 So, shall we come to order at 6.30 for the annual information meeting? And I'll turn it over to you, Floor. Thank you, Scott. Welcome, everybody. I see that we have just two community members. But should we give another minute? Is Scott to run the slideshow or do you want to get started right away? It's entirely as you wish, Floor. The slideshow is something. Three minutes. Three minutes. Yeah. We can. We can sort of socialize for a couple of minutes. If you like. Oh, here I see more. I see more people coming in. I see. Is that Eddie Miller? Who's. It is. Hello, Eddie. Very good. Nice to see you. Nice. Yeah. Welcome. Yes. Jill. Jill. Since you have to leave, is there anything, is there any message that you would like to make sure that you convey to the. To the rest of us. No, I hope everybody's voted by now, but if they haven't, I hope they'll vote for our budget. Amen. Marge your last chance. That's right. Well, the last minute news certainly made that more likely. Yeah. We're very fortunate. Okay, I guess. It started in. Okay. And hi, Mary. Thank you, Jim. So what I thought is that we would start with this light show and give you a little window into our schools. And it's self-explanatory. I hope you enjoy this light show. And thank you to all the administrators that helped me put it together too. And thank you, Jim, for the technical support to today in my craziness. Thank you. Thank you. So. Thank you so much. You all enjoyed it. I couldn't hear you, Mary. You did a great job. You did a great job. You did a great job. Jonas. Yeah, I just want to make sure that we are also recognizing the incredible teachers and administrators and the incredible students who have also made the remote school possible. We've been operating seven schools this year. And I want to make sure that those people get called out and the kids that have learned so hard. And, you know, had the experience they have through this, you know, we should maybe have a slideshow or to a school. That would be pretty interesting too. Yeah. Well, thank you for, you know, thanks again for all the help in getting. And it's hard to not get a little emotional watching all the kids since we haven't been able to set foot in our schools that much this year, but it's so nice to, to share that window with all of you. So welcome to our community. Budget forum. Well, town meeting, let's say. We would like to thank our amazing Washington Central district team. Thank you for continuing to be the heart of our communities. We are really grateful for you. We know it's not easy, but your efforts do not go unnoticed. This pandemic has brought into focus public attention to children and education. The inequities in our society are now in every community member's mind, put in security, limited mental health access, healthcare, homelessness, broadband, income, inequity, et cetera. As a state and a country, we need to continue to prioritize community and common good. A strong public education is the basis of our democracy and the key to equitable and flourishing communities. With that in mind, we can get started with the budget presentation. So Jim, would you mind putting it up? Yes. Let me go ahead and pull that up one second. Thank you. And I guess I can continue my chat while that comes up. So the school board makes decisions on behalf of the entire community, as you all know, that support the education needs of each student. Engaging our communities in that conversation helped us make sure that the community voices at the heart of our decisions. And it also helps us ensure that we're not only working towards equity in our schools, but also in our communities as a whole. We all want healthy communities and families, ensuring that each and every child has what they need to thrive and succeed, sets the foundation for long-term outcomes, not only for the child, but also for our communities. I'm going to wait a minute to get into the other stuff. I'm just pulling it up right now. We're having one small technical difficulty. I'll be there one second here. Great. No, no worries. Well, good budgets don't happen by accident. Planning and collaboration are key components of drafting a budget that is also grounded and driven by data. This budget meets the needs of all students. Reserves programs that meet the needs. That meets the needs, right sizes, schools, personnel through early retirement. And minimal staff reductions. And reduces some expenses and supplies. So I'm just going to wait a minute. Sorry. Okay. Here we go. So let's move to the next slide. Okay, right there. So equity for budget purposes today, equity is a school culture that supports educators in practicing effective and responsive instruction that meets the needs of the whole child. For example, everyone is getting what they need to thrive and to master our student outcomes. So here's a list of our student outcomes. I'm not going to read each one of them, but here they are. Student learning outcomes are statements that specify what students will know, be able to do or be able to demonstrate when they have completed or participated in a program, activity, course or project. It outcomes are usually expressed as knowledge, skills, attitudes or values, and they are in alignment with the Vermont education quality system. So here's a list of our students. The leadership team has continued to work on our proficiency based learning system with specific outcomes and assessments that are consistent across our schools. We still have work to do, but at the, but the end result is a system that flows from pre-k through graduation. On the right column, you see the transferable skills. And those are at the heart of what we do. Next slide, Jim, please. Thank you. Thank you. I want to make sure that we remove barriers and provide the resources needed. Last summer, we set three goals as a board, improving student achievement, building board governance and community engagement. These goals helps us stay focused on student learning. And on collaboration and on monitoring results. So here we have a lot to be proud of. We are one of five districts in Vermont to reopen fully for student learning. We created a more robust and community center remote learning offering for all our students working to align our instructional approaches for teaching, math and literacy. We provide our students with increased access to technology. We continue to work to develop our own personal care assistance and behavior interventionists. The school board is committed to the strategic planning process for the continuous improvement and the creation of a more dynamic process. And just as two weeks ago, we received news that we got the grants for the COVID relief for the CARES Act in the amount of $4.3 million. And that isn't due a lot to, that we were one of the districts that were fully open. When the school year started. Next slide, Jim, please. And I'm going to pass this to Scott and with one final. Thought. But I guess I'll save that one to the end. Go ahead, Scott, and we'll move. Thank you. This slide is basically just to show. That even though the budget. Product looks like a very. Technical and. Mathematically. Arrived at. Entity. It's actually very human, highly political effort. And. Effort should be underscored because it is not. Easy to balance, to accommodate, to work with, and with all of the various constraints. That we need to meet all of the various aims that we have for our schools. Nonetheless, we think that with this budget that we're presenting, we've, we've done about as well as, as. We possibly could. Next slide, please, Jim. May I ask a question? Do you want questions while you're doing the presentation or. I would be, I am, I'm. Please ask for way. Okay, one of the previous slides mentioned that you got a lot of money from the federal government. I'm wondering how that is going to impact. Our budgets. Obviously that was responsible for a lot of the decrease, I would think. I wonder how that will affect future years. Budgets as, as we go forward and maybe have to continue with some of the new things that are being done. Right. It's a great question. And. For, for the maximum credibility. We'll probably have the administration. Answer it, but I think the short answer is that none of the money that we got for to help us through COVID. Is built into our budget base. We're. There will be no cliff as a result of that, of that money, which is part of what is, has been. I think so advantageous about it. I think it's a great question. I think it's a great question. I think it's a great question. I think it's a great question. Laurie and Brian and. All of those who have been working and getting these and getting this federal money. For essentially for. To meet the pandemic specifically. Have, I think. Done an excellent job at. At first at finding the money. Figuring out where it is, which is not an easy thing to do. And, and then processing the, the funds. So that we, we observe the heavy regulation that. That is associated with spending federal money. And, and coming out of it. You know, with the maximum. A benefit for our school district. And our schools and our students. With the minimum of potential. To come up with something that would be, that would be successful. To come up with something that will be there after. It's really been pretty exemplary effort. But I would turn it over to Brian and Lori. Um, as, as you wish, if you want to. Say anything more about that. As, as the superintendent. I don't think I can say much more Scott. I think you covered most of it. If not all of it. The 4.3 million dollars in grants. reopened to schools. There are a lot of projects that we had to do, some such as air ventilation projects, purchasing PPE, making sure we had isolation rooms built into school. Brian, Zady muted you. My daughter just muted me, and we're recording this. She just gave me the luck too. Ultimately, a lot of that, it was very expensive to reopen to schools. I think that the federal government and through the state government found ways to support those districts out there that had the courage to reopen to schools. Of course, we implemented it following the CDC guidelines to make sure everyone was safe as well. We didn't just reopen to schools thinking we were going to get the reimbursement. We were open to schools thinking this is the best thing we could do for our children. There was funds we were told that may be available, and we're happy that they are made available to our district for that. But the budget that you're seeing here tonight that the board is presenting is different than the grant money that we received. The grant money received was kind of like one-time expenses, we're hoping to keep us, hopefully we don't have any other pandemics in the near future, but these are mostly one-time expenses. Laurie, did I miss anything? The only thing is that everything had to be spent by December 30. The funds were available for spending between last March and this past December 30. Again, just to reiterate, it is not for next fiscal year, but thank you for asking. Thank you for answering. Great. Any other questions that you might have, Edie or anyone else in the audience, please feel free to pipe up. Thank you. In terms of the budget development, this is essentially the flow chart, which once again makes it look very neat and clean as I think Carrie will be addressing shortly. This repeat as necessary happened a number of times with a number of different ideas about what the context would be in which we would have to draw up this budget. Again, I'll leave the details to Carrie, but essentially the original budgeting is done within the administration. Then it's presented to the finance committee, of which Floor is the chair, and from the finance committee to the board as a whole. And we send it back. We invite community participation, public participation early on in the budget process, and we try to keep the public and have kept the public informed. Those members of the public who are interested in being informed along the way as we have gotten to this point. So we can go to the next one, please. And this is enrollment trends. This is sort of the big story and has been for a generation basically in Vermont, the decline in student enrollment. As you can see, the student enrollment curve shows a steeper decline than the decline in equalized pupils, although that too is declining, just not quite as dramatically, which is a good thing, because the equalized pupil count is what figures in the tax formula. So a slower decline in equalized pupils means a slower rise in the value of education spending over equalized pupils in the tax formula. So if there are no questions, we can continue. Right. And these are some of the highlights, although the first one is a little bit downbeat the declining enrollment. But on the plus side of the ledger, I think we have the ingredients to do some really great things. Even with the pandemic in full swing, as Brian pointed out earlier, as Floor pointed out at the beginning, we have been open pre-K to eight and on a rotating week by week basis for the high school students, preserve social distancing. But we've still, we've had a curriculum audit, we're getting ready to enter into another secular strategic planning. We have terrific administration, very talented core of employees. And not least important is a really lively and vigorous student body who are very active, who challenge us, not only us on the board, but their their elders in the schools and keep all of us on our toes. And with that, they're a big part of why we can we can actually deliver the best and the most forward-thinking educational opportunities we can. So I think that's my bit. I'll pass it back to you, Floor, to pass on to Cary, maybe. Sure, thanks, Scott. There were two things that I forgot to mention before I pass it on to Cary, and Scott was just saluting to it, is that the board gives the parameters to the to the to the administrators or the superintendent when we start the budgeting process. And this year, you know, some of you have heard this before, but this year we established the parameters that we gave them when they got started was to establish a budget that is less than 3% net impact in taxes, which, as you know, was better than we ever thought. To find ways to pay for three initiatives that are included in this budget, the strategic planning process, the facility director and health instruction for all our schools, and to establish a budget that was less than the excess spending threshold for equalized pupil. And lastly, to establish a budget that will move towards supporting a strong multi-tier system of supports in all our schools. So now to you, Cary. Thanks, Floor. So everybody at Cary, Alice, and my role tonight is to talk about some of the specifics of how we're planning to spend the money next year. This first chart shows the overall size of the district expense budget last year on the far left and then the four versions this year. We presented the version 1A back in December. That was a level service budget. That was no changes other than normal inflationary increases. And since then, you can see that we've reduced the budget by over $600,000 net. We're actually calling for less spending in the 2021-22 budget than in the current year. And of course, I have to point out that our expense budget is only one of several factors that will actually determine next year's tax rate. And we'll talk about some of those other factors in a moment. So next slide, please. Our next slide is going to show two pie charts. It's the breakdown of expenses by major categories for the current year on the left and next year's recommended budget on the right. The big takeaway here is that personnel expense, which is the wages and salaries and benefits that we pay our teachers, support staff, and administrators, that's the lion's share of our budget, about 70%. Otherwise, we're looking at relatively minor changes in the relative proportions of the different categories. One of the key drivers in this year's budget, once again, is medical insurance. We're having to take on a 9.5% increase, which means that that portion of our budget just gets a little bit larger every year, it seems like. Next slide, please. This next slide is going to give you a closer look at next year's proposed budget, focusing on the items that most significantly impact the bottom line. These are the highlights, so the numbers here don't add up exactly. Also, these numbers do not match what was in the voter's guide. We had to publish the best information that we had back in mid-January. And since then, the state officials have reported that revenue picture has improved quite a lot. And next year's budget will actually have a much more favorable tax impact than we had thought back a month and a half ago. In fact, you see on the top line here, we're anticipating that our school budget will have a net impact of a 1% decrease over the current year. In the first section, first big bullet, this covers the compensation items, and we've been able to offset the increases in medical insurance and salary rates in a variety of ways, including by reducing several positions. Need to point out that the parentheses in this section, these are accounting symbols that show negative or reductions in spending. So much of the savings here is accomplished by offering early retirement option to our employees and then not backfilling the openings that were created. At the same time, we are including new positions within this budget. In particular, we've got special educators. And then, as Floor mentioned earlier, health instruction in the elementary schools and a new facilities director, which is designed to free up our principals and the superintendent to focus more on education. The next section is non-compensation items. Here, we're showing a 1.4% decrease in spending overall. But within this category, there are many changes, both negative and positive. Rest assured, we have gone through each line, scrutinized everything and adjusted with an eye towards what's in our best interest overall and over the long term. And then in that last section, labeled revenues, I want to highlight a couple important points. We are drawing on our fund balance, where it needs to. We've built up our reserves over time and we asked our administration, as Floor mentioned in the parameter setting, to look at where we could use those reserves appropriately, in particular for one-time fiscal, one-time expenses like early retirement. So as Scott pointed out, avoiding any kind of fiscal cliff down the road. You also see that we're projecting a significant reduction in revenue from the tuition that we receive from students who come from other towns to attend our schools. You may know that for many years we have benefited from students, mainly Washington, Orange and Roxbury, sending students primarily to attend U32. And they have historically contributed quite a lot of to our revenue for our system. But we're now seeing a decline in the number of those students and then the tuition that they're paying. And we're going to have to closely monitor this trend, as it's a significant factor that's adding pressure to our budget over time. All right. So that is my summary. I want to thank staff for all of their good work. This is my seventh budget season. And by far, started out as the most challenging circumstances. I don't even know what number two would be. It wouldn't be very close. But I think this budget really reflects an outstanding effort to reduce spending without negatively impacting education and services that we provide to our students. I'm going to turn it over to Chris McVeigh to talk about how the budget relates to Texas. Thanks. Edie has a question. Before we do, Kari, I see Edie has her hand up. Yeah, Edie. I wonder if this budget, if you plan for any pandemic contingency, you know, if in fact you can't go back to school full-time as normal and fall? I don't believe so. I don't think there's any funding in there specifically. But before I misspeak, let me ask Brian or Lori to weigh in on that. So Edie, the legislature right now is considering grants for next fiscal year. They're actually looking more at more schools going in person. So this budget reflects us going in person. And should there need to be accommodations, there's potential for the district to get another million dollar grant next year to help support that endeavor. The details are getting worked out as we speak at the legislature. Does that answer your question, Edie? Yeah, I think so. And it sounds like some of the perhaps capital things you did this year would stand us in good stead in general and in case of other things in terms of air quality and things like that. Yes. But thank you. So we're turning it over to Chris then at this point, correct? Yes. Very good. Yeah. Good evening, everyone. Thank you very much for coming. And my name is Chris McDowell from Middlesex. And we, as always, appreciate our community support of our schools and our budget. Our communities have been famous for supporting the budgets that the board has presented. And we are very hopeful that the community will continue that winning streak this year as well, particularly given the type of budget that we're presenting in extraordinarily trying circumstances of this year. I will echo my colleagues in commending the staff and our students and our administrators and community for supporting our school being open this year and doing as well as we've done in maintaining a healthy environment for everyone who goes to our schools. So as you can see, with this slide, that there are several components that make up the tax rate. We are very fortunate to be presenting this budget at this time because we have, if it was earlier, we'd be presenting some very negative news for the most part in regard to tax rates. But because there are greater revenues than anticipated, the tax rates, instead of being going up, are actually going down, as will be seen on the next page. But there are five basic components that go into determining what the tax rate is. First, of course, is the school district expense budget, which Carrie described for us previously. The next is the number of equalized pupils in our schools. And as Scott indicated, while those are declining, they have held steady and equalized pupils are part of the formula in determining what state aid comes to our district. The next is the property yield amount, which is set by the legislature and is pretty much out of our control. The next is the state tax rate, also set by the legislature and largely out of our control. And the final factor is the common level of appraisal that each town has. Now, that is a factor that is within each town's control. And as you can see in the next slide, the common level of appraisal varies from town to town. And the higher the common level of appraisal, the better the impact on the tax rate for that town. So this graph shows what the expected decrease for each of the towns in our school district will be based on the tax rate formula, which I cannot describe to you. I would have to turn it over to better minds than mine, like Scott Thompson's, to explain what this tax rate means. But if I look at the bottom line, it's good news this year. With that, I'm hopeful that everyone in our communities will support this budget, which, as has been described, has been very thoughtfully prepared and debated. And is the budget that our administrators tell us will provide the resources so that we can serve our students and our staff. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chris. Before we open it to questions, and I pass it back to Scott, let's say I have a couple of last minute things. So we hope that the financial forces that are probably coming to us and the declining population in the next coming years won't decimate the education our kids receive but transform it. We will continue to collaborate and continue to look for opportunities with the superintendent and the leadership team to improve the outcomes of our kids without compromising the experience. We will monitor programs, use findings from the upcoming curriculum review. We still have work to do, but we're committed to continuing to work towards the greater equity in our schools and to be in an anti-racist school district. Our commitment to positive change will not just be in reaction to current events, but as part of the ongoing work in equity, social justice, and inclusion. Thank you. Thank you very much, Floor. And thanks to all the other presenters, Kari, Chris, and Edie, thank you for your friends to keep things on the way. When I looked at the participant list, I saw a number of people who may actually be members of the public who are not actually associated with the school district in an official fashion here tonight. And what I'd like to do is particularly invite you, members of the public, to either to ask questions or to tell us how you see the district going. If you have any questions or concerns or suggestions about it, if you'll forgive me, Edie, if I may sort of go down the list. I see Denise Roy. Denise, if you're actually able to get to your screen and are interested in saying something, would you be up for that? And if not, that's fine too. We can proceed to Martha Tucker. Is there anything that you have for us or would like to ask us? Hi. I'm interested to know about the staffing changes. Are you able to give details on that? Just what positions have been changed? Thanks. I think there's a lot there. I would defer to Brian to kind of sum it up. Thank you. Yeah. So thank you. Great question, Martha. I would say that there's a minimal impact to staffing changes with this proposed budget. Most of the savings came at attrition. So when the board thankfully did a buyout last year, and some folks were retiring this year, so most of the reductions were being saved with allowing the minimal impact to major position changes. Now there always could be, and I as superintendent will reserve the right to position changes, whether or not in any budget. So I think the big piece is that right now we're looking at minimal changes to positions at all based on the foresight of the board from last year to offer the retirement incentive to teachers last year. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks very much, Martha. Let's see. I see Parker. I'm not sure. The identification here on the screen. Yes, please go right ahead. I came to listen and I thank you very much for the presentation. It's been very informative. Thank you. Do you mind my, I didn't catch your name? Gary Parker. Gary Parker. Not to worry. That's really okay. Thank you very much for joining us. Thanks. I don't know if Denise, Denise Roy has returned to or is interested in speaking. I don't have any questions. I'm all set. Wonderful. Our thanks to you as well for joining us. And I guess I just want to make sure that Tiffany, are you here in your official capacity or are you here in your? Yes, I'm here taking notes. Okay. Wonderful. Thanks. So, Beattie, I saw your hand. Yes. Thank you. I really don't want to take your time. First one, I congratulate you. I think we are, you've done a fabulous job keeping the schools open. The work that the staff and the administration has done to make that happen this year, I think has been just terrific. A year into this, we're seeing the effects of kids who have not had, including my own grandchildren at the state, who have not had the opportunity to go to school for all this time. I'm so grateful to you that you've been able to do this. And from what I hear just through the community, you know, it was a really tough last spring, but it's gotten everything, you know, everyone has pitched in to learn new things and to try new things. And it's been the most successful effort. So, I do congratulate you. And thank you for the hard work. I know this is hard work. And I do have one general question, and that is Martha asked about the staffing changes. Staffing changes have been really difficult. Now, I remember the days when these student declines started in the late 80s and early 90s. And, you know, what was said then was, as we looked at students, those declines, and it was very difficult to move staff, change staff numbers, because the declines are gradual. Now we're, you know, I don't know how many students we've lost since then. But now the statewide, the numbers are huge. You know, we've lost, what, 20 or 30% of our students over the last 25 years? I haven't looked at the numbers recently. So I guess I'm wondering, how are you all thinking about that for the nearer future, not seeing that they're still going down? You know, I'm assuming from something you said, Scott, that perhaps you're going to be looking at the tuition, you know, in terms of boosting them. But how are you thinking about that? Because it's an ongoing perplexing situation. Perplexing indeed. And Edie, you asked the tough questions. But the good questions, we're very aware, hyper aware, I might even say, of this trend. And the need for, yeah, the need for us to basically be able to shrink gracefully without, you know, without traumatizing communities, staff, students especially. And this is all part of, I think, the kind of strategic approach that we're getting into this year. It's, you know, very broad engaged. It's not just, you know, a strategic plan for how we're going to continue programming curriculum and instruction and assessment, but also longer range budgeting options, how we can adapt to these longer term trends that are, unlike the pandemic, they're foreseeable. I mean, I think all of us feel much more confidence in our ability to do this after the gigantic effort put in by our administration and our teachers in making our schools work during, I think, perhaps the greatest upheaval. As you were pointing out, the greatest upheaval in our lives, I mean, certainly in my lifetime, it's an extraordinary achievement, I think, that you rightly, you know, express gratitude for, as do we. But I think it's, it's a, as background to an approach that we can take, where we can actually look ahead and see what might be happening and plan for it. That is, I think what we're all sort of looking forward to sinking our teeth into. And I don't know if any of my colleagues would like to weigh in on that, Dorothy, I see. I'm speaking to Edie and myself. You guys need to provide some nice attractive senior housing so we can move out of our housing. Houses can make room for big families. So get with it, Edie. Wow, Dorothy. That's great. Flora. I think picking on what Dorothy was saying is just a, I think we're, at least from my point of view, we're concentrating looking for opportunities, rather than so looking opportunities at how best to work together across our communities and continue to concentrate on student needs. What provides best opportunities to kids? So I think if we continue to do what we've been doing now, looking for best outcomes, best opportunity for kids, I think we would be able to navigate the declining population and find opportunities and ways to collaborate. Well, thank you for all your efforts. I do, I'm aware of the work it takes to do your work. And I know that it's hard work and it's frustrating work. And thank you for doing that. You're very kind, Edie. Thank you for saying so. And the good thing is our enrollment could go up. I mean, we're not doomed to have permanently declining enrollment. It's a function perhaps not only of our moving into senior but also other factors that may encourage young families to have more children and to move to Vermont. Does anybody else have anything to share or to ask? Brian? I just wanted to thank the board and I thank the leadership team. And last but certainly not least, this is Lori's last annual meeting before the annual meeting. So I just wanted to give her a proper shout out. Obviously we'll be talking more about Lori as we still have Lori for four more months at least. But I just wanted to thank her for her leadership working with me in my first year here in Washington Central. Thank you, Brian. 100% agreement on that from all of us. I still have trouble just coping a lot of you not being there. But thank you for all of this. I mean, we wouldn't be where we are today had it not been for your incredible work. So as well as the rest of the team. But you're a key member of that team and we're exceptionally grateful. Floor, is there? Was that in your vision? That's all we had for tonight. Just a reminder for everybody to go vote. And our next meeting is March 3rd. And that's all we had for tonight. Wonderful. Bye. But a reminder to all of you who are on the ballot, board members on the ballot, please get sworn in before Wednesday board meeting. Our reorganization meeting. Personal plea. Thank you very much, everyone, and have a great day, great evening, great day tomorrow. Many thanks. Thank you. Good night. Good night. Bye. See you, Jim. Thank you, Brian.