favor of approving the central office job descriptions as moved by chris and seconded by Jonas please click yes and if you're opposed please click no very good job descriptions carry unanimously um now we come to oh brian i'm sorry go ahead i just wanted to see if i could uh dismiss my uh my team uh we were we we got i know we have an executive session coming up and it's getting late and they gotta go to work tomorrow so i was gonna let them build the principles uh you know jan and kelly you could feel free to uh and and lori if you just dismiss them it's they've been real busy absolutely with our thanks to all get a get a lot of rest that's and elizabeth too and elizabeth as well yeah wonderful so um whoever leaves have a great evening um so we're now at item six six point one approve new teachers resignations retirements etc um page 75 so um would any make a motion oh thank you um that's dorothy thank you dorothy um you'll move to approve the long-term substitutes relieve jenna dufford and calling done i'll second it great and lindy seconds thank you very much um any just i'm i if i may just express my um my delight that calling done is returning as a long-term sub um and i will renew my um oft expressed hope that she will get u32's latin program up on its feet yeah here here here thanks um all in favor of the motion to approve long-term substitutes relieve jenna dufford done as moved by dorothy please click yes yes opposed click no and we have all yes um the motion carries unanimously and we're happy to have them um so if i'm not mistaken this brings us to public comments um do we have members of the public who would like to make a comment um who may have been able to cogitate um yes georgia hi thank you for letting me speak um so i'm georgia roi i teach middle school math at u32 so this year i'm just teaching seventh grade um so i was told by um some members of my union that it might be helpful for me to come to this meeting and kind of just share out some things to the school board um so that because you might not know of some things that might be going on and um i felt like it was valuable to share out um so i wrote down a few things so i don't get off track um yeah so i just wanted to kind of share out like the working conditions for um me and my team right now um so a little bit of background um so we are uh the seventh grade core called the earth core um and we all of our students are fully in school we do not have any remote pods um and so and also just so um we are completely different schedule from the eighth or twelfth grade um in the u32 um and we're also unique from the other seventh grade team so they're two seventh grade um teams um because the seventh the other seventh grade team does have one remote pod and we have no remote pods um so before i wanted to kind of just give you a little bit of like background of what you know my like school day looks like but i just wanted to um frame this that i you know uh i want to frame this that like this is what we've been doing our very best um and we do believe that we have been um you know serving our students um to the best stability that we can with all these changes um and as a result our contracts have been in direct violation since the beginning of the school year um so some things that have been so amazing that um like this school board has put in place was the half day wednesdays which have been so vital like today was so important for us to have that time to meet um and best server students um so also uh we have been given some this is the amount of time we've been putting in so we have been our administration has given us uh us some time so every other friday for a few times have given us um our our full 60 minute duty band um so that we could meet um and you know have that extra time um so i just want to say there there have been really great action steps that um have has made our jobs um manageable so that we can best serve our students um but i still wanted to kind of i'm not going to go minute by minute of my day but i'm just gonna kind of like give you general overview of what it looks like um so my day to start with ta in the morning and then right after that i have my planning period from 815 to 910 that's a 55 minute planning period and then on some days until 240 by the time the last you know seventh grade students leave my class i am on 100 percent of that time um and that does not include my duty free 30 minute lunch on our on our full school days you know not the half day wednesdays um some of those days we do split up um some of our time we have a recess for 20 minutes and our team has deemed that it was safe um so that we don't have to have all of our team monitoring recess so some of those times we do have 20 minutes um to kind of you know take care of ourselves and you know if we haven't done before but other days we have zero time um from the beginning of that day to the end um so duty free lunch lunch is clearly in our contract so 9.3 teachers shall this is the from our contract teachers shall have a duty free lunch period of at least 30 minutes um so i just wanted to tell you what our duty or our 20 minute lunch looks like so we're teaching we come into uh whatever class we're teaching next we pass out paper towels to each student spray their desks then we you know give them their school lunches and then we grab our lunches quickly we'll eat making sure kids are following COVID protocols and you know making sure other general behaviors are fine um and then we pass out a second round of paper towels to each kids desks and then we dismiss the kids for reasons that is what my lunch looks like every day and that is not a 30 minute duty free lunch um so what the general thing i'm like kind of referencing right now which i believe you'll be talking about in your um session next is the the MOU grievance um that was we're uh i don't know what the right word is ratified um uh last week um but i and i uh so while that that MOU does address some of the issues of working extensive minutes beyond our contract for duty that was you know for 7 through 12th grade um this does not address the amount of duty this specific team has been working all year um in my opinion it does not address that we have been taken advantage of and now we've set the precedent that we can be wildly taken advantage of for a third of the year with zero consequence um it does not address that the schedule that we have the luxury to um choose the 7th grade schedule is completely different from the rest of the school year we chose that for the best like so that we could have the best schedule for our kids so age appropriate for 7th graders you know embedded breaks and recess that um for example um and now we're being asked to teach more instructional hours than any other teachers in the school um and it did so this also does not address the fact that we created this age appropriate schedule over the summer um and we were given this duty assignment a couple days before school started um and obviously we were going to do what was best for students so we wanted to you know we were going to do what we needed to do um and lastly it doesn't really address the extreme toll that it has taken on our team you know without having that time to breathe every day it's been a lot um so I turn this I just hope that like we're heard um and I I hope I I'm not sure what will come from this um but I just I felt like that was something that the board needs to hear so thank you thank you very much Georgia that um that really helps inform our coming discussion so um you understand of course that we can't actually respond substantively to you here are there other members of the public would like to uh if so um could you click the raise hand button perhaps um give you a moment to find it um okay um I'm not seeing any other members of the public who wish to comment so at this point we have on our agenda an executive session um and we have a variety of issues all of which fall under the provisions of title one section 313 um so I would be grateful for a motion to go into executive session so moved for moves chris seconds um any discretion brian I guess I would just like to have legal counsel I think he's here uh scott is here and uh carla also to be included in the executive session okay scott kemeran and carla messier to join us in the executive session as well as brian of course thank you not to forget um is jim still out there somewhere I am hi how are you um I uh I have um put together the uh the breakout room right now what would be helpful for me I know most of you but would be helpful if if you're a board member please raise your hand and I'm going to uh right um but before you put us anywhere jim we have to so so uh maybe where we put up our hands could I ask for a vote on integrative session please click yes and if you're quick no and actually um these are the yes is good enough for you jim to uh yes that's terrific thank you so much great and of course and scott kemeran and carla messier as well fantastic okay we're almost set here and um if anybody leaves us at this point um thank you for being with us all this way and if we will be coming out um eventually hopefully not too long from now and so you're welcome of course also to stick around great we have um pretty much everybody back if so the um uh to the diehards who have been awaiting this moment thank you for your patience um we have just a little bit more to to do then um how should we how should we put the motion should we do the mo use all together or do we need to do them separately I think we can make a motion to accept the mo use as presented in the packet as presented in the packet and um authorize the superintendent to sign yes and authorize the superintendent to sign lindy moves is there a second chris seconds very good um all in favor please click yes on your screen participant screen if you're opposed quick no I see all yeses so the motion passes unanimously um I don't believe we have any oh Jonas yeah who seconded that um chris seconded um so uh I don't believe there's any further action from our executive session but we do I believe have um the board reflection am I right um I can oh no we have future agenda items do we need to dwell on any of these or add to any of these if not we can go to um oh brian sorry yes uh superintendent evaluation yeah all right good one so a superintendent evaluation is added as a future agenda item um 10 uh new 10 is the uh reflection on board norms so I'm I'm guessing that possibly timing is um one that um will come up yeah uh any others any suggestions on how to make how to uh expedite it well I think our timing actually went really well in open session because we were behind and we caught up and actually got ahead um I think there was a lot of um I don't think there was anything that could have been done differently in executive session so um I think I think that is sort of its own piece but I think in terms of the regular agenda I think it actually ran um really well thanks for that um general agreement yes yeah yeah I think we just chat we um we always go long in executive session so giving ourselves a lot more time I mean I see on the agenda agenda it was 30 minutes so whoever's planning that out yeah um that's a really good point yeah um any other any other uh reflections if not do I dare suggest that we adjourn by consensus at 1051 yes we have that thank you I heard that so thank you Jim and thank you Brian yeah many thanks yeah thank you for being our endorsers yeah good night everybody good night thank you good night good night good night good night thanks Jim good night see you Carla