 Do we have a public comment to start with? We haven't been assigning a timekeeper We do have a first public comment on our agenda Please unmute or if you called in use star six to unmute and Share who you are if you called in in order to ask a question or provide a comment Hello, this is Tammy. I mean, what's the meeting meeting order? The meeting came to order at 6 p.m. I'm sorry Tammy. That's all right. Thank you Okay Hearing no other Public comment. I'd like to move forward to the consent agenda Includes approving the minutes of Tuesday, January 19th From our regular meeting and then Monday, January 25th a special meeting that we held Everybody able to see those minutes. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes January 19th and January 25th Thank You Andrew. I'll second it Is there any discussion of the minutes of January 19th regular meeting in January 25th their special meeting Hey, all in favor of approving those minutes. Please say aye I Lisa I sorry I couldn't get that Sometimes it takes a minute. Thank you and the minutes are approved. There are no nays And no one to abstain. Thank you That brings us to our section for board comments. Do we have any? board comments Anything anyone would like to share I guess I would just say I mean we went through the budget stuff and But again, you know, I'll just say thank you to all the faculty and staff at each of the campuses and the administrators Everyone for for the work you're doing this year and the work you did for for the budget that we put together and I think everyone on the board, you know, I don't think we could ever say how much we appreciate all the work that everyone does So so thanks again Yeah, thank you Thank you And this is Lisa. I'm wondering if there are any Candidates running for the board seat in Royalton that we can do to If there are to get to circulate those names or that name for write-in ballots Yeah, I haven't heard any I'm wondering if Chris or Andrew or Bob have I Spelt to several people but not it, but they're not interested Is that something that we could Maybe make more public on say the Royalton Facebook page. Is it Royalton speaks? Just so that people are aware and What and how many write-in votes are needed and all of that I think I mean, I'm happy to get those conversations going but it might be more influential if somebody from Royalton is doing is posting that Yeah, I can post Thank You Andrew That's a great idea Bob. Did you launch your campaign? What did you launch your campaign is that what I just I thought that's what you were getting ready to say no Thank you Any further board board comments, I'd like to thank Jamie and I Know I'm going off the board, but I think he came into a really difficult situation and he's handled it very very well and he started with a zero-based budget and He managed to put together a budget that included teacher raises and Benefit raises the same time decrease the budget You know, it's a lot of work and Difficult job, and I I just think you've done a great job Well, thanks. I want to thank the admin team. They they've been great everyone's been great So thank everybody. It's been a complete team effort faculty staff admin Board has been unbelievably supportive to the idea as we proposed. So just thank you. Thank all of you Thanks, Bob. Well, thank you Moving on any any other board comment before we move on to the superintendent's report alright, um Is there a way that we can drop the Reports document into the chat. I was thinking about this a few minutes ago Just so that people who are following along might be able to access those a little more easily Perfect. Thank you. All right. I'll turn things over to Jamie a good evening the The last you know the last week has been Trying for certainly the the COVID response team. I got to put a shout out there to that team Shane and Reed And Susan and then the support of the other Rudd principles and Danielle Isham our nurse. I know has you know, you know offered to assist and It's been a real team effort in our teacher's ability to adjust on the fly I'm really proud of the decision we made to hit the pause button For a week and we'll talk to you about what information goes into those decision-making Metrics here in a little bit on the agenda. I added that to the agenda to talk to you about the system that we put in place around procedures You know, I I stand behind The mitigation risk that you know that mitigation procedures and protocols we have in place to decrease risk But as we've always said, it's to mitigate risk. It's not to take all risk out And with these things It's really hard To put your finger on whether or not COVID was transmitted necessarily in our building and or our bus or outside of our buildings and buses What we do know is that we have positive Rudd community members And so I know that teams have been working tirelessly since Last Wednesday Evening we got the information at about 5 30. I got a call from Shane and we were able to communicate with the community by 6 30 and so they've been working non-stop since I know no one got a break over the weekend because I Could see all the work happening around contact tracing. So I just I wanted to put a shout out to them Some other things to just know a reminder That are two finalists for the chief academic officer Physician are going to be interviewing with me on Thursday and then we have community drop-ins To ask questions and get to know about the two candidates will also be sharing a form That folks can complete and provide feedback on the two candidates that information then will be used also in regards to the Interviews they have with me and reference checks for me to forward a finalist to the full SU board next Monday For a hopefully Approval so for an interview with the the full board and hopefully an approval of a candidate I We had five candidates that the search committee interviewed all really highly qualified candidates And I'm looking forward to meeting with our two finalists on Thursday afternoon and so that's that's good news and You know, we continue to work diligently on our federal grants in our our COVID relief grants In our S or 1 and S or 2 grants the other big thing that's on the horizon Is that we have to put together a plan to deal with regression? in our response to regression and so That plan is in the works and we will need to get that to the AOE soon I'm still waiting on some additional guidance what has to be all part of the plan and then also I'm meeting with SU principals Don McMahon and Kerry McDonald on Thursday morning to discuss how we're going to approach Summer programming with a focus on addressing regression in gap-filling and so that's happening this week as well And I'll take any questions folks have right Hearing any questions. Thank you for Yeah So Jamie I heard I heard you say that we're going to open the sport season Yeah, the goal is right now tentatively we're looking at Saturday As an opportunity for us to get back on the courts And in the bowling arena, so that's still the tentative data as of right now We also did recommend that athletes go ahead and get tested And so I'm hoping that folks will take us up on that recommendation and that our athletes go ahead and receive a negative test Just to ensure as we do reopen that we don't have any issues with staying open for athletic and activities other schedules other schedules now And put together Yeah, Reed you want to speak to that? Yes, the schedules were made for the season once the governor gave us the green light for that to happen And that's two games a week And so when we when we close and we can't we don't try to reschedule and we just will finish up the existing schedule So this is going to reduce the total number of games, but we're optimistic. We can get a couple of games in What I'm just curious Reed. What how many basketball games are scheduled right now? How many would be left for the rest of the season I Think we'd be looking at six. I think that's accurate Yes, I think I'd be six for the girls varsity six for the boys varsity We didn't plan to have any middle school games because of COVID and the risk L and a lot of our You know competitive sister schools Are having trouble fielding JV teams right now? so we May only end up with two JV games is how it looks right now, but the numbers on the the squad itself may make that impossible for us to To field enough kids on both of our city and JV game the kids will end up playing both games for You know, they can play up to six quarters a day Yeah Definitely an abbreviated season for sure There's some kind of playoff at the end Six games Yes, they are planning for playoffs so you could add those on yeah, right? other other questions We can always cycle back if you think of something So we will move on now to the principal's report Again, organized by the goals that we discussed in our informational meeting previously We didn't talk about who's gonna talk during this because we plan for the budget presentation And I'm seeing like reparative practices is the spells When did we put it in like that on purpose or was it a misprint? Yeah, I think you can just read through Andrew I want to thank you for pointing out my mistake I made that mistake and the person that finds it gets a free love chocolate bar Congratulations, Andrew We addressed our three goals and like each month we update it and some of it moved from Introducing some parts like facts more focused flexible pathways model with the middle and high school to really now start building it But there's a lot of good stuff in there. And if you want any highlights on it, I'm happy to give it But I think it's probably self-explanatory Yeah, there is a lot of good stuff in there including links to the new High school newspaper, which I was excited to read So if you haven't taken a look, I know it was shared in the chat earlier But if you haven't taken a look at these reports, there are goodies So I Always appreciate that One one item that's not in the principal's report that we wanted to bring before you tonight Is the matter of high school graduation? As of as of this moment, there is nothing from the state about graduation So it it looks like we'll probably go down into the first or second week in May Before it's clear. What is or is not possible for that? my high school colleagues are planning for Everything from completely virtual graduation ceremonies to You know being able to have some type of masked physically distanced in-person graduation ceremonies Although it seems like some of them are talking about You know dividing their larger schools into cohorts to make that happen that the piece that we would ask for your input on tonight is that the graduation ceremony itself has been scheduled for the second Saturday in June as it's always been at 10 a.m But now that we've had two snow days The school year itself will extend past that graduation date Our our recommendation would be to leave it where it is The seniors will be fine Graduating on June 12th and being done But it is a possibility of moving it back a Saturday It doesn't happen until after the new last day of school. Can I add one more thing Lisa? Of course In the chat is a link to an article about outdoor education and using outdoor education in the pandemic and it's with a It's a woman from water. I wrote it and it's being in this platform called medium which was started by one of the Folks that started Twitter. It's an online magazine and several schools are highlighted But White River Valley Middle School is Clearly a focus in there and we have tons of photos in there really proud of that That came out today. That's why I'm just pushing it out All right. Thank you. Yeah, I can't wait to read it. I Read in terms of a decision about graduation. Do you need us? Like is that something you'd like action on sooner rather than later? Do you have a recommendation for one of those two things? Yeah, I'd recommend that we keep it as it is unless anybody any among you feel like we should do something differently I don't I don't really see a reason we need to change it, but wanted to let you have the opportunity, you know Ultimately your call. I Think this school year has been hard enough for seniors if families are already planning on a June 12th graduation date. I Think your recommendation is reasonable and humane Other thoughts about that I agree Yeah, I agree Do we need to formally vote or you guys know what we what we think and it's been recorded Does this a little different? I think you can absolutely take action and do it or you can just you know We just I'll move that we have graduation on June. Is it June 12 Lisa? Yes, 1 a.m. Yep 10 a.m All right, is there a second to that motion? I'll second Lisa Lisa beat you to it Any discussion? all in favor of keeping June 12th at 10 a.m. as The date and time for our 2021 graduation. Please say aye Hi Hey, any opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you, so I am thank you any other questions of the principal's report All right, we'll move along into the virtual learning Academy report Absolutely, so my report I believe went out with others And so just kind of as an update right now Or as of last Thursday, and I believe it's still true to this day There's 111 students in enrolled in grades case rate in our virtual learning Academy We are approaching the third trimester believe it or not in middle of March So a letter will go out shortly asking families that they would like to transition back to in-person learning That's their opportunity and do so Have been working with building principles to address any students that were concerned about engagement Or struggling for a wide variety of reasons, you know This can present a lot of issues of civil isolation if you're following the governor's orders of no multi-housel gathering at this time lack of engagement frequent absences we try to push those folks with the support of their family and teachers and students back to in-person as soon as possible So we don't wait for that deadline. It's other ways to look at that Um The month of January and the first week of February just like in-person students all the virtual Academy students completed Assessments including the PNOA FMP benchmark and star 360 testing We're starting to organize some of that and look at it just as a faculty and we'll present up the results So we're also going to share it, you know in with Homeschooled so they know where all their students are because eventually the plan is if everybody's learning in person. Hopefully And I did want to highlight just a couple of things as a sixth grade virtual Academy teacher of math offered this great opportunity for students to Participate in this virtual statewide math fair and there's actually three students who jumped right on that to do that and So that's great to see that'll actually be in April and I'm still trying to fully understand what that encompasses But the kids and she seemed to have a great read on it And then our second and third grade students have been learning about ecosystems and they even made their own habitat or did a food chain and they've been working with some programming from the Eco Center and Next up it kind of comes in two-week increments. They'll be learning about adaptations and Making their own organisms there's a couple of examples there and then a Lot of schools Invited kids from the virtual learning Academy to join in with like morning meeting or other Aspects of their day when the whole SU was remote that week in January, which I think was a great opportunity That's where We're at with virtual Academy. Thank you for that any questions or comments about Lindy's report Lindy, what's the what's your? What's your assessment of how it how it's gone for the year? How are how are the students doing academically? I think we're starting to hit some fatigue if I'm honest We're almost a year into virtual learning if you're a household who has chosen to do this Again this year and I think we're What I'm hearing from teachers and some families is we're all kind of looking for new and exciting ways To keep kids engaged they go through a little bit of a roller coaster, especially You know, we're indoors more as a group of people and it's not as many offerings outside socially That kids can participate in so I do think there's a little bit of like, oh, are you gonna make me learn on the computer again today? Which which is a fair assessment at this point like I said, we're almost a year into this I think teachers have been working with families families have been great about reaching out saying we've hit a wall We need some help So we've had a lot of those conversations overall There's always things we can do better like if we were starting from scratch again, I would do like a Orientation or an intro to what it takes to learn virtually in grade one and grade two and grade three They also one thing we're going to talk about as a virtual learning academy Faculty tomorrow because Wednesdays are our faculty meeting days is getting some more intervention services for some kiddos that are struggling academically And just that extra repetition of time and how that could help them succeed and make some work growth because while a lot of this is very dependent on how much support there is at home Wendy, do you have any new recommendations? If you were to do it again, you know, I think Recommendations if I can do it again, then I had an unlimited budget and an unlimited staff I'm gonna put those preferences out there because I know everybody is stretched then think this happen is I would say it'd be Beneficial to have a special ed case manager that's just assigned to the entire virtual learning Community because we're really trying to juggle quite a few schedules To make make certain every kid is getting their services that needs it I Would also say I think we need to be much more particular or specific about You can't just sign up To participate in the virtual learning Academy. I know that Up until this point and you know Stocksburg Rochester went through exactly what you guys are going through now with gold Before Christmas vacation, but up until this point we've done really well with in-person learning and we just know that that's Successful. I understand folks concern, but I'd like to see more and more folks kiddos coming back to in-person learning and just If it's not successful at this point for your kiddos then it We really have to have a real conversation about whether you should be able to come back in if we're doing this moving forward because just hindering their success and What we can help manage in person that we can't virtually all the time In same with having like an interventionist just to sign the virtual learning Academy I think folks are like I said just stretch then we're all trying to close gaps as quickly as possible and There's needs everywhere And I know this question wasn't for me But I do also on a way in because I feel like I get to dabble in both worlds when we go virtual or when we plan to go Virtual or when we just get to do it But I think our teachers have done such an amazing job like on the fly Putting together the Google classroom and all these things, but I think what could be hard for a parent is My kids third grade Google classroom looks different than my first grade kids Google classroom Because we didn't have enough time for teachers to really sit with each other have some great PD around this It was like trial by fire like quick hurry put it together So if I was to be in charge of the world and do this again We have a lot more learning opportunities for teachers ahead of time and we've grown so much just you know because we had to But I think that ease of access maybe isn't always there for some parents just because of the way we had to put things together in a quick manner Right, and then the last piece I would just say it's socially Really worried about kids socially they are craving more social time That's what every teacher has reported out to me that it's like, okay guys You have to go to your next thing or do and and they don't want to get off because it's the only time they're getting to interact with other kiddos and So we're providing those supports in doing that, but that's those are kind of all things There's this nice running list that we talked about as a staff every week like if we could do this all over again What do we need to keep in mind? and those are things and That are there and I would also say the focus is on literacy and mathematics but there's kids who need more and They need more science opportunities. They need more social studies opportunities and Just making sure that we make that back to point of emphasis and it's built into the plan as well Thanks On the social front today was the day that the world's in a battle kids were supposed to be with their homeschool Classes and that got snowed out so if we could reschedule that that'd be great. I know we're gonna before front. I know I Spirit week kind of got poo-pooed Do you guys ever try to have like a virtual recess or a game? Time they've done like lunch bunches is what I would call it where Different teachers or para educators are offering time for them to just be there and there's an adult Monitoring how we're using technology in the Google meaning is the way I'm gonna word that But the kids get to be kids and socialize. I just think Like I said earlier, you know winter makes it harder and because they can't gather outside of this Getting tougher and tougher for kiddos On a more positive note Andrew some of the kids are still connecting tomorrow because tomorrow is not going to be a snow day, right? You know go in with their Yep, I am my third grader at Roylton is connecting with Okay, Bethel campus and so you were focusing on VLA is that correct Andrew? Yeah, so it's just sorry about that Thank you. Okay. Now. I got it. I apologize. Thanks Exciting though that those connections are happening Okay, I do think it's cool that kids have extended their friend network because they've all been put together Virtually and it happened organically even if it was through a computer screen They've made friends with some kiddos. They may not interact with with high school and I do think as many elementary schools that have school choice 7 through 12 hopefully that's a benefit or an attraction that they have some friends in some other buildings And maybe direct some kids towards Bethel and Roylton in the future Thank you All right other questions Yeah, yeah So this might be more for Jamie, but You know You know the governor has you know made different sort of you know He said like he'd like to see all kids return to in face by like I think it's moved a couple times But now I think it's like April I mean, where do we see you know sort of on the ground things? You know the progression. I mean I think right now, you know, I think you know I'm guessing his goalpost will continue to move and it'll depend on the On you know vaccine rollouts and availability and things like that, but I mean, what do you all see for it? Are you saying when I would expect All students to return and I offer a VLA Chris, right Well, I I've committed that we would do at the rest of the year. I've told staff that for predictability and And so I was not intending to not have VLA operating The Winooski Valley soups we've talked a lot about the importance of maybe a regional approach with this So we had all commit committed that we would continue with our virtual learning academies for this year And then look to come back to in person for next fall is the goal And so you know what I think our what I'm projecting is is that we would be fully in person next fall But also offer pathways and things of course Because even prior to COVID some students especially at middle high school might access a big chunk of their learning via virtual means and So that we would still offer, but we would look to have students back in person next fall Thank you for that any other questions related to the virtual learning academy before we move on to our business managers report Right. I'm not seeing any so Tara All yours Good evening everyone You have my report Ray if you want to project their revenue and expenditure summary I can go over that with you all So at the finance committee level they had requested that I add a column Into the summary that shows what was in there last month versus what I'm projecting for this month So you can see the differences So you'll see there on the revenue side that I have changed the tuition projection from $643,166 to $622,073 and that is a result of a student moving back into the district that will no longer be Tuitioned and we have another student that we've been notified That's not a tuition student. So that's the two changes there and Then I've updated Ray if you could scroll down just a little bit further The other update there is the COVID reimbursement to match the expenditure side And you can see we're still projecting a surplus for the current fiscal year of a hundred and seventy three thousand two hundred and ninety dollars Ray if you could go to the second page and I can go over the expenditure changes, please Thank you So there is where the COVID costs have been updated from the 172 to 90 to the 203 171 and Then I have added in on review of the expenditure report that it looks like we've got some projected savings under our equipment line of $8,500 so that's been added in there, too And those are the only two changes that I made for the month of January. So if there's any questions Try to try out the raise hand feature So just clarification on the tuition students, how does the tuition work? Does it is it just based on like where the students in the year at or You know, I'm more used to like I guess the college sort of financial structure where you pay by the semester So, I mean, you know, if a student is out, you know They're a tuition student for the first half of the year, but then say they move into the district Is it just that, you know, that there's no You know payment for the first half of the year then or and it all goes away or or how does that work? I guess that tuition is prorated based on the date that they enroll or disenroll or unenroll So you all do just sort of like a back calculation, you know, so we do bill out two semesters So we bill first semester and second semester and then if there's any changes made within that semester We adjust the tuition as we've been notified Okay, and so is that 35,000 is that based on the, you know You know the bill back stuff or is that just based on, you know, a full Tuition value of a student, you know, or what it is per pupil costs. There is a still a few students We don't have residency verification on so there's still some students that aren't counted there And then the student moving out wasn't wasn't very long into The seat this the school year that they moved into the district So we'll have to credit back the school for the tuition that they paid for that difference And then the other one was taking out the full cost of the student because they're not a tuition student Right other questions for Tara Thank you, and thank you for adding that additional column and all the work you've done on the budget You're welcome Hi That brings us to a report from our facilities committee So we've had two meetings at this point Where we've we've been looking at building priorities for the two campuses Don't have a big full report for you tonight but we're trying to Trying to assess what might be needed in both buildings in the three to five year horizon So we can have a kind of shovel ready list For when there's some federal infrastructure money, hopefully in the next couple months To get some of those projects going Along with that Chris has has been really engaged in some of the conservation work Chris, I don't know if you want to talk about what you've been been looking at a little more deeply So yeah, I mean I guess you know one of the things you know when you're looking at energy usage and buildings and stuff It's always good to go and look at the electric bills. So So read And the people I believe at the business office were able to get together the I Don't know if it's like the past year's worth of electric bills I haven't haven't gotten too far through them yet, but I guess they got far enough I mean you just look for things that that are different from from year to year and month to month and You know, hopefully get to the point where you know, you start to get familiar with it enough that you can start saying Okay, well, what happened, you know, what changed from last month to this month or whatever So, you know started looking at that, you know, we maybe caught something already With the looks like lights at the baseball field in Bethel potentially They've been it's like they've been maybe on for the last three months or something There's there's been a bill for those baseball field lights these last three months when normally there isn't any bill in the winter time For baseball field lights and the in the amount of electrical usage way exceeds what we would typically see like in the summer time or when when the fields might be being used for sports, so It's like four to five hundred bucks a month is what the current bill is coming in at for the last three months. So So, you know small things like that where it might just be something that's on and just need to flip a switch You know, and and you see that in buildings a lot where things change and Something just goes to like a default on position and then you start pulling more electricity. So And Yeah, we'll keep looking at it You know looking around just at the the campus bills and trying to get familiar with them and and seeing what the What the rates like and at the campus level, you know getting familiar with like the rate structures and stuff because we pay You know Visitentially we're used to paying for our kilowatt hours of usage But here, you know for commercial scale we pay for our our kilowatts of demand also So like what's your instantaneous draw on the grid and basically what we pay for in terms of demand charges is about equivalent To what we pay for for like our just energy usage So, you know those instantaneous demands equal to about, you know, 50% of our bills So, you know if there's things that we can do to reduce demand That's going to save energy both in kilowatt hours, but also in KW And we've been talking about other ways that we might be able to engage students in Some energy conservation projects around the school looking at the environment and virus on group and that science science It's not the science that's on but some of the groups on campus including environmental science class it could pick that up What we're seeing at the high school level is it That there's not as much Engagement with students in the extracurricular activities like that that we do have so where numbers are down to With a couple exceptions we we may not be able to pull that together this spring, but certainly would would look to it in the fall and You know kind of projecting where we'll be forward forward hopefully two or two months from now we'll be able to come forward with a Report saying these are our facilities priorities for the board to review and approve As we move forward that that might be a little optimistic that we'll get there that quickly, but Before the end of the year certainly yeah Yeah, it would be nice at the school levels if there can be some sort of like you know Student and teacher and staff involvement, you know and have like you know an energy committee or have a club I was talking about a couple years ago I remember when Dalton Gomez was still a teacher in Royalton. He had like an environmental science group that was looking at some different energy Efficiency things and they actually had come up to Vermont Tech one time and and visited and talked about some stuff like you know Trying to come up with an idea for like a wall for that Breezeway area by the gym to put up in the winter time and help cut down on the amount of cold air coming into the buildings When those doors are in use and stuff So, you know, yeah, if we can make it educational and interactive for for the students and Everyone else in the building, you know, that goes a long way to help with you know energy conservation And engages our students. That's awesome. All right Thank you for that any other questions for our facilities committee I'm still trying to figure out what the lights at the Bethel ball field are all about because I don't think that's been a thing my full life I Think what you're thinking is because it was used as a staging area for some of the town Construction that maybe they got turned on by the town and never get shut off, but that's preliminary Yeah, and we'll get to the bottom of it. Okay. Thank you Well, luckily it comes on a separate bill from the rest of the school or else you would never know Thank you for catching that Okay, so that brings us to our Review and discussion of the informational meeting I put this on there just to see if you guys want to discuss any adjustments in your approach or anything So I thought it went fairly well it'll be smoother next time but anything we should add or No, I think going over the warrant Maybe earlier in the meeting better and Remembering introductions up front Yeah, yeah, I would suggest. Yeah remembering remembering the introductions first We seem to forget that every year and And then yeah, I would suggest maybe do the warrant second after the introductions and then go into the The more informational piece last potentially, I don't know if that's how we originally envisioned it but it might make sense since like the The total caught you know the approval for the for the budget You know it was like one either the last or second to last article and so then doing the presentation after that might make the most sense Well, I think what might make sense is is we do the presentation and then show the ballot at the very end Because like it was kind of abrupt at the end anyway, like when I finished talking about the taxes never just gonna Stop so having like here's the ballot. This is how you vote at the very end and we have questions Yeah, what if we have the ballot at the beginning and the end because sometimes people leave early and Then we'll make sure that everybody gets exposed to it I mean and just recognizing that this is new that we're not having you know, just a We're not having a town meeting. This is what's happening. This is what's gonna be on your ballot when you go in to vote This is what how you're gonna see it normally we would have done this on the floor just that kind of a description to Make people like oh, yeah, okay, that makes sense But I think also an opportunity at some point to have any candidates that are wanting to be written in To have an opportunity to introduce themselves Or if they're not able to be there if we have anybody that you know any names We want to share so that people can go and vote and write those names in again the 30 name minimum To be considered etc And hopefully that'll be you know, we'll know all the names by the time the 1st of March comes along because voting will be the next day But it'd be great to have that somewhere in the agenda Thank you, Ray. I just want to make sure that I can share the slides You talked about the video, but I want to make sure that it's okay to share the slides as well the presentation slides like on Facebook or from corporate forum in addition to the video from tonight's meeting I feel comfortable with that Great Yeah, and then I don't know if it would be needed or not But just you know, maybe some sort of mention that you know again the March 1st ones might look slightly different or something Or you can just we're gonna say, you know, but those are specifically the slides from from today's meeting Right and the meetings will always look slightly different because we have different people showing up and asking different questions Thank you for the opportunity to do that reflection So our virtual learning versus school closure during inclement weather, we're asked to put this on the agenda So maybe you want to take the lead on that? Yeah, I can just speak to the decision-making process that went into it We originally were planning to go with virtual learning days if we had inclement weather day In the feedback that I received in general Both from some teachers but also as students and From community members was that they didn't really appreciate that approach and so that they Were preferring to have a traditional snow day And I also heard from some board members about that at the next SU meeting after I had made that decision And so I weighed that information and then also thought about Kind of my own personal experience When my partner's children who have had virtual days on inclement weather days, and I can't say that necessarily I was really pleased with the engagement levels that were happening and in my own personal Experience with my partner's children. So I took that into account too and decided about if we're looking at Trying to fill gaps with the regression In regards to a recovery plan that I would That I value students being in the classroom for a full day, even if it's in June versus a virtual day during a snow day and so That's the that's what I used to make the decision to go back to traditional snow days or inclement weather days I Received positive feedback today even from some red families who said they were happy that I stuck by the decision Even though that you're already in a virtual mode And allowed for a traditional snow day. So If you look we're kind of split all over the place with this decision across the state a Us superintendents can't seem to always get an alignment on how we handle it Chinton County had a they had a lot of them were traditional snow days in Manuski Valley I'm the only one that's doing a traditional snow day as a superintendent And then if you look at the 91 corridor, they were pretty much all traditional snow days. So It's a little bit all over the map. I will tell you that I Think that the positives outweigh then the negative the cons or the negatives to go about it this way in the sense of I Really value the fact that we're gonna have students in person In June and I think that's good for our students And I think that we can provide really high quality instruction in June and In a safe way because we'll be outside as well Like we were in the fall So those are all things that I took into account to make the decision to go back and I felt like now I did make no sense Even though we had Rudd was virtual I did not want to confuse folks more and so that's why we still went with a closure today Even though we were in a virtual mode of learning Because I felt like it would just show that you could predict that if there was inclement weather that it would be a typical closure It was one more stressor, you know to add to the list of stressors that we all deal with right now That we did have a district virtual when there was inclement weather, but I felt like I just needed to stay consistent and predictable for families Jamie, I think it's a mental health day For faculty and kids I'm all in favor of it Thanks mom Yeah, I agree. I think the snow days are good I do think like it looks like we might have another one on Friday, maybe Two-hour delay at most Andrew two hour delay at most there we go. Can we do virtual two-hour delays? Yeah, so they would be the same. Yeah, we would do virtual two-hour delay, too And I would communicate that I had it all written out for today I don't know if you notice I did get one superintendent to stick with me CVSU Superintendent Suzette Ballard we we held out till this morning. We were up at 10 of 5 doing our checks Seeing if we could hold out for a two-hour delay, but we weren't successful. We didn't feel like we could pull it off, but Yeah, we would do the same with virtual Andrew I guess what I would say though is if we do have too many more, you know Like look at what day you would want school to end and if we go past that Switching back. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, that makes sense. All right Rodney you raised your hand. Yeah Actually had quite a few people comment to me about the snow day and it's pretty split a Lot of people like the snow day idea and a lot of people don't so it's It could go either way truthfully I had one person that liked the first snow day and didn't like the second one, you know, so So I really don't know I guess it's I do have to say my own child was pretty excited to have a snow chair It's no day today Even though, you know, it's like she liked school work, but was happy to have the day off too. So So I guess it's okay either way Thank you, Lisa I was also thinking that for the staff as as Bob was saying, you know just for Emotional well-being I'm sure that they could really benefit from having a snow day So I know that my kid was really looking forward to it being a snow day But I was thinking more of the teachers and how I'm sure that this would really help them out as well Yeah, I think with their own child care needs And in addition to that we're not guaranteed power on a day with heavy wet snow And what's so much happening in the virtual world that can be really hard if your power goes out Once again with COVID there are no easy answers for anything, but thank you for doing your best in this situation All right, our COVID response is up next Shane love I Guess I give a quick update as to what's been going on in Rudd since last Wednesday As Jamie alluded to earlier in the meeting we did receive notification early in the evening on the 10th that there was a known COVID positive case within the school We immediately Transitioned into seven days of virtual learning Because we know that it's going to take a full seven days to really Wrap our hands both around the contact tracing and then making sure that those contacts have had time to Quarantine and then test out to see if we have any additional positive cases and With us with that That seven days would have been up on Wednesday and being so close to the vacation that just made sense to extend that through this week So tomorrow will be Seven days since we've closed and our contact tracing has gone throughout the weekend and we do have Some contacts that were identified That won't be eligible to test out until tomorrow so we'll still be waiting to Hear about those test results towards the end of the weekend early into the weekend to see where things are at The agency of education in the health department have reported that we've had five Total cases that were deemed to be infectious while they were in school so I can say that Our contact tracing efforts have been really good at predicting Who those positive subsequent positive cases work and so That's a that's a good sign positive sign that the systems that we have in place are Effective and working as they're designed We will need more time to really See how this situation ends and then be able to get with the health department to do a thorough analysis of What happened are the things that we could have done better or different? I can tell you even though the COVID response team has been Piracy doing contact tracing They're not health department officials and we are not privy to and have the information that they do So it it's frustrating work. It feels like we're trying to put together a puzzle with about half of the pieces And so a lot of the questions that people naturally have about when we're and how We may never get Some real clarity around those answers, but hopefully With time and through collaboration with the health department We'll be able to kind of analyze our practices and Help things went and see if there are any adjustments That we need to make and do so going forward. Does anybody have any questions? You are an easy crowd This is Lisa. I've got a question so I'm assuming that based on the contact tracing if You think you know who was testing positive then anybody That they might have interacted with those people would have been contacted. Is that correct? Like if my kid wasn't contacted then I don't need to worry about Whether or not she was exposed. That's correct. We do all the It's what's called a line list and all the contact tracing for people within the school building When we when we do those interviews and outreach, we're not Asking beyond the school day. It's really looking at in-school interactions from bus ride Co-curricular activities and throughout the school day And I can tell you that we've been able to complete that line list contact tracing and notification And we do it generally within about 14 to 15 hours from getting the notification of a positive going through all the identification and and connecting with identified contacts and that's generally because we find out later in the evening And connect with folks by the next morning. Thank you. All right, we also have a question from a community member Shannon you raised your hand and Tammy It's not public comment, but we haven't had very much public comment. So I'm willing to entertain Questions now if that's okay with you All right. Sorry. Yeah It pertains specifically to this though, I I think there's a lot of concern in the community The fact that there are now five positives. That's that's certainly new news to me Can you comment at all on the five positive cases? Are those people you would have? That that would have been found by contact tracing of this original individual were there any surprises and Can you contact it? Can you comment at all on? For those of us who haven't been contacted as parents I think the concern out there is maybe I wasn't contacted or maybe they just missed my kid So how do we know that everyone who needs to be contacted is being contacted? without Anyone telling us, you know, we'd like to know I think parents out there have been talking about this and want to know Which campus was it? Which building was it and I don't think it necessarily Breaks any laws to give out that kind of information just the general logistics. We're already saying it's in our district I don't see why it's Breaking a privacy rule to say which building it was in So can you comment on those things? well to your first question I would say that It is possible that we Have I maybe not identified somebody that would have been a contact? It's also just as possible That these cases aren't actually connected and so when I talked earlier about Trying to put together a puzzle with about half the pieces It's really the health department and their epidemiology team that needs time to sift through and analyze Not only information that we provide them from the line list, but also those individuals community contacts additional exposure risks And then based on that information they make a determination as to Their best guess where transmission occurred so we're really too early in the process I think to Speak to that and I really would want to Allow the health department to continue to do their work and for us to be able to Kind of talk talk through that with them So in Shannon the other question you had was The building and this is on the department health's website the the five cases are all at the high school So if you know folks in the elementary schools and middle school wouldn't have been contacted because there are no known cases there And and the decision to close all of the Rudd schools Is because of really how interconnected the two campuses are with both shared staff buses Siblings and households across campuses So it really was important for us to hit that pause button And then really to have those next seven days to look at where where are the contacts? And what might be secondary contacts beyond that so that's why we've gone with the district-wide approach And certainly something that that folks have wired about When we shut down and I'll just jump in we made a decision as a covert team across the SU after our What we learned from Rochester Stockbridge that we would approach this by district just because of the Just cross, you know community spread that could occur within the communities But then also just because folks anxiety levels But really high and so it just made sense that if a district had a confirmed case that we would hit the pause button When the entire district and not just the one building I do think providing information Would have been usable Prevented And Without The issue we really had and to just speak to the why is that we didn't know how far reaching this was going as we were Contact-racing and so what I didn't want to do is say it was just limited to the high school We were suspecting that it could have been further and then the next day say actually now it's spread to this other campus and so I wasn't comfortable doing that and And part of that what we criticized my last doing was the same as on one campus And then we found out there was community spread to the other and folks thought I was withholding that information and so You know based on what we found out from Rochester Stockbridge at that moment early on we decided to approach it across the district Because what we ended up finding out was we actually had positive cases across both campuses But we didn't realize it at day one and then when we went to report out on it folks thought we were withholding information possibly Thank you, Tammy you have a question My question is twofold The experience that you had with the other district in our supervisory union and you have potentially allowed enough time for The health department to do their kind of I don't know root cause analysis Shane your words were better than mine But to kind of look back with clear glasses to identify that when will we be at that point? Will that be like 30 days out or two months out? No, I don't I don't think it'll be that long I think towards the end of this week. We'll have a pretty good pretty good handle on where things are at And then if not by the end of this week the end of this week over the vacation should be able to Really be able to analyze what happened and if there are any additional things that we need to either emphasize or put in place And I and I say that and the reality is that we're dealing with a global pandemic We have done really well as a supervisory union as a school district With the level of in-person learning that we have without needing to shut down This Isn't necessarily You know, we're not gonna necessarily find out that there was a smoking gun or or something that broke down or went wrong This is just some of the risk associated with Covid and it's a very difficult disease because it spreads both from asymptomatic individuals and Pre-symptomatic before people start to notice that they have any symptoms I can tell you that the nursing staff has worked tirelessly all school year long communicating with family members and You know, the community doesn't know about how many Situations were potentially prevented Or kept out because of some of our practices and our health screenings and things like that but I would say that the community as a whole has done very well at adhering to following the guidance working together being responsive being transparent with the schools So You know, there might not be a lot to learn from this in the end except The the science continues to evolve and grow. I'm hearing New recommendations from CDC about double masking and things like that that we certainly will be looking into So I think we continue to learn about this as we go through the pandemic so Great, can I ask another question? The second question is I'm trying to follow Vermont and faculty getting vaccines and What I recognize is that the Pfizer vaccine has a three-week Period of time between the two boosters the Moderna vaccine has a four-week period of time between the two boosters And then there's a new one Johnson and Johnson have faculty at all started to receive those vaccines Okay, the nonverbal from Jamie is no so thank you Yeah, it's frustrating at originally the teachers were going to be higher up on the on the Like the 1b at one point it was stated in a superintendents meeting My sense is that based on the fact that data was showing that school transmission was less Likely and more positive outcomes around that data versus community spread. They decided to not have teachers as high up In regards to their order of vaccinating I also would say though, I think The non-political Response to that could have been they didn't have enough vaccine to know how they wanted to prioritize vaccinating educators That's my take on it. No one has said that I'm reading between the lines on that But I do know part of the issue has been Endability to access vaccine. I also say one of the frustrations for us around the Department of Health is They we don't get notified of what they confirm the number is Prior to them releasing it. So the first time I heard the number five was confirmed Was when the valley news contacted me this this afternoon? So it's not like we have that information and not releasing it once we receive it We didn't find that out from the Department of Health the Department of Health posted it and we I found that out from media So that certainly is is a frustration as well around the two-way communication Following up on what Tammy just said we're school counselors able to be vaccinated because that's a population that I thought was able to become Vaccinated and my hope would be that as they open that up to people that we You know, we've definitely been promoting the vaccine to our our health officials like our nurses And I believe that some of our mental health counselors have taken advantage of that and pursuit it Thank you. All right other questions for Shane Oates our COVID coordinator while he's still here. I'm not seeing any Thank you. Thank you Thanks Alright next we have student board member in the past we occasionally had a student board member So just thinking about whether we want to be at that position We did have some students who were coming regularly, but I think it's harder to Potentially spend a day and promote classes and then hop on a remote meeting So that's about that You know, I just jump read has allowed me to fill my student bucket a little bit by letting me meet with some of his seniors And so that's been helpful for me to remind me about why I'm doing the work. I'm doing And so there's been some students in that group. I've been meeting with it's actually the NHS Who I've been talking about how do we increase student voice and What type of strategies could we look to build for structures for the future? And so one of the things some of them had been student board members and One of the things we talked about was you know as the superintendent. I could assist Creating a structure that we could present to boards around the role of the student board And so, you know, one of the things we talked about is you know regular maybe bimonthly reports that are tied to you know, some type of School culture and climate plan that they could talk about what initiatives are they taking to increase the positivity Across the campus at Rudd One of the other things we also talked about too is how do we increase student voice at younger ages? So the idea being maybe that there's student membership at a middle school level to it some at some level And so we also talked about what are the means about who's chosen to be a student board member and having a pretty clear Protocol and procedure for how that happens. So I I've been able to talk to them and get some ideas I think that they're excited to share some thoughts that they have later this spring And so that they could leave some of these things in place For underclassmen for years to come knowing that they wouldn't are taking this because I think we most of them are all seniors Yeah, national and society's So but certainly maybe set up some structures as we move forward So, you know what I think I'm looking for is some guidance from the board and what Reed's looking for is whether or not the board's willing to commit to The idea of like making them have a real voice on the board and some real purpose And so that's what I was hoping to gauge and if there's an interest then in the future We could bring to the board what the students proposals were around the board Excuse me of the student board member But I didn't want to do that at the board said I don't know if now's the time to to indeed in that work, so I'm really interested in that work I do think the model that we've had where the student board member would come and Act in sort of an advisory capacity. I Just have felt badly over the years for students who look super bored for our whole meeting So that makes me wonder about some sort of entity almost similar to the facilities committee or the finance committee Where their mission is around culture and climate and they report to us, but they don't necessarily have to come to the whole meeting. I Don't know what other people's thoughts are but that's just what my feeling has been for a long Well, not a long time but the times that we've had student board members and also it feels hard because we have one or two students Representing, you know, the whole student population there And I would say that we have yet to have a student board member who is not an academic young woman I That's a bad thing Yeah, I guess I would be inclined to agree that Yeah, I'd like to see like a high school council like a couple students out of each grade and Yeah, I may have a committee with I don't know. Yeah, and report. Like you said it is born from this whole meeting and but if they could just Yeah, come in and You know make a statement and then you know, I guess they ever wanted to but I'd like to see it You know for the whole high school not just you know, not just to see Pretty interesting to think about So I was just agreeing that I thought that I like Rodney's idea and if they came and presented as Representative from their committee and we give them time at the beginning of the meeting and they tribute and Say their stuff and if they want to stay for the rest they can but at least they'll feel like they've had a purpose of being there as it's Really representing this new body Also, I think it would be interesting for them to bring ideas for things. They think we should be focused on to us and then if there was something he had specific questions about to Make requests of that group and of course that would be important And I love the idea of a middle-level group. I don't know what's possible at the elementary school but it would be really One of the things we've been talking about is in order to foster student voice We have to make certain we're setting up the prerequisite skills throughout the Continual grade right like I don't think it's fair to just say all of a sudden you had high school and now you have a voice and choice Like I think we have to do a better job of fostering So one of the things we've been doing a lot of talking about is is how do we foster that at earlier grades? Specifically as fifth grade and up through middle school so that when students get to ninth grade They're used to having some voice and choice and some control in regards to what happens in their schools That makes sense All right other thoughts on this Okay, Andrew I go that I'm happy to have student involvement in the board meetings and and you know You guys can see what structure and Stuff makes sense No, that that's enough info for us to keep working on. That's great Great. Thank you That brings us to the night twenty twenty nineteen twenty twenty audits Assuming that's Tara Yeah, I emailed you all the second draft of the audit So you have that and now we're just waiting for the auditors to finalize The SU assessments for each of the member districts and then the final audits will be issued and then I'll present that to you for acceptance My expectation is within the next ten days but We'll see other questions related to the audit or the audit timeline Did you guys have any questions about what we saw on the audit prior that we sent you and if anyone that wants to sit down with Tara Tara, I'm not trying to speak for you, but I know I've heard you offer this to them in the past Please reach out and then she'll meet with you individually if that's helpful Absolutely Jim may have and looked at the I haven't looked at the school audit yet But I did look at the central office on it. Have we talked about that? It was brought up at the last meeting, but it will also be on the agenda for Monday For the full estimate board, I just want to let the board know if you haven't looked at it that you should And it talks a lot about Keeping Keeping track of who's working for what grant and how many hours and if we don't If we don't meet the requirements of the grant then we could end up paying it back Just so everybody understands Those are the time certifications That are requirement of the grant and we have put some pretty solid practices and procedures in place Those are all submitted to me on a regular basis now for a review And we are also doing at the recommendation of the auditors we're doing a quarterly review of the time certifications to make sure that the staff that are being funded by federal dollars are Doing the times that they're supposed to be doing that's all fine and good except in 2020 it didn't happen and That's the problem could be a problem for it could be a problem for us right Those procedures were not in place until this fall, right? I'm glad they are now, but it could be a really costly mistake read Other questions about the audit or all right Next the audit is again under action or possible action items Feels like there's some overlap there Well, I mean my hope was that the auditors would have the other Remaining smaller districts completed so that we could take action on this one But what we're waiting for is the other smaller districts audits to be finalized to ensure there's no you know Movement within there that would adjust what we assess you out at the SU for the deficit. So That's that's why it was there. I was hopeful All right, well, thank you for that Somebody else want to jump in sorry, I navigated away to the agenda All right, that brings us to new hires No new hires at this time that's just a placeholder. We don't forget it Okay But I would like to take the opportunity. I apologize Under new hires. Andrew. Can you talk about Jenny, please? Jenny has given her letter of And actually has already retired as Of a few weeks ago. She's staying on per diem with us because she's fantastic and doesn't know how to say no And helping me through things More in this sort of format than in person So we did do an article in the Herald And the climate committee on the South Royals and campus met to talk about how to celebrate her on her way out And the way that she'd feel most comfortable to because she's I think kind of a more private person So, you know, so we put her name right on the fronts of the school saying congratulations on your retirement and The kids had a lovely Send-off where we all stood and lined the hallway and we called her down to the one of the classrooms So she thought she was going to help a kid and then all the all the kids handed her a nice card and we you know Cheered for her. So it was lovely So yeah, so she is we're gonna do the rest of the year with just her per diem and Have advertised and we'll figure out on filling this position for next school year That's the plan Thank you Too bad that she retired. I'm happy for her though if this is what she chose Thank you for celebrating I want to just put a shout out I'm so appreciative that she continued to be there as a support for us Yeah, you know, one of the things when she approached us about it I was concerned about is you it's really difficult to find a high-quality candidate this time of year, right and so Certainly wanted to support Jenny wishes But also recognizing it didn't make sense to post To try to find out, you know a long-term sub or something so Andrew felt like she can maneuver staffing around and With Jenny assisting us at per diem we can we decided to move forward without filling the position for this current year Thank you Lisa we've had some teachers that have retired Um past year we haven't really recognized or done anything for and I think about the South Royalton group. I don't know about the Buffalo group But I asked Reed if he would get a list of those people is he on the one? Yep, he's still here. Okay Say that again. Oh, yeah, right I've talked to the other principles about that and we're working on All right, okay, I think I only knew of a couple from last spring But yes, I think it's worth worth recognizing them and making sure that just because they retired during the pandemic They aren't recognized any less than they would have been at a different time Thank you So that brings us to our second and final section of public comment I know that Shannon moral Cornelius has joined us She has recently launched a right-in campaign for the open Bethel seat that will be vacated by Rodney Rainville so Shannon I Wanted to give you an opportunity to Share a little bit about yourself. I think mostly we're down to people who were on the previous meeting But I just thought this might be a good opportunity and also an opportunity for us to say that we haven't heard about anybody running a writing campaign for the Royalton seat that Bob will be vacating. So if you know of anyone who might be interested They have to hit at least 30 votes in order to be selected as a right-in board member So Shannon, I I'll turn things over to you if you want to share Sure, so my name is Shannon moral Cornelius. I was on the board previously And we moved from South Royalton to our permanent home Settled in in Bethel. So I had to give up my seat just because I moved over town lines I I think I'm Facebook friends with nearly everybody who's still here. So everybody's probably seen except maybe Bob but I am Facebook friends with your son but so I have And just hope to serve again So yeah, that's me and then Lisa my I guess my question was since this is still public comment, too If there if I weren't to get 30 votes or if someone didn't run from South Royalton Didn't get 30 votes. Will the board then be asking for volunteers to us to appoint someone How is that going to? Yeah, I think and and Jamie or Tara could correct me if I'm wrong because they've been in closer contact with the town Corpse more recently. I think That we would need to ask for letters of interest from people and it would be another appointment if No single writing candidate received the or hit the 30 vote threshold So we would start And I do think the spelling counts. I wanted to follow up on that It I think the spelling does count and of of my name So I apologize for having such a long crazy name and also It counts there are two spots a Royalton spot in the Bethel spot and both of them are vacant And with no one running There people are going to in order for me to meet that 30 vote threshold have to spell my name correctly and get it in the Bethel spot So I've been trying to be really clear about that And especially if you're voting from home this year You can cheat and look at your cell phone I did have one person who said I'm gonna have to remember to spell your name I said I think you can take your cell phone into the booth. So you could just look on Facebook But yes spelling counts, unfortunately All right. Thank you any other questions from the public or any other questions for Shannon or for us about process of our Election this year. All right. I think that Brings us to executive session And I'll just need the board for that. Okay That would entertain a motion to move into executive session at 7 33 p.m Second all right Actually, we're done after we return we have to talk about food service provision to Next meeting however, so any preview of that or just wrap it up Well, you know food service provision to is about the ability for students to access free meals across campus Based on free and reduced lunch rates and direct serve rates And so right now we're providing those free meals based on the USDA Summer food service authority. One of the things that we could look at is Whether or not we would qualify and My sense is based on our free and reduced lunch rates that we probably won't but I was gonna have Bill come and Talk to you guys about that and that's probably something that will come up in the food service Conversation at the SU level next week All right is is where we're at in regards to food service in our free and reduced lunch rates Thank you I Would entertain a motion to adjourn Thank you See you all next Well mark well, we'll be in the full board meeting right and then we have our next informational meeting Alright, so we'll see each other soon Take care sounds great