 My name is Richard Shear and this is the Montpelier Civic Forum where we're going to be discussing town meeting issues and today is a really important one because today we're going in for schools and we're going in not only for the school budget but we're also going for the school bond issue. This is not the Montpelier School District, this is the Montpelier Roxbury School District now and I have the chair of the board of the School Board of the Montpelier Roxbury School District. That's hard for me to say. How easy is it for you guys on the board? We're getting used to it. It's taking some time. We kind of have to remind ourselves right now there's actually two boards operating so we have to switch back. How are there two boards? It's the same people right? It's largely the same people. There's the existing Montpelier School Board which still exists and will exist for another year. It'll exist past the merger and then through the audit at the end of the year and that has seven members and it's the same seven members that's had although two positions are up. That's a good question. One of them is being contested or one of them is not contested but Tina Muncie is running. The other one no one is running for. What happens if someone doesn't have 30 right-hand votes and no one sits in that position? Will you point someone or? We can point someone. My understanding is that Steve Henshin is going to wage a write-in campaign. He didn't get his signatures in time because he was out of state so he is planning a write-in campaign so hopefully we won't have that problem. If we do have that problem we will appoint someone. That's the first term. Now what is the other board? The other board is the super board that has people from Roxbury on it. While the merger takes place the two districts don't actually technically merge until the first of July. You have this one year where the merger has formed but the schools are still operating independently. You've got Roxbury operating as a district and you've got Montpelier operating as a district but next year you'll have neither of those districts operating. You'll have the Montpelier Roxbury school district. So while that is happening you need school boards to run both the existing districts so both the Montpelier district school board is operating and Roxbury's existing school board is operating but also you need a school board to put together the budget for the new district. So this is a unified budget. The two school boards will have no separate budget to work with. They're simply doing administrative. Exactly. They're simply winding down their districts and because you don't want to have to start up fresh on July 1st you need to put a budget in place. You need to put policies in place. You need to do all those things before the district forms. You have the unified district actually has a board that was formed in October and has been focused on those things and putting a budget together on you know putting policies in place etc. Okay let me ask just a few real simple merger questions. The teams will still be known as the Solans? Yes I think everything will be will be the same in terms of names etc. Dr. Rico will still be the superintendent? We have not named a superintendent for the new district but you know Dr. Rico is currently the superintendent of Montpelier Schools and will name a superintendent when you get to that point. Okay when do you think a superintendent will be named? Hopefully soon. Is that process going on right now or? Yes. Okay in terms of the Roxbury kids some of them are not going to be at Montpelier High School. Could you explain the tuition buy-ins? Yes what Roxbury currently right now has a K through 6 school and then from seventh grade on their students are tuitioned at other schools. In order to because a lot of these kids have started at a place and are invested in that place or you know sophomores, juniors etc. it was decided and it made financial sense to not force anyone to disrupt their current education. So the students right now that are currently being tuitioned will continue to be tuitioned to the end of their- If they wish. If they wish they can come to Montpelier or they continue to be tuitioned under the you know the district will cover that tuition until they graduate but all students that are not being tuitioned which would be the existing sixth graders on cannot or have to come to Montpelier or if they choose tuition they have to pay that's their tuition. And we anticipate that that will decline year by year by year? Yeah year by year by year I forget the exact numbers but it will be a gradual decline and then in what five or six years it'll be zero in terms of tuition for those students. In terms of transporting these kids in from Roxbury to Main Street Middle School how long a drive is that? How many buses are involved? Any idea? It's gonna be we're gonna have one bus that will leave from I believe Roxbury Village School we still have to work out the details but a one bus that will leave from a common location almost certainly Roxbury Village School that will come and drop off kids at the high school in the middle school. That bus route the the drive takes about half an hour just assuming that buses are slower and it's got two stops it'll probably be probably be up 40 minutes and to be honest a lot of the kids in Montpelier who are bused right now it's a 40-45 minute ride to to drive around. What's going to happen after school with after school activities? We're planning to do I believe the plan is to use our the existing Montpelier van and make sure that those students have a ride home after school we thought it was very important that there be some sort of transportation option for extracurricular activities because we want kids from Roxbury who are are coming to our school to have to be fully integrated and to to be able to have you know chances at extracurricular activities at sports at you know after school arts programs etc and you know just given the distance it's without transportation we thought there would be some kids that might find that hard to do so we are going to provide an after after school bus. Now for those of us myself included what was the deal the tax deal that the that the state did as a sweetener to get us and to get Roxbury to come together and merge? So it was an eight-cent tax deal that declines two cents each year over four years so it goes eight six four two and then zeroes out there's also a hundred and fifty thousand or so in kind of merger fees that the state gives so that's been you know that was actually helped us a lot in the current budget given how difficult the state situation is and how unanticipated the state situation was. How difficult is the state situation? Do you have the final number? Every year we come down to this when I do these shows with whoever is representing the school district usually we still don't have the number is is what I hear. Do we have a final number? We have most of the final numbers we never get the final final numbers until the end of the legislative session so that can change I mean for instance like you know last year when we were talking at town meeting day we thought we'd have I think a slightly over one cent tax increase the state numbers actually came in more favorable and the budget despite what was a good budget it was it was you know I think about five point five percent per student spending we had a slight tax decrease as a result of the state numbers right now the state numbers as they stand because of the merger incentives and because of some other savings right now it's about a 2.6 percent increase in Montpelier. And a decrease in Roxbury. And a decrease in Roxbury. Why is that? Because Roxbury gets a lot of savings for the merger you know Montpelier's tax increase was both are actually higher than projected by the merger because of the state situation the biggest difference is that the the dollar number that we get from the state was a lot smaller than anticipated and went down which usually it kind of goes up on kind of an inflationary trajectory but this year because of the state budget crunch it went down considerably which means that the town and the city of Montpelier need to make up that gap but even with making up the gap Montpelier or Roxbury still went down Montpelier's went up but up pretty modestly compared to where some other towns are are seen. What are the new additions in the budget not leaving the capital side alone just the budget itself do we have new positions coming in are there new positions in the middle school to accommodate the Roxbury students or did we pick up teachers we're adding actually there are I don't believe any real additions in Montpelier to accommodate the Roxbury students as you know last year we added some teachers at the middle school and you know that gave us the capacity to cover this we are adding some some special educators most of those are needs-based what does that mean needs-based it means that oftentimes students have needs that require one-on-one attention or special attention so you have to hire to to fill those positions and then some of that is written off against the state the state heavily subsidizes special education the state heavily subsidizes special education so a lot of those positions do get subsidized we're adding a health teacher we're adding adding a student or an increase to where would the health teacher be which middle school in the middle school and that has been long long indeed that I've heard from the community and from middle school parents that what would the health teacher I know I know that's the obvious answer is the health teacher would teach health who is teaching health right now I've been I'm not sure who the health teacher okay school is but I know that that there has been a long cry for increased health education increased you know sex education and just making sure that our middle school students are are getting you know the the health education what about our at-risk students in the high school our is the programming for them staying the same is it slacking a bit or is it is it increasing I believe we're adding I don't think other than special education I don't think we have any new positions that directly address at-risk kids I mean we've added some some you know last year it's definitely a priority but I think in terms of this budget we're staying staying pretty much the same level that brings us to our school resource office officer could you explain that program given given what happened in Florida let's let's talk about safety in the schools and let's start with the school resource officer what is the role my understanding is the school resource officer is a a security presence at the school which school at the high school with a relationship with the Montpelier police department that is an officer isn't it yes so it gives us a a security officer at the school who is an armed security officer unarmed I'm not sure if he's armed or not I I have to admit I don't know okay I believe unarmed but I'm not sure and what does what does our resource officer do I mean he doesn't stand guard in the halls what what does he do what's his role I think the role is largely to one kind of help be a liaison with the police department to foster that relationship and then to be a security presence at the school if security is needed now all three schools you have to press the button to get to the office identify yourself before you come in yes and that is one security feature um yeah the school is doing I think a lot for security we what are we doing for security let's start at union uh our way up to the high school well I think I think it's it makes sense to kind of talk about some some joint things that are sure absolutely take it the way that you want okay all three schools have you know camera monitoring presence they all have you know locked doors with monitored entry so no one can gain access without ringing the bell being seen so no one is no one is able to enter the school during the school day you know without without someone knowing who they are and and what they're entering for uh there have been uh trainings with the trainings and sessions with the the Montpellier police department and the Montpellier fire department who is trained in those I believe the administrators teachers I don't think teachers are I think it's I think it's coordination with the administrators about what to do and what plans are in place there are trainings within the schools with the teachers about what to do uh the schools have gone through uh through drills lockdown drills I believe they have done lockdown drills in fact I think the middle school and elementary school did one recently uh you know they have done things when they've had you know for instance when we had the incident uh the very sad incident in January uh the not only the shooting the shooting of the high school yes um you know not only did we get to see how that security lockdown went into place um and it you know it went into place very well the administrators knew what they were doing they handled it very well they got the students to secure locations but after things like that the administration has been going going and you know debriefing looking at what went right what went wrong uh so there's been a lot of careful attention to detail about making sure that security measures are in place that people know what to do uh that they're constantly reminded of what to do and that the the measures that are in place are continually refined was there counseling available for the students there was counseling available to the students and it was immediately offered to the students by the administration um and I'm not sure how many people took advantage of it but uh yes it was it was a high priority of the administration to make sure that uh you know shortly following that event um in fact I believe it was that day that it was made known that there were services uh for people who who wanted someone to talk to you now you're only one of a number of board members so when I'm talking to you that I don't expect you to say hey I represent the board has there been any discussion that you've heard of arming teachers in Montpelier and has the board had taken any sort of preliminary thoughts or had any preliminary thoughts on arming 20 percent of our teachers uh the board passed a strong resolution uh at the last meeting uh asking the legislature to act on strong gun control measures we what would strong gun control measures be according to our school board the language we used our gun control measures that are adequate to ensure the safety of our students and we mentioned the bills before the legislature currently on background checks on making sure that known domestic abusers don't possess guns as a starting point but certainly not an ending point um I mean I I can't speak for all the board members I have some some you know pretty strong opinions on arming teachers I think could you give me I think it's it's an absolutely horrible idea why uh for several reasons one just as a principle I think in a civil society we should be able to go to an open inviting school or an open inviting theater uh without having to feel safe unless people are armed and I think pretty much every other industrialized country in the world has that situation except for the United States I think second the job of the teacher should be to teach they shouldn't have to it's it's asking a lot of a person to become an armed security guard and uh you know on a dime go from teaching math to uh trying to pursue and and harm or or kill someone uh with an armed fire weapon uh also if you look I don't think it would be effective even if you had good trained people the the hit rate for the New York for the NYPD is about 18 percent what does that mean it means when they aim at a armed suspect or a suspect that they're trying to take down it's about a one five chance that they're gonna hit so the idea that we're in video game land and suddenly a teacher is going to calmly come out into the hall and take down a shooter uh it just doesn't work that way people get panicked it's it's it's a very hard thing to do it also gets confusing you know if you've got a SWAT team coming in who do they know who the you know they see an armed person is that a teacher is that a perpetrator you know who is that and then you just get more bullets flying and then I think the biggest point and this is true of of honestly homes too uh you know we tend to think about gun safety in terms we tend to get alarmed in gun situations when these huge mass shootings occur but most gun deaths and most gun violence occurs in more singular shootings and the more guns you put into place the more accidents you're going to have the more individual shootings you're going to have you're going to get students who can you know one of those guns is not going to be locked down properly uh etc so I I think it's just an absolutely horrible idea parents and concealed carry are our schools are parents allowed to carry sidearms in a concealed manner if they're legally allowed to are our schools gun free zones my understanding is yes guns should not be in our schools that mean guns are not allowed in our schools right now in a concealed manner the Montpelier students all the way down to elementary school have never been shy about expressing their opinions yes we had it in black lives matter uh as the board met with students on guns we haven't met with students on guns yet do you plan to uh I would I would very much welcome a meeting um we have we have amazing students you know at all grade levels uh but particularly our high school students who are really starting to uh you know mature into adulthood and really grapple with some of these I would I would love to have a meeting with our students and on guns you know you know the we've learned a lot from the Parkland students what have we learned um I I mean stepping back societally I think they've really shown the adults how to act like adults frankly on some of these issues uh you know these are not these should not be difficult solutions I mean we every other country in the world has you know they've they've got problems with with mental illness they've got problems with drugs they've got problems with people feeling lonely uh they've got problems with broken families and alcoholism none of them have mass shootings the only difference is that we have an incredibly uh we have a gun culture and we have guns that are pervasive in numbers that are frankly insane we have guns that do damage that in that can inflict incredible amount of damage in incredible short time uh and we've the last 20 30 years we've we've gone backwards in terms of allowing access to these guns can we accommodate how do we accommodate children and their parents who hold a different view on on gun culture than many of their peers do in my period is this a big enough tent to allow those children to feel comfortable in our schools I mean I think if you're talking about a hunting tradition I think we can certainly honor a hunting tradition and have but even a home even a home safety tradition I mean I think we just have to have a frank conversation if but there is room for those children and their views in our school I think there's room for any views in our school the question is in the question is what what are our policies and what actions do we take if if not offending those people or if not wanting to touch the gun debate means that we live with with these mass shootings when no other advanced industrialized country on earth does because they're willing to take a different policy is is that the price we pay or do we try to turn our our schools into kind of high security prison environments where everybody's armed and you've got security lockdowns I mean there's you know the price of the atmosphere of that not to mention just the the actual price of keeping that up is is that what we want to accommodate people who don't want gun regulations let's take a less charged one yeah a child who doesn't who believes that black lives matter is a political issue yes and that the schools have taken a political stand is there room for for that child and their parents at Montpelier high school of course what was that issue about that issue is about recognizing now we're talking about the flag yeah we're talking about the flag that was another incident where I think we see really the the maturity and the engagement of our current students I mean I'm again this was a group of of students who who brought this to the attention of the board who brought this to the attention of the board that despite the fact that Montpelier feels it's a very progressive for thinking community that for people in the high school and people in this community of color they have a different experience they experience subtle racism sometimes they experience very overt racism is that the fault of the board partially I think it's the fault of everyone I think that that it's a it's a societal problem and it's a systematic problem they also and on top of that they also feel that the curriculum and the the instruction that they're getting that the people of color are not seen or when they are seen they're seen in kind of typical ways how is the school board addressing that concern you know certainly supporting you know the idea of of flying the Black Lives Matter was I think really to continue a conversation that has been going on in the schools in the community for some time and to to elevate it and give it some presence let it be noted that the city council also passed a resolution in support yes you know we don't the the board does not have the level where we actually go in and dictate curriculum but I think we can set values and expectations of the type of outcomes that we want and the type of community values that that we want to want to see um and we want to have every student feel that they're seen and that their their heritage and their race and culture are seen and valued and elevated and and and and talked about um yeah in ways that they can feel proud of and feel that they are truly included and embraced by the community and I think for certain students we're not having that experience at the high school and I think that's something that was not necessarily being seen even though uh mob failure rights tend to think of themselves as progressive for thinking people and I'm not saying that we're not a progressive town but I think we have as I think pretty much all places in the United States um we have a lot of work to do to really confront racism and systematic racism um and the type of the type of both subtle and and frankly you know as we're seeing with the national level overt racism and the national level I think also in our own community overt racism uh that people of color have to confront every day our test scores are we seeing that in our test scores are we seeing a differentiation between um people of color and and majority white students in terms of test scores I have to admit I'm not sure of the I know we I know we have a problem with children on food stamps yes we definitely I know we definitely have a disparity between our high needs kids and um you know other students I'm not sure how that breaks down based on on uh on race in terms of of the career center and we added a few a few dollars more for the career center for kids going there yes are we trying in in Mount Perio to get rid of the middle track that in such a way that people will either be going off to Cal to two year four year colleges or they'll be going off to the career center to two year tech centers the person who terminates with a high school degree are we trying to minimize though the number that do that uh I don't think or necessarily try to minimize the number I think we're trying to make sure that that all of our students are prepared and proficient to succeed after high school and to realize their full potential after high school is there a full potential if you only stop at high school these days and don't go to either a tech school or community college or an apprenticeship or or the military or or something for further education after 12th grade uh I think it depends on on what you want to do um what can you do with just a 12th grade with just 12 years of schooling these days um I think there's a lot of people who had who have had success in various ways but that wasn't you know those are people our age but for the young person nowadays who's confronting a job market that really takes a new set of skills is 12 years sufficient um I think for certain people it can be I think it's you know it's it's it depends on what you want to do I mean clearly there are some things that that require training beyond that but for people who who you know want to do certain things for people who oftentimes are able to innovate outside of of you know kind of more formalized situations there are a lot of people out there who are very fulfilled with with you know 12 years of schooling one of the things we've done which is a tradition in in this district uh is met mclean's program of community based learning is that still going on do most of the kids still participate in that and what's the value of that uh community is actually one of the things that we are going to invest in more with the budget uh it's a huge success uh it's something we want to grow the uh the students that are doing it are having could you explain what it is I kind of did a shorthand on it yeah it's basically an opportunity and I think there are are you know someone like Mike and Chris would do a much better job it's it's an opportunity for students to really kind of go out and uh get hands on hands on real world experience and have a good deal of say in designing designing that experience and it's you know it's supervised to make sure that they're getting uh you know the type of of educational skills that they need but it's really an opportunity uh to go out and to be innovative and to get real world experience and to you know have that translate back into uh you know classroom credit drug and alcohol and and this relationship it's long held relationship and with Montpellier High School what's going on with that is there anything in this budget or anything that's been that's come before the board the last 12 months that discusses that we haven't had anything that's formally come before the board uh it's um like honestly it's not an issue I hear about a lot of some of that do you think you will in July rolls around in terms of how in terms of you'll have more marijuana in Vermont with closer to the surface uh yeah I mean if there's one thing that at least kind of the rumor mill is out there is that the high school has a fair amount of marijuana use and I hear most of that anecdotally I'm not sure what the what the effect of of the of the new marijuana law is it's you know honestly marijuana enforcement was pretty pretty lax prior to the law um yeah we'll we'll see how are our numbers doing in the elementary school let's look at the longer flow we saw a flow from when I first came here about 25 years ago we saw the flow go down is it kind of peeked out in the bottom it is starting it's small projected to grow at least through 2022 so we've got healthy growth numbers um for at least the next five years or so four or five years and that's enough to sustain our advanced placement and I know it's I know that it's scheduling hell in the high school to be able to schedule enough and we still have very small classes what about the small class sizes is that is the board still puzzling over what to do with that I actually like you know if you look yeah right now we've got about 350 students in our high school and we have well over 400 in the elementary school and there's a tiny middle school that hopefully we'll pick up some more from rock story um yeah the the class numbers are gonna grow for the high school I think a lot of the quote-unquote small class size problems will take care of themselves as those classes grow I am less concerned with small classes than some others are I feel that the ability to offer unique and interesting educational opportunities to students is important and just some of the nature of some of those subjects they're gonna be small classes and you know the numbers I've seen what I how do you define a small class for the viewers I'm not sure there's a specific definition this would be under 10 students I well under 10 I yeah when you start getting six or seven I think it's fair to call it a small class but you know for certain subjects that might even if you had much larger classes to draw on you still might only get a handful of students who are interested in that class and I think you know preparing students for the world if if they have the interest I mean obviously we can't offer everything but I I'm not as troubled and the number of small classes and I forget exactly what they were but we did an analysis it's it's relatively small I mean it's we have a handful of what I think you would call truly small classes under 10 in the in the large scheme of things is there ever any chance at picking up critical mass by merging with Union 32 Washington Central I think in the large scheme of things yes I think that's something I mean that's a conversation that's been going on I think since decades in the mid 70s yes the you know when the act 46 process began we act 46 paying act 46 is the the law that equalizes yeah well it's the law that the mergers took place oh okay okay I'm sorry I yeah I had the wrong so when the state created the the incentives for the merger and you know we're now at the point where I think we're going to see some forced mergers uh because the you know pick your own partner well Washington Central be a forced merger in terms of all their feeders and getting into unified administrative structure it would seem to be a candidate I know that they have tried to figure things out and have run into various roadblocks and actually what I was going to say is when the act 46 process began we we reached out to you 32 about having at least an exploratory discussion and the answer we got back was we've got a lot of things to figure out amongst ourselves so we're going to pass do you see that in the future just or the possibility of it I think it's it's it makes sense on a lot of levels what would be a few levels uh you know certainly from a resource and opportunity perspective you know these are two schools that are within a few miles of each other I think they're you know there would be the ability to offer you know more extracurricular activities more classes can we get some of that without a formal merger I think probably if we explore it you know yes and especially as you know technology evolves and there might be opportunities to you know maybe even like Skype in classes or Skype in a few students yeah and we're already seeing that with you know athletic and other opportunities where for certain sports you know my players students can play on the U32 team or Northfield yeah or exactly um so yeah I think those those opportunities are there I I think we have to be careful about how we do it and right now it's very hypothetical I one of one of the you know and this is kind of from a broader community's perspective you know my player is one of the few places in Vermont and frankly in the country right now where a good number of the students can go from K through 12 to be able to walk to their schools and we have schools that are really still physically it's a good walk from Town Hill Road over to the high school well that all places but I mean for you know a good core chunk of our students um that's a realistic possibility and in other places it's it's maybe you know you might get one school or two schools but having all three schools where I'm you know certainly the core downtown can do it that were the case we wouldn't have large parking lots at the high school would we yes well I mean we might want to at some point wonder whether we should have such a large parking lot in the high school but you know having when you look at some of some towns that have hollowed out what's happened is they've done things like they've taken their schools and other things and put them out in the back 40 and it has it has impacts on the town and I think that you know if we do if we do see something like merge with U32 I think a community discussion about those type of effects which leads us to our bond issue yes and how we're fortifying our current set of schools yes walk me through the bond issue let's start at the middle school and then go to the high school and then the elementary okay so the middle school has had a fair amount of improvements we've upgraded the heat we've done some roof work we've renovated some bathrooms as a part of the regular budget and actually I believe from the reserve bond a few years and yeah there was a bond a few years ago so middle school actually is not going to be part of this bond and the middle school is going to be get some attention also with I think one of the great features of the current budget is for the first time ever we're implementing a capital plan now what does that mean this year and what does that mean in future years it basically means that we're going to put aside a certain amount of money each year which we've never done before which is surprising for scheduled maintenance on our three buildings and it's some of the stuff is not particularly sexy it's it's roof work it's it's renovating so what you're saying in other words is making our existing plants last longer simply because we're not in crisis mode yes and and making sure that they're just always functioning at a high level or and and you know which middle school has you know until we did some heat work you know I was hearing tales about you know some days a wing of the middle school people had to work out so they're just you know the heat was uneven etc and that's you know that's not acceptable so we need we need to make sure we're on top of maintenance like that and on top of it consistently I think the bond is actually a very exciting and and very needed investment in in union and in the high school okay in union okay so we have an elevator well right now there's there's kind of three projects at union one is a safety project which is rewiring the school a lot of the the actual wiring was from the 30s wasn't it from the 30s you know knob and tube wiring we need to get safe water and wiring in there even the PA system I think is yeah due for renovation in this is that not true yes it's so it's it's it's way overdue I think that's a no-brainer and it's something we we have to do the other is an elevator and a remodeled entry way on the side of the school the current elevator is also I don't know if it's quite 1930s but it's is it ADA compliant at all it is my understanding is not ADA compliant I don't know if you've ever seen it it's about the Americans for Disabilities Act I mean so the whole purpose of having an elevator like that is to make sure that a student with you know who's not able to get up and down stairs themselves can get up and down stairs and my understanding is right now for certain students who might be in a wheelchair they might just not be able to get into that elevator so making sure that that elevator serves the purpose of allowing people who need who have needs where they need to take an elevator up actually have an elevator they can use is important and you know that's that's a needed expense also as part of that I believe there's restrooms attached to this as well I don't believe we're doing well we I'd have to look I'm not I know we're doing restrooms at the the high school and we've done restrooms at Union whether there's some restroom work associated with the entryway I'd have to go back and look but we are doing a new entryway which especially with preschoolers at the at which direction will that be uh facing park avenue okay I believe up towards the east yeah okay so it'll be a much safer entryway it'll it'll be so that would be the gateway to the to the playground yes it'll exactly okay let's walk through the playground that's been a project that's been going on for years or at least in concept yes has been going can you explain how we got to the point how much has been spent on a playground and how we got to the point of how much we've spent on a playground uh or we're going to spend on the playground well the playground is the playground is actually I I find it very exciting the playground has been part of an iterative community process we've had some wonderful community leaders some some parents who spent a lot of volunteer time coming up with the concept working really hard to to get momentum for this uh we have we haven't we have an outdated playground and we have an urban school setting even though urban school setting well we have we have for this is a small time for Vermont we have you know compared to you know like faced in or faced in we have a pretty urban school setting we've got a small lot uh very little of its grass okay a lot of it's occupied by the hill uh we don't have you know field after field after field like you do when you go to East Montpelier so to make the most of that space uh you know some parents came together with the administration uh and did an iterative process came up with a fantastic concept for a playground uh when we started getting into actually putting it together also because we have frankly I know Montpelier is small town we've got a relatively urban setting school we rounded some some serious environmental problems that need to be addressed that this bond will address um primarily the the site where the playground currently exists used to be the site of an old beautiful high school building that at the beginning of last century burned essentially to the ground uh leaving a whole bunch of nasty stuff in the soil uh and while right now it's it's relatively capped the contamination is a few feet down once you start digging in it you're bringing that contamination up so uh basically the the soil from that site needs to be removed brought to a remediation site or brought some work and be stored um and resoil and then also there's some serious stormwater compliance and stormwater redesign issues because that site is actually a large source of stormwater pollution so a project that initially started at a couple of hundred thousand dollars is up to what now uh the total cost of the project is 1.5 million with about half of that being needed environmental remediation that's pretty much both beyond the control of the project in terms of the design etc um and also stuff that that we have to do so for 1.5 million will this be the end in the budget for the play this this phase one will there be a phase two or phase three this this will make this will make the project happen um happen means what happens means we'll get the soil out of there we'll get stormwater compliance we'll get new soil in and we'll get a we'll get a playground built that uses the uh entirety of that lot space for a really wonderful educational and interactive playground setting that I think benefits not just will the district come in for another capital request for that playground to expand on that playground to make it even better uh do you anticipate I do not anticipate I I think that the idea behind this especially given that I think we tried to do it in small chunks and keep hitting hitting problems in terms of expenses the idea behind this bond is to get it done to get it done soup to nuts uh to deal with all the environmental problems uh to build the playground design that fully incorporates that space uh and to have a playground in place that should last us um you know 20 30 years and be not just a great educational space for our students and a very you know safe and interactive play space but also something that really benefits the surrounding community I think it's going to be a magnet for people to come to whereas right now we have you know frankly a playground in school will the uh will the snow hill disappear that the kids sled down I think it will certainly be altered I think there will be sledding opportunities there but it there's I think that part of that's going to be kind of an amphitheater um it's going to be much more much more interactive on that hill but there will be opportunities for kids to slide let's go to the high school yes what are we doing we're doing roof work yes we're doing a lot of roof work and I don't know if you've seen the pictures but several classrooms recently have had to sit there with plastic bags and buckets collecting water especially when you had some of the real steep warming days where all that snow and melted and you know it was capped with rain etc so we're doing some roof work we're also doing and I think this is both you know very exciting and similar to the playground of an area where not just is there going to be a huge investment in the school but also I think an investment in public space and public engagement uh renovating the wing that where the gymnasium and the auditorium are uh and and uh there's got to be kind of a wholesale renovation of the gym where we're going to uh create classrooms uh and interactive learning spaces for uh both the arts but also so they won't be as big a gym the gym will be the same size it's the area around the gym there's there's storage space there's a lot of dead space in there there's locker rooms that were built for locker room needs that have that don't exist anymore there are huge locker rooms and now that's is that being created into turned into a wellness center well there's what is the wellness so well it's in the budget the wellness center is basically a health and workout center right now it's structured in a way where it's also not ADA compliant and it's it's kind of on a second floor and then there's a first floor that because the way it's designed is hard to use there's a lot of supervisory problems it's hard to supervise the students with the way it's currently structured so there will be a renovation of of basically the fitness and so we're not talking about bringing in planet fitness style equipment now we're plant we're talking about using space so we can have a place where people can go and and and work out and exercise and access you know physical health equipment what is physical health equipment I think a lot of it's going to be the similar equipment that we have now you know weights etc but it'll place where all students can access it right now again you know students with disabilities will have difficulty accessing it the way it's currently designed it's also going to be designed in a way that's going to be much easier to supervise and to make sure that the the other students are being appropriately now there's work scheduled for smiley auditorium yes what is the work in smiley we're going to redesign it again that was designed that where there's dead and unusable space particularly on the side we're going to improve the acoustics we're going to improve the stage design right now it has has really horrible acoustics there's just some some renovations that are needed because things are getting old also as part of this there's going to be space where performers can actually kind of have a green room and a stage in a setting room so we're going to turn it into a place that's that's going to be much more amenable to arts performance to music performance and also much more amenable to having community events there where what kind of community event that space is actually the second largest public forum outside of berry opera house in central vermont so we could have we could have speakers there we could have live music there these are a lot of things that that i don't think are happening because the acoustics are terrible the setup is terrible there's nowhere for a performer to have a staging room these type of of things that you would expect from an auditorium that size don't exist how many what's the size of that auditorium huh what is the rough seating uh don't quote me i think it's about six or seven hundred but i could be wrong it's it's decent sized i was i was given the number once i don't have it off and six or seven you mean it's for the old montpellier high school before we started the decline yeah in terms of of the bond issue i believe that there's a bond that's finally painting itself there is a bond so this will replace a bond that was several years ago uh so we are replacing one bond with another and how much on the average house how much will this be uh if we were to vote it in what what would the average household pay for this it will be a once one cent this year which is included in the overall budget so it's included in the 2.6 percent increase next year it will go up to 2.5 cents and then it will decline afterwards but the the the bond has been calculated into long-term financial planning and a lot of that will be offset with there are in the current budget there's uh some one-time expenses that are there uh and um also some other you know with increasing student enrollment etc that uh that that increase is accounted for how does we've got a few more minutes left how does the school board view the um school budget materials that are going through the legislature the proposal the master proposal on the school property tax how does our school district look at that uh i'm not sure our school district has uh a formal position and we weighed in on x61 we yes uh have we weighed in have we considered weighing in on the change in property tax income tax and that balance um it hasn't been discussed yet i mean i have i have some views i think some other members have some views um i think right now we're trying to figure out kind of what what these proposals mean and well it's been pushed off for a year so we've got time to do it yeah exactly uh yeah if the amount of money comes to this comes from the state similarly um um you know it's just tough to know what the what the effect will be i i certainly think that i mean my personal view is that to the extent that we can take pressure off the property tax and put it onto income tax i i think that's fair i i think that there is a legitimate issue um and i know that that there's you know there's property tax sensitivity etc um yeah but but there are people who are property rich and income constrained a lot of that has to do with you know property they bought aged yeah 20 30 years ago um and yeah so i i think that's i think that's a healthy discussion to have statewide uh but it's not one of the board has weighed in on and it may be one as as the debate matures boy we've gone a long distance tonight in terms of of discussing the schools and i want to thank you for appearing taking the time off um but i want to talk to you and i wanted i want you to know that what's going to happen on town meetings important it's not only because your taxes are involved but we've got a city council races contested in all three districts we talked to an Watson about her marrow run we talked to john odom about his city clerkdom and what's important is that you learn about this take take the opportunity to watch all of these shows orca is also showing some candidate forums the bridge had an entire issue devoted to the election uh times argus has covered it get educated and then make sure that your friends get out and that your family gets out to vote because that's the vitality of this town and jim would tell you how many parents volunteer how many hours in our schools how many people are on planning boards committees for both cities and schools and that's the power and vitality for my appeal you're not only today but for our future so please get out and vote on town meeting day thank you very much