 I'm calling the meeting to order at 7.06 p.m. As you may notice, we have a slightly new format which we have to carry and modify going forward format C-wise. So we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it makes it a little friendlier, a little less fire squad-ish. Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it. We like friendly. The second order of business public comment. Any? Does it look like it? Great, moving on to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda which has six items in it? Are the minutes of the last meeting on the consent agenda? The ones she sent late. The ones she sent late. I think so. Could we take those off the consent agenda? The June 26th, I think there was a mistake in that. This is the June 20th, we mean. June 20th, here we go. June 20th, let me see. Do you have a motion to stick them off the... I don't think so. And I'm just a request. I think just a request. Okay, so we will take those off for discussion. So a motion to approve the consent agenda with that approval. So moved. Second? Aye. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? On the June 26th paragraph, or June 20 minutes, I'm sorry, in paragraph five. There's a statement about seven lines down. Principal McRaeff proposed that the Black Lives Matter flag remain up until an equity policy is in place. And then it says motion carried unanimously. I think that's a mistake. Because then it says Steve moved and there was a motion and it stopped it. And then that motion carried unanimously. Mike did not make a motion. The first motion carried unanimously should come out. So that's my motion to amend the June 20th minutes in paragraph five by removing the first motion carried unanimously. All those in favor? Aye. Oh, we do a second. Is there a second? That was my motion. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Item number four, and actually before I start with item number four, I've got one more thing that needs to be copied. Is that the job description? Just for everyone. Yeah, it's a job description. Do you need the charge to be covered too? Yes. Okay. Hold on. I'm here. Some copies for everyone? Yeah. Item number four, the Facilities Discussion, including UES Playground Project. That's you. Welcome aboard. Thank you. Thank you. So we wanted to give you guys an update and make a recommendation as to how we proceed. Great. Andrew LaRosa, Director of Facilities, your Facilities Director. I keep forgetting which goes first, but Facilities Director. I wanted to get you guys up to speed where we're standing. You can pass that along. The, as you know, the bids came back a couple of weeks ago. Engineering Construction, ECI, is apparently there. We have been sending the Playground Committee, the design team, and the school administration has been working with ECI in looking for cost savings solutions. We did a first round, got down to about $1.6 million from the original $1.9 million. That was still not sufficient. In looking at what was available, what was part of the bond, what funds were being brought in from other sources, what other obligations beyond just the construction contract, construction administration, permitting fees, oversight, which is coming down the pike. It was discussed within the superintendent and the business manager and myself that a contract with ECI, about $1.3 million, would be power level, would be where we ought to be. So we did a second round of cost savings options. Throughout the whole process, our goal has been to keep the fundamentals of the Playground and the future's quality and pleasure-hunting impact. Looking at more finishes, looking at quantity, looking at options to take an existing design that we had. We just got to the 1.6 and realized that we were not going to get down to the 1.3 just by reducing, taking granite blocks and turning them into concrete blocks. So we needed to take a dramatic cut at the project to see if we can make that get to that 1.3. The solution that we proposed was what if we took the lower courtyard, lower playground, did soil remediation and turned it back into for now a usable clay area, put in a playable surface. Right now we're using sod as a placeholder, whether that's wood chips or sand or we'll figure that out if that's the route we go. The idea is that this would allow us to continue get the project rolling, our windows starting to close up before those kids get there. Allow us to get the project going, keep the features that are on the hillside, the really engineering intensive and earth-moving intensive projects done in the way the community expects them to be. A few tweaks from what the plan is, but the fundamentals of all the structures there. And then looking to enhance the lower playground, the courtyard playground, with funds as they become available, either from fundraising opportunities, from fund balance that may be available to us from continued cost savings that we find within the project. Our goal is to not just stop when we get to that 1.3 but keep looking if there's things that make sense to change the project or take out a project at 1.6. Maybe this will make sense to change a little bit at 1.3 so that we can put that money immediately back into that play area. So our proposal is that you give us the authority to continue negotiating, work with the playground committee and with the engineers and designers to come up with a contract not to exceed $1.3 million in DCI with the intent of returning the inner courtyard, taking the features in the inner courtyard, bringing them to the side for a little while while we establish what we can put back into that with the intent as we move forward, we will get that playground to where the drawings have them now. Question? Could I clarify that when you talk about the courtyard, you're talking about right behind the building the pre-K and K and one down here? Yeah. So last time around I did ask if it was possible to know what was cut? Because I thought that people in the community who've been working on this for a while would want to know what isn't there. Absolutely. And that's, we've been working, as I said, through the engineers so we're not just randomly just saying take this out, take that out. But we had a lot of ideas out there and a lot of things have been proposed and our next, if we are charged with moving forward with this, our next meeting will be with the engineer, with the contractor, with the playground and committing and truly and document all together exactly what we've decided on and what we're staying in. So that will be a process that quite honestly we are, we could do that because we have all the documentation but it wouldn't have anything. I think what the community really needs probably is a graphic. Here's where it is and here's where we're going. So absolutely, we need to do that because how these contractors estimate things and how they go through, it's magic what they feel because they've got so many, we see one thing and they see six layers down, three layers wide. So that will be, that's part of that next step going through all those constitutions, ideas and balancing them. So is your recommend that we approve the PCI bit? And to negotiate to bid up, not to exceed 1.3. So that would be the motion? Yeah. So I'll move that the board approve engineer's construction as the lowest responsible bid for the UAS playground project and approve the administration to negotiate a contract at a not to exceed amount of 1.3 million. Second? Second. Discussion? Good answer, I'm for a point, it's a record. Just to focus that, but I think it should be clear that the considerable reduction in work in the core DRP part of that, just so, okay. Hey, could you just clarify the timeframe again in terms of when? We, ECI as of a couple of weeks ago was ready to mobilize at the end of this month. They, like every other related to involvement in construction are getting jobs and so, but as they have not given us the guys who got another week or work or put in our equipment or somewhere else, somewhere else. So with this guidance from you guys, we will find that out tomorrow. That will be my first gather business. So we'll find out when we can move on. With that change and what you're doing in the lower playground, will the lower playground be usable in the winter? That would be a goal. I can't promise anything, but that would be a goal. That would be a goal. Michelle? Today was the last day of the appeal period on the corrective action plan, is that right? I do not know the answer to that, but it's certainly now different. A while, okay. So we're all set with DEC and. As I understand it. As I understand it, none of our environmental engineers or engineering engineers or engineering consultants have said, hey, we're getting bad feedback here. So Jay and I actually had a little sit down today in property to go through, not in property, a sit down today to go through permitting and where we stand with all that, but as we. And that stuff you think is in line for this start? Yeah, as we understand it, there's some question of one outstanding local one, that we think that that's. Take care. Taking care. And you're at the cap, cap feedback closed and we haven't heard anything from Johnson Groups or anybody. So we're fine before that. So final question, which is at least partly for me. There is a talk kind of in the community about whether they could do the project in stages. It sounds like the end result seems to be kind of to do it into stages, to do the upper background as a stage. And then the, you know, the lower playground part of the yard later. Why is that an option now? And it seemed not to be an option earlier or when it was not a preferred option earlier. I can't speak to the process we got here. We've been sort of looking forward, but I suspect that part of that phasing, we really aren't so much phasing the environmental work. We're just phasing the finishes. Okay, I think of that. We're going to get, we're going to do the stormwater. We're going to get the dirt out of there. We're going to have a nice clean site that we can then, and fortunately for the, for the courtyard and playground, it's flat, it's level. And the structures that we're putting in there for the kids are not big, monstrous things that need big footings. We can get in there with hand equipment or small equipment to put that stuff in as we need. Whereas some of them made the stuff up on the hill, you need to fold over them. Okay, no, that's a good explanation because I know that question is going to come up. Yeah, now we're going to do the environmental work and the stormwater work. Okay, great. Ultimately our approach will be to do it all as one project, but approaching the design and the equipment piece for the lower courtyard has sort of a secondary phase so that we can move forward with the contractor to get the project started. Okay. So we can't quite afford that playground. Yeah, exactly. It won't be forgotten, it won't be forgotten. No, it won't be forgotten. And all that will be left to do is the equipment that will go on that playground. Equipment, let's talk about the equipment, the foundations, the 18 inches of woodchips. Woodchips that need to go underneath the play equipment but, you know, it's fundamentally yes. Is that metal play structure that's in that courtyard going to be reused, or is it going? The current, Jay's been working on some folks on play. Yeah, so I've been working with the Parks Department and Alec from the Parks Department has been on the site all week with a group of volunteers that come through every year. And the majority of structures have already been dismantled and they're going to finish that up by the end of this week. I just meant. I just meant, will that still be there for the little kids? It will not. Okay, that was my question. It's been dismantled, they will remove it all eventually and they'll store it over in Hubbard Park and then look for re-use within the district. So, but no, that won't stay. Okay, so it'll be, it'll be a play, it'll be a play. The courtyard will essentially be a blank space. Right. Okay. We talked about that with Ryan. He had made a very good point of equipment that's there is meant for small kiddos. And if you have, if we do use it as a play space for all the kids, then there's a safety concern between big kids, little kids, that kind of idea, which I thought was a pretty good point. So, and it's an added supervision that you don't necessarily need. Right. It gives us good short-term flexibility. Yeah. Yeah. We're good. This has less to do with the playground than with the next phase of the bond, but I'm not sure when else to raise it. So I'm going to raise it. The degree to which the cost of the playground seems to have been underestimated is raising concerns for me about the high school project that's in the bond and whether there are any lessons that we need to learn and how soon we need to learn them about the bidding on the high school project. Because if we need more money for that project, I think we need to know during the budget process that we need it. Sure. Well, I was fortunate enough to work for the firm that's designing the, I worked for Black River Design, so I'm marginally familiar with the project of the locker rooms and the auditorium. And I know that originally their cost estimate was based on conversations, real-world conversations, and I know that as part of the process, we will be doing cost estimates through prior to bid. So we will, at the end of schematic design, we will have a package that we will send to a professional cost estimator to go through and make sure that we make changes before the bid package and put together. We will also put within the contract a couple of, I kinda like the expression that Jay came up with, domino pushers, a couple of big pieces that when we get the contract in front of us, we can say, let's take that out, we'll figure it out later, but let's get the contracts signed. So we'll have those certain things. But we will be doing at least one, possibly two cost estimates on each of those projects. Great, thank you. Lisa. So you had said that the ECI had come to 1.6 million, or do you all have? On the first round, yep. So does that mean that you can estimate that 300,000 will be the cost of the final portion? No, because we continued, because that last 300,000 was not just the play now, that are not just the courtyard, continued throughout the site, producing plenty of changing materials. So that was not, we did that last cost savings round two was not just the courtyard, it was throughout the entire project. And we discussed that, Jay and I discussed that, that we will very soon, just like documenting what those changes are, we do need to go back and look at how much those parts and pieces are going to be. So when funds hopefully become available, they can choose, and we say, oh, we found $50,000 somewhere, what can we get with that? So that will be. Grant's so good at finding $50,000. And that could be part of finding savings in an upper playground work. It could be potentially in raising funds that the committee is committed to do. It could come in a lot of different places, but we're very cognizant of where we need to be to be able to move forward as a district, comfortably with contract with ECI. Jay, do you want to come up? So, I mean, you're close to done, but. Absolutely. If we're not going to play with that deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Happy to answer any questions. Yeah. How's it going with the neighborhood? It's going, it's going very well. Good. It's going very well. There's a few really small details that still need to be worked out around the closure of Park Avenue application that's going to be with city council, but we're pretty much 95% there. Just a couple of small details that just taken time as we're in summer. So that's, that's going along really well. And I mean, our neighbors, we've been very proactive with engaging with folks in the neighborhood and all of our response has been really positive. Good questions, but positive about how do we make this work and move forward? Certainly with the city as well. When I was here at the last meeting, you know, the same continued so. That's going well. And how much pressure will, if you can have the courtyard space open for recess and play time, how much pressure will that take off the street? Because obviously the most smaller area than the full two playgrounds would probably be some pressure to have more space. I think we'd have to leave that up to the building administrators to really dice how much they need and how much they need to work with. And how do they schedule a recess? Yeah. You can be creative with schedules to have smaller amount of kids out there if you can figure out the way to supervise it. Yeah, and I think our approach, like I alluded to, it needs to be that this is one big project and it will be closed. And we're going to use Park Avenue as our outdoor space throughout the year. But we're going to figure out how we're going to make the budget piece work, you know, throughout the construction process to be able to develop a lower courtyard to whatever it might look like. So it's, I don't think this is a step back in the sense that we're like, oh, now we're just phasing it. And there's upper and lower happening in two different times, but rather we're just, you know, getting to a point where we can move forward with DCI and get the solar remediation done, get the, you know, get everything started, so everything, we're working with the real hard deadline for the actual starts in terms of safety and egress points and all of that around the school at the end of August. So, you know, we've got to, you know, get moving with DCI so that we're at that point and then look at how we can phase in the development of the lower playground and not see this. It really has a two step process, but just more is how it was more in terms of phases. And how is this going to integrate? Because I know the bond had some other UES projects. How is this going to integrate with those projects and there's the wiring and the elevator and that's what... The best to be was probably the most critical. And that is what honestly needs to be a discussion with ECI. So, yeah, we all designers and engineers, we all have, oh, they should do it this way. And the contractors say, we do it this way. And so we were, have been talking, as an example, we've been talking about how are we going to keep handicapped accessibility to the back of a building? We're going to have to build a scaffolding or do a walkway and stay packed. And the contractors will probably just leave that concrete and not ask all until next year. So, oh, well, yeah, I guess we can do that. Not that that's exactly, you know, that's, that's an idea they have. Now that we, if we can get to this 1.2 with them, the integration of the two will be much smoother. Okay. There still may be some challenges if they say, no, we don't want to dig that up, because there's some roof drains and things like that that have to tie in. So there's, there's definitely some pros and cons. That's what these guys do, if we're living them, they'll figure it out. Okay. Great, yeah. Other questions? All those in favor of Bridget's motion, which should remind folks is to authorize the administration to negotiate the VCI for a contract out to exceed 1.3 volume. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you so much for your work, Jane. Yeah. Thank you guys. Not done yet. We know. We know. We know. Also acknowledges this is Libby's first Orbeez. Thank you so much for coming to the VCI. Thank you for coming to the VCI. Got here 12 hours ago, I think that's fine. So, great to have you here and Andrew and Ryan and we've got all the crew to start this week, so. Yeah. And they've been working very hard. Yes. Very hard. So, next items is the Board Summer Fall Agenda Discussion. And the first couple of quick summer things. We are kind of borderline on quorum for the July 18th meeting. Becky can't make it. Becky, Steve, Peter and Ryan all can't make it. Can everyone else make it? Because if not, we don't have a quorum and we're going to cancel it. This is next week, right? This is next week. I just deleted it from my calendar today because I thought it couldn't be real. But I can be there. And then the second question is with a short bench, is there enough that we can get done and need to get done? I was. Well, the question is what's on the agenda? Yeah, that's. Well, the question is what should we put on the agenda? Yeah, well, what we kind of need to do is move some board business forward, you know. Do we have more policies? So what we could do is we could kind of use it as a time for a small group to talk about what the retreat should look like. And also, we have a good number of the superintendent evaluation committee will be there so we can talk a little more about that. So we can have a short meeting to do those two things. How are we doing with policies? So I think we're good on the mandatory policies. Is that right? I don't look like. I was looking at that Google back today. Yeah, I think. So maybe would there be any more to approve next time? For example. We can't approve them because we won't have enough time to warrant an approval. That's right. Right. But there's a lot of other, like board policies. I mean, there's no shortage of board policy things that we could discuss in a small group and try to make some movement on them. Not adopt or decide anything, but just. It just seems like we never have enough time. Exactly. Planning the retreat seems like a really good idea. You're going to be here, Jim? I'm going to be here. Yeah. I would say planning the retreat would be a good use of our time. Peter. When you say a short meeting, like anything else? I mean, we use a normally two hours, so you think like an hour meeting? I think that's for two hours because that's our scheduled time, but yeah, unless we really want to talk retreat details, that's probably something that we could easily do in two hours, about less. Okay. Because the only thing that, when I heard short meeting, if you were thinking it was going to go an hour, in my mind it was while we just start the next meeting at six and we'll have four more people. Unless it's only time-sensitive, none of which you really, doesn't sound super time-sensitive. But if you're thinking it's going to be a full two-hour meeting, then, you know, that's great, clouds are two hours of work and I totally get that. But it seems like we do, we have done a lot of six to nine meetings. It's unpleasant, I would say, as they are. But it does allow it to be part of the discussion and if it's not time-sensitive. But if you think a full two-hour meeting is necessary, then go for it. Second scheduling. August one, I cannot make it and I know it's a difficult meeting for Libby because there's a retreat down in Southern Vermont, which I think also several other members of the leadership team are going to be at. Pete and Steve, nine. Pete and Steve are going to be top of Kilimanjaro. Nine meetings while we're playing Earth and Earth. Fourteen, like nine, we school would be 18, though. 15 days in a nice country. How do people feel about moving that to the following Wednesday, which is August 8th? I don't care if we move it, but I probably won't be here on the 8th. Okay. Yeah, the 8th would work for me. I'm fine, either way. Lisa? Yeah, I can do that. I was running back from... I think he's back. I think he is back. Okay, so let's do that as well. Final scheduling item. We discussed, Libby and I discussed, perhaps moving the regular time of this meeting up a bit. How do people feel about that? Either six or 630 with the idea of trying to go from either six to eight or 630 to 830. I'd love to move it up. Yeah, so that'd be great. Totally in favor of that. Are you going to do that for the one on the 8th? No, we can, we can maybe. We'll look at your face, maybe not do it for the one on the 8th. Okay, but that I'm fine. Okay. I think that can be really hard for people to get here at six from work. Are you thinking every meeting starts at six or just... Or 630, I mean, I get this... I get it hard from six, but I think most people in Montoya are going to come or probably going to be able to make 630. But what about our board members is what Peter's thinking about. Can you guys, is that tougher for you guys? It's okay for me, but I think that Ryan, it would be a challenge for him. What? Kids. Handoffing kids. Yeah. Okay, well, let's confirm with Ryan. I'll see if that works for him. And if it does... Consult with Peter. Well... I think that would have to, by the way, I think that would have to be like an action item to do anyway. I think it would be an action item, yeah. Because we have reset a meeting. We'd have to be warned, yeah. Yeah, we'd have to, I think it would have to be an official act, but... Yeah, so we have to talk about it again. I know there are many days that don't do it around me, but there are, once the sports start for kids, there are many days I book it, right, from a kids sport event to here. And I'm not saying I can't miss some sporting event, but it does add another layer of stress. But that's okay, just so I'm gonna be, it'll be fine, but it just is a little harder. But one of the nice things about us at Dartmouth Seven though, I gotta say, by nine, we all wanna be done, right? No one is sitting in this chair at 8.58 thinking, okay, I got another half an hour to go. Like, people are, we are wrapping stuff up. Right, if we start at six, there's a danger we still go to nine. And not that Jim is an amazing at running meetings with his on-air fist, but... Oh, we all just go to 10s now. Yeah, in the budget session, we go to 10s. Well, that's different. I think the budget stuff we could talk about could move in that, but for regular meetings. Well, we did, last year we were doing budget meetings from six to 10 all the time. Yeah. That was rough, what's bad? Because we had all those executive sessions. We had a lot of executive sessions, yeah. Like I would say like... Almost every meeting. For a long time. Yeah. I know, overall, let's not go to the dark place. Yeah. Okay. Seven is really late, like I would vote. Okay. Not that we're voting to really consider at least 6.30, because... I mean, I'd be fine with 6, but I know there are challenges either way, but where I feel like 7, we just lose all this time where I'm just like killing time before the meeting starts. And then... Or just working. Or just end up working until 7. Yeah. Okay. I think it sounds like people would like to push up a half hour. I'm only scrambling to get here at 7. Did you have a preference in your life? What makes it better for you? Like, earlier, I don't know if you have like something with your husband and switching kids, like you just rather get down here and get out. Well, fear is like dead time. Not dead time. Yeah. I've been here since 7.15 this morning, so that's probably how I get into normal. I understand. Well, no, we should be considerate of the staff. That should be an important part of our decision. Like, we want to like burn out the staff, because... Well, it's also a little, you know, for instance, if you want to have a principal come and talk about something, it's easier to have a staff. Okay. Good. Yeah. Okay. So is the retreat going to be on the 15th? I think we should probably formalize this. I have not heard... Does that work for you? I can be there. Yes, I'm sorry. Okay. Steve didn't get it definite, definite, but he said it was the best of all the days. Only one that doesn't work for us, Becky, but we can't get you and Livia the same. That's okay. That works. So... You'll be the latest first retreat. You're the one who missed that. And is this a board-only retreat? Board and superintendent. Board and superintendent. But it's not an administrative team. Not with the whole leadership team? Yeah. And what was your timeframe for this retreat? Yeah, I'm curious about that. I'm okay. I was thinking at least half a day would people rather do nine to one or like new to four or one to five? Would it replace the meeting that we have scheduled for 7 p.m.? To hope. Or... I think it would probably replace the meeting, yes. Okay, because that's minor detail, but that one's the Roxbury meeting. We have to reconfigure. Yeah, we can maybe do the Roxbury meeting. The next meeting. So I'm... How many days are we at Roxbury? Every fourth meeting. Every fourth. Every fourth. Okay, open it up. What about, would it be possible? I'd be able to just ask, I mean, I can do whatever, but like even stuff, we can start with four and nine, too. Is that too early for folks like 8.30, 8.15, I mean. I mean, I'm up. I'm up. And Jim's giving me the look. Exactly. I don't know. It's summer and like camps and... Okay. And then eating at 9 o'clock can be... Okay. A joke. I'm concerned that... We can do it at 10.30. Even 8.30, just get me... Yeah. Okay, I want... I mean, usually kids drop off camp at 8.30. Yeah, I don't think that many kids go any camp. Heck, you know, Tina, no. Too old. Too old. Too old. No kids, right? Yeah, so, you're kids? I am not doing drop-offs. There you go. I'm sorry. I don't know, Jim. You just give us more of the afternoon. It's just you, Jim. Yeah. So 8.30 and 12.30. I don't want to be a pain. I mean, that's actually... I'm concerned that eliminating that board meeting, we're not gonna get done, we're gonna get done. It seems like we have a lot done now. I appreciate to do. Now, I appreciate that we're gonna set the retreat agenda next time, right? I'm just worried. But you have a better sense than I, and what needs to be done. So if we can get it done in that amount of time, great. I don't think it's enough time. Oh. Thank you. So my understanding of the things we need to talk about, are the budget process. Yeah. How we're gonna adopt mission and values for the new district. Yeah. And the board governance process. There may be other things. Board conduct. And board conduct. Yeah, those are... That's to be half a discussion. That is not a four-hour discussion. No point, yeah. I'm sorry, it's just not. There are a lot of little things that may seem a little, but for example, this is a Montellier School emblem. It shouldn't be on the Montellier-Roxbury Public School document because it's never been discussed. Not that it won't be, but it's never been discussed. If Ryan would be here, he'd be pointing that out. You know, Tina, that little logo just appeared like two years ago, and the board didn't select it. It just, I don't even know where it came from. I'm just saying, I know Ryan mentioned it once, that it was thought of as being a Montellier logo, and so it was worth a discussion. I'm thinking that. That might be part of our mission and values conversation. Might be. But Tina's point was a little different from yours, Bridget. I believe, right? Because Tina, you're talking about regular board agenda, like our regular meetings. Well, if you cut a meeting out at the end of the day and you've done a retreat, what was on the regular board agenda? And I don't even know how we're gonna get done with things in the retreat. So I'm going way out here. Are you with me? Tina's got both feet on the floor. Suppose we met all day. I was thinking the same thing. But not at night. 8.30 to 4.30? With an hour break. What meeting did we cancel? Oh, we have an appointment. I didn't think we'd cancel. There's one schedule for that day. That's just a placeholder. Normally, just for what it's worth. Normally, we don't meet in the evening, in July and August. We just have two retreats. And I would say that this is not normal. It is not normal because we have to set everything up. Yes. Yep. Yeah, so the things I have, I'm pretty sure, you know, governance and structure and board role, if you're going to verify that. Board conduct. We'll set it in budget and general schedule. And then mission, vision, and at least the sub-unit process for that. If not, it's getting the mission and vision down. All of which are. Big topics. Topics. I would go for, I think it's a full day of the work. Unless people want to have two half-day retreats. I was going to suggest, personally, I think eight hours. I love y'all. We can do great work. I think this is super fun stuff. But eight hours is a long time to be locked in. I don't know if are we more productive if we did two that easier for people to schedule. I think it's, I think, well, yes and no. You might be more productive, but are you going to find two days that we can do this? That's what I'm thinking about. It's hard enough to come up with this one. Yeah, I'm thinking that. I don't know if you're actually are productive when you get two days because then you kind of have to do the reset again. And sometimes if you're just locked in the room for eight hours, you get to a point where you just start making decisions. Okay, that's true. All right. We can have a stationary bicycle that we can take turns on or something. And we can have like a meaningful lunch where we actually just, you know. Unplug a little bit. Trot outside and unplug for an hour and on the chat. And kind of have like two, you know, two working things with a meaningful birth. Well, I think we should do the full eight hour day and grind this out. I mean, we're verging. We have a new superintendent. You know, we owe it to the district to really be on top of this because at least if something goes sideways, we can say we looked at everything and like get ahead of this as much as we can. So I would support that full eight hour day. Yeah, and we can, you know, use the time of the eight and the 18th to set the table and... Make sure it's as productive as we can. Make sure it's as productive as possible. So are you good with that? So this is what I think I heard. We are going to go a full day, which is 8.30 to 4.30, is that what you said? Yes, 8.30 to 4.30. But we are not having a school board meeting that evening. Yes, I think that would be overkill. Yes, I know, but I'm just clarifying, yes. Yes, we're going to have a full day retreat on the 15th. So we'll have one school board meeting in August, which will be on the 8th. Yes. Okay. And just to be clear, because it's a public, we're in a public session, the 15th is a school board meeting, and it's a public meeting. So we can do business there as long as it's worn. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so we have, you know, consent to gen items are, you know, we can spend a few minutes, you know, crossing lines about it. I think someone raised a concern that calling it a retreat suggests that the public can't attend. Not in a meeting, but, which is not true. It's just signals that we're trying to focus our time as a group, not that it's not a public meeting. And Libby and I discussed getting a facilitator for it. I'm on it. You're on it? Mm-hmm. As I think it will help. Really? We've had such bad luck with the facilitator. I mean, does anyone else feel that? Not that we've had bad luck. Just that I don't, I feel like we know what we need to do. Yeah, I... I feel like we know what we need to do. And sometimes when you have a facilitator, the agenda gets crossed with, because there's not enough communication with the facilitator. Can't you wait for me to... I have complete confidence. I have to tell something about the facilitator. I've complete confidence in Jim's ability to facilitate the meeting. As we normally do. I've got a facilitator not for the entire meeting, but for the talking about board conduct and board roles and responsibilities and lieutenant roles and responsibilities, having somebody facilitate that discussion. That just, that part of it. I mean, we had that facilitated discussion, which was good. I mean, I feel like we're trying to move beyond the discussion and hash out some policies, get them in place. I think, I don't know. I can't comment until we've had the discussion of what's on the agenda and what protocols you might use to pull off the agenda. And if that's working well, we have not sometimes had good luck with our facilitators. So that doesn't mean there aren't good ones out there, but if I had a better idea of it, that would, I know whether I'm with... You know, the woman who helped us with the budget process, I think she did a good job. Yeah, I was actually gonna ask, we're sort of bleeding between the logistics and the agenda planning. If we have those materials that she prepared for us to make sure we have those next week, because they were really helpful. Because we did good work. We did good work about the budget there. Yeah. Do you have one, Michelle? Still? I mean, you would. So why don't we... We can't find them. Ruby can still work on it, but that next, our next meeting when we talk about the agenda, then we make a decision. Yeah, because I think what would be most helpful is to have someone who can come in with some kind of like standard board roles and responsibilities and come in with maybe... And even like a few exercises, like that exercise that you had when you went to the merger training thing, which I don't know the name of that, but where you just kind of had people sit down and say, well, is this something the superintendent does or the port does? Right. And then really get a sense of, you know, where people are on roles and responsibilities. I think we could use at least some guidance and some materials on that. So I think if we come in, certainly we'd lie not me or we're gonna be set back on that, but if we can get someone who can come in with like a pair of materials and be really focused and ready to hit the ground running and kind of like skip the fluffy stuff or maybe someone can work with us beforehand and maybe not. I think if you gave us, if you set us up with some homework to read some of the VSBA materials, because I think they lay out pretty clearly those, you know, at least their take on those roles and responsibilities. Yeah. And we did the sample ones with Steve. We probably still have those too. Yeah. So we could go back to those. I thought we did a good job on those too. I felt like everybody was pretty lunch on the same page on the answers to those scenarios. Yeah. I think we have to pull in some of that stuff. Because I actually think we're on some of these issues. If we do homework beforehand and we get stuff beforehand then people refresh their memories beforehand. I think we can actually get through some of the stuff more quickly than it seems. Another suggestion I'll throw out that we could talk about more next week is that board members could split up responsibility for facilitating different sections of the retreat, which would pull in, take some work off of you, pull in more board members to have done the homework and be ready to talk about different issues. And then also means we don't have to listen to the same person the whole day. No point. Although, when we all don't like the facilitator it at least unites us. I think we have to focus and prefer facilitators. Some of them will be worthwhile, but I think a lot of it's going to be coming in. So the governance piece includes the work plan, right? The work plan for the coming year. So I think that's most of what I have on summer fall agenda. So I think it's going to be a zero summer than usual, but we've got a lot to do. Anything else on that before we move on to policy readings? Yeah, perfect. Item number seven, which is the second reading of the city's self-explanatory policy was in the packet, a discussion, comments on. I was supposed to do some more work on this. Didn't have time to do very much more work, but what I did has led me to suggest that we should bring it back on the agenda next week because I did look at the statute and compare them. And there are things in the statute, not in the policy. I'm not really sure why, but one of the things that's in the statute that's not in the policy says that notwithstanding one to six, that students can be taught standard English skills, English language skills. I'm paraphrasing, I had a bunch of stuff that I printed out, forgot to write, which is not helpful. But anyway, so that's in the statute, but not in the policy, which suggests that there's a little bit more supervisory authority in the teacher than the policy has. I don't understand what you're saying, so I can't. So what I'm saying is that there's a statute that sets out most of this. I guess it doesn't match the statute, they don't quite match. They're one of the provisions that's in the statute that's not in a policy is a provision that says basically notwithstanding one through six, which sounds like it's an exhaustive limit of what the school can regulate, that students may also be instructed in the English language basically, like grammar, writing skills, students can be instructed in English writing skills as part of journalism. And I don't know why that got dropped from the policy, do you see what I'm saying? It would suggest that there could be some role in faculty editing of student-sponsored media for that purpose, but that's not in the policy, although it's in the statute. I'd like to follow up the BSBA and find out why they decided not to put that in the standard policy when it was in the statute. So you're going to check on it and we'll bring it back? Unless people very much want to vote on it. I don't feel that strongly about it, but I did want to report back. So just get it right, then have to go back and change it, I think, soon. Yeah. You know. Plus we can't adopt it next week anyway, so. Yes. Fourth 3D. I think this reflects what we discussed at the last meeting. I was just curious, is mandatory attendance and truancy highlighted for some reason? Because they're changed. Because it's a change, that's what I thought. We added the September 1 cut off. Right. Right. We added the September 1 cut off. So there are changes to student attendance? That's good. Yeah. Should be one. Should be one. Should be one for acceptance. Yeah. On to item 9. Superintendent of the Aviation Committee met, it could be back date, but a year ago. On the second. July 2nd. And we, I want to take back this great work, put together a job description for the superintendent, which is in front of you, that we, that we approve. And also a charge for the committee, which Bridget put together, in which you see and edit it for, and I know you just got these. Okay, so I just want to say that I edited this properly and printed it off and left it on the printer. So that's why you had, I will circulate the proper one, but fortunately the edit. This is an old school. This is old school, I'm sorry, but I walked out without getting anything else from it. So folks, yeah. Most of us, I think we're part of the editing here, but if Michelle's going to get a little bit of time to read through this quickly and see if I have any questions. Just being my great couple of times. Yeah, well, are we going to approve this? Tonight? Are we doing anything like that? Well, we can, Is that the idea? We're going to approve it next week if you guys want more time to review it, or are we going to approve it tonight? I mean, it's just hard to read this long a document. Like, we can take like a 10 minute break or it just seems weird, like, well, I'll say it while I try it. But to really give thoughtful responses. I mean, I don't mind all my time. Even if we don't approve it, should we take a break and let people? I don't want to waste everyone's time while I read. Why don't me too? I haven't read it. We didn't get it. No, it's both. I don't want to suggest that on this, I'm not sure how to do this as a place to sit, but on the job description, we have a mission and values that are not the mission and values of this board. Yes. I'm curious, do we just leave those headers and take them out? What is it we do? It says in here that these are just placeholders until they're updated. So, I mean, that's work to be done. And the job description actually is intended to be updated on a manual basis. It's not a static document. It's a live document. So, I mean, we could approve it today or next week. And six months later, after the first evaluation, it might have to be updated again anyway. So, I'm not sure how that works for the board in terms of approving a document. Well, I wondered if we should just take out the mission and vision at this time with the rest of the job description and then add whatever we decide on. What's we can do now? I don't know the process. Usually you have a mission and vision. So, we can do one of a couple of things. We can either, we're way ahead of schedule. This is the last item on the agenda. It's eight. We're gonna take five, 10 minutes now, have people review it and come back and just edit it and get it done. We could delay it for another meeting, which. I would love to have time to read it right now since I'm sitting here with it. It's only eight o'clock. Okay, just take a 10 minute viewer break and. Yeah. Under objectives, the second bullet, it says the each individual student. And again, in the third bullet, it refers to each individual student. And later in the document, it refers to all students. And personally, I'd rather we refer to all students than each individual student. Because I think in this district where we've had to weigh individuals against the whole, we put the weight on the whole. I mean, of course we want the best for each individual student, but I think the superintendent's responsibility is to the district as a whole. That's good. And then with the complete, valuable, meaningful, and personally rewarding education, that seems like our values are mission and seems like this committee probably, I mean, those are all lovely sentiments, but it doesn't seem like this committee should be choosing those. Where are you? I'm sorry, I don't know. I'm still in the second bullet. The second bullet. So that all students in the whole district provided with a complete, valuable, meaningful, I don't really know what this means, but I think whatever it means, it's just really referring to the values or mission. I mean, I guess if you guys came up with it and thought it was meaningful. Could you change it to in front of a rewarding education? An education consistent with our values. Consistent with our mission vision events. Education consistent. Because otherwise I just don't think those are very meaningful. They're just kind of happy words. Okay, we can do that. Consistent with our mission and vision, or mission values and mission. Our mission and values. Mission and values, yeah, do that. I love mission values and ends. Yeah, our ends were more specific to what we wanted for students, but they're not listed here. Well, we don't know. Yeah, I would say mission and values, because I think our ends are gonna flow from those. Okay, mission and values then. We have ends. Okay. Thank you. On the second page, this CIP talks about increasing student learning and assesses student performance. And it seems like the CIP addresses topics other than just student outcomes, but I don't know whether it addresses them only in order, whether that's always the ultimate objective. But we are only referring to student outcomes in the CIP bullet. The CIP as written now under ESSA for federal funding has to have, it's based around student goals. So. So that's appropriate then. Yeah, it would make sense based on what the stipulations we have to live under. If you're referring to the CIP as we know it. Yeah. Under partnerships, the second bullet, the superintendent assists the board and administration in complying with legislative changes. And I would just say complying with or responding to. I'm sorry, assist the board and the administration. In complying with or responding to legislative changes. We're not always happy to comply with the plan. In complying with or responding to, okay. And the last bullet in that section has the sort of defines the role of the superintendent as attending meetings prepared to act as a resource and an advisor. Earlier in here we've said that they need to be articulating the vision of the district and our board meetings and opportunity for the superintendent to articulate that vision or are they really just staff support in that context. I know that was a little, that was often, that has often been tricky for past superintendents to know whether they're here supporting us as leaders or whether they are also supposed to be leading, like who's in front in this meeting can be a little tricky. I don't know if we have anything to say about that. I've used as the board meeting with the superintendent divided into staffing for the board meeting rather than just being the superintendent slash board meeting. I mean, clearly the superintendent in all forums I think should be articulating the vision and responding consistently with that. But I don't see this as a, I don't see board meetings as the platform for that to happen. Don't make sense for you. I guess I don't see this bullet as summarizing what the superintendent does at board meetings, but as specifying one aspect of what the superintendent does at board meetings. And it's in terms of developing partnership with the board. So that's one aspect of what the superintendent has to do at board meetings, which is to be prepared to be a resource to help develop the agenda, be able to answer questions, help us figure out how to make decisions. But I think other, I mean, all of the other, nearly all of the other bullets could also be part of the role of the superintendent at board meetings, including, for example, during the budget session, articulating the district's vision and values and integrating that with the budget presentation. So I think I'm okay with it as it is, but that's how I read it. I think I had one more under personnel. The last bullet on that same page says that conducts supervision and evaluation for principals and district office leaders. And so we have had, for the past several years, we've referred to a group of administrators as the leadership team. That was a construct that Brian created somewhat arbitrarily, and even the people who were referred to that way weren't sure who the full cast of those characters was. And so I think it would be great to define, and you probably know this already, who the superintendent's direct reports are, and for us to know, and for there to be a list. It's the curriculum and technology, the special services, the three principals, the business manager, but then there's four principals now, yes. Business manager, food service director, facilities director, yeah, because those three have not always been in that crew. So maybe we should list them. That's what I'm suggesting. Instead of saying district office leaders list who they are. So everybody would know. And the superintendent directly supervises the food service director? Has not always been the case, but seems like it should be. Who else would? Good question. Never thought of a solo operator. That's a good thing, I'm proud of it. I have to say, Yeah, I'm doing under that area, just want to say director reports, because yeah, director reports change, because I think the point of this bullet is to make sure that the individuals who are directly supervised by the superintendent get an annual valuation from the superintendent. And the assistant principals, are they supervised by the principals? Yeah. And Heather and Tracy, are they supervised by you? So maybe, even though this says direct reports, sometimes the board might get a list of who the direct reports are, so we're more than happy to give you a list. Yeah, okay, that would solve the problem and it doesn't have to be in here, so if it changes, we know. Oftentimes no one. But so, it's any of the principals or other director reports? Not a good idea. Yeah, thank you. All right, that's all I had to say. And under qualifications, I don't think master's degree needs two apostrophes. I'm sure. That's extra. I have two of them, maybe that just can signify. There you go. I have three things, I don't feel incredibly strong about all of them, but under position objectives, superintendent will be the educational leader to the Montpelier-Roxbury community. That could be a lot of things to a lot of people at the first page. And I think, I don't know if it's worth fleshing that and saying superintendent as educational leader of the Montpelier-Roxbury community will be responsible for articulating poor policy to the public, interacting with the media, settling conflict. Just so it's clear that this is the person when the buck stops with the community, right? We don't do that stuff. We do not settle conflicts when people are upset. We don't do any of that. So it's just, I don't know if we need to say it, I mean, educational leaders in the broad. But if everyone's happy with it, I'm okay with it too. I think educational leader is more about the leader of the teachers. Is that on my off on that? Well, it says educational leader to the Montpelier-Roxbury community. I think it's more than that. Yeah, I saw that bullet as less about what you're talking about, which I think is covered by other bullets and more about expecting the superintendent to have a leadership voice on education issues in the community. Whereas like running the district is covered by the first three bullets. I don't know. I don't know if that's quite what you're getting at, but. That's maybe what you're talking about isn't one of the. That's right. Isn't included in the bullets. It's the most field it is, though. That's okay. I don't think it is. I mean, it doesn't need to be, but it is what we ask the superintendent to do, right? Like an example would be the end when the serious summit thing was going down at the end of the day. That was the superintendent's job to figure out how to resolve that and articulate to the community. This is our plan. This is why we do it. This is our plan. We need to put that in writing. Maybe it's obvious. I don't want to. We could use a fifth bullet potentially. I would agree on the superintendent being. The outward facing role. The ultimate decision maker where, I don't know how to describe it, because it's for things that have been delegated to the superintendent. Well, we describe the, and this is the second bullet under responsibilities as the chief executive officer. So what I'm hearing from both of you is that it's not enough. In some way. It can be fine. I mean, if I were to ask Libby, do you feel like you would need more words there to help you do your job? I think what you're saying, Peter, I hear what you're saying. And I think that helps define the board's responsibilities to the community more than a piece of the job description. But I can understand why it would go into the job description as another place for you all, if you're asked to do a conflict resolution to say, that's the responsibility of the superintendent. Here's our piece that we've agreed on. So I think it's worthwhile to find, I was just reading through other bullets to see if it fits in other places. And it's not quite as strongly worded as how you were wording it or not quite as clear. Did you say again what you said, Peter? The superintendent as the educational leader to the Montpelier-Roxford community will be responsible for articulating board policies in the public, the media and settling and resolving conflicts. I mean, that last part's a little clunky, but you know, just to the understanding, this is our person that has to do these things. And the policy piece is in the Board of Commissioners policy under the third bullet. However, the more conflict resolution thing is in it in places like interpersonal collaborative skills, but it's soft. It's not quite as direct as what you said. Where's the policy piece? Anyone? You look in Board of Commissioners on the third page policy. Board of Commissioners, yeah, which bullet? The third one ensures staff and community awareness of all existing and proposed policies and ensures procedures are created and implemented. Yep, okay. However, the kind of luck stops here conflict resolution piece that with the community that's not, that's soft in here and under interpersonal collaborative skills, conflict resolution is there, but I don't know if that means what we went. If this makes things murkier, I'm not over this, but if you feel it, if it doesn't help, let's not do it. I don't think it hurts, so. I don't think it hurts, unless, I don't want that to be an exclusive list. Okay. Well, that's not gonna hurt. I don't know what you're saying, among other things. Of course. Or if it was seen as an exclusive list, if it is and everything. So think about it, I don't know. It might be, a better place might be for, or another place, rather, better, but another place would be when we talk about board responsibilities versus superintendent responsibilities, so it is down in some sort of formal paper, it's formalized in some way. Because we, but when we work it out there, we might think to then bring it over here, because I think we do have some language, Montpelier had some language about delegation of authority to this term, and we should find it. My second of three is on the third page under Board of Commissions Policy. One of the things that happened with the previous superintendent, I think many of us felt was we did not get timely responses to the information we requested at board meetings. And not to be, if this is too micromanagy, we don't have to do it, but is there something in there that we articulate that, the board as the supervisor of the superintendent, we need to get timely answers. Right, and there's one. That was in communication and support to the board. We had the whole policy about it. Right, and again, in my mind it can be something like, I simply can't do that, I need two weeks, but many times we said, oh, I'll get it to you, and then nothing happened, and the bond was a big example of the early first iteration of the bond. So I don't know if we need to do that, but some reflection that as when we need information to make a decision, it has to be delivered in a timely way. Is that too much? Provides timely responses to board members. Thank you. Just so as a box check, thank you. And then the last one. Which should always have those timely responses to. And then my last one is under physical planning and budget management. One of the biggest challenges I think we would agree to doing the budget is our very compressed timeframe between the time when we get rates and numbers till we have to ship it off to the city council and get it printed. I mean, there is not a lot of margin framework every year, it's incredibly stressful. And it's important that the superintendent create a timeline for meetings and getting information out and then appear to it. Yeah. Because things get sideways real quick and we don't have a lot of wiggle room. And I don't know if it's worth putting that out. Didn't we last year at our... So none of these bullets specifically say that. I mean, it says in terms of planning and management. We could just have a bullet that says creates the budget calendar. Exactly, and it hears to it. Because didn't we create a whole separate budgeting and fiscal responsibility policy after last year's retreat? Got a whole document on what that is. With the schedule. But Brian usually does a really detailed schedule of exactly, you know, from October through January. To not develop a timeline for implementation or something. I think it's a super-tenure issue presenting that to the board. So for example, we as the board can make sure that there's enough public meetings that we feel need to meet to the community at that timeline ahead of time. Right. Like if there's only two, that might be bad. Like if it's a contentious year, we might need four. So ultimately we'll respond or accountable to the public. That's it. But Jim could find that from last year and get that to Libby, because that needs to take the budget calendar. Because it probably... It was pretty, it might have a different idea. For the budget calendar. Yeah, but it's always helpful to have it starting. Right. And I think to Peter's point, if we have it early enough, then we can be thinking. If it comes to us, it's the last minute, we're six steps back. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who did so much hard work putting that together. That's impressive. See you next year. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any comments on the chart? I was doing the chart. That's cool. The chart we actually have to adopt at some point. I guess we have to adopt those. But we did not move them tonight. We do actually have to charge the committee with something. We could do it next week, but this would be Peter's chance to weigh in if we don't like it. I have no promises. Okay. I move to approve this chart. The chart, please. Second. Any discussion? That was a favor. All right. Any opposed? Should we approve the job description as amended or we'll want to push that to the end? Do you want another rating? I'm going to ask what you're going to do about the mission of the commission. Well, we're not going to have that until late summer, so I think we can. No, no, I know. But are you leaving the one, the one that you want in here? That's my question. I can tell you in that handbook when I was rewriting the district wide handbook, that piece, I took that out and said this is to be determined by the newly merged board. Can we just put it in TPD? So why can't we do the same thing? Yes. Yeah, let's put it in TPD. And amendment, I would make a motion to accept the job description. As amended. As amended. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great. Do you want me to start the website? Oh, yes, sorry. Yes. It's finished. It did finish. That was a surprise on day one for myself and Mike Barry. He's been working tirelessly on this and I just got a text, I brought my cell phone in here to check, but I just got a text from him today that the homepage will be up by tomorrow of the new website. Yes. The man is brilliant and if you ever see him, pat him on the back. He's made this happen. He's made a lot of work happen in two days time. We will not have school pages yet, but the homepage will be able to put the school calendar. We'll be able to put latest news on construction and activities and things that are going to be concerned. Throwing things down the page. Yeah. So. I'm excited. He linked the high school guidance site to there because kids are working on their college stuff. Oh, okay. That's a good thing to, to I'll text him and say that's important to get up there. So we'll, it's not gonna be fully ready to go by tomorrow, but we should be some, the public will be able to see us by tomorrow. The other thing to, so you're aware is that Mike has put up not really Roxbury public schools, social media accounts. So follow us on Twitter. Tell everybody we're at MRP SBT for Twitter and he's also got an Instagram account for us and a Facebook account for us. So once those are really rocking and rolling, I encourage all of you to share that and make sure that people out there are seeing what we're doing. It's like it's the 21st century. And will, and will on our new website, you be able to use an iPad to access it? I would make the assumption. Yes. Don't make that assumption. Don't. We have not been able to do that on this website. Maybe we do not know, Mr. Michael there. Okay. Because they will be roving social media feeds on it. There will be, calendars parents can attach themselves to so they see things in the school, they'll be able to go through the website to get weekly updates from schools and the district. I would also like the news to show that the week's first meeting ended 25 minutes early. The new regime is off to a fun time. Yeah. Well it hasn't ended yet. Good point. I hope we adjourn. Is that correct? All the better. Bye. Both.