 Good evening. Thanks for serving. I myself have not convened any public or any community discussion around budget priorities. I see that it's part of your agenda and I'll be very curious as you address that to hear how the board is actively seeking public input on district priorities as you come into budgeting and enthusiastic to see that done really well and happy to help if I can't. Well first we have a quick agenda amendment the other board governance that should say approve finance committee charge instead of approve negotiations committee charge so wanted to note that before we moved forward. So your agenda? Yes because that was pertaining to the minutes from last time. If there's a question I've got to ask it has to be pulled. Yes. So I think I don't do I make the motion? I make the motion incorporating that. You make the motion incorporating that. Move to approve the consent agenda with the exception of the minutes. Seconds. It says under board governance approve finance committee charge and we didn't do that did we? No we did not approve finance committee charge. Okay so I think that needs to be taken out of the menu. It's a good catch. Yeah great catch. What did we do around this? We talked about that. And the one right before that explains what we did and then after that it says we'll discuss it November 7th and then right after it is approved. I was trying to figure out if I could read it. That's how it looks on the agenda. Right. Someone following along who was preparing the agenda. I don't want to jump into that. I didn't want to go into the future. No I know. Okay it just reads like we improved it. So you always list the vote whatever we have. Pardon me. Whatever we approve some things you would always list the vote. Okay. So if I understand the way this works is that the bullet is the heading but not the action is not approved is not a or whatever. Then maybe it's okay. For what it makes sense to say like something like no action. Let's add that. If we move we approve the minutes with that change. For the favor. Opposed. Excellent. So learning focus you guys. And I want to welcome Emma Harder and hope we don't need your last name. Petrero. Petrero. Yes. Who are our students for this year for one welcome and two thanks for serving. I'm excited to have you on board. We're just making a form up to the student perspective. It's really important. We just have like some printouts so you guys can follow along with what we're talking about today. I think there might be extras. Do you need anything projected or no? No. And so we've structured our presentation in student celebrations, student concerns and student needs. And so student celebrations are just essentially celebrating all the good things that are happening within the monthly rock school system. And what we've noticed here as high schoolers at MHS. And student concerns is what we have heard and seen that students in the student body, especially at Montpelier High School are really concerned with and just based on their own experiences. And the student needs is how we believe, what we believe are the most important concerns to address and how we can go about finding a solution. So I'll start and I'll talk about the role in conference and as a member of the RJA, Racial Justice Alliance at Montpelier High School, who actually helped raise the Black Lives Matter flag last year. I had the pleasure and the privilege to help lead and facilitate a workshop along with some other student leaders from the group. And at the role in conference I think it was really great to have the opportunity to connect with a lot of other teachers and educators and student leaders who were also in attendance. And it was just great to talk about my own experiences as a student here at MHS and in the Montpelier school system and our journey towards, I don't know, striving for equity in our schools and how raising the Black Lives Matter flag to me and to many others plays a big role in that. So the next one is less serious but it's just the student council hosted a Halloween costume contest last Wednesday and it was pretty successful. There was a lot of student and teacher participation. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I think it is just one of those things that brightens our school climate and helps the school spirit community. And then the Interact Club, which is a club associated with the Rotary, they did a gleeing and they picked several thousand pounds of apples, which is the most successful fundraising effort that club has ever done. Yes. In terms of the money made from those apples. So that's really impressive and great. And we have an applied chemistry class and it focuses on the practical application of something that can seem really like arbitrary and like useless almost, which is how some students maybe use certain subjects. But the class made soap and it smells really great and they're selling it and they'll be selling it over the next few months and that's sort of a regular occurrence that happens here at MHS. And we also had a sports banquet. We were just celebrating the end of fall season and that was great. First season for volleyball and that was a successful season. Yeah, it was a great opportunity to finally have all the fall sports teams come together and it was a great way to sort of emphasize the athletic community that we have here. So it was good. So moving on to student concerns. I want to highlight the continued efforts to support diversity and inclusion in the Montpelier Roxbury Schools education. And I know that last year we saw the race against racism and the Black Lives Matter flag being raised as well as the Day of Silence organized by the QSA. And I think that student leaders and student advocacy and as well as working with administrators and the school board has made such an environment possible and allowed us to make such great progress. But at the same time, although I don't want to speak for others and speak on behalf of others, from the experiences of other students here that I've heard about or seen, I know that there are still several incidences where students of color and especially LGBT students aren't being supported enough either in terms of their curriculum or just comments that are made and little incidences of harassment. And I know that the educational environment here, however great it may be, still allows these two totally different aspects of society to really flourish. And while we've made a lot of really great progress in terms of supporting our students and like I said, with the Black Lives Matter flag and really visible ways that we support marginalized students from marginalized populations, there's not enough infrastructure to prevent moments where those same students often feel misrepresented or hated or left out or hurt. Can you explain to the community listing what QSA stands for? Oh, it stands for Queer Street Alliance. I know they're going to change their name just because it's... So, one of the things that we've been talking about, maybe implementing and we've had meetings with Mr. McRae about, there's sort of justice, the implementation of these practices and like the implementation of those ideas just as a way to support the student body and kind of negate the harmful situations that have been going on and also like just rebuild our student body. And something that restorative justice practices focuses a lot upon is when, I don't know, issues do arise focusing on both the perpetrators in that situation as well as compensating for how the victims may feel and letting them, like Emma said, work to rebuild, which is really important. And the Racial Justice Alliance has also drafted an equity policy and is working with the school board to, I don't know, find them just to keep working on it and find the best final draft that we can and just so we can find a practical solution to some of the problems that we've seen and continue with our commitment to Montpelier's students, Montpelier-Roxbury students that we made when we did break choose to raise the Black Lives Matter flag here which is just to always keep striving for equity in whatever way we can and I know that as a member of the RJA and someone who works closely with other members and leaders I know that they are really wanting to ensure that there's a lot of transparency in this process as well which I think is great for both parties because it would just allow us to find a solution where demands are met and promises are kept and just find something that works for the both of us. So moving on to student needs, we've been thinking a lot and recognizing, I guess, a stratified situation educationally here in the MPS or MRPS system and that's basically, I believe you guys have referred it to, you've titled it the Achievement Gap and there's data that supports the Achievement Gap and basically we've noticed unequal access to academic opportunities just, I don't know if you can elaborate on that, sure. Yeah, no, no, it's fine. I personally brought this up because I've noticed that in a really small school system and in small schools while there's the chance to have learning that's really personalized to different students' needs, there's a sort of favoritism that arises and teachers and the administration will inevitably end up having expectations for certain students that are really high based on their past performance and expectations for other students that aren't as high and aren't the types of expectations that can push them to grow and move forward and so I think that just moving forward we need to place, I don't know, a greater focus on ensuring that all students are able to grow and that students are in left out of certain opportunities. Yeah, and something that is really striking about the situation is that we have some really high achieving students and then we have some students that are really struggling and I think that if we have systems in place for teachers like educational resources like trainings for teachers that give them the support they need to support students that have diverse socio-economic backgrounds, diverse just home lives, that's really important and I think that's something that we might be lacking. So yeah, I guess now we can take questions if you have any. Yeah, that was very helpful. Questions? Brigitte? Thank you so much, both of you for a really thoughtful presentation. On your last point when you were talking about resources that were available and you mentioned having more trainings for teachers, I was wondering if you could talk about the availability of counseling support in the school and if you think it's sufficient and if you have any thoughts about that. I don't have any really, really distinct thoughts about that. I do think we have some situations in the student body where counseling could be really, really helpful like drug abuse. I think this is more pertinent to the high school but I think if we make those options more accessible then we can prevent things like diversion and other and just help students get out of those situations. When you speak of counseling, is there something specific that you have in mind just because I know that it can sort of be general? Yeah, good question. I was thinking of both guidance counseling model like resources for students to go to that are not necessarily academic. I know we have mental health counseling available in some fashion in the schools and those kinds of resources. Do you have any sense of whether students think those are available or find them sufficiently available? It's okay. It's not in any way meant to put you on the spot. I think it definitely varies on who in the student body that you're talking to and what might apply to us or might not apply to us. I think the fact that it varies is something that is of concern related to what we just brought up. Yeah, that makes it difficult to answer. But it is something that is really how students are treated is dependent on how they're seen in a lot of times and like I said in a small community when teachers and counselors get to know students one-on-one what they offer to them could be vastly different in a way that sometimes isn't helpful. Steve? I have a couple things. First of all, thanks. Secondly, do you... You guys mentioned the QSA, right? Is there any mentoring going on between QSA and the GSA in the middle school or any kind of connections there where those middle school students are feeling some kind of like community or support? GSA is pretty strong in the middle school but kids are at a totally different developmental stage at that point in terms of trying to figure out like, you know, I guess it's similar in terms of safety coming out or in terms of like who are their allies in the community and at that point, you know, that they're sixth grade a lot of times kids are just not even sure who their allies might be and who they might not be. I'm going to ask you the same question I ask her. Would you specify what GSA stands for? Oh, that's gay straight alliance, I think it is. And so I'm just wondering whether you know if there's any connections between the two or are there any mentoring or going back and forth or supports there? I know that the GSA at the middle school has been really strong this year and this year especially, it's something that's kind of new and I'm excited to see sort of diversity and minority support groups popping up at the middle school but I'm not a member and neither is Emma so we can't speak from personal experience but from what I know of, I haven't really seen a close connection between the high school and the middle school groups for a lot of different causes so I'm not sure in the fact that I haven't seen it it means that there might not be much happening. The other question, thank you, the other question is something I often wonder about and I think students maybe have a really good perspective on this is how do you, when it comes to especially race and ethnicity, do you think, and I guess maybe, yeah, do you think our staff and faculty have enough literacy or fluency in those topics to be able to really lead? I think that we can do more. I think that there's potential leadership in this school, like I think that we have seen some great things I think that we can always improve though. I think that a lot of teachers and staff members are trying but we also actively need to work on professional development to keep giving them the tools that they can use and also in our hiring practices in the district making sure that we're conscientious of different demographics so that students can sort of see themselves in the people that are giving them their education or sometimes might be their only resources in certain situations. I think we're conscious that students have done a lot of leadership lately and we want that to not always be the case. Tina. So I want to thank you also and welcome to the board. So I'm going to do a check-in in process. So did you pick these three topics or these three headings to report on today? Do you mean are we going to student celebrations, student concerns, student needs? It's okay. I'm just checking the process. So then the second thing is is this something you expect to do on a regular basis? The specific format? Yes. I mean are you going to report to us on a regular basis? Maybe it's generally. I think semi-regularly. And so do you have a plan for how you would figure out what the elementary school and the middle school are doing? Well, I do play mentoring at the middle school and I will be spending quite a bit of time there soon. I think that we will figure out a way to get to the elementary school. Thank you. I have a question. Thank you so much both of you. This is extremely valuable. Really, really, really appreciate it. I'm curious to know your number, the first of your concerns here, the continued efforts to support diversity and inclusion. Some of the marginalized actions and students that you mentioned before. I'm wondering are there any events planned? Student-led events, teacher-led events planned or kind of percolating right now to help address some of those cultural issues? Kind of like the Black Lives Matter flag last year? If so, I'm curious to know what they are or what you guys are thinking about or if you've heard of anything. And also if there are any ways for the board to help support those types of efforts or individual board members I don't want to speak for them. Well, I know that Club Action, which is the political activism club here, they're working on a social sustainability day or a series of social sustainability soloing blocks, which is our... What is it? Like it's a... You can talk to your teachers and you can guess. Free period, right? Yeah, free period. And I mean... I'm not... I'd like to call it. And during those we would have speakers come and talk to students about issues of diversity and inclusion. And I think... I'm not sure if the board would be able to help much in that, but something that's on your radar is still percolating. And I think that clubs are always going to be planning different things and using their student members that are often members of the LGBT community or people of color to plan student-led events that are really, really helpful and effective. And I mean, listening to students is probably the most effective way to... improve our school. And so, just supporting clubs and student-led groups is a really great way to just support the positive parts of volunteer high school. Actually, at this point of the discussion I only have one really easy question left. What is the Interact Club? Okay, so it's a volunteer club. It's basically... Well, it's a community service club. And it's just affiliated with the Rotary, so what the Rotary does, kind of, we just follow that. Thank you. I have a less easy question. You noted the lack of infrastructure and support and certain instances for students of color and for the LGBTQ students. And other students who might be marginalized are not part of the dominant socioeconomic group. What specifically are you referring to in terms of lack of infrastructure? Is it that you feel the teachers aren't properly trained, the resources aren't there? Is it that the student body doesn't have the sensitivity it needs? Is it all of them? Is it that the curriculum needs to be updated to be more reflexive of all of the above? I'd say it's pretty much all of those things. I think teachers might struggle to deal with situations that are this complex. When you have such a diverse range of students, how do you treat all of them equally but also give them all the resources that they need when they need different things? I think professional development is really important in this case. Do you think that's a lack of resources or do you think it's a cultural thing? They might have been trained but they maybe just are uncomfortable and don't necessarily always rise to the occasion. Is that a hard thing to assess? How would they know about the teacher training? That's a good question. How about this, is it a fluency thing where some teachers aren't necessarily pure fluent in dealing with complex situations? Yes or no? I don't think that that's what it is. I think some of it is cultural but I think that we can promote something different here. Excellent, that's very helpful. Anything else? Hello Michelle. So thank you, this is great. We appreciate it. Standing in for a superintendent for the superintendent report is Grant. Good, because I have a lot of questions. We're cross-examining the questions. I will be glad to take notes. I know that it was presented, it was part of your packet so I will be glad to take any notes or questions and discuss them with Libby and get back to you if you have any. Is there anything listed out in the superintendent report or discussed? I have a question about the reporting compliance with the travel reimbursement policy. This is a minor deal, but I think in the interpretation she talked about board members being reimbursed and talked about significant travel between Muclea and Roxbury as being a reimbursable trip. I have never heard of a board member being reimbursed with a trip and wouldn't expect board members to be submitting mileage, but I was just kind of curious about her interpretation there about board members and reimbursement between Muclea and Roxbury as a reimbursable distance. It was just nothing big, I was just kind of curious there what she was thinking. Yeah, like here I can't imagine very many situations where board members would actually put in for mileage. As an example for staff members if I come to work here at the high school and during the day I need to travel to Roxbury in my personal vehicle to do something and then come back and then go home, that would be two trips that I could get reimbursed for. If I drive directly from home to Roxbury for a morning meeting and then I come here and then I go home the one trip from Roxbury here could be reimbursed. If I go back to school and I went to another school and then went someplace else then perhaps but that would be I would think pretty rare. I was just surprised to see board members included in her interpretation for reimbursement so I was just trying to get some. If you go to a conference then you could be reimbursed for that travel as well as for the conference fees if I could get reimbursed for that. If I could get reimbursed for that. You certainly can. If I could get around to that. I have one question. Yeah, Michelle. And, Grant, I'm sorry to put you on the spot if you're not part of this but the evidence of district goals under equity it says that the MHS service on the first was focused on power and gender dynamics. Did you see the next page? That might help. Power and gender dynamics can work. I did not understand it. Other questions? So, will we get a rolling student presentation around Robin's presentation or something at a different point? They're talking about the comments just from her report. Yeah. That was my understanding. Do you know what the round Robin is? That's when she visits administrators. Administrators like her and Mike Berry and Mary Lundin will go to a school and spend the whole day there and they will go from while the others might be in classrooms and they'll rotate around so that's the round Robin that she's referring to and they just started doing this I think they've gone to two schools so far. And then they meet to discuss what they've seen. Is that a completely new thing? This year. Any other questions for Grant? I don't know if the students had a chance to look at these things but if you look at the last section on it and report evidence of district goals these are things that superintendent lists as things that are proving effectively that we're working on these four key areas for us. So these are also things if you're not hearing about them directly you can communicate back to students too. Because you can see equity personalization those things are both brought up in your conversation so it goes on to the next page also. So for instance the equity column has five bullets in it of things that happened just since the last basically in the last month or since the last report. So it's a really handy document to have every time there's a meeting to see what superintendent's been working on. It's basically that. And you guys get these packets, Grant. And also just if you have questions during the meeting feel free to ask them. No obligation but feel free to participate Great. Moving on to budget. So if you pose a question you only got this monthly brochure that the district puts together each year. Libby and I wanted to pose a question to the board about how these are being used if they could be used better whether we might want to do something different. I think Libby's already explored some ways to perhaps do it more cheaply. It's a nice brochure I'm not sure how much it gets out, I'm not sure how much it's referenced. So I would love to kind of hear board input on your experiences with this in the past and what you feel the value of it is and maybe some brainstorm ideas about ways it can be used differently or better. Michelle? I think if we were going to mail it out to everyone in the district then it would be great but since I think we have a limited number of copies made and don't distribute them in any way whatsoever and if you only made glossy the front and made the inside not so glossy it would be able to mail them to some people. I think it's a general question potential differences between the two communities in Montpelier does the town send you, does the city send you an annual report from the town and the school district? Not anymore. I'm not sure if it's mailed, maybe they had an article that said they don't have to do it and it just has to be provided. It's provided electronically but they produce a copy that you can pick up. They did use, they mailed it relatively recently. Yeah, until maybe last year. Yeah, until the show had fun years and stuff. This is ridiculous. It is a little bit of a misnomer that it's this is listed kind of under budget because it's not really a financial annual report this is more of a school report and I think what Libby was thinking was maybe not so fancy and glossy and mailing it out but maybe more of an online now that we have a better website or at least transitioning to a better website I think she was thinking more of this would be an online presentation which would be of course cheaper. There hasn't been an agency of education requirement that you produce a document such as this in some way or other and get it out. My sense is that we're going to do an annual report it should report on our progress towards our ends because isn't that the whole point of us existing and I don't really see the ends spelled out and I think that this is basically a public relations piece that doesn't really report on hard and yes we've got numbers in here but it would really be better if we put our own our own what were our goals for the year and did we achieve them or to what extent did we achieve them what did we invest in why are we doing what we're doing what are we working on right now and the superintendent's report does some of that but it's not particularly accessible I don't think it's that concrete and I think breaking it down by school is nice to get people involved in the document because people enter it that way but then like a technology curriculum and technology report I wonder in such a small document whether those sorts of things are necessary so I guess what I'm saying is I think if we're going to do a report to the community it should be against the standards by which we set that we set and then we should report on how we're doing towards our standards the agency in case you said you should and so I think that's great to have as a component and I agree with Steve that this is very fluffy though there's plenty of cute pictures in here and everything but I do think that this is an opportunity to provide some information that isn't just these are our ends, these are our goals, here's our progress I think that's an important component don't get me wrong but I think we can also incorporate some other just statistical information about number of students and what enrollment in different classes is like and I think it can be used as not just focus solely on our ends but also to incorporate some other useful information even like enrollment trends like what we're foreseeing aspirations for the district, realities of our environment exactly because some of that reflects on how taxpayers receive the district as they make decisions there's always a five of these at the senior center and for people who don't have children in the school it's helpful to get some of those statistics not even the statistics the stories of what's happening in the buildings because they don't have the personal connection with our populations in both communities, lots of people don't have kids in the community they're not connected to the schools so it does Andrew's right, it does have a place where we're doing each principle sharing what's been happening, what's working, what's not because a lot of our community members don't have a personal connection to the buildings Brigitte? I also just wanted to raise a question about what we would do this year because we don't have any ends policies we don't even have a vision policy yet so that part but it's tough that's kind of long term thinking but this year thinking might need a little tweaking but maybe that's kind of a look up to the district this year that's unique to this year the merger? and the successful execution of the merger, the transition of a new leadership team these are big the beginning of the bond process the focus on equality the equity issues that we're working on I think there's some big headlines that regular folks would be like I'm glad to see you guys are working on some stuff in the school it's actually moving the district forward people often ask me so how's the merger going? that could be a question I think we have a lot of a really good story to tell in terms of all the stuff that's going on including some tax stability enrollment numbers that are looking solid if nothing else anyway I agree it would be nice to hear from Libby sort of what she's learned so far what does she think we ought to promote about this district she's got a new look at it and that would be nice to hear I think these are all great suggestions in terms of form I agree it's probably I was on the form issue I mean I think having it online will be much more accessible I've actually never had anyone suggest to me that they read that but I also hear Tina's point that at the senior center that's a place for paper copies but having it produced in a format that's readily accessible online doesn't mean we can't print some off perhaps it's available to people that want them but at least it gives you multiple channels add to that I think we could have some hard copies just like one page like kind of flyers city hall senior center directing folks to the place where they can view the digital copy so that it's not just sitting out there online certainly email a digital copy to everyone in the system pretty easily it's part of the principles you know it falls in the same category we not long ago had a conversation about handbooks which are now online and so the question is how would we ever get anybody to read them so it's the same question and I don't know about the transfer from only having it on paper to only having it run somehow how is it I don't have the answer just a question do people at the senior center read them yes excellent people not named Tina not named Tina why do we want people to read them I mean how important is it to us that people read them well I mean I think if we're for two reasons I mean I think it's good to especially if we move it towards the format that you're suggesting I think it's a way to not only just tell the story about our school district but also tell them what the taxpayers are investing in where are the schools going what our vision is what the goals are what we're building if you don't have kids in the school you proficiency based learning what's that and why do I care perhaps in more of like a newspaper format then where it's pithy articles not New York Times but more like Times Artists where it's like shorter articles that are really kind of factually kind of like we're reporting news right now I'm sorry I'll show them the other the other use for it and this is maybe hopeless a little but we do have a lot of monopelier kids who go to private schools at least through 8th grade and then we have a huge influx of them coming to the high school I know when my kids were elementary school age a lot of the parents just weren't comfortable with the idea of the institution their little kids in the big scary institutional facility kind of thing and they wanted their kids in the more small scale private environment and then apparently by the time they get to high school they're comfortable with it or something I don't know exactly how those decisions are made but I don't know if this is a really nice publication and if I got this as a parent of an elementary school kid would it make me more comfortable with sending my kids to public school I don't know but I think we'd love to have them and I was wondering whether it was used as part of the recruitment process to try to get tuition children to come in from overseas where it is over if it is used in that way then it may have a marketing value in that way the same kind of idea I think Ann wrote her own when she went I think it does have marketing value and I think we also have an online version we could probably do a lot of links with it so we could have a two sentence verb on what personalized learning plans are someone who's reading at the senior center and doesn't want to delve deeply but that's what that is but a parent or a parent of a prospective student could click on a thing and learn a lot more all people without children are not necessarily seniors I'd like to know there are young people that don't have children that might want to learn about that but two of them are on this board I wasn't going to name anybody a big picture so I look at this coming strictly from the administration not really having much board guidance but our district report that would go in the annual report would be where the board chair would probably have a letter we'd have the financial not in the past we have not so you haven't it's just been a budget statement really I'm curious in the past since we have a new relationship with the city we are not part of the city that's our new relationship we used to send a segment to the city report and so will we no longer do that no we will still do that so the budget information is still going to be in the town of Roxbury's annual report and then the city of Montpelier's annual report so there will be all the budget information and the articles will be there we're just trying to figure out now in Roxbury the warning was separate for the school then the town and it was just combined in the city so we're trying to sort through those kinds of details right now but as far as I know the information is still going to go to both municipalities to be included in the annual reports what I do think would be really important here though this gets back to what Steve was talking about and some of what Bridget was talking about with the vision policy is having a vision for the district and articulating that clearly having three overarching principles that are really guiding the work of the district that we're really striving for I think is going to be really important to communicate well to get us all on the same page of community and working in a common direction and so I do think that this will be a really important this could be a really important place to bring all of that information together around those principles and those goals and that's leading to my question of so what is our general timeline for establishing a vision policy and establishing kind of goals for the district and talking about vision later and then well I know that's not going to happen beyond that beyond that I think we're going to pick up then seriously after we get done in the budget process maybe this time next year is that enough feedback for the administration to move forward with some adjustments to this what's the I think the board isn't necessarily doing this document so I think that's good feedback I mean I wrote down some notes so I can convey to Levy Grant with a zero two so we can pass along yeah I think what I heard is general consensus is that have we might be required but yeah we I attempted to directly put that question to Levy or not but we may have to put out something whether we want to or not but having something is helpful having something glossy that sits in a box is not but having some copies that we can distribute at certain places where we're maybe good to have that where electronic forms are not necessarily the preferred choice and then having a little more a little less fluff and a little more substance in terms of vision what we're doing what our goals are what the district is working on what's leading towards what's the academic vision what's the broader vision and then some other basic staff information enrollment and moment trends etc and probably still a little narrative and feel good stories about what's going on in school so it's not just all numbers and work but and there's some homework probably to be done because it's not just AOE it's in statute there's certain data that you have to provide some of it is what we send through the municipalities for their annual reports but there might be pieces that are outlined in statute that aren't in those documents that might need to be in here so we probably need to take a quick look at that too and maybe there's an in-between so we don't mail it anymore but maybe it's good policy to mail everybody a postcard that says here's where you could find the annual report and by the way here's where you could find the budget or something think about what we want people to look at and how would they find it because we haven't had a good history until now about using the website so I stopped recommending people to the website before and now we're up and sort of running again so maybe it's time to remind them where they can find things there might be something we had talked last year about a budget trifold or a budget postcard that might be a good way to not only get information out about the budget but also give some people some information about what our website addresses and some of those things so that people can get acclimated so the next bullet point under budget is recent public feedback towards budget priorities I know we've had some reports on student groups and some other reach out but as Nathan just reported Bob has not met yet any other report outs we have got, I do want to say we'll talk about this on the 14th too we have gotten quite a few emails about transportation all in favor and I say I've probably gotten between 10 and 15 relatively lengthy comments and I've seen on Facebook there's a petition to that effect going around yeah, it's not important last I clicked on it it was edging towards 200 signatures so that feedback is coming in but that's all I've gotten Michelle so we usually do a presentation for the Rotary Club in early January and we should get on, called Joe okay, I did not know we did that yeah, get on our schedule okay you know what, let me do that, I think I said I tried to get off to the business groups and that's the best one we're going to get to because the Montpellier merchants don't really care okay and the Rotary doesn't really carry in that they don't want to give us direction, they just want to hear from us we're good at that so we usually go in the beginning of January when the budget's already pretty much made and just tell them what they just want to vote yes or no, they don't want to have any they want to hear what the changes you know so it's a little early then but we can get on their schedule now is the time to get on the schedule for January okay, cool in the past Brian has done a speech like a substantial speech we do it for anybody else I will be so we can make sure that they get what they want so do we do it for the Lions Club or any other organizations like that we have put out the word several years running that we are happy to come to any meeting any meeting of any existing community group like the neighborhood groups and church groups and so far no takers I do know that like Rotary and the Lions Club they plan their agendas like way out that's getting on there I will is that the one you think is most likely to reach out to besides Rotary that's the only one I can think of unfortunately there must be others I'm going to see if I can find a contact for the Lions and I know I can do the Rotary that's two calls right next to each other so it's easy Michelle what method has the board used to reach out to offer that we have individual board members have directly contacted organizations and also we've put out post some front porch forum just saying that we're available to speak to your group that's already meeting we'll come to your book group meeting if that is good sounds good I think last year was the first year we had our own informational hearing it wasn't well attended but it was a new thing because especially in Montpelier people were used to going to the town meeting and we would have like a five minute section in there and now we have our own dedicated informational hearing so maybe there's some kind of renorming and publicizing of that opportunity for this year it would be nice to have more people there I think it was like negative 20 as I was most of the winter can you ever remind me we're alternating towns by annually for that right is that how we set that I honestly don't know we did it in both we did I think like public hearings in both but I think the actual the official informational hearing was here but there were public hearings in both places I think we'll be presenting the budget in regular meetings in both places I think we have an official meeting right now just in Montpelier the day before the vote probably any else on public feedback so board governance yes we did board in some way or maybe create another schedule for the building process we already know we established that already I think we have one I think we have one I think it's in the minutes is it in the minutes or where do we have that it's somewhere I'm not sure where it is it could be redistributed to the board that would be great it would probably make sense to post it around too putting it on the Facebook group would be helpful for folks do they have a copy of the draft negotiations committee charge what are you going to approve the finance committee charge first this was first this was first on the agenda oh sorry no it's okay so remember the negotiations committee want to read through this or you want to do it on the other way I'll be glad to read it the negotiations committee is charged to engage professional negotiations with the labor organizations that represent the district's teachers and other employees final ratification of any agreement will remain the sole responsibility of the board so Ryan asked me a question which I looked into today which was whether we wanted to have something in the charge that you know address the timing of the negotiations can be getting started I said I would try to look into it and that so I just wanted to explain that this is an area that has several overlays of legal requirements already governing the negotiations process partly governed by this municipal labor relations act partly governed by the teachers labor relations provisions and of course it's governed by our own contracts and those things actually don't even necessarily line up so as one example that the timing in the two contracts for the teachers and MESA for when you're supposed to start the negotiations for the next session are different so that was my thinking on why keeping the charge to the bare minimum was probably a good idea because it's very hard to say anything too specific without running into these other requirements I wasn't sure it was totally necessary but it was on my radar that because it's a really important thing that the committee gets started you know it complies with the contracts Steve just to be clear so the negotiations the committee is charged to engage professional negotiations about what topic anyone that we need to negotiate about any topic again that's governed by law so if you put a topic in there you can negotiate on it because that's governed by your obligation to bargain in good faith okay and the word ratification is right there that sentence is in the statute it's very minimalist I think you nailed it I think it's a great approach now the goal here is really to give a charge that didn't create problems I make a motion to approve this negotiations charge as written second any discussion? all those in favor? any opposed? fantastic we have a negotiations charge let's see if we can get a finance charge as well so a copy of the finance charge a copy of the finance charge finance committee charge does everyone have a copy or do we need under the blue sheet everybody have one? this reflects the changes we made after the discussion last time finance committee charge the finance committee will one, meet quarterly to review district financials with the current year's budget prior year's budgets and any proposed budgets two, conduct an in-depth review of the budget by the business manager and administration three, report at at least quarterly to the Montpelier Roxbury board of commissioners to ensure transparency and comprehensive discussion of financial matters by the full board four, work with the full board to ensure the community is presented with timely, accurate, relevant and understandable financial reports for the district five, meet as needed with the school administration and chair to review urgent financial matters and six, review other financial matters at the board's request the Montpelier Roxbury should be school district and I don't think we're commissioners anymore I think we are directors Montpelier Roxbury school district board of directors to ensure transparency under number three question on four ensuring the community is presented with the financial reports is that something that we already do I'm just curious about what do you mean that we already do as a board or as a district I mean I know that they're in our packets which are public so there are it's not their secret but is this envisioning that we're going to be coming up with a channel of distribution for financial reports to the community that we don't currently do this is the origin there an item in here that implied the committee was doing this and we thought it wasn't a committee job it was the full board job to ensure that the community has timely and accurate it's not for example doesn't say whether it's once a year I totally agree with the board's job I was just usually we just present the one thing we go through a great amount of effort to public you present is the budget which actually because it includes past years I mean it actually is a very comprehensive document so I was just wondering what it's getting at I actually inserted this in here initially when we were going through this and the reason why I inserted this is because when I was talking to community members about the board several months ago before joining really the only complaint that I heard from community members was that a number it's the only complaint I really heard and I heard it repeated from a number of people that the board didn't do the best job of getting information about the budget out in a timely and understandable manner I don't know that that's necessarily fair so I'm not making any judgments it was just and Tina and I talked about this it was just since we're going to be the finance committee is going to be the ones regularly looking at the district finances that we would work with the board to keep that in mind to keep the idea of presenting information in a timely and reliable manner to the community like I said I don't know that that criticism is fair because I've never experienced that myself I've always found that the information was there when I wanted it but it was just something to keep in mind keep the idea of community engagement in mind and is it financial reports and the budget are different things what if it said understandable budget and financial information I'd be fine with that because I'm just like the reports term makes me think of the quarterly financial reports I'm fine with that or some other new thing that's called a financial report that we don't put together budget and financial information is fine with me I don't know what others think but I'm totally fine with that Grant what is it called that we have to report in the annual town reports because the legislature is very specific in how things are worded and what's presented to the towns around town meeting I think one of the few things that's actually required is the three prior year report it's a one page thing that comes to us from the state once we give them our numbers I'd have to go back and see what statute I know what we always provide but I don't know which ones which of those elements are required by statute so I can check what was the suggestion you made for the wording change understandable after understandable replace financial reports with budget and financial information and I think we were just thinking financial reports was a generic term but I can see what you mean that's where it sounds to me like a proper noun yes actually I was thinking as he was reading it about number three because this is a financial committee charge that actually Grant gives the quarterly report to the board he's part considered part of the committee is it I'm trying to figure that out what as I read this I don't I just see this as a duty to make sure that you're kind of serving a watchdog function that has that report because you'll get the more detailed report prior to coming to the board the verb says report and it's under the committee and that's what I when you read it I thought not to provide not to provide the quarterly report but just to to say either we're doing our job and this is what we've looked at everything was fine or you know that we said through the administration and we've got these questions that we'd like I knew that I'm asking is that what it says I don't say provide the quarterly reports it says report at least quarterly to ensure to ensure just checking when we talked about this before in a theoretical way did we talk about a process where when Grant creates the quarterly report sometime between Grant finishing the quarterly report and delivering it to the board the finance committee meets with Grant and due to their superior knowledge of the budget they can have a richer conversation with Grant about the quarterly report so that then when we're in the meeting with the quarterly report they can say that's exactly it thumbs up or so does number three say what I just said well number one and number three together do number one and number two yeah number one and three so one two and three together yeah I think what you're kind of dealing with I'm kind of struggling too which is that there's six points here and they're kind of they have different they could be categorized a little differently or organized so several of these one two five and six are gathering information for the committee and then three is a reporting out of information from the committee and four is kind of its own thing which is kind of an assisting to assist the board in some way so you kind of got you know here are all the ways that we're going that this committee is going to get intelligence on these four different ways and then it's going to assist the board in one action and then just report out to the board so like I see what I was thinking is like number five almost in in tones that like there'll be a like an emergency finance committee meeting where they're going to just make some decisions or something and I don't know that that's really the intention it doesn't say that but it actually is it advising on behalf of the board at that point what is an urgent financial matter we didn't know but in case there was one so I mean I just think there's five and six were like in case something happens that we know we know that's probably five and six five could actually probably go away in lighter six and six is new because six would encompass and six could incorporate emergencies and to answer your question they could advise with the idea that they have a sense of the board but that's a dangerous position to put a committee in I can't really think of any urgent matters that I would feel like we should talk to the finance committee about without the full board because I think of emergencies like oh there's a mold problem that we got to handle well I don't think we would just meet with the finance committee at the board level and actually six sort of handles that so should we just get rid of five and kind of get rid of five and I think what Michelle was saying was our intent was that which we did today actually if we met with the quarter of the report and asked questions for Grant it's not five million questions that have to happen during the board meeting they've already been asked and if we thought you needed to know something more we could say please give more information to the board on X, Y and Z I guess I just think six maybe should even be moved ahead of three and four the first three are definitely sort of a review and gather intelligence kind of gather information and then they're going to do something which is what number three is I'm fine with that you're right there one, two and six are gathering information and then three is what they're kind of what their real purpose is which is then to report that information out one, two, three and four kind of the things that they do regularly yeah I kind of see so you're saying six is kind of like the catch all at the end yeah catch all at the end I actually think the example we used last meeting was we have an extremely large bond and maybe we want a little more for an oversight and it's a complicated thing a special project we could empower the finance committee to assist Andrew for instance in making some of those playgrounds as I kind of read it one, two, three, four is what the finance committee usually does and then five is kind of anything else we wanted to do that's related to finances could it does it make sense to not just review but to review and report on other financial matters because then it sort of ties it up sure I assume the board would have asked us to review it for some at the board's request it says okay that works great do we want to maybe put it off on this and get a clean version because we said that last time and then see the clean version and kind of put it in the perspective and then we changed more well I don't think we didn't put it on the agenda for adoption right but we could decide that it's ready for the incentive next time let's do that we don't want to talk about it but we get to look at it one more time yeah okay perfect so let's put this on a consent agenda for next weeding and we can pull it off if folks are further do you want me to take the draft do you want me to take the draft off of there for next time yeah so you're good putting this into its next version okay awesome just send that to do you want me to review with everyone the changes or do you feel like we have it I can just go through them quickly so item 3 we'll report at least quarterly to the Montpelier Roxbury school district board of directors dot dot dot under 4 we change work with the full board to ensure the community is presented with accurate relevant and understandable budget and financial information for the district and then we kill 5 and 6 is no problem and 6 reads review and report on other financial matters and that's what it's really about and I'm sorry to after you've already kind of finished to bring one other little thing up but the first one is talking about the quarterly reports right and the quarterly reports in the current year have some information about prior year execution to compare but the quarterly reports don't show proposed budgets I mean the proposed budget is the budget we develop and we're going to adopt and that's not included in the quarterly reports as we have been seeing them and since we've got to maybe you just eliminate that maybe it's with the current year's budget and prior year's budget and then knock off that because the next one says it's about the proposed budget yeah so how does the change read now meet quarterly to review district financials with the current year's budget and prior year's budgets period but is it really prior year's budgets or is it the prior year's budget it's the prior year's not S apostrophe and the prior year's budget is it a budget singular then do you want to add proposed to conduct a review of the proposed budget that's I think what you're going so you can be sure I thought this was going to be some alright sorry about that no it's fine now the time to catch it it's good fortune that Libby's not here and you're here tonight otherwise it'd be creating policies you know I can't live with this alright next up any other changes we've managed to edit edit or delete all six locks you can't put it on consent policy readings vision okay here we go at the retreat we established what I thought was a vision but everybody was at the retreat so when we brought it to the board there was some more discussion about it so we decided tonight to have another round of discussions about it and so I'm going to hand this out but before I do I'm going to remind you that the vision is a statement of what the organization wants to become it's a preferred future it describes how the future will look if the organization achieves the vision the vision answers three questions what do we do for whom do we do it what is the benefit so at the at the retreat we came up with this vision that's in bold there was a suggestive change which comes next and then underneath I had put we had some discussions about a mission so this was the potential mission we said we might have and if I remember correctly as a board we said we would establish a vision and then each school would establish a mission to go with that vision is that correct is that how you remember it okay so I just put that mission down at the bottom you remember because during that discussion there was some incorporation of that into the vision so what I love to do is give you one quiet moment to read both of these the bold vision and the suggested change and think about it for a minute okay since I always believe in a two part process I'm going to ask you to talk to the person sitting next to you at your table about these two and decide do you like one better than the other or what is yours yes quick report out if you have anything to say about either of these two or if you chose one or one with changes so we like this well we like the suggested change statement and we appreciate the addition of build on their talents and passions because it really connects with personalized learning and just personalization in general and what we want to change is the word strive because while it indicates an active sort of while it indicates that we're working to improve at the same time it sort of is an excuse we tried but we couldn't really so I think at the same time like while it confirms that like we're not perfect and we're always going to be working to improve it still gives us sort of like an excuse to cop out and so the suggested replacement was actively work but that's a little bit clunky and there's no we were thinking maybe other people would have suggestions for a sit-in yeah should we go all the way around and talk all together actually you picked a verb and we picked another one in there we liked the second one and we were trying to figure encourage did that going from insure to encourage seemed a wide jump and so is it empower or inspire or I don't know we were worried about that one so I guess both of us are thinking about the verbs like empower what does this group have to say the empower the inspire thing I thought maybe doesn't actually it's more like a pep talk versus giving teaching skills but empower maybe does both those things it teaches the skills and it sets the tone much stronger well we basically took on their talents and passions and stuck it after children in the first one we liked insure better than encourage but I like empower as well I thought encourage was a little too weak and I like the boldness of just saying this is what we are I mean it's it's a future vision it sets a high bar I know we're not there yet but it's where we want to be and it's if we're talking about vision out there that's we don't want to be constantly striving on at a point where we are this place and remember it's your preferred future future so we got a little bit hung up as well on schools strive it just struck us as strange I agree with you guys over there about the verbs strive maybe following short but I think we were also struggling with the idea that schools are kind of institutions maybe should be more about the people but we weren't entirely certain how to address that one of the things that I had flagged was the word equitable but in the context that Bridget explained it to me I think it makes perfect sense but from a standpoint of where my head is like applied economics equitable often means everybody's kind of on the same level regardless like so you'd be taxed the same percentage regardless of your income whereas something that's based on fairness is generally progressive in nature but equitable here I think essentially means that so I don't have a problem with that something I also thought was a little I just raised it for the question is the word talents generally refers to like innate abilities rather than skill sets or the ability to fix mindset baby exactly yeah I feel like we could use something that's more growth mindset just doing that you got that's yeah there's a lot of teachers in the district who would call that one out interest did you have a substitute for strive I was wondering if we wanted to if we wanted the sense to start with a we instead of our schools and then it could be we are working we are working we aim I like the working idea because it's more concrete we expect we expect ourselves we expect our schools we expect our schools we demand Ryan and Michelle there's all so we definitely both came in preferring the first one and I'd say that we both agree with Jim that it should stick with the future oriented language our schools are this that's what we want for our vision and preferred insurer to encourage because that's our job we don't want to just suggest that they become this thing we our purpose is to make it happen we do it and then we got a little in the weeds on talents and passions because there are problems with talent the idea of talent what is talent and there's issues with passion there's been a lot of blowback on the passion idea that it puts too much pressure on kids to identify this one thing that's going to drive their whole lives so we changed passions to interests but without a lot of conviction but the thing about the whole phrase of building on talents and passions is that it introduces the kids as having agency in this situation which I checked in with the students and they confirm they love that phrase because it gives them agency in the situation but if we could do that in a way that doesn't use talents and passions with some other well what if we just how about this what if we just change insurer to empower because I think empower implies that we give them agency and then we don't have to ascribe that to a talent or a passion or an interest that might have personalization we're going to take that out of it empower all children to build on their what what is it they're building on I'm going to go back to the students a minute who said they liked talents and passions now that you've heard everybody are you still listening or are you wishing something against like interests or something I'm liking it a little bit less specifically the talents I noticed that when I was reading it the only thing that makes I think the use of that word acceptable is the builds on because I think I'd like to think that all children have some talent in some way so yeah I think it's workable I think it's workable you think the word talents is workable how are you feeling about passions I think interests could also work there maybe even more it would be more encompassing of what what we're actually trying to get to if instead of talents and I get that that's problematic is we use something like interest and creativity or creativity and interests so we're introducing the idea that students are using their own now you're putting pressure on them to be creative yeah but they're creating this future they are creating their future with this I'm trying to think of a way to I mean I guess we just put interest in there it just seems so much less emotive it's more like now it's like it's written by a committee I actually like the word talent because I'm going with you that I believe everybody has some talent it might be a very small one maybe as yet a discoverer the reason I like it is because maybe my talents do not fit in to the average public education but I got some anyway and I wish that you'd at least acknowledge them and support me in them that's the way I look at it I think you could build on to that creates a more of a growth mindset than I've fixed there you go yeah I agree with the lead out and to count passions and put interest in a set of passions could you live with that wait I didn't get that honestly I would go with whatever Jim had said earlier about just moving that build on talents and passions up into the first one does that get away from vision versus mission oh we're not going to the we're not going to the mission no but vision is this aspiration that's where we got started on all this so that suggestion would be that ensure all children build on their talents and passions and grow into and we're not replacing ensure with empower I think we should I really like that verb but now we're not ensuring now we're not ensuring it which is important are we really able to ensure all students I would argue that in a preferred future we'll always be striving actively working towards something I mean I actually like empower them sure and I actually think empower might more reflect our job I think our job is to give them what they need to do this you've got the ability to be a damn good jealous you're going to do it but like make sure that when they leave if they want to do that we've prepared them yeah no I agree that's a reasonable argument yeah a little on where we're putting in this town so I've got our schools our caring, creative and equitable communities that empower all children all children all children to build on their talents their talents and passions by acquiring skills or build on their skills skills I'd like to have just want to throw out putting skills in there yeah I have in addition to talent skills talent, passion, interests desires, aspirations and tools clubs, vanities where's the source oh it's fine and parental expectations and fantasies our schools are caring, creative and equitable communities that empower all children to build on their talents just because we did that way and passions are we adding the three is this a comma? there was no support for adding three sorry we just started earlier we need a second for that talents and have we changed passions leaving it passion we're going bold to grow into engaged citizens and lifelong learners here we go one more time our schools are caring, creative and equitable communities that empower all children to build on their talents and passions to grow into engaged citizens and lifelong learners it sounds good we can do it I would just have to pull that off do I hear a motion? really? I move that did you just say it? that you accept the amended vision as a vision for the Montague Rocksbury school I do the second I don't think we can adopt we haven't gone through the morning process sorry we'll think about it though a couple meetings this is going to be stuck in the consent agenda we're not even going to pay attention to it wait I'm not even willing to go to the couple how about you feel strongly enough about it so it could go in next meetings consent agenda it hasn't been warned and it's only seven days until the next meeting I try I know now we've got it I think we've got it put it on autopilot December 6 I'm sending it to you thank you very much the worst thing to do is write as a committee and you've done very well thank you to your guys incredibly I move we adjourn I move we adjourn all in favor aye closed