 why you're here and tell us one sentence why you're here thank you and Connor what town are you from and what town are you from I'm Arthur I'm here for the same reason and I'm from East London and are all you guys at U32 yeah well welcome we're really glad to have you here and I hope you can get the part of your badge that you need for this meeting and are you guys chaperoning them yes yeah okay great well thank you very much for coming it's nice to have um agenda revisions yes we have one you eat I'll talk the qualifications process for pre-qualifying the construction folks have done faster than we thought so we have five firms for you to approve step January we can do it now and actually speed up the process to get to that would be an action agenda yeah we had set the date for yesterday but we were not sure we would be able to follow through on all of the reference checks and all that but we were good for the companies that submitted we didn't have to okay so we'll add that to the action agenda thank you and I'm going to hold off on public comments because I want to do this community forum and then we can go back to that so Kari and Scott have put together a presentation of the budget I'm going to I'm going to move well hey thanks everybody for coming I appreciate you taking the time on a dark December night and we're going to just go through Scott and I some of the background and then we'll present some of the detail but at a fairly high level about about this year's draft budget we're working on version 3 right now and then we'll be time for okay so take the next slide please yeah the so yeah so this is our agenda and we will go through the process a little bit about our mission and performance and then talk about some trends okay let's keep rolling all right first thing I want to start with is this is a different kind of year because of the act 46 and the state force decision to make our union become a unified union district a single the single entity so I wanted to lay out a little bit of the timeline here so just for your information to kind of put this in context some of this is fluid so don't hold me to these dates but we're working with the best information we have right now January 9th we're planning to have a public hearing of the draft articles of association which would be the bylaws for the new unit so I invite you to come to that there'll be there'll be more information about where and when but January 9th is that then we will be having the first organizational meeting on January 14th that'll be the evening in the auditorium here correct that's where we start establishing the rules for the how the new union will operate and that would be followed by the first meeting of the transition board so there's some different layers that are going on here but each each of the schools is going to appoint a couple people to this transition board to sort of navigate as we go forward then on January 28th that's the anticipated due date for candidates for the next round of school board elections it's a little confusing we're going to be electing this new unified board for folks who want to serve on that anticipating two from each town two members from each town but we will also be electing where we need to folks to populate the current six different boards that we have as part of our supervisor union so that these boards can continue their work and finish out the school here and the audit after that then on February 19th we're anticipating that we'll vote on the Articles of Association as a unified district that all five towns will vote to adopt bylaws and then on March 5th town meeting day we'll be electing the school boards and then we're anticipating that on April 30th we'll actually be voting on a budget of which the U32 budget will be a component right so we're instead of voting on six different budgets the idea is that it will be have one single version of our budget okay next slide please and so this slide shows sort of the process that we're using to develop the U32 budget we start with input from the staff goes through various scenarios with feedback from the school board and it goes around as many times as necessary as I mentioned we're on the stage on step three or version three and now we're taking some community comments we could revise I'm not sure how many more times but what's different is that the U32 board is not going to be recommending this this budget to the electorate to pass on town meeting day as we traditionally do we're going to be passing along our work to to the new board okay that's elected on town meeting day and it'll be up to them to recommend whatever they want we think that they'll benefit from the work that we're doing now and then ultimately as always the vote the voters will approve or not okay any questions about act 46 and this whole timeline and process picture Mike well yeah I think it is because we're going to move into other things thank you I'm just concerned with the information that's been put out unofficially on front porch forum about two things and one came from Bill and one came from Kari that that the transition board is going to or the initial board is going to have a date by which people are going to be elected on town meeting day and under the article and I just don't know when that was decision was made and by whom because that decision doesn't get made until the transition board is sworn in gets their authority so it might be a good idea it might be a perfect idea to have that election on town meeting day but who made that decision and when because there's no authority right now for that decision to be made that that's the first question the second question that I have and I can I like an answer to that question if I could kindly please the second question is is the petitions having to be due on January 28th now that was put out that these petitions will will be due on January 28th but at the electorate decides at the organizational meeting to elect the new members to the new board the initial members of the new board by it by not by Australian ballot by on the floor there will be no petitions due for the for the new school board that the nomination and voting on those new members will take place at a meeting with without petition so I'm just concerned and this is the concern that me and a number of people have had that these decisions are being made outside of the governance structure that there's no authority with all due respect to be setting those timelines until the transition board meets and again it might be a terrific idea to have the election even if it's not by Australian ballot on town meeting day but there's no authority for anyone right now to make that decision so I'd like to know who made that decision and why not and when it was made I'll try to respond and I'm not trying to be a crank about I don't know because I think I think you're right I think that I'm overstating it in that this is really the anticipated timeline and it really will be up to the transition board to establish well yes yes you point out we're gonna have to decide how decisions get made in our in our new union but also then what what is the timeline I think that the group of people that's been working on this sees how tight things are to you know move through these various steps and as I identified these as the most likely dates but they're not set in stone I think you're right I know I've been I put it out there you're right Michael I have and you know I'm trying to put out a draft timelines right now maybe I should put more draft draft draft on it then I do put on it but it's you know it's understanding the the tightness of all this and how tight the transition board has for turning things around so that's a really good point I think that we'll sort of reframe this as we talk about it and we'll see what a court has to say about whether they're even valid but right now they are valid they're presumptively valid but it sounds like it's fate to complete until those are changed those are the ones I follow absolutely and when one reads those yeah it has to be decided by the electorate whether or not there's going to be petitions or Australian ballot and people may decide let's go with Australian ballot and that's fine and the initial board may decide or transitional board excuse me let's go with town meeting might be a great decision but we've got to have some kind of governance authority and again without overstating it when you in front porch forms not of legal posting but it says this will take place this will take place maybe you will thank you thank you sorry okay any other questions about the process and we're going to get into other topics all right next slide please so we're going to talk a little bit about you know whether we are a supervisory union or a unified district we have a mission and the mission currently is that we exist to nurture and inspire in all students the passion creativity and power to contribute to their local and global communities okay and then there's a follow-up to this that gets into more specifics on the next slide talks about we want students to have core knowledge of essential academic subjects like literacy and math we also want students to be proficient in things trace verbal skills like problem-solving communication so we're trying to do a lot here and really the budget big point here is the budget is just a tool like a lot of different things to try to accomplish this mission so next step how are we doing in terms of accomplishment of this mission well we've been starting to get reports and data that's more specific about that so I'm just gonna share with you a little bit so this slide shows the level of proficiency and this is across the supervisory union so includes the elementary schools as well and we're talking about proficiency in in literacy specifically we've got three different ways of assessing one is report card data so very internal to us one is a local assessment that's done using an objective analysis and then the third one is the SPACs which is is an external test all right so using those three different types of assessment we see that we're somewhere between 55% of students proficient in 70% somewhere in the range of 60 62% something like that not where we want it but that's what it is in terms of literacy as of last end of the last school year next slide please this shows the same same analysis for math and here it's a little bit different we've got report card data is up close to 58% but the local assessment and the SPAC the proficiency rate is more like 40% so in our discussions that we've had and again this is across the SU this is not where we want things to be we want we need to see improvement and just not satisfied with this next slide please this slide I just wanted to give you a little bit of an insight into some of the challenge that the SU faces what this does is breaks out the SPAC that's an external testing for math in the sixth grade and it shows on the left students on the far left students that are on free and reduced lunch and their average score is it is the yellow line across and the students that are not on the free and reduced lunch and the difference there is if I remember correctly about a year's worth of learning in math in the sixth grade okay on the right hand side we've got students that have an individualized education plan and those that don't have an individualized education and here if I remember correctly the difference is more like two and a half years of learning so significant differences in these in these populations subpopulations and this is part of the challenge for the SU and it's a big challenge for for U32 specifically because these are sixth graders they're coming in and it's not necessarily a level playing field so to speak okay just want to share that and then we do have a plan or midway through a five-year strategic plan it lays out just the headlines here three key objectives we're establishing clear learning targets what is it we actually want students to learn then having good assessment systems and of course high quality instruction and then interventions where students need additional help and the next slide is oh and I just wanted to share we have a very specific learning goal this speaks to math and just to give you the highlight for U32 at the beginning and this goal was established by the staff by math teachers at the beginning of the year in September we had roughly 46% of students proficient at their great level we want to end the year at 74% so we feel that's a fairly ambitious goal we want to be moving the bar up quite a bit and and really accelerating that amount of learning it's not a hundred percent it's not it's not where we necessarily want it to be long-term but we're working towards that so I think that's the last slide that I have I'm going to turn it over to Scott to talk about some of a big picture yes this is just an interview and ordinarily I would at live but I could talk about this stuff forever which would I think it's very kind so I'm disciplining myself by actually trying to stick to a script so anyway I think many of us who have been around for a while would agree that we live in in strange and discordant times where on one hand we have a strong sense of the harshness and difficulty of everyday life but on the other hand we have an equally strong and even mythic sense of optimism about the future as you can sort of see that contrast here and on stage 16 I don't know if any of you gentlemen are doing stage 16 you're helping out on tech yeah so it's any right so have you heard the song the sun will come out tomorrow yeah so that is I'm sure you've heard it probably yeah so anyway I that is so classically a part of our thinking and for the next one bill please but for all too many people the Sun won't come out tomorrow in fact won't come out ever life expectancy nationwide is down last year with way too much of that decrease due to suicides the expression deaths of despair came up in this middle first entered the lexicon in this middle piece the famous paper by Anne Caves and Agustine from 2015 this at the time struck like a thunderbolt and the the expression death of despair has been with us ever since next please you can get a sense of just how widespread this epidemic of despair is and how generally it has worsened in the eleven years from 2005 to 2016 so it's almost as though we dodged an economic depression in 2008 only to fall victim to a social and emotional great depression next please so while more people in their prime adult years are suffering untimely deaths at the same time and especially in Vermont fewer children children are getting brought into the world we've Vermont has actually been at or near the bottom of these rankings for the better part of an entire generation and on can anybody guess within Vermont the state with the lowest fertility rate in the country in 2016 what county do you think had the lowest fertility rate so this may be what the class of 20 graduating class of 2034 looks like let's hope not next please so on this this is from the case deep in paper and I just want to pause for a moment on this because it's a kind of counterpart to what Kari was showing you on the achievement gap in math between different populations in the school this is what I hope is the closest thing to a scream for help that I ever see on a statistical table basically what's happening is that white non-Hispanic males on with a high school education or less born between 1959 and 1968 have been dying at heavier very heavy rates compared to their older cohort born between 1945 and 1954 and much of this is happening through various forms of self-destruction if you look from cirrhosis alcoholism car wrecks intentional self-harm which is basically suicides all of these are positive poisonings that's mainly drug overdoses and external causes basically stuff that happens to you from the outside not from getting sick and where in most other categories including a huge improvement in black non-Hispanics and Hispanics the the one absolute anomaly here is that is the circle area and later work has also reinforced that most of this is happening most of these of these excess deaths are happening in rural areas so these are our people who are really hurting our predecessors who oversee high schools back between 1973 and 1986 we're worried about the achievement their own version of the achievement gap at the time but perhaps they well how could they have known but they ought to have been worried about the survival gap between between these different cohorts 30 years on so our high schools then apparently failed to equip these students with the intellectual intellectual and emotional resources to adapt and stay alive so maybe we should also amongst everything else be asking ourselves how are we doing at equipping our students with these with these skills these resources so next please this may actually seem like sort of a duh kind of statement that many of the same factors that are driving too many people to early graves are also keeping them from having as many children as they might wish to and then that those children who do get born are have to grow up facing into the same stiff adverse headwinds so really it's it's no wonder that special education costs are the fastest growing component of our education expenses and this is something that I unfortunately expect is going to continue next please this side is just to frame our request and what is happening in Vermont these are trends indexed to the year 2006 which is the first year where we can really get consistent apples to apples comparisons on state education property tax you can see that even though it's more volatile because it's smaller it essentially tracks total Vermont wages and salaries as a share of Vermont gross that the Vermont economy but you can see that the Vermont wages and salaries are stagnating meanwhile I mean this may not be a surprise based on what I was just talking about but personal spending on healthcare in Vermont as a share of the Vermont economy has gone up substantially if it's plateauing that's a good thing we don't know and last please now this one is is an even bigger picture slide indexed to 1954 the red line is like the red line on the previous slide total wages and salaries for the US as a whole the blue line is corporate profits for the US as a whole again these are these are adjusted for inflation what you generally see up until around the year 2000 is that corporate profits and wages and salaries are generally you know more or less together you can't see the recessions the recession bars on this chart but their corporate profits tend to be more volatile but where you see after 2000 they get really volatile and there's a big jump right before the big plunge in the recession after 2008 but since then they have just come completely decoupled from the wages and salaries which based on what we saw before I think may not be a great sign of that we might not be facing serious economic ups and well serious economic downs into the moment where we've been for four years on it up so however I because the Sun always does come out tomorrow Kari will bring us back to the choice I have to put the happy ending over so the one thing I would say about I was hoping for a happy ending I think that we view and a lot of people in the community view the schools as a big part of the solution to these challenges so bringing it back to our particular scenario in the next slide please this is the long-term enrollment trend at the 32 a couple different ways of calculating at the average daily membership and then the actual total enrollment the calculated different there's actually a third way of calculating enrollment but the point is that it's trending down and I think it's roughly about a percent a year and we have there other is to suggest that that might accelerate it might be trending and of course it just makes it more and more challenging to offer the programs that we currently we currently do in this type of environment all right we're gonna move into how how do you how does the budget fit into the tax rate many probably seen us before but our school expense budget is just one component we have the state education fund so what what the legislature actually ends up doing to support us is won't be it we won't actually know until the spring we have equalized people people count I was referring to the other other method of calculating how many students we actually have in the school the school expense budgets the school the five others will be a component of that final budget and then there's the common level of appraisal which is the way of assessing tax rates or appraisal rates in different towns property property values and then this slide shows basically on the on the left is expenses of just a pie chart breakdown of different expense categories on the right is revenues you can see education spending revenue is the vast majority of that and on the left it's it can't see all the different components but roughly what 70% or so is personnel costs 75% personnel and one thing I forgot to just remind you of when you see the WCSU assessment so large there's special education within that special education looks really small that second orange piece but there's a local component that's within the school and then there's a component that has to go through the superman there did we have a handout did that get out it's on the table okay so if anybody needs handouts especially the part we're gonna go over next but just to give you a sense of the breakout and then the next slide is going to really summarize the headlines from draft budget number three so we're we usually do comparisons the last year's budget the biggest component all always is compensation for our staff that's teachers and support staff and administrators just based on where we are now and most of that's pre-negotiated in labor contracts we're looking at an increase of over last year of 2.2% we're going to make it we're planning on making some adjustment for that by staffing changes not on the teacher level but in terms of support staff that will bring that down somewhat and then we have some non-salary adjustments that will increase the budget over last year one of them as I recall was a pretty significant increase in the tuition for students that go over to the tech center in Barry and there was another one the special education assessments for the SC it was the other big ones when we have reductions well we have we have reductions in revenue to all sets at the bottom line is bringing us to about 3% that you know it shows as a negative their car that's actually an increase in revenues oh decreases the impact on the tax rate that's why I okay all right so that's so that so total all this up and we're at a projected impact net tax impact of just under 3% which was the target that the direction that the U32 board gave to the administrators so right now they we are working with a budget that satisfied our original ask and so from this we're going to move into the discussion part and the questions I have for you are what questions do you have for us what's your reaction to the information that we've given you and specifically love to hear from you to have an opinion at this at this stage are we doing a good job of properly balancing the impacts on the students the schools and the taxpayers it's really good the balancing act that we're trying to achieve here open it up the 3% impact on the tax rate what does that take into consideration for example the consider increases in the grant list was it based on a previous grant list no this is just on the school but yeah that's the increase to the school budget that 2.9% 8% how it impacts taxes is a completely different calculation we don't get this year's CLA until December 31st any predictions on how the CLA may change I think it will probably go down in most towns because property values have been going up and what impact that will increase that one is three percent other questions or comments I'm just about equalize two clues so there are this is is there any pretty official numbers of equalized people as we told you last time we're still estimating the agency of education is behind on their stature requirements to get us actual figures so they're the best that we can estimate this point we know we're losing as equalized people across the system and within you 32 or a number of people's is going down in some places is very drastic it's just a bill which we like to explain to you want me going to an hour piece of equalized people's is a way of taking all the pupils and it puts a there's 75,000 pupils in the state of Vermont there's waiting factors based on poverty based on if you're a high school student elementary student English language learner student that needs special education services and there's factors given to you given to that individual student that's all totaled up and the idea is that at the end they want the number of equalized people to equal the actual number of enrolled pupils so there's different factors and percentages put on those different weights as it were that's probably my shortest people that's great but it's also correlated with the population the student population that's trending down yeah we're training down we're training down around state Washington Central is going down faster than the state and we have been for several years I mean Michael little attenuated that has to do with Washington Central supervisory union budget which is part of the U32 budget and that it's embedded in it and this is from the last meeting that there's a salary increase in staffing change of a hundred and ten thousand eight hundred and sixty seven dollars for the supervisory union budget can anyone explain what that is because in its in parentheses it says no new positions but it's a hundred and ten thousand dollars I don't have that I don't believe is that we were looking at last week last time the budget that was approved by the full work which is I know it's in bed it's embedded within there was no opportunity at that question I don't have my materials with me so I'm doing it for memory thanks I'm not gonna say I'm gonna be accurate yeah thanks without these yeah okay so what that is is that so we central office this budget for Washington Central includes all the special educators all the SLPs all the associated services with special education so we're not just the 13 people there's about 60 to 75 personnel there now in the Washington Central budget so that's the annual increase for that number of personnel so that I mean that's assuming we're assuming some things because we're in a negotiation year for next year and generally increases for this staff well some of it is negotiated right some of it some right now we're at the point because we're in a negotiation year for next year we took assumptions basis we always do when I talk to the negotiation committee we try to keep that somewhat quiet we're trying to we're in negotiations but we know what the health care increase right now health care is increasing almost 12 percent across the board for all personnel and then so that that we know in there and that's in that line that's in that no that's in a different line he has given a lot of health care benefits change it right below below it so it's actually that 12% is actually a 3% increase for all our on all our HR costs I mean about 30% of a physician for a teacher is benefits for a para educator it's about 50% of their total cost I think just as a comparison our budget has a $242,000 increase for that same line yeah any other questions or comments before we wrap it up here I have a couple more slides just to remind ourselves of the next steps and again this is some of these dates are draft and they're going to make assumptions about what's actually going to happen but this is what we're anticipating is a likely scenario the school boards are going to recommend budgets we're following this process it'll be up to the next board to do as it chooses we are anticipating a public hearing on January 9th to look at the new articles of association draft ones and then on the 14th we have a first organizational meeting and transition board meeting and then in depending on how that goes well the transition board will be rolling up these various budgets into one in February 19th we're anticipating a vote on the articles of association March 5th is town meeting day we'll elect the school boards and if things go according to this program then we would end up with a vote somewhere around April 30th on the entire budget and then sometime in the spring after all of that's happened as normally the normal order of events the legislature weighs in they have a final say and actually determine the amount of money that schools get so and then the last slide is just if you have additional questions feel free to contact any of us we'll do our best to answer and if you have any comments that you'd like us to take in yes you know one of the things I see a lot is the number of students leaving the state after they graduate high school and then they don't come back into the state and that wasn't mentioned I didn't really see a connection of the mortality rate and what you guys are doing budget wise to I just didn't that just seems sort of not connected with the budget in any way so I'm not sure where you're going with that I know if I was sitting in town meeting and you guys came up with that I would sort of wonder where your minds are really going with that fair enough yeah I agree this because it's my fault that was various humoring me and this is this is sort of yeah I think it was the disconnect is more it's connected for yeah you know we're offering programs for students for hopefully not having babies very soon but maybe staying in Vermont and having your babies you know but I just didn't yeah I just yeah at this point what we're it's essentially just trying to make sure that when we talk about the budget we're not talking about it in isolation from the real world that people live in and the what is happening I mean a lot of that was sort of background to explaining why it is that special education expenses are naturally growing disproportionately fast compared to other other kinds of educational spending and underscoring the importance of that the serious of the seriousness of the situation that's that's out there in the world among you know our people who are sending their children to school so that you know we're just aware of this and building that awareness into the the dry numbers that that get compiled into what we actually wind up doing as an organization next year that but I hear you loud and clear as I know this is what we're looking at this is the reason why special education is going up I think that you I think there's more expounding on that like building on particular activities which help for with mental health and all of that you know humanities is also a big thing I just yeah I was just a little disconnected but if you had started with that and said this is yeah you're right and I think what I love well I don't know who knows what's going to happen next year this time but if by some chance if by some from my perspective happy chance I'm Kari and I are you know in a position to be doing this again I would enjoy very much you know doing yeah no I appreciate the feedback we can do better with that if I were going to summarize it I would say the challenges that the society faces are immense the school is in an environment where we're trying to preserve programs and yet we're also trying to raise the bar in terms of student learning and proficiency because it's so important to address those immense challenges in society and and so while we would love to do more with a budget we feel like we are doing what we can to bring out as much learning from the dollars as we can all right thank you very much you really appreciate it we want to finish the budget discussion then you guys want to finish the budget discussion while we're right here no what's to those first thank you so most of you prove the minutes of December 5th second George any comments or changes I have one so I don't know on the second page because Kari Bradley asked whether the proposed cuts in the budget draft have a negative impact on students and that's a little bit a lot of students learning out quite anything else all those in favor say I post that motion carries we've done that I'm gonna start checking these things off here so we do this so let's look at the budget and do people have questions for Stephen and Bill or are you comfortable with draft 3 or do you want more information if you guys want to say anything about draft 3 as opposed to draft 2 so I can give good news so how we got to that number which was the the career center actually reduced their tuition a little bit so that saved us around $16,000 yeah but we also went through with a very fine-tooth comb through our through some of the insurance to see had we coded people correctly were there people that could be on a different plan and save them money which in turn would save us money and so we were able to find some savings through that as well and just make sure that people you know if nothing else it gave us a chance though I we really just went through person by person and said are we sure that they're paying into the right program because for example we found one person who was on the family plan but it was a parent with two children and that's actually a different lower cost plan which saved them money saves us money as well but so but we were able to talk to them and say hey hey guess what and nobody seems to be bothered by that which is good so there were things like that that we were able to find which helped us really come back into line with this to get it to the to where it was so we really these were more technical issues than anything else but it's pretty much the same scenario from draft 2 to draft 3 with just some changes within those those small areas but I got it under three which was I heard very clearly 2.98 and I just had one question I was looking I hope they didn't ask it last time under other staffing changes academic program changes yes what is that so that primarily falls within the the line that special education programs oh okay and remember our special education expenses are both in our budget and in our assessments to the supervisory union and those are those are listed as such so but that's not personnel yes it is in addition to up two lines up above is also personnel right the ones that weren't seen in this year's budget okay and then this bottom one you're asking yes and then the bottom line are additional cuts that you're going to make this year that we talked about okay that's what I wanted to know thanks any other questions and so I'm just looking at our emotions here do we even need to know okay so we don't have to say anything because this whole thing just has me kind of sunk into confusion what if what if the lawsuit puts a stop to things do we revisit this you will but we are at the point we're already past the point where we cannot have a vote if there were an injunction even tomorrow that we could have be ready for a town meeting vote on the 5th of March we have to have a special election for your budget we have already changed that central office so we cannot we're not on the timeline for town meeting budget vote at this point I've been telling them to all boards yeah I said and we go end up having a special meeting regardless a special regardless which way the government system is work where that once we go off our track and we're that tight okay is that because of the work you have to do or because of the warnings it's because of the warnings and the work we have to do basically January 10th we have to have everything ready to go into town reports town reports I think we have a letter later section on this just three four and three five talking about that and at 46 about how reporting will be changing this year right away so is there an estimated point at which so Scott I just gonna be I am in the point where I'm working day-to-day right now as Michael said you know he was right to point out like they should be saying draft timelines all over who has the authority I am trying not to make estimates for things that I don't know that I'm not required to do it it's not that I won't do it it's just that in the amount of work that has to be done at the same time I would let you know that not only are we creating budgets but we have to input right to the software platform for fiscal one new platform for fiscal software as long as well as keep our old one going for next fiscal year that has to be operational by one and a whole new accounting code system that Laura's done once and has to be due because the code coding system is not solid so this is a three-level whammy on the fiscal department and I was accused of and guilty of I'm protecting our fiscal department so I don't ask them to do anything they don't have to do right now it's not really a question of whether it's doable we have to do it required I have to move resources to do if I have to make resources I won't do it and that's just where we're at so I if that's why I'm not trying to think about what else so I think our budget discussion is done unless something that's what I was gonna say later on is that I'm not planning on anymore yeah okay should be not you know take some kind of say we recommend I don't know that's what I just asked some to you I like to yeah yep so does someone want to make a motion do you want to do that it's normally an action so much is but I guess we could say that we wreck we recommend this draft budget for the consideration to support the education at U32 or something for a second to that you get that way so I'm gonna read it back to no to to read what you got so far so Carl second discussion on that all those in favor say aye opposed that motion carries I'm sorry I forgot to give you a piece of paper that I should have given you because it's because I've already seen you once in December but I do now and I just want you to have it so you see it some of you seen it already but it's a dashboard that we're using for looking at all budgets across the issue is it the green and yellow no so let me get it out I it's just because this is a second meeting and I'm sorry if I forgot to do this I gave you the green yellow and I think this because this came out literally the Monday of Berlin's meeting so we're so this is so what this is is it get the top table yes thank you the top table is our figures from this current budget year for each school I'm gonna go through this quickly because I think all of you know this but stop me if I'm going too fast just gives you the expense budget the offset in road revenues which then gets you to local education spending which is the numerator and the tax rate formula the denominator is the equalized pupils so you can see for you 32 right now for this current fiscal year it's 733 for then you see the cop the local at spending for equalized people which sets the tax rate so you can see the variability across the the district and one of the things I'm gonna preempt a couple questions because I've been now through this one with a couple of boards I'm not advocating for the same spending at all places because I think we should do it by student need one of the works that I've been doing in my doctoral research is that the first thing a superintendent should really look at is keeping the priority of student learning at the top the second is that put resources where the needs are not necessarily equal across the system and then it shows you some grants down below from consolidated federal programs and Medicaid revenues and then how much of that would be any how much in addition would that be free-class pupils why that this conversation really started we started thinking about Berlin Berlin has a little over two at 2.5 fte's that they get in support through federal money so it's hard to really see some of the staffing that's in the local budget so then this is all draft one your draft three but we will have to keep this equal across as soon as I finish with callus tomorrow night we'll republish this for all the budgets but you can see this spend the same thing the spending I'm going to jump down to some of the highlights u32 is down almost 10 equalized pupils this year your spending per equalized people is up about $800 $900 you're above you're below the threshold by $211,000 to get into the excess spending penalty you'll see that three of your three of our schools are there there those are in red that's why usually that means below in most fiscal worlds but it's above the threshold by that amount now I know that Dodie and I know callus tomorrow night because the budget they're getting will bring them back into below the threshold Dodie just below calc will come down quite a bit if the board adopts what's recommended by cat myself you'll see the penalty amount that those towns will have to raise in addition to and then you'll see the tax rate based on taxes based on the CLA from last year so if we were to build the taxes based on individual districts the town tax rates would be this the next line is what's the education the merged equalized tax rate for the whole district so it's a dollar 79 and then taking last year CLA will change this once we get this year CLA at the end of the month what would be the tax rate with a merge system and then you see the differentials if it's in black it's an increased cost if it's in red it's a decreased cost per hundred of a cess value so that's just to give you some tax information usually by now giving you tax information things that have been really tough is that we're not the only figure we've received so far is what the dollar yield is from the state government every other number we usually get a lot more numbers now by December 15th and we just haven't been getting in the state government and that's due to their they're doing the same thing they just don't have that they don't have they're running behind they don't have the personnel power to pull off what they need to pull off by statute so that's a quick overview on tax rates is the loss of a small school grant factor it is under cows and and Dodie and that's really what put Dodie into the penalty was the loss of small schools grant they've been planning for that they shifted some they shifted money out of what they're putting into capital reserve for building for the taking care of the building and that was a plan they had made three years ago they had planned on it they said let's see they had a good year where their CLA was really positive so they didn't lower their tax rate they increased their amount to have to build up their capital fund but knowing that if they'd lost their small small schools grant that's where they would go to stand with the threshold. Calis Calis has a double whammy they lost only about twenty nine twenty five twenty nine act to be off somewhere in the twenty thousand area twenty thirty thousand dollar area in their small schools grant but they're losing fifty three thousand dollars or their literacy interventionist that's paid for with federal grants and the fact they're no longer have their poverty has gotten lower below the threshold that allows them to receive school-wide support for federal grants so they lose that fifty that fifty three thousand dollars and they put that position into the budget they're going with budget reduction with reductions riffs tomorrow night in classroom teachers the population at Calis will be down below ninety students in K through six next year Calis we're ninety six ninety right now Calis is really the projections for Calis and the projections for middle sex are lowering students but we're losing students and then quite rapidly I mean we're looking at middle sex rumney two years ago 165 students pre-k through six and we're looking to be in the one twenty seven to 130 very in two years and so you can even give you those numbers earlier we just showed you what kindergarten right now is 77 and you're graduating a hundred twenty three that's coming right I refer to a one percent decrease over time this where it says we're down 28 27.94 that's actually a two percent decrease in one year so that drip drip drip is getting louder louder louder and faster is running trying to get below that threshold spending they they gave us when we asked for priorities from them the other night their first priority was to reduce their transfer to the capital fund another 30,000 their second priority was to find anything we could in the budget which I thought was ten or fifteen thousand dollars and then they said the rest of it don't make personnel cuts and come to us with go above the threshold spending is the direction the board gave us so they'll be if with that in my estimate we haven't done the work yet but my estimate is that's about 60 to 65,000 so there's still be above it yeah and is that because of losing people so fast no the penalty is it's how the building is staffed the penalty is a dollar per dollar yeah for every dollar you have to raise that you need above the threshold so there's 50,000 you've got to raise a hundred and 50 of that goes into the ed fund and 50 of it goes to what now you have over because this is a state I mean this is a statewide funding system and so I mean there isn't a town in this district that raises enough education tax dollars to pay for the expenses are being authorized by boards so you know when you look at all the Berlin is the closest we're about 95 percent if you took a ratio of the education dollars raised in Berlin to the expense it's about 95 percent so all net benefactors your net benefactors but yeah I mean all the money goes to the state you have the authority to set what the spending is and the state gives us the money to do it that's a great piece of paper thank you I know people are going to be asking for this because this is something I anticipate and I'm not doing it to get things equalized but I think if you don't know the numbers when you want one of the first things about equity you know we know about equity I'm going to go to that sidebar is you have to know what the numbers and the differences are and so whether we're talking about racial equity or funding equity we have to say so what are the numbers it doesn't mean they need to be the same but you have to know what they are and then you can have the conversation and you know someone one board member assumed that hey they should be equal cross I said well I wouldn't assume that I actually think the transition board should have that discussion shouldn't be the same that was that slide that you showed with different height students yeah yeah well well you also when you think about equalized people too is that it does cost more to educate a high school student than it does yeah I'm interested in the formulas look at that yeah when they put it together so if we go to an equalized if we had the same amount across that would mean that you know a second third grade student would have the same level of funding as a night that's been shown within Vermont across the nation that that's higher cost and I can say that in the system that I was in where we were more like the merge system we we had a multiplier for high school students that was slightly larger than the elementary school act 46 update excuse me transition board membership so we get to elect two members to the transition board pause you on that statement yes you have the choice to elect different members if you do not do it the clerk and the chair are automatically part of it but you have the choice to okay reaffirm that to change it if you would like and that was made at the last yeah number 28th board meeting does anybody have a strong opinion I am happy to do it I had to assume go along I was going to we're talking three meetings well I do you know especially in January from the 14th they'll be you know I as Michael's right to say I'm making some assumptions but I'm going to keep making them that the 14th and the 16th of January would be meeting dates meeting the next week and then probably we'll want three meetings to talk about budget so it means the last meeting in january and two in february but I just want I just want to I can't forecast everything um and you're also doing negotiations so are you you know I'm glued to negotiations through the process yeah I do not anticipate putting my hat in the ring come july for you know for the for the new permanent board so I'm willing to I'm willing to serve is there anybody else chopping it up anybody's chopping it to do it I'm chopping it the bitter you know you know so let's just do I would move that we point eager to call to the transition point the second second Scott any more discussion all those in favor say aye opposed we're all set on that um town report contents the one better pass that one off to you yep I figured you were I figured you were um so every and I just do it for kind of uh illustration and you don't need to be able to read this all you need to do is see if there are circles on this paper and they're not very many of them this is a list of everything that goes into the u32 in a report as you'll see if you can't see it but if you wanted to read it you could about two thirds of the three quarters is budget information and tax information for the next year since we're not there I made a decision and you can influence my decision but I made it the other day um probably last week that we would report in this year's reports in the town in the school portion of the town report will report on this current year and the last fiscal year but we won't report on the next year because we don't have the budget and some of I think what michael's talking about is very appropriate we don't have the authority one of the things the transition board has talked about is how are any reports sent out to the electorate so how next year's budget yeah and then we have to put together next year's budget and all that so um that's when you see this whole list and you've got there isn't one report in our system that's the same that's why when I said trying to stop like we're past it because we just can't make up the time in doing town reports now at this point because usually we're already making things for that january date right now so that piece um I wanted to let you know that um to let you know that we're trying to put together a way we're going we're actually in publication right now I know Stephen has his party he's working on probably over break of the part of the town report the principal report the board chair report my report will be in there I think a lot of my report will be about act 46 you know that talks about what's what's happening currently in u32 and then we're producing an academic report we're still waiting for the state report card to finish this month because there's an online report and it's supposed to go away all the school reports that were done by individual schools so once we have that we're actually going to use that data and put it in to do a school report like we usually do that comes out before town meeting so bringing the great successes and areas we're working on I just don't have a data publication for people like that so you are putting out an annual report we have to put it we have to do one and it will be before town meeting or not I just don't know you don't know and do you want a board chair report in that I want board chair report for the for the town reports we can help you with it as we have another year yeah sometimes I wrote it myself and sometimes I got help yeah and that probably needs to be done by january 23rd or something I'll check a list oh I've Christa you know we we've been saying for like a week we've got to really sit down and check calendars that it's something like it's january 20 something I'm sure it's somewhere in her book some of them we have to have this conversation on that item okay I'm trusting that other questions discussion thank you for doing that that's a lot of well right now we're building a big project plan that's the work to be done over christmas break that has because a lot of these have dependencies so you do this thing usually here but not you don't so what's that do to other processes during the year that we've had this kind of we didn't have to have it when we had to check list but we didn't really need them right now it's it's not dropping so future meeting schedule and content so I want to ask this of you this is the item that I put on Adrian that you know I just want to say you usually meet the first Wednesday every month I'm gonna kind of plan three four and three five here you know you've got board meetings on we need you to be operational you're the opera you have the operational authority through June 30th 2019 so this board is has a responsibility authority for you 32 for the operations till then that means that you know what does that mean what's the minimum you have to do and I'm not saying you can't do more I just want you to know with the minimum we need you to approve board orders and if there's a student or staff hearing I thought it'd be good for you guys for all of you to have a discussion about what does that mean for what we want to accomplish here as a board we'll need you to we need we need to have right now there are only three of you that are going on as board members because four of you are for election this march this board needs to be seated through December 2019 because after June 30th one things we need this board to do is to approve the audience if it goes if the audience not delivered by then the way the draft articles read is that authority then we'll go to the new board but we we know we'll have the audience done and our auditor already knows that there's a timeline to get this done who's up for re-election I am I don't think it's four of us I thought it I think we did see that it was because you're on break that's why i'm asking right I thought we we I definitely am up so carries up George you're up well here ends up and you filled up it's not you filled up on a point you were appointed in 2016 so that I don't think so I I think I ran again I was actually on the ballot what was it last year yeah was it one year left of a term I don't believe so I think I finished out the term so can you check with the Rosemary sure are you playing great if you're not up for for this board yeah that's my current plan and I'm I will definitely run for this board to see it through did you say you were gonna that's my plan to stay on this we're we're anticipating moving and I don't still know my timeline but I think that I can serve out at least in July I mean I guess that'd be my caveat would if I moved this summer would that not be well if we all we need is a quorum all you need is four to approve that yeah yeah we need more we need four um that makes sense to folks yeah sure yeah yeah so we need to keep so that's a piece that I wanted to to talk to you all about um and just you know we're so I'm still planning on first of the first Wednesdays of the month meetings for this board um I may or may not be at meetings to come this may be one of my last meetings with you just because I've got to start making decisions about work that I've got to do I'll be here with you Steve will be to the bitter end I'm with you guys so we're I feel like a lame duck um would it be an operational challenge if we didn't meet in January so since that's two school days from now right basically so operationally no I mean no no we had you knew of a motion that puts in place for a covering of board orders that's not a big deal so that's why I was trying to tell you the minimum for operation are the things I just told you I'm not trying to stop you from doing things I'm just trying to tell you what you have or we need you to do as a board for an operational board I just think there's a lot going on in January and personally I've gone to a lot of different school board things yeah well and it doesn't sound like I we literally have Thursday and Friday and then we come back to school that would be our meeting on Wednesday so that unless there's something we have to do that meeting we will do our best to make sure that you don't need hearings um and we'll just wait for the hearing that until we meet that's your choice to make yeah your choice to make so does that seem reasonable to folks who take January off yes please so that it would be was it supposed to be January 2nd January 2nd yes there'd be zero well there's tomorrow in death if you didn't do that your next meeting would be February six six and then there's a carousel that month but I think because you didn't meet on January yeah there would be there's a carousel plan for the 20th and I sort of feel like if we don't meet I mean we're kind of in a void right there won't be any board overseeing you 32 I disagree with that well there'll be a transitional board but they don't have oversight they didn't the transitional board only has three powers right they can call for they can call for two different types of election which are two of the powers one if the if an articles of agreement committee produces a set of articles they must warrant for an election to approve those and the second one is to determine a method as Michael was saying for how we will have candidates run for the new board well that's what I heard the third is to recommend a budget to the board so they're not concerned generally with you 32 right they're not doing the operational right and that's why I was very careful to say you have operational authority to June 30th 2019 I think we should have carry on until there's another board that is going to kind of take over the vision and all of you 32 are people in agreement yes sorry Stephen we're not going to let you loose I plan for a legislature yeah right well in February that would be that February one February six the legislature legislators come I I would think people have something to say to their legislators is that John May for you guys I'm going to ask for Adrienne and some support from you as a board to put it together because the person that I have doing most of the work well if you give me the email I'll get you I'll get to yeah I can do that she's a little swamped right now Krista I'm happy to help you know it really it's just I would just offer to that Leslie can help support this board yeah as we close out the work that's here where we did move a lot of things over to Krista but in the amount of work Leslie is very capable she knows how to do this if she's going to write it that's what Leslie doing so yeah that's a great idea so I mean there's coordination of the whole there's a little there's internal coordination has to be done yeah that's a really nice offer well I mean it's she's okay yeah well she did that very capable for very many correct I mean it was just in some of the restructuring but she can but in this time I mean we're all we're all doing some things we never thought we'd be doing yeah so okay so legislators yeah and I think we start them at six thirty or seven I can't they like to start either six thirty or seven because they usually have caucuses yeah so we can do our republic we've made it six the next minute seven okay so I'll let you guys figure out the timing of that what Leslie did that um before we move on can I just go back to the articles committee yeah just wanted to update folks I'm I sit on this article of agreement committee that's going to morph into the 706b committee that will be recommending the new articles association and it's not clear to me that we're going to be able to complete our work actually as of this morning we spent a few hours and we're really wrestling with I think we have a few options one is to just present the default which in fact there'd be no reason to vote on those because those are the default we can do a default with certain amendments or but but the way we present those amendments is very complicated or could be very complicated depending on what we want to take on and so we're we're wrestling with how what we present and how we present it and we're just a group of six people currently we're about to be a group of 11 and it could get even more complex and and there's been new issues raised just in the last 24 hours so I just wanted to share with you that while I thought things were moving along and we would be able to wrap up our work it's not clear to me that we will and we have to have a public hearing on January 9th well that's the date I said it doesn't have to be that I'm just trying to I'm literally like have a big calendar going in my office right now that I went back to paper which was hard to do for me and uh because it's just a chessboard I mean it really is you move one thing here and it's like and I'm cascaded all the way out to June and it's you know things just move they shift talk talk about assumptions we don't even know the Berlin membership of the new 767 we have no idea who they're going to appoint so terms of scheduling meetings with that committee and then the hearing that needs to follow it's kind of a leap of faith at this point and do they have to appoint someone yes they need they need to appoint at least one board member and two community members and we can't we're having a hard time scheduling a meeting for the Berlin board okay thanks um so future committee schedule on content yeah and I think you did yeah yeah I just I just wanted to get all that out I just I'm trying to be as transparent I appreciate it and I hope you take a private feedback about my video or praise in on the camera but I'm trying to do those videos like every week I already know three things I'm gonna say at the end of this week we might just be filmed with my phone hey folks here are three new things I know about act 46 in the merger process and just put them up there communication is great it's just just it's and it's frankly the video is the fastest and easiest way for me to do it and um people are getting more and more lenient with what they you know the how formal video needs to be and just bill talk it you can't compete with PewDiePie I understand I don't want to okay reports to the board central Vermont career center excuse me you heard my little bit they came down some on their tuition yay I think that was because of pressure from you guys I would like to think so so not much else to report from them student reps are otherwise occupied this evening yes they are they have no meeting in January I will fill them in okay I wouldn't want them to show up administration report schools still running um no matter what I actually would say things are running really well yeah actually we are doing really well I mean I I I think that unless you and let you know I said to Steven jokingly yesterday I said stop don't protect me I'm overwhelmed right now but and I want to know what's going on but I don't I see good things every time I'm over here yeah we're you know the work that we're doing around so I think this will encapsulate a lot of it so one of the conversations that we've had recently is that you know as our sophomore there's our juniors are moving through this year they we're starting to see okay where are their places within the curriculum that they have not had an opportunity to demonstrate the proficiencies that we find are important so all those standards that we adopted the work that we did around them a very good example and we've we've brought this to attention before is engineering in science another one is economics within global citizenship statistics within math and the conversation that we're we're having around those are so we want to provide as many opportunities as we can we realize that those opportunities may not be as robust as we would want but what we really see is that this is an important part of our curriculum that wasn't there right and so because we have now created these proficiencies and said that these are important we can really identify where were we not serving our students as well as we should and so um so those discussions are now happening and so how does this how do we get this how do we make sure that kids have this and it's not just simply one department saying oh my god what do we do like this has been a discussion across departments department heads are like well what about this or what about this or you know how can we start to create new opportunities for for some of these proficiencies to be done in multiple classrooms and and you're starting to see evidence of it and we have a climate change unit that's going on in the ninth grade team that the social studies teachers and the science teachers are pretty much running the project between the two classes so that there are the policy implications the government implications all of those while the science teachers are working on the the scientific facts the the reports that are put out and and so they're really starting to um to come together to make sure that those proficiencies are done and so it's it's the work is there you know and and those conversations are no longer so isolated as one department is responsible for this you know reading is starting to be talked about school-wide our math goals you know the science teachers are saying well what does this mean for us like how do we make sure that the kids are doing it and so and we put a lot of work into putting proficiencies in the student learning outcomes and the work that you guys did to it and it's filtering down now you know to those lower to the classroom level where you want to see it happening and so it's been nice it's it's it's kind of a wake-up call I will say one of the teachers the other day said you know I feel really responsible for making sure that every kid meets this and we would hate to think that in the past that that there were kids that we let slip by but there were kids who got d's right and we were okay with that at one point in time and we're not okay with it anymore we really are not okay with it and uh and so that's a great level of rigor and um that that we've all hoped for and hopefully address some of those issues that were brought up in the middle part of the presentation you know preparing people so that they you know what I saw in that was that it was no high school or only high school education is the part that scared scares me and if we prepare kids to be successful beyond high school then we've done them a great service so I think our teachers are really focused on that right now curious what the what's the engagement alike around the math proficiency goal and is there discussion of a literacy goal yet so I would I would say that we were probably talking more about the literacy one prior to the math one but we hadn't really set a full goal I actually I just my stuff that I could look at while you guys debating things but it was some of the work that's being done with our students these are the students that are in our read 180 program and this is their recent growth reports in you know that we get from that you know we we want to see the same kind of performance out of literacy and we really are closing the gap one of the biggest numbers that I saw today was a hundred point gain on the Lexile score is a little more than a grade level by the time you get to eighth to ninth grade and our ninth graders in the read 180 program had a 97 point gain in half a year and then our eighth graders had a 47 point average gain and our seventh graders only had a 17 point average gain but in a half a year a lot of that can be attributed they just got here and so but we see the program like it it just looking at the averages it accelerates pretty well for our kids and we're starting to see a lot more kids our graph used to have a lot more red in it that was bad but there's a lot more green and um and so it's starting to we're starting to see good results from our kids and the work that we're focused on making sure that they can read and read well yeah we're just collecting the winner benchmark across the issue we were working on that Tuesday at the leadership yeah avoid you know where our own benchmarks tell us about morning com good yeah good finance do we need no nothing to report executive committee i don't think you've met right no no report policy committee hasn't met school quality hasn't met negotiations i think we've met since we met okay we don't need to get until after the holidays so we need a motion to approve the manuski valley statewide choice agreement for 2019-20 and i assume it's the same agreement we used the same agreement before which is 10 kids in and out 10 kids in and out and we always get 10 coming oh absolutely the list is long yeah so is there a motion to accept that agreement carl in a second got any discussion about that that won't change with act 46 will it don't ask that question okay never mind all those in favor say aye we may actually there was a debate Monday the superintendents maybe yeah okay um i said i'm doing with the board that's sitting um a motion to accept the audit report that we received via email i'll move out cari in a second i'll second karen do people have questions or comments about it did i see an email from you at some point you it's a daunting document a little out there um that was that was a separate thing okay i had sent me a bunch of stuff okay okay yeah which i was very grateful for especially now knowing how much you know she's gotten her play i'd actually told her not to do it she said i'll get to it when i do well not because of you sky i know i i have to select no i understand but i greatly appreciate it if it uh a couple questions yeah one is um at the very end they go to great lengths to tell us that they evaluate internal controls but not in order to render an opinion about the effectiveness of those internal controls it's classic auditor language but um and you got a lot of questions they can tell us and some of it they tell us it doesn't get in that report there were some suggestions that were put in place yeah if you ask me what they are and i i don't even remember because we did but my question is how common is it to actually have an audit evaluate the effectiveness of internal controls for schools it's not something that happens very often well the feds actually do pretty tightly on us and they be correct when we move into a merge system our audit practice is going to change because we're going to be more than one system with a greater we go above the threshold for federal money we use and one merge system so the audit's going to have to change a little bit because the federal we have to report directly to the feds through our auditor for those internal controls that you're talking about so perhaps i'll provide more comment or just more accountees i think it's going to be more accountees for the office for omb at the federal level well so that actually is my second question just to confirm that when we're a unified district if and when we're a unified we'll save money on the audit more efficient to reduce one document rather than six i would like to hope so i don't know i don't know the answer laura's told me yes it'll be less i mean she's told me that since like three or four years you won't know for sure but i haven't gotten asked for a price quote yeah okay all those in favor of accepting the audit say i oppose so a year from now we're going to be doing that as the final thing yeah it'll be a really quick meeting um motion to approve the school quality committee recommendation for this su wide goal related to student learning related to literacy right to set literacy goals no i think this is the whole thing that they had said that they said in the SU meeting this is for if you remember the conversation had to supervise i do yeah so three should be all oh okay that's right it wasn't just all adopt the math ask for a comparable literacy yeah okay thank you for the bigger picture we'll glory right now there was one more yeah it's okay no it's okay so is there a motion to approve the and it's kind of interesting because it's already our goal right haven't we adopted goals that have this uh you know not we have a learning goal yeah so we can change our u-32 goal to match this goal so uh the third part was a call for some formal review of how it went that reflection of the reflection of teachers oh that's right that's right yep all those in favor say i hi hi do we know i didn't get i didn't get a motion i am sorry a motion thank you lisa so i'm and a second second torch more discussion all those in favor say i opposed that motion carries appoint a representative to the articles of agreement committee so can i talk about this before yes you certainly may so um there are two different groups there's the articles agreement committee and that carry's been part of that has representation from all six boards and i said in the SU meeting i thought that there we can do it with um that we can keep that small groups that have been working well and i um because of the way 46 languages structured after conferring with chris leopold our attorney you received an email from me last week that says that the towns need to appoint people to the act 49 that's not what this is the group that carry's been part of and matthew suggested that everyone reaffirm that he's on it i also know and i hope you heard already i just haven't had a chance to tell you carry that monday night he's not clear appointed you to be part of this membership for them through 706 because they said carry should he's in he's not your resident he should help us he's been working on it and i was supposed to get to you and i didn't so i apologize so you 32 doesn't need to do anything they need to have just to point you to this current articles the the one we have going that you sat sort of semi and then we said it's almost done we sat one one meeting didn't we do that last that we did that did you do that we were in a carousel right did you come in here do that yeah i think we formally yeah we i i thought yes we did both of them so then you're so then you're done that one is not needed i'm sorry they're i remember walking after the carousel meeting yes we did but all these things on all the agendas we did it we approve the membership we met after the carousel but you don't need that but just so you know the towns are appointing their membership that needs to be proportional because when you read the final language in act 49 it says in the same manner and method so which towns have already done that um all but berlin and callous callous will do it tomorrow night in berlin so when we're trying to get finished and so who did what can you tell us matthew is on for wister and tonight ronnie was going uh no they put for the articles it's chris and brian and for east montpelier it's floor and our city and our car maybe that was in the paper i read that wasn't that was in the paper this morning yeah and then callous is meeting tomorrow night they need two folks okay again they have to have one more member and dorothy's been part of it we're trying to just keep the people that were on this committee because they have knowledge of how it's pulled together okay i just wanted to know and then we don't need oh we appointed members to the transition for it already yeah so we need a motion to do you want to tell us the motion for this so um so just a quick piece so that you understand what we're we're saying is that in the last meeting you approve the pre-qualification criteria for companies to do the track project um so we put out these pre-qualifications um yesterday those were due and bill ford john john himmelgarn david hannigan our building and grounds director kevin warden who's from engineering ventures and myself met to review those um of the companies that uh that gave us a uh all the information to address the the pre-qualifications we we recommend that you pre-approved five companies to do the project and we think that's a good cross section so uh those five companies if you want to see the full piece of this in the board google drive and i think you guys do they have access no they cannot have access to it as a board boards cannot share things through google that sounds exactly right um don't complain to the legislator senate stopped it last time we tried to get it if you have questions about these i can answer but we have five companies you will recognize yeah hear the name uh capital earth moving j hutchins i'll give and i'll get all these to you dubois construction e f wall and associates and engineers construction ink those five companies met all the requirements we did um some reference checks on them uh john himmelgarn and kevin warden have worked with with most of these companies extensively um and so these five companies are the ones we submit for pre-approval and once you pre-approved these just so you know these five will have the option to bid on the track project whoever submits the lowest bid will win unless they're within one percent then we can choose how many submitted a bid or a proposal six companies submitted for uh pre-approval and did you judge that the sixth one didn't meet didn't have the capacity to do this job okay they're all moves that we accept their condition i'll second carl this got any more discussion all those in favor say i i have a post that motion carries the motion to approve the board orders can i move karin a second did you get the amount lisa no i'll give it to oh i'm sorry send them back sorry were there any questions on them did we get a second here i'll second george in the amount of sixty five thousand five hundred forty two dollars and seventy three cents all those in favor say i close that motion carries future agenda items for february we got legislators yes that's good go from there board communication i think we're good for a while i think so yep um so we need to move in we need to move back into executive session to address that um so karie and carl and carl if you just give lisa those initial notes from the beginning okay she can then you don't have to give and you might want to let's just take a five minute break