 call the meeting to order at 6.05. Do I have any adjustments for the agenda? Yes, we have a new hire to bring forward to you guys today for the associate business manager position. And there is an executive session on personnel as well that I want to keep on the agenda. So where do we want to put? If we could do the new hiring under 10, that all right with folks after the executive session? Any other adjustments for anybody? Any public comment? Any public on? So act to approve minutes of Monday, July 13th. So there's no minutes for Monday, July 13th or August 10th. I'm going to go and listen to the recordings and take those minutes up so we'll have them for our next meeting. But we do have Monday, August 24th meeting minutes. All right, so August 24th guys for the full board minutes. So I have a motion. Somebody want to make a motion to approve the minutes of August 24th? I would make a motion to approve the minutes of August 24th. Thank you, Dawn. And I'll second that motion. All right, any discussion? Hearing none, so moved. Monday, August 31st. The effort full board special meeting. So I have a motion. So moved. So moved. Any discussion on August 31st? Okay, hearing none, so moved. Report. Point of interest. This is an executive session, so executive members are supposed to be doing the actions, I believe. I think Ethan's an alternate, Dawn. Yeah, Lisa's on. No, Ethan's an alternate for Carl right now. Are you sure? Yeah, he's an alternate for Arsut. Is he? Ethan, is that on? Okay, that's a... I understood it. Yes. Okay. You know, they have the executive board alternate as the vice chair. I'm the vice chair of Arsut Board and so my apologies. Just wanted to make sure there was no issues down the road. Yep. Okay, reports to the board, superintendent's report. You guys have my report in hand. I'll add that we've started budget meetings for 21-22. We've met with Rudd last week to do the student support budget. We're meeting with Newton, Sharon and Arsut on Friday. So my team will be going to the buildings and working with the principals on student support budgets. You'll all start seeing your first draft this upcoming month on student support as per the budget timeline. I also point of interest that folks may have is that I met again with Efficiency Vermont today and it looks like we're going to be in on a second round as long as the governor of signs of the bill that appropriates additional money for HVAC systems. We look to be seeing additional money coming in for Rudd, specifically the Bethel campus and Arsut at Rochester Stockbridge. So that's all good news. What's that? Excuse me, Jamie. This is Don. Have we got the final results back from the state regarding our secondary education? I mean our special education costs because I thought we had appealed something up there. Did we ever get a response? You've not appealed anything since you my watch. I have we got a response back from our appeal. I know you appealed something. Don, are you talking about the FY19 resubmission that we did last fall? I'm talking about the last appeal that we did. We said we should have gotten more money back than what we did and they were going to look at it. Yes, that was resolved several months ago for FY19. So we're good going forward. Got a majority of it back. So we're good going forward. The figures that we have are solid when we're putting our new budgets together. Is that okay? All right. Yeah, that's correct. Sorry, Don. I just didn't know about that particular appeal. Okay. There was a refining of the seal report after we closed out coming up. The other thing that I wanted to add is that we are looking to, this will come up under COVID updates, but I met with all the principals last Thursday. We're tentatively watching our data and if our data continues to stay strong as we discuss way back in the August, is that we would, as the principal said, turn on the spigot a bit. And so we will look to, instead of having that enrichment time from 1.30 to 3, we are going to adjust and use that time for instruction from 8.30 to 3 for elementary students. Our numbers are looking good across the state. Even where there has been positive cases, it's been very isolated. And the teachers and principals have advocated to increase the elementary time. And so I'm feeling confident as long as this week goes well, that we will do that. We will start it on week seven. Also, from day one back in August, we talked about numbers look good at Rudd, that we would go to four days a week at the middle and high school. Numbers are still looking good. So it does look like we'll be increasing to four days a week for week seven, eight, nine, to see how that goes at the middle and high school. And then if we needed to make an adjustment, we would. So I'm wondering if I can ask a question? Sure, of course. I'm wondering how we'll be in terms of serving our fully virtual students if we increase the amount of time that students are in person in school. Just knowing the strain that having the virtual academy has put on the system so far and the struggles that we're having with staffing related to that, I'm just wondering how we think we can do both really well. Are you speaking to the elementary least or the high school? Because the high school, the teachers have, they have instructional blocks assigned. Right. So we are now through 12 virtual classes. Yeah. So I'm thinking more, I guess, about the elementary school. And I know that we have specific staff dedicated, but I'm just wondering if having more students back in school then creates more of a necessity to have more teachers back in school as well. Nope. No, these adjustments to the schedules won't change the teacher's load. Okay. Based on their in-person. And I do have an update under COVID-19 and where we're at with adding that additional elementary staff. And we're confident that families are going to support this and that they're not going to move to virtual if they think it's too aggressive? I've had no feedback in the negative. Okay. And it's part of why we put out a letter ahead of time and let folks know that a decision wouldn't be made until the end of next week was to try to gather feedback. I've received positive feedback via emails, but I haven't heard negative. I just wanted to be sure. Yeah, no, I appreciate that, Lisa. The only other thing is that, you know, I just got to say, I just, it's been a real pleasure over the last month to have students back in the building and working with faculty, staff, administration. Everyone's working tremendously hard. It's been nice to get some positive publicity across the ESU. And the last week, I think you're going to see that continue to happen. I think folks are very interested in how we've been able to approach COVID-19 in a systematic way and have our kids back in our buildings. And so there was WCAX has reached out. Fox 44 has now recently reached out. And my plan is to continue to try to push news coverage across the ESU to ensure that we're sharing it and that everyone's getting that positive publicity. That's all I had. I'll take any questions folks may have. Any questions, guys, of Jamie? Thank you, Jamie. We are on to business manager. I emailed you on my report Friday. I've got a few updates to share with you. We found out late Friday into today that the cash flows that were submitted for the town tax payments were created using an invalid file from the tax department that didn't include all of the homestead tax credits. So the AOE is working on a revised cash flow for that, which will result in more money coming in from the ed fund and less money coming in from the towns. So we will be pending a readjustment for that. So the September 10th payment that our districts receive should ultimately increase. But if the towns have already paid their taxes, we may end up owing the towns some money back. So that's that update. We found out today that FEMA has determined that school districts are not eligible for their relief funds. So that process won't be moving forward. In my report, I outlined all the things that we have due in October. And then in the discussion items, I just wanted to again review that we need to determine as boards, if we are going to charge back or credit back for the announced versus the allowable tuition when that comes out from the AOE. And if we do it, we have to do it all the way across. Some districts can't choose to do it and others can't. It's all or nothing. And then we also need to establish a solid process for paying tuition for all of the districts who have tuition. Board stipends will go out October 30th. And then I was approached by Gallagher Associates, which is a brokerage house that works with the majority of school districts in the state of Vermont to provide their ancillary benefits. They partner with V. High, who does all of our health insurance. And they would like an opportunity to provide proposals on our ancillary benefit program, which is your life, long-term disability. And on average, they can save between 10 and 25%. So I would be interested in seeing what they can provide for us if you all agree to that exercise. And then lastly, I've been approached by two additional solar companies. One went directly to the Sharon School Board, which was Green Lantern Solar, and they have provided a proposal for the Sharon School District to consider. And they would like the opportunity to provide proposals to all of our other districts similar to what Encore had done. And then I also received a call from Stratford Energy, and they would like an opportunity to provide proposals as well. So I just need some guidance from you all on those two topics if you want us to proceed or not. That's under discussion. Yeah, but it was part of my discussion items in my board report. And then any questions that you have? Any questions for the board? Sorry. Tara, I wanted to talk about the invalid cash flow. Was that submitted to all towns in RSU? All towns in the entire state of Vermont. Awesome. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Anybody else have questions of Tara? Thank you, Tara. Technology director Ray. You have my report and I'd like to entertain any questions that you might have. Questions of Ray, guys? One thing that I did not include is that we expect a shipment of Chromebooks within the next couple of weeks to supplement what we have in the buildings which we are in need of. Which building? Sharon included. The Chromebooks we originally ordered aren't coming in until Thanksgiving, Don. So all but one building decided to work with an alternate supply which should be here within the next two weeks hopefully out three weeks from now meaning out in the buildings. A scrapper decided to stick with the original shipment. And the reasoning for the urgency is in the event that we did have to go fully remote we wanted to make certain we had enough devices to do so and ensure that we could provide you know not maintenance of instruction but continue with instruction in the event that we used to go remote. And now we did look to use our CRF funds to cover those costs. Right, these are not coming out of budget money. Well, I'm not saying that we're going to receive that funding. Ray, I had a question about your outreach with internet service providers. Can you tell us about how many families we don't have access to or who are still without internet service allowing them to connect for the purposes of education? So like people who just don't have broadband? Yeah, so at the moment there are three known families. About a month ago, maybe five weeks ago we had sent out a survey from the SU and that's being followed up now at the school level. So based on that original survey there are three families who we know do not have internet access. So actually just today when I talked to EC Fiber they said that they would still be able to hook up families eligible families for free service through the end of the year and then there might be an option for reduced cost again for eligible families in the new year. And is there any way of subsidizing those service fees or are we leaving that up to families? We have not done that directly before. Yeah. Yeah and you know Stacey, I think that that question depends on what situation would make us to go fully remote or are we hitting a pause button or you know what are we actually talking about in regards to having to to provide that. I'm not recommending we do. I'm just wondering if... Yeah no but those are all the things we would wait right? If we were going to support a family to ensure that they had connectivity it would be if that's the only way that we could provide free access to a public education right? Right. Yeah. Okay thank you. Along those lines in the report I mentioned T-Mobile their coverage may not be the best in the area but they're providing free service but along those line states they offer paid options but they would build the SU for that not you know dealing individually with families because they're not set up to do that at that scale. Okay. And based on a tip from Lisa from a RUD meeting I reached out to, I'm going to choke on the name, but a community organization that helps people fill out paperwork to support last 100-yard connections which is often a stumbling block if it's going to cost a thousand dollars to get easy fiber that last bit to your house. And Lisa is that an organization that only serves your towns? No. It's Capstone Community Act. Oh okay. I think it serves them on. Yeah cool thank you. Yeah really focus on the way River Valley. Cool thank you. Thank you. Anything else for Ray? Thank you Ray. Director of Student Support Services. Good evening. I as well submitted a report and I am I would entertain questions on that report now. Anybody got questions for Don? Boy they're all going to be fighting it on. How are things going? Very well. We're working hard looking at schedules of professionals and support staff to see where we can massage some of the need throughout the district for helping students. Stacey I'm sorry Tracy in my office has been working on the service plan. She's a machine so she's if you ever see her just say thanks for the hard work. She really puts in a lot of energy and she's a very truly an asset to the organization so. Thank you Don. Yep. And Director of Curriculum Instruction. And that's me and I have submitted my report and if you have any questions I will entertain them. Been very busy with the start of school getting the in-service going and preparing for the opening day. Supporting teachers providing professional development. The curriculum team has started their coaching which we know is the most effective way to provide professional development is not only that professional development at the beginning of the year but the ongoing side-by-side coaching of teachers that happens throughout the year. We're focusing specifically on interventionists new teachers. We're focusing on elementary for reading middle school and high school teachers. So that's that's our that's our focus for this year. Also I've been busy with the equity task force that you've probably heard of where we are we have completed two community groups where we've got input from the community and we are in the process of waiting to get a draft policy based on the feedback that the collaborators received from everybody. So maybe that might come to our next policy committee meeting. Which community forums will those attend to that? So we had yeah we had two of them. We had almost 30 people done so we divided them into two groups so we could hear from everybody that was in the in the call. They were located where? On on Google leads. Virtual okay so computer okay thank you. All right guys any other questions? All right thank you. All right so discussion item 7.1 1819 WRVSU audit. So I had emailed you all the FY19 audit and I didn't receive any questions so if there are any tonight I can try and answer them. Otherwise I request that you please accept the FY1819 audit so we can put FY1819 behind us and move on and get our reports that are filed that are due on the 30th. All right so the federal clearing house. Any questions of tariff for the 1819 audit? I don't necessarily want to put 18 and 19 to bed because we could see each other and didn't have to wear masks. I don't have any questions. Thank you Tara. So do we want to act to accept the 1819 audit? Have a motion. So moved. Ethan. To accept. Anybody second? Hi. Can I get a second please? I'll second it. Thank you Lisa. All right any discussion? Hearing none all those in favor of accepting the 1819 audit? Say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Ron. Aye. Say get everybody. Aye. Say can't forget yourself Kathy. Okay. Thank you all very much. So moved. White River Valley has used solar projects. Yes so as I've indicated we have the on-core renewable presentation that she's submitted to all of the boards. There were some updates that she has that I will send out to the individual boards that it impacted but then we were also Don was approached by Green Lantern Solar and they have a presentation that they presented to the Sharon Board for review and would like the opportunity to present to the other districts as well and then Stratford Energy has also reached out. So if these are projects that you would like me to pursue I'm happy to do so I just need your guidance on it. A question on these competing like bidding against each other or these different types of projects? I believe it's a combination Ethan. I am not a hundred percent familiar with the way it works for each of these individual entities. I know some of them they already own arrays and you can buy into it. They're building arrays. So there's there's some differences that I would leave that up to the experts to explain to you because I don't ever want to come across that I know much about these solar projects. Ray is there any chance you have any sense of knowledge about this? I would appreciate having some sort of coordinator for the so that we know what we're talking about with these different things because I don't quite remember the presentation that was given to us completely before and to be able to compare it to what we're getting now to know if this is new different or on top of or what? Yeah I would be happy to review the proposal. I would certainly appreciate that very much and get you I would respect your input on that or your at least your yeah your advice as to how that would affect us. Okay so are we saying we want to grant permission Stacey you got something? I just wanted to clarify what they're requesting. They're just requesting some time to present to us and to submit proposals. I would need to do similar to what I did for Encore renewable which is present in my assumption. I know I need to do it for Green Lantern. I have to get the details that Stratford Energy is looking for but what I had to do for Encore and what I also had to do for Green Lantern was provide all of the electric bills for the last 12 to 18 months to the entity and then they do their formula based on what they can provide you to establish what you can get for savings if you went with their project structure. Yeah that's pretty much public record anyway I would think. Again it's the 25 I'm assuming it's the 25 year plan just like it was for Encore renewable that you buy into or you contract into over a long period of time to exercise the savings. Yeah given that we didn't move forward last year with Encore I would welcome seeing what the others have to offer. Yeah it's not like we signed up for anything yet so it's worth taking a look and getting the best thing for a buck. Okay anybody opposed to letting Tara and Ray move forward with getting proposals for us? No please go ahead. Excellent I will get on that thank you. 7.3 is policies the policy committee meeting met just before this meeting. We are moving the policy committee voted to move forward for approval tonight. A24 the superintendent board relationship. It wasn't for approval tonight we're just discussing giving an update I didn't warn it for action. Oh we didn't warn us for action yet? Okay we did not warn it for action yet so we don't have to vote on it. Just discussion if anybody has questions on them. So A24 board superintendent relationship any more discussion that we want to have for people that weren't at our policy committee. B22 we moved forward we wanted a little more clarification on that and Jamie's going to get that for us and we'll bring it forward next time. F-30 budgeting the policy committee approved anybody have any questions on that? That's on the call tonight that wasn't on the committee. And 7.3 is records retention that was also approved by the committee and will be brought forward at our next meeting for approval any questions on that? For discussion COVID-19 update. So Tara and I met with Butler last week. We're continuing to monitor the passing of our buses. I do think we're going to see some savings across the SU and transportation this year. So that's good news our ridership is down and they are also struggling with staffing. So thank goodness the ridership was down they're having a hard time with making certain they have enough bus drivers every day. And they've been able to move drivers around we've been able to run our routes. It hasn't impacted us yet. They guarantee me that they will always run a route. Now we may have to at a time if a bus driver calls out utilize a bus to run two loops two routes. We've had to do that in Bethel already once or twice. We just notify families that the bus is going to be late. But I do believe that in certain districts we're going to incur some savings. Excuse me Jamie those savings will come from what we excuse me Jamie we we pay pay for those per mile I believe. So if we don't we're going to have to get rid of routes in order to get savings. Is that correct? We you pay for these by the driver and mileage and the equipment. And so like an example in F bud they're down one entire bus. So the mileage is down as well. Yep. Okay. And to be clear they're down one bus because of reduced ridership. Correct. Okay. So we expect to start seeing some savings at the end of this billing period and we can let you guys know next month exactly how much that ends up being done. The the other thing I want to talk about with COVID-19 is that we've struggled with securing staffing at the elementary level to the level that we would like to see. We had an influx of students come in the last part of registration. We have shut down registrations for VLA we're not permitting any more students to register right now unless they have an underlying health condition. We've had a couple families move in and they've been really good about that and then they understood it. And so we are looking to add some more elementary staffing. We had an ad go up two weeks ago. That is put in to our ESER grant. So we really will get all that salary covered. And that's to help with staffing specifically at the elementary grades. It looks like the plan is we would use the additional FT to do math and our current teachers will teach literacy. Because our teachers have been trained up in our approach to literacy. And so it made sense to have our teachers focus on literacy and a new onboarding of a teacher to teach math across multiple grades. And teachers are on board with that plan. They felt pretty confident that that would help relieve any issues we have in regards to staffing at grade specifically grades three, four and five. Any questions of Jamie about that? So I think that that will be in place if folks are curious about it next Monday. Can you tell us in public session, is this at the larger elementaries or is this across? This is across, right? Because the WRVSU VLA teachers are serving students across the entire SU. Yep. All right, guys. Next on the agenda, superintendent evaluation tool. I'd like to form a committee and come up with a tool. I've reached out to the BSVA. Just I know we talked to them in the past to see what they offer. Another person which we all know from being on the board was Jenna Young. She's a human resource director and she does these things and she's offered to help. I can't hit you. You garbled, I'm sorry, Kathy. You were garbled. So we're going to create a committee for the superintendent evaluation. I've reached out to the BSVA. I'm waiting to hear back to find out all the details on that. Jenna Young, who used to be on our board, it's her area of expertise and she's volunteered and offered to help with us so that we can create this. So how do you guys want to form the committee? What are you looking for for membership? I really would like board members that are interested and excited to be on it. It's something that we need to really do a good job of. I think we've learned from past that it would be a handy tool and a little benefit, Jamie, as well, to have a good tool. I would like to be on that committee. Okay, there you go. All right, I got long tears already. Lisa, Kathy. I'd like to be able to bring it back to my board because I'm just curious if anyone else who's on my board might be interested. I'm happy to do it, but also I know that there are other strengths on my board. So I wonder. Would people like to take it back to their board to see if they have long tears? Lisa, that's a very good suggestion. Thank you. I shouldn't jump quite so fast. Jess, there might be somebody who's even better at it than me. I don't know. So do people want to email me their member? Yes. But let's say early October, a plan on receiving that from everybody? By the end of next week, is that possible for board members? I mean, certainly for us, we can. Not everyone meets next week. Oh, got you. Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll let you know by the end of next week. Okay. Kathy. How many members? I was going to ask. How many members? I think ideally it would be great to have one from each board. So everybody is, every voice is heard so they can go back to their boards and tell them about the process and how we're coming along. But I wanted to be a fairly quick process so that we can have this in place to be able to use this year. So Stacey, what was your question? Same as done. Okay. I mean, my recommendation is your next meeting is a full board meeting. You could have this worn and have discussion about this at your local district meetings and then come prepared to share who your representative would be at the next full board meeting. And then you guys could move and take action on that committee and the membership at that next full board meeting. At the risk of kicking myself in the head and are we looking for public participation as well? Or are we looking for teacher participation or other admin administration participation? What's your thoughts on the makeup of it? I was thinking board members and people with expertise around human resources. I think we're going to talk to the BSBA and see what they recommend. And I'll have that information at the next meeting and see what their tool is. So do you guys want to do that? Find out who your person is by the next full board meeting. Kathy, do you know when... Do you have any expectations of when you might be hearing back from the BSBA? I'll hear back before then. I'll make sure. Yeah. Can you just forward any information or knowledge you get from them around this? Yep. If they email me stuff, I will definitely share it. Any other discussion on that? Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Run just from having that until just before that. Action items. We're already did the audit. Super... Well, we're not going to show it on auction. We have an executive session for personnel. So I would look for you guys to move to going to executive session and personnel. And I just need the business manager and the superintendent invited, if you would. The rest of my team can go. Make a motion to go into executive session to and invite the superintendent and the business manager. Is that correct? That's correct. Yep. For personnel. For personnel. Second that. Okay. You ready, Ray? Are you ready? Sorry. It was seconded. It was seconded. Yep. New hire. I'll let Tara introduce our candidate for the associate business manager position. I think we have a resume to show you as well. Ray will post it. So our candidate is Jason Rogers. He has worked with us for several years. At our... And when I say us, I mean our entire supervisor union, our member districts and their treasurers. Jason was the branch manager at the Bethel branch for Mascoma Savings Bank. He's worked with municipalities financing for many years and comes to us with that knowledge and experience. He has a bachelor's degree in business management from UBM. And he's worked his way up at Mascoma Bank since joining their team in 2009 from a teller all the way up through to branch manager. He's got a great personality. He's born and raised in Bethel, knows the community. The community knows him. And I think he would be a very excellent fit to our business office team. And he's also an officer with the Bethel fire department. Yeah. So I'll say I've met with him twice with Tara. His references are glowing. He is local, which I think is going to help with relationship building. As we look to continue to build trust across the WRBSU. And it's clear to me he's got the work ethic and collaborative skills that I'm looking for as we look to continue to become a service organization that's really going out and supporting your guys's work down at the school level. And I think he's got those soft skills or interpersonal skills that lends it to some of those roles and responsibilities to the job, but is also detail oriented. And do I think he knows everything that we're looking for within that job description? No. Do I think he's more than capable of learning? Yes. And so, you know, I'm feeling really good about this edition based on to what you know, the candidate pool can be out there sometimes for these types of positions. I feel like we're getting a good one here. Any questions? I don't have any questions. I would just say that I'm excited to see his application here. And I also know that Therese Kirby as the town manager in Bethel has really had her eye on finance. And the fact that she's listed as one of his references also makes me feel secure in this person. Thank you. Any other discussion on Jason? I didn't quite listen to everything, but this is somebody who is the assistant manager in Bethel. Is that in the Bethel branch in Mescoma? He was the branch manager in Bethel location. We had dealings with him from the clinic. And I'm just curious, like he, his departure there was somewhat sudden. So, do you know what the, like have you gotten references from Mescoma about it and know the situation there? Yes. Okay. So you're comfortable with whatever happened? Okay. Just wanted to make sure. I don't know any details about it. So I just, you know, we were kind of surprised when that switch happened. So. As were we all here at the business office. All right. Thanks. All right. So do you need us to move forward with him and to negotiate a salary? That's well within budget. Can I have a motion to have Jamie offer the position to Jason Rogers and be able to negotiate the salary within the budget? Do you want to, you guys make that motion? Thank you. Oh, yeah, I'll make it. I am going to want some discussion. Okay. I will move to offer the position pending successful negotiation of salary. And I'll second that discussion. I just wondered if we had, when we discussed the need for this position earlier, if we had set a salary range for it. When we discussed it earlier, I said that it would be within what you guys have budgeted for mentoring and other supports within the business office. And I, you know, I'm not comfortable publicly speaking to what that salary range is. I'll just tell you that it'll be within that budget. And it'll be in accordance with our other current business office staff. When you think about it, you have a lead accountant and things of that nature. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't need to discuss the specifics of the salary. I just wanted to make sure that we had already Yeah, so the way we're going to fund this is through mentoring that you guys have budgeted that no longer is in place. And there was additional accountant support that had been budgeted that's not in place. So we're going to use those budget items to pay for the salary. Thank you. Any other discussion? If none, none. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All those opposed? So I have about two votes here. Don, what's your vote? And we don't have, so we have, and I'm an aye. So that's a quorum. Yeah. Yep. I'm just making sure we added a quarter of a song because he's the last I think. All right. So you're free to go ahead with your. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good luck. Is there any other business we'd like to discuss tonight? That route by seven o'clock. All right, guys, I'll move your turn. Okay. All right. Thanks, guys.