 Thank you all for joining us. I think we'll have more people probably popping in soon. Are there any adjustments that we need to make to the agenda? Anybody? Okay. Lisa? Yes. I'd like to have a short discussion on the supervised reunion audit. Okay. You think that we need to have that separate from the business manager's report? I can do it there. Okay. All right. I think that might be a good time. Well, we know we'll have Tara with us at that time and she already submitted her report. So, thank you. Okay. We don't normally assign times or a timekeeper. Does anyone feel like that's something we need to or should do at this point in time? We'll just keep moving forward. Usually, we manage to keep things pretty focused. So, we'll just rely on that instead. Public comment. I noticed we do have some members of public joining us this evening. We have an opportunity for public comment at the beginning and the end of our meeting. So, you can feel free to either share now or closer to the end of the meeting if you choose. And please just feel free to unmute. I think I can see everybody in my grid. And if you're calling in by phone, star six to unmute. Please identify yourself by name. Okay. I'm not seeing anyone unmute. So, I'm going to assume that we'll save public comment for later in the meeting. I have on the agenda a consent agenda to approve the minutes of Tuesday, November 17th, which was a regular meeting and Monday, November 23rd, a special meeting. So, I would entertain a motion to approve those minutes. I'll make a motion that we approve the minutes. Okay. As written. As written. Yes. Great. Thank you. Is there a second? I'll second that. Okay. Any discussion of the minutes from November 17th and November 23rd? Okay. All in favor of approving the minutes from November 17th, our regular meeting or November 23rd, our special meeting, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? All right. The minutes are approved. All right. I have a moment of board comment. Anyone from the board like to use this opportunity to comment? I'd like to just ask the principals and ask the superintendent's office if there's reports that can get to us a little earlier than the day of that be helpful. Yeah, that can be challenging. I mean, I know we get the principal's report and the superintendent's report earlier and I was able to read those ahead of time. But once they come in the day of the meeting, I do feel like I'm not able to do my due diligence because they came in while my work day was still happening and I got home about 15 minutes before this meeting. So it makes it really hard to make it all fit. But I do understand people are struggling with their workload as well. Owen, you wanted to share? I was just going to say I hope our principal's report gets to you in a timely fashion. I think I'm saying the same thing as you, when I say some of the reports are being developed like in real time. So I hear you, Bob, and I think that's the place where we could continually improve. Thank you for the feedback. But let's get those reports to the board sooner, is what I would say to my colleagues. We work, I mean, I work and I'm sure the rest of board members are working too. So getting a last minute report. Not at all. Not helpful. Yeah. Respect everybody's time, I think, is a good norm. Thank you. And I do want to say I appreciate we got the bulk of the reports that we needed for this evening five days ago. So I do appreciate that. All right. And I do also just want to take a moment while we have an opportunity for board comment to say how much I appreciate the work that's been going on in our schools. I've been getting a lot of positive feedback about the work that kids are doing outside. And I just really appreciate that because I know it's a really challenging year to be working in a school. There's so many conflicting messages in our society about where it's safe to be and where it's not safe to be. And I feel like our schools are really great places that are still pretty vibrant for kids and focused on safety. And I appreciate your work doing all of that. Owen. Yeah, I'm a little chatty tonight. I apologize. I had a copy on the way home that I left in the car, but I do want to say something about teachers if it's appropriate at this time. Okay. I appreciate that. And I know you're a teacher and I also know that a lot of folks, I think all of us support education in a big way. And, you know, when I hear the national reference to like, let's try to open our schools. I think we should celebrate that our schools in Vermont and especially in White River Valley Supervisory Union are open and have stayed open and have allowed people to work and kids to have a safe, quiet place to learn and to eat three meals a day and to have snacks. And I think a lot of this goes to the lands at the this leadership in this meeting, which and I'm going to I'm going to nod to Jamie on this because he's gotten some some pushback I know from the middle school faculty of like, what are we doing? My hair is on fire. But our hair is on fire. But we know how to put it out. But this school board has not been nothing but the court above us. And I just really feel supported. And I know my teachers do. But at the same time, we're carrying a lot of weight. And thank you. I'd like to I'd like to just comment on Jamie's communication with the community has been great. And his communication with the teachers have been great. And that's something I don't think happens in many schools. So I've never seen it. I've never seen it to the point that it's being done right now. And I appreciate it. Thank you. Jamie, you raised your hand. I just said thank you. It might be frozen. I was just saying thank you. All right. Move forward. Our next segment of the agenda is reports to the board. Good evening. So I also just want to piggyback the team that you know we have here at WRVSU is amazing. And our teachers and staff and all of our educators have been incredibly dedicated, committed and flexible for us in order for us to stay open. So please know as a community and all those watching and listening, that I can't thank all of you enough. So thank you very, very much for all that you do. It's December 15th. And we are literally, I shouldn't say this, but only three days away folks. And we made it to the holiday break. And we've been in school throughout the SU five days a week. And that is unbelievably amazing. And so thank you all very, very much. And I think we're going to see a major rebound for our students and have a bunch of celebrations. And oh, by the way, we also built another entire school in the month of August and the VLA that's educating 165 students K through 12 across the SU with our own educators, our own staff. We're not relying on third party platforms. And we've been able to do that here because folks have been committed and dedicated and doing what's best for kids. So just thank you all very much. It's a huge celebration. How many kids, Jamie? It fluctuates, but I think at one point, like 165. And so you have my report in hand. What I want to remind the board is, is that tonight in the budget process, I'll kind of set the tone of what you're seeing. And based on the proposal tonight and how we're demonstrating it to you is based on some feedback I received from board members across the SU about wanting to see budgets around function code. You'll get the entire workbook next month in addition to the revenue side of the budget, which is really important in your tax sheet. I think you should plan now for the possibility of two meetings in January, just so you know, and they'll be focused on finalizing the budget. I mean, we may be able to put it to Ben in one, but I think you should plan accordingly for two with a special meeting after our regularly scheduled meeting. I've been saying that to all the boards, just so you know. And you know, the things that, you know, right now I'm keeping my eye on my pulse, you know, my finger on the pulse of I'm really concerned with still the shortfall revenues and the Ed fund, you know, that's looking like a result of a increase of about 9% in regards to property taxes before we anything here locally. The budget you'll see tonight is a little bit under level funding, which is an incredible accomplishment by your administration to pull that off in your when you hear it, you'll see that it doesn't come at the cost of any programming. We were able to keep all the program you have in place plus extend some supports K through 12 for kids. And so the principles will talk to you about some of that. So I'm really proud of the work they've done. You know, we're trying to leverage our consolidated federal grant more. And I've been talking to you about that since September. So that should assist us on the revenue side. The finance committee knows that we're going to look to budget conservatively in regards to tuition students. I'm really concerned, excuse me to about where to tuition students may or may not fall due to COVID. I know, you know, where I was previously that, you know, they're looking right now that some of their tuitions are down based on my conversation with their business manager. And I think COVID has made it more difficult to recruit and really try to sell our product to students. I am working though, with Cynthia Powers in the SU office to try to really leverage our ability to market and get some momentum for that on the second half of the year. So we have momentum rolling into next school year. And so you'll see a plan about that very soon next month in regards to how we're looking to increase marketing and our efforts on that area. So that those are my reports tonight. And I'll certainly entertain any questions folks have. Jamie, can you tell me again the name of the grant? The consolidated CFG, the consolidated federal grant. So that's your title one, two, three and four. Okay. So when you see your budget, all those folks all folks that work for you, even if they're funded under the grant, you're going to see them as expenditures. Next month, you'll see offsetting revenues, which decreases your per pupil spending, right? Because it's a revenue. And so what we're looking to do is try to figure out how can we leverage as much revenues as possible to your guys's budgets to decrease your per pupil spending, which has a direct impact on your tax rate. Any other questions for Jamie? Well, we have this opportunity. Lisa? I think you're muted, Lisa. There, unmuted. I did get an email a couple weeks ago from a South Royalton town office wondering about the timing of when we submit our budgets to go into the town reports. And so I forwarded that onto Lisa, but I think that it sounds like you're thinking about this, but I think they were wanting our budget information by the middle of January if we wanted to get it into their publication. And so I just was hoping that we can start going backwards, figure out our deadlines and move to where we are today for the town of Bethel, the town of Royalton, making sure that last year it was a scramble and we had to publish our own report. Lisa, I have that. That's going to be part of our discussion on 8.2. Okay, great. Actually needs it by January 8th. And I think that's a wicked push to it, but well, so I wanted to talk to you guys about that. Okay, great. So I'll wait till I just want to make sure that that was on going to be discussed. So cool. Great. Other questions? Jamie, how are you dealing with the $600,000 loan? We haven't touched it. That's good. What's the plan? I know. Yeah, good. Well, it's a lot of credit. So the plan would be that I mean, my plan is that we hopefully now we've I think we're going to be such that we'll have an influx of cash always comes in in December and January, like we talked at the finance committee. And so the idea would be to try to pay off some of our tax anticipation note and not have to pull down a draw on that line of credit. So that's good news. Thanks for asking that, Bob. I think that's good to get that out there. I just wonder how we're going to are you thinking that we'll cover the deficit in this year's budget? Well, my plan was to spend a majority of our next finance committee meeting talking about different proposals about how we may want to do that and then bring those proposals to the board in January of whether or not, you know, we want to put it out there for a bond and have an anticipated cost over three years or how we wanted to go about that process. I'll have some to discuss. I'll do that later. Right. Thank you. So that brings us then to the principles report. If there's no one else who has a question for Jamie, although I'm sure he's going to be with us all night. So, oh, and yes, please. Yes, I'd like to kick off the principles report. Okay. I'm really proud of this week. We have 16 bulleted points. And one of them includes the newsletter, which Kate George is helping us facilitate. And I'm really proud of it. And it's not a strength of mine. But Kate is really good about like reminding me and all of us about like, you got your deadline here, and it's been really helpful. And being a learner, seeing myself as a learner, I've had to like adjust how I do business. But there's a piece in there about an individual met in the newsletter. And she won a statewide recognition as one of the top two math teachers in the state. And one of those people will be chosen to be a Vermont representative that will go and be recognized at the national level. And regardless if she is chosen or not, I think it's important for folks to look at that and read that. It's like a minute. And it's not just Mindy will met. And I know you know this, Lisa, that and Bob, I also know you know this as an educator. The first thing that educators do when they're recognized is talk about who is behind them. And it's not behind them. The people that have they're standing on their shoulders. And I know Mindy will do that. But I encourage everybody on this meeting in this meeting, and especially the board members to send a card or an email to Mindy, because it takes only a minute, but it means so much. I also am really proud of what our administrative team is putting out for newsletter and a report. I love the structure. And it's again, it's not sucking up to Jamie, but to create a structure where we are focusing on our three strategic goals. And we have 16 points we're making. I'm really proud of it. Anyway, I should probably check my water intake as much as my coffee intake. But thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Owen. I agree. It was a great looking newsletter and lots of good information, very positive. So thank you for that. Other questions from board members or there are other portions of the principal's report that people would like to highlight? I also want the board to know that Lindy's here too to represent the LA. And Lindy, do you want to highlight any parts of your report? Because I know that one did come in yesterday. Yes. And I apologize for that. We were in the lovely report card realm. I really just have to express my appreciation. So the elementary school teaching staff in the virtual learning academy launched and are the first group of teachers to use a proficiency based report card in literacy and mathematics. This was very time consuming and a good way, a good practice, a good examination of our practices and definitely eye opening and they did a great job. So all those report cards K through eight were mailed out on Friday, which was a big task but a successful one. And I just really, I can't say enough how great the staff was. They really wanted to make sure their feedback was thorough because they knew it was something new for parents to be looking at as well. So they did a great job making sure there was really thorough comments about the reasoning and the progress they're seeing and what they're looking forward to working on this trimester. So I wanted to highlight that because there was a lot of time that went into that outside of their teaching day. The other just kind of quick updates that are going on as we started the second trimester is we have implemented, you know, live music and library lessons or classes for K through five, K through eight does or sorry, excuse me, six through eight does receive live art and they have access to PE. It's like a choice board. And then they receive activities K through five for art class every week that they can do independently. So it's not on a screen, screen time or trying to be mindful of kids screen time and encourage some creativity outside of the classroom space. We have one group that's going to try a virtual field trip and see how that goes at the Billings Farm and I'll be interested to hear and then trying to think what else in six, seven, eight for the second trimester we've started an inquiry based learning project and this trimester it'll be focused on science specifically. And then next trimester we'll do one on social studies. So those are kind of the highlights. Thank you. I'm curious about your virtual field trip. I'm kind of I know I was hoping I could rearrange my day to join. I just don't think it's going to happen unfortunately but I will be sure to get a little update from Ms. Farrington's class. Thank you. Any other read? I just did you unmute? Great. Yeah I'd add that as of the end of the day Friday the last of the South Royalton unit ventilators had been installed. We got into the project and realized that we had six rooms, six classrooms in the building that actually part of the old building weren't getting fresh air. So we quickly pivoted and went back to Efficiency Vermont and received an additional $19,000 which entailed having to bring in masons to drill and cut six holes through the brick walls in order to create some openings for these unit vents. So really excited that before we got to the single degree temperatures we were able to make all that happen without losing any learning time for students. We still have a little bit of wiring to do to hook it all up to the the main program so we can can control it all remotely but that should happen Monday. Thank you. It's a great update. Lindy, I have a question. Absolutely. About math. What specifically? Anything that's in general? I mean we could in terms of math instruction like what are kids receiving? Absolutely. So we are some classes specifically in the, I want to make sure I get this right, second, third, fourth and fifth have been using the iReady program that South Royalton has been piloting just because it seems a little more technology based and user friendly in that platform. I'm hopeful so in January we'll do another round of assessments. The virtual learning students will take the Star 360 just like our in-person students so I am excited and curious to see that growth. The other thing I would say that we've switched to in most levels of the virtual learning academy is small group instruction that you can't do a live math lesson or a lot of other math a lot of other instructional lessons and make sure that every kid gets it through the screen. All those checks that you do when you're walking around the classroom you can't do in this platform so they've really started to switch to some smaller groups whether it's dividing the class in half or whether it's you know depending on the age group three to four kids at a time and so it probably feels a little like Groundhog Day to some of the teachers because they're teaching the same lesson but it allows them to differentiate and really check for understanding. Some of the older grades Nancy Pageway uses something called Educre which allows her to record the lesson as she's writing so the kids can see her demoing live and what they do is they access it together and then stay on and ask questions as they work through the work and kids can either like jump off work and then jump back on to the link and ask questions. So we still I would say just like in person need to make mathematics instruction in our background knowledge just as much of a priority and I am excited to kind of be able to have some apples to apples data to compare in the month of January just because we'll have star results from the fall in September and star results in the same venue you know kids will have taken on virtually both times so it'll be in a similar setting to be able to compare a little bit better. Does that answer your question or you have more questions about math? Oh I have more but that's okay. Other questions for Lindy or other areas that our principals would like to highlight? This is just on the principal's report in general I've made this comment the last couple months where I do appreciate the focus you know the report where it has the three sections on our three goals and you've given information on that but I do feel like we need to also have the just general system stuff so like read your thing on the ventilation system you know that wouldn't fit into one of those three categories but if there was like a general purpose category or just like an introduction that's the state of the school or whatever where you can fit those things that don't fit into those priorities like we definitely need the priorities because that makes sure that we're keeping those top of a mind and are showing progress in them but we also need the everything else too you know so we need a section where you can put things that aren't those three priorities because you know we want to know what's going on and everything else as well it just we every month we get those three things in addition so I would say that we we heard you on that I didn't raise my hand sorry um and I think that Owen and I went to write the Owen Reed and I went to write the report and um I think we probably should talk to Jamie about it too just because Jamie gave us a direction and so we purposely have been adding the newsletter to try to get some of those other things that happen in the school but I hear what you're saying about the the ventilation system too so we'll make sure to put that on our agenda next time we meet with Jamie to yeah I mean if you guys feel like there haven't been other things and that's fine I guess but you know just yeah Andrew I think I can help the principals around the introductory and conclusion that helps wrap up those those types perfect yeah it's the day no mom that's the problem well for for what it's worth is a last add on then before we close the principal's report we did have two new hires in South Royalton in the last two weeks that we're really excited about we're we're back up to full staffing in our custodial group with the hiring of Erin Green on the Monday after Thanksgiving or his starting work and we also hired a paraprofessional a week ago to to help out with our special education department and those were all budgeted for so the board knows and vacant positions that we have been trying to hire since the start of the year great thank you okay so next we come to the business managers report good evening everybody my report was submitted to you in the original board packet which gave just the general updates but then also that was part of the report was the revenue and expenditure summer report that we presented to the finance committee and they liked it and we would be using this report moving forward for red and for the SU and then bringing it on to our other member districts as well so if you have any questions on the actual report I can answer them otherwise if you'd like to go over the revenue and expenditure report we can spend some time doing that I think we should go over it too do you mean Bob go over the expenditure and revenue reports or okay that's what I was thinking you meant is the the business managers report seemed pretty straightforward okay thank you so this first page that we're looking at that Ray has up on the screen and I'm gonna actually look at mine so you'll see my head turning back and forth is the revenue summary and this report was shared with us from Jamie's prior business manager this is something that they use over there that seems to work really well and provide the information that you all are looking for in a one to two page format versus the 35 page expenditure summary that you've been getting so this first page is the revenue you'll see over in the beginning there is the FY 21 budgeted column and then the FY 21 projected column you can see that we are what we've received today and based on what we project through the rest of the fiscal year we're about $51,000 short on the tuition interest income we haven't received sorry we've projected to receive all of that and then I don't project to receive a lot of the miscellaneous revenue that we had given the times that you're not doing a lot of the the extra stuff that was done in the past also rentals you're not renting your facilities to the community at this point so I don't anticipate getting any rental income for that and then the same with the student activities they're pretty limited to what they can do with COVID so I'm not anticipating getting any additional revenues there the next section down is the state revenue this is what you get through property taxes that first line we should get everything that we're projected to get as well as the state tech and funding and the transportation aid that's based on your prior year expenditure and then the state produces a percentage that we get so based on FY 20 will be I anticipate us being about $2,500 short on that line item the next section is special education and that's no longer in the local budgets that's done by the SU so we that's just removed from there and then the last section on the top part of this report is other revenue and refunds so you have your vocational transportation reimbursement and that calculation is based on what I submitted for the first semester I just doubled that based on what I project that we'll get for the second semester so there's an $18,000 difference there and then the driver's ed reimbursement I based that on what we received in FY 20 not knowing exactly what will be impacted with COVID for driver's ed and then adult learning that's also all that we received in FY 20 so I don't anticipate getting additional revenue there unless there's additional adults that I'm not aware of at this point in time then the last line there is what we anticipate for the grants and then it gives you a brief summary of what your FY 21 budgeted revenue is in your expenditures and they have to balance and then the projected revenue and then the projected expenditure which is the second page of the report which we'll go to after this and then the projected current operating surplus or deficit and you can see I'm projecting right now we have about a $4900 surplus and then the bottom section is the historical information so that goes over again what the FY 19 audited deficit was what the projected FY 20 non-audited deficit or surplus is and that number there is the general surplus the general fund surplus that I provided to you all in August less the food service deficit so that's the the difference between those two there and then you'll see the next section is if we use prior year Tara can I just add just for the public that that dollar figure does not include the audited deficit that we projected to you with in August of the SU because that billback happens after the audit this is purely just red's general fund so that 563 will go into a deficit after the audits received and then so the next section is Lisa wait a minute Lisa I see you thinking you see you see what I'm talking about with that 563 Lisa yes FY 20 not audited that we are projecting a 563 surplus for you locally even after your food service deficit but that does not include right that does not include the SU deficit that will be added after the audit okay and I'm also so since you recognize my puzzled expression um I'm also wondering about those building reserve amounts um I just don't remember I mean I remember the Bethel building reserve um because of some of the projects that we've had I don't remember having nearly 200 000 dollars um for the Royalton campus building reserve so those were the reserve balances straight out of your audit after the FY 19 audit was completed and confirmed all right so you'll notice that 129 has been used so we don't have that anymore right okay thank you all right is the long-term goal to kind of keep these more up to date so that like we can just rather than saying we've used 129 000 kind of in the note just keep that amount with what the current balances even if it's not the edit those will be updated on the 30th of every month right so you saw this Andrew and then that the finance committee will get a new one and then that will go to the board I like the format Terry you want to walk them through page two because I mean there is a little bit better news right in a note so I don't forget so then the second page is the expenditure side so again all the way over to the left you'll see or the right sorry you'll see that that is your approved FY 21 expenditure budget and then the next section down is items not budgeted for so as you recall we didn't budget for your coordinator of student support so I put that in there and then the COVID costs which we are in hopes to get reimbursed for through our CRF funds but I still wanted to identify that as an unbudgeted cost that you have here so that's a total of 233 000 and then items before that reimbursement comes through that COVID cost Jeff you know Jamie yeah Terry and Jason are working with Cynthia to submit that this month and then Tara what if they said the turnaround time is to actually receive that the money I haven't heard anything as far as when they accurately check as far the expenditure the grant itself for the CRF funds goes through the end of December so you have until December 30th to use the grant funds that you were awarded for this portion of the CRF funds and then you submit for your reimbursement to get those funds back and then the second round of grant funding which is our ESSER funds those we will then supplement with what we haven't received in our CRF funds and the continuing expenses through next year that's what the ESSER funds are for so that's what I meant by good news so you saw what we're projecting but what you need to know is that projected surplus of that you know was it 5000 or 4000 a change included all these expenses and us not being reimbursed yet I think that's important for you to know we didn't add that revenue in yet because we wanted to wait until we knew for certain we had it so the covert cost what about that grant you know when did that when do we get reimbursed for that that's what we're talking about bob we have until December 30th to spend those funds and then you submit for reimbursement to get those funds back so we should know early on I would assume in 2021 from the agency we've already been granted the the funds yeah as was my business and Andrew's report we received as a supervisory union $555,000 in the CRF grant and we submit for reimbursement through the supervisory union and our member districts for those expenses and none of the so because that's a block amount for the entire SU none of the districts have overspent to make it so that we'll be left without reimbursement well Lisa I mean what we're going to be doing is is then looking if there's areas where we have overspent prioritizing those for the ester grant stay that ester grants still in place so if we know that amount so we have another big chunk of money that we can then use and apply for after January 1 right yep thank you so then the next section down our items overspending or projected to overspend in the budget there are only two items right now that I'm keeping my eye close on that the first one is health insurance based on the expenditures that have been paid to date in the monthly cost and then open enrollment starts and was allowed for in January so people can change their health insurance plans in January there may potentially be about a $45,000 over expenditure on the health insurance side and then the second one is the vistas which is the Vermont State teachers retirement system OPEB which is the new teacher health assessment my understanding when I worked with the treasury department when I saw the bills come in for this this year that this is actually an assessment that the district is responsible to pay for the entire time that a new teacher works for you my understanding was that there was a misunderstanding previously that it was only a one time fee but it is in fact an annual fee that you will pay for any teacher who entered the state teachers retirement system as a new enrollee from 2016 on so we have the list that was provided for your district this year there was $32,844 that for the new teachers that you have so in the budget that you'll see later on this evening we've also now counted and budgeted additionally for that so based on those two that brings us down to the total projected expenditures with over spending and then the next section this is what your administrative team Jamie and I worked on as to areas in the budget where we think that there is savings in the current fiscal year based on what's not being done or what's not being spent so you can see that they've got field trips and transportation mentor stipends salary for staff that haven't been replaced supplies and books and then building and maintenance contracted services for a total projected savings of $411,990 so that brings the net projected expense down to that $11,996,973 so that's where we come up with that projected surplus in the expenditure side of the budget of 101,146 which offsets the shortfall in the revenue side Jamie does that include is it included the SU assessment included in this no this is purely based on your budget so the SU assessment that you budgeted for that is what's in here now well is it reflected in this statement Jamie yeah it's reflected as as budgeted so you know that could get better and you are going to look at the SU this same type of template at the next SU board meeting next week well okay we own 40% of it or something like that is that reflected in this Jamie yes but as actual budget but going forward once we get that SU report that does the same thing it would make sense to have a line in here that you know if there is a surplus or deficit to have a line in here so that that gets reflected in this budget and we don't have to you know remember what we had in the other meeting well that's how this will continue to get updated every month right exactly otherwise it would just look the same I appreciate this I think it's a lot more user friendly I appreciate it being just a really succinct report and I think with with that information included it'll be really really useful so thank you you're welcome yeah thanks this is great I feel like I have one place to go to get like a lot of the information I need and just knowing that you have you know the 38 page workbook or whatever you refer to it as if I had a question I know where I had to go to get that information but this gives me information that I feel like you know it's like an out of glance how are we doing and I really appreciate that excellent thank you yes I found it as an excellent tool when I was creating it for your information I was like oh this is fantastic mm-hmm I'm excited to have it and to use it moving forward right and with your board background I bet you can really see the utility of it for us yep okay um I remember Bob that you had some additional quit I'm Tara I don't know if you have more that you want to share with us um otherwise I know that Bob had some questions so well in either direction I just I want the board to take a look at the SU 2019 audit and the actual deficit was 830,000 for the SU and Jamie reduced it I think he reduced it to 560,000 Jamie yeah that's what we were projecting in August yep okay so you started that way down to 830 and you reduced it to 560 are you talking about over the last two years Bob I'm just talking about the 2019 audit and you said the SU audit that all gets assessed out every year so they start basically at zero every start clean right and the audit that's probably happening for 1920 you know we that audit they've got no other information now we're just waiting on a first draft of it they've been here this is 2019 okay we ended the year the SU with an 830,000 dollar deficit did you build that out to the school yes we have to that's probably your deficit and what you see on that top line on your deficit that's your portion of that right but August you said the deficit was 560,000 well that's for 1920 I guess I guess that's what we're projecting for the audit that's currently in the works so yeah the 2019 SU deficit is included in what's listed in the document Tara was just showing in the 400,000 that we owed from 2019 that was assessed out already and it's included in that deficit number the 500,000 of which we're gonna you know have a hundred thousand dollars or whatever of isn't included in that line okay so yeah as soon as we get those audited numbers Bob can you keep going down Ray you see Bob I'm pointing to my screen which doesn't help you because Ray's got the FY 20 not audited that 563 that was what I was saying to Lisa is gonna change once we confirm the dollar figure that we presented to you in August that 471949 took care of that deficit that you're talking about tonight okay all right um and uh Tara there were several recommendations that the auditor made and I want to be sure they were paying attention to them um and I saw your responses but I just want to be sure that they're taking care of okay do we have a procurement policy for federal grants yes where's the policy you can find it on our website okay all right is it and we have it here and they have to use it when they're making any federal grant purchases okay all right we continue to update those procedures too Bob we literally just did a new version again last week because one of the problems was um not keeping track of grant money and where it was going and uh not keeping track of employees salaries or payments and not where where that money where that money was going we might end up having to pay some of that back I can see um and then um a question about it said we were very slow about turning in our reports for federal grants that changed yes there when the state went to the reimbursement platform for grants before this that you were able to get a lump sum first and then they would send you additional funds when they changed the grant management system it now is a reimbursement system and you it's at your discretion how often you wish to pull down your grant funds and we are our goal is to do it on a monthly 30 to 45 day cycle and we are meeting that okay all right that's good okay um and that special ed too special ed is paid differently than the grant management system we get portions of funds from the agency of education throughout the year like we just received our second special education payment today and then we also have to submit what's called the special education expenditure report which is a cumulative report throughout the entire fiscal year and we have points that the AOE has determined when we have to do that submission and we submit that and that validates the additional funds that we receive from them and then also if we need additional funds they'll send us additional okay my answer my question is are we doing it and we're getting them done on time okay um and the other thing and I and I keep and I keep harping on this and so does andrew but uh incumbrances and there's a little statement in this report about incumbrances I just want to read it to the board incumbrances are not liabilities and therefore are not recorded as expenditures until we see the material or service for budgetary purposes appropriations lapse at the end of the physical year the supervisory union does not utilize incumbrance accounting for its general fund now during the preparation of the supervisory union's financial statement management is required to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets liabilities and disclosure of contingent items as the date of the financial statements and reported the amounts of revenue and expenditures during the reporting period actual results may differ from these estimates and that's why I keep harping on incumbrances and making sure that we understand where we are at all times in the budget and that we don't we don't end up making guesses at the very end that's my spiel and that's why I think incumbrances are important and if you look at the budget I think Tara you've encumbered teacher salaries and health benefits teachers contracted salaries are encumbered through the payroll system yeah and they're encumbered in your you know your financial report that you usually give out every month our health benefits encumbered to no they are not all right so teacher salaries how much do we spend every month on teacher salaries how much is a basic payroll run for salaries sorry I'm looking for my notes for you Bob yes Owen seems like a lot to ask the business manager to answer this question on the spot I can tell you what I think it is 250,000 yep I just found my notes it's generally around 244,000 all right and our warrants from the beginning of July until the 1st of September add up to out 300,000 so that's 500,000 a month and our teacher salaries are 500,000 a month that's a million a month we have a budget that's 12 million dollars so we are really close that just guessing we're spending a million dollars a month we've been through um six months already so we spent six million dollars and we have uh 4.6 left not counting teacher salaries I take that back I don't think we have that much left we have uh um but what was the number that you said from July 1st to the beginning of September for um yeah 300,000 okay and I I think uh Tara's report um at the end of November was 4.6 left in the budget and not counting teacher salaries because she encumbered that so we're looking really close at our budget coming in really really close and I think Jamie what I would ask you to do is think about that million dollars a month and what kind of savings we can have until the end of the year and you're kind of doing that with this report um but I guess I'd like to see a savings around I don't know 300,000 300,000 and you already have 100,000 the question is can you do it before in the last six months and I we're gonna have to go into town meeting in a really tough time and the state's talking about a 9% increase in the tax rate and voters are going to be scared and if they vote um and if and if they vote Australian ballot and mail-in ballot um gonna be a surprise so I think all that we can do to make make them feel like we're working at it is important so that's that's my way of looking at it you know a million dollars a month and if you anything you can come under a million it's going to be good now thanks Bob and you know part of those warrants do include your expenditures for COVID which was upwards around 150 and so you know my hope is that we get full reimbursement for that too yeah and I know it also includes the the ventilation at the high school right and that's the efficiency of Vermont right yeah yeah so yeah if you just think if you think a million a month and where you can cut or what you can how you can manage I guess um maybe come out with a good result that's all I well Don McMahon can tell you the heat's low in the central office he told me it's wicked cold in here you know me I gotta bring a little humor but it heating system is pretty funky in here thank you so I want to look and see if I I think I covered everything I wanted to cover okay but I will just give the board an update with the audit so I got to meet um well here I call a bunch of my staff with the auditors in the last several weeks but I did get meet with the auditor that was on the ground at our single audits last week and um he has completed my sense is that there's nothing more needed and we'll get the drafts of the SU and Rudd budge audits first um and they're telling me still that those drafts will be completed by the end of the month and I've talked to the managing partner and Tara my sense is is that and they presented at the Rudd finance committee that we shouldn't have multiple drafts I mean this should be pretty quick and good clean um at least we'll have numbers to utilize for January you know what I mean we can see yeah it's wonderful thank you yeah um I did have a huge shout out to Rose and Tara and everyone that you know worked really hard Rose is behind the scenes and she worked really hard our accountant to make certain that that was ready to roll um and you know they they've spoken to me and said just we have come leaps and bounds to where we were last year to now and that we had everything prepared and that means we're not going to incur those additional costs which is okay yeah I I thought the auditor was really good at the finance committee meeting and um um my question is are we up to date right now with um 2021 we spent a lot of time getting ready for the audit are we ready this year right now are we up to date have you reconciled all our accounts we are working through the reconciliation of the additional changes that we need to make that we discovered during the FY20 audit process um payroll has gone through an internal audit they are almost completed they're down to their last few deduction sections that they need to complete so yes we're working through that to make sure that we're up to date for that as well but I mean Tara I'm talking about from July to right now the summer yes we are working through them our books are our books up to date yes okay they've had to adjust a little bob due to the fact of as we were working through payroll that things were still not being coded exactly where we wanted them and that needed to get fixed and I gotta say um Jason's been working incredibly hard on that just so you know you don't hear his voice his name mentioned much but he's been working hard with Robin and Rose and Tara I can speak to the fact that I do see that that team is starting to solidify which I'm happy about okay the Rose spent a lot of time getting ready for the audit so I'm wondering that's why I'm wondering if if our books are up to date from July 1 till now are our current books up to date that's what I'm asking our bank accounts are reconciled through the end of October we're waiting for the supporting documentation for the November bank statement reconciliations if that's what you're asking Bob yeah it is yeah okay yeah I think that's good knowing that you had to do a lot of work to get ready for the audit so good I just don't want any surprises I just want to know where we are you and me both okay I feel like you're on the same page we all have the same goal yeah thank you yeah um I would like to start spending time doing my real job Bob great um shall we move on it feels like that's a pretty good transition spot to move on um to the budget for next year which is our next agenda item so our 21-22 budget our third draft yeah and I'll start by saying I'm with you as a board we want to get this to you sooner and it's really not you know the goal or a nose our goal is to get them in the packets when they come to you and you know part of a hold up with this one partly was the audit you know it's not an excuse but we were prioritizing that and so hence this was late coming out yeah we had a draft done but we wanted to all sit down and meet and dot the eyes and cross so what I can tell you is that the administrations work really hard I sat in an hour and a half meeting with them today doing just that I really think you have real numbers and real budget and so that feels really good and that they've really been going through everything and double triple quadruple checking and so um this is rolled up in function and um function code and uh bob you remember you and I spoke about this type of concept um based on some examples you saw previously work I do think it gives a better direction around talking about the overall programming you'll get all the line items next month um but we wanted to be able to kind of paint more of a picture and give you a sense of where things are you know some districts this is what they roll out our districts are not used to this right so we understand that but I do think this is easier to follow and it's something I might look to include in all of our communications I haven't even talked to terry yet about that my rules don't surprise people but um based on feedback I've been getting from boards they've liked this so I think it should be part of the information that goes out um in the annual report because I think for some folks folks this is easier to follow versus all the line items so I think we'll provide both a function code budget and all the line item codes um so folks have both and so you know I've challenged administration um to look at trying to come in around a one to two percent budget um and your administration's coming in with essentially a flat just under um they can highlight what this proposal consists of do realize that there's some reduction staff in this we did not want to have it's been my um approach that we did not want to have conversations with all specific folks around reductions of staff until after the holidays and so um what you're going to see is here we're not prepared to talk about all the individual positions because I don't think that's fair to folks until we can have a conversation with them what I will tell you is is that we've tried to focus on not replacing outgoing staff as a number one means to get us down and so we looked at that first and then we also looked at where could there be some reductions in force and not impact programming and or direct instruction to students okay so part of that as you know this budget does include not replacing a music position and andra sent you a document on that that she worked on with the principals and andrew I knew that was a request of yours so we're going to go over that afterwards because I know that's been a question for some folks this budget also includes can you go up right you'll see a slight decrease in regards to foreign language all the same level of programming will occur at the middle and high school but we're going to approach foreign language differently through a cultural approach at the element and not through direct instruction around weekly foreign language and that's currently what's happening right now that's not a change but I do want you to see that and so those are the things I want to highlight I need to remind you that the next time we meet we'll get revenue that you need to couple with this and of course the yield will be hopefully a little more cemented based on just all we've received so far is that document that I shared with you and we were still looking for ADM to get finalized and equalized pupil so we don't even have that information yet we're still waiting on it from the state as soon as we get it that will of course be inputting into your tax sheet but taxes are going to go up I just I can't emphasize that enough due to the yield and even what we do with expenditures and this doesn't include a course however we anticipate handling the deficit and we need to figure that out at a run finance committee and then bring that to you in the proposal in your January meeting um keeping this budget as flat or less than is I think really important to having a sustainable budget and so I'll leave it at that because there's a lot of other things that we got to take into account that's going to impact taxes principals do you want to highlight some of the other things you're excited about because this does include additional programming and pathways which is a full-time position it includes the intensive support program at the high school which we're hoping to draw additional students in into the SU and then also keep our students in the SU home but they'll also be tuition students to your school because they will be Rudd students I don't think it's wise for us to budget that way by the way right now I'm not going to anticipate them as students because I again want to be conservative on getting revenues but you think we're going to see an influx of some students across the SU come into that programming as well as serve as some of our students who are currently at a district place um and so know that this does support all that as well as beefs up some of your outdoor ed and Owen take it from there thank you yeah uh thank you Jamie um so you know I I think we should this would be a year when we would be scared and like really cowering and at this right now we're like I think we're so strong I was looking at our numbers today and that we are about 21 we are actually 21 students up by state count today from two years ago and we've gained about 10 a year let's average that out and if we kept that projection up and it's not a trend because I think you need three years for trend but we have two years which is awesome and one of the things we're doing is trying to create program that is a niche program that nobody else offers in the valley where something like outdoor education and our like middle school shop program and we have a high school shop and we're going to build a flexible pathways program into that where we can say we're not like Randolph and we're not like Sharon and those are our high school feeder programs and it's not the business we're in but the business we're in is offering an education that meets children and families needs and we know people are more open to that and more open to the outdoor education hands-on probably space learning programming and personalized learning so we've gained 20 students in in two years and we know every student I can tell you even in a pandemic our new students at the middle school I make a concerted effort to know them and to make sure the teachers know them and that their families know that because and it's not like a sales pitch it's reality knowing people having a relationship with them builds the safety of students learning and taking risks and their families smiling when they know their children are at our school there's a couple teachers on this in this meeting I see Cass's face and I don't see some other faces but they know this that the key is and all of you who support education know this that if we can lift those families up and and let them know that their children aren't going to school they're going to a place where they're cared for and loved and we talk about love at our school which is unique and I love that we do that how am I doing Jimmy's am I going too far he walks me back from the plank and and Lisa's shaking her head no you're not going to because you know what what if we were the school where families said oh Rodney's got it where families said I know my children are cared for loved and are engaging every day in a safe way and taking risks I love our school by the way people ask me I'm going to go a little tangent why do you drive 42.3 miles they don't know my mileage each day one way and I'll tell you it is because I know what we're doing is the right thing we are engaging and I look at our board and the complexity of it and Bob Gray thank you for asking hard questions thank you for keeping me honest and keeping all of us honest and you're like you're the continuum of who we are you are part of our diversity Andrew Jones on the other side of like where's our music where's our pre-k teacher I love that about us and you know what I'll leave a meeting and I'll be like dang those guys I mean I say dang I don't curse but how am I doing I'll stop because you're good thank you Owen yeah that was good so Andrew do you want to talk about me we we kept staffing levels are very similar just so you know to this current year do you want to just jump on to that Andrew I would just say that I'm excited I was a little nervous about us maybe having to cut some regular ed teachers um so I'm happy that we were able to retain all of our regular teachers I'm really excited to look forward to next year so that we can do more intervention and and more specialized teaching um with just being able to move around and not be potted as much so um I think that is the biggest highlight for me is uh just that we were able to retain every elementary uh classroom teaching position at this point and I'll just add I don't want it you see function codes like art there's not a reduction in art there that is cleaning up some coding we're still doing that all right so we're trying to get people in the right places um keep rolling up for me right go up yeah you see uh you know there's there is a significant difference in regular ed instruction and again if you remember previous two some of that was around coding and us getting them coded appropriately if they are interventions yeah I've never answered so many questions about drilling down on exactly what everybody does but I think we have answered those questions so much now that Tara must dream about what percentage each person is would it be possible to get a notes column where you could elaborate on you know like the math is up 90 000 but that's because I came out of the regular ed so if we could get a note saying you know 10000 of math whatever so that we can see which ones are actually changing which ones are coding things that'd be really helpful absolutely and just I remind the board we did share with you um the line item budget as well but we can definitely put notes there too for this purpose right I would say Andrew you'll appreciate the the workbook but where there was a significant change in one of the line items say for example um for athletics contracted services we realized we spent about 3500 a year on field maintenance and so I reduced the amount of money from the grounds contracted services line and I moved that into the athletics contracted services line because there's really more about you know striping lines and you know aerating the field and that sort of thing just to give you a better sense of where that is but those notes will be in the workbook where there's a significant change I think I would point out a couple of big things that you'll catch your eye as you look at this about a third of the way down the page in function 1127 the planning room that that really went away with the merger but we've had some some costs that have been coded to there and so that's going to go away but but that some of those expenses are covered now by 2190 student support so that student support is now 258 thousand dollars which is a whole new line but some costs have been rolled from other areas to that the other example I give of that is the line function 2100 student assistant program services we currently fund a student assistant professional through attrition that person will be leaving us at the end of 2020 and going into private practice we won't replace that person but we have you know the coordinators student support and two MTSS coordinators that can fill that need for our students and we feel comfortable that they're they're more than capable of doing that and that we won't need that position back in the budget next year can you elaborate on what they were doing just you know it's kind of a generic title so the student assistance program originally that that position was created as part of a drug and alcohol grant money and over the years the amount of that salary that was paid by the grant has kind of gotten eaten away at so you know last year we were left holding most of the cost of that salary they they work with students to look at the youth risk behavior survey that comes out every year and come up with strategies for how to improve the culture of the school and some of the youth risk behaviors around alcohol and drug use for example at times they've sponsored group discussion sessions to help support students with different issues primarily it's one-to-one student support so if a student is grieving a student is having problems at home problems in a class they can get time with that person to get you know talk through what's going on and come up with strategies for coping and so Andrew that support won't go away the SU we're looking to contract with Clare Martin at a much more reduced cost to provide a school-based clinician for the SU and use IDAB funds to cover that and so that doesn't mean that students couldn't get that level of service it just means that it would come from the SU but it won't it'll be grant funded through IDAB so we don't have to worry about what was that it's a planning or whatever when you know because the licensure is the licensure is even different a school-based clinician has a different license great that's school-based clinician Jerry what is it a district want to be district-wide it'd be district-wide yep just one for now they're hard to find you know if it goes well then we'll continue to increase that you know the more we can work with uh mental health uh community mental health is a big draw for me because we can build down on Medicaid they can um which gets our contracts down and so you know we're looking right now an example is in F bud we have two and that's uh first branch unified district you didn't know in Tom Ridge and Chelsea they're piloting two behavioral analysts right now that we contract for through Claire Martin who provide behavioral supports and targeting intensive behavioral plans but we're able to offer that at the rate of about 38 000 for a full-time FTE because we're able to build down Medicaid through Claire Martin and they take care of the build down we're not having to do that my experience with uh my experience has never been good with Claire so well you know I heard that a lot when I came um and I think that they're very motivated to work with us and partner with us and I've seen nothing but that they've been wicked responsive and um you know I had a really good relationship in the past of Washington County and that was successful and so I'm trying to take what I've learned with from there and work with them in collaboration to make certain that with Claire Martin and I gotta say they've been very open to feedback and receptive to what's worked um in their you know sister organization to the north of Washington County um they I know that they've taken information from them and used it to try to improve programming and I also think they were very motivated to service us uh partly because they no longer operate the wilder school down in Hartford so um I think that the timing was right to have a strong relation and the good news is Bob when it doesn't work guess what it's a contracted service work for me we're no longer in the contract and it's pretty okay I I've always had my own connection and 100% in the school so um one other thing transportation I have some ideas on transportation what are you thinking I'll talk I'll I'll talk to be offline no no yeah yeah I'll go around with you first rather than all right and we can talk about the finance committee okay that sounds great um so I had one question about the school-based clinician when you talk about the school-based clinician being district-wide you mean just White River unified district and not like this person is not responsible for Chelsea Tumbridge Beth O'Royalton to the S-U contract so we will use it to support our most intensive needs students right now across the S-U it takes about 25 students just so you know that's about 25 to 30 is what a typical counselor will be able to case manage and case load and so we'll start there once they're full then we would look to add additional the problem is right now I've been trying to get um mental health counselors in place for us both private and through Claire Martin all year I reached out to the 10 I used in Williamstown and I haven't been able to get anyone yet so you know that's that's part of the challenge right now my sense is we struggle to find anyone at this point as well and part of the plus is you know these folks are always looking for supervision they work on a different licensure and so that supervision time is really important and community mental health can provide it um for them and so that is sometimes a bigger desire for folks because at least they can get their clinical supervision where we're not able to provide that for them right okay thank you so you're confident that our mental health needs will be met between the MTSS um supports our student services and um this this role I'm just I just know that there's a lot um a lot that our students struggle in their lives I just want to make sure we have what they need and we still have a relationship with health hub and can refer through them as well it's also worth noting that the SAP attrition is and I think it's okay to talk about this she's going into private practice at the South Royalton health clinic and so she has connections with students right now who are on her SAP caseload and if they need extensive counseling she may be able to continue to serve them through the private practice so we're kind of it's a bit of a win-win in that we're getting it's you know in South Royalton for our community we're getting a you know a soon to be licensed clinician who already has relationships with many of our students will be able to continue to support them yeah and the plan is is that you know the health hub has a strong relationship with us they're also looking to provide therapeutic interventions for us and sit part of that pilot and so they they will continue to work with our students but they'll build directly and you know we will work on coordination of making certain the spaces provided a lot of it's all you know virtual at this point but in the future that the space is providing things in that nature but they're a health hub employee they service our students but they're not our employees which comes with you know significant savings to the district yes um oh and I did see your hand up as well yeah and it's the same as Andrew Reed and Jamie but I wanted to say that I wanted to thank Amelia Lincoln for her service to this community as an employee or contracted employee and now we will contract her differently and it might be something the board wants to recognize but and also I think the system that Jamie's brought to us of looking at everybody as an interventionist so each teacher each faculty member staff member sees themselves as helping starts to support every child and every family and that we we can really lift everybody up and we are building a system within our system of restorative practice where that is about helping everybody and solving problems it's part of the intervention concept but that intervention is not for those in need it's for everyone I'm really happy and excited about what we're doing and I just I want you to know that I feel like we're building a systems within systems thank you for sharing that I I want to say something so I agree with you and I I there are some there are some students that need mental health counseling and that could happen anytime during the week day or whatever and it's really important that they have access to it right at that moment in my experience and and that's a little more than a teacher a principal or a guidance counselor can do and that's why mental health that mental health counselor that school psychologist is really important so you know you guys do still have an SAP just so you know as well that's contracted through the SU that is paid for by the consolidated federal grant that essentially services you guys 80% of the time so that is available still is that a licensed psychologist we don't have anyone that's licensed including the SAP right but don is looking just so you know bob at the idea of instead of us contracting all of our school psychology to bring on potentially one or two school psychologists that can service our students and conduct our own evals okay and I actually think there'll be significant savings potentially if we do that based on what you've been budgeting for all these evals and outside consultant psychologists so that will be part of what we talk about to next week is that concept yeah the problem with that the problem with that is that a person gets into those evals and they don't have time to individually counsel the kid so we'll be talking about that more at the SU level because those would be supervisory union employees correct yeah yeah because it's it's really important for us to try to leverage all your federal funds you receive like IDA AB and I can do that through the SU hence why we would contract school clinicians through the SU and because we pay 40 40 40 percent we get 40 percent of that person no no it's just you know it's how they centralize special and like we talk I understand sometimes we just have to bring that up sorry about that I know I know you do um okay other questions about this budget and I just want to say like typically a level funded budget it you know sustains a two percent increase and this actually is a reduction in cost um so I'm hoping um that people will will appreciate that because I know it is a really hard financial time for a lot of families so you know I'm looking you know we're gonna be working with the finance committee on how we want to best handle our deficit here in a couple weeks and that will be part of the next round of budget you know I think it's important you know for the board to note that the most districts are seeing anywhere from a 10 to 12 cent increase based on that yield before expenditures or revenues are looked at locally so you know is there a goal from the board in regards to tax rate or are you feeling you know that the expenditure side was important to you I mean what what are you thinking about um in that regard I'm thinking that you should provide I'm thinking that you should bring forward a budget like you are you're taking care of the educational needs of the kids and then we're gonna have to sit and decide whether it's too much or too little so I think sorry yeah so I think you know you're you're doing what I would do you know you're presenting the best case scenario for the schools and for you and I think we need to look at it but we gotta be we gotta be ready to defend and explain to the people why it's important yeah I mean I think that's right you should present the budget that you think is appropriate um you know looking at the yield numbers that you have it was a two percent increase so you know I think that nine or nine percent increase included you know expected local expenditure spending increases so yeah I was saying that's not percent sense right but that's still more than anyway whatever doesn't matter um yeah anyway so you know I think if we are able to maintain and it's really hard to say now because we don't know our student numbers or you know that's a big part of it or what you know you guys are projecting for revenue so we kind of need to be able to see that stuff before we make any decisions on anything and you know like with with what you presented here you know it is nice to see the numbers and your overall thing but you know until we can see specifically like it's hard to tell because of the coding changes what actually changed and you're saying you don't want to get into the details because of the staffing you want to talk to staff first so it's hard for us to buy provide feedback when we can actually see what really different if you know what I mean you know you've provided a couple examples but um and you know part of this too is just you know me also trying to get the board from looking at line by line budgets Andrew and trying to look at programming in the bottom line because you know the board in the in the town votes on a bottom line and so you know that's part of you know the strategy around this as well and again you have your budget workbook and can look at it okay yeah no I was just talking about like looking line by line but more you know if we are talking about you know changes then like we need some way of knowing what those are yeah I think at least if it helps you sleep a little better at night none of the changes that we're making will affect direct instruction of academics right um principles is that fair you know it's gonna be a little more strategic on how we approach things um and there's some shifting of staff and things but we have not cut any programs yeah and just to clarify you know I trust that you guys are doing your job well and I trust your judgment on things so it's more just at some point we need to be able to get into the details so yeah and that will be your next round you'll definitely have that in January um the Andrew can you review the music document just because I know that was a request at the board I'd like to be able to go over that yeah Ray are you gonna project it it's magical Ray I can tell that of course he is so I didn't know if I didn't know what the best way was to go about this so I tried to um just summarize what this year looks like um and just give us just the facts and so right now due to COVID we opened up to doing elementary music one time a week we're just kind of going slow although we had planned for a schedule that would offer to do music twice a week um we haven't gone straight back to that open open schedule um so what I understand is that there's also some this is the summary of sort of what we're doing right now it's not what we were planning for but it's what we're doing given a pandemic so seventh grade is having sort of a flipped model so some in person some online eighth grade has some curl virtual lessons um there are instrumental lessons happening um I know band is happening and high school again coral virtual and then band is happening so but looking to next year because we're planning for hopefully more normalcy mr belu if you can please scroll can I interrupt for a second real quick um just just to be clear band is happening with major modifications uh at the high school they're only playing outside uh so we we may not be practicing together when the cold weather comes here uh they they went out on monday to the town green you know because it was a nice act where the the nicest day of the week I played some songs out in the green and that's probably going to be it for four or five weeks at least and I thought that maybe the function of this was to really talk about what next year would look like but I thought it would be helpful to just have a grounding of what this year kind of looks like and this is not what this year started to look like oh and did you have your hand raised or not really not really okay so we are going with goals of having two elementary music classes um per classroom a week and moving towards elementary course and fifth grade band so it's paranormal um in the middle school sixth grade general music class sixth grade coral seventh and eighth coral sixth grade band lessons seventh and eighth band band and lessons and jazz band and the high school coral is normal band is normal and hopefully jazz band uh so in the budget you'll see keep on scrolling mr blue thank you that we did budget for lessons I know the last few years um we were under the belief that we were going to be reimbursed by ellis for some of that stuff and it hasn't happened so we did budget for private or not private but lessons to continue and I know mr canarni was reached out to by uh tre fisk who runs the b sharp prep program um and does offer some online I don't know enough about it I haven't had the presentation but some online music lessons so um looking into that is another opportunity for us to pursue um we are reimbursing our music teachers who are going to and fro between campuses uh for mileage and we have up to the dues and fees so that we can participate in all the festivals that we want to and I think also on the table is talking about how concerts will look like going forward when and if we can do them just recognizing that we're doing more with less but that doesn't mean that it's going to be able to look exactly like it did last year so to be determined or maybe not last year but the last time we could do concerts and I'd encourage you guys to visit the b sharp um I think that's a really exciting pilot from tre who was a student at sharon elementary um and then graduated from sharon academy but he came back and this is a an upstart program that I think's gonna possibly really take off there are he's already got 10 um really highly qualified musicians who are going to be offering lessons and we're already starting to pilot this at two of our elementary schools um and he's looking to sign on more and the cost the fee is very minimal um and it's a sliding scale based on need and so we're gonna look to partner this throughout the su the only um schools that have been offered a pilot on this project thus far are sharon academy and us um but I feel really honored and um and tre if you know tre fisk um he's a terrific young man and um I think he's on to something here with this project so please uh I encourage you to visit that that hyperlink in the document that uh andra said shared because the plus of that too is as our kids our students have become more accustomed to virtual learning um this now opens up the opportunity for lessons um significantly is also other performing arts um they're looking to expand it more into theater and things of that nature as well so it's another exciting enrichment for our kids I appreciate that ray just put the um link to his website in the chat so anybody who's joining on a computer um please feel free to load that and take a look I looked at it really briefly after I got the report from andra um and it looks like an exciting opportunity um I know that there are people here who want to discuss the music program um it's my hope that we can get through the next two agenda items and save questions about that until our next public comment um which is which we're rapidly approaching um but I'd like to work our way through the rest of the agenda um and then we can get into a deeper discussion about that any other questions about the budget or questions about music um from the board well would you like me to hold questions on that until later like I don't feel like you have to hold questions about that um for public comment I just want to make sure we finish the business that's on our agenda um before we go too deeply with um yeah I do appreciate that summary of it it's nice to see what the vision is for when there is you know the one elementary teachers but in campuses um but it would have been good to include what it was before um COVID because you know basically the what I wanted to see was how is it different from when we have the two staff down to what it looks like with one like did we have just two music lessons for you currently in elementary yes okay and I mean I can even do more research and look around and see what other schools offer I think there's some other schools that do only offer you know like did the music teachers have a bunch of extra time or you know like are we able to offer the same right now yes I think um Kerry Cole started off her year doing being assigned to be a buddy teacher I mean that's how we started I mean last year when we had a teacher for each campus you know we're decreasing the staff by one but it doesn't seem like we're so they weren't focused last year right so uh you know and Kerry's here she could talk about she well no I'm not going to do that so I'm going to reject I think Andrew part of how we're going to find efficiencies is looking and saying how does the schedule support what's best for kids and prioritizes what you want right and so part of the challenge around making certain that you can find more efficiencies in staffing is to ensure that you have schedules that support it and so I can't speak to what your schedules were two years ago what I can say is is that we're going to make certain we have schedules as we move forward that ensures that your priorities are upheld and so you know that means making certain the elementary school school schedules complement each other around essentials to ensure that one teacher and the port two campuses without them you know going crazy and so that's the challenge around this right and so I think that's um that's part of it is ensuring that the schedules all complemented and I know that you know that's part of what Andrew and Reid had to do I mean I remember interviewing at the south rondon campus and hearing from teachers saying we don't currently schedule as an elementary and high school right like that wasn't over they didn't look at that together and so now we're saying no we have to look at that and you know the principles a few years ago you know this got voted through and they didn't have much time to make pull this merger off and so I think now we're really analyzing each part of your system to say is it as efficient as it can be and I think that you're going to continue to see us saying areas that we think we can be just we can be more efficient and offer the same programming okay well if yeah I mean that I don't know any significant cuts cuts in principles correct me if I'm wrong I don't believe that this proposal cuts anything well I mean we could argue that the music composition class at the high school that we put in the the program of studies isn't going to be there anymore because we won't have staff for that this year one student signed up for it it's not really a sustainable model to have you know a $12,000 or $15,000 staff position to teach one student in music composition and so our music teachers now spending more time doing music lessons at the middle school and that students taking in an independent study on the side with the teacher so I mean it's a trade-off I don't think we're we're sacrificing uh much in the way of programming but it's definitely more cost effective for everybody that's good one comment I did have just generally on the music program um you know I know doing in-person band isn't feasible this year but for the fifth graders to um you know my son so like who would normally be picking up a instrument this year might be good just to have something go out where you can have them pick up an instrument working on it you know I don't know how it normally you know normally we would have at the kids pick up an instrument start doing it in band and it might be good I saw Owen unmute so I suspect he has something to share about middle-level music yeah and uh Jamie asked and Andrew just so you know you were breaking up for me I'm not sure about others maybe thumbs up thumbs down thumbs sideways but anyway um you know we would like to offer everything we really would and when I saw our math scores and I know there's a math teacher on this call and I know the argument that the more music we have the stronger the math we have I just I just really want to remember that if we have three music teachers in a student body of 581 students I'm proud of that I'm proud that we have that and I know one of the concerns was an an accompanist and I think we'll fit we'll solve our problems but I feel really proud of what we offer for music and I'm not thinking about the pandemic but we have a really powerful program and I think a big part of that is because of our people it's because of Kerry Shannon and Josh and I'm really proud of how they've worked hard to work together and the three principles will also support them we had four principles at one time but we have three we can't always have all of it but we will work hard to make all of our students have all of what they need I'm really proud and I know that like I I supervise Shannon and Josh if you will with the new model we have two I know the people I supervise are two of the most top-notch and Kerry I'm not speaking poorly of you top-notch music educators I've seen I've been a school principal for 21 years I'm really proud of what we're doing good work to them and I I feel like sometimes it undermines them or separates us but know this that they they bring their heart and soul to this every day and the decisions we have to make tell them how we feel about them but we need those three people and those three people can make this music program happen I've seen it and it's not four people but it's three people who are dedicated and talented and love children I'll stop there at least thank you Owen I think I think one of the things that does make this discussion really challenging is that I mean over the time that I've served on this board certainly one of the things that we're very proud of in this system and we want to hold on to is the focus on music and and the excellence that we've experienced in the music program and we do value the people who work with our kids in the music program so that I think that's why whenever music is going to be on the agenda we see you know a number of community members come to our meetings because it is a value in our system so I do appreciate that and and I appreciate you all speaking to it so thank you other other questions about that or the third draft of the budget okay so we'll we'll move forward to the Australian ballot section on the agenda so the update from the Vermont School Boards Association yeah so I just wanted to talk to you guys about my sense is that you're looking to move forward with an Australian ballot in March and so with that said the thing to know is that Beffle's town book needed to be done by January 8th Lisa and I'm just I you know I talked to Lisa Floyd I said I was not feeling comfortable and I talked to her about us pulling it off and having the right information and accurate information then specifically to when I'm not even certain we'd have our equalized pupil number and so I do think based on that deadline that we may be looking at doing our own failing and I just wanted to see what how the board felt about that I would rather have us well other people can comment first we printed it our own for Bethel last year right not for Royalton I think we printed our own is that right last year no I'm pretty sure Royalton came in bedtime report okay it was just for Bethel last year so do we know how much that was just printing and mailing was I'm just curious I mean I think it's clear that now we're not going to be ready to go with everything ready by January 8th that's kind of a moot discussion we're going to print our own well my thoughts just sort of was as you guys come together as a district it'd be nice to have the same materials go out both sides and I think it would give us the opportunity to include some more data points and things I really want the book to be as informational as possible and really convey the great things you have going and celebrate those I've talked to the principles about my desire to have pictures in the book this upcoming year to highlight things that folks are proud of how hard everyone's been working I think that that's going to be really important you also don't have that informational meeting happening the night of the boat and so you know I'm looking at how do we make certain we really convey to everybody what we're doing and how we're trying to tackle deficit and you know what we're doing in regards to this current budget and really talk to a narrative and celebrate and you know in addition make certain that we leverage all communication to get folks to point informational meetings because you know we've got to utilize all different ways of communication to make certain we have informed voters I mean I can say that that's the biggest difference I think that we're finding is an SU around adjusting to in-person votes where you can educate and inform on the floor and have folks ask their question versus you have an informational meeting prior and the great thing with democracy is I think more folks are going to get on the boat but it now is on us to make certain we've really informed them because you know I think that that can be the challenge sometime and so that's something new for you guys to have to navigate. So Jamie you mentioned it was Bethel the town of Bethel that needed the information by the 8th of January but I think that was Royalton that wanted it that early but maybe it was both. Yeah for clarification it was Royalton. I got a call from Bethel weeks ago. Okay okay so for both towns it's it's early. Yeah I would like for us to do one single publication it seems like that deadline will be too much too fast for either community at this point in time. So what I was going to say initially is that I would like one communication to go out to both communities with just the really comprehensive and clear reports that we've been working on generating. I think we should put something in the town report saying that there will be something coming later just so people don't look for it and miss it. Yeah absolutely I agree. The cost for the budget mailer for the Bethel side last year was about $2,300. Yeah I remembered from previously I think it's a little over four if we do mailers to both communities typically. And we don't have anything in the budget kind of or would this just be a miscellaneous item. Is there a line for board trainings etc. miscellaneous wasn't that in there it's a few thousand dollars in the past and I think because of COVID we haven't done like we didn't go to the advertising budget and you also have a dues and fees budget. What's that? You have some funds in your advertising budget and then you also have funds in your dues and fees line item under the board. Would that cover it? I don't think you've done a lot of advertising. I need to go back and pull where you're at but between the two mine items there's about $11,000 there. Yeah I can double check that for you and let you know. Thank you I just wanted to make sure that we weren't making a decision to send a mailer and we didn't know where the money would come from. We could get the money from the high school principal salary. Okay thank you. Okay all right so that's our update on Australian ballot. Any questions about that? All right next we have sorry yeah go for it Chris. I guess just in addition to like a mailing or something I don't know if we should have something in the paper or ask the paper to write an article about it or something just to let people know that it's going to be different this year and then I don't know too if I mean are we going to host any type of you know the attendance that this varies from month to month but are we going to plan on hosting any sort of virtual info sessions and things like that are we going to record something that we can you know post to YouTube or something that people can watch or yeah we've gotten pretty good at this I mean so I think all of the above Chris just because Thomas and Chelsea voted three times and Rodchester and Stockbridge had to vote twice this way so I would say all of the above we'll do these I think that you know we should offer a couple informational meetings this way is the lesson learned as well as videotaping and pushing those out as well as some boards have chosen to have part of their presentation be a YouTube video and we've been able to share that out via social media and that was well received the board did a presentation via YouTube ahead of time and used it as part of their informational meeting but then we also could push that video out and put it on your websites and things I think front porch forum is going to be really important as well when do we have to get it out by I mean we have statutory limits for when it has to go when is that we really should have it all warned and prepared for the end of January and then we got to get that information out Tara what is it within 30 days I'm not leaving is only 10 days prior but we try to get it out 30 days does it make sense in any way to have some of those timelines line up with when um people's petitions have to be in since everything will be by Australian ballot and we have um board positions um or you know open and they'll need to be on the ballot as well then I wonder if it's an opportunity for us to also have those petitions for our candidates in ahead of time and have the candidates provide a statement just I mean if we have a candidate pool which would be my hope I think it would be great for us to be able to share a little information about that just because everything will be by Australian ballot this year but yeah what we'll do is get you to approve the budget right and the night that we know we're moving toward approving the budget um then we'll also be seeking to see whether or not those candidates are available and what we will do I said we're going to be a special meeting because of this is you'll need to approve the ballot as well okay and we'll have the ballot all drawn up for you and reviewed by legal and then you approve the budget and the ballot awesome and the warning of course of course so and we're aiming for early February for that I really like to have it wrapped up by the end of January okay so we'll plan for two meetings in January yeah and just so you know as far as the mailing go Andrew the we're starting our stuff already and so the principals have a deadline of January 15th to get their letter done um you know will Tara and I are working on you know the business office side as you see as it's coming out and like I said I want to also have this one pager um and my assumption is that the board will have a report a letter as part of that mailing we have not started ours yet okay and so the deadline so I was going to give everyone was by you know January 15th and you may have some things based on what's approved but overall that a lot of the material yeah I break up there that most of the materials be already there wonderful I don't know about all you that's what I plan on doing over my holiday break is working on these documents that makes sense yeah we'll work on the board report then too okay um our next item is the Winooski Valley school choice or Winooski Valley partnership agreement so can you remind us please Jamie the the number this is the one where there's sort of a rule that you can set your number of students you'll allow to go to other schools um at the nine through twelve level only um but you can only accept the number that you agree to um sort of let out right that's correct and I think percentages and or minimum amount and so last year you guys did uh no more than 10 students um on both ends okay so no more than 10 students in and out yeah talk to read just so you know currently right now you have four in none of them are 12th graders and six are out and four were 12th graders yeah and those folks that have spots already are guaranteed spots yeah remember that ADM stays with the home school right and no money changes hands and so I talked to read read correct me if I'm wrong but the recommendation we were going to have was 10 and 10 again yeah you could consider bringing more in you're at what you can't you can't restrict any more than the 10 out just so you know that's the lowest you can go um and if you might want to bring more in the reason for that would be is if you bring more in that's more students in your school and it's a more it's more of an opportunity for students who are in outside communities out of the district um to talk about how great of experience they have and that can sometimes assist with recruitment of other students and so you know if there was any recommendation to have you might want to think to bump in the student into 15 but right now you're currently at four and like I said you know you don't have any 12th graders so the most you could permit in would be an additional six so you could think about 15 and 10 out but that's up to you no money follows I'm an optimist so I'm open to looking at 15 in and 10 out if we can I mean if we can do that my understanding previously had been that it has to match um but I don't see why we wouldn't it doesn't it does not have to match okay um so I don't see why we wouldn't do 15 in and 10 out but I'm open to hearing from other voices I'll make a motion to set the level at 15 in and 10 out okay is there a second I second okay any discussion right hearing none um all in favor of setting our levels for the Winooski Valley agreement at 15 students in and a maximum of 10 out please say I okay any opposed any abstentions okay the motion passes um and that brings all right thank you okay that brings us to new hires yeah hit on we have a couple new staff hires um here in the last month that I met with both candidates and was very impressed one was a custodial position that had been vacated for quite some time that we have to replace in the summer due to coven and the fact that we were caught up on routine maintenance and facilities and cleaning and then we got through by with subs up until we were able to secure a candidate um and re talked about that candidate earlier and then um we were able to finally bring in a support staff person in the high school fifth fill uh parker odds least position um because he is your tech person at the well he's primarily services the beveled campus um and parker was in that paired position prior and so we were finally able to get that if you have questions about what that position does reach and speak more specifically but they do a lot of targeted intervention and support at the high school level and we will without it for several months great thank you okay um so that brings us to our next public comment um I'll call on people in the order that I see you unmute and um and if someone is sharing um more than once um priority in terms of the order that I'll call on people goes to someone who hasn't spoken yet I just want to make sure that we hear as many voices as possible um this evening cast I saw you unmute first hi everybody hi Tara this is nice to see you um I cry a lot lately so if I cry I'm fine and please try to hear my message through my emotion okay um a preface I can't imagine having your responsibility collectively to make a budget and satisfy uh the needs of the community in terms of financially being responsible and also making sure that we're providing all of the experiences that we want to I can't imagine so I understand that you have to make some tough decisions and I respect that um I'm really concerned about the music department and just a little history my daughter I have three children one of them is in ninth grade and then Henry is in fifth grade in Lincoln you probably saw earlier sorry about that um Lily started playing an instrument fourth grade she started the clarinet played for a little over two years and then Carrie by herself I believe worked her magic and got Lily a bassoon access to a bassoon and um it's her life is music and um it's been life changing and um exclusively should be credited to Carrie in my eyes as a parent and if I were to identify over her full career so far k through nine one teacher that has had the most academic impact on Lily it's Carrie and I when I say academic I mean that purposefully in this context and I think that you all do and I heard you say it a couple of times how important the music department is and how proud we are in this community um academically music we know enriches everything and that's been true for her uh Lily is a teenager but she has some mental health needs as all teenagers do and music is her medicine and I also heard a lot of talk tonight about concerns of the mental health needs of our kids and I think COVID makes that even heavier and um you know as a mom there have been times when it's been difficult to usher my kid out the door if she's struggling and when I think back through and all my kids are really connected to the adults in their lives and and um it's hard to single anyone out there's a number that I probably could but when I think about the one who emotionally supported Lily the most and is Lily's touchstone is Shannon and so between the two of them as a parent when I think about who's helping me raise my children when I can't be the best parent I can be because we're all crazy it's Shannon and Carrie and Carrie is now split as I understand it so she's part-time in Bethel and part-time in South Royalton um and that concerns me and I've heard a lot of people say that we're not losing any programming in the music department and my math brain just can't equate it I can't equate that we could possibly provide the same education that Lily got going through elementary school with one dedicated music teacher in Bethel with Henry now going through elementary school with a halftime music general music teacher I just keep my brain doesn't see it and I get that there's things that I don't see and that there's an understanding that I don't get um but it's concerning so I want to say that I don't have enough history as a parent with Mr. Polly I'm sure he's uh wonderful um I so that's why I'm just speaking about the two just because as a Bethel resident they've been the most impactful I just don't think that we can meet the needs of our students this way I also am concerned and I've been really vocal with Mr. Canarney and the principals about um my concern about the mental health and the mental well-being of our teachers and even if on paper this schedule works I think that it is pushing the limits of the individual humans that are being asked to carry the load and not just the load of the schedule but the emotional load that teachers carry and and love these kids and um I know it's not just mine so I'm here speaking tonight about my family if you I mean we are raising these kids right now and supporting these families in a huge way right now and um those two individuals have specifically impacted my life and my families with my kids so that's what I wanted to say I'm concerned so thank you for letting me be here to say all of that I do have a question I understand the fiscal reasons for not hiring replacement music teacher and I understand um I understand that it helps the budget I'm wondering if there was an educational philosophy supporting that decision um because I heard gosh and I forget who said um I know you all are presenting a budget that tries to meet all of these needs the educational needs and I'm wondering if somebody can explain to me the educational philosophy behind the decision to continue to cut the music department thank you I didn't cry would have been okay even if you did but thank you so does anyone want to speak to um that question that cas asked um at the end in terms of educational um philosophy and in support of this I know we've been talking a lot about finding efficiency um I think I can Lisa okay thank you Owen and I don't know if it'll be a efficient or sufficient but cast thank you because there's courage in what you shared as a parent and as a colleague and a community member and I want to be thoughtful about this and I have thought a lot about it and that you know I come from a music family and I sit every morning and have coffee with my wife and like all of you these conversations come up and she'll say to me like how can you talk about music like that and I'm not talking about music but I'm also talking about um Lucille Knowles who I can see her trailer from my house and I'm asking her because we all pay taxes into one pot in Vermont I'm asking her to pay more every year in her taxes to support everything we do I pay taxes and Bethel because now we all pay taxes in one place I'm really proud of the music I've supported in uh as a school principal in all of the schools I've been in because it's all it seems to me it's always on like the table of like all right let's look at where the edges are so we're not going to cut this we'll cut that but it's and we can easily say it's the arts but it's not just the arts it's all of the specials and the essentials and you're safe because you're a math teacher and and I know what the words I'm using by the way and one of the things we talked about today was like where are the increases and decreases and are there increases in administration are there decreases in in instruction and are there increases in operation or maintenance we look at all of it a 12 million dollar budget that that bob gray pointed out and a million dollars a month is what that comes out to I I take my responsibility as the administrator of like of weighing all that so seriously and I know you know me and I'm like I don't I don't talk about things lightly like this and I personally love Shannon Josh and Carrie and I know your daughter so not well but I know her and I see her with her big instrument that I don't understand and her teachers are helping her understand I feel like we can meet we can more than meet her need to to make that instrument part of our life and this is not anything about Carrie or or Shannon or Josh or your daughter it's about figuring out how to weigh you seal nose is tax burden and my responsibility to offer the best possible program to your daughter and I'm not like playing with words or being silly I'm being serious and I don't I didn't know why you want to come to the meeting tonight I don't know I'm really happy you came and you asked this hard question and I don't know if I'll have the right answer or not but I have to put in front of me like the thing about like I have to make sure all the students have access to literacy and numeracy and all the other things and I'll tell you that music happens in my house more than we do math problems sorry cast or more than we like analyze literature but and also I feel I'm really proud of what we offer my brother-in-law is a music teacher a public school music teacher and I know that his job has been put on the table and I have not this year Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner with him and I know that that's real but it's not about his job and it's not about my job it's about our job of making sure our Vermont children and in this case our white river unified district children have the best program and I know some people in Bethel and South Wales and that have white hair and tax burden and I want to help them too so you know my burden and we've talked about this I know we have somebody's coming in and I could use help because I don't know all of this yeah thank you oh and Jamie raised a hand and I appreciate you jumping into comment so thank you so I'll just say too that you know I think as we are building the budgets this year we're making certain that we're prioritizing creating a comprehensive system of supports improving personalized learning and pathways those those two overarching goals while also trying to maintain programming at the best we can right like at those levels that we absolutely can so yes we're choosing not to increase in music position but we did add a pathway coordinator that I think our high school students had needed for a really long time and so there wasn't all just cuts in this budget we did look at we increase math intervention and so we did look at also where could we at and so the you know the priorities that we tried to do is where are we lacking currently right now and where can we find efficiencies and frankly we looked at two of what management decisions could we make because we have such great educators in here I said to principals I I'm not interested in losing the folks we have and so some of the decisions we made around foreign language and music also had to do with the fact of that we're not having reduction in force in other areas right now and we felt like if we could meet the needs of the district without replacing but find efficiencies there that that make good sense and so that certainly played into our decision making as well I don't we were getting some echo what you just shared cast was distorted and so I couldn't understand you I'm sorry yes I don't mean to jump back in so if there's somebody else that wants to speak I can wait my turn but I do have more to say it's all I wanted okay I'm not seeing anybody else Tanya do you like like to jump in yes thank you um I just want to have you guys keep in mind that um I don't want students to miss out on an opportunity that is touch my son Tanner he's he's in ninth grade now and um with music I would be as I'm not I don't even know the word um he's just he was a very quiet very withdrawn child and with doing the ensemble the music ensemble for the boys completely changed him around he'll talk to people now um whereas before he would kind of hide behind me when he was younger and he's been doing it since I think the fourth or fifth grade and I honestly was hoping that Sierra was going to be able to do the girls ensemble to help her out as well um and I just want to make sure that every student has that same opportunity to be able to um to bring their um yep I'm sorry I'm going through that phase of not remembering words um that opportunity of having their uh self-esteem brought up by something that is so important to them and this was important to Tanner and Mrs. B obviously helped that um but I just I want every student to be able to do that because Tanner wasn't good great and and and you know in sports and he's not great in school doing schoolwork so by him going to music and having that opportunity to show himself and to feel like he's actually accomplished something and doing well in something and being told you know by even the people that have gone to the concerts that he did well was amazing to me and I just I want to see that be available to all students that's all I guess I I have to say thank you Tanya um any other um public to share um this evening okay um I know you guys all know this but our concerts in Bethel are the number one attended community event period and it's so it's not just the school members that um the community in the school that benefits from that it's a huge event in our town and I'm sure it's a huge event in South Royalton and so and that's not my accident it was it's been building I've seen it every year get bigger and uh Tanya spoke about the boys ensemble Henry would love to join the boys ensemble and I think about the boys in particular who aren't necessarily maybe a comfortable or confident pursuing music so to have that opportunity and now to take that away feels like such a missed opportunity to really feed a program in the middle and high school levels uh if we are not addressing or filling those gaps or those needs at the elementary we're going to see a dip in student participation when they get to middle and high school and I'm concerned about that Henry in fourth grade was really looking forward to starting an instrument now we don't do that Andrew I appreciate you spoke to a potential solution for now that Henry's in fifth grade because again it was sort of taken away from him so at every level I just keep seeing him not get the same opportunities that Lily got and that's just a fact and it's um those are just a few examples of the literal specific actual ways that I'm seeing a difference and I'm seeing a decline that I'm concerned about so that's all thank you again thank you yeah I I would second that the like before we used to start instrument or the kids used to start instruments in fourth grade and we changed that two or three years ago so that I was starting in fifth grade and in fourth grade they were doing recorders to kind of get used to doing ensemble stuff you know I I'm not necessarily saying you know anything as far as the staffing levels but it would be good to I think it would be good to think creatively about ways that we could support parents you know parents can go and get instruments and do private lessons that they want but I think speaking from my personal experience I don't really know like when is appropriate for kids to do that sort of stuff and I don't have the you know you kind of when you're parenting you have a lot of you know inertia where you you're doing your day-to-day thing and you don't really think oh now's the time to go get the kid an instrument and have him start praying you know like it's hard to know when to do that stuff and so if there was something where you had presented resources where you could help parents like if we're not going to do it in school help parents who are interested in doing more for their kids you know neck them with private lessons to get them started a little bit earlier or whatever that might be something we could do to help I don't know just a thought and yes I do think we should definitely do that for the fifth graders this year because you know otherwise we're going to have them going into sixth grade with no you know the starting from ground zero with band which is you know problematic I will say one of the things that has made it so that our choral music has stood out is that we do have boys who sing and I think those late elementary school and middle level boys ensembles have set our program apart because I know that high schools struggle to have boys involved in chorus and so that's something that that has been remarkable and has been really positive Lisa can I say something absolutely pop okay um I was in high school in 1966 when I grad I graduated so I started taking trumpet lessons from Dick Ellis I think in the eighth grade Dick Ellis was a music teacher in South Royalton Chelsea Bethel and Randolph all at the same time and he taught all of us to play individual lessons and he each one of those towns had a band and we had exchange concerts during the year um I had a I had a tremendous music experience I'm not even a musician um but Dick Ellis provided a great experience for me and all of the kids I played in a band of 45 kids in South Royalton and I I hear everyone talk but I think about what that man did and I don't understand like I'd like to see our music teachers doing doing some of that same stuff but I understand the music program is important having been a principal I support the arts music art drama I support it all because it's a part of what the kids need so I just I just want to say that I had a really good music experience Dick Ellis was my teacher he did a great job but he also was a teacher of a lot of kids in the in the district so you know I I understand what people are saying but I know that with three music teachers we we should be able to provide an experience for all those kids um I'm wondering I can understand the interest in music and how it can really nurture and support different types of students and and obviously the limitations with COVID to meeting groups you know but there's got to be there's there's got to be some ways virtually that we can expose students to other ways of learning music on a virtual level or even in group gatherings meeting virtually there's got to be some examples that are just starting to develop and evolve it almost seems like there's opportunities to add music on a higher level by having teachers be in more places than you know at the same time or in more households at the same time if we can work on some creative ways to do that I'm just curious what the thoughts are around around that or what's been happening already I'm not sure if I made sense but it made sense to me yeah at least I would say that that's absolutely an alignment I think your three music teachers are working hard to do that um and I wrote down notes to talk to the principal all up with this fifth grade instrumental concern that I heard and see how we can get to the bottom of that but you know I think absolutely the music teachers have been working incredibly hard to reach out and you know think outside the box and I think you know I'm hearing about our band playing up on the green and and just I know that all three of them are working incredibly hard to do what you just said um and that's part of the the type of thing I think we're going to continue to use um and you know instrumental lessons are really important and it's it's been a real value across both these towns for a long time and you know Bob talked about Dick and I think you know Dick really influenced that uh Mr Ellis and uh you know so know that those are absolutely the types of things that we're talking about when we say we gotta just we're looking at it differently I'm not I have no interest and I said this back in the spring to decrease offerings for our kids right like to to limit what they can be exposed to with the performing arts because it's just an incredible thing and it's it's really important so know that that's certainly I feel that way I think one of the sort of philosophical rifts that I've seen um sort of fester is um this idea of like excellence in terms of music versus music being something that's accessible for everybody um and I've seen that bubble up at various times um in in these conversations and I think that um my hope is that we get to a place where music is accessible for everybody and where we're um moving in that direction of being really proud of the the quality of music that's being produced and I think that's what people are concerned about um in terms of elementary school offerings and and not having those ensembles that have meant so much to people throughout the years um I don't know that was just one perspective that I have I know there are other people who've joined some who've joined by phone over the course of the evening um and please feel free to press star six if you want to unmute and share okay well we are open to email and feedback and I appreciate people um sharing their thoughts about this as we continue to work through the budget and thinking about um how things will look as we return to a more normal school year hopefully next year hopefully I have a lot of hope for these vaccines and everything that's happening right now all right so that brings us to other um and is there any other for us to discuss right now our next regular meeting um in the agenda is January 19th however I think we'll probably meet um either before or after that and yeah stay tuned I'll send out a uh board correspondence about getting a special okay earlier than that uh just for budget okay and also to set the tuition rate right thank you Tara yep all right um yeah so I think we're at that point where I could um entertain a motion to adjourn so move okay thank you all um very much yeah Chris are you seconding that motion second yes all right thank you um and we'll adjourn at 843 thank you all and I hope you enjoy the holidays um anyone's on who's celebrating Hanukkah thank you um for giving up your evening to be here