 Six oh one p.m. Thank you. Are there any adjustments to the agenda? All right, I'm hearing none. So we'll move forward. We normally skip assigning times or timekeepers So We will continue with that tradition and move forward Do we have any public comments at this time? Hearing none, we'll move forward to the consent agenda. Before us, we have the minutes of our Tuesday, September 21st Regular meeting. I would entertain a motion to approve those minutes I'll make a motion to approve the minutes Okay, do we have a second? All second. Thank you All in favor of approving the minutes of September 21st, 2021. Please say aye Aye Peggy, I didn't hear you Okay, I'll say aye. All right. Thank you for the minutes are approved Um, do we have any board comments this evening? Hearing none, we can come back to that if somebody wants to jump in later and comment Um, so we can move on to reports to the board Um, which we've been in such a timely manner tonight. Thank you Uh, so good evening, and you have my report in hand. Um, I don't know if any of you took the time I also did a video out to the community on Friday Um, I don't really have a ton more to add Other than the report in that video. Um, I do believe there's also going to be an editorial this week, um, in the Herald Um, from me that's going to be speaking Um, just to the work that we're doing in regards to COVID-19 Um, and again just to reach out and thank all of our educators who I think have been working incredibly hard I think when you look at the academic data, there's some real celebrations that the principals will point out to you tonight Um, you know when you stop pause And think about, um, the fact that we've been still growing and moving forward as an organization Um, even in the midst of the pandemic, I think there's a ton to celebrate and so Um, I'm just really proud of all the folks work and uh, And um, you know, we're in the thick of budget season tonight We'll talk a little bit about that. That's just a first draft Just on student support. You'll start to get a much bigger picture next month Um, so we're prepared to share that with you too and I'll take any questions folks have Any questions for jay mcconning our superintendent? Hey hearing none, we'll move forward to the principals report Thank you. Uh, as you know, there's three of us, but I would just jump in on the on the first Goal and how we, um, reacted to that one of the pieces was We're using, um, something called data wise step by step guide and we're working with UBEI the upper valley educators institute and there's not just the administrators There's a bunch of teachers and adventures And su wide but we're looking internally using those those Um concepts to look at our data and work to improve Academic social emotional So we actually have one of those club. We're taking a course. I think there's like eight Eight sessions and number two is or number three is uh this thursday So You want to talk about flexible pathways read? Yeah So, uh, as you have heard before we're working on flexible pathways We've got a bunch of students who are in some alternative Learning programs with their unique plans this year Many more than in the past. So it's exciting to be increasing our capacity to do that We are also working on our parent student teacher conferences coming up in just three weeks so Two things that are going on. Yeah, and I think that could lead into goal three Do you want to say anything or I can why did you do that and I'll mount it to the Better part. Okay, so In goal three, that's the community outreach and connections piece The parent teacher conference is a natural built-in one, right? The way that we're working on that the older the kid gets the more they run the conference And it's not like your parents or grandparents conference It really is driven by the kid the older they get And so as an example in the middle school We are taking time in our pod work to have kids develop those conferences And to use the structure that we use every day in our advisory Which is a big slide with multiple links and the kids will present those and walk their parents through those pieces We also have agreed upon a whole Uh the week of November 8th, which is a short week for us. We have a Veterans day in there and then there's a comp day for teachers to do conferences So we're trying to have everybody do the conferences in the same batch So families can pay attention to that and and it works for them Okay, one more piece about the community outreach piece and We now have share with the su of communications Coordinator Kate McLean she's doing a great job. She's met with us several times and we're talking about how do we Use social media better. How do we use our newsletter better? And also she's going to be organizing that there's a regular Section in the herald for for schools not just ours, but for the su Those are some updates on community outreach You want to then transition into the data? Well 8.1s data Okay, sorry But you can lean on that down there unless you want to add anything up here No Any questions, we're happy to have them today or tonight or another time. All right hearing none. We'll move forward To our business managers report Good evening, everyone. You have my report the update I'll provide on the f y 21 audit is that the audit was finished in person last week And the auditors continue to complete what needs to be done remotely and current projection is to have The drafts the third and fourth week of november And if anyone has any questions Any questions? All right. Thank you very much. We will move on to the policy committee update Which I guess is me So the policy committee It looked at a new draft. It's not it is and isn't a substantive change From our previous draft Glenn Wiley from strafford pulled out everything that was a procedure because We had some feedback from don Shaw from Sharon about the fact that our policies should not contain Procedures and we felt that just testing cleaner. So we agreed to that Which led to some different definitions being moved around within the policy just because in terms of formatting that made the most sense So substantively it's the same policy, but it is a we're on the fifth draft now. It is a We we continue to hear From some voices and I should say They're really the same voices who Show up at our policy committee meeting With concerns about moving forward with the policy From Bethel and Royalton the feedback that I continue to receive and I think other Board members continue to receive is that it is a really important policy for us to move ahead with I don't know if there's anything else that I should add. You were at the meeting too. Yeah, no, I mean I'll just add the the The plan was for the full board to take this up on monday Um, we need 10 days in the paper to adopt policy And so we're not going to meet make that deadline due to when the policy committee met So I think at the full board we're going to need to talk about if we want to do a special meeting in a wagon wheel Possibly to take up the policy work Because we also didn't look at a revision in another policy And so we're going to have that discussion monday night and we've have done policy that way in the past At least under my tenure and it's worked well because we did get it worn and all adopted the same evening So I think we just got to feel that out There's been a lot of comment and discussion on it. So you know what I mean? Like I feel like a wagon wheel might be a way that we could do that Right chris Thank you Yeah, I would just say that I think yeah a wagon wheel or something like that would be good to To get it done I don't know. I've been in some of those meetings where dawn brought up that concern. Uh, but I guess you know for me, I went back and looked it up like For for me where I work, you know for the romances college is every policy includes procedure With it too and I did some research and it looks like it's like 5050. Some people say you should do it Other people say you shouldn't so But if you know, I guess none of our other policies really include procedures. So I guess we're staying consistent with what our other policies look like but personally for me I was fine with procedures being in there just so that then it was clear for everybody but That's fine Thank you any other feedback on the policy committee work All right, that brings us to our I'll just say Really quickly. I think if we're not going to include procedures there. We need to make it very clear where they are Um, especially on a policy like this that has had some controversy So that everyone's on the same page if something happens and knows exactly where to look Okay, okay Grace our student report um, so student council has thought of three topics to bring up. Um, first one. We had a good turnout for our first dance every year It's a very important student We do not charge for it since it's the first it's the year so it had to be free but looking at that We should probably get some good revenue Second one is the Lena up program that is at our school now Kids in the student council think it's very beneficial, but would like in the future maybe for it to be Ta at a whole school level and not just in small groups like it is now We know due to covet that that's why it's in small groups But maybe in the future if we can figure it out to have it maybe during like a morning meeting or As an assembly or something um And then third is the wider valley high school performing arts center Um, I'm on the planning committee for that as well so This is the Layout that we have agreed upon Um So the banding course room now are The same space as it will be shown here In the performing arts center, but it is very small now. So this will be almost 3,000 square feet in size Um, and it'll be a great Improvement from what we have now. Um, there'll be extra storage. There'll be Toilets and bathrooms In the area as well with some gym storage still available attached to the gyms we have now um, I think there's a new Walkway to get to the area as well so I know heard that Does he do this this was just delivered to us late friday by the architect Um, in in regards to feedback we gave him on wednesday afternoon at our last committee meeting. So Sorry, we I don't have a drawing other than this To share with you and that's why it's this kind of popping up here But it sounds like a good future agenda item too and there was a grant that that Allowed the planning of this to happen and then whether or not the the building Renovation moves forward is something that will be taken up in the future, correct? Yeah, so so we'd like to ask the the board from the Performing arts committee If we can have a half hour of the board's time with our december meeting to have the architect come in and present the proposal to you Our our intention is to do development work privately and tries to try to raise the money through a grant We've got a conservative estimate About a million and a half dollars for this But that's based on current Covid pandemic level square foot pricing. So we think it'll probably come in a little bit Lower than that and that's just the back of that in calculation. But Essentially what we'd be be doing is dramatically increasing the amount of space available for our music program To practice both in small practice rooms and in a group Room that's a little bit more fitting to a high school music program It's hard to see this diagram from from where you're sitting if you're remote But this would go in front of the original gym to the building So where there's grass now and out into the bus loop that's there is where we would get the 3000 square feet of space We need for this practice room And it would would build off of Entryway to the stage so it would be part of the whole performing arts piece So it would be easy to move equipment from the band room right onto the stage for musical performances And there are a lot more detail to that and benefits to that We could probably go on and on It's exciting Just to let you know that this isn't the works and we have a plan to bring to you A well-developed proposal from the architect in two months Thank you. So This doesn't include then like a dedicated performance space or auditorium. It's just expansion Correct, I'm sorry. I can't see the picture from here. So yeah It doesn't include a performance space, but it it is to include a Facelift for the existing performing art space So when our last walk through around the building, for example, we talked about well, what can we do about this? This basketball backboard that drops down in front of the stage Can we replace it with something a little bit more modern that that would get out of the way? You know what what kinds of risers or different seating and we provide in a Storage space that might be able to be wheeled out to make the space feel like more than a gym When we have a concert It would also give a significant facelift to the front of the building With a new entry way that would be at the corner of where the old gym meets the new gym. So Somewhat of a fancy entrance way that would bring people into the the performing space at a night of a concert And allow people to park in the front or back of the building and come through It entrance into the back of the the theater stage area As opposed to walking in through a narrow corridor past what used to be locker rooms to get here Can you uh, can you send out a digital version of that or uh, yeah, I'll work on getting a digital version out for y'all Thank you That was your report. Thank you. That's exciting Okay Okay task force updates, please Yeah, um, so andrew and andra and renae hinton and i met uh two weeks ago We have another meeting I believe coming up on 21st, I don't know if it's coming monday or the monday after it may might be the monday after due to soccer And um, what we articulated was really We've got a pretty good work plan to come forward to you as a board to talk about A proposal to have kind of a two-year plan to really increase our programming for pre-k students um And look at it in regards to a phase around are we meeting their needs academically right now during the school day? Right like is that the type of program we want to have do we want to expand that? And also looking at childcare Um, that expands from before school to after school And then also looking into providing more childcare programming in the summer And looking to use a model around charging subsidy For for aftercare To help fund the positions to make that possible. And so The that group is jumping right on board with that Yeah, we emailed Are reached out to pre-k parents to see if we could get some parents to be on the the committee And we already had somebody raise their hand for that. I think we have somebody joining us from magic mountain as representation So I think it'll be great to hear their voices and perspectives too So I expect some surveys to go out To continue to gather feedback around need Although it does seem like the needs definitely they are Based on other feedback we've gathered So I think we're going to be looking to come to you this year for What that means for the budget for next year? Um, and then what might that mean for the budget for the year after I think we're looking at by maybe a two-phase plan potentially So if that's exciting and then the other task force was the uh recruitment and and um Outreach group. Yep And that has Shannon Owen and Ayane and Kate and Owen go for sure and Shannon join in as you like, um We had a very good robust meeting in our first gathering and We have some great ideas And that we are looking at how do we How do we develop a not just like a one time thing but a culture of Of celebrating who we are And using students to help So we've talked about Grace She wasn't there But uh that we might use some school board members and there's two middle school students who are developing a video about the middle school experience And I think we could probably push that also into the high school and and really share like that what that looks like And we talked about reaching out to those communities very specifically so that that have sending What are they sending rights or privileges or they they need to choose a school And one of the things we have is some kids that Are attending our school in the middle school that are loving it that we think might be able to talk to other students in the sending schools So those were some ideas right and and uh kate mclean Was going to put together some some ideas and so we would have some stuff that would be media ready So that task force is meeting again in two weeks and we also just so you know Ran with the concept on that task force and membership. We have two other district principals joining Because we felt like we needed to get some buy-in and investment from sending school district principals To assist us this work with this work And then we're also reaching out to get some more community input too from sending school districts The and there is another initial idea of holding some Just drop in forums as a task force to gather information From our sending towns about what is it that parents are looking for? Right like what is like what is it that you're looking for when you when you think about what's going to be a great school choice for your child? And so we're going to gather some of that field that feedback To make a lot longer term plan as well This group also though Is know that we're continuing to talk about too around outreach just about our different modes of communication Um and behind the scenes. I think it was mentioned earlier, but there is discussion around How to make uh certain our facebook is painting a narrative for the entire pre k-12 system I feel like right now we do a good job of giving a narrative at the middle school I think we can do a better job at our elementary and high school I think we have a lot of great things going on that we need to really showcase So that work is happening behind the scenes also We are due for a facelift on our website and that work is underway as well Just so you folks know so We'll continue to meet and and work on those areas All right It's good. It was a good meeting All right Our fall academic report Yeah Yeah, so um, I think that there is a lot of great stuff to celebrate So we wrapped up our universal screenings of all of our kiddos And it kind of lists out on the top all the different screenings we do for different ages And I think this is the first time that It's like the beginning where this is everyone's back in school So this is a nice baseline report about how how are the children's is how they are And I think it's a lot to celebrate with all the good work Our teachers have done over the last challenging bit of time to keep our kids learning because If you if you look at the skills scores, we're we're making some gains or we're doing not too bad, right? Especially given that this is our first baseline data report so I just want to remind everybody that we've got a new math program that we just started launching so On the both elementary campuses. So this is really year one for us as far as Rolling that out. Um, so while I think math doesn't look too bad I have high hopes for how it's going to look in the future as we continue to work together with professional development around it And training for teachers and as the kids get more used to it And I think as we dig into it a little bit too Being this is like your three of the literacy work and we know wherever we're always working on it. It's not It's never done even though we just have had a lot of training You know, we know right now We were working a lot more on the phonics work and the word work and kind of digging into how we're doing that And to do it a little bit better and a little different And I think we're seeing some gains coming from that as well. So I think what My feeling is it's the big kudos to the teachers and all the hard work and caring This and caring the kids through through this learning So I would uh, I want to talk a little bit about the middle school and how how it's uh, Panned out and I would agree with andra and we were talking about today a group of us in That literacy seems to be bearing fruit in the pandemic Which you know, this is back from summer and back at business and we had kids take these assessments right away And we have a little growth there in literacy and I'll focus on the middle school piece And we also know that if you compare us to the state that we are also Very much like the state in the middle school except switching to math now We see that we have some work to do there And I don't think our hair is on fire or we don't have a crisis But we have been approaching this in the model like andra was saying of a continuous improvement mindset So here we are we have now A match set of programming in the middle school in the elementary school with envision And we need to look at I believe our middle into high school math programming Because if you read I don't want to take a thunder, but when they get up into the high school they start to catch back up mathematically in the scaled scores so We're um, we're excited to work on this and we're excited to have some math focus this year We have several teachers taking a class math as a second language And we also have some Money set aside in title money to support this work, whether it's professional development Or looking at programming or looking at tech technical experts that can help us And I would also add the data of weisberg. We're doing Focuses on math so Even today when we met about the data wise and how to look at the data and how to use the data and that whole process It's with the lens of like, okay What is the math data point that we're going to hone in on as a whole school to focus on? So I think that's exciting as well And if you just notice andra was putting me that shutting me back down so reek could have some In the nicest of ways Could you scroll up just a little bit right? So as you're looking at your report one of It maybe this is because i'm partially red green colorblind But when I look at this the orange really pops And I say oh my gosh, we're not even 50 proficient in reading my goodness. What what's going on here? The orange color is the number of students who are not Meeting expectations. So we're actually at about two-thirds of students who are at Grade level expectations or above so the story and reading and this is this is true All the way through the grades that the literacy work we've been doing over the last three years has been paying off And and we're seeing that the majority of our students are proficient or above In reading and our focus now turns to math and You can see when we look at the scale score We're doing about what's going on with the rest of the state But the picture around the state is it necessarily as good as we'd like it to be And so here the the blue represents the number of our students who are meeting or exceeding proficiency expectations And we we've got our some work ahead of us and we've begun that and excited for the the math team Vertical alignment teams that are meeting to talk about curriculum Especially how one grade feeds into another while we may have been doing great work in individual grades with our programs We haven't done enough communicating between grade eight and grade nine grade nine and grade 10 So that each year we're building on the successes and strengths of the previous year And not being redundant, but are really tackling students growth needs so With that said when you look at the the ninth grade scores Some of what they're being tested on is algebra And students are just in their third week of algebra when they're taking this test So their algebra scores don't look great unless they took algebra in middle school And the same is true in the tenth grade that students have been tested on geometry But most of us but three quarters of our students don't touch geometry as a distinct subject until they get to tenth grade So we should see some improvement even throughout the course of the year because of the nature of what's being tested Awesome. I think the summary is there's generally good momentum and we're excited to continue that And there's plans in place to improve the areas that that are lagging I think we were lucky we were in person as much as we were. Yes Thank you All right Any questions about that? all right That brings us to our student support budget slash budget presentation So this is like as you remember we focused on just giving a focus on personnel and the in the current function codes that correspond with each one of these departments This is just a first draft of this. I think you're going to see this look a little different Next month and then next month you're going to get the rest of your personnel just as a reminder And and by next month, we're going to be starting to look for some more from From our direction for you just around You know, yes, we want you to continue to focus on increasing programming and pathways right, but We want to make certain that that doesn't come at the cost of Intervention I'll just I'm not that we're doing that. I'm just I'm just giving you as an example Right. So as we start to paint this picture the way we're going about budgeting Is the same way we did last year is around If we want to add something new we're trying to find a way to pay for just so you know, right? So we're trading out Instead of just looking to add on Um, and so what you'll see here is that even last what we have done this current fiscal year Is we traded out a guidance counselor who left we felt like we were going to struggle To find a high quality guidance counselor at the beffel campus At middle, uh, well, uh, we had someone leave here in royalton. We maneuvered a guidance counselor nicole moth over here at the high school Which I think you know has has worked exceptionally well And what that result in is us deciding We really felt like we needed pathways at the middle school program to build those skills to get students prepared to engage in pathways at the high school So we've made a decision to bring on another pathways coordinator We're still wrestling As an admin team. I think the admin team will continue to work on this with their student support team around Do we have all the positions the way we we want them? Or is there any more tweaking that needs to happen? And I would say that part of the I think the concern of us being to answer that question right now Is that we really haven't fully got up to staff and got everyone Doing what we need then what we envisioned them to do right and there's multiple reasons for that short staff Some people are taking on responsibilities and we're originally going to be assigned So That's one of the things we're still wrestling with so I would say This is a First draft attempt to capture what I think the principals are looking toward in the direction of a focused around the budget And if I was as the superintendent, I would say to you. I think it's maintaining intervention Making certain that we continue to build on our system, but also looking to continue to um Ensure that we can provide high-quality pathway programming And so that's where we're at kind of as priorities right now You can see based on this first this first Um Attempt that we are up in student support. You'll see the fte's and intervention are up that it you'll see a corresponding move in universal instruction Um that will increase some fte so right now we budgeted for Some teachers to be universal instructors right like in the elementary grades where we maybe didn't have a need based on enrollment So they're now doing some intervention is what they're doing and so Again as we start to project out class sizes things of that nature those numbers could fluctuate but right now That's what we're at fte wise and that's k through 12 Um, sorry pre k through 12 around intervention Um Because we have some pieces of teachers at the high school level too Who are doing intervention during their their instructional day? Anything else to add guys that's good Questions about this. I think it'll become a lot clearer in november when you see the rest of your personnel And start to get a sense If the board felt like they had a strong direction or focus around like a policy statement that you wanted to give us That would be helpful as we're building this next, you know draft too, which has student support And the rest of your instructional staff Um so that you know, we're not all of a sudden Going in a different direction in november So if there's some people that have some strong opinions now it would be just good to hear them any anyone in the grid with Opinions or want to to weigh in on a direction as jamey just asked Shannon I have about just a really basic question. So i'm looking at for example the co-curricular director of mine What's included in that? Because it says one fte, but i'm going to have a lot more than an fte Yeah, it's all the other function codes. Tara. Do you want to explain how those are just rolled up? So would that include like transportation for athletics? Okay Yes, so under the co-curricular director, it's a 1.0 fte for that position But it includes currently all the object codes that are within the co-curricular So that's going to be your transportation your coaches your sporting events Materials supplies uniforms any of that stuff a lot of that hasn't been adjusted yet But we rolled them up together last year. So we continue that process this year So it's anything that's under if you look at your actual budget from 22 It's anything that's under the function 1400 So thank you. And so shannon in december though you will get What you're used to with all the budget lines. So we try to keep it more focused on Personnel, which is a big driver of your budget And a focus on like what is the direction of the district the first two budget drafts And then we got into more of the nitty gritty in december in january before you approved So i'm seeing that we have two SAPs to be funded by esser And two clinicians to be funded by esser My I guess my only concern about that is What's our plan to continue to provide those services beyond when esser money Goes away because my suspicion is that student need is going to exist well beyond when we have esser funds well No, it's a great question. And so I think if you said to me jamie, what's your strategy? I think it's a three pronged approach Is one That we will still have some Medicaid funds and things of that nature to cover them When we use Medicaid funds now to cover nurses and other districts and things so we do know that we have Medicaid funds available Two Is that my hope is as we continue to work hard to increase tuition students. We're going to increase our revenue Okay So that is part of how i'm hoping to cover some of that increased revenue And then three I hope is our system strengthens That we will need less intervention We do have a lot of intervention Um and the principal said heard me say this over and over and our interventions are doing great But I would say the the level of need right now around universal around intervention I think should decrease Over time and we're talking about three years from now. So I do think we can again trade out some things To help cover some of those costs But we have talked about the need Um to ensure too that we're building in some things in the budget Um to ensure that we are preparing ourselves that it's not all of a sudden just ripped out from under us And so I think as we're getting more direction from the board in the community about what they can Or cannot support that will certainly adjust what we'll actually be able to build in this upcoming year Um, that's what we discussed even just today. Perfect that concept Yeah, I also really support the idea of building flexible pathways. I appreciate that that work is undergoing under Um, I have a question about the co-curricular director's budget. Um, you were mentioning a lot about like, um athletics Is that also put into like performing arts as well? Or how is that like split up or whatever? Yes, the the performing arts budget is a part of the co-curricular budget, although the teachers who support The course program the band program they come out of their own categories and sheet music and instrument repair and lessons comes out of Different line items in the budget that are separate So we we still have a music program that's part of the academic program But the after-school part falls under the co-curricular Okay, so more so more of like, um, like a spring useful that we have or Yeah, we pull the money for those out of the co-curricular budget and not the music budget Good question grace All right. Thank you Any other questions about that very first draft of the budget that we're getting to glimpse? All right Our next um action slash possible action item Is for board clerk Yeah, so this is lisa's role. It was lisa's role. Yeah um and so I did give you guys that handy dandy chart about roles of the board This is really about ensuring that the minutes get posted within five days Um, it is they do assist us with our annual report, right? In the decades taking care of although I will say That your your clerk of the board who certifies your results and everything pan does a great job assisting us, right? And so for us really it is about and terror jump in if they do more but At least on my end, it's ensuring the minutes get posted, right? Like our warnings getting up And posted in appropriate places. Those are the biggest responsibilities that we're looking for in this role here at the board level The that they yes, if your clerk isn't doing the notes your note taker would then turn the Notes over from each the minutes from each of your meetings over to your clerk the clerk reviews them Signs off on them and then submits them to christie as jamie said but then the five days so that they can get posted Then to make sure that all your legal postings are where they need to be and all your warnings are where they need to be And also in some boards the clerk also is the one who writes responses to correspondence So those types of roles So we don't I I don't think the clerk has ever physically made sure that they're getting posted I mean christie emails them to the town clerks, etc in the offices of the schools, correct? You guys are yeah, you you're Other towns we've had to have them start checking because they are getting posted Which is concerning when you assume they are and right for a big s you and they're not but right I would say in general in your towns that it doesn't seem to have been an issue It has been to some of my other districts. So I have asked That word clerk to just go look and confirm Okay, just to ensure that we're you know that we're invited by the meeting lots But I'm I'm willing to fill that role if nobody else wants to do it through the end of my term Which is in five years. She said no, which is in five months. She said I'll nominate lisa floyd to be a board clerk. All right, good thing. She's taken the notes Okay, is there a second for that nomination I'll second that. Thank you All in favor do we have to do that if nobody else okay all in favor of lisa floyd being the clerk um Until march say I I I I any opposed Okay, I guess I'm the clerk again Thank you all right resignations and new fires So as far as resignations go Are we good? Yeah, okay Um, we did uh have a resignation Of our teaching staff elin huger bar. It's actually in a retire Okay And it's going to be Formal notice that she's going to retire january 28th will be her last day that she has an application for early retirement Which will be submitted effective february 1st. So Galen's going to be retiring. She's had a very long tenure with us She's impacted a ton of students and families. She's served on the pto as well I know for a long time and is is really a valued member of our educational community So it's really with a heavy heart that I bring this to you. So Galen has has an outset is my understanding I was looking at andra because I don't like to do this until her colleagues know and it sounds like her colleagues are aware And so I bring that to you And we will start the process tomorrow I'm looking for a replacement for that that position Do we need to accept that risk that or? Um, I would like you to accept it just because we're in the actual midst of a contract Yep, yeah with regrets and wishing her the best in retirement So I would entertain an emotion to accept that with regret I'd make a motion to accept it. I accept the Nation with regret and wish her well on retirement I'll second that Thank you. All in favor. Please say I Hi I'm going to abstain. Can you tell me who resigned? I just went for a dead spot. I'm so sorry No, it's all right ashen Galen hugerbart has announced a resignation affecting january 28 And she's going to retire effective february 1. No, it's all right So are you saying hi, or are you still abstaining? I'm an eye Any opposed Any abstentions Okay, thank you I do wish her well in her retirement Do we have any public comments? Oh, just a minute just to give the board an update. It's not a licensed professional So it doesn't need action from the board, but we were able to secure an admin assistant Which is really good news. Um, and do you guys want to just talk about that? That's started and started onboarding And this is on the royal thin campus Are you talking or eating? I'm sorry You go ahead. It's okay. I yeah, we have a we've had a hard time finding a lot of candidates. Uh, so And right now I'm spacing on her name. So it's so good Bridget Fortier. So she uh, let me do this. Yeah. Thank you. No, Bridget. So Bridget will be with us Bridget for near Bridget for near and so she'll be with us the daily until about 115 every day So she's partially doing student and she's had a lot of experience before this Being was in a receptionist roles and she already has kind of hit the ground running being very helpful with people and I think she's a perfect fit actually All right, perfect Her last name spelled f-o-r-t-n-e-r. I don't know if you were right in that. Oh, Fortier Fortier or f-o-r-t-n-e-r f-o-r-t-n-e-r. Yeah, I totally got it right. So she just just moved to town Because of a partner in uh, the law school. Awesome. Thank you. I think you've been here three weeks four weeks now So, yeah, we're I think we're really excited. Um I'll say, you know, I interview everybody that we bring on board and I I found my discussion to be A really positive one. I feel like it's a real good fit and has the personality to really succeed In the position. So I'm feeling really good about it Fabulous All right, that brings us to public comments Peggy Gainesworth says raise your hand Okay, um, I'm speaking on behalf of the bca. That's my other hat um and Just having to just giving notice or suggestions or looking For us to discuss sometime along before town meeting and our budget votes as a school board We have the Choice if we want to do mailing about mail ballots to everybody when it comes time to vote The Local bca and so on would handle everything, but we would be responsible for the Expenses of the postage and all that stuff So the town clerk wanted me to bring that up so that we could discuss it sometime So that was my comment. Okay So we would be responsible for the mailing its expense, et cetera um Yeah, that's worth noting I think this is for just the election of officers though. Hey, correct Because the the law is going to run out Sunset in regards to your actual your vote. So my understanding is this would just be for your election of officers That could be I'm I was assuming probably the budget might be in there too. I've I haven't read the whole thing over thoroughly I was assuming because because we we vote for budget by australian ballot two, don't we? Only I thought only during the pandemic which sunsets have our meeting and that will sunset very soon Okay, all right Yeah, I will follow up with Pam brown to you the clerk or the board because she had reached out to me about this And I said, you know from the bevel side to Peggy Um, and I said that I would be following up with you folks, but she indicated to me was Just for the election of officers Um, okay component, but I will double check on that too with legal Yeah, okay, and how is the town doing their balloting? Um I have not heard anything about doing any about mailing out ballots to everybody. So I have not heard anything I know we have a meeting coming up sometime, but I again, I haven't paid attention to Well, I think my inclination would be to do what the town does, you know, like if the town is doing their town meeting stuff and positions By mail in and maybe it would make sense for us to include in that But if they're not then That's true, I know battle doesn't intend to Doesn't intend to do any mail out. I don't believe so that was the inclination I got I can double check Yeah, this is Shannon. I agree on the officer piece to do what the town does probably makes sense, but I think it's a bigger discussion about whether or not we vote the budget from the floor since that's traditionally what we've always done Well, unless we're provided by statute the opportunity. I don't think you're going to be by the way Until you vote but from the floor to move your votes Australian ballot We're going to be required by law to hold it from right. Yes Okay And I'm pretty certain that sunset is effective December 31st, right That's what I was thinking too. So So people could still have their absentee ballots But the math mailings that happened during that first spring of the pandemic probably would not happen Okay That brings us to others and not hearing any other So executive session personnel Just me Okay, I'm happy to thank you all. Oh, we need a motion to enter executive session Under executive session for personal matter Using all these different online meeting platforms You zoom during the day and google meets at night Yeah Well, if it's a doctor's visit then it's doxy me or something like that and if it's some other visit It's some other zooming platform The conference, uh, mike is muted still So, uh, what we were going to say what we said was we have the white river valley high school performing arts center on december Also the rfq For the energy audit that's wrapped up. We've only had one person apply So I do need to get a waiver again from the agency of ag because we only have one person apply That shouldn't be a problem So we'll be looking to move forward and take action Next month on awarding the audit and then the audit will start Underway swift week So that's good news and then once the audit is completed. They'll give us that information To inform how we want to go about that process So i'm hoping that they're actually going to hopefully start doing the audit the plan was be To hopefully maybe complete some of them before even the holiday break Awesome I'm doing a dead plowing and the plowing dead. Yep for november Anything else for the future agendas? Of course budget's going to be on there again Every month. Of course. Yep All right Our next meeting will be tuesday november 16th at 6 p.m. On the Bethel campus I would entertain a motion to adjourn That moved Second All right, and we adjourn at 7 12. Have a good night everyone. All right. Good night. Good night