 So kind of getting my brain rearranged here a little bit. It may take a minute or two. Everything's been about construction, which we'll have a chance to kind of talk about at the end. But we've really got two parts for tonight. The first session is really a work session. It's designed to get folks together brainstorming a little bit about the things the district can do. To kind of give us a plan that we can implement, to get the community hopefully to grow a little bit. But also to provide a little bit of comfort. It's kind of a follow-up to the last open forum that we had. And there were a couple of truths that came out of that forum, which I think will be good to review in a moment or two. The second part is a question and answer session. There is a lot going on, as you know, across the district right now. And so this is an opportunity for folks to ask me specific questions and hear kind of the district responses and hopefully feel a little bit better about the work that's going on. It's been very difficult, especially with the heating issue, because we're working with so many different groups of contractors and folks. We like to try to get information out as fast as possible, but we also like to make sure that we've got the best information when we get it out to the community. So I'll have an opportunity to talk about that a little bit. All right, so let's hit rewind a little bit. And kind of step back about a month ago when we had the open forum that was spurred because of the locker room issue that came up in the WCAX News article or the report that came out. And I think it's really important to try to set the idea with folks that these issues that we are dealing with are very complex. And they're very complex in terms of the school having to manage them. And I'll kind of try to see if I can explain this in a way that is understandable. Probably the best example to try to explain this complexity is if we imagine that we've got a social studies teacher, math teacher, a science teacher, who refuses to use a transgender student's pronouns or preferred name. Two things can happen in this scenario. The teacher can claim that they are exercising their free speech rights. And at the same time, the student can claim that they are being discriminated against. Both statements hold weight and the rights of each individual in this matter is equal under the law. Given this ambiguity, it's very difficult for the district to decide what it should do. Free speech. The eyes of the law. Our lives would be a heck of a lot easier if the law said okay. This one is up here a little bit, right? Because then it's easy for us to make a decision for it. This one's up here so you know where you have to put your preferences at. But that's not what's going on here. And we've had three or four situations this year that we've been put in exactly this same boat. This is really a matter for the courts to decide. And the reason that I say that is because there's no clarity, right? They've got these laws there. They're in conflict with each other. And they have not provided us with any kind of clarity so that we can make better decisions. The information that they need to provide us is actually pretty simple. And it's this idea of when does free speech become less about exercising one's freedom and more about removing a person's right to be free from discrimination. Regardless of how long we have to wait to receive that answer, to receive that clarity, we're all here because we gotta find a way to work together for the greater good of our students. In Vermont, the state has provided guidelines that we have to follow and those guidelines are untested by law. But the schools are required to follow them nonetheless. But it's not clear. So that's why we are in the situation that we're in right now. At the last time that we met, we had an open forum and we kind of established that there are two truths out there that came out very clearly as people spoke. And you've got on the one hand, you've got people that simply are not comfortable sharing locker rooms and bathrooms. Understandable. On the other hand, we've got LGBTQ folks who do have the right to be treated like everyone else. And again, you see that conflict. So our goal tonight hopefully is to develop the foundation of a plan that will provide comfort for all without violating the conflicting laws that the district is required to uphold. And so that's why I've got you broken into work sessions. Little work groups, little focus groups. And this work will not be easy because these are tough questions. But my hope is that we're gonna get some really good feedback, some really good ideas that we can kind of run with. So we're gonna be doing some brainstorming. You're gonna be brainstorming at your tables. And what we're really focused on is ways that we can honor both of those truths while trying to maximize everybody's comfort. And the things that we're gonna talk a little bit about and that I'm gonna try to elicit some ideas from you on is what can we do in terms of education and programming? What can we do in terms of structures? And what can we do in terms of addressing what I'm calling community tribalism? At the end of this discussion, what's gonna happen is we'll go around, we're gonna collect the papers, I'll collate all the information and we'll put a plan together that's gonna be run past the cabinet and is also gonna be run past the legal team, right? Because like I said, those laws are pretty explicit but they conflict with each other. So we're gonna need their advice on what we should implement or what we can't implement and what we shouldn't. And then I'll be good about communicating back out to the community where we're headed. We've got you into groups by table as I said a little bit earlier. We need one brave person who wants to be the recorder. There are three topics that we're gonna be brainstorming on therefore you're gonna probably need three sheets of paper. And then like I said at the end, I'm gonna collect that information. So first round here, this is ideas about education and programming. Recorder is what I want you to do. First step here, please label your first sheet as education and programming. And then I'll give you some ideas about, and maybe an example or two that might fit this to get you started on the brainstorming session. So the basic question that folks are trying to answer, trying to generate some ideas around is what can we do educationally to build a stronger unity amongst all our students within the school? We are a school district after all and so our primary mission is education. So this is an important question. What programs, what classes, what conferences, what trainings should we consider that might help ease the tensions that now exist? A perfect example. Best one I could think of off the fly was an opening day training for students on where to find private spaces in each building. So those are the kinds of things that we're looking for. And you gotta talk with your group, you gotta get some conversations going. So I'm gonna shut up for a little while. I'll give you about five minutes. I'll wander around, check in with the tables if there's questions. Yeah, and we can kind of focus on the next piece of our agenda here. And I'll give you a warning. The third thing that I'm gonna ask you to brainstorm about is gonna be the hardest. So part of this is getting you worked up to the big stuff. So the next idea that I want you to work on in your groups is this idea of structures. In structures are basically just anything that creates order within an organization. Lots of times they're physical in nature. Right, examples of physical structures that might help us make people feel a little bit more comfortable and move the district forward. Private stalls and locker rooms, posters hung on the walls that show where private spaces can be found. Physical structures, things you can actually put your hands on. But structures, again, things that provide order to an organization can also be a little bit more abstract. Their policies and protocols and procedures. And again, I'm throwing these examples out because they were what I could brainstorm on the fly very quickly. Doesn't mean that they need to be included. But as an example of a protocol, students who are uncomfortable using shared bathrooms and locker rooms will be magnanimous enough to seek out a private space to use. Right, so does that make a little bit of sense in terms of structures? So either on a separate sheet of paper or you can draw two lines. You're gonna put the heading on there. This is educational structures and do a little bit of brainstorming. Remember, they can be physical. They can be policies. They can be procedures. Yeah, like it's... I got ya. That's a good point. Hand up. Hand up. Hand up. Hand up. Hand up. Hand up. Hand up. Hand up. She's great, right now. She's... She's great. She's great. She's great. All right, there's some good conversations going on which we need and we appreciate. The one of the most important things about tonight for everybody is exactly what is happening right now is people sitting down having conversations with one another, right? And this is something that we're gonna need to do a lot more of as we try to progress through the work that we've gotta do. So take another couple of moments to kind of get settled in and then you've got the biggest challenge ahead of you with the next piece I'm gonna ask you to brainstorm on. Now, the assertions I'm gonna make are based upon what I've noticed, what I've experienced in my time here because it's not the first time that we've wrestled with controversy. And so what I want folks to try to grapple with a little bit, and again this is incredibly difficult and it's a little bit outside the baila wick of the schools to manage but given where we're at and where we wanna go, the only way we're gonna get there is if we try to address these community issues a little bit working together to affect that change. For me, the simple fact is that the root cause of a lot of the climate issues within the schools are primarily caused by what I'm calling tribalism. And so I wanna give that a definition. Those are behaviors that stem from a strong loyalty to one's own tribe or social group. And that tribalism does exist within the community and I wanna be absolutely clear so nobody misses this point. That tribalism exists on both sides of the spectrum. Whether it be political, religious, or social, the problem is is when you get those two sides that are very far apart, it's like acid and water. It's an explosive mixture, it needs to be diffused because otherwise it will destroy us all which is a little bit of what we're experiencing right now. So this is the toughest question I'm gonna ask you to wrestle with tonight. How do we bring the community together while respecting individual's beliefs? If we can't accomplish this, this district will not grow and it will not flourish. So this is the most important question of the night. In this one, I'm gonna give a couple of examples. They're not meant to guide your thinking just to give you some ideas that I was able to pull from some folks that I spoke with today. One of the examples of how we bring the community together is defining a common mission that all sides agree to pursue with the understanding that that means everyone is gonna give up a little bit of what they want for the greater good. Not one side is giving up some of what they want. Both sides have to give up a little bit. That's what collaboration's all about. Coming together more often with trained facilitators to help the community break down the silos that exist. And the most important one of all taken directly from the literature, challenging and rejecting community leaders who may be throwing fuel on the fire instead of seeking collaboration. So those are the examples that I was able to come up with in terms of brainstorming. So this is a tough conversation so we'll give it a bit more time. But again, how can we affect change in our community to get people working closer together so that it's not spilling over into our schools? I'm gonna ask folks to do a couple of things. Actually, I'm gonna have the two of you help a little bit as well. Try to wrap up final thoughts. Give a quick look at what you've written. From what I can see, people have actually been pretty clear so that's awesome. But I'm gonna ask folks to do a couple of things. Actually, I'm gonna have the two of you help a little bit as well. Try to wrap up final thoughts. Give a quick look at what you've written. But if anything doesn't quite say exactly what your group meant to say, please clarify that a little bit. And then a few folks are gonna come around and they are gonna grab the documents and the materials. And then we can kind of move on to question and answer after we talk about next steps. And people were actually asking some good questions about getting the students involved in a similar process, which I think is very important. But we're kind of in an odd place within the district right now and kind of responding to everything that's happened in the last month or two. We've had a lot of harm that has happened to the staff, to the students, through the voicemails, through the emails. And so Heather Lawler has been instrumental in pulling folks together and creating affinity groups for folks to have those discussions about where they're at, what they're feeling, and what they need to feel comfortable kind of moving forward. So this will be brought back to the students at some point in time, but right now the concern is for that comfort level, as well as the staff. So the basic process for next steps with this is we're gonna take all the wonderful ideas and I do appreciate so much the work that folks did tonight. Bring them back in front of the cabinet and in front of the equity coordinator to review. They'll determine how we're gonna pull the other constituents into the conversation. We'll get all that gathered together. We'll summarize it. We'll send it off to a legal review to see which things we can do without violating any of the various and complex laws that we all have to navigate. And then we'll put out an implementation plan to the community and start work on this. And so this is vitally important and I do thank you. I do wanna move over now to give an opportunity with everything that's going on for kind of questions and answers. So this is the opportunity, usually with me with open forum, all things are on the table to talk about. So somebody's gotta be brave to go first. We just talked about renovations in the high school walk rooms. Will this also carry down to the middle school walk rooms as well? Yeah, so the plan actually started on the 27th of September. Having the discussions, getting facilities kind of coordinated to get the contractors in to do the work. The problem is we didn't know what the cost was gonna be and it takes a while right now post COVID to get contractors that are so busy to kind of show up. It ended up being under a $40,000 repair so we didn't have to go out to bed on it. It's 34,000 right now and that is for all four locker rooms. Yeah, that's a good question. Hopefully that work is starting in early December. That's a good question. We're not building on that concept. Are we building on locker rooms? We thought that if you involve the community in that rebuild, maybe under with a contractor supervision, that could bring the two groups together for the good of what everybody wants. It might be able to get you together to help us rebuild the heat system. Oh my God. That's not how you know I'm gonna do it. No, it's not a bad idea. This is, we're just trying to fast track it. We're trying to fast track it in a slow time right now. Like I said, it's hard to get the contractors out. So I heard from one person and I don't want, while the heat is out and the school is closed, that there's not going to be any kind of distance learning kinds of scenarios and that was because of somebody at the state level that said, we can't do that. And that seems to me somebody ought to be on the stick on that. Yeah, so actually, and I can try to give you some potential good news tonight. So reminding not to forget about that. So one of the first things that, because it was the most logical when this all happened, it was like, oh, you know, we just got done. You know, the teachers did an exceptional job pulling together, getting the kids in a remote near COVID. We still are using most of the same software. You know, every kid's got a Chromebook. This should be an easy thing to do. The problem was, as I understand it, because I did reach out to the Secretary of Education, give him a lot of credit, he got right back to us, was that the provision to allow for remote session was a legislative act that happened in response to the COVID emergency. So when the state of emergency was concluded, that provision would have happened. And so it is not acceptable for us to go to remote session. It will not count as days towards learning. And that was when we first started, way back March of 2019 or whenever it was, that was kind of the rule of the land then, too. They wanted us to get all the kids and all the teachers out of the schools as quickly as possible, but those days didn't really count towards learning, even though they wanted us to try to keep the kids going. You can't get married and get on Jay's cases as part of the health, to the head of the head. My understanding as limited as it is, so don't take it as gospel, but my understanding with what came back to me was it would take a legislative action. The law would have to change to allow this, like an emergency situation for this to be viable. So it is something that you're gonna hear probably from the superintendents. And it's probably gonna be a bigger issue because we've got the PCV testing and so you're gonna get schools that are gonna get their results back and the next day have to shut down. And so it's worthy of coming up on to the legislative session this time. So. Come to Jay. Yeah. So yeah, he's usually on the idea. But the good news, and again I don't want to get hopes up too much, but there is some real potential here. What's really miserable about the situation that we find ourselves in with the heat is that currently the repair time, it's just long enough that we got to do something about it about getting kids learning. It's short enough that what we have to do to move all the students around and move all the furniture around between three different locations. It almost doesn't make it work well. The one thing that the heat was gonna be down to the remainder of the year and we had to use the new locations. We have been scouring literally the planet for the parts that we need. There is a group out of virgins, a contracting group who believes that they have what we need. Not in a higher grade of material than we need, which is fine, we'll pay the extra money for it. But it is possible that we could get the students back on December 5th. Everything repaired and done. It's not guaranteed it could change, but that's the indication that we have today. If that is the case, here is the tough part, is that it's gonna take a week or two to move everything and everybody around to all these other locations. It means an extra week out of school. But that's much better than what I was hearing that suggested two months without school. Well, two months in different locations, but those moves, they are not ideal. It's splitting the kids up amongst two or three different locations. Not great for safety. Some of the locations are very far away from Lake Chelsea Middle School, but it's all we've got in this area to use. So, but they also do not have the equipment or the desks or the chairs. So we have that huge logistical nightmare in a short amount of time. Does VTC have any of the rooms? I mean, they would go into that one. They do. So Little Red School House would take a grade or two. They have open classroom spaces. Actually, they're not classroom spaces, they're just open spaces. And again, we have to move all our equipment there to be able to use those spaces. Furniture and dividers. So like, if things move to different locations, I'm a fear of advancements. But like, how would classes work where, because I know a lot of classes are mixed with grade levels. So if two years and two years are at VTC, so 10 graders are like in Chelsea, I know like the grand adorning of my classes, I know at least a few 10th grade or even 9th grade. Yeah. Like, how about that? So while we can't do remote session for the full day, some things can be done by a remote session. So if you're a teacher that you normally have your class with is in a different location, that's a time that you might connect remotely. And because you're at school doing it, that kind of covers us under the rules of the rules. It's a good question. Yeah. Late in light of the immediate needs, we are in the physical infrastructure of the school renovation. We need new buildings. Oh, yeah, sorry, sorry. Can you give us an honest sense of your view on whether that's in our future? Yeah, we actually, we talked about it. We had 30 people at the meeting. It was all thumbs up. Of course, people don't know what the bill might be. Right? Because it would have to go to bed. This is another legislative piece. Last year, especially, I think they probably came out of the TCB discussions. The legislature asked for a study group to go out and take a look at the facilities across the state, given the fact that they haven't provided matching funds for schools to renovate or replace if they needed to for a long time, and just try to get an estimate of what it would cost. So the hope is, is that that study comes back this year the legislature moves on, puts some money aside, and if it is, we're top of the list. Right? We're top of the list here, because we've got the building that is the closest to the end of its useful life as any other building out there. Now, we do, and have maintained it as best we can, but these water leaks and things, I mean, it's three times a year. We get a main and burst inside a wall and shuts us down for a couple of days and the cost of repairing that. We've got this piece with the boiler. I mean, these are major systems that are literally failing. And if the corrosion, the internal kind of groaning way of the pipes that happened in that main line, it's probably also been happening in all the lines through all the buildings, right? So it is, I mean, there's two, I don't remember the years that they were built, but there was the main building that was probably built about 1950 and then the add-on, I believe, which was the middle school area and middle school field house. I think that was in like 60 something. Since you were told it was 68. Yeah. So again, these are old facilities. They do need some renovations or replacement. You know, the pipe dream that I talked about, which is possible is that we build the new school, RTCC, to separate the buildings from each other, but we build the new compacts out on the athletic fields. And then that way we can continue to use the current building while that building, while the new construction is happening, we move the kids over, we demolish the old building and then we build the athletic fields out front. And if we're gonna be spending 150 or 200 million, you know, why not spend an extra million and put in a turf field with lights and become the, because we're at the center of the state, set it up and charge folks to use us for all the tournaments. Those were the most convenient place for everybody in the state to get a name for that and they're at play with us. So there's a lot of that. Can't bury up, sorry. Yeah, so there is a vision. I am not going to invest too much time in it, given everything else that's going on right now. And so we find out what the legislature decides to do. I was hoping, because we were scheduled to have our PCB testing done in October, I was hoping that we were actually gonna have that testing done, because that might have helped push things along a little bit because the age of Brookfield and the age of the high school tech center is such that it's possible that we're gonna get some hits. And so that would put some into this to really kind of force this issue and get some changes to happen. I'm sorry if you said this, I just said here. Nope. We're in the legislative process. Is it just an idea or is there some actual traction with this? So as folks that have been around a lot longer than me know, typically what the legislature does is that it's looking at a potential big spending. What they do is they say, let's put a study group on. So they did that last year. So the study group, my understanding is they're supposed to be reporting out it's usually in December that they would report out. And then they have that information available to them to try to start making some decisions. It's okay, do we want to put together a school building fund so that we can partially match the funding that the districts are gonna spend if they do some renovations or do some remittances? So we're kind of waiting on it. So hopefully it's this year. Give me a... You can correct me if I'm hitting part of that. It sounds right to me. Give me a basic comparison. What's the status on this school? How much did it cost for 20 years or so into? I have no idea. I know the replacement of the roof. Replacing the roof and you put it on the roof and it was 850,000 or so that's what we did. That was during my time. But this is 25 years old now. Yes. Yeah, the roof... I can't remember the other school. I can't remember the other school. Yeah, the roofs are usually good for about 20 years. So we always have to put my... That's one of the things that we do with the reserve funds. We put the money inside the reserve for the two places. Other questions, yeah. I just want to say I'm really happy with what I'm hearing about food, the food service. I'll tell Sarah, thank you. Oh, I've told her it's fine. Heather and Sarah have been working really hard on making sure that the food that we have in storage right now isn't going away. So they've been doing some work with the community to make sure that they can save the food. In how will food work? Are we doing bad lunches for the duration? You know, it'd be similar to COVID. The bus drivers were really good. So they'll put together a bunch of hot or cold to deliver to the locations they're going to. They'll eat. Yeah, the logistics of having to do this for six weeks is almost, like I said, and then the cost. I'm hoping they get that December good. And people will be a little bit upset about the kids being done at school and other we can get that. But boy, there is something to be said in terms of maintaining learning in students being comfortable if they're just used to the same routines and consistency that they've always had because this is a tremendous uprooting. There won't be a heck of a lot of learning going on if we make these moves just because the routines are broken in consistency. So it's again, it's a tough one because like they said, it's long enough we got to do something short enough. How much we can do is pretty limited. Yeah. So this is more of a comment about one of the slides you showed at the beginning of the forum which said that free speech and discrimination were equal under the law. And I think some cases have come out and I'm gonna actually hand this to you so you can give it to Pietro when we're done here today. There's two, Maryweather versus Hartop which was from last year which basically said that free speech and religious freedom trumped the ability of someone to compel a teacher to use their desired pronoun. Depends on the statement, I appreciate the comments but that's for the lawyers. It's a 3-0 ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, it's federal court. And now there's just this month another case which is Nese versus Becerra who happens to be the secretary of Health and Human Services. In this case says that it basically did a comparison between Title VII and Title IX. Title VII is the Employers Discrimination Act. And that act does say that you can't discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity when hiring people. But Title IX, they rule very clearly has to do with biological sex. And they said that clearly applies to sporting events in schools. So I don't think they're equal anymore now that the federal courts have been ruled out. When it hits the Supreme Court, well, no. That is true, the federal lower courts are leaning towards. And depending upon which federal lower court you go to you would get a different ruling. That's typically what happens in the U.S. That's why they try to hear which place they're gonna be heard at when they're... It is, except these two are the only ones out there right now. And both of them lean towards when it comes to school sports, which I would assume would apply to school locker rooms and bathrooms. Are ruled under Title IX, which was designed to protect women's and girls' rights. But again, John, having this conversation isn't either one of us are lawyers or the court. That's why it's actually for you and you can give it to the lawyer and you can have him look at it. It's actually a good thing if things are going to court because that's the appropriate place for folks to work these things out and to get the answers. So let's let them do their job. So I appreciate it. Other questions, other thoughts? I just have one of those thoughts. Yup. A logic to move. You have a school here. The elementary school would go on if the heating system is failed for longer than you like. Yup. The elementary would go the day time and the high school kids would come in at 2.30 and go to 8 or 9 and get their day in and not be so disrupted. We had talked about that. One of the big issues that kind of came up is that a lot of our teachers have young students and they won't be able to have daycare to be able to attend to those duties. We also had talked about, you know, trying to share space or do kind of split days during the days. You know, as long as the kids are here a half a day it counts as a full with the AOE but the problem is, you know, we also want to make sure the kids are performing so we lose out on the learning piece. And the last thing that we want to do is we kind of talked a little bit about this idea that routines and consistency are really important. And with the high school, sounds like I triggered the Google, but with the high school students, unfortunately things are already disrupted for them. We also don't want to disrupt the elementaries that, you know, they're in a good spot right now because they've got those routines that got that consistent environment right now. So we can at least leave them alone and not spread out our dysfunction hopefully right now. So yeah, no really good thoughts but we've been picking away at them as well. Yeah, other? Sorry, don't lose your thought. Just like logistically, splitting the classes or the school between three locations, do you guys have any idea of how you're gonna like account for classes that have multiple grade levels within the class? And also have you figured out like how the buses are gonna work out? Yeah, Dan, our transportation director we're talking with him about today about the possibilities. And so he's taken a pretty close look at it. The one issue, big issue that comes out of the transportation piece is just because it's a long distance. And so those students would probably be ending their day around 1.30 a day to get them back in this district on time to do the things that they need to do. Music. The whole visit, the extracurriculars and stuff are getting spread around in smaller schools so that they have access to that. The multi-grade piece, if the teachers are in the same location, should not be a problem. If, as we talked about a little bit earlier, if there are teachers that, the students have multiple teachers, but if one of their teachers is not in the same location, that's an instance we'll wear for the 40 minutes or 50 minutes or 60 minutes, we can do the long instruction. I think this will have the problem books do it for that time and kind of go back and interact with the teacher there. So I'm not sure if I hit the exact question. Yeah, that's, yeah. So good questions. Yeah, go ahead. So this includes a little out of the box that maybe should be thrown out, but I'm just, with that as a disclaimer. But you mentioned reference to VTC as a potential spot for the old red schoolhouse. But they also had had a full dorm that they were using with different people and the people from Randolph House was a housing area. And I don't know what's going on in that site, but that one seemed big enough that it ought to be able to include a huge chunk of it. Yeah, I'm not sure who is still there at this point in time. We are going up to do a walkthrough on Monday with them. And they have been incredible. White River Valley has been incredible too about the potential use of Chelsea. We also asked about Rochester High School, which is sitting vacant. It was funny for Jamie, the superintendent over there, this comment was basically, yeah, they had their own heating issues, but it was one of the reasons we shut the building down and then you'd have to do some major construction to go clean this right now. And this one is the really out of the box one. Well, there's broke. The barn. I didn't even close the goat barn. Don't know. I can put it down on the list though. I think there's a huge space to get a whole suite with the honor table. Oh, yeah. What's the name of it? Walls Gold Center. Yes. Yeah. Come on. You can come. You can come. Anybody have a carry-on for them? Do you do it? Yeah. There's also a stairs to the right. Yeah, me and you talked about that. There was also over Leo Connelly's space there and there was also the building where adult basic attendance. So those are some spaces that we were looking into. Part of the problem is that we need, again, because it's such a short time frame, we need places that are pretty much just moved in. Even better if they had to have the furniture there. So then we didn't have to drag all the equipment into furniture around. But I've got the ideas written down that people are generating. Can you mention if the logistics could be anything back and forth in places? That's the key. I think people love that. We had to do a task there with teachers kids. No, I think it's a good piece that the one part that we're really looking at now is that if we use a moving company, everything's insured so something gets broken or damaged. I mean, a lot of it is moving the technology around as well, so it's nice to know if something gets dropped or if we're banged. You know, we've got a replacement coming in and it's way bigger. Again, I'm banking on December 10th. Is the part complicated? What's that? Is it like a mechanism with moving machinery and sort of the trees? Sort of a thing that needs to be done? It is literally about 20, 25 years ago they put in a wood boiler. They got a grant. It was a specialty company that is now out of business. And when they put that wood unit in there to provide heat, it uses wood chips to provide heat to the schools. They moved all the boilers out of the high school into the building with it to combine the heating system. And so the piece that's the problem is it's a specialized pipe with connectors that comes out of the bottom of the boiler. It goes down into the ground, goes across the parking lot and it literally comes up in the automotive shop. That pipe is completely corroded and defunct at this point in time. But it's a special size that's not normally made, right? It was a proprietary system that came in. They created all their own parts and pieces for it. And so the problem has been is that, yeah, we can get the pieces, but somebody literally has to manufacture it before. You know, it's not something we can pull off the shelf. So we've been asking local folks and whatnot. Like I said, we've found a group that has some stainless steel piping connectors that look like they're gonna do the job. Did you talk to Ryan Kaplan? I'd have to check with our facilities folks who they have. He has a very high tech machine shop. He's a tech done here. I've worked with him. You can build, you wouldn't think people would build. Yeah, no, there's a couple of folks sitting around Vermont Tech as well that we have speak with and try to get an explanation. So good points. Yeah. What are the things that you're gonna do? A lot of the after-school extracurriculars during this time is just trying to find other spaces for them. I mean, we do have the three elementaries in the afternoon. Randolph Elementary is a little problematic because they've got a thriving after-school program here that doesn't get over till 5.30. So it just might mean some later times if they use this space here. But there is the plan to try to relocate. Matter of fact, we were talking about robotics a little bit earlier about finding that new space for them to work on. Kim, what about in any of the churches at the time? Yeah. We had an inquiry. We've given them information, but again, that's that way. The fire department's off from the space and it looks like wrestling's gonna be happening over the fire department. Yeah, that's what it is. I gotta give credit to Nick, our athletic director. He's been connecting with the local schools. The gym at Bethel is primarily unused and so they're allowing us to use that and hopefully get the mask policies up and running. Yeah, people have been really good. If space is available, people have been good. It's just that the spaces that are available aren't quite suited, so there's a lot of work to do. If 7th and 8th graders end up at Chelsea, is there gonna be a bus route that takes them there? Yeah, okay. No, we'll be busing all the students. We're also talking about, we've gotta find a way to kind of split up the nurses so we've got a nurse in each of the locations as well. So that was the big discussion that was going on over in Utah. Chelsea has their own nurse. Yeah, and so one of the things that we might do with the Chelsea there is see if we can pay them a little bit to be able to have access to their own nurse. Other questions on that? Yeah. I've heard rumors that there's gonna be no recreation sports for the younger kids. Would you be able to touch on that? The biggest problem with the rec sports, it will happen, but it may be problematic, especially now, was that there's a requirement to have custodial staff there and we haven't had custodial staff. We've been having a very hard time retaining them. We did try to seek out to see if we could contract out for these folks. There's a couple of contracting outfits out there. It would violate the agreement with the union to be able to do that. So we did have a meeting, had a bunch of folks come in, which was great, it was a good conversation. So what we ended up coming up with in the interim is two things. One is there have reached out to see if there are some parents that are willing to just sign up to be custodians under our contract for two or three hours a night here and there to be able to cover those events. And so I think we've had four people so far that have showed up to do that, which is awesome to have the community step up to that. As part of the negotiation process with the support staff union, we did put some information in their hands at the last session about potentially doing a side agreement that hey, we're considering raising the starting salaries considerably. How about at least for the custodial staff? You let us start that now if we can fund the funding for it. And so those are the two things that are happening. But yeah, it is a priority. And I think the addition of the three or four folks that are signing up can make it happen. But in terms of the specifics of who's going to be what and where, that's going to be a nick thing. No, I just wanted to hear the tap. Oh yeah, no, it's a priority. Is there a requirement that keep the same phys ed type curriculum or might include bowling or might include the climbing wall or things like that? Which piece are we talking about? The, what he is. The rec program is usually a theater program for our sports. It's run by the town. It's basketball, it's the same sort of sports that we usually do in high school. Yeah. What do we do with like arts, music, theater or other specials that serve all the levels? Yeah, a lot of that potentially would be remote, which is difficult. The focus, if we go to the separate locations, the primary focus has got to be on the core. And then we fill in the others as best we can around. Everybody will be working full time with it, just, it may be in different load hours. Yeah, I wasn't sure, like Dan Cohen, we did like a rotating course, like obviously this much, yeah, yeah. Again, it's amazing, it's amazing the amount of logistics for the casual five to six weeks. I'm not sure if you can answer this, but I'll, like with different locations and stuff, like when teacher would be that like, would driver's ed still be able to like, get there in school driving time and during that time? Yeah, so we've been, we've been thinking a lot about driver's ed because there are really specific requirements in terms of like hours. And it has to occur somewhat synchronously because what you learn in the classroom, you have to be able to apply. And so we, Paul Parsons, Mr. Parsons has a plan for how we'll move forward. And you can apply to the state for a waiver if there's an exception in order to like, extend your timeline. So I think that's part of what he's been talking about too. Yeah, it sounded like that. I was going back and forth and the emails was getting the waiver in place. Yeah, and related to arts and other sort of more unique classes where teachers may have a seven through 12 curriculum we're meeting with some of those people to see if it might make sense to do a shorter period of time with a grade level on a location and more of a rotation or remote option. So these things are on the table and as we solidify the places where students will be, I think the plans will fall into place. And again, everybody cross your fingers for December 5th. Yes. That's the big piece. If you had a question. There was something else. Let's talk to him. Yeah. Yeah, there was something else I want, legislatively, since we got you here, we can bend some years. Driver's Ed, there is no Driver's Ed prep program in the state of Vermont. The last. You need to be the program that teaches the teachers how to do it. So there is a shortage, incredible shortage. We lucked out when we got Paul, we actually paid to send him over to Keen, New Hampshire to get his credentials. And then he took a lot of it on himself to also work with the department head because you get the teaching credentials there to be able to teach the class. Then you got to work with the department transportation excuse me to get the driving credentials. We really need a program here, Driver's Ed, especially in Vermont. When we've got 40 to 50% poverty in this district, the kids can't afford to spend 700 bucks to go and take out the course and arrive at these. So it's just finding a focus and I'm happy to come in and talk with folks that helps about making sure that they least get to train the program in the state. It's like to help these folks. Because we're all going to be right here just to see if we help. Yeah, if it looks like there's a legislative solution to that, let's talk about that. Yeah, I mean, keep it in the spot. They're generating really good ideas as we're talking. Yeah, any other? Nobody's trapped here, by the way. I usually just hang out until the questions get around. So if you probably had at least one or two classes that you would have to take at Randall, how are you guys going to coordinate that? Is it the math classes? Is it the? It'll probably be math or English. So the math and the English are going to actually get pushed into the programs. So he'll be able to take it that way. And RTCC is a different animal right now. Because of the size of the building, we were able to scour across the country. We've got propane heating systems that if you drive by, you'll see them kind of around the outside of the building. We've literally kind of drilled holes in the windows and the walls to bring the heat in there. You at RTCC will be back in session on Monday following vacation. You'll have some activities that are going on. I think there's a couple of field trips planned and some other activities for next week. So you're on track. But no, it's a very good question. Those courses will be pushed into the regular program. The English teacher will literally come into the Audubon program and teach the English to the students. So yeah, one question. I think there was one more. Kind of a question. So I work in general care when I was thinking about the force shortage. How's that impact on this district for you guys? Thinking about that or we've been OK as far as teacher in the subway and maintenance staff has been an issue. Maintenance staff has been an issue. Paraprofessionals less so. A lot of it was COVID related at the time. Because the staff are coming into work and close contacts in the school with kids, especially if you're a parent professional usually or one of one. So we had a lot of turnover, but with some effort we've been able to replace most. We do have to get our starting salaries up. That's a big focus as part of the graduation sessions. Teacher wise, again, we've done fairly well. A lot of it is special ed substitute teachers or we've had districts that tried to even double in their substitute pay. And they still, if they don't do more than they did, we'll just cut it out. Again, I don't know why now, but I think at least during COVID it was understandable. People didn't want to come to the detention room for some sort of risk working at the post-mortem. But yeah, I've said this on substitutes as we appreciate the process. So we've had this, it sounds like we're one now. I appreciate the turnout. I appreciate the work. I heard some really good conversations. And so this will continue. I will be meeting with the community in forums at least monthly. It's typically the third Thursday of every month. But if things come up, we'll be more frequently. So I do appreciate it. Be safe out there. There was a little snow falling. I don't think it was much, but it is cold. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you so much.