 and seeing how we're doing in that process and then part of the meeting we're going to do a little education around just evaluating the ends and what we need to be looking at before we actually start looking at the actual report. I need to choose a meeting evaluator. What's your heart? It looks like we have any of the public here but we do have folks in the video. Raise their hand perhaps. Okay, so it looks like Nora would like to speak. Hi, thank you. So I just wanted to thank the board for taking the time. I know that they're going to be considering later or not whether to enter negotiations on a memorandum of understanding with Education Association and probably realize hope that that they will indeed do that. And to thank the subcommittee for taking their time to hearing our initial proposals. Thanks, Anne. Yeah, I just wanted to just echo them that, you know, we're very thankful that you made this time to hear us. And really, we're just here to say that we would love to negotiate with you on an MOU. I just want to share a little personal story of it out all week because we were notified by my daughter's preschool of potential COVID exposure. You know, using sick time and sending in lesson plans and, you know, doing everyone's making the best of it. I think it was fine and everyone's fine. My family as far as I can tell were just waiting to get cleared to go back. But it does strike as a situation where I was sort of like locked into needing to take sick time and not work and have my kids, you know, deal with having a sub for a week, which is not ideal. Or am I saying that, you know, what we were doing last year was ideal. But I think what was really not ideal is like a lack of clarity and a lack of knowing where my professional obligations start and stop. And, you know, knowing how to answer my kids and my family. So that's just like one small example. That's my story, you know, everything is fine. But I think that for me it just like drives home a little bit of what we're dealing with this year as we're caught between like the aspiration for a normal year and the reality of the crowd that things are not normal. We're very much in a pandemic. We're worried about safety. We're definitely worried about the just disruption that comes when we can't predict, you know, when things are going to pop up. And, you know, my story is one small example of that. We're not putting fingers, you know, I mean, we know that everybody is operating in good faith for what's best for kids. But we are dealing with a situation where despite the fact that we're, you know, that the vaccination rates are so high. The pandemic is looking pretty scary right now. There are things that we would hope would be happening at the statewide level that are not happening. And we can't affect that. But something that we can affect is to move forward in good faith with trying to work out some solution to some problems that are unique to this year. So, Ozzie just wants to say hi. Hi Ozzie. Her's a poor baby. So, yeah, anyway, I just wanted to say that and to say that I'm not sure if anyone else is going to speak up tonight. Just, you know, a number of people here and I would be surprised if too many of them are here. Or I would be surprised if many of them are not here because they have some sort of similar story to what I just shared of having the work that they do and care about doing for your kids. Drone off, killed there by the lack of clarity and we feel like, you know, started these negotiations up is just a way to really not solve all those problems but really move forward in a good direction on solving many of them. So, that's all I wanted to say. It will show. It will show. Yes. Okay. I don't see none. We'll close off public comment. And to the agenda, there's a talk that's going to be done by 21st century career and life planning speaker. It's going to be a virtual presentation. It would cost $75 per board member, but in relation to just sort of looking at our ends and understanding kind of the future and what students need as they move forward in their lives. I was wondering if it was something that the board might want to invest in in terms of just educating ourselves in terms of the future needs of students to be successful in our lives after their education. So, I had sent the stuff out to folks and I'm wondering if anybody had questions or thought that might be worth investing the time into looking into that. It's a talk that is sort of a career pathways. He's pretty well known nationally. The tech center has been working with him on, he's a national speaker on sort of what students need in this current generation of kids as they look forward to planning what they're going to do after their initial schooling. So, maybe we have to go to, I'm just going to date them. It's a virtual thing. And he's going to be just presenting stuff about sort of the younger generation and kind of the way they think about life. They're going to be people from industry and the business world sort of speaking about the kind of skills and things that they are needing for future employees. And there are going to be people there. It's sort of, it's being run for sort of higher ed is also going to be there sort of hearing about what's needed from four students and four employees or four employers. So it's just a chance to sort of hear what the thinking is about, you know, what students need to be thinking about as they start planning for their future and what we need to be providing for them in terms of education and outcomes. October 21st, what time is it now? I, maybe I'm a cheapskate, but that seems a little steep per person for presentation and if it's during working hours I'm not sure. And then I realize, oh, it's going to cost. So, but I still wanted to at least see what people thought because part of our education needs to be kind of thinking about what skills do we need to be making sure that our students have other tools. And we might be able to have Jason Finley from the Tech Center has been involved with that pretty heavily and he might be able to speak a little bit to what they've learned there. Just help us just kind of think about and as we're evaluating our ends because that's going to be part of what we're doing this year. It's just looking at our ends and just making sure we're on track with the outcomes that we're looking for. So, and I'm not wedded to this so I'm totally okay with not doing it, but I just wanted to at least have a discussion about it. So next up is remember that part of what we're doing as we go through our monitoring processes. We're also just looking at our policies and making sure we understand sort of what they are and then just understanding the process of monitoring those policies. So this is the big one that we're doing tonight because these are the outcomes. It is a looking back time. So we're looking back and of course we're looking back on, you know, the outcomes that we achieved under COVID, which is, you know, it's that's a little bit difficult right there. Just given the circumstances, no one would have predicted we would be in a worldwide pandemic. And so it's it's sort of hard, but at the same time, I think going through the process and understanding what we're looking at and being clear on the interpretations, even if there's non compliance to the, you know, because there's no data, at least we are, we are going through that process and understanding that. So we had asked you to review a little bit just sort of ends monitoring ends in general. So I was just wondering as people went through some of the stuff from our training over the summer, if questions came up or if I'm clear about things as we move forward. And we did get that ends report a little bit late. Lane, I just have a quick question for you. Are you going to sort of walk us through that end report or the purpose of the presentation tonight is to walk through the end report. So hopefully that will help. It's a long presentation. So I've tried to actually make up very specific notes to make sure that we're getting to the specifics and the nuance and I'm not talking for hours at channel. Okay. All right. So as people reviewed sort of this process. Did anybody have either concerns or questions or in regard to looking and monitoring and first review of two. So I'm moving on to monitoring the organization. So we've got two executive limitations reports that are in our packets. This is just the first review. So we'll be looking at accepting those the next time. So those are just in your packet to review. And what about the strategic plan integration discussion? Was that part of that? So that was so part of what we're going to be looking at is some of what was what are in the ends are. Are the strategic plan that was put together. Part of it is our part of that is to look at our ends, communicate out to the community. This is where we are with them. And then also take a look to see if we want to reach out to the community and be specify more in the end. So dive down a little bit deeper, be more detailed and what the outcomes are that we're looking for. Because right now, just if you look in that strategic plan, we're basically just updating any of our ends. So that's the piece that we're working on. Yeah. We talked about the EL policies that we're going to be reviewing and we'll vote on accepting those the next time. Which then brings us to the actual ends report from Lane. And again, what we want to be thinking about as we as we hear this report is we're looking at the is interpretation of the end. And we're asking ourselves, is this a reasonable interpretation? And that interpretation should allow us to have the way we're going to we're going to be evaluating whether or not he's he's met it is he's going to give us some data. And we're going to say, did his data match the interpretation and is he in compliance or not. We're ready for it Lane. Were there questions on executive limitations or we Because we're just reviewing them. I'm not sure people have any from the from the first review. And I can say for myself, I had a very busy week. I wasn't able, I haven't even had a chance to actually review that. And I was the only thing that I've reviewed so far as your hands. Give me a moment to get this pulled up. A couple of things to know. First off, I cannot see you during the presentation. So I apologize for that. If you see me looking off to my left or down, it's because I have my notes there. And I want to make sure that people can actually patient on their screens at this time. Yes, yes, we can. Perfect. I appreciate that. Couple of further pieces of info. And please tell me if I'm not speaking loud enough. I found that if I don't talk too loud, I can preserve my voice a little bit. But as far as the ends go, what Ian had started out saying about, you know, part of what you're looking at is, are they reasonable? So that's the first question. And if you determine that they're reasonable and that you're not happy. And the typical process is to go back and put another layer in terms of your, your, your entity that kind of puts a little bit quicker guideline. So a couple of things here in terms of the end's report that we want to talk about the kind of the cautions and the contacts given, you know, the endemic that we've been going through. The ends only focuses on a limited set of data. It just focuses on the data sets required to measure achievement of the ends. That's important because there is plenty of other data that's out there in terms of our school's performance. It's worth trying to reviewing if we get the time. But if it's not directly tied to the ends interpretations, it will not be in this report. And the other thing that I want to say is that that report is actually very informationally dense. There are, I noticed about six typos when I had a chance to look at it again with fresher eyes that I will direct before it comes back to you for next month. Secondly, remember kind of what Anne was saying. The report looks at the past year. Therefore any conclusions should be regarded with a great deal of skepticism. Data collected during the pandemic was incomplete, missing, and questionable validity and reliability because last year in no way resembled a normal school year. In this piece I spent a lot of time thinking about in terms of why it was at times really difficult to figure out the interpretations. And so I want to explain this a little bit because I think it's important for folks to know. It should be noted that policy governance is a very good model. But it is a business model. And therefore it encounters some difficulties in terms of goals and how to measure progress when it is translated to education. In the business world, things are tangible. You can see them. You can feel them. So goal setting is easier, right? Profits will increase by 10%. The sales team will acquire 15 new accounts each month. In education, goals are incredibly hard to measure because they are focused on changing the processes that occur inside the human mind. And the only way to measure such a thing is indirectly and often imperfectly. I received criticism in the past because the ENDS report was so long. It has to be because the governance model we are using is not a good fit for educational goals. If you ask me to increase productivity on the factory floor, I can interpret that and state how progress towards it will be measured in one sentence. If you ask me, however, to ensure students have foundational knowledge in the arts, that's when you require a long response and no measurement tool will ever adequately assess the changes inside a human mind that are required through compliance with such a goal. Lastly, the report takes into account the fact that the board has nine different ENDS that are so broad they encompass the impact every student and staff member across the district, which means pursuing any of these ENDS will have a significant budgetary cost and that pursuing all of the ENDS at the same time would result in a budget increase that is higher than can be born or justified in the community. Therefore, I have interpreted that there are three types of ENDS, mature ENDS, critical ENDS, and prospective ENDS. Mature ENDS are those that the district has spent significant effort in achieving and which have become self-sustaining above their achievement thresholds. Since it costs more to do the work of achieving an ENDS than it does to sustain it, once an ENDS becomes mature, those resources can be shifted to other priorities. Given limited resources, critical ENDS are those that are currently the focus of our improvement. Our last category of ENDS are called prospective ENDS, which indicates that they will be pursued in the future when limited resources can be shifted to their achievement. The way that this process should work so that we're not asking for three or four million dollars from the community to work on all these ENDS at once is that we have the critical ENDS that we're working on. We currently have four to five of them. Once those ENDS mature, once they are achieving the levels that we've set out for them consistently, you don't have to spend as much money doing the training, professional development, buying the supplies with the other resources that are necessary, and we can shift those resources to some of the prospective ENDS, those that are waiting to be done in the future. So it's kind of an important way of interpreting things and it's due to the budgetary constraints. Of the board's nine ENDS, our current resources are being used to main two mature ENDS and to advance four critical ENDS. This is the three prospective ENDS to be addressed in the future when the critical ENDS are mature and resources can be shifted to their achievement. Just a quick primer for folks that are kind of checking it on the outside who are board members and may not have a lot of background in this. ENDS are the board's goals for the district. Interpretations are how the leadership team has chosen to define the board's goals in terms of what is to be achieved. Interpretations do not state the means that will be used to reach the goal. Instead, they state what measurement will be used to show that the goal has been reached. An interpretation is considered reasonable. If what is being measured logically indicates success of the board's goal. Each interpretation also sets a threshold that defines the level of achievement that must be reached for the goal to be considered complete or in policy governance language in compliance. The purpose of this yearly ENDS report is to use objective data to show if the ENDS have been achieved and if not, where they currently stand relative to their achievement thresholds. Policy-performed sets the highest and most global standard in terms of what it means to be successful on the ENDS collectively. Because of this, interpreting the preamble provides an opportunity to develop the broad strategies we will use to achieve the ENDS. What it means to have the knowledge, skills, and tools to be prepared for the next stage of their lives was clearly defined in the latter half of the 20th century when a nationwide initiative called the New Standards Project was funded by the federal government for what skills students would need to be successful in the new economy that was unfolding which was based on digital information sharing and high technology. The results of their research were codified into the 21st century skills, the common core learning standards, and the next generation science standards. Therefore, it makes sense that any improvement efforts must incorporate these three sets of standards and skills. The district will be in compliance with the overall policy as compared to being in compliance with its enumerations when two conditions are met that all mature ENDS are self-sustaining and when all critical ENDS are advancing towards their achievement thresholds. Due to the impact of COVID which has delayed, altered, and prevented the normal collection of data no valid assessment will be made in terms of the district's compliance with this overall policy. All that can be said right now is that work is continuing towards the critical ENDS and progress is being paid. Now we're going to kind of go through the board's more specific ends, right? We talked a little bit about the broad and the overall, that encapsulates the overall policy, but these are the enumerations. And 1.1 that the board has set down relates to critical thinking. In terms of interpreting this we looked at a number of things and we decided the assessment of student performance on the senior project is an ideal means to measure achievement of this end as it requires students to apply what they have learned across their OSSD careers to solve unique problems. Further, students must communicate their process and findings effectively use appropriate technology to explain their solutions. Because of this, the senior project rubric evaluates students on all the components related to critical thinking and is uniquely suited to measuring achievement of this end. How about it? Just a note here. The senior project, like a lot of things was significantly modified last year to adapt to the constraints placed upon its normal process by COVID. Therefore, the data collected from the senior project rubrics last year cannot reliably be used in terms of compliance with this end. Furthermore, because of the changes in the process, last year's data cannot be compared meaningfully to previous years. The data that's presented here is from the last year prior to COVID. Additionally, the board has established six foundational knowledges related to English, mathematics, science, social studies, life skills, and the arts. Three of those ends, English, mathematics, and science are a current focus for improvement efforts and are therefore critical ends. They were prioritized because they are the most visible to the outside world and they drive the perception of the quality of our schools, especially to new families moving into Vermont. Lastly, achievement in these three areas is required under federal law. For the state and the district there are many receiving federal grant lines. First of those ends, which is a critical end, calls for students to possess comprehensive knowledge of a core curriculum in the following areas reading, writing, and communication. The English language SBAC was chosen to measure attainment of this end because it assesses student achievement on the Common Core Language Standards which include reading, writing, and communication. Our performance relative to the state average was chosen because Vermont is one of the few states that has equalized spending on education across this district because funding correlates to student achievement, equal funding should also equalize student performance. In other words, all things being equal every district should perform about as well as every other district. We have allowed for a three point variance from the state average to all its estimates including the SBAC had measurement error. Measurement error is the total variance and scores that would be seen if the same students took the test several times. In terms of the percentage of students reaching proficiency on an SBAC type exam, that variance clearly amounts to about three percentage points. If you look at evidence, if you look at zero and you fill up that line what you are seeing on those numbers three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, those are grades and we'll talk a little bit about what they mean. This graph represents the difference between the percentage of OSSD students achieving ELA proficiency and the percentage of students statewide achieving proficiency in each grade through nine. Those are the grades that the SBAC is administrative. Four illustrations so people understand how to read this graph. If you take a look at grade four what this graph is telling you is that our fourth grade population achieved two percent fewer two percent fewer of our fourth grade population achieved proficiency compared to the state. That would be equal to our three percent variance. In terms of this provision the district is in compliance in grades three, four, five, seven, and eight. The district is out of compliance in grades six and nine. Based on this data this provision does not yet meet the definition of a mature end. Because it's not a mature end we have to go to that second caveat about whether growth is occurring. This is a critical end. This graph is a means of over time in ELA. In 2019 on average seven percent fewer of our students in each grade reached ELA proficiency compared to the state. In 2021 however on average two percent fewer of our students reached proficiency in each grade relative to the state. Since we are gaining on the state this critical end is improving towards its achievement threshold and therefore I can report compliance. Words end in 1.22 calls for students to possess comprehensive knowledge of a core curriculum in mathematics. Mathematics S-BAC was chosen because it too assessed the student achievement on the common core learning standards which were interpreted as vital to compliance with this overall policy. And the rationale behind the interpretation for math is the same as that that was discussed for reading, writing and communication. This graph represents the difference between the percentage of OSSE students achieving mathematics proficiency and the percentage of students statewide achieving proficiency in each grade in three from nine. Four of the creation four percent more of our eighth grade population achieved proficiency compared to the state. In terms of this provision the district is in compliance in grades five, seven and eight. Excuse me. Yes. In terms of this provision the district is in compliance in grades five, seven and eight. The district is out of compliance in grades three, four, six and nine. Based on this data this provision does not yet meet the definition of a mature end. For them the question becomes since this is a critical end is growth occurring towards the standard that we've set. The above graph is a means of measuring growth over time in mathematics. In 2009 on average 5.6 percent fewer of our students in each grade reached mathematics proficiency compared to the state. In 2021 on average 4.8 percent fewer of our students reached proficiency in each grade relative to the state. Since this critical end is improving towards its achievement threshold the board's end 1.23 calls for students to possess comprehensive knowledge of science. The Vermont Science Assessment was chosen because it assesses student achievement on the next generation science standards which were interpreted as vital to compliance with this overall policy. The rationale behind the interpretation is the same as that discussed for the English and mathematics SBAC as this instrument is similar. The graph above represents the difference between the percentage of OSSB students achieving science proficiency and the percentage of students statewide achieving proficiency in each grade 5, 8, and 11. And they only take the Vermont Science Assessments in those three grades. For illustration purposes 1 percent more of our 8th grade population achieved proficiency compared to the state. In terms of this provision the district is in compliance in grades 5 and 8. The district is out of compliance in grade 11. Based on this data this provision does not yet need the definition of mature end. We have to look at it as a critical end. The above graph is a means of measuring growth over time. In 2019 on average 10.3 percent fewer of our students in each grade reached science proficiency compared to the state. In 2021 on average 0.3 percent fewer of our students reached proficiency relative to the state. Since this critical end is improving towards its achievement threshold I report. The world's foundational knowledge ends and the arts are all perspective ends. In other words we don't have enough money to do them all at once so these guys are important but they're waiting for the future. They're waiting for some of our critical ends to become mature ends so that we can shift the resources we're using to improve those to improve these. They will be pursued in the future the critical ends are matured and their resources can be shifted and interpreted in these perspectives. Let's take a look ghostly studies. Since this end requires students to possess comprehensive and foundational knowledge in social studies the best way to assess the acquisition of that knowledge is with a criterion reference test. These assessments are used to measure student mastery of a pre-stepped body of knowledge and skills. That body of knowledge would be the current nationally accepted social studies standards as defined by the National Council for the Social Studies. An end of year cumulative examination will also tell us two things. Did the students master the requisite knowledge and skills? And two, did they retain the knowledge and skills they mastered? Foundation knowledge implies something that sticks with the students so they can build upon it. If that knowledge is only remembered for a short time after it is learned it cannot be considered foundational. Further since critical thinking requires a framework of acquired knowledge to draw from, success for attention to social studies knowledge and skills will support the board's critical thinking. It is clear during the strategic planning session that the school community values the idea of the district providing training in basic advice skills. Unfortunately, other than financial literacy those skills will not well defined during that process. Once resources and funding can be shifted from supporting the current critical ends, a team of parents, students, staff, and local business leaders will be drawn together to flesh out the totality of the OSSP-Wolfbills curriculum and how it will be delivered. Since minor performing arts produce tangible displays something you can see, something you can hold in your hand that allows students to demonstrate their mastery of arts knowledge and skills, it makes sense that the best way to measure that mastery is through a performance assessment. A rubric it uses objective measures to assess a student's artwork and performance on specific standards is an effective way to provide feedback on the achievement of this end. And in the case of the fine arts standards that rubric would be based upon are the national core arts standards and students need to achieve a score of meets in the four areas in those standards support. Creating, performing, presenting, or producing, responding, and connecting. And this rubric would be developed locally. The board's end 1.3 calls for students to be adaptable, resilient, and able to manage change. This is a critical end. Exerting resources towards improving. This end requires multiple data sources to ensure that information of all students contributes to the evaluation of compliance. The capability to manage the demands of the day-to-day changes we all face is reflected in our ability to be consistent and dependable when it comes to our attendance. Therefore attendance is a valid means of measuring a person's ability to adapt to the temporary changes that affect their equipment. Well, the magnitude of change the students face as they progress through their middle and high school years is immense. A transition from being children to adults physically, emotionally, and intellectually. And a transition from being dependent to independent. Their ability to successfully navigate these challenges is easily measured by the percentage who make it through to graduation in four years. Making a district's graduation rate an effective measure of their adaptability. In terms of bullet three, in general, students with disabilities often need assistance identifying and internalizing strategies for learning that allow them to compensate for the effects of their disability. The very act of learning those strategies and using them effectively enough to either no longer need an IEP or to move along the continuum towards being on a less restricted IEP is by its very definition adaptation. The day out on average daily attendance is not reliable given last year's extended remote sessions so there's not much to show. The graduation rates have not yet been released by the state. We got a message today that the state data should be released hopefully in January. The thing that we do have is we do have data related to the third bullet which relates to our students who are being serviced by IEPs. Now, this data is a bit funky so I've got to explain a little bit. First off, the graph shows the percentage of the district's overall population that is served by an IEP. So it's 20, a little over 21% of our entire population served by an IEP. If you believe this data and you shouldn't and I'll explain why in a second in 2021 it would be 22.4% of our entire population is being served by an IEP. This data is inaccurate because of many regular education students over 53 last year chose to hold school due to the COVID pandemic which caused a calculated percentage to rise despite the fact that the number of students on IEPs remains steady. We had 190 in the previous year and 191 was occurring here. Had those homeschooled students remain in school the percentage would have been level between last year and this year. This is a super important one. This is the second part of the interpretation. This graph shows the average severity rating of student IEPs. A higher number indicates a greater level of service. The floor can range between 1 and 6. There has been a clear decline in the severity of student IEPs over the past year. The compliance with this provision is unknown due to some of the necessary data being either unavailable or unreliable due to the COVID pandemic. Then the last end and this is a mature end and this is digital literacy. The board expects that students use and apply information and technology appropriately, effectively and objectively. In terms of this meaning, all students will use a Chromebook, a computer, or tablet in a developmentally appropriate manner as a primary means of producing, managing, enhancing and delivering their school-related work. In terms of the rationale for this interpretation, since the board description of this end relates to digital literacy, it makes sense to use the American Library Association's definition of digital literacy as the guide to what constitutes compliance with this end. And that definition is almost the same as the board's. The ability to use information and communication technologies, ICTs to find and evaluate, create and communicate information. The interpretation therefore is reasonable because it embodies all the components of the ALA's definition and the ALA's definition matches the board's description of this end. In terms of evidence, best way to measure the acquisition of a defined school set is to require the effective use of that skill set. By switching to a one-to-one model as the district has done which requires students to use ICT devices as a primary means of learning and engagement, each student every day demonstrates compliance with this end. And all of our students use these tools from K-12. Like I denoted a little bit earlier, give me a second to switch back to the screen right and see people. There are some bank loans that I've got to fix, which should be fixed in the actual RIP report before the next board meeting. Now with all that which was a lot, and I apologize I'll shut up for a little while in case the board has questions. And then we have time to look at them and digest them. This is a huge report and we just barely got it and we are just getting Lane's presentation about that information. And I'm wondering if the board rather than generally we accept this report the evening that it's been presented to us. But I'm wondering if the board would like to have some more time to digest the information to think it through to ask some questions tonight but to have a little bit more time with it especially since it's sort of the meat of what are we getting and what kinds of accomplishments is the whole system producing. Take all of that in and have a chance to really fully digest it all this rapidly. I'm wondering if folks would like to have that sort of the acceptance of the report be push to but open up this time ask questions and discuss the interpretation of the report. Like I read the whole thing earlier today we vote on whether to accept. So what we're looking at now is is his interpretation of each of those ends is it reasonable given what we've given him so it's they're extremely broad so what he's presented to us is the interpretation of those broad ends and how he would how he's going to that interpretation includes how am I going to measure and the rationale for why I'm using that measurement. There are a few of those ends where he hasn't interpreted them those are his perspective ends. So we as a board need to decide do we feel that interpretation are we okay with that interpretation that he doesn't have the time he's got a plan for interpreting them but he just hasn't done it yet. There are interpretations for all of the ends the perspective means that the work is not convinced yet because of budgetary constraints the for example the four critical ends that you're working on I was trying to add up the total cost you're probably in the $750,000 million range right now so if we were to work on the additional three or four especially given where the district is starting from that I walked in without a lot of this work completed there were pockets of it but not a lot you were looking at a significant cost shouldn't we work on the long ones there you haven't been working on them so there's no evidence that's being gathered at this point in time in voting to accept it we're accepting that the plan is to once the resources can be put there I do really appreciate the kind of compartmentalizing of them as several of us have said they're very broad so that makes sense I wonder about the for instance the graduation rate if we don't have that from the state until January would we revisit that just so we would have the information we will have already accepted the report but the ones that we don't yet have data for we revisit them what we would do in that case is come in compliance until we have that data it would be we would revisit that particular one once he has that data but when they're not in compliance what we need to look at is when will you be in compliance what's the plan when can we expect and sometimes there's a hold up because of the data that we're using to back up his interpretable question when you mention the cost associated with bringing some of these into compliance it's a pretty staggering number is that number that high because of needing to add staff needing to modify curriculum where what is that a very good question it's in some cases it was adding staff like the rise program right the students can't access any of what we're doing unless we deal with the trauma based behaviors that we're seeing so we've added staff to the rise program we've added staff for mental health services and REHS there's probably 3 or 400,000 there we also have to do curriculum alignment so there's the paying of stipends to have that work done and often trained facilitator to come in and facilitate that work there's a professional development that goes along with that like we're currently engaged in the lead to re-program through the Stern Center which was $100,000 over the next two years to get the teachers the skills they need to really get down the discrete skills that the students need to learn to decode and decipher which is a problem across the state as a whole and so the costs like I said they run the gamut when you take on these broads ends I'm not I want people to know I think this work is incredibly important and valuable so I'm not decrying that but I'm just saying that if we're going to do these and achieve them well it takes time it takes investment and if we try to do them all at once we could you know you're going to have to hire another body or two to be able to manage what I can because there's only one of me managing the district pick up those other pieces we would probably have to have another a director or two and then you've got the same issues of professional development curriculum alignment potentially purchasing new materials and resources like with mathematics you know we are doing this transition for the Carnegie math program you know that was $50,000 so these things are not cheap so it's a very good question it's a very broad question that you just asked so I apologize if I haven't hit on I had the 2019 and then from the student testing for that so 20 is missing because that was that was new testing and I apologize my mind's a little foggy I'll be in a sec but those two data points again there's two ways to look at them 2019 represents the last year before COVID where testing was done 2020 2021 was the end of last year was last spring which was during COVID so it's kind of interesting I mean I could make the claim that I look at how much things improved relative to the state during COVID that means you must be doing some right but I'm not prepared to make that claim if that makes sense so can you really compare the data I don't think so I wouldn't do it it's much happier when you have clean data from regular school years to be able to compare the scenes and all that the reality is that we improved over the state quite significantly during the time of COVID so kudos for the teachers and everybody to pull together to get that work done I think it's important there is a lot of data out there the federal government and the state defines what data is that we need to submit and they do that for a reason because it is what they consider measures of educational quality it would be good to look at how our SPAC scores have changed over time but since that is not a part of the N's interpretations it's not in there I'd love to be able to sit down and show that data to you but again the N's report was very specific the benchmark that we set because Vermont's all about equality was the state average and so what I did is I showed you the data that was required to show you how we were doing relative to the state average but I think you just said you discussed the data that you presented as evidence did I do that wrong? I'm saying that you are trying to compare data from two specific different year you are trying to compare data from a year when students spent a lot of time in remote session to a year when students had a regular school year the question then becomes is it valid to compare the two or none? what you could interpret it as meaning as we had pretty significant gains relative to the state under extreme conditions last year during COVID so it means we did a better job than a lot of the state in terms of how we did in learning during it's kind of like attendance attendance the way that attendance was taken during remote was dramatically different than how you take attendance during a normal school year when there is not COVID so can you really compare those two pieces of data when they have a bunch of meaning probably not I'm not sure if it makes sense to you some sense yes our ends are pretty much the same what we are going to be looking at is do we want to change it is what we have achieved this is where we are at and this is where we are continuing to focus on I'm a little reluctant to to accept the sort of this this is a perspective end and therefore I'm in compliance because it's a perspective end and because I think that's misleading it's not to mean that non-compliance means you're you're not doing your job you've explained why but I guess I'm wondering if in that explanation you can say when you foresee being able to focus on that so a couple of pieces there the board's policy and again I got 15 different things open in front of me but the preamble states very clearly about the resources that can be justified by the community and so that was a part of the interpretation right there that piece was there and it makes sense that there's only so much you can do without breaking the bank for people that was the purpose behind creating the three ends if the board comes back and says I want you to go forward and structure things so that you need it and build a budget so that you can work on all of these ends at the same time I'm happy to do that I don't think it's going to pass but I am happy to do that work in terms of the timeline you know I can guesstimate that is ever changing de facto giving you a timeline we will work on the perspective ends the political ends have mature when they are consistently for three years staying above the achievement levels that we've set so I did that very purposefully knowing all the issues that we're going to be facing with COVID and all the changes that are going to be happening in terms of budget which we'll talk a little bit about later like the back 173 and healthcare negotiations that are going on I put that in there because the timeline is really indefinite it depends and there is a tremendous amount of work to do on these critical ends whether the district realizes it or not we spoke about it probably three years ago in an ends discussion was the idea that the district has a lot of growth to do we're not starting out at 100% across the board we're starting out moderate to moderately low and so there's a lot of work to do to get us up to the achievement levels that we've set if I'm making sense I think just to not to convince you it's just explaining my rationale you guys have to decide in this reason right discussion purposes I feel like it's absolutely reasonable I guess it seems like things are headed in the right direction I don't know if everyone feels this way but I feel like it's unfortunate that there isn't enough funding to be able to also incorporate a prospective end into what we're doing right now and if there isn't maybe we should talk about what that funding looks like and where can we do more funding because we're a public school it has to come from the state or if there's fundraising options I don't know but it seems unfortunate to be limited just by finances when I feel like everyone in our community would be super if they could would put money into it actually Chelsea there's also a limitation in terms of personnel to be able to do this work especially at the elementary level remember that the elementary teachers often teach all or most of the disciplines and so it's very difficult for them to be engaged in math and science and ELA at the same time if we're doing improvements in math and science and ELA at the high school it's a little bit different because there's three separate groups of people that are doing them whereas with the elementary folks they would have to be doing them all at once which would be overwhelming to anybody so there's another kind of just more of a physical structural constraint or come the structural constraints with finances but they can get expensive do we want to pay all the elementary teachers to come in if they're willing to do it full time over a summer to get the work done with the structure of how the school operates so I agree with Chelsea in that considering the situation we're in the availability of information that Lane had to draw down from I am comfortable with accepting this report as presented and thank you Lane for the time and energy you put in any more discussion on the other questions regarding the interpretations all graduating seniors are critical thinking ones not all of our seniors do a senior project so I'm wondering we have students in the tech center we have students that do early college although I think the early college students do tend to do a senior project I know at some point there was some talk of maybe college that's showing their ability to do critical thinking but just wondering if that interpretation interpretation for critical thinking for those students that aren't doing it it's possible we had talked prior to COVID about expanding senior project to all students I mean if it's a senior project it should affect all students and the discussion that was had at the time was there were concerns that senior project itself was potentially driving students out of the district to pursue those other options and so that was kind of where the discussion ended with COVID actually you have a very salient point which we can take a look at critical thinking there's other ways that we can measure it especially in the district now that we've got the innovation center up and hopefully turning into a STEM Academy over time but it's one of the dangers of data and this is one of the things that I struggled with a lot as I was thinking my way through things is you wanted to be quick and fast and meaningful again I'm one person and I'm office trying to manage the pandemic keep the day to day stuff happening overseeing over 200 people managing all the requirements to try to receive the grant monies from the state for COVID which are quite exceptional I do all the human resources work that hits my level one of the things I don't want to get into if it's at all possible to avoid is spending all my time collecting data the decision making process here was what are some good pieces of information that we have that are meaningful that in most cases are readily available right? SPAC and kids have to do anyway graduation is the state determines for us and gives us that information attendance is something you know in a normal year that we can generate for ourselves and we have to but it's quick easy meaningful that is indicative that we're truly moving in the direction and so yes your point is very well taken to accept the N's report we will accept the N's report as presented I second we need to look at our governance budget the numbers yes we did sorry sorry sorry uh we get our N's monitoring oh yes so because we had a little wanted to just make sure that we were monitoring keeping our district safe in terms of the COVID response we just want an update from Lane in terms of the the COVID handbook and any changes that have had to take place between our last meeting and this meeting in terms of our COVID response yeah so the the biggest change that has happened was when we started out the year they had this idea that when you get 80% of your school vaccinated then you know mask wearing becomes optional they had pushed that date out and started out after the start of school and then a few weeks after that they said no we're going to go to October and now they pushed it out to November so that that date keeps changing so that's one of the major changes that has happened that needs to be updated that was last week I believe in the last week the piece for folks to be aware about they put a little bit of this into the community message that was sent out a couple days a couple days back is that the state is getting ready to overhaul the contact tracing testing system right now we have a surveillance testing system where every Tuesday you know all those that have opted in kind of the person's office they get a COVID test usually within 24 to 48 hours students know the results and staff know the results and that testing is really important because it helps us identify asymptomatic students and staff people that may be running around in the district that don't know that they have COVID and potentially spreading it and it has we did identify one which was very useful kind of early on but what they're trying to do is they're recognizing that when you have closed contacts and you put kids out on quarantine like typically we end up shutting down a class most of those kids are not going to develop COVID and so they were trying to find a way to keep as many kids in school as much of the time as possible and so they're working on what's called this test to stay program which has been done in some states around the country so let's say that we have a student that tests positive in the classroom we identify the contact instead of putting those close contacts into quarantine what would happen is every day for seven days their parents would drive them to school in the morning nursing staff would meet them outside they wouldn't be allowed in the building and they would take a rapid test if the test is negative the student goes to school that day if the test is positive the student goes back over to the parent and so they're in the beginning stages of trying to work out the logistics for this test to stay program now a couple of things that I think are important I don't know how feasible it's going to be I know that the federal government just said it's going to buy a billion dollars worth of rapid tests I'm not sure that the stock or the supply is available in this there's a lot of upset districts across the state because it was impossible for our staffs just to keep up with the normal surveillance testing and contact tracing and now potentially we're adding this piece as well people just didn't have the staff to do it that I have to commend our nurses for the incredible job that they have been doing for a long time so hopefully that kind of touches that that changes in here yet so it's not in our handbook but as it's updated it comes to fruition that will change over so you have two reports in front of you that represents the finalized budget timeline as well as the parameters that would be first and forward I think the timeline should be kind of self-explanatory the timeline is set up to ensure that the district's going to be in compliance with the mandated postings when we have to have the information out in public we have our annual meeting that's defined by statute when that must be and then make it so that everybody is prepared for the actual voting date that's typically in March when the timeline is there that is locked in I had the first meeting with the cabinet about a week ago on it and their job right now is they are going in their school staffs to say hey these are the critical ends you're incorporating critical ends into your evaluation process this year what resources do you need from us that you're setting for yourself that's going to help us reach these ends so that discussion may generate some budgetary needs and that is the way a budget is supposed to work we have goals that are set up here that travel down that everybody is working on but we need to take information in from the people that are actually doing the direct work with the kids trying to achieve those goals about what their needs are if this is going to happen and that information is then used to kind of define how we either shift resources in the budget or what we ask for in terms of conditions that's what that timeline is all about you have a parameters report which is really a summary of the current financial landscape in other words what issues are out there that are going on either legislatively things like the pandemic that can severely impact our budgeting this year that's what those parameters are there was one that I left off because it's been so darn quiet that should have been on that parameters report and that is the state of health care negotiations with the union and the state public I believe at this point in time that they are in arbitration but I have not seen much except for one email recently from the Vermont Blueboards Association about the standing events I don't know if there's any questions on either of those not at this point I've been in quarantine myself for the past couple of days so I haven't had a chance to really sit down and talk with Robert the business manager but I did do a pretty good review of it myself and there's nothing that jumps out at me one of the kind of rules and thumbs to use when kind of looking at this is that given where we are in the fiscal year our fiscal year starts in July we're about a quarter of the way through so you would expect those lines to be spent down by about 25% and so most those lines are right now they're doing pretty well yeah that was supposed to have been in last at the last board meeting the facilities crew had a lot of issues that they were mitigating at the time didn't have time to get it complete so I just wanted to make sure as part of your monitoring that that was not missed I think a lot of there is a self-explanatory I think one of the biggest things that kind of jumps out is we've got a tremendous amount of work to do in refurbishing food service and cafeterias across our schools a lot of the equipment in the spaces in there have kind of reached or are nearing the end of their useful lives and so that's going to be a big piece that we're looking for we've done a significant amount of work getting around the district getting things up above what's needed for COVID but also just to make sure that the schools are being maintained the way that they should be and so we're trying to get resources to actually revamp the central office at this point in time kind of refocus where we're at central office is the only building in the district that does not have proper ventilation whatnot that we would expect during the pandemic and so it's a little bit higher priority there at this point in time and then the other piece if we wanted to discuss it right now is the state of the Brookfield water you know the well that we were drilling to try to remediate the water issues that are up there and this could be a pretty big topic. What happened was when we started investigating the water issues up there when I came on board we had an engineering crew who put together a report with recommendations on how to proceed starting with the least cost and the most cost so the first thing that they recommended was seal off the upper levels of the old well so you're not going to be water reaching in from the upper reaches of it we did that it did not work it had a little bit of effect but nothing that was going to make the water palatable the second recommendation that they made was to go out and to drill a new well and so that we worked with the state geologists we did a Bob and Wes a lot of credit they actually went out to the houses that were around and offered to test their water because they were trying to see who had the best water so that we could drill down into the same rock to draw from that aquifer and what ended up happening is we drilled down I think it was 490 feet and we got the same problems with the salinity down there there were some other things that were identified in that water that we are researching that did a little bit more testing that needs to happen until that additional testing comes back I'm not in a position at this point to really recommend what we should do because we need more data to decide what our potential next step is going to be for those of the babies if people have any questions we are supposed to as Lane's building his budget we are supposed to let him our budgetary needs we need our board education plan to kind of figure things out so well in the past you've sort of taken the past year and pretty much moved it next meeting you want to do some additional or just to check that budget to make sure it has the funding available for board education needs so it would be okay if we sort of take what you've got what's been in place or maybe we can take a look at that and make sure it's in our packet for the next board meeting yeah you currently I can tell you right off the top of my head you're currently putting aside $10,000 a year for board training activities that has actually been very sufficient you went a little over this year because of the addition of the strategic planning session so I think a lot of it depends upon how much additional training you might want to engage in you know if you decide that what happened this year minus that strategic planning session is okay $10,000 is probably reasonable if there is additional that you feel that you would like to do then we certainly can add so we'll talk a little bit more about that hopefully be ready to vote on so next up we have the beehive is bit proxy signatures in your orange folder in front of you you have to either decide if you're going to somebody's going to represent at the meeting or it's in the folder inside the folder that's at the annual at Lake Maury I'm not sure I haven't seen yet Lane do you know if they're going to do that virtually or are they going to they have they have sent out a link for a remote session in late October don't quote me let me take a look here but I think it was October 27th that's in the ballpark yeah that's what's in the background yeah at 530 it's a remote so what we need to is insurance carrier for the district am I correct Lane it is but it is yes it's something we sort of delegated to for the district but it's a board responsibility so one of us has to go and represent our board at that meeting interested into it I could do it since I I will probably be I mean that's decided we just said vote so we probably should vote and I have a nomination for someone to represent the board for the being I proxy I nominate the board at the visit next up just taking a look so again remember part of what we're doing this year taking a look at our policies and so we're going to be doing budgeting over the next couple of meetings so we wanted to spend a little bit of time just looking at our limitations around the budget so that would be 2.3 Linda, please unmute because you're going to sound for everybody my apologies is it over here maybe so it's the little microphone hold on it's probably over here policy book in do you want that have you printed me a copy like to get a hard copy of the policy I wasn't sure what it was and I think I shut off the one that went to the owl we got everybody thank you that's what I was raising my hand for choose okay so I was just asking board members if they wanted to have Linda could so that everybody has a hard copy who has a hard copy you've got a hard copy you just look it up online so we need to just take a look so did people have a chance to take a look at those two policies any concerns about those two policies or changes that you would like to make to those policies so this is EL policy 2.3 and 2.4 so 2.3 looking them up but I'm not very fast so this is financial conditions and activities so we're looking at with respect to the actual ongoing financial condition and activities the superintendent shall not cause or allow development of financial jeopardy or material deviation of actual expenditures from board priorities established in the ends policies are too as we move forward to the to the budgeting is partly why we wanted to guess this one is more in relation to just that that monthly monitoring of sort of where we are in the budget and it's the financial planning and budgeting that's looking for how he's coming up with his budget and the things that we want to be watching for as we go through that process so in financial conditions like 1 through 10 in a year is there ever a year where there's like excess funds and you just hold on to them and carry them over to the next year and then there's more excess funds and they carry over and they keep carrying over and then you have this excess funds that just keeps carrying over like wouldn't it make more sense to spend that and stuff that you want me to field that one? I'll let you take it so typically in a normal year outside of COVID we have money left over at the end of the fiscal year those funds are called surplus funds in our case those surplus funds they come from a couple of different places typically you have people that retire and you hire people that are lower on the pay scale you plan in the budget for that more expensive person to come back but they moved on in some cases we have to pay for things up front so they have to be in the budget that we can reimbursed for by the state later so our surplus typically is $300,000 now two things can happen with that money the first thing that can happen is kind of what we did last year with last year's huge surplus is it can go into the next budget year so that people don't have to pay as much if the budget for next year is $20,300,000 and I have $300,000 in surplus I can automatically apply it to the next year's budget so they're only paying $20,000,000 the other thing that we do is during the voting process is people can choose to help us put that money into reserve funds so we have like a facilities reserve fund so there's probably about $2.8 million in that reserve fund right now that's come from years of surplus that we've shifted money over to it and why that reserve fund is important is because when big projects come along like replacing the roof on RES that we did last year that are incredibly expensive we have the money available and don't have to go out to bond and go out into debt to be able to get that work done yes, there is money at the end of every year and one of the concerns and we've kind of talked about it a little bit with board but an awful lot of cabinet people also have significant amounts in them and you always want enough in there to cover what you anticipate are going to be big things but we have enough in there that it really should go back into the service of the kids so hopefully I kind of answered the question for you yes, that is my question and so how does that back into the school so you can spend it on so if it's more or less money that's intended to offset next year's budget process because it's something that the board votes on right, you vote on the budget as a whole packet or not so you will be in the loop on that if it's reserve money if we have money sitting in reserves right now typically what happens is I come to the board this is the legal process that has to happen and I say hey the board bill is going to cost $112,000 I need you if you're willing as a board to vote approval for me to take that amount of money from the reserve funds to drill that well which is a process that you guys all here went through also voting money into reserve funds so yeah there's a responsibility and it's an important one to be transparent about what you're using money for you know that's the purpose behind the budget why everything is spelled out so people can take a look at where the money is going and isn't going where you said it was what happens with surplus funds money that's left over at the end of the year is for that to go into a reserve fund for future use the town on March 3rd right during the town vote has to vote to approve that money going into reserve fund and once it goes into a reserve fund it has to be used for the purpose the fund was created for so the facilities reserve fund that money can only be used for facilities we have a transportation reserve fund that we use to replace the school buses when we need to that money can only be used for our vehicles in and around the district I'll tell you right off the bat it's a problem for us to repair a roof on much less than people anticipated and came in under a million dollars which I was surprised we were figuring it was going to be about 1.2 to 1.6 it's about why is it that that we end up having reserve we have extra money left over one of the other explanations that I was given early on is that a lot of the budgeting is also done on your budgeting on a budget so that's part of the part of the difficulty of the budgeting process for schools yeah we budget a year before we use the money and so that's what I'm saying like with the staff when we do this year's budget that's really for next year I'm assuming because the staff don't have to say whether they're coming back or not I'm assuming in that budgeting process that we're going to have all the same staff and then what happens is you get closer to the end of the year people will declare that they are going to retire or you get your normal turnover and if there are people that are high on the pay scale which is often the case and you hire in the middle of the pay scale or lower on the pay scale there's significant savings there the other thing that happens too is again we're budgeting based upon what the current staff are doing so if three people leave that had health insurance and three people come in that don't need health insurance because their spouses have it that's the savings that will show up in that budget when the time comes and we also have like the special education that works under a reimbursement model we have to pay out front for the full services for students to know and anticipate what those costs are going to be so we have to plan for them in the budget that money physically has to be there but we then get that money back at the end of the year to reimbursement those are the biggest categories in terms of COVID we had some huge surpluses that was kind of by design to make sure that we were going to offset we could apply that money towards people's taxes for what we did but also with COVID we planned for a lot of activities especially last year like full athletics and extracurriculars that just couldn't happen and so you have all that money that was in the budget to support those things and then you couldn't spend it because you couldn't have those activities so those are really good questions we feel like just to those projections from the state in terms of property values and all of that whole education formula for paying for education through property tax so are we I don't think we needed to vote on that necessarily it sounds like people are comfortable with our policies as they are so next up we have our consent agenda which in that we have our meeting minutes from the September 2nd meeting if you find anything is not a detail person so that would be anybody to see anything in those meeting minutes that is on this I think it's cool we can have Megan take that any discussion? the favor say aye the flutters from the questions are you having those or Lane do you have anything you want to point out in particular? yeah one just it's down for folks is that there are about six or seven different master contracts or different categories of staff across the district and just wanted to let you know that the bus driver master's agreement is up for negotiations this year previous iterations of the board they left that to me and so I think that folks are comfortable doing that or how you would like to work that I did meet with them once to get an idea of what they're looking for and to get prepared to go out and gather the comparables to see in what ranges other bus drivers are being paid in and around the state and how they're moving out sounds good you can tell when you read them how much they put in a lot of time and effort into those they're pretty informative I think it's just a fantastic way of their schools taking a look whether or not we want to be involved in the bus drivers contract during the next meeting we're going to revisit our budget we're probably going to be talking about the district budgeting and we're going to be moving forward and you wanted to talk a little bit about community input I think that will dive in well with looking at ends in our linkage with alright so meeting evaluations mostly by the agenda was well planned out corruption or distraction so I gave it some thought we're understood and we're implemented so so a five participation was well balanced accomplished in an atmosphere of trust and openness pretty good alright we do have an executive session we adjourn or we don't adjourn yet we go into a second session okay so do I have a motion to move into executive any motion we move into a second so any discussion on that we have a question yes or no I'm allowed to ask them or not after executive session are you going to come back to discussing or I guess my big question is should we be waiting or will things be put into writing and how do we find out what was decided if we make a decision it has to be made out in the general meeting so when we come out of executive session if we are going to make a motion you'll you wouldn't see that motion you'd like to see it but it also would be recorded on LCA okay thank you so much Linda if your computer is the one managing the owl that will have to stay on so that when the board exits out of this session it still exists when we come back okay I'll have to get five probably so who's doing executive session let's see if I can get him and right now you'll have to stop