 Let's start the meeting of the Montpellier Board of Directors Wednesday, March 30th at 6 34 p.m First order of business is public comment So good Mia Joining remotely Zack Zach remote to I see his name plate. Oh, there he is. Okay, so Today's the first night that you have a name plate There if you can move down you want I think etiquette is not able to tell me so First order of business is public comment. Do you have any People either in person on the phone like make I'm just here as a student Athlete advocate for the new track I says on the agenda and I just wanted to say whoo-hoo Track, I think it's a really awesome Opportunity and it has a lot of great benefits for our school and our community of Montpellier even greater region of central mind Yeah, I just wanted to support and show my enthusiasm for this idea. That's all right. Thanks, Mike Anyone on the screen that wants to Talk you can if you know the raise hand function you can use it. Otherwise you can Either just physically raise your hand or tuck yourself off mute Doesn't look like it I sorry I meant to send this as an email to the board members earlier, but Just having been a part of the middle school track team four years ago, which was the first year we started a track team 24 kids and then last year what we skipped a year for COVID and last year there were 50 kids. I believe Nathan and his cohort of like amazing volunteer coaches at the middle school this year have 79 kids on the roster for the middle school I don't know the numbers for the high school, but it just it does seem to be a Sport that brings people together. I just remember from the time that I was helping the coach Just the just the community that was built around that I see it with my younger daughter who's in fourth grade doing girls on the run. It's just you know During a pandemic during any time when you have a chance to be outside and be in community with people and be Exercising it's just like three magic things happening And aside from just the it means so it would be great to have it for our high school team and our middle school teams But I feel like it is also a community resource that also brings people together and I look around work at the high school and I look around at how many kids are on crutches at any given moment Well, I know when my son has been on crutches They've asked him to do physical therapy and like start to get back into you know being active and it's you know doing Like running for running for a hundred yards and then walking for a hundred yards and having a you know State-of-the-art track has been official to those kids who seem to always suffer injuries as well as to adults and older people in the community especially community of Baby boomers who are you know looking for a nice flat place to be out and be in community together. So just a few Thoughts. Thank you. Great. Thanks Beth. Anyone else on The screen no Dan And I've been a coach for this school district for a while from one manner or another middle school mostly but also in the high school I Just want to be an advocate for track track is an amazing sport. It is a wide-reaching Sport and it's in how many kids can participate in it Some people would call it the land of the misfit toys Because all sorts of kids can come to it that aren't traditionally athletic And they might not be able to catch or throw but they can throw a shot put 50 feet Right or they might be able to jump or they might be able to run real far real fast So it's a great sport for those kids that are not the traditional athletes to excel So it's a fantastic sport for that and the support of this track specifically I think it's important to aim big This this is a a generational resource Can think about this as a 50 year project We want this thing to be a success for not just the team of today, but those teams in the future So we're thinking Six lane track with an eight lane home stretch We want to have it be Metric and distance right now our track right here is an English track So it's a few feet short of an of a metric 400 meter track So in and of itself it has to be a little larger It's also very round as it turns out the straightaways are very short and the turns of it's a very strange track But I would just encourage the those that are doing the planning for this track to think about this as a larger project than just putting in a new surface and You know, that's it Yeah, that's all I had to say. Thank you very much Great anyone else? No, thanks, I also wanted that I got Emails on this today as well too So next sort of business is consent agenda We have a couple things to add to the consent agenda correct you have a Very exciting contract for this bed director Is that it is Julie on your What did it did Anna send an email to add some things today she may have Julie Jill's got it What are the two items we're adding? adding the Right off the hop the press the rest the board has not gotten this the Peggy Sue Van Nostrom for the director of student services Julie Conrad for middle school principal mainstream middle school principal and then there did you should have Received some resignations and new and possibly a new hire. Maybe Me is raising our thumb we're in hiring season so it I Yeah, I think co-curriculars Okay, we've got them We were seeing them Or Other people are seeing it Yep, no, I see it It's it's it's basically an update to the warning But it's on that same thread, right? Facilities energy. Yeah co-curriculars new hire resignation new hire Email that Hail resignation. So there's two new hires added this second. Yeah And One of them is supposed to be the middle school principal you're seeing Julie Conrad should be on there For mainstream Spend director would not have that because she accepted literally 10 minutes It's what I see Yeah, I'm sorry, but I don't see it. I think you want to show you Yeah, do you want to let me I think what it is is that there isn't any Attachment for Julie, but it doesn't look like there was an intended to be an attachment. We just have to Say out loud. Yeah, you just prove the consent agenda that we're adding that into the consent agenda. Thank you. Yeah, thank you So Motion to approve the consent agenda with all those aforementioned documents Any discussion I was in favor Great Zach and Matt's student update and I don't know if you Tell you want to do this with one one here and one on Zoom, but I'll leave it to you guys All three are all like over the slides that we have and then Zach can add to Anything after? Yeah Alrighty so Can we go to the next slide, please? Alrighty so Our agenda for this week is to go over some events that have been taking place in our community And then we're then and then we're going to get into what me and Zach have been working on with an update about the MRPS vaccination grants giving some curriculum feedback which we got from students over the past two weeks and then we're going to talk a bit about the MHS parking situation and then we're going to talk about our next steps moving forward on these issues in particular So as for some current events This past week all over the musical was held. So congratulations to the MHS theater department I Can't even believe it like how did you get so many amazing singers? Alrighty so on May 1st the fourth annual race against racism is happening, so I highly encourage members of the community and Hopefully all the board members to show up if they can And then here's some just other news that's been going on. So spring sports have started up I would say I think across the district and Parent-teacher conferences happened last Friday at least at MHS. I'm not sure about other schools and Also teen jazz is going to perform at MHS on April 11th. So also something to look out and come to So a bit of an update on the MRPS vaccination grants So at MHS this is where we spent or this is what we mainly have been focusing on Last monday students and staff were Surveied and asked how they would like to see the eight thousand or so Thousand dollars like distributed across the school And they put all of their feedback in this large document and since then means act have been Organizing it and consolidating it into a few Ideas that we think are both achievable and impactful For the student body as a whole So our main running idea so far is like a courtyard expansion, which is actually right outside right outside here so Perhaps sprucing the area up or just expanding it further that way Because From what we've heard from a lot of students is that the courtyard is one of their favorite areas in the whole school So we think that giving it some more attention. Maybe beautifying it would really benefit the school community as a whole um And to go about this i've been in contact with renay and angelo rosa as well as tom sabo who I I would say are all amicable to the idea although angelo can speak for himself if you like Um, so me and zack are going to continue to explore this possibility over the next few weeks and months and hopefully Seeing how we can make it happen So but but before even that if that is that place to go through another idea that we have heard on how to spend this money sort of ties in with courtyard and that is perhaps more outdoor seating as well as Like a garden expansion which is separate from the courtyard itself Uh, some other ideas that we heard that were popular among students included a lot of food related items like premium machines and coffee and and things like that We haven't been able to dive too deeply into that but we're hoping to meet with the food director very soon to talk more about that and then hopefully Narrow some of those ideas down into maybe more realistic and Yeah, as a cafeteria. No, we don't really none We have a catch up, but I don't think we have I've not I've had some Yeah, I feel like we can fix that pretty quickly without using any vaccine dollars Yeah, so These are just some of the ideas that we've heard from the mh mrks or the mhs vaccination grant in particular But I think so far we're kind of think we're leaning towards that courtyard expansion, but Yeah And then so we weren't directly involved in the process at msms or us regarding the vaccination grants But we heard that students there were particularly interested in food items as well like I think a snow cone machine or an ice cream machine as well As well as maybe a gaga ball area or a seesaw. I think I heard Yeah, so Yes, once the seesaw. Yeah, okay Although we weren't like particularly involved in that process. We're certainly willing to help out like with that Okay, we can go to the next slide so um Both from our outreaches to students and just being generally Like students ourselves means I can say I think that the vast majority of students feel that The current curriculum and the way that we are being taught Could be improved And we bring this up to the board because curriculum is what every student really has to go through throughout the entire Through their entire school experience And it has been a focus of the board I would say through like the interventionalist like learnings as we talked about at our last meeting And there was a little bit more discussion around curriculum in general like outside of our meeting, but Um, and I would also just like to make it clear that although we are not Proposing that the board take any specific action on this We think that it is important to show the board how students feel and welcome any of their support on this issue As we intend to make it a focus of ours Uh going forward So this also goes for the parking issue that we're going to talk about on the next slide Yeah, so as for parking As we touched upon briefly at our last meeting parking at mhs is a pretty Inconvenient and just I would say significant issue Um, and the simple fact is there just aren't enough parking spots at the school And which has caused people to make their own spots like in the dirt or grass Or parking handicap spots or just make their own spots, which are not spots so And some people have also had to park over at the bank if I recall So about a month ago, I brought this issue up to student council In an effort to hopefully find solutions to this and since then we've met with the principal renay and jen wall And some of those solutions that we talked about included encouraging carpooling instituting perhaps parking permits next year and As I talked with the liby perhaps opening up the department of labor parking area over that way So and this is something else that would be a much bigger discussion But possibly a parking lot expansion which would be a whole different ballgame considering that the mud lot was just removed so But our plan moving forward, we just thought we'd let the board know but our plan moving forward is to continue Uh following up about this and considering solutions with administration and this is going to be increasingly important I think to Like students and staff over the next few years So we're really hoping to meet with jason the jason like and talk about this and other issues um Yeah, so for our future plans We can we plan to continue holding listening sessions and hoping to continue having a focus on student outreach And on that note, we have a listening session tentatively scheduled for next week at main street middle school and we're hoping to hold ones at ues and rocksbury over the next few weeks And we're going to continue working to best distribute distribute distribute and figure out how to distribute the mhs grant by meeting with administrators and just like coming more of a like concrete action plan Something else is we're also planning hopefully to meet with the new principal to like give us student perspective on issues that we find important and also Just hoping that he is amicable to changes that we would like to see and students would like to see at mhs And on the note, we intend to talk about curriculum with them. So I hope jason is prepared for that Yeah, as well as parking. Yeah So Yeah, and lastly, we're just going to continue focusing on what students want to see and hoping to Institute those things All right. Thank you. And if you've anything you'd like to comment Oh, exactly. Do you want to hear anything? Yeah, I can also say um On that listening session we held. I know last meeting we shared a lot of the like general feedback things um And there were a lot of ideas that were out of budget that we have like Marked out of budget like parking was a huge thing. Um But that necessarily can't be covered with eight thousand dollars. Um So we're also planning on keeping those all that feedback that we heard in mind and using that to um sort of influence or guide like future decisions and like projects are planning um because I know a lot of A lot of things like parking and curriculum. Um Are things that are really important to students and Hopefully we can focus on them outside of like The lens of the esser the grant money Yeah You're the sense of the um the timeline so like for this eight thousand dollars The timeline and sort of the decision-making process I don't take that. Um, I'm not totally clear on I think we have to spend it by is it june 1st june 30 So the money's for this year's students Right, and then I had to apply for it by april 1st. So it's all in Uh, jillberg's can't jill camo breaks said today that there's a couple little snack foods at this from the state side of I didn't completely understand it, but so we're they're essentially going to cut us a check For that. We just had to assert that we were at a certain percentage rate for each school building and so that that money I think will show up in grants capable hands at one point And so all three month clear bill rates who qualified for the vaccine grant Are all in the process that america is talking about in different ways The students are taking the lead here at mhs. There's been lots of surveying and conversations and Um pods at msms and classroom teachers have been doing a much more scaffolded discussion with kids at uas So it'll be all spent by june 30th And so so students are the ones that are like leading. Oh, yeah the charge here at the high school Oh, yeah, and and so Merrick, what do you think that the timeline will be on like making a final decision? um I think we hope to Like make a final decision on how we would like to spend the money over the next I would say two weeks Okay, great. Yeah Um, thank you for that presentation again america and zack Could you let us know what time and day the lifting session is at msms so that other board members could join you if we're available? Yeah, or or is it solely just for students? You really don't want any quote-unquote grown-ups there We know we would welcome board members there uh, it's not Totally scheduled yet, but I will let you know when it is great. Thank you. Yeah Any other other questions? Yeah, I so I we had a request uh to table the race against racism as a school board so if If I if somebody wants to table that they may first Uh, like we attended last year to have just a table with the school board materials Um, so anybody wants to let me know if I can tell them I'm not sure I'll be here may first, but So and so this is one way to support and then um I think we also need to add like a listening vision for rock sari Yes And then with the curriculum um, um It's very similar to the pen When we did the bypass and accessibility and the lgbq that kind of came out to the curriculum piece I I wondered how like we just moved that conversation forward. I know that it's not part of this school board But for for us to think I'm particularly interested in that policy piece of the equity policy How like we move forward that curriculum conversation So I don't know just a question that is coming to the And thank you so much for all this. It's so beautiful. Do you want me to answer that correctly? Oh, I was more directed to So it's really around the curriculum. We didn't have your vision or not This group kind of think with you about those conversations or not I would say I've not prepared to answer that question. Okay I can I can say that how We're not going to move forward with the curriculum is just like talking with administrators and maybe the curriculum Certainly the curriculum director just to like share how like share student feedback our feedback And then just hoping to work with them and that they are Changes Um for the listening sessions You're on the visioning committee. Did you have did you have some thought of combining any of the any sort of part of the The intention of the visioning committee. Um, yeah, because if you're if you're there Yeah, I mean I've reached out to beth about possibly getting in front of you're getting some time with different classrooms at rvs So if I hear from her I'll I'll loop you in if you guys wanted to be part of that. I don't know how that would work I don't know how it works for students to travel between schools during the school day We can get them. All right. Yeah, I mean I Yeah, it's not too much of a problem for me personally, but I don't yeah Yeah, well just I hope that you if you're keeping the vision the intention of the vision committee and some of that work in the listening session That would be nice to combine it and I was I think that's a great idea. I would be happy to be there I'm sure nathan would want to be looked in maybe I don't know However, we can work that out Just give us a prize threat. We can get we can get zack america out there If they want to go yeah Of course Great for the questions. Yeah, I think zack america serve fantastic Shit all the work put into it The track um, so we have andrew and matt Andrew the rosa and matt lank who is not graced the board a board meeting yet So this is matt lank who was our awesome athletic director I'll put you on the spot like to embarrass our guests sometimes And grant is here as well if there's any questions around just the finances and the fund balance and What we want for reserves and all that kind of good stuff So andrew you can talk about where we've been And matt add that athletic lens to it too so, uh, this came about in that we talked about the track for at this point a couple of years and I Wanted to we needed to get a proof of concept going to make sure that we weren't promising things as things started to Head towards normal again, and we knew the conversation was going. We thought it would be wise to do a quick study Um to make sure that we could do what we were thinking or we could do at least something out there So we retained uh engineering ventures to do that sort of 40 000 foot feasibility Um Study they came down met with us We kicked the dirt they went back and did research on storm water permits and sized At least from aerial photos and scaled images, you know, what can we fit on there? Is there anything that's going to stop us from doing something out there? And the report is included in here and and really the answer to that thankfully is no You know, that's certainly the idea of putting a paved track out there of some some sort is a feasible project So that's that's really what this was to do so that we didn't go down the road and go Yeah, let's put a track and then find out we couldn't do it for storm water for you know, there's that doesn't mean that there isn't as it sits compromises or challenges to overcome as it sits Um, the biggest piece is the urban soils that we don't know quite We don't know yet same basically the same soils that we dealt with at the elementary school That if we have to excavate we have to place we have to find a place to put them The only place we can put them is either in another urban setting and nobody wants our fill Or up to Newport or Derby, I guess Ship it off site. That's again, that's a detail if we were going to head down the track route That's just part of the cost and we have to deal with that. The other thing is the size and shape of it. Um the The track that we have out there is not It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it's not terrible either that They're one of their biggest concerns was it's really our Not so much the shape because there's Tracks in vermont that are not the perfect shape with the perfect radius is Um, we talked with bob johnson right talked to bob johnson over at the dpa to just confirm You know if the track isn't, you know, the textbook perfect shape Uh, is that okay? So yeah, the the only thing is you can't state set state records on it and you can't hold State meets on it a state meet would require an eight lane track and you know perfect proportions um But as a as a track you'd use and could use and invite other schools and and run your beats That's something that's not ideal. That's not perfect is acceptable Uh With regards to the the shape and what we've got out there now the One of the biggest challenges is the meter on the outside lane for safety Anybody that's walked in that track knows that we've got eight inches of a retaining wall between the track And the bike path on one end and then we've got a retaining wall at the other end of the tennis court We have not gone into any of that sort of detail of Okay, if we wanted to make it perfect because When if and when we get to that point we will have everything surveyed and we will go down many different iterations and options and what ifs and you know that that's that's a long way down The goal of this was just If if we wanted to do a paved track out there With a surface is it feasible and from this report the answer is yes kind of question about the the soils obviously that was a big issue with the ues playground Um, and obviously one of the factors is kind of the history of the site. It was Yeah, it's a fire. There's an old high school there Do we know anything about the history of this site that would Give us any indication one way or the other whether or not there may be an issue has that been largely undeveloped no other than Anything wrong. He knows more about this than I do other than there is in in urban settings There is a demarcation line and I'm guessing that demarcation is from not from testing but from It's presumed that that and if we had soil we could have taken the elementary school soil and put it over here because this area is designated But it nothing nothing of those red marks on the state map says it is dirt and soil It just says it's a potential and if you have it you can actually put it there But there's nothing there's nothing that says we we don't know what's out there. We have there wasn't like a old, you know I don't think I don't think so. I mean I look around the room. I don't I don't know anybody who you know, we need bill bugby here for to tell us what was on the site before the school was built Matt do you want to speak to anything that you're thinking about with athletics? Anything You know for the track itself, I can't Justified any better than what obviously coaches and an athlete can do they use it On a daily basis and and obviously they know what they need in order to like have their best experience here Think a track will be unbelievable for all of our athletes. We have booming numbers. I mean, like we said 79 kids at the middle school Give or take 30 At the high school and I know those numbers have only been increasing over the last five to six years every single year Um, so obviously having something like that for all of our students that would support over 100 kids during the spring Tons of kids obviously, it wouldn't just be limited to track Athletes or cross-country athletes either all of our athletes They would go and run on it for time miles and things of that nature for training and conditioning for other sports um, you know that type of stuff I think is Would be unbelievable to have for all the athletes and obviously for us I think it'd be great to be able to have that another might attract kids to come to our school things of nature Um, you know, if we added other elements to it as well I'm always going to talk about turf fields and things of nature and how beneficial they would be for us here um, we're If you come here on any given April or may day, you'll see every single inch of green space here being used by all of our athletes and Eventually after a couple weeks to rain things of nature. They were not green anymore So stuff like that. I think would be just enormous for us here if we were able to discuss things of nature But as far as the track goes the track obviously, I think is is a great resource for all of our Athletes and students here as well as the community excellent Questions for Matt and Andrew and Grant as well Mia Thanks most well first. I wanted to just say thanks for the visa for Engaging that firm to do the feasibility study because it was really really really helpful to see that all in one place And I also wanted to just confirm what I just to have some context as part of this conversation And confirm what I think to be true is actually true that there's no money for the track in our current Esser plan It's also not in our current capital budget And we could use our fund balance for this I think that might be a good question for grant or I just see Libby nodding so that Yeah, but grant can speak to that too. Yep You're right. Mia. Yeah, okay Yes to everything you said and um If it ends up being acted on with a motion and a second and a vote The idea is to try to what we call commit money from the fund balance Um, and I would be for that It may not be enough It won't be enough I guarantee because we have about 1.5 million you could commit right now And the actual cost is probably going to be a little more than that, but it would be a big chunk of it right That does two things one It does it does kind of make this a priority and set that aside But the other thing it does is there's been a lot of discussion At the agency and the legislature about looking at school districts fund balances And if districts have a huge unreserved fund balance, you know, that could end up being a target at some point So if you take this action and you commit 1.5 million for this Then that is a different kind of category in your audit So it wouldn't be that you were having a Two and a half million unreserved fund balance You may end up showing 1.5 in committed fund balance for a specific purpose And then only a million dollars of unreserved. So it would be less of the target So i'm in favor of that you right now At the end of the year i'm forecasting about um 2.1 million dollars of unreserved fund balance And we want to have like a two percent cushion And so if you subtract that out I'm looking at just over 1.6 million That's truly unreserved And if you so you would have the ability to to commit 1.5 million And you'd still have some left plus the two percent Mm-hmm I I have some follow-ups, but I also don't I can't tell if anyone else has their hand raised and I don't want to Monopolize them. Go ahead. Yeah okay And then as far as sort of quote-unquote big ticket items goes one thing that had I've heard in previous board meetings That would be another sort of facilities um conversation is the The just to put it in a over simplification the the net zero modifications or whatever to our buildings and so it feels like that's a thing that we as a board need to grapple with is Yes, we have this chunk of money that as you were just saying grant You know is sitting there unused and not great that it's not used But we have to decide how to prioritize that and I'm just curious what the I don't know information is around. I know there's a lot more to be talked about and Like learned about on the more like facilities upgrade side of things But I don't know if that's all if that if things that are already planned for in the capital plan Are part of that conversation. I'm just trying to see where that all that fits in to the financial piece Yeah, well, I don't have a great answer for you. Um, yeah, that's okay There's a lot of uncertainty on what we could actually do um And what we had talked about was those things might be a good fit for if there's infrastructure money that ends up flowing Then we might be able to that might be a whole another bucket and something we could we could use But we need to do a lot of thinking about what's really feasible Especially with our our space constraints outside You know, like if we went with wood chips, you know, we would have to have a facility to be able to store those I don't even know where we would do that So there's uh, we're just in the beginning stages of thinking about What net zero projects we can even do and we're already doing some things. I mean As part of the fund balance is talking about Circulator pumps that have variable motors. So that saves Saves energy heat pumps down at Roxbury is something that we're already putting money aside for We did a lot of HVAC work here at at the high school And all of that makes the air quality better, but it's also Better equipment that's more energy efficient So, you know, we're we're doing a lot of those things but as far as big projects go You know, that's that's a lot of homework that still needs to be done and one of our schools is Union elementary school is part of the district heat system And so that's already something that's in in play And every one of our schools is connected electricity wise to a solar farm So we have solar already. So there's a lot we just need to make sure we're Publicizing what we're already doing and then as far as any other big projects We need to think about what what's feasible and what's not and right now I think the bucket of money that we could apply to that is if we get any infrastructure money down the road I see okay other questions What about the windows where is that? the so windows for ues and msms is in the capital plan and so You want to talk about where we are? Yeah, we actually did to the facilities group and energy group did a tour over at union and we talked We shook shook and opened a bunch of windows and I made them aware of some of the Issues and challenges that we have and and things that we need to take into consideration And I don't think we're not in a position yet to say this is our solution But we're in a much I'm glad I've got a group of people who now Understand the things that I'm thinking about and we'll come together to make a decision and move that down So that is in the capital plan I think there is a there's a work We we were going to get into it before covid and then when that happened and you know windows now Even if we said we want to do we want to replace a window windows are 18 weeks out for for stuff. So I think we've got another summer of some more work. I think there's a Of another variation of a rehabilitated window that we want to try different weights weight balance system and weather stripping system But we want to try and also we've got some historic windows over there That we wouldn't replace anyway. So those might be a good candidate. So just to keep the ball rolling on that, but That part of the capital that's kept for the capital fund Yeah It's a different So, um, it's kind of all about what we just said this um kind of the choices between the track or potential net zero projects with this funding like Would there be any other right now the fund balance the amount that's available in fund balance is Completely open to whatever the board decides, right, but um, so if for example Like the board chooses to go with the track renovations Would it then make would it then but that's basically kind of be it and there wouldn't be a way to look at No, because it's a it's a board Committed fund balance means it's the board that designated it that way So the board could change their decision later or they could add money They could take money away and then commit it for something else So this is this is basically a placeholder that says the board has decided This is what they want to do with it But later on they could change their mind and zero out the committed amount for the track and instead Create a committed amount for a different project so in the near term it it it kind of Puts the the fund balance in a different kind of bucket so that it's not a target to be looked at But the board can change course later They certainly would have to if it is for the track They would certainly probably have to add more committed fund balance in order to fully fund the track But later on if they decide yeah, it because of Soils issues or whatever it's become too costly. We want to do something else The board can vote to uncommit that money And commit it towards something else. So it isn't it isn't a It's not un-reversible Okay, just to follow up. Is it feasible to do both like the track renovations or net zero projects? Yeah, I don't know what the net zero projects are right And the timeline of them we we just don't know enough about what those projects might be Or what the community and board are looking for there Um, and there are some legitimate choices that Andrew can probably speak a little bit more intelligently that I can't about it That uh, there are some There were some suggestions around the zero energy work that would take field space away um from The community and we just don't know we don't know what what that looks like And I'll speak quite frankly but the if there is real desires and push that down We're gonna have to spend real money on a real engineers to say You know what this is what we can do these are your options, you know Because we can talk about it and but we don't know if we do if we do a wood chip Well, we got to find a bunker we got to find a place to put it we got to find a boiler And if we decide we want to take away an athletic field or practice field to do that Well, that's a choice that has to be made But the engineers will run the numbers and say well if you do a pellet system We can store it underneath the building and you don't need to have that stuff You know, so there is a level of work that takes it and the same thing at main street middle school There was talk of in the report the net zero the zero Community report there the idea of ground sourcing that that was a neighborhood there are culverts and pipes and You know, that's a real engineering endeavor And you got urban soils, you know, so it's like if we if there was ever a desire to really get our heads around what is possible That is a large large chunk of work that needs expertise well beyond the people club Most of the people in this room Because there are there are Many options for any one of these buildings as to what we can do and they all They are they're all going to have compromises and challenges and and those sort of Decisions of if it's we used to make these decisions based on economics, you know We don't make those decisions on economics anymore that they don't pay for themselves I mean we've got really good well-serviced boilers that are underneath us. Yeah, and they're they're going to serve us Basically troubles here for the next three for the next 20 years Do we spend money to let those sit idle? While we replace it with a green solution or do we plan to let those Work for the next 20 years and when they break down, that's when we transition But those are quite those are the kind of questions that That's a process. That's a process. Yeah, and given what we know about biomass is woodchips the grain solution It's a lot of indication that's not We've got a we've got a a group with the state that's got a smoke monitor on main street middle school sniffing the air for wood Smoking down, you know, I think that's more residential stuff. But yeah, it's these are really really big questions I I keep thinking what our friend said about thinking of the track and like this CPO plan like the future generation that are going to access something like that in the same vein of the zero net zero Proposals of the students have been advocating for so I'm thinking of like, yes We want all to think of the future now the kids that are going to benefit now, but the future, you know, I you know I am a big proponent of thinking of track to also make sure that we have accessibility For our future kids that might be in a wheelchair or sometimes things like that that cause A lot more to and something with this money is there a way to be able to commit both projects to the fund same The board is committing to these two to make sure that we have The the the plan to have the people the experts that can give us what you just mentioned the same with like a track that is a state of the art increasing the you know, whatever the language it is attract people But being able to think through that like being able to see this is how much it will cost Thinking of capital funds, right like you need to we need to raise five million dollars five years 20 27 And and make that plan that way. I'm not sure but I'm not sure if that is possible to commit ourselves to Commit into these two projects until we have something more feasible that we can count on and say oh, well this track Might not be here in the next 10 years or we're not going to do we're only going to do this much of the next zero plan I guess my offering is that like let's commit to both things because it is important to both Until we have the plan so that is the state wants to take our money They can't because we have already committed to these two projects until we know more Yeah My only concern there is there's already not enough to commit To do the the full track that's that's even Estimated here not to mention there's two pieces that are even missing So we could commit 700,000 to it and know that we still have three times as much that we're going to need and basically not Be close to actually being able to do the track Which I mean that that's your your decision If you if you split it up and say oh, we'll put one million and commit to the track Even though we know it's going to be closer to two and we're going to put 500,000 towards net zero Even though we don't know what we would do but we would hire a firm to start looking at it I'm just concerned that we're not going to do either. You know, we're not going to actually make good progress on either um But my big concern is that we commit money so that we don't have it taken away from us so I would be in favor of this and If you do change your mind later, like I said, you can vote to Uncommit a portion or all of it and commit it towards something else Um, I just don't know. I don't know whether that's 100,000 that we would try to commit towards net zero or 100 million That we put towards net zero. I I just don't know Yeah, I mean, I'll echo a little bit of the sentiment We've discussed it before at school board meetings that whenever these types of things come in front of me and I think some of the rest of us Start to dig a little deep around like What are the values of this community and how would you know, what would be the will of the community? How would they want us to spend an extra 1.5 million dollars or 2 million dollars? um, and I think you know, it's hard when you only Like it's it feels to some people and I understand why it's not this way But that there's only a couple of options being presented when really it's like the world is our oyster We could put 1.5 million dollars into adding an addition for like a student lounge You know if if that was the will of the community. That's what people wanted So I don't I mean and also like in the future There will be more fund balance and there will be more budget cycles And there will be more ways to ask the community for more money down the road It might be a more appropriate time to really delve Into the net zero thing. I think the like heating system isn't the only net zero ask Either I haven't I haven't looked at all of the asks from the different committees that are really delving into that but You know, you you talked about like replacing lights and things like that like you can make other changes that Really help get it get us towards net zero a heating system would be a huge one But also windows are a huge one and that is happening. So there's there's stuff that we're doing as A district to move towards the net zero goals I don't know so it's so it's a struggle for me when I see a price tag this big to kind of The weight of that to to feel like is this really the will of the community one of the my questions that I jotted down was If we look at it as just like this is for this one sport Then it might not be as compelling as the way matt you started talking about All the variety of people that will use it and i'm sure You know during the day the gym classes will be using it and um So I wanted to ask you to speak a little bit more towards Like what is the variety of usage of a place like this and I know like the soccer team plays on that field The lacrosse team plays on that field. It's not just track Kids that are using that space. I mean the the track itself is a big expense, but Is this does the price of this include? um The field to inside so it's Topsoil restoration. It's not that's or what would we what we would Potentially do probably if we were going to do it right we would include a drainage system at the inside perimeter of the track And so it would be the repair. It's not new sod. It's we're not redoing the field It would just be repair of the construction of the track that field is actually in pretty good condition and we have been working with uh chip Stevens over at that diamond tech and they've been coming in and Helping us with aeration cycles and fertilization cycle and and sand cycles to get it so that field is in good condition We're going to make it better But no, there's no there's no need to like rebuild that field But the lights are helping with other sports teams the lights. I mean how the press box the press box um The maintenance garage These are things that extend well beyond just the track team. Yes, and I feel like that would be um You know, I think the community would want to hear about all the variety of uses And not feel like it just services the the 80 kids or whoever are on the track team. Um, I mean I think it's a very exciting Project and I'm really enthusiastic about it and hopeful that You know, we would be able to get really high quality athletic facilities You know in this school district for the capital city and I've talked before about it at the meetings That's some I've traveled around the state and seen other facilities and I feel a little like Sad and embarrassed that our school district doesn't meet, you know rise to the level of some of those other facilities Um, so I'm excited by it. And then I also have this other feeling of like Okay, I want to hear from the community on this just like we did with Um, the esser funding and all of that it's sort of like what What is the pulse of our community on this? Um, another question I had was sort of the timeline of the decision So grant you're talking about wanting to Commit amount of an amount of money from the fund balance before it becomes a target. When would it become a target? What's the timeline of that the end of the fiscal year so june 30th if that's if we have a Three million dollars of unreserved fund balance that shows up in our audit Yeah, you know right now there's no real threat that's going to be taken It's just it's not good practice to have that amount of money as unreserved So I would want to have some kind of the action before june 30th so that we Make that a little more realistic number and And I don't know you mentioned about the fund balance is going to go up We've kind of gotten spoiled. It has gone up a lot over the past few years, but there's no guarantee of I am you know, I'm getting ready to do a third quarter report pretty soon so hopefully I'll have a better feel for this year, but I don't think it's going to be jumping like the past two years because of oddities related to the pandemic and other fund sources, so We'll see And if you didn't do something like sort of split and maybe not commit to the full I mean I see this is it sort of feels like an all or nothing Project like if you're going to do the track you kind of got to do it like you were pointing out do Do it once do it right and don't do it halfway half measures and all this stuff. So it feels like This is sort of a you know It is the price tag that it is and that we can't do like one million and then five years from now do another million Right, it's it's an all or nothing thing And the only question I had on that was like if we wanted to try to be creative and ask for bond money for some of this Or for something. I mean, I just want to know what the options are The board certainly can Uh, Jim and I have discussed that a bit. It's that I I personally my personal opinion this opinion only Yeah, we have a large fund balance and we have lots of federal money coming into our district Almost it's uh, it's a yeah, exactly. That would be a hard ask I think for us to make right now Anyway, we went out with a big bond just a few years ago. Yeah, okay. Yeah over a $5 million bond I mean that could be I think an option for net zero after we Or even like two years down the road when we like spend some of the federal money, you know, we don't have the fund balance You know, we've paid down the the five million dollar bond a little and if I feel a little Uh, and and we figured out the net zero plan because right now we're talking about a zero plan But but quite frankly, we don't have one and it's gonna take as well to figure out And we don't even have a definition for net zero To make sure that my proposal is that is that we put the commitment to Be able to get to a plan where he says Here's the net zero project and be somewhat you will cost here is the set of the art track and is how much you will cost And then you can revisit that it's not to be like We're gonna do this for 500 and this one for 500 and that's so the commitment is to For us to be able to get to a point where we can be like, oh, this is gonna cost us five million dollars And we only have 1.5 million for you know, and then be able to then think too for me It's really hard to make decisions like this where like I don't have the number. So that's just my brain. It's like I mean, I guess to piggyback on that if The funds are committed. That's the language Is there a clock that starts at that point once they've been kind of earmarked for a particular project? Like that doesn't happen. There's no problem Until it's either spent or until the board Uncommits the money Okay, um, thank you. Um, so to piggyback on emma And just thinking about access. I appreciated what our community members said that there is you know And I feel the same there's something really appealing about track and field and that it is not Uh saddled with all the expensive gear and the stuff it just feels like you need a pair of sneakers You know and like some shorts and a t-shirt and for that reason it does feel really accessible and I really appreciate that about Track and field and I'm also I was thinking about just more like access thinking about since It is such a big ticket item, you know Unified sports. I I don't know Matt if you can speak to if there's a unified sports program here in Montpelier and how they would be able to access the track And then I also this is getting kind of granular but I'm thinking about student transportation After athletics, I could pick up a student in Roxbury and this is more on game days That wasn't able to participate in this in a sport of choice because the student couldn't get home Um For lack of transportation. So I'm just curious where what the district provides for students in after school hours Transportation, um if they participate in after school activities, including athletics It's a different topic So we're more than happy to talk about it at a different board meeting But we're talking about whether to commit a fund balance to attract right now. So it's it's a different topic Okay, I just need our access done one as we think about this if this is going to be a 1.5 million dollar expenditure Which is significant just wanting to have an understanding of how our students across all demographics and all abilities are going to be able to access the the program so Yeah, I wanted to make sure you got in the queue That was fun Um, thanks. Um, I think This is a question for Jim. Are we expecting to vote on this tonight? I was going to ask what the recommendation was in terms of action and what the timeline is and also What you know Delay is delay the I'm guessing that If we do move forward with this there needs to be Yeah, it's gonna take a little while to to make it happen. So You know, what what is the action window? Um, and if we miss that window, you know, what what does that push the next window too? Well, can I want to follow up? I'm under what's saying was this this report is By no means the end of this this to what I think grant and the group is saying is Yeah, we're really interested in the track. Let's pursue it because the next step from this is going to be a design committee that's going to talk with That which is going to talk with the track people that really okay, you know What do we want here? How do we fit eight lanes here? How important is that, you know, there's going to be these conversations about What it really looks like somebody's got to decide what Cushing what track surface we're going to be like this is just as much as anything to me is the sort of okay this is a project we're interested in because We're I don't think that the next charge is okay. Let's just go get it. Let's go get a bid and because There's this is our opportunity to do it, right? So we're going to have to explore at least at some level What would it take to get eight lanes? You know, could could we get eight lanes in there? And if we had to do that, how's that going to face baseball? So at least we've asked the questions and we've done some work so the sort of This this is just the start if we go to a If we start if we want to do a track, this is just the start And I think that as much as anything that this sort of commitment is just sort of yes We're really interested so we should take a next step to find out and if the next step says is that Boy an eight lane is really a perfect eight lane track It's really what we ought to do and it costs x million dollars if we can't have it It's not worth spending the money to do something different, you know, so I don't think that we're We don't really have a proposal. We've got a feasibility at this point And this gets at least gives us our heads around what at the very least this is kind of like the least it's going to cost And that was before, you know, that report was written before Our friends in russia decided to you know, so paving costs might have gone up by 30% by now on that so This is the first Real step towards anything So I'd say the timeline as far as an action to commit is really back to the 6th June 30th to get it committed before the end of the fiscal year Although we won't spend a significant chunk of that money for a long time What it does committing some dollar amount does now Give andrew the ability to spend some money on engineering work So that we can move forward without having to spend general fund money But it wouldn't be a huge amount of money that got spent out of this Yeah, so what's so what's kind of the optimistic time frame in terms of how Like what time frame should you have our eye on in terms of, you know I guess it depends on when you can come up with the other half million dollars Because that that that number there is to Replace the footprint you've got do the retaining walls the lights But then also build a replacement for the storage because we're not going to drive on the new track And a press box and some of those other things That 1.5 isn't going to cover that You know that this the suggested the 1.5 that grants coming up with isn't going to isn't going to cover that correct I haven't been on this board for all that long a little longer than safety But I haven't heard as much enthusiasm for a project from community members as I've heard for this And for any other reason I mean it seems like there are a lot of kids. There are a lot of families that really believe in this idea We've been working our butts off to try to reach out to the community For all kinds of reasons for months and months and months And when we knock on people's door and we call them we get we hear from them But people are coming to us and saying this is something that's really important for our community and for our kids and I just want to I just want to recognize that That that's about as much as I've heard from the community and and It's it's kind of straightforward That's kind of nice too. You know what I mean like Um, it's this tangible thing that could be done You know, it's not gonna transform our special education program because that's step by step the net zero thing That's a really step by step I mean a lot of these things that we're working on Are really drawn out things that are going to take a lot of investment and commitment and time and energy This is kind of a this is kind of a to me It's sort of a no brainer win for the community We can deliver something that that that's just the way I see it And I that may be a shallow way of looking at it, but I think that This is the most that I've heard from our community members unsolicited people sending us email getting on Our public comment more than for any other topic I don't think it's at the exclusion of our desire to be more energy efficient Or at the exclusion of any of the other things that we know we need to do a lot of improvement on um Yeah, I I mean I would echo that too. I mean with the caveat that I Have a running family. So I I think a lot of people yes, but oh, I'm biased. I just like yeah, I hear about it all the time, but I also Spend time with people who think about it all the time. Um I also kind of feel that we have a you know a project that you know is said Andrew There we need to nail some things down, but it is kind of creep. We are moving along You know some of the other projects while I'm very supportive of them To see much more amorphous in terms of what we're even talking about much less what what we could do um I mean, I'm a I'm a big supporter of this project and big supporters will be that Moving it quickly, but obviously I want to make sure that the the contestant's the board We were able to commit two million dollars to this I mean just as a hypothetical Then what is the timeline like because I if you had all the money if we had all the money to pay for the numbers lined up. Yeah, I I don't see any reason why you couldn't you couldn't break ground next next spring I mean, it's it's a road It's a road with drainage and a special surface on it. Is track season in spring So we would want to like let them have their track season before breaking Well, you got a choice you either let track season have their track or you tell soccer They can't have their season somebody's somebody's got to give up something on sunday and at this point and Nathan and dan can attest and I can probably around the The track team is already using other people's facilities. Yeah I mean we can't host tracking right And so would I understand about the six lane question? Can you you can host like smaller meets but not a statewide meet? Is that what you're saying? Even and you guys have been to more track meets than I mean you go you go to harwood You're running on a six-lane cinder track. You I mean talk about the tracks you go to there's very few You know burlington st. John's very just put in a nice future. There's like very few Like wow, this is a really nice track in the state of month. It just isn't that many. I mean Six lanes is pretty average to what you see you very too and that numbers Just just you know we can't those of us on zoom can't hear what he's saying. I'm sorry recap You can run the events quicker, you know Some of the more popular lane events like the 100 the 200 the 400 those are going to take forever A lot longer on a six-lane track. So you have to limit the amount of schools you can invite for a Meat or that sort of thing so you an eight lane track allows you to to have more Participation more a bigger event. That's really what it gets now to so the short answer is we yes You can host meets on a six lane track Yes, but you can host better bigger And and the really like the very popular Timely events are like the 100 and the 100 and the 110 hurdles which require that that the the long stretch You could make that portion of the track an eight lane track And then have six lanes for the rest of the track which makes it so you can get through those very time consuming events quicker So there are ways to kind of work it and that was definitely brought up by Engine Adventures and Bob that really an eight lane 100 yard 110 this That's pretty critical. You really should you got to do you should really try to get that in if at all possible I just want to remind you but you're not designing a track tonight Or agreeing to a track, right? You're you're deciding or you could be deciding whether just to commit funds Or not. Yeah, and even that commitment sounds fairly loose and we can back out of it Pretty easily if we decide to down the road after more Investigation committing the funds gives us the direction to dig deeper start getting people together to talk about What we want and what's feasible on the site that we have and it's it is very reversible But just to be completely transparent if you do commit 1.5 and Andrew spends $20,000 in the next few weeks or whatever months With an engineering firm that money is would be gone, right, but but not the big pot I mean that big pot wouldn't be we wouldn't be looking at Huge numbers until we were actually getting real close to doing the project So it's most of it almost all of it would be reversible except for Whatever we actually spend between now and then to get prepped for And do we have the ability to commit to a million dollars? Yes You do we would just have to go back see like a big chunk of what's setting aside as as kind of It's not really committed, but it's we have I have a set aside Some of this is like four hundred thousand dollars of fund balance is set aside as a potential revenue source In the fy 23 budget I wouldn't want to touch that because we're counting on that as a revenue in balancing the budget But we do have money that we have set aside thinking that we're going to have to do that in 24 25 26 and so there's I mean there's We definitely could do 2 million, but we might have to go back and revisit You know in 24, are we going to in fy 24? Are we going to have 150 for the fund balance as a revenue? If we can't afford it, we may have to take that off and say we're going to have to do the budget without counting on that So do we have 2 million dollars? Yes, we do We might just have to go back and revisit our thoughts on the next few budget years on whether We're going to use that money as a as a revenue source in future years, but we're pretty certain we can't do this project for 1.5 million Correct It's a good chunk of it though. And then if we I mean you it's much more feasible You know a year or two a year down the road to say well, then let's budget for $300,000 as part of our general fund budget build Then it is to say let's try to find two and a half million dollars in the general fund budget And we can always You know the scope of the project is something else Like we could say we got enough to do the track. We don't have enough to do the Barn or whatever it seems like the harder question is in October when we come back and tell you what the delta is Right, that's going to be the heart. That's probably going to be the harder question Hopefully it's easy question but it potentially is a harder one than when We've gone back and we've tested the soils and we know what we've got for soils And we've had real conversations with the athletic director and the track people about Boy that eight lane that those extra two lanes is going to cost another half million dollars But boy, it opens up the world to us is that worth, you know, those are going to be that's going to be the That's going to be the harder thinking about okay. Is the track worth it to us? And where do we find that and where do we find that delta and how do we justify that delta, right? Yeah I wanted to chip in and say I to him in favor of this of Making the commitment Partially as As an individual who did participate in track and field in high school and very much very much benefited I could probably take up the whole rest of the board meeting telling you all about that if you really wanted to hear it But it is very near and dear to my heart and It's you know That's as a board member. I also have to set that aside and listen to what we're hearing from the community I We we had a student presentation on this Um, I feel like it's helpful to bring that back up into this conversation since we've had this conversation in pieces Over the course of several board meetings, but we did also have a student the student presentation on this which was also Incredibly passionate and very well thought out And we have heard from many members of the community We have also heard from members of the community who say why would you In your right mind spend that kind of money on a track and field So there has the the conversation has been happening in the end after hearing all those points of view I I falled on the side of I think we should make this investment Um When it comes to what is the delta I also still feel like because we have such a great Amount of community support for this if the district were to say we're ready to commit 1.5 million And the delta ends up being I don't know x amount of money. I really would still like to see some sort of collaboration where we've got Fundraisers and sponsorships that are that is the community is also coming together around that so we find some creative ways to Meet the full cost of this Because as so many people have pointed out this is Not just going to be a resource for 80 high school students This is going to be a resource for our whole community and it feels like our entire community Could could make be part of making that investment. That's not any conversation. I think we need to have tonight I just think if it's really the question is tonight the board making that commitment of 1.5 million out of our fund balance that could be Changed in in either direction further on down the line once we know more I'm in favor of that. I have one other clarifying question for probably for grant and Andrew Which is what I've been hearing you say over the course of this conversation tonight is Doing such a thing like committing the 1.5 million Doesn't necessarily take any kind of net zero ideas. I also recognize we have no plan Or it you know facility and adjustments to increase efficiencies that are not yet That the district is not yet doing it doesn't take them off the table because there are other ways We could fund those when we come up with those ideas and when we have The feasibility around those is that correct? Is am I hearing you correctly? This this you are absolutely correct and To let you know we're spending nearly three hundred thousand dollars on building systems improvements this year between right Roxbury and and the high school alone. So I think we've and and we had an energy group You know we reduced our energy consumption electrically used by 40 percent in the last 15 years. I mean we're we're We're chugging along. We're chugging along. We got electric vehicles. So yeah You like to make a motion to do just that Sure, I move to Commit 1.5 million dollars of fund balance to um to to track and field improvements Discussion I feel a little like rushed In my personal vote on this um And I agree that we've heard a lot from the community over a long period of time. So but I just I I guess I just wasn't prepared I didn't realize that tonight was the night that we were like making a decision to commit funds and I guess I would love to Push it off one more meeting and just make a community plea like I would like to hear You know anyone who's listening Anyone who's watching our our channel Um to just you know, this is your opportunity to weigh in if you haven't already before we make a vote I mean, that's that's that's how I feel about it and I'm supportive I also don't feel comfortable voting today and I support it my my kid is on kids, you know girls on the run I'm training for a marathon and I'm horrible at it I love running. I think he saves many people's lives to find that beautiful sport and I also have heard From the students around net zero and that's like something that I don't want to compete Like I don't want this to be about like this 1.5 million And then because the students also for the past two years Have come here to advocate and I don't feel like we have enough Answers for them even though we're doing all this work. It's like again going back to like this repeat and I would like to think a little more about It's not either or is like how do how do we decide on commitment of these magnitude and Making a plea for people that might have a different point of view. So that's Again, I support the students. I support new things, but I don't want to be put on So I try to run as little as possible But I'm for the track. I think it's a good idea and I also feel like the net zero process in general Is is a way of life. It's iterative It's something that you you you take into account whenever you make a big purchase whenever something dies whenever you're looking for big improvements So I feel like it's not an either or But also I feel like there's no harm in waiting another two weeks It's it's a lot of money and if you know, we're gonna give a community one, you know last call I feel like that's fair Um, yeah, and our next meeting is one week So I just want to say that as a track and field runner, I I do support the track upgrades and renovations um, I mean, I don't think that there's going to be like a A new proposal for net zero or really probably any other project between now and next week when there will be a vote so I don't necessarily See too much point in delaying the vote, but because it can be reversed either way, but um Yeah Zach. Oh, sorry It's all good. Um, I think I also agree with merrick. I definitely think um It does feel I understand um Sort of the suddenness of the decision, but um I think what's been emphasized that it's like That it is reversible and sort of that It's not like a We're not spending 1.5 million dollars right now. I think Even like getting a better picture of like if we have if we commit that money And then we like find out how much the track is going to be and we compare that um To sort of other situations like I feel like that Um could be incredibly useful and I just know I I got I think like three different emails today Um from community members sort of about the track and we've heard from a lot of people um About how important it is to them the track was something that was brought up at that Very first like listening session in the library at the beginning of the year um And yeah, I'm I'm very pro Like eco-friendly decisions and sort of assessing that but I think if we can Start the groundwork of sort of assessing what is going on With the track in terms of like how much that would cost all the like considerations like We can even input sort of like net zero Thoughts into that like we're talking about wood chips being more eco-friendly like I feel like I agree in the fact that I feel like I don't think any like new big proposals of that would be like $1.5 million worth Um would come up in the next two weeks, but I might be wrong. I don't know another um consideration why I would want it to be On the next meeting agenda Is that the way that it's written on this agenda? It says track considerations preliminary planning report and or la rosa and matt link And then we have a feasibility study so I You know like if if me as a board member if I didn't realize we were planning to vote on this tonight to commit One and a half to two million dollars I mean I The reason why I ask the question is I'm actually sort of more in support of committing more money because I think that we should Commit as much money as we can to make sure that we actually get the project done So i'm supportive of it I just want You know our community to not feel blindsided by a decision of that they're going to perceive as a big decision I'm good. I I think My agenda says potential board action commit 1.5 million of fund balance for renovation Oh, is that updated? Rets on this one and this is what's posted to our Website, so this is what I got. It may. Yeah, it may have been a snap. That that may be the reason why I'm going to snap through with what With what y'all got it would I which I apologize for I don't know how that happened, but that's what the public had access to Yeah, because there's public the people on the I think it's um Yeah, I guess Valentine's Yeah Valentine's Yeah, I think we're Hi, I'm valentine some of you know me Um the bridge But I'm a Montpelier resident and my son is a main street middle school student. So Basically the bridge is what got me to attend these meetings that impact really everyone in our community And since I've been focusing a lot on the budget, that's how I've learned about It through your website And through these meetings. That's how I find out about the community feedback And what's coming up for me while I'm listening to this is That report which is on the website That expounds upon what's being done with the x answer decision So some of the feedback In that summary is speaking about the outdoor spaces And then you go down a bit Not too far down and net zero will come up as a prominent theme But I did want to share that As a parent my son was virtual learner last year A very little movement and he was able to join the cross country That you know running after school for accessibility reasons I don't have a car. He's able to run to Hubbard and it helped him get back into shape After basically a year and a half of sitting All the time being on the computer And I would say that Not just my two cents is a community member with that insight But whatever happens I would say take a little time since there are emergent issues that are Still being considered Like accessibility and funding and whatnot But it would be great alongside that to know the specifics of what Net zero modifications would entail So thank you for listening So We have a motion for action. We've had a couple of express. They'd like it pushed off The public does know there was potential action. Unfortunately that Thing we got I'm not quite sure what to do. I have to be honest I think we've had a lot of community feedback This has been a topic that's been discussed for several months Um, I don't think we're going to get Significant new information from the community in a week. I don't think we're going to get significant new information on what knit zero looks like in a week Um, I feel the majority of the board supports is doing this um I would certainly entertain a motion to remove that motion, but I'm I kind of my instinct would be to go forward with a vote. So I'm going to call a vote In just a second unless Someone removes that motion Hey, maybe this is a question for our parliamentarian, but isn't it technically just tabling the motion instead of getting rid of it All together I think yes, I think you can table the motion Okay As the as the um author of the motion, I don't have A problem with it being voted on next week Instead of tonight. Um, I I understand that you know, this is Something that the community saw as you know, we that we would be voting um, but that I also was a little surprised like that that wasn't what I saw either And so even though I made the motion mostly to start The ball rolling not necessarily, you know, I'm okay with us Waiting one week. I think it's helpful for people who For a big decision for people to give give people a chance to just think on it people meeting board members So would you like to table your motion? I'm happy to vote on it next week To I think I will put it as the first item Unless people object because if there's new information we can Discuss it and if not we can can just move forward with a quick vote based on this discussion So you want to table your motion Mia? Sure Okay, um, we will vote next week done. Thank you And thank you so much for all the work on this really appreciate it. Um, and thanks for the community engagement Mr. Souter Jim just before we leave just one thing just to clarify We have about 2.1 million available I said 1.5 because we have this target of trying to make sure we have 2% that we're sitting on at any time So if you did 1.5 and if the cost was 2 million You could always use some of that other amount. It just it's into that 2% So there is more money available. So when you said do we have two million? Yes, we do We might just have to And I do want to apologize to the board the Agenda that is up on our website that the community can see does say potential action commit 1.5 What must have happened is animus has Downloaded a draft. Yeah, and that got into your board packet. So I apologize for that. That's that's our fault No worries Good evening Go ahead My name is My name is Nathan Souter. I'm here in my role as a consultant and the facilitator for the district ride visioning process that the board initiated Probably in september or something and I'm here to report to you and take questions and I'm happy to just sort of plow ahead and report or Take questions and respond to questions as you wish. What would you prefer? Please report Yes, a quick report. I just kind of where things are Okay, be great and then just kind of any questions and I think the main purpose is just to kind of You know, keep us keep us apprised of how things are going and if you know, we need any adjustments or at least What's our adjustments? so First I want to thank Rhett and Seiji and Amanda who Amanda has stepped aside from her role in the committee and Seiji has taken that board seat, but These are the board reps along with Merrick who when he joined the committee was not on the board But so we now you have three board members present on this visioning committee Which I think is functioning quite well We have held Four meetings We missed a meeting this past Monday because I was ill so I apologize for that But we've held four meetings where we have described or discussed the scope of inquiry which is essentially me Proposing and and then asking for feedback from the committee on Are these the areas we want to investigate and we want to for On which we would wish to get feedback from the community Um And then we have moved from that to drafting a survey, which is one of the foundation pieces of the work we're doing but also describing other Instruments or channels through which we'll get information and feedback from the community So right now those will include A survey which is both online and in print form It will include listening sessions and it'll include community gatherings that are more formal and more designed We may use the my thought exchange tool that the district has in its Toolbox, I have some questions about that. We didn't get to discuss that at the Monday meeting um And then each so the the committee is made up of board members uh faculty staff community members and then students and we have We initially had I think eight students on the committee. We've had One student resigned, but it's still good representation from the student body. Those folks have volunteered to Work on the survey hold listening sessions and engage with their not only their peers But also younger grades because all the students on the committee are high school age at this point Similarly teachers and staff have offered to be conduits to their constituents their direct constituents and we got to the point where About 10 days ago. We had a survey that Was ready to go for the public and we started to circulate that Our intent was that this monday we would look at the returns from that so far Revisit the survey process and also and then start to launch these other methods of engagement with the community we Didn't have that meeting, but I think we will still be able to move forward with the number of those Those channels So far we have 71 responses to our survey, which I think is a good start in in just over a week They are skewed in some ways that I think are not surprising but also map out for us the direction that where we need to do more Our proactive outreach. So for example Only four of the respondents are from our residents of Roxbury out of 71. So ret and Dottie and Amira and myself are working to expand our outreach in Roxbury Including ret who's going to hang out at the Roxbury country store tomorrow evening or a Friday evening And hand out paper surveys and and get feedback We also have For example, a lot of survey respondents who report their highest level of academic or highest level of education achieved as a master's degree or greater and While that's great. It's probably not representative of our community. And so we just I feel as though that is a demographic who is likely to have access to a survey like this the time to respond to it and To do so and so our work is then to deepen our engagement with Folks who may find this not as easy to engage with and figure out how to do that better Um, I loved what I was hearing earlier this evening, especially from Emma and also from Amanda with regard to the question about the reserve fund and committing funds for anything in a district Where Emma was saying I'd really like to know what the values of our community are and so This process is attempting to define those to both define a shared vision within the district and to define a shared set of values because I think in your role as as a board and in Libby's role in her team as education leaders You face questions like this all the time and it will be useful to have Have that much better defined so that there's it's less in question Whenever the next opportunity comes in front of you. So that's uh, that's broadly Our goal and my goal the A couple of questions have come up from within the committee and a few from Board members or members of the public that I just want to name Not least is the question of what does our final product from this committee look like as it would be presented to the board Um, I entered the process feeling comfortable with That not being terribly well defined and waiting to see What we hear from the community and then decide as a as a committee how we best Shape that information and present it to the board any way that's useful um it it may be important to Do a little bit more designing of that final product as a committee Earlier in the process partly because other members of the committee. I think Uh will be helped In determining what steps we should take By understanding or having a clear picture of what we would present to the board Uh, we haven't discussed this Uh Completely as a committee, but my answer to that would be that I would like our committee to present the board with a draft vision for the district which may be sort of several Several short paragraphs. Uh, it should be very very concise Uh, and then a draft of the district's values Both of these are you know We as a committee are functioning as the listening post and as Doing our best to Interpret what we're hearing but not distort what we're hearing and then present to you A synthesized and distilled version of what we've heard And then part of the part of this contract is for me and hopefully members of the committee to work with the board Once that has been submitted To as you all interpret what you're hearing perhaps massage those statements and then Seek to apply that or think about how you apply that to policy so that's what I look for in terms of the The output and then Part of our process also will be to be transparent all the way through So that as soon as we have data from the survey to share if that's visible to the public And when we present the board with a draft of vision and values for the district We're also presenting the supporting information that You know from which we made that Some of the interesting interesting things that I anticipate are that We're gathering information from a survey much of which is very quantifiable right we can say 70 people think this or they stated that this is their their most important value We will also be getting Free answer data from the survey which is not as quantifiable but still really useful in terms of nuance We'll also be getting information from listening sessions. We'll be getting information from community gatherings and figuring out how to make all that visible weight it appropriately and present it to you so that you have all the information if You know For example the idea that So that the two Most supported values in the survey so far are transparency and then empathy and kindness and so That's nice quantifiable information. It's sort of strong numbers responding to those values There are other values that are decently well represented and there may be Evidence within the narrative responses that support some of those Um less well represented values and so then there'll be a discussion within the committee and then within the board about How much do you weight those responses as you shape your policy? Uh, the other big question that I think well, uh, there's a there's a minor question Which I want to not forget and that is that We did have one student step off the committee and The board's approach when those students First petition to be part of the committee was to Make sure there were enough seats for every student who's interested in participating uh, I'm open to reopening that front door and Using school channels offering again to the student body that there You know, we have One space or more spaces on the committee if that's something that's interesting to the board I think we can accommodate that as committee in terms of bringing someone up to speed um You don't necessarily have to make a decision on that tonight, but I want to foreground that as a question and then a much bigger question is that the uh, the timing of our process is tight and it is constrained by various realities of a large representative committee and other realities of life and More than one of our committee members has said, uh, I'm not sure that we have enough time to do this inquiry justice Can we extend the time period for public engagement? How might we do that and um We've heard I think really articulate voices from Multiple sides of that question One of which is yes, it would be better if we had more time another which is The board may only have certain periods of its sort of annual schedule when it's really able to Incorporate and act on the information from this committee um so I'm Speaking for myself as the consultant involved i'm open to reimagining the timeline for this process in a way that is um That gives us more time to do as deep public engagement as we would like to do uh the The implication when we were negotiating how to do this project was that that was Intention with and a trade-off against Time that the board would have working with me as a consultant and with the results of this community engagement I don't think that that's necessarily true if we if we simply sort of Sleep the project for a period of the summer or if we You know, I think what I would be listening for from the board is whether You all think you have the capacity to engage the outcome the the product of this process a little bit later in the calendar year and still Make those results productive to your work um, I feel like my time can be Unflexible in terms of how I apply my time Uh, sort of within the within the current contract where we can discuss discuss other things Just want to grant that that's you didn't hear that until just now I don't necessarily expect your response tonight But I it's I feel like it's important For me to honor some of the concerns raised by the committee and make sure the you're aware of those things Uh, and now I'll stop talking and take questions questions For further elaboration from board members of the committee right well one of the things that some of the folks on the committee You know that this is a really really important Effort and that it takes a lot of time to reach out I do think there is a little bit of um a sort of uh Maybe not absolute clarity among the people on the committee as to whether the committee is going to decide what the vision is for the board And that's different than that puts pressure on the committee members to get the work done faster And it feels rushed and if that's people sense. I think if there is This idea that the amount of time that we have to reach out to the community gets a little bit extended and then The committee makes some loose recommendations That are reviewed by the board maybe over the summer and then it goes and then it's sort of the board Has plans to have a vision by the beginning of school or something like that that the committee would then be allowed to have some feedback on or something because Folks want to have they have ownership over this effort that might help Ease some of the pressure. I think that some of the committee members are feeling I think because it's it is a big project And to think that we're going to come up with a salute with a with a product by like then to june Is really unreasonable and I think it's causing people to feel anxiety. That's maybe unnecessary I agree Just nearing that like I agree as we've gone through this process. I think it's pretty clear that Some more time for this vision process will be really helpful to get the quality result that The board really wants to see and I assume the community wants to see as a result. So Yeah, I mean I think for me The the conversations about what we're going to do as a board You know when we're thinking about our work plan for next year and what we're supposed to be working on And part of this move has always been to hear from the community And be able to be informed about what what what are people thinking? Um, where they want to see things going. What are the challenges that people are facing? What are the successes that people are living that's good, you know, like so I think You know, like that has been Kind of some of the push with the listening sessions that we were doing that we're now, you know, stopping until this process is done but that it's really easy to Hear from communities in one specific subject like whether it is the truck or like what people are Passionate about right like that is easy when we have but the general thing is what informs our work Uh, when we're thinking of budget when we're thinking, you know, like and so I think that is work that We can have in terms of that transparency around like this is what the survey results are Because we do need something to guide us too If we are going to meet as we should to plan a work plan for the year ahead right it's like I'm thinking over What we can do as a board too with the information you compile in just like we have Certain things that was compiled for the sr file and it's kind of being able to see the big picture Are with the your the board's annual schedule when do you compose the work plan? Oh, okay Future goals Um, just does anyone have an issue with allowing the timeline to be reimagined slash extended Does I come up? Um, I don't have an issue with it at all. I think it's you know, we're hearing from the people that are actually doing the work saying You know, we this is what we feel is the right thing to do Um, I do have a question about it Uh, just logistically about the students and now there's seven students On the board or on the committee. Sorry Would they you know, what would that look like would we just sort of have a And I like the idea of filling that spot that's now been vacated And potentially if some of the students are seniors if they graduate or if they're not willing to commit into next school year because we did Propose it with a certain timeline involved So some of the committee members will likely not be able to Continue to commit their time beyond what they've already said that they would When that happens will we be able to fill those? Seeds or does it make sense to fill the seats or just continue on with a more skeleton crew? Uh, I love that question. I was I was already thinking about the students I don't actually know the grade level of each student. So that's a question. I'll check in with america in a second um I think that I I had not thought about sort of how long the committee would stick on, you know, stay together for this Part of part of my idea about the committee is that as we do this work together the members of the committee Even individually in the future will will hopefully have those tools and continue to be involved in the district Though it does not have to be composed as such um I can imagine sort of after there's a product from the committee for the board that From my perspective the plan a is the committee is then sort of off the hook and can inform future discussions, but it's not expected However, we could reimagine that as You know the board does some work or we do I do some work with the board and then we come back to the committee sort of as a check-in, you know, is that uh We've thought this through some further and here are some concrete implications Does that resonate and does that fit with what you as the the The listening post for the district were hearing So I can imagine that as well. Uh, I do think your your point about, you know, we advertised a timeline to the committee Which basically includes meetings through june you know, if necessary and It might be disorienting to change that Well, so good question. Yeah, we part of the design is that we offer committee members stipends for every meeting um Because the timeline shrunk a little bit we had we Were not budgeted to spend quite as much on committee stipends We also have uh, I've had relatively few committee members submit w9s So right now there are very few committee members getting stipends compared to those who are eligible to do so um To me that doesn't yet feel like the most critical piece Or if it became critical I could come back to you all and say It would be really helpful to have three more meetings with the committee. Here's the price tag if we continue as you know with this design um, so that's a little bit of a bounce back question to you all, you know, we also We have budgeted for 175 $10 gift cards and of the 71 people who filled in surveys only nine Have sort of clicked through to the next thing and said yes, please send me a gift certificate to Our phone books So, you know, it there's some variability and we'll see I'm not yet that is not yet a pressing concern I also want to thank you agents for just being flexible to Being open to the feedback that you're hearing from committee members and being willing to sort of change your game plan as the facilitator um I'll just offer like I like the I like the creative thinking involved with like maybe putting it to sleep or Or paring it down over the summer, you know, whatever would make sense for the committee members, whatever they would want to do um, I would be supportive of I will just put it out there that when I worked with um The facilitators with the school safety and police relations committee They also kind of got creative around their work as the facilitators and and released Some of the meetings to me as a facilitator, you know for like if there was there could be a potential there um to be respectful of the contract that we signed with you To give some sort of like summer homework or something like that to the committee members Uh, and I also really like ret what you said about sort of doing a check-in Um, maybe in june when the original timeline, maybe maybe the bullet point values and then maybe the future work is the drafting of the actual language um, but I think you're all on the right track and I'm totally supportive of Allocating more funds to Be able to pay those stipends for some additional meetings or whatever it takes to to kind of make have everybody feel like they're doing it with fidelity I just I forgot to make one other response to your question about the committee's continuation I think in a certain point not too long from now It'll be more and more difficult to bring somebody new onto the committee Mid-process having you know, there are just a bunch of discussions We've already had that have been I think really meaningful and that we all carry with us As we're moving forward in this process. So I think there will be a sort of a point of no return, but I think we can hold that in our minds as we make that these decisions Sure, okay, so just to clarify there's only one senior student on the visioning committee So I'm not totally sure that if this were to be extended that it would be too much of an issue like resignations or whatnot Even if it is I think that's kind of something that we can come to as we As it happens. I'm not sure if there has to be like a plan in place but I do think that um I don't know if it would be really necessary to replace any members lost anyway because By the time that there would potentially be resignations The process would probably be winding down anyway. So I'm not sure It's necessary to sort of paste the work and time it to a point where If you were to be drafting the paragraph vision statements, you know, that could kind of be seen as like a natural break in the work Where if people needed to step away because of that original timeline that was proposed that that would be a natural time to do it And I think right now or like over the next However long when we're continuing with our outreach to members of the community, I think that's when having you know As many members as there currently are I think that's when they're going to be most helpful but As it's winding down I I'm not sure that It'll be super necessary to I don't know if everyone's going to still be as Necessary not that they're not any less. That's sorry, but yeah so One of the things that We talked about in one of our meetings was like budget season, right? Like how do we push forward and This year we started late around that process of input and and like so I think for me this process To inform some of that I want to just get carry on that On when we start thinking about that process the budget season one So this is just for me and two And now my my mind is now muddy around the whole purpose Which has always been muddy and in terms like are we doing this for Roxbury or are we doing this for the buildings? Are we now just narrowing down to the vision mission? Uh, so that kind of is marking up for me right at this moment Uh, you okay if I respond to that? Yeah um Amanda, I think that the last your last point is excellent the Let's see the rfp names in the rfp To which I responded that there's a one of the questions is you know uh What educational experience should a student expect in? Union elementary versus Roxbury elementary or something. I'm not I don't have it right open in front of me Um, so that was there was a pin in that right from the start But also a question about district broad vision, which does point, you know The the two different elementary schools questions would point backwards towards vision and values um, so The the process I've tried to design so far hold space for questions about um facilities and how the You know, what the what the community's expectations are for the educational experience of a student sort of regardless of building or in uh, you know, and I think that um I'm trying to keep the process such that we We don't get drawn too deeply into the weeds of um You know somebody comes to a meeting and says When are we going to get a track we need a track? Why don't we have a track and then the whole meeting goes down? The discussion of whether we should have a track We need to keep it at a certain elevation where it says well Uh, if we have a commitment to serving The extra extracurricular interests of our students is a track, you know, then the board or the administration can make a decision about whether to track as a priority If we have a commitment to um These five things for elementary education And we happen to have two buildings and two populations. What does that mean for those populations? So there's there's a little bit of gray area, but I I see part of my role and part of our committee role as um holding a little bit of space and trying to draw a line between These comments are vision and values those comments are very specific about program delivery or a specific site in the district And we it's not that we won't collect those when they're offered But we are trying to stay focused on the bigger pieces And then my intent is that we would present share with you everything, you know You didn't ask us for this, but we got it anyway. So here you go and um you know, so We are not the decision makers at that point of course thank you um So just so we leave you with what you need sounds like we're all on board with You know kind of reinvisioning the timeline to tell that makes sense. So You know, why don't you go ahead and and begin working working on on that Looks like we're good with probably working with with matt to reopen it to students for You know both to fill that that one's you know the the seed and and then obviously have another person's interest, but it's good to A lot of other folks know that that you know the the door's open as well um anything else you need clarity on No, uh, I appreciate this. I think that the The other thing to say out loud is that the communication with board members on the committee has been excellent I'm grateful to that A good communication with liby and jim and uh hipco is terrific. Um, so As far as all those things that's working You you heard me articulate an idea of what our product might look like um, I'm comfortable with Leaving it there and also as uh, thank you emma for your appreciation. I'm flexible with how we Go with that and I don't feel urgent about Resolving it with more precision If you feel differently or you you know as you're driving home That feels like you something to revisit just call me back Yeah, definitely. I think I think right now it sounds good. I guess this is we we learn more. We might want to Retune it but I think we're I think we're at a good place now. So thanks. Thanks for Look for making time and do the whole meeting to to get here. Absolutely. Yes. All right. Thanks, even um, so final uh item is uh third policy reading of policy c14 We did not get the right draft in here. Should we should we have another third reading? Yeah We did not fix the um, I mean we started to in our meeting. We did fix the footnotes But then that draft never made it to anna not anna's fault our fault Okay But it's not ready to be finalized right now in this format We did talk about about adding uh, mea. You had asked about adding A paragraph to these Um policies and we've been talking a lot about that we we want to move in that direction Um, but what we've decided on these required policies that are highly legal use Is that we're we're going to steer clear of adding to them and in Instead of adding to the actual language of the policy we're planning. We've got we've got big plans in the policy committee So one of the things that we're working on is is kind of like a policy manual to help Make our policies more user friendly um to the public just in general to students that want to look at up a policy or community members that want to look up a policy And um, and so we imagine having uh, like sort of a short paragraph for each of our policies Giving some background, but not in the language of the policy So some of the policies we will do that and then for others will just it will be sort of explained In this future policy manual That we have yet to draft So table it for next time Thanks so much and we will have a another reading of that policy Next week, um motion to adjourn To the top We can fast I was in favor Thanks, everyone