 June 19th, this is the Education Committee in the Vermont House of Representatives. And we are just having a discussion on the things that are before the legislature at the moment that have education related issues in them. One is H209, a bill that we passed out of our committee before we broke due to COVID-19. That went to Ways and Means. And Ways and Means has an amendment to that that has been quite altered since we hit with the coronavirus. And we will do that. We're gonna take a quick look at H961, which is the first quarter budget. And just to tell you where the Senate ended up, just review that. And then S224 is a bill that came over from the Senate. Just wanted to let you know what it was. I don't have an intention of taking that up at this point. And I'm assuming that our committee from a discussion before that our interest is just to see this through. See through June with COVID related issues. So that's where we are. So Peter, you've been following, I did not bring in ledge counsel on this bill, but Peter, if you could just tell us what happened in Ways and Means that bill has gone to appropriations now. All right, so if you all recall, H209 was our school construction bill appropriating $1.5 million from the Ed Fund to do a statewide survey of public schools throughout the state. After it left us, it went to Ways and Means. COVID-19 hit, the world changed. And so they have kept the bill alive and reworked it a bit. And just a reminder, this was not a Jim Damary bill, but it was Becky Wasserman who was the ledge counsel on it. So there's a sort of the essence of it remains alive, but it has been reconfigured to really target construction needs that have been demonstrated as needed because of COVID-19. And with a smaller appropriation of $800,000, but this time from the Coronavirus Relief Fund. So some of the stuff that I think is the same is asking the Secretary of Education and the State Board to update the school construction facility standards, which I think is a role that the State Board has, at least for now, and have that all in place by January 15th, 2021. And a lot of that work will be the same as what we talked about, but with the addition of anything new that has come about concerning COVID-19, such as distances and whatnot. And then it has the Joint Fiscal Office taking on the role of contractor to find the third party to conduct the analysis and with $800,000 again appropriated for it. So again, very similar to what we had, a smaller amount of money and a more limited scope that it will be funded by the $800,000. This will culminate in a report due January 15th, 2022, that will also include a look at how we've done funding and as we had, and a look at how other States handle it, some of the challenges that we face are working in cooperation with the State Treasurer the Vermont Bond Bank, AOE, and in the other relevant state agency. And for that $30,000 has been allocated from the General Fund to do that study. One of the things that they've added that we did not have is a short-term moratorium on any bonding. Basically beginning July 1st, 2020 and ending on June 30th, 2021. So really just for fiscal year 21, a school district shall not approve a bond for school construction in an amount greater than $1 million unless it's necessary to address imminent threats to physical safety and health. Probably not a significant impact. I'm not sure any school district is gonna go forward with a bond for the next fiscal year anyway, just giving the way things are. But that is more or less it. I think that listening to the discussion of ways and means, but not necessarily participating in it, that there is the ability to expand the scope of what the people who are doing the analysis of the buildings is doing. It just can't be funded by CRF funds. So there's not a, wait, I've gotta get my participants up here. There's not a plan at this point for that to move out of appropriations in June. So we will be standing by. There's nothing for us to do at this point in time, but I thought that you would wanna know where that is. And Kate, does that mean that it might be on track for when we return in August? What I know is that it's not on track for June. It's one of those things that has the possibility of having some room in August, particularly as we start to see how some of these funds are being used. August is really, it's a fiscal year away compared to where we are now. So that is that one. So if there aren't any questions, I'll move on to the next one. And that is the Q1 budget. And that was related to the discussion that we had with Senator Barouf the other day on Tuesday. If you could bring that up, if you found it avery. It's part of this work. Unfortunately, I got a great idea that came too late. So it wasn't presented. So I think we're, is it nine or 10? I think we're a nine. This is the whole thing. Thank you. This is perfect. So this is the efficiency of Vermont language. Everything is the same, except we did do scroll down a little bit. Jim, are you in the room by any chance? No, he's not. But I don't think you're okay. We added the piece. Scroll down a little farther. Okay, go down a little more. Is that it? No, that can't be it. This looks like, this is just the amendment. Do you want me to pull up the full? Yeah, the whole, yeah, the whole amendment, they had a whole amendment that was on there. I think I can find it here. It should be, I might be able to find it quicker. So this is a minute ago. Oh, I just had it all perfect. Then we just blew it. Okay, let me see if I can share the screen. Okay, this was their amendment. Sure, I've got this right. This is the efficiency, wait a minute. I'm so sorry, folks. It's the efficiency of Vermont section. Kate, you may have just gone by it. Guidelines for ventilation and outreach education program has been pursued. Hope stop. Okay. Is it down in C? All right, no, no, no, no, go on. I'm looking at program established. I'm really sorry, folks. It's number two. Number two, I think, Kate. Okay, here we are. So this is the efficiency, this looks like the language that we had seen. The part that we agreed to, there was a clawback piece in here somewhere. You know what? It might be, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna skip this one for now. I could just tell you that in my conversation with Senator Baruth, that they accepted our language for the money to go back into the CRF funds. They did address our select committee in changing the language that Representative Fagan included. I sent that in. Those were accepted. I'll try to find this for you. I really do apologize if we could get me out of sharing the screen now. Just moving into, and I'm gonna share a different screen. And that's this. After I sent recommendations to Senator Baruth, related to Representative Fagan's language and the efficiency for Montt language for the money to return to the CRF for school, I got this possibility for a change in our, the creation language. And this came from Nebbi, and we have our language, the Senate language, and then there was this third category of language which was the third category of language which really kind of pulled it all together. But Senator Baruth said I was too late. He'd already spoken to appropriations, so this was not considered, but I thought you should at least see it. I sent it up to Representative Tolle and Fagan, and I'm not so sure that they could do anything with it either. But it was pretty good. Chance to read it. Can you scroll it up a bit, please? Thank you. There is created the select committee on the future of public higher education in Vermont committee to assist the state of Vermont in addressing the urgent needs of the Vermont state colleges and develop an integrated vision and plan for higher quality, affordable and workforce-connected future of public higher education in the state. But I was not fast enough with that, so it was never presented. And I do apologize. It's nice. It's very simple and clear. I know. So that's that. The third thing for us to review is a bill. I don't have Jim in the room. Actually, Kate, if you would mind on 961, just tell us the steps remaining from today to how it becomes a law. It has to pass the House appropriations has the bill now, they're reviewing it to see if they can just concur. If they concur, then it goes to the governor. Well, we have to still vote to concur, right? Or no. No, no, because we already voted on it. We already voted. Yep. Okay, thank you. Yes, we will vote to concur or not to concur. But we will wait to see what the recommendation is from House appropriations. And they are aware of this language now. The question really is, is it worth holding the bill up for this really good language, which slows the process down, making it take longer for the money to get out? Or do we just, you know, eat that and consider seeing what's gonna happen in August, reconvening in January and helping to maybe refocus this a little bit our possibilities. Okay. There we are. So then the last thing is S-224, which is before the committee, we aren't gonna be taking this up now. Maybe you could pull that up too. So we could just take a look at what that is. Yeah, we'll use it. I can't remember. It's a miscellaneous ed bell. It's really good. It was a literacy bill, but it's now a miscellaneous ed bell. Got it, okay, cool. A lot of stuff we've seen out there before. Yeah. So, and I'm just, this is really just a meeting to say, here's what's happening right now, and then everybody have a good weekend. So there's some AVIC language. Three years old at this point. Yeah. There's AVIC language. And then we can go down and then there's some, yeah, it's still AVIC, I think. We've got Dylan's school district language and they're still, I imagine. No, I don't think so. I think that's gone to another location. Excellent. Keep going down. I think we're still on AVIC, aren't we? Yes. We're still in AVIC. Still AVIC. There's a small schools, okay, transition. This is still AVIC, yep. Oh, the oath repeal, right? The oath repeal, yeah. Then there's a small schools, which I think takes a lot of pre-K out. Yeah. Have the count. And then, Oh, there's Dylan's school district. There's Dylan's. Yes, which I think he's found a spot for that. I think that's appearing somewhere else. Dylan can weigh in on that. And then this one is about gender balance on UVM and the VSC boards. So at the moment, none of these appear to be COVID related or necessary for us to stop action unless someone else disagrees with me on that. Kate, is that the last section in that or is it whether a few other odds and ends cost them? That's it, keep going down. I'm sorry, I don't have Jim. Well, then the effective date. Okay, so. That's it. No problem, we can go August. Yeah, I'm a little bit concerned about the small schools grant language. But again, we've been dealing with that for at least two years. Is that the, is that the Wyndham? Yes. Well, it was, I always thought it was just a kind of a correct thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so that will sit on the wall, I think until we return in August and otherwise we'll either pick it up in August or everything goes away and we start a new in January, whomever of us returns. So Kate, really, right now, our role as a committee is done. If we go to vote to concur on 961, we don't need to speak to anything in that, right? We will probably speak to that section. Okay. And I'm happy to do that. And then when does, oh yeah, so that's the, I was thinking about the higher ed. I get confused. So the money is all in the Q1, that's what I was meant to ask about. Yes. You'll speak to that if that comes up in the Q1 budget. If necessary, I will speak to that. As the chairs of the other committees spoke to their CRFs, I'm assuming that they may want me to speak to that. So I will. And I don't know what I'll have to do. What I'll say if I have to speak on the higher ed study. Well, there's also the, that's where the HVAC stuff is. So you'll just have to say, we didn't take any testing on it at the same time. Except for that one piece that we added. Yeah. And that we had really what's left as essential are this bill, H961, and the yield bill, we are must pass bills. We're not seeing the yield bill yet. No, still in the Senate. Yeah. Have they passed it? Yeah. No. And Dylan, that's your understanding as well, that that's all, that those are our requirements before we leave in June. Yes. Yield and budget, Q1 budget. And Q1 budget goes into effect in a couple of weeks. So, yeah, that's going to happen soon. All right, folks, that's really all I wanted to to bring you together to do that. We're on for for Tuesday at eight thirty if we need it. I'm not going to see that we will, unless the Appropriations Committee wants us to weigh in, which, you know, what are our choices? It's OK, we should take our stuff out of our desk and what not. To clean your desk. Yeah, please. Thank you, writer. Artwork. The refrigerator needs to get cleaned out. You don't know if you're going to be reelected or you're. Yeah, I've got to turn in your desk key. Yeah, I'm going to steal all these office supplies up here. Yeah, good. Thank you. All right, everybody. Unusual. All right. Yeah, to all you guys. Happy Father's Day. Oh, thank you very much. Thank you very much. See you all on the floor. Yeah, yeah. OK, thank you.