 happy to have all of you who have chosen to stay over from the budget forum immediately proceeding and any new arrivals as well. Many many thanks to Flora and Jonas and Marilyn and Lindy for Lindy from the Chief Seats for conducting the budget forum in my absence and the absence of a number of us who were down in Middlebury today for the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the Act 46 by the Forest Merger Appeal. So anyway agenda revisions anybody have anything? Yes, kind of. I heard from some people here that they would like to move discussion of C-27 and the Haysimble's resolution, just because they don't want to spend all their time with us. So in other words, move it up to the top? We have a vote on that. This would involve kind of segmenting our policy agenda item. Would that be acceptable to board members? Chris, okay with you. Any objections? Just the Haysimble's and C-27. Am I right about that? Yes, okay. Still okay Chris? Sure. Okay, great. So that's what we'll do by consensus. We'll have agenda item 3.0 part 1 immediately following public comments and then we'll do finance and then we'll do the rest of the policies and continue from there. Other agenda revisions? Towns? Nope. You're good? Okay. Great. We have a public comments item on the agenda but our practice as usual is to allow the public to comment also on the item that's being dealt with in the agenda. Make space for that to happen. So if you have any comments, if anyone has any comments to make regarding anything that's not on the agenda to come, please feel free. My name is Jonathan Goddard. I live here in Berlin and as many of you probably have seen it was reported in Vermont Digger that there has been a bill introduced and forgive me I don't have the bill number but there's been a bill introduced at the State House to provide free lunch, free breakfast and lunch for all students in Vermont and I would just strongly encourage the board to consider endorsing or supporting that. That's something that I've been thinking about and talking with folks about for a few years now and it's something that sure there's a cost for everything but the reality is food is a need and children can't learn if they're hungry so I would encourage the board to strongly consider supporting that bill in whatever way they can personally or individually or collectively and that's really the point of my comment so thank you very much for listening. Thank you Jonathan and if I may just sort of open a parenthesis to note that two members of the former U32 board are here tonight. Kari Bradley who is our former chair of the U32 board, once of East Montpelier, now of Calis and Jonathan Goddard and Jonathan honor to you for continuing to you know follow this issue and sustain it over over years now you've been very consistent maybe not Bernie level consistency you have to live another few decades for that but thanks. Scott could I make a comment about that since you brought it up? I work in a school I work in two schools one of them has the free breakfast and lunch for all children and snack one of them does not children move back and forth between schools it's very confusing for parents when one moves from a school where they get their breakfast their snack and their lunch provided and then they get to the other school and they have to set up an account fill out more paperwork and so one of the reasons as I listen to this and I think how important it is it's not the children's fault if the parents pantry is empty and it's also as a teacher difficult sometimes to have healthy snacks in your room to make sure children can focus and that you have something that's allergy free and everything else because the kitchens keep track of that so I've been following it very closely and thinking about just what I see and witness when kids show up and say what do you mean I have to have an account we all have accounts to keep records but at one school your account has to have some money on it and one school does not so as they're looking at it universally that's another way of transient students going from school to school and having to think about it thank you does any other board member have a comment for as a board that was a priority and we looked at it we it was just not possibly we had Laurie do some numbers and we just couldn't have it but it was a priority of the board to try to provide even if it was a little bit it was in the cost of lunch and so we are in your spirit still trying to do that in this district thanks thank you everyone okay so we come to policy part one so we have multiple policies for consideration tonight and we advance consideration of policies C 27 which is the student self-expression and student distribution of literature policy so recommended policies not a required policy for the board's consideration taking up viewers suggestion that we highlight with the changes that we have made we did that and I hope hopefully it's easier for folks to just track track the changes and I see that the changes are tracked in one one policy then not in the next so you have a fresh this is what it will look like once the edits going to effect so anyone who wants to address C 27 and the changes that have been proposed for you can actually might be using in terms of hearing so they should have a booming voice I want to just thank the board for making an adjustment to the agenda I appreciate that we do have a student Abby Brown from seeking social justice who's also tonight in support of the changes to see 27 first two self-expression I did want to share with the board I received a letter when I got back to school from our house of representative Peter Welch and he wrote dear Meg really admire the work of seeking social justice so important to promote dialogue I support and am inspired by the draft proposal on hate symbols wonderful work Peter so just like the board to recognize that we did get support also from Senate Pro Tem Tim Ash and from former rep Kai Morris which was submitted at our former policy board meeting so we really are grateful and appreciative that the board has taken a look to add this language to this resolution to its policy excuse me and we will do whatever it takes to help support that to educate our community to continue further dialogues around hate symbols and how it operates and we've already been talking with our social studies department at you 32 at least and talking to them about how they when do they talk about Confederate flags they change their curriculum this fall and I know we have towns as a junior and I believe there's often a lot of time spent on hate symbols and debate and Confederate flags and we would be looking with that with that department looking to see when do we start talking about this in our K-12 education sooner so that by the time they're juniors our students aren't learning about the hate and white supremacy and the violence behind Confederate flags because many of our students who wear these symbols to school or have them on their cell phones or had put them as green sabers on their Chromebooks I truly believe don't understand the hate and violence associated with that symbol they're not truly understanding the impact that symbol has for students of color and marginalized students so the educational component would go hand in hand with this policy change I would hope in our dialogue would continue because we all belong in one inclusive learning community and I really commend the board for making this change that all of our students feel welcomed and seen and totally humanized the moment they walk through our campus so I mean I'm ungratitude I just want to come support and help answer any questions Good. Thank you. Any comments or questions from the board on the policy itself and the changes we proposed? Well I'm confused. Because we keep saying C-27 and then we have the hate symbol resolution. Right. Are they? There are two separate items but some of the hate symbol resolution language is in policy on the second page. And I would say that the recommendations from the policy community to import that language into the currently existing policy. So this I think this policy is up for voting. Yeah, very good. Any further discussion of policy C-27? Do I hear a motion? I guess I'm sort of doing this backwards but how about a motion to approve C-27? I will move to approve the changes to policy C-27. Jonas moves, second? I'll second. Okay. Any further discussion before we go to a vote? I think what Meg said is really important. The fact that these symbols have no place in our schools does not mean that we are ending dialogue about them or that we are not talking about them. So thank you for mentioning that. Yeah, if I might sort of piggyback on that. Just in my own lifetime, actually really in the past decade the content and effect of these symbols in mass culture has kind of almost changed before our eyes. I don't know if any of you young people remember for example the TV show The Dukes of Hazard with the General Lee with the Confederate flag on top. It was I think just a few years ago that that merchandise was actually that the Confederate flag was eliminated from that merchandise. So I think you're right that just because students may have this doesn't necessarily mean that they are intending the effect that it's having. So I agree with Jonas in valuing that educational component. Okay, so if we're ready for a vote, all in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed. C-27 passes. So the next up is the heat symbols resolution that we have prepared for consideration. And Meg, are you speaking to this as well? Yeah, I just would, no I think what I said stands, I really support the board in making this strong statement against heat symbols. I recognize it as well. Mr. Thompson, the symbols have changed in the moment that Dylan Roof used the Confederate flag in his manifesto when he went to Mother Manuel Church and murdered innocent South Carolinians. And Charleston, South Carolina changed the symbol overnight. Confederate flags are just one of many heat symbols, but one that we saw coming on campus significantly. With a small group of students, but after we raised the Black Lives Matter flag. So it was hard to ignore it possibly some intent and ignorance around the impact of that symbol. So, you know, I just further, whatever we can do to continue dialogue and education with our students, so that they all feel every single student feels welcome and included in our school system. I think this resolution makes a strong statement. If I was a parent coming to U-32 school district, to our WC Washington Central Unified School District, I would feel like with this resolution on the books that this was a supervisory union that was committed to equity and inclusion for all children. How about emotion? I will move to adopt the heat symbols. Okay, Jim, this moves for our seconds to heat symbols resolution. Go ahead. No trade words. Any discussion? And I would suggest reading it out loud so that we have it clear on what we're voting for. Would you like to hear that? Yeah. So it is a Washington Central Unified Unified School District strives to create a learning environment conducive to student achievement, creativity and exploration. An environment in which students use their opportunities to experience their power to create and change themselves and their environment. Heat symbols independently dishonor those goals. Yet, free speech protects but does not extol the right to be wrong. Censorship may punish or suppress harmful speech, but it does not change minds. It is the sense of the WCUUSD Board of School Directors that symbols lettering or insignia associated with organizations that promote hatred or violence or that support white supremacy such as Confederate symbolism and swastika interfere with the orderly operation of our schools. To unwaveringly protect all students' rights to a safe educational environment, the WCUUSD School Board directs administrative officials to vigorously and promptly enforce our prevention of harassment, accusing and bullying and student self-expression policies to thwart and respond to the undeniably harmful effects with which hate symbols sully our educational community. These policies should be enforced to combat symbol, lettering or insignia associated with organizations that promote hate or violence or that support racial supremacy. Discussion? The resolution doesn't say anything about the educational part that we support that, you know, what Mike was talking about. I don't know that it has a merit to be here, but it's just so it's not all, you know, we won that conversation. It's in the policy though that goes with this kind of... I do think it's an environment in which students use their opportunities to change themselves and their environment. And I think what's equally not more important than dialogue is protecting all students' rights to a safe educational environment that is paramount. Okay, are we ready for a vote then? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed. Okay, hate symbols resolution carries. Very good. So, at this point, Part 1 of policy is done. We'll move to Item 2.0, Finance. Finance committee report. Vera and Floor. Is that okay? No, that's fine. So, on page 2 and 3, you'll notice the minutes from our December 12th meeting, which we have discussed our board meetings since then. So, we'll move on to pages 4 and 5 from our last meeting on January 9th. We are much of our discussion was about the budget. I do want to reiterate a conversation that we had with the Finance committee that neglected to get into our minutes about the foreign language and the strings, music. It is right there. Okay. Anyway, we had a very deep conversation about the Finance committee wanting to make a long term plan to get those pieces back into our elementary schools and the importance of that to enhance the other programs within the elementary school, the core programs for literacy and how one helps the other. So, that was a big discussion that we had. The capital projects and funding. We skimmed over some of that at our big board meeting the last time. Page 14 of our packet of some of the upcoming projects. Lori Vivo talked about the bidding process, of which we would recommend further on an agenda for going out to bid for the work coming up in the 2021, well, coming up this summer. We had a discussion about the audit reports and feedback from our state on how to handle those audit reports. And that pretty much covers a lot of our, unless you guys have anything to add. Just, I think right before you came in, there was an interesting sort of go round with Kari and Alan Bradley. I was mixed up in it, too, regarding the strings initiative that Michael and Anne have been talking about, which you refer to here. And the idea, one idea that we've talked about already is, you know, the long term plan. But what Alan was suggesting is that in order to, and Kari sort of supporting from a kind of sales, political sales point of view, the need to show that we're not just swallowing the windfall bond payoff hole and, you know, moving on, but that we're actually, you know, doing something new and maybe exciting and different. And Alan, I guess, suggested the possibility of, he suggested, you know, why don't you set aside a hundred thousand dollars from that, from that, you know, unspent cost going into the next year. So, another idea. That's added to our finance committee. Yeah. That's why these are out. Any questions, anyone? So I was intrigued by the IOU mentioned in the minutes about the debt. And are you working on some type of... It's in the minutes. Oh. Oh, yeah. So, thanks. The IOU idea is poor Lori. She has to put up with so much. Never as well. But the idea is to essentially to look at the shifting of the debt and to basically to capitalize it and have a kind of IOU column on the capital fund that would represent an equalization of that disequalization of distribution, the inequity, inequitable distribution of debt service. So it's a little bit complicated to explain, especially for me. But I don't know. Lori, is there... how would you describe it? Well, there's actually a document. If you wanted to pass that out that I had put together for you back in the fall. It's close to being the final numbers for the budget. But what I was asked to do was to take just a look at a snapshot in time. So if you looked at this budget and you said, how does it get apportioned? It currently gets apportioned on equalized pupils. And previously that debt would have been apportioned for the building in which it was incurred. So what Scott asked me to put together was how do you compare the old system to the new system? So what this shows is... I'll show this now that you all have that. So at the top what it shows is the local debt, as if the budgets had been created separately by building the way they used to be. So you can see that Berlin had a bond payment. Calis did not. East Montalier did. Middlesex did. And Lister did not. It shows the equalized pupil formula that we used for this year's budget cycle. I did not update it with final numbers there yet because we don't have them from the state. So basically it's saying that the way the equalization would work in the budget process is... Berlin would pay 25.8% of the total debt. And so then that amounts to 280,000. So what this is saying is in essence Berlin is paying for $14,932 worth of debt that is not incurred for this building. Does that make sense? Does everybody understand what I'm saying? So what it's saying is Calis is paying $179,000 for debt based on the current state formula. East Montalier is saving $269,000. Middlesex is saving $28,000. And Lister is paying $403,000 of that total debt based on the new merged district equalized formula. I said that very fast. Everyone's nodding or looking at the paper. So I'm just trying to confirm that was that answering the question you had asked? Sort of, yeah. Thank you very much. That sort of gives the state of play. The IOU thing that Chris was mentioning, this is the recipe email that I sent you that talks about present value of future debt payments. Right. So what we had talked about was this is a snapshot for a single year and coming back to the finance committee looking at the entire bond schedule going forward with the future payments and doing it not just for a single year but doing this on a forecasted basis to say over time what would be the accumulative effect of this. That's what I believe you asked me to do. Yes, exactly. And on the basis of that, you could construct a kind of ideal distribution of benefits as well as costs. It would essentially be leveling everybody up to East Montpelier and what that would amount to. And it would be a kind of moral obligation. We don't have the money to do that. But it would represent the district's intent and recognition that this is the way to make it equitable. If we had the money, this is how we would do it. And it can be done over time. So that, you know, once you figure out, once you calculate that sort of virtual bond in a way it will just be there until the district kind of chips away at it through capital investments in that school until it's liquidated. Are you nodding because you want me to stop? Okay. Anyway, that's, yeah. Thank you very much, Laurie. You're welcome. That's a finance committee report. Any other remarks? Is this something you're proposing? Yes. It's not for the budget. I thought it was just on theoretical. At the moment it's theoretical. But I'm hoping that it may actually be a way, it's not a solution to that problem, but it's an approach to an eventual solution with time. And as we go forward, the buildings that haven't had the capital work done on them and find that they need thousands, millions of dollars done to them. It's all, I'm just saying that all of our buildings have not, were not kept up to so buildings like Berlin, East Montpelier, Middlesex, which have had bonds did that work and there was actually a very good VPR story as I was driving over here from my last meeting about the schools who got stuck when the state quit financing and how many hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in repairs the schools in the state need. The one they were walking in had standing water and mold growing in it and fans just so the kids could breathe. It's a statewide issue with our older buildings and the work they're going to need. So that's the consideration I keep in the back of my mind. Yes, there are three of the schools who have considerable debt. One of them was even the most considerable, the largest school, but the other ones are going to need work. Absolutely, and it's acknowledging that this sort of idea is intended to do. It's a kind of acknowledgement that basically, for example, even though one town, if you look at the capital fund for that town, maybe it's $100,000. But if that town is this year transferring essentially $100,000, if there's a net shift of $100,000 out, the idea is that there should somehow be a way of crediting that sacrifice or that shift of resources out of that town. So the district recognizes, again, the moral obligation to provide a kind of restitution. So in effect, say Doty needs a lot of work, that you're proposing capital expenditures that would essentially be paid for by the indebted towns? The previously indebted towns? No, it all has to be paid for by the district, the whole district. I'm saying in effect. Well, if I could just take Wister as an example. Wister, over the course of the next 18 years, will this number that Lori has on the local effect, that will add up, if I've done my arithmetic correctly, to something on the order of $1.4 million. So that is maybe equivalent to a million dollars bond today. You would maybe pay out $1.4 million over the course of the bond. Lori, please correct me if at any point I'm going way off base. The concept is that that million dollars, even though we don't have the money for it, it's a kind of virtual bond. So it's credited to Wister's capital fund basically as a kind of allowance. So that Wister, instead of having just $100,000, and it may have $100,000 of money, of sort of $100,000 in the bank and its capital fund, but it would have, this is not the correct figure, but for the illustration purposes, would have a million dollars as part of its allowance. So is that million representing the present value of that? Sure. I think I get it. Then my understanding, my understanding that the previous capital funds from the legacy districts that are now only to be spent on those bonds, and once that money is depleted, then we will have one capital fund. We'll have one capital fund. So what you're proposing is to re-segregate capital funds by building or by town? No. Excuse me. So this is how I see this document. It's a living document virtually for an ever-changing board, because these expenses are drawn out over 20 years as a whole. That affects all of our towns. So I see this as a document that's just a breathing document for an ever-changing board to have a snapshot of each year where we were financially in our buildings. And an example of where this would be helpful is, you know, there's 10 new people on the board, on a board of 15, that they have a document that exists each year with, so say Berlin and Worcester want to go out for a bond vote. It's, to me, it's going to be more helpful for a board to look at. And so you know what? Maybe Berlin shouldn't go out this year. They had all of this when they came into the debt marriage. And we're going to support Worcester going out for their bond this year. That's how I see this living document to equalize when and who would go out for a bond vote. And that's where it would be helpful as a board member to know, okay, for all I did their bond, they had the X amount of dollars that they brought in. This is what they saved, whereas Worcester didn't bring any debt in. It's really their duty for their work that needs to be done. So that's how I see this document as just a way for the board to kind of track over the next 20, 18 to 20 years of debt accumulation that was brought in or the work that has already been previously done. Yeah, it's just to show that there's a structural inequity in our system that is at this point that we can't get rid of. The way I see the document, like you said, like this document that Laurie generated is a history of what we have done as a district. But I think I get a little worried when you said that inequity because I think that as a board we believe that the built environment affects our student outcomes. That is something that we, you know, as part of that way, that's something that we believe we're going to invest in our buildings to make sure that kids have natural light, that the air exchanges are working. So it starts from higher up. I'm not as worried about, like, oh, you know, the IOUs. It's not about, you know, getting equal with each of our schools. It's about believing, you know, the built environment affects our students. You're going to make sure that, you know, we have the proper furniture, that we have the proper lighting, that we believe that all our students are telling us that we need to be more conscious in the environment so that we're going to invest in renewables in our buildings. I'm more interested in that than in creating some IOU because I know where it's coming from. So that's just my thinking. It has to be more from what we believe as a board and we continue to, it's the passage from, you know, there's 10 human board members here, continue to say, you know, we believe that all kids can learn. We believe that, you know, it's more about those values as a board. Thanks. I think we can do both. It's possible to do both. Sorry. I'm glad you asked, Chris. I am. I am. I like the sentiment, but I get that. Like, there's an illustration of one going on for bond and one not. If it bonds, presumably the bonds will be based on need. And to say that, don't use need, we're going to do that because of this past indebtedness, which I am very aware of, but not with the Berlin, because their need isn't as great when it actually might be. I just would not see that happening. Yes. If you were to why? You know why? Basically to show, because there will be a temptation when one of these schools needs a lot of work to say, it's not worth it. And then, but it's not worth it unless this is factored in will be based on a mistaken or misleading calculation. There will have been information missing in making that determination. So anyway, sorry about that, everybody. No, no, no. It's a good exercise. And I agree with you on that sentiment about saying it's not worth it. Which I think that's why we incorporated the articles that we did in terms of school closure. So that wouldn't be the sentiment of saying, oh, you're just too expensive to fix. Sorry. So we will not be able to do that as a board. Any bond that would be for the UUSD, like the bond would be because of facilities director or somebody's said you've got either one or two schools whose air quality is really poor and you have to replace the HVAC. And the only way to do this is a $2 million bond or a $15 million bond or whatever, but it would go out to all the voters and it would be based on whatever the report was. It wouldn't be a bond directed at. I mean, yes, the information would say what it's going toward, but it would be for all of the schools in the sense of the school district. That's where I see this document helpful for every town to support that and pass those bonds. That's where I see this super helpful. So we have, are you OK there with 2.1? Any other comments on the financial committee report? We actually have a quarterly update on our budget on page 6. We wanted to draw your attention. So this, we had agreed we would be providing you this summary every quarter and this is just letting you know where we stand presently. The numbers I think are projected available balance, which means that we are anticipating a surplus as of January, which I, of course, understand that this is a very early prediction and we would not anticipate a final until the meeting. But we can read you this in more detail if you would like, but it is, you know, a way of keeping the board updated on the current state of our budget and what our anticipated unbalance will be. Are there any questions about this unbalanced summary? No? OK. Thanks. Should we talk a little bit more about that audience, what we decided, or is that we're going to do that later? That's on page 16. So 2.2, approve FY20 to 21 district budget on page 8 or beginning page 8. So this is the format that you saw in the past. We have a single page summary followed by multiple page detailed budget and this is the format that we would also anticipate publishing in our annual report upon passage. So essentially if you would likely can review the detail or we can respond to questions. As you know, we presented this budget last week. Right. And there were no changes. Yes. Oh, there was one. I'm sorry. So one of the changes that I was asked to make was to try to find the VSBA dues and to try to not change the total budget. So the one change is on page 10. You will see that the Board of Education dues is now level budgeted and the reduction that we came up with was under general supplies under the Board of Education. And that was because even though it's an increase for the town reports, we believe that we can prepare and have town reports completed cheaper since we're not doing seven versions. So that's the one change. The other change was just on the summary page on page eight. I did compress some lines because what you had been seeing was like maybe three lines for a special education, et cetera. So we've compressed it to make it a little simpler for the voters to understand. That's it. And this is what will go in the town reports? True. Not the town reports? The school reports. The school in your report. Okay. Yes. So why don't we have a motion to approve the FY 2021 budget and then we can discuss further. I'll make a motion to approve it. Lindy moves. Chris seconds. Great. Thanks. Yes. The report expense total is $35,430,502. Further discussion? So we incorporate in the budget BSPAPs or dues. Does that mean they're being paid until we both pay them? True. They're of course right. They're just accountable. Okay. Thank you. Well, I just wanted for, you mentioned this previously at the beginning, but for everybody who wasn't able to make the budget for them. You know, I want to, you know, honor the work that Michael and have done proposing the Strings program. I think we all wish it was in here. I think we all wish that we were, you know, talking about, you know, elementary, foreign language across all five schools next year. I, you know, this is not a board. This is not a district. This is not a community where we want to, you know, where we don't want those opportunities for our kids. I just wanted to get that on the record that, like, even though those things are not in there, that we value them, that we want to prioritize them. And when we do all this again next year, you know, hopefully we will find those opportunities. Thanks. Yeah, I have to agree. And I'm still impressed that this is an initiative that our music department has come up with on their own. It's cheap. It's leveraged with donations, and I guess if I understood correctly, it has, in terms of effect, not just financial effectiveness, but also educational effectiveness, it seems to have a lot going for it. I, when Alan mentioned an enterprise fund, it sort of stuck with me because, I mean, it's basically an enterprising move for teachers to propose a new initiative. I would love to be able to have some way to encourage that so that teachers feel that if they have a really good idea, that they can kind of, that there may be a way to run with it. And it would potentially give the board too a hand in so that we can, in fact, act on our priorities in a way that goes straight to the students. So. I would like to believe that our teachers, our administrators, because I have great faith in our administrators, have a culture where teachers would come to them, whether it's robotics, whether it's strings, whether it's any of these initiatives that we need to see for reasons other than reading math, science, social studies, and that those administrators, when they're doing budgeting, would bring to the table as an administrative team to say this needs to be considered and, of course, we're apprised of it and thinking outside the box. I think it's a little bit what you're thinking as well. And I think about the strings program and when my children went to U32, they were not strings children. But the concerts, that was the hot, sorry, but it was a highlight for my husband and myself, was the strings performance. At that time, I was teaching at East Montpelier and the kids who were getting strings were private instruction, parents who were able to come, get them and transport them to the Four Corners School. It was not equitable. But there were a lot of kids getting strings when they then went up to U32 and it was a very robust program. And my son participated in the band part of it and thought it was the best program going at East Montpelier as far as the band. So encouraging that, but in that sense where we had a teacher in the school and it's open to anybody, we have instruments that have been donated so a child whose parents can't afford a violin can still participate is very important to me and finding ways to do that, I think in an equitable way and that fits in the schedule, the schedule and whatever. I hope that a teacher or teachers when they have ideas like that will come to their administrators and bring it to us to the finance committee. And just in the back of my head I'm thinking of all these millionaire, billionaire people who $100,000 is absolutely nothing. It's just nothing. And how different it makes. I feel like let's go do a GoFundMe. Well, it's what the world's doing now. It's how people are raising money and there's people out there with just so much money they don't know what to do with. I'm not one of them or I would write you a chapter. I'm a teacher. A couple of things. I wasn't privy to the beginning of this conversation not tonight but previously about the strings. I'm in full support of it. The one question I have I have several things to say but one question I have is there's some way that a group of people within the district can work on writing some grants to get a comment. I don't answer me. These are just questions. The other thing I do disagree with Lyndy I think when teachers have an idea they should bring the idea to either the proper committee or to whoever they wish they should not be directed to go through the administrators. They are adults in our system. They are the roots on the ground. If they get together and have an idea then they need to bring the idea themselves to whomever they wish to bring the idea to. They shouldn't be limited to this is the only person that can go through their idea. The other kind of idea I have and it's not fully formed in any way whatsoever it's just an idea to think about for a future budget is to have some money in there which we could call seed money. So when an idea like that comes forward there is some money to work either seed costs to getting grants to find a way to get this important thing right now which springs foreign language who knows what it could be but there are some small things and obviously you would need a committee to decide what was worth the seed money but we just need to think about having a way to get these good ideas off the ground for the five towns as much at the same time as possible. I'd like you to know I was not restricting going to your administrator. That was a route for the budget but I would think just like Ann that came here and spoke up nobody's stopping them. Thank you. Anything else? I would just want to see one last thing. I'll be sending out the staff of schedules which I'm wanting to take a look at just thinking you know if we're all in agreement that this is something that ought to happen that we would like to have them I mean I don't necessarily see that it's going to be any easier next year to make the scheduling happen. The scheduling of the budget. The scheduling. Don't let that stand in the way of budgeting. Thanks. I wouldn't mind saying one last thing just to reiterate. It is a new proposal that all five elementary schools would have the program offered. It's not a new program for our school for our district and this is an opportunity for our district to show that we're coming together and we believe in equity for our students this is a program that's been supported by schools that have happened to have a teacher teaching the program and instead where I would recommend that we go is if it's a value that our district has that we move forward based on values and not the teacher that happens to be in the school so that's the level at which it's been working for the past 15, 16 years and so it's not brand new it's established actually it just hasn't been equitable. I wouldn't recommend to seek money for something brand new my thought is to find a way to make something we know is good amongst them. Thank you very much. Just one thing quickly too I just think that as with all of these decisions the priorities are where the money is always. So I had a daughter that was fortunate to go through the Strings program at U32 she loved it she still plays she's playing in community orchestras in New York City now and it really to me music, art, theater all of those things are not foreign language they're not extras they should be part of the curriculum at all the schools and they should be funded appropriately because it's really important to have those things available for every child so that they can grow and learn new things and we all know I think the reason why those things are valuable but there needs to be the political will to make that happen and to allocate the dollars to do it and I know that's easily said we're done to do that but you know it's a $35 million budget I'm learning tonight that's a lot of money that's a lot of money so I agree with you that should be the way I just popped into my head and I know it's not equity for all but the district decided it wanted a football team and there was a club established and there was a way that citizens funded the club and funded the team until it became viable and then it became part of the budget so if a strengths program can get going in all five towns I'm not saying this is the only way it can happen but that is a way it can happen and I think there are a lot of people around maybe you have already looked for grant money but I can't believe that there's not some grant somewhere we can begin to find what they are and I'm sure I really love strings I wish I had played I learned a little bit when I was a kid and I played for a while several years ago I couldn't keep tune and he couldn't hear so it was really tough we finally gave up we liked it we liked it and I see it as a very important thing but I think thinking we're going to start at five schools simultaneously in the budget is too hard a job we need to find ways to inch in and then the taxpayers will say yes this should be part of the budget that's my thought how much money are we talking about here 54,000 54,000 dollars and we were expecting to have a budget of a surplus of about 500,000 in our fund balance 487 I think at this date but that's it's too early to be certain about it that would still be about 400,000 I hear where you're going I think that we are interested in continuing the conversation and I agree with you that it starts with values so I think we are going to make this happen and I think that's one reason to wait for it is that it needs to be core it needs to be core to our values and how we integrate that into our schedule for equity and inter-curriculum so that it's not competing for other areas it's not just a bit of literacy and math but we integrate that so there's more cross-curricular teaching so it can be part of the schedule so I think that we want to continue to work so that we can make that a reality for next year but it doesn't mean by any means that we don't want this to happen as soon as possible really thank you for that we talked about the value of music and arts in an integrated and cascading way in other academic areas why don't we just try a pilot program what do you say? try a pilot program I mean dedicate some of the fund balance funds to pilot the strings program and see if if the interest is there in terms of community community involvement community participation a couple of scrollers because we're talking about offering it all and I'm understanding the $54,000 is the price for we're trying it all you know I will say it's a little bit light in terms of there's a lot of things that come dedicated and donated so I don't know if this is kind of a lost leader or not to say it's 54 now but when the volunteer or the donations of the instruments or whatever if they go away then it gets higher but I think it would be worth exploring as a unifying effort for equity across the schools to just dedicate $54,000 out of our fund balance to make a go of the strings program and we can gauge it next year in terms of participation with students participating in it and talk about it getting into the budget next year you've all understood what Chris is suggesting we don't have a motion I've rounded $60,000 what? I've rounded $60,000 I was going to suggest the same thing just thinking about what you said about instruments or little costs that show up if we have that kind of fund balance I got one out of the donate it has to be fixed up thanks thank you Chris I beg your pardon from the bottom of my heart yes so the proposal is to have a come out of the fund balance that does not affect the budget per se I understand it that is currently moved and seconded that we're discussing is that correct Lori? it might extend the school day which I do not know about the scheduling it wasn't about so much the money from listening to the principals it was how do they fit this program into the current hours do we have to add a half hour to the school day and that kind of component was the piece that putting money something is wonderful but maybe to research it a little further for the next meeting I guess or to ask the principals to feedback about the schedule because I can't speak to the scheduling the elementary schedules are very complex and they do vary by school based upon the FTE teachers in all areas and the needs of students but in the last 12 months within the last 12 months we identified a set amount of time that they would like each teacher to vote on a daily basis to literacy and math and of course other subjects so the concern is also are we going to be able to meet the targets we're trying to be instructionally extremely important as while adding another another component would bring in so that was the sense of the group so with the teacher the teacher would be coming into the school it wouldn't be the current music teacher in each of the elementary schools or at least our proposal our thought was so this is an additional teacher coming into the school and I think certainly the very first place to consider in terms of scheduling would be there are currently banned ensemble rehearsals in the schedule and I would think or something similar whether it's pullouts or something like that and that we certainly would start there in terms of having this teacher this strengths teacher come in and teach out exactly the same time as you have the students going to a banned program or a chorus program so I'd be thrilled to be part of scheduling conversations and just see just making sure we're all on the same page about what we're imagining can work for kids in the elementary so it's definitely alarming to hear that maybe you're thinking we would have to extend a school day in order to fit in the strings program we certainly don't imagine that as a result so I would offer up that it seems to me that if something is we have students leaving for instrumental music already and this would fall into that same category and I would think ideally without knowing a lot of information so forgive me if I'm too forward but that ideally the strings would happen exactly the same time that it happened for the banned or any other chorus kids that would be the music block or however that was deemed so I'm happy to hear to learn tonight though that that is actually the difficulty and I kind of heard you saying that floor and I didn't follow up on it but I heard you saying cross curricular and scheduling and I would sorry well and it's and I'm just not sure that I had the enough conversation around it if we're talking about potentially having to extend school day to fit in a how many hours per school where we're offering so it seems to me that the conversations hadn't been fully had if that's where we are talking about extending a school day for a $54,000 job what we were imagining would need to happen my daughter partakes in the program and it doesn't seem to disrupt her schedule or her education very much she looks forward to it has everyone seen their proposal? and have you guys seen it as well? yes it was it was emailed to everyone back in the fall okay I'm sorry I have not received it because I'm just wondering they would be the important people to see it so maybe having the principals see it and then have the conversations and since it's not going to impact the budget now follow up in a future close board meeting to come back to it with more dialogue between you guys that have to make the scheduling decisions well I don't think anyone of us has seen any schedules right but I think even like the base proposal that we saw if you guys haven't seen it that's important to start the conversation between us but we'll definitely I can do that from an email maybe that's step number one I want to ask would you run into the same scheduling issues and logistical issues with foreign language are we now talking is the sense in the room that we would prioritize a string program over foreign language I mean I you should do that she hears from you that is what we want to see I think it's important to have thoughtful conversations like tonight and we have not yet had those thoughtful conversations about you there to this degree but the one thing about that is it wouldn't be strings over foreign language what I'm understanding is the suggestion is that the strings could occur when band occurs so the scheduling would be easier to get started than adding a totally new subject the scheduling for that I think from the board we're up here so the board doesn't do the schedule the board doesn't do the I don't know completely the data well like we used to do exactly where all students are what they need so our CEOs are leadership team and structural leaders do that so to me those are conversations that you guys need to have together to make reach out to the principals and make how could this work and that would be like the starting point because I don't think that we as a board we can have the value of music and arts and we are definitely one of our main we want to put the money there too but it has to work with with the networks most definitely but I think Marilyn you had a very good point I mean it doesn't affect the budget it would be a separate action coming out of the fund balance that the board would take I envision it thus would that be correct oh no I know you are trying to my apologies no this matter of the 54,000 is outside the budget it would be a separate matter that we can address at another meeting in its detail in its rich detail I just want to piggyback on floor statement it's not up to the board to work out the details but it is a board decision to hear mark a certain amount of money to say this is an initiative that we want to and then task the leadership team with the scheduling and all the pieces so it doesn't affect the budget I do agree to come back as a conversation and task the leadership team in their next few months with can you make this work so we can hear mark that money but I think we should also in that conversation we should be including the other things that we're not currently doing they're the tube ticket items not in terms of cost but in terms of attention that they've gotten in these meetings we need to deal with that holistically if I'm just going to let my team know that the original proposal was sent to the board and it is now in your email we've covered the main content of it it does not include the additional information you spoke about Michael that's not here I don't believe that when you have them out I'll get it out we actually have a motion to approve the budget I think we might have to win until we act on this motion before we do a separate motion so pending Chris in his motion we're still talking about this budget I have a couple of questions for everybody do you feel that the budget that you've seen is technically sound it hangs together do you feel that it accords with our priorities I think that is a yes I would like to hear more no it's a it's just the whole value conversation that we need to have which can't happen tonight but I think it should be incorporated into our fiscal planning you're absolutely right any other comments, priorities otherwise do you take steps toward equity in regard to what we incorporated into it yes good steps steps how about the amount do you think the amount is appropriate, defensible what do you think Kari? I would recommend reducing it by 50,000 or 3% could be 1 vote, it could be 10 votes more than that, I don't know if the climate is but I think the optics are important let me just say one thing because we've been in this path before using the fund balance may look like it doesn't have an impact but unless you eliminate the program next year before you draw down on the fund balance you're going to have to build that into next year's budget so you're just kicking it down the road that's an important thing there's a conversation we're going to have but we would be treating the fund balance like that seed money that's what we want to do that's great thank you Kari do any of you based on what you've heard do you have any changes that you would like to suggest amendments to the budget? I think the percentage increase is modest compared to what I'm seeing across the state with the insurance percentages going up and we've always been a bit high as far as our per people spending in Washington Central so it's kind of hard to not to go down in that respect but a 3.09 increase that's on taxes I'm going to say I don't recall prior years using 4% on taxes it goes up as opposed to how much the budget goes up we're talking about a 4.6 4.61% increase in the budget so that's that's a decent increase I don't think it's modest but I think it's worthy of what we want to do given the fact that we have people who equalize pupils the same amount of total budget our pupil becomes increases that percentage so am I hearing that everybody is okay with the amount that is given in this draft yes okay any further questions comments before we go to a vote okay all in favor of approving our FY20-21 district budget for $35,430,502 dollars please say I any opposed none opposed okay budget carries thank you everyone and thanks also thank you approve the district morning page 12 the district morning says draft anticipating the budget approval we propose this particular morning it has concerning new and continuing positions for school board and incorporates the approval of the budget amount as well as the increase for equalized pupil and also notable are that there are three articles relating to the district operation including permitting the school district to hold audited fund balance for June in reserve to be expended under the control of the board of school directors that is a required article for us to do the kinds of things we were discussing earlier and also a request for the citizens to approve our borrowing of funds, participation of tax revenues and finally the authorization beginning of a district wide capital fund which is something that we need to create to address costs of operating our schools this was reviewed by the board's attorney usually if there are any problems they turn out to be hyper bureaucratic well we have made adjustments there were a few things that if you recall I believe this is accurate but if you see anything I have a question about the percentage after the 19,000 that percentage says 4.61 that's not the number that's on that's a totally different number they're really close to the same so I thought it might be a type but it was worth that number with last year's equalized people across four people and it's in 4.61 there's several different funds information they have to calculate and actually the wires that we identified as well as the increase over the time any comments? changes? typos spotted? okay do we have a motion yet to approve the district morning? move to approve the district morning Chris moves Dorothy seconds for the discussion if not all in favor please say aye any opposed? none opposed good and forgive me Chris you were going to say something I have just skated right no I was going to let you finish up the budget so we done with the budget? we have capital recommendations and audit reports to go to finance okay thank you so approve capital recommendations page 14 there is a site modification here which Deborah will explain in our meeting last week we indicated that we need to do some further research on our U32 priorities and the final decision on upcoming summer projects and that work is still underway and we would like to bring to our finance committee further update and allow them to assist us in making the final prioritization so we believe that it would be feasible to postpone the approval of the other FY 2021 projects until the upcoming meeting so that we can be sure we have fully vetted the new information that is coming forward however the finance committee just as a point of order back in December did authorize the bid process to take place for the projects that are on the top of page 15 these include the Romney Acoustic project and the Doting Building envelope, Siding and Windows project and the completion of the U32 track project so we will be continuing to actually have initiated that work and we just paid that if between now and the next meeting any emergencies would arise we would call the finance committee back into session and ask them to help us give us approval prior to bidding the new projects we also recommend as is included in this memo that the board agree to authorize the hiring of the facility director in hopes of allowing us to begin that process of looking at those short and long term projects which we had participated funding out of the capital fund and we recommend tabling the other actions on the FY 2021 projects until the upcoming meeting so the motion would include essentially bringing forward or authorizing the hiring of the facility director and tabling the remaining portion of the recommendations for how long until the next meeting in February, February 5 I believe okay, is that understood do we have a motion I'm happy to make a motion for the projects for the Rummy Acoustic project the Doting Building envelope the U32 track and the hiring of the facility director great page 15 Lisa, do you have it I thought those three were already approved they were approved by the finance committee okay is that good do you need any time thank you for moved Chris seconds so, discretion please see cost of the facility capital fund do you have any more questions yes and that would be I'm sorry I understand the cost of the facility I'm sorry the cost of the facility is in the capital fund right and that would be to start not July 1 but when you could find somebody we were hoping that that person would send a letter to help us what do we have coming up are there questions views opinions all in favor of approving the capital recommendations as moved by floor and seconded by Chris and recorded by Lisa please say I I any opposed none opposed great approve 2019 audit reports okay now I'm going to make a move you're going to make a motion this is the financial reserve this is the last one this is the last one for finance but before we do this I just have to because approving the 2019 audit reports was supposed to be our original concept actually floor yeah however we have one you he's not paying attention but we'll pretend that he's paying attention it's better you're not your dad thank you so sorry the occasion for approving the 2019 audit reports was supposed to be in our original concept a celebration and a kind of ceremonial handoff from the old order to to the new order and obviously because obviously to us because the agenda is so overloaded the celebration couldn't happen this time however because Matthew DeGrooth for those of you who don't know was our distinguished and beloved chair of the supervisor union board and it's towards the end of its existence so we're glad you're here for this event even though nobody else is but we are having an event yeah we'll have an event but this is it's like celebrating your birthday not on your birthday okay so we would need a motion to approve the 2019 audit reports thank you very much Dorothy moves second I'll second it Lindy seconds discussion just to note that there were no real audit findings we've always received some suggestions on procedures but there's no audit findings in any of the reports we also had no changes to the amounts so like in the month of August and September I kept explaining to you that we had beginning balances subject to audit those pennies are all there and everything's identical to what I told you previously excellent yeah but we also have some warnings from that time oh, warnings yes there were warrants that were checks issued say at the end of June after the final board meetings and we had expected that those boards would have approved those warrants at a future meeting that future meeting is tonight so the finance committee recommended that we bring those warrants here for you to approve in addition to your normal warrants to put closure to those books understood everyone? yes great any discussion of the audit reports or of the board warrants from before okay all in favor of approving the 2019 audit reports please say aye aye opposed? not opposed very good and I guess we just need to sign those board warrants okay thanks by the way there's a warning we have them right so I would like to make a motion that we earmark $60,000 from the fund balance for a strings program contingent upon working at the scheduling issues so it's contingency it's not and the purpose of this is to keep it agenda going forward so that we have this discussion and we can expand this discussion into foreign language so that there's a coordination of all the things we want to do at least it sounds like we want to do for next year on the table and we start talking about it now so that's going to be that is my motion the earmark $60,000 for strings program contingent upon working at the scheduling issues and having it as part of a more good discussion in foreign language as well very good did you catch that Lisa? yeah wonderful Chris moves Dorothy seconds discussion of this how would we determine that contingency and I have to ask I'm not a I would have to ask Lori about the wisdom of earmarking from the fund what are the things we were just discussing was technically this board doesn't have approval until after town meeting to use the fund balance true for the current ear fund balance you've been earmarking like at U32 you earmarked the prior fund balance based on U32's board not doing that for the capital fund other than that I think it might be best to wait until after town meeting this is one of the morning articles which was giving authorizing your first time around so really until after march so I will modify my motion to say provided there is a fund balance to take into account the contingency of town meeting again just to keep this on the agenda and moving forward so it doesn't fall through the credits so I modify my motion second so the modification was if there is a fund balance and to just to concern about how will we know what contingency is met I think we will hear from this sector is no longer here and the administration sample I assume based on what the discussion was we get together and talk about how this can be scheduled that it can be scheduled then contingency falls away that's how I would think like any other scheduling thing we would hear from our principals and administrators whether it's feasible I would prefer to keep it on the agenda agenda not take formal action but simultaneously ask the leadership and administrators to look at those issues that we've talked about for the two things that we've discussed for months the strings and foreign language I'm not certain it makes sense to take formal action on this at this point we can keep it on the agenda we have a motion and a second so yeah and given Jonas's Jonas's it's not exactly an objection guidance I would deign would deign I believe somebody could move to table this motion how do we move to table this motion and the committee and the leadership and just leave it at that and have improvements and have improvements yeah so floor moves to table Maryland's seconds any further discussion what do you feel about this motion to table I think the motion was kicking the cannon down the road and I think having it as a viable earmark will cause some action to happen and so let's that's why I made the motion is to see if we can get this moving in a direction that we all say we want it today and how important the arts and foreign languages and I think if we're not planning it right now for the upcoming year it won't happen so that's really the reason I made the motion understood Dorothy as the second do you have any of the original motion do you have any okay anybody else want to address this question of tabling I believe the tabling motion supersedes the original motion so the motion in play is to table or not to table are we ready for a vote on this actually I I'm trying to experience these guys it's actually Matthew's specialty okay I'm going to vote to table I'm uncomfortable talking about an earmark when we don't yet have the ability to do that that does not mean that I don't think this is part of our values or that we should deal with it I understood it's a procedural concern also I mean we'd be talking about this if Michael and Ann weren't here tonight I probably not and you know that's great we need community input but I'm a little wary about taking specific action this quickly on something that we don't have consensus on throughout the school system our I feel like we're jumping the gun a little bit okay good area of views I don't want to continue to kick the camera on the road I think school boards have been say accused of that but that's a lot of reasons by community people don't come to the board meetings and ask for changes because everything takes too long now is our chance to say this is what we want to do we want to do it and I do not want to very good okay so ready for a vote on the motion to table all in favor of tabling Chris's motion please say aye aye all opposed aye sounds to me as though they know us have it okay are we ready to vote on Chris's motion I'll just say that I think the more important it would have been to put it on the future agenda and I think it would have been the easiest thing to do that being said I support it so I will vote for this it seems contrary to the three but I do want to keep it on the table so this is I just think the easier way would have been to table it it's like saying that we don't have faith in ourselves we need something there we need that motion to tell us that we need to do this so is it a value if it's a value we believe in it and we are going to do it regardless we don't need a motion to tell us that so it's not kicking the can to me it's like I don't think anybody in the board right now doesn't want this to happen what we want and it's to be sustainable and meaningful because there's nothing worse than something that's just like having Spanish once a week or 20 minutes we're not talking about $60,000 just out of this year's fund if we're going to do this we need to commit to doing it every year I agree with you I agree with you there's that one off anyway the after action is interesting but the vote happened are you ready for the vote on crisis motion now all in favor of crisis motion Lisa do you mind reading it one more time please so to earmark $60,000 for the fund balance providing there is a fund balance for the strings program contingent on scheduling details being worked out and continuing a larger discussion including foreign language a classic McVay that's an intro that was a big focus of discussion at the Supreme Court hearing anyway all in favor of crisis motion please say aye opposed no okay okay okay okay I heard two opposed and the rest four I don't want Michael close to read the paper and see that I'm please no actually we have benefited of the spring throw if I may say that was very well okay okay so policy part two okay so we had we have multiple policies up for first reading and I'll just go through one by one so with A21 which is public participation at public meetings so any comment or question about again this few top left hand corner these policies are required or recommended this is a recommended policy and at the policy committee what we've been doing when we've been evaluating policies we have been addressing the initial question of do we need it do we need this policy most times we say we will consider it there's been a couple where we said we don't think we need this policy so with that in mind this is a recommended policy it's not a any questions about public participation at board meetings policy may I make one suggestion for an insert the very first sentence under policy if it were to start the board serves the people so you want to have like board serves the people and encourages participation period and then it is the policy of the board so the board serves the people I understand the pre-eval thank you well I'm looking at the one on the other page specifically state what the board will not unluckily discriminate this one's a little different because the way it says it is the policy of the board under the word policy um so it sounded weird as a under policy I have no comments about including such board serves the people that's an amendment for an amendment to the board yes please is there a second to the amendment well second so I have a for the public input number two I think we have gotten some feedback on the community member asking or the person responsible for organizing the agenda and maybe some more who does that actually mean and does that need to be a little clearer so we're on a 21 right so on public input on items not on the agenda the time allotted to this item will be assigned by the chair or the person responsible for organizing the agenda is that the same person uh it should probably be by the chair or um acting chair acting chair ran good catch that was a I think it can be language suggestions so uh make them would you want to take a vote on adopting a adoption of the amendment policy is there uh you have usually okay okay great next up we have a 22 which is notice of non-discrimination policy proposed changes in paragraph number three this is a recommended policy that we are re-examining and it has the changes are superintendent or he shall prepare for the board review and approval guidance to applicants and employees regarding requests for reasonable accommodations including provisions for work on new budget so it's giving the board a role for review as opposed to just approval any questions on this so again the committee member had asked uh why on the fourth paragraph provides equal access to the boy scouts and other designated groups does anyone know the answer why there is a boy scout it deals with the I think there was a statutory change because of I think there was a time when boy scouts were being excluded because of the policy that they had and there's a legislative act to say can't do boy scouts because of the policy that they had which I think they've gone away from since I don't know that for a fact but that's you're exactly right that's why it specifies boy scouts should that footnote be there as well I see it up above for designated new groups it looks like footnote number one is the boy scouts act I don't think maybe it would be easier just put the footnote after boy scouts are they still I thought they changed their name any other uh any other comments on I don't know the answer for you on that one we'll look into it is it a model policy that we were so it came with the footnotes there so probably done correctly and been vetted and I do see where it is up there with and the boy scouts are mentioned there too in that first line I just didn't see that I saw a designated group so I think it's fine this is probably gonna be a issue that I have more than justice issue but change I would like to see more than justice policy which is to reflect a greater sense of inclusion to remove wording like his or her and replace it with a singular there or them or they uh just to be fully inclusive of uh everyone in our community that's not so important for all of them yeah just a blanket policy and then yeah okay this is a great example of how grammar changes one funeral at a time it's so difficult we just need a singular because maybe is there any way that we can there any way we can direct the policy committee to make those changes as we go along from policy to policy and then you could consider just gentlemen that's one of the we need broad policies to save from the person from now um and we could do that but you can change as we go along and a lot of times you can just pitch the pronoun all together like superintendent or designee okay I like that a lot okay and the Boy Scouts did change again what was it like Scouts BSA which one was the Boy Scouts which BSA stands for Boy Scouts in America but now it's just a new um but I just thought it was written that way and it's the Boy Scouts acts so I just remember reading they were changing their name okay so we'll bring this back next time sure yeah thanks for that Thomas uh next up is community engagement and vision policy A23 another recommended policy any questions on changes proposed if they don't have any read does that mean that we didn't have this policy before or just you didn't make any change okay because I think they used to have like if it had been adopted in 1979 or something that date was there but now it looks like it's going forward instead of historic that historic date isn't there but none of these are something new that even though they're recommended that the policy committee has they're ones we have these were already we adapted only the required ones recommended ones are new for this board they were adopted but they weren't our policy manuals before but now we're a new correct okay that answers it yes so we'll bring this back to second reading next time okay next up we have policy A24 board and superintendent relationship any questions about an A24 and the changes proposed Chris I think it's very good paragraph one two three four five instead of the board directs maybe the board dies because we actually at least in my understanding of the word direct sometimes we direct the superintendent through oral instructions or motions and a board or other vehicles besides policies that's fine but guides I think covers what policies do okay what policies can direct their time still yeah guide is since it's not there but I don't want to be bound to say we should never use a policy to direct an action okay but happy to make this change we may have a problem with putting in guides instead of directs here we'll bring it back for another reading next time A31 on board member education any questions on the proposed changes they read in the bottom that was not part of our policy the chair of the school board it's for a while for a while I'm just curious why it's in red underlined because it's conditioned we added it to the policy it was not part of the policy it's part of the law essentially it's part of the policy but we put it into the policy it would know track changes right it's just can I just do a semantics and here's the state department agency thank you suggestions on A31 we move on to A32 A32 is board goal setting and evaluation what we did was we incorporated AAD in terms of carry it over into the fiscal year and act upon things that we were setting as goals so you picked April because we had the new board instituted in March and just overlooking yes any questions next up is A34 board relations with school personnel and the policy is getting at out board members interact with school personnel and trying to set just some parameters and expectations so Chris presumably this works for for the leadership team and those who have been Aaron and Jody and Aaron they were very instructive in terms of what we did so Jody has died any questions we move on to next before we go on under relations with other school staff when presented with citizen concerns board members should refer them to appropriate levels of authority what's that mean principal principal or superintendent citizen concerns about specific school things but if we get a question about the budget or policy does a board member need to report that but if a citizen calls you and says they wouldn't buzz me in today and it's that person refer them to the person let's say hypothetically a community member wrote you an email asking questions about the budget and you answered those to the best of your ability but did not forward that email that would be fine this is the thing with staff interaction it's not necessarily a board issue with school policy issues but it's interaction with the staff like a staff member comes to you and says I have a problem with some sort of board then you refer them to the chain of command then I think maybe at any point to add when presented with citizen concerns about school operation or staff okay that's fine well and now because of your conversation the heading is relations with other school staff is this a staff member presents us with a citizen concern or is it a citizen concern came to us about a staff member because it says relations with other school staff board relations with other school staff but then it says when presented with citizen concerns yeah I understand maybe we'll qualify to say about the staff more school operations I think that's right because that would be broad enough to cover yeah and I honestly don't think that that distinction matters right if a community member comes to you or you know a teacher comes to you and says you know I have a problem with what's going on somewhere in both those cases it's great but I think it's appropriately great about school staff or school operations school staff or school operations any other questions on A34 before we move on thank you very much next up is 3D the work place policy which is a required policy it doesn't have the VSBA it is a VSBA model I believe so yeah we modified it a little bit to take out we added because the issue of drugs was broad in the definition of drugs was where I didn't necessarily just say illegal drugs because some of the products are aren't prescribed and then we added alcohol or drugs alcohol or drugs and violations of that so it included both because it just seemed like it was more inconsistent with what we did because they mentioned down below this was the meeting that I was on a phone for so it was really hard to hear but I believe when we had that big discussion about unless prescribed when we talked about impairment first non impairment when you're on a prescription there is then procedures that you would be using your transgression of if someone is unprescribed but doesn't seem confident in terms of prescribing and being able to complete duties we had that conversation right it was hard to hear you guys I think we did I just wasn't that was the clarifying kind of distinction of you know someone can be under prescribed but then not still not be competent to then may not recognize that could happen right then not be criminal and so that's where we struck the illegal to include even some mistakes through communication they might not be shouldn't be working because of the bad reaction or using too much any other questions ok is a DUI a criminal alcohol it is so on the weekend somebody gets pulled over and gets a DUI do they go in and let the principal know on Monday morning I didn't know I think yes well it's conviction oh conviction ok so you're innocent until so I I get that DUI on the weekend to take it whatever but I'm released I don't have to admit to anybody until I've gone to court and then it's for real they find it guilty or whatever and then the other thing too is that I mean for clarification of what that means if a DUI gets downgraded to whatever then what does that criminal well it's a different it's operational so that we're not qualifying with this policy for disclosure so I see there are a lot of legal references a lot of sort of an appointment law that's way beyond my my assumption is we would be reaching out to our attorney I think case by case I think I understand that I'm a little uncomfortable that if my kids teacher gets a DUI there's no obligation to report that to the district if you're siding as opposed to convicted if you're convicted yes but when you're sided it's in the paper what other criminal you know arrests or charges that someone would face that they don't have to tell their employer which is us I think according to our policy when we choose to drug in alcohol conviction so you can be convicted for fraud, investment, whatever at least I don't see any obligation here may come up in the background chat but there's no obligation to report that and again that may be the result of settled law I'm not second guessing it I just read something under employee responsibilities the second sentence says that the violation occurs on or in the workplace we don't have to report it if it's not there so it makes it sound like if you got DUI in the parking lot of the school well but the school is broad enough to include that because the parking lot says no alcohol or tobacco but it doesn't sound like if you were out on a personal situation that this policy would apply I see where you say that now in court in the workplace it doesn't say any criminal violation though it doesn't specify the bottom it doesn't specify where it occurs well but above it does that's a definition of workplace and is criminal a misdemeanor workplace is in the first sentence criminal is criminal misdemeanor is not legal workplace is mentioned to law and I would say that the conviction down below would refer back to above so I could get that DUI on me and not tell anybody even if you convicted as long as I wasn't in jail this one really wants to get it we can do that okay sorry what did you decide on that one we're going to bring it back I suggested to bring it back to the committee B-4 to self-explanatory in terms of the transportation company next is B-5 prevention of COE harassment one of the interesting part of this discussion was harassment by whom harassment by whom how broad to spread the net in terms of specific policy language certainly by by school employees but do we include independent contractors of people who are working at the school and do we include their subcontractors the question is whether we have authority to do that includes the thought because we have a lot of folks who aren't staff members who come on the properties for more we hire work out on a pretty regular basis I think and I think we came back around to the discussion that we have an obligation to prevent and protect our employees and if the actors are not we will address the actors differently whether the main policy is to protect them but anyone maybe correct so maybe we can be stronger and more specific in that really didn't take something much so when you talk about contracted could be behavior people from we don't employ but maybe hire through a purchase service like behavioral interventionist or a construction worker right there's but they're not under direct supervision of the district but I mean they can't okay so we'll bring this back so we have second reading on policy 2a policy on policy any questions on that A2 I'm sorry A2 recommended policy A6 policy so do we have a motion to approve policy A2 on second reading Dorothy moves Gila seconds discussion are you ready for a vote let's say aye any opposed none opposed great A2 passes next up is board meetings agenda preparation and distribution agenda distribution second reading okay do we have a motion to approve policy A20 on board meetings agenda preparation and distribution I'll move Lindy moves George seconds discussion ready for a vote all in favor please say aye opposed none opposed A20 passes alright we have a resolution for that what's the packet no the flag raising policy 59 I'm sorry here we go next up okay okay excellent Flora moves rather F46 flag raising policy Flora moves second Gila seconds any discussion I'm interested in hearing from the student representative about the flag raising policy um yes I think that this is a very good template for what's the process students have to go through and community members have to go through to students have to go through to raise a flag I'm curious about the flag must bring you a harm to other groups of students and how we're defining harm because I wouldn't want some students to claim harm to have flags not be raised because of that sentence um but overall I think that it's a good a good flag raising policy as long as also students are notified about the annual renewal of their flags so if a particular group made the request there should be something that reminds that group that it's coming up for review yes and I was wondering once you brought that up towns the sentence above it says the flag must represent ideas that are linked to support the district commission goals and student learning outcomes if it does that it shouldn't be a flag that's harming someone so that sentence might not even be needed and perhaps I don't know if it needs to be in the policy the school would have a procedure if I wanted to file a this is the only way I can think of about this flag that's been proposed and could have good reason for why I opposed it's flying I don't know if I'm wording it right but I'm not sure that sentence would do it it would be more the procedure in the school perhaps would you mind if I ask Stephen for your because this is the year 32 policy basically right and not anymore right I mean just this everywhere because we all have flag posts right I'm sorry I'm sorry Jody I was hiding for a while it's okay what's the question about the flag must bring no harm to other groups of students if that's necessary towns brought it up as a concern and I said I thought the second bullet bullet kind of covers that if it's supporting our current mission goals and student learning outcomes it shouldn't be hard that should be I think the C-27 would help the changes in C-27 also help cover that piece taking care of what we were worried about so yeah that piece doesn't need to be there so that's my now I was going to say I think the thing that harm should stand because it gives someone the purchase to say this is going to harm me even though the mission goals and student learning outcomes you think would cover everything it may not from a person's perspective just the C-27 I kind of share that concern that sounds as about the word harm and what that means well let's go ahead and change the word to something else may I ask has this caused any problems this is what's in part right now yeah you're looking at the U-32 pieces so I think I would also point out that it's harm to groups right so the way it's written it's so it can't just be one person who just shows up and says there has to be valid reason I think I mean I think we haven't fully fleshed out all of the details of the procedure on that but I think Linda is correct on saying that if there is a concern that somebody has here's how you go about voicing that concern as well as we could describe like this is your policy but there's a lot more to this in terms of student education and all that stuff that comes through we've learned a lot on how the process should go so we certainly we certainly can articulate those procedures from that move would that be made into policy I think it should be part of the procedures most of that procedure is how notification is done how are the discussions around it brought out that's not really policy that's how it just operates pointing out more groups that makes a difference to me that's just my concerns okay ready to vote then all in favor of f46 the flag raising policy please say aye aye opposed none opposed f46 passes flag is over yes thank you okay very good we're on Aaron are you still this isn't about me anymore I could I could give the three hour tour I could do a five minute overview or if you really want to see I don't know I mean it's nine o'clock I don't know if people are feeling here it would be nice to get a stretch it would be nice to stretch and towns do you have a screw tomorrow I do not I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed so I'm not going to be a screw tomorrow I don't know eat as you can eat as you can good job I'm excited I'm excited anyway I was just going to say that if you wanted to leave that would be perfectly fine okay you okay? excellent happy to have you happy to have you are we going to walk over here stepdive if you want to the whole shebang the three hour tour I was going to present something. Oh, yeah. The presentation could be the virtual tour. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I think you get the circulation going. So I do have some things that I was going to pass some things out to practice. Great. Everything though. Start with that. That's about two things that you guys did. That's on your buddy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, I'm going to stop here. I'm going to poly, I'll be very smart. I'll be in class two this morning. But that's fine. I need to speak with you. I need to pull my teeth. I have no nerve to get hurt here. I think there's a choice. Right now there's five. Six. Three. There's six. You're sure? I missed this one. Yeah. I think I'm the sixth one. Okay. We have, in front of you, you should have the school director's report beginning to your neighbors. So, this is revised, edited, taking into account the comments that were made last time, and other contributions that have been received, and reworked, and sort of pulled together in a unified and, I think, rather elegant fashion by a Tebra. So, the question is, is everyone okay with it? This is a letter we would publish in the annual report, so we would hopefully be getting your permission, or any edits that you chose to make. I have it on my computer printer, and if we need to make changes, we can do that. I appreciate your use of the serial call. Yes. So, you did not, you're not the one that revised this. I contributed revisions. We had a couple of people who gave contributions, and I was jazzed with it. I don't know where they're clearing house. It's the board, it's the board letter, so if there's something there that you wish to change, that's revisions. My question is, what is the intent of paragraph four? One, two, three, four. The intent of paragraph four is essentially to provide an explanation of this, of this particular chart, so that we are upfront and don't sin by omission against transparency. Well, you kind of say that in the first paragraph. In paragraph one, the biggest challenges that fell on us in the merger process, the structural inequity of the state's template. Right, and that, yes, and this develops that, which otherwise people might not understand what that refers to. In paragraph one, I'm just wondering about the, there's the phrase, and contrary to the expectations of some, I just, that feels a bit like pointed to me, I guess. Do you worry about those some reading this? I guess, I wouldn't want them, I don't want to alienate more people further, I guess. I think that those some are also the people to whom the pieces about the merger and the inequities are directed. But I have to congratulate you, Townsend, your fuel for the language. Thanks. In the first sentence, everybody's going to sign it. It is my privilege to sign. Oh, that's a good point. It should be our first person to sprinkle throughout. Yeah, so it is like, so I'm fine if you just want, just in the past also sometimes the chair has signed the letter, so if... The agreement chair was drafted. Drafted? No, the first time that we all signed it was when we provided this first budget together. At the board in the past, when we had had our own legal support, it was just signed by the chair. It was just signed by the chair. So I feel like we have tried to like, last time it was the whole board. Last time it was the whole board. I'm not saying one way or the other. I am saying that the language should represent all or one. Right. So then that would... So the fourth paragraph also would be, what if we... Yeah. So all the I, we... I, me, mine becomes we, our, ours. Yes. Something's 38% of our hard-working families struggle daily to find financial stability. I think that could be a period, because it might not be due to being a single income. It could be due to parents having minimum wage jobs and... In which case the figure is probably more than 38%. I agree. The 38% refers to the single, to basically the single parent household. So basically you're saying 38% of our household are single parents? Yeah. Well, there could be some that aren't... There could be single parent homes that are not financially struggling. Right. Do you... Was the statistic important, or could that worry you just be many of our hard-working families? Was that that important? I... The idea is that it's a lot. Sometimes giving a number to it can phase a little more power than just many, because many can be... It's undefined. 38% is a lot. That's a significant number. But that 38% is specifically due to single parents, right? They're saying that 38% of the families in our district are... are going to defend diagram of both financially struggling and single parents. That's a good point. 38% I think actually refers to Washington County as a whole for single parents. For just single parents. But they may not be struggling with it. Is it... Single parents or single income? Single income. No, wait. It's a single income. 38% is single parent for Washington County. They're a number... They're a number problem. So I think, yeah, so... We have a question. Yes? If it's a Washington County amount of percent, would it... And I agree with Chris in having some kind of a number rather than many, those that go back to those numbers, you could say over half of our families are having a financial struggle period. It's not linked to... Do we... I guess what I want to ask you is, do we know roughly the percentage of families in Washington County? I don't... I don't have that data. A substantial portion, I know it loses the number, but it gains in sort of accuracy. But you want the number to be accurate if you're going to use... If we're going to use the number, it has to be accurate. A substantial portion of our hardworking families. And I'm just... I think that's true, but I'm a little concerned if it's of Washington County because we don't have any schools that are, to my knowledge, high poverty in our five schools, our five towns, that are the percentage of students. And do you find that 50%? About Title I? Title I is in the 30% as far as... But I mean, I'm thinking of the City of Barry, our student population. We have something like 75% of our poverty. Yes. That's a high number. That's why we have free lunch, free breakfast in that school. We don't have anything like that in Washington Central. So I guess it's the statistics in the county saying our families, our five towns are not Washington County. They're a part of it. Yeah. I think it's correct. I think it would be correct to say a substantial percentage of our hard-working families struggle daily by financial stability and so forth. Would you agree? I think the period after financial stability versus the single income. Would that be all right then? The period after financial stability, yes. And then remove due to the... But remove due to being... And a substantial percentage or a substantial portion. I have a substantial percentage. Great. No, percentage is great. Is that all right with everybody? Too many. Too many. Yeah, too many of our hard... Yeah, actually, I think that's a good change. Too many of our hard-working families. Well, I think then it can go right into the next one. Too many of our hard-working families struggle to find financial stability despite the longest economic expansion. Just take out a hand. That all doesn't flow to the next clause. The next clause doesn't work as soon as I got there, you could be paid out. Just leave the period there. Yeah. Yeah. I'll leave and describe it. In the first paragraph, would we, after that fellow and us in the merger process period, would we leave it as there? Is there... The structure and equity of the state template, is that an opinion? I'm fine with leaving a period there. After a merger process, would we leave it as there? Would we leave it as there? Would we leave it as there? After a merger process, if that's what the consensus is to do... Can you tell me where that consensus is? This one right here? Period, Mr. Coulton? Take out the last part. Take out the last part. And then if we're going to... So if we're going to keep a paragraph for the way that it's written, I think I would like to add something that says, you know, that is, you know, because we're talking about a lot about not being equitable in that paragraph, when we are also talking about how we spend so much time finding our commonalities. And so I would like to add something that says something like, this is an affirmation of our desire as a board to have better outcomes for all fits. You know, something that talks about what we're doing together to solve because the inequity that we're talking about there is really the fund. So it should say we fund the actual inequity. Yeah, so we want to make sure that this student outcome, this budget represents our desire for equity. I'm not saying it in the right way. Well, it is on the next page. We are serious about equity in all of its aspects and across all realms of our work, which I think is a nice positive paragraph. Do you want to include in our budget reflexes? You could. That's just tied into the budget. Because that paragraph that, because a lot of people not always are going to be entire, I don't want them to pass there and then suddenly it's like, I shouldn't be voting for this budget because we have managed to miss the most important part that we're here for. How about the crisis situation sounded good to me after, on the first full paragraph on page two, after or forward, say our budget reflects this. Period. And where are you voting now? Well, you can't just say this. That would be terrible grammar. This move to equity to define what this is. Our budget reflects our commitment to better outcomes for all kids or you can look at it in a different way. No, no, no. Better outcomes by allocating additional resources with and in this case, we might have to peel it out of that part. I know it's late. No, no, no. That's okay. So the suggestions, the latest suggestion was to, after or forward, by allocating additional resources as it is. That's one suggestion. I think what we might want to do is go back to leaving that para as it is and maybe having another separate because so that instead it comes after the first sentence of the following paragraph, after input from staff. To put that whole paragraph. Our budget, where this budget reflects our commitment to the best outcomes for all of our students. And then it picks up the board recommends the budget. It's okay? Okay. Okay, I understand that everybody. Print it out and then you get to fix your signature before we go home, if we ever do. So see. Is it okay to proceed? Please. We have the next item on the agenda is the book, Reflections. You're looking at it. It's really late. I owe you again. I owe Aaron, I owe Flor. Who else am I going to owe? We owe to ourselves. Oh, okay. Thanks. It just makes us enjoy it. Thank you, Lindy. Nicely put. This is just a question whether or not we can copy signature members of the board? Yeah. Of this, of this letter? Of the book. Of the book. Yeah. We have to read it all in three weeks. That's the prerequisite for actually joining the board. You can say anything, right? We have to read it all in three weeks. Consent agenda. We have the minutes of December 4, December 11 and January 8 starting on page 62. I move that we approve the minutes. Thank you. Flor moves. Chris seconds. The minutes for all of those occasions. Are there any changes? Did I hear someone, Marilyn? I was just looking to see if I missed this, but I didn't. I don't think my name could be remembered for the court. Okay, you were there. Yes, I was. Because I remember talking about someone beloved that passed away thinking I would change that. Oh, yeah. Any other changes to the minutes for those three meetings? If not, are you ready for a vote? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed? Great. All right. Board orders. Does anybody have them? I have the old board orders to make a motion for. I don't know what order we have to go in. It doesn't matter. Okay, so I make a motion to, do I just call them old board orders? From fiscal year 19? Okay. To approve board order from fiscal year 19 in the amount of this is going to tell me to stay out loud. 10,281,224 dollars 67 cents. Do we have a second? Second. For our seconds. Any questions for vintage board orders? Okay. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? None opposed? Great. And if we passed them around and had to have at least six signatures, if you didn't sign it and you want to, I'm looking for majority because people are getting right at this point. Thank you. Does anybody have the I hand it back to Deborah. You're in the green folder? Okay. You mind doing the honors please? So I'll make a motion to please do a whole separate where is the title of the whole bunch at one point. So 57,076 with 80 cents Can you No. 57,000 with 76 82 cents 31,358 with 38 cents 158? 38 cents. This one is 296,306 with 80 cents Is this the same one? 433 Sorry, 443 and 50 with 70 cents 440,050 050 with 70 cents and 8,160 with 62 cents And the last 245 813 with 10 cents and then 31,358 with 38 cents Sorry, say the last one again 31,358 358 with 38 cents 343 38 38 Thank you very much for that. Do we have a second? George seconds Any questions about those? I have a quick question just to clarify for green out behavior to use Washington County mental health and then green mountain behavior and then I saw our PBIS charge and then like two separate chargers from that one I just wondered So the PBIS charge might be for the Swiss database that we use in the system I don't know what you're looking at so I don't but that would be the only or it could be for some trainings that we send folks to for PBIS which is very different than our contracts with green mountain behavior and Washington County mental health but we contract with both of them together it's kind of the same It provides similar services Okay, I was just curious Thank you, my friend Anyone else? Any questions? Okay, all in favor of approving the board orders as moved by floor and seconded by George Any opposed? None opposed? Great, okay For the reports I would, unless there's an objection or unless there are questions from board members I would propose unless the superintendent or leadership team have an objection too I would propose going straight to the student rep for his report So you have them Excellent, so do we So since my last student report we had our holiday break and we all came back ready to make this few weeks until the end of this semester where everyone will be having a new schedule maybe changing up some classes That does mean that this week there are exams today tomorrow and Friday that I'm sure all the students are really excited for As soon as the end of semester there are many other school things that we do around this time one of them being our arts batch which is a celebration of all of the first of all of the semesters arts class and the next exhibition of all their work and that was very well attended by our community a lot of great student artists got to showcase their really impressive work Looking into the future at the end of this month Stage 32 will be putting on shows of their Musical Avenue Q at, let's look at these times I have a card in my pocket that's better information On January 30th and 31st at 7 and on February 1st at 2 and 7 I'm sure everyone's very excited for this impressive show that we'll be putting on and also looking into the future on the 29th there is a an event with our social justice group called Rolling Up Our Sleeves where they will be joined by former representative Kaya Morris to talk about I'm sure many important issues and that's one to look out for there is one other thing I would like to talk about and that is the release of the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data we have the the entire state report we do not yet have the individual school reports yet but I'd encourage everyone in this room to take a look at the data for themselves because there are some very concerning areas specifically around groups of students like students of color and LGBT students it really shows that how these students can be affected by our school culture just looking through some of the data 11% of students of color were threatened with a weapon at school in 2019 30% of LGBT students statewide we don't have that data yet this is just in Vermont 43% of LGBT students experienced emotional abuse in their relationships 19% of LGBT students attempted suicide in 2019 which is 5 times more likely than heterosexual cisgender students I just want to make this aware to everyone that this is a very great resource for us to evaluate what our school and what our students are going through at this time and that it is important to constantly keep in mind how vulnerable groups are affected by the actions that we take is the data posted now yes it's on the website an agency of education or department of health I think it's if you just google Vermont YRBS data I'm sure thank you very much excellent we should also have superintendent search report I don't know if I can remember what happened yet never mind this afternoon where we are we have at the last board meeting you selected or appointed the interview committee and the interview committee met with Mark yesterday afternoon and they were given their marching orders and how to go about sorting through all the information that we have with a good dose of making sure everybody understood that everything is not to be shared anywhere anytime and tomorrow we're having another meeting where we are making sure we have the right questions we want how they will be addressed and how we will do we need to do that in the executive session tonight? we're not having another meeting very soon so we're going to have to do it it's not a huge decision but it's something that needs to be an executive session because we can't okay until that can wait until the next meeting after the executive session at the very bottom okay I would like to just say it's a good thing we started early because the superintendents are resigning or retiring a lot well we knew we had to start but it's good to be at the head because there is quite a shortage of people and two that I know of turned in their reservations last Friday for the end of the year so there will be a turn over yes great thank you very much Dorothy um, negotiations um I don't have the specific language that we agreed to is that now our negotiation I'm sorry I have to look for it it's okay yeah I'm gonna have my paraphrase we clarified the open meeting law requirements for these sessions we received an update from the subgroup on contract language resulting from the merger that's specifically about one district replacing the previous name of the supervisor district with WCUSD and seniority we agreed on ground rules we came to a tentative agreement using the IBD process about leave for religious observance and we began the discussion of bust and duty thanks what's your general feel um it's a challenging process it requires a lot of patience and forbearance but the room is collegial and productive happy to hear it, thank you great before we move on were there any questions for the superintendent were the leadership team on those reports I think it would be nice especially because this is the only opportunity that we have to share with the community we have to talk a little bit about the PL report that we're going to talk in February but more about state computers improvement planning that part there would be nice to we are going to feature that at the next meeting oh you're going to talk about IFR yeah that one to put it in our things to do but in the oh the continuous improvement planning sorry yeah, yeah because it sort of relates to everything that we're doing it would be nice to talk a little bit about that is that okay? so the continuous improvement planning process would be an opportunity for us to think about our desired outcomes for students to think about to assess our data, analyze our current state and then set some goals and begin to set up opportunities for with the AOEs is calling plan do study act cycles of continuous improvement the work is going to be facilitated by somebody from the agency of education we're going to all do the work together we'll analyze some school wide data and we may have goals that are tasks that are school specific but we're really going to look at one plan as the unified school district so we're working on finalizing the dates and times and getting word out to invite community members we need teachers, parents board members and community members to join us so looking like three Thursdays with the fourth one held so February 6th 22nd March 12th wait I might be getting my dates wrong 6th, 20th, March 12th and then holding March 26th in the event of an inclement weather evening we're looking at 430 to 730 and on my to-do list in the next day is to type up some general information so we can get out to school newsletters and we can start recruiting folks to serve them supporting them thank you would it be necessary for the board to appoint people or could they volunteer on their own Jen mentioned that we are hoping for board members to participate we were saying about yesterday when the leadership team met to just sort of flesh out the composition of the groups we're thinking if two or three of you wanted to join us as a team not school specific but to be able to float and be members at large would be fabulous so shall we you've heard it you can think about it and then you decide on the fifth I know but if we decide on the fifth do you need to know in advance there may well be a little bit of advanced correspondence and we'll output out an all call for folks I mean give a sense tonight awesome if you don't if you just want to express interest we can figure out how to move it forward to be now and the fifth is there anybody who wants to do who knows now that they have the time and would like to do it I need to know more email me the dates and what we're doing I'll give you two for sure and one for possible I'm interested if I can do the 26 update the 26 that's the contingency date great thank you everyone that's a great that Jen was just sharing made me think about that I wanted to just thank getting the business of running for the school board in each of the newsletters that same language in each newsletter that went out to the communities I think that was really important that it was looked the same yeah when it came through the newsletters I was reading it oh good I'll pay credit for the language but everyone's not getting credit for putting out the call for the language it was good and I think when we have things like that in each newsletter because I don't think people are breaking down the doors to get their petitions in and run for a school board so it made it public do we have any sense of that? no I was going to check in, I always check in with the town clerks but it's a little early they are aware they've received information from us I usually wait until we're a little closer to the date I did hear some individuals who were here this evening mentioned that earlier they were considering running so I know there's some interest there were no traditions in the pile there's somebody running from Calais that has been announced I was at a meeting last night in East Montpelier and we were signing all the petitions people leave on the shelf for all the other things and none of them were for school board there were select board or planning commission our town clerk keeps people in the dates for all the petitions yeah I put that in my language which I'm unfortunately yeah it was in East Montpelier well I'll repeat we have a lot of trouble recruiting and retaining people I think we should continue to think about increasing the stipend to make it more attractive to people to try and get a more diverse demographic of people on the board there's always the political challenge that the board is voting to raise its own salaries actually the voters vote for it we don't we have to vote for it that's right and we've already approved that warning so it's not going to happen this time but for the future I think there's a catch 22 politically but I think it's worth talking about I definitely agree elementary boards were never had a sign before it was only you 32 we didn't take it for years but it was one at one point we have good are we ready to move on can I just ask a question about the monitoring of the literacy audit and if that's started with that it's like we are in the process of initiating that work so we would be happy to record on its progress in the future great wonderful other questions are we good alright we're on to approving the high school choice openings for FY 2021 on page 80 does anyone care to make a motion I move Dorothy moves floor seconds discussion Deborah perhaps you could explain so those who don't know what this is this is a choice program for high school students that is statewide we have other less formal arrangements where we have an even exchange between high schools in this region this is the same number of students that we permitted to leave and welcomed last year and that's certain how many years prior Stephen was so more than six years more than six years so what we in addition to this program is that we have other opportunities for students to be exchanged and it's our opinion that if a student has a compelling interest in another program we ought to provide them with this opportunity for one of our other exchange programs so in this case we're working well for us in this form so is this number this 10 are the orange students separate from this agreement? the orange students are here as a choice in the choice district school choice that their town pays for this is just a lottery to get into other schools who are part of the statewide choice program we typically have a waiting list to get into 32 through this program and we don't see a whole lot of students who take advantage of it we don't get extra money or anything are there questions? are you ready for a vote? all in favor of approving the agreement to join the Manuski Valley and statewide choice of public high school collaborative for the 2020-2021 school do you say aye? aye any opposed? none so another pass now we come to approving retirements Steven since these are both U32 people including one who has sort of identified as U32 anything you care to say? well certainly, you see the two retirements that we have in there one of them is Paula Cross at our school nurse who has served us for many years and is wonderful the other one as you read is Kathy Topping who has been at U32 since the day that it opened she was actually an intern when it first opened but she has been there the whole time she is I mean you can't even describe what a hole that will leave in the school because we'll be down to just one founding faculty member at that point in time so it'll be an interesting thing Mark was also there as an intern in the first year they came in together and so so she is she was telling me the other day she is taking her master gardener class this semester and we're hopeful that we can entice her back to work with kids in the green house and all that kind of she won't be too far away because of course she lives right near the school so it's hard to describe what the school will be like without her and she will be missed greatly and she would hate that we've said this much about her she's done every single seventh grader she's completely wonderful she's taught multiple generations of Central Vermont families she see it's okay she also delivered the absolute best graduation speech I have ever heard anywhere universities so the partial end of an era I guess so with great reservation we bring you that that retirement thank you so I guess we need a motion to approve these two retirements of two fantastic people do we have the option of not accepting her? yes I'm going to deal with the motion I'll make a motion to accept the retirement with with regards from the Board an appreciation for remaining years of service to our community don't put through thank you do we have a second? then the seconds that includes part yes so any further discussion? no okay that means that we move to a vote and not about Chris's joke so all in favor of approving the retirements of Paula and Kathy please say aye none opposed great so future agenda items we will retain for the future board reflection and summary we will conduct in our hearts on this occasion we'll do it for real on another one we do need as Dorothy and I need for personal related to the superintendent search oh okay we have a multi two personal issues superintendent search and leave request that needs to be discussed for the second session so many thanks to all of you shouldn't we go live in a classroom? I don't know actually we can do that is that okay? which one would you recommend? I don't know thank you yes we need a motion to go into executive session who Chris moves Dorothy seconds all in favor please say aye