 Okay, welcome everybody is 606. Let's get the meeting started. First, welcome our guests. Let me see. I'm trying to see the list of participants. We do have some guests. So I'm going to open up to public comments. If you could raise your hand, please. If you have a comment. Okay. One, two, three, hands up. Okay. Let's start. Aaron, go ahead. Good evening. I just have a brief. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. I just have a brief prepared statement and I will be sharing with the board of more complete statement. After I've delivered this and make sure that I get it all out properly here. So my name is Aaron Mooney and I'm an English teacher at you 32. I'm representing the Washington Central Educators Union as liaison to the Vermont NEA Healthcare Council. As you're likely aware, state statewide healthcare bargaining is heading to binding arbitration in early November following the failure of the parties to reach a settlement during post fact finding mediation in September. The fact finder John Cochran issued his report on September and the link to that report will be in the letter that I'll share with you later. I strongly encourage you to read that document in its entirety on almost every issue. The fact finder's recommendations are closer to the union position and in some cases they adopt the union position outright. Further, the fact finder asserted that the Vermont School Board Association's proposals, particularly on out of pocket costs and eligibility are financially unnecessary and likely to hurt the most vulnerable and lowest paid employees in our school district. I strongly encourage you to raise any concerns you have with the Vermont School Board Association's negotiating team and board of directors. The decisions they make in the next several weeks may have significant and lasting implications for our school district and the employees who make it run. Thank you very much. Thank you Aaron. Hey, Tyler. Hello. My name is Tyler Smith. I also have a short prepared statement that I wrote and I'd like to read to you all. I'm an interventionist and instructional coach at Berlin Elementary, as well as the co-president of the Washington Central Educators Union. Tonight, however, I speak to you as a parent of a fourth grader at Berlin. I've come here to talk about equity. Last spring, a concern of equity was a hot topic as allied arts positions were discussed. I ask you, where is your concern for equity now? In Berlin and Calis, we still do not have licensed music teachers. In Berlin, we have a wonderful artist who's been subbing, but she's not a licensed music teacher. In Calis, the solution for the last two weeks is to have a PE teacher teach dance for exposure to music. Where is your concern for equity now? All of the solution of Calis music for the foreseeable future, Berlin and Romney students do not have health education with no current solution to provide those students with the amount of health instruction they were supposed to receive this year. Where is your concern for equity now? My biggest issue as a parent is that my child, along with many other children, are not receiving instruction that children at our other district schools are receiving. I feel that this board made a position that is undesirable. Undesirable to the point that our former music teacher left the district. Undesirable to the point where we haven't filled the position after it has been posted since the end of last school year. Seeing as more than half the school board was behind the allied arts change on the basis of equity in our schools. I'm puzzled as to why this is not an important subject today. Where is your concern for equity now? Thank you for your time. Thank you, Tyler. Thank you for your input, both we hear you and we're working hard and it's keeping us up. So let's move on. I don't see any other hands unless I'm missing somebody. I don't see any other hands. Yes, I just wanted to make a statement of appreciation to our staff and administrators for keeping our schools open, keeping our kids in school. I know right now being an educator is really, really difficult. And I wanted to say publicly how much we appreciate it. I read the school newsletters from all the schools we get them. And it's very uplifting to see all the positive things that are happening in the schools and the activities that are taking place even during this time where our children aren't able to be vaccinated. And we're keeping them in school quite a bit. So I wanted to acknowledge the extra work and energy that's going into trying to have a normal education for our children as best we can. And I know people are putting in lots of extra time and mental energy as well as physical energy. Thank you, Lindy. Okay, let's move on into agenda revisions. Diane had reached out to me and she would like to add a staff appreciation. So we're going to add that to 3.8 right after Berlin Town Center. Is that okay to be with you Diane. Okay. Any opposition from any other board members. So let's move out. Let's move in right into our board operations discussion and an action is the part of the meeting that I'm the most excited about and getting started a little late got me a little out of my little nervous but hopefully keep it together so that we can have a 3.1 humanity and justice vision statement. So I just wanted to open up by have a short statement if to open the conversation. And as community leaders and public officials we're entrusted to care for all the stakeholders in our community. The contributions to community culture should be at the forefront of the work that we do together. This means setting a tone of mutual respect active engagement and responsiveness to cultural diversity within our district. We must recognize the pain and the struggles felt within our communities and our own roles systematically or individually that may contribute to this effective governing means setting the direction and creating a culture for our district and a positive culture by adopting the justice and humanity statement is reflective of our school and community values. So I was going to open up this to a Shelly and Jen, and that and have Shelly get started. Thank you for being here. Well thank you floor and thank you everybody for being here and for supporting the work that of the coalition. Some time ago I just want to remind you that Jen Miller Arsenault and I dreamed about a course for the district and she made it she manifested it and it was called the racial equity intersectional justice and confronting bias class that met last spring. And from that course, we decided to meet the board's request for an equity council with a legacy project. And we realized that equity council didn't quite match our dreams and the possibilities of the work that we could do. So, several members of the class co wrote a statement for the humanity and justice coalition, and Ellen cook is going to read that and then Jen Ingersoll is going to give you some more details. So thank you and give this a listen it's a, it's a straight statement that gives me great joy and many challenges ahead. Thank you Shelly and good evening everyone. Humanity and justice coalition vision statement. The Washington Central unified union district is dedicated to taking concrete actions that provide a safer and more supportive learning environment that is free of barriers. It affirms the identity of each of us and acknowledges and celebrates differences to create a sense of belonging for each person connected to our schools. The district the school district is committed to creating inclusive educational opportunities that are relevant both historically and culturally addressing the impacts of bias prejudice discrimination, while building more opportunity for us to thrive, rather than to make our community survive. This statement represents a commitment within our school district to acknowledge and end oppression and oppressive systems to center our full humanity of all in our community, and to keep broadening our perspectives. We are committed to creating communities, including and not limited to race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ethnicity, marital status, family composition, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, varying physical and mental abilities and socio economic status. This statement is constructed meaning and value. Our commitment is to the development of cultural humility and personal growth that is best supported in a climate that respects differences and provides a sense of belonging and inclusion. Alan, Alan, thank you for that. Good evening everyone. I'm Jenning or so I'm part of this exciting group is doing such good work and I am pleased to invite you board members and Anna you are included among them to certainly participate. I would like to invite you to take a look at that vision statement that's been developed it is in the packet for those who are not not sure where to find it. I believe it's Jen. What page is it on page three of the packet? Okay, so I'm page three of the packet. What I'd like to do is invite everyone to board members to read the statement to yourselves. And as you're reading, I would like to invite you to participate in a friend's protocol inspired activity that will invite you to choose a word, a phrase or a sentence from the statement that moves you or sparks your curiosity, or, you know, causes you to stop and consider. What I'd like you to do is be willing to share that. I'm going to give us a minute to seek one of those words or, you know, word phrase or a sentence. And what I'll do is I'll call on each board member. And preferably if somebody's willing to, you know, volunteer first, I'll start with that person and then put another person on deck. And if it comes to you and you're just not, you know, you're still contemplating you ready to share please feel welcome to pass for the moment and we can come back to you. So I'm going to go ahead and we'll, we'll spend one minute giving that a look, and I'll bring us back together in a minute. Okay. And Jen, before you start, I just want to let you know Maya Elliott is also a student member of our board now and she's here as well. Thank you so much for that Jen Maya. I'm glad you're with us and invite you to be part of this process. Okay. It's, and also I want to just share that you, you may choose to say something if you'd like, or just simply the words, and that is absolutely okay, whatever that would be. Is someone willing to go first. Jen, since I was, yeah, since I was able to chat with you guys ahead of time first I want to say I want to welcome Alan sorry my brush I forgot to welcome you as part to Ellen and I'm so sorry. I, the, what connects with me is, is the last sentence of the statement, and if I have to pick a phrase would be cultural humility and personal growth that is best supported in a climate that respects differences and provides a sense of belonging. It's personal for me, and also as a journey. And, and just like in every meeting we need to be inclusive, honest and intentional. And that's what it reminds me. So it's like being in community. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you floor. I'm going to just ask if Chris McVeigh would you be willing to go next and then Scott Thompson on deck. I can't hear. Sorry, I was muted, but I'm happy to go next. I also focused on the closet floor pit, but other two other sections that speak to me is taking concrete action. We belong for each person connected to our school, because it's a very broad range and concrete action is something that should be measurable for us. So thank you. Thanks, Chris. Scott, and then Maggie Weiss. Thanks. I actually quite like the name of the coalition humanity and the number one Confucian virtue together with the number one platonic virtue. Not to love with that. But in the text itself. What sort of caught my eye right at the very beginning is the reference to providing a safer and more supportive learning environment that is free of barriers. I know that certainly a safer learning environment. And barriers to learning have not really been on my radar as a board member. And there's clearly that's that's coming from the experience of this community of practice that has drafted the statement. So I'm very interested in learning more about that. Thanks. Thanks, Scott. Maggie and then Jonathan. Maggie, I think you're still muted. Okay, my audible now cell phone zoom different than laptop zoom different than iPad zoom. Sorry. So I was especially struck by an environment that is free of barriers which I think is a phenomenal goal. But with just incredible challenges. So that I think that's very bold language of anything in here to have selected and I think that the to keep broadening our perspectives is kind of at the crux of what the school board is here to support you as educators and administrators in ensuring that our our kids are experiencing that they are critical thinkers and embracing an interest in learning. Jonathan and then Diane. I think the statement encapsulates what it looks like to create a more perfect union within the educational environment. I think it's really well done. I think it is certainly a goal that we we will all strive for and and I think in a very broad way that's that's exactly what it does is it captures what you know a more perfect school a more perfect educational experience for all kids and all students and faculty and staff and everyone. That's what that looks like. And the coalition that put this together and the folks that involved that were involved in this did a really, really great job doing that. Thank you, Jonathan. Diane and then Anna. Yeah, echoing what several have also said is that dedicated to taking concrete actions that provide a safer and more supportive learning environment that is free of barriers. That's the critical piece that we can always say the words but the concrete actions are what are so necessary so that really stood out. Thank you Diane. Anna and then Kari. Let me get to there. It says, I believe in just the main statement or below talking about having more perspectives added on it says, to keep broadening our perspectives. I think that really is strong because in order to have change be made you need to have more than just that one view and create more diversity within to have a better world. Thank you Anna. Kari and then Maya. Hi everyone. I was also attracted to the phrase free of barriers. Both because it speaks to the principle of equity but also it implies a call to action and that action is is pretty challenging it's it's first we have to understand what those barriers are then we have to identify solutions and we have to implement them. And we have to measure the results and learn from that and adjust. We have to do all that in conditions that are very complex and extremely dynamic. So, you know, it just, for me as I think about it is just so daunting. I get the sense that the people here want to take this on and aspire to what's what's in here. Thank you Kari. Maya and then Jonas. I think this is the words commitment and concrete action, because you can talk all you want but like the way things change or if you actually take action upon what you say and commit to it as well. Thank you Maya. Jonas and Lindy. Jonas I'm not sure if. I have to demure as I am in line to with my 10 year old son to get covid tests, but I'm here I approve the statement, fully supporting of it. Thank you. Okay, thanks Jonas. Lindy, and I have to say I'm hoping I'm pronouncing your name right but McAllen. All right the sentence I was focused on was my cursor just moved to center our full humanity of all in our community. And I thought adding the community and the word humanity which I think we need so much more of in our society right now. Thank you, Lindy. So I love this. Thank you. The part that stood out to me was affirms the identity of each of us and creates a sense of belonging for each person because I think that's so important. I mean that's what we all want is a sense of belonging and community. Thank you. Ursula. And then Jill. Hi the phrase that I picked was building more opportunity for us to thrive rather than merely survive, because it's something more than just the minimum. Thank you Ursula Jill. Can you hear me. Yes we can. I was also struck by the phrase concrete action I think that it's easy to say what we believe it's much harder to take action to make it so. Thank you for that Jill. I believe that's the that's everybody if I hope I haven't missed anyone. And I just want to thank you very much for participating and you know for the work that you're doing. I just want to pass this back to war. Thank you, Jen. And thank you Shelly and thank you, Ellen for coming and joining us today. And now I'll be looking at the board to make a motion to. And then we can discuss to accept the statement. Any volunteers. I'll move it. Jonathan. Do you want to state your own motion. Jonathan I didn't have something crafted specifically because I thought through this activity we would something but you can just move it to to accept the statement of humanity and justice. Yeah, I moved that we accept the Humanity and Justice Coalition. I guess we'll call it a mission or coalition vision statement. Thank you. I'll second it. Yeah, thank you. Any discussion. I think it works great as a vision statement for the coalition. I'm not sure it is really ready for the board to to adopt in its present state. If you look at it, it says it basically declares that the district is dedicated to taking concrete actions, et cetera, et cetera. And last time, the idea was that we would end the board voted to send it to the policy committee to develop that very idea and more detail to actually to come up with concrete actions or at least point us in that direction. And the policy committee hasn't yet had a chance to to do that. Unfortunately, from if we say that the district is dedicated to taking concrete actions as a declarative sentence. I'm not entirely sure that it's actually true. I think we have enough counter examples, and along the lines of what Kari was saying, I'm aware of the of the tremendous difficulties in realizing this. But as a vision statement for a coalition that will hold our feet to the fire, and that will demand serious things of us. I think that is is a great use of of this text. Let me explain myself and then I'm going to open that up to to Chris just to and and and Chris McVeigh and and Lindy you can go next but I should have done an explanation before putting the motion maybe. So that this was back in the June 23 agenda. I had to exit that day I gave the Kari ran the meeting without all my notes right because he didn't have my succession of post-its to go through it, and we didn't have a chance as a board to do the activity and really get emerge in the work. So they, the reason to bring it back right now is because we are in the process of creating a humanity and justice coalition we have a grant from the AOE that we don't want to, you know, it would be disjointed if we this is just a vision statement we if you read the the second part the scope of the work that's where we would be involved right developing and implementing and modern policies this is the umbrella that would go over the work this is just a belief statement. A vision statement that I think as a board what I've been hearing is that we aspire to collaborate and with our staff with our students our community right we're listening to what they're saying this is what they're bringing us it doesn't if we're going to write policy when we send it this is one part of what we would use there is some model equity policy and we're going to write policy we're going to have to include BIPOC community also a we can write policy in isolation of this work. This is kind of the first step that is just my, you know, I think this really sets an umbrella of equity a as a board as a governance creates a culture that we value this, and then we can take concrete actions. Linda and then Chris you don't have your hand up but you and I had a conversation about the policy. And I will go after Linda. Okay, go ahead, Linda. I'm thinking that my understanding of this motion is to accept this vision statement. It's not to accept, because then it says what the scope of the work based on the grant. So it's not implementing a policy as much as it's putting our support behind the vision statement, and then doing these developing implementing monitoring facilitating developing. That's how I saw our accepting this as a vision statement, but not a policy, but our support of this work that was grant funded. Thank you, Linda. Chris. Yes. So the policy committee is taking up to develop an equity policy. We are considering policies from other districts in the model policy that via a has a crafted, and we also be guided by the humanity and justice coalition vision statement and incorporating views from other folks across our community. The vision say, I see as a guide as an aspiration, but not as a specific policy that the board is now adopting. I think it's elements will be incorporated into policy after that will be presented to the board for discussion. So that's, that's what our plan is for the policy committee. Thank you Chris. You're welcome. Any, any other questions or discussion from board members. Are we ready to vote. Scott. I'm sorry, but on. It's a, it's a beautiful statement from a particular. Again, particular community of practice. That is, I think, drafted with kind of a background of common knowledge and shared understandings and language shared vocabulary that has sort of become so much a part of their work that it is to some extent perhaps taken for granted in the, the drafting of this, which I think what happens is that for people who are not actually read in to, to the vocabulary to the, the, the context that it may not be entirely intelligible. Just as an example, the, the passage on identities could be interpreted as, you know, an endorsement of the methods of big data to tag us and make us, make us like legible to, to the companies that market to us. So I, I, this I guess is my blue pencil speaking, I would love for the board to have a chance to actually be part of the drafting process or the editing process of a statement that the board is itself is going to be adopting rather than, you know, sort of receiving it, putting our stamp on it, of our seal of, of approval, and, and letting, I think, allows us to engage with the statement, much more closely and to ask the kinds of questions that we need to ask in order to truly take it on board and make it our own. Thank you, Scott. I'm going to call out the vote. All those in favor of adopting the motion as read by Jonathan? Please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Please say no. Yeah, I'll have to say no. Thank you, Scott. So the motion carries. Thank you, Everybody. Let's move on. Thank you, Shelly, again. And thank you, Ellen. And Jen, there you are. Okay, you're free to stay. And if you need to go, please go ahead. Let's debrief the community engagement forum 3.2. Okay. So we didn't get a lot of feedback. We got, I'm looking now at Jen Miller, Arizona. We had just a couple of replies. But we didn't get enough community. You know, that is a reality. We did not get enough people coming to the meeting and we need to do better on that. So if I'm just going to open up for quick questions from the board and let Jen share what she heard from the two feedback forums that we got. Ready for me to share and then share questions. Yeah. So as you know, we only had four community members join us. And so we had more breakout rooms than we had community members. I think the conversations in those rooms were lively and substantive. That's direct feedback from the feedback form. And we really, really wished that we had had more folks in there. A little bit more feedback. The few folks that were there want some more quantitative data going forward, in addition to some of the qualitative data. And just again, questions about how do we foster more community involvement. So I know that in looking ahead to the next forum, focused on budget, we've been brainstorming ideas about that. We had really hoped that we'd have, for the board, you guys would hear from enough folks about certain themes that it would lay the groundwork for you in terms of some priorities and parameters. Some of the things that were said again and again, where again a need for some clear measurable goals, sort of a foreshadow into the next topic we'll talk about. People expressing gratitude, as you heard tonight earlier, for things like allied arts. Sports was mentioned, technology was mentioned in multiple rooms. And social-emotional learning and restorative practices, multi-layered systems of support and intervention. Those were some of the themes. And a huge thanks to the administrators who took good notes. And then Suzanne here and compiled them for us. So thank you, Jen. Any reflections from other board members? Questions? Okay, let's move on. We have picked a topic for the next community engagement too. And we'll talk about that as well. I guess we could talk about that right now. I was going to leave it on the finance part. I'm looking now at Kari. What do you think? Should we leave it or do it now? I think what we have decided to do is do what do you think? Because you guys were part. I don't understand the question. Oh, so should we do, should we do, talk about the future community engagement now too? Or leave it as part of the finance for, I'm just asking the finance committee, I guess, thought as you can. I think it might be easier to do it now. Right? I think it's a good time. Okay. So what we were hoping is that at the next community engagement, which would be November 3rd, we would be sharing some information from, because we didn't get enough people at our last community engagement, we would be synthesizing some of that information. And also, let me just grab here my notes. We were going to try to frame the conversation around having this forum help us set up parameters for budgeting. And then we had some ideas. Kari, help us with some questions. And we would like to share our pandemic, you know, anything that we have about COVID and the realities of that, any social and emotional factors, learning an instruction for people spending. And like we said before, the implementation plan, where we are with that, but summarize it even smaller. So we don't take over the entire meeting with that. And then we would move into small groups and try to categorize that and have two specific questions, what was suggested. So the first question would be what excites you the most about and what is more meaningful or what is more meaningful for you in the aspects of the district. And I'm just looking at my notes. So I might be missing one of the questions that you had. What was the other question, Kari? I'm missing. I had a number of ideas, but I think the point is to try to keep the conversation at such a level that community members can meaningfully engage with what's, you know, let us know what's important to them as we go into the budgeting process. So we're not going to be looking at numbers and what dollars we're going to allocate to different categories. But we do want to hear how people are thinking about what is most important to them, what they think we should be prioritizing, and that sort of thing so that when we come back and meet next time, we're actually able to take some of that input in our own thinking and start to come up with what we've called parameters or really its guidance for the staff about what we think are the priorities with this next budget. So I think, yeah, yeah, that's really the idea. And to set that conversation up, we have to sort of summarize the context as we see it. So there's a lot of factors there, you know, there's, you know, the whole story of COVID, there's the current state of learning for our students, you know, including some of the social emotional, there's the financial picture there, and we have to kind of summarize that, you know, in a way that, you know, what we're seeing, but then still allows them to have meaningful input. It's going to be challenging, but I think it's something we've never really quite done. We've never asked the questions in this way at this stage. And it may be that we get some good input on where we want to take this next budget. And we're going to be partnering in a more meaningful way with the friends of Washington Central Friends of Education too, and they try to help us also bring more people to our meetings that are not necessarily have kids in the in the school. And that would be really important. Maggie, I see your hand up. Go ahead. Do you have a question? Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay. Is there going to be an opportunity for some discussion about approaches to communicating with the general public, the U-32 district community, about the meeting? Personally, I think that some of the ways that the information is conveyed, in particular, through Front Porch Forum, is not accessible. And for example, like having some very accessible language and simple topics of discussion might make it more appealing to somebody to participate, because it may speak to their concerns, rather than here's the link to here's the link, here's the agenda. I just think it's a large volume of information and that creates a barrier to people even recognizing that it's something that they want to show up for. That's really important, Maggie. Yes. So we accept all your help in getting that information out too. So yes, we would be brainstorming, and that's part of what we want to do better. Even trying to, you know, you personally invite people to the meeting usually helps because you're able to have a conversation with them. So whether it is your set of friends or your own personal email list also helps. But yes. And so I'm asking, what is the method through which we can communicate that, and where is that happening in advance of this next meeting, when we're going to have another community forum? So I think now would be the time for that, Maggie, and we're definitely going to have a going to try to have a small self-committee group for just the community engagement. Jen was going to meet with Susanne next week. Go ahead, Jen. Yeah, I think what I would add is, so Susanne and I are starting to plan the presentation right now, and we talked at the leadership team meeting the other day about making sure that our staff has the same overview and opportunity for input as well. And I can absolutely, on my list of future topics to include in the community newsletter, I know that not everybody is on the Infinite Campus list, but we've been posting that regularly on the homepage of the district website. And I strive to write that in language that is accessible and not filled with jargon. So I welcome input about that as well. So should we be emailing you directly? Because you have board members with expertise in different areas. My particular area happens to be communication. And I'm looking through the lens of a 40-something-year-old who gets way too much email, isn't likely to open those emails. And I think that we're missing population emailing. My personal email list is not going to be effective in reaching the population of the community I represent. So I'm interested in how can I participate in making sure that we're reaching people more effectively, because what I'm hearing is we got four participants. So I don't think the current approaches are necessarily effective. Sure. Maggie, why don't you email Jen and myself and we'll set up something. Any help that we can get? Okay. And I'm happy to send it in a bulleted email. I don't want to spend valuable time with the board meeting doing it, but I'm just not hearing how do I do that? I'm looking to participate. So are you okay with sending an email to Jen and myself? And then we'll spread it and include others too? Okay. Thank you. Any other thoughts from any, you know, I'm not doing so well in time today, so I'm trying to move us along. Okay. Maggie, your hand is still up, but I'm just going to move on. Board smart goals, update page? Yes. Did you see that Erica had put something in the chat about that? Yeah, I don't even know. Yeah, the chat shouldn't be open, but sorry. It's working tonight. Just to see the chat after I saw that FYI. Yeah. And Erica, we're engaged in the conversation, and you know that we're partnering with this. We've been emailing with you guys all of the support that we can get, like I said, we would be partnering with you. So I think you have an avenue to get to us. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Can we move into smart goals update page four? So the smart goal that we have ahead is the one committee, all of the other committees met too. The finance committee met and we have a proposed goal. We haven't finalized it, so I'm going to start with that one so that we can move on. That one is a very quick overview. We're hoping to do a long-term planning, a five-year long-term plan that can lead to a 25-year capital plan for all our buildings in the district working in partnership with Chris, our facilities director, and Bill Ford, and all of the different engineers and architects that we might need with that. We would be sending that to the board shortly, and that was our idea of a long-term plan for that particular goal. And then I'm going to pass it on to Jen, the community engagement committee met. Yeah. So Steven, look, Ursula and McKaylin and I met about the community engagement goal. You have that in your packet starting on page four. We left all of our raw notes and thinking in there, and that's what ultimately brought us down to the smart goal that's on the bottom of page five on your packet. So really, I would say in a nutshell, and then I'm going to invite Ursula McKaylin and Steven, if he's here yet, to talk about it, but really wanting some degree of reciprocity in terms of being able to hear more from the public at times and to generate the topics and the participation, not unlike you were just saying, Maggie, to get folks to come and help the board hear from the community in order to do its best work. And I would invite Ursula McKaylin, if you want to elaborate on that. Well, I think we came up with this goal before the last community forum. So it's kind of interesting because I at least wasn't thinking only four people would show up. But we developed this as, as you said, kind of how can we have that reciprocity with the community and just have more room for feedback. And so I think in light of what Maggie just said and our experience with the last community forum, if I could change anything, I would have some sort of, this is only going to work if we get people to the community forum. So I don't know if, you know, there's a role for a community engagement committee or if that's already being filled by another new to the board. So maybe that's being filled already by another entity. But but this goal will only work if we get people to the forum. So but I do think it's a great goal. And I think it's measurable. It's a good smart goal. Ursula, do you have anything you want to add right now? I think McKaylin covered a lot of it. I mean, we did have a lot of conversation on getting information to people. There are times that we need to provide information similar to the last community forum where we were trying to talk about the implementation plan. And it was this was our plan. This is what we've managed to get done. And right, as she said, the goal was written before that community engagement meeting. And I mean, I think I said it in an email to our small group is, you know, maybe trying to figure out a way to do a community engagement committee, or something that can look at different things like barriers to meetings or communication. But this is a measurable goal that we have that is relevant. It's also something we're doing. And the board has already committed time to. Thank you, Ursula. Kari, do you want to share a little bit? And Maggie, is that an all hand or a new hand? Do you have a question for in this particular goal? Go ahead. I just wanted to comment that I think community engagement is our collective responsibility as a board. And I think, you know, in the questions that were posed to us when we were interested in those of us who are new to the board, that that was pretty clearly communicated by the current board members. So it would concern me if that was like reduced to a small group, because I think it requires the input of all of the board members representing diverse communities. Because, you know, each community is different and how communication might occur with the general population in each community is not the same town to town. Thank you, Maggie. Kari, do you want to summarize here? Talk about the student achievement goals. Yes. Yeah, just a status. Yeah. Sure. Sure. And before I just have one comment on this goal that we're just looking at about the forums. Just one little nuance that might make it both measurable and help us with planning is develop a calendar for the rest of the year about what these forum topics are and then a practice of perhaps that we're always looking at the next three. So we know what's coming and we can sort of delegate different responsibilities for planning the next three on a rolling basis. But anyway, the Ed Quality Committee met this month and took a look at the goals that we had established for student achievement last year. And we're working on updates to those that we will bring you next time we meet in November. And they track fairly closely to what we have been doing. Just we took a break since the summer. The first goal is about having a developing a shared understanding of our student learning outcomes and all that's involved with them at a pretty high level. But understanding what that what the each outcome is how how we approach it in terms of instruction, getting some student teacher voice in there and looking at some of the results. We have done most of that work last year, but we have a few more outcomes to do. And then and then out of that developing an annual calendar for monitoring our progress and achievement of those outcomes. The other one had to do with the other goal was setting up for strategic planning. And I think that we weren't really able to get started with that. That was sort of envisioned for later. At this point, we don't think that we're really ready to get started with strategic strategic planning. But there are things that we can do to prepare ourselves. So that's what the committee is discussing. What could we do over the coming year that would get us ready to do a good job with strategic planning once we have next year's superintendent in place and already really ready to dive into that. So more to come on that. We'll bring that to you in more detail in November. Thank you. Sorry. Let's move to 3.4. Review the SBA resolutions and appoint a voting member to the annual meeting. Did everybody had a chance to look over the resolutions? Or do you want to go one by one? Or are you okay with the recommendations from the committee? Okay. Can I see more thumbs up? Is I see Scott? Or if you're okay? Okay. So we don't need to do discussion on that. We could appoint a board member to participate and vote. We get one vote in the resolutions that set the tone for the next year and adds to the rest. I chair the resolutions committee as vice president. So it would be totally understandable if you guys want to have somebody else be the voting member. So if there's somebody else that wants to volunteer, please go ahead. Could we have a nomination? And this would be a quick conversation. I'm looking at people. Anybody that is dying to them? I'm happy to volunteer, but I'm just putting that, you know, that I do chair it. So I wanted to be clear that I chair the resolutions committee as vice president. So that's, you know, but I don't see this votes really going anywhere differently. So Scott. Sorry. I honor your full disclosure floor. But I would nominate pretty much just about anybody. And I'm sure that they, well, if I were to nominate you, Ursula, would that, would you be willing to do that? I would be willing to do this. This is the meeting on November 4th, right? To go as a voting member. Yes. Yeah. And it's, it's be assumed it's not going to be in person anymore. We moved it. Yeah. In that case, I nominate Ursula. Perfect. Could I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Chris. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay. So we can ask Scott and Chris. Any opposed? I hear none. The motion carries. Yeah. Let's move on to the next and superintendent evaluation. I'm going to pass it on to Carrie. Yeah. So we are committed to conducting a superintendent performance evaluation this year and I offered to help out with that. And I thought it would be interesting to go and take a look at what some of our neighboring districts are doing, how they're conducting their evaluations and some, some of that results of my research are in the packet there. I guess to summarize it, for me it confirmed a couple of things. One is that the things, the systems that we've used in the past are for superintendent evaluation, they're not really out of the ordinary. There's, there's, you know, elements that are similar to what other districts are doing. But at the same time, I think there is room for improvement that we can learn from others. Each of the, each of the other systems had elements to it that, that would make our system better. So in that spirit, I shared this with the steering committee and after reviewing VSBA's standard offering on supporting superintendent evaluation, the committee's recommending that we make a relatively small investment and a higher, higher VSBA person to help us next year, this year. And the idea is that, you know, with the help of an expert, they can help us design, you know, the best system that we can that we can use into the future. So that's it. Thank you, Carrie. Would you be willing to make a motion or somebody else? Sure. So I will have some discussion. Yeah, I will move that the board spend up to $1,000 on hiring VSBA in an effort to help us design a superintendent performance evaluation system. Thank you, Carrie. Could I have a second? See Maggie trying to unmute a second? Okay, Maggie. Just because all the effort it takes to unmute that cell phone. Check it. That's all those in favor of, oh, sorry. Any discussion? Yes, yes, sorry. So I have not, it seems to me that the outline of the VSBA would do is it involves the superintendent. And if we're going to have a new superintendent, then this doesn't seem like worthwhile effort to me, because the new superintendent would not have had the input into this process that seems to lean pretty heavily upon the superintendent's input. The second question I have is the extent to which this, to which our committee have input in creating the evaluation, because the process laid out here in terms of how the VSBA does it seems to be fairly narrow in terms of the scope of individuals that are included in the evaluation. It seems to me to be board members, administrators, leadership team, but not much beyond those three entities. It doesn't seem to me to include a broad base of staff. It doesn't seem to me to include community members in terms of actually returning response on any type of survey. So that would be a big concern of mine, because I think I'd rather spread a broad net for involvement and response for how our superintendent is performing. It would make sense if, and I'm going to put you on the spot, Jen Miller Arsenault. Jen Miller Arsenault was considering to continue as a candidate. If she's not, then this seems to me to be premature for this year. It might be worthwhile to consult and develop some type of forms, but this process seems to be superintendent heavy. So I would have concerns about that, even though the cost I don't think is great. Carrie, go ahead. Pretty reasonable cost. Yeah, so to Chris, that's an interesting first point you make about involving the superintendent and the design of the system that we're ultimately going to use. I think there's something to that. I think that you can also argue the other side that we want to develop a system that's independent of individuals. It's really about evaluating the performance of the superintendent. And while, yeah, we are open to what our next superintendent has to say about the process, and I think that it will evolve over time. I'm kind of attracted to the idea of developing an independent who that next person is, because the principles remain the same. And to your other point about BSBA and how much input we have, I should have mentioned this. I get the sense that it's very customizable. They have some recommendations, but I kind of pressed them on this point about how much, ultimately, do we decide and I got the sense that it really is up to us in the end how we want to design our system. And I'm very sure after being through this a number of times, we're going to have the conversation about who do we ask for direct input? And who do we not ask? That's come up every time we've done these evaluation systems. I'm sure we'll have that conversation again. Jen? Yeah, I wanted to weigh in here too. I think that what U.S. Board have this year is the opportunity to test a few things out, to try out a system and get some feedback and make sure that the evaluation system that you're putting in place is yielding useful data for you as you have an interim in the position. And I am happy to support you in that work. You can ask and design what you want and I will work in service to you to tweak as necessary. So this is a great opportunity, I think, for you all to try out some things and develop a system that yields the information that you want and need to go forward. Thank you, Jen. Let me see. Chris McBae and then Maggie. You're muted, Chris. Flora, I very had my piece. I just I didn't raise my hand. Sorry. Maggie? I'm just raising the question of whether this expanded emphasis on community engagement might not be a future way for the public to participate in and other stakeholders participate actively in the superintendent evaluation by having a structured time and space for that voice to be heard. Thank you, Maggie. Yes. So I think I do want to make a comment too and I agree with what Carrie and Jen were saying. What we really want to create is a system that doesn't rely in a particular person. I think we learned a lot in the past couple of years and from reading the descriptions that Carrie sent in those documents, this would allow us to have a full 360 and really have input from multiple stakeholders instead of just a few. So is there any other questions or we can put this to vote? So Flora, I have a follow up. Yeah. So that was my concern is that it didn't seem to provide a full 360. Do you think you read these as providing full 360? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It provides a full 360. Yeah. It provides a full 360 evaluation. Okay. Taking that. Thank you. Okay. All those in favor of the motion as read by Carrie and second by Maggie, please say hi. Any oppose? Any abstain? Hearing none, the motion carries. Thank you, everybody. Let's move on superintendent search on page 13. So in the superintendent search, we had a conversation in the steering committee and our recommendation was to create a small group of board members to hire a consultant and get four different consultants to come and interview with the with the small group or the entire board if they are available on those particular dates that that small committee can meet. We think it's important to have a minimum of four consultants and so far we have three. We're waiting for one more. And let's see. And we're hoping that the consultant will be ready to start working with that smaller group the third week of November. So I know I've received, I think Jonas is now able to join us. Steven Luke was not able to join us tonight. He doesn't want to participate. He went, I asked him the question. I wanted to make sure that I knew who wanted and who didn't. I know Jonas. I don't know if he's been able because I haven't been keeping track. If he is with us, he did want it. Okay. He wanted to join the committee. So if we could, you know, have four people, you know, including myself to be in the search committee that are willing to put on the time or to have the have the time. And it doesn't have to be four. It can be five. We don't want to have a really large group because that that group working with the consultant with will decide the composition of the committee at large. Right. This is just the beginning is just to elect the consultant. And if I'm missing something, please. Oh, Lindy, you have your hand up. I just had a question about the committee meeting times. I know in the last superintendent's search, the committee was not always meeting at times that were available for me. And so before I was offering to do any part of this, I needed to know that part. Yeah, I think, Lindy, that's a good question. So far, we have an interview. It's, you know, consultants and we would have to work with them to see in the past during the day to not add more stress to the leadership team too. We have met during the day, but we can make it if the majority of that group can meet in the evening. I think it's hard to tell until we have a group. So I think we should be open to what works best for for for all Scott. Thanks for that. I just suggest that if possible, we invite some of the newer board members to take part because they're the future. And I certainly hope and they'll this is part of their, you know, their building in that future is being joining in the search for the new superintendent. Thank you, Scott. So any volunteers, I know Jonas had volunteered. And we can have a mix of old and you, Diane, you have a question. Yeah, so I just want to clarify. So is this the committee that's just interviewing the consultants or is this the committee that's interviewing the consultants and then we'll shift into the superintendent search or which part of this isn't yet. So the board members. So I guess we can we can decide that but I was envisioning, you know, no more than four people if possible because then those four people could transition into the into the committee and we wouldn't have to redo it. But right now that those four people would just be interviewing consultants. They won't be the hiring committee. So I'm open to it if the meetings work. Also, I don't want to hold up the schedule and also if there are others who would rather be on it, I'm more than happy to step aside for that too. But if you need to fill out the numbers, I'm happy to do that. Okay, so so far we have Jonas. Any of the new board members, one of you guys that are willing to put into time, Ursula? Okay, I volunteer if neither Maggie or Mikaela wants to. I don't want to take all of the. I'm waiting to hear. Go for it. Yes, Maggie. My wonderment about the the consultant search is really just I think some general questions about how that process is continuing because we talked about it in a previous board meeting and just not knowing I how many people do you need to do this if you know if there are three out of four already selected to interview. I have thoughts and I have concerns in terms of the search, but I haven't gotten answers to kind of where you guys are at to know you know how whether I would want to participate or not. Maybe those concerns have been met. I guess I'm not understanding the question, Maggie. So we so far we have there's a limited amount of consultants out there and with the time frame, but we can you know we can change that if needed. Right now where we had requested was four different consultants that would give us broad options so that the so that the committee has options. So and we said a minimum of four should give us enough options to get the most important thing for you know at least from my point of view as as chair and leading the search is that we get on a timeline and we get this done right like we we we don't have time to lose right so and we want to create that committee you know between November and December post and we're hoping to you know do interviews in January and February which is the best time to be interviewing so that is sort of our our our time frame. So the you know people that we would be in interviewing have have a reputation in this state that that would be right. So that begs one of the questions is why are we limiting ourselves to just our state. You know and I think this was discussed in a prior board meeting in reflection of how these searches have gone previously in hiring and and that's just as a community member you know aware of that not having participated or attended board meetings during that time. So I'm interested in participating in the search I guess is okay when it comes down to yeah and the consultants are just to help frame the process the consultants are not the potential candidates and so we don't yet if we're limited to just the state it's just this is the kind of the guide to help that committee move forward with exploring what options are out there. Yeah I completely understand that I'm just wondering if you know we're limiting ourselves if we're working with the same narrow group of consultants that have been interviewed or utilized previously and I'm and I'm not 100% clear on that if these this is the same group of people and if expanding outside of just Vermont might give us some additional perspective that might be helpful in meeting the district's goals in terms of a superintendent search. Does that make sense? Yes yes it is. We have a small population and I understand that there's expertise that comes from being in the Vermont community already but I think that we have particular demographic makeup in our community and and even on the state level that is mirrored in other places in the country where you know there might be some some new and fresh perspective on superintendent search that might be beneficial instead of doing the same thing. A point well taken Maggie I think one of the things that we were thinking was that we need somebody that we're going to cast a broad net like Diane said for getting candidates and you know and trying to diversify and really put out the word far far but if you're gonna and then for the consultant it is also important to understand the culture of our this you know to really understand our communities understand and be able to identify and ask the right questions right because we are not going to do this process in isolation of our staff or leadership team in our communities so that was the thinking in having the consultant be somebody in Vermont but having a really broad net but if you're going to participate in the in the in the hiring process we you know we can use your expertise so right now I think we have the four people so Jonas Ursula and Maggie is that okay with everybody yeah well and myself Jonas I will be leading the search so or because I don't think we need five four members you know even if I stay out and just leave the search that wouldn't be enough it's so could I have a motion by one of the board members Scott? Before I make the motion I just wanted to make sure I thought that McKaylin was about to say something No I'm happy to not be the one my mom just had knee surgery and I'm hoping care for her and her little puppy so I was I was giving my blessing thank you though okay in that case I'll move that the bless you that the bless you that the superintendent search committee be formed of Florida Smith Jonas Inovan Fleet Maggie Weiss and Ursula Stanley and I would just offer a friendly amendment Scott it's not the search committee it is the hiring the consultant right thank you I'll second that thank you all those in favor please say aye any opposed hearing none the motion carries okay all right Berlin Town Center I think looking at our time frame that is not an urgent issue right now I'm going to table the Berlin Town Center for now and move into staff appreciation and then I'm going to have us take like a two minute break for people that need to go to the bathroom anything we've been meeting for over an hour almost an hour and a half but let's go ahead and Diane oh sorry sorry Diane but was there supposed to be materials on the Berlin Town Center or was it just going to be an update it was just going to be an update and you know it's really quick okay thanks no problem thank you yeah okay Diane sure and I don't know floor if it would be possible to show the document at all that I had sent you so Chris and Lindy and I were met on September 30th McKaylin had been hoping to join us but then wasn't able to and so we were brainstorming ways that we could show staff appreciation throughout the year and so we came up with some suggestions that feedback from the board would be helpful around and one thing as as floor is pulling up the document one thing was what Lindy modeled for us so the ability that we should you know use the opportunity of of expressing appreciation or things that we've noticed in our board at a board meeting just to kind of spark all of our engagement in it as well as acknowledgement of appreciation the other one was being present at you know a quarterly staff meeting just for about five minutes just so that staff know who we who we are on a rotating basis and again not intending to stay long because we don't want to impact or or create this feeling of us eavesdropping or you know but but ways that we can be present the other was that if you know all of these are impacted by COVID obviously but you know the newsletters keeping a breast of the different activities that are going on within the community and I do want to say that all of this means doesn't mean I stick only to Berlin it doesn't mean people it's about really taking part in across our district as to joining into activity so if we notice in the newsletter that there's a community activity at Romney and I want to join it that I would reach out to the school and say you know I would love to come and be part of this so that we would set up an opportunity for activities for people for board members to sign up for that another idea was to help organize some wellness activities so things to reach out things you know so I had offered to reach out there's a wellness committee that generally is part of each school so is there a way we can help to create these things another thought I was having around that is even if we created potentially some virtual opportunities so that say there's a yoga class that could be offered it could go out to all the schools at once if it's done virtually as well as there might be a different type of something to help relieve stress for people so if we could help to organize that keeping in mind thinking of all of these things as to be free to very cheap at this point knowing that at the end of the year is when we look toward the other work another idea was providing a healthy snack so like a fruit basket or different opportunity different things like that quarterly within the you know so again having a sign-up list for that the other thing that I realized was missing was Chris had stressed that what we want to do is to really potentially alleviate something that they're already doing is there a way for us to step in and help in some way to to help with that so these were recommendations I don't know Chris and Lindy if you wanted to say anything about it but feedback from the board would be helpful as to do we continue to pilot some of these things or what are people's preference I don't think I have anything to add as far as we I think our purpose kind of like having more community involvement is more recognition of our school staff and administrators publicly in a way that's genuine and not oh this is part of the agenda each week because we do a lot of business but we don't always take the time to recognize what a great job the district is doing in just recognizing people and I think Diane did summarizing our discussion and our hope for board feedback on these various proposals but one of our overall overarching goals was to not add of something else to do but kind of detract and make it easy for staff to either have a board member come in or something like that but just it was not to add on to their plates that are already overflowing thanks thank you Diane and if there's not any other board questions is great work and continue Scott I'm sorry for you on a roll it was great I apologize for interrupting I hope you can pick up the thread once I once I'm done I just wanted to add in that especially with you 32 but not just with you 32 we we have faculty I think who are in many cases I exceptionally able and with and ambitious to do different things and I've I've always thought that it would be a way to appreciate the faculty but also to allow them scope for for professional and personal growth to have built into the career track no just like college faculty opportunities for for sabbaticals for certain kinds of no academic or research or or travel or other not not that we would pay for but that we would at least allow the possibility for and I don't know if that would fit in the in the scheme that you're putting together Diane but I think it might help us to retain some of the you know well the wonderful people that we have and give them a sense that they're not you know imprisoned in a in an elementary school or a high school for their whole career but that they're you know that it actually is a is a vehicle for you know for their own intellectual and and personal development I think that that's great thinking Scott it's beyond the scope of this work I think because it really creates this bigger part what it what it invented what it created for me in terms of a thought is around even that ed quality work that's happening and as to how do we make sure that we're supporting the the instruction and the work that's happening because what I hear you saying is is there that room for growth is there that room to step away and explore something else which will enrich what they're doing as in their work and so that that's a great idea I don't know that it would fit in this this grid but I think we need to keep that idea and not lose it thank you Diane Jen yeah I just want to say really on behalf of the staff thank you for engaging in this conversation and thinking about the ideas folks are working so hard as you know and there's a baseline stress and level of exhaustion that people have and it is only the 20th of October so I just want to say your acknowledgement of that and really intentionality and acknowledging and appreciating the staff is is also appreciated so thanks thank you everybody I'm gonna I'm gonna open it up to a student I know that I promise a break but I think I was looking at my notes and my break was passed 4.23 so I think we're gonna keep going and let our students who have been sitting with us very patiently do the report hi Anna and Maya and Steven let me just pull up my notes real quick let's see um good evening everyone I hope you are having a great night and enjoying the meeting best far um let's see so you third can you all hear me just to be sure okay so um this week at 32 it is spirit week and that is we have an our pep squad which is one of our new clubs has decided we need better school spirit and so within that we all did a big survey and created a list of the the best spirits that we could do for the week so um Monday oh what was Monday I forget what Monday was um very tired but yesterday was cowboy day oh Monday was tourist day Monday was tourist day and people came in and like DC things you know there was a lot of Hawaiian shirts and all of that on Tuesday it was cowboy day and thus far that our biggest participated there was um lots of cowboy hats flannels the boots it felt like cow cowboy country there and today was decades day um personally I dressed up as a biker girl from the 50s made people from like the 20s all the way up to the 90s and it was it was really an environment uh tomorrow is um colored by grade so my grade is dressing in black and the staff is participating as well and they're going to be in pink so hopefully hopefully there's big participation within that um and then Friday is anything but a backpack so that just entails you cannot have a backpack you can bring anything else to carry your stuff I'm thinking of doing my my big laundry hamper so um yeah I'm very excited for bring anything but a backpack I have a giant basket that I'm gonna use um we'll see next uh the boys cross country team you might have heard this already but they won third place against over 150 teams I think at Manhattan Invitational Eastern State service um I think it's the best they've done in that race you have to qualify for it and so we're all really proud of them for that um so this past weekend throughout the last weekend going to this week it's the senior games for sports um girl soccer won against Randolph 2 to 1 which is pretty impressive they've had a rough season but they're starting to bring it back up there was a football game on Friday night if anyone and this is a football fan um the boys are playing they've been doing pretty good this season um also the green and gold award which for those of you who do and don't know um is awarded to a student in our school who is very prestigious in school and it um is awarded so they'll be able to get a full blown scholarship to uvm um this year it was kale hamke and he plays soccer and he he's he's very prestigious in school however within that um he is not going to go to uvm and there is some controversy and debate about if there should be a different system to choose this award so that'll actually be used um productively and the person will actually go to uvm and it will work well uh unified bowling is also starting up next week uh unified bowling is part of the special olympics program and is dedicated to promoting social inclusion through shared sports training and competition experiences unified sports joins people with and without disabilities on the team and is inspired by a simple principle training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding so my first year on the team uh i wasn't able to do it last year because of covid but i'm very excited to see how it goes and you might have a championship depending on covid i actually participated in unified bowling uh a couple years ago when i had surgery it was it was a really really fun and um positive experience to be able to work with people who are not able to play um regular sports and just see them have so much fun even with the little ramp it's beautiful um my final thing on our report is uh the seniors this last week had an in school field trip um it was workshopped within essay writing um doing the FAFSA form common app um all of that just to help to help us apply for college for those who are applying the early decision early acceptance early decision early action is in the next month so we're starting to get onto that deadline and starting to really work hard to actually get our applications in thank you thank you both my are you done too yeah okay thank you both any questions from board members diane i just wanted to thank you both for um sharing the stories of of action in the building and also of of helping us keep in touch with those fun things but also those things that are stressful how exciting to have the early action and early decision but also remembering how stressful it was for my kids so um thank you both for that um the dialogue and the fresh information thank you both next next year you guys should make us wear the decades on the day of the board meeting board of am but i don't have my biker jacket anymore i do have i have this red shirt and i had a red bandana so it was it was almost there very good okay let's move on to the board for some of us our clothes are do cover the decades they might be 30 40 years old so you know we're wearing it too so yeah it's true yeah i saw some impressive customs today especially jen engersen who's not here okay let's move uh covid to super indana report covered update jen yeah before i do that i want to share some uh super uh late breaking news and that is that callie weller our pre-k teacher at callus elementary school has been named the 2021 early childhood educator of the year for the state of vermont by the vermont association for the education of young children the press conference and the award ceremony started tonight at six right when our board meeting was happening um the awards been going on for about five or six years now i think and callie is the first public school pre-k teacher to win the award so huge congrats to callie yeah um let's see covid uh maria and i are gonna aim to give you the information you need and be succinct at the same time so the first thing is surveillance testing again i've been keeping you updated in the weekly community letter this week we had about 655 students participate in surveillance testing so far um there have been no positive cases this week from surveillance testing knock on wood we're waiting um for some results from east montpellier we tested um a day later to be in sync with a class that was quarantining and we're grateful to the lab for and everyone for allowing us to do that so we're still awaiting some results but so far so good um it is important to know that we yet we've not yet received protocols for winter sports we're still awaiting that guidance and um and that will be impacting what happens around winter sports we're also thinking that um obviously the community transmission rate is still high we do when we get that winter guidance uh or sports guidance want to look at our pro uh covid protocols again and just make sure things are in alignment and are still feeling right as we get ready to leave the warmer weather and enter the colder weather so you can stay tuned for that and um i think the biggest thing is that we are preparing to implement the test to stay program and response testing and maria is the person who has the most up-to-date information about that so i'm going to invite her to share a little bit of an overview with you so maria hi everyone um so we're really excited about the new offerings that the aoe is uh giving us to keep kids in school um they are giving us a test to stay program which um is specifically for children who have been exposed to covid in school which we know to be a low transmission area and so you know just last week we sent eastmont piliers first grade home for an entire week um until they could test again with the guidance that we currently have the test to stay program would have allowed us to keep those kids in class and use rapid antigen tests daily in the morning um to assess whether or not they are contagious that day so the way that would have looked is they would have come in in the morning to their own classroom the nurse would have gone in and tested them um the tests take 15 minutes to produce a result if they're negative the kids stay in school if they have a positive rapid test the parents pick them up um and uh we're excited because that will allow all unvaccinated students and staff to stay in school after a um an exposure in school there's a few caveats to that testing it has to be a school exposure because that's low transmission if they're exposed at home they have to quarantine if they're exposed at hockey they have to quarantine only if say our surveillance testing comes up with a positive and we know that those children were exposed in the classroom which we know has multiple layers of mitigation can they utilize this option to stay in school but we think that will make a really big difference in the long run in terms of keeping kids in school the second part of that is response testing um right now if kids come into the health offices and they are ill we send them home if they have multiple symptoms we ask their parents to contact their PCPs and take a covid test the response testing will allow us to give those kids um a covid test right in the health office of school the the parent will still have to pick them up we're not letting ill children stay in school but we can give them a covid test if their parents wish right they are in the office with about a 24 to 48 hour turnaround um that our banks tests uh have currently and that will at least give them some answers and save them this of needing to find a testing site that's available to them on that day so both of those things in um conjunction with our surveillance testing should really help us be able to keep um kids in school and be able to accurately and quickly assess their covid staff yeah so um we were gonna offer to answer any questions lindy has a question lindy go ahead um the close contact in school what about close contact on a bus is that the same it will count the same the bus and the school will be considered the same um amount of uh transmission risk yes the other thing i neglected to mention the important part of test to stay is that um the children are still well anybody the individuals any unvaccinated individuals are still required to quarantine um outside of school so those kids are not allowed to play sports they're not allowed to do after school activities they shouldn't go grocery shopping or have play dates they're still quarantined in the eyes of the state but we're working on this specific strategy to keep them in school and in school alone if that makes sense any other questions or so that has her hand up hi hi you had mentioned um this was friend school lindy asked about bus you mentioned soccer or hockey if they're exposed during a school sport like if they're doing soccer or if they're in the aftercare program do those count yes those will count um because of all of the the after school programs follows the same mitigation strategies that we do um and sports are at this point fall sports are still for the most part outside so we know that they are low to moderate risk and they are covered in this program um i have again until we get winter sports uh guidance i'm not a hundred percent sure what that's going to look like with inside sports um it will depend if they're masked or not masked i'm not a hundred percent sure um and then another thing i think i didn't mention is the only thing we're waiting for is for the state to produce the consent form they're just working on getting that finished and we are all set up to start as soon as they are ready thank you i think maggie has her hand up yeah i just want to thank administration and um maria in your capacity for embracing the test to stay when those of us who participated in the regional board meeting school board meeting a couple weeks ago heard um some distress from other districts about the burden of implementation and um i think in the with the goal of equity um this is just a great option um so thank you for for running with it you're welcome maggie what i my answer to that is that a lot of that is due to the board um you know the in 2020 we came to the board as nurses and we asked very earnestly to have full-time nurses for 2020 2021 and you heard us and you implemented full-time nurses um before all of the nurses in the entire planet were exhausted and burnt out and didn't want any more jobs so we are very uniquely well set up to handle this added logistical pressure because we do have full-time nurses in every single one of our schools and we have a free-floating COVID coordinator who can help out when there's added burden of time and work at all of our various schools so thank you to the board and everybody who listened to what we really thought we were going to need because it has really put us in a great great position for this i just want to add as a really new board member i was not aware about the full-time nursing until quite recently and as a community member i didn't get that information and as a former district employee and a parent in the elementary school where that we didn't have the benefit of full-time nursing i just think that's one of those things that we really need our community to hear is one of the the things that the school board and the administration has worked to implement because it does deserve celebration outside of this meeting right now i agree thank you thank you lindy did you have lindy sorry flor i'll let you do that it's a it's okay lindy go ahead i'm just trying to move us along sure i kind of wanted to reiterate that because a lot of schools did away with the COVID coordinator because they thought the nurses could handle it in the schools and they wouldn't need that and i can tell you that having that extra person when there's no substitutes or people to step in i wasn't sure we needed a personally in my back of my mind i was saying why do we need one again next year we're all going to be normal aren't we and i'm glad that we did do that any other questions from board members thank you maria for for all your work okay gen let's move on into the center of vermont carrier center hey jody is joining us who's the new director of the vermont carrier center we missed you but we're glad that you're there so welcome jody i was really looking forward to this board meeting the most just to see all these lovely faces again and names so thanks for having me we sent some information in the package that hopefully you guys got to see and i'm gonna let jody she has a brief presentation that i'm hoping gen you're able to share and i will let her start with that is that what you would like to do jody let's start with the presentation and then we'll move on into questions let's do that okay thanks gen so i am here on behalf of the governance committee of which floor is the chair so she'll have lots to lots to do with this too and she can fill in whatever i leave out the governance committee started meeting in april of this year and so i was not there at the beginning of that work but jumped in and have been able to see it through to the point that you're going to see today gen go ahead i first want to say that all of the pictures for this presentation i wanted to make sure that all of our programs were represented and they're all from this year so you might see some faces you recognize the central vermont carrier center provides an education for students from cabot harwood muckley or spaulding twinfield and of course u32 with opportunities to experience real world technical work in a variety of programs and so that includes auto and culinary and exploratory and emergency services and lots of others go ahead gen the members of the committee are here we have one member from each of the sending school boards we have judy from the state of vermont who's also on our advisory board for the the center some community and business partners a consultant mike dewey's a couple of my staff we also have scott far looks like i need to edit this slide he is the director superintendent of the river valley career technical center in springfield and that is a model for the governance structure that we're looking towards and chris hennessey at the new the interim superintendent and barry has also been a member of this group go ahead gen so a lot of the work that we did this summer was around the articles of agreement and bylaws for a potential new central vermont career center district and some of you will remember that work as you form the washington central district and as school boards across the state merged together they had to do that we're doing the same work kind of in the opposite venue of separating from barry so that we can become a new district to support all of our communities and sending schools go ahead gen so the new district would have 10 members total on its board there would be four at large members who would be voted in um and they would come from each of the four largest districts so washington central would have an elected member as part of that and there would be six appointed from their sending school districts as they are now for the regional advisory board votes for this new governance model and for the at-large board members would be commingled across our 18 towns if we were able to move forward with that and that would take place in march and one other piece of the highlights of our articles is that the current bargaining agreement which honestly hasn't been agreed to yet when it gets agreed to we would keep that going in full force for our teachers go ahead so um the formation plan actually we saw the first draft of that in our governance meeting last night so it has been compiled uh we will be giving feedback on that when we meet next Tuesday and finalizing that draft to send first to the vermont agency of education for the first week of november as our deadline to send that and they will hopefully respond hopefully respond and maybe have some edits and suggestions and then we would take those on and move it forward to the state board of education hopefully in december for approval go ahead check if approved by the aoe and the state board our next step would be preparing our 18 sending school towns to vote on march 1st to support our new governance structure and to elect those four at-large members and i have reached out to all 18 town clerks just to try to get them aware that this might happen and to be thinking about what commingling means because i didn't honestly know at first and now i know that it means every town clerk would have to collect those ballots and bring them to bury that night so that's it's an added burden on the um the folks working at the at the town meetings go ahead Jen if approved by all of the voters in all of our 18 towns or if approved by the majority actually then our transition board the elected and the appointed board members would begin preparing for the opening of the new district on july 1st of 2022 so next july go ahead Jen what are some implications for this this change i think one of the most important things is that our constituents the people from all of this ending schools would have some a greater say over what happens at the central vermont career center and hopefully a little more understanding of what happens there that all our towns would vote on the cbcc budget not just bury a city and bury town but everyone who has kids that attend and all of them would be represented in our decision-making body right now the regional advisory board has representation from all the towns but they are advisory only they do not make the decisions go ahead Jen um some of you will remember that pennie chamberlain the former director came to the board meeting i think it was february but sometime last spring and talked about both this governance work beginning and the revisioning work that was going on and you might have read some of the articles in the newspaper lately the times our guess there's an article in the bridge today over 350 students applied to cbcc for this school year and there are only 231 slots where we currently exist we were able to accept over 200 which is the most that we've had in the 10 years last 10 years our programs are necessary not only for our students but also for our local economy and businesses as you know everyone is seeking help schools are sleeping help everybody there's help wanted everywhere go ahead Jen so we are considering ways to expand within our current space while we also start to think about what might it look like if we're in a different space and a new governance structure could provide a means to getting to that new space and also would give every town in every sending school a voice in what that would look like or whether it would happen or not so the revisioning next steps are looking at marketing firms i think there is a we have one tomorrow presenting to us as an option that we might choose to begin planning for marketing should we move forward in the future and i think that will help us to market our governance change as well go ahead Jen so again a change in governance would give our entire school community all of our sending schools all of our 18 towns more of a say in what what happens at central vermont career center moving forward go ahead so i think this is a repeat and i just didn't take it out because i noticed it in one of my last one we hope to spread the word about this potential shift and that's why i've been visiting boards i've made it to montpelier harwood and twinfield now washington central next week is cabot and and then berry so it's exciting to go out and talk with folks at the boards from all the sending schools especially the folks i know here and i just wanted to come and share what we're doing so far and to see what questions you have i think that's the next slide thank you jody maybe let's stop the shit oh there thank you jen so do we have a questions from from the board members okay let's see scott thompson thanks hey jody welcome back um will this uh free you from the from the berry city schools roller budgetary roller coaster we are actually already free from that ours is voted on separately from the berry schools so it's kind of interesting but the cvcc district or the cvcc budget is separated out and voted on separately so the cvcc budget passed last year when the berry school budget did not for a couple of times uh interesting and thank you and and just one last thing in the materials that were attached to this um there was one thing that kind of hit me over the head with a two by four which was a line about removal of board members and it said that um either uh appointed or elected board members could be removed by a two-thirds vote um i hope that maybe someone can maybe delete the or elected it just seems to me that elected board members should only be removable by you know um either uh by formal uh censure or by the people who elected them that's just sorry i i just took advantage to pitch that thanks i remember that discussion floor maybe you can speak to that but i think it might be there's other voters on those yeah no so yeah it's it's it's mostly it's mostly the board officials scott and just really just applies to the chair clerk and so it's removed from a position within the board we can remove an elected board member so it's so if you had a chair that is acting in in a way that is not reflective of the of what the majority of the board wants it can be removed and and that was said again you know it was unanimously agreed by all by all board members that's what it was we we can remove that so that person would still be on the board it would just have been removed from that but that appointed position great i misread it thank you yeah i'm glad okay good okay there it kari hey judy um so this is uh i have a question but this is more of a comment for all of us which is uh seems to me like the boat's not very far away and this is going to be a bit of a communication challenge for the community and so we should be thinking all together about what and how we communicate and so that my question to you judy is can you distill down into the most succinct points what we need to communicate or what we ought to communicate together to our communities and i think it's you know what's being proposed what's what's the benefit what's the compelling reason and then where can people go for more information if they if they if they need it and we i just think we need to start communicating this now so that we don't get to the vote and people are wondering like what's this and and just you know i agree with you kari that's uh part of our next meeting also next week is the communication plan um and part of the reason why i've been doing the outreach to the town clerks and trying and talking to david delcore who is probably on here and maybe he'll call me again tomorrow um i think the most succinct points are that the career center serves students from 18 towns in central vermont and up until a governance shift two towns in central vermont have a say they have done a great job um but the board the board chair at barry sonia spaulding has often expressed in board meetings that she feels uncomfortable making decisions on behalf of so many different sending schools and so many different communities that she does not represent and i think that is the biggest reason for this change that the people who are representing all of those communities should be the ones that have that voice and that decision making power and that's really important and should there be changes in the future your voices are really important in that so if we are going to grow no matter whether that looks like expanding into multiple buildings um in central vermont somewhere or building a new building somewhere so that we can meet the needs of students and industry because quite frankly we need some more adult programming as well we need this shift to take place to free up the opportunities for that thank you jody any other questions from from board members so at the next the at the next meeting on tuesday the 26th we would be talking about the communications plan carry right now we had got it just to what jody had had share you know visiting the different boards we don't give the report back to the aoe until until november 1st so we want to get ahead but we also don't want to get too ahead because this deadline is set by us is not set by right now it's an aspiration that that that we have we really want to be functioning on you know that board wants to be functioning in july in july 1st of 2022 but it's a it's a deadline that we put upon ourselves so it would depend we've been working hand by hand with donna but that it could change at at at any point but we'll we'll keep everybody everybody informed with that and it's just super it's super exciting to to be able to be part of this of this process and the one thing that we haven't mentioned is that we're you know once we have any they have a new governance they'll be able to reach out to middle schoolers too and start a little bit instead a little bit sooner and and really have a say on programs right and on educational outcomes for all our students to do basically the work that we do now for our district for all of the kids in that district and the last thing would be that we have to even though there's a re-envisioning part of this a building but those two things are separate and they're not one is not contingent on the other so that's a good thing to remember we we need the governance change most and for all first to be able to do what is best for all our kids in and we have been like jody said we have been lucky to be working with Barry for so many for so many years but all of the all of Barry wants to share that responsibility so let's move on unless there is more questions Jen you have the next thank you jody thank you for coming and thank you for all your work thanks jody um i will give you a quick update on the humanity and justice coalition work so we talked a little about this earlier in the meeting i'm going to direct you back to page three in your board packet and just share a little bit more so um as you know when we had uh originally written the grant uh and envisioned the scope of the work we thought we'd have a a coalition comprised of about 10 folks uh with representation as articulated in the packet and we extended the invitation for folks to apply and express interest not knowing what we were going to get and we ended up with 20 people who um were excited which is thrilling we are so excited about that and as we sat down and thought about it we were thinking first of all the the grant period began July 1st and the reality is we're about four months behind given uh transitions and changes in leadership and COVID so we're about four months behind our original timeline and um and so what we've decided to do because we've got these three top priorities related to culturally responsive and inclusive school community practices and policies um looking at the curriculum and thinking about strategies to diversify our educator workforce we want to invite everybody who expressed interest to join us it just didn't feel right to say no about when we're striving to increase uh inclusivity and humanity and justice so we've extended the invitation to all 20 people who have expressed interest we're thrilled we'll organize around these three priorities so that we'll have work groups of about seven or so people per priority so that we can still be manageable and productive in terms of our group size so um that so we we made that decision we've sent out that invitation it means we've got a little bit of tweaking to do in the grant itself Martha Dice is the liaison who's helping us administer the grant at the agency of education we've notified her as well but um just super exciting that so many people have expressed interest and um from really a lot of backgrounds uh most not every single town represented yet but this is a newly forming coalition we hope that we're going to lay the groundwork for a strong foundation for this work going forward so that's the update on the coalition thank you very much Jen so I'm going to give us five minute break if that's okay with everybody and see you back at uh 2015 okay welcome back everybody same different cameras pop up okay let's move into into the finance into finance park 5.1 we have started to do this you know for your information and action items in order to move you a little quicker could you if do you guys have any questions from the monthly reflection the net mirroring or the quarterly fund balance otherwise I can give you some quick highlights if you hadn't had a chance to read them and then we'll move with Susanne into the action items okay any questions from those from those three okay so let's move into a into into the action I'm going to just give you a quick highlight that in case you missed it the net because I know that it's been a question everybody the net mirroring decision doesn't need to happen until December 1st okay and then we I publicly want to thank Carla and Renee and and Melissa for all the work done to get the contracts out this this this week and Susanne everybody so let's move into the review and approve of the dental premiums and that's on page 27 Scott do you have a motion thank you of course I move that the board set the calendar year 2022 dental insurance premiums as follows single plan $552 two-person plan $1080 family plan $1,512 thank you Scott could I have a second second it Diane thank you Diane any discussion Susanne is here if you guys have some questions if you want to Susanne do you want to give a brief description I'm happy to if you want me to I don't see many questions Susanne so I think we're okay let's move let's move on I'm not trying to steal your thunder but I'm trying to no thunder stolen okay so all those in favor of approving the dental premiums for calendar year 2022 please say aye with the motion read by Scott any oppose any abstain hearing none the motion carries review and approve the HRA funding for year 23 budget Chris Scott please I'll move that the board authorized the use of the figures 1500 and 3000 for building the personnel projections for the health reimbursement accounts for the fiscal year 2022 2023 budget development thank you Scott thank you Chris any discussion seeing none all those in favor of approving the motion please say aye any oppose hearing none the motion carries and 5.23 a capital improvement project plan update could I have a motion to approve the schematic Scott go ahead I don't want to monopolize this I'm having all the fun yeah sorry guys I'm relying on the finance committee to start the the motions and then you guys can ask questions so go ahead Scott it's really helpful okay um I move that the board authorized the superintendent to enter into an agreement with black river design not to exceed 15 000 to create schematic designs with estimates for the projects identified in the fiscal year 22 23 spreadsheet that was attached somewhere along the line but but I think you've all we've all seen it or those of us who've been around for a while have seen it at page 32 page 32 yeah yeah it's just a smaller list yeah thank you you're welcome and I'll second thank you Chris any questions no discussion seeing seeing none thank you Chris O'Brien for all the work on on this and let's go ahead and vote all those in favor please say aye no hi any opposed when you're saying the motion carries unanimously let's move into policy committee and I'll pass this on to you Chris thanks floor so hello to everyone and we have three policies up for adoption tonight um we these were policies that came back to the committee um and with mark plans guidance we did some editing and shaping of the policy and I think produced a better policy one of the more significant changes was eliminating some policy language that had staff members concerned particularly over confiscation of personal electronic devices so with that we first up is b8 the electronic communication between employees and students policy and this is up for adoption now Chris I I just want to clarify there weren't for a first reading an adoption on November 17th well we didn't adopt them then we did not adopt them previously there was we there I think we tabled them to reconsider them at the policy committee first yeah first thing today Chris and then we're going to adopt them oh to be adopted meeting in November I'm sorry thank you very much sorry about that okay so thank you Jim so for first reading b8 which is the electronic communication between employees and students policy are there any questions from board members on uh this policy as presently constituted I can't nor I can't see Diane Diane so um I know that there was the strong concerns and you you referenced it Chris but yeah so was that so there was staff involvement in reviewing what those concerns were yes um it wasn't more it was not as much in this past meeting but meeting before we had staff members come and express strong concerns about some of the language any other questions I don't see any other hands up okay um so uh next up is policy d3 which is responsible computer internet and network use any questions from board members or anyone else in this meeting about the policy language I don't see any hands up I guess I I would like to just just to have it on the record if you could just describe a little bit the conversation since there was a little bit of a controversy before just how the conversations had been and who was included in that conversation so all the um policy committee members were included I think in our last meeting we did we had uh Ellen uh no noble from East Monter participated as well uh and part of one of the concerns was this question as to whether we actually needed these policies at all dealing with um community or internet or network and electronics and um Mark said we did and he was satisfied with with these particular policies um he went through them with a fine tooth comb made proposed language changes for us to consider and felt that they provided the security that we needed for our networks and the governance of electronics in our with our system I'd like to add as well on the committee when we met this one is required and it is a BSBA one the one before is also BSBA vetted I think some of the concerns before where there were several policies that had come differently but this one is a required BSBA policy and people have looked at it and made their suggestions thank you lindy Diane has her hand up yeah I guess um in the so did we have these policies before because when we've seen policies where there's some edits as you were saying Chris that mark um helped clarify things we've seen those edits and so I'm not you know we've seen like the strike throughs and everything prior to the final adoption so I just wonder if that exists somewhere you know I I'm sure it does and if you like we can have them produced along with the policies for our next meeting so you can actually see where the edits were and what was taken out that would be helpful or change would just change yep thank you okay it wouldn't be on d3 this had been adopted previously the reason it's back to you is because we moved a paragraph or two at the very end about law enforcement involvement as I this is how I remember it so Chris please correct me if I'm wrong but at the bottom we added excuse me we added a paragraph that says law enforcement requests regarding district devices right well we ended up doing that was modifying it so that it was clear that it was the superintendent who addressed any no requests like that earlier the policy was a little bit broader um and we doubted so that uh if there was any request for um access to either equipment software or an account that it went through the superintendent's office michelle and in that first policy um about the communication between um employees and students the only thing we changed from what the vsba had was we added um the prevention of sexual harassment title nine to the policy section on the on the last page in two places that was the only thing we changed from what the vsba had proposed thank you for that clarification and and we did not have the policies before okay thank you chris um so next up we have a policy b uh e46 dealing with memorials um and this has um been revised so that um we are um dealing with um memorials that are more controlled through the schools um actually more reunified policy amongst all the schools that there'd be a common um memorial uh that each school uh would be placed at each school for remembering students staff members uh and that they would be maintained by the district as a whole uh we that was a revision that we made because it was not clear that um it would be the district as opposed to the individual schools uh it also and and actually don't mention was very helpful in previous policy committee meetings um for informing us about how emotional um dealing with memorials or removing memorials that had already been in place was so uh we uh brought into into this policy about notifying family members when that was going to happen so uh that they would be aware and it wouldn't just be done without their knowledge um so it's really kind of a a policy that I think will revamp how we deal with memorials and where they are and how long how long the ones that are already in place will be grandfathered any questions didn't we already do this though I know that you're saying it's been changed slightly but I would think that I thought we had already approved this like a year or so ago so then therefore that that um 12 month period would already be done you know that's not my recall Diane you may be right but it was back before us so we I don't think we ever got to the revisions um there's a constant future item we hadn't done it Diane it was discussed but not adopted yeah so that's all thank you very much thank you to the policy committee for all that work let's move into our consent agenda and we have minutes for September 22nd for a board meeting and minutes for our community forum could I have a motion for each of them to move them as late I think it's okay if you guys are comfortable with that I moved okay thank you Chris did I have a second oh second thank you Maggie any discussion there's a lot of minutes to read guys okay hearing none all those in favor of approving the minutes for September 22nd and October 6th please say aye hi hi hi hi thank you any oppose any abstain hearing none the motion carries approved board orders Lindy I'm ready all right I make a motion to accept the board orders ending on October 20th in the amount of 803 thousand 452 dollars 23 cents have a second second oops sorry Diane yeah okay any discussion any questions all those in favor of approving the board orders as read by Lindy please say aye any oppose seeing none the motion carries Lindy that was the only one oh that was the only one yeah that's true yeah okay phew that was the only one I had to open and we don't forget yeah yeah we don't have emails yeah yeah so moving into approve new teachers and resignations if we don't have any that I know have any right now no okay for you next time but floor can I ask a question um yeah you know because the based on comments earlier and also the realization I'm realizing as a board member that I'm not sure where we stand with any positions that maybe we're not able to be filled or what the procedure is to make sure that we're covering the needs of any of those positions um and so I thought this was a good spot to ask that question as to are we able to get updates about unfilled positions the impact and possible plans yeah let's go ahead and have that Jen has been adding a little bit to her newsletter but this would be a good spot to Jen so we still have a number of key vacancies um I don't have a list in front of me so I'm going to go by memory okay um we have a driver said position that's still open we have a memorandum of understanding about that we're continuing to advertise and we have a workaround for the time being um although really wanting to have somebody in that position we still have a literacy interventionist position open at callous we have um some flexibility right now with somebody in staff doing some literacy intervention we're in the works with um being able to partially fill that position it wasn't ready to bring to you tonight but that we're making progress on that um music in Berlin and callous remain a struggle as you've heard during public comment tonight um we have a substitute at Berlin who is not licensed is doing a lovely job but is not a certified music teacher and that's that's sustainable only for so long and we are patching together something in the short term at callous we doubled up um with some technology integration to meet some contractual needs we're now doing some additional um dance right now and um and that does impact health education at Romney and Berlin we're trying to flex and and work around that we have some key I think that's it for the teaching positions we have some key um behavior interventionist openings still in the district we have some um openings in custodial services and in food services and these positions are causing a strain on our system as you can imagine we're just in a conversation earlier today about how to start to get creative and think outside of the box so that we can meet our contractual obligations around uh lunch breaks for example when we're short staffed with um in some department so we're working on it our principals are working hard we have things advertised we refresh in school spring um and we are not alone uh on a somewhat related note although we don't employ our bus drivers we have had impacts with shortages of bus drivers we're not immune to that either we've done some really uh creative and last minute re-rooting of buses uh Michelle Sepkin Super sure we're tired to pull that off at the last minute and it has impacted athletics at times too when we haven't had bus runs um folks are stepping up and subbing as they are able to do so and that also goes back to sort of the gratitude and those sort of coming together all hands on deck and people are tired so it is um it's it is a strain on the system that's that's where we stand right now Maggie I was just curious if the music teacher um search had extended to current um education music education students and if there's you know had any it's a conversation about creatively trying to fill that position with someone who would be functioning under like a para title but specializing in music since they wouldn't have licensure or provisional licensure yeah we've reached out to um to local university programs we've shaken the bushes we're working hard um any we welcome create creative ideas and contacts we'll we'll reach out let us know thank you Jen I think that's another example of something they know these things these are things the community needs to hear directly you know considering we had a uh Berlin elementary educator um talking about this and the public comments early in the meeting you know you guys are working so hard to address these things but I'm not confident that this information is getting out to people um on a routine basis and and you know if that falls on us that we need to find a way as a board to ensure that that communication is had um it just feels very important because I think it would lend itself towards greater community appreciation for the incredibly difficult work that you do at the at the school levels and at the central office thanks Maggie Lindy I was going to comment on seeing it in front porch forum I think is good I've noticed you putting it in there and I'm not sure people who aren't in education understand how widespread it is and um I know uh in the district where I'm working we just hired somebody in the TAP program to do music and that one she should be doing it as a student intern but we're going to get um her as a music teacher and it's it's just so interesting how what a shortage there is across the board and spreading the word anyway you can and I have seen it in front porch forum and I said something to somebody the other day about wow they're even putting it in front porch forum just to let people know it's no longer that we expect people are going to school spring and looking but do you have any friends do you know anybody who just retired do you that's um it's an interesting but not very fun conundrum our principals have also put it in their newsletters as well and we've gotten a few folks from that so parents who have said hey maybe and and we have gotten a few um fights which has been great we're we're doing what we can thank you Jen and I just want to comment that it's a trend in the entire state and in the entire new england and I believe the country is really hard right now and they both the governor and the secretary french are trying to come up with some creative ideas too and how to support some districts that are having to close at points when they don't have enough staff or enough buses bus drivers let's move into a word reflection any thoughts Scott I'm gonna let Diane go first not just kidding no Scott go ahead should I brace or like no just no go ahead um this kind of also spills over into public comments uh I think you may have seen that chris winters sent an email to all of us right before the board meeting and um in terms of the the question of public engagement and the relation between ourselves as a board and our constituents um his last paragraph is very interesting that um you know it's very difficult without a local board and without being allowed in the schools to understand what may be happening we are all at an uncomfortable level of disconnect um I think that's well put um and uh this is you know partly due to COVID um partly due to the uh the nature of of being a single district with um you know all of us each of us representing all 10 000 people who live in it um and trying to figure out how to do that um and I applied the efforts made so far and look forward to um you know the discussions to come thank you Scott Diane I really appreciated having the very clear and concise reflections as well as um input background information needed to make some of these decisions so I found that extremely helpful thank you Diane lindy lindy are you I couldn't get it done mute I don't know what was going on um I didn't get the email from chris winters and I just checked email again because I usually check it right before I don't know why I've checked both of my email addresses I I am on a local board our board is the local board and I I have trouble when I hear that it kind of makes the hair on my neck stand up because uh I represent all the schools and I live locally and I feel this is a local board and I would hope anyone in any of the towns who feel they want my ear as a board member would contact me um no matter what town they live in or I live in because I represent all of these schools who feed in the u32 and then into the world so I I'm hoping somebody will forward that email to me because I didn't see it or I didn't get it thank you send that over lindy or Scott right now yeah I just did it oh great thank you any any other board reflections kari go ahead yeah I'm wondering if we want to do a summary for front porch forum like we have been doing the past few months and carry on with that practice yes please yes I assume you're volunteering thank you yeah well I'm I'm tempted to volunteer to work with Maggie on it if Maggie's willing great I'm game yeah I'd love to okay and then and then we'll run it by the steering committee just so other people see it before we distribute it okay great thank you okay any other board reflections from our meeting okay a public comment let me see if I see any hands open I don't know if we have any members of the public left I don't see anybody well seeing none I just want to thank everybody for being patient as we had a technology challenge this afternoon and and thank you for staying with it I know it's a long meeting but we got it all done and thank you to all the staff for being here Chris I see you just popped up thank you for all your work everybody see you good luck the rest of the week it's just Wednesday okay thank you Michelle thank you everybody