 Welcome to Montpelier Civic Forum where we discuss the issues that are coming up before us on town meeting day and there's none more important than the schools and Presented the city budget and a good show and this is gonna be an equally good show because I have the president of the school board Jim Murphy with me. Now the school board is formally called what? It's called the board of school commissioners and our school. How many school commissioners do we have we have nine? We have seven three. I actually have with the new merger. We've got an interesting set up We have seven to represent Montpelier and two who represent Roxbury and to represent the the weight of the the votes in terms of proportionality by population each Montpelier Commissioner has two votes and each Roxbury member has one vote. That sounds like the Constitution. Yeah So it's it's it's 14 votes to two but seven members to two Do we still have a student who student or two? We have two students and actually who are our two students? I'm a I'm a partner and and hope Petro and they're fantastic they Present most meetings and they give the board updates on what's happening in the schools and from the students perspective and actually the new superintendent has done a great job of making sure that they're Meaningfully integrated and that we get feedback from them and they get the opportunity to tell us about what's going on Now since the last election we've had a new superintendent. Yes, would you discuss our new superintendent a little bit please? Yeah, our new superintendent comes to us from Franklin Northwest where she was curriculum director. This is her first superintendency She brings a lot of energy a lot of great ideas. She's got a very strong educational foundation She's got good management skills We're very excited about her and she's really doing I think a great job of looking Systematically at our schools. Are we getting the best? Do we have the right systems in place? Are we getting the best out of our investments? You know, where can we find? Where can we find efficiencies? She's already actually found quite a bit of efficiencies if you see our Our reserve fund has actually increased greatly because she's managed to find a lot of money that that You know was that we could achieve savings on And she's doing a great job. I think of looking To kind of really harness the great creativity and I think the the amazing assets we have from a personnel perspective And make sure that we're doing the best to integrate, you know the highest quality instructional Systems on that and really giving us something to build on towards towards excellence and towards the The district's goals. What do we do with the reserve fund? I know in the past we've used it when the when the ballot issue went down We supplemented with the reserve fund in order to keep the tax increase lower. What else do you do with the reserve fund? Yeah, the reserve fund It's there's a requirement actually of our policy that we keep two or two point five percent of our total budget in reserve and It's basically a rainy day fund. You know if we need to make some sort of an unanticipated investment An anticipated expense and then just made it higher It's there and it also gives some ability to You know do some things during the school year that maybe weren't budgeted While we're just talking general board before we get into the budget I know that the community is concerned about safety at our schools Yes, would you just discuss measures that the board has been discussing about increasing Protection of our kids are just basic safety at our schools. I know that must be a topic that's on it Is a topic is actually a topic We just had at our last board meeting and we've actually made a fair amount of changes probably most of which are not super noticeable You know sense Libby has come on For one we finally established a safety committee You know a group that works with the administration to make sure that we're in compliance and doing everything we need to do We've we've definitely done a good job of making sure that the entrances and egresses at our school are Safe that you buzz your way in you buy it both but you buzz your way in and also just you know for instance, there were little things like there were some Rooms particularly at the high school where there were furniture and other items blocking exits so making sure that that You know the entrances are secure and the exits are accessible so if people need to get out quickly That can be done Communication between the schools until this year if the if the school communication system went down Other than cell phones, which we have Roxbury Roxbury doesn't even have cell phone service There wasn't necessarily a way to communicate between buildings and now we have a backup system where all four schools can talk to each other Through that backup system if need be We have a security officer that we work with the police station As well as the cop in the school that is the cop in the school You know who who helps over C safety So a lot of a lot of measures like that You know Ensuring that our teachers are well trained to Yeah, so they know what to do in in various situations Think and things like now we now have bleed kits and defibrillators and all the schools Which we didn't before and as tough as is to talk about you know a bleed kit in a What is a bleed kit a bleed kit is is basically a kit that allows Quick application of a tourniquet to stop bleeding and there's staff that's trained to use and the staff that's trying to use those So if you have a situation like you know some of the magic tragic situations We've had one of the things I've actually found is that a lot of the deaths were caused by bleeding and you know People were not able to quickly stop bleeding and move to the next you know the next victim A bleed kit allows you to do that So, you know things like that is tougher to think about you know Those have been put in place just in the last six to nine months Has the board had any discussion whatsoever of arming teachers as others other boards across the country are starting to discuss I Think that's a non-starter with our board. I think you know teachers are not cops The data shows that that you know to be able to You know the type of training it takes to to be able to effectively come into a situation and and Handle it professionally handle it professionally without causing more harm is something that you know that Military and police know how to do and it takes it takes a lot of training. It's not putting you know, it's not a Half-day and and putting a gun in a teacher's drawer and frankly the more guns you have around the more Gun violence and you know the more accidents you have So I think that's a complete non-starter at our school one one conversation that I would like the board to have is how much we involve our students in training and at what level I mean, I do have a concern about You know particularly at kindergarten first grade second grade Yeah Do we do we need to impose worries on kids that that may be hard for them to process? Roxbury, yes, what's the status of the merger right now? You guys have spent an entire year figuring out who gets two votes who gets one vote who gets what what you know How is that playing out right now? I think by and large it's playing out. It's playing out. Well, you know, it's You know, we still don't have full integration from You know Roxbury into our schools. We still have you know some students who have been grandfathered in So how many are there in terms of being grandfathered in? Roughly Handful it's I would I'd be guessing. I mean, it's it's you know, five or six grades You know, I think 20 to 30 kids a grade. Okay, so it's a significant. It's a significant number That's grandfathered in means that they're going to other high schools other than Montpelier. Exactly They're going they're continuing at the high school. They were at this is the first year where you know, the middle school students Are coming in so we've got a middle school class coming in We also and one of the reasons that another reason the reserve fund went up is that we had actually budgeted for Considerably more tuition expense than has anticipated. We've had a few students who've gone To have who have chosen to go to Montpelier High School We also have some some Roxbury students who Ended up not being tuitioned for various reasons such as they had actually moved out of Roxbury There were a few students who were in in to two household families Yeah, one one parent was in Roxbury. One parent was in say, you know Northfield Yeah, Northfield or Berlin and they were able to establish residence with with the second parent for for their High school education now in 2018 and 19 you had 31 students in Roxbury. Yep in that school Yeah, of which about four were in second grade. Yes. Is that sustainable? Yeah, right now the the finances work and as part of the merger we've committed to You know to keep that school open for the next four years I think that's that school is an important anchor in that community And I know it's very important to the members of Roxbury to have a vibrant school in that community I think we're probably gonna have to have discussions over time about what that school After four years will that school close or is that up to discussion? There's certainly no plans to close that school after four years, but I think if if we want that school to be viable Long-term and possibly it might possibly be viable its current form But I think that's a discussion. We need to start having relatively soon about you know What we want that school to look like it's because there are ways to keep it viable long-term We might have to think about what what the model is for that though because because small schools are Difficult to keep open although right now financially it does work What is the length of the bus trip for school kids coming in to the middle school from it's about half an hour So it's a half an hour. Yeah, maybe a little longer Does the half an hour bus trip affect the number of snow days? It it does not for the entire district My understanding is that for the snow days we've had this year, you know, we've had an incredibly snowy winter That Roxbury was not the cause of an actual snow day it I think it was the cause of perhaps one or two Slow to slow starts delayed starts You know Libby the superintendent she checks with both road crews in both towns You know starting the night before you know picking up again at you know like four in the morning You know, I think that those towns have different expectations I mean Roxbury their their rural they understand that You know, they can't get everything cleared and sometimes they're you know, they deal with it But this year the the snow days have been the result of just genuine water snow. Yeah Let's go into a budget summary. Let's go into the budget. I Know we do this every year you guys who are following this show year by year by year know that I always say It's impossible to exactly predict what the budget will be now because the legislature has to establish what why is it impossible to Estimate the budget you've been with the budget process for years Yeah, I mean the the budget is is a marriage between You know a state allocation of funds and then local funds Getting the exact numbers both on what the state yield is what the state will give us And then also what's called the common level of appraisal, which is an adjustment to How often we appraise? Yeah, basically to the appraisal rates. They'll go into a town and say well This is really reflect what the property values are and then they'll do a percentage adjustment You know those two numbers As well as the number of what's called equalized pupils, which is roughly equivalent to the number of pupils we have but It goes through a formula that's weighted so it's not exact Those numbers all have to be approved by the legislature that oftentimes happens. In fact a few of those numbers that definitely happens after After the actual budgets are voted on so the numbers we go into are essentially the agency of education's best guess at what those numbers will be they tend not to vary hugely between what AOE gives us during the budget process and what the legislature ends up Approving they can vary some and actually, you know, I think the last two years We've we've been lucky the the numbers have actually been adjusted and finalized in our favor This year will we'll see That doesn't sound promising. Well, we just you just don't know I don't want to make any promises But the last two years have been have been When Ann appeared talking about this and Watson appeared talking about the city budget She said that they lucked out this year in terms of health contributions and that helped to keep The city budget at a more manageable rate. How did you guys do? a Little mixed, you know the the percentage increase from our our provider has gone up You know, it goes up as it typically does well above inflationary rates. So I think 11.8 percent How did that compare with last year? Last year was similar last year was another, you know, so we budgeted in we budgeted in a sense towards that High figure. Yeah We have we you know last year we we readjusted the way that we provide healthcare right now we for For expenses for kind of out-of-pocket expenses, we've got a health reimbursement account that that Basically makes up what two years ago Teachers used to get without an employees to get without having to make that contribution. So that's kind of a vaguely a slush fund The the way that that some employees have have set up that fund has has created some savings there So we've had some some small savings From our health reimbursement account matched with another relatively steep increase if you're looking at the budget summary on the screen, which I assume you are 2.7% increase this year. Yes, and in FY 19. It was 8% Yeah, why what's the difference? For one, yeah, we sides roughly five and a half percent. Yes, you know, I think the last couple years You know given the fact that we've had growing enrollment and We had a few years of cuts Yeah, I think we made some some increases that kind of backfilled in some some places where there were were cutbacks I also think it was intentionally Conservative as as I said, you know, we've got a new administration You know the superintendent really wants to see what we have now See what we have that's working What's not working and then kind of Do a system overlay and and see where strategically the investments make the most sense so You know, she hasn't had time to fully do that so You know a lot of the the budget I think reflects I Don't want to say status quo because I think there are some some things in there where where there have been some steps forward But this was not a year to really come in and make investments. Where are we in the teachers contract? We're in negotiations again. Okay, so possibly next year might reflect a new teachers contract Yes, or will reflect a new teachers contract. Yeah, there will be a new teacher contract for next year And then we'll be in negotiations again for a two-year budget and also, you know Next year is when the the state will start taking over the health care. So that will that will change things as well How do you think it will change things? Are they projecting that it will change things? Will the larger grouping result possibly in a reduction of cost to the districts, I think there's I think that's the hole That's the hope whether that that happens or not is a question It will certainly I think simplify the negotiations You know because health care obviously plays a substantial role in terms of You know overall compensation so it will the negotiations around compensation will will not include those So so we'll see I mean that the hope is that it continues the same level of quality coverage that our employees get now plus Yeah, plus savings and just having it be a larger pool In terms of our enrollment This is now on the screen as our enrollment projection and you'll see that in 2017-18 we were in a thousand fifty-three and then we went up to a thousand seventy-two and it's projected next year That will actually pick up sixty some odd new students and bring it up to a thousand one hundred and sixty-three What does that mean in the increase in education spending does does that mean When we increase education spending four percent last year you said that we're backfilling to get six point five percent What are we spending that on what's the additional four percent? Is it additional staff? Yeah, so it's just you know increases in Expenditure I mean we have added We've have added staff most of it is additions of staff and then You know increases in Teacher pay etc Yeah, some of it goes to you know to facilities administration etc but Yeah, for the last few years we've definitely added some some positions and now we're putting in a human resources Coordinate and that's in the superintendent's office. Yes, and that boosted spending in the superintendent's office by 25% What is the human resources coordinator going to do that? We haven't done before because we've always had human resources to coordinate Uh Basically, we are just barely keeping head above water in terms of human resources and with a yeah with a organization That's 25 or 24 million dollars has over 200 employees. There's a lot of human resources issues Right now we're doing it very ad hoc Yeah, I think there's worries about whether we're actually doing everything we need to do so it's it's not a particularly Dazzling addition, but it's it's very necessary and it's been talked about for a while as we need someone who Who can have? You know who can make sure that you know people who have complaints are getting their complaints properly filed that? you know all the forms that need to get done or getting done that you know That that health claims etc. Are getting processed so there's there's a lot of work to do and right now it's It's being shared. It's being shared and it's and it's additional for staff that are already Taxed they're already taxed and it's it's not being very well well coordinated and Yeah, the word I heard is is that you know, we're kind of one or two complicated human resource problems away from a complete Disaster in terms of just not being able to get stuff done now I'm not gonna slow that the presentation down explaining what the complete disaster is I'll wait for it to happen and then we'll discuss it next. I just could be you know a complicated health care issue or What about? Now when I get into jargon like this, please help us all the social emotional learning coordinator at Union Elementary School What is the social emotional learning coordinator doing? Is it behavioral? It's behavioral It's it's allowing. Are we restructuring again? How we deal with behavior at Union Elementary? I think we're just adding resources there to make sure that that kids who have Difficult behavioral challenges that require That require a level of Training that that is pretty specialized That they're getting the attention they need so both you know, they're able to to function and get the resources they need and also They they're not becoming distractions for You know for other kids learning experiences and for you know for teachers without opening up a contentious issue Yes, will that person also be at Roxbury occasionally to help those elementary school kids? I don't think the plan right now I Think they may be doing some coordination at Roxbury, but I think the plan is largely to have it be Special needs any changes in special needs this year in the way that we address special needs the way we do assessments or Those type of things has that come before the board? Somewhat nothing. There's nothing huge in the budget. As you know, the state has passed Act 173 You assume I know that yes Which is changing the way that? We fund special education. How does it change it? It basically gives districts a lot more flexibility to kind of meet various needs at various levels and takes away some of the kind of boxes that That educators used to be in where you know if the kid has x y and z issue that they can't get help from from special educators And now it's doing doing things where there's there's kind of more intervention along the way the idea is to Integrate coordination between general and special education and make sure that you know kids Kids get more intervention at more points that avoids larger problems because right now You know we allow problems to build up and if you know basically if you're not it's like preventive bait Yeah, if you if you know until you know problems become huge They sometimes don't get the attention they need and this allows problems to be or issues to be Addressed in more creative ways and more flexible ways earlier, which you know benefits kids Is the state's share? Ratio still the same will that be the same in the future as to what percent of special needs the state will share? I believe I believe the the funding numbers do not change much I think the way that they can be allocated and used those change there's for a long time There's been a gap in achievement testing for various kinds of kids And I'm not I'm not picking on the special needs kids But there's a lot of different subsections that aren't doing as well. Yep as the modal Montpelier students What I know the board is talking about that every year any new initiatives on that or any feelings that the board has Yeah, it's it's a it's a huge priority for the board. It's a huge priority for the administration, I mean we have made some investments over the last couple years in terms of Literacy and math intervention is to you have to help kids that That that that do have challenges and that are You know not Not keeping up with with their classmates and our struggling in ways It's a high priority of mine, and I think it's a high priority of the board And I think it's one of the things we're going to ask of the administration now that they've had some time to To look at what they've got that we really put in place a Vision and a plan for closing that gap because we've talked about it for a while And I'd really like to see next year's budget and you know the budget after that Be based on a plan to get us to the point where we're really making progress on the achievement gap because I Think it's gotten more lip service than progress over the last several years, and I would like to reverse that Can I flip to the other side of the bell curve? Yes, what about special and gifted kids and Advanced placement and beyond advanced placement What is going on in our district in that anything different? Are we adding advanced placement? Are we holding on to our advance? We are we're holding on to our advance placement I think it's very valued by By the board, I think it's very by the district We haven't had as robust a discussion about that as we have about equity because like frankly It's not it's not squeaking. It's not squeaking as much and you know we Yeah, and and I think in some ways the the move towards personalized learning Well, it's it's given kids more More flexible pathways to do creative things on their own You know for instance to to do an internship at a business or are you talking about Matt McClain's community? Yeah Exactly those types of those type of things I think have benefited all students So, you know, we've we've done some moves in that direction that I think have opened Hopened options and given you know gifted kids the ability to go out and Spread their wings spread their wings and work with gifted people in the community who can who can really teach them things that they're not Learning the classroom and then get you know get guidance So, you know, I think those have been steps in the right direction, but I think we need to continue to you know offer Offer the the classes we do and look for ways to expand them. What about career people who are going into vocational tech? We've traditionally had very low enrollments in Votec But we have a number of kids who don't go to college. Yeah, don't go to the military and 12th grade is the terminal for them. It's a district looking at career Education in any way, they're definitely looking at it. I mean, I know that we are You know part of the You know the effort to you know To send kids to vocational tech in in Barry and Continue to support that I I agree. It's it's something that you know, it's a priority of the district and And you know the administration definitely is looking at it and there are pathways, but I think it's something that we could Could look at more Maximizing every kid's potentially exactly In terms of there's additional and money in for food service. What's going on with our food service? I We want to continue to prove both two things and continue to provide quality and nutritious food to the students We also wanted to improve The the the the quality of Compensation and benefits that we give to a food service employees They were not paid very well and did not have great benefits and we've done some things to To make that better and fair. Are we making the connection between our food service and recycling? I Know that we recycle and compost So it is going on it is going on How how much education is going around it? I'm not sure but it's it's it's part of the way that the cafeteria is We're working on building our capacity in world language and equity. Yes Would you explain what world language and equity actually mean? Yeah, equity. I think is in this context in this context You know equity, you know the biggest investment right now. I think is the social emotional behavior You know the way that we're using some of our federal grants You know the administration I think is is looking at making sure that we use them in ways that that maximized those grants and Benefit all kids and especially kids who you know without achievement gap in mind and Yeah, and then we've you know the intent is obviously to to build on that You know in terms of of world language We have commissioned a study and a couple of schools in Chittano County have gone down this road of doing to You know, there's that a big community discussion a big community desire to have some sort of World language, which don't we already have world languages in the middle school in the high school We do have world languages in the middle of the high school, but the research shows that the 12 year old brain Doesn't absorb it as well or in the same way as the five or six year old brain could we also then Be talking about bringing dance into the schools. Could we be talking about you know the things that parents are subsidizing right now? Yeah for their younger children Including language. Yes, is that a move to move from the parents subsidizing it to the taxpayer subsidizing it? Well, I'm not Piano lessons is a perfect example. Yeah, I mean there's there's not I Think there's a bit of apples and oranges there I mean, I think one of the reasons there's a desire for world languages as we have an increasingly connected and You know smaller world in terms of cultures coming together Being monolingual is But again, we already offered six years of language instruction, don't we we offer six years of language instruction But how effective is that? I mean I took my six years of Spanish and I'm well if you had taken it more seriously Jim Things would be different. Yeah, but you get in yeah in places where people there are very Yeah, the data suggests the earlier you introduce two things the earlier you introduce a second language Both the more effective it is it at that That child becoming truly fluent and or bilingual and the other thing is that the brain actually develops in a way That makes it easier to add a third and a fourth and a fifth language To that child, which is why in European countries you have these kids who can speak seven or eight languages You know switching back and forth Teachers at the middle school foreign language teachers at the middle school in high school to absorb The many more students who would be in that flow it would mean a change and in the program that we're actually contemplating would be a Immersion program it would be one of the classes would start from kindergarten At a hundred percent whatever the language is Spanish or French And then there'd be a slow introduction of English Then by the time they got to middle school They'd be integrated into the other classes Okay Community connections. Yes and recreation. Yes Community connections remains in the budget the yeah the funding for after school What does community connections do I know what it does you know? Yeah, but a lot of people don't know what it does So we're actually having a conversation about what we're going to do for our after school Provider next year community connections has been our provider. They've done they've done a great job You know their their funding structure has changed so we are actually going through a process right now of Submitting proposals for an after-school provider for next year which may be community connections either in its current or other form And maybe another provider and maybe a combination of things could it be recreation department? It could be the recreation department like the recreation department very well may be one of the the interest of providers I mean it seems there's there should be a synergy in fact recreation as a part of the schools for Yeah, a few years back Yeah, and the goals for that are to you know continue the excellent programming we have to really offer quality Both quality care for kids who need it because there are families who need after-school care options but also to offer Programs to to kids to to get them out to get them quality experience of adults Might that be parents helping to subsidize the cost? I mean your parents do subsidize the cost right now. I mean particularly at the elementary level So, you know there may be in fact there probably will be some sort of cost share with parents Let's talk about the bond last year That we had a substantial bond and I know you're proud of the the progress that's been made and the dinosaur like Equipment on Main Street are on the Union Elementary School's playground. That's frozen in the winter What's the progress? Are we going to have that ready for the next school year you think? Yes, the The playground is on schedule to be completed by the beginning of Next year Right now. They're doing a lot of their renovations. Obviously they've been slow a little by the snow, but I don't think I Don't think slowed in a way that it didn't plan for and then we're going to begin work on the improvements at the What about the vestibule at Union? I think that's almost done. That is almost done Would you explain that project and what it entailed? Yeah, that's basically and you know, there's some other internal projects at UES that will be done. The vestibule is kind of a It's an enclosed Glass entrance coming off with pre-k especially You know with the current situation there wasn't kind of a safe place for kids to to wait and be able to see their parents without Standing outside which in cold weather Can be a challenge and also when you've got three or four years old you want them Contained. How's our kindergarten coming along in terms of enrollment? You know enrollment's been relatively steady I know you've got the slides that you know several years out. It looks like there will be an enrollment drop You know the further out you got an enrollment projections the you know the less dependable it is that's right based on But it's just with this still within a range of 20 30 40 on either side. Yes But that's a success right now the integration of that of the kindergarten It's been going on for a while. You mean preschool Yes, you know the preschool has been a success in terms of The roof on what is it? The high school the high school right now. How's that going? It's it's going well. I think it's Largely done or partially done, but that's moving that's moving forward. Well now We've also got bathrooms a major project in bathrooms. Yes now This leads me to another slide where we're talking about the capital plan. That's it's a separate vote Yeah, would you explain why it's a separate vote and what the thinking was behind the capital plan? So the capital plan has been something we've talked about for a little while It got started last year, although it was actually included in the general budget the capital plan is to have a separate plan that would allow the district to basically keep up with maintenance and The unfortunately, you know, we do have aging buildings. They do require Maintenance upkeep unfortunately the way it had been done and this is It was basically we kind of get to crisis mode Pass a big bond to do a bunch of projects Pay that bond down get to crisis mode again You know have a big bond to deal with a bunch of projects and delayed maintenance The idea of the capital plan is that you know, we'll set aside You know kind of a growing amount each year that kind of keeps up with inflation Have a set schedule of plan maintenance and make sure that we're keeping on top of our building So that way we we make investments slowly over time keep up with things rather than having these these larger But less frequent bonds to deal with maintenance. So as the bonds expire We don't have to pay that debt interest and it can go elsewhere into instructional need exactly I mean the idea of the capital plan is to avoid having to have large bonds for the period Basically the purpose of building maintenance And that's a separate vote here. That's a separate vote There's one major increase in this for busing Main Street middle school kids Would you explain that as to I mean a lot of us who are watching this had kids who walked a main street Middle school and had no problems whatsoever Walking to Main Street middle school or finding their way with their parents driving them Why are these kids different? Yeah, this is actually something we've heard from residents For a while about particularly residents who live outside of the center of the city Yeah, and we looked at it. We had we had a committee study it. We did a survey of Whether there's there's interest or demand for this we found pretty high demand from What is pretty high demand? We got 220 responses from middle school Students 60% said they definitely would use it another 11% said they would likely use it And that's only you know, we've got 360 students so Yeah, there's still a hundred and twenty some you know hundred and some unanswered for So how would this? You want to bus these kids from around the town to the high school or to the middle school? I'm sorry. It's a high school next if you were to get a petition from parents Would you add buses to take kids to the high school next? Yeah, the high school is different They there's there's a few issues with the middle school that I think differentiated for the high school one I think there's safety issues that don't necessarily apply at the high school level, especially with fifth grade You especially in a winter like we've had I just and you know, this is I think there's a lot of people There are there are roads and areas in Montpelier. I can think of You know town Hill Road Berlin Street Elm Street, you know Terra Street where when you've got you know, big snow banks sidewalks Covered over but hasn't that been forever in this town? It does. I'm trying to say there are people who went to these schools who are voters and That the same kind of weather conditions were around in the 70s 80s 90s and 2000s. What makes this so special? Well, for one that doesn't mean it was it was safe then for two. There's a lot of parents who have been you know bearing that burden Which is which is difficult when it's you know, that's time when when parents have to get to work You know particularly for single-parent families that don't have other options. I've actually talked to you I've actually talked to parents who switched jobs Who live in places because they they needed to get their kids safely to school? I think it's I think it's a basic And I think it goes to equity that You know especially you know some of those are some of the more affordable areas in town too Getting providing an option to get kids safely to school Is it's not a sexy thing But I think if very few kids availed themselves if fewer than a hundred kids availed themselves of that Then the cost per goes dramatically. Yeah If fewer than a hundred kids were to avail themselves of that would the district consider Abandoning this effort. I think we would definitely consider other approaches if this approach doesn't seem to work But I think that yeah, but the things we want to achieve which is getting kids to school safely one Equity to providing opportunities for you know families that are out the you know This is a very walkable district if you're in town It's not walkable, and we talked you know we've talked about it as being a walkable district, and I think that's a Misnomer there are places where it's it's not a practically walkable district So a lot making it easier for families to know their kids are going to school safely without having to This is duplicative of the Green Mountain transit of the circulator which goes out on Elm Street Which goes up towards Murray Hill? We've we've you know, we've talked to GMT They are not able to provide right now to provide the coverage that Yeah, I think you know it's a continued discussion. We have like having integrated city transportation Makes a lot of sense There's not an obvious solution that will work, you know next year or maybe the year after but you know again You know getting kids to school safely Reducing you know our hope is that more kids will take this and our output actually is that not just more Middle Main Street middle school kids will take it but more UES kids will take it because what we find right now is that you have a families that You know as soon as that older brother sister Goes from UES to MSMS their younger brother sister is not going to wait for the bus if mom or dad is already driving You know the older brother or sister into town So we're hoping it actually increases the UES Transportation to and starts alleviating some of the traffic congestion in front of particularly the Main Street middle school As well as in front of Union in the morning if we can if we can school street if we can decrease Yeah, if we get more UES ridership as kind of a co-benefit Yes, we'd like to discreet decrease traffic in front of both those schools one final question on the budget. Yes What didn't make the cut? Was the final cut from the budget that didn't make the final version Yeah, honestly we there was Nothing from the first to last present presentation that was taken out. It was I think it was a very You know The administration really did a good job of talking to well two things a very good job of talking to us beforehand about what their needs were and Whether there'd be support for that so there wasn't anything put in that hadn't already been You know floated to the board So there was no kind of wait a second. We don't take this out and secondly, you know the You know it was a 2.7 percent overall increase You know the the tax increase because Yeah, it'll be a two points if if numbers hold would be a 2.7 percent tax increase Which is a little higher than we've had in the last few years, but that's But you know as you said, we've actually had larger budget increases, but lower tax increases right now Part of the merger that we're talking about part of the mathematics. You do not want to go through exactly I mean, it's it's actually largely You know the merger helped with that last year. It's helping a little this year, but it's largely the numbers Are we going to see a massive inflation when that merger? Discounts or the the merger incentive disappears. Yeah, we have a very forward-looking and cautious business manager who's fantastic at his job who Who is planning expenses to make sure that that does not happen? He has forecasted out and he knows exactly how much good more and he's he's Ordering things in a way that that will Keep things pretty level two things on the final one You can find this budget presentation that you've seen on the screen in its full version 36 pages of PDF. Where? It is on the the school's website MPRS VT.org The school board page. Yeah, I believe that the meeting of the 2nd of January 2nd Yes, January 2nd. It was presented. It was also presented while January 2nd Is the latest version of the one that you've looked at 2nd if you have questions if who are watching this What's next? Yeah, so let me go and steal the superintendent Grant Geisler the business manager and I are going to be doing a Final presentation which will probably in relatively short order On the budget the night of March 4th, which is right before town meeting Where it will be at the high school and it will be broadcast and it will be broadcast Yes live. Yes, so Pretty much that that wraps it up anything else you need you know, I appreciate the opportunity to come on and talk about the budget And I urge voters to go out and and vote early voting is available now So you can vote anytime between now and tell meeting deck one more I'd like to interject and that's that in this issue of the bridge Jim pens any op-ed in defense of his budget. Yes, if you would take a read on that, that's informative as well Again, thank you for watching. I do want to say that even though there are no contested races and It's seemingly a boring election get out and vote. It's important to establish that habit It's also important for your neighbors to get out and vote. I mean, that's the lifeblood of our democracy Thank you so very much. If you would watch the other presentations, they're well worth watching. Thank you much