 All right. Okay So I'll call them into order to 7 o'clock We do have two sets of many meeting minutes to go over tonight And we do have a forum of the people that were present at both of these so we can do them So the first one is the approval of the minutes of January 16th 2018 is there emotional I move to approve the minutes of January 16 2018 with any amendments or additions there, too Is it second and page one page two page three One thing on their number 11 town managers report the fourth bullet Which reads staff recommends waiting for the north Williston road study to be complete before taking action Take action on I just think the minute should reflect. Yes, right take an action. We'll we had the Initial report the scoping report on the intersection And I think that that was the intent of it as to before we Taken the action on the intersection. Okay. Yep, then it I just wonder if we should reference. Yes, we should so Before taking action on the intersection improvement original on the original scoping study I just read that Okay Anything else on page three If not, all those in favor of approving the minutes of January 16th 2018 say aye. Aye. There are no opponents for that So we have approved them Next to them is the minutes of January 23rd 2018 is their emotion I'll move to approve the minutes of January 23 2018 with any additions or corrections there, too Is there a second I'll second each one Page three One thing under number 12 the comprehensive energy plan petition the last sentence read There was general support of the comprehensive energy plan concept and to hear from the public But concerned about consuming the extensive amount of time at the end of meeting now that I don't disagree with But I also wonder if there was concern about The concept of petitions in general Um, there was and I wonder if we should just make that exact Statement and concerns about the petitions in general or something along those lines So at the very end of that sentence if I just end petitions in general, yeah Yes, I think so Okay page four Hearing no further corrections all those in favor of approving the minutes of January 23rd 2018 say aye Aye So just moving on to public comment Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to make any comment or anything on the on the agenda or anything not on the agenda? See no hands raised and we'll move on to Interviews and appointments. We do have two people to interview tonight, but we have and one person is here right now So we'll interview her Right now and that's Jill party. So Jill want you to come up to the the table The mic yes, quick thing. I believe the second person that was supposed to be interviewed tonight has withdrawn their application Oh really? Oh, okay, but we still have three more than Two others two others two others Oh, okay, so after tonight we will have two more people to interview and make a decision Hopefully at our next meeting So for full disclosure Jill and I met about six weeks ago to talk about her interested in getting more involved in the town and Here she is So Jill if you'd give us a just a brief Background of yourself and why you'd like to be on the planning commission sure So, um, my wife and I moved here about a year and a half ago from Baltimore, Maryland Um, I was doing a job there for the local city government. So Baltimore is a big city about 600 000 people And my role was the assistant deputy mayor for health human services education youth My first forward into Baltimore city government was through the planning department there So I did get an opportunity to see sort of the staff side of working with a commission A pretty powerful commission and a pretty large one as well While I was at the planning department in Baltimore, we worked on a A full overhaul of our zoning code and that was really fascinating to see how that plays out in city councils And how that played out with a strong mayoral Sort of dominant structure of politics there My interest here in wilson is uh because i'm new and I see this Community as such a vibrant one. It's really exciting just going through your your own annual reports And things and your own plans through 2024 It's really exciting to be in a community that is growing and does have a lot of people moving in and a lot of activity and I think That's one really unusual to vermont You know when you have the state house talking about how people are leaving and we don't have enough people in vermont I think wilson is an exciting place to live and would be an exciting place to be on the planning commission Thank you. Have you had a chance to talk to um, the director of planning about the position With ken. Yes. Yeah, I did he gave me an incredible I you know, I was thinking he's probably very busy. Maybe he'll only give me about 20 minutes I got to sit with him for over an hour kind of picked his brain Asked a ton of questions and really just listened and learned to kind of The ins and outs of what the committee does and what it doesn't do how it's different than The the board that oversees sort of the contracts and And also just got a sense of sort of what the the process is from Week in and week out and um, month in and month out So further questions from the board I'm fascinated by your background. I just I love what you're bringing to the table. I just think it's fabulous. So Live different places done different things, but yeah, I just think it brings a unique and and I served on the planning commission Before I served on the slack board and learned a ton at that just about how the town works and what was going on I think you bring a wonderful perspective to wilson that I think could be very good So in the brief few minutes in which you were introducing yourself, I got the I got the impression. You're well prepared. Um, you did your homework before coming here and that's always a good sign so Um, I guess the question the simple question is is what did you learn? Um, and I don't mean we need to dissertation really what I'm I'm focusing on is To get a sense of your what I'd like to do is get a sense of Your feelings about what are we doing right or maybe what are we doing wrong? And the place maybe one document to really focus it on is the town plan and just your thoughts about Um about that document Yeah, I think what I found really encouraging when I was reading through is the way it was expressed the language the choice of language the very intentional choice I think of Of ideas and concepts that I think vermona is way ahead of the curve on so the idea that they are trying to be very sustainable They are trying to have different ways of having energy Look and be in this community Um that they're looking at equity issues around affordable housing and and how that needs to accommodate Sort of all ends of the economic spectrum in our state. Um, so I think in that way it was really exciting to see That wilson is already thinking about that and they're already putting that in there I think as we always know right as someone who has a policy background at the devils in the details, right? How does that get implemented? How do you get people? um with nimby issues or with issues around Uh concerns that get really complicated when you start talking about some of those things because they are connected to issues of poverty or racial equity or things like that, so Um, I think what I found was um, Particularly coming from a city like baltimore that does have so many challenges That I felt like I could could sit in on like a commission like this and both learn but also contribute And do so in a way that really felt like we were making progress and looking to the future as opposed to Sort of doing some triage and I was dealing with the fire right in front of you if that makes sense Okay, then my last question and and it's certainly already if the answer to this is no Did you have a chance to um attend a planning commission meeting? He did can did offer that as something I could do and I said I was interested I I did want to tell the commission and he recommended that I or the select board. Um, I do have a Because I am in in classes right now for a dissertation, so I'm working on that. Um I have a conflict for tuesdays So it only goes this class only goes through april But it is something that I've already discussed with my professor about You know, this would be policy in action. It's something that's completely aligned with what I'm doing in graduate school Anyway, um, so she seems flexible and I and he said to bring it up here So that you have you know, sort of full disclosure that it'd be very temporary. It's just now through april, but um, It wouldn't extend beyond that Thank you. Yeah Further questions Thanks, bill. Thank you So we're putting a little bit ahead of schedule Are you expecting bruce to come in to talk about the roads? No Go to the item number nine acceptance of roads So rick you want to talk about that? Or um, do you are you familiar enough? Good evening. Good evening. We'll follow up with the item number 10 as well. Okay So this before the board, um There's one road to look to accept as a public road this year. Um Primrose lane, it's um point 11 miles of it would be class 3 roadway. It's off the bittersweet development off of 2a um I consulted with public works writer bruce whore The road passed the final inspection last summer to meet all our public work standards Public works recommends that the town accept this as a public roadway at this time Those are comments from bruce Questions for eric on this It's pretty cut and dry. Yeah, it is pretty cut and dry If not that emotion is in order Uh, I would move to accept is 0.11 mile per mose lane as a public highway Sir second discussion on the motion If not, all those in favor of the motion say aye Aye Any opposed So moving on to a highway mileage certification Um per year The trans asks each town to certify their amount of Um class 2 class 3 class 4 roadway Annual form that the board has to approve We'll have that for you to if you approve this To sign with this addition of the point 0.11 miles of primrose lane for class 3 roadways The state uses these figures to calculate the local aid dollars. It's a formula based on mileage In each town So asking for the board, um to approve this certification for this coming year The mileage listed on the certificate of highway mileage for the year ending february 10 2018 is accurate as to the mileage in molliston for class 2 Class 3 and class 4 roads Sir second Uh All those in favor of the motion say aye There's no opponents So let's move on to item number 11 the town meeting warning revised and rick perhaps just talk a little bit about what we Need to do After uh, the Warning was signed and approved by the board at its last meeting We found out that one key Elected position had been left off And this is a school board or school director Position and actually there are two openings The reason it was left off is because we've never included them. They've always been included in the separate school warning But this is the first year under the new structure, which is a regional structure now And under that regional structure the town is required to Identify those positions The confusion was not just wilson's alone as it turns out Many other communities in shin and count are i'm sorry in that are um, well all the communities to feed into the same district Had similar problems Including the candidates they When they got petitions they solicited For two-year Terms all both positions are three-year terms the they check with the secretary of state however, and I guess they're going to accept those as As they are rather than require that they get them all re-signed But in any case, uh This requires an action to affirm what we've already done because we didn't have time to And I had talked with each of you individually online. I guess About this problem so that you were we can move forward getting the ballots printed and we've already received the ballot so And we also had the deadline of getting the information out for the annual report and for the flyer So at this point, um, we were looking for affirmation. However We only have two other originals approved People who approve the warning so terry suggested that maybe a better motion at this point would be just to a separate motion to just add that one article to the warning To add article number 16 to the official town warning So I'm sorry. I'm a little bit confused about And if the confusion is is would I I'm going to use the word refuse. That's not really the word that I've you know, it's more strong than I I'd be happy to sign it If that's the issue, um, it's not okay. Never mind that Yeah, the issue is We need three votes in order to do something to add this to the To the warning and I've added it administratively, but I don't have the authority to do that. I get that part I got You took a chance Well with these Well, my problem was with the winewski valley park district And and so a little bit of a snafu But if we're moving just to add the moving just to add I have no issues with and if it was a type thing where you needed Three people to vote affirmatively. I would never put the town's warning in jeopardy I think though this way with this motion that's going to protect your Having said that It is indeed I'd move to add article 16 to the official warning for town meeting in australian vote About ballot vote. Sorry to be held on march 5th and 6th 2018. Is there a second? I'll second the motion We'll give it there Any discussion on the motion If not, all those in favor of the motion say aye. Aye And there's no opponents. So we've taken care of that. I think we can probably go to James charrard to talk about the clean water state revolving loan fund priority list for 2018 Thanks. Nice to see you all So we do have a memo for you I believe Yes, uh on an annual basis, we need to update our priority list for the revolving loan fund and Public work staff has put together this list of projects that was actually on the previous year's list And we'd like to keep them on this year's list They are Each and every one of them are stormwater projects that are also part of our flow restoration plan So with that said the last step to letting them remain on the list is to get approval by our governing body um and If anyone has any questions about these projects or why we might want them on the list happy to help So questions for james Not a question for james a question for the board is conflict of interest I work for the state of ramon department of environmental conservation facilities engineering division Which um is the entity that um? What's the right words? Carries out which administers the clean water srf fund for the state of vermont The priority list is a I don't get involved in the priority list. Um, that's actually something that There's a very prescribed mechanism But you could see where somebody would Be concerned about me voting for something here and then being In fact, actually sometimes my best thinking happens when I talk and The more I think about it the more I think it is inappropriate for me to vote on this Because I will be uninvolved with it then no As I think about it. I'm going to actually change my and the reason is is I will be involved in the review of applications There's a technical component of that that The group that I supervise is directly involved in the review of applications. So the more I speak The more I wish there were at least one other slack board member here tonight, but I do not feel comfortable Um participating in the discussion or voting on it Yeah, that's your first one. Does that make sense to you guys? Well, yes, and since you are really more involved and I anticipated that you would be more involved And I thought about earlier when I read through this. Um, but um That Is there a deadline? There is. Um, I don't have it in this memo It's either the 12th or the 16th of february. I'd have to double check 15th of february Either the 12th or the 16th. Sorry. I should have that with me Now see here it goes to show I do there is some separation from what I do because I don't know what that deadline is All I know is that it's due soon Um Does it require Does it require a slack board action actually? Because I have authority to submit. Well, this isn't a grant application It's not a grant It's Loan and I did reach out to the state and they said it usually is the governing body I could reach out again and see if a town manager approval is Sufficient for this particular action. I would also Mention that Currently public works has no active plans to submit for loan funding for these projects Which you may ask why are we putting them on the list anyways? I understand totally, right? It's just better to have them there, you know, one of these is under consideration for a grant through the rpcs And you know, we do have some funds in the storm water program to Assist if any of these come in and look for assistance, but with that said We don't have any active plans to submit for a loan application We'll have to check to see if they'll accept it if they not may we can either call a special meeting or I apologize. I Yeah, normally we have more Board members here, so it's in a sense. I almost feel like sorry deviate a little bit Maybe I should participate in the vote because then there'd be a big chore at work. I wouldn't have to be involved in because this will be a huge But I don't think that's the right answer It probably will not help you to say that you have the support of two of the of the quorum that was there I mean, it doesn't it's just kind of we'll see what the state says about And then you know, I mean one option is to they'll accept just my authorization Another might be they'll accept it temporarily as long as it's backed up Shortly thereafter by a select board meeting in the third is they'll say no They won't accept at all only select board action Which case then we had to figure out how the best get Asked the select board for approval of that So we'll be back in touch. Well, I wonder if an emotion would be in order to authorize the manager to Design With the approval of the chair of the board I don't know if it'll work Cover ourselves perhaps until we can find out So I do have a motion do I hear our second This is a different different This is a whole different thing, but I still think I should I should well Then we're not going to be able to do it without without three votes. So no, we don't have a motion then Okay Well, hopefully I hear back good news from you on this Sorry James I still like the explanation Let's see so we're about five minutes away from the public hearing And perhaps we can do the manager report How much to say Um The uh In my written report I talk about the community outreach committee That we've had our first meeting recently We're in the process of hiring three of the four social workers that will be involved I think there's a fourth one. They're also looking at And uh, I can't tell you exactly when they'll be on board, but it'll be you know within a month or so I would expect There's been a fair amount of press on this recently as well. I don't know if any of you caught some of that on it We're not unique in this approach. There's many Jurisdictions across the country that are looking at this and and number of already in Other way, so we're looking forward to giving it a try in our region and I'll be staying in touch As a member of the steering committee As we move forward and um I guess the only other thing is the water tank is finally operational There have been a few little glitches along the way So the next step is to um drain the existing Tower that's at the end of tower lane and um Then they will take down that water tower probably in the spring. I think they'll wait until better weather um I suppose we could consider renaming the street, but probably necessary I think they're planning to put up a small much smaller communications tower. So there'll still be a tower there Um, and and that's pretty much it for that that project went overall very smoothly and We're happy to have that tank. It's it's been on our list of things to do for many many years and now it's finally done That's all I have for this evening Okay. Well, it is close to 7 30 and so it's time for the public hearing on the community development grant close out and the The warning that was posted on january 17th. This is the Final public hearing the 95 north avenue cots project grant number i g 2014 Williston 0003 received 625 thousand dollars from the state of vermont for a grant under the vermont community development program The public hearing will be held at williston town hall on tuesday february 6 2018 at 7 30 p.m to obtain the views of citizens on community development to furnish information concerning the range of community development activities that have been undertaken under this program and to give affected citizens The opportunity to examine a statement of the use of these funds And I I think somebody here is here from housing vermont tonight Great, so if you'd please come forward and give us a brief overview of What we should be talking about the public hearing tonight I'm sue cob from housing vermont jonathan ferrell from We worked together on this project. We represented the limited partnership made up of housing vermont and cots And we worked with duncan wash nefsky architecture who designed the building and jay morsey who is the construction manager We took an old crazy kind of historic building and renovated it and added Demology to an addition that was on the back of the building and added a new construction piece of it That's now houses a day station offices for cots and 14 residential apartments and it's an amazing building It's beautifully designed and really well built. It's very energy efficient And it was a great project We had a lot of some crazy soil conditions some Unforeseen structural stuff with an old building that we didn't expect and Jay morsey took it all in stride and did a fantastic job So it was it ended up being a great project overall I brought some photos. I don't know if you before and afters. There's some cool old historic photos in there too and Just a lovely reuse of this old building in a nice Nice addition to the neighborhood and a great use of funds I don't know if you have anything you want to add to that but Well, I would like to say that the the day station For those of you who remember was flooded out in 2012 and bounced around to temporary homes and the The greatest thing I think is walking into the day station now. It's well built. It's well lit It has showers. It has laundry. It has bunk rooms for our Guests who work at night but are homeless and need a place to sleep during the day And the overall mood in in the room is wonderful It is a place where people can restore their dignity And get to know each other and work their way back Into into housing and into jobs. So it's a it's fantastic Yeah And we had I think initially you had figured we would have 100 beneficiaries through that day station and Jonathan's data shows We have 480 folks coming through there. So I mean that's It just it really shows you the need and And the and what an amazing building so And I think you've got seven For folks who are experiencing homeless homelessness. So all 14 units are filled. They are all affordable housing Seven of those are folks who have moved out of our shelter programs Into housing of their own and it's what we term aspirational housing. We further subsidize their rent To help them achieve dreams of going back to school of job training And they serve as mentors. They come downstairs to the day station and help You know other people who are on that same journey and show them that that it can't be done So is there anyone in the audience who was just making any public comments or ask questions regarding the project? If not, how about the board questions or comments? Just one and I almost apologize this uh before I ask but I feel it's necessary. First of all, you know, it sounds like it's a wonderful project This has nothing to do with that But I want to go back to when we're holding the public hearing for when the Grant had was being applied for and some folks showed up in opposition to the project. I think they were concerned About the impact on the neighborhood. So it's the impact on the neighborhood that my Are those concerns still being felt or valid or whatever maybe the best way to express that I just Very very rarely once in a while we do we we try to remain open and be good neighbors I don't help that. Yeah, so we do, uh, you know if there is any issue if if somebody expresses concern We were to address that right away But there there haven't been There haven't been issues and the neighbors Haven't let us know that they so the demonstrators aren't out with signs and you know Yeah, not even during construction. So that was good. Yeah, okay. Good. Thank you. Thank you for asking I just want to follow up on you know, what happened when we still went ahead with it, of course Um, but I felt it was just important to ask so thanks And I can leave this if you want it has I mean the photos in there. There's no, yeah Definitely about the benefits areas might be interesting for our folks who might want to look at it later. Yeah Thank you Any further questions or comments? Thank you Thank you The motion to close the public hearing would be in order Any discussion on the motion if not all those in favor of the motion say aye. All right. All right. We've done that And we have next on our list is the state water quality funding initiatives and Senator Chris Pearson is here to talk about that. We're actually running a little early. So Welcome Chris and we come up and tell us what you'd like to talk about tonight. Sure. Thank you very much for having me and I should say so chris Pearson. I live in burlington. I'm one of your six chitin county senators One of the new ones along with your very own Debbie ingram And we had today james came to committee I serve on the natural resources and energy committee in the senate which in some ways I was going first Um on the water quality bill this year. So Eager to have the opportunity to fill you in on at least some of our thinking. It's not clear exactly how it's all gonna Shake out, but james was down today Helping us understand some of the work that you've done And uh did a great job and it was was very enlightening to us I'll just Back up I know obviously the water quality debate and discussion here in wilson is Mature in the sense that you've been tackling with your own stormwater utility and thinking these issues through for a long time, but Um, I think everybody knows we are in a sort of settlement area with the federal government and the epa Really holding our feet to the fire. We're in year two or three depending how you count that Um, we heard from folks at the boston office of the epa that they are Basically building a report card for us right now on our performance in 2017 and the um tmdl Um is basically the basis of that settlement. We have 12 measures that we are being Graded on out of 2017 and there are a number of them where we have fallen short one of which is a funding source for long-term funding Um, and the other one is the three acre Permanent structure sort of sort of the regulatory side It's not clear to any of us exactly how the epa sort of do they weight some things more than others those are two Pretty significant pieces Although it's obvious From our discussions with the epa that they are Basically impressed with the work that vermont is doing So that is just kind of the overview people We don't have a choice right we are uh in a in a place where The epa will hold our feet to the fire And we've been able to wrestle with them to let vermont create um In some sense our own version of a solution to this because the epa's Regulatory authority is very limited to Point source runoff point sources not really the problem in vermont. So should we fall down on our obligations? They would come in and Insist that we look at point source regulation, which would be Not really adequate to solve the problem and extremely expensive as a potential solution So I just offer that as an overview for what's going on The legislature as uh representative mccaig knows well is Had a something of an disadvantage in these kinds of discussions because we are so dependent on The administration the scott administration and the experts that come before the legislative Committee as you can appreciate They are really the boots on the ground. They are routinely telling us things are going very well And maybe that's great news And in some cases very clearly we have made investments in the last few years that are Just getting started. So for instance in the field of agriculture, we now have nine Inspectors who are going to all the farms around the state and really starting to hold their feet to the fire That's new. We never had that personnel to do that. So obviously my expectations are Trying to be realistic that a lot of this is just in development phase On the other hand, you know, it's Sort of unrealistic I think or most of our monitors probably wouldn't agree that things are doing are just ticking right along and we're doing a really good job with water quality I'm getting emails every day from folks who's watching their property values plummet In lake karmai as an example in franklin county. I have little kids I remember this summer literally going to the beach with them and Having to say to the four-year-old the six-year-old. No, we're not going today. It turns out We're having a water quality incident. So we have very very real challenges One of the part of the work that we're doing is Trying to figure out the scott administration has Very open to us the legislature coming up with a long-term funding solution Um, there's a projected gap in the next few years of between 12 and 18 million dollars roughly And they were supposed to come back to us in december with a plan of how to do that They didn't really do that and so we'll say well Where's the plan and they'll say well the legislature is in charge of coming up with the money and I'll say okay But the governor has said that there can be no new revenue So where would you recommend we cut this 12 to 18 million dollars out of current budgets? That's really a legislative problem. So we're in this Dance with them that can be frustrating. I've been Trying to ask pointed questions around agriculture This is a Delicate conversation to have in my appeal here as it is for our state The tmdl around lake champlain It says that 59 percent of the reduction in phosphorus Correct me if i'm wrong today james caught me saying this not quite right 59 percent of the reduction in phosphorus in the lake champlain tmdl has to come is Is thought to come from the ag sector You know, so that's that's the big Part of the prize and it's often thought to be potentially the most cost effective But this is a real cultural chafe for us in in this state And i'm the only person on the committee who's from chitin county There's a member from anise county where a lot of farms are we have a guy from frankly from orleans county And from orange county So they have very real more than than we feel in our community Although of course there's farms in wilson Really trying to understand what are we talking about here? Well, how are we going to approach ag? Does it make sense for us to put state dollars into a farm to help create a A cleaner manure storage system for instance If the reality is that the economic viability of that farm is in question over the next three to five years Does it make sense, you know the chair of ag flippantly said For $900,000 maybe we should just buy the farm, you know, these these are these are really tough questions and farmers and Don't take this the wrong way. I mean farmers have been trapped in a commodity market that is not paying them Fair price. I mean, but that's pressured farms to get bigger And one of the unchecked Uh pieces of that has been our water quality, you know, we are subsidizing them and if you look at it from That sense and I really I want to be careful. I want farmers in vermont. They're the backbone of our Communities and our economy Um, and they need to make a living and we need to have clean water and those things are Difficult conversations to have and when the secretary of agriculture comes in and says everything's going great That that raises concerns for me. So we've been trying to tease this out um, we were trying to For instance, we've been dependent in our short term funding strategy on capital dollars, which is borrowed dollars That's okay for a stop gap The capital money as terry knows well comes with a lot of strings attached You can only do certain kind of projects because it's because it's capital money One of the critiques we hear is that we don't have the planning in place To necessarily get all the capital dollars out the door Because you can't pay for all all of the planning work with capital dollars. They're not capital dollar eligible So one of the uh, and at the same time we have hundreds of Water basin and and different kind of community partners that are working on different Aspects of the water quality discussion Who get um, for instance a tiny tiny amount of baseline funding from the state to the tune of You know $120,000 for I think there's 15 water basin Groups around the state And then they collectively write 140 grants Competitive grants for the state to the state all of them to the state and they end up getting a budget of 1.2 million dollars Well, how does that make sense for us to get these poor people to sing for their supper To get you know pretty reliably over a million dollars of state funding so one of the solutions that we're looking at is could we could we add a little money right now? To Get the state to basically build our local infrastructure put these people on a block grant. Let's not make them compete against one another For for a small amount of dollars. Let's Obviously we need to be sensible about this But this is going to be at minimum a 20 year project. So let's build some local infrastructure These guys can part of them part of those, you know, if it's the rpcs and other kinds of Local groups they can do a lot of the planning to help get our capital dollars out the door So it's ideas like that that we're kind of Pecking around and trying to come up with some answers and I'll just say probably of interest to you guys is There's been a lot of discussion about a per parcel fee I think most people will seem to think that ultimately that is how we will fund part of this And i'm in a unique position Representing chinning county on the committee, you know, I live in burlington obviously south burlington It was the first community in the state to have a storm water utility you guys Cold chester which is out of my district But obviously nearby shellburn right now is in discussions around having a local utility storm water utility How do we work that out? You know, I don't I don't We these communities deserve some acknowledgement that you've been paying To do your part um, I don't think we want to take you completely off the hook even though if if the The working assumption is it would be about a 40 per parcel fee And as james explained you're paying probably 50 51 dollars So, you know, we can't give you credit for all of it because there is I think a feeling a need to Have everybody in in some way But trying to find that right balance so that you are credited That's a unique challenge for a lot of our communities right here in chinning county that You know, I get to at least argue with my friends in the legislature Needs to be acknowledged We'll see how that turns out. So I it's a bit of a scattered shot But those are Several of the the things that we're talking about and we have not made decisions At this point, um, but you know as late as early as later this week, we will be Getting a bill in in sort of shape to pass out at least in the first process And as as you all know that can be iterative right up till you but I don't know if there are questions. I'll be happy to take them. It depends on your schedule, but We have time for questions or comments. Yes So I don't first of all full disclosure. Um, I work for dc. So That's right. Yeah My question has to do It's that kind of uh, uh, we have so many balls in the air and what I mean by that is Is we have the environment or the tmdl or the lake or water quality We have health care. We have education. We have infrastructure problems in vermont And in addition to that, we Need to keep vermont somehow affordable so that my kids who go away to college and end up in a city In the midwest are finding out that it's cheaper to live there and it's um, You know, there's more opportunities for them there. So I guess my question is is how do we prior and I realize I Yeah, well, welcome to my life How do we prioritize water quality when we have those other needs? Um Well, um, I understand the need, but I also understand the So I guess I would ask it a couple of different ways and and You know, you've rightly identified the impossible position we're in And and terry and I work for four and a half months a year Um, so, you know, sometimes I wonder if a citizen legislature structure is really up to these kinds of challenges and and water quality is Kind of in the headlines these days Um, but there's a lot of big questions in some cases They're deferred maintenance, frankly that we've been punting down the road for a long time Um The flip side is well, what if we ignore it? What if we don't do it, right? That is going to cost us more money What if we, you know, the the billions of dollars from from state revenue that comes in because of People who come to enjoy the nature in vermont is a jeopardy. I think if we Don't face up to this challenge. So that's you know, it's I think you know this but it's sometimes helpful to articulate this There's also a very real cost of us not addressing it. So the question is how do you address it? sensibly part of that I think has to be Holding the people the polluters responsible. I mean, I mean, that's how we that's how we do it on on the big parking lots You know around the box stores, right? We acknowledge that that has an impact on us. And so we we say to them You know, you have to deal with this You have to mitigate the stormwater runoff of your big parking lot We have to deal with ag I mean we have to deal with ag ag imports phosphorus Today think about that That's crazy. We're at a crisis of phosphorus in our water And the heart of our communities their business model imports phosphorus. We can't keep doing this We have to call these questions. It's difficult It's not straightforward But you know one of the things that we've been poking around is You know when ag goes when the agency goes to a farm and says, you know, you can't keep doing it this way We've got to look at other things. We're saying to them Is there an economic viability? part of your calculation like maybe the solution isn't to figure out how to keep Being a conventional dairy and do it a little cleaner. Maybe the solution is have you ever, you know shift to raising animals for meat and growing a diverse set of crops and Then you could make money and not be contributing in the same way So we don't have a choice. We can't just shrug this one off We got to do it in a way that's affordable and we got to we got to call the hard questions And and if that looks at ag which I think it has to Can you build a strategy That says what I think all verminers would say is we want farms here We want them to earn a living and we can't keep letting them pollute water and we haven't threaded that yet And that's a long answer, but I don't know if that helps Thank you. And you know, I mean I get your point about the citizen's leather slater. It must be tough. I don't I don't disagree with that A special kind of challenge I think my comment is and I absolutely understand the importance of the issue. I'm not Without at all. I think my problem is just hearing that word revenue source or how we're going to fund it and I I feel at this point that Legislature Senate everybody should be going back and looking at the programs that are not working And the money that's being wasted or the money that's being used Are the people abusing the system and go back and restructure some of that because I think the cost savings that you would find Could then be put over, but I don't think Vermonters or farmers can afford any more Random resources being imposed on them. They're they're tapped out and I agree with you I mean my kids can't wait to get out of here because there is no there's they're not making enough money to make it worthwhile You know, we are a rural state and we are facing Many of those dynamics that are Everywhere in in rural America. I mean no question about that um, and and I'm very sensitive to the idea that People feel maxed out and people are in many cases maxed out. I think we also have to acknowledge You know just about a third of the state is living in poverty. I mean, you know, that's not nothing Those so the idea that we can cut programs that are wasteful and inefficient We've basically been since the Douglas administration not Adding new programs. We've been trimming. We've been in austere budgets It is very hard and people that work at this every day of the year Are not coming to the legislature and saying here's where we've identified the waste There's a precious little of that and you know, I I have over my time in the legislature I was in the house for a long time Gone to appropriations and suggested, you know, millions of dollars in programs that I would cut And and alternatives where either give the money back or or Sensible investments that I would like to see us make and the problem is You know, other people say well, that's a priority for me You can't cut that and then people might say well, you know But food stamps are getting more and more expensive and I would say well, you can't cut that these people are living On the bone, you know, so this is the challenge. Um, and it's a very real challenge Um, you know wage stagnation is a very real problem that impacts Um that impacts state revenue. We got to deal with that. Um, so Your message is is well represented in the state house. I would say Everybody You know time and time again, and I would assume that it's it's true in terry's committee People say well, that'd be a really good idea if we could do that, you know If we made that small investment, we would pay diviners here and everyone's like, yeah, we can't deal There's no new money, you know, we're we're in some very tight boxes and and So we're trying to make do the best we can with with that within those constructions One thing we're trying to stress In my clear is that this is not a Champlain Valley problem. It's a statewide problem We have cam deals everywhere in the Connecticut river In Lakeland I'm from a god Lake Champlain So it's a a real problem and one of the problems that I deal with on the corrections and institutions committee is the bonding money And for the the last for the two years in the biennium We put in about 50 million dollars of bonded money that needs to be Uh, which is allocated towards cleaning up Uh The the waters of the state We can't keep on doing that because we have other pressures. We have to the mental health problems to build a facility for The secure residential facility. We have wood side juvenile detention, which is in desperate need of If not repair certainly rebuilding and we have forensic units for the mental health Individuals who have mental health problems That comes out of bonded money as well. So If there were a money machine in the basement of the state house would be in good shape. There isn't You know, I'll just give you a tiny example and and you know Don't think that this is why I wake up in the morning is to work on water quality I mean I happen to care a lot about it I happen to be one of five people in the senate sitting on the committee right now That's been chewing through this for many weeks But for instance A bill that I have that I think senate economic development is is going to advance As in talking to small business owners They'll tell you a few things one is that I hear is like, you know My administrative assistant hangs up with the department of labor and has to call the department of taxes and try to sort through this And we just want to in The person that said it most articulate was I just want to fix cars I don't really want to have all this interface. So so there's like a lack of efficiency there And then talk to new business developers and they'll tell you yeah, you can register your new corporation on the website It works pretty well But you can't go anywhere in the state of vermont on a single website and figure out what the permitting process is That's absurd right and so for a hundred thousand dollars We'd like to my bill directs the secretary of state that has the business portal to Do that relatively straightforward thing that people in 2018 Think should be compiled somewhere in a straightforward way, right? $100,000 to to hire the developer come up with the plan and start down that road And we're struggling to get that kind of investment And you know, I think most people go geez that seems like out of a four four and a half billion dollar budget We should be able to find that hundred grand And you know, these are the things that we're up against that would be a good way to Let the business community know that we you know, we're serious about develop economic development Cutting a child care Assistance to a single mom. It's not the way to do it, you know, and and so Anyway, we're all doing a lot of things We we get a committee assignment and and dig in there But we have broad interests and and are trying to balance all these competing interests Well, one simple question is um I think I understand the concept of the per parcel fee. You've explained it a little bit further. There might be some Um, what's word accommodation for municipalities that maybe have some utility What else do I need to know about the Well, um the old adage you can have a simple tax or you can have a fair tax, right? So some people say well, it should be 40 dollars a parcel And that's it and we should just get out of town and then I go Well, what about the good people of wilson that are already paying 51 dollars a parcel and the people of burlington south burlington and they say, well All right, maybe we could look at that, you know, thou shalt figure out how that works And then someone says well, what about the guy that owns 80 acres and I live on a three quarters of an acre a lot, you know Okay, we got a deal with that. So Those are some of where we're at in the in the In the discussion right now I don't think you're going to see a new revenue source of significance come online right now But very clearly from the governor on down and the epa is very interested in us Honoring that commitment in the next few years I've I've been advocating for a way In the next few years we have to the epa is going to be all over us if we do not have a dependable ongoing Source of revenue to pay for water quality And they've acknowledged that the capital dollars that has been the bulk of it lately Is a short term stop gap But that cannot be the way we pay for this for one thing not a lot of projects would not be eligible for bonded dollars I've been advocating as a way to maybe get some short term Money on the table for some of this planning work And also to maybe buy down the per parcel fee What's called an occupancy fee And anybody that goes to a hotel room anywhere just about in the country at the bottom of your bill right is like eight lines of a dollar 25 here and a boa and it's just mystifying You know you could you you raise for every dollar of an occupancy you raised 3.6 million dollars This is 90 paid by our visitors I don't think it's realistic to think that a tourist who's wondering where they're going to vacation Or or come visit or go skiing is going to be persuaded by a dollar or two dollar Fee tacked on to the bottom of a hotel bill So I think that's that's a pretty good source of revenue again 90 paid by out of state by non-vermoners And a real nexus to our clean water, which is a basis of our tourist economy. So You know that is a little bit in the discussion right now. Maybe you use that to buy down the per parcel fee So I don't know that there's not a lot is very concrete right now We've also been looking at the idea of of citizen suits So one of the very real challenges is who's kind of accountable here and the secretary of ag is accountable for non-point specific pollution the secretary of a and r is for point Point sources and and you know, there's a lot of like. Oh, no, that's over there Oh, that's over there and it can for the legislature when we're in town for four months. It can be pretty difficult. There are Dozen states that allow would allow a citizen who who found a violation to Let's say if it was stormwater runoff to sue a and r and say You're not living up to the regulatory authority that you have and and this Parking lot is is polluting That's that's modeled out for the federal statute. The goal is not to have a bunch of court cases The goal is You would have a remedy period So the agency would come out and and they'd have 60 days to be engaged in fixing that problem That might be a sort of You know, basically you have 600 000 enforcers in a way that You know, we're Maybe is positive. Some people are afraid of it It it does happen in around water quality and a dozen or more states So we're digging in to understand If that's a realistic approach or not, you know, so these are some of the things that are on the on the table and right now I'd be I wouldn't guess exactly what we'll sugar out in the next few weeks or over the next few months But and again, this is going to be very many many years in development and execution So I expect we'll chip away at it, but a lot of us are feeling like You know lake karma completely in crisis these people are watching their investment income their their retirement income or retirement nest egg in many cases Completely devalued they go to it was in august, right? So a lot of people are vacationing in august. They had to leave You know, that's a real problem. It's a real health problem. It's a real problem for property values around missus koi bay St. Almond's Bay southern part of the lake You know, this is we can't avoid this this particular one. I don't think for much longer Thank you chris. We appreciate your coming forward with the the problems that we face them up here And here well, thank you and and do reach out and and again you guys have a star and james and and I'll be I'll be checking in with him and of course, you know to reach me if you like james. Thank you So let's move on to the regional school district budget presentation I think Amanda marvin one of our school board and members from williston is here and Someone else too Of course Hello everybody Yeah, I know You'll have to excuse me. I have like a throat thing So it's kind of a tough act to follow. It's not all gloom and doom our education system is actually really good um While that's warming up, I guess I'll do some quick introductions Um, I'm Amanda marvin I moved to williston about four years ago Four years ago this march from northern virginia. So you guys are worried about your kids moving away. They might come back It's okay because you have a great education system here. That's why we came Um, I have two kids five and seven preschool and first grade And I wanted to get on the school board to be more involved in just knowing what was going on and that sort of thing so Do you want to say sure, uh, I'm erin brady and I In addition to being a parent of small kids as well. I have a preschooler in a second grader I'm a teacher in colchester. I've been teaching high school for um, 12 years and worked in education policy prior to my teaching career So, um, I've enjoyed the opportunity to be more immersed in the policy right here in our community Okay, awesome So we've sold a little time Time and we'll just we'll try and take you through this quickly if you have any questions Just stop us on a slide because it's easier to do it now than to come back and jump back to it There's members of the audience who may have questions as well. Yes and definitely just, you know, raise your hand make some noise Whatever you need to do He's not moving This way that way you shouldn't have to point at you just I can advance it here. Okay. I'll say next light that works. That should still work Maybe Everyone we're really far So here's our agenda We kind of did some welcomes to who's presenting. We'll kind of give you an overview of cvsd real quickly Um, just to make sure people Know who we are now that we've merged. Uh, we have a few points of prides one from each of our towns Okay I'll review some of the information that kind of went into the budgeting process particularly like enrollment and class sizes Then we'll show you the budget At the end we have the tax articles and implications Our tax implications an article sorry And i'm not going to get into detail on those. They're kind of wordy. I'll let you kind of read them If you have any questions feel free to ask So we are five towns the Champlain Valley school district has five towns, uh, charlotte, heinsberg, shelburn, st. George and williston There are six schools. There are two in wilson allenbrook and wilson central school one in charlotte one in shelburn one in Heinsberg, thank you. I'm this one and then this the high school cvo And give you an idea student count and then for that entire educational community There's one budget now which has been Interesting to put together after doing it at the town level and this is our second year of doing so So we're still learning but um making a lot of progress And in the process of putting together our budget we had informational Budget form and hearing from the community in november and then we had four budget meetings two in december two in january And these are some of the participants that we had our budget buddies They work with us kind of double check our numbers ask questions Kind of a sanity check for the board and administration and then we also got input from parents community members teachers staff So on and so forth So here are some of the points of pride that I was talking about before you can read through these I won't go into detail. We only have wilson central school represented here. So i'll give a shout out to allenbrook We recently hired a new principal and it's a big position big deal And I was on the hiring committee and really impressed by the quality of applicants. It says something about our Um school district in the state. So I was very happy. We have a good I think we have a good new principal So that was something not on here, but i'll throw that out as well as a personal point of pride So the assessment results from the s back wilson is doing very well as the cvu compared to vermont So don't have to get into the details on here. You can look at this but on the whole through all of our grades We are performing well on our standardized test scores And this is another way of looking at it for science We're still performing Above standards, which is good So the takeaway of this slide, there's a lot of data and information here We were kind of on a downward trend for enrollment and we sort of plateaued We had a little Like I think an uptick maybe from finney crossing Particularly at allenbrook last year's kindergarten class was unusually large But we're sort of plateauing now and wilson in particular the different towns in cvsd have different Fluctuation charlotte probably fluctuates the most shellburns also pretty steady and then heinsberg is declining So we're kind of holding steady for now, which is you know a little bit easier to Weather in some ways And this tells you about our class sizes, which are they they're bubble classes So you'll have some that are larger than others But on the whole our state average Or our state standards required that from k through third grade You have an average of less than 20 for all of the grades combined So you'll see that um grade two has 21 But it's an average across the four grades and then the same thing from four through eight an average of 25 or less And you'll notice that wilson is on the higher side One of the reasons for that is we're larger like the two schools are much larger So it's easier to get teacher to student ratios that are much Better for instance charlotte has two kindergarten classes So if you have what do you do if you have 50 students do you do have two 25 classes? Do you have three that are like, you know 14 15 16? So it's we're able to handle that better since we this year have six kindergarten classes so we can kind of And handle little fluctuations like that a little bit better So we're able to stay a little bit on the higher side while still having a quality education And one of the benefits of the merger is just the ability to be a little bit more flexible in those situations so that if there are Big fluctuations in student populations and the ability for teachers to move within the district then and to move resources within the district much much more easily Yes Not yet It's happened it's been happening for years in special ed because special education merged across the district many years ago So they've been the model for a lot of this and we haven't had We haven't had a big case like that In terms of like a full classroom teacher yet Although there's a little bit of sharing happening with I think a couple art specialists Between heinsberg and charlotte particularly some of the smaller schools where they're doing a little bit of sharing of some positions to realize some of that efficiency So as we're taking all this information like how we're performing class sizes that sort of thing We put together some goals and so the biggest goal is we want to be fiscally responsible And the governor said you know try not to go above 2.5 percent in your increase the board was like Let's try and make it 2.3. See if we can just do a little bit better And then we still wanted to have you know We have make sure we're equitable across the different schools that there's still academic success and innovative learning And that even though you have these different schools that still coordinated so that when they get to high school It's not like clearly who came from where they're all kind of together in the same place And then one of the other things is you have to make sure you're listening to your community and make sure that you're putting a budget They're going to approve of and that resonates with people that they can support that sort of thing And to make sure that it doesn't only meet the community financially, but on this case like for instance parents They want to make sure that there's certain programming for their kids They want to make sure their kids have certain opportunities to perhaps learn a language or try a new instrument that sort of thing And then also another thing that's been really important is that we came together as one school district But each town has kind of their own culture and how they like to do things and that autonomy is very important So we're trying to be equitable on one hand to make sure students have you know Reasonable classroom sizes access to certain things, but still maintain that level of autonomy I mean that's actually one of my biggest question is how is that working? I realize it's Still early But that's still very early How is that working the con the concept of Williston which used to be its own school district has its own goals and priorities and that Those types of things but now is part of a larger district where i'm going to use Competing maybe that's not the best word, but you're competing against other towns and their priorities and their goals and How's that working? There's an element of competition, but I think one of the biggest things that we're experiencing right now is sharing like a lot of sharing of like Well, since we are kind of constrained on these resources now How are we going to make the most of what we have here and oh, how are you doing it there and some of the A lot of what we had was merged before but some of it wasn't like food services wasn't so I feel like We're getting some efficiencies there perhaps some learning there um One of the biggest pieces between equity and autonomy were we're kind of making sure things were equitable right now because just Like Aaron said really early on so we're making sure class sizes are equal that you have the right counselor ratios in Your different schools right nursing ratios that sort of thing and then shuffling if it's not quite right and some of that Has been happening like we needed to make a few changes um, so there hasn't been enough change I think yet to really Offset or like you know tip or move things around for autonomy. I think people who are still feeling the autonomy that they have might not be quite as You know disruptive for the autonomy part yet, but the equity we're mostly focusing on now Just to get things sort of balanced starting point and then moving forward And there have been some things like instructional coaching Has now been implemented across the district so that some of the instructional coaches work between different buildings So they can help build some of those bridges and sort of Provide some consistent Educational ideas and goals, but then also they're in the building so able to tailor it a bit To the buildings they're in and I think and again, it's just our it'd probably be a good question for administrators, too But a perception is That the towns all have such strong school cultures and supportive school communities that we came from a good place Where all of the towns have had that to start with and so so thus far it seems like that has been Been maintained and there's a lot of coordination between administrators across the district. The superintendent has a very Robust system for district leadership and really having those administrators working together and developing shared leadership of the district That I think is a good model for a unified district. So I think that also plays to our favor So once we kind of set our goals as to what's going to guide us in Creating a budget we put the budget together and I kind of gave you an idea of the meetings that we had Pre prior to those meetings. We had a whole bunch of meetings We have a budget committee that sat down and looked at all the information that we had to roll together and It's rolled together in a way now that it's actually not broken out by town Like you couldn't do it or the way that it is it wouldn't make sense So some of the Process was started well before we actually Started meeting with the public obviously And as we were going through and creating this budget, there were a lot of factors that we had to consider For instance, the you know The budget deficit that we're already starting in from last year and the health insurance recapture costs So they set some limitations as to what they were going to allow Health care to increase by last year and what the premium what they thought it should be 80 20 And we came in at 84 or 16. So there's something we have to Figure that out this year that's we're in the second year of it though So it's not as much and then health care costs are just increasing 10% a year That's just that's a lot to keep up with when you're not having other increases in revenue and then There are an increase in special needs students an increasing number of them Although this year unusually our special ed budget was almost like flat from last year to this year. It just happens to be The way it worked out this year And then the internal pressures that we have we negotiated a contract of 3% with the teachers for It'll wrap up this coming year and we'll start negotiations again in the fall And we have two projects two renovation projects for the school So there's one in shulburn and then there's the one in wilson that you know Take care of necessary infrastructure changes, but those come with costs And debt payments debt services. Those are some of the pressures that we had to deal with there And then, you know high community expectations. They want, you know cutting not cutting edge, but like some of the more Trendy but things that kind of push the learning bounds like to help you not just be great now But be great in the future too. So personalized learning Multi-care systems of supports a variety of things like that both from educators and parents Many of those are state mandates as well. Yes, that's true So we had a Our goals now we're developing the the the budget and so this is kind of where we landed It's a 2.3 percent increase. You'll see that at the very bottom And there are two numbers to kind of look at so debt services we referred to last time That's the bond for the shulburn building and the bond for the wilson central school building Those were 1.1 percent So that's just kind of you came into this budget and you had to pay this amount So then we were like, how can we given the other constraints increase our budget to still keep our quality of education? That sort of thing and we came up with a 1.2 percent increase of just district operating costs Which we were hoping would impress people because there was a lot of work And here this gives you an idea of Some of the areas that increased and by how much So special ed services, that's a really small increase for them. And I did want to point out We did have consolidation savings this year. So we can actually pinpoint. This is Specifically where we saved some money, which was great to be able to show people Any questions on some of the numbers? These are really high level numbers too. So I'll keep going So then you have the increase that the school board has put together And then how does it get put into a number that you'll see in your tax bill? And that's the very complicated part um And so this is kind of a breakout of How and what that happens? So we have at the top line, that's kind of what the school board is able to Control I guess is the best Word of explaining it and then you have these other Calculations that go into your total increase in your tax bill. So the school board has put together a 2.3 percent increase The governor said 2.5 less. So Hopefully if they have any legislation, it'll It'll still be good Any questions on this slide? Because there's so the one thing I really want to point out at the bottom the common level of appraisals I'm sure you guys are well aware of this, but um, that's 4.5 percent for Willis and that is huge So I know we've contested it Is a town but um, it's going to make our um I think I have a slide later that shows the comparison between the towns It's going to make us look really high in terms of our impact on the tax rate So I'll keep going And here's that slide So we're at the bottom. We have a plus 11.9 percent, but four and a half percent of that was our common common level assessment It's approximately like seven to eight percent across the board Um, this does take into consideration the consolidation savings. It was 10 cents the first year eight cents the second We're in the second year. So we still get that eight-cent savings But this is a an estimate of what it will look like. It's totally dependent on a whole bunch of other things, but that 2.3 percent Factored into what we think will be the other numbers gives us a 11.9 percent increase And there's a breakout. Um, there's a slide later on tax implications That kind of shows you what that means dollar wise depending on your housing value and I can show you that if you Would like to see it. It's right here Just to give you an idea. So if you have a house that's a $200,000 valued house Last year you pay about $2,900 this year you'll pay about $3,200 and you can see the various So if you have a $500,000 house and then income sensitivity at $85,000 you guys can read all this I don't need to read it to you Any questions on this Two slides if you don't mind Okay, that's actually one more slide So the takeaway from this slide is the 1.2 percent For the most part debt services will be baked in in the future So we've increased 1.2 percent this year and another thing we did this year, which I really liked We have a five-year plan. So we said, okay, this year we're going to plan plan to spend about 2.3 percent next year We're going to plan to spend I think it's like 1.3 1.5 ish or something So we have a plan in place for about five years where we can just you know, and we've We're decreasing our spending of the fund balance that sort of thing to try and meet this plan over the coming years I go to the Go two slides forward. Yes, this one And then I look at so 1.2 or 2.3 2.3 Compared to 11.9 That's that's the tricky part And that's because you have these these things here. So 2.3. So funding formulas. Yeah, it's the state funding point That's why it's subject to change. Yes, right exactly Well, I see so if I add up the 2.3 plus 3.5 plus 1.4 plus 4.5. I'll get to the 11 point 9 So so a lot of it is out of the control of local Yeah, totally get that and even if you were at zero We would still be having a tax increase. Yeah, there are towns in that position. Yeah Yeah, you say the obvious You know the the 11.9 is is not a good number to be looking at I don't know how else to put that Yeah, that's I totally agree with you which is why I was like so the 2.3 is what the school board school board can control We have schools. We got to run them. Um, but I totally agree that 11.9 number is not pretty Um, a 4.5 of it is the common level of appraisal So, I mean that is what it is It is what it may be. Yes, I know But you have like for this for I guess you guys can repeal it by may june. That's right So that would affect this tax year. Okay Okay fingers crossed then I Skip back up, but I think Yes, okay. Yeah, and this is a this is a more detailed explanation of the calculation. I can leave this up here I won't walk people through it necessarily and then the next four slides are the actual articles written out um If people would really like to Meet them gives Equalized pupils Are equalized pupils went up this year kind of oddly, but we'll take it. I don't know how they do that calculation either, but Um So are there any questions? I guess I'll I'll scroll through the articles really quickly just so people Sure Oh our person it's about in the we're definitely lower on average I think it's like a range of like 12 to 18 and we're about um in the middle on the lower side most of our um Like our student staff ratios those types of things because that's another metric that the governor has mentioned There might try to be a cap on we're under on that one too 2.3 is under 2.5 We try to be under obviously whenever we can and per people spending is under as well So what are we missing? Um, what do you mean? What are we missing? Oh, um, some of it's just our ability So going back to the example, uh, lulz said school district was already a little bit larger We have six kindergarten classes classes instead of charlotte, which has two but they have 40 students So they have 20 in each class if they get five extra kids, what are they going to do? You know hire a whole nother teacher. So we're able to absorb changes like that a little better It's kind of an economies of scale thing Um, and now that we've merged larger district We can do that even more by, you know, possibly sharing staff that sort of thing So that's explains part of it I'll um go through the articles real quick. So you'll have an idea of what you'll see So this is the article to approve the budget the 2.3 increase that's the part that the school board could vote on This is what it'll look like We are also we need to Oh, this is the fund balance. This is applying. I was not expecting this one next. This is for the fund balance application to our current budget I was waiting for the buses. Yeah So here's yeah, the buses are this is the buses. So, um, this year we took, um, charlotte's busing which used to be Contracted out and we've taken that under our control and every year on average CSSU would purchase about three buses We have about 65 in our fleet prior to acquiring charlotte So, you know, just normal you got to retire your buses are getting all the average age I think is about 16 years So we're not talking about like having all brand new buses and But by acquiring charlotte we need to Add a few new buses will I think do three this year and three next year And then just keep some of our buses on this year and make them go hopefully one extra year So but this is an article to vote on the busing purchases I just wanted to explain why it was a little higher than usual because we acquired charlotte's busing under the Just moved it under with everything else in CVSD to manage transportation in one way And this is excuse me This is for this is a recapture Yes, because the built the construction in shellburn is done and they actually had A surplus but because it was done over what before we were emerged district By law that money could only be used for shellburn unless we all vote on it now in CVSD So essentially to release those funds to be used for capital Needs across the district Just Again a nice consolidation benefit Perhaps she'll burn won't see it that way And that was our last article that we'll have So are there any questions on anything that we presented on or this is a very high level Much higher up than previous Before you know I was the Wilson school board you talked about like oh are we going to keep World language and are they going to be a halftime teacher a full-time teacher? So it was it was a much more detailed conversation A lot of those details the administration still has at the local level And even I guess the superintendent would as well But the CVSD board is kind of we're focused at a higher level now So you're doing more of these presentations Next couple weeks. Are you And we have one on the 22nd of february That's the that's kind of our version of town meeting day It'll be at CVU at 6 p.m. And then we're also doing them on March 5th for some most of the towns are doing them. I think Different question We're not we're not totally sure some of it's it's probably it might be about a wash on the savings What some of it is So for instance They couldn't get a bus driver and when they didn't have a bus driver Well, we couldn't just take one of our extra bus drivers and have them go drive a bus because we didn't have the bus so part of it's a Savings thing also it's just having The convenience of making sure it's managed correctly because I think for like the first I was almost a month of school charlotte has five or six bus routes and they were doing it with five buses So they'd go Pick up the bus pick up five of the bus routes And then one would go back out and pick up the other bus route and then come back in So those kids were getting to school half an hour later and that was just not okay So we had to think of a way to try and handle it But I don't I don't necessarily know that there will be class savings. It's more just that convenience A moment ago, you said you were going to be doing presentations on March 5th I mean at the town meetings of various towns I believe so, yeah Because we weren't told about that Um, we can I don't we can coordinate that later if is is there not if there's if the same way like last year after the Town, yeah, we were told that wasn't going to happen this year. Oh Okay, well, maybe it's not going to happen. Maybe I could I could be wrong too, but that's Jennifer. I don't know if you Okay, okay, well, I'll find out maybe we're not doing no I think that the intention was to because it well makes sense. It makes it. It's the best opportunity to reach realistic Voters and so it seems, you know, sensible and responsible It makes sense, but like I said, I I had heard quite the different I was surprised when I heard that I think maybe what it is is that so on February 22nd Is when we're officially having our like CVSD presentation to present the budget And then I think the board is leaving it up to the individual towns as to whether or not to do it on town meeting day Um I can coordinate with you rick if that's okay Yeah, sure because we'd we'd really like to have A presentation then if it's possible we we it wasn't included in our published agenda, but That's not the end of the world Any further questions for Our members board members Thanks much. Thank you for letting us come out And So the last thing we have to do is other business and I believe we have a catering permit Take care of Oh, it's actually it's not a catering permit. It's a special events for us. Okay for an events uh scheduled on February 23rd And it involves multiple vendors that are going to be doing a tasting at Lenny's shoe in apparel and uh The licensee name is uh, I can't even pronounce it Grand Grenville Meadery Grenville, did I get that right? Okay, good There'll be other vendors on the site as well first from public brewing company and good water brewery, which is located right here in wilson And um, I'm ours. It's uh five to p.m. Day p.m And uh staff has no objections There's questions for rick and so yeah, I'm sorry. Could you explain it? It's a beard Is it it's a tasting? Yes, yes We got our shoes, but it's under the special event permit, which is so it's not a catering thing So is your motion to approve? I'd move to approve the Uh special event as stated was presented by rick So second Any discussion on the motion Very none. No, most in favor of the motion say aye. Aye. That's unanimous um Manager evaluation forms. I think only two people have responded so far about So we need to have responses to which form we'll use and When we finally get that done in the next day or two I'd like to have them back, whichever form we use. I'd like to have them back to me by The 13th, which is next week. Um, give you about a week to work on them and Whichever way you want to do it whether electronically or give them into me in a envelope that town hall It's fine. Just as it has the 13th as in next of February. Yes next week Oh, okay. Well, I can get it to you depending on what it gets. It's just sure I've got to be down in Florida for a couple of days. Okay. So 13th is on a Tuesday, which is yeah, okay So it's a week, but you know another day or two isn't too much of a problem um channel 17 We're presenting the budget on this coming friday and night at 5 25 I'm scheduled to be interviewed. I think at six for a select board. Are you doing something by Yeah, I asked him if we could like switch it. So at least we would be going together Yeah, it was what Ted and I did. Yeah, they didn't so they're making me go in on the 14th I'm like, did you actually talk to Terry and ask him because I would have thought that you would have said I'll do a different night. They never did. No, you're right. One of we should reach out. Yeah It just doesn't make sense makes no sense to go do this separately and unfortunately I have to be I've got to check on my my parents in Florida. So that's what I'm going to do So 14th, I think I'm okay on the 14th, but uh, but we should check with them on that Yeah, I will try to make a note to send an email including you tomorrow, but if you would do the same thing I think they asked me for like two o'clock Or something. I definitely cannot do that. No, so you need something in the evening. Yeah I will make something work Okay, well, we can We'll check with them on that. Good Anything else on other business for tonight? If not, okay To the gallant gavel and work adjourned And rick you you had said during the meeting that nicolas thomas is no longer He went through apparently You can sit there and be interviewed by yourself. Thank you