 Welcome to ongoing Town Meeting Day election coverage by Town Meeting Television. This is one of a series of forums we are bringing you in advance of Town Meeting Day on March 7th, 2023. Town Meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and covers all ballot items you will see on your ballot. Town Meeting TV election forums introduce you to community decision makers and connect you with issues that shape your local community. If you are tuning in live, we welcome your questions at 802-862-3966. You can watch Town Meeting TV on Comcast Channel 1087, Burlington Telecom Channels 17 and 217, as well as online at youtube.com. My name is Elaine Haney and this forum is for candidates for the South Burlington School Board, a single three-year seat. Our candidates tonight are Lisa Hickey and incumbent Alex McHenry. We're going to begin by having an opening statement from each of you. You each have one minute. If you would please tell us why you are running and what would be different for South Burlington if you are elected and how do you rate public participation in school activities and politics. Let's start with you, Lisa. Hi, my name is Lisa Hickey. I moved to South Burlington about two years ago. I grew up in Danville, Vermont in the Kingdom and I left the state for many years and came back and we moved to South Burlington particularly for the schools. I've been really impressed with what I've seen so far for my three children who were in the public schools. I am running for school board because what prompted it is I was on the hiring committee for the new superintendent and after the interim appointment was made the process sort of disintegrated and departed from the expectations that had been set about what would happen next. So I started paying more attention to school board meetings and I saw a need for greater transparency, a better attention to creating procedures and following through with them and improved communication. Sorry. No, that's fine. I feel like public participation in the school board meetings could be improved. I think in terms of public participation in school activities, I feel like I see a lot of parent involvement in the schools that my children are in and I do feel like if I was elected, I would hope that the school board would be able to do what I expressed I felt that they needed and improve their communication with the community. Okay, thank you. Go ahead, Alex. I'm Alex McHenry. I'm running for another three-year term on the school board. I'm running for school board because I enjoy doing the work that needs doing. I enjoy contributing to our community and I feel like I have some good skills for it. I've enjoyed negotiating with our bargaining groups such as the teachers union and the administrators union and I feel like I've gotten some good progress on that in terms of getting quality people in our schools as well as getting something that the voters want to are willing to afford. So there are many other things that I like doing and I like monitoring policies, making sure that we keep our budgets under control and that's why I'm running for another three-year term. I just generally like doing the work. Thank you both for your opening statements. So I'm going to hop around with some different questions. First question is about capital improvements and bonding. So what role does school infrastructure play in a healthy community and what is next for the city of South Burlington in school expenditures and improvements? Alex, let's start with you. Sure. I believe that having a good structure for our learning environments is important. We need to have buildings that have roofs that don't leak. We need to have buildings that have the capacity for the number of kids that we have and we need to have the physical plant in good working order. This year we have a bond on the ballot for 15 million including eight mobile classrooms that are going to be used at the Marcot and the Orchard schools. If the bond passes, we will use that to lessen the overcrowding situation at those schools and there is also a roof to replace at the Tuttle Middle School, some bathrooms that are in very poor condition as well as some kitchen issues. So those are certainly going to help the environment at the schools and keep South Burlington schools going well. Okay, thank you. Lisa? Yeah, so my understanding about the role that school infrastructure plays in a healthy community is similar to Alex's. I think it's vital to have buildings that are conducive to conducting educational activities inside of them where the roofs are not leaking and the bathrooms are in good shape. And I do think that I'm in favor of the ZEMs. I think they're a great solution for the long term because they can be moved around to different buildings as the need changes in different areas. I do think that South Burlington is probably going to need to do either a massive investment in capital, in repairs of the infrastructure, in maintenance above and beyond what we're doing this year or potentially going to have to build something new as we continue to grow. So I think those are real things. I know that Rick Marcotte is being tested now for PCBs and we can expect those results sometime this spring. That may shift this entire conversation. But that's what I think I see on the horizon. Thank you. Teacher, well-being and retention. What do you understand as the current level of morale among South Burlington teachers and is South Burlington doing enough to retain good teaching and support staff? Lisa, why don't you take that one first? Sure. I think teachers across the country and South Burlington is no exception are exhausted. I think COVID has been exhausting for everybody, especially for teachers who have done an amazing job of supporting kids remotely in combination of remote and in-person, sometimes shifting things on a dime about what expectations were depending on how many people were in had COVID at a certain time, what policies, how policies shifted about opening and closing over time. So I think in general, I would imagine that just like teachers around the country, most South Burlington school teachers are exhausted. I think that the new negotiations that Alex has been engaged in with a pay increase probably has, you know, doing something to alleviate feelings of exhaustion and stress. And I think everybody is struggling to retain good teaching and support staff because the profession probably is just, it's having a hard time because of the last few years have really worn everybody out. But I do think they're doing the best that they can. I also want to say that I think Alex's insistence on improving or lessening the pay disparity between support staff and teachers in South Burlington has probably helped morale with the support staff. I think there's potentially room for improvement with bus drivers. I know other districts are not struggling with bus drivers the way we are and I understand from some reading that that potentially is due to salaries. But I think in general that whatever South Burlington needs to do to increase and retain good staff is probably a national issue. Thank you. Alex. Yeah, and okay, thank you, Lisa, for echoing that. This is more of a forum than a debate. So I will say that yeah, it is important that we have good teachers and I think as far as our retention has gone it's been excellent and it has gotten to the point where we have a lot of our teachers are very experienced. They have advanced degrees. They have years of experience there at the top of their pay scale and it's gotten to the point where South Burlington is paying a lot for their teachers more than other districts as well. So what we've done recently in the negotiations is we've had some, we've been able to convince the union for the teachers that the support staff union needs a little help and that's where we're losing employees. We're losing bus drivers, we're losing paraeducators and so forth and we're in the middle of negotiating for that contract. I'm not going to talk about it right now because it's not settled but I'm really hoping that it will make a difference whether I'm on the board in two weeks or not. I don't know but at least I feel like I've gotten things started with that and I'm hoping to keep it going. Thank you. What is your current understanding of the work around the issue of racial justice in schools and how would you support leadership efforts and initiatives to meet the challenges of creating an equitable and thriving environment for all students? Lisa? Sure. I am relatively new to this district and I see what my children are being taught and the sort of attitudes of inclusiveness and equity-based teaching that they are receiving and I feel like those are really important steps. I think that whatever equity work is going on needs to be ongoing and should be strengthened. I think the fact that we have an equity policy and have hired an equity director who I know is getting into classrooms and getting into schools on a regular basis is really important and I think that whatever she needs in terms of support to create a leadership structure within schools should definitely be supported and I think that there's challenges. This is a majority white state and I think equity work is really, really important. It's important to create a safe space for all children to feel like they can learn in but I do see that South Burlington is taking this issue seriously and moving forward with it and I think working with Dee Dee Lofton, the director of equity to make sure that she is receiving the supports that she needs is probably the important role of the school board in this area. Okay, thank you. Alex? Yeah, I'm also very supportive of Dee Dee Lofton in her equity work and she's been with us for most of the entire school year so far and things are taking shape well and I think it's very important to have a good part of the curriculum focused towards equity and inclusion. When I was in high school I read the book To Kill a Mockingbird which certainly highlights some very unjust situations in our history and I think in general that everybody does well when everybody is respected and treated well and it's very important that we all understand that other people experience the world differently and are treated by other people differently sometimes and that's not something good but I think it's something that we can learn about and use towards teaching people to be more empathetic and work better with one another. All right, thank you so much. Let's stay on that theme for a little bit and talk about language access. What important initiatives are underway and what more needs to be done to meet the needs of students and families who are proficient in languages other than English? Alex, why don't you pick that one back up? Sure, yeah. English as a second language is not a very controversial subject in South Burlington simply because we don't have too many English language learners but it is something that's being addressed and I think successfully. I've heard no complaints and certainly helping people integrate with our school system is crucial and I believe that we're doing the job and it's a short answer, but go ahead. Okay, thank you. Lisa, your thoughts? Sure, this is an area I don't know much about yet but I do and I know that we do have a certain population of new Americans in South Burlington, smaller than in other school districts. The one thing that I think we could improve on is helping to find non-local translators potentially for school meetings, IEP meetings, 504 meetings with families, the communities here are small, everybody knows each other and now that Zoom with the advent of COVID, Zoom has sort of just become a new tool that we could potentially use to find translators in other communities around the country to sort of strengthen those families' access to school in a way that feels like it's retaining their privacy. But that's really the only sort of area of this that I've been exposed to as something that could use improvement. It's something I need to learn more about. Great, okay, thank you. Thank you. So, a new question and you each have two minutes to answer these questions so take your time, okay? Schools and school funding. So, what is your take on the efforts in Montpelier to address school funding and how that relates to South Burlington? Lisa? I'm not really familiar with what is happening in Montpelier to address school funding. I know that there is a bill up for removing funding of private education with public funds. But my understanding in Vermont is that that is really focused in communities where they don't have their own schools and doesn't necessarily affect South Burlington. So, I could be misinformed about that but that's my sense of that bill. I don't know what's happening in Montpelier. I know that at the last forum that we had one of the other board members, Laura Williams, talked about the need to lobby the state to return state funding for infrastructure needs of schools or building maintenance and construction and I think that makes a lot of sense. I haven't been here long enough to know the history of why that was removed and when it was, but I think that's worth investigating. I also know there's a bill that I've been trying to get feedback about introducing that idea that we have mandatory full day public pre-K on a statewide level which I think is a great idea. I think it really would increase, it's an equity issue. Also, in addition to being an equity issue, relieve a lot of childcare struggles in this community, I know finding daycare is really, really hard and if you took an entire year of children and put them in public school, that would be really great. The question is, I don't know how that bill is proposed to be funded and in South Burlington there is definitely also an infrastructure issue. They don't have to be housed in school buildings, I'm aware, but I don't know what that would look like and I think that is the funding questions and the time required to put that in place are questions I have, but I don't know what is happening in Montpelier besides those two things. Thank you. Alex. Thank you. The school funding in Vermont is confusing. People, it can be bewildering and when your taxes increase, it can be very frustrating and it's hard especially when you don't understand it but the very basic one-sentence summary of it is the more you spend on your budget, the more your property taxes are going to be and it's up to the school boards of Vermont to find out what the right balance is between what the needs are for the kids and what the needs are and what the taxpayers are willing to pay so that's what we've been doing in South Burlington to try to make sure that we get the right budget that is willing that it's going to support education but also is going to be affordable. There's not a whole lot going on in the legislature lately. There is a little bit of COVID relief fund left over for this current year or excuse me, this upcoming year and that has helped make the impact on our tax, upcoming property tax bills a little less. However, there is certainly a very big need statewide for infrastructure in not just in South Burlington but as you can see, Burlington High School is being demolished completely and they've decided to go ahead and pay for it all on their own. Good for them if they want to but there are many, many other buildings in Vermont that are in much worse condition than South Burlington's if you can actually believe that. Overcrowding is not the problem but leaky roofs, falling apart walls, mold, some very serious issues that are a problem and I really hope the state legislature will bring back school construction aid for soon. We miss it. Alright, thank you. What educational reforms are most important to you and to your constituents over the next five to ten years? Alex? Educational reforms. That's a good question because this is something that is certainly something that educators work on. This is something that our curriculum director does. We just turned our curriculum director from interim to full-time. That's Alisa and congratulations to her. That is something that I'm not so certain that a school board wants to get too deep into the weeds. I hear on national news some other states will have legislatures and school boards saying we don't want this book being taught. We don't want that book being taught and I think it's important that school boards let educators, let the experts do their job. They're the ones that have the degrees in education that know the kids, that see them every day and they understand what their needs are. I work at a computer. I work on data all day. I don't read education weekly and so I do read some of the trade journals actually because I'm an incumbent but I think this is a good thing for administration to help decide on and if the school board raises some objection to it that might be okay but I think this is more of a delegation of authority role for the school board. Thank you. Lisa. Yeah, so I think that that is partly true and that it is not necessarily the school board's job to dictate educational practices as long as they're in line with our ends policy but I do think that there are a few areas that would be helpful to see some changes and one is I have been really impressed by the social-emotional component of my children's schools here, the access to counselors, the incorporation of those things into their learning, into their curriculum but I also think that post-COVID we're talking a lot about returning staffing to pre-COVID levels but I think it might be we're having a crisis for children in mental health especially in middle and high school and I think it might be worth re-examining what is the role of the school with social-emotional learning do we want to revamp the way that we do things do we want to assess what the mental health needs of our students are and think about a way to frame the work that the schools are doing in a forward-looking manner instead of just getting back to where we were because I think there are different issues that have arisen and are now more prevalent than perhaps pre-COVID and the other thing that I do feel pretty strongly about is I would like to see the district adopt an evidence-based literacy curriculum that's grounded in evidence-based teaching practices there's a big push across this country to do that I think some states have enacted legislation that that's required for any curriculum that's adopted and I feel like literacy is an equity issue it is the foundation of all learning in this culture that you first learn how to read and if we are not teaching reading in the correct way in a, you know, evidence-based way that is proven to work for most students then I think we're failing to provide that foundation for a lot of kids and that's something that I'd like to see South Burlington adopt reforms in Great, thank you Okay Let's talk about the budget Do you support this year's school budget of $62.5 million and an increase of 7% from last year's budget and can you explain your understanding of the budget and the impact on schools and voters Lisa, why don't we start with you Sure, so I do support this year's budget I see that there is a 7% increase I think a lot of that a huge amount of it, about $800,000 is in property and infrastructure purchases or debt servicing for the ZEMS and I think that we need to do those things I think there's no question that years of deferred maintenance have had an effect and it's time to make sure that our schools are having some of the repairs that they need and also that we can you know, address overcrowding I know there's a lot of people a lot of conversation in some areas of this community about how the schools are not overcrowded and they used to have more children in them but I would urge people to think about the way that we teach what that means for what the infrastructure requirements for a certain number of children are when I was a kid there was no free kindergarten now there's kindergarten so there may have been the same number of students in the building at a earlier time but maybe some of those rooms weren't required for kindergarten maybe they weren't required for literacy computer literacy or other kinds of things that we now offer as a standard part of curriculum so I think it's important that we do pay attention to the infrastructure needs of the community even if I know some people feel like overcrowding is not an issue so that's one thing about the budget and I think that that's part of the reason a big part of the reason that there has been an increase and my understanding of the budget and its impact on schools and voters is that it affects voters when the budget goes up as Alex said, your property but we just, I understand that South Burlington last year did the first tax reassessment that they'd done in a very long time and so that hopefully will be somewhat in line with the budgetary needs as moving forward Great, thank you Alex. Thank you I also support the budget it's something that I worked on and I think it's a sound budget but it's not everything that I would have not that I would have liked to have but there were a lot of things that were left off the table Other districts our size do not have a an assistant superintendent South Burlington does not have an assistant superintendent so our superintendent may have a little bit more overtime going on we are also letting go of about 20 positions because the pandemic recovery funds have gone away so we are hoping that we can reduce our staff through attrition not through layoffs so this budget is it's quite a bit leaner than we are used to in recent years and also we have looked pretty good compared to other school districts our tax rate is the second or third lowest in Chittenden County our spending per pupil is similar and we also have let me try and say this our administrative personnel is one of the leanest in Chittenden County so I'm not quite sure why that is because our administrative office gets good work done and I'm very pleased with them the superintendent of course the business office curriculum and a lot of operating things so those are the reasons I support the budget I think it's lean, I've looked at it it's lean but it gets done what we need to be done at the very most and while we're talking about the budget I'm also going to say that I support the bond as well. There's two valid items that we're voting on in two weeks and I'm going to vote for both of those for the schools. Thank you. We have time for one more question and then we'll do a closing statement from each of you. So what do you see as the biggest challenges facing the school system and how would you use your seat on the school board to affect those issues and what's your vision for South Burlington's educational future? Lisa? Sure. I think the biggest challenges facing the school district are infrastructure needs equity work and the communication of the needs of the schools to the community at large and I think one of the things I would like to bring to the board is an emphasis on creating greater transparency and greater communication with the community that I think is more visible. I don't think anybody is not making things visible now but I feel like outreach may be something that the board could work on in communicating the needs of the schools. So that's one thing that I think is important and in terms of a vision for the schools I think South Burlington schools do a really wonderful job of educating our children. I would like to see that continue I think reassessing sort of some of the things like the social emotional and learning component post COVID is important to make sure that students are really able to be present and learn in the ways that they need to and I see an opportunity for the community to make strides in its approaches to inclusivity and equity and I think that the schools potentially have a role to play in helping to drive that. Okay, thank you. So I have to pick one issue that is a challenge but certainly well when I ran for school board originally I mentioned that I wanted to continue our tradition of excellence and in our high school we call it building a proud tradition and I want to keep on building on that. I know the issues are going to change here and there certainly the infrastructure issue is something that is going to have to be we're doing what's I call a short-term fixed fix maybe for the next five or ten years with the bond if that passes we'll have given ourselves some breathing room but in another ten or fifteen years we're going to have more to deal with in infrastructure and I think just keep on working with quality people make it such that we can hire them and give them the room to do their jobs and I think that's what we've been doing lately and certainly you know we haven't talked much about pandemic recovery but certainly our kids have suffered a lot through the pandemic and it's heartbreaking and we need to keep doing that we need to keep on trying to get to where we were back in 2019 and on an upward trajectory with that. Well thank you both very much we have time for each of you to give a thirty second closing statement so Alex why don't we start with you? Sure thank you I really like working on the school board I enjoy serving you I'm very thankful for the support that I've gotten in the past and I work really hard at it I like getting into the weeds and doing all the work that needs doing I enjoy working with the people I enjoy listening to you taxpayers and you voters and your parents bringing your concerns to me and it really does help me you know change focus towards what you're asking for and what you want I work hard for you and I'd like to keep on doing it so thank you very much Lisa? So I'm running for school board because I want to secure a solid educational future for all the students in south Burlington I want to bring families and educators together and I think that there is room for a more I think that creating better policies and procedures in the school board will help retain institutional knowledge it's an organization that changes a lot over time out of necessity and I hope to be able to contribute to making it stronger so thank you Thank you both So that is it for our forum tonight on the seats for south Burlington school board Thank you very much to our candidates Alex McHenry and Lisa Hickey for tuning into town meeting television's ongoing coverage of local candidates local budgets and ballot items you can find this and more forums on www.ch17.tv don't forget to vote on or before March 7 ballots are not mailed automatically so you should reach out to your town clerk to request a ballot or to make sure that you vote at the polls on March 7 Thank you for watching and sharing town meeting TV If you are not already please subscribe to our town meeting TV YouTube channel and have a good evening