 and everything started at seven o'clock. My name is Hannah Arias, I'm the chair of the OSSD board and I just wanna thank you all for being here tonight. This is, I just wanna acknowledge a fast process. You had not a lot of warning to be here and I really appreciate you being here and being part of the process, engaging with us. That's what this is all about, right? Community and about our kids and working together. So tonight we're gonna be hearing from our two finalists and hearing from you and on behalf of the board, we're looking for feedback, we're looking for help. As we now fully take on the process and move through it, your voice matters. So there are QR codes over on papers over there so that you can connect tonight, tomorrow. It's being recorded, so please let people know who can't be here because there's 18 other things going on in the building. My children are two of them, so you can watch it, your friends can watch it, have feedback for us. That will be really, really useful for us and we look for this to be a partnership. We're looking for your input so that we can put the district on its best course, continue on its best course. I'm very grateful to Sean, who's gonna be moderating tonight. There are a few board members here. We're always open to once we're done, Ann's here, Sam's here, Rachel, I saw somewhere, Rachel. We're always open to engaging with you, speaking with you, hearing from you, getting emails, all that kind of thing. So without further ado, Sean, do you wanna get us kicked off here? Michael, that would be awesome. So here's how it's gonna go, folks. I have four brief questions to kind of get us rolling. After that, we'll open up to everybody. Just put your hand up and I'll call on you if that's okay. Then we'll, we've got about 45 minutes together because it's kind of a late night for everybody. I'm gonna give everyone kind of a five minute warning when we get to kind of wrap up time, just so we're on the same page, okay? Awesome. So just as folks are getting settled, Michael, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and pause that for a second, a little bit about yourself and why you'd be excited to be our next superintendent. Fantastic. So my name's Michael Clark. I am the current superintendent for the Grand House Supervisory Union. I actually, when I go to conferences and whatnot and I'm trying to be more descriptive, I guess, as I describe myself as the chief facilitator of curiosity, creativity, courageousness and capability for the Grand House Supervisory Union. And I do that because our mission in the Grand House Supervisory Union is to ensure that all members of the GISU learning community are curious, creative and courageous, capable of pursuing their aspirations in a diverse and ever-changing world. I'm a long-time educator. I hate to admit it sometimes, but 28 years now, I've been in Vermont for 25 of those. I've been a teacher, assistant principal, a director of student support services in Colchester for 10 years. And then I became the principal at BFA Fairfax High School for six years. I went out to the Northeast Kingdom and a little district called the Essex Caledonia Supervisory Union. If you go looking for it, you won't find it. It merged, we merged it out of existence under Act 46. And so we worked with my eight towns that were there with 14 other towns and created three really unique districts that catered to the values and beliefs that those communities were interested in. And in doing so, I think we estimated at the time that was more than six years ago. We were saving the state of Vermont more than $700,000 a year. So, and those kids are getting better services and the community, I'm still in touch with a lot of people from the community and they're happy with it. I am currently the superintendent for the Grand Isles Supervisory Union. I have been there for six years and it's kind of hurt, right? 10 years, six years, three years, six years. It's at the spot where I'm ready to look for my next adventure. And I would be excited to be Orange Southwest, next superintendent, because your single district, you're located in a beautiful part of the state, happens to be a part of the state that my wife grew up in and she is incredibly excited to potentially move back. Clearly I am not commuting from Sheldon or Enesburg, Vermont. So, your single district, you're in a part of Vermont, so I grew up in Vermont, I grew up in Barrick and I would say I'm a tried and true Vermont or except for I was born just across the border and less left, but it's a place that I wanna be. Vermont is in a really big place in what's gonna happen in education in the next, I don't think it's even gonna be five years, but we're in a critical spot. My experience as a superintendent, I think puts me in a place to help a district move and grow into what Vermont education is gonna look like. I think that I'm excited to do that work and I've watched enough of your board meetings. Thank you for recording them. I've read enough minutes. I've heard enough about challenges that are here that I actually think my skill set lines up really well with supporting the folks in this district. And so I'm excited to do that. I guess maybe two other things I throw in there about me is that I am currently a trustee for the Vermont Superintendents Association as well as being superintendent and I am the chair of the Vermont School of Church Board Trust Board. That was a lot. All right, that was me and why here. All right, next question. And these folks didn't know you've been here all day. It's like day to clock in the morning and you saw all the schools, all the programs, but a bunch of people. What were your thoughts about our communities and schools as you did your same visits today? Sean tells you I got here at eight o'clock. He didn't mention the part that I started a hundred miles north. Right? It was a beautiful drive down. The sun was coming up. It was nice. I've had a blast. We started off today over in, I gotta make sure I do it right, Braintree. And at Braintree today, there was a little bit of an emergency that was really awesome to watch the principal and the staff do their things. It gave us a little less time to walk around in tour, but they were incredible. They did fantastic. Anybody here from Braintree, or all of you, because you're all part of that district should be proud. From there, we went over to Brookfield. Had a really nice tour. I got to be at every classroom there. I got to see teachers teaching, kids learning. Really good conversations. Everybody's been warm, welcoming, and whatnot. From there, we went over to make sure I get my terms right here. Is it R-U, and it's the elementary? It's R-E-S. R-E-S, I'm sorry. I'm not there trying. I'll get there. Okay, so it was R-E-S. And it's been a little bit. So Colchester's a big school, and R-E-S felt big, and probably is big. It was really great. Again, I'm gonna keep hearing you be saying, I had great tours with great people sharing the really fun and interesting things that you're doing in this district. And excited about it. People that are passionate about children and passionate about education. From there, then it was over to the tech center. The tech center. We got off track a little at the tech center, but it was fun, right? I think poor Sean over here, he was having to text people saying, Mike's gonna be running a little late. They're keeping him. I don't know if he told them what the holdup was, but had a really great tour there, talking with students, seeing them in their programs, hearing about what the tech center meant to them. It was really, it was a nice time. And then from there, the high school at the middle school. And again, Jason here took me on the grand tour. And poor Jason had to jog me right along, right? Because the tech center had eaten up this time. And what now, he did great. So I think somewhere, maybe it was right about that time. Maybe didn't we have lunch? I don't know. And then over at the central office, back here to the faculty and staff, had decent turnout for that. I don't know, maybe like a dozen people came. So this is definitely bigger. And thank you for coming. And then I think we managed to squeeze in a dinner. And then I got down to that. Thank you for arranging drumming. Well, I was here. I mean, whoever on the board or whoever thought that was a great idea, really appreciated it. Didn't time the basketball game really well. I made it a half time. And there was so much time on the half time that I didn't dare stay and perhaps not find my way back here. So here I am. And then, you know, I think as you come in, I've tried to shake your hand if you were here before the seven o'clock hour. And if I missed you and you want, I did give a little handout that has my background in writing so that you can kind of see what I've done. I think you get a good sense of what I believe. I think that it's four pages to quickly understand who I am as an educator and what's going on. I know his next question has been a health kind of tease that out too, but although he hasn't told me the questions ahead of time. What roles do parents and families play in the education system? Parents and families are critical in the education system. And you heard it, right? When I told you what the mission for the Grand House Supervisory Union was, it's to ensure all members of the GISU learning community are curious, creative, courageous, and capable of pursuing their aspirations in a diverse, never-changing world. That all members, parents are part of the GISU, where I'm currently the superintendent, they're part of the learning community. We work together. We're partners, right? I put out, you know, we're all participants. We are all participants in the learning that happens with the children that are in our districts. That's really true throughout Vermont. I think that we really need to, as Vermonters, really come and remember that we are all critical to what our students need to learn in order to be successful. We all can have a role in it. And we can figure out how to work together and how to be a part of a community. It is what I love about Vermont. I can disagree with people in Vermont and we can still be friends, right? I think that's a really, really important thing that people need to remember and to live. So, I think it's critical. I think that as you're coming to the events, I really wanted to get into that basket ball game because I wanted to, that's the place where I test out. We are all participants. Because in that basket ball game, I know the girls were ahead 24, I think it was four at halftime. It's not about the score of that game, though. To me, it's about the things that students learn about life and that. So, they're up 24 to four. I hope what they're learning in there tonight is how to be graceful as they, appears to me they're gonna win. How are they graceful in that, right? How do they, because someday, they might be the ones that are at the four and somebody else is at the 24. So, that's what I think about with sports and how is our community, what's our community? I wanted to see how our community was helping them be graceful and learn to be graceful. We're our fans cheering both sides. We're our fans talking about being excited about the great plays rather than giving kids a hard time about the free throw they missed or something like that. So, that's what I'm looking for when I'm in schools and thinking about athletics and have talked about, because I think you probably catch on there that I happen to be the superintendent last year and Albert had the big incident, as we call it. And it's kind of what helps me kind of try to remind people that athletics, even at the high school level, it's about the life lessons and whatnot. So, hey, if you haven't been a participant in those things, take me up on it, be a participant, teach kids. All right, last of our prepared questions, I will take the questions from the floor. How do you deal with differences of opinion? Well, if you want more. A couple more sentences of that. Look, I think that great leaders take in information from lots of people, people who agree with your perspective, people who disagree with your perspective. You try to figure out what the best ideas are, right? In this room, there is no question to me. We were gonna try to solve a problem and we worked together with the, I'm guessing we are approaching 40 to 50 people in the room now. Working together, we are gonna come up with a better solution than if you just say, hey, Michael, come up with a solution to this. I mean, I could probably come up with a solution to almost any problem out there. Been doing this long enough and seeing it, but the reality of it is the process of working through a problem, working through the differences of opinion that you have about different things, understanding, being willing to listen to other people, being willing to work with other people, that's really what it's about. The solution, right? Sometimes it's the journey, not the end. And so in that case, my idea about differences of opinion is it's really important that we take in everybody's opinion, listen to it, make sure that people know that they had a chance to be heard, know that, hey, it might not go the way that I want it to go, right? Tonight I'm hoping that you say, hey, this guy could be our next superintendent. It might not work out that way for me, who knows? But I do know that y'all came in, gave me a chance to talk with you and I hope that in the next half of now, we're a little less than that. It's really gonna hold me tight today. On this last time, that if you had questions about me, things that you wanted to know, happy to share, happy to talk, and before I do that, I just say thank you, so that, because I know I'm gonna push it right to the last second, I won't have time to do this. So I wanna thank you all for coming tonight and being here and being a part of this process. I'd like to thank Sean for the great tour guiding that he did. In fact, I think you should give Sean a hand. And for the folks in the room who are parents or community members who aren't necessarily in the schools every day, you should be really proud of the people that are working here today. They did a really great job of talking about the exciting things that are happening in the school, being proud of the work that they're doing and making the guy that heard 100 miles feel comfortable here. So, all right, we turn it over to questions. That's what's happening. So we're gonna have a half hour folks. I already apologize in the group that we're just on a pretty tight time frame, so I apologize if we don't have an opportunity to have every single person, but we'll do our best there. So the game plan is just raise your hand and I will try my best to call on you kind of in order that we go and we'll go from there, is that okay for folks? Awesome, all right, who's got a question? Up here in front. Mike, you grew up in Barrie. You went to college in Johnson. You're intimately familiar with rural education and the challenges they're in. So what kind of challenges do you perceive in this district and what solutions can you think of to get started on that? So I think one of the challenges that is in Vermont right now, y'all familiar with Act 127, some places it's helping, you actually happen to be a district where you're getting some support from 127. There are lots of districts where 127 is really problematic from a budgeting standpoint. And it's really kind of, it's showing a symptom of, I think what I'm proud of for you in this district is you have a really good system, right? All of the districts that I've worked in offer school choice, right? I've worked in districts that are K to eight and then the nine through 12 or the seven through 12 can go anywhere else. What you've done is you've created sort of your community schools and you funnel your community schools into a middle and high school. It's a really efficient, strong way of making sure that one, you know what direction the kids, what they need to know, understand and be able to do. You have the ability to control that in your curriculum and whatnot. And so that is powerful. But I think that school size, governance, those kinds of things, there's gonna be another round of that. I think we're about to see a whole bunch of budgets pass. Although when I look at what's going on with your budget, your budget looks like it should, I think we're gonna see a bunch of budgets fail. Your budget looks really great and on a pass pretty, pretty handily. But I think probably that's not gonna be true across the state. My districts are gonna be really, we're seeing 40 cent increases on level funded budgets. So that's a piece of it around governance and whatnot. And then I think the other big thing that I see is it's gonna be sapping. Man, when I started doing this, when I started being an assistant principal at GoalTest and we put a job out, I think it's 60 applicants. I could go through the applicants and say, whoops, you only had two letters of recommendation. No, we're not even gonna look at yours or you spelled this right now, right? Now, as I talk to people today, I said, here's your experience the same as mine and that's, we see maybe six applicants if we're lucky, sometimes only one. Lots of times I'm looking at finding provisional licenses for people. Right now in the Grand Isle Supervisor Union, I'm getting ready to create a special educator program where we're gonna specifically hire people that do not have a degree in special education but do have a bachelor's degree and we're gonna set up a training program so that they can be special educators and go through a special program that Vermont has set up. Last piece that I think's going on, world's changing. I don't know what exactly how that looks, but the future, what I grew up in, in Barry in the 1970s, it's different. It's different and we've got to get our kids, the kindergarteners that walk in this coming fall are going to be sort of reaching the workforce in 2040, 2045. I think 2040, 2045's gonna look a lot different than 2024. And so we gotta really think about what that looks like. I've been pushing Vermont as a trustee to really get a clear vision for the state of Vermont and what's gonna happen in education in Vermont, what we believe needs to happen. And I think that that translates and should translate to every single district as well. Those are three biggies. Thank you. Other questions? Let's go over here, sorry. Yeah, hi. I'm wondering if you can talk about from a superintendent's perspective how you're thinking about supporting schools as they work with students that are struggling thinking about the gaps that have increased post pandemic and thinking about students with disabilities and how our schools can best support those students. I love that question. So when I look at how are we, first of all, how do I support students? One of the things that I currently do is you'll see me, my parents, my families, my kids, see me in all of our schools throughout the islands every week, right? I'm in almost every classroom, almost every week. And I do that so that I can see what is actually going on in the school. People know me, kids run up to me and say, hey Mr. Clark, I did this, I did that. Here's that. I think that's an important piece. My job is as a superintendent to work at the system level to say, hey, how are we identifying the gaps? Where are they and how do we close the gaps? We were doing it in the Grand Isle County right at the moment is that we are using a program called iReady, which has what I call a light touch of AI in it. It's an assessment that kids actually take and they take with some, they're good about it, they enjoy it, their brain breaks broken in, there's anyway, what happens is the first four weeks of school they've done their first round of iReady and iReady spits out results instantly in mathematics and literacy. And it not only tells me how is this student doing, it tells me in literacy in six different areas, in mathematics in four different areas, where they're strong, where they're weak, where they need help, it also spits out, hey, here are some guides that could help you help that student. What we used to spend 12 or 14 weeks with interventionists trying to figure out, I now have four weeks into the school year, so that the interventionists, instead of looking for the weaknesses in the gaps, already know where they are. This is one example of how technology's changed in just the last couple of years and how much more will it change. So my job is to work with the principals, primarily work with the board, there you are, and to figure out what gaps are we seeing, why are we seeing them, right? Is our first instruction up to what it needs to be? Are we doing, are the gaps truly gaps or are the gaps things that we've left open? What's happening? So working with folks to figure out what that is in a collaborative way and then plugging those gaps in those holes and making sure that all kids have what they need in order to be successful. So we'll run it in a while over here, yeah. The kind of technology that you just described is pretty powerful in being able to do the assessment. I'm wanting to know a little bit about the security behind that so that the information isn't going to end up in somebody's hands that you don't want to do it. What kind of security can parents have that the information is protected? Absolutely, I can guarantee you that my folks in Grinnell County, they had those same questions and we came out and we definitely talked about it. If I was bringing something like that to the school, it's not just, hey, Mike Clark came, he started and he brought this program. It's gonna be a conversation. There's gonna be a long process and working through. What is that security? What does that look like where people have lots of time and lots of input, right? That's the key piece. That piece that I talked about up here, it's about the journey, not the destination. You're sure right, if I don't do that and I just come in and I say, hey, we're gonna do this because it works in this place, what works somewhere where I may or may not work here? Who knows? But what I do know is if I talk with, if I talk with and include people in the decision-making process, they're gonna feel a lot better about the final outcome of the decisions and did it make sense. Let's go back here. Mr. Clark, you've been on a couple other school districts and my question is, have you met with a student-led initiative that had some pushback from the community? You may know that we have a student-led initiative here to raise the Black Lives Matter flag, pushback from the community years later and the flag has come down. I'm just wondering if you've had anything comparable to that and how you handle it. So specifically around student-led initiatives with pushback. I'm searching my brain quickly here. I certainly have had initiatives that have had pushback. Act 46 would be the example. That was not student-led, however. So I think what I've done throughout my career is I over-communicate, I over-collaborate and I get to the point where people know what's happening and know what we've done to get there and if we're supporting students. So again, what you're gonna hear from me do tonight is tie back to the Grand Isle Supervisory Union mission because that is minor star for Grand Isle. You all right now have, it's interesting because you have like a different mission in each of your schools and if I got to the point where I got to ask questions, I'd be asking and have asked all day. Can you tell me a little bit more about what that is? So my take would be the student-led initiative in Grand Isle Supervisory Union would have to have kids being curious, creative, courageous, capable and pursuing their aspirations in a diverse and ever-changing world. It would have to help them do that. And if it did that, then I think the community would be behind it and here's why I think that. So we have, I wanna say two years, it could be three years ago, a sixth grader come through student council at our little Grand Isle School, 135-ish kids and brought to the board after working with the student government a proposal to fly the progress flight. And there had been lots of conversation, two board meetings with it so that people knew that it was coming. We had close to 30 people at that meeting and every single person that was at that meeting supported flying the flight. When we passed our diversity and equity policy, similar kind of thing, lots of people at the meeting, nobody spoke in opposition to it. So I think what we've gotta do is, I'm trying not to go right into, cause I wasn't here, I don't know exactly all the ins and the outs and how everything transpired. Moving forward, what I would say is, we're a small community here. We gotta be able to talk with our neighbors. We gotta be able to have disagreements and we gotta be able to still be friends when it's all said and done, right? I mean, that has to happen. We have to demonstrate that for our children. That's how we got to where we are at the moment as Vermonters. I still pull over on the side of the road when somebody's off the road and help them get out of there, get them unstuck. It doesn't, I don't know, it doesn't matter. I live on Duffy Hill Road in Unisburg Falls. I actually live up on the top of Duffy Hill. Every single year, somebody goes off and I'm going out there with my tractor and help them get back on the road. I don't know, I think that's an important piece. So I think I've heard enough of this question that I know, that I know and I've read enough that I know that there's healing and whatnot that needs to happen in the community and there's conversations and we really gotta get clear on what our values and beliefs are and what we want moving forward. I think that's a pretty critical piece and I think having those conversations is something that I am completely up to doing and actually excited to do some of the favorite work that I have, right? I hand it out so just so you're aware, right? I handed you out my resume that has my cell phone number on the top of it, right? And anybody who disagrees with anything I say or really likes something, I gave you all the means to call me up and say, hey, I think my email address is probably on it and, right? I've always done that as an administrator. I'm open, I'm transparent and not a great politician, right? You don't tell people too much, right? Okay. We're just doing questions. So how in the past have you ensured that there is equity in our schools and how will you use that experience moving forward directly to our school? Nice. So I've included students in the process to make sure that it's equity because it's not my school, it's our school, right? That's a pretty critical piece. My job as a superintendent is to really work with, again, when I come back to principals, people on the leadership team, the school board, my job isn't necessarily to get deep down into the schools and do the equity work in the building. I need to empower people to do that kind of work, including the students, including the faculty, the community needs to be a part of that work, right? I'm gonna come back to, we're all participants in this and we all want every student to feel like they are, oh man, I should have figured out what the mascot was and gone with it here, right? A ghost, right? There it is. Right, that's what's in the end. In the end, you don't want anybody to feel like they don't belong here, right? I want people to feel, and here's a great answer to that question. I want every single student to feel as welcome in this school as I felt today, right? That's pretty cool. And hey, we're 300, between 350, 375 in this school building. Can't we do that? 375 people supporting each other, cheering for each other, believing that we can accomplish what we want to accomplish. I mean, if we can't do that 375 student school in the state of Vermont, where can it happen? Love the question. Hard work, and work that I think everybody's gonna be involved in and doing. Let's go over to your side. Hi. Hey. I'm just curious about, we've seen a lot of loss of really good teachers over, and I know that's happening in a lot of districts around Vermont. Sure. But what do you see as your philosophy on recruiting and retaining quality teachers? It's critical. It's critical. At this point, so when I tell you, we used to have six days down, we get six, and sometimes only one. If we can't retain the teachers that we have, then we're not gonna be, it was one of my three biggest challenges that we're gonna experience in the state of Vermont. So, teachers in the room, right? Yeah. Some of it's about money, but not a lot. Teachers didn't sign up to become rich. I know I didn't. Comes down to how are you treated? How are you appreciated? How does the community share that? Do you feel welcome? Do you feel like you're doing work that's important, that's critical? Are you moving towards a common vision? Can you look, when you get done at the end of the day, can you say, hey, I hope these students become a little more curious, a little more curious, creative, courageous, and capable? Thanks, if it's stuck there for a second, I was about to do them backwards for you, but. Or whatever the mission is here, I'm not saying that's the mission for Orin Southwest. Your mission, the threat line runs through all five. I could sit down in an hour and do the work and figure out what I think the mission is. But it needs to be everybody here doing it. So, right purpose, the teachers need to know that people who work in education need to know that they're supported. Purpose, support, appreciation. You can't be so far behind that they can go somewhere 20 miles down the road and make a lot more money, right? You gotta be competitive. But I think that's it, right? It's those. Having a stake in it, having the ability to affect the change that you believe is important. It would all be critical things, and those are all things that, on the handout that I gave you, there are teachers I've identified to read, and you'll see people, I think Molly Tobin's comment about who I am as an administrator, probably really sums it up well. And that's how you, the Molly Tobin's of the world. Molly Tobin would have never left Comford if I were still there. We have time for probably two more, just so people are kind of meeting our expectations. Hold on a minute. Yeah, please, Ari. I'm curious, when you met with students, what was their take on the environment of their school? Here? Yes. I didn't talk a whole, so it sounded like I walked around and I asked them about things like what they were proud of. I asked them what was great about their school. There was a, see, it was the second one, so it was Brookfield, where I got to have a fair amount of time with the class. And what'll stick with me as I drive home tonight is the student who said, I was really scared, this was a fairly new student to the school, I was scared to come, paraphrasing too. I was scared to come, I thought it was gonna be a lot more, I forget what her exact words were, but she basically was saying, I was afraid that I was gonna get picked on and said it didn't happen, said that people have brought her in and that she feels supported. It really was a whirlwind tour, so it was quick passing over the tech center, and the tech center's gotta get something out of keeping me for longer. A lot of kids talk to me about how important those programs were and how it made it so that they wanted to come to school. And then I heard about where you have a new program, this electronic sports, I heard a little bit about that today, so I'd say those were the things. Be really cool to come back and spend more time with kids, I'd love to do it, I'd love to come back and tell you what I heard at that point. But I heard positive things, I did not have one person come up to me today and say something that wasn't either positive or constructive, right? So some people did talk about some challenges, but they did it in a constructive way. The last one, probably. I'm gonna be the jerk and give the students an opportunity, if I don't pay them a course, just because they don't want to buy them, is that okay? All right, go for it. Sorry. The kids didn't know how to come, they deserve the time though. Yeah, you get the last word, here you go. So you sort of talked about it with like how schools are gonna be changing a lot with technology and everything and sort of what would be your plan in order to have schools adapt to like using technology for higher level opportunities. I've made this maybe a quick answer for me because I can actually give you an example. So when I was a principal at the FDA Fairfax, we implemented one of the first one-to-one initiatives in the state of Vermont of iPad ones, right? So I think that tells you is that I'm comfortable looking at new technology and saying, hey, how does this help support students? And how do we move forward with that technology supporting students' learning? The question is really hard right now to have a really good picture as to what that looks like and what it looks like in the communities that make up Orange Southwest. I think it's important, I think we can do it. And I can't wait to see what it actually looks like. So I graduated in 1988, right? There might be some other people in here that are close to 1988. Could you have imagined this in 1988? And I don't know, 1988 sounds like forever away, but I don't think 1988, quickly in my head right here, the amount of change that's gonna happen is really unpredictable. So we gotta make sure kids are ready to change with change. Not a great answer from me, huh? I wish I had like the crystal ball and could say, hey, it's gonna be this really cool virtual reality. You can go on any field trip, any place. You know, you'll never have to write another paper because I'll do it for you. Or I don't think so. I do think, look, I never would have made it through college if I didn't have spell check, right? That would not have happened for me. I would not be a college graduate without spell check. Do I think at some point these things are gonna, we're going to use these tools to help us? Yeah, I sure do. I sure do. And when it looks like, oh, oh, that's the timer, I bet. I said, we're just ready to talk. Okay. I know that folks still have some additional questions. I think Ms. Clark offered up his email with people with questions that I want to unleash the universe on his inbox. So we really appreciate Mr. Clark taking an entire day to come learn about OSSD. Hope I get to see you again. And I'm walking out that way. You were walking out that way. And so as I walk out that way, if you wanted one of the pieces of paper and you didn't get one, just stop me quick and I'll walk fast. Thank you, everybody. If you need the other candidate who would like a five or 10 minute reset for folks to see your own sandwich, take a breath, it'll be okay. Good. Hi. You didn't see me sneak in. I did, yes. Jacob saw me right away. Of course he did. Good. Welcome back, everyone. Welcome for the first time. Thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for being here. We had an opportunity with the candidate before and now we have Lisa here. Sean will be moderating again, starting with some questions to kind of get the ball rolling. And then you can laugh at me. That's okay. I just want to say thank you for being here a bunch of times before. But I want to say it again, thank you for being here, engaging in this process. It's a big undertaking. It should be time consuming, but we're like on a fast track. So I appreciate people getting the notice to be here what 24 hours ago and here you are engaging in the process and I'm really appreciative of that. So Sean. Awesome. In case anyone has changed, but I think everyone's pretty much similar, they're just finally on the seats, which is awesome. We are recording the event. So in case you've got concerns related to recording, just know that that's what we're doing so it can be posted on the website for folks who weren't able to be here tonight. There's also QR codes on the table over here and also will be on the website tomorrow to get feedback based on kind of what you see tonight. So just as the heads up there as well. So the game plan has a lot of few questions to start us off with. And then much like our last thing, we'll go through and answer questions from the folks who have come. Is that okay for folks? Feeling pretty good. I am unfortunately still a time stickler. I apologize. I feel like it's only fair to be a little bit particular. So we'll be together about 45 minutes. Okay. And I'll try to get people morning when we get there. Hopefully without my alarm going off. Best idea of time. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Let us start off. Lisa, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and why you were excited to be our next superintendent? Yeah. So my name is Lisa Floyd. I have lived in central Vermont since I was 10 years old. So quite a while. I am a graduate of Whitcomb High School and I have been working in this school since 2001. And I feel really passionately about education in central Vermont in my home community, which is Bethel. I served on our school board there for seven years. I was the chair of that board through the whole merger process that we went through that created the White River Valley Unified School District. So I really got an opportunity to see and learn all about like the budget processes and the laws around district level work. And that really led me to feel that one of the best ways for me to support children in our schools is to support the people who work with them most closely in our schools. So the teachers, the paraprofessionals, the administrators, the people who serve our children food, take care of their health and well-being and of course keep our schools clean and as germ-free as possible. So that really led me to think about shifting my career path in administration to maybe looking at a district level position and I feel really strongly about this district. We have amazing children in our district. We have families who may have really disparate beliefs about a lot of things, but boy, they all love their kids. And that's really important to me. So this is the place where I would choose to make that transition. As people should hopefully know, you spent the entire day today from the very beginning of the morning all the way through being lots of different folks. What were your thoughts about our communities and schools as you did your site visits today? Yeah, so it was wonderful regardless of how this process ends. I really enjoyed getting to visit all of our schools. I think one big takeaway for me is that I feel like we have some work to do in terms of thinking about what our common goals are and then ways that we protect the cultures of each of our schools because they are different. And there are things to be proud of in each school and things to be proud of in each community. And I got a real sense that people love the places that they work, that one school in the district is not, they're not shells that you can move around. They all have their unique culture and the people who love being there and the people who choose to spend time volunteering in those schools and send their children to those schools. So I think the work of the next superintendent in my mind is finding the pieces that unify us and then really allowing each culture to meet those goals in their own way. What goals do parents and families play in the education system? I think really important roles. Studies show that things work best when families are involved in the school and they're supportive of school and they feel like they have a voice in school. So I think one of my three top goals is to really bring community together and listen to our various audiences. So that's our communities, our families, students, of course, and our staff. And there's more audiences than that, but those are the four that came to mind immediately. This is the last of my kind of questions. How do you deal with differences of opinion? I think it's really important to listen to all differences of opinion, to give people an opportunity to share their opinion and to be listened to, and to be able to, it depends on what level we're talking about. So if it's a difference of opinion related to their own child, then we might do something different than a large philosophical difference where perhaps there's law that guides us and policy that guides us in our response. So I would always listen. I would always seek to understand and ask questions and be curious about how people arrive at the opinion that they have arrived at. But there are rules and laws and policies that guide us. So I would also refer to them. All right folks, same as last time, please raise your hand before we go and then we'll get kind of a five minute audience if we kind of hit the top at the time. Can I ask that people share their name when they ask a question, just so if I don't recognize you immediately, so that I know who I'm speaking with. Absolutely. All right, thank you. We got it. I'm trying not to do the same exact equals last time, gives people new questions, but that's okay. Let's start over again, I'm sorry, students. Go first. So I asked Mr. Clark this question too, but I'd like to support a question to ask. What's your name first? Does everyone? How have you in your task experience put equity at the front of your work and how would you continue to do that using your experience in the past? Hi, so one of the ways that I've supported equity in my work and one of the things I think is really important is making sure that there's representation in our library. So I feel like in elementary school libraries, there should be books that show children with disabilities. There should be books that show children from all different racial backgrounds and families. And I think that allowing children to have access to those materials and maybe see themselves in a book is a really important way to begin conversations about equity. I also have been involved in planning PD, around how we ensure that every child gets an equal opportunity to access education in our schools and that we gain an understanding that difference is an important part of what I would argue makes our communities and our society is good places to be. I'll ask the crowd a little bit, sorry. I'm also going to ask the same question. I'm Rachel Fish. And it also builds nicely off of the equity question where I'm curious about how you think about the superintendent's role in supporting the district in terms of students that are struggling academically and behaviorally, thinking about gaps that are increasing right now, thinking about students with disabilities and other students that might need more support. Yeah, I think that the superintendent is, I hope this is understood the way that I intend it to be. The superintendent's role is that of sort of a generalist, if you will. You have to have your eye toward finance, of course. You have to be paying attention to the policies and the laws that govern your work. You have to tend to your communication with board and community and you have to surround yourself with people who are really experts in those areas. I feel like in our school community, Kayla Link is a real resource. She's our special ed director. And so my expectation would be that I would visit the various schools in our community that I would work with the administrators from those schools and collect information and really get an understanding of what the needs are and then really listen to the people in those schools and families who know the children best. And then Kayla, who is an expert in special education and really think about the plans that we need to create to support students and at least mitigate the widening of the gaps as a crucial first step. I think that there is real tension that exists in our school and in public education more broadly where there's always the need to focus on learners who pick up certain things really quickly and also learners who really struggle and struggle to access education for a variety of reasons. So that's something that I think we have to think about and create programming that's engaging for all but allows students who move at maybe a faster pace to go deeper. So here in this building, we've done a lot in the last probably two years to make sure that things are becoming more engaging and students find a better sense of belonging. And I'd want to be sure that that happens more broadly. I'm stuck. Hi. I was just wondering, obviously you've been in the district as we dealt with some like heavier, like some topics, like Black Lives Matter flag, the pensioners, and some locker rooms, use of restrictions, inclusion. I was just wondering how do you feel that you would go about handling situations like that? Like to tell now there's been like open forums and discussions about that. What do you think your method would be of dealing with things like that? Yeah, I think open forums, discussion, open communication, opportunities for people to engage and really express their thoughts more in depth. I really enjoyed the forum that we had at the elementary school. I think it was maybe a year ago where people were in groups and there were questions for us to answer together and give feedback on together and share out. I think that when people have a common task that it makes it easier for us to sit across the table from someone and see each other. I struggle with the idea, I guess, in community that we can't have conversations if we disagree with one another. I think there's a fine, not a fine line, but there's definitely a line between protected speech and civic participation and hate speech and we can't tolerate hate speech. But I think that there's a lot that we can learn from one another if we spend time communicating with each other. Hi, Felicia. So I am curious, you know, I think you've seen it and I know I did as well, that a lot of really effective teachers have left our district and I'm hoping that you have some thoughts about how do you recruit quality teachers and retain them and perhaps administrators as well. Yeah, I think that there are a few components to that. We definitely have seen talented educators leave education altogether and leave our district and that's been really, really hard and I think after the pandemic and everything we went to where we were working in a hybrid model and then people so hoped that we would come back to school and everything would just be normal and it's been more of a struggle than that and we still see lasting behaviors and struggle from it. So I think that finding professional development that feels empowering for people and that is empowering, connecting and having our staff connect and really listening to people, I think those are the ways that we move forward and hopefully retain staff. Having a sense of belonging among your staff is really important as well as a sense of belonging for students and I also think supporting administrators and supporting their staff and knowing what their building needs and what their culture needs and creating trust is a really important piece of things. Can you answer all the pieces? I should have taken notes. Okay, good job. I wanna, Jack, I wanted to piggyback on when you were like a, I definitely connect with keeping the culture within all the different schools, you know, unique because that is what's special about this district but how do you plan on going by creating that calming goal, especially at an elementary level where we talk about equity and that each, like, I'm the music teacher at all the elementary schools so I work really hard to create an equitable education so that when you are a seventh grader, you know that this is where we know all our seventh graders are at, you know, so that it's not like, oh, that's a brain tree kid or that's a Brookfield kid or RES kid. So what are the steps beyond just, what we've talked about throughout conversations but as a district wide, would you take to zone in on those calming goals but still keep that culture, like a little bit more detail from that past question? Yeah, so one of the things that we talked about on my tour today or I got an opportunity to talk about with the other administrators that I think we'll do regardless of the outcome of this search is that we each have PTOs or advisory boards in our school where we have parent volunteers and at the end of last year for our group, we did sort of an appreciation dinner. Katie Sutton and I made dinner for that group and one of the things we thought about was if we brought together the PTOs and advisory boards and then did sort of a brainstorming session about what our collective values are, what are the things we find valuable about our schools or the things that we need to work on more to sort of start talking about that more broadly and then thinking about how we could use that at the end of this year to start to talk to our staff at the beginning of next year so that it's as collaborative as possible and really incorporating the voices of families and community members and then bringing it back to our staff so they can work with it as well. So that's one really specific way. Yeah, I mean, I do, I've been here long enough that I remember the days when we would be able to identify seventh graders and even into eighth grade and which elementary school they came from based on how well they read or wrote and that's not so much the case anymore and that's really important. That shows us that across all the elementary schools they're engaging in similar work so that our kids come to middle school with a similar skill set and nobody's advantaged or disadvantaged based on their elementary school. So I would wanna see curricular programming like that continue. Another thing I'd like to see continue, I feel like we have benefited from being in a really fiscally responsible district and we have been able to add programming and add supports while at the same time not taking more than we need from our local taxpayers. We have an incredibly generous district in terms of people supporting our schools and supporting our budgets and I think it's really important not to take that for granted and I don't think that Elaine and Heather have taken that for granted so I would wanna continue on that path and the thing I think I would want to work on most outside of those two priorities are just building and developing greater community to support our schools and support our communities. Coffee. Thank you. So you're part of this community already and that can be beneficial or there can be some drawbacks and you transitioned from like being a teacher and then you were the principal and then and now you're going like the bigger step how will you navigate if there's incidents where you have to really address staff? Yeah, I mean we've been through that and it's not an easy thing but I think it's really important in our roles to have clear boundaries and expectations and I for better or worse am a rule follower myself and being guided by clear policies and expectations and I think that that's helpful. Like we don't have to make decisions around that personal. Here's the expectation, here's what we follow through on. Yeah, it's not easy as building administrators, district administrators, at this point in time we do all of our own human resources work so that means we supervise and evaluate our staff and give them feedback and hope for growth and then we have to make hard decisions if we don't see the growth that we expect. This is sort of different from most of the other questions but regarding like the future of learning and how fast things are developing what would you say is like your personal policy or plan for how to adapt school to like the future and all of its changes? Yeah. So it's a tricky question, Drew. Also in regards to technology. So do you mean like AI, chat, GPT those sorts of things or do you mean having kids prepared to interact with technology? Sort of like interact with technology and like opportunities to practice. Yeah, I think there are a few different thoughts that came to mind as you were asking that question. I think one is that it's really important for us to teach students the skills that they need to be learners. So if you know how to access instructional manuals or videos or those sorts of things that help you learn then you have the tools you need to support yourself in learning about new technology as it evolves and grows and that is vital. Even in my lifetime, I mean cell phones were not a thing when I graduated from high school. So really long time ago and then we had these big bag phones. We've come a long way. And so I think those soft skills that we talk about that help you determine how you're going to think critically about information, how you're going to receive information and how you're going to interact with new technology is important. I really appreciate that in this district, we have some introductory level tools in the innovation center and they are really amazing tools that people access and can create things in that space and can interact with people in local industry around technology through that programming. And then on the other end of our building we have like the much more sort of souped up models of the same thing so that people might be career ready in a specific field. I don't think that schools and their budgeting can necessarily move as quickly as industry does with technology. So I think the skills that we teach kids about or students about learning are incredibly important and I also think that we can't discount the need to know how to use paper and pencil. Even though the world is so incredibly digital, sometimes we need to unplug and connect with other human beings and do something tactile like write with a pencil or pen on paper. You see something that you can inject some energy going into that will take Randolph where next steps and then are there hurdles that you feel that are kind of in the dragging down arena that would make things so that they could fly high. So I think that the next steps are to continue down the path that we've been working on for the last couple of years which is over the past few years as industries in our community have sort of dried up as jobs have been harder to find and affordable homes have been harder to find. I think that our community as a whole has sort of felt defeated and our kids have felt defeated and they have felt defeated on athletics fields and as our theater program, our theater went dark during COVID and in the past couple of years we've started to see new life and see them like fight their way back and persevere and I think teaching them to have a sense of pride in their school and their communities and the resources that we do have here and the support that we have here. I think that momentum and that sense of pride is really important and so I would want to see us continue to do things to engage the community and bring people together so that conversations at dinner tables are more focused on the things that our kids are doing well and can be proud of and not the things that we see that are happening that are wrong and are really hard because there's plenty of that to go around. You can find it anywhere you look but our students do amazing things every single day with support of people who care about them deeply and I think that needs to be recognized too and our kids learn from each other. I mean, we have some really articulate students here with us tonight, I'm proud of them for being here. Like was touched on earlier, we've had some very divisive issues that have come up and honestly, in my opinion, they were here wrong but I'm not gonna go into all that and everything but I'd like to know how can we bring together values, we've all got values and everything that we all have that are similar yet different without causing the same type of rifts to occur in these schools. Yeah, I think back to, I think it was fall of 2018 but I might be wrong about that. Our eighth grade team decided to read a novel called The Hate You Give and we had some people who thought that was a questionable choice. We had some people who felt very strongly that it needed to be a part of our school community and one of the things that we do if people are interested in a text that's being read here is you can borrow a copy of that text and read it and pretty quickly with the local group four they had a number of people who wanted to read it and we had gotten a grant so we could get extra copies and so we bought enough copies to have a book group for all ages and there was a mom who had been questioning use whether or not we should use the book who decided to join the book group and brought her eighth grade student with her and they were engaged with that group. We had people in their 90s reading the book and discussing the book and I think that that opportunity we had a total of three potluck dinners and book groups and there was room for all kinds of reflection on the text but as a school we had written a grant we got copies we could provide for the community and then we could provide an opportunity for people to talk about their thoughts about the book and about it's literary merit or lack thereof and I saw a lot of positive connection. I'm not certain actually I'm fairly certain that not everybody left those book groups agreeing but we all had a common understanding of where each other stood and we could sit across a dinner table from each other and have a conversation. I think that's really important. So as someone who is very involved in theater I'm always a little bit disheartened when schools sort of throw the art to the wayside and focus on curricular activities. How would you support the arts in our school in a way that benefits students? Yeah, I think that the arts are really, really important I think that even I've never been a strong visual artist but I think that exposure to visual arts is really important exposure to dance and music and poetry those things are really important in our lives and provide a really positive sense of connection. I'm proud of how our arts department has flourished at this school and I know that we have strong arts programs at the elementary school so I would want to see them continue to grow. I'd want to see students continue to think about how we could branch out and involve the arts more. I love the idea of our district wide concert and the arts shows that happen at Chandler. I always wanted to when I was the director of project based learning see a PBL that was rooted in the arts or art therapy or like thinking about art as a creative outlet to take better care of ourselves but those are really student driven ideas for PBLs and nobody ever presented that so maybe you could. So I think that's a way that I would love to see that grow and I think it's fascinating the ways in which the different programs can lead in different directions. Like when Mr. Rainville was here there was like a heavy history component to everything that happened and now under Ms. McEwen's leadership there's a lot of dance and focus on performing arts as arts in and of themselves and I really appreciate that too. I also love our open mic nights that it's just like anybody who feels good about taking a healthy risk at school can do that and I think that's a sign of a healthy arts program too. Are you letting people do repeat questions? Yeah, please. I don't have one, but I'm just saying. Oh yeah. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure the folks spelled the name of the opportunity. And I don't mean like ask the same question, not ask the question, I do like to then. Hi, my name is Ryan Anderson. What is the most pressing challenge you see for the district and how do you attempt to address it? I think our most pressing challenge right now is like healing and building community. I mean, honestly, I think I in the past three years have never seen people more upset with one another. You know, have seen a situation. I've always, I'm a little bit of a Pollyanna. A lot of people might be too young to understand that reference, can Google it. But I have a tendency to see the positive side of things and I think that in general, when students care deeply about something and they present something that matters to them, that generally a community will support them because I think most community members can agree that our children are very most important asset in a community. In the past few years, I've seen situations where students have presented things that are true for them and I've seen adults shout at them directly and want them not to share. And that's been really hard to watch and hard to help students make sense of. And I think that we need to meet and talk and find ways that we can connect so that we can get back to a place where we just support and care and nurture our children. Can I do a follow up just on that? Because I think one of the things as a community member but also someone who was in this district, I saw we really need to build community outside as well, inside. How do you envision getting those family and community members back in our building and becoming part of the educational process versus it always being sort of us and them? I think things like the book group that I referenced, I think the dinner that our PBL, a racial justice PBL did with four, but it was open to people beyond membership and either the school community or the group that focus on racial equality. So anyone I think could attend, is that right? So I think opening up the doors in those ways. I also think back to a couple of years ago, the spring playing happened at the tech center on the same night as our celebration of learning and it was open to the public. And I think there was like cotton candy down on your end and a food truck and our eighth graders were showing off their capstone projects at the end of eighth grade and different departments were showing what they had done and the senior projects were being celebrated in here. And we had family members come in, we had mentors related to those senior projects. We really had, I don't know, the whole campus felt alive, yeah. And I think more events like that that make people realize that this asset is here in our community and that we're doing amazing things. We have time for about one more question. This is a piggyback. And I'm not in touch with this. I don't know whether this is really out of reach or not. But in my day, we used to have room mothers and things like that. Do you envision, is that a thing of the past or is that something that can still happen in the schools? So you mean like volunteers in the schools? Yes. Yeah, we have a lot of parents, I think, who volunteer particularly at the elementary level. So we don't have like room mothers per se. I'm hearing what you're saying, but we do have parents who can come in and read to children. We have parents who help with like our Shizu Kushi exchange project or are helping with our sports boosters or music boosters. So we do have volunteer opportunities for families to come in. And I think that extends beyond parents. I would say Mickey and Neil Richardson are like the honorary grandparents of our racial justice PBL, Ryan's nodding his head. So other members of the community can volunteer to be supportive too. I think that transparency is also really important. Yeah, thank you all so much for coming. Yeah, thank you for coming in. Thank you, Lisa, for coming in. There's something really special about a small community that can come together in such an intimate setting and be a part of this process. So I wanna express my gratitude to you and tell you I feel a part of this process with you. Please use the QR codes. I'm hip. Over there to provide your feedback to the board, which will be really useful for us so that we can continue to make you a part of this process. Recording will be available by tomorrow morning to watch, to engage, and please tell people who couldn't be here tonight. But thank you for taking the time. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you to Michael. This is a tough dynamic to deal with and we really appreciate it. So thank you and get home safely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.