 oh it is in place okay welcome everybody sorry we're about nine minutes behind but it's so nice to see all of you I see that we have 40 participants so I wanted to take a little time first to welcome everybody and hopefully everybody's enjoying the little signs of spring that makes us all really happy the daffodils and tulips and I'm gonna try it today just to because we have new board members too and we're going to be interviewing a possible new board members too to just go over what our protocol for for our meetings are for as far as public comments because we have a lot of people today too so to ensure that the board has time to conduct its business the board is going to adhere to that 1.5 you know one minute and a half for everybody that has a comment if you don't have enough time at the beginning of the meeting there is a time allowed at the at the end of the meeting also for public comment as we start the the meeting today I have been you know thinking a lot about our commitment to creating a safe space for all of us to have difficult conversations and important conversations and also how proud I was for us to have that civil discourse through last year and also that shows to our kids you know ways to be a civil and still have important conversations so I want to usually we do this just for public forums but I just want to remind everybody to stay fully present to tame the technology and I'll try to do my best I've just been trying to help one of our more members be able to join but I passed that to other two people please respect other story and perceptions tonight assume assume best intentions ask wondering questions recognize that we need each other be kind there's no wrong questions so board members and and it's the the meeting of the board and the public is invited to the meeting we have a lot of work to do tonight so we appreciate you joining us today and with that I'm gonna welcome our guests and yeah may I make a motion first oh sorry uh Jonas yeah I was so excited here let's let's do that first right uh so I would move that the board make a specific finding the premature public knowledge regarding attorney client privilege documents received from the district's legal counsel would clearly place place the district at a substantial disadvantage thank you Jonas could I have a second and this is for the clarity of the public is from our consecutive session I'll second lindy thank you all those in favor please say aye hi hi can you pose hearing non-demotion carries thank you Jonas for keeping me honest okay so I'm gonna open for public comments please raise your hand if you have a public comment am I missing I don't see any hands up oh I see Meg anybody else that okay Meg go ahead oh I'm starting to see them up all right great thank you floor and welcome everyone thanks for having us my name's Meg Allison I'm the one of the U32 librarians and I'm here to support our students from GLAM who are going to be presenting later on raising the progress pride flag at U32 I love that this has been a youth led movement to make our school and district more inclusive and equitable it's a joy to work with students who are committed to really digging into these difficult hard conversations about addressing ignorance and hate and bias in our school district and I think the progress pride flag will be an amazing symbol for our students and our families and most especially our student our marginalized students so that they feel seen and heard and that we recommit ourselves to ensuring that our curriculum our policies and our practices are as inclusive as possible um so I'm here to support um our students I can't wait to hear from them later thank you thank you so much Meg I'm going to see Ed Edith hi Edith are you here for yeah are you here for the flag yes uh yeah so you might sorry to interrupt you do you might I we do have it if and I'm just going to give you the option we do have it as part of our agenda and I would love for you to be part of that and I was going to ask Meg about that too a or you can do the comment right now if you don't want to sit through the first part of our agenda that would be your preference I'll wait thank you okay all right and anybody else that is here for the flag we we wanted to honor that time in the in the agenda so if you if any student that is here for the flag please sit tight and we would love to hear you as we discuss that part of the agenda yes okay so seeing no other hands up unless I'm missing somebody and I don't see a lot of cameras on am I missing anything no we okay we're gonna go into the agenda revisions any agenda revisions by board members any changes in Jen any changes that nope okay so let's jump right in into student report 4.1 I so may have it before there you are welcome hi uh so I don't think Anna is here today because she wasn't feeling well so I will cover it um all right to start off just like a wrap up the past month we had the drowsy chaperone show which I think you guys knew about uh it was the first in-person show in two years after COVID and we're hoping to get three shows next year and bring it back to normal uh also right now is the like college season SAT season AP test season so all the juniors and seniors are a little bit stressed about that but they're getting through it there's a lot of support from the school I know as well uh let's see we have sports are starting up clubs I know glam is here today I'm part of glam seeking social justice has also been doing a lot of good work we had a vigil for Ukraine the week before break and currently there's a fundraiser going on at the school and also it's been spread across social media to raise money for doctors about borders and that will also be going directly to Ukraine to help out with that um and masks has also been I know I bring this up every meeting but it's been a big thing at schools it's the mask man has been going on and off and I know a lot of the some are frustrated but a lot of students understand with um what's been going on with the high transmission rate that we should bring it back and it's kind of just the test period and from those who I've talked to they understand that and I haven't seen much protests for wearing masks lately and that's really about it for now thank you Maya any questions from board members Natasha not a question but a comment I was able to go see the state's 32 production and as a former states 32 students it was really exciting to be back in the auditorium seeing amazing talent that our students possess and I'm really excited to see what they're going to continue to be yeah thank you we got a lot of good feedback from the show a lot of people are super excited to be back in the theater thank you Maya I was able to watch the vigil just in the recorded part that was posted and I that was really wonderful to to say so congratulations to all of you and thank you for caring so much um any other board members comments or questions and see any hands up so I'm going to pass it on to to Jen to the superintendent reports great thank you for so first I wanted to share with you a COVID-19 update it was gratifying to hear what Maya had to say just about masking in general as a way that we're taking care of ourselves in our school community overall I know that sometimes some of the mostly we have been hearing gratitude for that decision that we made that you supported through the MOU we have heard some criticism some of the criticism is just that it changes week by week for me I frame it as a the CDC metric being a stable metric I'm going to reinforce that message in the community letter tomorrow just to bring some more clarity to that so that the community who has questions can better understand that um our numbers are up but they're only the numbers that people are reporting to us so we know that um they're not they're not 100 accurate right now we did have a number of cases prior to April break and some recorded during and since April break as you know we um had a lot of test kits and we offered to have families come and pick them up and it um we heard that about a hundred or so test kits were picked up at Central Office during the break and I think that the other thing I'll report is that prior to April break the school nurses received a memo from the Vermont Department of Health saying a couple of things that we expect to happen at some point although there been there has not been a change progress quite yet as of when Marie and I touched base this afternoon um but we expect that um if there are outbreaks which is defined as three or more cases in a particular school that will have a mechanism to report those that there is no formal mechanism or uh or even a method to to report a suspected outbreak or an outbreak we also have been informed that um we're supposed to be reporting soon when the mechanism is ready um any positive results from at home tests we are not doing that right now and we don't know what that's going to look like and we know and we are you know continuing to ask our families to let us know that so so that we can track the data but I think more will come um as we learn more from the Vermont Department of Health and I know that they are working on their metric as well but I I don't know that it's been fully updated quite yet um so that's the piece around COVID you all had asked for an update also just about some school staff climate I sent an email to the staff right before April break when I sent the community letter asking for some input knowing that this year has been hard and exhausting and this stretch is obviously a long stretch I heard from two folks which I think I was excited but I also think only hearing from two was probably an indication of how tired people were um just saying that they've appreciated um what their school has done um and another person saying how impressed they've been with the quality of student work including you all know I sent to you um some of our examples of student work from the high school history day um so just expressions of um of gratitude and um appreciation for the the rigor and depth of student work um and overwhelming um just statements of exhaustion this school year has been hard for everybody um all of us um in all of our roles are tired and that has definitely been a key part of the message including a message that you all had received from the educator association um earlier today as well so um that is what I have to report on staff climate I think the other thing that I want to report to you really as a preview is just to let you know as well that um that in part we've learned that more contact with our students um has been helpful so there is a schedule change in the works for next year at U32 and I want to give you a little bit of a preview um I think the technical term is like a cascading or a waterfall um schedule which means that on any one day five five classes will meet on any one day although students at the high school level will be taking eight classes um and it also means that the length of those classes will be a little bit shorter about 60 minutes for those high school classes this schedule also allows um middle school core classes to meet four times a week let me back up um this schedule allows our high school classes to consistently meet three times a week right now um for those of you who who are familiar with a U32 schedule you know that it alternates it's sort of an ab block schedule so one week students meet twice a week and the next week they meet three times a week this schedule allows um 60 minute classes that they'd all meet three times a week teacher advisory every day call back every day it also means that the bus schedule would change a little bit and the buses would depart at 250 this year they depart at 255 um that actually will be helpful because we have occasionally continued to experience some glitches with the buses running um for for departure times that um are timely at the elementary schools so um if you're interested in in sort of more specifics down the line um I'm happy to to prepare a more thorough report with the help from my U32 colleagues as well um and that is it I know Maria's here so I would say if you have any questions or comments or concerns related to COVID um Maria and I would invite you to share those with us any questions from board members COVID I don't I don't I don't hear any so questions on the other part of Jen's report not associated with COVID hi Jen that was that was great so that you continue okay so the next part of the report is about the last day of school um I included in the packet for you all the recommendation for the last day of school this was um oh this was a labor of um deep scrutiny and work to come up with this recommendation ultimately um my recommendation is that our elementary students go through school um for a half day through uh Tuesday June 21st U32 would be June 22nd and that the staff days uh and um as I wrote in that memo so um the last day for elementary teachers would be Wednesday June 22nd the last day for U32 teachers would be Friday June 24th our para educators elementaries would work a half day on Wednesday the 22nd U32 a half day through Friday the 24th and our food service employees would work their last day for elementary would be the 21st and U32 would be the 23rd that would mean that everybody would work a day less than contracted um it means that uh I'm also recommending that for folks who are year-round and and sort of on a different schedule that the board consider providing an additional paid vacation day for those folks um I know that this decision uh is um one that uh you've heard some concerns about through the association letter um I just want to say that I I have scrutinized I've looked around at other um districts I've done a lot of work and this is the one that I feel is the most student-centered decision so if there are questions or concerns I am happy to answer them or members let's open this conversation in okay Diane and Ursula after so I just one of the questions that was raised and I I do know that it has been done by other districts was about a waiver for those remote learning days um so can you explain the decision behind not not applying for that yeah so I did apply for a waiver um so let let me make that really clear here's what happened and this is where I think some of the confusion is our students go 180 days the agency of education asked us to put in waivers for COVID related days prior to February break so at that time on the 18th of February I applied for a waiver I applied for a day um related to COVID um for U32 there were two other days the staff shortage day the water main break day and for East Montpelier and Berlin those days when they were learning at home which the agency of education does not recognize as days of student attendance I based it on 180 days because our calendar is 180 student days which meant we weren't below 175 days and you only need a waiver for 175 days I created a very very long narrative as well to explain all of that to the agency of education on March 17th they granted the calendar waiver request even though we didn't need it over April break I double checked with the agency of education to um to see what would happen if the last student day were a day other than the one that I was suggesting which meant that East Montpelier and Berlin would dip below the 175 days and they have assured me that based on every everything else that they have received that the the waiver would be granted I haven't had to officially submit it to go under 175 days because we're not there right now but I do have that assurance should we need it that it will be granted and I did my due diligence thoroughly prior to February break based on the 180 days does that answer your question Diane yeah uh kind of but I got a little confused and I apologize because I know you you've got a lot of detail so currently with the days that you're uh recommending be the last days that is that 180 days or is that 175 so right now if we go with the dates that I recommended which is for the elementary schools Tuesday June 21st it means that Dodie um let me get this right it means that Dodie from the Calis students would go 179 days um and it would mean that East Montpelier would go 175 days and Berlin 176 I want to be clear that we had rigorous from learning from home opportunities during those days our teachers our food service and our para educators were working if you go with a recommendation that I'm making I don't need to request a waiver because we're at 175 days if you go below that um or shorten it then I then I would need to request a waiver and that's where I did the outreach to ensure that indeed it would be granted thank you Jen Diane Ursula with the proposal that was outlined in this letter because we had a proposed end date of June 16th I think half day and are the teachers going to revise their final lesson plans like we've been getting emails about like at least for my daughter like they're on their final unit for language arts um are they going to be revising their lesson plans to extend those three extra days do you follow what I'm saying yeah I would I yes I mean the contingency days have been in the calendar and I would trust that our teachers will maximize the use of those days as best they could to make you know to make them worthwhile days for our kids for sure they do that every day so um I have faith in our teachers to maximize the learning opportunities for our kids thanks Ursula Maggie Jen I'm wondering if you can elaborate more on the um academic value and and socialization as well of extending for those additional days when we're hearing um some real dissatisfaction with this plan from educators I mean I I can tell you what I believe I believe that a student center decision is having our students in school um where you know one of our most finite resources I think is time we've been talking about that throughout the budget process as well that it's not just resource allocation it's time um this honors the time and the commitments that we have made to our students and families it's been part of the contingency days in the calendar from the very beginning you know since for a year um it's more days of access to universal meals and has allows us to have as many student days as possible while also being equitable across the board for our staff so thank you thank you Maggie Daniel thanks um Jen I was just wondering if you could speak to the the discrepancy between our district and that of other districts as you see it I mean I guess I have a guess as to where it lies but if just giving you the opportunity to respond to that piece of of the objections raised by the um by the union yeah so earlier in April I had a monthly regional meeting with the superintendents and we were starting to talk about this because this is the time of the year when it happens and um and and every other district that has made the determination around us is finishing by June 17th that is absolutely true um what's also true is that in almost all of those cases their teacher year or student year is fewer days than hours our teacher year is 190 days or up to 190 days that was a nuance that I for the sake of parallel structure wrote but if I quoted the negotiated agreement it does say up to 190 days I apologize for that confusion um but our contract our contracts say 190 days for teachers our students go 180 days by our calendars they're all they're neighboring districts where for example they their typical year is 175 student days and 185 teacher days or 177 days and 185 or 178 and 188 there are also districts around us that have fewer inclement weather days than we did so districts like Barry or Montpelier Rocksbury for example aren't tapped in at the same um in the same way that we are with our more rural geography so we missed a number of days so the fact that we missed so many days coupled with the fact that our contract year is longer and our student year is longer is what's sort of leading us to into that next week which is different than many of our neighbors. Thanks Jen thanks Daniel any other questions Natasha and then Ursula you're on deck. Yeah this is it's just a clarifying question um maybe a silly question so here in the state of Vermont even though we are unified districts they count days separately for each school not collectively. The student attendance stays to count in a school you have to have uh 51 percent of students in physically present in the building so we've historically had years when um for example there was a year when there was no power at Doty this was that was back in 2017-18 and Doty went an additional day to have that counted. Okay so schools are so they are counted separately they're not it's real looking like all of our elementary school students collectively. Okay in my previous state they did look at it that way so if a school was closed it would not impact the district as a whole so thank you for that clarification. Yeah Jen you were just talking about other districts around us and I'm curious because the letter that we got talked about the difference in us ending not the same time as other districts around us and it potentially impacting teachers for child care etc in the past have we typically ended at the same time as other districts around us do you know as there been a discrepancy. You know there's we're we're fairly common across the board in general because all of us have to have 175 days that are in common with the neighbors that send to the Central Vermont Career Center. There are always some nuances not unlike this year because of the difference in the length of the year that our students and teachers go and because of the difference in impact again usually around transportation snow days right. Montpelier especially before Montpelier was Montpelier Rocksbury almost never had a snow day because they had limited buses and their students walked and some there was one day I remember they had a snow day because the sidewalks weren't shoveled but the roads were okay right so there are always those variations were close but it's never never cute like totally aligned this this seems further off but I don't quote me on that right I'm saying anecdotally to be a weak difference but I I would need to go back and do more research to tell you exactly I didn't I didn't look into that question in preparation for this meeting. I hope you guys can hear me okay my Wi-Fi's being wonky which is why I turned off my video Jen this is kind of another precedent question so I don't know if you'll really have an answer but is there precedent to kind of say oh even though we want 180 we're going to accept fewer than that and kind of ignore our contingency days um as it seems some people might be requesting like is there precedent there and if not it seems like then we're setting if we do that we set precedent going forward that those contingency days don't really mean anything and then then the question becomes why is our school calendar set of 180 days um so which I imagine is because as you were saying time is our greatest resource that we value those days. Yeah so I gathered the information uh with um with help for my colleagues at Central Office here on the past five days five years and I can share that with you so last year we had 174 student days that was uh COVID we all started late and the state had made the requirement 170 instead of 175 the last day was June 17th and our teachers you all as a board waved a teacher day so our teachers went till June 18th and they went 189 of the 190 days in 2019 2020 our kids went 175 days the last day was June 11th so that was the spring of 2020 when we were all remote oh and um and then we went our teachers went 190 days um that year in 2018 2019 um our kids went 180 days at the elementary U 32 kids went 178 the last day was June 21st our teachers went 190 days the last day for elementary was June 24th the last day for U 32 teachers was June 26th elementary kids had five snow days that year and U 32 had seven due to water main breaks and the board dismissed students on the same day in 2017 2018 our kids went 180 days the last day was June 20th Dodie had to go till June 21st because of the power day and our teachers went 190 days their last day was June 21st Dodie teachers last day was June 22nd and then the last day I looked into 2016 2017 all of our kids went 180 days they ended on June 20th our teachers went 190 days they ended on June 21st there were four snow days and nothing was waived thank you so it seems like prior to COVID we really pretty much stuck to the 180 days so thank you for you're welcome Jonathan and then Maggie yeah I just um I think that I mean clearly you know we've been pretty consistent with those attendance days and you know the number of you know the days that the kids are in school and the teachers likewise and I think you know we're we're at the sort of the tail end hopefully of this you know COVID situation and so with that in mind I don't think it's unreasonable for I mean I understand what the teachers are saying I understand the justification and the reasons for wanting to maximize student time in class too yes there's social reasons educational reasons of course but I don't I don't think that it's that given the last two years and the work that everybody has done I think there's certainly a fair argument to be made that allowing the teachers to have a slightly shorter school year on the end of this thing is really not so bad and quite frankly um yes time is the most valuable thing we have but that also includes time to um you know re regroup and time to take care of yourself and have maybe a little less time to work for a bit of time thank you Jonas I sorry Jonathan I've been seeing poor Jonas keeps putting his hand up but not this technology I also just join us before you speak I want to take a minute to just say we we still are having and I just want to say this for some some teachers or some community members that were hoping to join we're working as fast as we can mark it read the login to let people in I'm still getting texts from people that are waiting that the host to start the meeting so I just want to acknowledge that so go ahead Jonas and ask your question and then you can go Maggie because you had one before is that okay Lisa are you in the room oh my god and I see that Chris wants to speak uh Chris you can go after Maggie okay hold on I am here sorry yes thank you yeah and this is here too thank you Lisa I will send you my notes go ahead Jonas that was my question I've been keeping a minute so I was wondering if Lisa was here so I could send her my notes oh so yeah she's finally made it we're having so many tech problems okay Maggie go ahead okay so I'm I don't know um whether there's clear data that shows that this extra five days that our school district is affording students and is part of the teacher expectation and staff expectation um that there's data that indicates that this is resulting in improved performance are there indicators is is and as someone who's worked in our local schools as kids who've come through the local schools has been a student myself um I I hear that every day is valuable but I also have concerns that there's going to be um uh a demoralized workforce who may not um entirely feel that enthusiasm for those last couple of days and extending an extra week um just concerns me about whether those are going to be filler days or whether they're actually going to be meaningful academic days certainly from a social standpoint can see the value um and then of course there're going to be a lot of families who will elect even though the calendar clearly states here's the time frame and any of us who use the calendars are referenced you don't plan something until we're through those contingency days um if you want to be sure your child attends school but I those are my two questions are there performance indicators and would we be expecting a much lower student participation by continuing for those additional three days Jen do you want to address that and then or do I mean either way for I I'll start um I don't have anything that measures the you know the the quality or the difference that a few days at the end of the year make the markers that we have are based on student performance across the board um I would say like I said earlier I believe that our teachers will maximize the time that they have for the best outcomes for our students um and I think the other thing that I would say is that um I also don't have at my fingertips the tenants data I do know that those the calendar has been in place for the past year and I also know that we have negotiated agreements that specify um the the up to certain amounts of time in the teachers agreement again it says up to 190 days in the ESP agreement and the food service agreement it says 183 days for for our para educators and 180 days for our food service employees thanks Jen Jonas sorry I think Chris wanted to go oh you're right Chris yeah thank you very much um so I have to say that I did not like the tone of the memo um because I thought it was more like a hectoring tone which which I just I didn't like I I appreciate the sentiments of the of the memorandum but not the tone um Jen can you tell us whether there is this sense of fatigue that is being reported to the leadership team um across the district whether because we've been hearing about it that people are overstretched uh and um are are really tired you are at the end of a two-year process which has been really difficult for everyone including the administration and so I'm wondering if that is something that you that is a topic of conversation at the leadership team um and then let me ask a number of different questions can answer them all at the same time um and the other is is there a negative in terms of students uh if school ended on the 17th and is that something that would apply uniformly across the district um because I understood you to say that if we'd requested a waiver you thought it would be granted uh and and then another another question is would it be beneficial for the administration uh if uh school ended on June 17th thank you very much thanks Chris those were did you write them down Jen I think I got them okay um okay so in terms of the um the sort of tired um yes I think it is very real I think it's not just in Washington Central I think it's across the state and across the nation we we're tired this is hard I think all of us are working under lots of stress and showing up uh conditions change and um and in our system especially I think I've reported almost every single board meeting to you all about vacancies that we have in this district how we have no very few substitutes and how we're all helping each other out and covering as best we can it's generous and it's wonderful and it's exhausting so yes when our teachers and our employees say they're tired I believe them our administrators are tired I'm exhausted so yes we're tired um Friday June 17th um Chris if I understood your question I think that um you meant the implication for student days and if the last student day was Friday June 17th that would mean students at Callis Doty and Romney would have been in school um for 177 days it would mean for Berlin and East Montpelier although we think they were in learning from home it would mean Berlin would be 174 days East Montpelier would be 173 days from the beginning of the year and I would need to request a waiver which again I've every indication would be granted I'm not worried about that at all and it would mean that you 32 students um barring no more water main breaks or anything else would be in school for 175 days and that would not require a break a waiver in terms of the administration I mean I I don't know how to answer that question I think that you know we're making decisions that are student-centered uh and and I told you sort of my thinking behind that I I mean I definitely consulted the principles and I have to tell you all I mean sincerely when I did the math and I put it out there and I thought oh my gosh June 24th or June 26th I know that it's late and um and I and I know that we're tired and I I it's the recommendation that I'm making when I weigh everything everything across the board it's it's where I am right now with the deepest empathy and uh and quite frankly nervousness about continuing to just to say it when I know our teachers are tired but that's where I am right now thank you thanks Jen uh Jonas and then um and then I'll let Diane go just because you went already Diane okay go ahead Jonas so uh Jen everything that you've said uh and you know the the communication that you sent out um is centered around the fact that this is this is a at the the primary interest here is the student-centered decision right and it is better for kids to be in school than to be missing school you know we have 180 days we don't always use those 180 days um but that's that's what our that's what our contracts are that's what you know that's what our calendar says that's what we approved last year um I think that there is also a you know a real end I think everybody has a real interest in staff equity right so if we're going to request um you know waiver days from one school do we need to request them from all the other schools which would mean I think uh East Montpelier going under 175 right which I don't think is great and then do you have teachers you know some teachers and some staff who are you know working longer than others do you keep staff in the building you know just to have them in the building to have a work day there I've heard Jen explain her decision and her recommendation a number of times over the last few weeks and it never gets less complicated there are a lot of moving parts here there are a lot of equities to balance and I think that this I I think this recommendation lands on the side of students in classrooms an equitable length of the year for teachers and staff while not going to 180 days and while you know reducing the length of that staff year by one day as we did last year so I think I think this is making the best of a very complex and difficult situation where there's never going to be a perfect outcome so I'll support this while also acknowledging the strain and the anxiety and the grind of this school year for which we are all grateful to the teachers and staff thank you Jonas uh Lindy yeah I have to second Chris's opinion about the tone but other than that um what I wanted to say when Jonas was speaking the Berlin and East Montpelier people even though the AOE didn't recognize them those teachers worked on those remote days and we've been doing zoom through um all of the COVID and then all of a sudden they say oh sorry that's over it doesn't count and the families and the teachers participated in those days so those students in my mind are not going fewer days because that remote time I felt I felt that was another one of those little punch in the guts from AOE that I did not appreciate very much um if everyone ended on the 17th there's some inequity involved yes but I'm also looking at I wrote myself some notes and now the cats have found them um what the surrounding towns are doing is important in Vermont and it's one of the reasons I've always thought we need a statewide calendar because it would make things a lot easier for everyone for PD days for all kinds of statewide stuff we could do but that's a totally different subject um as far as working harder I also am a teacher in another district and I've been a building sub more times than and not as many as other people and everyone has done that across the state and that's not what I got in education to be but you step up and you do what has to be done and people are working harder I I it's this I do not ever want to go against something that Jen put this much work into because if anyone has stepped up to the plate this year I just have to say it's Jen and she has made this year so much so well done and I know she put her heart and soul into this and she didn't do it to upset people or say you know you have to work your exact hours but I do in looking at other districts which I did she did I don't see anybody going into that next week um there may be but I didn't see it and I think that will be hard on our staff and I also think families will have already signed up kids for camps or other things or just said well I'm not going to send you to school so I'm not sure how how valuable the experience would be but I just I'm listening to it all and felt I had to especially say about the remote days for East Montpelier in Berlin that that those teachers did work those days so they'd be working even more days um and there's not going to be equity as far as the days worked I mean you're trying you you tried but it's it's just a very um unusual situation that I hope we never have to face again thank you Lindy uh Diane go ahead and ask your question and then I want to make sure that there's no other board members that haven't spoken I believe everybody has had a chance Jonas you can go next and then yeah I just you know I felt that I needed to say something as the person who generally talks about staff appreciation um again completely respect and agree with what Lindy said Jen about the work that you've put into this and that you at central office um and but I also for myself would feel disingenuous if I didn't bring up the fact that I I am eager to show appreciation but then when I'm hearing how stressed and that so to me that that's the one thing that it raises to me that um wondering about could we make it possible to not go into that next week as a sign of that appreciation the other concern I have about this is that it has kids going to school on Juneteenth and so as we have put forward that we really feel very strongly about that uh that worries me that that would be in the equation so I just wanted to make that that statement thank you Diane Jonas uh Jen is it the case that uh for East Montpelier in Berlin uh when the teachers and staff worked those you know learning at home days um that those days are counted as days worked for those staff that's not that they work for free those days and if I'm sorry Josh no thank thank you for that that that yes is it also the case that if we were going to have the last day on the 17th um would we have teachers continue working up to the contractual you know up to 190 days or 189 would they continue to be at work in the buildings during those days it would just be the student days that would be less or are we also you know if we don't accept this recommendation it sounds like there is some momentum that way then what is the last day for teachers and how many days are we going to knock off the teacher year and are we going to knock it off the same for everybody right there's a there's a lot of moving parts here so if you know if if you're thinking the board if you're thinking about not accepting this recommendation then there is a lot of unwinding and a lot of decision-making to be done can I clarify that one thing so yeah so yes and this is what I I have explained this so many times and I'm clearly not doing a great job because it is so complex those days that our students were remote the AOE officially doesn't count them as student attendance days in all of my calculations I count them as days worked by our food service employees because we provided meals to kids even though they were learning from home I include that for our para educators and our teachers because they were working their tails off even as our students were at home so though all of those count I did run for you the numbers if you made June 17th the last day across the board so if you want me to share that information with you it would mean for our elementary if June 17th for the last day for everybody it would mean elementary teachers worked 186 days para educators worked 179 and a half and food service work 177 and at you 32 it would mean that you 32 teachers worked 184 days you 32 Paris worked 177 and a half days and you 32 food service worked 175 days and just to be clear just to reiterate the teacher year is up to 190 days the the the para year is up to 183 and food service and other support is up to 180 sort of there's a little bit of nuance in the agreement the teacher agreement says up to 190 days in the ESP agreement and the food service agreement the ESP says 183 not up to 183 and food service is 180 not up to 180 so if the last little little nuance so if the last day was to be June 17th then we would be reducing those work years by between six and three days for those different categories that is correct yeah thanks Jonas Ursula Chris can you hold on a minute and then I have a comment to make too just because some of our teachers were not able to join so if you're okay with this Ursula I'm just going to be trying to get in so I'm going to allow this and just read what she has said just because it's been really hard to get in and I want to honor that so Nicole was hoping to to point out that we at U32 would be additionally strained by the fact that three of our administrators will be out for the majority of the final week of school further straining our already strained resources so it's just a comment for the board okay go ahead Ursula and then Natasha two things um one was seconding Diane's um Juneteenth comment was that we would be at school for Juneteenth which we've talked about as a board especially for next year's calendar and how we might address that this year or maybe we can't I don't know um second I want to acknowledge the hard work that all of this stuff is put in and I get that they're exhausted and Jen I know you put a lot of work into this plan and I know we keep talking about the teachers but I also want to make a statement for the students who need school as a safe place to be and for meals because that's those five days that they get breakfast and they get lunch and they have a safe place to be for the day thank you Ursula and Natasha um yeah I a couple things one um I wanted to speak to the tone to me the tone was just exhausted and described just like they put in the letter um I think it just it reflects um you know where where our educators are and as a former educator I completely understand that um I also when we had talked about teacher appreciation I had made the comment that as a teacher what I would have appreciated the most was time and that's what our educators are asking for time so here's a chance for us to give them something and show an appreciation in a way that I think is going to be really felt um it felt unseen as as appreciation um I also wanted to just echo what Lindy said about the remote learning um because our students were they were there our educators showed up and I'm kind of appalled that AOE is not acknowledging that I think that's a failure on their part um and then also again with Juneteenth I brought it up with next year's calendar you know our nobody should be in school on Juneteenth it is now recognized as a federal holiday so that day is something that we would have to be thinking about anyway so thank you Natasha Chris I know you have a comment and I want to make a final comment and bring us back because we yeah um Chris yeah I just want want to clarify that if we went with Juneteenth and that would be the end of the year for student uh for um teacher um work um I'm assuming there's not days after that the teacher would be doing work in the building is that accurate Jen or not um uh so contractually there's always there are two half days at the um ones at the semester break and ones at the um ones at the end of the year because we have report cards in end of year taking taking care of lots of stuff at the end of the year that would have to happen I have no idea if the last student day were June 17th how we would also and if the last work day what for everybody was the same day I don't know how and when that would get done um so but that right now that's that's the way it's stated in the master agreement that one of the professional half days is at the end of the year and that's for report cards it's it's it has been for yeah end of year reporting okay thank you very much okay so I just you know I I'm not going to say the tone of the letter but I like I said in my response to to the executive committee of the union was just I was I was a little surprised to get the letter because I think we have been creating this culture of openness I was happy to because it shows that it's safe to have these conversations here and that's what we want to create right a safe space when we can have these conversations it together we have been working so hard in making all of our decisions student center and and what Ursula had brought up it was you know as you know I'm one of those crazy people that were a lot of different hats around the state and I can I can tell you that in the building bright futures and their the new report for example just for our for what I hear in the regional councils right now is is really families are struggling to right they can't find childcare they don't have the food insecurity back in 2019 was you know 40% and I know that it's not your job or our or our job at school to address all the problems of society and I know that sometimes that's what what it feels but we are stepping up every single day right we're showing up we're doing the work for our communities and our schools and and and this board has really appreciated I think in in what and support it where you guys are doing the reason that we came up with this team and I think it was collaborative to Jen is putting the recommendation but we have been talking all along through the meetings oh no water break main it's no day we've been talking about that the end of the year conversation was going to be was going to be tough we have a when we propose a and lindy and I believe Diane were there when we when we were brainstorming about you know gifting a day or a day of vacation was to honor time instead of a bonus owner that the teachers will have time right we in teacher appreciation we're going to have the conversation we have some numbers that have the conversation of what would it look like if we included a small bonus on on that the gift last year we did a thousand dollars for for all the teachers we can use ESSER funds for for this it would have to come from the general budget right now to to do something like that so we figured at acknowledging and giving you the time will be a way to to honor and appreciate you too so I know that you noticed that I know that I don't want that to get sort of unseen by all of the by the burnout that we're seeing right now I we hear you I think all of our communities are of our students are are tired to and I know that a lot of them would like to not be in school but the kids that need us the most needs us right now so I I would like to you know and I appreciate Jen put a lot of work into this I think our LMC a group has been working really well let's continue to have this conversation so if we could with that move on and have a a motion in place to to accept or not accept the recommendation could somebody make a motion Maggie I see your hand do you have that last comment or yeah and I'm just trying to do the research briefly we have a summer school lunch program and I understand that this is a rural district and access can be a challenge but we we do have programs in place and I'm not I'm having a time while you're speaking to to look and see when that starts but I just wanted to acknowledge that we're not restricting students who may need summer meals from access and that's an important thing to keep in mind this if that's a significant piece of this conversation thanks Maggie or I have a procedural question yeah since the tone of the sense of the the conversation seems to be two different paths can we have two motions floated and then have members vote for motion a and whatever it says or motion d and whatever it says right I guess I don't I don't understand sorry Chris I'm not understanding that it's can you tell me like there's there's some board members who will accept vote to accept the recommendation that Jen has made and I think there are some board members who would vote to have school end on June 17th with the understanding that the staff teaching staff will complete the work they need to to close out the school year even if the end of student days are on June 17th and what I'm suggesting is that we have both those motions board however their praise but addressing those topics put forward and then one after the other and have votes for one or votes for the other because you sorry Chris to interrupt you I think that would be too confused I think my my thinking would be either we're asking Jen to go back to the drawing board and come back with a new recommendation or we are let's just hold the vote of the recommendation that is before us I didn't I didn't see enough division in between in between the board there's been a lot of work I know that teachers want to want to plan to so I would I would say we could vote up or down the recommendation right now or we could ask Jen to to go back to the drawing board come to us with it with with a different recommendation you know if we want her to do more research mckaylin I mean I think we would honestly get the same thing if we just moved to accept Jen's recommendation as it stands and then if the majority doesn't go for it then I agree I agree so are you willing to make a motion on mckaylin as you are on the mic so in that thing uh we can't hear you mckaylin sorry floor I will make the motion to accept the superintendent's recommendation on the last day of the school year thank you Jonas could I have a second may I move to yeah I'd like to accept oh can you hear me okay yeah now we can hear you and uh we you're you're second in the motion to accept Jen's recommendation so I'm gonna call the vote because I think we have had enough discussion from from the board so all those in favor of accepting the recommendation as proposed please say aye aye I guess we're gonna have to have some hands because it's so can you put your your little and I believe we even have check marks now in uh yes so that I can see everybody one two three four because everybody know how to do the check or is somebody raising their hand okay so I count one two three four for yeses Chris because you're I I don't I can't do it it would try to say I have to do my voice yeah so what is yes or no could you mine oh yeah I'm gonna vote no you're gonna vote what no no okay it's just hard to hear all due respect to Jen but I'm gonna vote no okay so okay and we have how many board members we have sorry guys one two three four five six seven eight nine ten so we have one two three four yeses and five no four no five five no but yeah I see now the little red x works I see now one more yeah I couldn't see Maggie's before six three five six it would be seven with Chris seven yeah okay so so I think Jen let's go back to the drawing board talk with AOE and see and and come back with a recommendation for our next meeting and that would be on for our forum yes yeah sure I would do that thank you thank you all right so with that we are already at 718 thank you everybody let's move to board operations and our students have been really patient so this floor this is Diane sorry to interrupt but I've just had a family emergency come up so I'm gonna have to leave the meeting but I wasn't sure how to let you know so if I'm able to join back in I will but I need to step off right now okay okay hope everything is okay go okay I'm gonna open it up for the flag request on page seven and I'm gonna ask Edith and is Wilder here too yes okay welcome Wilder and Edith I can't see you but you've got to be somewhere in here you have three pages of people but do you guys mind oh there you are well you do you want to go first or do you want to go first I can start first off I just want to thank you all so much for even considering this flag request the fact that we're even talking about flying a pride flag at a public school would be unheard of in a lot of places across the nation right now from the don't say gay bill recently passed in Florida to the tragic murder of Fernfeather a transgender woman right next door in Morrisville Vermont hate towards the lgbt2 plus community is ever present all around us and as a junior in high school I can tell you personally that it's really frightening to look around and see so much discrimination especially during these hard times I think that arguably the most important thing for students to learn at U32 is how to respect and value each other and so flying the pride flag is an important step towards bringing inclusivity to the forefront of our education and will help help us take a step in the right direction towards making all students feel welcome and safe here at U32 thank you so much for your time thank you well you're muted sorry oh I get maybe you know what maybe get your camera off ease and maybe we'll help with sound okay yeah there we can hear you now sorry um hi i'm edith um i'm a freshman at U32 and i'm here on behalf of the students of Glam um I'd just like to say something about the pride flag proposal quickly um if this proposal is approved it will be an instrumental step um at U32 and around the district at educating and protecting our lgbt2 plus students um in my own experience at U32 um as a member of the lgbtq plus community I've heard people say discriminatory slurs make homophobic and transform with comments and a lot of misconceptions uh like I've heard a lot of misconceptions about lgbtq plus students uh with raising this flag we hope to create a safer more inclusive and more well educated environment for all students regardless of their gender or sexuality uh thank you thank you athis for being here and thank you wilder for your very eloquent remarks and floor can I add one more thing as well yes Maya go ahead I would also like to speak on behalf of Glam uh as many of you know there is a walkout led last month and we had at least 200 students walking out in protest of anti-queer legislation and in support of lgbtq people at school and around the world um and there we introduced the proposal for flying the progress pride pride flag and it was met with unbelievable amount of support from people um I know so many students who walk into school not feeling like they totally belong and for them to have a reminder in the form of a flag outside the building that they're welcome and not alone I know it would mean the absolute world to them uh and of course just having the flag doesn't mean anything without action behind it so the progress pride pride flag for us is not only a sign of support for lgbtq people but also a sign that will continue to work on making your school a more welcoming inclusive and accepting place for everyone so thank you for your consideration as well thank you Maya okay board members we had in page seven in our packet we are there any any questions first I don't see any questions could I have a motion I move that we oh Chris go ahead you can't see anybody I'm sorry I moved that we accept the application to raise the glam flag and fly it and the request was for an indefinite period of time but I would praise my motion as flying it for the time set forth in our flag raising policy f46 now I was unable to pull the policy up for what that time frame is every year yeah re-approved every year is what we have right now so thank you Chris did I have a could I have a second second okay so Chris and Ursula and Natasha no I'm just kidding Chris and Ursula yeah any discussion they uh Lindy mine is um more about logistics uh where it's being flown or the space on the flag poles we have it just you know we could approve this but there's logistics involved in these kinds of approvals and um how many flags we can fly how many poles we have those that was my concern a little bit about not questioning the need for acceptance and showing acceptance but more about the logistics and how our approving this affects the people who have to then carry it through I don't see Steven here today but I think for the board I wouldn't worry about the logistics on this if it has appeared the flag policy is pretty clear about getting approval in oh Amy please speak to that hi thank you you 32 is prepared to fly the flag um and um we'd be proud to do that if the board um approves it and we'll figure out the details thanks thank you Amy so before we go and vote I just wanted to thank the the students for being here Maya for being part of the of the board and and bringing awareness to to the board I think we are committed to create a more inclusive school for all of our students and we the the board is also committed and learning more about how being part of making our schools safer and continue to educate ourselves so that all kids feel like they belong so with that I would look for a vote I'm gonna use the the checks if that's okay with the board so all in favor please say hi or do your little reaction check hi hi hi two hi seven Maggie you're an eye okay Chris hi okay so unanimously approved for the members that are here today thank you thank you for being here guys okay moving right along thanks Amy too and in page nine we have the superintendent evaluation Carrie couldn't be with us today so I'm gonna the the memo was was was really clear we're gonna get all of the information pretty much right after this meeting in the next couple of days and everybody will have to complete the survey are there any specific questions about the the purpose we've talked at length about how important it is to evaluate our superintendent and that we set a system as we move into our next year questions but from board members I don't see any hands up and this was just informational so I'm gonna move right along because I don't see any questions and we're already a little behind so we are going to do student interview interviews for our opening positions I'm hoping that we were having trouble but I'm hoping that Martha and and Eric are here hi Eric I know that the link was not working I hope you got my second email Martha are you here would you mind it looks like she's here okay I don't see her do you mind doing your camera Martha okay I can I can see you now let me just see if the lighting is no that's not very good okay here I am oh there okay thank you for for joining us today I I send a quick email to hold on one minute okay thank you sorry there was a lot of here so if we're going to go ahead and do some interviews I share with the board the same information that I sent to both just before we get started floor we we we lost your audio about 30 seconds ago oh can you hear me now yes yes okay sorry I'm just trying to mute that there's just okay there we go Eric and Martha welcome I'm gonna open it up and let you guys introduce yourself first and then we'll go over the questions that you got in advance we're not going to do this in executive session I think it's good for everybody to hear what what you have to say we are going to go into a quick executive session just to deliberate and then we'll come back out okay after we've said and you will know by the end of the of the meeting okay I know it's just one position so we are delighted that we have two candidates to join your board so go ahead if Martha I'll start would you just introduce yourself and then Eric thanks floor um so my name is Martha Tucker and I've been a resident of East Montpelier for almost 17 years and prior to that I lived in middle sex and prior to that I lived in Worcester so I have five children and between them so three are my own children and two are stepchildren and the children went through the schools in Worcester middle sex and all five of them went to U32 I myself am a lifelong educator and I've worked in Washington Central schools as a teacher I had to think for a minute if I've done any of my administrative work here so I taught at Berlin and Dodie and U32 I think that's it and I know several of you on this zoom call it's nice to see you again I am retired from public education at this point and work in therapeutic schools and I have a grandson who lives in East Montpelier so I'm interested in East Montpelier schools and U32 and I have a lot to contribute from my many years in education and my many roles as paraprofessional teacher and administrator thank you thank you Marza welcome Eric thank you floor my name is Eric Anderson I have been a resident of East Montpelier now for three years moving from downtown Montpelier up the hill sort of say my daughter is in fifth grade at East Montpelier elementary school um and along with my wife and daughter we have a farm here up on Horn of the Moon Road and I really when I saw this position open I saw it as a great opportunity to kind of continue my service to the community um with a lot of places that I've lived uh even when we lived in Montpelier I was a treasurer for the the MRS um sorry a little nervous um for the MRPS PI organization um their parent teacher organization that they have over Montpelier Roxbury um I served as a business um a a business representative um when I lived in Maryland before coming up here um so I really do believe in a strong education both for my daughter and for the community at large um and believe that having a strong school system makes a stronger community as well um we have a lot of friends throughout the district not just in the Montpelier school district um and I want to work for them and with all of you um to give them the best opportunity use that we possibly can thank Eric thank you so we we had the five questions I don't think that we need to go question by by question if that's okay with the board that's sort of how we've done it before you've had them in advance so if you don't mind walking through the questions uh one by one each of you I don't know who wants to start first I don't want to take that but just start with number one what motivates you to become a school board member and then move right into two and then we'll move to the next candidate um Flora I'd need to take a minute to pull those up oh I can I can I can I can yeah I can okay with the board so it what motivates you to want to become a school board member and I think you guys talked a little bit about it so if you have something to add please go ahead well I would just add that it's something I've wanted to do for a long time um but for many years um I was working within the public school system and even if I wasn't working in the district I was way too busy to take on being a board member um but uh since I don't work the long hours that I did when I was um an administrator in public schools I have more time to devote to something that I've always been interested in and now that I have a young um family young grandson coming up through the East Montpelier School it seems like the timing is really great and it fits in with my um professional um kind of stepping down from working as many hours as I used to so it's great timing and um my other reason for wanting to do it is um that I really have a lot of experience working with boards as a administrator as a consultant as a trainer um and I feel like I can contribute a lot to um being on a school board and have looked for ways to contribute in the East Montpelier community that fit in with all the other needs that my family has and that I've had professionally um and so for all of those reasons I think this is a perfect opportunity for me at the right time thanks like that Eric thank you um so a lot of what I said in my opening you know it is a lot of what does motivate me um to want to be a school board member you know having a great education for my daughter for her friends for the community we bought the farm here in East Montpelier we didn't buy it to go and figure out another place to live five down five years down the road we bought this as our forever place um as a place for our daughter to have a future and um and hopefully for generations to come and like I said having a strong education system in the community is really important for a community to strive in and of itself um and having a board that supports our educators is extremely important and and being an educator is not an easy job um that was one of the things I when I went to college I was like maybe I'll go into teaching and it's not the easiest thing in the world um but I've looked into other ways to work with the community work um just with community and students and staff through different things um and I want to bring that here to East Montpelier um through working with the board um working with the community um um and just helping us all strive and work better thanks Eric so for either of you what are particular skills of experiences that qualify you to serve as a school board member I think you guys have set some of them already so just that I'm sorry to be brief it's just like there's uh it's a long meeting and I want to make sure that we get to know you so add the things that Eric do you want to start so that we go back and forth and not most certainly um so along with what I've already stated on a professional level a lot of my positions that I've had have been operations and financial so one of the things that I would hope to bring to the board is kind of that business those business management skills the financial management skills um that I've had in my professional life um that could be used as an asset with the board um and then with the community as well as management skills that I've had my positions from working with non-profit organizations most of my positions have been with non-profit organizations my first job was an operations manager with the Children's Museum in Washington DC so working with children has always been something I've enjoyed doing um so I really feel that those skills along with what I mentioned earlier can really be a strong asset for the board. Thanks Eric, Martha. Sure so for those of you who don't know my background I was a teacher for a long time in Central Vermont schools until 1998 when I became the special services director in Montpelier and that was a role that I held for 10 years before becoming a superintendent up in the Northeast Kingdom and I retired from public education in 2014 but in my role as administrators obviously I was present at many many board meetings and um was a superintendent and had to work closely with five different boards in that capacity. In addition I've served on a number of legislative appointed committees and have a very clear understanding of some of the legislation that supports or complicates the work of schools such as Act 46. I still have very close professional relationships with four other superintendents that I get together with regularly so even though I haven't had the experience of the last how many years is it now? Eight years that people have had navigating the waters of Act 46. I'm pretty attuned to what that sounds like looks like feels like. I'm a I'm a pretty level person with a broad range of knowledge and experience in public education and that is what I feel like I can best bring to a board. I think that's it for her. Thank you Marzette. I'm gonna skip number three which is just how many years you've lived here because you already talked about how much time can you give to board service? Either of you who wants to go first? Well I know it varies a lot and I would say that I can pretty consistently put in 10 to 15 hours and I know that most of the time it doesn't require that. Thanks Marzette. You don't have to be specifying how much time. The best answer I can give is as much time as needed. I understand that there are times that there might be an emergency meeting or maybe an issue that wasn't resolved during one meeting that may need to be addressed sooner than the next meeting happens or so and I have the flexibility in my schedule to be able to do that because it really is important. You make time for those that those items that are most important in your life and education and our students and my daughter are among those so yeah so as much time is needed. Thank you Eric. And the last question was really about are you willing to attend workshops and trainings to learn to become more effective? Let's go board member. Are you willing to further your education? Sure. Thumbs up. Yes. Absolutely. As would I. I'd look forward to the opportunity. Great. Thank you both of you. I'm going to open up the board members. Are there any anything that I forgot or any other questions? Otherwise if we could move into executive session just quickly for having deliberation. And we're back. I see all of the board members are going in. I think I have everybody. Marcia and Eric are still here. Okay. Great. I see everybody. I don't see Chris's phone number. Is Chris with us? Just want to make sure everybody was able to get out of the executive session. I don't see him. Chris is still showing up as an executive session. I'll close the room and then hopefully that'll bring him back within a minute. Thank you, Mark. Okay. I don't see him but because of time I'm going to go ahead and he will join us. It was really really hard for the board. We have the you know we have two extraordinary candidates that both bring a lot of strength to be a part of our board. So we're going to we're going to motion to invite Eric to join the board. But that doesn't mean that Marcia you don't bring a lot of qualities that the board would be so happy to have to. So we encourage you. This is an appointment just until next March. So and there's going to be more openings in the board too. So we encourage you to to apply again and also to stay involved. Right. So for both of you, we're really grateful and and with that I'm going to open it to somebody to make a motion. I move that we appoint Eric Anderson for the East Montpelier board seat. Thank you Ursula. Second by Daniel. Thank you Marcia and Eric for being here. I'm looking for a all those in favor please say yes or aye. Yes. Sorry. Yes. Curveballs from you all night long floor. I know I'm sounding like the technology. This technology thing is really driving me crazy. You know they've been okay. Any opposed? Hearing none. Welcome Eric. Thank you Marcia for being with us. I think Marcia already left but thank you. It was really hard but we thank you for joining. You're welcome to stay and continue to be part of the meeting. Otherwise I'll be connecting with you. Our next meeting is the first week of May. So next Wednesday. So stay tuned. I'll sit in the background and listen and I thank you all very much. Yeah and you can stay with your camera on. You yeah yeah that's it and okay. Welcome Eric and thank you. Yeah we'll do a formal welcome at our next day our next meeting and okay and I'm gonna move on just for timing right now Eric but I'll connect with you after the meeting too. All right. Board calendar in page 25. People had a chance to look at the board calendar that just for information we you received a color copy at our last meeting. Oh good. Any questions? Okay Jen we don't need any action or anything on this. It was just for your information. So just any questions you received at the last time. Okay the next item is superintendent contract. I just wanted to let you guys know that we received the authorization for AOE to sign the contract. We have signed the contract with Megan and we're all set. So we are pretty pretty excited. So Maggie you did had a question sorry go ahead from the calendar or guess from the calendar but maybe it's in last year's calendar board retreat. What was the final from maybe I missed that email. There hasn't been a final I don't have everybody hasn't totally I've been trying so reminder to all of other board members that haven't filled in the doodle poll to do we do not have a final date yet I'm working with a couple of four members but you will you will get an invite hopefully this week. Okay. All right. Staff appreciation Diane and Lindy. Do you have anything that you want to report in what we already have and then just a little glitch in our order but hopefully we'll have some appreciation arriving. So the order it's it hopefully we'll see what happens but there's a plan. I believe Jen got some stuff today. Jen go ahead. Yeah part of part of the order has arrived. I'll let you know Lindy and Diane as soon as the rest of it comes and we'll figure out a good plan. Okay because I think our stuff didn't get ordered till just a couple days ago. Okay and then I think I'm gonna wait to talk about a possible bonus after we look at the recommendation from from Jen before we move into that is that okay with with you guys for the end of school. Okay yeah so moving moving right along because we still have I'm gonna pause right after this and give everybody five minutes to just go to the bathroom collect yourselves and we'll come and we'll come back. The last thing that I have there is the VSBA update. I sent most of you I sent everybody yesterday a reminder of the next webinar for the first year journey. You know a reminder again I know that you get a lot of emails we try to minimize emails now from the VSBA but it's easy to miss and it's good for new and veteran four members. And then the second thing why I wanted to have a quick update on the on the VSBA is that the resolutions are due June 15 so there's any resolution in the past years last year we signed into a resolution from from other districts but resolutions are the positions that the association from that are of importance to different school boards right so if there's something that you have in mind right now as a group I can't think of anything that we you know in other years we have had some particular issues but we have until June 15 to submit our resolution which will mean that we would have to approve it our first meeting in June the latest right so you've been getting the emails about that I don't want to go on and on about that but those resolutions are the guiding things that the VSBA uses to lobby at the state house right and some of the so if there's anything new otherwise in your in your booklet that you received last year there's a lot of information there too and if you have any questions just reach out please and as soon as we have that yeah retreat date we're going to try to get Phil who was trying to join the meeting but also couldn't join the meeting from the VS from the VSBA to be part of that a presentation he is the new director of the of education for board members and I think you guys would all really like him and he has a lot of knowledge on governance that's it so with that it's 20805 let's come back at 810 take a quick break and we'll try to power through I know everybody's tired so I'm gonna try to do my best to move us along tired and hungry okay we recovered everything so moving right into finance Suzanne welcome we received the monthly reflection as always if I Suzanne which is so nice to read and the fun balance so that those are both informational do you guys have any direct questions to Suzanne I don't see any yeah yeah so let's move Suzanne thank you for being here I am going to move just because of time I'm not going to go through the through those two items in detail let's move right into the into the fiscal management questionary yeah hi good evening everyone the annual fiscal management questionnaire is completed by the business administrator and reported to the board who then certifies that they have received it and this is done every year obviously annually we ask that the board do that now the same answers as last year are reported on here with the exception of one on the first page so I went through this with the finance team and made sure that everything was consistent with it the only thing that differs is about three quarters of the way down it says our unopened bank statements delivered directly to the treasurer as received and that previously had said yes that is not the case any longer statements are downloaded direct from the bank or institution's website the financial accountant prints it out the payroll accountant reviews it and then I do a third review of it so three different people are seeing the statements and they're being reconciled in-house but no they don't go direct to the treasurer so that's the financial and this is a state required report I should tell you so the auditors will be looking to have this certified when they come visit us in august yeah and the finance committee reviewed this at our last meeting and we went through through the questions there were no real questions say because I asked one pertaining to cyber security and Suzanne was going to look into that for future years because there was no question on that but other than that I'm looking for a motion to accept it could I have a motion from any of our board members Ursula I move that we accept the financial management questionnaire second thank you Ursula and Jonas any more any discussion hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye aye aye aye aye any opposed hearing no the motion carries thank you everybody the next part of this is the federal and state ground authorization this is something that we do every year also it's on the annual basis for the board to authorize the superintendent so I'm looking for a motion and then we'll move into questions if you have questions for I'll make a motion for the board to authorize the superintendent to accept all federal and state grants and to administer and act as the representative of the school district thank you lindy and a second second okay yeah all right i'm gonna gonna go to the tone daniel i'm gonna give daniel since it's the second any any discussion about hearing none all those in favor please say aye okay any opposed hearing none the motion carries unanimously okay moving to the next part is the capital improvement and the five-year capital budget I am gonna let Susanne speak about this even if we are short in time just because it's just so exciting this is gonna be part of our forum next next week so there was a full report in the packet I hope that you guys had time to to read it but I'm gonna let her talk about it Susanne and Chris sorry and sorry Chris both of you they've done a lot of work on this very proud uh Chris and Bill and I started meeting weekly in January in order to present a draft of a capital plan to the board in order to meet the long-term goal that the finance committee had set this year and so we're we're really excited about actually getting a plan written we wanted to bring it to you tonight to make sure that you have lots of opportunity to read it in full ask questions of us think some more about it and then at the community forum on the fourth we'll be doing a full presentation to incorporate community feedback the finance committee has given some insight to it and I should say a full step here is that Chris Bill and I met then we brought the plan to the leadership team twice the first time they gave us feedback we went back and revised some things and then brought it back to them so we want to make sure that this process is a fully collaborative process with lots of people giving feedback and that this document is a living document that will be revised annually the plan in here is to revise it annually and for the board to accept a five-year budget every year so we're really excited about it and on the page 33 of the packet it talks about the timeline and the next steps so like I said the intent is for May 4th to do a community forum surrounding it and then May 18th the board hopefully would adopt the plan and then June 15th we'd come back to with the scope and budget of the projects for FY 24 completion and that puts us on a really nice timeline to get our bids out and process and start getting them approved much much earlier than this year and so we hope that will make us more competitive getting those vendors lined up for the jobs Chris do you want to add anything no I think you summed it up pretty good it definitely will help in not getting stuck with only one or no bidders the earlier we start the better so this will be this will be good to implement as soon as we can so any any questions from from the board members yeah Chris hi I will you on page 38 it almost seems like the that does that set up the basically the review hierarchy of of various projects yes it sets up how projects are added so in this document we presented a five-year capital budget and that hierarchy sets up the process for adding things to that budget okay and does it um okay so is there a particular order to these um I would say it starts with a community person or student but sometimes it might start with the department head or a maintenance person so it might start at any point there it might start with the building principal meeting with Chris O'Brien but generally it wouldn't start outside of the building I guess so then it would go from the building to myself just to make sure the eyes are dotted and the T's are all crossed and then we would bring it to the superintendent and the leadership team then the finance committee and then the board okay thank you very much for that explanation okay I don't I don't see any other hands so first I want to say thank you to to Chris and Suzanne and to Bill Ford they continue to do work they're right now involved in doing more work for potential work I also want to let you know that our students are watching they Chris and I got interviewed by one of our students they really care about the facilities they really care about our green our green footprints and what we're doing for the environment too and I really appreciated the you know the how clear they from the communication plan to the process and I know some of the things here look really linear but nothing in design or in building is linear it's it's more of a circular you know like you come with the idea and then you're always coming back to the beginning because you learn more information as you go so with with that I don't we don't need to approve this tonight this was just informational we're going to gather information our a community forum next week they have been Jen and Suzanne and Chris have been working in a slide presentation and hopefully some pictures and we they they got a lot of it but from the from the finance committee too and we'll have a simple presentation that allows for community feedback since this is something the community's been looking for for years so we'll be thank you Suzanne and Chris the board is appreciative and Jen and please tell Bill that we miss him tonight but thank you Bill Ford okay let's move on into policy so Chris Mike Bay the floor is yours yeah thank you Clark good evening everyone we have a couple of policies up for consideration tonight for adoption starting with we'll start with c4 which is on page 56 um I did not Chris we also we have c7 yeah we have c7 for first reading do you want to do that one first before we go to the second reading and adoption you know it's it oh yes we do I'm sorry just overlooking on page 52 so we'll start with c7 for our first reading student attendance policy are there any um comments on the edits that were made in our proposed I know that you can't see everybody Chris so I just going to say there's no hands up okay thank you so then we'll move on to c7 which is our student attendance policy and this is what we're really we're looking at for first reading as well any questions on our student attendance policy and these are policies that we are adopting from the VSBA model policies which will supersede the policies that we already have in place on student attendance of course I have a really minor question um under definitions um it goes for the purpose of this policy true and she'll mean and it has one quote is the word true meant to be in quotations on each end and this is like just a copy you know like a typo type thing thank you there will be a second a closing quote won't use okay hearing no no comments we'll move on to policies to be um adopted uh first up is c4 um our English learners policy any questions on this hearing none no hands and we'll move on what none okay so next we'll move on to b5 prevention of employee harassment no hands oh Natasha Natasha has their hand up okay Natasha I just I had just a couple um clarifying questions um under the training section it says the district shall implement a reasonable training program to make employees and we are the district's sexual harassment policies and procedures I'm just curious what's currently in place or what that training program is can you respond to that yeah I'd be happy to right now mostly what we have done is training as part of our annual mandatory trainings so um every year in the beginning of the year we have a lot of topics including this one that um that we embed in those annual mandatory trainings and we provide time for staff members to engage in them sometimes we go more in depth than at other times depending on what if there's been a change in the policy what's coming up for us the students and kids those sorts of things but um at at least the sort of basic level we embed it in annual mandatory training um and then just as a follow-up to that if I remember correctly was there a presentation to staff by students in regards to harassment um so is is what the students presented is that going to be taken into consideration when creating or adjusting the training for staff like for next year when they do the mandatory training yeah so this this particular policy is about the prevention of employee harassment we also have another harassment right the prevention of hazing harassment and bullying okay all of that will be taken into consideration those the students who were involved in the mosaic group at U32 made a list of about 23 recommendations for next steps and um I know the administration is considering those next steps okay um and then I have one more question if I can ask or do you want to go to Ursula first it's okay just finish in okay um the other question I had was um under designated persons I'm just curious as to who picks who those designated persons are and what kind of training they have um in terms of being able to do the investigations so I can yep I can speak to it most recently in general it's administrators who are designated employees um we I can't pull it up for you right the second we include the designated employees in the training so everybody knows who they are um most recently we've done a few things um in general related to title nine the whole administrative team went through an extensive training with uh legal counsel back in the summer um also folks in general our principals and or assistant principals um biz fit usually I think the Vermont school words insurance trust offers some trainings on hazing harassment and bullying and so they might attend those and then we have you know there's been some work at U32 more particularly um with the student training that you mentioned and just some partnership with mosaic most recently okay thank you um and then one last question I'm sorry this is um where it talks about the alternative complaint process um it says employees may file complaints with both the district or and with state and federal agencies so so I just want to make sure I'm clear if an employee doesn't feel comfortable flying the complaint with the district they can file with the state and federal agencies instead of or the expectation that they do both I don't know the answer to that question Natasha I I'll have to get back to you with that answer in particular okay uh and so I'm sorry my my my sense is that the policy does not preclude um a employee from filing with any other state or federal entity that would deal with a harassment complaint under a statutory law this is not probably don't need to exhaust this policy in order to uh see either state or federal statutory or other remedies okay thank you so that and then Maggie I'm going back up to the training um given that this policy is on a fairly inclusive harassment policy why is a training only for sexual harassment den yeah I think it's oh actually hold on let me let me look at the policy I don't want to say um I don't know why this I don't know why the training says only specific sexual harassment training I do know that the training that we do talks about all sorts of casing harassment bullying so not it's not limited to just sexual harassment um I think the I don't know why it's it calls out only sexual harassment in this policy this Chris I don't know this was the VSPA model policy I can assure you that we do training on all forms of harassment though on a at least an annual basis um so we could modify it to say um just take out sexual and then have harassment policies and procedures and that would broaden the broaden the training requirement I think that that seems like as far as a policy goes I mean I get that the school board or the school in the district is going above what the policy specifically states right now but it would mean that in the future somebody could just be like well policy says all we have to do is make people aware of our sexual harassment and so if we want it to be the inclusive harassment I think it makes the policy more um complete I think taking out the word just sexual would would broaden the policy would broaden the training component of the policy because it would just say the district's harassment policies and procedures without defining it to sexual harassment yes so is there again personally we'd like to make a motion to amend the policy by removing the word sexual on page 59 under the training section absolutely I move that we make an amendment to our policy c no b5 b5 yeah b5 to remove the word sexual before harassment policies and procedures second um any discussion actually I think Florida that's your your job yeah yeah I was like I was not wanting to interrupt you I didn't interrupt you but it got it got kicked out too so yeah any any any discussion I know that this was up for second I've just wanted clarity this was up for second reading so if if we pass this would we want to approve it tonight too or do we want send it back and and and check what would you like can I ask a policy like a procedure question yeah can we approve it with the proposed amendments like is that a thing we are allowed to do I believe so I'm just that but I I don't know if we want to check in it's Chris this is your area of expertise so yeah I think we can amend the policy and then then approve it why we bring it to the board for for discussion and and change so yes we can we can amend it and then approve it okay so all those in favor of the amendment as read by Ursula tonight I just want with a discussion piece is um we are making this change to broaden the training on the um broaden the training under required under the policy rather than eliminate training for sexual harassment and I just want to make that comment so it's clear why we're editing the policy the way we are and that's my only concern to check in because there's you know there's a lot of people that go through this through this policies it is so I just want to make sure that we're crossing all our teeth in in in this one Jen you have your hand up and Maggie's had her hand up first yeah and then and then I'm happy to weigh in okay Maggie so mine um is a question about um the alternative complaint process and just kind of came to my attention when Natasha was speaking it reads employees may file complaints with both the district or and with state and federal agencies the wording is kind of ambiguous to me I don't know if that order it was meant to say and slash or or so that's another potential edit so Maggie the or word broadens the the options rather than if you if you put and then it it kind of combines them into one entity the or means you can do either one gives choice so can that and be taken out so that's clear so it just reads um employees may file complaints with both the district or with state and federal agencies Natasha just to stay clear with process can we vote in the in the one that we have right now and and then move into the new business through Maggie and then I'm going to go back to Jen just if you had a comment of the one that we are voting in right now go ahead Jen yeah I just want to say in in general um we've been we've been counseled by the VSA if we're going to make substantive changes that we should vet them through our legal counsel one more time so I would just say that you if it's the sexual harassment that seems to me it's it's part of what we do anyway in terms of the training but if we're going to really work with it my advice would be to consider running it through legal counsel these have been bedded through vsp a legal counsel but if we really change them substantively we might want to cross check thank you Jen I agree with that Dindy you had your hand up for this one this this change is different okay so let's say we can we can go ahead and what I'm going to try to do is just have you vote in this change that doesn't mean that we're voting on the entire policy yet so all those in favor of the amendment of striking there were harassment a sexual sorry sexual yeah it as read by Ursula say aye aye any opposed okay any opposed hearing none and can I have a green check that motion carries okay now we can move into new business uh Lindy is this related to what Natasha was talking about yes um when I opened the vsp a model policy I think we've just typed it up wrong because the way the vsp a model policy on their site reads employees may file complaints with both the district or supervised reunion and with state and federal agencies so I think ours probably said may file complaints with the school district and we just we weren't putting or supervisory union but the way theirs reads is and with state and federal agencies the or was between school district and supervisory union okay thank you for that clarification oh okay okay boy that makes a lot more sense a lot more sense so okay so if we just strike the or then and that should clarify that I don't read employees may file complaints with both the district and the state and federal agencies um the way it says it is employees may file complaints with both the district and with state and federal agencies right so we should strike or out of our yes the or was for or supervisory union oh okay yeah it's a type yeah okay next section um so then the way I read that and please correct me from wrong is that you would have to file with both the district and one of the outside agencies you would not have the ability to file with just the outside agency um no no okay now yeah I think just because it's the may file complaints with both okay and so the maze the maze discretionary okay thank you for that clarification and then I just have one more question sorry go ahead and that's I don't see any other hints up um my other question is if if there if there seem to be um and and this is a biggest problem if there seem to be employees that are filing with outside agencies because they feel that the district is not handling the investigation appropriately will there then be follow-up to whether the people who have been the designated persons are the appropriate designated persons did that make sense did I word that correctly Jen I'm going to let you answer that question I would say that it's within the purview of the leadership to determine the appropriate designated persons and if there seems to be a pattern that's being established of questioning decisions then we would re we would explore what training support or designation needs to take place that's how I would answer that question okay thank you yes okay so I don't think we don't need a motion for that it was really a typo on in there so okay I I think we could vote just in the one policy and then send this one back to our lawyer or just feel comfortable with removing the word what do you think yeah you know I would say I think Jen makes a fair point that removing just making sure that the removal of the word sexual in in the training doesn't have unintended consequences that it's doing what we want it to do which is to broaden the training I completely agree so so Chris do you want to go ahead and just move the other policy then sure um do we why move that we adopt um policy c4 on English learners okay can I have a second for c4 second thank you Ursula all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi hi any opposed hearing none the motion carries all right okay let me thank everyone for their um keen observation and comments it really helps make the policy a better document thank you Chris too and thank you Michelle and thank you Jen working to the policy then other members of the policy committee Wendy and I'm sure I'm forgetting other names but thank you yeah and Amy Molina yeah week yeah I then I ended up giving up he couldn't make the the computer work so we'll work on that I'm not on policy anymore I'm on eddy wallet because they meet at 4 30 I can't get there okay Jonathan and is on Jonathan okay thank you Jonathan sorry okay yeah um we're going to move right into the consent agenda or am I forgetting any other policy no I think we were done with policy yeah yeah so consent agenda approve the minutes could I have a motion of I move to approve the minutes of March 16th March 23rd March 25th and April 6th 2022 thank you Jonas second by Natasha is that your hand up Natasha or second it but I also have a comment yeah okay so Jonas and then Natasha any changes in the minutes Natasha my name is spelled incorrectly on the um minutes for the special board meetings standing only has one okay this are you got that yes thanks thank you with the okay all of those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi any opposed hearing none the motion carries okay so we have all the minutes if and now I'm going to look at to approve it the board orders do I have a volunteer lindy I can do it the million ones always make me choke but um I make a motion to approve the board order for well there's two days oh it's arranged for the range 3 17 22 through 4 2022 in the total amount of 1,067,749 dollars seven cents thank you lindy could I have a second thank you Ursula any discussion any questions I know for new board members I gotta say you know I know that booking up board orders is done thing and it just seems like so many numbers good advice that I got from a friend that used to be on the board too is that you know just you know look at them look at look at the big numbers and something that's their attention and you don't know what it is if there's never wrong questions right we're all learning together and so don't be intimidated by the by the board orders so all those in favor of a bring the board orders please say aye hi hi hi hi hi any opposed hearing none the motion carries all right personnel and approve new teachers and resignations we have some updates in there Jen I don't know if you want to go through those before we get into the is that okay yeah sure I just want to let you know that number seven was prematurely put on this agenda so we don't have change in position for 22 23 and I'll be able to share more information with you next week about that one that was the only change so let's go ahead and and go through the new teachers we have four new teachers I'm looking for a motion want me to do it again thank you Mindy didn't want to put you into spot but here you are I make a motion to approve the new teachers for the 22 23 school year Jennifer Bradley Skyler Washburn both at EMES Matthew Rackliffe at E32 and Lauren Keisling at the school psychologist thank you could I have a second please second thank you okay any questions any discussion hearing none all those in favor so approving the new teachers nominations please say aye okay any opposed hearing none welcome to our new staff very exciting it's been really hard to okay so this is driver's ed yeah yes yes do a little happy dance even though it's 10 minutes tonight guys we can do this okay move right in yeah there's more I make a motion to approve the change in full-time equivalent for Nicole Schaefer E32 social studies to reduce the position to .6 FTE and I assume that's for the 22 23 school year so that's an ongoing change right now okay so current for next year and beyond okay so I'll just say it the way it's here I won't put any timing okay could I have a second second that's Natasha thank you Natasha you saw my this is like I didn't go up quick enough okay all right so all those in favor please say aye hi hi hi hi hi hi any opposed sorry any opposed hearing none the motion carries okay so again update on vacancies yeah so for this year really no changes I feel like I come to you every time with the same sorts of vacancies we have some long-term sub positions we're trying our best to put them together you heard earlier tonight folks are just stepping up and being flexible as they can to meet these needs and and be creative until vacancies I will say we you know we have now passed out all contracts except our administrator contract so right before April break we got all the ESP and non-bargaining contracts out teacher contracts are due by May 1st because we got them out April 1st so we're starting to hear about some resignations you've approved some regularly we are last time we are currently advertising on school spring at week diversity employers and the national alliance of black school educators and are looking to ensure that we get a strong candidate pool so hopefully next week I'll have some more folks to bring to you had a couple requests for extensions which so far that requires a request in writing and a conversation with me and those are going well and I've granted a few two-week extensions for folks who are having some extenuating circumstances thank you Jen and lastly we had the right coordinator do you want to speak to that or are there any questions from board members and I should have said restorative in-school experience coordinator can you speak a little bit about it Jen sure this was the position that we spoke with you all about during the budget process our hope that we can be both proactive and supportive of our students socially and emotionally and academically working to help them get back into class if they're struggling this is a position that is I would say comparable to the spark center that we have at the middle school position right now and the policy requires that we bring job descriptions your way this is the standard template now that we've been using thank you Joe and that brings us to that and I don't be Natasha has a question oh sorry Natasha I see you quick I promise I know we're almost at nine yeah just based on what the role of this person is going to be is there an expectation that they are coming to us with some sort of like bias or equity training or is that something that's going to be supplied to them upon being hired I just feel like that's an important component to this work if we're you know yeah so all of our employees we require to do the very basic implicit bias training that that's been part of our annual mandatory training we are additionally thinking about professional learning experiences not just for this person but across the board related to the humanity and justice work and and book groups those conversations are in progress right now and I would think that if this position requires additional training and support around bias and prejudice it would be our responsibility to provide that thank you thank you Jen okay any other questions do we accept the position we just usually just inform the board or do we accept the the job description right go ahead Jen yeah I would answer that by quickly checking the policy hang tight yeah yeah I can't remember it right now the policy under implementation says each time there's new policy it shall be brought to the board for approval so let's accept could I have a motion to accept the job prescription I move to accept the job second then I'll second okay thank you Jonas Lisa do you have that sort of yes I do thanks okay hold any more discussion all those in favor please say aye hi any opposed hearing non-demotion carries okay so that brings us to an end of our meeting we have two you know we have three items in our future agenda agenda items yeah I'm gonna because of time I'm gonna skip through the board retreat the global citizenship SLO what I could tell you that it's gonna be part of the next a meeting of the quality committee on May 4th and and then the Humanity and Justice Coalition presentation I don't want to skip through that one that's gonna happen on May 18th and we're hoping so this brings a bigger discussion that I'm gonna now try to make an executive decision to move it to my May 4th to have the decision because I want us to have a fresh mind when we make the decision we're hoping to have this meeting in person and we had said that we were going to have our first meeting of the month in person and the third meeting of the month a remote so we'll talk about that we'll add that to our community forum agenda to have that conversation we feel that because there's going to be a presentation and some work that it would be nice for for us as we looked at diversifying the educator workforce to be in person if do you want to add anything to that Jen sure and Natasha you might know that more than I do right now as a co-facilitator of that crew but one of the three objectives has been diversifying the workforce and that particular group is working on with bringing Alyssa Chen in to do training and so the invitation is extended to the members of the Humanity and Justice Coalition and the board I'm hoping that together we can get some training and then it would be the foundation for some rich dialogue and collaboration after that yeah I mean it was brought to the coalition that if possible that we would just kind of we would schedule our meeting at the same time so there was a lot and Alyssa was making the presentation both groups simultaneously and she's done some amazing work yeah she's done some amazing work we were supposed to meet today and the college did meet the diversifying section of that group which I'm part of was going to meet today too but that was postponed thankfully because you know we couldn't be in two places at the same time so we'll talk more about it yeah later but just have that in your radar as you start to look yourself so we won't try to add on but the presentation probably starts earlier yeah so it's just at five o'clock so and it's not mandatory obviously but it will be great to have everybody there so any four reflections besides our technology mishaps of today sorry Apesha the meeting next Wednesday is in person right yes I just wanted to say I really appreciated all of the dialogue that happened tonight I just think that that's what makes this board work well is everybody being able to share their opinions listen to each other and have thoughtful conversations so I appreciated that thank you thanks Apesha any other four reflections thumbs up for Maggie okay everybody I look for a motion to adjourn before we put Chris to sleep for guys want to sleep already thank you for staying with us Chrissy our trooper and Kara too and I see Lissa there Tanya Eric thank you for staying too so a motion to adjourn a second motion to adjourn okay to see and thank you for being here too okay so Chris moves and Jonas seconds I don't know Lissa whatever whichever you got there Lissa okay with that let's go all those in favor please say aye oh oh it was you Micaela hi hi right or before you go can I ask a quick question yes the policy did you guys approve that policy or did you approve the change in the verbiage and then the policy is going to come back for approval the policy is going to come back for approval we approve just going back and checking if we're moving the word sexual sexual before yeah okay okay yeah that's what I got thank you okay nice to see you Kara too we changed the typo and took out the or yeah I got that too yeah okay thank you okay thank you everybody please if you hear from the members I couldn't come in please apologize and we will see you next Wednesday in person have a good night good night everyone thank you good night everybody thanks