 Hello there, and thank you for tuning in to the town meeting TV's ongoing coverage of local elections. My name is Bobby Luciae. Today, TAMI NETV hosts forums with all candidates and covers the questions that you will see on your local ballot, introducing you to community decision-makers and connecting you with the issues that shape your local community. You can find all of our forums at cctv.org slash 2024 or on our town meeting TV YouTube channel where auto-generated captions are available. On tonight's program, we will hear from three candidates running for the position of school board director on for the Essex Westford school district and specifically the Essex Junction seat, and those three candidates are John O'Brien, Jillian Aldrich and Christine Gaynor Patterson. Thank you all so much for joining us tonight. Thank you. Awesome. So the plan is we have prepared a list of questions for each of you and you'll have 90 seconds to answer each question. And if you are tuning in live, then we also welcome your call in questions at 802-862-3966. If you call in, we will do our best to prioritize your question, though we will screen calls to ensure that questions are not repeated. We ask that you share your name, the town you live in, and that your question be directed at all three candidates and not just one candidate in particular. Okay, so let's get started now with 60-second opening statements, and we'll start with John O'Brien for opening statements. And the question here, if you need it, is please tell us why you're running, how you're qualified to serve on the Essex Westford School Board, and what will be different for the school district if you are elected? John? Well, thanks for hosting this important forum. I grew up a few towns over from the from Essex Junction, and about two years ago my family was very lucky to move into the home where my father grew up and attended school in Essex Junction. And I'm really proud to live in a city that shares, and with a school district that shares a lot of the same values as myself and my family. That's a commitment to justice and fairness and equity, and I believe the belief that all kids deserve to be safe and well-fed and see themselves represented in their education. For a year where a lot of time has been spent on considering the budget, I think it's really important to remember the kind of things that we're for. And so last fall when my two kids began in the district, I began getting more involved following policy decisions and attending the meetings and engagement sessions, and it's been really illuminating. And the more that I've dove in, the more that I believe in the district and believe strongly in the direction that we're headed, and I just want to ensure that we're continuing to be a leader in not just the state, but the country as far as public education. Great. Thank you so much, John O'Brien. Next is Jillian Aldrich, your 60-second opening statement. I'm running for the school board with an extensive knowledge of the district operations and a deep commitment to supporting our students, family, and our community. I want to foster an inclusive environment where everyone has a voice and it's heard and valued. As an alumni of the district, former employee, and a parent, I have a vested interest in ensuring the success of our schools. My professional background is in accounting and business operations at a local nonprofit, currently, combined with my degree in Early Childhood Education and ongoing studies of human resource management. I feel like it equips me to have a diverse skill set for the position. I am prepared to address challenging topics and advocate for the policies prior to prioritizing the well-being of an academic achievement of all of our students. And Christine Gaynor-Patterson, your opening statement. Go ahead. I am running. I have been similar to John, what he had said, that I have been attending school board meetings in Essex Westford School District for in-person, online, talking to community members, talking to district and board employees since I got here, but really intensely for the past two years. So I have a desire to bolster what's already within our educational system and what's working well. I'm also coupled with the experience of innovatively addressing challenges in public education and in business sectors. I was a public school educator and instructional leader for 14 years. And this was in a district with limited funding, state requiring, transparent budgeting, very high educational standards. And I learned how to do more with less and our most valuable resource, what I learned is our people. So I prioritize the needs of our students, staff and teachers in that role. Now I'm a change management professional and I still have learned that people are the most important asset that we have and we need to protect them because of their value. I do aim for ROI, so return on investment and I'm proactive, curious, I seek out different perspectives. I'm a systems thinker with a people first approach and I would love to have a continuous community conversation that evolves our approach to education, ensuring that our policies and practices meet current standards but also set new benchmarks for education. Awesome, thank you all so much, three really strong candidates here tonight. Thank you all so much for joining us. I just want to check if they're just on a quick tech note, I'm hearing kind of an echo from this TV and I'm wondering if we can, it might be that the volume is on this TV if there's a way. I know this is, we're kind of just building the planes we fly here. Yeah, if you, that would be, thank you Fiona, that's great, thank you so much. I just wanted to make sure that, awesome, thank you Fiona. So now we'll move on to our first question here which is about the school budget. So the Essex Westford school district has proposed an FY25 budget of $97.8 million with an estimated tax increase in Essex Junction of 22.86%. So the question here is do you support this school budget and why or why not? And we will start on this one with Jillian Aldrich. So your thoughts on the school budget, 90 seconds. First I want to start by saying that I stand in solidarity with our educational staff and our students. It's this heartening to me, excuse me, to witness teachers at the forefront of our students' success to be the first to face the cuts. While I am supportive of our budget passage, I recognize the burden of the tax increase and it's putting on our community. It's a greater effort from the administration to initiate cuts at the top, prioritizing, excuse me, the preservation of positions that directly impact our students' daily. I know that while Act 127 and CLA and other factors contribute to the budget increase, we need to engage our state leaders in finding solutions. I am firmly against further cuts on the frontline employees. I remain optimistic that if the budget fails that we can collaborate to identify alternate solutions, safeguard the education experience for all of our students. Thank you so much. Christine, your thoughts on the school budget? I support it. Here's why. So I had to understand the budget and the increase because, of course, being a taxpayer, it was a little startling and I think we all can agree it's not something that we want. It's a tax increase, especially to the magnitude when you hear those big numbers. So I started to do investigation, had conversations with Brian Donahue at the district to help me understand what this means. Here's what I've learned, that much of the budget increase is coming from the state calculation. Essex Westford School District only increased from last year to this year for inflation and contractually obligations like step increase and health care costs. And health care costs are also dictated by the state, which is not anything that locally can be done. So I think there's only an increase of like 6-ish, a little bit more, 6.9% that Essex is contributing to, like from last year to F for fiscal year 25. So they've actually been doing their due diligence. The issue really is that the state calculation, we could cut significantly and being a people first person, it will impact people. And with those cuts, we will still pay more. So that being in mind, I want to make sure if I'm going to pay more, I'm getting a solid people first effective school district. Awesome. Thank you so much, Christine. And Donahue Bryan, your thoughts on the school budget? I absolutely support this budget as a means of maintaining the high standards that we have in our community and the workforce that we have. There are many reasons why the increase is so large, but I want to highlight actions that are being taken already at a state level. Because we're not the only ones who are aware of how unprecedented this is and how unsustainable increases to this extent are. So there are bills working through the legislature right now that would provide funding for essential construction projects in the future. Another bill that may delay the implementation of PCB testing and costs that districts will have to take on to make changes as a result of that. Ideally, we'll see the housing market cool down so the CLA should catch up. So rather than that metric just contributing runaway to the steep increases in taxes, we should have more predictable increases. There's also newly proposed wealth taxes that will provide more capital to the Ed Fund. And I believe that the state should consider allocating funding directly to administrative positions that are responsible for reporting. This is a task that's foisted on districts and I think the state could be directly allocating to that so that taxpayers aren't on the hook for these expenses. And these are all offsets that are in the works from preventing this kind of substantial change from happening again. Awesome. Thank you all so much. It's a tricky question to see are the school budgets. There's a lot of factors and you hit on all of them. So our next question is also related to the school budget so it's more focused on reducing expenses. So if the school budget does not pass in April, where would each of you look to reduce expenses to propose a smaller budget for the next round of voting if that does happen? And we'll start here with Christine for how would you reduce expenses in that scenario? Sure. As a school board member, I would be a representative of the district, of the community. So I would want the community to have part of that conversation. So even though I have my thoughts, I really want to open an avenue in access to have their thoughts be incorporated in what gets cut. The reality is what we vote on is the number that's on the ballot, not how things get cut. So I want to make sure if I were on the board, I'm hearing from the community. There are things I am hearing in the community about cuts. Some of them are not necessarily feasible nor were they add up to enough. An example of South Burlington where who did fail the budget, they cut by $2 million and more, they got their money from their general reserve to make up that most of that difference and still needed to cut people. So the reality is a deep cut in education will affect our people. Again, being a people first candidate, that's something that I won't be able to stand by. But if the community has those conversations about where and who needs to happen, I will listen to the community's voice. Great. Thank you, Christine. John or Brian, your thoughts on reducing expenses if the budget does not pass? Relatedly, I think it's important to note that a double digit increase is inevitable whether or not the budget passes because of the role that CLA and other factors play in the calculation. So even if the vote does go, no, it's still going to be increasing taxes in our communities and reducing what our schools are capable of doing. There's a few ideas, of course, representing the voices of the community is vital for this role, but I think it'd be important to reevaluate facilities expenses. There's a note in the meeting in February where the board went over rental of district offices and it really seemed like they'd done their math and done their diligence as far as renting out additional space and using only the space that they needed. But that obviously needs to be on the table. Many voters have expressed an interest in consolidating administrative positions, which, as with everything else, does need to be on the table. And if we do find ourselves in that place, we need to be making sure that we're not passing on responsibilities and reporting to classroom teachers or people in those student-facing positions. Again, if the budget doesn't pass, I think voters are ultimately going to be very surprised. To see that just a few percentage points aren't ultimately going to mean too much for them, but it is definitely going to have a visible and negative effect on our schools, which is why I think it's so important to pass this budget. Thank you, John. And, Jillian Aldrich, your thoughts on reducing expenses if the budget does not pass? First off, I want to say I agree with both Christine and John on this because we know what we're facing right now. And, you know, losing staff that has direct contact with our students on a daily basis, their trusted people, just isn't, like, I can't even fathom that for those children. Like, it just seems out of control. I do, I have been very vocal about the professional development. We've been sending people to Nepal recently. I heard there's another trip that's overseas coming up. And then bringing people to different states for trainings. I feel like we can do better. I know that it's not much on the budget long term, but again, it's a place to start. I know that the finances are in, you know, the contracts of the teachers, but I feel like it's an excess right now. And we need to figure out how to maintain them getting their professional development that they need, but being more conscious about the community and what they're asking for. Awesome. Thank you all so much. So now we'll move on to our next question, which is stepping back bigger picture to look at the challenges in the district. So the question is, what is the biggest challenge facing the Essex Westford School District right now, and how would you use your seat on the school board to address this issue? And we'll start here with John O'Brien. Well, the issue that I feel is most troublesome, not just in our district, but in general with public institutions, is a distrust in those institutions. And I feel like the answer to that is further community engagement to go to the meeting and to hear the presentations from administrators in the board and involved community members who attend those meetings, the people who are personally invested in our kids and what they're learning and how they're progressing. It does inspire confidence to see the work that's being done there. So efforts need to be made for more of our community to join the conversation, not just during budget season. And it is a privilege not afforded to everyone in the community, and we can't have only those of privilege influencing the decision making. So we need to investigate how we can reach out to multilingual learner families in the community and hear their input. Another refrain I hear is as folks are receiving mailers regarding this budget and the vote is that there isn't enough time to digest and understand the process. So we should begin with a community forum in January so that the public can speak about their goals and hopes for the year and possibly hear a forecast at that time regarding possible spending and bigger budget projects that might be coming down. Relatedly, boards in other parts of the country also produce mailers that can give folks a rundown of candidates for school board to inform voters of their options as well, which is something our board may consider. Thank you so much. Jillian Aldrich, your thoughts on the challenges facing the district? Yeah, obviously the escalation of costs and the deterioration of our facilities. During one of the recent budget meetings that was being held, or the board meetings that were being held, I was encouraged to learn that they were going to try to go for some grant money for the facilities. I think that was an awesome thing to hear from the administration that they were trying to do that. They also reallocated resources to reinstate forward teaching positions, which I think was really big. I think that these are proactive approaches that demonstrates a commitment to both the fiscal responsibility and maintaining the quality of education in our district. Thank you so much, Jillian. And Christine Gaynor-Patterson, what are the challenges facing the district? Sure. I think the biggest challenge is the reimagining of education that is going to happen in Vermont, not only due to the budgetary issues that are at the state, but also the nature of education and the rapidly changing educational needs, demographic changes, aging infrastructure of our facilities, as I just pointed out. I think we need a strategic plan, and that starts similar to what John was saying with a comprehensive collaborative community discussion on the district and community's vision. How do we use those, how do we upgrade the facilities? Every building in our district is showing its age. It's older than I am. I look young, but they're old. So do we redistrict for efficiency? How do we prepare students for not only the jobs that exist today, but the jobs that don't exist yet? That's really what we're trying to aim for. So that strategic plan is not only meeting the current need, but future-proofing our educational system. Great. Awesome. Thank you all so much. Next question. We did get everyone on that question, right? I think we did. Okay, great. So our next question is about neurodivergent students in the district. So how can Essex Westford School's best support neurodivergent students? And we'll start with Jillian Aldrich on this question. All right. First of all, I want to say I commend our district for the dedication to fostering a supportive and inclusive classroom environment where every student feels valued and respected. Through a variety of teaching strategies and instructional approaches that they already have in place, our school prioritizes creating a sensory-friendly learning environment from minimizing distractions and sensory overload. They provide sensory tools and accommodations, and they have designated quiet spaces where students can regulate their sensory experiences. I believe, though, that there is an opportunity to further enhance and support our students through peer support and mentoring programs. By facilitating peer support networks and monitoring initiatives, we can promote positive social connections, foster empathy, and cultivate an understanding among students. By encouraging students to act as allies and advocates for our neurodivergent peers, it will help foster a culture of inclusion and acceptance throughout our school community and hopefully go further into life. Great. Thank you, Jillian. Christine, your thoughts on this question. This question is near and dear for my heart. Thank you for asking it. It's really important to understand what neurodivergence is. Up to 20% of the population, depending on the research that you read, is neurodivergence some capacity. I'd like to just take this time to say that it's about how someone's brain works. So while intellect, you might be able to boost up your IQ a little bit. If you are neurodivergent, you are neurodivergent. So it is really important to have that understanding. One of the things that I have learned in my career as a special educator is universal design for learning. It is easily affordable to get a certification. It is groundbreaking research. It is constantly updated. It's evidence-based practice. And most of all, it's breaking barriers, removing barriers, and changing environmental structures and how we design. So how we design environments to make sure that we are making everybody included. And it's very, very important to make sure that we have inclusive spaces where everybody thrives. John O'Brien, your thoughts on supporting neurodivergent students? I think it's important to bear in mind that by the numbers, neurodiverse students of marginalized communities are often most underserved. So I think it's really important that our interventionists and support staff are always involved with restorative justice practices and aware that the intersectionality compounds these risks significantly. So we need to be making sure that we are prioritizing these students, keeping them engaged and welcomed into our classrooms, never isolated or alienated from their peers, constantly building that classroom community. To the greater neurodivergent student population, I think it's important that we make sure that our interventions are always aligned with the Tier 1 instruction work being done by the classroom teachers. And for the neurotypical students, it's important for them to understand the differences between them and their peers so that they can do their part in continuing to grow that sense of community in their classrooms. Awesome. Thank you all so much for your responses to that question. Quick reminder before we move on to the next question that you can call in to 802-862-3966. If you're tuning in live, we will prioritize your question for the three candidates here for the Essex Junction Seed on the Essex-Westford School Board. Up next is a question about public safety. So the question is how can the school district ensure the safety of its students and teachers in our schools and in the community? And we'll start with Christine Gainer-Patterson on this question. Thank you. There is an Essex-Westford Police Department liaison. And they are currently working in the capacity of building relationships. And I think that's a really important thing. It is a model that is looked at within Vermont is looking at EWSD on that model outside of Vermont is looking at that model. So looking at that building relationships for safety and in partnership with the police department is a great first step. Community involvement is also important. See something, say something works when there's actual trust built. So again, that falls into that building relationships and every capacity we can. I do want to use this time to say one area I think we can expand upon is substance abuse prevention. There are evidence based programs and targeted interventions that can be done to prevent substance abuse. We live in a completely different time where curiosity is so normal for adolescents, teens, early adults. And that curiosity can kill someone and we have to protect our youth. So when we talk about this safety substance abuse prevention also falls under that category as well. And I would love to see that more into the conversation. Thank you, Christine. John O'Brien, your thoughts on public safety? In educating myself on the district's policies and efforts to be able to confront and handle emergencies. I'm feeling pretty confident in the responses that are in place. Staff members on hand are trained in stop to bleed courses. Narcan is becoming available on hand in all of our facilities for the unthinkable but sadly possible circumstances. And that's all a good basis of safety. I'm really proud of the district as well for hearing calls from the community to reform the position of school resource officers, which is a big step in a positive and equitable direction. The mere presence of uniformed police officers can be very disruptive in a learning environment, especially for students in marginalized communities. And I think the rebranding the role into a department district liaison officer has made the presence a lot more palatable and less intrusive in our schools while increasing our district's ability to react to emergencies. Great. Thank you, John. And Jillian Aldrich, your thoughts on public safety? Well, having worked in the school buildings, I'm proud to say that I think that our district has established effective guidelines and systems to handle emergency situations. And I want to applaud Gary Scott for his initiatives that he's been taking on this matter since he took over the position as well. It's been great. I do though feel that continuous training for staff and faculty without students present is imperative to ensure preparedness without adding undue mental health stress onto our children. That's something I was always kind of pushing when I was working there as well because there was lots of scenarios that we saw that were like, well, what about this and what about that? And I really feel that it would be helpful to eliminate the children and actually have trainings on that. Teachers serve as the trusted adults for our students while at school and providing the faculty and staff with the proper training enhances the students' sense of safety while being there. And by investing in ongoing training with the faculty and staff, we can maintain a secure environment while minimizing extra stress on those kids. I think that's very important. Great. Thank you all so much for your responses to that question. Our next question is going to be about mental health. How can Essex-Westford schools best support student mental health? And the question, I think this time starts with John O'Brien. So this is an area where it's, I think, vital and ultimately a lot less costly if we're proactive rather than reactive. And it's so important that we make sure our schools provide not just positive experiences for all students but also joy. So in this case, art and music, AV club, these kind of extracurriculars are the reason that some of our students attend school. And we can't forget that. And that's why when we have to consider changes to our budget, I think it's really important that we keep our hands off of these programs. When we do end up having to be reactive in this circumstance, the needs of our students and our support staff, it always needs to be examined from the lens of equity and intersectionality. Our student engagement also needs to be trauma-informed to make sure that we're able to reach kids with trauma in all forms because students who don't feel safe in our schools aren't going to be able to learn in our schools. And I think our district also embracing SEL practices at every age level of the student population is going to be a great initiative that's able to prepare students for the big changes that they come across in their development. Thank you so much, John. And Gillian, I'm sorry. Gillian, I'll drift your thoughts on supporting mental health in schools. I think that we're on the right track with implementing SEL into the curriculum. And I agree with John on we need to start early. You know, I think that if we can start with our toddler younger, it won't be as bad as they're later in life. And I know that we're still faced with the whole COVID. You know, when we came back to school, it was definitely, there was a lot of challenging behaviors going on and they're trying really hard to address all of that currently. And it's ongoing. And I think bringing in SEL was very important. I also think that our wellness and health classes do like help out that as well. I feel like though that it's critical to continuously assess the effectiveness of these initiatives through data analysis and remain flexible to it reassess and adjust our strengths as needed and being diligent and responsive to the data. We can ensure that our efforts are promoting mental health and SEL are impactful and aligned with the evolving needs of our students. Thank you, Gillian. Christine, your thoughts on mental health? Currently, the Howard Center has clinicians at the schools and they are having all of the capability and they're fantastic, but they are at or probably beyond capacity. So we need to further invest into those supports. They're working. They're helpful. They're supportive. They're necessary. It's a research-based, evidence-based support in addition to expanding that and strengthening the services and supports that already exist in our working. I think social-emotional learning should be integrated into the curriculum so it's not an add-on. It's something that is embedded into what we do in the culture of the school. It's also important for student voice so that when a student feels comfortable enough and has the psychological safety to say, I need help, they have that trusted relationship, they know how to advocate for themselves, they know who to advocate for themselves, and then when they need it, there is the response to get them what they need when they need it. Great. Thank you all so much for your thoughts on that topic. Is there, I thought I heard a phone call. Is there, no, there's not a phone call? Okay. Okay. Then moving on to our next prepared question, which is about measuring success in the district. So last year standardized test results across the state, the proportion of Vermont students proficient in math and English decreased during the pandemic and has not made significant improvements since. So how do you measure the success of the school district? And we'll start with Jillian Aldrich here. Well, I think we need to acknowledge the importance of math and literacy. I believe that the success does extend beyond that, these areas as well, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, communication, and collaboration and resilience. EWSD has been working for a couple of years now on the portrait of a graduate, which encompasses all of these areas as well. I think that giving students ongoing feedback and opportunities for self-assessment on learning progress and performance, encouraging students to set goals, monitor their progress, and reflect on their strengths and areas of growth. This fosters a growth mindset. I'd advocate for the district to follow up with students after graduation to assess their post-secondary experiences and their outcomes. This feedback allows for us to evaluate the effectiveness of our educational processes and make necessary adjustments to better prepare students for success beyond graduation. Great. Thank you, Jillian. Christine Gaynor-Patterson, your thoughts on measuring success in the school district. Sure. So when we look at achievement scores, I used to do this in part of my role. I'd look for disparities in data points besides standardized tests. That includes analyzing outcomes, progress monitoring, graduation rates, post-graduation data, teacher retention rates, student retention rates. And then we have a youth truth survey and actually brought that up when I was a part of the special Education Parent Advisory Council was what is the data that shows post-graduation, what happens. So it's a really great point, Jillian. Thank you for that. So when you look at that data, when you look at it, you start to look at what are the trends? Why aren't people making gains? Who are the students that are thriving? Is it tied to academics? So when you look at this academic achievement, it doesn't necessarily equate to a lack of instruction or a need of instruction. We have to look at it holistically and start to actually interrogate that data because data is not information and information is not even really knowledge. So we need to know the story and understanding the why behind it. We won't actually find the solution. Yeah. Thank you, Christine. John O'Brien, your thoughts on how do you measure the success of the school district? It's a very difficult problem to confront and to see on paper. These are shocking things for parents who have been sending their kids to school to see just numbers that by all modern measures are disappointing. But I think it's important that we consider our current standards and measures maybe aren't as relevant or accurate in representing the student experience or competency as they may have been. So I'm interested in breaking down data by demographics, seeing the communities that we're not reaching, seeing the areas where we're insufficient. Again, these are numbers and so it may be a part of a larger cultural issue as well or maybe a failure in our evaluation methods, which is why evaluations and new initiatives like Portrait of a Graduate are admirable for trying to equip our students in a different measurable goals, the tools of self-betterment like empathy and critical thinking and adaptability. It's going to be as important or more so than professional skills and that's why the self-reporting after graduation is going to be as this is a relatively new measure here in our district it's going to be so important for shaping what that becomes in the future and what we should be maybe adding or taking away from that program. Thank you so much. So our next question here is about language access in the district. Primary language is not English and I think the first respondent here will be Christine A. Patterson. Okay. So in talking to people in our district who are facing these language barriers and cultural barriers what I have learned is that it's beyond language it's a cultural piece that we need to really then emphasize an inclusion. See themselves in the environment so it's not about assimilation it's about inclusion it's about that welcoming community feel and every student should walk in and feel a part of that community. It's also about how are we reaching parents so good things that are going on we have a liaison we probably need more supports as far as translators and reaching out to parents and getting parent engagement so families see themselves in our school system do they see themselves in our school system so I think there's a lot of work to be done and it's definitely an area of focus that I feel like EWSD should focus on going forward. Thank you Christine. John O'Brien. Language access. The multilingual learners community liaisons are such a vital vital position and I think we need to continue providing and funding these positions fully and expanding them as the need dictates and with that the students do need to have a sense of identity development and a curriculum that represents their diverse backgrounds and also a workforce that represents those diverse backgrounds which is why the community liaisons being members of these communities is such a step in the right direction but with that we should probably continue to do some important practices can we be bringing on members from these communities can we be giving them what they need to stay in EWSD and continue doing this important work and one more important point that I think is not just our district but across 17 in the area as we've recently adopted a new culturally aware calendar no brainer now we're going to look back and just be amazed that it took us so long to adopt some of this so these are all ways that we can just kind of be opening up our district Thank you John Jillian Aldrich I'm agreeing with both of you I took the lens from inside the building I know that having first-hand experience in the school district I can attest to who oversees the ELL programs and her team for trying to meet the needs of all of our language learning students the support provided to students who enter the building with little or no understanding of our language is truly remarkable one aspect that stands out is the implementation of predominantly push in instead of push out system where the student like where the ELL teachers will actually go into the classroom instead of pulling them out for services as much which I think is amazing because inclusivity is extremely important and it does foster that inclusive environment and having them directly support them in the classrooms ensures that language learning is seamlessly integrated into the overall curriculum and promotes collaboration among students of diverse strengths of support and language learning students contribute significantly oh my goodness today to creating an inclusive and supportive environment for the entire district so I think that there is really good work going on in our buildings but there is those other pieces that we really need to work on and foster more great awesome thank you all so much I think we have time for one more question here so this last question of the program it's about teacher well-being and retention so the question is what do you understand to be the current level of morale in the district and what is the role of the school board in retaining good teachers and support staff and we'll start with John O'Brien on this final question so the conversations that I've been having with current and retired staff is pretty eye opening and we know that what we expect from our teachers is too much at this point in order to preserve their own mental health but we need to recognize the teachers need planning time they need meal time and they need sick time that they can use when they need it without feeling pressured to work through to avoid burnout I think it's also important for us to ask how we can center joy for teachers and so that they can look forward to coming into the building every day another important thing feeling like they can't directly address concerns with the board which is shocking and concerning and so I think we need to ensure that there is a direct line where teachers can be raising these concerns without fear of fear for their job because we won't be able to solve any problem by ignoring it and just as an additional closing with that I'm really glad to be sitting here with my other candidates here to share a great vision for this community and I think we're all lucky to be members of it here Thank you John Jillian Aldrich I'm going to say understandably morale within our district is low due to concerns of potential budget cuts beyond that I saw burnout working in the schools continuing after COVID-19 as well as the number of new policies and initiatives put in place it's been extremely overwhelming for them to have time back maybe less meetings let them focus on what they need for their classroom our school board is essential to push into administration to push our administration to foster positive and supportive school culture this can be achieved by providing opportunities for open communication feedback and collaboration between teachers administrators and the school board additionally empowering our teachers and expertise and involving them in school leadership decision-making processes that affect their work environment not only would both boost their morale but also enhance teacher satisfaction and effectiveness Thank you so much Jillian and Christine Gainer Patterson One of the things I want to say especially being a former educator myself is that teachers are so valuable we have so much input to give so often our voice is left to us I would love to have teacher advisory state level including in district so where they're having a voice on how policy works and how procedures should go and adoptions and initiatives and all of that teachers should be all of that so what I do here though is that there's fear and that fear concerns me it's an indication for a toxic culture and a culture and a climate of a school in a school district we talked about measurements like that is I think the most important measurement you can have the greatest instructional program and the greatest this that and the other thing and all the research but it's a people system so if that people system is not supported then those other things won't work there won't be those outcomes and achievements and if it needs to be anonymously it needs to be anonymously for right now until we can get them to integrate and actually be that psychological safety that they need in order to participate the last thing I will say is yeah I think there needs to be a cultural assessment and there's ways to do that so I brought up the youth truth survey everything is about and it's well needed what do students think love student voice what are the things but what is the cultural assessment piece to where we're actually knowing what is the climate the culture the feel of the schools and what is the voice of the teachers and we need to have some kind of assessment that's reflecting that so we can make informed decisions awesome wow so John O'Brien, Jillian Aldrich Christine Gaynor Patterson thank you all so much I mean you all have really bright and really insightful visions of this conversation with you all tonight so thank you so much for coming in thank you appreciate it thank you great and thank you for tuning into town meeting TV's ongoing coverage of local elections you can find this in many more forums at cctv.org slash 2024 or on our town meeting TV YouTube channel and you can also cast your ballot in S Extunction on April 9th for the annual election thank you so much for watching