 I think Katie's going to pop in shortly. Does anybody mind? I think we should just get rolling. And I think Katie will be here momentarily. So why don't we call to order at 6.04? Welcome. We have a crowd. This is good. We rarely see that. Thank you for coming. It is. It is. Does anyone have any agenda revisions? Hearing none. I have a couple more copies right there in front of Bill. I think Dorothy needs one. I have another one right here for you. I thought I brought it, but I didn't. No. OK, hearing none. 1.3, public comments and correspondence. I got a note from Scott Thompson a little bit ago. I think Bill was copying on it. The board feedback address was copied. But that just comes to the office. So he, go ahead. I got it, too. So I think everybody did, but they probably haven't had a chance to read it. Oh, yeah, if I did, I haven't seen it yet. He didn't send it till 4.30, so he's probably on the road. I'm going to read it. Hey, everyone, I'm sorry. I can't make it to tonight's meeting. This is what I'd say if I could be there. So Scott, there is a ridiculous amount of confusion at the moment over who is responsible for what budget and even over what the real budget is. Part of the confusion is due to the breakneck pace of the forced merger process. Part of it is the possibility that the lawsuit might prevail and part of it to a whole lot of horns wobbling by parties with interest. I recommend a rule of thumb for dealing with a world spinning wildly in confusion and uproar. Focus tightly on the law as it's written and err on the side of custom and precedent. You, we with my U32 board head on, are the ones who are accountable under the law. If we act on bad advice, it's not our advisors who are held to account, it's us. Follow the law. And I'm looking at 16 BSA, but I'm not going to say it all, which have not been undone by Act 46-49, means approving the school budget for the electorate to authorize at the annual school meeting. You're not going to get all that info, all the info that 563-11 calls for because the state provides this info and the state is highly unlikely to have it for you. But this is the state's problems, not yours. No one will suffer for complying in good faith with the law, certainly not as long as it's in my power to do anything about it. For example, if Bill's superintendent licensed for it to be threatened because he had acted under the lawful instructions of our school board, I would enthusiastically pursue legal action against whoever made such a threat. It's crazy that we even have to talk about such things as the necessity of following the law and the possibility of reprisals for doing so. But this is the headspinning world of confusion. We're in. Thanks very much to all of you and good luck. Sounds like he was here. I know, I can't do his tone in tenor, but that's the only pop correspondent I got. I have one of my own from me, basically. And I think it almost piggybacks on Scott's letter. In this swirling climate that we find ourselves in, I think as board members, we need to be very mindful of the code of ethics that we all abide by. So I printed them out if you're interested. I had them print ten, I wasn't sure how many people would be here. I don't like to kill trees. I can make some more copies if you'd like. And I certainly won't read them all because we're all capable of reading. But the ones that come to mind that I feel are incredibly important are the first one, which is that we recognize that a board member's responsibility is to see that schools are run well, but not to run them. And the second one is to act only as a member of the board and not assume any individual authority when the board is not in session, unless otherwise directed by the board. Number three is to give no directions, directives, as an individual board member to any school administrator or employee publicly or privately. And then I jump down to the bottom to a point to the portion about respect. And I think we should all do this without even thinking that sometimes we need to be reminded to voice opinions respectfully and treat with respect other board members, administrators, school staff, and members of the public. And I think if we can all remember that and work within this code of ethics that we should not have to be reminded about, I think life will be better for all of us. And that's my public comment. These are adopted by the school board. Yeah. It just says sample size. Yeah, you can't turn it out without it saying sample. It makes me crazy. So this is a public comment. So the school board took a vote to adopt this board? I think they are. I don't have everybody on this. Because this is a document issued by the Vermont School Board Association. It's a private nonprofit organization like Beaker. This is past practice. We have always. This board adopted these as the code of ethics. That's when they become binding. And actually, they're individually elected officers here. They actually decide whether or not to find them. So this is voluntary. Lots of good advice, but it's voluntary upon the elected officials on this board. So I think what I would say is that past practice has been that we all adhere to these code of ethics. And we pass them out every time a new board member comes in. They're advisers. And they're actually good. There's a lot of things that need some definition in this, too. I mean, I don't think any of you have ever been this disrespectful. But I know I'm fairly opinionated. And I got out, continue to be that way. If somebody says something that I don't agree with or I think is obstructing the job, I'm going to speak up. I think there are ways to speak up. Well, that's my own way. If that was directed at me, which it may be. As a member of the public, they voted for all of you. And that supports the school with my tax dollars. It came to my attention that the superintendent was asked by a member of this board for a copy of the most recent budget numbers for the Cal School District. And that was not provided to the school board by the employee superintendent. Is that correct? And is that something that will be made available? Is that something you? So they have it in their December board packet. They've had that information. And I was asked by one, but I do take requests from the board. And it wasn't done by the board. So if a board member asks you for a public record, what's in a public record? They have the public record. They have it. OK, so apparently at the time they did not. So if a member of this board asks you for something that's in the public record, do you routinely deny them? Or how does that work? It's a public record. It's a public record. I actually called Jim Kondo's office today, called Attorney General's office today, and uniformed opinion's public record. And I also went to the governor's office about this today. So just to inform them. So I just want to know how this supervisory union leader treats public records and treats my representatives when they ask for stuff that's in the public record. My understanding is you denied them. And there was a back and forth. I want to hear from you, sir. And I provide public information when asked it in a correct manner. Oh, OK. So I didn't give them some. I was just going to respond to what was. I made that request, and you said you were directed not to provide that, and then it would take your loser license if you did it. That's not what it means. Which means that squint came out of that meeting. I'm sorry, but that was just of what we said. Like I asked, and we have the budget documents for this meeting tonight so that we could, if we so chose, as a board to put that budget forward for town meeting warning. And you said you would not provide this, and that you would talk about it tomorrow night. You wouldn't talk further about it. That's what I did say. I would not further talk about it last night. You said you would not provide it, too, to me. I don't recall saying that. I asked for it. Well, you did, and I don't have it on recording because before the tapes are running. Well, I believe this is the budget that we talked about. So each board member does have a copy of it. We did. I have copies if anybody wants. And for public record requests, there's a method for doing that. OK, thank you. Any other public comments? I'd just like to say, in sort of the follow-up that you just said, that I know that Bill is a good man. He's not a bad man. And he's really trying to do his best to do what's right. There's times when I disagree with him, and we need a way to be able to express that disagreement. I have a very short statement to read. We have petition for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury, and where that's from, Declaration of Independence, fourth paragraph. So we need to talk. I mean, we need to be able to say what we say. And we don't mean to be disrespectful, but we do disagree. I would agree that you absolutely should be able to speak respectfully. Any other comments? OK, moving on. Who would like to move the consent agenda? Any discussion? Any revisions, changes? I'm trying to make revisions without Katie here. I know. She's really good at it. I would go to. Maybe. I did not see anything that needed any revisions. Did anyone else? I did not either. OK, all those in favor of the approving the minutes of 12-2018 and 1-7-19 as written? Hold on. I'm sorry. I did just I was only looking at the 12-20 and not the 1-7-19. But when we called to order on the 1-7-19, it shows that in attendance was Chris, but Chris came in at the tail end. And I just want to make sure that that is correct, because his name is not reflected in the signature. I don't know if that matters or not, but. Oh, that is true. You did come in halfway through. Right. Well, he did come. But you had already done the signature, so. We had already packed up. All visits had been done by the time after that. It's a party. It's a school, we should. I don't know. I just want it to be accurate is all. I'm not certain with the legal language that I would be happy with tardy. I would just note, if you know what the time, if you don't, you could say whatever you think the last few minutes were, you know, with putting what those minutes are. It was probably. What did we adjourn? What did you adjourn? 605. 609 you adjourned. 609, so I was like, 603. You were like, 603. Something in there. Also, there's an on the emergency school board meeting, too. The three point one, my name is spelled in correctly, too. Thank you. Sorry about that. That's good. We caught it earlier. Let's go try and start. I don't really like that. OK. So all those in favor of approving the minutes of 12, 2018 and 1, 7, 19 as amended. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Stain? Very good. OK, 3.0 discussion. 3.1 town meeting prep. So under this, we have the board communication plan. And that's do we have all the town is waiting for? They're waiting for the packet. Right now, it's in the midst of being created. As we talked about last month, we have all the information that reports in this fiscal year and last fiscal year in that next year's budget. And when do we anticipate being able to? That should be ready to go after tonight. We're waiting for the adoption of the warning. OK. And things will be ready to go. OK. And I'll have my letter in tomorrow. Great. Yeah. Katz reports in. All those pieces will be right over. I'm late. Yeah. So that's the stuff. I'm just speaking on behalf of the town office, we'll have those documents because there's nobody there Friday. Yeah, I talked to them a couple of times. They're ready to go as we always have done it. They've always given us almost to the end of next week because we sent them PDF camera ready. OK, great. So it's nothing that the town has to do. It's what we've done it for years. Well, after you and I talked back in October, I talked to the town manager and to the person that's doing the publication. And they said, no, no, that's for all the other communities. No, it's who I was doing the town publication for you. Is it the town clerk or is it someone else? Yeah, Judy. I remember talking with Judy about it. And she said, no, I meant that for all the other town committees for the school. You guys send us a photo ready PDF ready to go. And we just insert it. So she was when you had told me, I want to make sure I double check on those timelines. Yeah, no, great. That's great. So we have the end of next week, really. But we try to get it to her Tuesday, Wednesday. OK. Anything else on the board communication? That's good. Hi, Katie. 3.1.2, school board member elections. Now, this is for the local board. So we have one school director for a two-year term. And we have one school director for a three-year term. And I don't believe anyone has put paperwork in yet. But that's due in by the 28th? That's due by Monday, the 28th partitions are due. Yeah, I've got my. I've got. 1%. Yes, 1%. Yeah. Chris, have you picked up yours? I already have a couple signatures. It's just now sitting on my table. 15. So everybody aim for 15 signatures. Or more. Or case something. Yeah, you can get more. That would be great. OK. I think we can jump right ahead to 3.1.3. And this is the Calis Town School District Town meeting warning. This is found on page six. Don't. I can do it. I can see as this. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Scott. It's probably because we wanted to know if you wanted to publicize the public hearing. This is one that if you wanted to publicize it in the morning, you don't have to buy a statute you had until 10 days before the public hearing. Publicize when the hearing is. And the hearing, this is just the informational meeting that we always have. The budget. Yeah. And we're doing that. Did we decide to do that Monday? We did decide to do that Monday. No, you didn't decide yet. We just put in a statute. OK. And we can decide if we have to do one, even though we have to do one. OK. I think we'll just pause until everyone has a copy so that we can all follow along. We need to have a little height. You've got to slide. We've got to have a little height. We've got to have a little height. I think that was for the family. I think you do. You know, everybody goes through that. And then if I don't get to fix it, I got to do it. So my daughter's at W.E.B. right now. I'm going to pick her up before the meeting. I'll just bring her up a little. I want to go to the Wendy Bar. I don't want my nine-year-old going to the Wendy Bar. Yes, that's it. And yet it would be closer to pick her up. Well, I mean, you look pretty cross. Is that one? Oh, Chris. Next time, tell me about it. Next time, tell me about it. Yeah. Thank you, Kat. You're welcome. OK. So the town district warning, as written, everyone has it on page six. Does everyone understand how it's been modified and changed to fit the new system? Does anyone have any questions? I'd actually like to discuss moving. You know, we had the addition of another article to discuss the budget that we submit with this report in the event that we don't have a consolidated union at that time. And I'd actually like to also look at the sixth article about returning from Australian ballot to a town meeting vote on the budget. On the budget? Yeah, and I don't know if we can do that here. You can do that there. You have that authority. You as a board do not need a petition to put anything on the ballot. It's up to you as a board. I first want to say the board has the authority over the warning. So you can put on the warning what you want. You actually never are going to have to accept a petition. It's usually not politically smart not to. But we never advise a board not to do that. But I want to tell you that by statute, you have the authority to say what's on the warning. And the school board is the one that has that authority. In this, I mean, I want to make sure that we have a budget discussion. And it's on Australian vote. And that's circumstances where we should have that discussion at this meeting. In the event, I mean, I don't know what's going to happen with this court case. And it's going to run its course. You know, in fact, if it does, then we'll adjust. We can't add it, you know, to get beyond Monday. We're not going to be able to add this to town meeting discussions. But we will make alterations if things change. So, but at the present time, we're under the schedule to consolidate. I mean, legally speaking, at the present time, right, we're under the legal mandate to consolidate until a court says this process is delayed or... That's the way the secretary explained it to me today. We are the board of authority, though, at this time. Yeah, actually, right now, we are the only board that has a fiduciary responsibility for this school. Yeah, that's absolutely right. And that's the way it is. Right. Because nothing else has happened. And so we can choose. We can choose to put a budget in. Right. Or not. And to discuss it or not. And obviously, I think we have to... As I remember all other years, we've had a public hearing before this town meeting in order to answer questions of some sort. So I know we have to do that. I would like to have an article. I would like to include this budget that we okayed. We did not necessarily vote, as I recall, but we okayed the second draft of the budget that we got on December 20th. And I would like to include that in the town report and have it voted by Australian ballot on town meeting day. So then what happens between... That's so complicated. We're at January 17th. Our town meeting is on the 5th of March. And we don't know when we're going to get before the judge, correct? We don't need to know. We write that at this moment. Right. No, but my question is... We are in charge and we can put it on there. Right. And then if... I think... Can I finish? Katie was talking first. So my question is... Well, I didn't ask my question. So my question is if it's decided one way or another in between, what authority... I mean how do we properly warn to change it, right? So how do we... Do we have time is what I'm saying. Like when will we have time to come back in and say... So you have to warn by statute between 30 and 40 days before the election. Right. So by February 5th or... It's actually a couple of days before that because it's like 28 or 29 days this year. 28 this year. So probably like February 2nd approximately. Well, they were also tied into the town printing stuff. Right. So that's the other piece that Dorothy's correct about. Sorry, I'm trying to get to the calendar. I just don't want it to go out there wrong. Do you know what I mean? And then something changes and we have to... So you do have to distribute the budget ahead of time and notify the voters. You don't necessarily have to give it to them. In hand, you have to notify them at least of how they can obtain it. The tradition in going back to Scott's email, the tradition in this town is that it's part of the town report. That's out there. They have to be able to access it at least 10 days prior to the election. So I have a concern that if we do this and put forth an individual budget and have it on the ballot and have the townspeople vote on it, and then are we slated currently for April 30th? So right now the only date that we know certain is that the district organizational meeting is February 19th. That has been warned and posted. Okay. And from there the transition board were warned for a district merge board election. And they have to follow the same rules we're talking about for this election. So it's actually...the 30, 40 days is easy. It's the six Mondays that you have to have in for petitions. We talked about this last night with the executive committee. And the executive committee advised because they don't have the authority to say it. The transition board has the authority to say it. That we go... But the recommendation, as I've published, is that we're going to recommend to folks because that we go for an April 2nd merge board member election. And then the merge board is the only entity that has the authorization to put forth a merge board budget. And they must do that with 30 to 40 days. Notice they don't need the six days because we aren't doing petitions. And that would get us to a May 7th vote. Special district meeting. District meeting. It's always a district meeting. And on that date we would then vote for a unified budget. That would be a unified budget. So then we would have two budgets. And this is assuming that no stoppage, injunction, et cetera has occurred during this time period. So if everything follows the timeline that's currently in effect and nothing stops it, then we're going to have two budgets. And that... But if something does stop... And I understand that there is a chance that something could happen. I prefer not to myself. I prefer not to make my decisions on something that has not yet occurred. You know, go like that. Works two ways. I think I would prefer to make decisions on the current situation, not on something that may or may not happen. If we were to get an injunction, the process would then start. We would set up a special meeting. We would do our budget. And we would put that forth. And the timeline would start based on that injunction. I just think it's a cleaner way to do it. And it's less confusing to the town. But that's my question. That's my concern. And I do hear that you're interested in perhaps doing it a different way. My feeling is that this is what we know today. This is the only thing we know. We have the responsibility, as it says in the statutes, to set a budget for our town for town meeting day. What we know today is only that. Because yes, the February 19th meeting is certain, but no other thing is certain. Nothing. And to not follow our, I would feel that I hadn't carried out the duties I promised to carry out to the taxpayers if I didn't set a budget for the town meeting for now. Because this is what I know. This is what I know I should be doing. And that the state would like, says I should do. So that's what I would like to do. But in fact, doesn't the statute just say we need a budget by June 15? You're correct. We're not actually missing legal responsibility. If the consolidation doesn't happen, this meeting, if it gets shut, not the meeting, but the court puts a moratorium or a stay or whatever, then we have to spend the money to call a special meeting to do this. And so my thought was, we're here now. It doesn't cost us any more money. We can just go and do it and be done with it. And my guess is, which is also a guess because everything else has to do with merger that is a guess, that there will be a way to undo it if, for a chance, this all does not get continued. I believe there would be a cost involved with undoing it as well as setting a new... Probably. There's a cost involved with a new election also. Absolutely. So I think there's a cost on both sides. Well, not likely on one, but it's on where you fall on a roulette wheel. Who could spambler you? I know my personal views on it. I think it is our fiduciary duty. I mean, it's stated in the statute. We don't know where this is going. Maybe one way or the other. It's easy enough for us to deal with this, I'm sure, at the other side. If we are going into a merge situation, then that budget can be annulled or there will be a legal way to undo that. But we have a budget in place in town meeting. That's a traditional time when people gather. Vacations are organized around that. They're not organized around a June meeting or anything else. This is when the townspeople come together to talk about this. We think it's our duty to provide that. It doesn't hurt. But remember, we don't vote on the floor anymore. I know that. That's why I like to have the additional article to bring that back. It would be nice to bring that back. That's sparing this. I would like to say one thing. That I really, in October, when Bill brought us the first draft and said that he was going to form a budget for each of the boards and so that when we consolidated or if we had to consolidate, he could then put them together. I felt really good about that. Then he brought us, when we said about that particular one, what we needed changed. He went back to the central office and they worked hard to bring that one forward and did their best work. I really respect that and I really felt good about that. I just would like to have an article where we vote on the town budget. Honestly, to this budget, remember, this is the budget we voted to recommend to the transition committee. Essentially, what we're putting in front of the town is what the transition committee was going to get. This isn't something that's different from what was going to go there anyway. I don't see the harm in what we are doing. What changes are going to be made in this budget? We're sticking with tradition. I have two questions. One is, is there any chance between now and let's say April that there'd be any movement on the small schools grant or is that definitely a done deal for this year? I can update you on that. It's updated today. The small schools grant, the State Board handed that back to the House Education Committee and to the legislature to figure out what they're going to do. They're starting to take testimony on that. That was with the House leadership today in a meeting and they were saying that they're going to set up testimony for what they're going to do with the small schools grant. We have the estimates if we get them, if we don't. Right now Scott said he's very correct about data coming out of the AOE right now. It's way behind as I told you with Equalized Pupils. Small schools grants we haven't seen an estimate yet. Lawyers run some estimates, but it's really relative because it's a balancing act across all. There's a certain amount of money and then there's certain qualifications that schools come in and out of and Calis is always right on that line. Are you in there? Are you out? We're in because our population has gone down. It depends how far we've gone up on that list with the relative ranking and how much money you get. The small schools grant information was released this afternoon. Was it? Yep. I haven't seen it. It could have been. I haven't been in the office all day. I was in Allstate. It was a meeting. And that's part of the appeal as well. I think I can share this. Janet Ansel sent that to me this afternoon and I believe Calis has the small schools grant back. You know how much? We don't know how much. It's based on enrollment. Right. So that's promising. Yeah, we stay in. That would bring down the tax rates, but we don't have those in the budget that you saw. The small school grant was zeroed out. Right. That's why I was just... That's exciting. Just keep in mind it still was the smaller amount of the two things that we lost. Right. Thanks, Michelle. My other question is just... I don't know, I'm just wondering what would be the most simple and clean for everyone in Calis because it's so confusing, you know? And we already have, you know, elect your Calis representatives who may be on the board until June or may be on the board for three more years and then elect these other people at a later election and then, you know, to vote on a budget and then try to get word out to people a month later. That budget actually doesn't count. We need you to come back for this other meeting to vote on a budget. And how many people are going to say, I already voted on the school budget. I don't know what this meeting is. I don't know. I just worry about making it... The budget should be the same. That's what my... Sure, but they have to come back and vote again. Once they're going to come back and vote, even if this budget doesn't happen, they've got to vote. I mean, you're going to have that transition board. You're going to have these transitional meetings. They have to happen. They're coming back in this process. That goes forward. That doesn't go away in any scenario. This is just doing our due diligence and this is doing our duty, our fiduciary duty on this. This is what we're tasked with and within our legislation. Do we have a question? On this December 27 budget, does it include the small schools grant? It does not. We were doing assumptions at that point that we wouldn't have. So will you revise this to include that then before you send it to... I don't know the amount. I don't have the amount. Even though we may know it, they could say, we're fine with it, we're going to go or keep small schools grants just the way it is. If they did say that today and made an action to do that, what happens is it's got to go through the process of calculating all that money, and that comes through the AOE and it really frankly comes through two people there. And Brad James right now is still trying to even get equalized pupils correct, which is not solid yet. We usually have equalized pupils by December 15th. We're still going to handle them. I shouldn't be calling. I'm sorry. I love it. It's a budget. We'd make your best guess and put it in there. And Katie, really I think everything I've heard about merger committees that is in the subjunctive that is talking about something that is true now. There's no doubt about it. It's what we've done. As Rick says, it's what really you need to do. It's not maybe. Everything about merger is maybe. Everything about the lawsuit is maybe. But this is certain. That's funny because I kind of feel it's the opposite actually. Right now the agency of education or the board of education has told us that we are required to merge and as of this date we will be a merged district and it's actually the subjunctive is more like if we win this lawsuit then we continue to be an independent board who makes their own budget. Can I add something to Denise's question? I'm going to go back. The voters vote on the expenditure budget not the revenues. They like to know the revenues so they know the tax rate. So really although it's important for however you vote on a budget the power of the electorate is on the expenditures. But it would be good to have that. Oh I agree. We may know it by whatever time if it's time meeting day or another day what those are. That's why it's a good idea to have a budget discussion then. And we don't need to have it to put it in the town report. So can I try to cite from statute this might be a quote that I didn't roll kind of guessing a little bit here. This is present law and it talks about meetings. This is under the education. Subsection 422 I have copies of it if people want it. The annual town meeting shall be the annual town school district meeting right. However any annual or special school district meeting like this annual meeting the electorate may authorize the annual school district meeting to be held on another date so long as the meeting is held after February 1 before June 15. So I would suggest that you give some thought to even if you didn't have a budget proposed for this town meeting that you could put on the agenda an item shall the electorate consider authorizing the school board to hold yet a second meeting to discuss budget at a agreed upon date you could actually put the date in the warning or you could have it debated on the floor and then much of this gets resolved. You then might have numbers by then or you may have a projection of when the numbers will be and then you can have your meeting in April whatever we might know more and then you'll have a budget one kind of it or another. John it's one of the rare times that you and I are in agreement so it's a good idea. I just want to recognize what Scott said I want to record, no I know the statute very well. See that grayish hair that's why it's beginning to happen. I believe that's right. But John that's been my advice since the executive committee talked about this back in August and that was at that point was setting a plan for budget was to develop I was instructed by the executive to basically build two paths for a date that's uncertain where you were there Dorothy I think you were there because we had to use a room over there and that we said let's have a two-path mechanism that can be from merged or not merged and that most likely that's going to get us to a special meeting after town meeting. I think the save resources or avoid complication you set the process up now as laid out in this law that so the people who show up to town meeting understand that there's you have a second meeting that's tied. If they so vote well if they so vote they could vote say we don't want another one and then we do because there's no budget one would hope they if there is an injunction we would have to call a special meeting anyway correct so and would we be authorized to do it just because it's the old so I just want to let you guys finish did you hear what Suzanne's question was I think it was a good question if we do have an injunction then we have to have a special meeting for a budget are we not authorized to call that special meeting do we have to have that so I need to go check some statute and I want to after talking yeah there's 563 which Scott was referencing which I was looking at earlier today after he sent his email these warrants were put together with our attorney Chris Leopold who the board the articles of agreement committee I want to say the board because I want to make sure you cite the right committee chose an attorney to help with this whole process I gave them three they decided who they wanted to work with Chris has been one of the leading experts the state uses him as a resource at times and sometimes they don't agree but Chris is very knowledgeable so these warrants have gone by Chris and to bring those to the board here the piece that sets what happens at town meeting goes back to that 30 to 40 day window then I know everyone in this room knows very well so if you're outside of that I would want to consult the statute consult I'm glad to be multiple attorneys that's fine but on you know how you go about doing a special meeting I can only tell you from my experience when I worked in Hardwick that times that we lost budgets that a special meeting was called by the board not by the electorate but I don't know I would have to consult the board and always call I'd have to consult with for the first budget vote you know John as you're reading that statute sounds very clear about the electorate having the ability to change the annual town meeting date or set a special meeting they have that power as well so this is where I'd want to read it and talk to some people that have more experience in reading municipal educational law the other thing that might be complicated about this is that we're calling we seem to talk about the meeting on March 5th to be our annual meeting and this statute calls about holding its annual meeting at some other time because you're allowed by statute to have from the 1st of February to the 15th of June to have your annual meeting well I know but if this is in the town report is the considered the annual meeting it's okay to call another annual meeting but they kind of the statute seems to say okay doesn't matter so there are certain the consideration on this too remember that that is the day when people take off of work they stop their jobs they come every time we do this if we want participation in this process that's asking them to take another day that's a hardship we are not going to get the participation if we can possibly do this on our regular traditional town meeting day we're likely to have better attendance at that and we're also likely to have just more general participation isn't that why we have an Australian ballot so that we wouldn't have to necessarily inconvenience people? no we do but this if you want to do a board presentation of any kind of meetings I mean that's to discuss a budget we try and get as many people as we can so there are some items on the warning since the select board is here do we have your permission to do 8am? can we go first? yeah I'm not even you will wait you will figure it out I think we allow for it and and then we also have to 8 o'clock thank you and then we also have to decide on a public meeting in advance of we have to pick a date it has to be within 10 days of the election we've messed around with that all the time and we never get more than this many people I know but we have to do it so would you like to do it the night before? Monday the night before? at 6pm I thought we didn't have to do that anymore you do that you have I remember we had a meeting where you were like oh we don't have to do that it really stuck in my head I don't remember saying that Katie but I will tell you that I don't remember a lot of what I say because it's just there's too much going around does anyone have a date? well we're trying to come up with a date that everyone is comfortable with I will make it work I'm happy to do the night before 6pm the night before town meeting? you're not talking about February 25th no we're talking about March 4th March 4th that's 6pm 4pm should we look at the basketball schedule it's vacation it's over thank you sir it'll be set after Chris and folks will be saying it for town meeting so is everyone comfortable with Monday March 4th not this Chris you're way too many Chris's in the world Monday March 4th 6pm does anyone have further discussion or need more information because this is the only action item that we have so I think we should just move that right ahead so at our February meeting we'll talk about the plan for that March 4th meeting what we want to talk about mm-hmm I think we'll know a little bit more about what we'll be discussing okay I mean we're discussing around this I do want to have an article to you know to look at calling a vote on going away from Australia back to a public town meeting vote so I think you would move uh you would move this and make some amendments to it and then we would vote on that or is that a separate call again move amending what amending the action agenda so to approve the Calistown school district town meeting as amended so if you'd like to I would amend amendments you'd want to make to that okay so can I just give some that would be the model procedure I did bring I didn't know that so we'd have to go look at this one's a little bit more outside of it outside of what I was prepped for tonight so because I'd want to make sure that we have those words set out in a piece if that were an amendment I did bring that because statute is very tight on what the language is you remember two or three years ago the legislature changed it I have that with me I brought that with me because you have to publicize what your percentage changes in your cost per equalized pupil you have to use a negative you have to use a negative language action negative language it's really it's terrible language but the legislature gave us so I have that language I don't have the language right now for you about changing to a floor vote can we so can we can we move to change it to a floor vote and then figure out the language at some other time that's right I mean if we know what we want to do can we do that without having this specific wording right now yes you can well would part of the motion be that we accept the wording that you provide for us I would I would not I would not ask you to authorize me to do that because it's your power to approve the warning I'm not trying to stop this I want you to hear this I'm trying to get to practical sense and keep you in the best place possible so so authorize our can I finish please so what I would say is if you wanted to have that and you wanted that this warning I would have to work with an attorney quickly to get that language I think what I would do is because we do have the language we want from a floor vote to an Australian so I think it's just flipping the words and bringing it back and so we could hold a special meeting somewhere between now and Wednesday and we could probably do phone you know you can do teleconferencing as long as I have one board member with me and we could do an approval of the warning at that point I just don't think it's fair I don't think it's fair for you as a board without seeing the language it's not that I think this is back to whose authority it is and it's your authority if I were in the authority I'd want to see the final language before I've said something to it so then would the would we have to move to table 5.1 until a special meeting later than this Wednesday? I'd have to do some phone calling tomorrow if you'd like to have to have that vote on because I just want to make sure you see the language I'm not trying to stop doing the work I just think it's appropriate for you as a board I personally am comfortable with you it's clear what we're trying to do and it really is probably flipping what say Doug Lilly did when he originally did made the reverse argument I think it is too and we would take the heat I'm not asking you to then answer for that that should be pretty simple I'm willing to do a meeting next week I understand that I feel more comfortable with your superintendent that you authorize the wording after you've seen it that being said I've moved to table action item 5.1 until no later than this Wednesday pending a wording change the addition of we need to finish working on the amendments first I think making sure we have all the amendments that we want my advice would be what Dorothy just said is to say I'd like to know the outline of what you want so it's not a long meeting frankly because otherwise and I've got to go every day we go past today I've got to say for Krista's sake she's under the gun to put stuff together and we've got everything and the last one that goes together is this Monday night so so I mean in that case it's simple it's basically the reverse of what you know the original it shouldn't be more than a minute long meeting but I think you should all be in agreement tonight with some sort of intent or something like that of where you want it to go I would appreciate that as your superintendent to have instruction from the board from the board are we able to are we able to vote on I guess we can't vote on part of a warning pending the language you could do that pending review of the language of the last article you could make a motion like that pending the review by the board at a special meeting of the one article and you could be right there with everything set except for that one article and then you have a second vote at your next meeting that says we reviewed it we approve the warning in full it's kind of like what was done at the articles meeting Dorothy the other night where people said hey we're done with or last Friday we've got these four let's put those aside and then we have targets right but I'm just trying to say I'm trying to I'm trying to get you help you get through your work I myself think we need to make whatever amendments we want to this wait for the phone call for the wording and I guess it would be kind of a straw vote are we happy with do we all agree with these amendments and then it's tabled until the phone conference meeting about the wording does that make sense yeah we could agree with warning on with a budget without a budget you know what I would suggest that you do tonight I would suggest that you get to a place where you determine do you want the budget do you want the Australian we adopt this warning pending one more review of the language for the change in method of voting on the budget meeting will approve something like that I'm trying to suggest to you a motion that it really kind of says as a board we're done discussing this we're all in agreement of this is how we're doing it whatever articles are on there and that you say then at that point we're just going to look at the wording of this one if that's if you approve that article as a board that you want to have one to move it from Australian to Florida okay so we are so we could vote on the warning either with or without with or without what I'm saying what I'm saying is you make a clause and it says pending review if you decide to have an Australian an article to move it from Australia to Florida you say if you decide to do that and I think you should do that through amendments amendment process you're voting on each article and then you as a group say okay we know where we stand and then I know where you're going to approve what you have right now we are approving this pending a review of language what the board will have for the Australian for article 6 or 7 whatever it is yeah but I want to so we have to get the wording I can I mean I think you can do the intent of the wording for I think Rick you could propose that in an amendment of I propose to move it to I'd like to see an article that that transfers the vote on the budget back to the floor to the floor in a district meeting and get that and that would be article 6, 5 probably the last article so are we still debating if we want an article 5 to approve the budget you need to get if you're going to go down to approve that well that's up to your chair no I think I think that's part of it I think that's the main vote that we're doing tonight and making that decision that's a separate article it would be a separate article so if you want the change from Australian back to a floor vote we'll do article 6 yeah that would be put that at the end right I would suggest that you do right now you're so much in the discussion right now on that action agenda at 5-1 and it hurts to say you want to get there I would recommend to use a board in your process that you get that on the table right now have your discussion have any amendments someone move that that's what you're going to do and then get into it that's why I'm suggesting your parliamentary procedures right now have that on the table then have your amendments we're getting all scrambled around have any discussion with it get the motions going would you like to make a a motion based on your articles that you would like added to this let's do one at a time so I would suggest a motion for the adoption of the warning then you go into it I move so I'll make a motion that sounds good so I move that we approve the callous town school district warning that was written and I would and I move that we make two amendments oh yes we don't have to we vote small board rules small board rules we don't have to adopt it well are you so I would move that we amend the budget I mean the to add an article adding the recommended budget or the budget recommended to the the transition committee may I suggest that Rick read this that you read this this is the budget you have to say this this is what you got this afternoon it's no no you have no choice to say this because of statute if you have a budget there you go Lori prepped it for me John it's required in how budgets have to be to make a school district budget I will amend we'll have to listen to this I'll give it to you Michelle I propose that we amend the warning to add an article that states the following shall the voters of the school district approve the school board to expend $1,970,738 which is the amount the school board has determined to be necessary for the ensuring for the ensuing fiscal year it is estimated that this proposed budget if approved will result in education spending of $17,475 per equalized pupil this projected spending per equalized pupil is 9.82% higher than the spending for the current year she can look at it she can look at it she can look at it we want to vote on this let's discuss this I think we discussed what that means anybody have the culture so in summary to summarize our previous discussion some people feel it would be better to vote on this budget have the town vote on this budget now at town meeting day have that as like an insurance plan in case the court stops the process and then other people feel it might be better to just wait and have our special meeting when we know which budget it is whether it's a one school budget or a multi-school budget stop the process if it goes on as either way then you have to take action on one of those budget and there's no legal problem with us there's no legal problem with the voters of callous voting on a budget that suddenly I'm just worried there could be a legal I'm worried there could be a legal problem if the court meets and says no injunction the process shall continue we've warned a town meeting with a budget and now we don't have the authority to make that budget anymore I feel like there's this timeline where we could get trapped in a we just got the board technically exists through the end of the fifth and year we have we have some authority in this and then in our respect you might feel differently but what I've been told by the state at top agency of education is that the board has operational authority through June 30th of 2019 it was end of the year there would be no legal issue if we recommended a budget to voters they approve that budget and then the court in the middle of that the court had already said I don't think there's an answer to your question okay because I think you would get opinions based on which way you want someone leaned I'm trying to give you a straight up piece but we're not going to be in any legal problems with passing a budget when we didn't have the or something like that that's up to the court to decide somebody would have to join you the court's going to be sure we're ruling saying we agree with challengers of the force merger and then you go forward with what you present or the court's going to say we agree with the state that they did everything appropriately and they would continue to move through with their process and the vote would be null and void and in any event if you have that new information comes by the time town meeting comes the board could recommend to the voters the electorate that they vote to not accept this budget but instead schedule another meeting to vote on a new budget when that becomes available we could have an opportunity between to change I think the only issue with that is we don't vote from the floor so people get ballots in advance and they're going to start voting so early early voters they could vote on the budget up or down but the people on the floor could still vote to schedule the electorate to schedule the other meeting the budget would be moot that you passed if the state wins it's a loss and the money does not have to be spent we return to the taxpayers anyway as of right now we are the legal entity that runs the school and we have the duty to vote a budget and it can't it can't be the only way we could be accused of doing something illegal would somebody take us to court and it's very clear and state regs and state regs the law says that we can and should do this so I can't see anything illegal about it so just to make sure I'm clear the law says we can we should do this by June 15 correct it says at town meeting or at another meeting as decided by electorate at town meeting by June 15 June 15 then is our deadline we have a rather large window okay so do we have any more questions one more question I know we want to move on but these budgets aren't even built by your office I know there are some changes because the numbers are still coming in but is it a huge amount of extra work to prepare this for town meeting day and then yes it's work, it's extra work sure it is sure it is can I just point out two things that are usually on the warning that aren't an article that says to authorize the school directors to hold any unaudited fund balance and then to authorize the school board to borrow money in anticipation of receipt of revenues for the school year those are usually on your warning and they're not on this because we were advised by Chris Leopold our attorney that not to have those on that's part of the merge board but if you're operating under your current authority and the budget passes and the lawsuit comes and goes and everything's status quo won't you need that authority? if so let me, I'm just going to give you information don't hear me as trying to argue I just want to make sure people aren't misinterpreting my tone and working with Chris Leopold to put these together what Chris has explained to me and to our folks who have had this question is that the ruling that was done on November 28 from Act 46 has the authority that we are to be merged on July 1st, 2019 and that the merge board is the only one that has authority over that fiscal year not this board and so that they have to hold a district election on that. I know that there are other opinions about that, that's how we got to the morning we're seeing that today I'm just giving that as an information so if the merger doesn't happen then we would need to have a special meeting to have those two articles addressed or we could do it here and just have it there before we could just have an amendment to have a special meeting regardless to either approve our budget or our budget we don't have to amend the budget I'm trying to think anyway because I mean it's small school grants change I just think there's so much that we don't know right now I don't I don't think that it's responsible of us to put a budget for it so we don't even know what's going to happen well it's not our fault that we don't have this but we don't have to do it again we're putting forth a budget based on the assumption that we're going to get an injunction or legislation exactly that doesn't exist right now well no it doesn't it's basically so that we aren't in a void that's the difference we don't know the way this is going right so but what if we as Chris said put the article that will set a special meeting at a date because even though we've traditionally voted on our budget on this day it's a mess this year and there's so many unknowns so this year it's a little different than tradition on town meeting day what we all decide as voters is that we're going to meet again in May is that the date or is it April that we will set a special that will set a special meeting to decide our budget to vote on our budget and set we have the authority to set a special meeting without an article that's actually almost messier I think so we have we have a motion to add article 5 as discussed as read by rick and then you would you like to add article 6 I would suggest a procedure piece you should do amendments one at a time I think it would be easier for you to combine things is everybody ready for a vote on this one okay okay all those in favor of approving the callous town school district town meeting warning as amended we have we're just voting on the amendment we're just voting on the amendment just on the amendment just voting single amendment all in favor of all in favor of adding article 5 to the town district warning the callous school town district warning say aye aye all those opposed no did not pass 3 to 2 so then we want to move on to article 6 you should see if you have an amendment you don't have an amendment to that do we have any other amendments I move an amendment to be wordsmithed by bill district the district to to request a vote for to change from an australian ballot system to a floor vote for the school for the school warning and budget can I just give you a little bit of friendly advice usually it's said for the ensuing ensuing ensuing annual meeting that's why I wanted a attorney they usually say for the next time you don't do it on that for the ensuing ensuing year this is why I want an attorney because they'll get it right you don't do it for that one Michelle do you have any part of that do you have an amendment for bill an attorney to request a vote to change for an ensuing annual meeting for the australian vote for a floor vote language to follow for an art course wait an amendment he's asking us to vote on an amendment to the warning to add an article for the district attorney district attorney district attorney district attorney district attorney to request voters to change what we call just our school budget school budget vote from australian to floor for town meeting what happened to the ensuing annual meeting we'll figure that out but it's the intent another wicket to throw in if we pass this I don't mean but the town says yes we want a floor vote don't we have to have language in it that has to do with any school district meeting because when we have a projected budget meeting in april or may this is why I want the attorney there's a lot of little nuances and other statutes that I won't even think of that will come into the municipal law as well that will come into this and from election law I'm pretty sure he'll have to put something in he's got to figure it out so that april meeting then would be a floor vote that's interesting this year that's very good I like that that works for me we'll have to figure that out so moved I don't even know where we are I wish we had well moving an article changing the vote from australian ballot to floor ballot to be word smith by the lawyer is that the motion do we have to add and then reviewed by us before adoption you're going to do that when you do your school district when we do the whole the whole 5.1 perfect that was much shorter than that we need to vote on the amendment amending this article we're not amending that we're adding this article budget voting method for any and all or you're not sure any and all future meetings I have to see if it's got to be a full year because that's what I need to ask the attorney does that have to be a full year for the next one I just don't know the answer to that but we'll take whatever we're not picky it's been a few years since I've done research on it and I don't care around those brain cells I got the idea so all those in favor of amending the callous town school district warning to add article 5 language pending from our attorney to reverse the Australian ballot to voting from the floor say aye opposed I'm staying so moved she's got the paper right there if you want to write it down or a photocopy for you Denise or take a picture with your iPhone what are you kidding I think we have to vote on that I don't know how you get it he'll email it to me and you have to say to vote on it as amended because you've amended it with one article or if you have other articles I don't know if you're there are there any other articles or amendments that we would like to make to the morning are we ready to call about on the morning so all those in favor of approving the callous town school district town meeting warning as amended say aye opposed I'm staying 4-1 reports to the board no 3.2 act 46 update do we have is there anything you'd like to tell us about the articles meetings etc I haven't been at the articles I visited I visited select board meetings the articles of a group is struggling article 4 which goes closing schools what are in the default articles is the town whose school is being closed gets to vote I or I the first two years and it's after those first two years that we're working on there's also in the prior meeting which was just the week before from the two or three lawyers involved on that board there was a lot they were all feeling pressured much more time to write these articles and words meant these correctly there was not nearly adequate time to do this to the point that they were even questioning whether we should take the default articles as bad as they are for the risk of creating something creating some problems I don't know, Dorothy was at the last meeting I was at another meeting I don't know how they go what most people don't understand is that any article there's default articles if we were to go to those and we were to ask the electorate to vote on them they would be voting on basically a canned bunch of articles that were there they would just say do you accept the articles yes or no even one change in one article one word just to make it more clear that whole article has to be on the ballot so can I give you a... that's what I was under that's okay it is very confusing it is not easy to understand the default articles do not need to be voted on if an article because we've been talking about article 10 changing the composition of the board as you said one word in any individual article that article would have to appear fully on the ballot and be voted on by the combined there's different methods to pay on which article if it's a town vote or combined full mingle votes so there's article 14 that's in the draft articles agreement that says how the votes must be done and then there are some articles that can't even be touched by the state of war so you're right on mostly there it's that there isn't a vote on the draft articles to accept them they exist just the amended part we have to vote on they're long I'm sure they're in terms of article 4 is there disagreement among the towns about how we would meet with closing the school or is it more that it's just difficult to find language that it's difficult to find a method that satisfies everyone there's the ones who the way the article is written is it has to be a majority vote of the electorate I believe for 4b which we're talking about the past years right now as it reads it must be a majority vote of the entire electorate that's the 5 towns that's for all 5 towns that's the voters the new that's the consolidated district all 5 towns co-mingled recommendation by the combined voters there were towns that some of them were pushing for a vote of the town whose school is being closed that's what we support and there were some hybrid discussions I don't know if it came up with this meeting where I say there might be a 2 thirds vote of the consolidated committee plus a majority vote of the consolidated committee plus say a super majority vote of the town's people in the affected town for school in order to preserve the school 2 thirds we have to vote for maintaining that school open something like that and I don't know if I can Chris and I were talking about the meeting before we keep trying to find different ideas things that would work in some form should it be hard or easy to close a school should be very hard I think that was pretty unanimous there were different definitions of hard hard degrees of hard because I think Scott that's what I heard you were there hard or impossible harder or impossible there's no question that the schools who face the closures the most and they should have the town they should have a vote to my mind that needs to be accepted by the town the town that doesn't it's not facing a closure it's not impacting to the same level of town that does face a closure so these are the conversations that the articles committee have and one of the another one that they put in is I can help you answer Denise so Denise so the first two there's already an effect for the first two years that cannot be changed which gives the town that the school is located in the closure it's what's being debated right now is after those first two years and they're in effect until there's a vote of the electorate to change that bylaw and that electorate it says that the vote on that is to combine by the five towns well then there's the issue too and I don't know if this was addressed but these articles can be voted on by that permanent board once it's elected I mean it would change no they can't the board cannot change the articles it has to stay with what's in article 14 which pretty much gives it to the electorate there are very few that board has control over what I mean is the consolidated electorate correct I mean it does not go back to that individual some go to individual towns some do that's what I'm saying article 14 of the draft articles and I could pull it up if we need it tonight but has which ones of the articles that were given to us and how they may be how they must be voted to change I think what would matter with me with the school closure is as acceptable as if the affected town had the ability to block changing that they would have to have the ability to block the closure if they so chose to do it and I'm okay with something like even a super majority and I think the town itself has to stand up because sometimes that's an issue because it does cause to everybody everyone in that consolidated union it's also impacting but they have to have the ability to say no and then they also have to have the ability to protect themselves from being changed by the aggregated union later because three towns in that two or three towns carry the majority and probably two I don't know what I mean that could easily that could easily be changed at any point so I would ask you to ask Matthew DeGroote because the numbers were pretty interesting that was really he posted those I think I can just send that over just send it over to I thought he had some really good thoughts there about electoral like well that's pretty interesting what he did is he researched all five towns and the percentage of people who voted at town meetings on a kind of regular basis and the percentage of people who voted like at the presidential election so there was like for all the towns it was an average of 60% for that and I think the town meeting was around 30 some of it percent and then he kind of figured out how many votes in Worcester would take to just knock it off no matter what everybody else voted or Calis or individual towns it was very interesting the question you got to be careful too on vote turnout because you know statistics don't always mean a lot when you get a really well that was he was saying you know that so take a look at this properly it's really interesting I mean I thought you did a nice job of saying it's a passion that brings you out no you gave it to your articles I could send it out to all of you I'll do it right now I'll forward it to you in any shape or form I think the power has got to remain with there has to be some ability of that of that individual town to be able to stop that process it's the only thing I would support I'm not saying that that has to be an easy ride but I'm saying that that has to be a reasonable we discussed of there was a discussion of could the town actually could we arrange something or should we arrange something so the town could always veto it in other words so there would always be a possibility of a veto however we arranged it I don't remember how we concluded that conversation frankly I'm not entirely sure that this is the right form but to what end would I mean the town gets the ultimate authority to keep the school open but you know the kindergarten has two kids the first grade has three kids I mean how far do we go 110 I mean that can happen with a large number if you've got the capacity in another school I'm not saying this would happen but like in East Montpelier you know if you've got still a healthy population and you've got a healthy school and you want to talk about two kids you know and I get your point we would close as if we started dropping that far to work I mean I would support merging if we were in the margin of low enrollment our enrollment is still sustainable at this point we could reach a point where it wasn't but we aren't there yet and it's our choice that's right and we would come to that choice and think about this was man this is serious I would we wouldn't want it to continue with it because there's a point where it is to the detriment of the kids because right now there's I'm athletic minded so I'm sorry I didn't do it but there's going to be no K12 there was hardly a K12 soccer team there's hardly a K12 basketball team there's not going to be a K12 school here was in a bigger class she had to combine with four other towns to have a softball team I would argue that I grew up in a we didn't have a sports team so we were in high school we didn't have anything through the end of middle school we did fine and we still gathered we played sports ourselves oh my god the point there is this is about our education I know that's important that's part of it but are they getting the right social and educational so maybe it's an outlier but for instance I believe it's the kindergarten right now has a set of twins and one other boy so they're not getting social interaction two thirds of the people in that class are related to each other Chris I just need you to be a little careful with information I know we all know kids here it's just we're in a public format it's not fair to the kids my point this isn't about we're talking what this is about is a broad discussion of who has the ability and it's got to be the community it makes me nice to hear that you said you know it came to the point oh god yeah I would that's just what I fear well there's no one in this room that wouldn't do that the other thing I fear is and correct me if I'm wrong but I think we're in the arts agreement it's something about school choice that no while there's school choice is only in the articles of agreement I believe and this is I kind of put it forward is that the new board has to make a policy their policy can be no choice of there needs to be a policy because I know just from experience in the first year or so somebody's going to say to somebody else hey I want my son to go over to East Montpelier oh yeah we'll take them in we need to have a policy if it does come to fruition that there is school choice I've talked to multiple families that are going to send their child to school with more social options see where that falls well that's why we need a policy yeah absolutely exactly anything else on act 46 there's always something thank you doc thank you Rick you guys are always well informed can I just thank you guys for all the tons and tons of meetings that you've all attended for all this it's pretty amazing and exhausting you do it too it's just our piece of the pie yeah but I just want you to know I appreciate it all the work that you've put into it regardless of where you come down on it well being here it's a tough issue it's a tough issue I have to say one thing about all the meetings we go to I go to Rick goes to amongst the district and I think Bill will agree with me all our there are people who have very different opinions but the respect for each other and the basically good manners people have no idea how far ahead of everything we are because of that because I have heard from other school board members and other towns that are having the same struggle and there is nothing in many cases it just has really blown them apart and friendships apart and so forth but that has not happened here I feel so fortunate to know so many really good people that have good ideas and are careful and polite about expressing those different ideas I think Bill will agree with me at least at meetings in general yes it has not stayed that I do not want to paint a hundred percent picture of that though well I and I understand that people get passionate that's the way it is but by and large it hasn't messed anything up we all get passionate that is part of education we all care about kids sometimes there is some fight in it that comes to that I think it is a reflection on this whole process the AOE has made they have really driven a lot of that what happens when you don't do public process properly you don't and you aren't inclusive in the conversations that is what you get in the end and you end up with revolution in the end that is why we ended up with a constitution so I think we are ready to move to reports to the board look at that administration, cap, anything fun exciting going on it hasn't been that long since we met so there is not a ton we do have the artisan residence celebration tomorrow I put that in the report they are Angolia the kids are so excited they are enjoying it so much unfortunately we had a fair bit of illness in the building so we are going to rearrange it a little bit tomorrow but you all now it is different things for different people it is making plans a little precarious we are still going to have our celebration you are all welcome and encouraged to come walk through do a little mindful doodling or sample some Indian spiced cuisine finger foods it should be fun tomorrow 3.30 to 5.30 I wanted to ask you about the winter wellness are we moving away from Craftsbury this year? I think so what I am looking at there are so many great things about Craftsbury but they don't have the ability for us to take our whole group and not taking our whole group on any one given day means that it changes all of what we offer for the kids who remain behind I don't know if you noticed that and that also changes what are the specials that kids do because I have to send staff away so we are looking at other alternatives that offer multiple things all in one location so we can send all of our kids I don't want to jinx it I think we have something more will come in the coming week Craftsbury was a multiple there were many different activities they had lots of different activities but they didn't have the equipment you went they didn't have the capacity or the equipment for all kids if I sent all of our kids I had to send mixed groups mixed ages because of sizes and Craftsbury has been great to us so it might still end up being an option but it will probably only be one of the options we used to send quite a large number of students to the downhill and we don't do that anymore I don't want to make promises I am trying to come up with some options that offer several different options and that is one of the things we are looking at that or can you just give me a little time we are working on it we know that they are outside and they are doing a winter sport so that maybe they are developing a habit that they can continue remember we talked about this last year I think our goal as a board is that the kids are hopefully picking up some glimpse of a winter habit that can get them through winters in Vermont in a happy healthy state of mind where they know how to get outside and put something on everything that I am looking at includes being outside at least one of the options is just more of a fun activity than a sport so give me that not everyone wants to do the sport and that is the feedback I am getting directly from the kids so if our kids who are all plugged into electronics want to go outside and play I am good with that just on one of your not mentioned I am going to do a little bragging I started the cross-country ski program at East Montpelier I think it was late 70s with help from one member of the sports financially and I saw an ex-student recently and she said you know the thing I remember most and she said I really, really loved that we the sixth grade went on a trip to Sayon Lodge over here in Greensboro because before they fixed it up there were really bunks just crummy bunks that we stated honestly I don't remember staying overnight but she said we went skiing out at night and the moonlight on the lake is something that was just beautiful to me and I always remember and that really made me feel good you are helping a new generation because our young ones love it when Miss Dorothy comes to do poor wins we went last year with our kids so thank you for that it is, it is really good so any questions other than much of wellness? More to come we were probably in the next two weeks thanks for working on that it's a little complicated by lots of things I also saw that they changed the fontis and penel so we can do it K-6 instead of stopping at the fourth grade so where the assessment committee is currently talking about that where it is fontis and penel 3 and I'd want Jen to talk to you more about that we have not there's some problems still even though it has been revised that in those upper grades it's just not as accurate because the other test is much more involved it's much about writing than it is about reading analysis I know our literacy specialists are going to be talking about that in our upcoming in-service we'll see how it would be attractive to want it would be nice to be able to compare how much movement you've made because you're taking the same test going forward but on the other hand if it's not going to really show what they're doing at the older you know because they need to do more complex thinking okay I'm sure we'll find out more from Jen let our literacy books take care next one thank you finance this report hasn't been updated since it says September but it has been nothing really changed until November so we need to and I know Lori is tranting out because open enrollment happened on January 1st but as you know usually from November to January we leave the budgets unless something major happens and nothing major has happened so we did go through open enrollment as of January 1st I know Laura and I were in our weekly meeting on Monday and she's got all but two schools so in February you'll see an update with the new true reps for any open enrollment changes that happened I know it looks weird but really we've been just working the budget the way it is and remember this shows changes not actual what we're doing because we have the budget and we're running the budget the way it is and there hasn't been anything major here any questions about that Executive Committee well we had a very very short meeting last night seemed like it was wicked short so we're actually apparently planning a carousel meeting for February 13th and we basically talked about the dates that Bill talked to you about tonight and I don't remember we didn't have reports from the Policy Committee and the Quality Committee and all those people because they haven't been meeting or can't meet they haven't so everything's kind of there's ways of holding their breath basically everything's sort of on hold until we see what happens over the next month or two when everyone's placed I think I hit everything Dorothy mentioned something Susan I don't know if I could add you talked about the schedule yesterday I released another one of the videos for Act 46 updates it talks a little bit about the schedule and on the Act 46 is the proposed I want to keep using that word proposed because I don't have the authority but I know what I'll be recommending to folks for dates, for a transition board and for a merge board for meetings and one of the reasons we talked last night about moving we moved the carousel I had sent this out to the board chairs and most of the board chairs were fine with this and then all of you as board members got the schedule that we moved the carousel meeting from the 20th to the 13th of February so the day after the transition board that day after the district meeting there can be a transition board meeting so instead of having a regular Cal's meeting that Thursday at the 13th there'll be carousel we'll get everything and I'll work with Susanna and Kat to build those agendas and if you want to be on that new consolidated board you're only going to have about five days to get your petition in at the right place that was one of the big things we talked about and then asked the executive committee if we should start publicizing you guys said yes because people can or we need to get get their petitions you just need your local town 1% of your town and there's a regular form that's on line for any town office, select board select all that same thing but you have to know and we have to publicize that there are two seats for Cal one will be for one year and the next one will be for three years I think one is for one year one is for three years so there's two different just like in the regular board you're running for it's a new board and you don't have staggered terms you've got it Denise exactly that's why so this first ballot will be huge because you will have two people from all the towns but going forward the ballot won't be so huge will those two positions always be or will they become three they'll become three and three this is the staggered start staggered start and just to make it more complicated our recommendation to the board is to actually have three members from each town starting the next year because we need more members ten is not we wanted an odd number and ten is pretty small for committees I was going to say how would you stop all those committees I wanted to do it right off but it just wouldn't go to work so the deadline is February 20 the deadline will be it will be I think it was 25th I think so but let me look so does that include it's the five towns what happens to U32 is that there is no U32 it's five two members from each board from each town thank you oh that also it's just the town U32 as well U32 is what something they have to deal with as well as the elementary schools so the first members of this board are elected by the the townspeople all five towns but to get on the warning there will be a percentage of your town rather than the district this is what the draft articles agree but they were given to us by the state board said that you have to have signatures of 30 or 1% whichever is fewer so Denise told me 15 so I'm going to go with Denise's number the voters in your town and the town clerk will have to certify that that person is a town resident to appear on the ballot and then all five towns vote all the electorate votes on all the members from all the towns and the petitions get once completed get submitted by 25th of February where your town office yes I think so but I want to check that I just want to be sure all the stuff is important to be ashamed someone who is ruling knowledgeable because they are on the place that's why I talked about communications with the executive board last night to make sure that we put all this out is there any way to have a link from our website the school board piece of it to whatever you're posting on the big website so that's easy for people to find things Washington Central yeah it's right on the Washington Central I know what you say it's right there I've looked on that website and it's just a lot would you want to link to the information about how to and you know that kind of stuff I think it would be helpful and I'm asking this just so I can be clear that's one of the things I've been trying to do is get information on this because it is confusing so you're looking for one on the school website back to the district website to the 46th section right who takes care of the Calis school website on the Washington Central website Calis is in house right? I went to look for minutes and agendas today and there's a chart that has agenda and minutes and special meetings all the dates the column with the dates is all gone it's missing so in order to see a date you have to pull up an agenda or a meeting and it wasn't like that a month or two ago and then I I checked the other small towns but I checked the other small towns and that didn't happen that was just on the school board website Doris? that's not the website that's not what I'm talking about she's taking a different page I don't think it's a touch she's got to hear her now the Calis and the F-46 the Washington Supervisor Union website is not all that user friendly I don't think I guess that's the right terminology I understand what you're saying my stare is just because I'm trying to figure out why but I'd love to sit with you and show me why it is because I'd like it to be I think the website is always it's constantly changing it's constantly changing it's always better I like that okay, thank you Darcy does anybody else think it's freezing in here? that's why I wear my mohair I had known I would have brought like an extra now I got a coat Rick is there anything from Paolo's thing? we have not met so when we're not planning on being I think until we get through the we get through the probably just an added load on the office that makes sense Katie, school quality we canceled our meeting because there's just too much going on I understand okay, negotiations negotiations we have we met with Johnny and I met with Bill Monday morning to just kind of regroup and talk a little bit with Johnny Waterhouse she works with me on negotiations thanks John we figured it out we decided we're going to meet with the steering team to discuss the strategy moving forward and kind of get our get our dates in a row we're midstream so we're right kind of in the middle of it we're doing that Thursday next week Thursday afternoon and Thursday morning we're meeting with the other board members on the negotiating team to kind of go through information with them so it continues it's moving along negotiations as the school is currently on negotiations for the merger is actually going on so maybe I think I can answer by giving a little context in 2007 the legislature required that all supervisors moved to one contract across all entities so there are two contracts in Washington Central one for teachers and one for support and so there are board members that are appointed to the negotiations committee across the issue each school I hope that explains it but I just want a little bit that on both sides it's a great environment I can't say that enough keep it posted okay we're the board orders here they land they're all signed that would be fantastic let's move this it's just so I have to say both of them I think it's summarized here's a summary okay I move the amount of $13,653 at 36 cents all those in the board orders okay the board orders do we need the date oh from 12 21 to excuse me from 11 21 18 to 11 17 19 all those in favor aye opposed okay thank you okay future agenda items this is for when we meet on the 13th at the Curacao yep we need to talk about town meeting town meeting day and the meeting before town meeting day good well maybe you'll have more numbers for us I may have more numbers I might have more information I might have a lot of things for you what I know today I don't know much else than that yeah yeah I think town meeting this is the most important item yeah hopefully that'd be great maybe we'll have our test results maybe we'll have some kinds of things we don't have comment on the test results that we don't have okay follow up on all the unknowns maybe we'll have window wellness yeah we will maybe we'll know I have to buy that I have to buy that probably one thing I should have asked you to do because we're going to do this through telephone and I have to have your signatures on the warning yeah I was wondering about that can't we just sign it tonight you can sign it because we do it two-page on purpose for any adjustments I should have had Chris off to find Chris okay thank you sorry I was focusing on trying to help those guys thank you next item is board communication board communication oh I'll do it thank you Dorothy because they were all looking at you waiting okay Starpe's been so very good about doing all the board communication yeah thank you I believe we can adjourn it 803