 Good evening viewers and welcome to this evening's monthly edition of Commissioner's Corner. My name is Lucia Campriolo and I am your elected school commissioner representing Ward 5, which is in Burlington's south end community. And this evening I am absolutely thrilled to be joined by my colleague and friend, Commissioner Martine Gulick, who represents Burlington's Ward 4 community, which is home to Flynn Elementary School, which incidentally I had the chance to visit for the very first time last week in person, which was awesome. I was attending the third of the workshop series of three workshops about gender and pronouns. And it was awesome. It was a student-led conversation. Not surprisingly I was wildly impressed with the young students who led the conversation and it was just great to be in community with students, parents, educators and everything. So great fun to be able to visit in person. But in addition to Martine's role as school commissioner where she co-chairs the Finance and Facilities Committee and is a regional representative on the Vermont School Board Association, Martine recently added a new title to her resume thanks to voters of Chittenden Central District who elected her to serve as state senator this past November. And so Martine has just begun her term. Congratulations and welcome. Thank you so much, Lucia. I really appreciate it. It's great to be here. It's great to say hello to everyone who's watching out there. And you know, I guess I want to say thank you again to the voters for giving me this wonderful opportunity. It's been incredible. It's been like what, eight weeks, eight, nine weeks or so. And it's been really wonderful. Thanks. Awesome. Well, I am in awe of your service. Obviously we've gotten to know one another and work together for the past year, but it is taking public service to the next level for sure to throw your hat in the ring for state senators. So thank you so much. And also so exciting because this evening we have the pleasure of speaking together about some of the education policies that are swirling in conversation under the golden dome as we say. And also because Martine is vice chair of the Senate Education Committee. And so just especially fortunate to have your expertise both in your role as commissioner and also your experience as an educator in that space. So really truly a service to all of our mentors. And I guess I'm curious, what maybe about your role as commissioner prepared you for your role as state senator, if at all? Thank you so much for that question, Lucia. And before I start, let me say thank you to you for all that you do being on the school board. And for those who don't know, Lucia very graciously took over the clerk role when I decided that I had to step down from that role. So thank you for doing that. And thank you for keeping this show going live at 525 or commissioners corner as we like to call it. You've just slipped into these positions so nicely and seamlessly. And I really appreciate it. So thank you. Thanks. So what prepared me for this role being a commissioner? Well, one of the big challenges that you have to take on when you decide to run for office is you have to campaign, obviously. And I did campaign for school board. My first two races were not contested, so that wasn't too, too challenging. But my third race was contested. So obviously campaigning is its own beast. And you have to kind of figure out how to do it, how to get out there and meet with people, how to knock on doors, how to send letters, ask for money a lot of times. So I was prepared because I had done that before. And I had also taken an emerged class, which prepares women to run for office. So that was fabulous. And then in terms of the legislature itself, it's a combination of having worked on a school board. Having been at that governance level of policy making, where honestly a lot of time spent listening. A lot of time spent waiting for your time. And again, figuring out where you fit in the picture. Governance is very different from advocacy, which is very different from working on the ground. So, yeah. Thank you. I can relate to that obviously on a smaller scale having joined the school board and really also navigating the difference between advocacy and policy making. And so often advocacy is what drives us to serve. And policy making is quite different. Well thank you. So before we move into the meat of the conversation, which is really to examine some of the policies that are underway in Montpelier that relate directly to public education, I do want to first open with gratitude to Burlington voters. Thank you all so much for passing with a healthy margin the proposed school budget for the coming school year last week on Town Meeting Day. We take your support seriously, and so we are very grateful to you for it. It's also a huge responsibility and a core component of our job to shepherd and be held accountable for the school's budget. And so it is a very serious vote. And again, thank you. For that, other school district related outcomes of Town Meeting Day include the successful re-election of three district commissioners, Kendra Sowers, Jeannie Walts, and Jeff Wick, along with newcomer Gary Golden, who was elected last week and will be sworn in in April, actually will all be sworn in again at the first Tuesday of the month meeting next month. So congratulations to all four volunteers, and congratulations and huge gratitude to outgoing district commissioner Kathy Allwell for her many, many years of service to Burlington School District wearing a variety of hats, including two separate stints, I believe, as school commissioner and just all around advocate for children and for public education. And I think, for me, in the short time that I've gotten to know Kathy and enjoy working with her, her commitment to equity, to transparency, to real excellence in education are just some of the qualities that stand out to me about her leadership, and I will continue to channel her wisdom as I continue my own service. And so just huge thanks to Kathy for your years of service. Can I just add to that? Please. She's been on the board the whole time that I've been on the board, so I've watched her in action and I've learned a lot from her. And one of the things that makes Kathy kind of a hero to me is that she was always willing to be the voice for folks who might not have a voice otherwise, and always, as you said, just fighting for equity and fighting to make sure that folks got treated fairly and got what they needed to thrive, and that especially our students got what they needed to be successful. And that's not always easy. You know, we're in a system that is built on systemic racism and inequities, and Kathy was just always there for folks, and I admired that greatly, and she's a fierce, as you know, fierce, impassionate advocate. Yeah. Thank you. You're absolutely right. Finally, worth noting as well, voters also last week approved expanding rank choice voting in Burlington to include the mayoral election as well as school commissioner elections. So that will go into effect this time next year. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That's exciting. Yeah. It is, especially because next year we will elect eight district commissioners. Right. Thank you for that nudge. So next March, I will be up for reelection, and there will be seven other seats that will be open, and I just want to take a moment to really ask folks to consider stepping up to run for school board and to get engaged. If there's one thing we're all learning right now as we look at our country and the political landscape and what's happening with public schools, which are under threat in ways that I never thought imaginable, this public school success takes all hands on deck. It really takes everyone getting involved, supporting each other, running for school board. It's just a multifaceted community project, and so I do want to encourage folks to run. That doesn't mean you have to secretly put your name on a ballot. You can go to someone and say, hey, are you running this year? And if not, I'm thinking of running. Maybe we can work together to make this a success. So it doesn't have to be a me versus you kind of scenario. It can be a very collaborative scenario. Some of us have been on the board now for six years, and it might be time for some new blood on the board. So anyway, I want folks to keep that in mind. I think you can reach out. I know you can reach out to any of us any time to ask questions. But I can say, and I'm not saying that I'm not running or that I am running, but I'm just putting it out there that I hope folks engage. And a lot of people say, oh, Martine, being on the school board is so onerous. It must be really terrible. It's not. I've enjoyed it so much. I've been at it for almost six years. And I can say it's great work. I really, I don't agree that this is horrible and difficult all the time. It is difficult sometimes, but it's great. It's great stuff. Yeah, thank you so much. I'm rambling. No, not at all. I'm so glad you mentioned it, because I totally agree with you. Participation is essential. I think on the one hand, certainly the fact that our three incumbent district commissioners were ran uncontested obviously speaks to their success and the way that they have successfully engaged their immediate communities in the work over the past several years. And participation is important. And so I'm with you 100% on just encouraging folks to reach out to those of us who are serving, ask if we plan to continue serving, and also just let folks know that you're interested in running. There is space. So thank you for that plug, for sure. All right, so let's see. We have been very ambitious, Martine, in our agenda. And I'll transition us to kind of the meat of the policy conversation, which really is kind of a feature of some of the pieces of policy that are under consideration and that really are moving their way through Senate Education Committee now. And to give folks kind of preview of what we'll talk about, we'll name school construction and PCBs, obviously on the minds of many Berlingtonians and others statewide. This is a statewide conversation, not a Burlington-centric conversation, but certainly fresh on our minds here in Burlington. Public funding for private education or Vermont's voucher system, preserving safety in our schools, and also a ban to or a bill to ban the retail sale of flavored cigarettes, e-cigarettes, e-liquids, I think a bunch of different things. So those are just a handful of things that I know we're interested in covering tonight and also scratches the surface of all that is in your portfolio. So I'm going to turn the mic over to you and invite you to kind of walk us through what you think folks should know about these conversations. Thank you, thank you, yes. So PCBs, a hot topic at the state house, as you can imagine, mainly because of what has happened in Burlington, but also because we are now in the phase of testing schools. So there is a testing process that is going on. Some schools have been tested. Some have had levels that are above the actionable threshold. So they've had to either close or pivot quickly to figure out what to do. And I have to mention there have also been some school closures that have not been PCB related. For example, Randolph had to close because of an aging HVAC system that just decided to stop working. So our construction, school construction needs are vast and they're complex. And I'm going to talk about that in a minute. But around PCBs, I have to say that recently in Senate education, we had a representative from the AOE, the Agency of Education and ANR, Agency of Natural Resources in talking about PCBs. And I did have kind of a difficult conversation with them because they kind of don't want to acknowledge that Burlington was the first school in the state to have this PCB discovery. They always refer to Cabot as the first. Cabot was the first to discover PCBs once there was a system in place. We were before the system. But I always feel as though it's the elephant in the room. We need to be mentioned. We need to be named. So I did bring that up and I also asked, there was a lot of controversy around the way it went down in our city with that 15 nanograms per cubic meter level, which was the lowest in the world as far as I can tell, that we had to move out so quickly given that threshold and that later on these numbers were adjusted unbeknownst to us. So I did ask, when will the harm that was inflicted on our community be named? And there was no good answer to that question sadly. So I'm still asking questions. I'm still trying to do some advocating for Burlington. But it's a heavy lift because there are needs in other parts of the state and there probably will be more. So that conversation is ongoing. We'll see what happens there. But one of the conflicts that I should mention is that there are schools now who are being tested for PCBs. And an issue is that some of these schools have massive construction issues. They don't want to be sinking millions of dollars into any kind of PCB remediation if they're going to need a new roof a year from now. So there is a little bit of a conflict going on there. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. And so you're adding a layer of how these programs, one of which no longer exists. We had a school construction fund previously. We don't now. But the concern around sinking taxpayer dollars, which is how in Vermont, we currently fund school construction into a project that you might discover down the road or we might already know there is more significant need beyond the PCB remediation. Exactly, exactly. So that is something that is being talked about. So a brief primer on school construction, which is that there is a bill that I've worked on with Senate education that it doesn't have a number yet, but it will. But it's something that we've been working on. I've talked to the new treasurer, Mike Petschek, a few times, and he seems to be fully on board and excited about this. But a little context is that our state did have a PCB process and aid at the state level that was suspended in 2007. It was right around the time of the Great Recession, which we think of as 2008, but had started in 2007. So they decided that they had to make some cuts in the budget. And that is what was cut, sadly. So since 2007, so we're talking well over a decade, our schools have not had any kind of state aid for HVAC renewal, for roofs, for any kind of structural assistance. So unfortunately, they are in bad shape, really bad shape. We've been listening to superintendents tell us their stories and it is shocking what we've heard. So we have taken a lot of testimony from folks in Rhode Island and Maine who have very strong structures around how they dole out and how they identify needs, how they dole out money and identify needs to various districts and schools. So one thing that Rhode Island does is they have a minimum of 35 percent that the state chips into a district to help with the school maintenance and construction. And then they ask the district to make sure that they earmark 3 percent of their budget a year to maintain, because that's really important. And one thing that we heard from superintendents in the state is that a lot of times it's going to come down to trying to get the voters to vote for your budget, which is not easy in a lot of parts of our state. And if it comes down to having to choose between programming for children and putting on a new roof over the gymnasium, it's always going to go to the programming for the kids or staffing, for example. So, you know, hopefully with some state aid, we won't be able to make those hard choices. There will be money that will help us with the construction piece. So I'm excited about that. What how it will help Burlington remains to be seen, but it is going to be not, you know, here's some money. We're going to throw it out haphazardly. There will be a structure in place. And this particular bill calls for a group to convene the summer and work over the summer to put in place what kind of governance structure this is going to have, how we're going to identify needs and prioritize needs and things like that so that when the big assessment comes out in October, which will be which will be fairly all-encompassing, we hope it's October anyway, we'll be able to hit the ground running and really get things going. So that's that's the hope. Yeah, thank you for initiating that conversation. As you mentioned, it's been a need. We've got schools contending with deferred maintenance for years. And we know simply, you know, the aging infrastructure is facing districts around the state, really. And so the the the costs are there and they're significant. Yeah, so thank you for initiating this. And let me just also mention this if you don't mind that one of the things we talked about is this is also like a workforce development piece. If you are a young family looking to maybe make a move to Vermont, are you going to want to move to Vermont and put your kids in schools that are old, that are often can be dangerous, as we know, depressing, that are not conducive to a healthy learning environment? Or are you going to stay in Massachusetts where they have got so many new schools? It's just absolutely astounding. So, you know, we think about it in bigger terms. It's very important. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thanks for your leadership on that one. You bet. We've got about 10 minutes left. So I will leave it to you to decide where to take us next with each of the next three topics, all of which are equally important. Yes, yes, they are. So I'll talk a little bit about S 66, which has a house companion bill called H 258. And this is a bill that talks about funding to to schools. And there are some great resources online for folks that they want to explore this issue more. They could reach out to me or you and we could send them some great resources. But basically this bill came about because of the Supreme Court decision. Carson v. Macon, which some folks may have heard about. Carson v. Macon, which came down to the Supreme Court from the state of Maine, basically says that a state does not need to subsidize private education. But once a state decides to do so, it cannot disqualify schools solely based on the fact that they are religious. So why this is important in the state of Vermont is that we do have independent schools, private schools that receive money from from the public that receive public dollars. So suddenly, you know, Carson v. Macon says, well, then you're going to have to send those public dollars to religious schools as well. And for a lot of people, the separation of church and state is important and it's real and it's one of the values that they hold dear in our country and they are not comfortable with this. So the question is, well, then what do you do? The simplest solution for us just to say, OK, no more public dollars to private schools, period. That is problematic for a lot of folks in the state. We have four historic academies that have been around a long time that are loved in their communities. And then from those four academies over the years have have grown a host of other public private schools. You know, they're sharing Academy for an example, but there are many, many private schools in the state that sometimes fill a gap because there's no public school nearby. And some, you know, for whatever reason just decided to take root in Vermont and have been quite successful. So it's it's a touchy subject for a lot of people, but this Carson Fee making decision has really given us an opportunity to look at our educational landscape and make some decisions about how we want to go forward. And it's been it's been interesting. We've had a lot of interesting conversations, but some of the issues around independent schools are, for examples, that they don't require their teachers to have licenses. They don't publish their state assessments. Their accountability is not clear. A lot of times they don't have to make public what their finances are. They don't have school boards. So even though their school might be made up of eighty five percent of their students might be tuitioned in, for example, they don't have a school board. So the local taxpayers aren't really having a say in the operations of the school or the governance of the school, I should say. So these are all issues that are being talked about. And we'll see what happens, but stay tuned. It's a big topic of conversation. There have been some articles out there already and we'll see what happens. I was just going to name there have been a handful of articles in the digger and in a variety of sources that have highlighted this conversation. And I think it would be fair to assume that we will see continued litigation around this conversation, probably for the foreseeable future until we arrive at, you know, until this work that you are in the midst of right now kind of moves through various processes, because, as you noted, it is near and dear to many people. And so it will be an ongoing conversation likely for the near term. Yeah, it's it's a lot of often it's not on the radar of folks in Chittenden County, just because we do have such strong public schools that it's we we're not really thinking about these independent schools as much. But it is important for us to be aware of because somewhere between 50 and 100 million dollars a year go to these private and independent schools. So it is money. It's resources that are not being placed in the public schools, but are being funneled out to other schools. So that's important for folks to know. I also just wanted to say that there are some provisions in the bill that say, you know, if you independent school, you have a choice, ultimately, if this bill were to pass, you could become a completely private school and sort of, you know, give up your your public dollars, or you could go to your local voters and decide to become a public school. So we'll see again, we'll see what happens. But early stage. Yeah, early stages. Thank you. Thank you. We are close to wrapping up. Would you like to say just a couple of words on both the ban to flavored tobacco? Sure. And yeah, great. What do we have for time? We have about five minutes. All right. Five minutes. Very quickly, there is another bill that's working its way through our committee around school safety. This bill would ask for biannual options based drills, which are around school safety as well as fire drills. But one of the pieces of the bill that has been a little bit contentious is this idea of a behavioral threat assessment team that the schools will be required to have that would be made up of a variety of folks, nurses, teacher, special educator, but also usually a member of law enforcement from the local municipality. So we did hear some testimony from folks that said this is great. You can really identify some kids who are struggling and help them out. But we also heard from some folks who are concerned that students who might be on an IEP or a 504 could be targeted in a different kind of way than other kids. So, you know, it's something that I'm concerned about. We also heard that this particular these behavioral threat assessment teams aren't designed to be punitive. They're designed to really help students who might be struggling, but they often sadly end up being punitive. So it's something for us to keep an eye out. I have asked for there to be some bias training in the annual training that this team gets. So we'll see where that goes. I just thought that that could be helpful to, you know, sort of center folks around equity and inclusion. Absolutely. Well, you're making me think a lot about the equity tool that we use in Burlington School District as we to help us make policy and really ask the opening question of who benefits and who's harmed by this policy. So I'm pleased to see that you're taking that approach and not surprised, of course. Well, thank you. Lastly, I just want to mention S-18, which is a flavored tobacco ban. And the reason that I'm bringing this up in the context of schools is that those of us who have worked in schools know this is a huge problem. Tobacco companies have predatory advertising practices that really prey on young kids, middle school age, as well as high school age. Some of these flavors are, for example, dragon breath, spiced apple, you know, crunchy caramel, really enticing flavors that kids want to try. And they are loaded with nicotine. Kids get hooked very quickly. And then they, you know, these tobacco companies now have a customer for life. And unfortunately, what we heard, we heard a lot of testimony from educators who say kids have to leave class so they are missing class time to go and vape or, you know, get a hit of nicotine. And they're agitated, they are anxious. Sometimes it can lead to depression. I mean, these are all things that I'm very concerned about. I know other folks are as well. So I hope this bill passes. I think it's going to be on the floor of the Senate this week. Great. Well, we will we will look forward to seeing that progress, which sounds like it will be swift. So that's fantastic. Well, I also related to education. I want to also acknowledge your good work in the other committee that you are a huge part of, which is the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, where you all are working so hard on S 56, which is a child care bill that would really go a long way in strengthening Vermont's early childhood education system, which currently serves kids ages zero to five. And what excites me most with my school commissioner hat on about this bill is there is no better time than birth to five to prepare kids for lifelong success, but most immediately for success when they enter elementary schools. And so I think so much about the impact on our K 12 system when I think about the readiness of the youngest Vermont citizens who have no voice and yet are our future. And so a just huge shout out to you and to your colleagues on Senate Health and Welfare as well for taking such a broad look at all of the ways in which we can support young people. And you've been an important voice in this conversation, too. So thank you. But we know the first couple of years of life are absolutely critical to long term success in education and in so many other areas of life that this is really important. I agree. It's awesome. Well, goodness, in such a short amount of time, Martin has obviously taken the state house by storm. Thank you so much for your leadership and for really for just even raising your hand for the role. It is such a huge undertaking. And we're also fortunate to have you in that space. We are over time, a couple of very, very quick announcements just for folks to have on the radar. We are celebrating this week and have been celebrating for the past week. BHS Girls Nordic Ski Team 2023 State Champs for the third year in a row, I think. I loved Superintendent Flanagan said go ski horses, which was so sweet and fitting. And congrats also to the Burlington Tech Center Health Science Academy students who won first place at the Brain Bee Neuroscience Competition at UVM School of Medicine last month. Huge deal. BTC won first place as a school, first place as a team and a student Schuyler Foster, I'm sorry, won first place as an individual. And she will go on to the National Competition, which is huge. Lastly, kindergarten, I'll turn it to you in just a second. Kindergarten registration is open through April 1st. And our 2022 annual report is published. It is live on the website. You can find it at BSDVT.org. And there are a couple of hard copies here and there, but the electronic version is great. And the hard copy versions are translated into a variety of languages as well. All I was going to say is groundbreaking tomorrow. Yes. Yeah. Oh my goodness. What a perfect way to close the conversation. How could I have missed that? Thank you. Groundbreaking tomorrow for our new high school and tech center. Yes. Three o'clock, 345. I think so. At the current, at the old, do we call it the old, the current, the campus on North Ave. North Avenue, yeah. Yeah. 345, I think, right? 345, yeah. Check the website. 345, groundbreaking. Be there or look for coverage on the news. We're so excited to celebrate that. Thank you.