 Okay Do we have any adjustments to the agenda? I'd like to I have one question that I was just talking to I'd like to know how many Classrooms are short the smart board and what the time frame is on getting them the new ones in there, okay? Doesn't have to be complicated or just why don't we just do that during board comment you can okay bring that question up Okay, then we'll move to the consent agenda to approve the minutes of Tuesday October 17 Regular meeting and the meeting minutes of Tuesday October 19th special Board retreat. Yeah, I Move to approve. Okay. No second any discussion All those in favor say aye. Hi, thank you and Rodney. Are you guys? Yeah You there Peggy, okay. Well, we certainly All right, well the minutes are approved Move to public comment Correspondents Or any public comment at the moment, okay? Can you hear me? Yep? Okay, I Would abstain from voting on the minutes because I wasn't there for them anyway. Okay. All right, then we'll move to board comments just I'd like to know how many of those smart boards we have down and Maybe we can get some kind of idea of when we're gonna have them up like I'm not asking for the answer now but like how many actually do we have and Okay, so we're actually leveraging ESSER funds to replace all the smart boards throughout all the the SU with interactive televisions that Function just like a smart board, but it's an interaction an interactive monitor And so those are going up throughout all of our schools and have to be in place by the end of this coming summer Okay, so Ray can speak to exactly what the timeline is and I'm happy to have an email. Okay It's just a new question to me and it's just been given to me. So Yeah, no, I'll ask Ray to update the board at the board meeting. Awesome. Also, you know it out to the redboard awesome Okay Any other board comments? I mean Yeah, I have a comment. I went to the RQCC board meeting They have like four of them a year. Yeah, I attended the last one November 8th and everything's going good there and They're actually added in a couple more courses we're gonna try to add a couple more courses for next year one on like veterinary clinic Taking care of animals type thing and another one that's I think it was psychology. I was just looking for my notes. I can't find them, but I think one on psychology and one on Animal care The animal care one would be well appreciated by the veterinary community Right, and it's you know, basically it's an introduction to veterinary clear Okay Yeah, everything seems to be going good for the RQCC people Thanks. I think I just had a question and maybe it's not even a question but the I think everybody kind of got caught with Some of the weather that we had the other day, but it seemed like our school parking lots were pretty icy the other day And the only reason why this ask question is with our Lawn care and our winter bids here lately. We've kind of been like, you know, we're waiting for the lawn bid to come in but we So we're It's just a matter of Jacob Jacob actually at the Bethel campus moving wood chips for us I think it just got caught him off. Okay. Well, I just got thinking like okay. I'm hoping we're not like You know laps on getting getting something in there, but it was pretty at both campuses It was pretty slippery tractor parked right out front now Okay, so those were three-year contracts that we had done both for For summer and winter maintenance, okay, I'll combine. Yeah, gotcha Okay, unless there's more board comment and look to the celebration of learning So I should have let Cristina we updated the look more clear about foundations and Hagerty eventually It's actually Kathy Fector shared a celebration of learning on design thinking and so that was what I wanted to share I'm gonna make sure you have that Parker you have it I'm gonna send it to you Or I can do it from my It's gonna make sure it's shared with you so you can I know it's shared with Ray. I didn't know you were gonna be here. Sorry It'd be fair. It's not usually me. Did you get the link? Awesome. So you'll have to wait for foundations and Hagerty for next week I'm Kathy Fector and I teach English language arts to grades three four and five at White River Valley Schools Bethel campus This summer at create make learns summer Institute workshop I learned about a human-centered approach to problem solving called design thinking Design thinking has been around for decades countless successful companies have used design thinking to engineer innovative products But only more recently has design thinking made its entry into classrooms for hands-on learning As I plan for the beginning of this school year. I searched for a project That would build classroom By having kids start to get to know each other. I wanted something that was accessible to all students Develop transferable skills and as a bonus would generate authentic and engaged writing a design thinking challenge called Design a utensil was perfect for meeting these goals Kids designed a utensil for their partner to help their partner eat a favorite food The project took students through each of design thinking's five stages empathy define ideate prototype and test Students worked in pairs First they interviewed each other about their favorite food and took notes on what problems their partners had eating their favorite food This is the empathy stage where the designer finds out the user's needs This requires listening communication and note-taking For example, Rhea and Perrin were partners during the interview Perrin found out that Rhea likes tacos But they fall apart when she eats them Next in the defined stage Perrin defined the problem that his user Rhea needed him to solve This was tricky Kids kept repeating the problem instead of defining it It wasn't enough to say Rhea needs her taco to not fall apart Instead the definition of the problem in design thinking terms was that Rhea needed her taco to stay together Kids struggled to understand the distinction, which is good. We call that productive struggle There were a lot of light bulb moments in this stage as students realized the distinction between repeating a problem and using design thinking to define it After students defined the problem, they entered the ideate stage where designers allow their creativity to run wild Students sketched out four ideas for solving their user's problem From there they narrowed it down to one idea to build The prototype stage was next where designers build a 3d prototype of their design Excitement frustration and perseverance our room had all of these going on at all times during prototyping Growth mindset was key We only had cardboard cardboard tape and recycled materials to work with Kids shared materials consulted each other for help and encouraged each other when their prototypes fell apart Finally it was time for the test stage where designers test their prototypes to see how well they work Problem was we couldn't put food into these cardboard prototypes. No worries Instead students tested their prototypes by getting feedback from their users on how well they thought the prototype would work and What to do to improve it? Students wrote reflections on each stage of the process It required them to put a lot of thought into how to describe and explain their thinking We finished the project in time to enter a display of our inventions in the Tumbridge Fair We won a blue ribbon as if that wasn't enough Create Make Learns director Lucy De La Brewer Invited us to create a podcast about our design thinking project. So this extended their reflection and learning Welcome to the create make learn podcast Where we travel to schools around Vermont to find out how they are learning through creating and making Today we are at Ethel Elementary School where students kicked off the school year learning about design thinking Our guests on today's episode will be Miss Kathy Fedker and her grade four and five students Lucy and I interviewed each one of 50 students kids prepared for the interview wrote scripts and rehearsed When they stepped up to the blue Yeti podcasting microphone to speak in front of the whole class They knew every word was being recorded for the public There was so much footage it took three episodes to cover it all And if you can believe it kids hosted the last episode which will air this week Welcome to episode three of create make learns design thinking podcast Miss Fector and Lucy asked us kids to host this final episode about our design thinking project. My name is sky And I'm I'll say we're here to talk about the last stage of design thinking the testing stage Inventors test their prototypes to see how well their prototypes work. I Was invited to present and demonstrate this design thinking project at Vermont Fest in early November It was exciting to see other educators inspired by my class design thinking builds clear and effective communication and Creative and practical problem-solving it gives students a platform for purposeful writing as Memorable as this entire project was there was one point of the project that actually got me all choked up Lucy and I asked kids one question. They hadn't prepared for we asked them If they had a team of experts and an unlimited supply of materials What problem would they solve with design thinking? Their answers were genuine and powerful Here's one example So core let's say you're giving money and a team of experts And you can invent anything you want. What type of problem would you solve? I would solve kind of like Like the problem of people being homeless or houseless Um, I would kind of create like a machine that could find like recycled parts or use stuff for trash to make Tiny houses that can be like port transported anywhere to like the side of a beach or Like on the side of the road somewhere That has like solar panel heating or stuff like that in electricity. Oh my gosh, very amazing I'm Zoe and that wraps up our podcast right Bryce, right Zoe a class really liked our design thinking project in our class Helps you have really liked here Thank you for listening I'm very proud of the learning connection and growth my students experienced through this design thinking project If you're interested in hearing the podcast head to create make learn dot blog spot dot com Thank you for giving me the opportunity to celebrate their learning What I appreciated the most I mean I appreciate all the work that Kathy's gone into it But I appreciate in reflection the connection between her summer learning, you know This is a class she took in the summer How she as the literacy teacher figured out how she could fold it in and make it work And just how she brought it into the connection to the greater world for the podcast so Very exciting stuff Yeah, that's great Like that last question where you take it something like at school and like Bring it forward And here Anybody have any questions about that or comments on the celebration of learning Is there any chance that we can access that I Would mind watching it again. I think they all get uploaded to the WRVSU website eventually So there's a whole yeah, you can watch you can look back to past celebrations of learning there by school They're listed We'll probably also share it on the Facebook page Great Then we're on the superintendent reports Jamie. It's hard to follow those those types of celebrations of learning Yeah, that's the second time I've been able to watch that video and that this time without any interruptions. It's just so powerful Now so I'll send Kathy a notice while Andrew So Really what I wanted to add to my report is I don't know how many board members were able to attend the act 127 Training that the VSA and VSBA held Last week a video did just come out. That's on the VSBA website I'll send that with the I'll share that with the full board tomorrow morning in case you haven't You know what I would say is it gave a good 10,000 foot view of Act 127 and how ed funding is changing Specifically going from equalized pupils to a long-term average Average Daily membership that's weighted Which will increase the tax capacity for the White River Unified District And we've known that throughout that this is that the White River Unified District was going to be one of the districts in the SU That was getting the game the most the problem is is that within Act 127 Many districts lost tax capacity and so what they did is the legislature provided a 5% cap Taxes being able to increase for those districts that lost capacity Due to the new bill and so with all that said the ed fund still has to generate The difference between a 5% tax cap for a district that has that because they lost students And what their actual budget is going to be this coming year and so my estimation is going to be that the yield We are going to see a Significant drop in our yield in order to balance the ed fund Which I believe is going to result in districts like ours where we were supposed to gain some tax capacity Not actually seeing what they originally thought we would in these first few years Um, so the yield I think is going to be something that we need to watch very closely because um, you know my recents is is that The agency and the legislature is just starting to wrap their head around How much this uh bill may actually impact the ed fund this coming year with that cap There were some misunderstandings around the cap I know that at the agency level They thought that it was a hard cap And that then districts were going to have to figure out how to fund anything over the 5% but actually indeed it's not that It it provides you to gradually make those adjustments Over the upcoming years and so that that difference is going to have to be found somewhere And my sense is it's going to be found Within the ed fund by a decreased yield So those are some updates on 127 you'll see in the training there was some talk about what I just said I don't think uh our presenters were frank enough about talking about how much the yield may actually be impacted Um, but my sense is it's going to be impacted. Um pretty significantly So it's something that you'll we'll be watching closely We will have that number that projected number in december And as you know, we continue to adjust once the legislature, uh takes session based on information we're gathering from them Um, and then you know, the my final statement around all this, which is also a concern for me Is that brad james at the agency who's been there several decades? Um in the finance office is retiring here in a few weeks Um most of this algorithm and work that was done Around this long-term average daily Waiting was done by brad Um, and you know, they they will have someone replacing brad, but it's just he has a lot of historical perspective and knowledge Um, so that's worth note as well, and I'll entertain any questions folks may have I have been covering for principal thomas. He'll be back next week after thanksgiving I've been at the high school for the last several days and uh, it's been a real pleasure to be able to serve at the royalton campus In partnership with andra and uh, you know to to fill my like my principal void So it's been a good last week or so at the high school and um The turkey trot today was a great success and in general it's it's it's been a real pleasure Um with the five percent cap. Is that basically go up five percentage year? Yep over the next five. Yep And did you have a sense of like what percent our equalized pupils would be changing? Our our pupils we just got the hard numbers finally from the agency a couple weeks ago. We're gonna see I mean quite a game like Almost pushing two thirds andra Um of our our pupils so that's good news And um, you may say well, why are we gaining that much? So the things they take into account are Middle school students now count for more than one if you remember with equalized pupils They only used to count for one. They have recognized that it costs more to educate middle school students Uh, they look at rural districts and population Within rural districts and so you get to count some additional Waiting for those districts that count for being rural There is a merger fund incentive still based in the waiting of the pupils High school students count for more than they did prior as well uh, and in english Language learners count for more than they have in the past So all those things have resulted in us increasing our Our capacity based on the pupils I'm just really concerned that a dropped yield may make up all of that The difference and we're really back to where we were Do you know The five percent cap is that that's just on the effect of the yield now like that's on the tax rate On the tax rate, so if they increase their spending They could just be capped at five percent. That's correct Seems like a It's why I'm really fired up about it. Yeah, no, I mean Tara and andrew hear me talk about this and pure does every admin meeting and I've been talking about this at the vsa level now When I realized that that was fully how this bill Was passed and put in the legislation for the last six weeks It was a major flaunt. I think it's going to really result in a real shortfall on our ed fund Does that mean the word cap to five percent too so we can't have more than five percent increase We are capped at a five percent tax increase If our pupil spending went over ten percent and this is for any district If you're your pupil spending went up ten percent You then have to go in front of a panel that is made up of three superintendents and three business managers Who then will make a recommendation to the secretary of ed about um Whether or not there's justification for your budget to go up that much For so some districts lost pupils Um, there are districts that lost as much as 100 pupils from equalized pupils to this new waiting formula Um, they're spending very well could be over the 10 threshold There is a penalty for the 10 threshold for that those individual districts if they cannot justify why they spent That much and that panel is going to make a recommendation to the secretary of ed And then secretary of ed has the ability to make that decision But I guess my question was like if the yield was completely, you know offsetting Everything we wound up with a five percent increase because it's completely offset our equalized pupils We'd be capped at that and it wouldn't Correct and then my worry then is how are they making up the the difference in this ed fund? And I think that's what they haven't figured out My sense is that this very well may result In the legislature and you need to relook at this. I actually brought this up To senator mcdonald mcdonald here when I've seen him recently I just I have some real concerns that that piece Uh, they didn't realize that that many district budgets What I'm hearing is budgets are up anywhere from 12 and a half percent to 20 percent in the expenditure side and some of our neighboring districts That is going to result in them being over this cap Yeah, it seems like it would have been easy enough just to say like the Pupils can't decrease by more than five percent a year or something like that just You know have the impact of the pupils be five percent But whatever spending happens Happens separately from that. So it seems like a pretty easy fix I'm with you And I hope that they take immediate action on it. Yeah Okay Does everybody have anything else for jamie? All right, thanks jamie principles report It appears online. I'll just go over the elementary section real quick I think that the highlights of our report just is about professional development and some of the professional development and training that our staff is taking Also, what we're going over in the staff meetings as far as the literacy and math frameworks from the su And just updating you on what our wildcat groups are doing on on fridays with the focuses on The character strengths And then I would say That the the section of The most proud of is the last section we Tiffany baits it a lovely job of honoring some of our veterans at the south royalton campus So that was a really great field event to be part of and The kids did a good job keeping it a big secret. So that was Super fun We did a relocation and bus evacuation drills. We've been super busy. We had barnards do A artists of residency workshop for our four fives together over on the beffel campus And then the whole school came together over in beffel to to enjoy his performance Get our book there our conferences Our first concert and art show of the season our first harvest luncheon And then finally, I think the thing i'm most excited about is our conference rate We went up from last fall 83 attendance rate to 94 And it might even be higher because I know teachers were still rescheduling. So That's it in a nutshell from a fast breath. There's a lot going on, but Yeah, I'm happy to answer any questions and I know pier will probably want to highlight his sections I did like the uh book fair doing using the local book store. That was great I'm super thankful to the the royalton pto for pushing us to go in that direction and uh, some of the members met with the brand new librarians right off and the librarians went with it. So I think it's great Parents appreciated less junk That was the feedback we got No, no posters no junk just books I don't know if the kids appreciated as much They did not I know The young ones especially I'm super clear There was no Ferrari posters and invisible ink pens and that was A war crime that there was no kitsch I sort of understand Parents who take a trip to the dollar store, it'll be okay Pierre do you have my highlight highly any of your section? Go ahead. Thank you, Andra. Good evening folks I think we have a lot of parallel Good things going on in the middle school We continue to develop a tier system of supports by looking at data and how it Creates that sustainable cycle of looking at appropriate interventions In the past couple of weeks. We've really been focused on kind of social emotional behavioral types of data looking at Student conduct how to improve overall climate accountability in the school We're going to be resetting some expectations working directly with all students Coming back from the break. So it's not just academic data that we're working with to inform our instruction Um, I'd really like to just spend a moment highlighting the last section of my principal report We've had a lot of really good community events going on We too had our first music concert of the year held right after the elementary school We had a week full of student-led conferences Our participation rate was somewhere north of 80 percent waiting for the last reschedules We anticipate almost 85 percent participation Um, I think overall something to bear in mind is between All of these events that we've had between elementary and middle school In the past couple of weeks we've had anywhere Conservatively more than 400 to liberally more than 600 people come through our doors to participate in some kind of Community conversation or performance that we had going on in the school. I really want to highlight Uh, how we've been able to open it up to some interesting cultural events and discussions Thank you folks community conversation. Yes Yeah, I really wanted to go just was traveling. No, it was it was wonderful. It was a fantastic turnout But yeah, that's increasing the community Engagements, you know the things we were talking about at our retreat. Yeah, that's the word I was looking for I'd say for that event specifically we had um Again north of 50 almost 60 people at any one time Engaging the conversation and the group work the community members are doing great It was a nice mix also if there was there were some young family people there and A lot of gray hairs like me, but Uh, it was great to see that mix Great Everybody have any questions for the principals? Then we're on to terra So you all have my report it outlines what's happening in the business office for the month of november So if there's any questions, I'll happily answer that otherwise. I spoke with the auditors today Updating and they are working through getting the first draft of financial statements together Great They're a great team they have been awesome to work Good very excited to have that question Um, no, there are any questions for terra. Uh, we'll go to the policy committee update Friday, do we have any update from the policy committee? No, actually, I don't uh I'm trying to think what we talked about the last time we went and I don't remember I don't I don't have any notes on it or anything Uh, do you have it? I'm changing. Yeah, I mean, we're we're currently started by reviewing All of our personnel policies Um, and so there are six right now that the group's looking at we've got three in front of legal for revisions Um, we have three more we'll review this coming meeting So I suspect that you're going to see some revisions coming out of The personnel policies which are all the b policies Um for readings here in the next month or so So we're out of place of really reviewing and revising our current policies that we have on the books All right Um, so the task force update Sure, uh, we met, um Yesterday, um so, uh building update wise we have, um The the pellet boiler system is in process of being installed in Bethel I believe you said mid mid december they hope to have it online Um, and then there's a bit of a test cycle for a week or two. So hopefully by the end of december, it's fully operational Um, lighting wise they are Uh, I can't remember what school they were finishing up. They were they're coming to Bethel next Um, where were they in Sharon? I think and they're like 60 done in Sharon. Was that right and then they're going to Um newton. Oh newton and then they're heading to Bethel. So It sounded like probably about a two week time period before the land in Bethel to start the lighting there Um, so those are some of the projects that we have ongoing um, we did uh We did have our discussion in regards to our, um Um, some of the items that we had on the retreat. So our planning um, so we we did talk to, um the engineer about, um putting together A timeline which we pretty much agreed on the timeline of what we want to see And and by when so right now we're looking at um We are going to have our next facility meeting We hope to invite some donors or potential donors To our meeting to talk to them because it sounds like some of the donors right now want to want a little bit more information on what we're doing Um, so we're putting together a meeting to allow the donors to to participate in that at our committee Um, we hope to have on december december's meeting um We're looking at Kind of presenting what that number is going to look like and and how that may look like in a bond um as well as Eric will be here to kind of At a high level kind of present what what the project would look like and that includes um, that includes the um the music and arts um piece as well as the um security and entrance piece and then the um um The, uh, a c h vac Ventilation piece that we talked about for the library and potentially the cafeteria here. So um, so we kind of laid we kind of laid out a timeline of what we wanted to see and when um the idea is to be able to um january's meeting To to hopefully as a board is to make a decision on the project to move it forward um or not And we we've given ourselves a little bit of leeway So if we do have any any hiccups in the process in january that we do have the february meeting to To hopefully resolve those and we'd like to at least have the board's commitment by by the The march town meeting day And and then that what that'll do that'll spur About a six to eight month window Where um where we can really Um advertise The project Get more donors excited um And then go for our bond vote in november um, so they'll pretty much in the nutshell what we were we were uh We're talking on it. It sounds again. It still sounds very promising that That would the donors that we either have commit commitments or will have commitments with that are just lacking some details That we feel pretty confident on on raising the The third that we had talked about Um, and then like we had talked about the retreat Was potentially that once we cross that third threshold That any other money that they Collect in donations could go directly to That facility and whatever i'm making up a sound system or you know Staging or different things that could be just directly Related to that. So so I think we had a pretty good meeting. Um on that Great Yeah, I think that timing sounds good since it is great to be able to Present things at town meeting or school board meeting Or both I guess Well, thank you for that update. Anybody have any questions about that? Um, then we'll move to our discussion items the Draft number two of the student support and the universal instruction first draft of the universal instruction budgets So i'll just start by saying what I updated in draft two is health insurance went up 16.7 percent And the new child care contribution tax goes into effect on january 1st 2024 So I have now added that into your budgets and that tax for the first year Is 0.44 percent per dollar earned So that's in your first draft and then I'll let your building administration discuss Draft one of your general education just before what was that tax again? It was child care contribution tax And so that that's for contribution for the preschool You need to look at the revised budget I sent out today I know what I only changed to it from what was originally sent in the packet is world language was moved back to 2.0 from 1.4 If it if it's helpful I can I can start and then principals can can jump into So student support there were no changes to the fte's from what you saw last month Reminder that the additions were made last month was to have a student support coordinator Uh an additional one we have three currently right now that would add a fourth one So that we would have coverage of a student support coordinator at each elementary school the middle school and the high school Um to support our universal social emotional system and to help with some targeted plans And so that that's something that that was added last month when you saw it The other thing is adding a school counselor secretary Which is what principal thomas talked to you about last month to assist our our guidance counselor office Those are the biggest increases in regards to the student support budget Other than uh our sap counselors. We've been covering those with grants Prior we're starting to try to budget for some of them locally To ensure that we can have sap sap counselors in place That would right now we currently have an sap counselor that we're able to provide at the royalton campus in beffle If we were able to fill them both and they're both currently right now completely grant funded This would be looking for us to bring one of those contracted services into your local budget While we continue to use grant funding to cover the other person Um And then when you go down into your universal instruction the biggest change that you're going to see here um in the principals Meaning the middle and high school principals can talk about this currently right now We have a tech ed teacher that is shared From the middle and high school and this budget proposes that we would increase um To have a second tech ed teacher so that each campus had a full-time tech ed teacher one at the middle school and one at the high school and um Pierre I don't know if you want to jump in and talk about that and and jeff's on I don't know if he's able to speak or not, but he could speak to that too Oh and the other big piece too in student support Um, and I think this was mentioned last month is that it did it does Ensure that we have intervention a full-time literacy and a full-time math interventionist at the middle school that are licensed interventionists So pier I don't know if you want to jump in and talk about Tech ed sure So right now there are some limitation sharing that shop teacher between the two schools Um beyond logistics Really looking at limited the kinds of offerings we can have for students From my campus that means we're not offering shop based or that kind of learning based flexible pathways in the afternoons Looking at how that relates to building a makerspace that's intended to be a pretty big deal a big project That's gonna That students from any number of schools could access We just think we can reasonably justify A full position of a shop teacher who would also have some duties being the lack of a better word champion of the design space So someone that can do a number of flexible pathways hands-on projects with students Expand the offerings so that we can Look at effective use of our schedule time by having that particular discipline available in the afternoon I can let Jeff Thomas speak to his campus I would imagine he'll find very similar parallels beyond just the logistics of caring a person There's a substantial call for Expanded offerings and we believe this is a way to address that issue You're muted I feel like we're losing Several kids from vocational because they can't really start vocational school until sophomore junior year So some of these younger freshman students Just have no option and with will only be in there in the afternoon some of their schedules don't work for them And so having a full-time shop teacher. I think would really help these students Fit in and then work their way to vocational school Okay Are there any other Highlights from the budget Okay, does anybody have any comments on These two updated budget Proposals it all sounds great But until we have the entire budget together to figure out, you know, I mean just looking at these two here We're up eight percent. So, you know, we're talking about five percent and you know and yields going down and So, I mean I think it all all sounds good. I mean But until we have the entire budget put together to be able to see What does that look like finally and and if it doesn't look the way you want to see then then what where do we have to go? um to potential cut pieces but But I think everything that we've talked about is things that make sense for the school and Would be nice if if we can afford it. So I agree chris. Yeah I'd love to have I'd love to have another shop teacher. That'd be awesome for us, but As long as we can afford it. It's always going to be as long as we can afford it What's the time frame on when we'll have the Full version of the budget put together where we'll be able to start to see next month So next month we'll have the full entire budget. Yeah, and that's when they come out with the projected yield Yep, December 1st is when the projected yield comes out. They're supposed to have the final long-term membership for december 15th That hasn't always happened in the last several years, but we usually have an initial indication to start with Yep, I was just going to ask you do you have like a do you get a whiff of Like where it's going to go? Well, we know we have initial projections like jamie mentioned It's part of his report. We've had initial projections. They've been providing that throughout the last Year as we've been working through learning and understanding what the change in the weights would be And to you know to also retrain us to stop saying equalize people because it doesn't it's not equalize people anymore So Yes, you have to change some of the slides and We have a whole lot of changes to make in our slides. Oh, no, you and I will spend hours fixing that Okay, like control f control r control f control It is the frustrating part because I think I feel like some of our constituents are just starting to understand How ed funding have works and now we've got another whole change Yeah As long as you know our number is going up by two thirds. That's great I'm okay with explaining some things Okay, yeah, I mean I think my comments would be the same like I think this is it's good to kind of Have this initial budget thing being what we think would be ideal and then we can see what we can manage So all right Thank you for the projected budgets Community engagement task force So we've had one applicant I feel like I've sort of dropped the ball on this in the sense of I feel like we need to push this out some more via social media And so I don't think we're necessarily ready to form the task force yet But I did want to just have a conversation with the board to get a sense of what board members might be interested Um, and like I said, we do have a teacher that's interested Uh, who is a faculty member at the high school? And who has children currently right now at first branch and plans to have them come to our high school So I think it's a really good perspective there Um, but we still have some more outreach to do to really fill this this group So I would say we're not ready to actually form it tonight necessarily, but Okay Um Yeah, I guess I I had meant to post your letter to Some things on facebook as well and social media to Push that as well, but I think if we can try and spread the word and Get people interested that would help. I think there were some people that were Were at last friday's event that Would probably be interested in it We could probably get some names The table I sat at that had some young family There there was one couple just moved into town That have a young child that's not even in the system yet But they seemed really interested in getting to know more about Bethel and and The whole community thing They'd probably be somebody that would be good And I'd written down from the last discussion jamie That we had looked at five areas In a perfect world five areas that we'd like to cover on that Task force which was we talked about teachers We talked about potentially having a board member be a part of that Student a student population Peace family and then and then some community members was kind of the How we were hoping to round that together I know in the community and it thinks anything that you want to put out there I'd be more than happy to Share it with the town administration and bevel to you know to use their Means of getting information out there to help out on that end so If you have something jamie like an advertisement or something typed up if you want to send it to me I'll I can forward that through the town of Bethel And maybe we have a contact with world and that can probably do the same thing and we could at least Connect those community pieces which usually will fall into the families And then maybe somehow if we do some internal advertisement for the teachers students And you know, maybe a board member or something, you know to get that Piece of it done So it sounds like we're we're not there yet. Yeah Sounds like we'll Do another month of advertising and hopefully get some more people interested and We'll have that on the agenda for next month Okay, okay Do we have any public comments? Okay guys that I am taking minutes and I tried to focus on some concepts here Um And I but I also did not want to interrupt the discussion um for the wrud facility task force Chris your update was helpful, but kind of confusing from someone who's not Um, I I'll have to admit that I've missed some of the dialogues And so you went from The contractor putting together a timeline Um to talking about the donors to provide the donors more info um And then talking about a blend of music and art security entrance a ch vac for library and cafeteria And you had identified the idea was to have a january 23rd Or 24 sorry board decision to move forward or not Maybe february 24 to resolve issues with the board's commitment in time for the march 24 meeting what I'm confused by is the How it all like we talk about a bunch of different topics music and arts security and entrance ac and h vac For library and cafeteria. And so Is the board decision for january potentially on all of those concepts or is it just on um the facilities I um While they're all blended together I think the donor concept applies to the music and arts, but I might not understand all the concepts So could you provide some clarification? Yeah, so so the idea tammy is um Uh putting together a bond vote and the bond vote would include the irons and music um Addition that we're looking at doing as well as the security and entranceway um project and the Ventilation Piece of it. So there's there's three pieces that we've go together in the bond vote Uh now inside inside that we had we had talked about as a board in order to get the um music and arts facility off the ground that we had talked about coming up with some type of matching money to show the community that we have um Some some good traction. So we had talked about raising a third of the money of the potential Um cost to show good faith to the voters Um, so that's where the donors come in Okay And I was like wow, I was confused. I'm like wow, we're raising there So there's donors for security entrance and ventilation and I went gosh, there's there's something I was missing and I would At the board retreat we kind of looked at all of our facility needs and try to do kind of a long-term plan And it made sense if we were going to be doing facilities work for this Um music expansion to do those other things Kind of at the same time particularly the entrance because that's You know, you're modifying the exterior of that Um space anyway, but we are thinking about them as kind of different Funding mechanisms, I mean if they'd all be in the bond but we're also going to be using some of the um reserve funds that we've put aside over the last few years and You know donor money so Okay, but it was looking at it Looking at it holistically to figure out kind of An overall plan, but the donor money would just be for the Music portion. Okay. Okay. That um, thank you chris. Thank you. Andrew that helped me understand all of that a bit I'd like I wouldn't be able to be an expert on it, but um, it was helpful to understand how that all came to Those underlying concepts. So thank you We hoped at the next meeting in december to lay that out A little more comprehensively In december to to understand what those pieces are and you know, and then we'll actually be able to put some numbers to others They mentioned yep, they mentioned it at the middle school program and likely the elementary school program as well um, and They they mentioned it. They being the teach the staff in mentioning it I can't remember if they had a link or a website where the folks could go to did they Don't think they did and but yeah, josh josh did a really good job of plugging the whole thing though and stressing to the parents The children that are on stage tonight are the ones that are going to benefit from this Is that that coming it just isn't here yet to look for and wait for it Yeah, but so he he he definitely planted the seeds of it all Yeah, um, and so there's going to be a high school performance. I'm going to guess sometime in december I haven't I'm not looking at my calendar. Um, but with those seeds planted. Um, I it's just good to acknowledge How it all fits together whether it well My initial question was on the overall board The bond vote preparations and it made sense to make a more global approach to that but then how it all fit to the music Um and arts concept. So um, thank you. Um that clarification and discussion was helpful 1214 is the next concert is for elementary and high school Okay And and I just wanted to um I had these listed and didn't talk about it before but just quickly I just wanted to say I did I did attend the The Bethel community discussion that was last friday What was kind of neat was we did have six students there Um for high schoolers and to middle school That were in attendance. So it was nice to to see some of the student population attend that Um There'll be more detailed notes that will come out of that conversation here over the next couple of weeks, but some A couple of things School wise that came up in there was um, there was some discussions about Um Bringing more civics Learning into the school. Um, that was kind of a hot topic. Um As well as um Board members maybe potentially Spending some time in the schools. There was a conversation about You know, I don't know. I mean, maybe you come in and you have lunch with the kids or something But there was you know, some of that Discussion was was had um For the community um Peace and then on a separate note when I was I was chatting with the um Some of the math teachers at the middle school. So I was just asking about how How are things going with the added math time that we've Set aside for them, which which they thought that you know, obviously that the added math time was needed And and that we will see Will and are starting to see some um benefits from that and then I just kind of asked them like You know, if if there was any tweaks to be made right now, you know to to accelerate that learning You know, what else could we possibly do and and one thing that was common that came up with both of them was And I wasn't really adverse to as currently I guess math is being taught Later in the day time correct me if i'm wrong, but they had both said that A lot of times the things that you teach later in the day Students don't absorb it as well as they do in the morning so um And maybe this is something for a bigger discussion, but so I got thinking of you know How could we maybe teach some of those? Core classes a little earlier in the day and then maybe some of the Maybe the some of the teachings that don't require quite as the attention could we do after lunch? Or is there a way that maybe you alternate once in a while that? You know some of the maths in the morning and then sometimes maths in the afternoon, you know, could you Do that, but that was that was kind of the one takeaway that I'd gotten from my Parent teacher conference Exploring some questions, so I don't know if that's come up before Jamie or or pierre but And I don't know even know if there's an opportunity to do something more there with the scheduling, but that was what was brought up to me Yeah, no, I think Looking at the schedule is something that you know, we've been talking about pierre and I already and I think it's something the faculty has been thinking about In order to like how we increase in capacity. Are we best leveraging our resources? I would say one of the struggles I think we've had sometimes within That middle school schedule is just the sharing of some of our essential staff Between middle school and high school Uh and middle school and elementary Uh and making that all fit so thinking about phys ed art music And I didn't say it was going to be easy No, I appreciate it chris. No, I would say that those are what you are saying what teachers are saying are certainly things that At least questions I've raised and questions. I think admin we've just been wrestling with like What makes the most sense? I would also say one of the things I think We're looking for next year too is how do we increase more choice for our middle school kids specifically our seventh and eighth graders around Some of those electives Instead of it always being a required like is are there a way to create more opportunities for some student choice within that schedule Not in the core content, but some of the other areas Unfortunately, it seems like you know somebody has to be at the end of the day. No matter what when there's only two math teachers Yeah, we did attempt a rotating schedule at one point in my teaching career And the teachers had a really hard time with it the kids They they adjusted really easily and I actually had I had I remember one boy Who came to me and said I'm so glad you're finally going to see me in the morning sometimes because I'm at my best in the morning and and in the afternoon when I usually have math I know that my meds have worn off and I'm And it was his self of an awareness was really amazing and he was right once I started having him in a morning class It was a whole different kid So I mean even though a rotating schedule is kind of hard to do it can be done So that they're not always in that Two o'clock class Is there any other public comment? And are there any new hires or resignations? Nope We don't have any other for future agenda items. We need to do the community engagement task force again next month Um, I will be doing budget stuff The full budget hopefully next month And and we'll be talking about the bond and the bond Facilities worth And we'll have I believe Eric Lafayette was going to come to do kind of a high level Presentation, you know, we won't get into the weeds on all the little details, but kind of a higher level you know what this Will cost in a ballpark Maybe we talked about maybe a couple of options like You know, here's kind of the bare bones model in here if you wanted to some of the bells and whistles type deal Yeah, and then we can talk a little more How does that affect or how would that potentially affect, you know tax rates and things like that, but Okay And then your full budget. Yep And the full budget I have a busy busy month. Thank you All right, our next meeting date is tuesday december 19 Um at 7 p.m at the beffa campus Um I would entertain a motion to adjourn So moved seconded All right. Thank you everybody. Thank you