 coming in. Absolutely. So I'm probably working on the study of this building and this is just a progress report. Feel free to interrupt with questions if you can't see something or can't read something but just this is kind of the The first thing we try to come up with is a program. What spaces do you need in each building? How many square feet do you need for a cafeteria and do you need more? For example this space which is a cafeteria space, a music space and an art space. The multi gym, the cafeteria is a little overburdened. So this is a spreadsheet for this school and it tells you how many square feet are in each room and it goes in each room. And then it has some lines, if you can't hear me because I'm talking to the screen, I'm sorry, I'm trying to talk to you instead. For space we might be, we don't have any space for art designated in our storage. We have this which is also designated as PE. And so we said we could probably use a classroom sized space for art and music. And you see when we look at music we're saying we're going to combine that with art because we don't need an art room and a music room for this school but they each might want their own storage. And so we say in this school also special educator kind of towards the top. Right now the special educator lives in the hallway. They really use a room. Nurse is another one. So we've gone through this school and the other and Rochester Elementary. Space by space, you have enough square footage. The other thing that we do here is over here, these numbers over here and this description is from way back when the Ed Department used to say you should have this many square feet for a classroom or a student. You should have this many square feet for a music room. And we use that just to kind of check it's not a rule of law, it's more of a gosh you guys are asking for an awful lot of space for music. Are you really sure you need that kind of thing? Or you know hey you don't have anywhere here in our space for what the Ed Department says for this so you might want to consider it. So that is kind of our check. And as it comes down in the end, we start to see okay. We think here at, uh oh, okay? We think here at Stoneman Bridge, it's kind of hard to navigate through the chart. We think this number here, this is 2128. That's how much space we think you need in addition to what you have. So in the sort of ideal world, first flush don't take this as a set of stone yet, but we think you've got 7,798 square feet. And we think you need a couple thousand more. When we did the same thing at Rochester and came up with more complicated things because Rochester you have two buildings. So I can run through the kind of where we went with Stoneman Bridge, um, and then we can talk about Rochester. Two questions about two thousand is something to think, that's what you're saying we need based on the data, not what we're saying we need. That is what, so all of our data, all of our square footage is based on our conversations with Lindy and Bonnie and their conversations with their teachers and whoever else needs to have input. We are not saying, gosh, this school really needs an auditorium because that's not mine to say. I'm listening to the principals who are saying, and maybe we're hanging them out a little bit and saying, you know, really do you want to do everything in this room and maybe you need some more storage for the stuff that's out on the porch. Or on the stairwell that we have. There are some things where you really should move the things out of the hallways for code reasons. So yeah, we're pushing that a little bit, but in the most part we're taking what we get. But it's also based on the guidelines to not just what the principals are telling you, right? Yes, I mean we, it's based a little bit on the target guidelines, it's based a little bit on decades of doing this and seeing a whole lot of schools, particularly in the state, knowing what they all do. So, we're kind of keeping it normal in what we're suggesting. So it's more of a best practices, you know, kind of a population that's similar to yours should have space like this. The Ed agency says, or the Department of Education now, they're the agency now. The Ed agency says you should have these kinds of spaces, you know, in about this much room for this many kids. You're taking their input as what they do and how they're using the building and their discussions of what they don't like about the building, what they wish they had, but in a, you know, in not a, you know, sitting on Santa's knee sort of tone. It's more of a, you know, of an analysis of interviews. I don't think there was ever a Santa's. Just being real, it was very realistic conversation about it. Well, yeah, she makes a very good point with her thing saying, we're not saying you need an auditorium here. Right, exactly. We're saying you might want to not have special education happening in the hallway. That would be a good point. That would be the dream. So, so we've got a program. The next thing that we did was the committee tasked us with documenting the existing buildings. We have three buildings that you can come ahead, some floor plans here and there and some are old and some are private that didn't happen. So, we came out here and measured each of the buildings based some stuff on the old drawings. And now we have rabbit models that can be made into autocad plans and EES of each of the three buildings. Which is going to be very helpful as we go down. And we're up here in the old service room. So, we took that original programming space and made it graphic here to see what each space is used for and get a little bit of feel for how we might add to it or change it. And then, some approach needs about 2,000 square foot more space. This down here is the classroom part of stuff where you are here. This is the drug where we came in at heart. And we are suggesting that we add something either here, right back there, or here over there. And that's about how big an addition you would need to meet your program at means. Okay, so we need one or the other or we need both? Right, both together, not both. So, and there's some associated things and we've also in the process of this had mechanical, electrical, civil or structural engineers looking at these buildings and still have a little work to do with them on things like, okay, if we add here, do we have storm water issues? And, yes, there's going to be permitting requirements. And, you know, how do we give our goal? We think that's working. That was late. I'm sorry. So, why do we need an addition? I mean, it's made do, yeah. Oh, and making do is the way in the world sometimes, but even you can have an addition. In this building, I would say we cited some key points of this room here is being used for PE, cafeteria, art and music, is that all? Yeah, but they always are. So, why, and we have less to this. Maybe we're going to give a little. Yeah, I think a little. So, what we're doing here, this is the engineering consultant firm that we hired to analyze all three buildings to look at space utilization, to look at student population, to look at educational needs. And they've got an assessment of all the three buildings. Okay. And we're hearing a preliminary report on them. These are recommendations that are based on, you know, before you came in, she was mentioning that, you know, she's basing the recommendations on similar Vermont schools with our population on Department of Education recommendations needs. You know, and then also their experience with going through and analyzing the schools. This is all preliminary. This is just, you know, one of the things that we had said when we came together was that we were going to get a real analysis. One of the things she said before this as well, before we started talking about recommendations is they're bringing the engineers to actually generate the plans, the specs, the things that we never really have had for this building or the two Rochester buildings so we can really make an informed decision about how to best use the space and how to best educate the kids. So, that's sort of what we're in the middle of. And that's where she's saying, based on her interviews with the principals and their work with the staff and looking at state guidelines for space. Utilization and all that, this is what they're saying. And one of the things they're saying is that in general, a multi-purpose space is more of a two usage thing and not a more. Doing special education in the halls is not, you know, really appropriate. And she, well, I was about to ask you because you had mentioned code issues that, you know, you're making recommendations based on code. You haven't found any major code violations. I have you. I've not found any life-saving violations. Okay. ADA violations? Yeah. Nothing earth-shattering. Obviously, you have students who are making it work. But there are things that we would recommend to do better for ADA. Okay. And this is also the beginning of a lot more conversation. Right. A lot. This is giving us a baseline of where are we? Where are our buildings? In terms of what we're going to do. In terms of maintenance. We'll be doing, you know, in our study, you know, this is just sort of, like I said, this is the progress report. Right. Eventually, we're going to have a laundry list. We're going to have another Excel spreadsheet of, here are what we recognize as deficiencies or needs. And here's a price we think it might be. And then we might come along and say, okay, here's kind of a baseline. Like, if we're just building a baseline, it might not involve an addition. It might involve a few ADA efforts. It might involve some ventilation stuff. And then we do kind of, okay, here's one for that. And here's the journey. And, you know, what's the total cost? Well, we think it might be for that. And then you can start your planning and saying, okay, dream is out. We can't pass that. And, you know, figure out where you might stand or maybe dream is in here and it's not our optimum. That's for you guys to surround. Once we give you the information. So that's what we're hearing. We are aware of what the population is doing. And I think what we're doing is the programmatic piece. There's only so much with the small populations you have that you're going to cut back in programmatic needs. So I think, yes, we're considering it. I don't think it's going to have a huge impact on where we land with the options we give you. It may have an impact on what you choose to do with it. Okay, I have one more question. But I guess that you're just looking into this. But I guess I still don't understand why my kids were here. We had 20 kids in the last room and 18 in the middle and 16 in the middle. And now we are so little, and I know we do more, but we can't make it work. And why are we even considering adding on? And this time we're the... I wouldn't understand that. We're not necessarily considering anything. The point of this survey isn't to decide about adding on. The point of the survey is to analyze the buildings and recognize deficiencies and recognize strengths. We have the information to make decisions about what grades are in what building and who's where and where it goes. And yeah, we certainly made it work at one point in time. We actually had a major fire code violation when for some reason they decided they could teach art upstairs in the crawl space. So some of the things we did were really bad. Some of the things we did we did because we had to. But I think what we're looking at here and I think it's important to remember is that this study is a dispassionate analysis of... Based on other Vermont schools, this is what we think... This is what they have in terms of having a dedicated art room. Of having a special education space or a time-out space or some of the other things that different schools have. We're not necessarily going to do anything of what they're saying. But we need to not just make blueprints, but analyze the spaces as well. So that's what we're hearing about now. It should be ventilation. It might just be something like ventilation for ventilation. It's making informed decisions. We'll be able to make informed decisions about things because we'll know what we have. And it goes towards like our boilers or everything that runs our schools behind all the walls. We don't have an idea of the conditions that each of our buildings are in. So we need to be able to make decisions from a point of reference. So having Black River do this will give us a wealth of knowledge to know this heater hasn't been upgraded. This system isn't working. We need to get on a path to maintain and not just be fixing giant holes in emergency situations. This is where things get interesting. This school, quite honestly in this study, is pretty simple. But when you start talking about the two buildings at Rochester, that's where you get all kinds of first-person options and things that you was born in a community are going to need to figure out. You've got two buildings and one school. And right now, in this building, which is Rochester Elementary School, you have some youths that don't fit in here, which you're using a high school for. And that is not a significant deal. So we are looking at, okay, in this building, we did the same exercise. We programmed what's in this building. In an afrograde, there's several lines that are this art room, this music room, is located in the high school, the auditorium. Which, for instance, 8% doesn't really use an auditorium like it's a black school, but it's used. The one way to have a school program is there was some need that would use it in our adult environment. There kept green light hours in the gym kept area of music on. Right, but again, we're having an analysis done of what comparable schools of our size and scope have. And what the Department of Education recommends. Yes, we could put them in the gym. That's certainly an option. But we're looking at what's the best practice for a school of our numbers. And there are some things that the community is going to have to win. The gym is used by the community as well. And if you put art storage and music storage and all that, making it an elementary school art music room, it's a better outcome than all that. It's a conversation to do that. It's a huge asset that nothing is going to be decided in the house. Yes, those drawings are cool. The conversation we had had just as a board and we're not nearly as detailed as obviously you guys probably are. We said, well, the one building's got like the gym and the cafeteria. The other building's got the art room, the music room and the auditorium. You're packing the one building to the guilds, there's room to the other. So in this drawing, have we moved the kitchen? Are the kids still going across the road to the gym or the thing? Or is there... I have just clarification here. The purpose of this report, I thought was, and I'm sorry for being late, but I thought was just to tell us what you found not to necessarily make any recommendations because that is a much bigger process. She is not. What she is looking at is we have... She's looking at the standards and best practices of Vermont schools of our size and she's looking at... In general, they don't have a four or five purpose room. They have at most a two purpose room. They have spaces for special education. They have spaces for art and music. They have a certain amount of library. What she is looking at is when she looks at those scales, for example, you missed earlier, there needs to be 2,000... By those numbers, Stockbridge would be best served by adding 2,300 square feet somewhere, like behind this wall or over there at the end of the library. But again, she's just telling us. That's just... It's sounding like it was recommendations. No, no, it's just fitting the needs of the school of our size into these buildings. What are the buildings? Can it work? Or are there deficits that need to be corrected? I don't really have the mechanical systems stuff done yet, but they've done the space analysis stuff, because that's stuff you can do with measuring tapes and drafting software and all. So what they said was they thought if we stayed in Stockbridge, we should have 2,000 or more square feet, so special education is not in the hall. We have a dedicated art and music room. Sounds fun. If we stayed earlier, if we stayed in the elementary school, we'd have to add 3,500 square feet to the elementary school to move... You lose the auditorium completely. You move the art room over. There's some more office space and some other space rearranging needs. I think the library would have to change. So to move everything into the Rochester elementary, her summary was by that kind of analysis, just space analysis, that building would need 3,500 more square feet. And what she just was saying as she came in, was that if you take the high school building, you can... Remember, we had the question of one building's got the cafeteria, one building's got the auditorium and art room. She was saying that you can... In this building, there's not an addition being proposed. There's just a repurposing of some space. The apparently... I understood you correctly, the elementary school can completely fit into the current building envelope at the high school. That's where you were, right now. So you're turning that part into a kitchen and we'll use the big old library space or something like that as a gym space because we don't really need a formal high school gym anymore. She just got... She was saying the cafeteria could be a cafeteria. Okay. And we're not making any decisions about this. No. I just wanted to make that point very clear to everybody. We're making decisions. Bruce, I think you just got fired. Thank you. I've been kind of focusing on the programs. Obviously it's got pictures and I can show you spreadsheets and things. You know, we do have a preliminary mechanical report and some of it on the board has been to say, here's what it is because, you know, right now we can't believe it looks like the Rochester High School is going to be a lot of work compared to Rochester Elementary School. It's going to be a lot of work compared to high school, but until I really start looking for a specific statement and specific replacements and a lot of other stuff that's going to be told into getting one building up to where it ought to be and the other building up to where it ought to be to say, which one makes more sense? That's going to be up to you, but we don't know. How much longer are you going to be working on this? To get that completed report? We can get some of this material so that we can report out at our annual meeting where we are, we don't necessarily need you guys to come and do a big formal thing that we would like to be able to... We want to have that happen when it's done, done. Not on, you know, we don't want to change the thing. That's about what you want. Yeah, I don't think we're going to try to send that out in the booklet. We don't want to turn that around that quickly, but I think we want to definitely talk about that at our annual meeting. Absolutely. And there are some things mentioned that, you know, we'll have our piece done at the end of the month, but we want to have some asbestos testing done and we're not going to do that until we're out of buildings. So, part of this whole thing is going to lack... No, and thank you for thinking the first two days in that way. That is the point. Although, probably a lot of the kids would love to wear a little asbestos being in the suit for a day. They are for kindergarten, out door. Okay. Is it cute? We're going to say... Absolutely, thanks so much. No, please. I do have one question. Now, as far as the final report, do you really think that, you know, just coming to a board meeting is important to us? I don't remember... Stu, do you guys think that after this committee that initially salutes the firm from all the RFPs that the very beginning of this, who they can come back and report out to there and then just make sure it has everything before they come to the board? Full board? No, I think that... So the committee first... To double check to make sure... And we've got all our board questions answered and then we can have them attend the formal board meeting, deliver the final report. And we can have... Because we've had that committee meeting ahead of time, we can have materials prepared for distribution and all that sort of stuff. Okay, with those steps, that sounds reasonable. Is that some... I think we are... Yes. So, thank you. Where are we? Did this go? Yes. Public comment? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Go and get out. Swing your legs out. Seem done for board. I ran through them today. And Amy likes them a little bit. Hi. Opposed? The minutes are... The board reports. So, a couple things to report. I am sorry I'm a couple minutes late. We are interviewing for a new principal in Sharon. Barrett's leaving. And we just saw two candidates tonight. Two more on Friday. And we'll see where we are after that. We feel like we're kind of a little bit late, but that's why I was late. Because we were in the interview. He's the same to the end of the year. Yes, yes, yes. We are through the policy adoption. 46 policies. We now have, they're on the website and have been approved. There are a couple little wrinkles. And I will be asking for a delegate from this committee and this board to serve on that policy committee. It should become a standing committee of the board as we go forward as we have other needs. But there are a couple policies. One is facilities use and there's another one that had, didn't come through the policy adoption process unscathed. Or some tweaks that need to happen. And he had a conversation with Steve Dale I had a couple days ago. He's pretty emphatic that policy committee needs to come together and see if they can rectify this so that we can all agree to a version. So we don't have to have a certain policy for a certain board that we can all come to consensus on the wording so that we don't have to go there. Not that that's not an option. I guess it could be down the road, but it's not a first option. It should be something we try to kind of merge together and make that work. So things are really, really, really, really busy in the office right now. And I'm we've got all kinds of different things going on all kinds of initiatives. We're deep into hiring everywhere. We've given people extensions who've asked for them until the 13th of May. At that point they're going to have to turn in their contracts so that we can figure out what we need and try to figure out who we're going to hire in their place. There's nothing like it was last year or last year during the summer we for the spring and summer we hired 40 new people 40 new teachers and I kind of felt like all summer long that's all we did was hire, hire, hire and this year it's not going to be anything like that. Not that you're interested but the Royal Ten and Bethel Revote will be happening Monday. We had an informational hearing last night and we're working on that. I don't think well as you know the first budget was passed it was a slim margin and it was challenged because of the slim. Also we're not many people at the meeting at all and so I would expect that I would expect we're going to be okay. There haven't been a whole host of people at our meetings that's kind of good and kind of bad to try to forecast whether or not what they're interested in the bad part is that if they're not there getting information we're going to have to provide a lot of information on the night of the vote. I'm not really that worried about it what else to say. I'm going to be pinch hinting in Rochester on Thursday morning for Bonnie and then I think Lindy will be taking over from there we've all kind of been assigned times so that'll be part of what I'll be doing this week while Bonnie's away and we're not anticipating anything it's just good to have presence around I've done this before so we have I'll remind you that we have the board training coming up at McMory on the 15th it's really for board chairs but anybody can go if they want to go and be a part of that as you know by Vermont law you have to have sort of amount of training every year towers chairs do but this is open please come I didn't bring it tonight but I do have some new materials for you guys as far as handbooks and things that the VSBA puts out and so I will be bringing them and getting you up to date with some of that I don't think the laws have changed that much so we had a couple of updated copies 2016 I don't think it's a whole lot of difference between those and now but we're having to order some new ones at your next meeting on the 4th of June I will be late coming back from North Carolina I'm going down to see my family again and I will probably just be a little bit late through the meeting but I'll make sure your paperwork gets to the meeting ahead of me and it will be fine I have a statement Carl one issue that I'm sorry I forgot to put on the agenda but we really should address tonight is excess grant money held by the town that used to be used for the high school people have asked about it I sent out the email it's not the grant money it's the scholarship money we haven't found a solid answer about that and these people are asking and graduations approaching can we can we add that I know that's out of sequence but is it possible to add this at some point tonight discussion just because it's timely because by the next time we meet it'll be almost graduation 7-2 thank you scholarship funds I guess I'd like to add to the discussion items it's more of a question for Bruce I got an email from Rochester saying that because act 46 offered towns that were merging assistance for these kind of building analysis and that those funds were offered at least paid for by the state I just want to kind of I don't know if it's a discussion item down there we just want to talk about it now so you the executive board made a decision you had merger funds left basically $82,000 or $83,000 that was left the question was how much of it's yours how much of it's Royaltons and Bethels how much of it's Stratford and Stratford and Stratford get any of it because they went through the motions they didn't ever merge but they did do a study so we put the executive board made the decision to put that money away for student use and nobody's asked for it yet I think we're trying to figure out that if we is it first come first serve do we do you want to for a trip for your kids in the future how much of that is your share and nobody's really defined any of those things so we haven't used it yet Royalton and Bethel did we're talking about it because they made a they did a fifth grade trip to nature's classroom in Maine it took all their fifth graders down there together both buildings and they kind of had them get together kind of a thing they didn't end up using that money but they talked about it so I'm a little afraid that I'm going to that we're going to do something that's going to take their share and your share too so I don't know how we settled this I think it's maybe an executive board decision we had talked about this and this is the thing that Ginger did not produce because she was asked to do this when during her tenure as business manager we asked to see what that would work out in terms of in terms of like different scenarios we asked her to model it based on on pupil costs or on a pupil count rather you know and the feeling at least in that conversation in general that you know it needs to go it's not just here's a check so if Strafford or Sharon had had some something merger related that they had paid for some analysis or something you know that they could they were certainly eligible to submit for that but that once all the bills have been paid because that was the other question is had everyone you know gotten the Steve Gale got his check and all those various other parts of the merger we had to pay return his fees with them but 82 or 83,000 got put away we're sure that that number is we've paid all the expenses yet then the conversation had been they should just go to the districts that merged for their post merger activities which if Bethel and Lawson wanted to use whatever their share would be to fray the cost of that trip they could we could use our share to fray some of the costs of black rivers analysis of our buildings you know whatever Chelsea and Tumbridge felt that you know was merger related that they were doing post merger that they should pay for the business office to say here's how it's modeled by student count you know yeah well so there was another meeting I know I know several of the people around the table but not all probably not everybody and was the executive board they decided because they couldn't really figure out how to do this they decided to put it away for kids for student things trips activities materials equipment whatever that's as far as we sure right I just think I had not seen most like just a breakdown of no I don't think it was ever done Carl no I don't think I know you asked for it because I was at the meeting but I just wrote it down so cool so the answer to the question is never fear the money's there and it's a it's a it's a good question so is there a timeline of when it's going to come up how we can apply these to find I think all that mechanism is worked out is that an executive board I don't know well if we have to have all of you in the room and have you agree it may not necessarily be an executive board maybe we bring it to the next board meeting sure what's the if we can have it for the next SU meeting it can be a conversation and get the the checks cut and I'm sure you know if it's for kids I bet you're borrowing really yeah well that's what I'm afraid of I got money the boards that are making this decision well we need to I think it's that money was set aside and I think it's I think we need to make sure that all of the campuses and the districts get their cut so we can apply it for our students the way we can I'm not making the decision we need to get it on we need to get it on the you can't make this something about money that's my job I do but thank you I will let that time person know yes I will get on that thank you thank you no not really good good other than the poor formatting sorry about that one came up one it's mine it's mine I got a little one too I was thinking I was thinking I got a lot one came up any highlights or anything what did we're supposed to you should note up the fifth and sixth graders just got back from a week at Key Waden and had a fabulous time there were two other schools there besides Rochester and Stockton and all of the schools there had school choice starting in seventh grade so it was a great opportunity the kids weren't all there were a couple kids from each building kind of grouped together they do it you don't get a say in it it's a great opportunity for them to have conversations like that so that was interesting year end assessments have begun a wide variety from accounting about to just benchmark assessments as well our fourth grade also both Rochester and Stockton was fourth grade and did the ropes course together and that's kind of the first time we do a lot together just close that grade without an older or younger grade attached and then Joanne Mills helped me organize a drug one for your school fundraiser for both Rochester and Stockbridge together and we have the kiddos there helping as well as the PTOs are working together to stack up a big sale is there more information as to what that is I'm not really familiar with Stockbridge but I'm not sure if people in Rochester are aware of what it is you come and you test you fill out a form and you test drive a car and for every one person for every person that comes there to test drive you get $20 it's very nice is there a way we can get the benefit in Rochester yep we just got posters today before supplies all the advertising so Joanne you just drop those off today so we'll get that all if you remind me I'll take one of those okay that one which one I was thinking the muscle I'll be coming to that we have a little to just start the time here where Bonnie has to be with her and children a couple days a week so that means Rochester people know they cannot reach me by phone but also I'll be spending some time over there in coordination with when our guidance counselors here we've worked out a coordination schedule so teachers know where to go and vice versa can you explain what the fifth grade forum is so the fifth grade forum is been organized by our wellness and it's this opportunity for all the fifth graders in that supervisory union to get together and they have a team building activity they're divided into groups they have a team building activity they have a physical you know like physically active together the activity and like how to take care of them yeah like an emotional health activity and then like a vision like a planning so it's like four or five stations and they rotate them and have lunch together cool so since Thursday that's all the fifth graders in our entire SU all the fifth graders how many is that 157 I think something like that it happens to be a large fifth grade class this year first can I put in my sense that I think this is great there should be more SU gathering I think that's a really good idea to it it's always been very very good is it great the only school that isn't sending somebody is new because they've got some testing problems but everybody else will be there it's a good time developmentally for them to start meeting their peers to extend their social network any other questions for Linnie all right I don't really have any questions from staff June 14 hopefully 1.30 don't call me we have a senate to speak first that's the plan right now that's the plan right now that's the plan right now that's the plan right now that's the plan right now that's the plan right now I think other than why we're supposed to be on set I think it's good I didn't have anything new to add to it I learned the software last week super exciting I gotta say that she's growing with leaps and bounds and loves she seems to be what she's doing except when I come into the office it's like a cloud that follows him whatever I'm doing so didn't take long for that to happen that's good we can hear it all the way in the other side of the building it's bad today it was a bad day yeah are there extra topics I wanted to I think that was great I just have my written up notes all over it I have it electronically I think I can I can go back to my coffee I'm taking a recommendation on this one I think she's got this one right yes that's it I'll be right back so you do that well you do that Janet give us the literacy report and then we can go into the budget discussion okay so the research is that those school boards that concentrate on student achievement get student achievement and so I want us all to be eligible for why we do what we do to make sure that this school board concentrates on student achievement that's our major focus that's how we can support I think we can do that I know we can do that in two ways the first way we can do it and I'm going to start over for a minute any kind of research with everything I'm going to be doing with you from now on if you let me involves either effective professional development or effective instructional support what's the second one instructional tool I don't call it a reading program or a process it's an instructional tool designed to teach all our children and if it's data-driven then it's based on the science of teaching and learning okay so sorry the first one is professional development and what's effective and the material we're used to any research that I give you guys and I want you to know when you look at when we're doing instructional research again if you let me do this instructional tool is this your pitch to get us to say we want you to do this we want you to do this I'm already on board I was on board a month ago or two or three or four a meta-analysis that means it's the bold standard it's not one school it's not one classroom it's not a three year study meta-analysis means 175,000 25,000 children there's a control step it goes on for 15 years you know the control of these kids higher than these kids didn't have you know pre and post you know everything meta-analysis it's not what I call just a genius story it's not just wow that's going to do really well no I don't want to know that I want to know that this is a pattern of course all schools that are struggling and what do I mean I don't want to say that at a public meeting oh come on you're right up there in that area it's a place to sit it's a place no we're not and that's more the reason why we're taking this direction and I don't do appreciate your direction sure I've really gotten Mary Ellen to kind of follow you around so you're not dangerous oh she's still dangerous do we have any more of those it's okay it's fine guys do you want to look at this additional evidence for being dragged in and compensated have we got results certified professional teaching or is this accurate no that's a Deb Matthews question she doesn't happen to be here but there is a it's one of her goals to try to get more people teaching Wilson in the whole SU so and because we talked about it over two weeks probably that this is what she was aiming at so I know that that's the plan that was five or two weeks well I know well I don't know that but I guess I had the conversation with her well I'm not going to stress what's ever at that point at that point how weird is it at that point well the Wilson method and I talked to Janie and Janie I think about this Memphis one of my twins would stop not being able to read at all and after being told to use it would stop has the Wilson method which is why I chose that school and he's now in ninth grade is reading at a seventh grade level after I'm going in the car two and a half years so when I say you need the Wilson method I'm not just talking I'm just saying really really needed thank you thank you you waiting for me okay so this is a medical analysis it's done by Joyce and Showers it's probably the most accepted medical analysis and they're now following the professional learning experiences for teachers they'll change the name not anything about it but what Joyce and Showers did was they put different training steps so what would happen if teachers went for theory and discussion that means for me for example when I conducted a training it would be the theory of explicit instruction and there would be a discussion about the research because I want the teachers to know the why what they would do then the next training step would be there'd be theory and discussion and they would add a demonstration so we had videos of teachers teaching the program so everyone could have a kind of schema background knowledge as to what they were looking at then to those two steps the next step would be practicing feedback so there was role play we made the teachers pick up a book we modeled what we wanted them to do we led them through it and then we tested them and if they didn't do it the right way we started over so it was a real feedback and training and then every single month there would be coaching and we'd go back into the classrooms and we'd sit next to the teacher as that teacher was teaching and there was a step by step what we called clinical coaching process active intervention the first step is to give a glow it's to do something that the teacher did well because otherwise they're not going to listen to you and be very specific because you want them to repeat that behavior I really like the group together I love the way all the kids are going boy I really like the way you do whatever the second thing is to say what happened you can't just give them a book and say so tell me what you think you need let me and sit in the back of the room and watch them if they thought they knew what they needed they would make a mistake so they need you to be active telling them what happened use what happened the students sound between the sounds and therefore they couldn't get to the appropriate world I'm sure what to do the coach then does what any coach does teaches a lesson for the teacher and then use the book back and test that particular skill at the end of which there's a teacher support form the teacher knows what they did well and needs to maintain and what they need to improve is this in front of students this is in front of students we set that up and so before the whole coaching process begins you say to the kids of course this is before so who's your favorite basketball player that was Magic Johnson and the kids would start you know Magic Johnson was telling Max the coach right and that's what I'm going to do and your teacher wants to help you so badly that they are willing to be coached in front of you some part of this process yeah because that's I could see there'd be some resistance from some teacher looking like a second string or something all coaches should be able to engage in modification you can't just coach an adult learner without some knowledge of behavior management because it's a different learner it's an adult learner you have to treat it in a different way you can deliver that information this is a done learning for adults so you're doing it in an behavioral way and what you eventually want what you get is the teacher will see you walking in the hallway and say hey could you teach them how to leave otherwise it's a coach the learner has to learn the teacher hasn't taught now what Joyce and showers did was based on those training components they measured three different if you will demonstration of skills on the part of the teacher so they wanted to know what was the knowledge base of the teacher what was the skill demonstration base during training but most important of all guys is could they transfer the classroom when they got in the classroom could they transfer those skills so look because I want us to see as an investment not an expenditure but not all professional development is effective so what are you going to model what will it be for theory and demonstration knowledge goes up you can sit there for two hours and your knowledge base is a little more about the program 25% but look at the use of the classroom zero so forgive me but in two day one last session off campus is not necessarily going to get you the effective professional development that you want that teacher to have because is it being transferred into the classroom so let's add something let's add a demonstration everyone sees a video everyone sees lessons well the knowledge base goes up to 30% 20% the teachers can demonstrate skill but again I'm going to say look at the use of the classroom absolutely no transfer even after seeing a model lesson there is no transference into the classroom practice feedback and training feedback all the time correct the feedback we're practicing we're role playing knowledge base goes up to 60% skill demonstration when they were not training boy they're demonstrating it 5% transference in the classroom because you get kids in front of you and that's a whole different story baby so that's only 5% look at the only time which is the transience of skills into the classroom and that is when clinical coaching persists that's an interactive coaching and so that's what we need to support if we have spent a lot of money on a company we need the professional development support on site and we need them to be trained in that now I will always give you the research behind it this is not meta-analysis this is just my counter we can share so they can have one same program it's what a program called director structure this is called very healthy I know by heart these teachers thank you so much these teachers taught the same program the same direct instruction program program that is the foundation of everything I do they both got both of these group of teachers got what we would call pre-service they came for us for 5 days before they ever taught the program and we did intensive corrective feedback all for 5 days so all of the teachers got that and they all taught direct instruction the teachers in red got the coaching the teachers in yellow did not get the coaching same program the teachers in red who got the coaching they did 12 months again for 8 months of instruction and the others 4 months again how the difference was the coaching the same program the same program the clinical coaching in classroom let me take the book out of your hands and show you a more successful way to do that kid because every one of that is the focus it's the kid now why do we want that class why is this an investment and why must we be now into that and so we don't use this when you see those two terms can you just define what you're saying between difference between investment and expenditure I see investment as something that will grow and it's important that we come back to us you're going to do it we're in the road maintenance all you really want is here's why this is a meta-analysis this is done by Dr. Morzano by Dr. Robert Morzano and what he did was a meta-analysis that means all across years what he did was he took a kid at an average percentile so a kid at a 50th percentile at the 50th percentile and he said okay let's see what would happen if he took that kid at the 50th percentile and then after two years checked out where they would be so let's look at the first one guys it's the average school with the average teacher that kids at the 50th percentile the kids at the 50th percentile I want to see I'm looking there the kids at the 50th percentile years those kids moved to the least effective school and the least effective teacher after two years they regressed 47 percentile points so in the next year they go to the most effective school guys, most effective school but the least effective teacher after two years they still drop 13 percent most effective school but it's the least effective teacher the four is obvious most effective school, most effective teacher you know where they are the definition of effective you have the leadership you have the parent support you have the material you have the interventionist you have the facility you have the most effective school possible and it still sucks after you have the least effective school teacher you're still losing 13 percentile most effective school, most effective teacher that's obvious you need to support effective professional development the least effective school guys no leadership no programs, no support and that teacher still gains 13 percentile points because that's the critical thing in the classroom the quality of the teacher yes thank you so much thank you and Janie do you want to give some reference to these guys why our brain because I think with the the new literacy program we have some concerns about our teachers having the professional development for this new literacy program so we're just trying to make sure that so I'd like to say something I'm the director of curriculum for the supervised reunion and Janie and I have had a couple of conversations I'm sure we'll have more but we both agree that this focus on I don't know keystone one of the keystone for our future we're really focusing on what we do as educators get kids to be better at reading and we professional development plan that includes 14 in the classroom so that's exactly what Janie was talking about here we have it focused on a goal we want all students to be literate in numeric by grade 3 we have coaching over an extended period of time it's not going to be like you go in once and then you leave and you don't go back out again and it's embedded with corrective feedback so it's exactly what she said I'm going to talk to you because I know what you went through and I have spent 54 years of supporting parents who have gone through what you have gone through you shouldn't have to do that Leslie I'm here to tell you I'm a supervisor and we disagree I've been down there two times he can't stand me we are holding this this supervisory union is the exception unfortunately to the rule they want student achievement they are focused on literacy you did not have that I'm telling you we're going to do it I will not get off the board until it's done I'll have you be here tonight you have to be careful when you say all kids couldn't read and when you say all students in third grade I would think you would know it's not going to happen so just be careful in your purpose that's our goal and we promise not to when you have people with this dyslexia not with that method despite the children you have a different method that's a different method it's the curriculum based on $120,000 two different things there's the instruction and that's the professional development that Jamie is talking about that's going to go into the classes what we have done is provided some material for the teachers what's this we just got our coach under contract did she say no, I'm talking about Amy Taugh so if somebody provides what they need to go to a different school it's like every week every day well not every day except for those two days except for those two days she's fulfilling someone who's retiring she's going to be here two and a half weeks so she's actually already been here coaching making sure they're doing that assessment right so we're going to add stopping and setting up she was here yesterday what I'm going to do for the next few times is I'm going to do I'm going to show what an instructional tool should be comprised of and then match it to what was chosen and see if she will be on the agenda for the next number of weeks so can we see a coaching plan we should I mean it'd be great to see a coaching plan of how it's going to be how it's going to be implemented what days there and what teachers and maybe be able to get some feedback from those teachers about whether it's was effective every single month when we were on site when the board approved whether the consultants were coming in we had to prove to the schools we had to have a report we had to demonstrate we had to have a school board day when they watched us coaching so Amy's boss is you correct or you both okay that's interesting she's my teacher yes she'll be working with Mary Ellen I think it's important this is a great idea and you brought it here I just think it's very important it's very clear how that's broken out so that we can get some feedback on its effectiveness and can you give up no no I love hearing I love hearing what everyone's saying because this is exactly what we're doing we are starting with collecting data we're going to be tracking the data we're going to be hearing reports on awesome you guys have a right to be skeptical about this you really do because I know that there's been a lot of lip service that hasn't come to any fruition in the past and I'm not proud of where we are right now at all and that's why we've really gone in this direction but you know we're ramping up we're trying to get the teachers enthusiastic trying to get the principals enthusiastic and working together Amy's now been visible in all the buildings she's actually doing some preliminary work this year for next year and we do have a game plan Mary Ellen and Amy have been working on that actually she gave it to us when she was really applying for the position this is what I would do I will do if I come there and I we evaluated that and interviewed her several times talked about it and what you're asking for is on paper it may not be in its final form yet there is one other issue and this is Janie's big issue is that we have already bought this one program and Janie doesn't feel it's one it's the right program and two that it's they're giving us the support that they should for having purchased this expensive program those are the two issues between you two we have already purchased the program we have that's done we didn't do it in a vacuum by saying done that means that's it we can't really talk about that and I need you to hear that too because we can't just jettison and re-pull back the 200,000 plus when Mary Ellen and I talked about this last Thursday and I hope to resist that I still hope that I will be able to have input when we go further with the tier two program and more political because no I have serious but I think at some point we do have to accept what we have and then we have to accept that we're getting no professional development no no that's the second part I'm saying that that's something we can do something about now do you see what I mean oh I read the minutes our focus is on the general classroom right and Janie is saying that we not only have to focus on the general classroom but we have to do intervention and tier three which is our professional education again we agree 100% but that has to happen it has to be all agreeable we're focusing on the general classroom first and my concern is that the major part of our population is 44% that are not at level 50 56% I also believe very I don't want to think into this but I believe that a program should be written on the skills you want the learner to have you don't write a program based on a learn whether my learner is disabled or bright I still want them to be able to sound out and plan and only go from left to right and comprehend and be fluid so I'm going to base a scientific tool based on those skills and then I will adjust it according to the rate to where they're placed etc so no I want we have to go into the curriculum but guys again it's about me I'm so happy to be here most supervisory units are not listening to this he's going to be talking about the furnace I mean that's what's going to happen and they're not I've been doubted so I mean they let me in I was thinking you have a sound well you're not screaming out enough because I didn't hear you so let me just understand this we paid the $200,000 for the Fountas and Penel was for this Tier 1 general classroom program is that what you're saying about 80% of the kids that we teach 80% so we haven't brought in any curriculum new curriculum program for the Tier 2 and Tier 3 for Tier 2 as well Tier 2 is 3 same program so then explain to me Janie what you mean by what did you say Janie believes that Fountas and Penel should have given us some freebies for all the money that we spent that's what she believes I don't believe it so is there any talk to Salih just so you know they do offer free professional development as far as webinars and as far as information online that goes that we can tap into we went to a training they discounted the rate for us so there is some but like Janie said we don't want to have the teachers go somewhere hear someone talk for 2 hours and that's it I was a teacher long enough and we are investing I like that word I have to write in the classroom the teachers are still going to have to make those decisions this isn't like a cookie cutter approach you don't open up the page and do 1, 2, 3 the teachers have to look at the students assess the needs change their practices based on what's happening in the classroom so it is you know an interactive type of professional development I think we need to see how weak we can be that on the effectiveness yeah that's my every board should have that that is reported to us every month is it you know we want to be able to get feedback on how effective well as Janie said she was reporting so I mean maybe this is part of um sorry what's the name no not that you have the woman we've hired Amy, thank you, Amy we should put into Amy that there's some monthly report we have a plan you can this lady is so organized she keeps us all in chat no no she takes minutes when she meets with me when she turns the font to something else yes absolutely just the two days no no no she didn't even go with us she came with that oh yeah so you know we do have a plan we will do it three times a year we will give you a detailed report of the growth and the effectiveness of what's happening as well as regular progress monitoring for those students that need it so that's an additional check-in assessment I'm so sorry um the other thing that caught my ear was wanting teachers to be enthusiastic about this we know yet we're there you think both both both buildings are very strong okay great great that's great that's work and just that that little sheet did just help that tell about the feedback that you're going to give us is that kind of if I get a copy of that that kind of tells what I should be expecting in the future is that the pulling together of the assessment results we purchase an Otis data plan that we're going to collect all of this data and we're going to report it there but in the bottom if you look at in the classroom weekly collaborative form of assessment meetings with the rapid cycle of inquiry curriculum jargon but it's where they meet a pre-planned this is a document that tells us if I get a copy can we get that more there are kids that are like that 44% payment is going to be working for us so you know I mean to some extent we have to trust our administrators too to that we put the fire and you guys showed is that teachers are not necessarily keeping up to date running records which is why Marianne is talking about some of them need to be talking about following of where kids are and at the instructional level all these different levels I've written down she's thought it out for me what I need to see on everybody's running records to form an assessment in other words just check regularly where the students are and then change your teaching practices according to that is a curriculum purchase proposal providing just an outside suggestion why don't we use that extra money for $84,000 and use it for something for the whole supervisory union for the new curriculum that's the low cost wouldn't you like to have $83,000 just spend on we've got 300,000 left so we haven't spent yet and hold on don't you don't want them spending that willy nilly no I 300,000 the 300,000 that's left is the program is being paid for out of federal Medicare reimbursement funds Medicaid so the SU has around 527,000 530 something unallocated because we've spent the 200,000 now we had 500,000 that was unallocated we spent 200,000 of it on this frondisson-prinel materials so we've got what he says there's 300,000 left it's not automatically we're just trying to do this in a responsible way and this is not money that's coming out of your budgets this is money that we get any of the budgets this is money that we've already bought materials for level 2 Jenny you made a good point saying in respect to what you were saying that our populations in our two schools what is the so we need our schools in particular need a different set of we're following a cookbook basically is what this is this has been done in other school districts it's not just this isn't our idea we're parroting something that they did in Kennewick, Washington a bunch of years ago and we have the cookbook basically how they did it what they did and how long it took them and they were in a lot worse shape than we're in we are in better shape we don't have as many as much diversity here people speaking second languages and things like that it's not we're not like they were and it's a much bigger system I'm talking about in Central Washington state this is not this is a incremental step-by-step approach to doing this and right now we're just ramping up for the beginning of it which is in the fall of next year the materials are all in the building so we got them early so that the teachers could look at them and start to get revved up about about what's going on Amy was the next step and how we're going to do this and where they're going to be is the next step I didn't use FONS and GENAL they used open core I know I'm not talking about exactly what you know well the issue the issue with FONS and GENAL is something else our teachers were already on board with FONS and GENAL they like using it sporadically throughout the SU and some places had old versions some places had incomplete versions but they were all using it they all liked it and so we had a jump start on some of that and well because I know like if you go on real estate it gives us a number they'd be a combined number so Stockbridge will actually hit the scale and by the time you were using kneecap scores and now they're called SBAC scores or whatever we're diversifying how we test so that it won't matter on numbers it'll matter on kids what kids get, what they need it'll be individualized and we're not only hinging on one test we're going to give them a battery of things how does the state look at these tests and give us a number they don't do that anymore Gary Allen, get into this I know exactly what you're saying too small is not good you don't get any number and then they identify students in the school right you could never get how we were right but if we're a district wouldn't it be combining numbers that's a good possibility that would be an easier tool the state is coming out the state is coming out with a report card the state is coming out with a report card basically and we're going to be judged basically on a lot of variables they haven't been able to get it out yet they've had a hard time getting their data together to be able to do that but they're coming out with a report card that's why this is timely because we need to prove I can tell you that the figure that I used to generate the number in the board report the 44% number I actually the last star 360 report that was given to us was broken out Rochester and Stockbridge so I used the student counts and took an average to produce that imagine going forward it's going to be it'll be merged with a second district it's by it's enrolled by teachers so you would look at it as a test if a kid got walked out or whatnot if you were enrolled in my class you would be on my list so it would just be where I am public information we just have to be careful not to link it to any kids but the numbers are fine we're going to be able to publish as fact testing and that's what we're going to find out okay we can't I understand number of students this year and what's the next year and what sentence school is working to and how much notes in the school are coming from school that actually I have not seen the new this year's tuition grade yet that's one of the things we're coming to that's that way because I really was giving us to hate to move into discussing the annual report and the book that we need to get sent to people in the 808 so we should move on to that you gave copies of the budget to the public we've given everyone copies of my last draft of the letter we need to talk about what else we need to get together for the booklet and the biggest thing I think is the 7 through 12 tuition grid you're talking about if you look at last year's report it's on page 19 to 20 right Bruce you provided that on a meeting a while ago but you only have one copy for yourself what was it the grid that says last year Middlebury was tuition of $12,875 we brought in one fourth grader you know right it just says Woodstock so Middlebury we sent three 11th graders and two 12th graders at 16,673 that totaled that so we have a list of here's all the sending schools that we send to here's the grades that we're sending there so we have that I can not pull it off of my spreadsheet I've got student name it's more like this let me make sure okay okay I just realized it's going to be a frost tonight cause we want to I don't know quickly we could update this and get it to you okay return to me not seen it I don't know what that is can I ask a couple this is both buildings together this grid we're going to do a work yet we just have to is it from all this yep I think we were shared this with student names and Bonnie and I went through and we had to do that to update it and make sure it was accurate right but that was the list you used to generate the tuition lines on the budget right so now we now we need to do for the booklet we always kind of say where we send kids to what's the cost do I understand yeah now that I have this visually can you send that to me by the morning tomorrow so you're on this yep the other thing that's the biggest thing that we've got we've got the packet from Tara that goes through the expenditure budget the revenue budget we've got the warning the other question we didn't discuss we talked about putting kids on the cover of the yeah there's an email about that yep I am going to have it to you by tomorrow morning I just got the picture are we making sure that the parents are okay with the they've just done that it was a triple check to this I'm good as long as we've done it you'll be able to you're going to finish that can you back up so when I flip the page this is by individual building we can combine it are you going to be able to put the title on the top I'm going to do I just have to insert the picture it's really not that much to it do you want to do all four I thought it would be better to have more pictures than just one that's what I thought plus it also puts less emphasis it also puts less emphasis on any one child yeah one school no it's all combined it's all pictures of combined events yeah I think last year we decided because we were all like let's have motto last year we called a report or with less I do not recall I'm sorry if I've forgotten any kind of catchphrase or motto or slogan okay so I will then resend this to you where it doesn't say title in question mark on the top so I'm realizing I left that part in there cause I wasn't sure if we'd come up with something oh cool thank you did you get mine Carl yes I emailed you yes I do not have time to reread I changed what I did was I fixed Black River and I changed the sentence you were asking for it's like that moment like little before six had a quick beer and cheese through things and came here the other question would be at the end of the report you referenced the third page that is the older page that's true it said something about the two rivers yes I left that paragraph in there because I thought it was a nice paragraph I didn't know if we were going to reuse the title well maybe we could just change Black River to Black River I changed Black Rock to Black River well maybe you can still leave the paragraph in there but not reference sure absolutely we can do that and I will send that to you by mid-morning thank you and then the other piece we need to do and this is what I left to Frank last year that back cover and the information about let me pull up my question that cover with the you had mentioned in a string of emails from last year that there were some Stockbridge residents that picked up their mail in Back Hall and Petsfield right the way it works is right so Stockbridge has stickers we get a set of stickers from Kathy Brown we stuck the sticker over that where it said whatever that thing was it was an aircraft occupant right I thought we had discussed that we were not going to use the stickers this year we were going to do Stockbridge residents but maybe that is not realistic how many Petsfield Petsfield it's a fair number it's a fair number yeah because if you get up where the Levy's live up there that's all Petsfield service I think some people actually are Rochester if you get towards this I'm from Petsfield I'll give you Stockbridge resident I'm learning a few things no I have a lot of friends in Barnard that are Woodstock residents or Woodstock, I'm sorry Woodstock mailings okay so that just adds another thing that needs to be done then that I was not aware of right and it's a couple hundred stickers okay so can you take care of either getting those stickers Kathy Brown will give them to me what we need yes what we'll have to do is stick with them and then they all have to leave from the Rochester Post Office because that's where the postal permit is out of and so he has to weigh them sure Amy is there I'm available for put together for stamping stuff like that so let me know when yep I'm hoping that we can get the book back from Spalding Press mid-week next week so then weekly Thursday Friday for sure by Friday this will be in the mail I think they have to absolutely have to be in the post office the following Friday but that's more than 10 days for less than 10 days do you want me in the hands of people 10 days ahead of time then that's like Saturday I'd like to get them out absolutely I'll show you how to do Kathy screws the stickers take your time you don't make confluence no we don't anything else when we're at that point that's a lot of stuff but Amy by tomorrow morning are we doing an information for them I think I just need the pictures because we've been voted the next day so we couldn't have a meet you're Australian ballots yeah we've got one, two perfect check I think we're just going to have the not those did you see the two pictures I sent so we couldn't get the quality they didn't have to identify with the kids so Lauren resend me some pictures from her phone so it wasn't but then we don't have time for that you're saying we don't have time for that because we're there's pictures there's four pictures these two and then there's so I need I'm sorry I mean download them download them download them I've taken on the job of making he's like he's made all these covers for Bald Mountain I'm like it sounds great I'll take care of Stickery next week yeah they'll have a lion on it and a tiger very good what was your email yeah so I'll let you finish the actual if we did anything about the report logistics of the report so where's the other pictures okay so I I have those two pictures there's somebody said there was another email with two more pictures he has he has he has a boss I'm sure right let's maybe go down to you want to go down how many you think we had extra I don't know go down to you okay it was a thousand and what would be nice once these come out maybe we could chat post offices to see if anybody was just discarded there's a post office maybe you know snag some of them and redistribute them at the meeting okay so sorry that was so a thousand a thousand I don't think yeah so I think we have a good idea of what we're doing the only last thing we need to do obviously is once we get the whole all the pages put together you gotta make a table of contents yes I can do it I'm getting excited okay okay okay okay I said I'm all here no yep alright and it needs to be white especially the we decided it's just gonna be black and white are we doing color on those are we doing color yes if we're doing kids picture we're doing kids picture yeah okay so that'll be color yeah and past at least what's her name Penny has given you know said here's the stock colors I have lots of if you pick this one it's cheaper oh I talked to her as far as the color color and since we were talking about I said let's just do it because we just put different color photos onto it yeah yeah that's all no we're gonna get the whole thing it is a little more stuff but I think pictures of the kids this time yeah I know are we doing it okay well I think the budget absolutely I have a question about the threshold I appreciate all the work you guys did correct correct my biggest concern in the budget is public funds are both towns giving public funds and one town giving public funds no town giving public funds last year no town gave public funds because we didn't have a legal opinion about whether that would violate the terms of the requests we've gotten information back from our law firm that because the amounts of monies that have historically been given which is usually around nine or ten thousand dollars from stock bridge and usually somewhere around 40 or 50 it's been it's been all over the place 30 or 40 but it's usually it's usually I think the lowest I think it's been like 25 in the last few years and the highest has been maybe one year with 65 but the Rochester public trustees of public funds did not provide any funding to any and we did not provide to the town of Rochester either and it is something that they decide on in December so no, this year stock bridge is giving their nine thousand dollars now if you look in the middle of the letter that I circulated the third paragraph talks about how we've hired Black River to design and then the last sentence of that paragraph the board intends to pay for these projects via existing school funds state grants and private grants barred to heart the public trustee in Rochester at our last meeting was saying yeah, we haven't given money and you guys didn't push us for money we can certainly there's money available and their feeling is that they base their we more take a recommendation from the trustees of public funds the way it works there is more there's the board can request from the trustees so our thinking is that as we get this project done as we finalize the quotes on the generator because one of the big things we've been talking about here for a couple years and we were going to try to get Aramani and we were bouncing around different ideas of how to get a generator put at this building without just adding it to a school budget so that's one of the things that's one of the funding streams that we're looking at to use for paying for the the Black River design project the generator project is you know we like I said we've got some revenues from the daycare sale we've got some building funds here we've got the ability to go to the Rochester public funds and get money from their request for education we're trying to keep that to use for solving these problems rather than trying to it's a long answer I appreciate it but I would like to say I really don't think it's right that we're trying not to say that for the next year we're trying to get money as well that's my opinion okay I think that's the next year I think that this year we didn't honestly I don't think that we really got that conversation started early enough that they made their decisions I think that's really I'll say it's their fault because the explanation makes total sense it wasn't asked for it but we're doing our building money safe and having a fund we're doing that and we're giving more and more of these public funds away which I am all for for the students I get it I love it it's a great fund for that what I do think we have is a slippery slope but I think you know just to be fair I think there's going to be a lot of money needed from all these presentations to one town more than the other and so we're getting giving the money I think there could be a little bit more oversight on that that's my opinion sure and it's certainly well taken I would like I said I you know we have funds that we've put away Rochester generated $70,000 of funds from selling that building which is the districts it hasn't been spent right it's in a fund it's in a fund for us to have pay down your debt right $65,000 I don't know we have to look at that news we have to spend on educating kids right and we're we have to spend on educating kids that is certainly true what we're not clear on and we had asked a ginger about at one of the early sessions about the budget in October I think was because what we don't understand is if the loan is paying off the bond understanding the rate of the bond understanding whether it has to be paid in full or if it can be paid can you make a one time payment can you make a partial payment understanding how that is structured is the thing we're trying to figure out because we don't really know how long does that take to find out I don't know I have no idea I don't even know a bond you're talking about the blank look is there if you look on our budget there's a debt service long term debt of the 502831 is a a bond after Irene I won't say it was this asbestos I don't know it was a bond that Rochester took out the $9,000 was not being backed from our budget we should consider the $9,000 people for the fund for the generator to save up their money before they spend it then they buy it when you get the money you buy it yeah that's certainly a one way of doing things sometimes if you want a car you take out a loan and all your money for a house it's I think it's important that we look at we look at our options against the bigger picture it's kind of a flip of the conversation we were having about the Medicaid funds where we say we've got this money why don't we use it we don't because the opportunity cost we might be able to use that money for something else we're not sure what that might be but we're saving it because using it gets away the opportunity using it for one thing gives away the opportunity to use it for something else so one of the things we have to think about it'd be great to pay off that bond right now it would be great not to come into the merger with they're being dead at all it'd be great if the Medicare didn't go up 11% it'd be great if things went well but the important thing I think to look at what we need to really wrap our minds around is it more beneficial to pay off the loan with funds tomorrow or next cycle or is it better to say we're getting a good municipal bond rate it's going to be better to the rate we're paying on the bond is less than the average rate of growth of our expenses you know it might be better to say let's hang on to paying that bond and use that money to pay our ongoing to pay our ongoing expenses and pay off the debt over time that's why people borrow for mortgages or borrow for big expenditures I think the important thing is to understand is that there's a difference between secured debt and there's a difference between buying a house or taking a trip or taking a trip or taking a expensive vacation in New York no I did take a debt on and the other account did not and now we're getting extra money and they're not and we're paying for their debt so I think that is something that you know we have two different philosophies some people come a little house and brand new big car and they drive it around and they look great and they have a little house everyone is different and I certainly see where you're coming what I think is important to say is okay yes this year Stockbridge is paying in this budget Stockbridge is paying $9,000 from their trustees of public funds and Rochester is not paying any however Rochester pays 60% of the tax bill their grand list is 60% and ours is 40 so should we say well the towns need to be paying an average tax 40% of the building cost yeah or more than that the grand list numbers 40% we pay 40% of the heating cost they pay 60 all of the heating costs yeah all I mean seriously if you took the total amount of the heating cost we pay 40% but how much do we actually use here I don't know that's what we're hoping Black River Design is going to tell us when they study here well I want to take you back to the initial discussion around this generator in the couple days we lost because we didn't have any electricity here I know it's spring now and we've forgotten about how tough this was this winter but I think that in in order to get through the winter you're at a disadvantage and you know and I don't want to have to be calling schools off school off here because we're not equipped kind of on that how you do it is a different story is Rochester going to pay for the generator and stock bridge yes we didn't ask you to buy our own with our own public funds that's cool I guess you know I guess guys believe me when I tell you I am so naive about this budget then I could give it up completely it goes past me yeah you're sneaky smart you are we've been really trying to be one and when you say it's Rochester and stock bridge it's really merged we get the benefit of then selling dandelion dandelion daycare we've really been trying to stress the unity of this both financially and otherwise so I think that's where we are because it's going to be back and forth who's going to have a generator this year who's next year 28,000 generators a whole lot of different things a whole heating system two buildings a new kitchen we're talking about a little tiny addition here maybe we've just barely got these they're beautiful and I think they work really well but that's it that was our big thing that was our big ticket I know you notice I knew we were doing it we were able to do this which is wonderful we would have done it anyway we would have covered it three times over but that's what I'm saying it's like I really I think I suppose it wasn't intentional that Rochester didn't contribute this year it was completely a misunderstanding of the timing in the calendar and it's on our radar for next year we need to go to Rochester town and ask them for money in December like it's very we made it we can ask them for money we can ask them for money at their next meeting we don't think that I thought that it was intentional I don't I understand it was a misunderstanding that you didn't know you weren't asked for and also they didn't give the town any money either the RCC did not I am worried about it I am worried about it but anyway the point is that's not my point no it's not intentional it was legal or not and we didn't do it I was just surprised that we did it this year one side I think well I mean that was not us asking the stock risk trustees of public funds for it either that was them just saying we always give you $9,000 so they just approved it as a matter of course I mean we didn't go we did not go to Bill to Edgerton and say are we going to get our $9,000 he just said by the way the trustees of public funds voted to give you that money and as you may recall a few years ago when we tried to say well as the school board we think the money has been requested to the schools is under the schools control no it's the trustees of public funds who handed out and they did so I mean I feel like I think perhaps if you need to talk to the trustees of public funds well I guess my other point would be that if I feel like we're doing the trips and I think it's really important the field trips are really important it's important in this case to have these opportunities but are all the field trips funded the same way yes they were this year they were this year they weren't last year though right our PTO paid for stock price and the trustees were in the budget we paid 100% of the field trips last year when you were stocked when you were stocked for yourself this is our first year and so this year did they're divided equally all the they are all paid for by the budget the PTO is not paying for so the PTO money does stuff for just our building right yeah there's still a Rochester and a Stockwoods the PTOs are still separate we've tried to come together to talk about fundraising together and we hope to do that no complaints here yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and I think that Rochester trustees of public homes is typically given $30,000, $40,000 I think we have to put an asterisk on right exactly and their portfolio didn't provide for that correct me if I'm wrong Lindi but I think in terms of the Stockwoods PTO this year it's been more teacher requests that have come in individual or field trips that just happened here that we're not thought of last year in the budgeting process extras we use a positive behavior system so when the kids reach a goal we do an elsewhere celebration so that's an example of how the PTO has provided and then you play around with this on its way finally what amazing way amazing has a question behind you in the potential generator proposal was it also compared to commercial Tesla battery backup system because the backup systems can also produce income being re-fed off and that research being done before we check into it fossil fuel that's the thought I know that's a really good point you can get one call Green Mountain Power I'll send you an email to remind me and I will get you the person that talked with us at Green Mountain Power about a Tesla system I think it's very worthy definitely worth finding out more information about they do it right you hook into them and they are incensed yeah it's about the size of like the door of that cabinet and it runs yeah it charges itself off or off your shoulder it's a power so yeah they also Green Mountain Power also drains it I have one at my house in the winter when the sun goes down they drain down my battery 30% when everyone comes home and turns on their lights 530 they're not buying spot and then they refill it at night blah blah blah that's something we send you the guide good suggestion fine she might want it in white but then the face is looking much better the color the white the color that plan that she presented to us is forget the start of many, many conversations and when we did meet some of the recommendations that she thought was about meeting with alternative farms with RG for back thank you thank you for coming thank you I know we should have brought you guys dinner hmm a little not smart after nine that's a good idea yeah that's the other piece is that at various times we have a flat roof and a decent sight line putting solar on the building as well absolutely something to think about was there an alternative energy I don't remember if it was Black River Design I believe that they are doing so they are doing something and some of it in some of the right and they've been putting us in touch for example the specimens that's already on the counter I don't know about that location but it's got a nice angle maybe that would be a great solar to be on some of our conversations a lot of conversations I'm sure this is all very interesting but I just did a cover for you and I just sent it to you but I think it looks a lot better with the photos to do some color so I put a color background it just happens to be the standard color of Bald Mountain Theater no tie-in at all but it just happens to be that brings out colors really well and brings out photos really well so I'm going to tune up you would do it much quicker and better than me well I just figured no no no she just said like can you do this and I was like yeah sure I'm driving to get a dog tomorrow so you're getting a dog? so bad I'm working on my wife so bad I'll give you two I'll give you two for free I'll give you three cats okay I don't want that I'll raise you six cats what? we didn't last year I'm happy to put it I can change it anywhere you want that's fine do you want me to the other thing is often the date is on the front but you put it on the back last time which is fun I mean this makes it more about the school and the kids do you want me if you want easy you can put number on the date on there because there's a lot of meetings and I'll talk we should get in touch with our PTO people about child care yeah we did probably I'll take up some kids for sure STOC oh yes thank you we have Jillian here or baby Jeffman the Port of the Rochester we get a lot of the kids over that's my mom you want a date? 2019 this meeting comes in what? okay I added school we didn't have school last year and it does seem school is important as opposed to I know it's RSUD but when you're putting the title up there by the way we've never come up with a title for our schools we wanted to we never did anything with the school which gets back to every time I go he says when's the student council going to happen and I try to we got a thing going I think at this point you still haven't accepted your audits I really need you to we can I'm sure your town would really like your final audit copies they're meeting I read through it I read through it they seem fine yeah the 2018 audits have been presented wait here a second discussion hearing none all those in favor of accepting the audits as presented okay all those posed alright you accepted the audits building and use policy only thing on that this is part of what Bruce was talking about in the business the building and use policy that went out for the whole SU it says that Bruce as the superintendent has to approve all requests we changed it or his or his but that wasn't done at the SU level and it was an SU driven policy so this is part of that edits he's talking about so what that is about good we can pass that by the other board for the sake of everyone that's why these have the language of like all the other policies that's a consistent policy the two policies we adjusted are not adopted no they are adopted by us but they're not we have to have SU driven policy so the SU would have to amend them so it has to go back up the chain where you have to accept both our administrators were very very clear that it was important to them to do that so I think that probably the other boards and the SU board should adopt our policy that has that or his or her designate and we did talk about that at the last administrators meeting that this was common acceptance right so the other we need to change everyone else's policy so that's what that is about Amy I just sent the other one by the way I work with Penny all the time so if you need any changes like she needs to do any changes she can call me I'm actually going to be away next week in Arizona she'll get it oh okay well tell her she needs to just contact me and I can make quick changes too we're getting up we're getting up I know this is one more thing I missed the amendment part of it we still got to talk about this money so this is the one bit that came in for the job how do you want to let's figure out if we wanted to get a generator of the batteries we could give you the number to call to get some information more research so not yet I mean I will say these these guys summer anyways right it's almost summer he wants to close out the sale which is fine but the other thing I think we need to pursue is thinking one are we going to push the town of Stockbridge about this and to the the benefit of this company in my opinion is they seem to other documents they said they have a lot of experience working on getting the emergency grant funding with it but that only doesn't well that was one of my big questions is the Stockbridge school a designated emergency shelter at this point that's what I know I do not know officially I believe we are we let the slick board guy get out of here so it opens up it opens up a lot more because the Stockbridge town shelter there should maybe be some intent it's got to be a warming station I don't think you can say a shelter because we don't have showers I'm not sure where we would put some blankets like you said for this right there are still for the warming station right my understanding is where else would they go I don't know they don't have a generator either this is the one what about downstairs in the church the one in the green the meeting house it's not safe we're going to move the Bitsfield green the Stockbridge that's the hill yeah the hill I don't think that that's how it was there's not one I don't know can we figure out about this Tesla yeah we're going to ask about the Tesla battery we're going to figure out a plan to go to the select board it should be a unified yeah right and at that point we do have a Rochester shelter team I don't know if they could be a resource for well that's part of it if we were to get grant funding you have to have this emergency can we move on yeah I think there wasn't much to do then yeah Amy can you talk to Bonnie about the scholarship slash awards and what we're talking about now is at our high school graduation the local community the value players or ITI would give money as a form of scholarship to I have you actually heard of businesses that are saying I still want to no they haven't gotten back to me yet Bonnie really recommended saw this in in other instances where the high school was that they set up a scholarship committee that would like I was thinking the PTO that would go to the businesses and we're going to do a scholarship or an awards dinner for you know get out awards if you're interested the second part of this which I think is the question was raised to me was were we planning to do anything to honor graduating high school students from our towns which of course would if you don't have an event it's a lot different giving a gift putting a check in the mail and sending it something as opposed to having it a public event where people could go the other option is to create a scholarship description it's only open before Rochester residents send it to the schools that I can go and then they recognize that was the second part but there are the funds that are still in there that are being trusted the trustees of the town the trustees scholarship and that money is just there and that's more significant money but again what Lindy reminded me of the second part it was a while before I talked to Bonnie but what they would do is every school that our students are going to they would then contact their scholarship department and say we have a scholarship for a Rochester resident of this amount I'll give an example where I went to high school five different sending elementary schools and this is Vermont and there's this big packet picked up from the guidance office for scholarships but there are a lot that because I was from Bristol and not Lincoln I couldn't apply for they were only for a Lincoln graduate and it's just a description and then what happened is the application would get kicked back to you of all the Rochester and you would make however that was previously decided it was previously decided by the teachers who got scholarships and so in this case it would need to be some kind of committee decided who of all the applicants in all the schools that they're going to who receives which scholarship and they would get it at their accepted school at their accepted school on their however they rather than being a separate trying to recreate trying to be nostalgic about the issue being that this person's daughter this guy's daughter is graduating this year I don't think it's too late so what do I tell him I don't think it's too late to get a scholarship to a school but we don't even have the application so what do we do we don't have an application made up right you can post it and just say that's what I already did we send a cover letter and a resume and in the cover letter it has to include who's they sending it to we would send it out to guidance counselor separately of all the schools that you're and then just probably send it to the school scholarship committee so that's why you would use guidance and you can put it on social media there's a lot of funnels through the guidance but where's the list I don't even know the list of the available scholarships do we know what there are meaning with them when they're in the graduation program again there's different well no I know there's different ones but there are the ones I'm most concerned about because I can call ITI and I can figure that out and I can call the players and I don't know what funds and the trustees of public funds that Rochester has are scholarships the Kirkpatrick scholarship I know I just want it's inside one of our books okay so then I would need it because I would need to the criteria when we had a high school I need the form that they filled out to apply for that scholarship is what it is because the description of the scholarship typically tells you what the criteria I wonder I wonder if Lisa would have this she does she really has it okay I think I've solved this I think if Lisa Lisa would have this what the scholarships are but I'm just saying all I need no no no I need an application and a description and then I need to get that information to the guidance counselor of each high school of any graduating senior from Rochester and then Stockbridge Stockbridge are there Stockbridge never had a high school but whereas we're one school should that scholarship be available to Stockbridge sometimes it typically sets Rochester well but this of course is not the issue for an ITI scholarship or a player scholarship right if it's a newly created one that's a different one well no these ones have been around for a while there's two different scholarships we're talking about established funds and then we're also talking about that yearly a business would say yes we're going to give a $500 which I don't know if Lisa hasn't checked with all she has the list the binder of all the scholarships and awards we have given out through them to make sure that people are well not everyone to make sure that they're still willing once I have that list then I will go and actually call the businesses and see if they're still interested I would recommend also maybe contacting I mean the guidance counselors and these other schools I mean it's pretty late it's May already I got this email and I sent it out to you a month and a half ago I was getting a response so that's why I was waiting for the next meeting right I mean having had a couple kids go through that whole process and a lot of times the application is write an essay of less than of not more than 500 words or 600 words describing your goals and aspirations and how long it takes to make a decision so we do have it all probably if graduation you can send a letter to the parent to help be this committee because I'm just not sure we'll be able to pull together a committee so quickly to read you should send a letter to the parents of these kids because seniors are not terribly motivated at the end of the year and the parents are motivated because they've got college bills coming up and other things so you make sure they know that those scholarships are out there because the kids on their own and I'm just a lot of times I do send a letter to parents too maybe they'll come last Rochester and then get in touch with Bonnie as well scholarship committee also at this point going forward right well I think the letter should come from Bonnie right who's administering these I think the school board so yeah, as us I mean I was then in the past was it just decided by the administration and teachers mostly teachers it never was an application process before in high school I'm sure it was it wasn't Bethel an application process I think there was an application process I taught I'm hoping if she doesn't she does have a binder you've seen it the PTO was approached last week about the scholarship we didn't give much but we did give something who approached you about a scholarship I think Bonnie came to our meeting we kind of had a brief discussion about for seniors whether or not it was going to happen after I had that conversation with Bonnie I didn't see him as if we were going to be moving forward at least this year with the PTO how many seniors do we even have any idea how many seniors we have in Rochester it should be on that little chart because we're sending one we got in that little chart we just asked you to make two seconds for that what was published last year says only three 12th graders sorry five man they got to make it and the winner is yep you again I think this just brings another point like having like just like that overview calendar the school year for the school board that we need like okay if we're going to continue school board calendar who need to ask for public funds November December we need to go to the select board or whatever planning board when that thing when we have to buy out teachers and all that kind of stuff just like the generic so if it's not even us like we're doing ten years from now the board can work with ten years from now which is a template that says who's going to do that you need to do this right now we can also wait till after the annual meeting yeah this is exactly her reorganization but I think it's a really good idea we don't miss things like scholarships for kids we'd be like okay in February we're going to send out a letter to parents these are scholarships yeah exactly another one another fire oh no go ahead ten addition seven point three so when you kind of didn't jump around there's a comment over here I think we're actually wrapping up the meeting I think we've now talked about everything number ten public comment we have public comment number three public comment number two it's nice to have at the end first do you have a comment go ahead mainstream the camera's going to ask yes public comment public comment can you stand in front of the cameras this is just a follow up relating to tax payers education it had to be taken off because it was in private property yeah I've taken off as a matter of putting it where it works for a community instead of being piled up I don't think anybody's thought about it no no no no the marquee was the thing that used to stand up so the board wanted to change the lettering on you know and like give announcements and stuff and it was on private property so I think there's a Bonnie assignment here I don't think it's a Bonnie assignment Bonnie's not here let's make her figure that out there's one wonderful place one of the cement blocks there where the buses are that's still private property buses are in private property we'll find a spot we'll have Bonnie find a spot excuse was no no no excuse no no no no he never said that he never said that no it's not garbage it's stored under overhang where many things have been stored over the years no we're having conversations about the signing to look at the property and the setback and tell us where we can put it because it's well you know and it would be nice if I'd like to see it lit up or at least so we can see it maybe it's like alright our next meeting is going to be the annual I'm sorry can we step into the five-six room while Mason takes time for an executive session real quick yes okay sorry yeah sorry it's May 28th it's our annual meeting at the Stockbridge campus this year do we do we know how yeah I was going to say how are we going to do that here we need to die a day so these are the benches yes no I know but I'm just do you have a little higher up otherwise it's going to be very hard for people in the back to see us and then the next regular meeting I'm okay with that June 4th in Rochester June 6th 30 we are we are adjourned we're going into executive session