 Montgomery Roxbury School Board of Directors Meeting, Wednesday, March 8, 2023, starting at it's like 6.34ish. First off, congrats to Lynn and Jill and Scott, who is going to be on his way maybe on the phone. And you, and you, Jim. Ah, thank you. Yeah, it's another term and I'm assuming everyone got duly sworn in and I saw I saw you there. And I think Scott verified that he did, yeah. Okay, excellent. So we are all official. First order of business is public comment. Do you have any public comment either in the room or on the phone? Yes, I have. Please go to the desk and just introduce yourself by name so you have it for the record and for the folks at home. Good evening. My name is Stan Brinkerhoff. I lived in Montpelier for quite a while and I've got three kids here, two of which attend uni elementary and we love the school. For the past 18 months, we've received feedback from the school about our daughters. I'll email comments if that's okay. Can I send an email? Yes. Okay. Thank you for coming in. Do you want to email it and we can read it? I'll send it to you. I'll send it to the board email. Do you want it to be read at the meeting tonight? We could do that. One of us could read it if you want. Just if you want it to be on Orca. I'm fine with being... I'm sorry. I'll say. Yeah, whatever you're most comfortable with. Thank you for coming. Anyone on Zoom? Yeah, I just want to acknowledge that it's oftentimes stuff to come before us and talk about sensitive things. So we appreciate those to do and we are open to email and other communications that might be more private or easier to do. I know it's hard to speak publicly. So we appreciate folks and we definitely want to hear what's going on and hear your stories. So thank you for appearing and also thank you for acknowledging that this was hard and finding another way to go about getting it to us. Consent agenda. Do you have a motion to approve the consent agenda? And Scott, since you're brand new and hopefully you can hear us and just a quick... Oh, you've been out of school born after you know what a consent agenda is, but it is a series of items that are relatively routine that we approve. So we don't have to go through them individually. We do them as a package and the idea is that you read all of them. And if you have questions, you can ask that one or more items be pulled from the consent agenda for individual discussion, but otherwise we approve them packaged to be more efficient. So do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Do I have a second? Any discussion? Just have a question on the school calendar, Libby. The holiday, it's my understanding that we are supposed to match up with the other schools and other districts that are in the Central Vermont Career Center? 175 days. We just have to match them for 175 days. Got it. So that's why some of our holidays would be off of not in line with their holidays. Because we all have different contracts. Got it. Different teacher days and student days and all that kind of stuff. So it's not going to be 100%. Got it. Okay. Well then, I was just curious about that. Thanks. I had had a question on the superintendent's report that was answered in the facilities and energy committee, but I just wanted to make sure that it was said out loud that the PCB testing was done, but that results will be back to us in about four weeks. So the results of that testing should be back in about four weeks. And my school is due this later. It's like slated for like two years. And that's just not back up to say that it's correct. That is the schedule that they designed. Okay. We didn't have any say enough. All right. Thank you for that. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Board business. So this is when we reorganize, which means the appointment of our four officer positions. Is that what they're called? I should know by now. I don't think they're officer positions, which is the chairperson, vice chairperson, parliamentarian, and clerk. And then reappointment to our committees. I mean, our makeup is relatively similar as it was before. And I don't want to... Scott, can you hear? We'd love to input on what committees you may or may not want to be on to four weeks. You could do the positions first. Yes, I can hear, but I'm driving right now. So positions to start with chair. I would be happy to serve again. I also would be happy to throw it up for discussion. Are we going to hold this as like discussion and then like official nominations? Or should we... How should we... I think we nominate and then discuss. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I nominate Jim Murphy for chair. Second? Second. Discussion? You want to do it? Yeah, I'd be happy to do it. And also, like as you've noticed, like me and I have been working more to make it to elevate the vice chair and spread out a little more of the work and agenda setting, etc. And it's... I think it's working well and we're definitely looking to build and keep doing that. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a discussion. I appreciate the efforts that you both have been putting in to lead our board and the efforts to sort of elevate the vice chair position, I think is a great best practice just moving forward in terms of succession plan too because things come up and people can't serve and they have to drop off and we wouldn't want that to be our chair and not have somebody ready to fill those shoes. So thank you both for doing that. All in favor? Bye. Any opposed? Thank you. Now it's been an honor to serve and this wonderful board and I'm excited to continue the great work we've been doing and also nice to be coming out of COVID and being able to, I think, focus more on the things that we're excited about being here for. So yeah, and thanks to everyone, especially to Mia for being a great partner. Vice chair, I will nominate Mia if she wants to serve again. I second. Any discussion? I appreciate the chair and I feel like it's an awful lot. One person, I wasn't sure if the elevation was in lieu of succession. I wasn't sure, which I would have been totally happy with, but I do think it's a great idea to share as much responsibility as you can and I know it's a lot. So I appreciate that, Mia, and Jim, that you're sharing that. Thanks for it. All in favor? Bye. Any opposed? So Jela Fortuna cannot be here. She's made a wonderful parliamentarian. She didn't say she didn't want it. So therefore, she did also say that she's been very busy, but I don't think the parliamentarian role is the thing that's keeping her very busy. In my, I mean, did she talk to you about committee assignments? She did not, and we might want to preemptively offer to remove her from a committee or two? Yes. Yeah, I think the committee assignments will have your list of parliamentarians. That said, I'm sure if someone wanted to replace her as parliamentarian, she probably would not be hard broken. Well, Lynn and Scott had both served on school boards before. Have either, are either of you interested in serving as parliamentarian? I have done that, but it's been a really long time, and honestly, I don't feel super competent because it's, you know, if things get heated, it's complicated, and you need to know what you're doing, I think. But I could work on learning this year and maybe let somebody off the hook next year. Get my Roberts rules and order. Scott, you have any interest from your round off days? Can you guys hear me? Yes, we can. Yeah, I'm in the same boat as Lynn. I would have to dust off my copy of Roberts rules. And so, I don't think I'd be the best at this point, but would certainly be interested in the future. Does anyone else have a burning desire to be part? I definitely am not interested. And I would not like to nominate Jill, but I want to make sure if anyone else has any, Kristen, Sagey. Rhett? Oh, you're already, you're already clerk. I mean, it doesn't have to be. Yeah, you could switch. This is your opportunity. Well, Jill's absent. All right. I nominate Jill Ruhman. I second. I nominate Sonsha. Any discussion? We can all reconsider if Jill does express that she does not want to admit that. Yeah, that makes sense. All those of you ever? Where, Rhett? Are you feeling this? I have a notebook. We did call on you a couple of times in the past year, though. I nominate Rhett Williams as clerk. It's like I could call him. All right. Any discussion? You want to do it? Thank you. All those of you ever? Hi. Yeah. No, thank you. Thank you, everyone, for stepping up and serving in an officer capacity. Also. Oh, yeah. That's great. Yes. And yeah, Anna is the Uber clerk. Uber, lots of things. CBCC. It's Jill again, right? Yeah. All right. So we have to appoint our CBCC board member. She's the chair of the board. Yeah, I think we need to. Yeah, I appoint, or I'll nominate. I think I'm not supposed to nominate. I'll nominate Jill Ruhman for the, is it CBCC board? Yeah. Second. Any discussion? All those of you ever? Thank you, Jill. Hi. Yeah, really? Yeah. That's a, that's a big lift. That was a big lift. So committee assignments. First off, Jill's on three committees. I think we definitely want to bring her down to two. Ah, and I would say that the CBCC board would count as one of them, in my opinion. As a, as a committee. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And so she's actually on four, if you count. Yes. Plus the CBCC. Yes. So I think that's the first thing that we should do in her absentia. Because of Jill's overextended commitment, she's significantly pulled back from participating in facilities and energy. So that may be an easy step off for her. As an, you know, in lieu of her being here and offering on her, on her behalf. And we'd also just discussed the, you know, currently we're four with Jill, meaning it would take, I guess, three to have a quorum in order to move forward with meeting and decision-making. So if we were shaved down to three, it would allow us to proceed if just two people are in attendance. So. So that's actually, yeah, thank you for that contact, because that's the committee that immediately came to mind. One, because it finances, I think, a little more in her bailiwick and it's, it's a four meeting a year committee. And I think switching horses and been streamed on negotiations. Yeah. Yeah. Would not, it wouldn't be awful, but it's nice to have that continuity. I do think it would make sense eventually to offer, to swap out with somebody, to offer, to swap out with Jill for negotiations. I think that's the next logical step. Yeah. That if she was just on finance and CVCC, that would make sense. That would be. Yeah, definitely. And negotiations, you know, we're going to have perhaps a multi-year contract. So. Right. And we just have apps me next year to negotiate. So not everybody in that committee needs to be there for ask me. Yeah. Do I think we can transition her off pretty easily after the spring? Yeah. And I would be interested in that because I've done it before and I know the other ones now. So. Oh, that's right here. Yes. Anyone who's interested in negotiating. You're on it already. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's the same. Well, I mean, I think it's worth considering all of these as a queen's fleet and then everybody can just say, Oh, I haven't served on finance before, but I'm interested in doing so. So. Thank you for that. And, and, and I'm totally happy to. Try to help Jill with the puzzle, but with the caveat that. At the next board meeting that she's at, maybe is when we make it official. So that she can have a say to say, actually, I really would love to stay on facilities and energy and come off with fine, you know, whatever. So I think it would be helpful for us to be thinking about where Jill is the best fit, just so we can see, like as Kristen was saying, it's probably best if we have three folks on each committee. And then that way we know, you know, what our numbers look like, but I also don't want to be like, we're making this decision for her without her here. And it's a final decision. Yeah, no, absolutely. And we can either, we can do it one or two ways. We can either just put, we can approve it next week or next time formally or we can just let Jill know that we will make an amendment and just do some switching. So let's just go committee by committee. And I'll read the current lineup of folks that are still here. And if people are sick of the committee and want to move off, that is great. If people want to stay on, that's great too. And then you guys just not making any decisions till we get down the list and see if it makes sense of itself. And if we need to have some discussion after that, we can definitely do that just to make sure it's balanced. And I think, you know, aiming to have three per committee is ideal. And I think if, yeah, keeping in mind people's workloads as well in these makes a lot of sense too. So our current oceans committee of current members is Jill, Rhett, me and Lynn. How do those folks feel about continuing to serve on negotiations? I am, I am definitely in the kind of where we are in the negotiations process. It makes a lot of sense. I'm listening. You're good to say it on. Rhett? Okay. And then we'll just confirm with Jill. Is there anyone who has a burning itching desire to join the negotiations committee? That's a no for now. We have a lot of fun. And all of us, we have talked about making like a little paragraph and sort of a description of these committees prior to tonight, which didn't happen. It was fine. We're really close. They have to make things really close. But maybe we could kind of like do that quickly. I mean, just sort of verbally say what the time commitment is for people who maybe don't know some of these. I'm not sure. So the time commitment on negotiations when negotiations occur and is pretty stiff, you know, frequent monthly meetings, you know, generally a couple hours we all love each other, but, you know, it's a negotiation. So I think you have to have a certain kind of mindset for that. And it's also oftentimes a negotiation with, you know, people that teach your children, which I think needs to be noted. And then, you know, depending on how well the negotiations go, sometimes it can involve, you know, some sort of mediated process. And that can take a nine, 10 hour chunk of a day every time at some point in the future. So it's, and then, but then, you know, it goes away when you reach an agreement or an agreement is reached. And depending on how long the, you know, it can be an intense spring followed by a spring where there's absolutely nothing. And obviously the purpose is negotiating with our three unions for, you know, for their agreements. The finance committee was created a few years ago basically with the idea that it would meet with our superintendent and our, you know, business manager about the kind of an in-depth look into the finances and the budget of the school. You know, we are, as a board, we're not presented with a line-by-line budget of what everything is spent on. And we only have so much capacity to go deep into the budget. So the idea of the finance committee was the finance committee would meet basically quarterly with the superintendent and business manager for a deeper dive into the budget and into the financial matters of the school to essentially kind of ensure that the higher level information that came to the board was accurate and kind of reflective of the information that the board should be getting. And that if there were, you know, issues or clarifications or other things that be brought to the attention of the board that a subset of board members had a deep enough understanding of the budget and the finances to be able to flag that and ensure that the board got that. So it's really kind of a check on ensuring that we're getting the information from the administration that we need to make good decisions. I would say it's not the most time-intensive committee. It's really about four meetings. You know, we're there, I think, some sort of issue that needed delving into. That, you know, there might be an extra meeting or so to explore that. I think the biggest thing that I'm kind of looking for in folks that serve others are people who are budget savvy, finance savvy, who are going to be able to, you know, see a bunch of numbers and make sense of them and ask the right questions. Which is not necessarily me. But, you know, we definitely have folks who have those skills and that's, you know, the ideal member. So it's kind of low commitment. And I think if you've got a certain level of expertise, it's definitely helpful. And Anakit was quite skilled at this. Right now, we just have Rhett and Jill, you know, and Jill works at the tax department. So she has an understanding of school finances that makes her, I think, a pretty valuable member of this committee. You know, Rhett obviously has been great as well. Matt, was there? So I think we definitely could use, assuming Rhett, you're still interested. And I'm not going to make that assumption until I ask you. But regardless of the interest of the current members, even if both the current members are still interested, there is a seat that needs to be filled on this. Any interest in pulling that seat? So Rhett, how do you feel about staying on? I'm happy with staying on. A couple other people wanted to go in. I'd be happy to let it go. It's not a huge commitment. I definitely learn a lot. It's an opportunity to ask some questions and dig into some stuff and learn to understand things a little better. So I don't mind doing it. But I'm not a business wist. But we can ask questions about where things aren't, where we might have expected them to be and get some answers and hopefully bring that back to the board. It happens quarterly right before each, right before a board meeting. So it's often over in 30 minutes, unless there are some things that we don't expect to see and then we go into it. So have a burning desire to also, Scott, you're interested? I know my way around the spreadsheet and balance a lot of budget or develop and work on budget. So I'm happy to lend a hand. So we will go with that slate with the caveat that Jill may have a desire to step off. So the policy committee essentially make sure that the policies of the board and the policies are pretty important because we are a board that governs largely through our policies that our policies are up to date reflective of the values of the district and the community that we have all the policies we need, etc. Meets fairly regularly. We've been most of our work in the last year has been updating some policies that we felt could be better updated to match, I think, both the values of the board and some newer model policies that came out from the Vermont School Board's Association. As well as a couple of our policies were a little overly long. We thought we could simplify to make them a little clearer. And we've also done some work adopting some new policies, both some required policies because new required policies come out, as well as some not required policies, but required policies that we thought would be well served, like the policies on library that we're currently considering. Meets about monthly to monthly and a half. Well, right, we have been meeting like every other week. Yeah, sometimes every other week, sometimes it varies a little. But we're trying to limit that. Yeah, we were doing a bunch of draftings or we're meeting every other week. I think we're going to try to go more to a monthly schedule. But it's one of those things where if we decide that we want to rewrite a big chunk of our policies, it can be a deep thought for a little while. So I'd say it's one of the more work-intensive committees. It's also, I think, one of the more interesting committees if you, because you get to work on a lot of issues and the policies really touch what we did. Anything to add? Yeah, I mean, I just would hope that over the next year, I hope that we were sort of doing this work to sort of tidy up some of our policies. They hadn't been looked at in a long time. They weren't aligned with the SBA policies. And so we were doing a lot of sort of cleanup work around that. And so I would hope that we could move into sometimes issues are brought to us. So one of the things that we're working on currently is that the student representatives brought to us some concerns from student population around the curriculum. And so we looked at, should we potentially, here's this red flag, here's an issue that's important to students? How can we be responsive as a school board? And like Jim said, since we primarily govern through policy, then that's where we can have a big impact on something. So we looked at our potentially adopting a new curriculum policy. And ultimately, we decided to go with revising our diversity, equity, and inclusion language around curriculum. So we're working on that right now. But that's the type of stuff that I would like to see the policy committee be a little more responsive to community input. Excellent to addition. Right now it's Emma, me and Rhett. I'm certainly happy to keep serving. I don't know if you're happy to keep serving. Yeah, I'm happy to keep serving. And I also think that it's really good to have somebody with a legal mind on. Yeah, I'm glad that Jim is willing to continue to serve. And I don't know how Rhett feels about it. But yeah, what we did do was we went from four members down to three, so that because it is challenging to coordinate four people's schedules. And so when we went down to three members, it was so that two people could make quick progress on things when needed as a quorum. So I wonder if how big we want it, but I think three is a good number. How are you feeling right about policy? Fairly contributed and want to go to. Yeah, I want to. I don't have that. I don't know if I have a legal mind, but I don't know if I must. Is there anyone else who's a chain to be able to policy? I mean, it's something that interests me and I've got some experience, but I also, yeah, I understand that the numbers issue. I mean, we can try it again with four people. Yeah, I'd be happy to try it with four people. I mean, I think it's, I think it's going to be a richer discussion for people. Yeah. Let's go far enough for having more problems we can reconsider. Right. And then another thing, another thing that we had played with back when Andrew was on the committee was having one of us be sort of like a not non-official, you know? Yes. So in terms of the forum. So that's something we could discuss again if it becomes an issue. Scheduling becomes an issue. Yeah. Well, let's start with four official members are below the vote and then if it becomes. Great. I feel like the work on the policy committee is, you know, still, you know, it's run through everybody through the readings. So we all have our chances to really put input or trigger feedback if we want to. So I feel like it's kind of unique in that aspect. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. All right. Excellent. Let's go with those four. Sure. How many committees is customary per board member? Two to three. I think everyone's on at least two and a few people are on three. You might want to start with two and see how it integrates into your life. It can definitely add. Although if you want to jump in at three, then go ahead. And yeah, if you're like a fourth person on a committee, it's pretty easy to, you know, reshuffle the alignment if someone's schedule is not able to accommodate it. The equity committee. Mr. Chair, Kristen, are you sure? Yeah, I'm sure. Do you want to give an overview? Sure. We're also pretty new. I think we started about two years ago. Our work is to essentially try to integrate equity into all the work of the board and across the district. Recent things that we did is we drafted and held the climate survey of teachers and staff in the schools and we developed an equity review tool, which I think we could still use a little bit more work on implementation and helping ourselves and the rest of the board figure out how to actually make use of it. But that's the general purpose of the committee. We try to meet biweekly. So pretty much like on the alternating Wednesdays from board meetings, that's our current schedule, but we can certainly change that up. And the big thing we're doing right now is working with Libby to figure out which firm we want to hire to run an equity audit for the district. Just to give you a little bit of an idea of a sense of what we do. And the current members and just to me are Kristen, Seiji and Lynn. So first, to the four of you, desire to continue on the committee or are you looking for a switch or at least... Kristen? Yep, I'd like to continue just seconding what Nea said about the equity review tool and that it feels like that needs some refinement and also just really giving it like a context and a role in our work. So I'd like to see that through because a lot of work was put into that last year. So, yeah. Is there anyone who is not on the committee who would like to be? I would love to be someday. Time permitting, but not now. So it sounds like we're pretty comfortable. With that lineup. The facilities energy committee. Kristen, do you want to give her a review? Otherwise, I'm happy to know. You are a facilities and energy committee. I think it's two years old to the day. And the facilities and energy committee was created at a time when there was just many different facilities issues, topics and opportunities coming up. So it seemed to, I think it was really the idea of Andrew Stein, a former board member who was sort of had been on the board for quite some time and was seeing all these things coming down the pike and that it would make sense to have a committee dedicated to getting an understanding of those things, being liaisons between the board and community members that had vested interest in these various different facilities projects. So we work very closely with Andrew Larosa. Libby is often at our meetings. And we do a lot of just staying, staying apprised of kind of what's happening with the facilities since they are like essential components of how our kids are learning and experiencing their education in the district. And we were very much involved in the review of the track proposal that came from administration and we are currently working on developing a net zero resolution for the board. So yeah, so those are the two kind of big, big pushes that when we meet monthly, we have a standing monthly meeting first Wednesday of the month prior to the school board meeting. We've been working, we've been meeting more frequently as we get some finality to the net zero resolution. But I think the ultimate goal is to be meeting monthly. That's great. Current members, Kristen, Emma and Seiji, are you feeling about continuing? All okay. And assuming Jill's going to be okay with stepping off, is there anyone else who's interested in joining that committee with a caveat that I think we want to, you know, that if Jill wants to continue on, that would affect the numbers? That'd be great. Since I have a limb. I have two, that is for myself, I think I would do it though. Excellent. The final committee is superintendent evaluation, which not surprisingly evaluates a superintendent. Mia, do you want to give an overview or do you want me to? Well, I think you did it. One thing I will add is that one item on our to-do list that we need to get to is developing a self-evaluation for the board as well. Even though that's not, board isn't in our title. We've taken it upon ourselves to start to think about how do we assess how the board is doing in the main functions, you know, in our main functions and serving the community the way we're supposed to. So that's what I would add to in addition to evaluating the superintendent. I would say facilitating the process for evaluation. Which is called the evaluation committee. The evaluation committee assessment. Yes, and surprisingly the superintendent of Irish committee is not a super old committee. One might think it would be a function of the board, but it meets roughly monthly. Once we get into evaluation season, it's a little bit more frequent than that. But it's about monthly, the rest of the year. Yeah, and yeah, it's, it really kind of does a, you know, a dive into how it would be doing. We, you know, work to get some information from reports, you know, kind of looking at also school survey information, et cetera. And then we bring that to the board for feedback and for final evaluation, which yeah, is used to help Libby do her job better. And also, you know, compensation, et cetera, decisions. Right now we have three, Ret, Mia, and me. I'm certainly happy to serve Ret and Mia. You good with continuing and etiquette, you know, due to his, in fact, that he is termended. We certainly could, could have one more person on there if someone was interested. Ret, you're on four committees. I'm sure you know that already. You feel okay about that? You are on four committees. Unless somebody else doesn't feel okay about that. I feel like there's work that's being done, the finance committee. I learn a lot. I mean, I'm learning a lot. I'm not, I don't feel like I'm bringing a lot of expertise to any of them, but charging along and trying to learn. You're bringing it outside perspective. Yeah. It's a big system and the more ways I can look at it, the better I understand it. Definitely appreciate you being on, on that many committees and it also and the superintendent evaluation committee. We're also essentially reevaluating our evaluation tool, which is, we're sort of in the middle of a process of, of change. And I feel like moving away from something when you're in the middle of a process, isn't good form. Does anybody else, I mean, I, I would be, I'm comfortable with the superintendent evaluation committee. It's, yeah, all right. Sure. Unless there's somebody who really wants to do it. Learn once going to place. So what I have in negotiations committee, Jill, Rhett, me, Lynn, finance, Rhett, Scott, Jill, policy, me, Emma, Rhett, Scott, equity, Kristen, Mia, Seiji, Lynn, facilities and energy, Kristen, Lynn, Emma, Seiji, superintendent evaluation, me, Rhett, Mia. Does that sound right? Do you want to approve the committee and then we can reach out to Jill. And if we need to make an adjustment or two, they start her food back. We can use that next time. Sure. I move to approve those committee assignments as you just read them out loud. Second. Second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Any opposed? Great. We have committees and officers. We are organized. So talking about organized. And now we're going to kind of do the next step in our continuing process of our priorities and indicators for success. Coming out of the process that Nathan led. And Mia has come up with a wonderful exercise to help get us started, which is kindly not only put together, but agreed to explain. Okay. So with once again, a lot of gratitude to Nathan. We see you up there. We hope we do you proud in getting this over the finish line. We have, based on the last conversation we had, I think about a month ago, established three core priority areas. The themes of closing the academic achievement gaps, belonging safety and wellness. That's the second one. And connection and accountability with our community is the third one. So we're going to divide the 10 of us. We're not going to count Libby into this separation out. We're going to ask Libby to float between the three groups. We're going to divide the 10 of us up into three groups. Each group is going to take one of those priority themes. And the main question that we're working to answer is what does success look like within this theme? What should we be aiming for? Because that's how we're going to name these indicators of success. That's the idea. You can use the notes that Libby drafted up from the last meeting. The Google doc title is draft priorities, questions, and indicators. It was also linked in Libby's superintendents report. So if you need an easy way to find it, find it there. Those notes are from our most recent conversation where we both named the themes and then asked a bunch of questions that would help us, I think, guide us toward answering this question of what does success look like? What are our indicators of success? So we could divide ourselves up in a number of ways. We could just count off or people we could vote with our feet and people could go to the theme that they are most interested in, or I could assign you. What do you want to do? Yes, they are closing the academic achievement gap, belonging, safety, and wellness, and connection and accountability with our community. Scott, I just emailed it to your new board email. I don't know if you have access to that yet. All right. So I just emailed the link to this document so you can follow along. I'll pick number three if you're going to call out our preferences. I'd like to work on number three also. I would like to be in number one. Merrick, where would you like to go? I think number three as well. Okay. I'm going to give Scott a chance to think a little bit more since he's just opened the document. Rhett, where are you going to go? Safety. Okay. Your number two, Lynn. I could do three or two. Okay. Wherever you need. Okay. I'll do one. One. All right. So far we've got... Okay. Let's just keep going. Jim, where do you want to be? One, two, or three? I can only towards one, but I'm hearing a lot of ones and threes. So I'm feeling two is going to need that. Okay. So I'll be having you do them. Seiji, you said three. And Emma said three. And Zach, what would you like to do? I can do one or two. Whatever. All right. Why don't we take Zach in one? Because Merrick, you said three. Great. Once go over to there under American Shoes, USS Three. Three. I don't know. Right here in that middle table. And then twos gather around... Rhett, did you say two? Yeah. Gather around Rhett, if you've said two. And Scott, where do you want to go? Seiji in right now. More or less. Great. Okay. Great. So threes are in the middle here. Actually, threes notice where Seiji and Emma are, because they're right there. Okay. Where are two? So which one? I think two. One, two, and a two. Yeah. And so two is actually right where you are, right? Rhett? Yeah. And then academic achievement, we're going to be right over there. Ones. And we're going to take... What do we have here? Actually, we'll need about 20 minutes left on the agenda. Okay. Let's take 15 in these groups. And we'll probably get to the point with the groups. Hopefully, by the end of the 15 minutes, where you have a draft of what these indicators of success look like. Can we go a little longer? I think we go a little longer. I think... I don't think we're going to take like... Can we go till eight? Total. It's not... I think we're going to go to eight. Okay. I think the policy reading and the policy monitor. Yeah. I think just... Yeah. Thank you. Okay. So that's one, three, two. And we're asking Libby to float and be sort of like, if you have questions that are like, how would this show up in a school? That's a great question for Libby. Oh yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. No. One more. Yeah. Just to have your attention, it's pretty well clear, Tommy. We have... Let's take each of the quarter up that gives us about 20 minutes to cut a litter of roots and try to draft what the indicators of success are. Okay. Just to see if we have one more... I don't know. I don't think that's a big one. I'm sorry about that. Sure. Is that okay? Okay. Maybe with them. Great. So we don't have edit access, but that's okay. Yeah. We can take notes in other places. Yep. You've got it on your phone. I love it. My computer's like about to die. The computer in your pocket. I have it on my computer here. I copy and pasted it. So we can refer to... Plus some of my notes. So... Can you share that with me? Yes. Good. Oh, I like it. This is for her. Well, I mean, this is just what was already there. Yeah, but I like that you... Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Always good questions. So I did have one question, and it just occurred to me because I don't know if I missed it in the last meeting that we did this discussion. Did we talk about indicators as quantitative, qualitative? Nothing. We didn't. I don't recall that we did. I just didn't know if we had... My opinion is that they don't have to be quantitative. Yeah. Okay. I don't remember. Okay. Yep. Great. So, and the needs were the questions slash ideas that were generated by the group. Okay. So at that meeting, the questions are where are the gaps? Does the board want to zero in on a specific area where consistent focus and data over time could be provided? Where does Jedi justice equity diversity and inclusion fit into this? Does the board need student input here? Elementary, middle, high school, have very different measures. How is district defending high levels of learning? Where does multiple pathways fit? Is this where recruit, retain, and develop high quality stuff at all positions fits? Not a small... I think I just take one of those questions. So, I had done some thinking about this prior to the meeting. And I mean, I think where my mind went was just sort of, and Libby always says it very articulately, just like the predictor where like, you know, certain demographics markers are not predictive in terms of like achievement and outcome. So that's big and broad, you know, if we were to make that sort of blanket statement, that's massive and probably not achievable in a year. I don't think we said... That should be just for the year. Right, right. I mean, so if it's big and it's aspirational, we know it's just sort of like cardinal direction. Like that's, you know, the ultimate goal. But I was thinking along, you know, those lines, which I certainly think, you know, the equity piece, you know, thinking about where Jedi fits in, it certainly pulls that piece in. So that was something I was thinking about. Yeah, so I just don't know how specific, you know, we want to get. I mean, because how will we use these indicators, essentially, we'll be coming back and revisiting each year and saying, how do we do? Yeah, yeah. And along the way, because I would imagine if those indicators might inform, maybe some, they might inform the presentations that we asked for, what the board learning focus is over the course of the year. Is that essentially how we're going to use these indicators? Yeah. Yeah. I imagine that, yeah. Yeah, like data we're asking for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So I've been talking to them and stuff that. What do you think, Zach? Very good question. Very good question. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm going to pull my chair down. So I'm not imposing. For which just generally or a specific question? I mean, I think generally for the moment, right? Yeah. The idea is that we're trying to generate an indicator that through a show, we are closing the achievement gap. And I don't know if we ever defined that. I would love that meeting. So would that be through like studies conducted or using national state data for the indicators to gather those? Or do we have that already? Well, and district data. Yeah, right? We want to see how we're doing as a district on meeting efficiency standards. And maybe we would then, maybe we want to compare it to national or state data, but I think it's more about how we're doing. You're right. As a district. Okay. Libby, when educators talk about the closing the gap, are they saying, is that, is the context for that like the kids who are in various different marginalized communities are performing the same of their peers? Is that what they're thinking of? Or is it just like every kid is doing it? That's would be helpful context. So there's no predictive factor based on an identity status? Yeah. Yeah. So an indicator for this might be it might just be something like that. We strive to have zero predictive factors for proficiencies in the status. But you know, I mean, for meeting conditions, yeah, permanent efficiency for any child that are supposed to And so another another way to say that would be every child has what they know, not just what they need, but is able to meet the proficiency standard. Regardless, I make it more definitive. Is meeting is meeting is meeting. So every child is meeting proficiency standards, regardless of identity or status. It was through an exclusive angle. Because that's kind of sounds like popularity, right? Long time at school. You come to high school every day. Yeah. Right. I haven't thought about that. But yes. Right. Identity or social. And I think the other thing that is important for the board that to put here is not just achievement gap, but opportunities. I wanted to ask you about that. Who's taking advantage of the employment sector is currently taking advantage of early college? What are their, what is the identity of the kids who do that primarily? What about the identity of the kids who take advantage of flexible pathways? Or AP classes? How many kids are taking AP? The test for AP, you know, right? Are those kids? Those things I think we don't show you enough high school data and that would be good high school data. And what about, but that's more opportunity? Right. That's been achieved by necessarily, right? Yeah. Yeah. Opportunity that is correlated or causing achievement. Right. Right. Yeah. And then what about kids with disabilities? Would we, should we name that specifically? Regardless of, if you're going to say right, regardless of identity, socioeconomic status or if or just. I always put that and that is my identity. And then my identity. Okay. Yeah. I think I can at least put it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Mm-hmm. If they are depressed, they pal. And that, I would say, oh, that is. Yeah. Or visibly disengaged. I think of our times it's kids like upper middle school, high school levels, who may be feeling a lot of stress and a lot of unwellness, who are better able to hide it. And, yeah. And we, I don't think it was because. I'm not sure about it. I'm just kidding. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It's oftentimes. Kids who aren't happy aren't here. Exactly. Yeah. And that's. I think. Yeah. Go ahead. It also reflects on the in some ways on the well-being of the family as a whole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We produce the whole. Yeah. We produce the whole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I, um. Yeah. Yeah. Right. My doctoral dissertation was actually on school climate and safety and belonging. So I have, I did a lot of reading about the sorts of things, although it's a long ago. So I'm really interested in it. I think also it would be really nice to have some group discussions with kids where there was a topic specifically or some kind of small round tables. Yeah. Where kids could, it could be a little more open ended because when you do a survey, you get, it has to be set up to get a lot of quantitative data. But when you have a discussion, it's harder to deal with the qualitative data that comes in. But it's, it gives a different view. Right. Another and one of the things that we did that Amanda was especially instrumental in. Amanda is especially interested in minority and marginalized communities. And when we were trying to figure out how to spend the rescue plan money, she organized affinity spaces with neurodivergent families, BIPOC, special bed families. And maybe second language. Maybe second language. I'm not sure if low income groups were there or single moms that might have been. She might have had one would like single parent families. So, and I know that there's work that Amanda brought it forward and ended up in the write ups, but there is an affinity space in the middle school. And so that's a good place to find sort of that small group round table discussions with some of these groups if they're already established and hopefully they are, at least in some ways. I'm not sure if every group is has a functional group like a community in the school system. But I think the BIPOC groups do. We were okay. Okay. We were wondering about, well, I was wondering, and I asked last week or last meeting a little bit about how the behavioral dashboard is being used and how that's progressed because when we heard about it, it was early November and there were some differences and it was new. And just wondering, if we're trying to find some benchmarks, that might be one place where we might find some kind of benchmark. I don't know necessarily what that might look like because we also are aware of trying to reduce disruptive, trying to track reduction of destructive behaviors as opposed to tracking feelings of safety. You know, we're looking at it in terms of negative, supposed to look in terms of positive, whether a behavior dashboard even functions in a way that's not kind of identifying challenging behavior as opposed to feelings of safety. I think the behavior dashboard is going to be a new one. It might be something we bring to you as evidence of an interfere. I think that's what we're trying to identify. How do we even measure some of this stuff? So if you said an indicator that all students feel like they belong in their school system, right? It's a pretty broad statement. I could bring you student survey data. I could bring you teacher data around like every kid having one adult or two adults that they care, you know that they don't care. But like I can bring you lots of different data to show that I think you want to make with these broads or make them as broad as you can so that we can bring a variety of data to show, right? In term, I think there's a difference between the social emotional health of our students which belong in with it and this is one. Yeah. Right. So you might want to think, do you want an indicator around this? I don't really. Right. I mean, I want to know that what I want to know is that teachers feel like they have the right supports. Yeah. I think that's where the bottom is. Whatever, sir. I like it. She's put an article out saying that we're going to buy Olivia Mercedes and then we'll get a bunch of people in the meeting. I'm going to point those out. I think that's important for those. I don't know if our town would appreciate our. No. No. I'm not. I wouldn't. I'm not. And the thing is that people feel it's hard. I don't know. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. It's, it's, it's out there now. He's reminding us that we're being recorded. Yeah. We know. We know. Wait, but something that's like the right groups. How does that work? We're all being recorded at once. That's a bunch of crosstalk. Yeah. But something gets digested. What? I don't know. I want to find something. Down each school. I'm only bringing up. Oh, you're bringing like down and up. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's how I'm going to say. So. I'm going to hold on. You weren't like for full time. Fascinating. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. We don't want to spread that rumor. Okay. So we've got final survey, qualitative data, listening sessions, et cetera, tracking our communication back to folks, maybe behavior dashboard or Google survey or spreadsheet of some kind. Evidence of newsletters, podcast, front porch, forum posts, et cetera, Google analytics, perhaps on our site. There he is. Is that the question? Yeah. One of the other commit, the existing committees mentioned something about a climate survey. That is that's of the like internal not the community climate. Right. Yeah. The visioning committee was more of the climate surveys by the community. Yeah. And that's where we had all the H trying to get it. Yeah. But then, and then Mia was talking about on the evaluation committee, which is currently the superintendent evaluation committee that they're working on a board evaluation tool. So that could include the climate survey like of the board's work. I'm just like, you know what? You don't want duplicating efforts, right? And so that's why I just wanted to make sure. Yeah. Okay. Those would actually be interesting if you're like traveling or need some stuff to read. All the visioning feedback because it was it was a lot of stuff we got back from the community. I'm bad. The climate survey was interesting and we did try to distill it down to, you know, more digestible format because it was like hundreds of questions. Yeah. Well, I'm thinking specifically about like how do we measure success or what the success look like for this one. And so I'm what I'm thinking is you like if if if there is a communication this committee and that has work if you have like a longitudinal survey tool that will that will give you a measurement of success. Because you'll you'll be able to get snapshots of the community's climate over time and presumably if the community if the communications committee is successful of doing those pieces then you can show that for the survey. Yeah. And you're absolutely right. Like maybe that climate survey does not come out of the communications committee. Maybe it comes out of the evaluation committee but that we could still use it as a data point of success. Exactly. Yeah. As long as it's created with this in mind. Yeah. And yeah. To collect the data that you want to then be able to use them. I think that the communications committee idea is just definitely a really good one. Did we all talk about it before? I feel like this is the first time I'm hearing about it actually. I don't know if it's been it's been talked about like Amanda was the one that really pushed for more listening sessions and like reach you know outreach to the community and at that time we talked about like does this happen as like separate committee work or does this happen as like do we all just sort of pitch in and make it kind of and that's how we ended up doing it. No I like really like get out of my communication. So there's like it's like on the books and there's a more formalized. And there's an opportunity if there are those community listening sessions or I can't remember what kind of how you described it for yeah for qualitative data generated from those interactions. Yes, yeah. In addition to the quantitative data through something like a survey. Yeah. And even the surveys become sort of qualitative because we only get like 50 responses and they're mostly long answer. And so you know it's hard to get quantitative data of something like this. You know maybe like how many people vote for the budget? Could be a quantitative data. The survey wasn't 100 percent. Like 60 percent. Their response rate climate survey among Oh, among staff. I don't remember. I think it was around 60 percent. Right. Okay. Well, we're at our time and I'm feeling pretty good about our measures of success. They're in the bathroom. Yeah. I scare Seiji. Yeah. He was like, Libby's coming. Libby's coming. Run out. Do you want to hear our overview or do you want to wait for the big reveal? We got time. Do we? So we're talking about measures of success of the connection with community and accountability. And the main idea that we all agree with is that it's probably time to form a committee around this. Yeah, welcome. Yeah. Could be a welcome news. Yeah. Well, we're going to be unified in that. What would this committee do? Well, all of the things that are listed under that quite so, you know, making sure to hold listening sessions, following up with communications to the board, perhaps issuing a newsletter. Improving nonparent access to board materials. Summarizing meetings and reporting out to the community on that. What was the principle of? Gathering student input more systematically. What's that? The principle of psychology that you mentioned. Oh, yeah. So we talked about diffusion of responsibility. Are you familiar with that? It's like a psychological theory that basically, the easiest way to explain it is that if there's somebody that fell on the street and you're the only person walking down the street, you're going to feel responsible to help that person. But if there's a busy street in New York City, you're going to think to yourself someone else will help that person. So it's a diffusion of responsibility and actually people are more likely to sort of step up to the plate if they're the only person. And so turning it into committee work, we're hoping we'll ensure that some of these things that we've been talking about as a board, a sort of a weakness of the board will happen. It's an accountability thing. But measures of success would be potentially climate survey. We mentioned how Mia talked about a board evaluation tool on that committee, the superintendent evaluation committee becoming like an evaluation committee and not just about you, but also the work of the board. And that potentially that climate survey goes out through that committee or the new communications committee could help with that qualitative data from community via listening sessions, qualitative data from board members tracking our communication back into folks. So we had talked about like is there a way to sort of keep track of when people bring issues to us and what communication has circled back to them and keeping it in a place so that board members can know where we stand on moving back to topics that have been brought up to us. And so Seiji had mentioned is there a way for us to tap into a tool like a behavior dashboard or do we use like a Google survey or a spreadsheet of some kind? And then just general evidence of like we were doing a newsletter or a podcast or from porch forum posts or all of those things and kind of tracking that stuff. Yeah, by giving the last job. Yeah, we're running. We're coming back together. We're running. Are you ready to present? Yeah. To your colleagues. You're good. Right. So each and every one's time. Who's the best? These cats. It's me. Thank you. Thank you. We're I thought that's smooth over right there. Spare a way we could get it make it possible to see as well as here. Yeah. draft priorities questions and indicators. So whatever you've got for a draft can you email it whoever your note taker was email it to Libby and she's going to add it to this note stock so we can be looking at it as well as hearing it. That's something that is at least very helpful for me to process information. And hopefully that'll help others as well. Nice. Thank you. Are you able to do it? Group three. I did it. It's been done. Yeah. Just so Libby, she's going to put it in the notes back. Question. Would you like to present to your friend? I'm going to be happy to. Thank you. Yes. Just change it to a flash. That was the autocorrect. Yeah. Don't worry about that. Okay. Mia, can I ask what the goal is for tonight for this work? Yeah. Hopefully tonight we'll leave with these draft indicators of success. That you could. How did you lead the lead in? We will know we're succeeding when. Like you could start a sentence with we know we are succeeding when and then you finish the sentence with what those indicators of success look like. Ideally, we have that for each one of these priority areas by the end of this conversation, which we're going to spend about 10 more minutes on. So if we're not exactly there by eight o'clock, that's okay. We'll just pick it up where we leave off. But that's what we're aiming for. Okay. Kristen. Okay. Can you present for group one? Sure. So myself, Mia and Zach worked on goal number one, which we actually added to the language for that goal. And we included wording around opportunity gap. So in discussion with Liddy, talking about not only does academic achievement and the academic data matter, but do students have equitable access to the opportunities in the district like do? Are we seeing students of different identities and backgrounds accessing AP offerings and accessing co-curriculars at the same rate or percentage? So we added opportunity gap and our indicator reads, every student is meeting academic proficiency, regardless of identity or socioeconomic status and has equitable access to the opportunities they need and desire to succeed. Any initial thoughts on that as an indicator of success? Personally, I do better when I have time to read stuff. Sure. Think about it. Yep. Something that we talked about too, just like the next layer right once that indicator is say if that's finalized that the next layer would be thinking about the data that we would request from administration that would also indicate whether we've achieved that indicator. So it's a lot of indication that we realize that that would be an additional layer to get specific within that because that's big and broad. And I think a lot of this stuff is we should get that information from the equity group that we hire. I mean, they're going to ask questions about a lot of this stuff. They'll have surveys and small group meetings and stuff. Yeah, particularly around access, I think. I think as you continue to revise it, one thing I always look at for statements like this is anything that could bring in unconscious bias and so has equitable access to the opportunities could bring in some biases from staff and schools saying, yeah, everybody has access to it. So the kids to take advantage of it and that's not, but we don't want to promote that thinking in any way, shape, or form. Yeah. So that would be just some some feedback for us to consider as we're making these indicators. Like, let's not really room for excuses. The idea that these will be measured or should be measurable because this reads to me more like a mission and not an indicator. An indicator to me would be like the number of students meeting academic proficiency regardless, so on. Does that make sense? Yeah. And yeah, I think that's where we were thinking, like, yes, it's a broad statement. You know, it is it is kind of, you know, mission vision oriented. And so that the next big step would be, you know, taking that indicator and then what do it as a board, what would we be requesting from administration to really get into like the quantitative aspects of it. And we also talked about is there is there a need to hone in on a specific you know, discipline or area of learning? Like, does does it make sense to kind of showcase or highlight literacy in this piece? You know, working with the administration of like where what is achievement currently look like? You know, what is a high priority area that we make want to focus on in here as well. I think that would become yearly or five yearly, tri-yearly. That's even a term, you know, because that that could shift. You know what? I think this isn't a general umbrella document or, you know, and when we come from the beginning of the year and say, our focus this year is on blank. You know, then and all the data we're going to show you is around this. I think that's appropriate. That could change every couple of years. When I read this, I sort of think like this is always the goal, right? We always want everybody to be meeting academic proficiency and we probably always have wanted that. And so I keep going back to the idea of smart goals, the specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. And so I sort of agree with what Scott said in terms of like this seems visionary and like that I wonder if there could be and maybe this is just the next step in the process as Kristen was sort of saying, but I wonder if there could be some like scaffolding towards this vision goal or indicator of success. Like that would be a wonderful success. I mean, I think we would maybe make national news. If this happens within a year, you know, or two years or three years. And I don't mean to be like pessimistic about it, but, you know, I just wonder if there could be some more specific and time bound like we want to see a certain percentage of improvement in scores or something like that. And are we looking at the state, what is the new test? So are we going to be looking at that, which really can't be compared to anything else from the past? Are we going to be looking at our own star data? Are we going to be like, what data are we looking at? Or are we looking at kids report cards and getting a three? Is that meeting proficiency? You know, and are we in this indicator? Are we talking about my student like my two children are meeting or getting threes in all of their courses? You know, it's just it raises questions for me about it doesn't feel like a smart goal. And I thought that that's the direction that we were moving in for these. And I think that, you know, the kind of the the the focal language in this too is also regardless of identity or socioeconomic status, right? Like that's where it's like, yes, proficiency for all, but also, you know, shining a specific light on, you know, how do we how do we get data disaggregated data so that we know that regardless of identity and socioeconomic status that achievement is, you know, is on par. There is not a there is not a difference. I know I almost think that that would be a better indicator is like that reading the data. You can't there is no difference between, you know, if you disaggregate for marginalized groups. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, I think that's where we were thinking next next layer next workshop, but I and then I and then like to make it actually like more of a smarkle like maybe for like you said, focus on one for literacy for third grade. You know what I mean? Like something smaller and more achievable. Where I'm going to keep us moving. This is really great feedback for us to use the next time around group two. Yeah. So actually, I mean, I think we discussed the whole the difficulty of measuring this and also, you know, you know, you know, sometimes get what you measure. And I think because you know, because belonging and wellness are the things that I think we want to really have open. And yeah, it's a constant process. We want to make sure that our indicators are multiple and that we're very careful about what they tell us. I mean, for instance, if we have a lot of people, you know, coming in and seeing the social workers and counselors, does that mean that we have a lot of problems or does that mean that we have a lot of people who will feel comfortable accessing health and we have the resources to give them that help or that help. So is that a healthy thing or is a not healthy thing? So I think we have to be kind of careful about, you know, the indicators and how we how we look at them and I think we give them from multiple angles. You know, that said, you know, the the things that we kind of would get as I think more sources of information and I think we're going to have discussions about kind of whether we want to set goals or goals make sense. You know, just given like, you know, do we want a random number we don't want, you know, want to get under this many HHB, you know, reports and you know, does that make sense? And does that have you know, unintended consequences? The dashboard that just set up I think gives us a lot of information about in-class behavior that we didn't have before and I think we should use that, you know, as an indicator and an informer of what's going on in the classrooms and particularly in terms of, you know, behaviors that are, you know, disruptive or might show signs that, you know, people are agitated, anxious, you know, acting out, etc. Yeah, we thought it was really important for student surveys because there's a lot of things that, you know, particularly I think older students can mask. There's a lot of students, you know, there's a lot of indications that there are students who are very either anxious or depressed, who may not show it and may also be performing at high levels, but not feeling, not feeling well, not feeling settled. So, you know, student surveys on wellness and getting that information down and asking students and trying to do that in as, you know, many forms as we can. So that way, you know, students who might respond differently to different forms of information have the avenues to give them to us in a way that feels, you know, safe and, you know, anonymous to them if that's what they're looking for. And, you know, then, you know, teacher surveys to how are they feeling about the classes, you know, what are they seeing, what are they feeling. You know, attendance is an indicator. Oftentimes, you know, people who are not happy or, you know, are experiencing anxiety, depression, etc., are much less likely to be in class. So, how is our attendance looking? Youth behavior risk surveys, you know, the AOE does this, you know, Libby was telling us that the information is sometimes late and not presented in as helpful a manner as it could be, but, you know, it does give a snapshot of what sort of unhealthy risk behaviors might be occurring, you know, at the high school and that's, you know, obviously at high school, you know, an indicator of, of, you know, of wellness, etc., yeah. And then, you know, I think, and this is something that we can measure the resources that we have and the access to those resources. So, you know, and we've done a great job, I think of building this over the years, but we want to, I think, continue to build it, you know, the number of social workers we have, you know, counselors, and other things too, you know, are we providing, you know, opportunities for yoga, meditation, etc., where, where students can have some time to, you know, to deal with, you know, stress, anxiety, etc., in healthy and productive ways and ways that are supported. So, those are kind of the things we came up with. And I don't think they're nearly into smart goals, but I think we'd have to give some thought as to what the best way to fit them in this one. So, one of the things we want to do is, you know, the Hingering dashboard is a new tool. Yes. And it's, hopefully, it's helping administrators give support to teachers. And so, how are teachers understanding that tool and how is that, not just, what is it, what data are we getting from about student behavior, but how are teachers feeling about how they're supported with respect to the behavior that they're tracking now, that they weren't tracking in the same way. That's, that's the goal of the whole thing. And so, teachers' perception of that support, I think, is an important indicator. Any other Thank you, group two. Belonging group. Any initial thoughts from the rest of the board? Let's move to group three. Okay. Yeah, I think those are all great ideas for belonging, safety, and wellness. I like the idea of offering more ways for, you know, opportunities for healthy activities during the school day for kids. So, we kind of did a similar sort of like brainstorm as group two and did not articulate it well into any sort of indicator language or smart goal. But the big idea that came out of our brainstorming session was it, it feels like we've come to a point where we probably need to, I'm not saying who said this in my group, but that we probably, but we all agreed. So, we're unified in thinking that it's probably time to form a committee around communications because we've been talking about it for a while and we feel like it's a weakness of the board and unless we actually, you know, assign this to some people, it might, we might end up, we run the risk of landing in the same place that we're at now next year. So measures of success, we talked about climate survey, which we said might end up happening through the evaluation committee if we're evaluating the board's work. Maybe that committee does a climate survey of the community or of the staff, qualitative data from both the community through listening sessions and such and also just from the board members. So we all kind of have have been around. We've seen what our communication has been like. We've all stumbled or seen stuff kind of fall through the cracks or whatever and can we this time next year say that we've improved? So qualitative data in that form somehow finding a way to track our communication back to folks to make sure that we are sort of closing that loop of communication when we either get public comment or emails that we know that a response has been sent and that people feel that we are being responsive and listening to them and that if there would be a spreadsheet of some kind or a Google survey say she offered maybe there's some sort of tool that already exists like a behavior dashboard that we could like tap into and use that system that already exists to to track communication back to to folks. Also just evidence of you know the idea has been thrown around to produce a newsletter or podcasting. Nia has been doing great with her front porch forum posts and then is there if we do create something do can we track you know visits to it through Google Analytics or something like that. We talked about how Orca is such a great resource and that the videos are all there and public and Sage you had the great idea of like sometimes you have you watch a YouTube video and it has like basically a table of contents along the bottom so we're not sure what the technical limitations would be to try to create something like that for the video. capabilities okay because that because it would be so nice to align it with the agenda but maybe it's not possible anyway so those would be some of those indicators of success. You want to talk about I guess that would come through in surveys and qualitative data because I think in indicators of success is how like what not what's the reception like is everybody happy with the news they're getting but more just like who's hearing it yeah and what are they doing with it I think there's another thing to be measuring I have no idea how you do that but I think that's maybe that comes through in the climate survey and the qualitative data yeah I think so you can ask the committee members of the new communications committee should we go back on the agenda item and we might need to for that committee maybe next week two weeks yeah one thing that we talked about is because there are there are like there are some committees that have four people on them maybe we could pull people from other committees and you know if they're willing yeah I think it's I think it's yeah that's a point since you're you know what you have running board of having like a page where we a roundup kind of a roundup where we like track you know in subject so yeah of you know intense community interest and we kind of give relative constant updates and and then the biggest like concern we had about it was we put it up there and it wouldn't get populated but if you have a communications committee that could be the solution to make sure it's yeah it's moving along yeah great ideas all right I think this ends it here yes we've made a few steps forward of progress and when Jim Libby and I are talking about how to about future board agendas we'll figure out what the next pieces of work are to land these into either into you know more specific indicators of success great yeah definitely it's just super helpful thanks everybody yeah I think we've never studied that policy monitoring are d-16 proficiency-based graduation requirements do I have a motion to approve the d-16 policy monitoring report so moved so a second second any discussion I just have one question in your monitoring for it Libby you have an acronym plp what does that stand for small learning plan thank you thank you for calling me plps were a big thing all is it ever all right any opposed great and then our third reading of the d-22 selecting library materials policy I would we did not meet should we have fourth reading yeah I mean it's like I just think we need to be better about I can I can step up and help be better about like scheduling the the first third and second or second and third readings to align with our meeting schedule with the policy committee okay so that we don't just keep putting it up there with nothing new to see yeah so which is fine I mean that's yeah as I was going to acknowledge it we'll get there yeah we'll get there we can have as many readings as we need so we'll move on to a fourth reading which brings us to the executive session do you want to make the motion with a helpful handy language that Anna hopefully provided I moved to find that premature general public knowledge regarding contract negotiations would clearly play support at a substantial disadvantage of disgust in public second I was a favor any opposed second motion I moved to enter a second session with the purpose of discussing contract negotiations under the provisions of title one section 313a1a of Vermont statutes second I second I was a favor I I right we will move into executive session and to