 directors to order. Adjustments to the agenda. I have two. We need to add a very brief action item around getting our buildings air tested and fuel tanks tested and approving some initial investigation of that. We have the administration to go forward on that and we also have to add beginning an executive session to discuss the student matter. Building environmental. I'd like to clarify it was probably a miscommunication on my part too. Christie downward discussion items. I was trying to inform her that at our December meeting the agenda item would be budget discussion. So. We don't actually have any. No, no, that was supposed to be for 10.1. December meeting agenda is colon budget discussion. And we'll delete 10.2. Yeah, no, I don't think there's there's no need to discuss is there at all. I think that it was actually just supposed to go down to 16 maybe future future agenda item. As long as we're not supposed to be talking about the budget, I don't Bonnie, do you have a schedule that you're going to hand us? Bonnie, yeah, because you were going to email too. Yeah, okay. Yes, because you said you were going to hand them out to us. Do either of the two of you have anything you wanted to change about the agenda? I need to just update the word about a roofing situation at the elementary school, but I can do that in your principal's report. That'd be great. Okay. And we just changed 7.1 to say literacy framework. Because that's what we were going to talk about today, not the F and P. Literacy framework. This is 7.2, you said, or 7.1? 7.1. Okay, framework. Clarify that it can be a literacy framework. Okay. On the whole business, the marquee update, the installation? The marquee update, if you recall, we were going to talk and convene about budget and building items on December. This meeting is focused on education and literacy and student outcomes. So I'm just asking for a whole business update. Okay. Sure. I can give you the update right now, so we'll have information for you at the December meeting. Thanks, Mason. I shouldn't laugh. Anyone else, Bruce? No, I put policies on. I'm going to give you the ones that we've gone through the policy committee so far, there will be more to follow. Do you need action on them? I'd love to have action, but that's up to you. But we haven't looked at them yet. The other thing is we've got some information on transparency that came from the Secretary of State's office and various... Okay, let's handle those in the superintendent's report, I think, with people at the place today. I'm not going to comment on that. So we can ask you about the men. So, public comment. Is this... Have we assigned a timekeeper? We have not. Okay, that is the next thing. Ah, that's true. Number three. And I'm sorry. I'm so used to kind of not having you. Yeah. Where did we add the executive session? Was that under... Are we moving... There is one. Oh, we're adding one at the top. So, top being where? I'm sorry, right after public comment. 4.5. Okay, thank you. And that's the student? I'm happy to be a timekeeper if that's... Oh, I'd love you to be timekeeper. What's the rules that we have, times on things? We have times on the items in number seven, and that isn't yet. Oh, I see. So, I mean, I think that given that we have two executive sessions already, and we have over an hour of discussions on literacy and student assessment, I would say let's try to keep public comment to 10 minutes, 15 minutes, something like that. Okay. Executive session, do we have a time on that or not? We do not. Okay. Do we need one? We do not, because we need as long as we need. So, we'll do the present literacy reports of superintendent and principal. At principals, I've read it. Anybody else? I've read it. I've looked at it. Let's slot them in for five or ten minutes in case you need to comment. I'll save for five. Well, remember, body asks for extra time to talk about the roofing map. Okay. So, I'll give her five plus, on principal's report. You should take more than seven. Did you? Seven. How about the principal's reports included in the pack? I'll be, I'll be, I'll be, start making an annoying thing. Seven. We're not getting as granular as second. Policy review? How long do you need? Just five minutes. Five minutes, thank you. I'm good at this stuff. Okay. Because I'm the right person for the job. So, not before. Seven minutes. If you just say so yourself. If I do. I'm gonna save five minutes for agenda items. Sure. And And then action items, can we do that? I mean, what are we talking about, 10 minutes? I would say it's gonna take at least 10 minutes to finalize a retreat date. I think that a corporate resolution data treasure or assuming that the central office has sent us the form of the stuff we need. That's a matter of just entertaining emotion. What's great is that it'll be the path to it. Together with the second executive session, again, it'll take as long as it takes. Okay, okay, good. All right, thank you. He's ready. That's all right, I'm good. Gentlemen, public comment. Start your iPhone. Yes. I've got a couple of questions. First, are we willing to get a second-hand generator for the school? Are we open to that option? Because there's one lovely thing that it hasn't been used. It was served two years ago when my husband was in a building. So he needed hours that it was actually used. It was barely used and it's large enough. That's good to know. If you could reach out and send that information to Lindy so that, because the only thing that pops in the top of my head would be that some of the grant funding we're gonna try to get to put that in here because it's the emergency shelter, I don't know if that would count for you. That's just one of those. Forgive me, can I just ask your name? I just, I'm not. You went on McIssery? McIssery, okay, hi. And are you working with the generator thing or is this just- I am not, I just go a little upon this locally and I just figured- Thank you so much for coming in. And they, they're very big on low. Oh. I just wanted to make sure that this was something that you guys would be interested in. That's great. I can't just not worry so much about losing $5,000 or $8,000 from efficiency. Well, it's like a $25,000 generator. Yeah, so yeah, reach out to Lindy and thank Mark for passing that along too. Yeah, thank you so much. So the oil tanks that are in the ground help you look at the cost of switching the burners over to the propane just getting the tanks out of the ground and then you get into biocasters, you get into a, and it's very expensive to remove them. How we look at that cost, switching that over, it's a little more efficient and then maybe getting a quote and looking forward to saving up for those tanks to be produced. Yeah, there's the couple things you found about that. We'll be talking again more about building issues in the December meeting. Is there's a grant program in Vermont that helps, that helps fund taking those things out. It kind of works like an insurance program. I think you would pay, if I recall correctly from the building committee, it's like 10,000 a tank is the maximum the district would pay for each of the tanks in Rochester because they're over 1,500 gallons. The tank in Stockbridge is only like 1,000 gallons with our maximum exposure would be 250. But one of the things I wanted to do with my action item was to authorize the principles to go out, get that information and get us some proposals so that we know what we're looking at when we start into budgeting next year because if we haven't done our legwork we're not gonna be able to. Right, so switching over to propane is much simpler and then you guys can figure out the oil situation later because all you have is change of burners and the company's routine ownership of the propane tanks when they set them up. And they're above ground. They can just sit on the cement. So they can do either they can, they can go into doing very propane tanks, it's gonna be more expensive, but yes they can just set them up on propane and typically the company can do flatting out the area and setting the tanks and looking them up and changing up the burners. Wow, great information, thank you. Yeah, great. And if you know if this is the thing that interests you, I will point out that next Tuesday you're not doing anything, 6.30, building committee meeting. 6 o'clock, 6 o'clock, oh, 6 o'clock, sorry. This is in Rochester. In the elementary school library. Tuesday. It's one of the squatty chair meetings as opposed to, I saw you seats here. I was gonna say, since 8 o'clock, you haven't been working half the end. When did I see that? You know, so there's, to this age gap, not seats left, there's a wire mesh with an end, so somebody can't bring it for that, because there's orders as such, and how they also go to the, with my own interest, will they just have flat wash doors on the outside of enough handles for the classrooms to go in and out of the classrooms for access, but no one can get in. I do know that that thing's on the changing switch. I did a walkthrough with the speech group at the center, and we are going to a safety question. I just have one more comment, and I'm done. So I read through the ideal for the board and maybe valuable feedback. What avenue you're taking, what avenues you're not going to be doing, and some of this information, you're gonna look at. It's already happened. It would be good to kind of really decide what you're definitely not going to do, so you can address that, and then others are going to be referring to that. Great, thank you. I can tell you, that's a good idea. I don't want to spoil it earlier, the building committee meeting next week, but I can tell you in a really quick recap, one of the things that we're working on doing is taking all that information that the engineering firm gave us and breaking it into broad categories of, okay, if this is true, what would happen? What would it look like if we just closed all the schools? What would it look like if we had just one school in every one of the different places? If everyone, what would it take to make this into the one school? What would it take to make either of those buildings into the one school? What would it take to still operate two campuses if we closed building A or closed building B? What would it take to just build a whole new skill? One of the things, when you look through that report, it talks a lot about all the things that are wrong. What might it look like to just close all three buildings and build a new building purpose built between the two towns for the kids? So we're really looking at all the big broad categories right now to do exactly that. To figure out what we can say we're not gonna do. To do that we have to kind of figure out all the different parts. What are you guys saying right there concerning the analysis committee in that part? No, I understand, I'm sorry, I'm not saying that I'm open to anything. I'm saying that part of the job of the committee is to just do the analysis. We've done the analysis in Stockbridge for years where we've always been able to show that running this school is more cost effective to our taxpayers, just in dollars. Not even looking at, not even looking at. We're not even using a paste one that's costing us $3,000 a year already and we're not using it. So you wanna talk about building that's costing too much money. For example, the building we're not using is community has been using, our schools have been. Right, absolutely, absolutely and getting that all resolved out into the way the communities want is the goal of the committee. But what I'm saying is right now all we're doing in that committee is we're not making a recommendation. We're taking the report and chunking it and saying what does this report mean? Because if you look at it, there's stuff where it talks about, oh well if you were in the elementary school you need to build this. One of the things it doesn't talk about just you know we have two minutes left to public comment. Right, I'll wrap up and give her the last minute. But one of the things it doesn't talk about for example is repurposing the gym into an art space instead of building another addition on that building. So going through that report we're trying to unpack it and figure out things that we need to look at further and also to look at that information say you know let's eliminate this choice or that choice. The decision to close the school would not be based on a dollars and cents report. It would be that I can guarantee you that would only be based on a community decision and that would be informing the people because there are people that do express the opposite opinion so we have to give them you know their analysis to say here's what it is. See you're not right so but I can tell you the intention of the board is not to close anything. We just have to be fair to the analysis. You have to consider all the different angles. You know it's not just about dollars losing the community control over education. It's more important to me than that. Oh you have a comment. Well I really want to make sure we get to all the matters that are on the agenda so a public comment especially when we have a venue a week away to discuss the building I think that I'd like to wrap up on that side now. This is your own public comment. Yes. I think we're going back in there more into the building so go ahead and finish your minute. We don't have a minute left anymore. Okay I'm sorry. I'll skip that. If you'd like to submit something without comment I would certainly take that. These are letters for I realize you're joining board for the Rochester and Stuckers board relative to a check that you should have received from the Sharon Academy for two sums of money that were a result of overpayments by the supervisory unit so this explains the fact that we came up with that as part of an internal audit and that those monies are calculated from our audit as overpayments and we recognize the SU is conducting its own audit right now and at the time that they can confirm those numbers will sit down with you and adjust that but that's just a letter of explanation for all of you. Thank you sir. That's great. Thank you very much. All right. What a nice thing to do too. I think do you have? What's yours? Well, so I'm here. I'm here to go and you know with my wife and me, Ryan, we're here to get the insurance that the tuition for the audit is going to be paid. Hold it. Hold it. We'll come right back to you. Yeah we're, we're, that's the executive session. Except we really can't be saying. Oh we can't? We can't be saying? Oh we can't say it. We'll come back to you and just give you some minutes. Yeah. We're going to go and entertain a motion that we go into the executive session to discuss the student matter. Second. All in favor of signifying the student matter. Aye. Aye. We're going into the executive session in 8.04. We will be right back. Executive session in 8.02. Oh see. When are we going in? What time do we go in? I was just asking and we didn't really know. We just get. What are we waiting for? Oh it's nothing. Bruce go ahead. Carl. Not Bruce. Jenny. I'm Jenny. The tuition request will be approved for the student based upon her individual needs for retention. I don't know if we need to give any more details if there's other people here. Nope. Thank you. Second. The motion has been made in the second that the board approve the tuition request for the student based upon her individual needs for retention is running for the discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. The tuition is paid unanimously. You're welcome. All right. Thank you. We have a consent agenda. There are minutes through the minutes of Tuesday October 1st is presented. Second. Payton's seconded that we approve the notes that's presented. Discussion. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed. Minutes have been approved. Any presentation that we should get into? Yes. I am not. Take the floor someone. Yeah who's doing this? Go for it. Take the floor. You got it. So we thought we would print you some of the highlights and things that you might want. We asked Mary Ellen to give you some idea of what's happening around the edge of your room. Mm-hmm. Go for it. No actually Mary Ellen was going to start and then Wendy, myself and Janie are gonna speak a little bit to our pilot and then that was going to be it. So we probably don't need the full hour. Is it possible that you could sit halfway or something just so the camera can pick up some of this? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Can I have your chair? We can give her the chair. Yeah, why don't we give her your chair. Why don't we actually, she's not spoken. Why don't the three of us move down and she can sit next to Janie. Yep. Great idea. Oh, goodie. Can we leave her there? Yeah. You stay on script. Yes, stay on script. Oh, goodie, goodie. Sit right here, we got it. Okay, go Mary Ellen. All right, so across the supervisor union, we've talked about this before at past meetings. We have a focus to improve student learning and reading. That's our big focus for this year. So some of the components of that is professional development that's embedded into that literacy framework, which includes coaching, which we've heard Janie talk about. And in fact, we had the system that she explained. That's what we had in place for professional development for all teachers to improve how they teach reading for students. We know that this is important. We know that if a student can read by third grade, they're more likely to be successful from then on. We also know that if a student is proficient by third grade, they're more likely to do better in math as well as other subjects. This focus that we have on the literacy is part of our strategic plan. We have a five year strategic plan. This is 2.2.1, or something like that, that all students will be literate and numerate by grade three. So that's our focus. So that's a little bit of the background behind this. We have, through this coaching by having professional development for all the teachers, we have expanded the teacher expertise, not just in reading, but also in classroom management in other areas. We have common language and collective expertise. Our teachers are working together, which we know is huge for making changes in schools. If we wanna change the learning that's happening, we know we have to focus on the instruction that's happening. And by working collectively, we know that's how we do it. And it's based on all the research and you probably heard Bruce talk about John Hattie's work and the collective efficacy that happens in that. Sorry, could you repeat that last thing I didn't hear? Okay, there is a researcher, John Hattie, who's really good. And he says the number one, are we agree on a lot? I know, I know, I know, I know. You'd be surprised. The number one way to change student learning is through collective efficacy. All the teachers in a school working together. Collaborate, yes. Good, thank you. And that's one of the things that we have put into place. We have all of our elementary teachers are participating in professional development through the supervisory union and over 40 teachers have taken those classes for graduate credit. So that's what we have in place. Any questions? Sorry, 40 being across the whole supervisory union. Do we know specifics of how many teachers in our two schools, our two campuses have done that? I know we do have some, but I don't know the numbers. I know that all of them in Stockbridge, so all those that are eligible for the graduate credit meaning part of it, for some of the credit, you actually have to be teaching guided reading groups at the time. That's right. So we do have two teachers, pre-school, they don't do guided reading groups. So some of that is, they do literacy, but it's not the same format as, right, coming out in first grade and we also have a teacher who mostly just does math and science. So while she does all the trainings and participates in all of those, she can't take the class for graduate credit because some of it is examining student data and really honing in on that, but participating in all the trainings and the readings otherwise. Yeah. And I believe there's one person at Rochester taking it for graduate credit, but the other teachers are solely on board with the work. With the work, okay. They didn't go to the professional development. They all went to the professional development. They went to all of our teachers. So the graduate credit is around you. Okay. That's above the... Are you going to get to Amy Toth? Well, Amy Toth is the person who does the coaching. Okay. Where she works side by side with teachers. Yes. Is that coming up or is that part of what you're talking about? So that's what I was saying before about when I was saying that we have professional development embedded into this. And has every, of all our teachers had a session with Amy Toth so far this year? Yes. More than one. I think more is coming up on the third. That's exactly the kind of thing we wanted here. Yeah. Just to clarify one thing, the graduate credit is not, it's the professional development work in the schools and the classrooms, but there are a couple of expectations beyond that. Oh yeah. Right. And theory work behind. In the coaching and everyone in the schools and the professional. So you can't opt out. No. Great. Tomorrow, for example, is a half in service day and teachers from Rochester and Stockbridge are getting together here using one of Amy Toth's protocols. They videotaped a mini lesson and they're going to critique each other. Guide a reading lesson. Excuse me, a guided reading lesson. And they're going to critique each other in the components of that guided reading lesson. And that'll be here tomorrow afternoon at Stockbridge for both staff from both campuses. Very good. So that's, and what some of the faculty are saying is that we now have a shared vision across the supervisor union. We have common language from grade to grade, from teacher to teacher. Can you give me an example of the common language of something that all the teachers would be using in all their classes? Well, I can give you like a specific example. What I can tell you is that there were some schools that had three different reading programs in the school. So as a student went from grade to grade, the language changed in what they were focusing on in the classroom. And sometimes that can be confusing if you have a struggling reader. The more consistency and the more focus and the central part of the professional development, it helps. So. In fact, we were all using the same materials. We were talking about each person's got the same materials and talking about the same materials or sharing ideas about the same materials. All that is just such a great way of promoting that epic scene that we were talking about. So I heard a little bit about chatting with one teacher. I heard a little bit about this, that it's these sort of short books highly that they're using in this. Is this part of the program? These short. Depending on the grade level. Okay, depending on the grade level. And that there's a lot of documenting and stuff like that that I heard the joke was that she had homework again. She had homework in years and suddenly she's going back and her husband's like, why are you working so hard? I mean, she's excited about it, the teacher. Is, I guess that's one of the things I'd like to see is I'd even love to see an example of what kind of book are they seeing in first grade? What kind of book are they seeing in third grade? What kind of book are they seeing in sixth grade? Just that kind of detail for us to know where our money's going and so that then we can have intelligent conversations about this. So that kind of specifics would be very useful for me anyway. But you're saying that across schools, like all of our kindergarten classes are using the same books, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that the teachers can talk to each other about type of what they're. That's, okay, that's good. If they share a video across schools, now they can have a conversation about this is what happened in my classroom, this is what happened in my classroom. And that moves the learning up. It's not a cookie cutter approach. It's not you open the book and you're doing the next thing. Teachers are building capacity to be able to make decisions as to what's best for the kids and their needs in front of them. And that's where that homework comes in. Because you have to be able to understand where the kids are in order to move them to the next level. Do you see this homework? Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah, okay. The key is that teachers are looking at data every single day on the readers and adjusting that instruction is what comes is like this folder and it's got the books in it and it's got all these possible things that they can be doing in a reading group. And based on the data of that reading group and each individual, Amy is working with classroom teachers that there's just their instruction in that reading group to meet the needs of the strengths and weaknesses of those kids in that reading group. So if you've got 20 kids in your class, that's a lot of note-taking. Yeah, yep. I mean, is that, that's the expectation and that's what, yeah, that's the expectation. I think what I would say about it just in a broad brush stroke is that teaching at tier one, which is our general instructional teaching for youngsters is gaining, it's getting much more explicit. So some of the homework the teachers are talking about there's actually a little sheet that Amy Toph gives them. And let's say that Wendy and Janie and Amy were in my reading group. There's a planning sheet. So I'm looking at the books that they're reading for tomorrow and I'm looking at this planning sheet and I'm saying, okay, I have to be sure to teach this, this, this and this. I have to be sure children are responding to this, this and that. So it's much more explicit than what I found reading instruction to be when I first came to Rochester. Yeah. Okay. Great. And that's no criticism of Rochester. No, no, no, that's what reading has been, instruction has been in the state of Vermont. We're only, but September, October, November, barely two months, two and a half months in. So I don't expect, you know, obviously this is getting used to this. What's the feedback from the teachers? That's what she was saying. And that's what I'm timing. Yeah, good. Two pages of what the faculty are saying. It's probably read out. Not without these, I'm not reading anything. You know, they really are appreciating the collaborative nature. Excellent. Working together. A lot of the teachers have never had that before. They're the only teacher in their school in that grade and they don't get to talk to anyone else. And now they're going outside of their classrooms. It's uncomfortable for some of them, but they are doing it. And they're ready to take that challenge on, to invite people in their classroom. And some of that is through video, that if they videotape it and show it to other people, that's inviting people into their classroom. So they are more reflective. That's one of the things they say. Is this data just from our two schools? No, this is across the whole school. This is also to supervise for you. Yeah, to supervise for everyone. Everybody is working together. And you, Lindy and Bonnie would echo what she's saying here. Some people are tough, it's tough, but they're doing it. Exactly. And I don't think, well, I don't think I know. We don't have a single teacher who isn't buying into it. Now some are buying into it at a higher level than others right now. Others are being a little more cautious. But everyone understands that there's a trait saying in educational, in education that if we keep doing what we've always done, we'll keep getting what we always got. And our assessment results are just not okay. So we can't keep doing what we've always gotten because we have way too many kids that aren't meeting standard and aren't becoming strong readers. Okay. And I would say it's tough for teachers because it's new. And because they want to be so good at it right now. And it really is making them think about their instruction in a different way. And that's why I don't want to have to do it. Is there information going home to parents about this new initiative and the way it works? We set an initial, so let me answer by saying no, not enough and that's something that we should be getting more attention to. We did send home an initial. I forget what it was. It was either in a newsletter or a little thing that we were starting a reading initiative. There was some exciting new materials, but we by no means went into it. This is good publicity. Yeah. One of the things I think we should. This is good publicity. Right. One of the things I think we should do when we get a little further into it is we actually should do, I think, a community presentation where we invite families in to hear about both our literacy framework, our pilot that we're going to be talking to you about in a minute. It's the whole goal is it really doesn't matter who teaches a child to read. We just have to hold hands and make sure that every single one of our kids becomes strong readers. And that's I think from the collaboration that Wendy talked about, that teachers are valuing at this point in time. They see all of us in this together. And part of this professional development, and this is part of what Amy Toth has created, is a website. And that website has talking points for teachers to include in their weekly newsletter. So if they're following that, they can add that and communicate. Are all our teachers putting out weekly news, because I know her business. They're not putting out weekly news, putting out newsletters. And Amy also gives us these, I forget what we call them, but they're these monthly posters. What to celebrate, what to focus on. And we post them in the schools and we post them where they're highly visible for folks. Or the banner. Or the banner. But another good point, even we probably should do more about getting that out to parents. I think at this point, it's going to sound like an excuse I don't intend to do. We've been so focused on getting things implemented. Absolutely. I really, it's an encouragement. Yeah. I feel clear as for this, right? We here did an open house as part of our QDIS initiative and we asked the kids to show their parents what the routine was around literacy and now like every part of your day as we were working about expectations. And that was just something that was a goal that came from our climate surveys and feedback here at Stockbridge. And then in terms of, we're really just trying to get and encourage parents to just help laws reading at home. When are you reading at home? What are you doing at home? Talking with their kids at home? Nothing formally where you would be like, hey, this is from our raising readers initiative. Because we don't, we want parents to start conversation with their kids. You don't want to push them. I feel like in the last couple of weeks with the November, I love to read months that I don't know about Rochester but I know that Stockbridge, you know, you sent out send a picture of your kid reading, blah, blah, blah, blah, and ask them about what their goal is and stuff like that. Right, that's all part of it. Young man. One of the things that we deserve is sort of a soft indicator. It wouldn't stand up to rigorous, you know, critiquing of research but we had a tremendous turnout for our book fair. I think it was more youngsters being more excited about reading and bringing more parents to school to go through the book fair. And I think this reading initiative accounts for a pretty significant part of that. That is one of the things we're hearing is that students are more engaged in the reading process. And I notice as I go around from school to school, I mean, they're reading to each other and they're like, I want to read and they're raising their hand and I mean, it's just, it's really exciting. Yeah, I just put my little two cents in about libraries. The power of libraries. That they are the ongoing book fairs of our schools. And I think this really supports the classroom library which was key. I actually was informed by a third grader yesterday that he didn't want to read this book for a third time. He wanted to see what the new book was. The new books. Stetson. That's great. So I think there's a lot going on in people's classroom libraries as well. Yeah, exactly. There's a new book and you're holding out on me. And I was like, am I looking at the same title? Yeah, huh? And we did collaborate with the school librarians as well. So they are all on board and they're providing lists for families to go in and say, your student likes reading this type of book. Here's a list of books that they might like. So it is incorporating the libraries too. Very important component. Excellent. Did I leave anything out there? No, give me more. All right. I think that's all we have. Could we ask, I personally would love to have this be, every three months, come back in January or something like that and give us an update. January, we will have our next testee window. Yeah, so maybe. So that would be February. February, you know, let's. All those are great results to show. That's a great idea. Yeah, February. Okay, that'd be great. That'd be great. I mean, personally, this is the work I want to be doing as a school board member. Isn't it exciting? Is to be here about the kind of actual stuff that's going on in the school. I know others might say it's all about budgets, but budgets supports kids. Kids is what it's about. So great, thank you. Say that for the board. So one of the other components that we're doing that you might have seen in Bruce's Odds and Ends emails is a pilot program with, as well, we're not a direct instruction. Mm-hmm. And so it should be. You can just follow me. Oh, okay. So everything that Amy Toth is doing with our literacy framework right now is really engulfing and she has complete buy-in from our tier one or our general classroom. And I can't stress that enough because our teachers, especially, they just love being able to work with her and having that support on site. But there are still a handful of kids that you kind of scratch your head and wonder what's not connecting for them for whatever reason. This be called out to your two and tier three. Well, right, so Jeanie kind of came to us and said she would be willing to help highlight a direct instruction program for eight different students, one from Socrates and one from Rochester that followed in the tier two, tier three category that are struggling and have made little to no growth and you just can't quite figure out why and help train different instructors that work with those students in another tool in their toolbox. Including chapter two, teachers, is that? So tier two. Title two. Tier two are title teachers or what they, they're supported with title one funds. That's what we're trying to do. Or interventionists. Thank you. And this is typically students that are below grade level. They're supported in and out of the classrooms with these interventionists. And we've selected six students from this group who have been struggling and making little progress. And then in tier three, those are our special education students. We've selected two students from this group that despite lots and lots of effort, they haven't made any progress and we mean effort from kids and built in that instruction provided there. So just to pick up from there, as Lily said, we carefully selected eight youngsters. Six are regular youngsters. Two youngsters are special ed eligible youngsters. And the real youngsters, again, as Lily said, that we're seeing a lot of effort from. We know they've had pretty decent instruction but we're sort of scratching our heads because they're just not making the progress that they wanna make. And we would expect they should be making given all the components that are going into it. So Jane is going to work with, oh and Deb Matthews also opened this training up to special educators throughout the district. And I think as of this afternoon, there were three other people who have asked it to join the training. So there would be those three special educators, special educator who works in both Stockbridge and Rochester. And then the interventionist from Stockbridge and the two people that do intervention work at Rochester. So there's gonna be a good sized group. And we're looking at this as an opportunity to figure out is there some way that we could help these youngsters become stronger readers? We're gonna be presenting some student achievement data and I know people tend to look at scores and this and that but I would always encourage us to remember that every single score represents a child or a children. So yes, we want the scores to go up simply because we want kids to be stronger readers. And if youngsters are stronger readers then the scores will go up. Janie is going to do three days, three full days of training and there's a significant... I'm getting up early. I'm getting up early. You didn't wanna do that for me. No, I don't wanna prove anybody. She wanted to schedule it from one in the afternoon till nine in the night. The sooner she had to do nine in the morning till the very afternoon. When the cocktail break, it's fine. There you go. And we're looking at this as another tool in teachers toolboxes. In fact, one of the interventionist from Rochester that's gonna join doesn't have any children in the pilot. She doesn't have any children that were selected but she wants to learn the skills. She wants to learn the approach. We love a teacher like that. She's trying to learn as much as she can about our new FNP materials. She sees that as a huge tool and she wants to add this to her toolbox. So we're excited. We're hoping, crossing my fingers, that we can get the actual instruction started very early in December. We have to get permission from parents for Janie to do the initial assessment that lets us know at what level of these materials will the child start. Is there money? I'm not sure. There's no money. No. You say pilot. Pilot. Also, what's the goal? Pilot would be we picked a small group of youngsters so that we can implement this program with Janie's training. There's also coaching like there is in Amy's training to see how much of an effect it will have on youngsters and then we'll have to sit down and based on what we're seeing through the results. Figure out where we get the money. Okay. One of the things I've mentioned to Deb Matthew so I don't feel like I'm telling tales out of school and I've mentioned it to Bruce before is that we don't quite have the alignment in our tier three materials that we wished we had. This was Janie's, I remember very clearly your criticism of the F&P was that great tier one, tier two, tier three was sort of, well, fine, fine, okay. But the fact is the real criticism was so I am a little concerned to hear that you're bringing in someone outside of F&P, is that right? Yep, I'm just open up. To take care of these, obviously, these are tier T three, right? These are tier three? Yeah. Tier two and tier three. Tier two and tier three. So why are you concerned? Well, because this was your criticism of the F&P. Yeah, but the book. So you're using F&P? No, no. So remember, F&P is just books. F&P is just materials. The literacy framework that we started was to focus on our general ed population to reach every single student that walks in the building. If we can strengthen that, we'll have less numbers in tier two and tier three. And that's the premise behind what we're doing. Now this is where Janie and I. I was never going to explain to me in quite those terms ever before. And the way Janie, this is. The people that we're going to be training will have another tool in their back pocket to try to get at kids that are having a hard time. Okay. So they'll be using the program that I mean. I'm just echoing your. But they'll be youth. That's what they're going to be trained in. It's not going to be the books from F&P. They're going to be trained in direct instruction. They're going to be using the program that I have been talking about. Okay. So they'll all. Is this just a pilot program or is this? Just a pilot program. Is Amy Toss doing direct instruction? No. It's my implementation. It's different what she's doing than what she's doing. She's doing coaching. You're doing direct instruction. With tier one. And Janie is focusing on tier two. And I will be doing coaching too. It's probably just more. Because that's the best practice. Interventionist. I remember your description very much of the teacher, the coach being in the classroom, watching the teaching happening. And Amy does that. That's what Amy is doing. Having saying to jumpy up. Okay. And that's. That's what we want. That's what we want. And that's what's happening. Good. Thank you. I think it's safe to say what has gone on in tier three. And correct me if you have another way of looking at this. In most schools for a long time has been more of the same. There's some slight switch and approach. But in general it tends to be more of the same. What we're figuring out is that that doesn't work for kiddos. There's a fundamental way in which they learn differently. And what we're hoping is between the literacy framework and the FNP materials and the methodology that Amy is working with teachers to develop for tier one youngsters, Janie's worked with the teachers who basically work with youngsters who are struggling from a little bit to a great deal. We'll have a positive impact on them. So we will have two very different ways of approaching reading instruction in our supervisor union. Now I need to be clear. Stockbridge and Rochester, that's what we're calling it, a pilot for a bit. Only youngsters from our two schools are in this pilot. Teachers from other areas, other schools want to participate in the training, but they're not using it with youngsters yet. So that's sort of what we're calling it, a pilot. Great, if that makes sense. And then Janie's gonna talk about the major components of direct instruction. Is that what she's gonna, that's what she's gonna do. She said I had to stay on script. How difficult did she give you a script? Well, no, she did that. I'm kind of, she wrote down a little thing in an email. It's Lindy's in my equivalency script. I got it, got it. I first have to say, okay, that I have been relentless, I think, in my concern about this program. And I know, what? Relentless has been a good term. Relentless has been a good term. And I know how I can be. So... Well, you're putting your money or your numbers up. But I more than appreciate the fact. First of all, these two principles, guys, we are so fortunate. Oh my goodness, we are so fortunate. Because the only thing they care about is making sure that the kids learn. And student achievement, and however that happens, they're gonna fight for it. And I mean, they're gonna fight for it, okay? The second thing is Bruce. And again, and you're not second, I don't mean second. But it's... I don't care if I don't even show up on the list. As long as I don't say anything, right? Seriously, again, relentless and critical. I understand. I've heard you. We had lunch, he sat down. I was not surprised at his decision tonight. Not at all. Because it was every, it was, okay, but it was, he is for the kids. And so put everything aside, Janie. Okay, do it. Good for you. So we're gonna do it as a pilot, just in Rochester and Stockbridge. Teachers will be coached weekly. They'll get, as we said, three days of training. Each student is assessed individually and placed into the appropriate level of program. And then they will get an explicit approach to reading, which is a very structured, scripted presentation that has a lot of embedded testing in it, so that we will know every five lessons where these kids are and where they're going. And it's engaging besides anything else. I have worked with several children from Stockbridge and child from Rochester. And the growth, direct instruction is designed to accelerate learning. For the kids who are behind, we can't make 10 months of growth for 10 months of instruction. We have to make more than that. And that's what direct instruction does. It's total premises or learning as a function of instruction. So we have to monitor the instruction. And it's a very, it accelerates the learning. The professional development is extremely intense that the teachers will be going through. They will play, they get up in front of me and they have to do a lesson. They have to present the lesson by the end of the training. They have to correct, I'll make mistakes and they have to correct me. And it's an intense training. But I think, again, the support that we have from this instructional leadership and from the SU. And regardless, guys, of how I feel about the tier one program, their focus is literacy. That's gotta, that's gotta raise the scores. Just not alone raises the scores, that the focus is there. So I am very grateful that this is going to be going on and we will keep you abreast of all the results. Wonderful, thank you. Did I, was I okay? You were great. Just remembering that the, your vision is 90 minutes of reading a day, 60 minutes of math. 75. 75 minutes of math a day. Some people would say 90, but 75 is where we're at. So, yeah, yeah, we are hearing a lot about, but I have another question and that is my son's a very high-level reader. How's he being taken care of in all this literacy where he already has excessive skills of his ability? Just like J.D. mentioned, it should be said that, just like J.D. mentioned how frequently the direct instruction program are assessed, classroom teachers are doing running records which makes sure that kids are constantly in that right instructional level. So they are, so your child's getting challenged. Good, thank you. Your child is being challenged. And once a youngster gets fluid at that decoding, then they move into application and interpretation. That's where a lot of our upper-level readers will find themselves every day, interpreting, applying, retelling. So using, reading to learn. Did you read his book? Did you see his book? I didn't see his book. Oh yeah, I went around his classroom. I'll have to look at it. We published a book that he wrote. Anyway, good. The other thing I was gonna say that I think is important, both Janie and Amy were very insistent on this, that administrators take part in this training. So the one thing that was not negotiable with Janie was that Lindy and I were gonna be there on those three days. So I think that's crucial, just like it is in Amy's model, because we not only set the tone of the building, but we have to be able to go around and help people figure out what should I do now? Am I getting this right? Do I change it? How do I change it? So we're learning right along with the teachers. And not only that, I mean they really, again, I didn't want after-school training, it just doesn't work out as well if you do do it, and it's after a whole day. Three days of training, that's it. We'll do it, three full days. So really, yeah, it's really supportive, very supportive. Just don't send us any emails for those three days. We're not gonna be answered. Just warn us. It's fine. This is your morning. Excellent. So any other questions for any of us? Mary Ellen, Janie, Lindy, myself? No, I answered all nine. I think I just wanted to echo that this is, it is nice to be able to take out a block of time to look at and to think about this. It's wonderful. And to focus on the education piece and not on the budgets and the play we're gonna be doing. Very much. See, we got a board and everything. Are you staying in the same place to talk about student assessment? Or is that something else? Oh, that's us. That's us. What we're gonna suggest is we pass this out. We will talk about it briefly, but given the time, we wanna do justice to this as well as other things on our agenda. So we might suggest a more thorough discussion of this, go on next month's agenda, but we wanna get a start tonight. So what Lindy's handing out, we chose two pieces of data to share with you. If you look at the side that says, SBAC Spring 2019 on the top, it'll say- Yeah, it's front and back. Don't rush too fast. No, I won't. It'll say SBAC. Everything slowly. Spring 2019, SBAC is the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium. That's the person who did the test. That's what that's an acronym for. What is it? Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium. And the state school officers, I think there's like 48, 46, 48 states. Smarter Balance Student Assessment Consortium. As I say, I hear things slowly. Okay. And the state school officers, which are the commissioners of education, I think it's 46 or 48 states, supported the work around the SBAC development. And the SBAC has been around, Carl, what? Maybe eight years, 10 years? Not that many. Okay, maybe just- Maybe five, half dozen, maybe. I think it's under 10. All right, it's probably under 10. But it's- We're going eight. You said eight looks like- Hey, works. So what it is, is it is a computer administered youngsters take the test via a computer program. There is a literacy section, there is a mathematics section. And what we will just share this evening, and then I'm going to suggest we put it on the December agenda for questions. We, in both schools, oh, I'm sorry, let me say one other thing. On the back, if you flip to the back, you'll see we've put results for the Star 360 Assessment and that is an assessment that's administered district-wide three times a year. And what you're seeing here is what we refer to as the baseline. So this is the fall Star 360 Assessment that was given, I think, it closed out October 1st. So between the 1st of school and October 1st, youngsters were given the Star Assessment in reading and mathematics. The SBAC is given in the spring. So what you're looking at is last year's spring SBAC. So our current sixth graders show up in here as fifth graders. So it's only, SBAC is only given once a year. And on the SBAC side, the front side, the sixth graders that are listed there have aged off in those years. They're now seventh graders. And SBAC is given once a year. And it's required in the state of Vermont. So all schools take it. Just a little, like, language translation. So it's just set at three or above. Yes, thank you. Okay, so three means the student is proficient. It could be a wide range of where they fall. Oh yeah, that's in the grade cards. Right, right. And just so you know, and then again, a little floppy copy and paste on my part on the back where it says present at three or above a copy of the new system chart. The info in it is accurate, but I didn't change the heading. You're on the Star 360 side? On the Star 360 side, same thing. Those are the kids that are proficient. They're proficient and on grade level. So 60% of Star 360 out of eight students tested, 50% of them are at three or at a proficient. So when you're saying level three, it's a proficiency based rating. You're saying this is, you know, from the beginning approaching meeting and seeing, these are the kids that are at the very, very middle of the meeting, just pushed into the meeting bucket all the way up to the highest flyer for the grade. Exactly. Correct. This is the 27% of last year's fourth graders and project were the one where we're proficient or exceeding. We're barely meeting all the way to fully exceeding. And the reason we chose to show it this way is we have to be very careful because we have very small numbers, right? Even our largest class is a very small number. So we have one class that if one student goes up by enough to just make it into the proficiency level or goes down by enough to make it into below proficiency, that will change the room by 30, 33%. So our small numbers, we need to be cautious of. But we, just let me say this one thing, Ethan, then I'll take your answer. Question? Question. Linda and I by no means want to try and talk away any of these numbers. They are not where we want them to be, pure and simple. We need to work harder at having our youngsters become stronger readers, stronger mathematicians, stronger writers. And that's sort of the broad brush stroke of these two assessments. So we consider this baseline. We're working from here, trying to go up in the strength of our kids. The other comment I wanted to make is the only reason you'll hear us focus on raising the scores is raising the scores is an indicator that our youngsters are becoming stronger readers, stronger mathematicians, stronger writers, which is really the ball. Yeah, well, and to improve our, you know, our operas. Kids are becoming, it's being a better school, not for three better kids. Exactly. So it's important to look these in the eye and not try to explain it in a way or not try to be as transparent as we can without violating the verb of. Because it's important that we know and that we can interact with them because what makes a family in Pittsfields used to send their kid to Killington were to hear, sure in some ways, which way the parent goes, that's always what we say, but if there's a school that a parent feels, fits their kid better, I think they might drive a few minutes this way over, bring their kid to it, whose doctor questions are on these days. I mean, I think that that's gonna be based on how we mark ourselves, but also on the quality of what we're doing and then we're showing them and producing kids that are successful in their school, in high school. So can you say again, all the start from 360 sign? Yep. You accidentally cut in page just that percent at three or above, and what is it supposed to be instead, is supposed to be at grade level? Right. Grade level, so on the reading side, grade three, 50% are at or above grade level. Correct, correct. Okay, thank you. For this time in the year. For this one snapshot of... Right, start 360, that obviously the standard should go down, right? Am I saying that correctly? I just wanna make sure I'm saying that. So, Lindy's example would be a good example of my caution around small numbers. It would be great if this happened, but we need to be reminded it's small numbers. So basically that means three of those six youngsters are at or above grade level. If the other three are just slightly below. It does hold. And we nudge them in to at or above grade level, it's gonna say 100% of the youngsters are at or above grade level, and isn't that wonderful. It is wonderful, but it's three youngsters. And so that's gonna be our caution around small numbers. Is this a selection of the class as a whole, or this is all the kids who are... So there were six kids in the third grade class in Rochester. At the beginning of the year. Well, the six kids that were tested, little Susie might have been sick. I think we only have one place where that was Eastman. I think we only, Carl, I think we only have one youngster that did not complete the test. The great thing about small 360 is it's quite a range of what I, it's a long time. The window is that much longer. So, we monitor that because we are so small. Right, and then certainly that affects one more. And you're looking for instruction on the S-back side. You know, the fact that I'm giving out a day and maybe you have a makeup day, maybe you don't. That does... I certainly think this would be a good thing to talk about more deeply at this time of the meeting. I think at least speaking for me and everyone else in the board could chime in, what I'd like to hear is, you know, from you guys is the strategies we're taking to try to improve the deficits they show and less of the methodology or the testing break down. But what we're doing is how we're trying to use this information to make things better. And actually, Carl, I probably should have said January versus December, Mary Ellen correct me, because January the second 360 window will have closed, right? So we'll have... January 31st they will close. We'll still need February. We'll need February. Because we won't have any new Star 360 data until January 31st. So again, that's February. So there's your February meeting again, which is going to come and get... The good thing is if the testing window closes on the 31st of January, by our February meeting, whatever that first Tuesday is, the window will close, the data will be there. The data will be there. And hopefully, I don't know which day it is, how many days you'll have to cancel the numbers before we see you in February wanting to know between the base, you know, the September baseline and February number, what growth are we showing the appropriate growth in the course of this school year? At a minimum, we'll have trends. It'll say it's going up in these three grades. We're holding level in this grade. We're wondering what's going on in this grade. So at a minimum, we'll have that. We will also probably, December, January, February. By February, we probably will have been in the pilot long enough to at least make some preliminary statements about how it's going. Oh, definitely. So maybe February is a better time. Yeah. And it's basically, again, and it'll be, again, an education meeting. You know, because... Right, well, we haven't talked about that because we also have that February retreat. Oh, yeah. It'll be an education meeting. And depending on where we are in the budget process, we may not be able to afford taking February off. No, no, no, no, budget season, we're going to meet more. Oh, my goodness. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Two questions? Yes. The first is, if this, because of the small data pool or some term like that, is this useful for small schools? I think it's very useful. So even though it can get skewed very easily, I think that's part of what you're seeing here is that we haven't used data effectively to inform our instruction. Okay. And we're all guilty of the right means for our kids. Okay, cool. I mean, yeah, you have a small sample size, but we haven't been looking at any data before this. So, you know, we've been buying all that. So it's a good thing that we started off with. One of the things we're doing is that's what we're looking at at what we're doing as a supervisor and where are the numbers done. Okay. That is statistically significant. Good. And then the other thing that our small size allows us to do, even though we have to be careful, those three youngsters, let's go back to where we were and we were on Star 360 grade three Rochester. Those three youngsters that weren't meeting the standard, we can go right in and find them. We can go right in and find the running record. We can find what level texts they're on. We can find all sorts of things about them. You're going to have a lot more, yeah, a lot more. Much easier than you can. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You just can't make gross generalizations about them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good. Second issue, this sort of goes back to the literacy assessment. What are we doing to unify writing, mathematics? You know, we're obviously doing a lot of work to unify literacy, but what about these other issues? I mean, writing's a big one for me because I think it's really important, myself, almost as important as reading. I'd like to know how much STEM progress, too. I think those are educational reports that we've encountered in literacy and assessments. Let's move it to the next areas and get a deep dive into our math, STEM integration writing. So here's what I would say about that. And we can talk about this more, later I just took a question and it's out there. Just in terms of a broad brush joke, I guess I would put it this way, is that we needed to begin, we began with the subject area, brace my heart to say this, with the subject area that we felt leveraged most success for youngsters, which is- Across the board. Across the board. I hear you. And we started there and under Mary Ellen and Bruce's leadership, they just said, here's what we're doing and we're moving forward in the literacy, I agree with that. I've taken my lesson from Janie. But I've taken my lesson from Janie that, oh, that's great, I'm very glad you're doing that. How about the next thing? So the next step has- And you say, not yet, not yet. No, the next- Well, because, and the research bears that out, you can't give the teachers so much that they're gonna start to feel overwhelmed and then the motivation goes away. Oh. No, I get it. Yes, and the focus has to be reading right now. It has to be. But at the same time, I think to echo, I think that, okay, I don't expect there's gonna be as full fleshed out and some sort of stem support program, but understanding how we're making sure that we're not losing sight of that ball as well, I think that it's okay for them to not have as a deep dive into writing problems and mechanics like that, but I think it's important that we keep building- Oh, absolutely, I'm right here. Well, and this time you've got where these teachers are all together, five minutes to talk about your other stuff too. I don't know, maybe not, maybe not. So, I'm gonna wanna take this ball. We can leave it. I mean, I dug up a- That's why I'm sure that when it's happening, are we- Oh, we're doing good. We're over here. I'm gonna have my word on it. We need to maximize it. We have some concerns in that area and we're outlining it. Okay. And we've fully been having this problem. I think there's something he said that's gotta go into the school day. We're trying to jam-pack a lot of things into the day that can't adequately be done. I think a couple of needs that we have. First of all, and as Wendy said, we are gonna move forward with these other things. And the thing I love about the reading programs we're moving forward with both Amy's and Jenny's is that it gives us a model for how we can move forward with the next subject area. And the other thing that we've talked to Bruce about has to come out through negotiations because one of the things that struck me coming to this district is it has far fewer in service days than any district I've ever worked in. And we gave up stock, we gave up winter and northwest in service days part of the S&E merger. Yeah. And that's a negotiation topic. We can't change that except through negotiation. Absolutely. The other thing we also have to change- A mystery to the district. Right. The other thing we also wanna start the board in a conversation we want Bruce and Mary Ellen to be a part of it is that with the expectation that everyone has now, we don't have a long enough school day. Now I don't want kids in school 10 hours a day but we're pretty short. I know a number of schools that have a full seven and a half or eight hour instructional day. That means morning meeting and breakfast and all that happens outside of that seven and a half or eight hours. And it's not what they call throw and kill. Kids aren't sitting in their seats but it's time to make transitions. It's time to work on STEM things. It's time to get the 75 minutes we need for math and the 90 minutes we need for literacy. And that's not a negotiation time. But the way it's really is. The strapper, no, it says up to eight hours. So you guys can go up to eight hours. But that's what teachers have to do, right? Does strapper go longer? Strapper doesn't go longer. They do. But they have an every- Newton, Illinois. The students do or the teachers do? Balls. The students are there for eight hours. Well, let's not start dubbing into the comments. No, let's not get a wrap. I think so. Just a comment. But thank you. Why literacy? Why not math? Why not math? No, no, no, no. No, it's not, that isn't my question. You're best is to study somewhere. We're really... No, no, no, no. We say we're a little... No, no, don't worry. I have a conversation. I get it. Oh my God, they're agreeing with you. No, no, no. I just want to make the point. I want our teachers to feel some success. And I think that will be contagious for the other initiatives that we're going to have. Once they get the ball rolling and they realize that if they work together, they can make some things happen. That's collective efficacy that we were talking about. It will be infectious. And they will start to attack other areas. And we also know that math will improve when literacy improves. So I mean, it's a known fact. No, this is good, this is good. They also, the research says that once the culture of the teachers is collaborative, you see kids being more collaborative because that's the atmosphere of the school. So it transfers into a lot of things. And I think once again, without deep diving into the past of either of our schools, we have great teachers. They were just looking for some sustained leadership. They were looking for the mergers to be over. They were looking for someone to come into the buildings and say, you're doing great work. We just have to align some of this stuff and we have to start using data to make our decisions. And there's a significant amount of enthusiasm going on now in our schools that I honestly did not see when I first came here. Oh, I can totally understand that. Okay. Good. All right, thank you. Great, thank you. I suggest that we table any policy review that's on review policy that are here. Thank you, Mary Harlan. Thank you. We'll discuss them in our next meeting. Please read them. I want to lose ground. I do have a question. I do have just a question for clarity about the first two policies say that they are for Sharon District only. Is that correct? This is not a policy that we're reviewing. What happened is you adopted a policy Sharon didn't like the policy. Okay. They adopted their own policy. I went back to the policy committee and said, we have to figure this out so that we don't have two different policies. Okay. And the policy committee said, we like what Sharon did. Okay, so you'd like us to reread it and. We have a copy of Sharon on YouTube. Okay, thank you. Do you think these have the full policy package said to everybody, Bruce? Because they want to see what the original policies were. I just need to see Sharon's next to ours. So the ones that are, are they folded, wording? The only difference was the principal put in there. No, no, we have as principal Sharon added more about like room renting. That would be great because. There won't be more comments about it. There won't be more comments about it, so. Okay. In the principal's report body, you had the PC wanted to talk to us about the roof. Yes. Just to think about this and we can resolve it at the November, December meeting. Every time we get any amount of rain, we've gotten significant leaks in the elementary school roof. The people who repair it tell us the roof is shot, that's their words. So I want to chat with the board about how we move forward in discussions about replacing that roof. I have some pretty significant concerns about how we're going to limp along through the winter, but we're going to do the best we can do it. We really need to address the replacement of that roof. Okay. How would that happen? Well, we were already going to talk about authorizing you guys to go out and get information on testing the air quality inside the roof. The two key recommendations the building committee came up with in our last meeting going through the report that was supported by not just the board members there, but some of the cricket and Willis Whitaker, the two commercial engineer types that are on the committee, were saying that we really need to move forward on figuring out what the air quality is in this building and getting the air quality tested in all three, I'm sorry, not in this building, in all three buildings, getting the air quality tested so that, and with a recommendation for what fixing that would cost. So we know how healthy the air is in these buildings because some of the urgent needs of the building that were expressed were about air circulators. Next, there's the report really highlighting the fact that we have no idea how old or what condition those tanks are and going out and finding someone that can give us a strong evaluation that can address issues like do we wanna move to a propane solution, try to encapsulate the tanks for now or whatever, but getting that information so we can make a good decision for our budget. And then thirdly, the roof. I think we really need to, if you say the roof has to be addressed, we need to get someone in to tell us what our options are for us. What's the cost to repair it? If we repair it to that cost, how long will it last? What's the replacement cost? And then we can have those decisions and make decisions about them in December, whether we have to do something right away, whether we have to do things that we obviously have to put in the next budget, however we wanna do that, but to get that information, we need to authorize you guys to get the people in and get the proposals made for us. So do you think we need to give to authorize you to have any sort of funding you can expend to get some of that testing done? You know what, an expense under $2,000. I was just gonna say, we're asking for them to get the testing done or asking them to get the put out like an RFP to find out how much it would cost to get the testing done. And oh, the roof would be to fix the roof. I mean, we're not asking them to test the tanks, we wanna find out the cost of that and make a decision about that. But we have to, the tanks have to be inspected. So just let me share this. I have additional information about the tanks. We're zooming in on some things. Two of them, one at Rochester, one at Stockbridge, they're not permitted. They need to be permitted. Stock bridges didn't have to be permitted prior to, I forget, 2,000 something because we believe it's 1,000 gallon tank. The bottom line is we've spoken to people at the State Corral, some of those connections that you gave us. Yesterday I spoke with the woman who gave me two contacts that can help us further explore our tanks. So I'm gonna suggest that we make those two contacts and find out what their cost is, find out what they can do for us, what they tell us. Right, what I would like to do as a board now would be to authorize you to be able to, if they come back and say, okay, yeah, to investigate that tank, it's gonna be $500 a tank or $1,000 a tank. But us too, while we authorize you to do that, also authorize you to have some reasonable sum of money that you don't have to come back to us and say, next month, oh, it's $1,000. And then we say, okay, here's $1,000. But us to authorize you to expend some sort of base amount of money to do the tank testing, to do the air quality tank testing and to, if we have to pay someone independent to deal with the group. But I'd like us to be able to have, and are we looking for an estimate for a fix or are we looking for an estimate for a stop gap? So I'd like to ask Jenny a question first because you might be able to help me. I don't, neither Linda or I have the expertise to write an RFP for room replacement. So, and I know you don't want to use the company who's gonna be replacing it to help you write the RFP. So who typically writes RFPs for those kinds of projects when you don't have the expertise in your room, would it be a higher- And the issue has been the business manager. Up until we had the string of business managers, Don Penoit did all the RFP work and all the bid processing. So that's where it's initially been done. Right, right, but I mean, but I mean, So who do you use and how do, okay. Right, so they, you know, Tara should be able to help you with the business manager if she can't do it or something else, push back. But that's generally where the RFPs would have come from. Right now we're just interested in making sure you have the resources to get that testing done so we have, we can come back and say, here's what we have to do to these furnaces, they say. Here's what we've got to do with these tanks. Last summer we just replaced one of the RFPs. Oh, who, yeah. Well, you, Darker's got the RFP replaced. Two years ago, yeah. Two years ago, all right. And Donna, Donna just got the RFP done. So Tara can do the RFP for us. Well, she can show you what was gone and we can cut the AIDS or whatever and put it in the O and make that happen. So, but again, the question, are we looking for an estimate for a fix or an estimate to get us through? What I've been told by two different contractors who have fixed it is that there's really little fix left to it. I mean, they showed me some cracks that you can really almost put your hand into. So, I think we need a fix. You can always put rubber and tar over everything. I think we need a fix to get through the winter, which we've done to the extent that we can. It's just new leaks pop up or they don't anticipate them popping up. I think long term for next summer, we need to be, unless someone tells me something drastically different, we need to be writing an RFP to replace the roof. All right, so we want to start getting quotes now to see what that cost would be. That's right. Put the RFP out, right? And we're going to respond to the RFP. I mean, one thing I will say we had, when I first started the board here, we had a problem, you know, speaking to the idea of having the roof right at the RFP, we had the front half of this roof, a replacement that was told later that maybe we could have gotten away with some patches, but, you know, the guy wanted a roof shot. Right. Well, I would guess from the number of leaks we're experiencing, they're probably pretty accurate. They're popping up everywhere in the board. I mean, as far as my thinking, if there's, I mean, if there's fixes that have to be done, we have to do it. Yeah, we've got to do it. We've got to do it. I would, by putting stuff on the roof versus putting buckets on the halls, is what's up on the roof. Right, because at this point we can't put a new roof on. It's November, right? And just to be clear, we've done that. We did a fair amount of work this summer on problem areas that we knew about. It's just that now there are new problem areas popping up. The big thing that I mentioned is that we have the information to be able to put a budget figure in around the roof. If you're pretty sure we need a new roof this summer, we need to be able to say we've got a budget this much for it. We're at time for this, for principles. I'm good. Great. So we would, I would entertain a motion that we have to decide the dollar amount. Do we have anyone have a feeling? Well, testing grand, you've got a third test. Well, I think testing those oil tanks, there's going to be problematic, I really do. Just because some of the testing is could cause degradation to the tank that's not leaking now. I think we need to find out a little bit more information about it. Right, but I think we need to, we need to, if we have to pay the guy to come in and tell us about the testing and the options. Okay. What she's saying though is do pay for a test if you cause a leak, which then you're going to have to dig up the tanks in any way. Sure, a pressure test can do that. But if we proceed, Carl, with having some funds because what I found out just yesterday was that there is a second type of test. It's not a pressure test that we could do. It's more costly and there's fewer people who do it but she did give me a contact for it. I just didn't get a chance to connect with that. So I think if we had some money, I mean, we obviously, we won't spend it willy-nilly. We know what you need for information. It's just a matter of being able to say to the guy, yes, we'll pay the $150 service call for you to come out and do this test. Right, or the $500 service call. So they're in time-free, there's free locations. Excuse me. Do you have a ballpark number? I don't, because I haven't talked to them yet. Okay, so Kim, the way we've done this in the past, we've said we've authorized them to obtain information on this and released like $3,000 or $2,000 or $2,000. Then they could go and do that and more than that, we have to have a special meeting or whatever. Does 3,000 sound reasonable? I think it sounds as good as any place to start. It's not that much, we won't spend it and if we need more, we'll come back. Can we all, do you want to make a motion? Sure, I make a motion that we authorize the administration to investigate the various issues that we've discussed it, to investigate the roof slash air quality, slash oil tanks and get the information to determine our best pass forward and we authorize the principles to expend after $3,000 to obtain that information. Do I hear a second? Second. Any more discussion? All those in favor say goodbye by saying aye. Aye. Okay, so we've got some money to start getting some real answers and getting things out. We have, what is this corporate resolution to have? Okay, great. What it is is that, yeah, I got it, I got it. So, as we know, Rochester came into this merger with a couple special funds. These are endowments from people of the past or not bequeaths of people's wills. Anyway, two, they are in mutual funds, some of them, and they're located at banks, regardless for us to, we need to get our treasurer's name on these accounts. That's basically all this is. Okay. So, and I have the paperwork for the two different banks. And so I guess what I'm wanting to do is to make a motion to remove Joanne McDonald and to appoint Rebecca Klein to receive statements and to have access to the account. Do I hear a second? Second. Discussion? To me it seems like this is no brainer. No brainer. We need our treasurer in charge, so. Right. Unless anyone has a question. Well, I don't know. Wow. Hearing no further discussion. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Okay. Nope, I got one more. So I would like to make a motion to remove Kathy Brown and to appoint Rebecca Klein to receive statements and access to the other account. Ah, okay. Second. Thank you. We're seeing mutual funds, but that's what I thought you were going to. Motion has been made to remove Kathy Brown and add Rebecca Klein to the statements. Seconded to the account. Motion has been seconded. Any further discussion? Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. And so then I have stuff for you as chair to sign. Okay. I will do that. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. I am going to send out some sort of, I will send out some sort of survey monkey to all of you, including the administrative, including the principals about February day. I'm going to put out a big, I'll cover all the available dates in February. You'll answer that, and then we'll finalize it. We'll finalize it when we have everyone's calendar availability and collate it so we know what our best window is. Can we try to get that done as soon as possible? Yeah, I'm saying the survey monkey probably this week. And do we have a, I mean, even basic January guide and what we're talking about in February? This, no. Okay, so it's the idea of it. We need to get it again. Gotcha. We should probably look back at our retreat notes from last time. Right. Last retreat, we're like, oh, for our next retreat we should talk about. Exactly. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. I don't know where it falls, but Amy, you've been probably writing a letter to the Rochester City Public Fund. Yeah, so it's, Yes. I think it was due sometime in November. Yes. Do we have that out? I'm going to send that out. I will get that copy sent to you. You can review it and please individually send me back as so that it doesn't violate open meeting law. Thank you. Our next meeting, we do have one more executive session for a personnel matter, which we're going to go into in a minute, but our next formal meeting of this board is on Tuesday December 3rd at Rochester at 6.30. In between then, next Tuesday the 11th, there is a meeting of the Stockridge Rochester Special Buildings Committee meeting. That will also be in Rochester for that meeting at 6 p.m. Thank you everybody, goodnight.