 No, Justine, but we have the Rochester Stockbridge Unified District Board of School Directors regular meeting. One breath. Tuesday, April 5th, 2022, 6.30 p.m. Rochester Campus, and via Google Meet, Agenda. I called us to order. Adjustment to the agenda, so you say we have this. Thank you. I didn't read it. I do read it in letters, but I didn't read this. I read the agenda. Assigned timekeeper. Well, we'll do our best. Actually, I think, I mean, like, can I? Looks. Looks. Pretty easy. We'll see. You were due due diligence. Send agenda, five minutes. Public comment. Doesn't look like any, but we'll give it, you know, whatever. Board comment. Let me give it five. Celebration of learning. Do we have something? Oh, great. About ten, probably. Ten minutes. Great. Thank you. Superintendent. Ten. Yeah. Yeah. Principal. Five to ten. Five to ten. Yeah. Yeah, five. Ten. I'll say ten for principal. Business manager. Is that where we're going to talk about the yield? Five to ten, probably. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Good. Thank you. Good evening, Tara. How are you? WRVSU policy committee. Am I on that? I'm not on that anymore, am I? No. I don't think so. I hope not. I haven't gone to it in a while. I think you are. I am? I think you are. Policy. I thought you said I was going to be full-born. Do you want to ask one more thing? I don't think you are. You're out of town. No. I was out of town. I'm doing my best to try and get voted out, to be fair. No, you're a lifer. I was asking if somebody else had come to the Dull Board meeting. Oh, yeah. I misspelled it. Oh, God. That was bad. It spells correctly. It was a Dull Board meeting, and I really was supposed to be full, full, full. Yes, no, we were at a Rochester town meeting. Policy committee. You got anything to talk about? Okay, fine. And then the full board updates. Yeah, let's give us, I think five, let's give us 10. That's a real shift for us. Discussion items, mission, vision, board, goals. I hope Justine comes on for that. I've got it on my computer, though. And you all got the copy we sent it out, everybody. Yeah, we were pretty excited by the stuff we came up with. And I think it's, yeah. So, well, let's say 10. That's optimistic, I think. But we'll be planning for our said annual informational meeting. I'm going to give it 15, just because we are an executive session. 10. And then the second executive session. Five. Five. And then I think that the New Hires Resignations. Any? The one is an SU employee, so I think we're all set. Oh. Do we have, do we get an SU employee support staff? Yeah. Okay. We'll let you know what it is. Great, thank you. Good. Okay, so we have something, but not long. Not long. All right. And another public comment, if anybody else joins us there. Let us, oh, and yeah, thank you, Bill. Did everyone get this from Bill? Really, it means that you can handle this bill. This is just beyond me, this stuff. But it won't be once we talk about it. Consent agenda, 4.1, approve the minutes of Tuesday, March 1st, 2022, regular meeting. Anybody have any comments or thoughts? What is your will? I'm all practiced now because I didn't tell them meeting. Shall we approve them? Yeah, sure. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from March 1st. Oh, great. Seconded by Robert. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? The ayes have it. Is there any public comment? I see no public. Very good. We continue to take that as a sign of support. If not, please let us know. Board comment. Yes, Amy. Just to keep everybody up to date, I am going forward with the Rochester Scholarships that I have done in the past along with the committee of an alumni association member and a select board member. And this is a group that does both the town scholarships and the school scholarships that we have. So I do have a list from Tara of the Rochester Seniors, and we'll be sending out the application to them shortly and just continuing on with it. Excellent. Tell me about the scholarship program. So the town has a compatriot scholarship that is awarded. It was actually the Rochester Select Board had decided to take some endowed money and set it aside specifically for a scholarship. It was not your mark for anything, but that's what they decided to do. So every year in the town budget, they allocate the amount of money that's going to be used for the Rochester scholarship. There is a Martin Farm scholarship, which was from when some students, there was a fire up in the barn, and they got up in there and pulled the hay bale down. That was burning and saved the barn. And so that's another scholarship. I'm sorry right now, I can't come up with the other ones. It's always in the mouth first. It could be up to three seniors graduating from high school from Rochester that get aid in continuing their education. So, yeah, the compatriots, I don't want to speak out of term, but I believe that we awarded three last year. Yes, we awarded three last year. Fantastic. Let me come back with the next meeting and I'll report you exactly where we're at with it. We're just starting. I just think it's terrific. It really is. Yeah. It's great to be able to provide that for the students. Question, you've been handling all of this, and I know we've talked about how much longer you're tenure on the board. Oh, and I totally think that we need to, everybody needs to know how to do each other's job. And if you could maybe start thinking about how to outline it or talk it through with Terra so that people can know what's going forward so this can be continued by this board, I think. Definitely. A very useful, very useful thing. Yeah, and I'll kind of along that same lines I would like us to move more forward with the other endowments and get that everybody up to speed with and I specifically like to tap on your knowledge with that. Were we going to put that on the agenda? Yes, we did. We did, and then it never appeared on the agenda the next week and next time. It was very, it wasn't for the last time, it was actually the time before. And it was such a, I don't know, or even the time before that. So why do we put it on the next time? Yeah, that's definitely put on for next time. Because yeah, I remember us saying we were going to talk about that. And I think it's very important. I do think it's very important. Why do we include both? Yes, definitely. The scholarship's update and endowments. And even if there's a spreadsheet or we could help make a spreadsheet or something that tells us and then how the process happens. I totally agree and I think there are some things to discuss and decide how we want the process to go. And I do think that's important for all the things that we do on the board is that everybody knows what's happening because we should be able to be interchangeable with it. Well, and I just want to say how much I appreciate you. You've been handling this for years. Yes. Now, since it's a merger, you know, and I really appreciate that you have taken it on with such commitment and a follow-through. Thank you. Could we have JC with us? Oh, JC! Oh, JC! Hello! So nice to have you. Hi! Hi! How are you? How are you? How are you? No worries. You're here now. Good. Further board comment? Are you getting none? Let's get into celebration of learning literacy in the woods. Yeah. So do you have that PowerPoint that I shared with you? No? Oh, no. It's okay. Give it a second. I can talk while I'm doing this, maybe. So in Stockbridge in 456, we, Donna Gallant and Maureen Rowe have been working together to develop a joint. It's called Literacy in the Woods and then it expands into a joint math class. And it started out as a reward that students earned for leading reading goals during I Love to Read Month and a celebration of poetry. And they liked it so much that they wanted to keep it going. The kids asked to keep it going. And so they, she put together this great presentation and they've started to do this every two weeks now. They have to earn it. And it's two hours in the woods. And right now the focus is around poetry and vocabulary out in the woods because it's poetry. And if you just give me a second to figure out my inability to share this via my phone. Sorry about that. Donna has put together, she couldn't be here tonight but she put together a great presentation. Can you tell us? Yes. Can you answer a question? Sure, go for it. Is there any plan to bring it to Rochester? Yes. She and Mr. Hall have been working on it. Sorry. There we go. They have been working on it. She started out as a pilot. So like I said, she couldn't be here tonight but sent this presentation. She actually shared it out. Let's see why it's pretty impressive. So they focus on mindful breathing. They all pick out poetry of their choice and are going to share it out. They define and act out vocabulary words. They play a nature game. It's something that Ms. Rowe brought to Stockbridge when she came to be a classroom teacher after being at nature's outdoor classroom. They love to snack and eat tea and that's a combination of some of their time with Amy, Bronn, around tea and then they write their own poems from being in the woods, observations and or expressions of gratitude. And so then we have, this is kind of, so it happens about two times a month right now now that winter wellness is over. And so here they are reading a poetry as well as a student's poetry on the right. That's cool. That's awesome. That's a wow. That's a wow. And so what they haven't figured out is that it's a little public speaking. Yeah. Which is, oh no, reading literature love is a big, big one for me. Love it. Do you find being outside that it's easier for them? Yeah, it seems to be like a safer space. To them versus the classroom. It's also the way the schedule works in Stockbridge. There's, it's science and humanities is really the large chunks of time where fourth, fifth and sixth grade students are together and then it separates out a little bit by grade level for math and literacy. So it's one of the few times that like they are together in a larger capacity for a large chunk of time because they end up spending the whole half day learning together, which is pretty cool. That's awesome. Oh my gosh. And they love it. I think they were disappointed that tomorrow's not literacy in the woods today. That's awesome. I only know that because I got an email saying why I wouldn't let them. Like it was my fault that they couldn't go out tomorrow. But they have to earn it, like you said. They do. They have specific goals with Donna and Maureen and I have really no part other than to say, yep. Or not. Right. I can be the good guy or the bad guy depending on the day. Well, I would love to see this here and I think, you know, Amy would certainly, you know, jump on this. Which of course is another great skill to learn how to listen. Yes, absolutely. Also, I love the idea of picking a poem you like like having opinions about stuff adventurous. So this is them acting out adventurous. This is the part of the presentation that really connected with me is the idea of acting something out in regards to vocabulary and really internalizing the meaning, right? Absolutely. Memorizing. And so what the kids don't know is these are words or skill sets that came up as a low performance area in the Stars 360 scores. And that's how she picked what she picked. Her vocabulary as an area of weakness. That's awesome. And then I think enormous is going to stop. Put it in their bodies. And sometimes it's probably fun to act out the opposite. Oh, yeah. Right. So it's actually silent. Isn't my understanding this whole time? That's awesome. It's charades. That makes even better. It does make better. You can kind of hear this. Fame. You can see it. Red carpet. That must be Alice with her ears, cat ears. And hear some of their own poetry. Oh, yeah. That's great. There's great pictures too. I like the rhythm of the woods, trees, bees, knees, leaves. Oh, have no doors. Oh, wow. That's my third one. Who will live? We don't know. That's great. That is neat. This is their woods. Is this across the river? No, you go down across the field and out down the road. I've got to go there. Come on over. Yeah, I think that is the last one. Very nice. That's incredible. Another great program. Well, yeah. And as you said, it's taking a problem and making it into a celebration. Just amazing. That's like exactly what we're... We get the mission statement. Creative, rigorous education. That's it. Have fun. Yeah. Oh, shoot. You got to put fun into it. Definitely. Great. Thank you so much. Can you convey our appreciation to Marine and... You can comment on this. Okay, sure. I loved it, but I do think it's kind of unfair that we've got this spectacular presentation and these kids doing amazing things. And it's almost impossible for Jamie to upshot that one. So I think it's... That's kind of unfair, but then when I think about the kids, I think about Donna and really to pull that together, I think about their leadership at local school yourself and your team and Jamie and his teams. It's just a natural flow. This is... And Ethan said it's creative, but it's effective and it's exciting. And wow, it's just really, really lovely. And to see that happening right here is special. So thank you. I feel like I would have had a much easier time learning as a kid if I had these opportunities. I still... I've mentioned this story before. When I walked into high school, a bunch of mature men had all said, wouldn't you have done better in high school if you'd been outside? And there was like, yes. Yeah, yeah. All of the university. Yeah. It's just... It's just real. I mean, I hope our shelters will... Yeah. You know, get... And really, we have COVID, but thanks for it. Well, it's true. It's really inspired and pushed us in ways. Pushed us. Like so many other things, we found this overlining of it. And good. So how can we get this... This was a wonderful presentation, but only us were able to see it. How can we... Could it be on the website? Yeah. I just... You know, we have such wonderful celebrations of learning. I mean, all this year, it's been really wonderful. And I just want to continue to try to get that out to our communities. The idea that maybe we could start... I mean, I don't know how... How do you get people to go to the website? Well, that's why we have to share it. The Stockbridge Connections Forum, or... But we don't have something like that in Rochester. That's the thing. We don't have the same use. Because, you know, the Stockbridge Facebook really acts as a community. Yeah. The Stockbridge has one, and Pittsfield has one. Yeah. And we don't. And we try. And it's just not... It's just different... It's different dynamics. Yeah. It's different dynamics. That's all it is, you know. Just different dynamics. But a way to get... Well... It's sort of a media question. Yeah. It's a little bit to our media person. But it's also how... There is a community bulletin board. Yeah. That's what I thought. There is a community bulletin board. Yeah. Rochester Community Bulletin Board. It's called... You're very loud. I don't know why, Justine. Me neither. It shocks us. Yes, sir. I can chat. I know. It's just a lot. And it's like, ah! I know. And it's... And we just... I think we need to come up with... This is also part of our mission statement that's on there, is how do we engage the community? And what is it doing this? You know, get it out there. That these are the incredible things that we are doing, you know? And part of... Maybe when we talk about our informational meeting, I don't know if that's where we, you know, maybe push these links to these places or have clips of some of these celebrations. But we can talk about that later. Do you save them? Yeah. Do you have them? Because I think that would be... It would be great if people could see. And maybe even if on parent-teacher night, there's a little monitor showing in the hallway some of these. I don't know if that's legitimate or okay or not, but... Because, you know, parents are standing around sometimes waiting for the next thing and have something. I mean, Jesus, even if the town clerk's office, you could have like a little... Well, it's just something we know they're going to be there. You have a captive audience. And then you can just have, you know, when you look at video screens and the idea of this, like, here's a celebration of learning. And it's like, I had no idea. The only other thing I say about this is I want this to be regular class, not just a special event that they earn. I hate to say... You know, and I understand the carrot and the stick, but as a part of me that's like, this is too great to... It is incredible, but also when it becomes commonplace, it is not as fun and it sounds exciting and kids don't engage as much. Or they don't take it as serious. Right. So for it to be, you know, something that we... It's wonderful and I think it's something that will happen, you know, more often, but maybe there'll be breaks in between to get them excited about doing something like this. Well, I think the prep... I know the prep time to be able to go outside like that for two hours at a time, like to find the phones and learn about poetry and do those things happen sometimes in the trust. So it like builds up... It's a culmination of two weeks. It's not just like, here's a poetry book and go. Oh, they're kind of like doing this unit almost. So it'll shift a little bit the next time. I don't think it'll be poetry next time. It'll be something. That's exciting. It's very exciting. Thank you. All right. Let's move on as much as we all really want to talk about this because this is the most fun, but superintendent. So you have my report. So the one thing I'll add is that I was just in contact with EI Services in Lile today. And there's a grant that was just released about upgrading HVAC systems. And our boiler system is definitely a needed upgrade sooner rather than later here in this building. And so we're going to look to try to pursue this grant. And it may require a special meeting. I'll let you know if it does. It would be a quick act on an RFP in order to get on that grant. And so just know that. Stay tuned with that. Great. It's good news. I just wanted to... It literally came across my desk this afternoon while I was on it. My understanding is it's federal, but went to the state and then the state's utilizing them under this way. And so I've got a meeting hopefully with Eric from EI and Lile in the next day or two. Great. To get some more details. And then we may need a quick special meeting to take action. So stay tuned on that. Good news. And then I'll take any questions. Folks have, I was in... I'll continue to send you legislative updates. There's a lot in the works right now with the leading study. It's positive for us in general. And that's about how... Ed funding will come out to districts. It'll take about a five year time period for that to take hold. I've talked about it a few months ago when it was in my board reports about the idea of more of a... more equalized pupil like you're used to seeing now versus more of a block grant type funding. And so, you know, there's no sensor direction yet which way it's going to go. My takeaway from it is either way at this point in time it's a benefit to our districts in general. But I am monitoring that. The special ed funding bill does look like it'll take effect in July. It won't be delayed again. That's how we budget it already. And of course Tara has the update as she'll can talk to you guys about the deal which is a positive manner. My takeaway leaving the legislative session last Thursday was just this idea and I've certainly with the administrative team been focused on this and Sharon when he was aboard about just making certain that we use our extra money and like one time expenses in general so that we don't hit a cliff. And so I want you to know that we're continuing to monitor that closely and interventions that we did feel was important that we'll continue to budget for locally and through title funds to ensure that we don't have a cliff. And so just I think in general that that's all concerns across the state. I mean I worry about a cliff with the state in general and what I mean by that is as a whole is the yield. So we've got a really good yield right now and I'm worried about what does that mean two years from now. So even if we control expenses the yield really could impact the tax rate. I think the plus for us is if the waiting study goes into effect in general our districts will see some relief in tax is whether or not the yield changes that could be stay tuned in regards to the fund. So there's just a lot out there going on and of course a lot can change in the 11th hour or the 12th hour really. Well it's also fuel. So just stay tuned to fuel is a big one right now not to mention supplies in general that could change. We know that out there. Okay any questions for our superintendent? Excellent. Let us move on to principal please. Yeah so you have my principles report I don't think there's anything that's really jumped mostly because we've only been at school one day since we wrote it because we had the day off or kids on the day off on Friday. I had a question with the pre-school screening on April 15th. Is that when Stockbridge's pre-school screening is? Yep and March 31st was Rochester. Okay Stockbridge the word was just missing. Oh sorry. It's fine. My brain keeps messing up and I'm just going to ask you a question. Oh yeah about using the data points to look at the teaching do we get and I just don't know this do we get any kind of assessment on teachers? Yeah that's what I do. So you do it so we don't see that ever and that's not the way it just doesn't work anyway. Okay. So what you see is effectiveness in regards to how our cohorts are growing. Like whether or not our kids are continuing to achieve but no it wouldn't be standard practice to review. For one you have to be impartial. And what I mean by that is you are the judge and jury if we were deciding that there was a performance issue that you need to not have been swayed that's right. No that's good. I knew there was a reason. I just forgot what it was. Good. Thank you. Any further questions or questions for our principal? There being none. All in favor seems fine. I know. This is fine. Kind of meeting. So you all have our report. It outlines the due date in April and also lets you know that our pre-audit is scheduled for the week of May 9th and the actual audit will be the week of September 19th. And then the main part of my report is bill H737 which is the yield bill that has passed the house and now is in the Senate. So if this goes through the yield will be 13,472 dollars for the property yield. The income dollar equivalent yield is 16,146 dollars and then the non homestead property tax rate was set at 1.449. So what does that mean for your voters? It will increase the reduction in the tax rate for Rochester to 0.0889. And then it will provide a decrease in stock bridge of 0.0222. Just hold on to that. Hold on to that one more month. That's great. Thank you, Tara. You're welcome. And if there's any questions. Any questions for our business? Bill. Tara, when do you think the state will give us the income sensitivity numbers that we need to project the impact for those taxpayers paying their school bill based on their income rather than on their property assessment? Is that tied in with this legislation that you shared with us or is it a 737 or is that something else? Yes. The income dollar yield is 16,146 in this bill. And that's what they would use for the income sensitivity. But I didn't, you're going to have to help me. We can do this offline, but I didn't see the numbers I needed to run the numbers to see what the impact is on our taxpayers based on their income. So I'll work with you later. The numbers are in so we can crank those out. I don't get anything from the state bill indicating how many of your taxpayers are paying based on income. Is that what you're asking? Sorry. Two numbers I'm looking for is the state income rates based on Act 68. There's two numbers they give us a school tax cap percentage and a state income rates percentage. And with those I can run the numbers. So those are the two numbers I'm looking for. Thanks. Did everybody else understand that? No. I'll bore you with it. Two thirds of our taxpayers pay based on their income. Right. And if you look at the numbers, that's been very kind to those taxpayers paying it that way and also reflection on the sound budget being made by the school boards and the administration's budgets. And the exciting thing is not only do we have if you look historically in the last seven years, what they're paying has actually gone down. And thanks to Lindy and her team and the whole SU, our performance has gone up. So it's almost sounds impossible, but it's very, very significant because the word out in public land is our school cost per student is skyrocketing and our taxes are skyrocketing and unification is not necessarily helping. And the fact of the matter is it's just the opposite. And so these numbers are important to convey. So I understand, you know, people paying their taxes based on their income, but now is the state, is the state. I'm just curious. I'll say somebody, you know, the town standards is $3,000 in taxes, but they're paying $1,800. So is the school getting less money or is the state, the state's being held accountable for the rest? Yeah, it's going way back to that Vermont Supreme Court decision based on unequal educational opportunities based on gold towns and other towns, not the gold towns. So they devise a way where all the school monies, taxpayer money goes to the state and they redistribute it back down and to keep rural school communities to be able to afford quality education. They set up this income sensitivity, which I think is unique in the United States. And so it allows us to have quality education and have it affordable. I'll put that in quotes because it all depends on what your income is, but it's really working. And I think it's something to be able to express to our constituents and the people we work for, what the numbers are financially as well as academically. And I think this year is going to be one of those years that we can knock it out of the park again on both accounts. And what I was talking about was the weighting study. We take that a step further in regards to equity. That's the purpose of it. Okay. Further questions? Business manager? No? The RBSU policy committee. So the policy committee currently is working on some drought policies. One, Granville Hancock Unified District has been working on a new policy in regards to residency verification for tuitioning students. It's modeled off of Stratton. Of course, they're a complete school choice district. But it's really looking at a process around certifying that those who are living in our choice town districts that we have some extra measures put in place for us to verify residency. And we have multiple school districts that now have choice in the SU. Some of which weren't used to it. And I think it made sense to look at that as a full board. So I brought that in front of the full board. It seemed to gain good traction. So a draft should be out in May around that for boards to read for the first review. The other one that we're looking at, I have a draft out of Stratford around a policy around independent school policy around certifying that there's no bias taking place in any independent school, including a religiously affiliated school. Remember, we talked about that in the fall. There's also legislation in place right now in Montpelier that may take hold of that and actually drive that policy forward. So stay tuned. I don't think that reading will come out until the legislature closes because they're looking to adopt some policy on that in Montpelier. And then the final policy that we were working on had to do with social media. It was a policy draft that had happened a few years ago that got stalled when COVID hit. And so I've given the policy committee two versions. One, the draft that this board had, the SU board had already been working on, and then the model policy out of the VSBA. And so they're going to be giving feedback on which direction they want to go on. So those are the policies that we're working on right now. Good. Great. Questions? WRVSU full board updates, including proposed change and meeting schedule beginning in August. My brain going here. Update. Good. Basically, it's about cutting back meetings, SU-wide and school board meetings, mostly to benefit some of the SU people who have to be at all of them. And one of the ideas we were like, there's a bunch of different things we can do as an SU, this is sort of the supervisory, superintendent evaluation committee is handling this. And that is overlapping meetings. You know, we have six school districts and six separate board meetings right now in, you know, a month. And the idea of putting, I think it's now two, the idea of two, two, two. And that what you would do is at the beginning of the meeting, the superintendent would be there for maybe Rochester, I think actually, Rochester, we decided I'd go later. Go second. Yeah, go second. The idea is you have two superintendents, SUSU, no, what am I doing? Districts, thank you. Two districts. Two districts. Been a long day. Two districts. And the SU portion is in the middle. So the idea that you would have sort of, you know, I can't remember who we partnered with. We talked about Grandville Hancock. Grandville Hancock, Rochester. Grandville Hancock, Rochester. That makes sense. Yeah. Not to mention, good to see on the boards, not to mention this is one of our biggest poll towns as far as tuition students. We couldn't... Down the celebration of learning. No, absolutely. I mean, you know, absolutely. You know, this is how to build a network as well. I think there's going to be unanticipated benefits from this. But what it really does is it gets... So you're saying we'll have our individual meetings and then Jamie would jump on board? Sort of. He would probably stay for us maybe at the beginning and we'd do his stuff early. And then he'd be there for the SU and general reports. And then he would go off with Grandville Hancock for the end of theirs. We would finish up our meeting anything we had. So how would that SU meeting work? Because it would just be the two districts. It's not an SU meeting. It would be just an SU update. It's just the... It's what I do now. Superintendant report. Oh, it's the general... It's the general information about that you report to all districts. And the business manager will say the same thing. So we would start one at like 5.30, possibly, or so. And this is the idea that we might also start a little early. Right. As opposed to start earlier. But we might end up starting later, actually. And then... The plan was that we would at least try to have them offset about by 45 minutes. So that if there was business that, let's say, Grandville Hancock needed, that... Executive section. Something like that. Right. So kind of the approach of how we do our agendas could look a little different. And my plan would be instead of just planning agendas like right now I do it with your principal, your board chair, and with Tara, I would do it... I would plan both of them out so that we... And both board chairs could see... But the working agenda... Would talk about how that works and how that works. So rather than you having six different meetings to go to, you'll have two. Exactly. Exactly. And less than four. We're trying to get... We're basically getting him and Ray and Tara a few more nights home. Yeah. Which is really... Because it's... We're out of... We're out of the idea. We're out of a crisis mode as an SU now. We have no more unmerged votes right currently in front of us. Things have settled as far as that. Yeah, yeah. Right now. Right at this moment. Right at this moment. Sorry. At this very moment. But the idea is... No. We... It's like... Sorry. Sorry. Don't... No private conversations. Please share with us if you can. But the idea is that we need to figure out how to make this SU a sustainable entity beyond Jamie, beyond Lindy, beyond us. And to keep it working as smoothly as it is now. And right now, we're still in the sort of crisis mode of Jamie needing to be... I'm feeling to knee he needs to be or... But I think all of us are learning that it doesn't seem to be like that anymore. Yeah. And this would be a very clear... Right. ...way to change. And if there was our... We're deep in a budget thing and we need a special meeting. Exactly. We would just have it. I think the high school. Or whatever. The high school is clearly going to be, you know, sometime where we may need Jamie all by himself just for us. And that's... And we'll figure this out. You know, we're going to try it. And I'm sure we're going to immediately know what works and what doesn't. And we'll see. We'll stumble and... Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think in general, the intent is fewer meetings for the SU staff that has to be at everything. And I think that's a very viable strategy going forward. I agree. I think that if we're... This hybrid is also a very, very important part of it. I think it brings people in who just aren't able to be here in person. So I see that going forward. You've seen the SU meetings. I mean, almost nobody shows up. Which I does get better. I mean, we do... I get better attendance by that way. So I don't know if we need to take action on this yet. Because no, not yet. Just talking about it. The idea is by August, that we were talking about, by August we were talking about this. Yeah, if there's support about you... Well, when you re-org, that's when we start taking action. Okay. And once they have already ordered, they'll adjust. So it'll be June 1st. Because we're talking about, again, also the other news is we're talking about July off. It's not good. Again, if there's no crisis, everybody gets July off from meetings. Which I think is a really good thing last year. And I think it would be a really great thing for all of us this year as well. Again, but keep thinking all of you about the idea of we are, knock on wood, out of crisis mode right now. How do we make this sustainable? All the things we're trying to do. Beyond the individuals. We're running it right now. Good. Thank you, Jamie, for that. And thank you. Super intended value. Quick, full board update. Just a reminder that we're starting our board development series again. It was in my report. That's right, yes. And then Ethan, you'll be in, we have board chair soup development. Mandatory meetings, remember? No, I don't. At all. It should be in your email box. Chris, you should have signed you up. And I'll remind all the board chairs. Just, if you can't come to the full board meeting, I will record it again and send it out to the full board. There's a new trainer now, full board. He's really good. They bring it just another whole level of board development and expertise for us. So I strongly encourage you to think about attending that. And that is the April. It'll be at the full board meeting. Full board meeting. And this month. Yep. April, May, June. They're almost in my calendar now. Sorry, thanks. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that. Discussion items, mission, vision, and board. Here, can you do that? Ethan. Right? Oh, do we have what's in there? It's in there? No, I printed it. No, I had a whole bunch of them. Oh, here. Cool. All right. So it'll be good. So I think the one, the thing I want to emphasize, it's not in the packet. Let me go make copies. Sure. Okay. You want to jump over? Sure. Should we start at 9-2? I'll accept it. You can start. Why don't we jump and just go to 9-2? What's she's doing there? Planning for our set annual informational meeting. Everyone know what it is? It's not on my schedule. It's not on my day. May something? It's not on my schedule. That's why. The calendar. May second on Monday. It's not on my calendar. Because our annual meeting... No. What is it? It's our budget meeting. Our annual informational meeting. So Tara has worked on the slide show already. Oh, wow. With all the finances. Tara, you're amazing. Linde's been working on your school-wide celebrations. Great. For the first part. And so really what I think we need is just knowing the board's desire to talk about the financial figures. And Tara's more than willing to sit down with folks and review that. Tara, I don't mean to speak for you, but that's what we've done. I would, really. I mean, I'm just... And been able to get board members up to speed at their, you know, individually around this. And then I think it is really nice when we have board-Tara combination at the forum. I think it's important for the voters to hear from the board, too, around the budget figures. So, really, I think we're looking for the point person around that from the board. Linde will handle the whole first part around all the academic and social-emotional and school celebrations. I frankly kind of stay out of it unless there's a question that I need to jump in. There's a support. And that's really where we're at. Bill, what do you think about being the point person on that? Members? I'm good with the big broad strokes. I'm good with the big broad strokes. That's what I'm good at. I'm good for saying that. I'm very happy to support. I just think that you have a very good voice with speaking to the community about, you know, Sure, I certainly can help address or reinforce or back up Tara on the financial things. Because I think there's such a misunderstanding out there that we just have to continue to go back with the data and we have the data. And if we can explain that, I think that helps give some comfort to what's going on. I'd like to talk to this. That'd be great. I think this actually could be sort of, you know, I was actually thinking, yeah. Yeah, but this is like, this is, well, here's the thing. I don't know, I guess we'll jump in. I'll stay with 9-2. So what we need is we need some of the budget numbers who will actually talk. I'll handle the sort of broader. And Tara can share the slides. Yeah, and I'm happy to support as well. But if you could maybe be the point person, just because it is totally amazing. And I think when you're talking about people misunderstanding, you know, when they first thing they do, oh, look at the per pupil spending is up so much more from last year, but yet the tax rate is down what? In the teens? I mean, almost 20 cents that we've taken off the tax rate. So I think that's really important. Yeah, I think that Ethan talking about where we're trying to go. Well, this point about crisis mode, not crisis mode. Crisis mode is now sustainability. And that this is, you know, we've also, this is our second, I think of, in some ways I think of this as sort of our second budget. I don't know, with your sort of thinking budget is a statement, but I'm not kind of thinking that it's that we start, what do we need not with the template of what the budget exists. And I feel like this is sort of our second year. We've really done that well with the team. And I think that's something to talk about as well. And just say that we really feel good about how we're, you know, putting together the budget and how the team is working together. I mean, I just, I don't think we can say that enough. We just have an extraordinary team right now across the board. And, you know, that we're doing it for, you know, a reduced budget. It's the same thing you're saying, Bill. I mean, that's our big message. You know, we got an incredible team doing really great work across the SU and in our district. And we're doing it for less money. That's just an incredible message. Yeah, I think it's important to emphasize we're asking, we're at a place where we're asking them to put some funds away and the reserve funds too, like explaining that, why that's a positive. So I think, yeah, there's a lot of things to clarify for folks. Should we sort of have a practice session next meeting? Our April meeting? This is our April meeting. Oh my gosh. So is it important to, you know, I think we should, with that putting money aside, both buildings do need upkeep. And, you know, the community needs to realize that, that, you know, it's not, you know, it's a building and it needs to be cared for. And there is quite a bit of work to do on these buildings. Well, and we also have to have a really good answer to the question of the high school. Because I would be amazed if nobody asked about it. They might not. You know, everybody's gotten so comfortable. The situation is right now. They may not, but I would, we still need to have a... So they haven't decided, they didn't decide on that? Yeah, they're talking about it. You know, but, you know, there was a report. You know, if anybody watched the town, there was a report from the two of the Envision Rochester members at the end of the town, Rochester town meeting about sort of where, there is a lot of interest. There's some serious stakeholders thinking about this building. And, you know, we're going to have a big, obviously a big meeting to talk about it and what it means for not just us, hopefully, but for this entire valley. I think it's correct to just report out where they are and their plans for the meeting and the vote that they are projecting to have. I believe in June. June is the report, right? Yeah. And there is a... And they are planning on a town-line vote. So I think getting that information and getting it out there is going to be important. So then we need to... What I would suggest you might do, Amy met with Tara and I and Lindy last year. And we prepped. So if you and Bill, if you're going to have a quorum, then I say just want it as a special meeting like you do your mission-vision meeting. Do you know what I mean? Right. And it can even be virtual. And you clean it up. And you make any tweaks you want to make. And you kind of do a dry run. And then you're ready to roll. I've just said I'm doing lots of things. I don't remember all of them. What did I say I'm doing? Goals. Goals. And what I think, Tara, I don't know how you and Lindy feel. I was thinking if Lindy kicked it off with the school celebrations and then the board talked about their mission-vision and goal work, and then you go to the budget. Yep. Seems to me like a decent one. That's pretty much the order of the presentation now. We just got to add in... I started board. Board slides. I mean, all the rest of it's there. Do you think community members will bring up the school? Yeah. I think they're going to be curious to where we're at with it. Yeah. So that's why I think it's important. I think we should report out. Yeah. I mean, even like my curiosity is, you know, it obviously can be a long drawn out process of transferring that building. Well, but I mean, we were hoping that we weren't going to be responsible for this past winter. Is it going to turn into us still maintaining it this coming winter? And, you know, are we thinking about that as a possibility right now? My personal opinion? No. I want it to be no. Yeah. We all want it to be no, but it's that realistic. No. I, you know, this is my... As we get to that time when there's a town life vote, I think it's the time like we put letters into the Herald about the merger. I think it's time when we say, please Rochester, whatever happens to this building, we need it to not be part of the educational system anymore. Yeah. So even if you can't decide not to do this big project, please take it from us. Yeah. And so that then we can put the chain link fence. I mean, this is the image we're using now. I think as I've said, is that the worst case scenario, nothing can happen to it. We put a chain link or fence around it and it is an abandoned building. And that they, you know, we might even put some money into that, but they just need to take this building. So it is not, you know, our job is to educate kids it is not to manage real estate. The town actually is better at it than we are. They have real estate. They have vehicles. They have, you know, stuff like that. So that's something I was going to put out there, but I really feel strongly that we've been very patient and we need to be, we need to be one way or another, we need to be done with this thing. So is that something? That's my personal opinion. Yeah, but we all need to be kind of on board and ready to answer that question. Well, I brought it up a couple of meetings ago. I call it that we need to be talking about this. Yeah. We need to be talking about the other side of this report, whatever way it goes. And then we can't just wait till June personally and just sort of, oh, okay, well, they're not going to take it. Now what do we do? No, I think we, I think it's part of the process of Rochester voting is that we make a very clear statement of what we need as a school board. And it's not to have music classes in that music room. It's that we need to not be thinking about that building. We've done very well in the last year not thinking about that building. It seems to me that there are two pieces and you emphasize the second piece of the first piece, whatever the case is. One is that I think we should proactively give the community an update at the information meeting what's happened with the high school. And to me, it's exciting. There are options. It's real. It's benefit not only Rochester, but the Valley. And the second part of it is, well, when that, how long that takes and all this is, what happens to the cost sharing until that promise, the pot of goal is reached. And that's your point there, which is that the policy of the board is that we're going to continue to not have the school taxpayers pay for that. So I think there's two parts. One is the exciting, what's going on, the promise, the vision, and the second one is that, no, we're not going to stick it to. It's almost like we better out bring it up ourselves. And I think it's better that we bring it up. You know what I mean? Just have a quick... And it seems to me it's Robert, Ethan, or Amy, too, wherever it is on the agenda to speak to that and see if there's any questions. Because to me, it's the high road. It's the right road. Yes. Well, and we've always said, take transparency. Yes. Don't not push something aside and say, oh, we're not going to talk about that now. No, we talk about it. We talk about it. We take the bull by the horns or whatever image you want to grab on. So is it your point that if... that we should decide before our presentation a policy of if the town decides not to take the building, you're going to put a fence around it? Well, there's two parts to that. Is that a state requirement, basically? No, I just think... I mean, it's just an image that I put out there, really, as I made it up. I mean, because it seems like the only way, basically, it's letting the building fall. It's Chesapeake. And I also think, and they agreed with this when I talked to Vic and Catherine Shankman, Vic Roboto, that it's actually a pretty strong image in help to motivate the town to take this building and do something with it. Because the board right now is not in a position to do anything further like demolish it or anything. Absolutely nothing. So basically what the point is, is that you will be putting no... As is. Well, I mean, you're putting no money in it and such. Although, if that's the case, there are a few side issues that you have to worry about of insurance and infrastructure. I actually asked that question in between meetings, and they're okay with the hydraulic building. So as far as saying nothing happens, hey, we're not touching it this winter. If you want to deal with it, deal with it, it's not, then it's just going to... I mean, that's the thing. You hate to put it that way, but I think we're blind, we're being foolish if we don't expect it as a possibility. Now, as I say, this other thing it's a lot to ask the voters of Rochester to accept the entire Envision Rochester plan without them being able to actually do anything because they don't own it. There's this Catch-22 there that everybody should know about. They need to own the building before they can apply for the grants for all the work that needs to happen, which there are tons out there. There's a very good rosy possibility out there the way they present it. But even if they don't go for that, that I'm still asking them that they take it and they be the managers of the derelict building rather than us because it's going to be a drag on our school system. We'll see what they do, but I think I feel like that should be the schools, our board's view, but I'm certainly that is just my position that I'm putting out to you. So there's sort of three possibilities. I certainly want the most optimistic one, that this becomes a real hub of activity and beneficial to our community, our valley, people working their new jobs. I mean, the vision is really extraordinary how it could transform. As somebody told Rob Gardner, an elder, he called it, of the town, he said this is the most significant vote that Rochester is going to take about their town in 40 years. So it's a big one. And I think we do well by addressing it and addressing it thoroughly. So I don't know, do we need a motion about case one, case two, case three? What do we feel about that? And that the board has a very clear decision about that. So when we go before the public, we are... I think the public would like to hear that. To know that we're not just being hopeful that the town's buying it because then somebody's going to say, what happens if they don't? We should have a plan A, plan B, plan C. I can be very vague. Go ahead. I would like to go back and actually look at real financials about partial use of that building, about what it would really look like. If the town's not taking it all and the school has to either just shut it down or if it falls onto itself, I would like to see real numbers to be able to say, yep, that would be way too much of a taxing on our school system. That would be ridiculous because we're not really talking about real numbers now. How much is it? $100,000 a year to keep it running. That's the number that the Envision Rochester, the architect and the man who's running the feasibility study, that is as a full view, a bill that's in use. Even that number is a little inflated, for instance, they have $15,000 for plowing. Well, as I recall, it's plowed by the town, isn't it, or do you guys plow it? The majority of the parking lots plowed by the town. They're putting in numbers that are, so my point is that as a partially used building, those aren't fully used. But don't forget, there's also $2 million. This is the renovation cost over two years for that building to be up to speed. That's $2 million. For the entire building to be up and fully used. And then if we're going to start parceling, here's the thing, and this is what I want to avoid is the distraction on our principal, on our superintendent, on us. We know what that's like. We know what this, this, this much, how much can we, you know, we know what that's like. We know what it does, the distraction factor of that. I do know that the auditorium in the music room are of use and worth holding on to. I mean, is there another option of, say the town doesn't want to take it, figure out how much it would cost to keep the entire building, but it really, what we don't want to do is abandon it. But do you, would it make sense to demo part of the building and leave? It's usually expensive. $780,000 to demo the whole building. Well, what about not doing it? We don't have, we don't have a, he didn't have a figure when you're on the meeting. Maintaining more, let's say the north end of the building demoing that part. We do know it needs a new boiler and probably new electrical system because those are both archaic. So that means, you know, this is what's so hard is you see the space. We were in the space for the town meeting and it was warm in there and it was comfortable in there. And the fact is, like this boiler, that boiler could go at any moment. And I just feel like we've gotten such a clear message and I think we've done such a good job with what we have, which is getting back to our goals, is what we, you know, is being creative. And I also think there comes a point where we put it to a vote. And I don't have a problem with us not, you know, where it's a split vote. Well, and that's why I would like to, before I could say that, no, that is a completely wrong option to use that at all. I would need to see real numbers. For options. For using the auditorium, using the music room, not using the rest of it, maybe not demoing it, block it off, board it up and just be using the art room and or whatever. I'm not going to specifically say which rooms right now, but what would that even look like? It might be completely ridiculous. And, but then I can, I know, I know for sure it's not just us pulling numbers out of the air. These aren't numbers out of the air. I mean, these are numbers that I'm giving you are the ones from the feasibility stuff. Okay, well, maybe I need to review that, that if those are real numbers in there. These, the stuff that's been in there has already been paid for by our taxpayers and to let it all just go into the trash, is that the right thing to do or not? I have, I know how I feel about it. I really do know how I feel about it. And that's what everybody on this board needs to make their decision about and feel about it. And if you need more information, then we can't make a decision tonight. I mean, we could vote on it tonight if there's a motion. It's not even warrant. So, but I'm just saying. But I do agree that we do have, we already have on the boards, we have a decision that we will have no educational activity happening in that building. That is what's going forward and we will maintain it at a minimal level. That is what we have decided so far. That's what's going forward. So, to not maintain it next winter, would take action by the board to change that decision. That's clear. Okay, so we're going to have to make that decision. So I guess what we really need is basically if it comes up where somebody says, well, if the town isn't going to take it, what's next? We just have to have... We'll say what we said, we don't agree yet as a board what the next step is. I think you say you're doing research, right? Like, that you're going to need to make a decision that shuttering it totally is an option. And I would continue to focus on, like, as a school district board, you're doing everything in your power to work with the town to disperse the building to the town. Yep, that is certainly... But yes, we would have to have a meeting and a discussion and a vote in the very, very near future to give a final decision on the... Well, let me see if I can craft some notes on the positive you're talking about, Jami. Positive's way to... Yeah, present that. Present that. Yeah, I'd always want to because you don't want to get present. Well, we certainly want to make certain to the town, too, that there could be... Yeah, I mean, there's a question that would be really... Right, we can't keep going in this exact same path. We have to do something different. For sure. Good. Do we have our... Have we finished? We just went over time on that. Yes, by seven minutes. Oh, not bad at all. Do we feel like we know what we're doing and should we schedule this special meeting now? That's what I would do. Does it need to be in the next week? Like, should it be closer? You probably want it to be closer. I don't even know if every... Everyone even has to be there. No, not vacation week. We should do it... How about the week after vacation? That's a little tight, the week after vacation. Your vacation week, the 18th to the 22nd. And then you have all this week, and it's actually the Monday of the following. Let's look at the policy committee on Monday. Even if you did it during the day, I think it's fine, like, your committee. How about Wednesday day, 27th, at like, lunchtime noon? Is it the three of you? Is that what you're thinking? Sure. Sure. Anyone could come. Please, in fact, I think it'd be useful. That's the 27th at noon virtual. Will we get an invite for that? It'll be like a regular one. It'll be like a regular one. It'll be like a regular one. It'll be like a regular one. It'll be like a regular one. It'll be like a regular one. I love it. That is not written down. 630, it says, actually, on my calendar. That's going to be in Rochester, right? Yes. Yes, in Rochester. Here? Probably in the gym. Good. There's no seats in there anymore, though. There's chairs. Yeah. Good. The beaches are not safe by any spurt to me in that situation. Be nice. OK. Goals. What? Oh, what else? If I could just keep going with the we talked about getting ready for the school budget vote, which is the night after or the day after our informational meeting. And I'm under the impression that the vast majority of the people that are going to be voting the next day will not be listening to us the night before. So it seems to me that it'd be important that we coordinate how we can get the message out about our budget. One way we're doing it is everybody's going to get the school bulletin. And I want to commend our chair for his eloquence in writing the board report that's going to be included in that report. So everybody, households, and the two committees will get that. But that doesn't mean they're going to read it. And who knows what they're listening to here, there, or whatever. So my suggestion is that we need to spend just a couple of minutes on how are we going to get the news out beyond informational media and the bulletin. And it seems to me there are at least two different mediums. One is the Herald and the letters to the editor vehicle. That's very effective. People love to read letters to the editor. And so I think that's one thing we should plan and organize. And the second one would be the parents getting the information back to the parents, how important it is. You can't count on, as you use your quality, continuing to go up, up, up without the finances. And so every vote counts. And we really need them to get to the polls the next day. So I'd like to do that. And then the third thing is I see these reports, these bulletins, as not only informational, but historical documents. And I'm a big person about having pictures. And when I think about the school bulletin, it's full of kids and teachers doing wonderful things. We just saw it tonight. But I also think it doesn't hurt for the electorate to know who we are. And so connect a face with a name. And I don't know about you, but I think that's important. So I was going to suggest that between now and publication date, and I don't know if it's too late, that this board consider having its picture taken. And I'd love to have Jamie and his administrative team and Lindy and the teachers so that we can, to me, it just humanizes it. But I've never quite seen it. Only my left side, though. And we're bashful, and we're kind of shy about these things. But I think down the road, who are these people? Oh, that's Patrick. There's Ethan. And so I'd like to suggest, if we could do that on the picture side, I don't know who coordinates that, Lindy or somebody. The mayor's at the print already. Is it? So it's too late for that. But let's put that in for next year. I think we should definitely do that. That's a great idea. I'm sorry, Bill, because you brought that up several weeks ago, and I just didn't pick up a move with it. And I apologize for that. Well, that's less important. But I think it's just a nice thing to do. And once you do it, it just becomes. It doesn't mean we can't do it in the school entry way, that we don't have pictures of who we are in the school, or on the website. I mean, I think it's a lot of administration. There's a lot of ways to do it that isn't in the school. So do we do an individual picture or a group picture? Group. Group. A group. Good. Put the masks on. That's all on the world. I'm going to put a wolf mask. I know you can, with regard to the Herald, you can also buy space, if you thought strongly about the piece of information that should go in. We already have our ad coming out before our vote, and that's already something Kate and I are working on. Oh, great. It's like what our budget supports with pictures. I will be in the paper. I'll be in the paper. So you've got a letter going. Not a letter. It's an ad. I have to look at the timeline. And I'll even. I'll do a letter. I'll pass it. I'll pass it. No, I'll do a letter, too. I don't think I'll pass it. More the merrier. And I'd love to speak about the tax impact, because I think there's another letter. I just. Yeah. I'm going to reinforce in those conditions. How about I go? I'll go next week. OK. I'll go next week. And there's a deadline. What is it on Monday or Tuesday? Tuesday by noon? For that. Tuesday by noon. Following Thursday. But it also doesn't. Herald has a business. And it wouldn't hurt if we did it as ads, too. Spend a little money. We have an ad going in. No, I know. I'm just saying, letters to the editor are great, too. But it's just like, hey, vote. Even things like that. Just think of it. And a street sign. Got me on the board. Right, there you go. Yeah, exactly. The street sign. Votes coming up, and not just the week before, but maybe even two weeks before, vote coming up, especially with parents and stuff like that. A newsletter? Can it be? It goes with the newsletter. So historically, and I know the newsletter is something new to Rochester folks. They put it in the newsletter as upcoming. I do a robo call, a robo text. The day of, because I think that reminds period. Oh, that was today, right? Right, right. And you have time. We usually send it, like, 10.30, right? Perfect. When the polls open. And we can schedule it ahead of time. That's great. I have a question. If it's the ability to do that for parents, why don't we have the ability to do that for members of the town? No, not that it would be your responsibility. Well, if we pass that message to the town clerk, I mean, does the town clerk have email addresses or no? So you couldn't just do that. It's our directory stuff. Yeah, it's our directory stuff. So all those first day of school forms, they get filled out. Like, that builds and updates our emergency contact. That's how you get the snow day. Oh, yeah. I get it. I see how it could be a campaign that somebody from the town could do. Well, no, I mean, we're always talking about how it's a concern that parents know what's going on. But the rest of the community doesn't. It would be great if they could get emails regarding stuff, if they wanted it, as an option. Yeah. That's a whole. Touch your select board. Yeah, I know. I mean, that's a whole another kind of word. I mean, that's one way of getting information out there. Email. For sure. That's true. That's true. When is the mailing going to be in their hands? What week? By the 22nd. By the 22nd. So if I'm next week, I could say, hey, the bulletin's coming out soon. Look for your bulletin and look for these points. OK, good. Good. What is the date of the actual vote? The third of May. The third of May. So there it is, Tuesday. Good. Anything further on our informational meeting? Justine, you're still there. Haven't heard from you in a while. Yeah, by me, Eric. Good. Thank you. I don't have any questions. That's good. Thank you. Right. Mission, vision, or goals. So one of the things Bill has been really very useful in this process, because he is sort of, I really didn't understand. I've made submission statements before, and then I quickly proceed to throw them over my shoulder and believe they forget them. What he really got across to me, and I think to our committee, is the idea that this is actually something you look at and help. Oh, do we need some more? Yeah. That we look at, and it helps us make decisions. Because then we know how we feel about things and what our priorities are. And so with that in mind, that's sort of where we've gone to this and where we've gotten here. And that the vision is the broadest thing that you look at, rigorous creative education, working with all the resources we have. And I felt very strongly about the creative part, just because it was talking about also getting in that we're thinking about different ways of teaching people. But the rigorous is very much what the standards are, how we're teaching, testing, all that kind of thing. And then using the idea with all the resources we have is the idea that we don't always need something new, or that we haven't explored all the possibilities of the teachers we have, or the other resources we have in our town, and how to use that. And that is sort of the overarching thing that then you look at everything else from. So the mission statement, and any part of this please, once we get, let me go through it, and then you come back, because we definitely want some discussion about this. So the mission statement is a comfortable space for uncomfortable learning, okay to be wrong. And I remember, I brought that up at our board retreat, and it was such a thing I heard from Sean Lenahan about some early testing, and that it was okay to be wrong, and then I just felt like that was such a powerful statement, but that you're in a space where that's okay, because you feel safe. But a comfortable space also means safe, secure buildings that aren't tripping on your roofs, that it covers a broad gamut of ideas that we're talking about. Two, using existing resources to the extent of their creative potential. Again, I think looking at teachers, looking at interactiveness, as opposed to looking at, how do we bring in a new person? You know, a whole new salary raise the budget. Not that we don't raise budgets, but have we exhausted all our creative resources first? And then three, a platform rooted in transparency by maintaining the confidence and trust of the community. Yeah, so, I don't know, I really like these. Make notes as you go through it, see what happens. So then we broke it down to four goals that we thought covered everything. And one thing Bill brought in, and you'll see in this, that each goal has a statement and a measure, and that's sort of a comment explaining it, and right now we don't have measurements for all of these. So, that's sort of our work in process. So the first one is academic achievement. Rochester Stockbridge Elementary, student body, meets or exceeds the academic achievement goals established by the FWRVSU Board, starting with the 20, 21, 22, and 22 school year. How do we measure that? Well, obviously there's testing and all those things like that. And goal two, financial management. And this is sort of something I came up with a way. The budget we need, want. And that, I'm thinking that you go the other way with creating a budget that you start with, what do you need? Then you go to the budget, but I guess that maybe this still works for that. The budget we can afford, the budget we can pass, and the budget we can administer. So these are sort of four ways to test how are we doing financially? Do we have what we need? Can we afford it? Can we pass it? Because that does, you know, there may come a time when we say, yes, this is the time for an increase. This is the time to really push it and raise the tax rate by a percent because it allows us to do all this that is so important to us. But can we actually pass that? And the budget we can administer, meaning, and this is where I feel is a good time to have this idea multi-year, building a ground capital plan to protect and improve the capital assets. There's probably other parts of the budget we can administer, but this was sort of at the end of our work time. And so as I say, I would love to hear, we would love to hear anybody's riff on these other things. Goal three is communication, a strong reciprocal relationship between parents, school, and community. How do you measure that? Maybe by passing budgets, I don't know. But I think, you know, hits on a Facebook page is another way, but I mean, I don't know how these things, you know, likes or something like that, but how do we feel about communication? And then Bill's pick one for the fourth, and he felt this was strong enough to have it as a separate goal, board governance, and that the board members conduct, reflects our board governance principles and operating protocols, which you realize that we did that, we approved those several months back. And the results of a year-end board member assessment, which I think is something we will have the tools to do from the BSBA is to sort of say, how do we do as a board? And what is the end of our year? Is it after we pass our budget? When is a good time when we re-org? When's a good time to do that? I don't know. So this is what we did. I think it was a productive day. I'd love to hear any feedback from anybody, certainly Lindy too, you, because just especially about the financial management and any of these other things. We're ears. What do you have to say? Is it a useful document, I think, is the most important part? Very, yeah. As far as helping us make decisions. I think it's a great tool as to what, broadly what we're trying to do, and then if we got more in depth with each goal, would be helpful. And I think too, like you said, as far as refining how we measure things, I mean, for instance, goal three, you know, like how do you measure that? Is it a survey that's sent home to parents? I mean, but then how do you get something to the community? That's like kind of what I was talking about before. It seems like it's really tough to inform the community of what's happening if they don't have a child at the school. I mean, it's funny. Not everybody cares, but no. I mean, one of the ways we survey it, and I don't know if this is, this probably is the opposite of getting information out, but it is that there is some trust is that so few people are coming to our meetings. In other words, there's nothing, they don't think there's gonna be anything come happening at those meetings that they're gonna be surprised by. But that's sort of anti-results. And then number one for mission statements, because you were talking about a comfortable space, but then you mentioned safe. Should that be a comfortable slash safe space for uncomfortable learning? I need a little clarification on what you, exactly you mean, okay to be wrong. Okay for who to be wrong? For the students to be wrong, for the teachers, I mean, are you just talking about experimentation? Yeah, well, and you're also talking about an attitude toward learning. That learning isn't just about getting right answers. Learning is, well, I did it wrong. And maybe wrong is the right wrong, wrong is the wrong word. And I'm perfectly fine with that. It means that it's about, because when a student gets a wrong, incorrect answer and a test, it may well be that the teacher hasn't taught that child properly. And so in that case, and I think wrong is the wrong word. I think there's a better phrase for that. But that's what I heard that day and so that's what stuck with me. But I'm totally open to a better word that sort of, and I guess I like the directness of it as opposed to embracing all comers or something like that, which just to me just doesn't, it's good, it's good. I don't know, I hear you a question and I don't have a good answer. Yeah, go, Justine. Am I still really loud? Yes. Is it possible to turn it? I'm going to type it. That's okay, now that we're used to it, we can, it's not as jarring. Once you start talking, it's okay. Just when you first start talking was surprising. It's explosive, yes. So go ahead, we're ready. I think the first thing we wanted to say was, it's okay to, it's okay not to know, to not know something. I think it was more like that. Yeah, that's what I remember. It's comfortable not knowing things and therefore comfortable asking questions, comfortable being wrong, comfortable looking stupid. You know, you're not stupid, but like that's the years that children are afraid to look stupid in front of their friends and therefore they might not ask questions, they might not try to give the answer that it might be wrong. It's sort of like a comfortable space to. I think that's, I mean, I like that okay to not know, okay to ask questions, okay to learn. Yeah, I think that the emphasis really needs to be more on the, it's okay to want to learn more or because just to say it's okay for the kid to be wrong about what they're learning and then that's the end of it. It doesn't help them progress to learning the skill that they need to learn. Not knowing is. I think the emphasis is the comfortable space for uncomfortable learning. That's really the point. The thing is I would also say that this holds true for the teacher too, for the administrator. It's okay not to know how to face a problem. It's okay to ask questions about how to learn how to do that. So in that sense, I feel like this is an important statement for us and maybe it's a fourth mission statement, this okay to not know, okay to ask questions and okay to learn is a fourth. I mean, I would put that out there because it's certainly how all we want our administrator to be, we want them to be open to improving. Right, and I just. Yeah, okay to be wrong, I'm fine. I understand what you're wrong. What you're interpreting that I just feel that. No, no, no, it's gone, it's been gone for five minutes now. Whether we come back with that as a fourth or not, I think we can, I think with this phrase, not knowing okay to not know, okay to ask questions, okay to learn, that's another statement. That's a very positive statement. Good, anything else that, you know, we can, and I would, Lindy too, if there's anything you can help with in terms of measuring some of these things, especially in the budget stuff, how do we measure the budget we need want? How do we know? That the administration feels that they're supported and are able to do what they've envisioned to do. I mean, I think the budget we need slash want, like the measure is that we're fiscally responsible with that. Like we're coming, you know, we're not running a deficit because then that means that there's something. And you're getting what we need. Right, and we're getting what we need. I mean, I see it kind of tied to the academic success, the social-emotional success, teacher success. Like it's all interchangeable. Like the budget supports what we do because we're able to do what we need to do. I don't know how to. Well, yeah, yeah, I mean, they go hand in hand. They go hand in hand. One from the other. This may not, you know, this, the budget we need want, the budget we can afford, the budget we can pass and the budget we can administer. All of this, I'm willing to, you know, I'm personally willing to throw out if it's not useful to us, if it doesn't help us make decisions about things. I mean, I, yeah, Bill. I think it's pretty powerful, Ethan. A budget that we need, the board really needs to know that. If we've got these goals, we've got these performance standards we want to meet. We've got these capillary requirements to keep enough things running smoothly. We've got to pay our teachers fairly, everything else like that. We need to know that number. What do you really need? Then the board's got to determine, okay, we report to the parents, the taxpayers, everything else. That goes to the second point, which is, you know, what can we afford? But if we don't know what is needed, it's already dumbed down, I don't know, excuse me. It's already been, okay, we need 100%, we're only going to offer 80% to the board. We need to know what's being left out. And then it's up to the board, it seems to me to determine, well, we can't do all that 100%, we only can do 85. But I think that number one point's very important. We need to know whether what's being offered by the superintendent's team is what we need. And the view of the administration's team, that's a very, very, very important. And just like the budget we passed, we like, I always ask the question, is this the budget that can allow us to do what we need to do? And hopefully we can continue to say yes to both of those. Sometimes the conditions are such that we're going to have to pull things back. We're going to have to cut things. Well, we did that last year. And that happens, we don't even see that behind the scenes with Jamie and Tara and the whole team. But that first question is important. Because who knows? Maybe we can afford it. Maybe we can sell it. Well, and we will never know that unless we're told. So, Ethan, I totally support that first point. And then the afford is, that's our job, is to figure out what's needed and then can we afford it? And we've got to do that as boldly as we can. Asking the tough questions. You've got it up there using all the resources we have. We ask those questions. You always test the budget with that. Are we using all the resources we have first before we raise taxes? Or what are you obtaining by raising the taxes? Well, again, but then we start with what do we need? And if we really need another teacher, sorry, Robert, go ahead. I'd want, in one sense, to contrast with budget development, which I'd been through in the school boards and in the town budgets, in what I think is absolutely the most horrible way to do it, which is, let's start with what we used last year and let's cut, shave here and cut there without looking at the overall picture. And we have to absolutely not do that. We need to, and I love this, that we are asking for now as it is contrasted in time immemorial. Not what do we have last year, but what do we need? And then to say, you know, this shaving of $500 here or $100 there is absolutely the worst possible budget development process we could have. Or is it, you know, what could you have used last year that you didn't have? Right. The example of that, I think, is when we, when Christine Mayer, the language, world language, became available. And we, and we, as a board, quickly said, yes, we want that. And we put that to the administrator, how do you make this work? And you went back and you made it work. Right. And I think that's the model here, is that we said we want, need this in our curriculum. And then we went down, can we afford it? Well, we made it. So, I don't know. I guess I'm getting a consensus that this likes and maybe won't have a measure for all of these. I don't know. And we can also spend some time and committee with that. I did want to point out the one part, the budget that we can afford. One thing we don't have in here that was in our general notes was the idea Bill has talked about this quite a bit of selling our school in the sense of increasing tuition. How do we bring in more students? And I sort of thought that the budget we can afford, if we want more, how do we raise more? And that's a big area of how do we encourage other students to come here? So, I guess what we need, we don't spend that much more time if there isn't that much, so we can go back. I'm getting general approval of this. I'm glad that wrong is gone. And we'll keep working on this and come back. Well, just as I was thinking about budget, we need to want, like for me immediately, the measure that came up to does it align to the priorities and the mission of the board, right? Like, certainly as we were looking at the zero-based budgeting method, like I am constantly looking at are the, I get 80% of your budget in general, right? Is staff that you can control anyways, other than tuition, right? You don't get to control those. Well, you could, but we won't worry about that, right? But it really is like, is it focusing on your priorities? And I think every, I've tried really hard to say each district gets to have their own flavor on how they do this work, right? It's not one-size-fits-all. We know what's researched best practices, but allowing districts to really put their own flavor on how they do that work. And so, you know, an example would be, you know, the idea of having outdoor education would be the idea of having foreign language, would be ensuring that we have strong reading in math. Like, those are consistent trends right now across the SU. We recognize math was lacking. So we knew we needed to do a significant investment in that. And so, you know, certainly I think having, being able to come back to like some of your other indicators to say like, is it truly, does the budget support what's important to us? And again, that's not necessarily quantitative, but it's certainly qualitative. I think you can get that flavor from it, so. With regard to communication, and that actually touches on other areas, I think we, it's very vague there of the, in terms of the relationship between parents, school, and community. I think we may need to consider broadening our, the ways in which we communicate, and we may need to spend money. You know, I mean, you see some of the, in the Herald, you know, some of the schools, especially the vocational school, they spend a lot on. Something go? I don't know. Sorry. They spend a fair amount of money on ads and communication. As far as measuring it, you may have to spend money on that. You know, those are, I'm just trying to broaden the viewpoint, and rather if, so that we can get that, more specifics on that. Good. And also just because, is there anything in here that you don't think, we're missing? Anything jumps out. As I said, the tuition part of it, we've spent some time talking about that as a board. I don't want to, I do want to point out, and it reflects Jamie's comment, and our collective interest in reinvesting in our capital plan. And I've been in so many organizations that the easiest way to cut it is just, okay, we'll just kick the can down the road. You won't maintain and put money back in. And I was in public works for a long time. You drive lousy roads. Why are they lousy? Because the community didn't keep reinvesting in those roads. So the positive thing is that we've got, and Jamie said you want to have the budget reflect the board's priorities. And one of our budget items that are going to be voted by the voters, and I think we should speak to with pride, is the $284,000. The carryover monies are going to be invested in the Rochester educational plant for capital improvements. So we're, and doing that right thing, we're investing it. We could have a lot of boards would say, oh no, just return the money. So we're having a very strong budget year as far as impact on our voters. And at the same time we're doing the prudent thing which is investing in our capital plant. Both those things I think should be, we should speak about it. It speaks to Ethan what you talked about here coming up on your item here on budget we can administer and the multi-year capital budget. So we're headed in the right direction. And I don't know if that school building is the ground, is that the place to put that. But for now, that's good. Anything else on this? That's good. All right, we'll go back and do some more work. Executive session, attorney, client privilege communication. Tara, Wendy, Tara, Wendy. I'd like to make a motion to enter executive session for attorney, client privilege communication. Inviting. Inviting. Superintendent. Superintendent. Principal. Principal and. And business manager. Tara, business manager. And as soon as we're not recording. We are back from executive session with no action taken. I will entertain a motion to enter executive session a second time. Okay, then we'll do all that, but that's okay. For labor relations and invite. I think you're inviting one. Same, inviting superintendent, the principal and the business manager once again. So does somebody move that please? So moved or do I need to do the whole thing? Just, no, just so moved and second. All in favor we go. Yes. Aye. Thank you. Aye. See you later again. And we're back or said with no action taken. We are a public new hires action, possible action, we're not taking action. New hires and resignations. We have a. Just say we have a resignation at the SU level. You want to speak to it, Wendy? Yep. One of our part-time food service workers, Evelyn Twitchell will be stepping away and resigning. She gave her two weeks notice last week. Okay. So from here in Rochester to just, she doesn't want to leave. She doesn't want to leave her kids. She doesn't, she really likes everything, but it's just a better situation for her financially to pursue something different. Mm-hmm. Do we have a lead? Right now, it'll be a week before vacation where it'll just be Julie and she'll be training someone who's been subbing here and there for us to just be able to fill in, but she feels like she really needs to figure out what she needs before we repost or redefine that position. And is there, of another time, I can ask that, Poff. Thank you. Do we need to accept? Well, it's actually the SU board that will accept it. Gotcha. She's an SU employee. Yep, gotcha. I think it's important when an SU employee's in your building that you guys know. Yes, thank you. Public comment. Any public out there? I see none. Future agenda items. I got the Rochester and Stockbridge, I thought, and down. Yes, that's not, yeah. We have to be important to say that. The trustees, I think it's important to update folks on that. Oh, absolutely. So I can do that. And then your mission and vision work, you'll get, not in May, in June, you'll get your academic data report. I think May is a social motion. Right, social motion, and then June is academic, and then August is ESPEC. I get the data coming the next three months. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good for you. And we will be reorganizing the beginning of next meeting, right? Yep. On the third, if that's election day. Gotcha. I can't do it on election day. Oh, gotcha. Because you gotta get, I mean. Oh, so we won't be reading. Well, you could, no, you can't. No, we can't. Holes don't close till second. But we are still gonna have our meeting that night. No, I would say you don't. So we have this special meeting to be on? Well, I would be out. Well, you said we should maybe do our regular board meeting a different day, right? No. Rather than not even have a meeting that night. On the third. That's correct. So yes, I think that makes a lot of sense. We want to go the Tuesday after. That's the Sharon board and the Greville Hancock annual. It's not on my calendar. I appreciate that. I know, it's not, I love it. Robert McChain's this calendar. But it's, so you... Oh, I have, mine is not iPhones. I don't know. No, gotcha, gotcha. Thank you. It's not. Good for you. All right, well, so... You could go that Thursday. It's gonna go to Mayo. Fifth. I'll lose all the party hormones. That's up to you, or you could go... Five. That's five. Do five. Thursday to fifth. Why don't we say tentative that? I don't, yeah. 6.30 PM May 5th. Yeah. Sorry. Tentative and you'll confirm it by now. Thursday. I don't take my calendar. It'll be at... Stockbridge. Yep, Stockbridge. Just on the vote on the... Second, or third? Third. Third. I haven't seen the ballot. I've just seen the posting. Okay, so how do we get Ethan and Justine... Turn into the town clerk Saturday and then Stockbridge will get theirs tomorrow. They were already closed today. Okay, so there'll be something sent out with names of our incumbents on the ballot so that they can... There was no one that turned in consent forms in Stockbridge, and on the Rochester ballot, it was Ethan and Robert. Because we're writing on that. Okay, we got that. And so we gotta get the word out, Justine, and Stockbridge. That you need to write in at this point. Right, that's it. Who's seat was up in Stockbridge? Justine. Justine, are you running again? Yeah, yeah, I believe so, yeah. All right. You only need one percent, so I would encourage you to do a, like, real push on social media just reminding people you're running. Okay. And then write him in. Because you need to be written in, your name is not printed there. Right. And I do believe that the ballots, if you want to do a... What do you do? You request? Yeah, you request a ballot to do it, and then mail it in. Like we have... Absent ballot. Was it all absentee ballots? I couldn't call that a mail, I was like... I know the feeling, yeah. We had to, that's why we had to get them into the town clerks now, because they needed to have them in time for absentee ballot requests. It doesn't go enough. Yes. And it comes back up. Other planks on your ballots is, you don't have anyone for a moderator and you didn't have anyone for Clerk of the Board. Oh. Those are awesome. Well, we, for the Clerk of the Board, we didn't get last year. Yeah. And so I was able to get Jenny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which was really... But she never gave the commitment to go to UM. It's the one time... There could be any of you that you could talk during your... It's just difficult for me because I don't have solid internet. So it can be kind of... Now, the group of the board is who certifies your warnings and who certifies your vote. So the town clerks... Sorry, go ahead, Tara. Oh, she freeze? Yep, yeah. I'm sure she did. So the town clerks emailed the results to the clerk of the board and the clerk of the board puts out the results from there. That's like you're born... They certify them. You certify them. Right, that's it. So it's got to go to the schools and the papers. You would just send them? Yeah. It's just basically a stamp of approval, right? That's really all that the clerk is doing. And when we... I don't know. Remember, we all just signed the warning? Sorry, do you think you can go or where? I'm just trying to... Not this time. Well, wait. This time it's Jenny. I guess I just... I don't understand... If I had a better understanding of it, I think they'd probably do it. I have a whole document that I can send you. Okay. I'm not saying yes yet, but I will look at the time... No, no, no, no, no, no. You spoke. That's it. That's it. We've all assumed. Dan McKinley in the past. And for moderator, Dan McKinley in the past has been happy to do it. I don't know if I want to... I'll reach out to Dan McKinley. Yeah. He owes me anyway. Right, he owes you for telling me anything, so... That's good. I guess 1%. I mean, so the threshold's not high. It's not too late to not get a write-in, but... So if no one's written in, are they appointed? You can be an appointee, by this board. Yee-hee. Why do we do the book? How about him? Okay. Let's go home. Sorry. No, no, I really enjoy spending time with you. It's all over. Thank you so much for your feedback. And again, our compliments to Maureen and Donna. You're so lovely. Entertain a motion to adjourn. Bye, Robert. Second? Second. Maybe. All in favor? Bye. Bye. Thank you so much. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Tara. Thank you, Justine. Thank you. Work media. Thank you.